弗雷德里克．道格拉斯
(FREDERICK DOUGLASS)

对美国反对奴隶制协会的演说
Speech to the American Anti-Slavery Society

只有在黑人有投票权时，奴隶制才会被禁止。

在北方战胜南方已成定局时，反对奴隶制的斗争似乎也取得胜利。1865年2月1日，国会批准了禁止奴隶制的《宪法第十三修正案》，一周之内八个州批准了修正案。只有几个月时间，该修正案就被正式通过。但是，对于新获得自由的黑人会是怎样呢?有哪些法律保护可以保证他们的权利呢?谁也无法预计将来会是什麽情况。美国反奴隶制协会在波士顿开会讨论既然奴隶制已成爲历史，那麽该协会有没有必要存在。1865年5月10日，弗雷德里克．道格拉斯发表演说，敦促该协会不要解散，而要继续向种族歧视作斗争。由于过去的艰难经历，他肯定在黑人能够无所畏惧地行使公民权并接受法律的完全保护之前，他们的从属地位(不管把这种情况叫作什麽都一样)就将继续下去。

……我不想在这儿吹毛求疵，或者指责那些认爲现在到了解散这个协会的时候的人的动机。我没有怀疑那些促使本协会主席(威廉．劳埃德．加里森)和其它赞成解散本协会的先生们的动机之纯洁和美好。我坚持这样的一种观点，即不管这个宪法修正案(第十三)是否已成爲法律，不管是否有足够数量的州已批准该修正案作爲法律，我认爲废除奴隶制的工作并没有结束。即使联邦每个州都批准了那个修正案，当南方立法里黑人还与“白”这个词相对时，在我看来，我们作爲废奴主义者的工作还没有结束。昨晚，我坚持认爲南方通过不友好的立法可以使我们的自由按照那个规定成爲一种幻想，一个嘲弄和一个陷阱，我现在还是持这种观点。如果任何一个州的议会可以在明天宣布法院不能接受黑人的证词，那麽像这个修正案这样一个规定对黑人来说又有什麽好处?那麽我们现在在哪里?任何一个坏蛋都可以进入一个黑人的房子随意施暴，如果刚好他施暴时只有黑人在场，那他便可追逐法外。[好哇!好哇！]不要对我说南方那些人已经一下子变得那麽公正诚实，以致他们不会通过那些剥夺黑人在法庭上提供反对白人的证词的权利的法律。喔，我们北方各州已经干了。伊利诺伊、印地安纳和俄亥俄已经干了。这里，在普利茅斯岩发布的法规中，黑人就已被排除在外，不让他们在法庭作证，如果每一个南方州的议会明天通过一项法律，宣布黑人不能在任何法庭作证，那麽他们也不会违反宪法的那个条款。这样的法律现在在南方还存在，而且根据宪法的这个条款，即在联邦的任何一个州都不应有奴隶制和非自愿劳役的存在，这些法律还可能存在……

只有在黑人有投票权时，奴隶制才会被禁止。只要南方各州议会还保留通过在白人与黑人之间制造歧视的法律的权利，那麽奴隶制仍然还会在那儿存在。[鼓掌]正如埃德蒙．昆西说过的那样，“只要在马萨诸塞的法令全书上还有‘白’这个词，马萨诸塞就是一个蓄奴州。只要在马萨诸塞可以把一个黑人从汽车里推出去，马萨话塞就是一个蓄奴州。只要你可以从旧马萨诸塞得到一个奴隶，马萨诸塞就是一个蓄奴州”。那是我在二十三年或二十四年以前听到埃德蒙．昆西这麽说的。我从来没有忘记这件事。现在，只要黑人的投票权可以被剥夺，只要南方各州议会可以剥夺黑人保留和携带武器的权利──在我那个地方，他们不让黑人拿手杖走路，他们不让五个以上的黑人聚集在一起──那麽我们废奴主义者的工作就没有结束。虽然美国宪法的条款规定保留和携带武器的权利不应被剥夺，但黑人从来没有保留或携带武器的权利，根据这个修正案，各州议会仍然还有权力禁止这个权利。他们可以继续推行不友好的立法制度，他们会不这麽做吗?他们在那儿这麽干时就不带偏见吗?难道你们以爲因爲此刻他们是处于我们光荣的鹰爪和鹰嘴之下，而不是像以前那样处在奴隶之中，他们就会改弦易辙了吗?我在威尔明顿听说过忠诚守法，我在南卡罗来纳也听说过忠诚守法──可那能值几个钱?

