Frederick Douglass: “These gentlemen are very learned, very eloquent and very able, but I…”

On the record

These gentlemen are very learned, very eloquent and very able, but I cannot follow them in this effort to restrict voting to the educated classes.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

He critiques the idea of limiting voting rights to educated individuals, arguing for universal suffrage.

More from Frederick Douglass

Jan 1, 1881

To-day the negro, starting from nothing, pays taxes upon six millions in Georgia, and forty millions in Louisiana.

Jan 1, 1881

Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.

Jan 1, 1881

No power beneath the sky can make an ignorant, wasteful, and idle people prosperous, or a licentious people happy.

Jan 1, 1881

Another ground of hope for our race is in the progress of education.

Frederick Douglass: “These gentlemen are very learned, very eloquent and very able, but I cannot follow them in this effort to restrict…”