Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-10-31


rea. Fred. Douglass has been speaking
at Newark, New Jersey, and the follow
ing extracts are taken from New forI
papers
Ii is true there has a great deal beer
said about the sacredness of our glorious
Constitution. But what is there that
should forbid the fullest aid freest hand
ling of the Constitution by the American
people2 There was nothing sacred
about its origin. There was no earth
quake, nor tempest, nor thunder and
lightning, nor any other serious DIS
turbance Of nature when that instrument
was adopted. The speakers early con-
dition Of life was not favorable to the
development OF what people call patriot
ism, or reverence for the Constitution, or
for our institutions in general--certainly
not for the peculiar institution;
But he could honor the men who made
the Constitution for saying nothing re-
cognizing slavery. Those who think
this government was made for the white
man. and that this is n white mans gov
eminent, find no sort of countenance for
that heresy in the Constitution Of the
United States. In that instrument there
is no white nor black. We are fellow
citizens of a common country without
respect to complexion. They had not
got this chronological notion about meas
uring human rights by mans com
plexion. Ethnologists seem 10 be trying
to establish some connection between the
negro and the monkey on account of the
length of his heel, forgetting that the
monkey has no heel, and that the longer
a mans heel the further he is removed
from the monkey, and the shorter
he wouldn't say what
If the church in this country could
heap up the chains aud whips and hellish
instruments of slavery, and point to
them as the monument of its labors, it
would be worth more than all the tracts
and expurgated tracts issued by the
American Tract Society. Liberty was
not the result of the moral conviction of
this nation. We had the same reason to
be thankful to this government for our
freedom that the Israelites had to be
thankful to Pharaoh-the same consid. |
erations controlled in one case as in the |
other. But now the people of this |
can do some justice to the negro |
from choice, let them do it-let them do |
it in Nav Jersey-give the negro the
BALLOT [Applause A mans rights
rest in three boxes; the ballot-box, the
Jury box and the cartridge box, and the
man who is outside these boxes is in a
bad hox. Let no man be kept from the
ballot.box because of his color. Let no
be kept from the ballot-b box
because of her sex.
There is much of the one man power
left in our Constitution. We have got
il, we have got it bad and we feel it, too.
Laughter AS Seward said, Andrew
Johnson is our King; and he rules us
with an aristocratic power and a con-
empt for the will Of the people that it
would be dangerous for Louis Napoleon
o exercise. Applause But he has
lis authority from the Constitution, and
We are in danger of having the same
hing over again, as long as the Con-
titution remains as it is. True, we
ave the power of choosing our own
President, but what the American people
want is, not the right to choose master,
,ut the right and power of being our own
masters and our own governors. We are
rec while we are dropping piece of
,aper, with some names on it--no matter
low they got on it-into box. After
hat the national animal takes the power.
lie may rear, or kick, or roll over, but
e is there every time. Laughter.
70 officer in our system of government
yer resigns in response to the will of the
annla