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Nineteenth century America Independence Day orations were as much a part of the celebration as festoons, flags, fireworks, cannonades, parades and pealing bells (Travers 54; Engels 311-12). Every city sought an orator to perform a skillfully crafted reaffirmation of the principles for which Americans had risked their lives. Most prized undoubtedly were those who simultaneously were civic leaders, public philosophers, and wordsmiths-important people who possessed both moral authority and the literary and oral ability needed to impress and inspire their audiences. Silver-tongued Senators Daniel Webster and Edward Everett were obvious choices. Lincoln as president delivered an Independence Day oration, as did national anthem author Francis Scott Key, humorist Mark Twain, and abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (Heintze). In all, 2500 printed Independence Day orations survive from those delivered in nineteenth century America, the bulk by orators less celebrated than these, but never by ordinary citizens (Martin, "The Fourth," 397; Travers 6). Without exception invited speakers treated their compositions seriously, laboring over them for weeks, if not months, in advance (Banninga 4546; Martin, "The Fourth," 393). Significant speeches were printed and circulated, often in pamphlet form, sometimes stimulating the publication of pamphlets written in response (Martin, "The Fourth," 397; Goetsch and Hurm). The fact that most important speeches were destined for print helps to explain the atavistic grandiloquent style of nineteenth century oral discourse, particularly of ceremonial speeches.Abolition orators used the July Fourth oration to plead their cause. Frederick Douglass, unquestionably the greatest abolition orator, delivered several such orations, the most famous of which is "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July," delivered in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852. The speech ranks as one of the most important abolition speeches of the nineteenth century and Douglass's most celebrated oratorical achievement. Douglass's use of irony in this speech has captured the attention of many rhetorical scholars (Lucaites; Fulkerson; Terrill). Less well known, yet still important, is Douglass's 1875 speech "The Color Question." Delivered in Hillsdale, just outside of Washington, D.C., also on July 5, this address provides an important comparison point for understanding the development of Douglass's rhetoric. Unlike in previous analyses, Douglass's penchant for irony is not the singular focus of this essay. Instead, we argue that the use of anamnesis, often understood to mean "recollection" or an attempt to remind people of what they have forgotten, saturates both of his speeches (Allen; Scott). Following his break with the Garrisonians, Douglass used a specific recollection of the Declaration of Independence to create a mythic vision of what America could and should become.Rhetorical and Historical ContextWilliam Garrison's Fourth of July oration, "Address to the Colonization Society," delivered at Park Street Church in Boston on 1829, was the first major speech of the man who would become Douglass's mentor and helped establish a subgenre of Fourth of July orations delivered by abolitionists (Rohler 184-185). Garrison exploited, although to a much lesser extent than Douglass would, the great paradox of celebrating liberty within the context of slavery in the United States. Slavery was to Garrison, "a gangrene preying upon our vitals [which] . . . . should make this a day of fasting and prayer, not of boisterous merriment and idle pageantry-a day of great lamentations, nor of congratulatory joy." Although his speech violates the expectation that speakers praise the Constitution and the government it established, Garrison's speech embodied the revolutionary spirit also valued in speeches within this genre (Martin, "The Mind," 395). Fourth of July speeches such as Garrison's and Douglass's boldly took issue with the fulfillment of the ideals of the Founding Fathers, if not with the ideals themselves. …

Recollection, Regret, and Foreboding in Frederick Douglass’s Fourth of July Orations of 1852 and 1875