Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-06-04
What COIOred Men Want-Speech by
Frederick Douglass.


New York, Frederick Douglass, AFTER ex
messing his i0y at the advance Wnlcn nad
been made toward freedom in our coun-
try during the past few years, continued
"I have only one theory, and 1t applies
IN the Democrats as well as to the Repub-
iicans: il is summed up in one word, Let
the negro alone That is your whole duty
in regard to the negro. You want to be
doing something. and you are doing some
thing by listening to the speeches of to-
night. and what we want is to be let alone.
NV politics in regard to the negro is this
Give fair play and let him alone, and be
sure you give him fair play. 1t is now a
point before the law, and | rejoice in it.
What we want, and what we are resolv-
ing to have, is the right to be men among
men-meu everywhere. The wants OF
men are various. In the South the plant.
ers owning their $4,000 acres of land have
banded together, and determined not to
sell any large or small parcels to the col.
ored. men. Therefore it is the duty OF
Congress or some other power-the pres
ent government at any rate-to see that
the negro has fair play in the acquisition
Of land that when he offers fair price
he shall not be deprived of the right OF
purchasing because of color. Let the ne.
gro purchase land; if he is on the way to
the school, let him go. Do not say he
shall not go into the same school with
me. If any one has q right to school
it is the negro. If any one has the need
ofschOol, it is the negro. Ifyou see him on
the way to the workshop, let him work
and not say that you will not work with
him. Newspapers have recently told us
that thirty-six printers employed in the
government office are truly Disguised by
the employment Of one negro as printer
in that establishment. One paper says
they have had leave to retire, and | hope
they may retire. 1t is easier for me to-day
to get my son in q law office in Rochester
than to get him Il place in ship-yard to
help build ships The reason is, the high
or you go up in the gradati0us Of intelH-
gence, the further you get away from
preiudices, and the more reasonable men
are fad far less difficulty in getting
along with educated men, ignorant as am,
than to get along with uneducated men.
In 1889 John Quincy Adams brought for
ward a proposition to recognize the indie
pendence of Hayti, in Congress, andth
House presented scene OF unparalleled
confusion. Henry A. Wise said 1t is
true we are told that this black republic
has maintained It's liberty for forty years.
| care not for that; should time itself con-
front me and shake his hOary locks at my
opposition, should still oppose the &C
acknowledgement of the independence of
Hayti.' Hayti, the negro republic, is to-
day acknowledged, and is on footing
with other misunderstanding to be
among the sterhood of nations-acknowl-
edged as such by the highest and foremost
nation of the world. That nation sends
black Minister to Hayti-the nation that
stands ready to reach out its hand to
those brave, those heroic, noble Cubans
who are struggling for liberty. APP
plause. have some sympathy with my
Democratic brethren. They have always
been logical They have 8lways seen a
little further than the Abolitionists. Long
before Wendell Phillips announced his
doctrine Of the dissolution of the Union,
John G. Calhoun saw that that was what
it would lead to- Long before Mr.. Sew
ard announced the doctrine of the ire
pressible conflict, Mr.. Calhoun saw the
irrepressible conflict, and saw that this coun-
try must become all slavery OF all freedom
Mr.. Hendricks said on the floor of the
United States Senate "Gentleman, this
thing is impossible. Manhood suffrage
means the bringing of black Senator
into this chamber, to be seated in these
chairs. 1t is impossible" He was right :;
it means all that, and | am just the man
to go there. Cheersl You take step
in the right direction, and another opens
before you; take one in the wrong, and
another still, and you reach the bottom
if there is any bottom-of the bOttomless
pit. Let the negro vote, and he will be
voted for. If voted for he will go to Con-
gress; there is no telling where he won't
go. Then give him the right to vote.
Will it dissolve the Union? No, it won't
don't be afraid of it. Some one has said.
that all races have some distinctive pecu-
liarity by which civilization could be pro-
NOTED if it were initiated. believe in
imitation. A disposition to initiate is one
Of the most civilizipg qualities of the
human mind, and l am going to imi-
tate all the good | can, and not
initiate all the bad find in this world.
There is nothing so good for the negro, or
anybody else in this country, as living
right among the people. The only reason
why the negro is not killed off as the In
dams have been is because he has kept so
close under your arm that he could not
get out. Had he been ON the borders of
civilization, like the Indian, he would have
been pushed on and on precisely as the
Indians have been 1t has been said by
Senator Doolittle that the negro, like the
Indian, must die out; and they are now
rapidly disappearing, and that there is no
use Of doing anything about Incorporating
them into this government. have lately
been travelling in several of the Western
States, and have had occasion to observe
that vast number of colored people had
removed there from the South. These
men followed the Union armies from the
South, and were practically dead to the
South: That is the way the negro is dying
out. say to the American people the
only way to conquer their prejudice
against the colored race is to begin to be
just; do not believe that this long despised
class will die out. See what this race has
been exposed to for two hundred aud fifty
years; deprived of marriage; deprived of
all the saving Influences of every saving
institution, loa1ed with shame, Scared by
the whip, driven from time to eternity in
TO the dark, as be has been--who dare say
That such people can not bear freedom?''
Letter from Ex-Governor Brown. Il
GnVEpNnp ppourDy