The Fourth of July
The Fourth of July, of American Independence Day, is a central symbol in Douglass's speech. Whereas the holiday was traditionally celebrated by Americans on the anniversary of the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, Douglass lambasts his audience by asking them to see the Fourth of July as a different symbol. For the American slave, Douglass argues, the Fourth of July is no cause for celebration, and indeed is only the epitome of American hypocrisy in which the nation can celebrate liberty at the same time it continues to deprive people of their freedom.
Founding Fathers
Douglass refers to the founding fathers of the United States frequently and with deference. He begins his speech by retelling the story of America's fight for independence from England, and credits the founding fathers for their bravery, passion, and patriotism. Douglass, like his audience, sees the founding fathers as a symbol of hope and strength in the face of adversity. However, he also uses the founding fathers as a symbol of the pervasive hypocrisy in the current age: while citizens idolize the founding fathers for their work on securing Americans' liberty, they stand idly by as slavery continues without disruption.
Irony
Irony becomes a salient motif in Douglass's speech as he announces that it is irony and not logic that will lead to the abolition of slavery. Throughout his speech, he provides a number of examples in which the principles of America's foundation are incongruous with the existence of slavery, pointing out bitter ironies that render the country hypocritical and shameful. For Douglass, irony is a tool by which people can be made to see more clearly about the state of America.
The Fugitive Slave Law
The Fugitive Slave Law was implemented just two years before Douglass's speech. This law made it a crime for anyone in any state—whether slavery was legal there or not—to knowingly protect a runaway slave from being returned to a slave-owner. This effectively made every state culpable in a system that had previously been limited only to states where slavery was still legal. For Douglass, the Fugitive Slave Law symbolically if not legally transformed the entire United States into a slave-owning country, obliterating the division between slave states and free states represented by the Mason-Dixon Line.
The Church
Douglass accuses the Church of enabling and bolstering the slave trade in America. For Douglass, the Church symbolizes the institutional incarnation of American hypocrisy, as the Bible and teachings of Jesus Christ condemn the notion of slavery. Douglass sees the Church as having been corrupted by self-interested representatives, arguing that with its major influence over the American population, the Church has the power to engender the abolition of slavery but chooses not to. In many ways, Douglass sees the Christian Church in America as completely untrustworthy and blasphemous.
