The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-07-19

Va.
The Norfolk Journal of July 18th gives an
abstra It of the speech delivered by Fred Doug
lass at Portsmouth on the 4th of July. Its
tone is surprisingly moderate and conciliating:
He alluded to the auction block, once erect
ed where he stood, where men and women and
sold to the highest bidder like cattle. But, sal
he. this is no longer the sad and sorrowful con-
dition of the black man; he has new rights
and new duties to perform; this being so, "let
the dead past bury its dead" Let there be no
rt-burnings because OF the gloomy and
suffering past. The present Is ours, full of joy
ana bright, beaming hopes. He said he was
once pulled out of a street coach in Boston,
massachusetts, it not being his right to occupy
seat in public street conveyance, his skin
he was asked, during the short time he had
been in Portsmouth, at what college he gradu-
ated. His answer was, at that peculiar insti-
tuition that required the lash to put one
through; and that his diploma was on his back
in unmstakable marks. Though this be
fact there remained in his heart no ranking
feeling of i'll will to his master;-that he nad
every good wish for his masters family, living
in Maryland, and that they are among his pest
personal friends He had no doubt but there
existed the same reciprocity of feeling between
the freedmen who heard his voice and their
old masters. He seemed peculiarly DESTROYS
to establish, throughout his speech, the great
point, that humanity, Justice, selt-lnterest,
of friendship must of necessity exist between
the two races; their interests being mutual,
their feelings of regard must not be separate;
confidence and dependence must be mutual
The black man adopts the white mans fash
ion-strives toimitate him in his civilized mode
Of doing. Their black women, said he, ape the
Wnite IN their dress, style of walking, talking,
&c. Even where nature has imposed barri-
er to an imitation o. the late fashion of dress
ing the back part of the head, they resort to
artto overcome that barrier, And the white
ladies sometimes initiate the blacks; as was
the case before the late WATERFALL" fashion
was adopted. l mean, said heat the same
time twirling his fingers near his head-the
kinking of the hair. just here white man
cried out, By Cd, you are white man."
No, my friend" said Fred, "you are mistak-
en-: My mother was black woman, and my
father white man; but that my friend, was
no iault of mine" The reluctance of the
whites to grant the negro the right to vote and
OF that old prejudice arising from slavery"
Said he, lit is prejudice that degrade the black
race below every other people on earth" He
told the negroes that, practically, they were in
ferior 20 white people; but originally and nat
ura!ly. they were not. The white man uses
the lightning to convey his thoughts to distant
parts OF the earth. He constructs mighty ships
TO pillow the great deep, and directs their course
around tne world. He measures the immense
heavenly bodies which roll in space, and calcu-
lates their distance from earth with unerring
skill. He makes more books than we can
read. These things you cannot do But it
behoOves you to endeayor to learn these things
from your white friends, and thus make your
selves their equals in these varied departments
OF knowledge. He said prejudice, because of
slavery, caused the black man to be estimated
as natural coward-inferior to every other
man of every other race in physical and m r.
al courage. He said the late war has given
evidence of the Negroes pluck for fight to his
entire credit. And had the Southern Confed-
eracy not been blinded by prejudice, she would
have used the means which was in her power
to employ, of achieving lasting Independence.
That is, the Confederate government would
have usnchaekled every slave, and as freemen,
armed for the fight, marched them, shoulder
to shoulder with the whites, to the field of bat
tie. Had this been done, to-day you would
have been free and independent people. MI
Lincoln struck the keynote of success just in
time when he issued his emancipation procla-
nation, f4 tt-.ii ldI HFTTf .Ilt