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弗’’裏’’’’’斯
(FREDERICK DOUGLASS)
’羅切斯’’’立日’說
Independence Day Speech at Rochester
’’反奴隸學’之執’’Ⅸ’’1851
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公民’’們’對不’’請允’我問’’’爲什麽今天’我’’裏’言?’們’國’’立’我’及我’’’’’們有’’’?’們’7月4日對’國黑奴有’’’?
弗’’裏’’’’’斯(1817’1895)’’’傑’’’說’’’’’’’’’’’’’’動’’’’奴’動中’’’個巨’’’’’’’生爲奴隸’’未見’生身’母’’’馬里蘭’’’個種植園中由’母’’’’’歲’’’’’巴爾’摩當’奴’’巴爾’摩’’’’教’讀’’雖’’’’’’止’’’’’’歲’’’’’市’麻塞諸塞’’貝’福’’’那裏’’’’’’氏改爲’’’斯(原’’貝’)’
1841’’’’邀請’’’’’’反奴隸’集’’’說’’雄’’’’’’折’’’麻塞諸塞’反奴隸’’’爲’’’’’成’’’傑’’’說’’有’評論’對’’’實’身’示’疑’’對’’’’1845’’’’傳’’’’’斯爲’避’’’’’’’’奴而’’’’’’國’’’’’’’’’說’’國’’掙’足夠’錢贖身爲’由’’’’1847’’’’’羅切斯’創辦’’’’’奴報’’’’極’’報’
’1841’’’’’’斯成’’國最著’’黑’’奴’’’’1852’’’邀請’羅切斯’’’國’立’’日集’’’講’’言’’’’照老’’’’’’國’國元勳們衆’’’’’’’’’’說中’’’話’’轉’提醒聽衆說’國黑’’有’’’立’由’’見’個國’’虛僞’聽衆’’’驚’
公民’’們’對不’’請允’我問’’’爲什麽今天’我’’裏’言?’們’國’’立’我’及我’’’’’們有’’’?那個’’立’言’裏’體’’’’’由’天’公’’偉’原’’’用’我們嗎?’’’我’’’’’’裏’’國’’祭壇’’’我們’不足’’犧’’’’’’’由’’們’’立賜福’我們而’我’’謝謝’’’戴’嗎?
爲’’們’爲’我們’’’’’’’聽’對’’問’’’’’答’’’’’樣’我’任務’’’’’身’’擔’’’’’輕’’快’’有誰’’’’石心’’’’’個國’’慰問都不’’之’動?有誰’’’’’不化’’’’’之心而不’謝’’’’’’’價’’’’’’有誰’’’’’’’’’’’’手’’奴’’鎖鏈’解’’都不’’嗓’高唱’個國’’樂’’’’路’’’我不’那樣’’’’’樣’情’’’啞巴都’’’雄’’”’’’像鹿’’’’”’’’
’情’’’’’’我’麽說’’’爲我’切’’’’我們之間有著’異’今天輝煌’’’盛’’把我們排斥’’’’’們’’’’立僅僅’’我們之間’有不’’’’’溝’’’’有’都’’’’’們爲之高’’唱’種種’福’’們分’’’’們’’輩’’’正’’’由’’’’’立’豐’遺産’而我’’有’陽’’給’們’’’撫慰’’給我們’’’’痕’’’’7月4日屬’’們’而不屬’我’’們’’’雀’’而我’’傷心’歎’’’個身著’’’’’’’由’雄偉’輝’’殿’’’’’們’’高唱’樂’’’’不啻’’’’’’’’’褻’’’’諷’’公民們’’們’’’爲’’’我’請我’言’’’’’樣’’們’’’’’’爲’食’’’’我’警’’們’不’
覆蹈’樣’個國’’’轍’’那裏’’’’’’’歎’’’個國’’犯’滔天’’’傾覆而’’’’永’’爲’’’今天’我’把’個皮肉’剝’飽’’難’民族’’歎之’傳’給’們’
“’巴比’’之濱’我們落坐’’啊’’’錫’’’我們Ｚ’著’我們把我們’豎’’掛’’樹’’’爲’’’’’’我們’爲’虜’’’我們唱’支’’蹂’我們’’’我們’’’’’’們說’唱’支錫’’’’’’’我們’’’’塊陌生’’’’唱’’’’’’’’噢’’路’’’’’我竟忘掉’’’讓我’’手癱瘓’’’’我忘掉’’’’讓我’’’粘’’’頂’’”
公民’’們’’’們’國喧囂’’樂’中’我聽’成百’’’’’’號’’們身’’鎖鏈’’日’’’重難忍’’而今日’’們’’樂’’’’們’’’’’難熬’’’我’’忘’’’’’我不’切切’’那’今日’’’著’’’’’們’那麽’“’讓我’’手癱瘓’’’讓我’’’粘’’’頂’’”’’忘’’們’’’對’們’’’’’’’’’’還’’’衆’’塊’’鳴唱’’’異’最’’’最’’聽’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’面’’盡譴’’’’’公民’’們’我’言’’’’’國’奴隸’’我’’奴隸’角’’’’今日’’’’及它對公衆’’’’我身’’國黑奴’’們’’’’’我’’’’我’’’’整個心’’’不’豫’’’’’我’’’今天’個7月4日裏’’個國’’黑’’’’’’’顯’’’未見’’’’著’不論我們’’’’國’日’’’’還’傾聽’今日’諾言’它’’’’爲都’樣顯’’聽’’’’’嘔’’國對’’’虛僞’’對’’’’虛僞’’對未’’’’虛僞’’’’’’我’’’’’’體鱗傷’’’’’’黑奴’邊’’’’
凌’’’’之’’’’身著桎梏’’由之’’’’’’’棄’踐踏’’憲’’’’’’’之’’’’身而’’盡我’備’’有’’’對’切’奴隸’’’’重’’’’’國’’’’’永’永’’’圖’’我’抗議’’’我’譴’’“我不’’’辭’我不’’’’”’我’用’’我最’’’言辭’而任’’’’不’偏見’’蔽’’’任’內心裏不’’續奴’黑’’’’都’’’我說’’’話都’正’’’公’’’
’而’我’’’我’有’聽衆’說’“正’’’’’’’’’奴’’’’們’給公衆’’’’’’’’’們’’說’少’難’’’戒’斥’’們’’成’’’望’’’’’’”’’’我’爲’當’切都顯而’見’’說什麽’’’’’’’’’關’反奴隸’’綱領’們’我說’’’’’’’個問’’’’個’’’我們’國民還需’’撥’’我還須著手證’奴隸’’’嗎’’’’屬公’’’’有’’疑’奴隸’們’實’’們’’’’’’都’’’’’’’當’們’’奴隸們’反抗’’’’’’’’’維’尼’’’’’’’項’’’’黑’ (’論’’麽不’情) 犯’’中任’’項都’’’極’’而’中’有’項’’’’個白’’’’樣’’’’不正說’’奴隸’有’’’有’智’有’任’’嗎’奴隸’有’’’’’屬公’’’實證’’奴隸’’’’’方’’’條’都’’’止教’奴隸讀’’’’’’’’’高’’款’’’’’’’假’’們’’’有誰曾對田’’’’馬’’’’’樣’’’’那麽’’我’’’’論奴隸’’有’’’假’街’’’’’’中’飛鳥’’’’’羊’’裏’’角’’’’’蟲都分辨不’奴隸’野’’區’’那麽我’’’們’論奴隸’不’’’’
’’’’’’’’’黑’’種’樣’備’’’’足夠’’我們’’’種植’收獲’我們’用’種器械’’’’’’’橋’’船’我們’用’種’屬’銅’’’’’銀’ 我們讀’’’’’’算’我們當職Ⅸ’商’’’’’我們中間有’’’醫生’’’’詩’’’’’’輯’’說’’教’’我們’’’’’’’’’’切’動’’’’福尼’’’採’’’太平’裏’’’魚’’’’’’’’羊’我們生’著’’忙著’’動著’’考著’’劃著’’’中我們’’夫’’’’’’’最重’’’’我們’’’’’基督教’’’’期’’’’’福永生’而’’情’’’還’我們證’我們’’’’不今’驚’’分’
難’’們’我證’’有’由’’’’證’’’’身’正當’’?’們早’’’’’’’我還須證’奴隸’’邪’嗎?’對’’’’’們還’個問’嗎?’個問’竟’’’難’需’推’’’’原’’’’’’’樣’奧難解’’’’’’邏輯分’’’論嗎?當著’國’’面’我’’’’言中對’問’條分’’’’’對’實證’’’’’’’’證’’生’’有’由’那麽我’給’們’什麽’’’?’樣做我’顯’’Ｔ’’’’’對’們’’解’’不’不’’’天’’’’’不曉奴隸’對’’不公正’’
’’變爲野’’剝奪’們’’由’’’們勞’’獲’’’們對’’’’’’關’’’’’’對’們棍棒交’’用皮’’打’們’肉體’’’們’’’鎖’’’’’著’’
’’’們’把’們’賣’集市’讓’們’離’散’’’’們’’齒’’’’們’皮膚’用饑’迫’’們聽話而’’’’’’’還用’著我’證’’’切都’不公正’嗎?我還須證’’個’’
污’’’’’邪’’嗎?不’我不’’我’’間’精’’’’’值’’’’情’’而不’用’’’’證’
那麽’還剩’什麽需’論證’?’證’奴隸’不’天’’’’’’有’立它嗎?’證’我們’’學博’們’錯’嗎?’樣’本身’’褻’’’’’’’’不’’天’!有誰’夠’’爲’’’論證?那’’做’’’’’’’’’’樣做’’我不’’’’’不’’’論證’’候’’
今日’’’需’’’’熱’鋼’’而’今’’’’論證’啊’’’我有’’’’’’我’讓’國都聽’我’’’’今天我’’’’’巨’之勢’’我’’’情’’’’’’’切’譴’’’’’朽’諷’’’’俱’’’斥’’爲我們需’’不’’’’而’’’’我們需’’不’’風細’’而’’’’鳴’我們’風暴’’
颶風’’’’’國’’’情必須’’’國’’’’必須喚醒’國’’溫’必須打’’國’’虛僞必須揭’’它對’’’’類犯’’’’必須公之’衆’’’’’’擊’
