In Louisville, KY., 1883.
In Washington, D. C., 1885.
In Washington, D. C., 1886.
THREE ADDRESSES
ON THE
Relations Subsisting between the White
and Colored People of the
United States,
BY
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
WASHINGTON:
Gibson Bros., Printers and Bookbinders.
1886.
In Louisville, KY., 1883.
The following was delivered by Frederick Douglass as an address tothe people of the United States at a Convention of Colored Men heldin Louisville, Ky., September 24, 1883:
Fellow-Citizens: Charged with the responsibility and duty of doing whatwe may to advance the interest and promote the general welfare of apeople lately enslaved, and who, though now free, still suffer many ofthe disadvantages and evils derived from their former condition, not theleast among which is the low and unjust estimate entertained of theirabilities and possibilities as men, and their value as citizens of theRepublic; instructed by these people to make such representations andadopt such measures as in our judgment may help to bring about a betterunderstanding and a more friendly feeling between themselves and theirwhite fellow-citizens recognizing the great fact as we do, that therelations of the American people and those of civilized nationsgenerally depend more upon prevailing ideas, opinions, and longestablished usages for their qualities of good and evil than upon courtsof law or creeds of religion. Allowing the existence of a magnanimousdisposition on your part to listen candidly to an honest appeal for fairplay, coming from any class of your fellow-citizens, however humble, whomay have, or may think they have, rights to assert or wrongs to redress,the members of this National Convention, chosen from all parts of theUnited States, representing the thoughts, feelings and purposes ofcolored men generally, would, as one means of advancing the causecommitted to them, most respectfully and earnestly ask your attentionand favorable consideration to the matters contained in the presentpaper.
At the outset we very cordially congratulate you upon the alteredcondition both of ourselves and our common country. Especially do wecongratulate you upon the fact that a great reproach, which for twocenturies rested on the good name of your country, has been blotted out;that chattel slavery is no longer the burden of the colored man’scomplaint, and that we now come to rattle no chains, to clank nofetters, to paint no horrors of the old plantation to shock yoursensi{4}bilities, to humble your pride, excite your pity, or to kindleyour indignation. We rejoice also that one of the results of thisstupendous revolution in our national history, the Republi