appeal to congress for impartial suffrage answer key

What, then, is the work before Congress? Three years later, the . Something then, not by way of argument, (for that has been done by Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, Wendell Phillips, Gerrit Smith, and other able men,) but rather of statement and appeal. 3 0 obj If black men have no rights in the eyes of white men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks. It may be traced like a wounded man through a crowd, by the blood. Yet the negroes have marvelously survived all the exterminating forces of slavery, and have emerged at the end of two hundred and fifty years of bondage, not morose, misanthropic, and revengeful, but cheerful, hopeful, and forgiving. Man is the only government-making animal in the world. the king of England. What O'Connell said of the history of Ireland may with greater truth be said of the negro's. Strong as we are, we need the energy that slumbers in the black mans arm to make us stronger. They fought the government, not because they hated the government as such, but because they found it, as they thought, in the way between them and their one grand purpose of rendering permanent and indestructible their authority and power over the Southern laborer. A nation might well hesitate before the temptation to betray its allies. Enfranchise them, and they become self-respecting and country-loving citizens. In 1867 Frederick Douglass, noted abolitionist and civil rights leader, weighed in on one of the most contentious issues of the day, suffrage for black men following the Civil War. The enfranchisement of an African American man is his manhood, and that the idea ofsome men getting rights and others don't is something that must be relinquished. Give the negro the elective franchise, and you give him at once a powerful motive for all noble exertion, and make him a man among men. Under the potent shield of State Rights, the game would be in their own hands. o " The lamb may not be trusted with the wolf. The ploughshare of rebellion has gone through the land beam-deep. It is true that, in many of the rebellious States, they were almost the only reliable friends the nation had throughout the whole tremendous war. Their history is parallel to that of the country; but while the history of the latter has been cheerful and bright with blessings, theirs has been heavy and dark with agonies and curses. We want the cheerful activity of the quickened manhood of these sable millions. The South will comply with any conditions but suffrage for the negro. The new wine must be put into new bottles. A character is demanded of him, and here as elsewhere demand favors supply. End of preview Upload your study docs or become a member. These facts speak to the better dispositions of the human heart; but they seem of little weight with the opponents of impartial suffrage. Casting aside all thought of justice and magnanimity, is it wise to impose upon the negro all the burdens involved in sustaining government against foes within and foes without, to make him equal sharer in all sacrifices for the public good, to tax him in peace and conscript him in war, and then coldly exclude him from the ballot-box? Orators, - Helen Douglass papers, - His right to a participation in the production and operation of government is an inference from his nature, as direct and self-evident as is his right to acquire property or education. Douglass, Lewis, 1840-1908--Correspondence, - Statesmen, beware what you do. Four specific "thesis" ideas: 1. There is that, all over the South, which frightens Yankee industry, capital, and skill from its borders. You have read "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" by Frederick Douglass and "Our God Is Marching On" by Martin Luther King, Jr., two speeches about voting rights for African Americans. Congress must supplant the evident sectional tendencies of the South by national dispositions and tendencies. Disguise it as we may, we are still a divided nation. It is supported by reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous as the wants of society. Do you find this information helpful? His address, given in January 1867 in Washington, D.C., during the Congressional debate on black male voting in the territories, appears below. The result is a war of races, and the annihilation of all proper human relations. And does not the Emperor of Russia act wisely, as well as generously, when he not only breaks up the bondage of the serf, but extends him all the advantages of Russian citizenship? In a pair of Atlantic articles in 1866 and '67, Douglass addressed members of the 39th session of Congress, urging them to give black Americans the right to vote. Go here for more about FrederickDouglass' Appeal toCongress for ImpartialSuffrage. Frederick Douglass Papers: Speech, Article, and Book File, -1894; Speeches, Articles, and Other Writings Attributed to Frederick or Helen Pitts Douglass, 1881 to 1887; "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," 1881. Congress must supplant the evident sectional tendencies of the South by national dispositions and tendencies. There is but one safe and constitutional way to banish that mischievous hope from the South, and that is by lifting the laborer beyond the unfriendly political designs of his former master. For in respect to this grand measure it is the good fortune of the negro that enlightened selfishness, not less than justice, fights on his side. This ends the case. Freedom of speech and of the press it slowly but successfully banished from the South, dictated its own code of honor and manners to the nation, brandished the bludgeon and the bowie-knife over Congressional debate, sapped the foundations of loyalty, dried up the springs of patriotism, blotted out the testimonies of the fathers against oppression, padlocked the pulpit, expelled liberty from its literature, invented nonsensical theories about master-races and slave-races of men, and in due season produced a Rebellion fierce, foul, and bloody. Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage - Frederick Douglass 1867 bjfowler 2022-05-17T13:09:32-04:00. The work of destruction has already been set in motion all over the South. endobj Impartial history will paint them as men who deserved well of their country. Freedom of speech and of the press it slowly but successfully banished from the South, dictated its own code of honor and manners to the nation, brandished the bludgeon and the bowie-knife over Congressional debate, sapped the foundations of loyalty, dried up the springs of patriotism, blotted out the testimonies of the fathers against oppression, padlocked the pulpit, expelled liberty from its literature, invented nonsensical theories about master-races and slave-races of men, and in due season produced a Rebellion fierce, foul, and bloody. Give the negro the elective franchise, and you at once destroy the purely sectional policy, and wheel the Southern States into line with national interests and national objects. It was a war of the rich against the poor. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Statesmen of America! Arming the negro was an urgent military necessity three years ago,are we sure that another quite as pressing may not await us? We have thus far only gained a Union without unity, marriage without love, victory without peace. Douglass, Frederick. Give the negro the elective franchise, and you at once destroy the purely sectional policy, and wheel the Southern States into line with national interests and national objects. Hardships, services, sufferings, and sacrifices are all waived. Waiving humanity, national honor, the claims of gratitude, the precious satisfaction arising from deeds of charity and justice to the weak and defenceless,the appeal for impartial suffrage addresses itself with great pertinency to the darkest, coldest, and flintiest side of the human heart, and would wring righteousness from the unfeeling calculations of human selfishness. History is said to repeat itself, and, if so, having wanted the negro once, we may want him again. What does the following sentence from the essay An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage by Frederick Douglas depict Impartial history will paint them as men who deserved well of their country It will tell how they forded and swam rivers with what consummate address they evaded the sharp eyed Rebel pickets how they toiled in the darkness of 30 seconds. a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate. Was not the nation stronger when two hundred thousand sable soldiers were hurled against the Rebel fortifications, than it would have been without them? We have crushed the Rebellion, but not its hopes or its malign purposes. It is true that they came to the relief of the country at the hour of its extremest need. Arming the negro was an urgent military necessity three years ago,--are we sure that another quite as pressing may not await us? Disfranchise them, and the mark of Cain is set upon them less mercifully than upon the first murderer, for no man was to hurt him. The work of destruction has already been set in motion all over the South. Citizenship Paper. The lamb may not be trusted with the wolf. They who waged it had no objection to the government, while they could use it as a means of confirming their power over the laborer. . by noting that the economy has greatly benefited from African- Americans' labor . by citing the community improvements that have resulted from African-Americans' charitable activities Manuscript/Mixed Material. If black men have no rights in the eyes of white men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks. Yet the negroes have marvellously survived all the exterminating forces of slavery, and have emerged at the end of two hundred and fifty years of bondage, not morose, misanthropic, and revengeful, but cheerful, hopeful, and forgiving. The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands." By Frederick Douglass AP January 1867 Issue Saved. Though the battle is for the present lost, the hope of gaining this object still exists, and pervades the whole South with a feverish excitement. But upon none of these things is reliance placed. As you members of the Thirty-ninth Congress decide, will the country be peaceful, united, and happy, or troubled, divided, and miserable. "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage." Atlantic Monthly 19 (Jan. 1867): 112-117. or will you profit by the blood-bought wisdom all round you, and forever expel every vestige of the old abomination from our national borders? Will you repeat the mistake of your fathers, who sinned ignorantly? The Rebel States have still an anti-national policy. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. Anthony, Susan B. Douglass, Frederick. The text argues that the central problem of the parties today is how to. It is impossible at this point in time to rid African Americans from the country.2. In fact, all the elements of treason and rebellion are there under the thinnest disguise which necessity can impose. The South will comply with any conditions but suffrage for the negro. United States--Politics and government--19th century, - It was a war of the rich against the poor. As you members of the Thirty-ninth Congress decide, will the country be peaceful, united, and happy, or troubled, divided, and miserable. repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines of poetry. The American people can, perhaps, afford to brave the censure of surrounding nations for the manifest injustice and meanness of excluding its faithful black soldiers from the ballot-box, but it cannot afford to allow the moral and mental energies of rapidly increasing millions to be consigned to hopeless degradation. Can that statesmanship be wise which would leave the negro good ground to hesitate, when the exigencies of the country required his prompt assistance? Exclude the negroes as a class from political rightsteach them that the high and manly privilege of suffrage is to be enjoyed by white citizens only, that they may bear the burdens of the state, but that they are to have no part in its direction or its honors, and you at once deprive them of one of the main incentives to manly character and patriotic devotion to the interests of the government; in a word, you stamp them as a degraded caste, you teach them to despise themselves, and all others to despise them. The proposition is as modest as that made on the mountain: All these things will I give unto thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.. Can that be sound statesmanship which leaves millions of men in gloomy discontent, and possibly in a state of alienation in the day of national trouble? Massachusetts and South Carolina may draw tears from the eyes of our tender-hearted President by walking arm in arm into his Philadelphia Convention, but a citizen of Massachusetts is still an alien in the Palmetto State. It is true that, notwithstanding their alleged ignorance, they were wiser than their masters, and knew enough to be loyal, while those masters only knew enough to be rebels and traitors. We want the cheerful activity of the quickened manhood of these sable millions. An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with something more familiar. Nations, not less than individuals, reap as they sow. If the doctrine that taxation should go hand in hand with representation can be appealed to in behalf of recent traitors and rebels, may it not properly be asserted in behalf of a people who have ever been loyal and faithful to the government? The South does not now ask for slavery. Foreign countries abound with his agents. 