The national leader., 1889-01-19
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
BUGLE BLAST FROM THE SAGE OF
CEDAR HILL.
A Broad, Comprehensive, and Patri-
Otic Statement.
Ignorance Our Bane---Education Our
Salvation.

THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF AMERICAN
CITIZENSHIP IN CONNECTION WITH
FAIR AND HONEST COUNT
THE TRIUMPH OF EQUAL
ITY BEFORE THE LAW
INEVITABLE.
Then the representative of the Press
ascended "Cedar Hill," in Anacostia,
and rested his weary limbs on the even
boards of the wide veranda that encom-
passed the home of the best known
negro in the world, he heard tones from
violin. When the door opened in
answer to the reporters knock, who ap-
proaches but Frederick Douglass, with
violin in hand. He said that he had
been recreating from mental strain by
playing the ''Star Spangled Banner" f"
which, he said, he much enjoyed. He
asked the Press representative to be
seated. and asked what did the entire
Press want with him? The reporter
said that he had instructions to visit
him and obtain from him expressions
touching the southern question, the
suppression of the colored vote, and
the recent expressions of Mr.. Harrison
relating to fair vote and fair count.
Mr.. Douglass invited the reporter into
his library, and there the faces of the
late Chief Justice Chase, w. Lloyd Gar
rison, James ;. Birney, De Strauss, L.
Feurebach, Dante, Abraham Lincoln,
John Brown, and Charles Sumner look
ed down IN smiles and respect upon the
great negro sage.
Mr.. Douglass said: "Well, as under
stand 1t, you wish me to talk to the
Press about the suppression of the
colored vote Of the south, or about what
is spopularly called the southern problem,
and what think will be the policy of
President Harrison in relation to that
problem. In the first place, then, let
me say deny that properly speaking
and in a political sense, there is any
such thing now before the country
entitled to be contemplated either as
negro problem or a southern problem.
| object to these terms, because they
make the less include the greater and
are calculated TO awaken in advance
race and sectional prejudlces which
tend to darken the path of duty, other
wise direct and plain. The formula
is Objectionable because it narrows the
margin of great question to a partic-
ular race and section Of our country,
which, in its essence, comprehends and
affects the fundamental principles that
underlie the whole system of our repub-
lican government. hold that the sup
preston of the colored vote in the south
by fraud and violence is reproach and
a concern of the whole nation. The
duty to deal with it Is not merely Sec
tional, but national. If we are a ma
tion, and not mere league of states,
each an independent sovereignty, the
suppression of the legal vote of the
south is as much a question for Maine
and Massachusetts as it is for the
Carolinas and Georgia. Whatever may
have been the true theory of the organic
law of the land before the late rebellion,
the suppression of that rebellion swept
away, not only slavery, but the preten-
sion of sovereignty of the individual
states, and established a nation within
the limits of the United States. l hold,
therefore, that the problem in question
is not one in which the voice of the
south should be especially regarded. 1t
is national question, and one which
should be viewed broadly by the national
intelligence and decided in favor of
what is just, honorable, and for the
best interests of the whole American
people.
"What right has the south to ask or
suggest as to the policy of the incoming
administration? None whatever as a
section. The demand that is frequently
made by southern men to know what
will be President Harrison's southern
policy is both inappropriate and insolent.
They have no right to claim exemption
from policy which is broad and com
mon to the whole country. and that is,
that each citizen, without regard to
race, color, or section, shall have the
right and privilege to cast one vote in
all elections, and to have that vote
honestly counted and given the weight
which belongs to an American citizen.
Our southern friends should esteem it a
pleasure and a privilege to be embraced
within national constitutional limits,
and a policy which best benefits the
whole American people.
''1t is better to be part of the great
whole than to be the whole of a small
part. If the south is honestly within
the Union it should honestly accept the
conditions upon which the existence of
the Union depends. The folly of put
ting new wine into old bottles, of patch
ing old garments with new cloth. of
crying SOUTH SOUTH when there is
no south, is just now the vice of south
ern politics. The war abolished Sec
tionalism as well as slavery and estab-
lished the idea that national allegiance
and national protection belong to all
sections alike. If a majority of white
citizens were Systematically and persist
emily by force and fraud deprived of
their constitutional right to vote in any
northern state OF the Union, there
would be no doubt of the power and the
duty of the national government to in
terfere and correct the abuse; yet in the
eye of the constitution of the United
States-which President Harrison will
swear to support and defend and exc
cute-the mere matter of color and race
make no difference whatever. There is