Chapter XXIII: Representative Colored Men (1)

THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION.--THE LEGAL DESTRUCTION
OF SLAVERY AND A CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION.--FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT
GRANTING MANHOOD SUFFRAGE TO THE AMERICAN NEGRO.--PRESIDENT
GRANT'S SPECIAL MESSAGE UPON THE SUBJECT.--UNIVERSAL REJOICING
AMONG THE COLORED PEOPLE.--THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE
AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.--THE NEGRO IN THE DIPLOMATIC
SERVICE OF THE COUNTRY.--FREDERICK DOUGLASS.--HIS BIRTH,
ENSLAVEMENT, ESCAPE TO THE NORTH, AND LIFE AS A FREEMAN.--BECOMES
AN ANTI-SLAVERY ORATOR.--GOES TO GREAT BRITAIN.--RETURNS TO
AMERICA.--ESTABLISHES THE "NORTH STAR."--HIS ELOQUENCE,
INFLUENCE, AND BRILLIANT CAREER.--RICHARD THEODORE GREENER.--HIS
EARLY LIFE, EDUCATION, AND SUCCESSFUL LITERARY CAREER.--JOHN P.
GREEN.--HIS EARLY STRUGGLES TO OBTAIN AN EDUCATION.--A SUCCESSFUL
ORATOR, LAWYER, AND USEFUL LEGISLATOR.--OTHER REPRESENTATIVE
COLORED MEN.--REPRESENTATIVE COLORED WOMEN.

The Government could not escape the logic of the position it took when it made the Negro a soldier, and invoked his aid in putting down the slave-holders' Rebellion. As a soldier he stood in line of promotion: the Government destroyed the Confederacy when it placed muskets in the hands of the slaves; and at the close of the war had to legally render slavery forever impossible in the United States. The bloody deduction of the great struggle had to be made a living, legal verity in the Constitution, and hence the Thirteenth Amendment.

"ARTICLE XIII.

"SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as
a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.

"SECTION 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation."

This was the consummation of the ordinance of 1787, carried to its last analysis, applied in its broadest sense. It drove the last nail in the coffin of slavery, and blighted the fondest hope of the friends of secession.

But there was need for another amendment to the Constitution conferring upon the Colored people manhood suffrage. On the 27th of February, 1869, the Congress passed a resolution recommending the Fifteenth Amendment for ratification by the Legislatures of the several States. On the 30th of March, 1870, President U. S. Grant sent a special message to Congress, calling the attention of that body to the proclamation of the Secretary of State in reference to the ratification of the Amendment by twenty-nine of the States.

SPECIAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT GRANT ON RATIFICATION OF THE
FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT:

"_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

"It is unusual to notify the two houses of Congress, by message,
of the promulgation, by proclamation of the Secretary of State,
of the ratification of a constitutional amendment. In view,
however, of the vast importance of the XVth Amendment to the
Constitution, this day declared a part of that revered
instrument, I deem a departure from the usual custom justifiable.
A measure which makes at once four millions of people voters, who
were heretofore declared by the highest tribunal in the land not
citizens of the United States, nor eligible to become so, (with
the assertion that, 'at the time of the Declaration of
Independence, the opinion was fixed and universal in the
civilized portion of the white race, regarded as an axiom in
morals as well as in politics, that black men had no rights which
the white man was bound to respect,') is indeed a measure of
grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the
foundation of our free government to the present day.

"Institutions like ours, in which all power is derived directly
from the people, must depend mainly upon their intelligence,
patriotism, and industry. I call the attention, therefore, of the
newly-enfranchised race to the importance of their striving in
every honorable manner to make themselves worthy of their new
privilege. To the race more favored heretofore by our laws I
would say, withhold no legal privilege of advancement to the new
citizen. The framers of our Constitution firmly believed that a
republican government could not endure without intelligence and
education generally diffused among the people. The 'Father of his
Country,' in his farewell address, uses this language: 'Promote,
then, as a matter of primary importance, institutions for the
general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of
the government gives force to public opinion, it is essential
that public opinion should be enlightened.' In his first annual
message to Congress the same views are forcibly presented, and
are again urged in his eighth message.

