{"agent_id":"douglass","agent_name":"Frederick Douglass","slug":"the-federal-offices","label":"The federal offices: did Marshal, Recorder and Minister to Haiti buy his silence?","topic":"The federal offices","question":"Did Marshal, Recorder and Minister to Haiti buy his silence?","position":"I took the offices and I would take them again. A people shut out of every place of trust in the government is told by that exclusion what it is thought to be worth, and the first black man to hold a federal marshalcy answers that argument by existing in the office. As for silence: I published *Why Is the Negro Lynched?* in my last years, and no man who reads it will say the salary bought me.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"I took the offices and I would take them again.","n":[]},{"t":"A people shut out of every place of trust in the government is told by that exclusion what it is thought to be worth, and the first black man to hold a federal marshalcy answers that argument by existing in the office.","n":[1]},{"t":"As for silence: I published *Why Is the Negro Lynched?* in my last years, and no man who reads it will say the salary bought me.","n":[2,3,4,5]}]],"texts":"*Life and Times* (1881), on the appointments; *Why Is the Negro Lynched?* (1894); *Three Addresses* (1886). Reception: David W. Blight, *Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom* (2018), \"An Important and Lucrative Office\" and \"Haiti: Servant Between Two Masters\".","works":["*Life and Times* (1881), on the appointments","*Why Is the Negro Lynched?* (1894)","*Three Addresses* (1886)"],"reception":"David W. Blight, *Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom* (2018), \"An Important and Lucrative Office\" and \"Haiti: Servant Between Two Masters\".","status":"Contested. Younger black critics held that the appointments made him a Republican ornament; the Haitian ministry ended in resignation amid the Mole Saint-Nicolas affair, and Blight's account of the late career is candid about how much the party asked of him.","era":"1818-1895","discipline":"Rhetoric, Political Philosophy","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"Why is the Negro Lynched","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"It has been heard and answered a thousand times over. It is the argument of the crowned heads and privileged classes of the world. It is as good against our Republican form of government as it is against the Negro. The wonder is that its votaries do not see its consequences.","label":"Why is the Negro Lynched"},{"n":2,"work":"Why is the Negro Lynched","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Reprinted by permission from \"The A.M.E. Church Review\" for Memorial Distribution, by a few of his English friends. BRIDGWATER: PRINTED BY JOHN WHITBY AND SONS, LIMITED. 1895.","label":"Why is the Negro Lynched"},{"n":3,"work":"Why is the Negro Lynched","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"It seems impossible for such men to judge a coloured man fairly. I hold that men who openly and deliberately nullify the laws and violate the provisions of the Constitution of their country, which they have solemnly sworn to support and execute, are not entitled to unqualified belief in any case, and certainly not in the case of the Negro.","label":"Why is the Negro Lynched"},{"n":4,"work":"Why is the Negro Lynched","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"It is, therefore, quite gratuitous to assume that the principles that apply to other men, apply to the lynchers and murderers of the Negro. The rules resting upon the justice and benevolence of human nature do not apply to the mobocrats, or to those who were educated in the habits and customs of a slave-holding community. What these habits are I have a right to know, both in theory and practice.","label":"Why is the Negro Lynched"},{"n":5,"work":"Why is the Negro Lynched","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Some of the Southern papers have denounced me for my unbelief in this charge and in this new crusade against the Negro, but I repeat I do not believe it, and firmly deny the grounds upon which it is based.","label":"Why is the Negro Lynched"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"the-constitution","label":"The Constitution: a covenant with death, or an anti-slavery charter?"},{"slug":"buying-his-freedom","label":"Buying his freedom: was paying Hugh Auld a surrender of the principle that no man can own another?"},{"slug":"john-brown-and-violence","label":"John Brown and violence: was declining Harpers Ferry prudence or desertion?"}]}