Editing Frederick Douglass (section)

===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>