![]() ![]() That we are here in peace today is a compliment and a credit to American civilization, and a prophecy of still greater national enlightenment and progress in the future. The spirit of slavery and barbarism, which still lingers to blight and destroy in some dark and distant parts of our country, would have made our assembling here the signal and excuse for opening upon us all the flood-gates of wrath and violence. Harmless, beautiful, proper, and praiseworthy as this demonstration is, I cannot forget that no such demonstration would have been tolerated here twenty years ago. A thousand wires, fed with thought and winged with lightning, put us in instantaneous communication with the loyal and true men all over the country.įew facts could better illustrate the vast and wonderful change which has taken place in our condition as a people than the fact of our assembling here for the purpose we have today. We stand today at the national center to perform something like a national act-an act which is to go into history and we are here where every pulsation of the national heart can be heard, felt, and reciprocated. Nowhere else in this great country, with its uncounted towns and cities, unlimited wealth, and immeasurable territory extending from sea to sea, could conditions be found more favorable to the success of this occasion than here. They lend grace, glory, and significance to the object for which we have met. I congratulate you, also, upon the very favorable circumstances in which we meet today. Wise and thoughtful men of our race, who shall come after us, and study the lesson of our history in the United States who shall survey the long and dreary spaces over which we have traveled who shall count the links in the great chain of events by which we have reached our present position, will make a note of this occasion they will think of it and speak of it with a sense of manly pride and complacency. ![]() This occasion is in some respects remarkable. I warmly congratulate you upon the highly interesting object which has caused you to assemble in such numbers and spirit as you have today. ![]() United States: Associated publishers, Incorporated, 1925.ĭelivered at the Unveiling of The Freedmen’s Monument in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C. "An Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln." In Negro Orators and Their Orations, edited by Carter Godwin Woodson, 516-527. Following emancipation Douglass shifted his focus toward securing full political and civil rights for all Americans. The book’s huge success boosted his speaking and writing career. Many whites doubted that a black man, especially a former slave, could be as intelligent and articulate as Douglass. ![]() He wrote the first of three autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of a Slave, in 1845 to counter criticism that his story was contrived. Born into slavery in Talbot County, MD in 1818, he escaped to New England where he met fellow abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and began speaking to white audiences about his experiences as a slave. Grant, and members of both Congress and the Supreme Court.įrederick Douglass had established himself as the leading African American abolitionist of his generation before the Civil War ended. Among the dignitaries attending the ceremony were President Ulysses S. Another formerly enslaved person, Frederick Douglass, the best-known African American writer, and one of the most popular orators of the late 19th century, delivered the dedication address. A black woman named Charlotte Scott launched the fund-raising effort when she donated her first earnings as a freed woman to the effort. The memorial was entirely funded by African Americans, many of whom were formerly enslaved. Others see him as rising as he breaks through the chains that symbolize his bondage. Some see the enslaved man as kneeling before Lincoln as if he were being blessed by the President. The memorial consisted of a life-size statue of Lincoln and an African American man. On April 14, 1876, a racially mixed crowd gathered on Capitol Hill in Washington DC to witness the dedication of a memorial to Abraham Lincoln. ![]()
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