"I repeat that the adaption of the XVth Amendment to the
Constitution completes the greatest civil change and constitutes
the most important event that has occurred since the nation came
into life. The change will be beneficial in proportion to the
heed that is given to the urgent recommendations of Washington.
If these recommendations were important then, with a population
of but a few millions, how much more important now, with a
population of forty millions, and increasing in a rapid ratio.

"I would therefore call upon Congress to take all the means
within their constitutional powers to promote and encourage
popular education throughout the country; and upon the people
everywhere to see to it that all who possess and exercise
political rights shall have the opportunity to acquire the
knowledge which will make their share in the government a
blessing and not a danger. By such means only can the benefits
contemplated by this amendment to the Constitution be secured.

"U. S. GRANT.

"EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 30, 1870."

CERTIFICATE OF MR. SECRETARY FISH RESPECTING THE RATIFICATION OF
THE XVTH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION, MARCH 30, 1870.

"HAMILTON FISH, SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

"_To all to whom these presents may come, greeting_:

"Know ye that the Congress of the United States, on or about the
27th day of February, in the year 1869, passed a resolution in
the words and figures following, to wit:

"A RESOLUTION proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the
United States.

"_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of
both houses concurring.)_ That the following article be proposed
to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by
three-fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid as part of the
Constitution, namely:

"ARTICLE XV.

"SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any
State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.

"SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.

"And, further, that it appears, from official documents on file
in this department, that the amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the
legislatures of the States of North Carolina, West Virginia,
Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Maine, Louisiana, Michigan, South
Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois,
Indiana, New York, New Hampshire, Nevada, Vermont, Virginia,
Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota,
Rhode Island, Nebraska, and Texas; in all, twenty-nine States.

"And, further, that the States whose legislatures have so
ratified the said proposed amendment constitute three-fourths of
the whole number of States in the United States.

"And, further, that it appears, from an official document on file
in this department, that the legislature of the State of New York
has since passed resolutions claiming to withdraw the said
ratification of the said amendment which had been made by the
legislature of that State, and of which official notice had been
filed in this department.

"And, further, that it appears, from an official document on file
in this department, that the legislature of Georgia has by
resolution ratified the said proposed amendment.

"Now, therefore, be it known that I, Hamilton Fish, Secretary of
State of the United States, by virtue and in pursuance of the 2d
section of the act of Congress, approved the 20th day of April,
1818, entitled "An act to provide for the publication of the laws
of the United States, and for other purposes," do hereby certify,
that the amendment aforesaid has become valid, to all intents and
purposes, as part of the Constitution of the United States.

"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the
seal of the Department of State to be affixed.

"Done at the city of Washington, this 30th day of March, in the
year of our Lord, 1870, and of the independence of the United
States, the ninety-fourth.

[SEAL.]

"HAMILTON FISH."

The Emancipation Proclamation itself did not call forth such genuine and wide-spread rejoicing as the message of President Grant. The event was celebrated by the Colored people in all the larger cities North and South. Processions, orations, music and dancing proclaimed the unbounded joy of the new citizen. In Philadelphia Frederick Douglass, Bishop Jabez P. Campbell, I. C. Wears, and others delivered eloquent addresses to enthusiastic audiences. Mr. Douglass deeply wounded the religious feelings of his race by declaring; "I shall not dwell in any hackneyed cant by thanking God for this deliverance which has been wrought out through our common humanity." A hundred pulpits, a hundred trenchant pens sprang at the declaration with fiery indignation; and it was some years before the bold orator was able to make himself tolerable to his people. There was little of the spirit of tolerance among the Colored people at the time, and upon such an occasion the remark was regarded as imprudent, to say the least.

