My very dear friend, Frederick Douglass, who died over a century ago, wants to say this again:

[struggle4progress]

... Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress ...

West India Emancipation

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Leave it to Frederick Douglass to come up with the right words

No wonder he's being recognized more and more!

[Squinch]

10. I was just going to say that. But the passage did steel my spine a bit.

[Rhiannon12866]

12. It's amazing how his words of wisdom resonate now

Especially compared to the current incoherent ramblings of Trump.

[kentuck]

2. Yep.

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Something to be read, daily, for a long time

Printing out, and handing to friends! Thanks for the excerpt

[Scarsdale]

4. Who ever thought

that so many years later, these words would apply to the US? tRump enjoys being on TV, spouting his nonsensical "speeches" and causing turmoil. The REAL work of being president does not appeal to him at all, too difficult. Besides, what does he care?

[tomp]

5. Really?

This has always been well known to politically knowledgeable people. Douglas states it very eloquently, however. And it is is good that democrats who are unfamiliar with the concept take it to heart. The rest of us have been calling for this struggle forever but have been denigrated by right leaning democratic leadership and rank-and-file philistines.

[heaven05]

8. got that right

the s. sander imbroglio is a perfect example of your observation on Democrats of all political philosophies.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. "Who ever thought"

"...that so many years later, these words would apply to the US?"

He gave that speech in New York in 1857 while slavery was still legal in the U.S., where the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was in full effect and plantation owners in the south were hiring slave-catchers to travel up north to "take their property back" (whether the poor folks were "their property" or not (free)). The Civil War happened 4 years later...

Basically the speech was showing how the actions of those in the West Indies could be and was slowly being applied within the United States. I.e., this speech was essentially for American consumption, directed towards the currently enslaved, as the end of slavery and slave insurrections in the West Indies had happened decades before, and he describes that history, the drive behind that, and some of the tactics.

In the speech he notes examples of sacrifices that U.S. enslaved people made to fight their oppression (sacrifices) -

<...>

In the light of these ideas, Negroes will be hunted at the North and held and flogged at the South so long as they submit to those devilish outrages and make no resistance, either moral or physical. Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others.

Hence, my friends, every mother who, like Margaret Garner, plunges a knife into the bosom of her infant to save it from the hell of our Christian slavery, should be held and honored as a benefactress. Every fugitive from slavery who, like the noble William Thomas at Wilkes Barre, prefers to perish in a river made red by his own blood to submission to the hell hounds who were hunting and shooting him should be esteemed as a glorious martyr, worthy to be held in grateful memory by our people. The fugitive Horace, at Mechanicsburgh, Ohio, the other day, who taught the slave catchers from Kentucky that it was safer to arrest white men than to arrest him, did a most excellent service to our cause. Parker and his noble band of fifteen at Christiana, who defended themselves from the kidnappers with prayers and pistols, are entitled to the honor of making the first successful resistance to the Fugitive Slave Bill. But for that resistance, and the rescue of Jerry and Shadrack, the man hunters would have hunted our hills and valleys here with the same freedom with which they now hunt their own dismal swamps.

<...>

I am aware that the rebellious disposition of the slaves was said to arise out of the discussion which the Abolitionists were carrying on at home, and it is not necessary to refute this alleged explanation. All that I contend for is this: that the slaves of the West Indies did fight for their freedom, and that the fact of their discontent was known in England, and that it assisted in bringing about that state of public opinion which finally resulted in their emancipation. And if this be true, the objection is answered.

Again, I am aware that the insurrectionary movements of the slaves were held by many to be prejudicial to their cause. This is said now of such movements at the South. The answer is that abolition followed close on the heels of insurrection in the West Indies, and Virginia was never nearer emancipation than when General Turner kindled the fires of insurrection at Southampton.

http://www.blackpast.org/1857-frederick-douglass-if-there-no-struggle-there-no-progress

So these words WERE applying to the U.S. - way back in the 1850s - before many of the ancestors of the current Euro-descended citizens were even here including the current occupant of the WH. I had great-great-grand parents who were in that area in New York (Rochester/Buffalo) back then, who were contemporary with Douglass, and who raised children there.

[tomp]

14. Could you please state your point concisely?

I really don’t see how this apples to my post.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. I suppose because my post wasn't in response to yours?

and was responding to poster "Scarsdale"?

Scarsdale (4,222 posts)
4. Who ever thought

that so many years later, these words would apply to the US? tRump enjoys being on TV, spouting his nonsensical "speeches" and causing turmoil. The REAL work of being president does not appeal to him at all, too difficult. Besides, what does he care?

My post basically agrees with your response to Scarsdale -

tomp (9,468 posts)
5. Really?

This has always been well known to politically knowledgeable people. Douglas states it very eloquently, however. And it is is good that democrats who are unfamiliar with the concept take it to heart. The rest of us have been calling for this struggle forever but have been denigrated by right leaning democratic leadership and rank-and-file philistines.

[tomp]

16. oops, sorry. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

17. No problem!

[heaven05]

6. I thank you

for the reminder reawaken ones purpose in these trump times RESIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Duppers]

7. Bravo! 👏

Thank you for posting this!

[pangaia]

9. I am happy to say that I live near Rochester, NY-

where there is, among other things, a statue of Frederick Douglass in a quiet park on a street that becomes MT HOPE AVE.

[Squinch]

11. Thank you for posting.