THERE IS NOT A NATION ON THE EARTH GUILTY OF PRACTICES, MORE SHOCKING AND BLOODY, THAN ARE THE PEOPLE OF THESE UNITED STATES, AT THIS VERY HOUR.

Frederick Douglass

YOUR SHOULDS OF LIBERTY AND EQUALITY, HOLLOW MOCKERY; YOUR PRAYERS AND HYMNS, YOUR SERMONS AND THANKSGIVINGS, WITH ALL YOUR RELIGIOUS PARADE AND SOLEMNITY, ARE TO HIM, MERE BOMBAST, FRAUD, DECEPTION, IMPIETY, AND HYPOCRISY--A THIN VEIL TO COVER UP CRIMES WHICH WOULD DISGRACE A NATION OF SAVAGES.

To him, YOUR CELEBRATION IS A SHAM; YOUR BOASTED LIBERTY, AN UNHOLY LICENSE; YOUR NATIONAL GREATNESS, SWELLING VANITY; YOUR SOUNDS OF REJOICING ARE EMPTY AND HEARTLESS; YOUR DENUNCIATIONS OF TYRANTS, BRASS FRONED IMPUDENCE;

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: A DAY THAT REVEALS TO HIM, MORE THAN ALL OTHER DAYS IN THE YEAR, THE GROSS INJUSTICE AND CRUELTY TO WHICH HE IS THE CONSTANT VICTIM.

THE FEELING OF THE NATION MUST BE QUICKENED, THE CONSCIENCE OF THE NATION MUST BE ROUSED; THE PROPRIETY OF THE NATION MUST BE STARTLED, THE HYPOCRISY OF THE NATION MUST BE EXPOSED; AND ITS CRIMES AGAINST GOD AND MAN MUST BE PROCLAIMED AND DENOUNCED.

For IT IS NOT LIGHT THAT IS NEEDED, BUT FIRE; IT IS NOT THE GENTLE SHOWER, BUT THUNDER. WE NEED THE STORM, THE WHIRLWIND, AND THE EARTHQUAKE.

At a time like this, SCORCHING IRONY, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

“I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;” I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be fight and just.

DARE TO CALL IN QUESTION AND TO DENOUNCE, WITH ALL THE EMPHASIS I CAN COMMAND, EVERYTHING THAT SERVES TO PERPETUATE SLAVERY--THE GREAT SIN AND SHAME OF AMERICA.

STANDING WITH GOD AND THE CRUSHED AND BLEEDING SLAVE ON THIS OCCASION, I WILL, IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY WHICH IS OUTRAGED, IN THE NAME OF LIBERTY WHICH IS FETTERED, IN THE NAME OF THE CONSTITUTION AND THE BIBLE, WHICH ARE DISREGARDED AND TRAMPLED UPON,

America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.

THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF THIS NATION NEVER LOOKED BLACKER TO ME than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting.

I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slave’s point of view. Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that

To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be TREASON most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is American slavery.

If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!”

Fellow-citizens; ABOVE YOUR NATIONAL, TUMULTUOUS JOY, I HEAR THE MOURNFUL WAIL OF MILLIONS! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.

You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?