[“不如一根稻草。”]

不如一根稻草。我感谢我的朋友承认这一点。当他们看到二十万黑色士兵带着闪亮的刺刀从他们当中走过时，他们就忠诚守法。[鼓掌]但是，如果让南方恢复政府权力，那麽对黑人的旧偏见和敌视又会重现。是的，正是黑人被利用来击败这次叛乱并摧毁了邦联的道德伦理标准这个事实将刺激他们所有的仇恨，所有的恶意，并导致他们对这个阶级制定出比以往任何时候都更苛刻的立法。[鼓掌]美国人民有义务──出于他们的荣誉感有义务(我希望是出于荣誉感，至少出于公正的荣誉感)给予黑人选举权，我本想说美国反奴隶制协会的废奴主义者应当有义务“站着不动，期待上帝的拯救”直至那项工作完成爲止。[鼓掌]朋友们，如果美国反奴隶制协会不支持黑人，那麽他们去哪里寻求支持！[“好哇，好哇。”]当这个老资格的废奴先驱，这个经过暴民攻击、英勇牺牲以及牧师和政客的联合镇压之后仍幸存下来的协会突然消逝，仅仅宣布说宪法已经得到修正，所以在这个国家里自此以后既不允许有奴隶制也不允许有非自愿的奴役，那麽我们还能从何处期望得到自由喇叭的一个肯定的声音呢?里士满的奴隶主对那些以武装黑人将使他成爲自由人爲由而反对武装黑人的人说了什麽呢?哼，他们说：“这个论点很荒唐。我们应当使这些黑人爲我们作战，但是，当我们获得南方的政治权力时，我们仍可将他们保留在从属地位。”这就是他们的论点，而且他们是对的。他们本可以雇佣黑人爲他们作战，而且当他们手中获得剥夺黑人政治权利的权力时，他们就可以将黑人降低到与奴隶一样的状况中。他们将不会把这种情况叫作奴隶制，而是叫作别的什麽名字。在给自家起名字方面，奴隶制一直是很有成果的。它曾被叫作“特别制度”、“社会制度”和“障碍”，正如卫理圣公会的全体大会所称的那样。它已经有过许多名字。而且将给它自己再起一个名字，你，我，我们大家最好拭目以待，看看这个老妖怪将以什麽形式，这只老毒蛇将以什麽新皮出现。

[热烈鼓掌]

I do not wish to appear here in any fault finding spirit, or as an impugner of the motives of those who believe that the time has come for this Society to disband. I am conscious of no suspicion of the purity and excellence of the motives that animate the President of this Society [William Lloyd Garrison], and other gentlemen who are in favor of its disbandment. I take this ground; whether this Constitutional Amendment [the thirteenth] is law or not, whether it has been ratified by a sufficient number of States to make it law or not, I hold that the work of Abolitionists is not done. Even if every State in the Union had ratified that Amendment, while the black man is confronted in the legislation of the South by the word "white," our work as Abolitionists, as I conceive it, is not done. I took the ground, last night, that the South, by unfriendly legislation, could make our liberty, under that provision, a delusion, a mockery, and a snare, and I hold that ground now. What advantage is a provision like this Amendment to the black man, if the Legislature of any State can to-morrow declare that no black man's testimony shall be received in a court of law? Where are we then? Any wretch may enter the house of a black man, and commit any violence he pleases; if he happens to do it only in the presence of black persons, he goes unwhipt of justice. ["Hear, hear."] And don't tell me that those people down there have become so just and honest all at once that they will not pass laws denying to black men the right to testify against white men in the courts of law. Why, our Northern States have done it. Illinois, Indiana and Ohio have done it. Here, in the midst of institutions that have gone forth from old Plymouth Rock, the black man has been excluded from testifying in the courts of law; and if the Legislature of every Southern State to-morrow pass a law, declaring that no Negro shall testify in any courts of law, they will not violate that provision of the Constitution. Such laws exist now at the South, and they might exist under this provision of the Constitution, that there shall be neither slavery not involuntary servitude in any State of the Union. . . .

    Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot. While the Legislatures of the South retain the right to pass laws making any discrimination between black and white, slavery still lives there. [Applause.] As Edmund Quincy once said, "While the word "white' is on the statute-book of Massachusetts, Massachusetts is a slave State. While a black man can be turned out of a car in Massachusetts, Massachusetts is a slave State. While a slave can be taken from old Massachusetts, Massachusetts is a slave State." That is what I heard Edmund Quincy say twenty-three or twenty-four years ago. I never forget such a thing. Now, while the black man can be denied a vote, while the Legislatures of the South can take from him the right to keep and bear arms, as they can－they would not allow a Negro to walk with a cane where I came from, they would not allow five of them to assemble together－the work of the Abolitionists is not finished. Notwithstanding the provision in the Constitution of the United States, that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged, the black man has never had the right either to keep or bear arms; and the Legislatures of the States will still have the power to forbid it, under this Amendment. They can carry on a system of unfriendly legislation, and will they not do it? Have they not got prejudice there to do it with? Think you, that because they are for the moment in the talons and beak of our glorious eagle, instead of the slave being there, as formerly, that they are converted? I hear of the loyalty at Wilmington, the loyalty at South Carolina－what is it worth?

    ["Not a straw."]

    Not a straw. I thank my friend for admitting it. They are loyal while they see 200,000 sable soldiers, with glistening bayonets, walking in their midst. [Applause.] But let the civil power of the South be restored, and the old prejudices and hostility to the Negro will revive. Aye, the very fact that the Negro has been used to defeat this rebellion and strike down the standards of the Confederacy will be a stimulus to all their hatred, to all their malice, and lead them to legislate with greater stringency towards this class than ever before. [Applause.] The American people are bound－bound by their sense of honor (I hope by their sense of honor, at least, by a just sense of honor), to extend the franchise to the Negro; and I was going to say, that the Abolitionists of the American Anti-Slavery Society were bound to "stand still, and see the salvation of God," until that work is done. [Applause.] Where shall the black man look for support, my friends, if the American Anti-Slavery Society fails him? ["Hear, hear."] From whence shall we expect a certain sound from the trumpet of freedom, when the old pioneer, when this Society that has survived mobs, and martyrdom, and the combined efforts of priest-craft and state-craft to suppress it, shall all at once subside, on the mere intimation that the Constitution has been amended, so that neither slavery not involuntary servitude shall hereafter be allowed in this land? What did the slaveholders of Richmond say to those who objected to arming the Negro, on the ground that it would make him a freeman? Why, they said, "The argument is absurd. We may make these Negroes fight for us; but while we retain the political power of the South, we can keep them in their subordinate positions." That was the argument; and they were right. They might have employed the Negro to fight for them, and while they retained in their hands power to exclude him from political rights, they could have reduced him to a condition similar to slavery. They would not call it slavery, but some other name. Slavery has been fruitful in giving itself names. It has been called "the peculiar institution," "the social system," and the "impediment," as it was called by the General conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It has been called by a great many names, and it will call itself by yet another name; and you and I and all of us had better wait and see what new form this old monster will assume, in what new skin this old snake will come forth. [Loud applause. ]