My own feeling toward the old master class of the South is well known. Though I have worn the yoke of bondage, and have no love for what are called the good old times of slavery, there is in my heart no taint of malice toward the ex-slaveholders.

I am not here to fan the flame of sectional animosity, to revive old issues, or to stir up strife between the races;

f the Southern States, under the idea of local self-government, are endeavoring to paralyze the arm and shrivel the body of the National Government so that it cannot protect the humblest citizen in his rights, the fault is not yours.

FRIENDS AND FELLOW CITIZENS

There was a right side and a wrong side in the late war, which no sentiment ought to cause us to forget, and while today we should have malice toward none, and charity toward all, it is no part of our duty to confound right with wrong, or loyalty with treason.

, for slavery was a power in the State greater than the State itself.

t us have the Constitution, with it thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments, fairly interpreted, faithfully executed, and cheerfully obeyed in the fullness of their spirit and the completeness of their letter….

Frederick Douglass, “Speech delivered in Madison Square, New York, Decoration Day.” 1878. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. [The document is mistakenly titled in the Library of Congress. This speech was actually given in Union Square, not Madison Square. The error is retained here for citation purposes.]

Though I have worn the yoke of bondage

In this speech, Douglass calls on Americans to remember the war for what it was—a struggle between an army fighting to protect slavery and a nation reluctantly transformed into a force for liberation.

; I have been invited – I might say ordered – by the Lincoln Post of the Grand Army of the Republic,

