Stephen A. Douglas cytaty

Stephen Arnold Douglas – amerykański polityk, od 1833 adwokat w Illinois, w latach 1843–1847 członek Izby Reprezentantów Stanów Zjednoczonych, w latach 1847–1861 senator Stanów Zjednoczonych, kandydat demokratów na prezydenta w 1860 roku. W 1854 roku wystąpił z kontrowersyjnym projektem Ustawy o Kansas i Nebrasce.

Z powodu niskiego wzrostu, ale potężnej budowy zwany był „Małym Olbrzymem” .

W 1858 startując w Illinois w wyborach do Senatu wziął udział w siedmiu debatach z kontrkandydatem Abrahamem Lincolnem, przeciwnikiem niewolnictwa. Douglas zachwalał suwerenność ludową , dzięki której ludność sama decyduje czy niewolnictwo w jakimś terytorium lub stanie jest legalne. Lincoln wytknął, że ta zasada koliduje z decyzją Sądu Najwyższego w sprawie Dreda Scotta, respektowaną przez Partię Demokratyczną z ramienia której kandydował rozmówca. Douglas utrzymywał, że ludność może o tym zdecydować bez względu na wyrok Sądu Najwyższego.

Wobec twierdzenia Douglasa o niższości rasy czarnej, Lincoln odrzekł nie ma absolutnie żadnego powodu, aby Murzyn nie mógł korzystać na równi z człowiekiem białym ze wszystkich praw naturalnych wymienionych w Deklaracji Niepodległości: z prawa do życia, wolności i dążenia do szczęścia [...]. Zgadzam się z sędzią Douglasem, że Murzyn nie jest mi równy pod wielu względami, z pewnością nie pod względem koloru i może nie pod względem poziomu moralnego lub intelektualnego. Ale w prawie jedzenia chleba [...], na który zapracuje własnymi rękami, jest mi równy i równy sędziemu Douglasowi oraz równy każdemu żyjącemu człowiekowi.

Douglas wygrał wprawdzie wybory, lecz stracił poparcie na Południu, co przyczyniło się do jego przegranej w wyborach prezydenckich 1860 i wygranej Lincolna. Wikipedia  

✵ 23. Kwiecień 1813 – 3. Czerwiec 1861
Stephen A. Douglas Fotografia
Stephen A. Douglas: 10   Cytatów 0   Polubień

Stephen A. Douglas: Cytaty po angielsku

“Thus you see, that when addressing the Chicago Abolitionists he declared that all distinctions of race must be discarded and blotted out, because the negro stood on an equal footing with the white man; that if one man said the Declaration of Independence did not mean a negro when it declared all men created equal, that another man would say that it did not mean another man; and hence we ought to discard all difference between the negro race and all other races, and declare them all created equal”

Sixth Lincoln-Douglas debate https://cwcrossroads.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/race-and-slavery-north-and-south-some-logical-fallacies/#comment-47553, (13 October 1860), Quincy, Illinois
1860s
Kontekst: You know that in his Charleston speech, an extract from which he has read, he declared that the negro belongs to an inferior race; is physically inferior to the white man, and should always be kept in an inferior position. I will now read to you what he said at Chicago on that point. In concluding his speech at that place, he remarked, 'My friends, I have detained you about as long as I desire to do, and I have only to say let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man-this race and that race, and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position, discarding our standard that we have left us. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal'. Thus you see, that when addressing the Chicago Abolitionists he declared that all distinctions of race must be discarded and blotted out, because the negro stood on an equal footing with the white man; that if one man said the Declaration of Independence did not mean a negro when it declared all men created equal, that another man would say that it did not mean another man; and hence we ought to discard all difference between the negro race and all other races, and declare them all created equal.

“Lincoln maintains there that the Declaration of Independence asserts that the negro is equal to the white man, and that under Divine law, and if he believes so it was rational for him to advocate negro citizenship, which, when allowed, puts the negro on an equality under the law. I say to you in all frankness, gentlemen, that in my opinion a negro is not a citizen, cannot be, and ought not to be, under the Constitution of the United States. I will not even qualify my opinion to meet the declaration of one of the Judges of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, “that a negro descended from African parents, who was imported into this country as a slave is not a citizen, and cannot be.” I say that this Government was established on the white basis. It was made by white men, for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and never should be administered by any except white men. I declare that a negro ought not to be a citizen, whether his parents were imported into this country as slaves or not, or whether or not he was born here. It does not depend upon the place a negro’s parents were born, or whether they were slaves or not, but upon the fact that he is a negro, belonging to a race incapable of self-government, and for that reason ought not to be on an equality with white men.”

Fourth Lincoln-Douglass Debate http://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/debate4.htm (September 1858)
1850s

“I do not regard the Negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother, or any kin to me whatever.”

Lincoln-Douglas Debates http://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/debate1.htm (21 August 1858)
1850s

Podobni autorzy

Andrew Jackson Fotografia
Andrew Jackson 6
amerikansk politiker