A new era was opened up before the Colored people. They were now for the first time in possession of their full political rights. On the 25th of February, 1870, Hiram R. Revels took his seat as United States Senator from Mississippi. On the 9th of January, 1861, Mississippi passed her ordinance of secession, and Jefferson Davis resigned his seat as United States Senator. Within a brief decade a civil war had raged for four and a half years; and after the seceding Mississippi had passed through the refining fires of battle and had been purged of slavery, she sent to succeed the arch traitor a _Negro_,[123] a representative of the race that Mr. Davis intended to be the corner-stone of his new government!![124] It was God's work, and marvellous in the eyes of the world. But this was not all. Just one year from the day and hour Senator Revels took his seat in the United States Senate, on the 24th of February, 1871, Jefferson F. Long, a _Negro_, was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives from Georgia, the State of Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice-President of the Confederate States!! And then, as if to add glory to glory, the American Government despatched E. D. Bassett, a Colored man from Pennsylvania, as Minister Resident and Consul-General to Hayti! And with almost the same stroke of his pen, President Grant sent J. Milton Turner, a Colored man from Missouri, as Resident Minister and Consul-General to Liberia! Mr. Bassett came from Philadelphia where the Declaration of Independence was written and proclaimed, and where the noble Dr. Franklin had stood against the slavery compromises of the Constitution! Philadelphia, then, the birthplace of American Independence, had the honor of furnishing the first Negro who was to illustrate the lofty sentiment of the equality of _all_ men before the law. And the republic that Mr. Bassett went to had won diplomatic relations with all the civilized powers of the earth through the matchless valor and splendid statesmanship of Toussaint L'Ouverture. This was a black republic that had a history and a name among the peoples of the world.

Mr. Turner went from Missouri, the first State to violate the ordinance of 1787, and to establish slavery "northwest of the Ohio" River. He went to a republic on the West Coast of Africa that had been built by the industry, intelligence, and piety of Negroes who had flown from the accursed influences of American slavery. The slave-ships had disappeared from the coast, and commercial fleets, from all lands came to trade with the citizens of a free republic whose ministers were welcomed in every court of Europe, and whose official acts were clothed with the authority and majesty of "_the Republic of Liberia_!"

In this same period Frederick Douglass was made a Presidential Elector for the State of New York; and thus helped cast the vote of that great commonwealth for U. S. Grant as President, in 1872. In the chief city of this State the first Federal Congress met, and on the first day of its first session spent the entire time in discussing the slavery question. Through the streets of this same city Mr. Douglass had to skulk and hide from slave-catchers on his way from the hell of slavery, to the land of freedom. In this city, a few years later, he was hounded by a pro-slavery mob,--but at last he represented the popular will of its noblest citizens when they had chosen him to act for them in the Electoral College.

Born a slave, some time during the present century, on the eastern shore, Maryland, in the county of Talbot, and in the district of Tuckahoe, Frederick Douglass was destined by nature and God to be a giant in the great moral agitation for the extinction of slavery and the redemption of his race. He came of two extremes--representative Negro and representative Saxon. Tall, large-boned, colossal frame, compact head, broad, expressive face adorned with small brown, mischievous eyes, nose slightly Grecian, chin square set, and thin lips, Frederick Douglass would attract attention upon the streets of any city in Europe or America. His life as a slave was studded with painful experiences. Early separation from his mother, neglect, and then cruel treatment gave to the holy cause of freedom one of its ablest champions, and to slavery one of its most invincible opponents.

Transferred from Talbot County to Baltimore, Maryland, where he spent seven years, Mr. Douglass began to extend the horizon of his intellectual vision, and to come face to face with the hideous monster of slavery in the moments of reflection upon his condition in contrast with that of a fairer race about him. Inadvertently his mistress began to teach him characters of letters; but she was stopped by the advice of her husband, because it was thought inimical to the interest of the master to teach his slave. But having lighted the taper of knowledge in the mind of the slave boy, it was forever beyond human power to put it out. The incidents and surroundings of young Douglass peopled his brain with ideas, gave wings to his thoughts and order to his reasoning. The word of reproof, the angry look, and the precautions to prevent him from acquiring knowledge rankled in his young heart and covered his moral sky with thick clouds of despair. He reasoned himself right out of slavery, and ran away and went North.

