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Chapter 2

The Black Man and the War

Bridge Street AME

February 1863

In the winter of 1863, Douglass sought to build on the momentum generated by the Emancipation Proclamation, which Lincoln formally issued on January 1. In addition to freeing slaves in Confederate states, the Proclamation also encouraged black participation in the war effort. Douglass became a leading voice in support of enlistment—but stressed that black soldiers should simultaneously acquire full rights of citizenship.

On February 7, Douglass gave a well-received version of the following speech at Cooper Union—with both Robert Hamilton of the Anglo-African and Theodore Tilton of the Independent joining him onstage.[39] Twelve days later, Douglass came to Brooklyn at the invitation of Reverend James Morris Williams,[40] minister of the Bridge Street African Methodist Episcopal Church (Bridge Street AME). Blacks reportedly comprised two-thirds of the approximately four hundred people in attendance.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle incorrectly states that it was Douglass’s “first appearance in Brooklyn.” More accurately, it was his first widely advertised lecture in the city’s central area. At the time, the church was located at 309 Bridge Street in Downtown Brooklyn.[41] During the Civil War, the Democratic Eagle—edited by Thomas Kinsella, an Irish immigrant—was no champion of the Union cause.

Note that I have added parentheses and italics to some passages below to distinguish between the newspaper’s account and Douglass’s speech.

*

Frederick Douglass, the only representative of the colored people of the United States who has by his natural abilities attained any eminence at home or abroad, made his first appearance in Brooklyn last night at the African Church in Bridge Street, to deliver a lecture on the war. Considering the position of the lecturer, the subject he was to treat of and the fact that the proceeds were to be applied for the benefit of the Church, the colored brethren did not turn out very handsomely, and if the white folks had not come to the rescue, there would not have been a rather slim audience. There were between three and four hundred persons present, of whom about one third were white. Among the latter were a few prominent local politicians of the Republican persuasion.

Fred. Douglass made his appearance at 8 o’clock, in company with the pastor of the church and another brother. Douglass is a bright mulatto, of fine physical proportions, standing nearly six feet in height, and of athletic build. His features are more of the Caucasian than African cast; he has a high, broad forehead, giving him an intellectual expressive countenance. He sports a moustache and goatee, and his hair, which is quite abundant and slightly tinged with grey, as a sort of compromise between the African tendency to curl, and the limpness of the Caucasian capillary, stands out straight in all directions.

As a speaker Douglass will compare favorably with the white abolition actors; his elocution is very fine, his language clear and forcible, while he discusses the slavery question in a far more rational manner than most of his white co-laborers in the cause. He spoke last evening for two hours and enchained the attention of his auditors. The subject of his lecture was “The Black Man and the War.” He said:—

We are here as Abolitionists—as colored Abolitionists—and as citizens of the United States; but more especially as men, having the interest of the whole human family at heart. Desiring that this nation, which is our common inheritance, may be preserved in all its integrity and completeness. Viewing this great issue not from the narrow standpoint of Abolitionists, but regarding it in its relation to the whole world, [t]he question [be]comes how shall the land be preserved? How can the institutions of the United States be preserved?

([Douglass] believed that the only hope of the government lay in coupling its interests with the interests of the four millions of slaves. He could give many reasons for this.)

This Union can never be re-established on the old basis of compromise. If we of the North were disposed to make concessions, the slave-holders of the South would reject any propositions of the kinds . . . In order to live together peaceably the North and the South must have something in common between them.

(The speaker then went on to argue the irreconcilability of the institution of slavery with the freedom of the North.)

Slavery must be paramount over all other interests of state, church, social and family relations—more sacred than all else is slavery at the South. The North has hitherto conceded everything the South has asked; has always been conciliating, trying to make the South love us.

([Douglass] instanced the concessions made to slavery from the admission of Texas, to the Fugitive Slave law, and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.)

Was the South satisfied with this? No! They said we must vote for the man they chose for President, but thank God, one million eight hundred thousand voters rolled our long and able Abe Lincoln into the chair. [Applause.]

(The speaker then proceeded to answer the question what will the black man do, and said:)

We will stand by the president with our sympathies, black though we are; we will stand by him with our strong arms, black though we are [applause], provided the same rights are guaranteed to us as to men who come to this land, who have no such claim as we have. We have watered your soil with our tears, enriched it with our sweat, tilled it with our labor, and we ask the same privileges as men who come from abroad—who are not born here. But it is said that the Proclamation is a violation of the Constitution of the United States. In regard to this [I] would say that the Constitution of the United States, important though it may be, was in no respect so important as the people of the United States, who made it. The hat a man wears should never be made more sacred than his head. The hat is made for the head, not the head for the hat. The Constitution of the United States was made by and for the people of the United States.

