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Frederick Douglass Statue Torn Down In Rochester, NY

The toppling of the Douglass statue is a new escalation in the attack on American national heroes.


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No figure is safe in cancel culture America. 

Not even one of our country's greatest warriors for civil rights and one of America's greatest abolitionists.

CBS reports on the destruction of a Frederick Douglass statue in Rochester, NY:

A statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass was ripped from its base in Rochester on the anniversary of one of his most famous speeches, delivered in the city in 1852. Police said the statue was taken on Sunday from Maplewood Park, a site along the Underground Railroad where Douglass and Harriet Tubman helped shuttle slaves to freedom.

No arrests have been made. In a Monday morning tweet, President Trump blamed "anarchists" for the incident.

The statue was found at the brink of the Genesee River gorge about 50 feet from its pedestal, police said. There was damage to the base and a finger."

Our so called "racist" Commander-In-Chief was quick to denounce the shameful attack on the statue:

Breitbart provided a little bit of historical context in their covering of the storie:

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery and escaped to the North. He was a passionate abolitionist, at home and abroad, and befriended President Abraham Lincoln.

In recent years, Black Lives Matter activists have been fond of quoting a speech in which Douglass called the Fourth of July a “sham” because of slavery. However, in the remainder of the speech, Douglass praises America’s founding and its principles.

No motive has yet been reported in the removal of the statue. Rochester Police were not available for comment."

While it has become en vogue this summer to refer to Douglass's speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" as proof positive for the need to destroy this country's insitutions, key pieces or conveniently ignored. 

TeachingAmericanHistory.org provides the full text of the speech given on Independence Day 1852, and the conclusion details Douglass's great vision of hope:

Fellow-citizens! there is no matter in respect to which, the people of the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon, as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is neither. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it. What would be thought of an instrument, drawn up, legally drawn up, for the purpose of entitling the city of Rochester to a track of land, in which no mention of land was made? Now, there are certain rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal instruments. These rules are well established. They are plain, common-sense rules, such as you and I, and all of us, can understand and apply, without having passed years in the study of law. I scout the idea that the question of the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. I hold that every American citizen has a right to form an opinion of the constitution, and to propagate that opinion, and to use all honorable means to make his opinion the prevailing one. Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. Ex-Vice-President Dallas tells us that the Constitution is an object to which no American mind can be too attentive, and no American heart too devoted. He further says, the Constitution, in its words, is plain and intelligible, and is meant for the home-bred, unsophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. Senator Berrien tell us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls all others. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a personal interest in understanding thoroughly. The testimony of Senator Breese, Lewis Cass, and many others that might be named, who are everywhere esteemed as sound lawyers, so regard the constitution. I take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form an opinion of that instrument.

Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.

I have detained my audience entirely too long already. At some future period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a full and fair discussion.

Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. “The arm of the Lord is not shortened,” and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age."

The full extent of Frederick Douglass's message is obscured by the political sabotaging of unity in this country. 

For Frederick Douglass, the core principles of this country were awe inspiring and deserved to be celebrated. 

However, he rightly pointed out the hypocrisy of the accepted citizens of this country who hide their crimes behind the glory of their revolutionary predecessors.

It wasn't that Frederick Douglass detested the Fourth of July, or the constitution, or the American concept of liberty. 

It was that he destested the cowardice of the people of this country who refused to stand up for the dignity of their fellow man.

He detested the unholy celebration of freedom in a country which treated men, women and children like beasts of burden. 

There was a reckoning for those sins in the decade following this Fourth of July speech by Douglass, where his cries for true justice were met.

While the left will have you believe that this speech, and Douglass the man, were denounciations of our insitutions, they were in fact denounciations of the people who sinned against the divine truths that formed our country. 

Douglass would not defend the destruction of our Consitution or Republic, he would probably rail against those using violent mobs to subdue any opposition and target the innocent to display their "oppression."

Frederick Douglass  should be celebrated and protected as an American hero, not torn down. 



 

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