Parties Are to Be Judged by Their Fruits: An Address Delivered in New Haven, Connecticut, on October 25, 1888
PARTIES ARE TO BE JUDGED BY THEIR FRUITS:
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT,
ON 25 OCTOBER 1888
New Haven (Conn.) , 26 October 1888 and New Haven (Conn.) , 26 October 1888.
Despite his age, Douglass campaigned vigorously for Benjamin Harrison
during the 1888 presidential campaign. After weeks spent in Indiana and
Michigan, Douglass arrived in New Haven, Connecticut, for a major address
on 25 October 1888. There was so much excitement in the city that crowds
gathered at the railroad station to witness Douglass’s arrival. After a reception
at the rooms of the Republican League, Douglass was escorted to the Hyper-
ion Theatre by local Republican clubs and bands Upon entering the hall,
Douglass received a standing ovation from the large audience. After songs by
the Colored Glee Club and the Young Men’s Republican Glee Club. Hugh
Dailey introduced the Reverend Albert P. Miller of the Dixwell Avenue Con-
gregational Church who presided over the meeting. Miller delivered a short
address introducing Douglass. Charles S. Morris of Kentucky, and the Rever-
end Mahlon Van Home of Newport, Rhode Island, followed Douglass with
speeches, and the meeting adjourned. “The applause was deafening for two
minutes after Mr. Douglass ceased speaking,’’ the New Haven
reported. After the meeting, Douglass made a brief appearance at a reception
held at Lincoln’s Rink. Reviewing Douglass’s address, the New Haven declared in a headline that “He Makes an Eloquent Discourse, But Does
Not Touch Upon the Real Issue.” The speech published here is the best
reported of the large number of strikingly similar campaign addresses that
Douglass delivered in Detroit, Rochester, Buffalo, and elsewhere in fall 1888.
See Appendix A, text 3, for précis of alternate texts. Hartford (Conn.)
, 24, 26 October 1888; New Haven , 25 October l888; New Haven , 25, 26 October 1888.
I feel highly gratified by the presence of such a large audience, and I see in
it the element of victory. On November 6 we shall be called upon to
exercise the highest function allowed to man; the right to elect a president.
It is the right by which we are allowed to perpetuate our institutions. A
failure to elect a president in harmony with our ideas would tend to disar-
range our form of government, and possibly plunge this country into a
vortex of anarchy. All elections are important, but some are more important
than others. There are times when parties are so evenly balanced and so
evenly matched in the excellence of their candidates that it matters little
what candidate is elected. Such an election is not pending now. It was not
so when the country demanded for president that tall railsplitter of the
west.1An allusion to Abraham Lincoln. (Applause) It was not so when the country demanded that peerless
commander, General Grant.2Ulysses S. Grant. (Applause)
It is not so now. Disguise it as we may, we’re confronted today with
two opposite ideas. Two ideas, one born of slavery, of class dominion, of
the necessity of labor; the other born of liberty, of the respectability of
labor. (Applause)
The form of the conflict has changed. The battle was once a battle of
bullets. Next November the ballot will decide the battle, and may God
speed the right.
Cleveland and the democratic party have strung up the banner of free
trade3During the 1880s the nation's highly protective tariff duties produced large annual surplusses for the U.S. Treasury. A congressional coalition of Republicans and eastern Democrats, especially from Pennsylvania. blocked efforts to reduce the tariff. President Grover Cleveland recognized the potential benefit of the tariff reform issue as a means for revitalizing the Mugwump support that had helped to elect him in 1884. He devoted his entire annual message of 6 December 1887 to arguing that excessive protectionism hurt the farmer, the consumer, and the factory worker. Although calling for only modest reduction in tariffs, Cleveland's message received praise from free trade advocates in the United States and overseas as well as condemnation by Republican politicians who labeled it capitulation to British interests. Democrats in Congress led by Representative Roger Q. Mills of Texas introduced a bill calculated to reduce tariff revenues by seven percent. The Mills bill, however, greatly favored the interests of southern over northern products and the protectionist lobby managed to block its passage in the Republican-controlled Senate. Although the resurgence of pro-protection sentiment caused Cleveland to back away from the tariff issue, the Democratic convention that nominated him for a second term in June 1888 endorsed both his 1887 message and the passage of the Mills bill. , 773-74, 781; Bergh, , 119-29; Robert McElory, , 2 vols. (New York, 1923), 1: 271-75; Allan Nevins, (1932; New York, 1958), 368-94, 418-23, 431-34; Schlesinger, , 2: 1618-23. It is held aloft by the same hands that a few years ago struggled to
cause one race to prosper over another, and fought with hands reeking with
blood.
