Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-06-07
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ON ME
MORAL DAY.


FREDERICK DOUGLASS ON ME.
MORTAL DAY.
His Address at Rochester.
The following is from the address delivered by
Frederick Douglass at Rochester, NY, on Dec
Grafton day:
| The law OF change is everywhere indicated.
| What has happened once may happen again.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. and
we may console ourselves in the thought that
| whatever may be the immediate or distant fl-
| ture, whatever may hallow another day and
make 1t great In the eyes Of the American peo-
ple for the present at least there is no national
holiday which contains so much for the head and
heart of one day and generation as this Decora-
tiOn day. We may say Of it as Daniel Webster
once said Of Bunker Hill monument, at looks.
it speaks, it acts" 1t recalls to us with the en-
scenes and incidents OF q tremendous war. 1t
| is full Of lessons Of wisdom, courage and pat
| rotism. 1t may, as have said. lose its hold on
| the attention OF the people and cease to be OBJ
served, but the broad and manly sentiment of
which 1t Is born and by which it il sustained will
| live, flourish and bear similar fruit forever
While good and evil, loyalty and treason, liberty
and slavery remain OppOsites and irreconcilable
| while they retain their fighting qualities and
| shall contend as they must contend for ascend
| ancy In the world, their respective forces will
| adopt opposite emblems and tokens.
HOW TO TREAT THE SOUTH
FelloW-citiZens: Two very conflicting senti-
ments and policies have been expressed and es-
poused In respect to your duty towards the peO-
pie lately in rebellion. One Of these would
regard and treat the southern people precisely
as they would regard and treat them had they
been always loyal and true to the government.
1t Is said that this cruel war is over; that the
| late rebels have repented their folly and have
accepted in good faith the results Of the late
war, and that now we should forget and forgive
fo fho
future. Even that moral and intellectual giant In
the councils OF the nation, the late Chas Sumner
would have had all our battle-fags banished
from view and nothing left to tell that there had
| in the same line were the views and sentiments
OF the late Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith, Chief
Justice Chase and other eminent men.
Opposed to this view of our national duty 1t is
held that the rebellion Is suppressed but not
conquered /; that its spirit is still abroad and
| only awaits favorable opportunity to reassert
itself in fragrant disloyalty.
Though the doctrine of forgiveness and for
getfulness has been adopted by many of the
| noblest and most intelligent men Of our country,
| men for whom have the highest respect. am
wholly unable to accept it to the extent to
which 1t is asserted. certainly cannot accent
| 1t to the extent Of abandoning the observance
OF Decoration day. If rebellion was wrong and
patton right, we are rightfully here to-day.
We are not here to fan the flame of sectional
luminosity, nor to revive the malign sentiments
which naturally sprung up In the heat and fire
| OF bloody conflict. We are not here to visit
upon the children the sins Of the fathers but we
are here to remember the causes, the incidents,
and the results Of the late rebellion. We come
around this national family altar one day In each
year to pay our grateful homage to the memory
OF brave men, to express and emphasize by
speech and pageantry our reverence for those
great qualities Of enlightened and exalted hu-
man nature which In every land are the stay and
salvation OF the race; the qualities without
which states would perish, society dissolve,
progress become impossible, and mankind sink
| back again into q bowling wilderness of bar
barism.
In q word, we are here to reassert and repro
claim our admiration for the patriotic zeal, the
stern fOrtitude, the noble self-sacrfce, the I'M
hinching determination, the quenchless enthu-
siasm, the high and measureless courage with
which loyal men, true to the republic In the hour
Of supreme peril. dashed themselves against q
wanton and gigantic rebellion and suppressed it
beyond the power to rise again.
THE MARCH OF TIME.
The motto that tells Us to speak naught but
good of the dead does not apply here. Death
has no power to change moral qualities. What
was bad before the war and during the war has
not been made good since the war. Besides,
though the rebellion is dead, though slavery
| Is dead both the rebellion and slavery have left
behind influences which will remain with US, 1t
udy Oe IOr generations 10 come.
Rapid indeed is the march Of time. We are
already fast getting far away from the days Of
rebellion and slavery. Men are already losing
adequate comprehension Of the stupendOus
| wickedness Of both. The generations coming
after us, who shall look into our declaration Of
independence and our constitution for knowl-
edge OF our character as q nation, will find 1t
hard to believe that part Of the people pro-
Tossing to believe the principles Of those great
charters OF liberty could fall from their high
estate, reject the creed Of their fathers, become
traitors to their country, wage cruel and unre-
lenting war upon their loyal brothers, during
four long years, for no other purpose in the
world than to propagate, maintain and perpetu-
ate system Of slavery. the most cruel and
savage and debasing upon which the sun ever
Many DISCUSSES have been assumed by the
south In regard to that war. It has been said
that It was fighting for independence, but the
sOuth..was already q sharer In the national indie
pendence. It has been said that the south was
fighting for liberty, but the south was already
sharer In the national liberty. It has been said
that the south was fighting TOR the right to gov
ern itself, but the south had already the ballot
and right to govern itself. What more could
it want? What more did 1t want?
II we would know the answer to these In
quirfes we have only to read the utterances Of
Alexander Stephens, the vice president Of the
southern cOnfederacy, the clearest headed states
man on that side Of the question. From him
VIC osloA tcoau Suot Iuc SIcdt 8uO aAl-COuu6uQ-
ing object for which the south withdrew from
the Senate to the field, appealed from the DELHI
erati0ns OF reason to the arbitrament Of the
sword, from debate to bayonets, from the ballot
to the battle field, was to found and erect gov
eminent based upon the idea Of privileged
class Of inequality, of natural rights and Of the
rightfulness Of slavery.
Most Of the rebellions and uprisings In the
history OF nations have been for freedom and
not for slavery. Many have found their main
spring and power among the lowly. But here
was rebellion-not for freedom but for slavery;
not to break letters but to forge them; not to
secure the blessings Of liberty but to bind with
chains millions of the human race. It was not
from the low, but from the high; not from the
plebian, but from the patrician; not from the
oppressed, but from the oppressor. For this,
and only Tor this, we lost millions OF treasure
and rivers Of blood; Tor this, and only Tor this,
the beautiful south was made desolate, the ma
ton weighed down under debt, heavier than
. mountain q gold, and half . million Of our
sons and brothers swept into bloody gFaves.-
FellOW-clti1eng ! On not Indifferent to the
elatmg g gen9ous 1oegetfulness, but What
s