David Ruggles, a Colored gentleman of intelligence, took charge of Mr. Douglass in New York, and sent him to New Bedford, Massachusetts. Having married in New York a free Colored woman from Baltimore named "Anna," he was ready now to enter upon the duties of the new life as a freeman. He found in one Nathan Johnson, an intelligent and industrious Colored man of New Bedford, a warm friend, who advanced him a sum of money to redeem baggage held for fare, and gave him the name which he has since rendered illustrious.

The intellectual growth of Mr. Douglass from this on was almost phenomenal. He devoured knowledge with avidity, and retained and utilized all he got. He used information as good business men use money. He made every idea bear interest; and now setting the music of his soul to the words he acquired, he soon earned a reputation as a gifted conversationalist and an impressive orator.

In the summer of 1841 an anti-slavery convention was held at Nantucket, Massachusetts, under the direction of William Lloyd Garrison. Mr. Douglass had attended several meetings in New Bedford, where he had listened to a defence of his race and a denunciation of its oppressors. And when he heard of the forthcoming convention at Nantucket he resolved to take a little respite from the hard work he was performing in a brass foundry, and attend. Previous to this he had felt the warm heart of Mr. Garrison beating for the slave through the columns of the "Liberator"; had received a copy each week for a long time, had mastered its matchless arguments against slavery, and was, therefore, possessed with an idea of the anti-slavery cause. At Nantucket he was sought out of the vast audience and requested by William C. Coffin, of New Bedford, where he had heard the fervid eloquence of the young man as an exhorter in the Colored Methodist Church, to make a speech. The hesitancy and diffidence of Mr. Douglass were overcome by the importunate invitation to speak. He spoke: and from that hour a new sphere opened to him; from that hour he began to exert an influence against slavery which for a generation was second only to that of Mr. Garrison. He was engaged as an agent of the Anti-Slavery Society led by Mr. Garrison. He was taken in charge by George Foster, and in his company made a lecturing tour of the eastern tier of counties in the old Bay State. The meetings were announced a few days ahead of the lecturer. He was advertised as a "fugitive slave," as "a chattel," as "a thing" that could talk and give an interesting account of the cruelties of slavery. As a narrator he had few equals among the most polished white gentlemen of all New England. His white friends were charmed by the lucidity and succinctness of his account of his life as a slave, and always insisted upon his narrative. But he was more than a narrator, more than a story-teller; he was an orator, and in dealing with the problem of slavery proved himself to be a thinker. The old story of his bondage became stale to him. His friends' advice to keep on telling the same story could no longer be complied with; and dashing out of the beaten path of narration he began a career as an orator that has had no parallel on this continent. He found no adequate satisfaction in relating the experiences of a slave; his soul burned with a holy indignation against the institution of slavery. Having increased his vocabulary of words and his information concerning the purposes and plans of the Anti-Slavery Society, he was prepared to make an assault upon slavery. Instead of being the pupil of the anti-slavery friends who had furnished him a great opportunity, his close reasoning, blighting irony, merciless invective, and matchless eloquence made him the peer of any anti-slavery orator of his times. His appearance on the anti-slavery platform was sudden. He appeared as a new star of magnificent magnitude and surpassing beauty. All eyes were turned toward the "fugitive slave orator." His eloquence so astounded the people that few would believe he had ever felt the cruel touch of the lash. Moreover, he had withheld from the public, the State and place of his nativity and the circumstances of his escape. He had done this purposely for prudential reasons. In those days there was no protection that protected a fugitive slave against the slave-catcher assisted by the United States courts. To reveal his master's name and recount the exciting circumstances under which he had made his escape from bondage, Mr. Douglass felt was but to invite the slave-hounds to Massachusetts and endanger his liberty. But there were many good friends hard by who were ready to pay the market value of Mr. Douglass if a price were placed upon his flesh and blood. They urged him, therefore, to write out an account of his life as a slave,--to be specific; and to boldly mention names of places and persons. In 1845 a pamphlet written by Mr. Douglass, embodying the experiences of a "fugitive slave," was published by the Anti-Slavery Society. It breathed a fiery zeal into the apathy of the North, and drew the fire of the Southern press and people. For safety his friends sent him abroad. During the voyage, in accepting an invitation to deliver a lecture on slavery, he gave offence to some pro-slavery men who desired very much to feed his body to the inhabitants of the deep. But a resolute captain and a few friends were able to reduce the wrath of the Southerners to a minimum. The occurrence on shipboard duly found its way into the public journals of London; and the Southern gentlemen in an attempt to justify their conduct in a card drew upon themselves the wrath of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and gave Mr. Douglass an advertisement such as he could never have secured otherwise.

