Under the potent shield of State Rights, the game would be in their own hands. 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 Will you repeat the mistake of your fathers, who sinned ignorantly? 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 thus far only gained a Union without unity, marriage without love, victory without peace. It is supported by reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous as the wants of society. Visit American Literature's American History section for other important historical documents and figures which helped shape America. Masses of men can take care of themselves. What is common to all works no special sense of degradation to any. 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. If black men have no rights in the eyes of white men, of course the white can have none in the eyes of the blacks. (1867) Frederick Douglass, "Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage Frederick Douglass. ----, "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," (January 1867). But why are the Southerners so willing to make these sacrifices? There is something immeasurably mean, to say nothing of the cruelty, in placing the loyal negroes of the South under the political power of their Rebel masters. For better or for worse, (as in some of the old marriage ceremonies,) the negroes are evidently a permanent part of the American population. The fundamental and unanswerable argument in favor of the enfranchisement of the negro is found in the undisputed fact of his manhood. As a nation, we cannot afford to have amongst us either this indifference and stupidity, or that burning sense of wrong. History is said to repeat itself, and, if so, having wanted the negro once, we may want him again. It only asks for a large degraded caste, which shall have no political rights. beware of what you do. The work of destruction has already been set in motion all over the South. 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. The dreadful calamities of the past few years came not by accident, nor unbidden, from the ground. We asked the negroes to espouse our cause, to be our friends, to fight for us, and against their masters; and now, after they have done all that we asked them to do,helped us to conquer their masters, and thereby directed toward themselves the furious hate of the vanquished,it is proposed in some quarters to turn them over to the political control of the common enemy of the government and of the negro. 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. 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. We have thus far only gained a Union without unity, marriage without love, victory without peace. 1881. Enfranchise them, and they become self-respecting and country-loving citizens. Is the present movement in England in favor of manhood suffrage--for the purpose of bringing four millions of British subjects into full sympathy and co-operation with the British government--a wise and humane movement, or otherwise? 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. an appeal to congress for impartial suffrage .docx - Course Hero a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate. Frederick Douglass: An Appeal To Congress For Impartial Suffrage <> Image 1 of 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 was a war of the rich against the poor. From "Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" - Brainly 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. The South will comply with any conditions but suffrage for the negro. You shudder to-day at the harvest of blood sown in the spring-time of the Republic by your patriot fathers. We want the cheerful activity of the quickened manhood of these sable millions. Douglass, Joseph H. (Joseph Henry), 1871-1935, - Read the next essay; The South will comply with any conditions but suffrage for the negro. Wells-Barnett, Ida B., 1862-1931--Correspondence, - 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. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906--Correspondence, - 30 seconds. 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? Unit 3 Test: Selected and Short Response Flashcards | Quizlet The Rebel States have still an anti-national policy. Foreign countries abound with his agents. So Just, Speeches on Social Justice, available at: http://www.sojust.net/speeches/frederickdouglas_appeal.html. This evil principle again seeks admission into our body politic. Nations, not less than individuals, reap as they sow. Many daring exploits will be told to their credit.