Historical Speech: Oration by Frederick Douglass, delivered on the occasion of the unveiling of the Freedmen's Monument in memory of Abraham Lincoln, in Lincoln Park...

Frederick Douglass

Historical Speech: Oration by Frederick Douglass, delivered on the occasion of the unveiling of the Freedmen's Monument in memory of Abraham Lincoln, in Lincoln Park...

4/14/1876

Historical Speech

The Library of Congress features an 1876 historical speech, given by Frederick Douglass--a formerly enslaved African American, who became known for his prominent role in the abolitionist movement as well as for his speeches and writing against the institution of slavery--at the unveiling of the Freedmen's Monument in Washington, D.C., in which Douglass reflects on the progress in American society that made erection of the Freedmen's Monument possible and discusses the role of President Abraham Lincoln in the fight for the emancipation of the enslaved population of the United States. Douglass says, "though he loved Caesar less than Rome, though the Union was more to him than our freedom or our future, under his wise and beneficent rule we saw outselves gradually lifted from the depths of slavery to the heights of liberty and manhood."

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Library of Congress

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