Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. I4I
failure to recognize the facts now stated, and their
refusal to act upon them. They had become
tired of the old issues and wanted new ones.
They made their appeal to the pocket of the
nation, and not to the heart of the nation. They
attended to the mint, anise, and cummin of politics,
but omitted the weightier matters of the law
—judgment, mercy, and faith. They were loud
for the protection of things, but silent for the protection
of men. These things they ought to have
done, and not to have left the other undone.
" The idea that righteousness'exalteth a nation,
and that sin is a reproach to any people, was, for
a time, lost sight of. The all engrossing thought
of the campaign was a judicious, discriminating,
protective tariff. The great thing was protection
to the wool of Ohio; to the iron of Pennsylvania,
and to American manufacturers generally. Little
was said, thought, or felt about national integrity,
the importance of maintaining good faith
with the freedmen or the Indian, or the protection
of the constitutional rights of American citizens,
except where such rights were in no danger.
" The great thing to be protected was American
industry against competition with the pauper
labor of Europe—not protection of the starving
labor of the South. The body of the nation was
everything; the soul of the nation was nothing.
Jt did not appear from the campaign speeches