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MARCH, 1862.  DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.  613

SPEECH OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS ON THE WAR,
Recently delivered before the Emancipation League in Tremont Temple, Boston.
Also in Cooper's Institute, New York, Feb. 12, 1862.

An address was delivered last night, Feb. 12, in the large ball of the Cooper Institute, by Frederick Douglass.  At 8 o'clock, the body of the hall was nearly filled with an intelligent and respectable looking audience.– The exercises commenced with a patriotic song by the Hutchinsons, which was received with great applause.

The Rev. H. H. GARNETT opened the meeting stating that the black man, a fugitive from Virginia, who was announced to speak would not appear, as a communication had been received yesterday from the South intimating that, for prudential reasons, it would not be proper for that person to appear, as his presence might affect the interests and safety of others in the South, both white persons and colored.  He also stated that another fugitive slave, who was at the battle of Bull Run, proposed when the meeting was announced to be present, but for a similar reason he was absent; he had unwillingly fought on the side of Rebellion, but now he was, fortunately where he could raise his voice on the side of Union and universal liberty.  The question which now seemed to be prominent in the nation was simply whether the services of black men shall be received in this war, and a speedy victory be accomplished.  If the day should ever come when the flag of our country shall be the symbol of universal liberty, the black man should be able to look up to that glorious flag, and say that it was his flag, and his country's flag; and if the services of the black men were wanted it would be found that they would rush into the ranks, and in a very short time sweep all the rebel party from the face of the country.  In conclusion he would introduce the orator of the evening Frederick Douglass, Esq, who was greeted with hearty applause.

Mr. DOUGLASS came forward and addressed the audience as follows:

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:  The progress of the present tremendous war has developed great qualities of mind and heart among the loyal people, and none more conspicuously than patience.  We have seen our sons, brothers, and fathers led to the battle field by untried and unskillful generals, and have held our breath;  we have seen them repeatedly marched in thousands upon concealed batteries of the enemy, to be swept down by the storms of iron hail and fire, and have scarcely murmured;  we have seen the wealth of the land poured out at the frightful rate of a million a day without complaint;  we have seen our Capital surrounded, hemmed in, blockaded in the presence of a fettered but chafing loyal army of a quarter of a million on the Potomac during seven long months, and still we have cried patience and forbearance.  We have seen able and earnest men displaced from high an important positions to make room for men who have yet to win our confidence, and still have believed in the Government.  This is all right, all proper.  Our Government however defective is still our Government.  It is all we have to shield us from the fury and vengeance of treason, rebellion, and anarchy.

If I were asked to describe the most painful and mortifying feature presented in the prosecution and management of the present war on the part of the United States Government, against the slaveholding rebels now marshalled against it, I should not point to Ball's Bluff, Big Bethel, Bull Run, or any of the many blunders and disasters on flood or field;  but I should point to the vacillation, doubt uncertainty and hesitation, which have thus far distinguished our government in regard to the true method of dealing with the vital cause of the rebellion.  We are without any declared and settled policy – and our policy seems to be, to have no policy.

The winds and currents are ever changing, and after beating about for almost a whole year on the perilous coast of a wildering ocean unable to find our bearings, we at last discover that we are in the same latitude as when we set sail, as far from the desired port as ever and with much less heart, health and provisions for pursuing the voyage than on the morning we weighed anchor.

If it be true that he that doubteth is condemned already, there is certainly but little chance for this Republic.

At the opening session of the present Congress there was a marked, decided, and emphatic expression against slavery as the great motive power of the present slaveholding war.  Many petitions, numerously and influentially signed, were duly sent in and presented to that body, praying, first, for the entire abolition of slavery in all the slaveholding States;  secondly, that a just award be made by Congress to loyal slaveholders;  and thirdly, that the slaves of rebels be wholly confiscated.  The vigor, earnestness, and power with which these objects were advocated, as war measures, by Messrs. Stevens, Bingham, Elliot, Burley, Lovejoy and others, inspired the loyal friends of Freedom all over the North with renewed confidence and hope, both for country and for the slave.  The conviction was general that at last the country was to have a policy, and that that policy would bring freedom and safety to the Republic.

Thus far, however, this hope, this confidence, this conviction has not been justified.  The country is without a known policy.  The enemies of the Abolition cause, taking alarm from these early efforts, have earnestly set themselves to the work of producing a reaction in favor of slavery, and have succeeded beyond what they themselves must have expected at first.

Among other old, and threadbare, and worn out objections which they have raised against the Emancipation policy, is the question as to what shall be done with the four million slaves of the South, if they are emancipated? or in other words, what shall be the future of the four million slaves?

I am sensible, deeply sensible, of the importance of this subject, and of the many difficulties which are supposed to surround it.

If there is any one great, pressing, and all-commanding problem for this nation to solve, and to solve without delay, that problem is slavery.  Its claims are urgent, palpable, and powerful.  They admit of no parleying or compromise.  The issue involves the whole question of life and death to the nation.

Some who speak on this subject are already sure as to how this question will finally be decided.  I am not, but one thing I know:– If we are a wise, liberty-loving, a just and courageous nation – knowing what is right and daring to do it – we shall solve this problem, and solve it speedily, in accordance with national safety, national unity, national prosperity, national glory, and shall win for ourselves the admiration of an onlooking world and the grateful applause of after-coming generations.  If on the other hand, we are a cunning, cowardly, and selfish nation given over – as other nations have been before us – to hardness of heart and blindness of mind, it needs no prophet to foretell our doom.

Before proceeding to discuss the future of the colored people of the slave States, you will allow me to make a few remarks, personal and general, respecting the tremendous crisis through which we are passing.  In the first place I have not the vanity to suppose – and I say it without affectation – that I can add any thing to the powerful arguments of the able men who have preceded me in this course of lectures.  I take the stand to night more as an humble witness than as an advocate.  I have studied slavery and studied freedom on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line.  Nearly twenty-two years of my life were spent in Slavery, and more than twenty-three have been spent in freedom.  I am of age in both conditions, and there seems an eminent fitness in allowing me to speak for myself and my face.  If I take my stand to-night as I shall do, with the down trodden and enslaved, and view the facts of the hour more as a bondman than as a freeman, it is not because I feel no interest in the general welfare of the country.  Far from it.

I am an American citizen.  In birth, in sentiment, in ideas, in hopes, in aspirations, and responsibilities.  According to Judge Kent there are but two classes of people in America:  they are citizens and aliens, natives and foreigners.–  Natives are citizens – foreigners are aliens until naturalized.

But I am not only a citizen by birth and lineage, I am such by choice.

I once had a very tempting offer of citizenship in another country;  but declined it because I preferred the hardships and duties of my mission here.  I have never regretted that decision, although my pathway has been anything than a smooth one;  and to night, I allow no man to exceed me in the desire for the safety and welfare of this country.  And just here do allow me to boast a little.  There is nothing in the circumstances of the present hour, nothing in the behavior of the colored people, either North or South, which requires apology at my hands.  Though everywhere spoken against, the most malignant and unscrupulous of all our slanderers have not, in this dark and terrible hour of the nation's trial dared to accuse us of a want of patriotism or loyalty.  Though ignored by our friends and repelled by our enemies, the colored people, both north and south, have evinced the most ardent desire to serve the cause of the country, as against the rebels and traitors who are endeavoring to break it down and destroy it.  That they are not largely represented in the loyal army, is the fault of the Government, and a very grievous fault it is.  Mark here our nation's degeneracy.  Colored men were good enough to fight under Washington.  They are not good enough to fight under McClellan.–

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