An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage
Douglass, Frederick, 1817?-1895
Atlantic Monthly 19 (Jan. 1867): 112-117.
Douglass, Frederick. "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial
Suffrage."
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. It is
supported by reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous as the wants
of society. Man is the only government-making animal in the world. 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. 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.
The fundamental and unanswerable argument in favor of the enfranchisement of the
negro is found in the undisputed fact of his manhood. 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 plain that, if the right belongs to any, it
belongs to all. The doctrine that some men have no rights that others are bound
to respect, is a doctrine which we must banish as we have banished slavery, from
which it emanated. 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. The result is a war
of races, and the annihilation of all proper human relations.
But suffrage for the negro, while
easily sustained upon abstract principles, demands consideration upon what are
recognized as the urgent necessities of
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the case. It is a measure of relief, --
a shield to break the force of a blow already descending with violence,
and render it harmless. The work of destruction has already been set in
motion all over the South. Peace to the country has literally meant war to
the loyal men of the South, white and black; and negro suffrage is the
measure to arrest and put an end to that dreadful strife.
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.
For better or for worse, (as in
some of the old marriage ceremonies,) the negroes are evidently a permanent part
of the American population. They are too numerous and useful to be colonized,
and too enduring and self-perpetuating to disappear by natural causes. Here they
are, four millions of them, and, for weal or for woe, here they must remain.
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. What O'Connell said of the history of Ireland may
with greater truth be said of the negro's. It may be "traced like a wounded
man through a crowd, by the blood." 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. They now stand before Congress
and the country, not complaining of the past, but simply asking for a better
future. 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. But no such
appeal shall be relied on here. Hardships, services, sufferings, and sacrifices
are all waived. It is true that they came to the relief of the country at the
hour of its extremest need. 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. 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. 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. All this and more is
true of these loyal negroes. Many daring exploits will be told to their credit.
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 night
through the tangled marshes of briers and thorns, barefooted and weary, running
the risk of losing their lives, to warn our generals of Rebel schemes to
surprise and destroy our loyal army. It will tell how these poor people, whose
rights we still despised, behaved to our wounded soldiers, when found cold,
hungry, and bleeding on the deserted battle-field; how they assisted our
escaping prisoners from Andersonville, Belle Isle, Castle Thunder, and
elsewhere, sharing with them their wretched crusts, and otherwise affording them
aid and comfort; how they promptly responded to the trumpet call for their
services, fighting against a foe that denied them the rights of civilized
warfare, and for a government which was without the courage to assert those
rights and avenge
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their violation in their behalf; with
what gallantry they flung themselves upon Rebel fortifications, meeting
death as fearlessly as any other troops in the service. But upon none of
these things is reliance placed. These facts speak to the better
dispositions of the human heart; but they seem of little weight with the
opponents of impartial suffrage.
It is true that a strong plea for
equal suffrage might be addressed to the national sense of honor. Something,
too, might be said of national gratitude. A nation might well hesitate before
the temptation to betray its allies. 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. 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. 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. But of this let nothing be said in this place.
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.
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. National interest and national duty, if
elsewhere separated, are firmly united here. 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.
Strong as we are, we need the
energy that slumbers in the black man's arm to make us stronger. We want no
longer any heavy-footed, melancholy service from the negro. We want the cheerful
activity of the quickened manhood of these sable millions. Nor can we afford to
endure the moral blight which the existence of a degraded and hated class must
necessarily inflict upon any people among whom such a class may exist. Exclude
the negroes as a class from political rights, -- teach 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. Men are so
constituted that they largely derive their ideas of their abilities and their
possibilities from the settled judgments of their fellow-men, and especially
from such as they read in the institutions under which they live. If these bless
them, they are blest indeed; but if these blast them, they are blasted indeed.
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. A character is
demanded of him, and here as elsewhere demand favors supply. It is nothing
against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good citizens.
It is enough that the
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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.
To appreciate the full force of
this argument, it must be observed, that disfranchisement in a republican
government based upon the idea of human equality and universal suffrage, is a
very different thing from disfranchisement in governments based upon the idea of
the divine right of kings, or the entire subjugation of the masses. Masses of
men can take care of themselves. Besides, the disabilities imposed upon all are
necessarily without that bitter and stinging element of invidiousness which
attaches to disfranchisement in a republic. What is common to all works no
special sense of degradation to any. But in a country like ours, where men of
all nations, kindred, and tongues are freely enfranchised, and allowed to vote,
to say to the negro, You shall not vote, is to deal his manhood a staggering
blow, and to burn into his soul a bitter and goading sense of wrong, or else
work in him a stupid indifference to all the elements of a manly character. As a
nation, we cannot afford to have amongst us either this indifference and
stupidity, or that burning sense of wrong. These sable millions are too powerful
to be allowed to remain either indifferent or discontented. Enfranchise them,
and they become self-respecting and country-loving citizens. 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. But this mark of inferiority -- all the
more palpable because of a difference of color -- not only dooms the negro to be
a vagabond, but makes him the prey of insult and outrage everywhere. 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.
History is said to repeat itself, and, if so, having wanted the negro once, we
may want him again. Can that statesmanship be wise which would leave the negro
good ground to hesitate, when the exigencies of the country required his prompt
assistance? 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? Was not the nation stronger when two hundred thousand sable soldiers
were hurled against the Rebel fortifications, than it would have been without
them? Arming the negro was an urgent military necessity three years ago, -- are
we sure that another quite as pressing may not await us? 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?
Look across the sea. Is Ireland,
in her present condition, fretful, discontented, compelled to support an
establishment in which she does not believe, and which the vast majority of her
people abhor, a source of power or of weakness to Great Britain? Is not Austria
wise in removing all ground of complaint against her on the part of Hungary? 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? 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? Is the existence of a rebellious element in our borders
-- which New Orleans, Memphis, and Texas show to be only disarmed, but at heart
as malignant as ever, only waiting for an opportunity to reassert
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itself with fire and sword -- a reason
for leaving four millions of the nation's truest friends with just cause
of complaint against the Federal government? 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
answers to these questions are too obvious to require statement. Disguise
it as we may, we are still a divided nation. The Rebel States have still
an anti-national policy. 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. There is that, all over the South, which
frightens Yankee industry, capital, and skill from its borders. We have
crushed the Rebellion, but not its hopes or its malign purposes. The South
fought for perfect and permanent control over the Southern laborer. It was
a war of the rich against the poor. 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. 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. 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. We have
thus far only gained a Union without unity, marriage without love, victory
without peace. 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 ideas and objects can take full possession of
the Southern mind. 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. 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 last and shrewdest turn of Southern politics is
a recognition of the necessity of getting into Congress immediately, and
at any price. The South will comply with any conditions but suffrage for
the negro. 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. 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."
But why are the Southerners so
willing to make these sacrifices? The answer plainly is, they see in this policy
the only hope of saving something of their old sectional peculiarities and
power. 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. Under the potent shield of State Rights, the game would be in
their own hands. Does any sane man doubt for a moment that the men who followed
Jefferson Davis through the late terrible Rebellion, often marching barefooted
and hungry, naked and penniless, and who now only profess an enforced loyalty,
would plunge this country into a foreign war to-day, if they could thereby gain
their coveted independence, and their still more coveted mastery over the
negroes? Plainly enough, the peace not less than the prosperity of this country
is involved in the great measure of impartial suffrage. King Cotton is deposed,
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but only deposed, and is ready to-day to
reassert all his ancient pretensions upon the first favorable opportunity.
Foreign countries abound with his agents. They are able, vigilant,
devoted. 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. In fact, all the elements of treason and rebellion are
there under the thinnest disguise which necessity can impose.
What, then, is the work before
Congress? It is to save the people of the South from themselves, and the nation
from detriment on their account. Congress must supplant the evident sectional
tendencies of the South by national dispositions and tendencies. It must cause
national ideas and objects to take the lead and control the politics of those
States. It must cease to recognize the old slave-masters as the only competent
persons to rule the South. 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 new
wine must be put into new bottles. The lamb may not be trusted with the wolf.
Loyalty is hardly safe with traitors.
Statesmen of America! beware what
you do. The ploughshare of rebellion has gone through the land beam-deep. The
soil is in readiness, and the seed-time has come. Nations, not less than
individuals, reap as they sow. The dreadful calamities of the past few years
came not by accident, nor unbidden, from the ground. 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. It early mastered the Constitution, became superior to the
Union, and enthroned itself above the law.
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.
This evil principle again seeks
admission into our body politic. It comes now in shape of a denial of political
rights to four million loyal colored people. The South does not now ask for
slavery. It only asks for a large degraded caste, which shall have no
political rights. This ends the case. Statesmen, beware what you do. The destiny
of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands. Will you repeat the
mistake of your fathers, who sinned ignorantly? 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? As you members of the Thirty-ninth
Congress decide, will the country be peaceful, united, and happy, or troubled,
divided, and miserable.
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