I consented to participate in this campaign with some hesitation. Not
because I did not agree with the policy of the party, and not because I did
not know that the democratic party was as rotten as ever. I am not as young
as I once was, and it requires strength to travel and speak every night in the
week, and then partake of a collation at midnight. But there were other
reasons, and those are that†Here the New Haven reads: “I did not like to have Cleveland say to me, you must talk of free-trade. This is no new question. I remember well the old discussion of this subject. lam ready to meet the issue again. and you will be ready to meet it on November 6 and settle it to the satisfaction of all the country." (I did not like to have this grand canvass, which
is going to sweep the whole horizon, confined to a single issue, though that
be a grand economical question. I say that there are other questions that
concern the honor of the people and are more comprehensive than the one
that concerns merely the pockets of the people.
I did not want Mr. Cleveland to say that I shall not speak on any subject
except the tariff, for that is as old as the cry of free trade and sailors’ rights.
But we are willing to meet the issue which Brother Cleveland has forced
upon us and we shall settle it to our entire satisfaction on November 6.
(Great Applause.))4From the New Haven (Conn.) , 26 October 1888.
It is quite evident that Cleveland and his friends are a good deal worried
because they have precipitated this free trade question upon the country. He
reminds me of the boy who was caught going to the apple orchard. “Where
are you going sonny?” said the owner. “Back again, massa,” said the boy.
(Great Laughter and Applause.)
When Cleveland wrote his message it was received with great pleasure
by free traders and the English press. Cleveland felt proud for a time, but he
is sick enough of it now.‡Here the New Haven reads: “In a campaign the policy of parties should be considered. I shall consider the character of the candidates. It is my good fortune to know the next president. (Applause) I have known him long and I have traveled with him. I say I have found nothing in him that was not pure and good. There is in him that quality of heart that enabled him to cross the field of battle to fight for the country he loved. That man was not Cleveland of New York. It was gallant Harrison of Indiana. (Great applause.)" [The Democrats are now disavowing the free
trade message which they hailed with delight months ago. Mr. Cleveland’s
desire to get rid of it is evinced by the fact that he has gone into the fish
business and retaliation business.5Disputes with Great Britain regarding the access of U.S. fishermen to Canadian waters and the catch of Canadian fishermen into this country produced a diplomatic crisis during Grover Cleveland's first administration. In 1885 the U.S. Congress announced its intention to abrogate two years hence the Treaty of Washington of 1871, which had resolved these matters, claiming that the annual payments to Britain to compensate for American access to Canadian fishing grounds exceeded the value of the catch. The Canadians responded with restrictive legislation protecting their own waters and seized U.S. fishing vessels that violated them. Cleveland retaliated by getting Congress to grant him the power to halt all trade with Canada. To head off the crisis, Britain sent Joseph Chamberlain to Washington to negotiate a new agreement on fishing rights. Although a second Treaty of Washington was signed on 15 February 1888, the Republican-controlled Senate rejected it on a partisan vote the following August. Eventually the parties reached a modus vivendi that permitted U.S. fishing vessels to purchase bait and other supplies in Canadian ports under a licensing agreement. An international arbitration court finally resolved the fishing issue in 1910 along lines close to the unratified treaty of 1888. , 772; Schlesinger, , 2: 1643-44; Charles S. Campbell, (New York. 1976), 122-39. (Laughter) He is like the Irishman, who
caught a tartar and knew not what to do with it. In the present canvass the
character of the candidates, the character and composition of the parties
and the policies of the respective parties must be considered. It is my good
fortune to know the future President6Grandson of President William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) served in the Union army and practiced law in Indianapolis before holding office as U.S. senator (1881-87) and as 23rd president of the United States (1889-93). Douglass probably met the future president in 1876 when he campaigned in Indiana for the Republican ticket of Rutherford B. Hayes for president and Benjamin Harrison for governor. The two also corresponded about political matters before Harrison's election to the presidency. Benjamin Harrison to Douglass, 2 August 1883, General Correspondence File, reel 3., frame 764, FD papers, DLC; Indianapolis , 26, 29 September 1876. well. Have known him for a long time
and I have to say that I have found nothing in him to be ashamed of. Above
all his other qualities he is a patriot. one who could cross the fiery and
smoky battlefield of blood to rescue his country from the grasp of treason
(applause) and that man was not the Hon. Grover Cleveland, who sent a