Mr. Douglass spent nearly two years in Europe lecturing and writing in the cause of anti-slavery. He made a profound impression and helped the anti-slavery cause amazingly.

During his absence he wrote an occasional letter to the editor of the "Liberator," and the first is, for composition, vigorous English, symbols of thought, similes, and irony, superior to any letter he ever wrote before or since. It bore date of January 1, 1846.

"MY DEAR FRIEND GARRISON: Up to this time I have given no direct
expression of the views, feelings, and opinions which I have
formed, respecting the character and condition of the people of
this land. I have refrained thus, purposely. I wish to speak
advisedly, and in order to do this, I have waited till, I trust,
experience has brought my opinions to an intelligent maturity. I
have been thus careful, not because I think what I say will have
much effect in shaping the opinions of the world, but because
whatever of influence I may possess, whether little or much, I
wish it to go in the right direction, and according to truth. I
hardly need say that, in speaking of Ireland, I shall be
influenced by no prejudices in favor of America. I think my
circumstances all forbid that. I have no end to serve, no creed
to uphold, no government to defend; and as to nation, I belong to
none. I have no protection at home, or resting-place abroad. The
land of my birth welcomes me to her shores only as a slave, and
spurns with contempt the idea of treating me differently; so that
I am an outcast from the society of my childhood, and an outlaw
in the land of my birth. 'I am a stranger with thee, and a
sojourner, as all my fathers were.' That men should be patriotic,
is to me perfectly natural; and as a philosophical fact, I am
able to give it an _intellectual_ recognition. But no further can
I go. If ever I had any patriotism, or any capacity for the
feeling, it was whipped out of me long since, by the lash of the
American soul-drivers.

"In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her
bright blue sky, her grand old woods, her fertile fields, her
beautiful rivers, her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains.
But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to
mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal
spirit of slave-holding, robbery, and wrong; when I remember that
with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren
are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her
most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged
sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing, and led to
reproach myself that any thing could fall from my lips in praise
of such a land. America will not allow her children to love her.
She seems bent on compelling those who would be her warmest
friends, to be her worst enemies. May God give her repentance,
before it is too late, is the ardent prayer of my heart. I will
continue to pray, labor, and wait, believing that she cannot
always be insensible to the dictates of justice, or deaf to the
voice of humanity.

