(April 22, 1870)
On April 22,1870, Douglass came to Albany, New York, to participate in that city’s celebration of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment. His evening speech, just one of many talks he delivered to commemorate the amendment, electrified the overflow audience in Tweddle Hall. According to Douglass, the long-awaited suffrage amendment ushered in a new day for black men, finally giving them a future in America. It signified “progress, civilization, knowledge, manhood” and presented blacks not only with exhilarating new opportunities but grave new responsibilities. The black leader prophesied that the Fifteenth Amendment would bind Americans together and contribute to a stronger Union.
. . . You did not expect to see it; I did not expect to see it; no man living did expect to live to see this day. In our moments of unusual mental elevation and heart-longings, some of us may have caught glimpses of it afar off; we saw it only by the strong, clear, earnest eye of faith, but none dared even to hope to stand upon the earth at its coming. Yet here it is. Our eyes behold it; our ears hear it, our hearts feel it, and there is no doubt or illusion about it. The black man is free, the black man is a citizen, the black man is enfranchised, and this by the organic law of the land. No more a slave, no more a fugitive slave, no more a despised and hated creature, but a man, and, what is more, a man among men.
Henceforth we live in a new world. The sun does not rise nor set for us as formerly. “Old things have passed away and all things have become new.”
I once went abroad among men with all my quills erect. There was cause for it. I always looked for insult and buffetings, and was seldom disappointed in finding them. Now civility is the rule, and insult the exception.
At last, at last, the black man has a future. Heretofore all was dark, mysterious, chaotic. We were chained to all the unutterable horrors of never ending fixedness. Others might improve and make progress, but for us there was nothing but the unending monotony of stagnation, of moral, mental and social death. The curtain is now lifted. The dismal death-cloud of slavery has passed away. Today we are free American citizens. We have ourselves, we have a country, and we have a future in common with other men.
One of the most remarkable features of this grand revolution is its thoroughness. Never was revolution more complete. Nothing has been left for time. No probation has been imposed. The Hebrews tarried in the wilderness forty years before they reached the land of promise. The West India slaves had their season of apprenticeship. Feudal slavery died a lingering death in Europe. Hayti rose to freedom only by degrees and by limited concessions. Religious liberty as now enjoyed came only in slow installments; but our liberty has come all at once, full and complete. The most exacting could not ask more than we have got; the most urgent could not have demanded it more promptly. We have all we asked, and more than we expected.
Even William Lloyd Garrison (I speak it not reproachfully) halted when the advance to suffrage was sounded; and he was not alone. It seemed too much to ask, that a people so long accustomed to the restraints of slavery should be all at once lifted into the complete freedom of citizenship. It was too fast and too far. For once, the clear-eyed preacher, pioneer and prophet failed to discern the signs of the times. While the midnight darkness of slavery lasted, none more clearly than he saw the true course, or more steadily pursued it; but the first streak of daylight confused his vision, and he halted; while at halt, a part of the hosts he had led moved on. While we can never fully pay the debt of gratitude we owe to William Lloyd Garrison for his long and powerful advocacy of our emancipation from chattel slavery, other names loom up for grateful mention when equal suffrage is under consideration.
We cannot be too grateful to the brave and good men through whose exertions our enfranchisement has been accomplished. It would, of course, be impossible to do justice to all who have participated in this noble work. We have no scales by which to weigh and measure the value of our individual benefactors. This must be left to other times and other men. Impartial history will bring many who are obscure for a moment into future notice, and will shower upon their memories all merited honors. In this hour of joy and gratitude we can do no more than view the grand army as a whole, and bow our heads in warmest admiration and gratitude to all. . . .
But what does this Fifteenth amendment mean to us? I will tell you. It means that the colored people are now and will be held to be, by the whole nation, responsible for their own existence and their well or ill being. It means that we are placed upon an equal footing with all other men, and that the glory or shame of our future is to be wholly our own. For one, I accept this new situation gladly. I do so for myself and I do so for you; and I do so in the full belief that the future will show that we are equal to the responsibility which this great measure has imposed upon us.
What does this measure mean? I will tell you. It means progress, civilization, knowledge, manhood. It means that you and I and all of us shall leave the narrow places in which we now breathe, and live in the same comfort and independence enjoyed by other men. It means industry, application to business, economy in the use of our earnings, and the building up of a solid character—one which will deserve and command the respect of our fellow citizens of all races. It means that color is no longer to be a calamity; that race is to be no longer a crime; and that liberty is to be the right of all.
The black man has no longer an apology for lagging behind in the race of civilization. If he rises the glory is to be his, if he falls the shame will be his. He is to be the architect of his own fortunes. If we are despised, it is because we make ourselves despicable, if we are honored it is because we exhibit qualities deserving of honor. Character, not color, is to be the criterion. A great many of the American people are disturbed about the present state of things. They like a strong government. Carlyle says we are rushing to ruin with cataract speed. Others are croakers in the mournful style of Poe’s raven—we shall never again see such days as were the earlier days of our republic, say they—never such statesmen as Clay, Calhoun, Webster, and others. The two races cannot work well together. However, he would let the croakers croak on. He never felt more hopeful than now, and the croakers do not disturb him. We had them during the war, and we shall continue to have them. During the dark hours of the war, when we needed strong words to hold us up, there were croakers. They said we never would put down rebellion, or abolish slavery, or reconstruct the South, and we have accomplished all. South Carolina has adopted all the amendments.
He compassionated his Democratic brethren. They are in a state of honest alarm, and we ought to say some word of comfort to them. He would tell his Democratic friends, that Jefferson wrote the Fourteenth Amendment. That amendment is but the carrying out of Democratic doctrine—that all men are created equal, and have the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We gave the credit to Garrison, Lundy, and others. When God told the children of Israel to go free, the great truth had its origin.
We are a great nation—not we colored people particularly, but all of us. We are all together now. We are fellow-citizens of a common country. What a country—fortunate in its institutions, in its Fifteenth amendment, in its future. We are made up of a variety of nations—Chinese, Jews, Africans, Europeans, and all sorts. These different races give the Government a powerful arm to defend it. They will vie with each other in hardship and peril, and will be united in defending it from all its enemies, whether from within or without.