substitute, but it was Gen. Benjamin Harrison of Indiana.7Benjamin Harrison joined the Union army as a second lieutenant of volunteers on 9 July 1862 and received a promotion to colonel within one month. He served in rear echelon guard units in Kentucky and Tennessee throughout the remainder of 1862 and all of 1863. The next year, Ham'son joined Sherman's army as a brigade commander and fought in the Atlanta campaign. He also led a brigade in the Battle of Nashville in December 1864 and won promotion to brigadier general the following February. Harrison was training troops in the Carolinas when the war ended and he received his discharge on 8 June 1865. Grover Cleveland never joined the Union army during the Civil War. Two of his brothers had enlisted and Cleveland believed he had an obligation to remain in civilian life to support his sisters and widowed mother. When drafted in July 1863, Cleveland hired a Polish immigrant for $150 to take his place. Harry J. Sievers, ed., (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., 1969), 4-6; Nevins, , 45-52. (Loud and
continued applause.))8From the New Haven (Conn) , 26 October 1888.
I need not say much of Levi P. Morton.9The Republicans nominated Levi Parsons Morton (1824-1920) of New York as their vice presidential candidate. The son of a Shoreham, Vermont, minister, Morton did not attend college but began training for a mercantile career at age fifteen. After working for firms in several communities, he founded his own in New York City in 1855. When the secession crisis nearly wiped out his trading company, Morton shifted his resources to banking. New York Republicans elected him to Congress in 1878 and 1880 but he resigned his seat in 1881 to serve four years as U.S. minister to France. During Harrison's term some Republicans complained about Morton's lethargic performance as presiding officer of the U.S. Senate and the 1892 party convention replaced him with W. Whitelaw Reid on their ticket. Morton served a term as governor of New York (1895-97) and subsequently devoted himself to corporate banking. Sobel, , 260-61 ; Schlesinger, , 2: 1635, 1716; , 4: 431; , 1: 136; , 13: 258-59. He is known of all men, and I
can pay him no greater tribute than to say that no one has dared say aught
against him. His record is open before you and you are proud of it. (Ap-
plause.)
By the way, let me call your attention to the latest attempt that has been
made to bolster up democratic hopes. I happened to say at the Union depot
the other day that I did think we could carry Indiana by more than 7,000
majority. When my questioner said that Cleveland was going to be elected.
I said that I should not leave the country if he was. Out of that conversation
the lie that appeared in the evening papers stating that I had given up the
contest was drawn.10In late October 1888, varying accounts of this interview appeared in newspapers across the nation. Several reports describe the interview as occurring between Douglass and a Charles T. Davis while the former was awaiting a train in New York City's Grand Central Terminal. Published accounts record that Douglass predicted defeat for the Republican presidential ticket in the key states of Indiana and New York. Republican party leaders deluged Douglass with requests for public statements repudiating the story. In one such statement to a Baltimore Republican, Douglass declared: “The story of my discouragement concerning the election of Benjamin Harrison is in letter and spirit and in every word of it false." New Haven , 25, 26 October 1888; New York , 30 October 1888; W. L. Griton to Douglass, 25 October 1888; E. P. Passmore to Douglass, 25 October 1888; H. W. L. Russell to Douglass, 25 October 1888; Richard Sewell, Jr., to Douglass, 25, 29 October 1888; W. P. Smith to Douglass, 25 October 1888; B. F. Seisenrung to Douglass,. 26 October 1888; William F. Montgomery to Douglass,. 27 October 1888, General Correspondence File, reel 5, frames 169, 170, 171-72, 173-74, 184-85, 174-75, 176-77, 178, FD Papers, DLC. A lie is of no consequence unless it deceives. I am
telling my audience every night what I feel, and that is what warms me up,
that I am confident, yea I am certain that we shall sweep this country
November 6. Victory is ours. I have not seen anything that has so im-
pressed me with the utter desperation and fright of the democratic party as
the lie that is told concerning my statements regarding the contest. I never
was more hopeful of winning a contest in my life. (Applause)
(I have no abuse for the Democratic candidates. It is a source of
satisfaction that except a few innocent lies, the canvass has been conducted
cleanly and decorously. We are Americans and we have the dignity of our
nation to uphold, therefore we reject all those personalities, which were so
prominent four years ago)11From the New Haven (Conn) , 26 October 1888. The American people know the character and
standing of Benjamin Harrison and they know the character and standing of
Grover Cleveland. The president of a country should be more than a
successful politician. He should be a man who has a spotless character;
who is possessed of a character that is the admiration of all men; who can be
pointed to as an example of good and power; who can be respected by the
lowest and the highest. Such a man was Lincoln. (Applause) Such a man
we shall have in the person of Benjamin Harrison. (Great applause.)