"My opportunities for learning the character and condition of the
people of this land have been very great. I have travelled almost
from the Hill of Howth to the Giant's Causeway, and from the
Giant's Causeway to Cape Clear. During these travels, I have met
with much in the character and condition of the people to
approve, and much to condemn; much that has thrilled me with
pleasure, and very much that has filled me with pain. I will not,
in this letter, attempt to give any description of those scenes
which have given me pain. This I will do hereafter. I have
enough, and more than your subscribers will be disposed to read
at one time, of the bright side of the picture. I can truly say,
I have spent some of the happiest moments of my life since
landing in this country. I seem to have undergone a
transformation. I live a new life. The warm and generous
cooperation extended to me by the friends of my despised race;
the prompt and liberal manner with which the press has rendered
me its aid; the glorious enthusiasm with which thousands have
flocked to hear the cruel wrongs of my down-trodden and
long-enslaved fellow-countrymen portrayed; the deep sympathy for
the slave, and the strong abhorrence of the slave-holder,
everywhere evinced; the cordiality with which members and
ministers of various religious bodies, and of various shades of
religious opinion, have embraced me, and lent me their aid; the
kind hospitality constantly proffered me by persons of the
highest rank in society; the spirit of freedom that seems to
animate all with whom I come in contact, and the entire absence
of every thing that looked like prejudice against me, on account
of the color of my skin--contrasted so strongly with my long and
bitter experience in the United States, that I look with wonder
and amazement on the transition. In the southern part of the
United States, I was a slave, thought of and spoken of as
property; in the language of the LAW, '_held, taken, reputed, and
adjudged to be a chattel in the hands of my owners and
possessors, and their executors, administrators, and assigns, to
all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever_.' (Brev.
Digest, 224.) In the northern states, a fugitive slave, liable to
be hunted at any moment like a felon, and to be hurled into the
terrible jaws of slavery-doomed by an inveterate prejudice
against color to insult and outrage on every hand, (Massachussetts
out of the question)--denied the privileges and courtesies common
to others in the use of the most humble means of conveyance--shut
out from the cabins of steamboats--refused admission to
respectable hotels--caricatured, scorned, scoffed, mocked, and
maltreated with impunity by any one, (no matter how black his
heart,) so he has a white skin. But now behold the change! Eleven
days and a half gone, and I have crossed three thousand miles of
the perilous deep. Instead of a democratic government, I am under
a monarchical government. Instead of the bright, blue sky of
America, I am covered with the soft, grey fog of the Emerald
Isle. I breathe, and lo! the chattel becomes a man. I gaze around
in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as
his slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab--I am seated
beside white people--I reach the hotel--I enter the same door--I
am shown into the same parlor--I dine at the same table--and no
one is offended.

No delicate nose grows deformed in my presence. I find no
difficulty here in obtaining admission into any place of worship,
instruction, or amusement, on equal terms with people as white as
any I ever saw in the United States. I meet nothing to remind me
of my complexion. I find myself regarded and treated at every
turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people. When I
go to church, I am met by no upturned nose and scornful lip to
tell me, '_We don't allow niggers in here!_'

"I remember, about two years ago, there was in Boston, near the
south-west corner of Boston Common, a menagerie. I had long
desired to see such a collection as I understood was being
exhibited there. Never having had an opportunity while a slave, I
resolved to seize this, my first, since my escape. I went, and as
I approached the entrance to gain admission, I was met and told
by the door-keeper, in a harsh and contemptuous tone, '_We don't
allow niggers in here!_' I also remember attending a revival
meeting in the Rev. Henry Jackson's meeting-house, at New
Bedford, and going up the broad aisle to find a seat, I was met
by a good deacon, who told me, in a pious tone, '_We don't allow
niggers in here!_' Soon after my arrival in New Bedford, from the
South, I had a strong desire to attend the Lyceum, but was told,
'_They don't allow niggers in here!_' While passing from New York
to Boston, on the steamer 'Massachusetts,' on the night of the
9th of December, 1843, when chilled almost through with the cold,
I went into the cabin to get a little warm. I was soon touched
upon the shoulder, and told, '_We don't allow niggers in here!_'
On arriving in Boston, from an anti-slavery tour, hungry and
tired, I went into an eating-house, near my friend, Mr.
Campbell's, to get some refreshments. I was met by a lad in a
white apron, '_We don't allow niggers in here!_' A week or two
before leaving the United States, I had a meeting appointed at
Weymouth, the home of that glorious band of true abolitionists,
the Weston family, and others. On attempting to take a seat in
the omnibus to that place, I was told by the driver (and I never
shall forget his fiendish hate), '_I don't allow niggers in
here!_' Thank heaven for the respite I now enjoy! I had been in
Dublin but a few days, when a gentleman of great respectability
kindly offered to conduct me through all the public buildings of
that beautiful city; and a little afterward, I found myself
dining with the lord mayor of Dublin. What a pity there was not
some American democratic Christian at the door of his splendid
mansion, to bark out at my approach, '_They don't allow niggers
in here!_' The truth is, the people here know nothing of the
republican negro hate prevalent in our glorious land. They
measure and esteem men according to their moral and intellectual
worth, and not according to the color of their skin. Whatever may
be said of the aristocracies here, there is none based on the
color of a man's skin.

