Summary
Douglass praises the founding fathers once more, this time for their dedication to public good rather than their own private interests. He returns his audience to the present, saying that what they celebrate on the Fourth of July is the work of these men. He acknowledges that plenty of others can retell this story better than he can.
But, Douglass announces, he is not here to discuss the past. Rather, he is concerned with the state of America in the present. He asks his audience why he has been called to speak on Independence Day, as there exists a glaring and great distance between him and his audience. He says that the Fourth of July is their holiday of independence, not his, and certainly not that of the people currently enslaved in the American south.
Amidst the celebrations and festivals, Douglass remarks, he hears pain and despair from slaves. This, he says, is his subject: American Slavery. Imagining potential opponents who would argue that he is not addressing the topic appropriately, Douglass envisions a more decorous approach. He asks his audience if he should have to first make logical arguments, and whether he should have to prove that slaves are men. He quickly does so, noting how the laws meant to keep slaves from reading and writing alone prove their humanity, for such laws do not exist for animals or property.
Analysis
As Douglass continues his speech, he builds on the patriotic energy present at the time. Douglass delivered the speech on July 5, one day after the celebration of American Independence Day. As such, Douglass appears to be celebrating alongside his audience, praising the founding fathers for their courage and sacrifice and declaring that he himself perceives them as inspirational figures for the country. But his tone quickly shifts as Douglass disposes with the mythical retelling of the American Revolution. He shifts instead to the present, and as he does, he addresses his audience directly and hostilely. "I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us," he says." I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary!" (68). Douglass therefore relies on a jarring sense of confrontation to underscore his imminent point: that American slavery forever belies the concept of American liberty, and that the whole notion of Independence Day is a laughable myth. Douglass's tone here is both desperate and calculated; he uses his audience's sympathy to advance a larger argument about how sympathy, put simply, is not enough.
At many times throughout the speech, Douglass imagines what his opponents will say. Just after introducing his primary subject as American slavery, Douglass dramatizes the perspective of his critics, saying that he will likely be encouraged to make his abolitionist arguments more palatable. This criticism, Douglass swiftly shows, is only meant to distract from the disruptive activist work that must be done. But he humors his audience and these critics by showing how easily the more palatable approach can be dismantled and how easily opponents' perspectives turn to absurdity. As Douglass logically overturns every pro-slavery argument in his opponents' arsenal, he relies on the rhetorical technique of apophasis. Originating in Ancient Greek theories of rhetoric, apophasis is a rhetorical device wherein a speaker broaches a topic by announcing that they will not be addressing it. For Douglass, this device manifests as his announcement that decorous and "logical" arguments about slavery are a waste of time, but he nonetheless refutes them all in quick succession. Ultimately, Douglass shows how the typical discussions being had around slavery are both misguided and inferior to the larger reality that the existence of slavery in a sovereign country is fundamentally a political and social paradox.