1881. Though the battle is for the present lost, the hope of gaining this object still exists, and pervades the whole South with a feverish excitement. It only asks for a large degraded caste, which shall have no political rights. What is common to all works no special sense of degradation to any. An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage NOT COMPLAINING OF THE PAST, SIMPLY ASKING FOR A BETTER FUTURE An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage Go here for more about Frederick Douglass. It is true that they fought side by side in the loyal cause with our gallant and patriotic white soldiers, and that, but for their help,--divided as the loyal States were,--the Rebels might have succeeded in breaking up the Union, thereby entailing border wars and troubles of unknown duration and incalculable calamity. Collapse All | Expand All An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage Frederick Douglass Atlantic Monthly January 1867 An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands.. Yet, as Douglass explains, citizenship has no meaning without the right to vote. It is enough that the possession and exercise of the elective franchise is in itself an appeal to the nobler elements of manhood, and imposes education as essential to the safety of society. It comes now in shape of a denial of political rights to four million loyal colored people. This evil principle again seeks admission into our body politic. These facts speak to the better dispositions of the human heart; but they seem of little weight with the opponents of impartial suffrage. Foreign countries abound with his agents. Foreign countries abound with his agents. Sprague, Rosetta Douglass--Correspondence, - "Frederick Douglass (African American abolitionist and civil right 's leader), "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," January 1867". Statesmen of America! They now stand before Congress and the country, not complaining of the past, but simply asking for a better future. Which of the following sentences from the essay "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" by Frederick Douglas indicates a claim by the writer? The last and shrewdest turn of Southern politics is a recognition of the necessity of getting into Congress immediately, and at any price. His right to a participation in the production and operation of government is in inference from his nature, as direct and self-evident as is his right to acquire property or education. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . To make peace with our enemies is all well enough; but to prefer our enemies and sacrifice our friends,--to exalt our enemies and cast down our friends,--to clothe our enemies, who sought the destruction of the government, with all political power, and leave our friends powerless in their hands,--is an act which need not be characterized here. It is nothing against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good citizens. It is nothing against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good citizens. But upon none of these things is reliance placed. It will swallow all the unconstitutional test oaths, repeal all the ordinances of Secession, repudiate the Rebel debt, promise to pay the debt incurred in conquering its people, pass all the constitutional amendments, if only it can have the negro left under its political control. It is a measure of relief, a shield to break the force of a blow already descending with violence, and render it harmless. You shudder to-day at the harvest of blood sown in the spring-time of the Republic by your patriot fathers. The principle of slavery, which they tolerated under the erroneous impression that it would soon die out, became at last the dominant principle and power at the South. The South fought for perfect and permanent control over the Southern laborer. While nothing may be urged here as to the past services of the negro, it is quite within the line of this appeal to remind the nation of the possibility that a time may come when the services of the negro may be a second time required. Masses of men can take care of themselves. The South fought for perfect and permanent control over the Southern laborer. It early mastered the Constitution, became superior to the Union, and enthroned itself above the law. A very limited statement of the argument for impartial suffrage, and for including the negro in the body politic, would require more space than can be reasonably asked here. Frederick Douglass, Refugee David W. Blight. Waiving humanity, national honor, the claims of gratitude, the precious satisfaction arising from deeds of charity and justice to the weak and defenceless,--the appeal for impartial suffrage addresses itself with great pertinency to the darkest, coldest, and flintiest side of the human heart, and would wring righteousness from the unfeeling calculations of human selfishness. Give the negro the elective franchise, and you give him at once a powerful motive for all noble exertion, and make him a man among men. 