Editing Frederick Douglass (section)

==Civil War years==
===Before the Civil War===
By the time of the Civil War, Douglass was one of the most famous black men in the country, known for his orations on the condition of the black race and on other issues such as [[women's rights]]. His eloquence gathered crowds at every location. His reception by leaders in England and Ireland added to his stature.

He had been seriously proposed for the congressional seat of his friend and supporter [[Gerrit Smith]], who declined to run again after his term ended in 1854.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Black Man Going to Congress
|newspaper=Weekly Raleigh Register
|location=[[Raleigh, North Carolina]]
|date=July 5, 1854
|page=1
|via=[[newspapers.com]]
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/100176054/black-man-frederick-douglass-proposed/
|access-date=April 21, 2022
|archive-date=April 21, 2022
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220421141957/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/100176054/black-man-frederick-douglass-proposed/
|url-status=live
}}</ref><ref name=Bugle/> Smith recommended to him that he not run, because there were "strenuous objections" from members of Congress.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Letter from Gerrit Smith — Mr. Smith's Review of Congress and Sketches of its Leading Members — He objects to Frederick Douglass
|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|first=Gerrit
|last=Smith
|author-link=Gerrit Smith
|date=September 2, 1854
|page=2
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1854/09/02/archives/article-10-no-title.html
|access-date=April 24, 2022
|archive-date=April 24, 2022
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220424013808/https://www.nytimes.com/1854/09/02/archives/article-10-no-title.html
|url-status=live
}}</ref> The possibility "afflicted some with convulsions, others with panic, more with an astonishing flow of exceedingly select and nervous language", "giving vent to all sorts of linguistic enormities."<ref>{{cite news
|title=The Black and White Douglas
|newspaper=[[Wabash Courier]]
|location=[[Terre Haute, Indiana]]
|date=July 22, 1854
|via=[[Hoosier State Chronicles]]
|url=https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=WACO18540722&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22Gerrit+smith%22------

}}</ref> If the House agreed to seat him, which was unlikely, all the Southern members would walk out, so the country would finally be split.<ref name=Bugle>{{cite news
|title=Frederick Douglass in Congress
|newspaper=[[The Anti-Slavery Bugle]]
|location=[[Salem, Ohio]]
|date=August 26, 1854
|page=2
|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035487/1854-08-26/ed-1/seq-2/
|access-date=April 21, 2022
|archive-date=April 21, 2022
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220421142000/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035487/1854-08-26/ed-1/seq-2/
|url-status=live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
|title=F. Douglass in Congress
|newspaper=[[Anti-Slavery Bugle]]
|date=August 5, 1854
|location=[[Salem, Ohio]]
|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035487/1854-08-05/ed-1/seq-1/#
|page=1}}</ref> No black person would serve in Congress until 1870, just after the passage of the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifteenth Amendment]].

===Fight for emancipation and suffrage===
[[File:Men of Color Civil War Recruitment Broadside 1863.png|thumb|1863 broadside ''Men of Color to Arms!'', written by Douglass]]
Douglass and the abolitionists argued that because the aim of the Civil War was to end slavery, African Americans should be allowed to engage in the fight for their freedom. Douglass publicized this view in his newspapers and several speeches. After Lincoln had finally allowed black soldiers to serve in the Union army, Douglass helped the recruitment efforts, publishing his famous broadside ''Men of Color to Arms!'' on March 21, 1863.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blight |first=David W. |title=Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4165-9031-6 |location=New York |author-link=David W. Blight |page=385}}</ref> His eldest son, Charles Douglass, joined the [[54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment]], but was ill for much of his service.<ref name="pbs.org" /> Lewis Douglass fought at the Battle of [[Fort Wagner]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=McFeely |first=William S. |author-link=William S. McFeely |url=https://archive.org/details/frederickdouglas00will_0 |title=Frederick Douglass |date=1991 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Co. |isbn=978-0-393-02823-2 |location=New York |page=226 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Another son, Frederick Douglass Jr., also served as a recruiter.

With the North no longer obliged to return slaves to their owners in the South, Douglass fought for equality for his people. Douglass conferred with President [[Abraham Lincoln]] in 1863 on the treatment of black soldiers<ref>{{Cite book |last=McFeely |first=William S. |author-link=William S. McFeely |url=https://archive.org/details/frederickdouglas00will_0 |title=Frederick Douglass |date=1991 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Co. |isbn=978-0-393-02823-2 |location=New York |page=229 |url-access=registration}}</ref> and on plans to move liberated slaves out of the South.

