In a speech delivered on 15 November 1867, Douglass said "A man's rights rest in three boxes. Civil War, and had a long and distinguished career after the war. Ī version that is close to the modern forms was introduced by Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave who became an influential public figure in the Union States and United Kingdom before the U.S. military in the American Civil War, but were still facing opposition to being treated as full citizens. Butler, an African-American leader, used the concept in a speech he delivered in November 1867 in Lexington, Kentucky, saying: "First we had the cartridge box, now we want the ballot box, and soon we will get the jury box".īutler was referring to the fact that African Americans had fought in the U.S. The quip was reproduced in the 25 December 1869 edition of the Spirit of the Times newspaper and in the 1881 Treasury of wisdom, wit and humor, odd comparisons and proverbs. The bandbox, originally designed to hold collar bands, was used to carry the elaborate women's hats of the time as well as many other personal items. Īn 1849 edition of the Family Favorite and Temperance Journal extended the concept: "Four boxes govern the world:-cartridge box, ballot box, jury box, and band box". This became his campaign slogan in his successful bid for the Senate on a platform advocating the abolition of tariffs. He said "There are three and only three ways to reform our Congressional legislation, familiarly called, the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box". Stephen Decatur Miller may have originated the concept during a speech at Stateburg, South Carolina, in September 1830. The four boxes (in that order) represent increasingly forceful methods of political action. The cartridge box represents exercising one's right to keep and bear arms to oppose, in armed conflict, a government that decreases liberty. The jury box represents using jury nullification to refuse to convict someone being prosecuted for breaking an unjust law that decreases liberty. The ballot box represents exercising one's right to vote to elect a government which defends liberty. The soap box represents exercising one's right to freedom of speech to influence politics to defend liberty. The phrase in various forms has been used in arguments about tariff abolition, the rights of African Americans, women's suffrage, environmentalism, and gun control. Additional boxes, when specified, have sometimes been the bandbox, soapbox, moving box, or lunch box. The "four boxes" phrase always includes the ballot, jury, and cartridge (or ammo) boxes. Please use in that order."Ĭoncepts and phrases evolve and are applied in new ways. The four boxes of liberty is an idea that proposes: "There are four boxes to be used in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and cartridge. Larry McDonald (1935–1983), often attributed as the author of the phrase
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