42

194 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

san, reckless, and tending only to sanguinary ends. None of this with men of
sense and principle.

"We all wanted to reply, but it was too late; the whole theater seemed
taken with the spirit of the Ephesian uproar; they were furious and boisterous
in the extreme, and Mr. Kirk could hardly obtain a moment, though many
were desirous in his behalf to say a few words, as he did, very calmly and
properly, that the cause of temperance was not at all responsible for slavery,
and had no connection with it."

Now, to show the reader what ground there was for this tirade from the
pen of this eminent divine, and how easily Americans parted with their candor
and self-possession when slavery was mentioned adversely. I will give here
the head and front of my offence. Let it be borne in mind that this was a
world's convention of the friends of temperance. It was not an American or a
white man's convention, but one composed of men of all nations and races;
and as such, the convention had the right to know all about the temperance
cause in every part of the world, and especially to know what hindrances were
interposed in any part of the world, to its progress. I was perfectly in order in
speaking precisely as I did. I was neither an "intruder," nor "out of order." I
had been invited and advertised to speak by the same committee that invited
Doctors Beecher, Cox, Patton, Kirk, Marsh, and others, and my speech was
perfectly within the limits of good order, as the following report will show:

"Mr. Chairman—Ladies and Gentlemen—

"I am not a delegate to this convention. Those who would have been
most likely to elect me as a delegate, could not, because they are to-night
held in abject slavery in the United States. Sir, I regret that I cannot fully
unite with the American delegates in their patriotic eulogies of America, and
American temperance societies. I cannot do so for this good reason: there are
at this moment three millions of the American population, by slavery and
prejudice, placed entirely beyond the pale of American temperance societies.
The three million slaves are completely excluded by slavery, and four hundred thousand free colored people are almost as completely excluded hy an
inveterate prejudice against them, on account of their color. [Cries of
"Shame! shame!"]

"I do not say these things to wound the feelings of the American dele-
gates. I simply mention them in their presence and before this audience, that,
seeing how you regard this hatred and neglect of the colored people, they
may be inclined on their return home to enlarge the field of their temperance