President Lincoln's [[Emancipation Proclamation]], which took effect on January 1, 1863, declared the freedom of all slaves in Confederate-held territory. (Slaves in Union-held areas were not covered because the proclamation was deemed permissible under the Constitution only as a war measure; they were freed with the adoption of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865.) Douglass described the spirit of those awaiting the proclamation: "We were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky ... we were watching ... by the dim light of the stars for the dawn of a new day ... we were longing for the answer to the agonizing prayers of centuries."<ref>{{cite web |title=The Fight For Emancipation |url=http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/douglass/part4.html |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090708000612/http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/douglass/part4.html |archive-date=July 8, 2009 |access-date=April 19, 2007}}</ref>

During the [[1864 United States presidential election|U.S. Presidential Election of 1864]], Douglass supported [[John C. Frémont#Presidential candidate Radical Democracy Party 1864|John C. Frémont]], who was the candidate of the abolitionist [[Radical Democracy Party (United States)|Radical Democracy Party]]. Douglass was disappointed that President Lincoln did not publicly endorse suffrage for black freedmen. Douglass believed that since African American men were fighting for the Union in the American Civil War, they deserved the right to vote.<ref>Stauffer (2008), ''Giants'', p. 280.</ref>

===After Lincoln's death===
The postwar ratification of the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|13th Amendment]], on December 6, 1865, outlawed slavery, "except as a punishment for crime." The [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th Amendment]] provided for birthright citizenship and prohibited the states from abridging the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States or denying any "person" due process of law or equal protection of the laws. The [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|15th Amendment]] protected all citizens from being discriminated against in voting because of race.<ref name="DouglassO">{{Cite book |last1=Frederick Douglass |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IVIwdPfWvjMC&pg=PR11 |title=Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave |last2=Robert G. O'Meally |date= 2003 |publisher=Spark Educational Publishing |isbn=978-1-59308-041-9 |page=xi |access-date=October 26, 2015 |archive-date=September 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902004228/https://books.google.com/books?id=IVIwdPfWvjMC&pg=PR11 |url-status=live }}</ref> After Lincoln had been assassinated, Douglass conferred with President [[Andrew Johnson]] on the subject of black [[suffrage]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=McFeely |first=William S. |author-link=William S. McFeely |url=https://archive.org/details/frederickdouglas00will_0 |title=Frederick Douglass |date=1991 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co. |isbn=978-0-393-02823-2 |location=New York |page=247 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

[[File:Emancipation statue at Lincoln Park (14131873).jpg|thumb|upright|The keynote speaker at the unveiling of the [[Emancipation Memorial]], Douglass wrote a critique of the depiction of the black man "still on his knees".]]
On April 14, 1876, Douglass delivered the keynote speech at the unveiling of the [[Emancipation Memorial]] in Washington's Lincoln Park. He spoke frankly about the complex legacy of Lincoln, noting what he perceived as both positive and negative attributes of the late President.<ref name="Speech"/> Calling Lincoln "the white man's President", Douglass criticized Lincoln's tardiness in joining the cause of emancipation, noting that Lincoln initially opposed the expansion of slavery but did not support its elimination: "He had been ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the humanity of the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people. Lincoln was neither our man or our model".<ref name="Speech">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/27/emancipation-monument-in-washington-dc-targeted-by-protests/ |title=Frederick Douglass delivered a Lincoln reality check at Emancipation Memorial unveiling |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=June 27, 2020 |access-date=September 23, 2023|author=DeNeen L. Brown }}</ref> But Douglass also asked, "Can any colored man, or any white man friendly to the freedom of all men, ever forget the night which followed [[Emancipation Proclamation|the first day of January 1863]], when the world was to see if Abraham Lincoln would prove to be as good as his word?"<ref>{{cite web |date=n.d. |title=Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln by Frederick Douglass |url=http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?documentprint=39 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110427050628/http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?documentprint=39 |archive-date=April 27, 2011 |access-date=September 4, 2008 |publisher=Teaching American History}}</ref> He also said: "Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow-countrymen against the Negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery...." Most famously, he added: "Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined."<ref name="Speech"/>

The crowd, roused by his speech, gave Douglass a standing ovation. Lincoln's widow [[Mary Todd Lincoln|Mary Lincoln]] supposedly gave Lincoln's favorite [[walking-stick]] to Douglass in appreciation. That walking stick still rests in his final residence, "Cedar Hill" in Washington, D.C., now preserved as the [[Frederick Douglass National Historic Site]].

After delivering the speech, Douglass immediately wrote to the National Republican newspaper in Washington (which published his letter five days later, on April 19), criticizing the statue's design and suggesting the park could be improved by more dignified monuments of free black people. "The negro here, though rising, is still on his knees and nude," Douglass wrote. "What I want to see before I die is a monument representing the negro, not couchant on his knees like a four-footed animal, but erect on his feet like a man."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mann |first=Ted |date=July 4, 2020 |title=How a Lincoln-Douglass Debate Led to Historic Discovery: Texting exchange by two professors led to Frederick Douglass letter on Emancipation Memorial |work=wsj.com |publisher=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-lincoln-douglass-debate-led-to-historic-discovery-11593869400 |url-status=live |access-date=July 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200704155204/https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-lincoln-douglass-debate-led-to-historic-discovery-11593869400 |archive-date=July 4, 2020}}</ref>