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398 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

I think all good men must agree, and against the evil I trust you feel the deepest
repugnance, and that we will, neither here nor elsewhere, give it the least
breath of sympathy or encouragement. We should never forget, whatever
may be the incidental mistakes or misconduct of rulers, that government is
better than anarchy, and patient reform is better than violent revolution.

"But while I would increase this feeling, and give it the emphasis of a
voice from heaven, it must not be allowed to interfere with free speech, honest
expression of opinion and fair criticism. To give up this would be to give
up progress, and to consign the nation to moral stagnation, putrefaction and
death.

"In the matter of respect for dignitaries, it should, however never be
forgotten that duties are reciprocal, and that while the people should frown
down every manifestation of levity and contempt for those in power, it is the
duty of the possessors of power so to use it as to deserve and insure respect
and reverence.

"To come a little nearer to the case now before us. The Supreme Court of
the United States, in the exercise of its high and vast constitutional power, has
suddenly and unexpectedly decided that the law intended to secure to colored
people the civil rights guaranteed to them by the following provision of the
Constitution of the United States, is unconstitutional and void. Here it is:

'"No state,' says the Fourteenth Amendment, 'shall make or enforce any
law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of the law; or deny any person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws.'

"Now, when a bill has been discussed for weeks and months and even
years, in the press and on the platform, in Congress and out of Congress;
when it has been calmly debated by the clearest heads and the most skillful
and learned lawyers in the land; when every argument against it has been
over and over again carefully considered and fairly answered; when, constitutionally,
it has been especially discussed, pro and con; when it has passed
the United States House of Representatives and has been solemnly enacted
by the United States Senate, perhaps the most imposing legislative body in
the world; when such a bill has been submitted to the Cabinet of the Nation,
composed of the ablest men in the land; when it has passed under the scrutinizing
eye of the Attorney General of the United States; when the Executive
of the Nation has given to it his name and formal approval; when it has taken
its place upon the statute book and has remained there for nearly a decade,
and the country has largely assented to it, you will agree with me that the