The American Yawp Reader Menu Skip to content HomeAbolitionist Sheet Music Cover Page, 1844 America Guided by Wisdom Engraving, 1815 American Revolution Cartoon Anti-Catholic Cartoon, 1855 Anti-immigrant cartoon Anti-Immigrant Cartoon, 1860 Anti-Thomas Jefferson Cartoon, 1797 Barack Obama, Howard University Commencement Address (2016) Blueprint and Photograph of Christ Church Broadening The American Yawp Reader Broadening the Yawp Burying the Dead Photograph, 1865 Casta Painting Civil War Nurses Illustration, 1864 Cliff Palace Constitutional Ratification Cartoon, 1789 County Election Painting, 1854 Drawing of Uniforms of the American Revolution Effects of the Fugitive Slave Law Lithograph, 1850 F15 – Manifest Destiny Reader F16 – Colliding Cultures Reader F16 – Colonial Society Reader F16 – Reconstruction Reader Fifteenth Amendment Print, 1870 Genius of the Ladies Magazine Illustration, 1792 Introduction Johnson and Reconstruction Cartoon, 1866 Manifest Destiny Painting, 1872 Map of British North America Martin Van Buren Cartoon, 1837 Missionary Society Membership Certificate, 1848 Painting of Enslaved Persons for Sale, 1861 Painting of New Orleans Print of the Slave Ship Brookes Proslavery Cartoon, 1850 Royall Family Sectional Crisis Map, 1856 Sketch of an Algonquin Village The Fruit of Alcohol and Temperance Lithographs, 1849 The Society for United States Intellectual History Primary Source Reader Woody Guthrie, “This Land” (1940-1945) Indigenous America Reader Native American Creation Stories Journal of Christopher Columbus, 1492 An Aztec account of the Spanish attack Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, 1542 Thomas Morton Reflects on Indians in New England, 1637 The story of the Virgin of Guadalupe Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca Travels through North America, 1542 Colliding Cultures Reader Richard Hakluyt Makes the Case for English Colonization, 1584 John Winthrop Dreams of a City on a Hill, 1630 John Lawson Encounters Native Americans, 1709 A Gaspesian Man Defends His Way of Life, 1691 The Legend of Moshup, 1830 Accusations of witchcraft, 1692 and 1706 Manuel Trujillo Accuses Asencio Povia and Antonio Yuba of Sodomy, 1731 British North America Reader Olaudah Equiano Describes the Middle Passage, 1789 Recruiting Settlers to Carolina, 1666 Letter from Carolina, 1682 Francis Daniel Pastorius Describes his Ocean Voyage, 1684 Song about Life in Virginia Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address Rose Davis is sentenced to a life of slavery, 1715 Colonial Society Reader Boston trader Sarah Knight on her travels in Connecticut, 1704 Eliza Lucas Letters, 1740-1741 Jonathan Edwards Revives Enfield, Connecticut, 1741 Samson Occom describes his conversion and ministry, 1768 Extracts from Gibson Clough’s War Journal, 1759 Pontiac Calls for War, 1763 Alibamo Mingo, Choctaw leader, Reflects on the British and French, 1765 The American Revolution Reader George R. 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Robinson Remembers a Mill Workers’ Strike, 1836 Alexis de Tocqueville, “How Americans Understand the Equality of the Sexes,” 1840 Democracy in America Reader Missouri Controversy Documents, 1819-1820 Rhode Islanders Protest Property Restrictions on Voting, 1834 Black Philadelphians Defend their Voting Rights, 1838 Andrew Jackson’s Veto Message Against Re-chartering the Bank of the United States, 1832 Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” 1852 Rebecca Reed accuses nuns of abuse, 1835 Samuel Morse Fears a Catholic Conspiracy, 1835 Religion and Reform Reader Revivalist Charles G. Finney Emphasizes Human Choice in Salvation, 1836 Dorothea Dix defends the mentally ill, 1843 David Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, 1829 William Lloyd Garrison Introduces The Liberator, 1831 Angelina Grimké, Appeal to Christian Women of the South, 1836 Sarah Grimké Calls for Women’s Rights, 1838 Henry David Thoreau Reflects on Nature, 1854 The Cotton Revolution Reader Nat Turner explains the Southampton rebellion, 1831 Harriet Jacobs on Rape and Slavery, 1860 Solomon Northup Describes a Slave Market, 1841 George Fitzhugh Argues that Slavery is Better than Liberty and Equality, 1854 Sermon on the Duties of a Christian Woman, 1851 Mary Polk Branch remembers plantation life, 1912 William Wells Brown, “Clotel; or, The President’s Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States,” 1853 Manifest Destiny Reader Cherokee Petition Protesting Removal, 1836 John O’Sullivan Declares America’s Manifest Destiny, 1845 Diary of a Woman Migrating to Oregon, 1853 Chinese Merchant Complains of Racist Abuse, 1860 Wyandotte woman describes tensions over slavery, 1849 Letters from Venezuelan General Francisco de Miranda regarding Latin American Revolution, 1805-1806 President Monroe Outlines the Monroe Doctrine, 1823 The Sectional Crisis Reader Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 1842 Stories from the Underground Railroad, 1855-56 Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852 Charlotte Forten complains of racism in the North, 1855 Margaraetta Mason and Lydia Maria Child Discuss John Brown, 1860 1860 Republican Party Platform South Carolina Declaration of Secession, 1860 The Civil War Reader Alexander Stephens on Slavery and the Confederate Constitution, 1861 General Benjamin F. Butler Reacts to Self-Emancipating People, 1861 William Henry Singleton, a formerly enslaved man, recalls fighting for the Union, 1922 Poem about Civil War Nurses, 1866 Ambrose Bierce Recalls his Experience at the Battle of Shiloh, 1881 Civil War songs, 1862 Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, 1865 Reconstruction Reader Freedmen discuss post-emancipation life with General Sherman, 1865 Jourdon Anderson Writes His Former Enslaver, 1865 Charlotte Forten Teaches Freed Children in South Carolina, 1864 Mississippi Black Code, 1865 General Reynolds Describes Lawlessness in Texas, 1868 A case of sexual violence during Reconstruction, 1866 Frederick Douglass on Remembering the Civil War, 1877 16. Capital and Labor William Graham Sumner on Social Darwinism (ca.1880s) Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Selections (1879) Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth (June 1889) Grover Cleveland’s Veto of the Texas Seed Bill (February 16, 1887) The “Omaha Platform” of the People’s Party (1892) Dispatch from a Mississippi Colored Farmers’ Alliance (1889) Lucy Parsons on Women and Revolutionary Socialism (1905) 17. Conquering the West Chief Joseph on Indian Affairs (1877, 1879) William T. Hornady on the Extermination of the American Bison (1889) Chester A. Arthur on American Indian Policy (1881) Frederick Jackson Turner, “Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893) Turning Hawk and American Horse on the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890/1891) Helen Hunt Jackson on a Century of Dishonor (1881) Laura C. Kellogg on Indian Education (1913) 18. Life in Industrial America Andrew Carnegie on “The Triumph of America” (1885) Henry Grady on the New South (1886) Ida B. Wells-Barnett, “Lynch Law in America” (1900) Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (1918) Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper” (1913) Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (1890) Rose Cohen on the World Beyond her Immigrant Neighborhood (ca.1897/1918) 19. American Empire William McKinley on American Expansionism (1903) Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” (1899) James D. Phelan, “Why the Chinese Should Be Excluded” (1901) William James on “The Philippine Question” (1903) Mark Twain, “The War Prayer” (ca.1904-5) Chinese Immigrants Confront Anti-Chinese Prejudice (1885, 1903) African Americans Debate Enlistment (1898) 20. The Progressive Era Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. DuBois on Black Progress (1895, 1903) Jane Addams, “The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements” (1892) Eugene Debs, “How I Became a Socialist” (April, 1902) Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907) Alice Stone Blackwell, Answering Objections to Women’s Suffrage (1917) Woodrow Wilson on the New Freedom (1912) Theodore Roosevelt on “The New Nationalism” (1910) 21. World War I & Its Aftermath Woodrow Wilson Requests War (April 2, 1917) Alan Seeger on World War I (1914; 1916) The Sedition Act of 1918 (1918) Emma Goldman on Patriotism (July 9, 1917) W.E.B DuBois, “Returning Soldiers” (May, 1919) Lutiant Van Wert describes the 1918 Flu Pandemic (1918) Manuel Quezon calls for Filipino Independence (1919) 22. The New Era Warren G. Harding and the “Return to Normalcy” (1920) Crystal Eastman, “Now We Can Begin” (1920) Marcus Garvey, Explanation of the Objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1921) Hiram Evans on the “The Klan’s Fight for Americanism” (1926) Herbert Hoover, “Principles and Ideals of the United States Government” (1928) Ellen Welles Page, “A Flapper’s Appeal to Parents” (1922) Alain Locke on the “New Negro” (1925) 23. The Great Depression Herbert Hoover on the New Deal (1932) Huey P. Long, “Every Man a King” and “Share our Wealth” (1934) Franklin Roosevelt’s Re-Nomination Acceptance Speech (1936) Second Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1937) Lester Hunter, “I’d Rather Not Be on Relief” (1938) Bertha McCall on America’s “Moving People” (1940) Dorothy West, “Amateur Night in Harlem” (1938) 24. World War II Charles A. Lindbergh, “America First” (1941) A Phillip Randolph and Franklin Roosevelt on Racial Discrimination in the Defense Industry (1941) The Atlantic Charter (1941) FDR, Executive Order No. 9066 (1942) Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga on Japanese Internment (1942/1994) Harry Truman Announcing the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima (1945) Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945) 25. The Cold War The Truman Doctrine (1947) NSC-68 (1950) Joseph McCarthy on Communism (1950) Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Atoms for Peace” (1953) Senator Margaret Chase Smith’s “Declaration of Conscience” (1950) Lillian Hellman Refuses to Name Names (1952) Paul Robeson’s Appearance Before the House Un-American Activities Committee (1956) 26. The Affluent Society Juanita Garcia on Migrant Labor (1952) Hernandez v. Texas (1954) Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) Richard Nixon on the American Standard of Living (1959) John F. Kennedy on the Separation of Church and State (1960) Congressman Arthur L. Miller Gives “the Putrid Facts” About Homosexuality” (1950) Rosa Parks on Life in Montgomery, Alabama (1956-1958) 27. The Sixties Barry Goldwater, Republican Nomination Acceptance Speech (1964) Lyndon Johnson on Voting Rights and the American Promise (1965) Lyndon Johnson, Howard University Commencement Address (1965) National Organization for Women, “Statement of Purpose” (1966) George M. Garcia, Vietnam Veteran, Oral Interview (1969/2012) The Port Huron Statement (1962) Fannie Lou Hamer: Testimony at the Democratic National Convention 1964 28. The Unraveling Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (1968) Statement by John Kerry of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (1971) Nixon Announcement of China Visit (1971) Barbara Jordan, 1976 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address (1976) Jimmy Carter, “Crisis of Confidence” (1979) Gloria Steinem on Equal Rights for Women (1970) Native Americans Occupy Alcatraz (1969) 29. The Triumph of the Right First Inaugural Address of Ronald Reagan (1981) Jerry Falwell on the “Homosexual Revolution” (1981) Statements of AIDS Patients (1983) Statements from The Parents Music Resource Center (1985) Pat Buchanan on the Culture War (1992) Phyllis Schlafly on Women’s Responsibility for Sexual Harassment (1981) Jesse Jackson on the Rainbow Coalition (1984) 30. The Recent Past Bill Clinton on Free Trade and Financial Deregulation (1993-2000) The 9/11 Commission Report, “Reflecting On A Generational Challenge” (2004) George W. Bush on the Post-9/11 World (2002) Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) Pedro Lopez on His Mother’s Deportation (2008/2015) Chelsea Manning Petitions for a Pardon (2013) Emily Doe (Chanel Miller), Victim Impact Statement (2015) Frederick Douglass on Remembering the Civil War, 1877