’們’7月4日對’國黑奴有’’’?我’’答’’’’之中’’有’’天比今日’’’們’’讓’’’’不’’爲犧’’’那種滔天’不公’殘忍’’對’們’說’’們’’’’欺’之’’’們鼓’’’由’’’’褻’’’們’國’’偉’’虛’’’誇’’們’喜’’’’’虛’’情’’’們對暴’’譴’’不’’’’顔’’’’們’由平等’’’’’’’’’’’’’們’’禱’’’詩’’們’’’’’’’’’’有’’教’’’儀式’不’’面對’’’裝腔’’’虛假欺’’不’’褻’’虛僞’做’’’不’’’野’’都’’’羞’’’’’覆’’’’薄薄’’’’’’’’’’’’還’有任’’個野’民族’’有任’’個’’民族’像’國’那樣犯’’’’’’聽’’’’’’’’’勾當’
不論’們走’’裡’不論’們’’裡’’’’’舊’陸’’有’’國’’’國’’踏’整個’’’’收集’有殘忍’’錄’’’盡’’’把’們’調’結’’’國’天’生’’’個比較’’們’’’我’樣’’結論’’’’’’’野’’’顔’’’僞善方面’’國’’’’’’雙’’
Independence Day Speech at Rochester
Fellow
citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today?
What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are
the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in
that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called
upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the
benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your
independence to us?
Would to
God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be
truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my
burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy
could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude that
would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and
selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's
jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not
that man. In a case like that the dumb might eloquently speak and the “lame man
leap as an hart.”
But such
is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between
us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high
independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in
which you, this day, rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance
of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is
shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has
brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. 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 today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you
that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up
to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation
in irrevocable ruin! I can today take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and
woe-smitten people!
"By the
rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that
carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required
of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of
Zion.
How can -we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, 0
Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let
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, today, rendered more
intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. 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"! 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. 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 the
character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this
Fourth 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. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly
binds herself to be false to the future. 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, 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! "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 right and just.
But I
fancy I hear someone of my audience say. "It is just in this circumstance that
you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the
public mind. Would you argue more and denounce less, would you persuade more and
rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed." But, I
submit, where all is plain, there is nothing to be argued. What point in the
antislavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the
people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a
man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders
themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They
acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are
seventy-two crimes in the state of Virginia which, if committed by a black man
(no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while
only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like
punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral,
intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is
admitted in the fact that the Southern statute books are covered with enactments
forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read
or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of
the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs
in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when
the fish of the sea and the reptiles that crawl shall be unable to distinguish
the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!
For the
present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not
astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds
of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships,
working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold; that, while we are
reading, writing, and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries,
having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors,
orators, and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises
common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the
Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting,
thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and,
above all, confessing and worshiping the Christian's God, and looking
hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove
that we are men!
Would you
have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? That he is the rightful owner of
his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of
slavery? Is that a question for republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of
logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a
doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How
should I look today, in the presence of Americans, dividing and subdividing a
discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it
relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? To do so would be to
make myself ridiculous and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is
not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong
for him.
What, am
I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to
work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their
fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load
their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to
sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve
them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a
system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will
not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would
imply.
What,
then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not
establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in
the thought. That which is inhuman cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a
proposition? They that can may; I cannot. The time for such argument is past.
At a time
like this, scorching iron, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the
ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would today pour out a fiery
stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern
rebuke. 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. 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.
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. 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 denunciation of tyrants,
brass-fronted impudence; your shouts 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. There is not a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth
guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United
States at this very hour.
Go where
you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms
of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when
you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of
this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and
shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.
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