Jan 1, 1881
Our relation to the American people makes us in some sense a peculiar class, and unless we speak separately, our voice is not heard.
Frederick Douglass
The Public Record
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was "the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century".
gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1881
I remarked to him, that no part of the American people would be treated with respect, if systematically ignored by the government, and denied all participation in its honors and emoluments.
Jan 1, 1881
It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.
Jan 1, 1881
In my communication with the colored people I have endeavored to deliver them from the power of superstition, bigotry, and priest-craft.
Jan 1, 1881
Forty years of my life have been given to the cause of my people, and if I had forty years more they should all be sacredly given to the great cause.
Jan 1, 1881
If I have done something for that cause, I am after all more a debtor to it than it is debtor to me.
Jan 1, 1881
Harmless, beautiful, proper, and praiseworthy as this demonstration is, I cannot forget that no such demonstration would have been tolerated here twenty years ago.
Jan 1, 1881
The spirit of slavery and barbarism, which still lingers to blight and destroy in some dark and distant parts of our country, would have made our assembling here the signal and excuse for opening upon us all the flood-gates of wrath and…
Jan 1, 1881
In view, then, of the past, the present, and the future, with the long and dark history of our bondage behind us, and with liberty, progress, and enlightenment before us, I again congratulate you upon this auspicious day and hour.
Jan 1, 1881
It is the sentiment of gratitude and appreciation, which often, in the presence of many who hear me, has filled yonder heights of Arlington with the eloquence of eulogy and the sublime enthusiasm of poetry and song; a sentiment which can…
Jan 1, 1881
It must be admitted, truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monument we have erected to his memory, Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model.