They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Were the nation older, the patriot’s heart might be sadder, and the reformer’s brow heavier. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood.
Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men but nations number their years by thousands. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS FREEDOM QUOTES FULL
The above audio reading by actor Ossie Davis can be used alongside the full text of Frederick Douglass's speech delivered on Jat Corinthian Hall to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. Read each part and answer the questions at the end of that part. The headings in brackets have been supplied by the editor to guide your reading as have the questions after each section.
Across the country, people were thinking and arguing about slavery, abolitionism, and the future of the nation. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel about slavery, Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Or Life among the Lowly had been published a few months before and unexpectedly became a national bestseller. The Fugitive Slave Act passed by Congress as part of this compromise was bitterly resented by the Northern states. The Compromise of 1850 had failed to resolve the controversy over the admission of new slaveholding states to the Union. In the early 1850s, tensions over slavery were high across the county. He was invited to give a fourth of July speech by the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester.
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