How we cite our quotes: (Sentence)
Quote #1
To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? (21-22)
"What is your deal?" asks Douglass. "It's an offense to God and humanity to ask a person you have enslaved to join you in celebrating freedom."
What do you think the organizers of the Fourth of July celebration actually expected from Douglass? Were they looking for a standard patriotic speech, or might they have intentionally given him a platform to discuss the hypocrisy of American slavery?
Quote #2
Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. (31-32)
Americans have talked, do talk, and (Douglass can only assume) will talk a big game re: freedom. But do they actually believe in it? Not really—not for everyone, anyway. Why is this a problem for Douglass? How would his speech change if Americans were able to honestly confront the inequalities in their own society?
Quote #3
The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be denounced. (79)
"Now," says Douglass, "it's entirely possible that you people really do need a wake-up call." Good thing he's here to give it. However, Douglass discusses abstract ideas in these lines. What concrete actions or events would be necessary to quicken, rouse, startle, expose, and denounce the nation?
Quote #4
To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour. (82-83)
Slaves can see that the emperor has no clothes. Douglass makes an important point, though: sometimes, by talking a lot about how things should be, people can cover up and ignore the problems with how things actually are. Just because you say something really loud over and over doesn't make it true, but it might make people believe it's true. By talking so much about freedom, Americans are ignoring the chance to make the nation truly free, and that's what Douglass gets at here.
Quote #5
Go search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. (84)
Americans like to think they're better than other people (see: American Exceptionalism), but guess what? All that acting like you're better actually makes you worse than you would be if you just stopped fronting and acknowledged your issues. That's a common idea throughout the speech.