The North Star (Rochester)/1847/12/03/The Eagle abroad
THE EAGLE ABROAD.
American Liberty.—American Eggs.—The American Eagle—the bird of Liberty—lays rotten eggs. This filthy fact is made evident by a letter written to the New York National Anti-Slavery Standard, by Frederick Douglass. He and Mr. Garrison lately proceeded as far as Harrisburg, to preach liberty to the benighted citizens of the freest nation of the earth; and their arguments were met with foul eggs, crackers, and brickbats—the arguments of the good and wise!
"I spoke only a few moments, when through the windows was poured a volley of unmerchantable eggs, scattering the contents on the desk in which I stood, and upon the wall behind me, and filling the room with the most disgusting and stifling stench."
Sweet odors, consecrated to the altar of Liberty, by free men! But the sacrifice was not completed—for pyrotechnic science bestowed "a pack of crackers;" and other worshippers at the shrine of Freedom offered, not frankincense or myrrh, but "cayenne pepper and Scotch snuff," that "produced their natural results among the audience!" And then arose a triumphant shout—"Throw out the nigger! Throw out the nigger!" And thereupon the "nigger," leaving the room, and gaining the street, there followed a shower of "stones and brickbats;" which are arguments so ready-made, and generally so easily obtained, that neither fool nor knave need be without them.
When Franklin was consulted about the design for the American insignia, he gave his veto against the proposed Eagle. It was a rascally, thievish, carrion bird, he said; and was unworthy of a free people. The Americans, however, as is proved in our time, knew better. They felt that the Eagle would very admirably typify the spirit of American Liberty. The Eagle steals her prey; America steals her blacks. The eagle will feed upon human flesh; so does America—that is, if the flesh have within it any negro blood. The eagle—that is, the free American Eagle, lays putrid eggs; nought wholesome, nought vital is produced from them. They are foul things, fit for no service. Oh, yes! They are arguments, strongest arguments against the liberty of the black—sweetest incense in the nostrils of the free white!—Punch.