Raynor HCA 2013-07
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/18/2013
A complete and authentic issue of the New York Daily Tribune, February 7, 1863, 8pp., disbound, VG. Cover 3/4 of the back page is the complete text for Frederick Douglass’ Cooper Institute spech, ‘The Proclamation and a Negro Army.’ ” This rousing speech gave full throated support to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. In small part, “ ... Color is no longer a crime or a badge of bondage. At last the out-spread wings of the American Eagle afford shelter and protection to men of all colors, all countries and climes, and the long oppressed black man may honorably fall or gloriously flourish under the star-spangled banner. [Applause.] I stand here tonight not only as a colored man and an American, but by the express decision of the Attorney-General of the United States, as a colored citizen, having, in common with all other citizens, a stake in the safety, prosperity, honor, and glory of a common country [Cheering.] We are all liberated by this proclamation. Everybody is liberated. The white man is liberated, the black man is liberated, the brave men now fighting the battles of their country against rebels and traitors are now liberated, and may strike with all their might, even if they do hurt the Rebels, at their most sensitive point. [Applause.] I congratulate you upon this amazing change—the amazing approximation toward the sacred truth of human liberty.... I hold that the Proclamation, good as it is, will be worthless—a miserable mockery—unless the nation shall so far conquer its prejudice as to welcome into the army full-grown black men to help fight the battles of the Republic. ... When a man leaves home, family, and security, to risk his limbs and life in the field of battle, for God’s sake let him have all the honor which he may achieve, let his color be what it may. If, by the fortunes of war he is flung into the hands of the Rebels, let him be assured that the loyal Government will not desert him, but will hold the Confederate Government strictly responsible, as much for a black as for a white soldier....But I know colored men now in the army passing for white, not much whiter than I, but by shaving their heads very closely they manage to get in....”
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