([Douglass] conceded that it was an evidence of the great wisdom of the fathers of the Republic, but he believed that the people of the present generation could make a constitution just as good as the old constitution, should they put their wits together for the purpose. Nevertheless, he did not consider there had been any violation of the Constitution, but it was a convenient argument for the Copperheads to use.[42] )

They say the Constitution provides that a man should not be deprived of his property, or his liberty, without process of law . . . Does the Constitution grant any right to property in man? On the contrary its provisions guarantee liberty to every slave in the United States. Men of narrow views, who cater to the prejudices of the multitude, say this is a white man’s government. Some time ago a party sprung up here which claimed that native-born Americans only, constituted the nationality. This nation was made up of all nationalities. Every race in existence had representatives here; the Constitution of the United States recognizes the whole, and provides for the whole. It does not say, “We the people of Anglo-Saxon descent, we the people of Celtic descent, we the Germans, we the French.” What does it say? “We, the people” do ordain to establish this government. For what? To provide for the common defense and general welfare; to establish justice, to secure the blessings of peace for ourselves and families. In eleven out of thirteen states which adopted that constitution the black man was a legal voter. The first blood shed in the defense of the liberties of this country was that of a black man in the city of Boston. Look in the Constitution: there is not a word about the white man, or the black man; not a word about slaves or masters. No, slavery had no guarantee in the Constitution, and as it has snatched up the sword, let it perish by the sword.[43]

(The speaker regarded the Proclamation as the great event of the 19th century. [It was] important not only to his people, but to the government itself, which needed it in the prosecution of the war, because it needed to place itself in a position to deserve success.)

It is said of us, and with propriety, in Europe, as well as at home, that while the South is fighting for slavery, we are not fighting against it. The Proclamation will do more for the Union than a thousand such victories as we have won during the past two years. It is producing its effect on the other side of the Atlantic. There is not a potentate in Europe who rules by “divine right” but sympathizes with the men who are trying to break up this government. We need this Proclamation to arouse the democratic masses who will stand between us and the aristocracy of England and the machinations of Napoleon, who is already evincing a design to interfere on behalf of the South.[44]

The people want to know how colored men feel, what they think and what they will do. We feel good. [Laughter.] We are jubilant just now. We wake up in the night singing “John Brown’s body lies moldering in his grave.”[45]

Sing it first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. We have learned to pronounce the name of Lincoln, though some will persist in calling it “Linkum.” [Laughter.] We feel good; we now see where you stand and where we stand.

(The speaker said he had predicted at the outset of the war this result.)

The North had made the mistake of supposing that the rebellion could be crushed without interfering with slavery. Nearly all our generals thought so; the only man who saw this error was Fremont.[46] [Great applause.] Gen. Butler has been converted to the right doctrine, and now says that the only way to destroy the rebellion is to destroy slavery.[47] They have begun to recruit at the North when they should have been recruiting at the South. There are four million of his people at the South, capable of furnishing eight hundred thousand able-bodied men; and if they were not enough, the women would fight also. The king of Dahomey was kept on his throne by an army of black women. And if our black women cannot shoulder musket, they can do what white soldiers have had to do, and have lost their lives in doing, dig trenches. We must urge the government to be bold; to be as true to the Union and as bold in maintaining it, as the rebels were to their cause. In opening recruiting offices to enlist colored men, the states of Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware, Western Virginia, and Tennessee had been excluded. These states contained a free colored population of ninety thousand, capable of furnishing fifteen thousand soldiers. Just where we have the power to recruit, we will not open recruiting offices.

[I believe] the Negroes will fight. Those who said they would not were inconsistent in their charges. One day an article would appear in their papers alleging that the Negroes would not fight; the next day they would write an article asserting that the first fruits of the Proclamation would be setting the Negroes to cut their masters’ throats. One day they will say that the Negroes will not work; the next they will state that the Negroes are coming north to take the work out the hands of the Germans and Irish. [Laughter.] The Negroes will fight when they have something to fight for. They are sensible men, and not anxious to fight unless they have a chance of whipping somebody. The rebel armies have been against them, and the Northern armies have been pledged against them. The Southerners know that the Negroes will fight, hence the watch they keep upon them, and they are always going armed with bowie knife and revolver.

([Douglass] instanced St. Domingo, where France sent an army of twenty thousand men to reduce to slavery men who had for six years enjoyed their liberty.)

The black men drove back the invaders, and have maintained their freedom for sixty years.[48]

(He cited the Amistad slave mutiny and others, where black men have done deeds of bravery, showing they will fight when they have the opportunity of fighting for liberty.[49] )

The American Negroes are now willing to fight in this war, provided they have the shield of this government extended over them, and the same rights and protection guaranteed to them as to other men who fight its battles. Their lives are as precious as those of other men, and they have as much regard for their lives as other men. If this protection is guaranteed to the colored men, they will at the North and at the South rally around the flag.

(“Give them a chance,” was all he asked. If they do not embrace it, then let the colored people forever hold their peace. If it was needed that he, the speaker, should go forth, and he should refuse, then let condemnation settle on his brow, in common with the rest. The speaker continued to discuss the prospects of the war, and expressed his belief that the rebellion would eventually be put down, since the right means [the Emancipation Proclamation] had been adopted.)

*

THE BLACK MAN AND THE WAR—Fred. Douglass, the colored orator, delivered a lecture on this subject last night, at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Bridge Street, Western District.[50] It was an able and genuinely rhetorical lecture, and was listened to by a mixed audience of four hundred persons. After laying down the usual fundamental planks of the Abolition creed, [Douglass] proceeded to apply the black man to the war, and maintained that the colored race would fight whenever they were assured that they should be allowed the privileges of citizenship on the same ground with the Germans or Irish. He promised that the blacks would stand by the president with their sympathy, their strong arms, and their earnest hearts. The lecture was heartily applauded.