Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICk DOUGLASS. 139
and fifty-three electoral votes—obtained thus by
force, fraud, and red-handed violence—ready to be
cast for a Democratic candidate in 1888. This
might be acceptable to a certain class of Democrats
at the South, but the Democrats at the
North would abhor and denounce it as a bloody
and hell-black policy. It would hurl the party
from power in spite of the solid South, and keep
it out of power another four and twenty years.
" Fourthly, he may sustain a policy of absolute
fidelity to all the requirements of the constitution
as it is, and, as John Adams said of the Declaration
of Independence, he may bravely say to the
South and to the nation: ' Sink or swim, survive
or perish, I am for the constitution in all its
parts! I will be true to my oath, and I will, to
the best of my ability, and to the fullest extent of
my power, defend, protect, and maintain the rights
of all citizens, without respect to race or color.'
" There can be no doubt as to which of these
methods of treating the Southern question is the
most honest and safe one. There may be many
wrong ways for individuals or nations to pursue,
but there is but one right way, and it remains to
be seen if this is the one the present administration
will adopt and pursue. Left to the promptings
of his own heart and his own view of his
constitutional duties, and to his own sense of the
requirements of consistency and even expediency,