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The spectacle of these dusky millions thus imploring, not demanding, is touching; and if American statesmen could be moved by a simple appeal to the nobler elements of human nature, if they had not fallen, seemingly, into the incurable habit of weighing and measuring every proposition of reform by some standard of profit and loss, doing wrong from choice, and right only from necessity or some urgent demand of human selfishness, it would be enough to plead for the negroes on the score of past services and sufferings. The new wine must be put into new bottles. What is common to all works no special sense of degradation to any. All this and more is true of these loyal negroes. An abolitionist, writer and orator Frederick Douglass was the most important black American leader of the nineteenth century. Visit American Literature's American History section for other important historical documents and figures which helped shape America. Was not the nation stronger when two hundred thousand sable soldiers were hurled against the Rebel fortifications, than it would have been without them? The young men of the South burn with the desire to regain what they call the lost cause; the women are noisily malignant towards the Federal government. beware what you do. Is not Austria wise in removing all ground of complaint against her on the part of Hungary? Bassett, Ebenezer D., 1833-1908--Correspondence, - Arming the negro was an urgent military necessity three years ago, are we sure that another quite as pressing may not await us? There is that, all over the South, which frightens Yankee industry, capital, and skill from its borders. Their history is parallel to that of the country; but while the history of the latter has been cheerful and bright with blessing, theirs has been heavy and dark with agonies and curses. To make peace with our enemies is all well enough; but to prefer our enemies and sacrifice our friends, to exalt our enemies and cast down our friends, to clothe our enemies, who sought the destruction of the government, with all political power, and leave our friends powerless in their hands, is an act which need not be characterized here. Disguise it as we may, we are still a divided nation. Can that statesmanship be wise which would leave the negro good ground to hesitate, when the exigencies of the country required his prompt assistance? These sable millions are too powerful to be allowed to remain either indifferent or discontented. Once firmly seated in Congress, their alliance with Northern Democrats re-established, their States restored to their former position inside the Union, they can easily find means of keeping the Federal government entirely too busy with other important matters to pay much attention to the local affairs of the Southern States. Find the collection. 20072023 Blackpast.org. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906--Correspondence, - Frederick Douglass Papers: Speech, Article, and Book File, 1846-1894; Speeches, Articles, and Other Writings Attributed to Union and liberty : powers of Congress in relation to the slaves, with a form of Celebration of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia by the colored people, in Frederick Douglass Papers: Speech, Article, and Book File, 1846-1894; Speeches, Articles, and Other Writings Attributed to Frederick or Helen Pitts Douglass, 1881-1887; "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," 1881, - It is no less a crime against the manhood of a man, to declare that he shall not share in the making and directing of the government under which he lives, than to say that he shall not acquire property and education. Sitemap. In a word, it must enfranchise the negro, and by means of the loyal negroes and the loyal white men of the South build up a national party there, and in time bridge the chasm between North and South, so that our country may have a common liberty and a common civilization. The soil is in readiness, and the seedtime has come. Statesmen, beware what you do. _E/sZ@)m"\ kAk> ,?/. The result is a war of races, and the annihilation of all proper human relations. He is a man, and by every fact and argument by which any man can sustain his right to vote, the negro can sustain his right equally. It is enough that the possession and exercise of the elective franchise is in itself an appeal to the nobler elements of "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" in The Atlantic Monthly, 19 (January, 1867) Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln (1876) My Escape from Slavery (1881) . His address, given in January 1867 in Washington, D.C., during the Congressional debate on black Read More(1867) Frederick Douglass, "Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" 104 104. Waiving humanity, national honor, the claims of gratitude, the precious satisfaction arising from deeds of charity and justice to the weak and defenseless, the appeal for impartial suffrage addresses itself with great pertinence to the darkest, coldest, and flintiest side of the human heart, and would wring righteousness from the unfeeling calculations of human selfishness. They fought the government, not because they hated the government as such, but because they found it, as they thought, in the way between them and their one grand purpose of rendering permanent and indestructible their authority and power over the Southern laborer. It is true that, notwithstanding their alleged ignorance, they were wiser than their masters, and knew enough to be loyal, while those masters only knew enough to be rebels and traitors. How do the following sentences from paragraph 7 fit into the logic of Douglass's appeal? The hope of gaining by politics what they lost by the sword, is the secret of all this Southern unrest; and that hope must be extinguished before national idea and objects can take full possession of the Southern mind. Nations, not less than individuals, reap as they sow. The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands. Besides, the disabilities imposed upon all are necessarily without that bitter and stinging element of invidiousness which attaches to disfranchisement in a republic. Many daring exploits will be told to their credit. They are too numerous and useful to be colonized, and too enduring and self-perpetuating to disappear by natural causes. The last and shrewdest turn of Southern politics is a recognition of the necessity of getting into Congress immediately, and at any price. It is true that they fought side by side in the loyal cause with our gallant and patriotic white soldiers, and that, but for their help, divided as the loyal States were, the Rebels might have succeeded in breaking up the Union, thereby entailing border wars and troubles of unknown duration and incalculable calamity. It is plain that, if the right belongs to any, it belongs to all.

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