Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains heavy and grievous yesterday, are to-day rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts
that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this
day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!"
To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be
treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world.
My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see this day and its popular
characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there, identified with the American
bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character
and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July. 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.
Which of the following correctly describes the main purpose of the second paragraph? A. To reprimand his listeners forgetting past and present injustices. B: To remind the audience that’s the 4th of july is only for citizens. C. To impress the disparity of experience between citizens and slaves D. to reveal the steps needed to end slavery.