But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in common
The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought
life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in
fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you
mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?..
Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are to-day
rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day,
"may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to
chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject,
then, fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there, identified
with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul that the character and conduct of this nation never
looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July. Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the
nation seems equally hideous and revolting.
Which of the following correctly describes the main purpose of the second paragraph?
To reprimand his listeners for forgetting past and present injustices
To remind the audience that the Fourth of July is only for citizens
• To impress the disparity of experience between citizens and sta
To reveal the steps needed to end slavery
(The first paragraph you see here is the second paragraph in the excerpt)