Concerning parties I must say that parties and their representatives
generally travel on the same level. You will remember that Cleveland
professed many things when he came into power. He came in as a reform-
er.†Here the New Haven reads: “He came iron. The moment he came in contact with his party his iron melted like wax. (Laughter.)" (He was represented as a man of iron and touch as “old Hickory.”12A popular nickname for President Andrew Jackson.
He stood up with the mugwumps and denounced the spending of
money by men in office for re-election. He favored the one term idea and
the civil service reform. He also professed a desire to see the colored
citizens of the South get their due, but he came into contact with his party
and melted like wax in a white heat.)13From the New Haven (Conn) , 26 October 1888. He started to reform his party and he
was immediately deformed by it. (Laughter.) He had all the mugwump
taken out of him mighty quick.
A man must be on a level with his party, and no man can govern this
country without a party. Johnson and Fillmore14Andrew Johnson and Millard Fillmore. tried it and failed.
Cleveland tried to serve two parties and failed. If he had read his Bible he
would have known that no man can serve two masters.15Matt. 6: 24 and Luke 16: 13. He attempted to
ride two horses, each of which were going in opposite directions. He failed
miserably.
The republican party and its candidate are on a level and perfect har-
mony exists. Republicans love their party and it has done much for them,
but for the colored men that party has given liberty, I cannot see how a
black man can vote who is not a republican, you just make some investigations
and I shall be much mistaken if you do not find something wrong
about him.
It has been said that we should vote the democratic ticket to conciliate
democrats. Every concession toward the democratic party is met with new
exaction. When Hayes16Rutherford B. Hayes. was inclined to conciliate the south I told him that
his policy would do no good and that the only way to rule that country was
to let them know that there was a God in Israel.17A close paraphrase of 1 Sam. 17: 46. (Applause)
It is natural for colored men to be forgiving, and if you find one that is
not you may be assured that he has had some mysterious connection with a
white man of some period.
“Divide your vote,” says Friend Fortune of New York.18In editorials in the New York during the mid-1880s, T. Thomas Fortune had advised blacks to avoid binding alliances with any political party. Fortune actively participated in the reelection campaign of Grover Cleveland and edited the Cincinnati Afro-American on that Democrat's behalf in 1888. The following year, however, Fortune returned to support the Republican party. Allman and Roediger, “Timothy Thomas Fortune," 46-51; , 236-38. I wish the
condition of the democratic party was such that we could divide. but you all
know that the democratic party is made solid by a solid south. The south is
made solid by the shotgun and the cart whip. No true colored man can find
an excuse for being a democrat.
Parties are to be judged by the old rule, by their fruits.19Douglass alludes to Matt. 7 : 16. 20. Judge a party
by what it has been. Judge it by its antecedents. (When Moses wanted to
know God he showed him all that had gone before.20An allusion to Exod. 33 : 12—23. The past is the parent
of the present.)21From the New Haven (Conn) , 26 October 1888. Every wheel leaves its print upon the soil, so every party
leaves behind it something by which we may judge. It is not pleasant for
democrats to have us refer to the past. They say, dead issues. The re-
publicans like to have their past referred to, for there is nothing in it that we
are ashamed of. Democrats cannot say so much. A reference to the past
throws a coldness on the democratic party. It reminds me of the story of the
colored preacher who was told by the planter he could talk to his slaves if he
would warn them against chicken stealing. The preacher said he wanted to
preach but he could not consent to the condition because it would throw a
coldness over the whole meeting. (Great laughter.)
