"I MUST MOURN" DOUGLASS, FREDERICK.

Oration, delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester... July 5th, 1852. 39 pages. 8vo, original wrappers, rear cover loose. Rochester: Lee, Mann & Co., 1852 first edition of what is considered to be Douglass's scarcest work. In 1852, the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society asked Douglass to give the traditional Fourth of July oration, stressing the "Meaning of the Fourth to the Negro." The audience, certain that the nation was as yet growing and full of hope, was soon to hear words that must have left their ears ringing, "Fellow citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why was I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?... This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." Sabin 20176; #30 of Blockson's 101 Influential Books.