With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you. You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say, I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. That I am here today, is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude.
The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable – and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight.
#Treated with scorn free
But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment.
It is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. This certainly, sounds large, and out of the common way, for me. The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th July oration. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country school houses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day.
HE who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. Anticipating its speedy publication in Pamphlet form, they request that you will furnish them with one hundred copies for distribution: ROCHESTER: PRINTED BY LEE, MANN & CO., AMERICAN BUILDING.ĭear Sir-The Ladies of the “Rochester Anti Slavery Sewing Society,” desire me to return you their most sincere thanks for the eloquent and able address delivered in Corinthian Hall, on the 5th of July. ORATION, DELIVERED IN CORINTHIAN HALL, ROCHESTER, BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS, JULY 5TH, 1852. As we think back on the events of the previous year, understanding American ideals through the words and example of 19th Century American social reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass seems as important as ever. In that vein, we take seriously the requirement that all service and community engagement should be historically contextualized. Hopefully, community members will take time to reflect with family and friends on the distances between our everyday actions and our highest ideals. SCORN, verb intransitive To scorn at, to scoff at to treat with contumely, derision or reproach.The 4th of July will soon be upon us in and around Baltimore, Charleston, and Ferguson – and all across the United States. This my long suff'rance and my day of grace, those who neglect and scorn shall never taste. Proverbs 3:34.įame that delights around the world to stray, scorns not to take our Argos in her way. Surely he scorneth the scorner but he giveth grace to the lowly. to hold in extreme contempt to despise to contemn to disdain. To laugh to scorn to deride to make a mock of to ridicule as contemptible.ġ. Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are around us. A subject of extreme contempt, disdain or derision that which is treated with contempt. Esther 3:6.Įvery sullen frown and bitter scorn but fann'd the fuel that too fast did burn.Ģ. He thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone. Extreme contempt that disdain which springs from a person's opinion of the meanness of an object, and a consciousness or belief of his own superiority or worth.
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