The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglassby Frederick Douglass. A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1.

The purpose of the Fourth Gospel (FG) seems clear because the author states his purpose in John 20:30-31. What is not as clear, however, is how the Fourth Evangelist.

Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens. He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. A feeling has crept over me quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance.

I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me.

The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country school houses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for me. It is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall seems to free me from embarrassment. That I am here to- day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence I will proceed to lay them before you.

A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852 Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has. Highlights: Manchester United 4-0 Reading. Wayne Rooney became Manchester United's joint all-time leading scorer as the holders cruised into the FA Cup fourth round. Academy Awards Best Director Facts & Trivia (2) Note: Oscar® and Academy Awards® and Oscar® design mark are the trademarks and service marks and the Oscar. Advertiser Disclosure: Many of the credit card offers that appear on the website are from credit card companies from which Wise Bread receives compensation.

The Fourth Wise Man Download

It is the birth day of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, as what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day.

Watch full movie Les Évadés De Drancy with english subtitles HD on this page. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 7. Seventy- six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation.

Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Were the nation older, the patriot's heart might be sadder, and the reformer's brow heavier.

Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. There is consolation in the thought that America is young.- Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship.

They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss- sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. As with rivers so with nations. The simple story of it is, that, 7. British subjects.

The style and title of your . You were under the British Crown. Your fathers esteemed the English Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to.

I scarcely need say, fellow- citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody.

It would certainly prove nothing as to what part I might have taken had I lived during the great controversy of 1. To say now that America was right, and England wrong, is exceedingly easy.

Everybody can say it; the dastard, not less than the noble brave, can flippantly discant on the tyranny of England towards the American Colonies. They who did so were accounted in their day plotters of mischief, agitators and rebels, dangerous men. To side with the right against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor!

The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers. But, to proceed. Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated, by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress.

They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. This, however, did not answer the purpose. They saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness and scorn.

The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice, and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senate came to its support. But, with that blindness which seems to be the unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British Government persisted in the exactions complained of. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity.

With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! It was a startling idea, much more so than we, at this distance of time, regard it. The timid and the prudent (as has been intimated) of that day were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. They hate all changes, but silver, gold and copper change!

Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor. They did so in the form of a resolution; and as we seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in our day, whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds and help my story if I read it. They succeeded; and to- day you reap the fruits of their success. The freedom gained is yours; and you, there fore, may properly celebrate this anniversary.

The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation's history- the very ringbolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ringbolt to the chain of your nation's destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost.

Cling to this day- cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm- tossed mariner to a spar at midnight. But, besides general considerations, there were peculiar circumstances which make the advent of this republic an event of special attractiveness. The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions. The country was poor in the munitions of war. The population was weak and scattered, and the country a wilderness unsubdued. There were then no means of concert and combination, such as exist now.

Neither steam nor lightning had then been reduced to order and discipline. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too- great enough to give frame to a great age. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.

He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests.

They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits.

They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was . With them, justice, liberty and humanity were . You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were great in their day and generation.

A Wise Man Once Told Me Performance Evaluations Are Stupid. He Was Right. One of the big breaks in my career was being hired as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a small organization. The Board of Directors recruited me after recognizing the CEO was one of those industry visionary types more suited to being the face of the organization, rather than running day- to- day operations. Those day- to- day operations included evaluating employees, and the Board asked me to implement a formal performance review system. The organization I just left had a system I'd used for four years, and it was pretty typical: Once a year employees were given a score of 1- 5 (1 being the worst, 5 being the best) on a list of tasks and behaviors. The list of scores were then averaged out to give the employee their final score. I remember the first year I evaluated my staff using this system.

Our division's receptionist, Lorraine, had done an exceptional job. I gave her a 5 on customer service. My boss- -the COO of the organization- -had to approve my evaluations, and when he saw that 5 he gave me this directive. It looked like every other performance evaluation system they'd seen. But when I showed it to the CEO, he gave me different feedback. Why would you do that to people? If they're doing a good job, tell 'em.

If they're not, tell 'em. I couldn't remember a single employee improving his or her performance based on feedback given through this mechanism. The entire performance evaluation process always had a confrontational tone to it. And as a supervisor, I disliked it almost as much as my employees did. I never knew how to determine the difference between a 3.

If that's the case, why did we continue to do it? Because it was hard to think of something better. Habit was the same reason I was implementing it at my new employer. I was too lazy to think of a better idea. I needed to change my ways. Rather than use that system, I implemented a more informal, regular system of feedback based on actual conversations between two people, rather than arbitrary numbers. It wasn't anything revolutionary, but it was a more human way to give employees a sense of how they were doing.

It worked really well. In fact, I would give it a 4.