H105, American History I

I have had but one idea for the last three years to present to the American people, and the phraseology in which I clothe it is the old abolition phraseology.  I am for the “immediate, unconditional, and universal” enfranchisement of the black man, in every State in the Union.  Without this, his liberty is a mockery; without this, you might as well almost retain the old name of slavery for his condition; for in fact, if he is not the slave of the individual master, he is the slave of society, and holds his liberty as a privilege, not as a right.  He is at the mercy of the mob, and has no means of protecting himself.

It may be objected, however, that this pressing of the Negro’s right to suffrage is premature.  Let us have slavery abolished, it may be said, let us have labor organized, and then, in the natural course of events, the right of suffrage will be extended to the Negro.  I do not agree with this.  The constitution of the human mind is such, that if it once disregards the conviction forced upon it by a revelation of truth, it requires the exercise of a higher power to produce the same conviction afterwards.  The American people are now in tears.  The Shenandoah has run blood — the best blood of the North.  All around Richmond, the blood of New England and of the North has been shed — of your sons, your brothers and your fathers.  We all feel, in the existence of this Rebellion, that judgments terrible, wide-spread, far-reaching, overwhelming, are abroad in the land; and we feel, in view of these judgments, just now, a disposition to learn righteousness.  This is the hour.  Our streets are in mourning, tears are falling at every fireside, and under the chastisement of this Rebellion we have almost come up to the point of conceding this great, this all-important right of suffrage.  I fear that if we fail to do it now, if abolitionists fail to press it now, we may not see, for centuries to come, the same disposition that exists at this moment.  Hence, I say, now is the time to press this right.  It may be asked, “Why do you want it?  Some men have got along very well without it.  Women have not this right.”  Shall we justify one wrong by another?  This is the sufficient answer.  Shall we at this moment justify the deprivation of the Negro of the right to vote, because some one else is deprived of that privilege?  I hold that women, as well as men, have the right to vote, and my heart and voice go with the movement to extend suffrage to woman; but that question rests upon another basis than which our right rests.  We may be asked, I say, why we want it.  I will tell you why we want it.  We want it because it is our right, first of all.  No class of men can, without insulting their own nature, be content with any deprivation of their rights.  We want it again, as a means for educating our race.  Men are so constituted that they derive their conviction of their own possibilities largely by the estimate formed of them by others.  If nothing is expected of a people, that people will find it difficult to contradict that expectation.  By depriving us of suffrage, you affirm our incapacity to form an intelligent judgment respecting public men and public measures; you declare before the world that we are unfit to exercise the elective franchise, and by this means lead us to undervalue ourselves, to put a low estimate upon ourselves, and to feel that we have no possibilities like other men.  Again, I want the elective franchise, for one, as a colored man, because ours is a peculiar government, based upon a peculiar idea, and that idea is universal suffrage.  If I were in a monarchial government, or an autocratic or aristocratic government, where the few bore rule and the many were subject, there would be no special stigma resting upon me, because I did not exercise the elective franchise.  It would do me no great violence.  Mingling with the mass I should partake of the strength of the mass; I should be supported by the mass, and I should have the same incentives to endeavor with the mass of my fellow-men; it would be no particular burden, no particular deprivation; but here where universal suffrage is the rule, where that is the fundamental idea of the Government, to rule us out is to make us an exception, to brand us with the stigma of inferiority, and to invite to our heads the missiles of those about us; therefore, I want the franchise for the black man.