Rochester, July 5, 1852
Fellow-Citizens—Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied2 in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble3 offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express devout4 gratitude5 for the blessings6, resulting from your independence to us?
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful7. For who is there so cold that a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate8 and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid9 and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell10 the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee11, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently12 speak, and the “lame man leap as an hart.”
But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters13 into the grand illuminated[350] temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous14 anthems15, were inhuman16 mockery and sacrilegious irony17. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty18, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive19 lament20 of a peeled and woe-smitten people.
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps21 upon the willows22 in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave23 to the roof of my mouth.”
Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultous joy, I hear the mournful wail24 of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are to-day rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave’s point of view. Standing25 there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July. Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous26 and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds27 herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged28, in the name of liberty which is fettered29, in the name of the constitution and the bible, which are disregarded and trampled30 upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate31 slavery—the great sin and shame of America! “I will not equivocate33; I will not excuse;” I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment34 is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just. [351]
But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke35 less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed36 would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment37 of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the state of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being. The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that southern statute39 books are covered with enactments40 forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or write. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls41 of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles42 that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute43, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!
For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are plowing44, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting45 houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass46, iron, copper47, silver, and gold; that, while we are reading, writing, and cyphering, acting48 as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators49, and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men—digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and, above all, confessing and worshiping the Christian’s God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality50 beyond the grave—we are called upon to prove that we are men!
Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for republicans?[352] Is it to be settled by the rules of logic51 and argumentation, as a matter beset52 with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day in the presence of Americans, dividing and subdividing53 a discourse54, to show that men have a natural right to freedom, speaking of it relatively55 and positively56, negatively and affirmatively? To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy57 of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.
What! am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes58, 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 flay59 their flesh with the lash60, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction61, to sunder62 their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience38 and submission63 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, remains64 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 blasphemy65 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, scorching66 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 fiery67 stream of biting ridicule68, blasting reproach, withering69 sarcasm70, 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 propriety71 of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy72 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 injustice73 and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham32; your boasted liberty, an unholy license74; your national greatness, swelling75 vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants76, brass-fronted impudence77; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns78, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity,[353] are to him mere79 bombast80, fraud, deception81, impiety82, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages83. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody84, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies85 and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the every-day practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns86 without a rival.
点击收听单词发音
1 oration | |
n.演说,致辞,叙述法 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 embodied | |
v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 );象征;包括;包含 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 devout | |
adj.虔诚的,虔敬的,衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 blessings | |
n.(上帝的)祝福( blessing的名词复数 );好事;福分;因祸得福 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 obdurate | |
adj.固执的,顽固的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 stolid | |
adj.无动于衷的,感情麻木的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 swell | |
vi.膨胀,肿胀;增长,增强 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 jubilee | |
n.周年纪念;欢乐 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 eloquently | |
adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 fetters | |
n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 );束缚v.给…上脚镣,束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 joyous | |
adj.充满快乐的;令人高兴的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 anthems | |
n.赞美诗( anthem的名词复数 );圣歌;赞歌;颂歌 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 inhuman | |
adj.残忍的,不人道的,无人性的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 irony | |
n.反语,冷嘲;具有讽刺意味的事,嘲弄 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 almighty | |
adj.全能的,万能的;很大的,很强的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 plaintive | |
adj.可怜的,伤心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 lament | |
n.悲叹,悔恨,恸哭;v.哀悼,悔恨,悲叹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 harps | |
abbr.harpsichord 拨弦古钢琴n.竖琴( harp的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 willows | |
n.柳树( willow的名词复数 );柳木 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 cleave | |
v.(clave;cleaved)粘着,粘住;坚持;依恋 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 wail | |
vt./vi.大声哀号,恸哭;呼啸,尖啸 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 binds | |
v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 );装订;捆绑;(用长布条)缠绕 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 outraged | |
a.震惊的,义愤填膺的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 fettered | |
v.给…上脚镣,束缚( fetter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 trampled | |
踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 ); 践踏; 无视; 侵犯 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 perpetuate | |
v.使永存,使永记不忘 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 sham | |
n./adj.假冒(的),虚伪(的) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 equivocate | |
v.模棱两可地,支吾其词 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 rebuke | |
v.指责,非难,斥责 [反]praise | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 creed | |
n.信条;信念,纲领 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 enactment | |
n.演出,担任…角色;制订,通过 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 obedience | |
n.服从,顺从 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 statute | |
n.成文法,法令,法规;章程,规则,条例 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 enactments | |
n.演出( enactment的名词复数 );展现;规定;通过 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 fowls | |
鸟( fowl的名词复数 ); 禽肉; 既不是这; 非驴非马 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 reptiles | |
n.爬行动物,爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44 plowing | |
v.耕( plow的现在分词 );犁耕;费力穿过 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45 erecting | |
v.使直立,竖起( erect的现在分词 );建立 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46 brass | |
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
47 copper | |
n.铜;铜币;铜器;adj.铜(制)的;(紫)铜色的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
48 acting | |
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
49 orators | |
n.演说者,演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
50 immortality | |
n.不死,不朽 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
51 logic | |
n.逻辑(学);逻辑性 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
52 beset | |
v.镶嵌;困扰,包围 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
53 subdividing | |
再分,细分( subdivide的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
54 discourse | |
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
55 relatively | |
adv.比较...地,相对地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
56 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
57 canopy | |
n.天篷,遮篷 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
58 brutes | |
兽( brute的名词复数 ); 畜生; 残酷无情的人; 兽性 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
59 flay | |
vt.剥皮;痛骂 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
60 lash | |
v.系牢;鞭打;猛烈抨击;n.鞭打;眼睫毛 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
61 auction | |
n.拍卖;拍卖会;vt.拍卖 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
62 sunder | |
v.分开;隔离;n.分离,分开 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
63 submission | |
n.服从,投降;温顺,谦虚;提出 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
64 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
65 blasphemy | |
n.亵渎,渎神 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
66 scorching | |
adj. 灼热的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
67 fiery | |
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
68 ridicule | |
v.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
69 withering | |
使人畏缩的,使人害羞的,使人难堪的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
70 sarcasm | |
n.讥讽,讽刺,嘲弄,反话 (adj.sarcastic) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
71 propriety | |
n.正当行为;正当;适当 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
72 hypocrisy | |
n.伪善,虚伪 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
73 injustice | |
n.非正义,不公正,不公平,侵犯(别人的)权利 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
74 license | |
n.执照,许可证,特许;v.许可,特许 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
75 swelling | |
n.肿胀 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
76 tyrants | |
专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 ); 暴君似的人; (古希腊的)僭主; 严酷的事物 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
77 impudence | |
n.厚颜无耻;冒失;无礼 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
78 hymns | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
79 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
80 bombast | |
n.高调,夸大之辞 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
81 deception | |
n.欺骗,欺诈;骗局,诡计 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
82 impiety | |
n.不敬;不孝 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
83 savages | |
未开化的人,野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
84 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
85 monarchies | |
n. 君主政体, 君主国, 君主政治 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
86 reigns | |
n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 );君主统治时期;任期;当政期 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |