“It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”
am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of
their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of
their relations to their fellow-men, to beat them with sticks, to flay
their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them
with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock
out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and
submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system, thus marked
with blood and stained with pollution, is wrong? No; I will not. I have
better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would
imply.
What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine;
that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are
mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman
cannot be divine. Who can reason on such a proposition! They that can,
may! I cannot. The time for such argument is past.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is
needed. Oh! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I
would to-day pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting
reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that
is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need
the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation
must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the
propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation
must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed
and denounced.
What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that
reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross
injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your
celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your
national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty
and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence;
your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and
hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade
and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and
hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation
of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more
shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at
this very hour.
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
In most of the Gulf States, and in some
parts of the border States, I have sometimes thought that we should be
about as well-situated for the purposes of justice if there were no
Constitution of the United States at all; as well off if there were no
law or law-makers, no constables, no jails, no courts of justice, and we
were left entirely without the pretence of legal protection, for we are
now at the mercy of midnight raiders, assassins, and murderers, and we
should only be in the same condition if these pretended safeguards were
abandoned. They now only mock us. Other men are presumed to be innocent
until they are proved guilty. We are presumed to be guilty until we are
proved to be innocent.
The charge is often made that negroes are by nature the criminal class
of America; that they furnish a larger proportion of petty thieves than
any other class. I admit the charge, but deny that nature, race, or
color has anything to do with the fact. Any other race with the same
antecedents and the same condition would show a similar thieving
propensity.
The American people have this lesson to learn: That where justice is
denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where
any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to
oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be
safe. I deny that nature has made the negro a thief or a burglar. Look
at these black criminals, as they are brought into your police courts;
view and study their faces, their forms, and their features, as I have
done for years as Marshal of this District, and you will see that their
antecedents are written all over them. Two hundred and fifty years of
grinding slavery has done its work upon them. They stand before you
to-day physically and mentally maimed and mutilated men. Many of their
mothers and grandmothers were lashed to agony before their birth by
cruel overseers, and the children have inherited in their faces the
anguish and resentment felt by their parents. Many of these poor
creatures have not been free long enough to outgrow the marks of the
lash on their backs, and the deeper marks on their souls. No, no! It is
not nature that has erred in making the negro. That shame rests with
slavery. It has twisted his limbs, deformed his body, flattened his
feet, and distorted his features, and made him, though black, no longer
comely.
“The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.”
The
yawning seam and corroded bolt conceal their defects from the mariner
until the storm calls all hands to the pumps. Prophets, indeed, were
abundant before the war; but who cares for prophets while their
predictions remain unfulfilled, and the calamities of which they tell
are masked behind a blinding blaze of national prosperity?
It is asked, said Henry Clay, on a memorable occasion, Will slavery
never come to an end? That question, said he, was asked fifty years
ago, and it has been answered by fifty years of unprecedented
prosperity. Spite of the eloquence of the earnest Abolitionists,—poured
out against slavery during thirty years,—even they must confess, that,
in all the probabilities of the case, that system of barbarism would
have continued its horrors far beyond the limits of the nineteenth
century but for the Rebellion, and perhaps only have disappeared at
last in a fiery conflict, even more fierce and bloody than that which
has now been suppressed.
It is no disparagement to truth, that it can only prevail where reason
prevails. War begins where reason ends. The thing worse than rebellion
is the thing that causes rebellion. What that thing is, we have been
taught to our cost. It remains now to be seen whether we have the
needed courage to have that cause entirely removed from the Republic.
At any rate, to this grand work of national regeneration and entire
purification Congress must now address Itself, with full purpose that
the work shall this time be thoroughly done. The deadly upas, root and
branch, leaf and fibre, body and sap, must be utterly destroyed. The
country is evidently not in a condition to listen patiently to pleas
for postponement, however plausible, nor will it permit the
responsibility to be shifted to other shoulders. Authority and power
are here commensurate with the duty imposed. There are no cloud-flung
shadows to obscure the way. Truth shines with brighter light and
intenser heat at every moment, and a country torn and rent and bleeding
implores relief from its distress and agony.
If time was at first needed, Congress has now had time. All the
requisite materials from which to form an intelligent judgment are now
before it.
“A mans character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form and color of things about him”
Increasing acquaintance with old Master--Evils of unresisted passion--
Apparent tenderness--A man of trouble--Custom of muttering to
himself--Brutal outrage--A drunken overseer--Slaveholder’s
impatience--Wisdom of appeal--A base and selfish attempt to break
up a courtship.
Although my old master, Captain Anthony, gave me, at the first of
my coming to him from my grandmother’s, very little attention, and
although that little was of a remarkably mild and gentle description,
a few months only were sufficient to convince me that mildness
and gentleness were not the prevailing or governing traits of his
character. These excellent qualities were displayed only occasionally.
He could, when it suited him, appear to be literally insensible to the
claims of humanity. He could not only be deaf to the appeals of the
helpless against the aggressor, but he could himself commit outrages
deep, dark, and nameless. Yet he was not by nature worse than other
men. Had he been brought up in a free state, surrounded by the full
restraints of civilized society--restraints which are necessary to
the freedom of all its members, alike and equally, Capt. Anthony might
have been as humane a man as are members of such society generally.
A man’s character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form
and color of things about him. The slaveholder, as well as the slave,
was the victim of the slave system. Under the whole heavens there
could be no relation more unfavorable to the development of honorable
character than that sustained by the slaveholder to the slave. Reason
is imprisoned here and passions run wild. Could the reader have seen
Captain Anthony gently leading me by the hand, as he sometimes did,
patting me on the head, speaking to me in soft, caressing tones
and calling me his little Indian boy, he would have deemed him a
kind-hearted old man, and really almost fatherly to the slave boy. But
the pleasant moods of a slaveholder are transient and fitful. They
neither come often nor remain long. The temper of the old man was
subject to special trials, but since these trials were never borne
patiently, they added little to his natural stock of patience. Aside
from his troubles with his slaves and those of Mr. Lloyd’s, he made the
impression upon me of being an unhappy man. Even to my child’s eye he
wore a troubled and at times a haggard aspect.
“In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky-her grand old woods-her fertile fields-her beautiful rivers-her mighty lakes and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked when I remember that all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slave-holding and wrong; When I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten; That her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing.”
“Battles are lost or won in 15 minites”
“Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave”
“I think I understand what military fame is; to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers.”
“After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Norther Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources.I need not tell the brave survivors of some many hard fought battles who have remained steadfast to the last that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them.But feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that must have attended the continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen.By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from a consciousness of duty faithfully performed; and I earnestly pray that a Merciful God will extend to you His blessings and protection.With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your Country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you all an affectionate farewell.R.E. Lee Genl.(Robert E. Lees farewell address, April 9th, 1865)”
“Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees”
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
“The soul that is within me no man can degrade.”
“Without a struggle, there can be no progress.”
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.”
“People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.”
“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.”
“I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
“Opportunity follows struggle. It follows effort. It follows hard work. It doesnt come before.”
“Be not discouraged. There is a future for you. . . . The resistance encountered now predicates hope. . . . Only as we rise . . . do we encounter opposition.”