The democratic party has always been on the wrong side of everything.
That party said that the negro could not be civilized and made men of in
God’s world. Well, we have made men of them in this world and we are
proud of them.†Here the New Haven reads: “This is the best country in the world, and I know something of the world, for I have been abroad. I was treated with great kindness when I was on the continent, and I there never saw a man who showed me the least disrespect because of my color; and yet I am glad I live in this country." (They said you can never put down the rebellion, recon-
struct the States or pay the national debt, but we have done all these things.
(Applause) You will never make soldiers of the negroes, they said, but we
did make soldiers of them. I have been abroad and seen like of all kinds and
I never saw a look or heard a word of disparagement on account of my
color; still I’d rather be here than there. Like the Irishman who after
listening to a lucid description of heaven said, “I’d rather be in ould
Ireland.”)22From the New Haven (Conn) , 26 October 1888.
All that this country is, is due to the republican party. No, I supposed I
ought to say something of protection, but you cannot expect me, an old
fugitive slave, who never had a day’s schooling in my life, to instruct you
upon a subject that has been explained by the most able men in the country.
I am a protectionist because it is God’s law. (It is a man’s right and duty
to protect himself and family.)23From the New Haven (Conn) , 26 October 1888. When you do not organize society on the
plan of protection you hinder civilization: you impair the progress of the
great national family; you remove the prospects of liberty and of success.
Wages, like water, will find their level, unless prevented by a wise
government, and when we cease to dam up our labor, and when we allow it
to be placed on a level with the pauper labor of Europe, we hinder and
impair the progress of our country. I remember when our people used forks
and pens made in Sheffield, England. Our wages then were not half as high
as they are now, and we can get as good a knife for seventy-five cents as we
could get then for $2, and the seventy-five cent knife is made right here in
our own country, too.
The old Irishman said he could buy a bushel of potatoes for a shilling in
the old country, and here he had to pay a dollar a bushel. “Well why didn’t
you stay there?” said Pat’s friend. “Bejabers, I could not get the shilling,”
said Pat. I am for protection because I am for civilization. Where there is no
invention there is no civilization. Where there is nothing but plows and
oxen a country will not advance civilization much. When men harness
thought to their work they advance. Purely agricultural people do not need
much thought and they do not advance as rapidly as mechanical do.‡Here the New Haven reads: “This country owes protection to its industries and its men and women."
(The nation is out of sight in the free traders” calculations. It does seem
hard sometimes to pay $16 for a coat when one could be bought in England
for $10, but you must take in account what you have to buy it with. This
nation owes protection not only to your industries, but also to men and
women and especially black men and women who were friends to you in
time of war.)24From the New Haven (Conn) , 26 October 1888. Men of New England, when you came to the battle fields of
the south the black men were your friends. They furnished guides to your
soldiers who escaped from the dungeons of Andersonville and Salisbury.25Beginning in December 1861, the Confederate govemment began housing captured Union soldiers on the grounds of an abandoned mill in Salisbury, North Carolina. Conditions remained reasonably healthy in the camp until 1864 when the number of prisoners soared to a peak of over ten thousand. Most of the roughly 3,500 deaths at Salisbury prison occurred during the brief period from October 1864 to February 1865 as a result of overcrowding and food shortages. The number from this camp were never great but more than two thousand prisoners volunteered for Confederate service in order to win release. The Confederates transported all but the most seriously ill prisoners to Wilmington, North Carolina, for exchange in March 1865. Union forces finally occupied Salisbury on 12 April 1865 and destroyed the camp. Louis A. Brown, (Wendell. N.C.. 1980); Mark Mayo Boatner III, (New York, 1959), 717.
They fed the boys in blue and fought for the freedom of this country. When
Abraham Lincoln called for help to hold aloft the banner of the Union the
black men answered full 200,000 strong. The republican party emanci-
pated the negro and made all men equal.†Here the New Haven reads: "It is our duty now to stand by the republican party and we can do it and honor ourselves by voting for Benjamin Harrison." [I am here to ask you to stand by
your pledge that all men shall be free and equal and see the law executed,
and the first step in that direction is to place in the presidential chair
Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. (Immense applause.)]26From the New Haven (Conn.) , 26 October 1888.