This species of aristocracy belongs preeminently to 'the land of
the free, and the home of the brave.' I have never found it
abroad, in any but Americans. It sticks to them wherever they go.
They find it almost as hard to get rid of, as to get rid of their
skins.

"The second day after my arrival at Liverpool, in company with my
friend, Buffum, and several other friends, I went to Eaton Hall,
the residence of the Marquis of Westminster, one of the most
splendid buildings in England. On approaching the door, I found
several of our American passengers, who came out with us in the
'Cambria,' waiting for admission, as but one party was allowed in
the house at a time. We all had to wait till the company within
came out. And of all the faces, expressive of chagrin, those of
the Americans were preëminent. They looked as sour as vinegar,
and as bitter as gall, when they found I was to be admitted on
equal terms with themselves. When the door was opened, I walked
in, on an equal footing with my white fellow-citizens, and from
all I could see, I had as much attention paid me by the servants
that showed us through the house, as any with a paler skin. As I
walked through the building, the statuary did not fall down, the
pictures did not leap from their places, the doors did not refuse
to open, and the servants did not say, '_We don't allow niggers
in here_.'

"A happy new year to you, and all the friends of freedom."

During the time of his visit in Europe a few friends, under the inspiration of one Mrs. Henry Richardson, raised money, purchased Mr. Douglass, and placed his freedom papers in his hands. The documents are of quaint historic value.

"The following is a copy of these curious papers, both of my
transfer from Thomas to Hugh Auld, and from Hugh to myself:

"Know all men by these Presents, That I, Thomas Auld, of Talbot
county, and state of Maryland, for and in consideration of the
sum of one hundred dollars, current money, to me paid by Hugh
Auld, of the city of Baltimore, in the said state, at and before
the sealing and delivery of these presents, the receipt whereof,
I, the said Thomas Auld, do hereby acknowledge, have granted,
bargained, and sold, and by these presents do grant, bargain, and
sell unto the said Hugh Auld, his executors, administrators, and
assigns, ONE NEGRO MAN, by the name of FREDERICK BAILY, or
DOUGLASS, as he calls himself--he is now about twenty-eight years
of age--to have and to hold the said negro man for life. And I,
the said Thomas Auld, for myself, my heirs, executors, and
administrators, all and singular, the said FREDERICK BAILY,
_alias_ DOUGLASS, unto the said Hugh Auld, his executors,
administrators, and assigns, against me, the said Thomas Auld, my
executors, and administrators, and against all and every other
person or persons whatsoever, shall and will warrant and forever
defend by these presents. In witness whereof, I set my hand and
seal, this thirteenth day of November, eighteen hundred and
forty-six.

THOMAS AULD.

"Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of Wrightson Jones.
"JOHN C. LEAS."

"The authenticity of this bill of sale is attested by N.
Harrington, a justice of the peace of the state of Maryland, and
for the county of Talbot, dated same day as above.

* * * * *

"To all whom it may concern: Be it known, that I, Hugh Auld, of
the city of Baltimore, in Baltimore county, in the state of
Maryland, for divers good causes and considerations, me thereunto
moving, have released from slavery, liberated, manumitted, and
set free, and by these presents do hereby release from slavery,
liberate, manumit, and set free, MY NEGRO MAN, named FREDERICK
BAILY, otherwise called DOUGLASS, being of the age of
twenty-eight years, or thereabouts, and able to work and gain a
sufficient livelihood and maintenance; and him the said negro
man, named FREDERICK BAILY, otherwise called FREDERICK DOUGLASS,
I do declare to be henceforth free, manumitted, and discharged
from all manner of servitude to me, my executors, and
administrators forever.

"In witness whereof, I, the said Hugh Auld, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the fifth of December, in the year one thousand
eight hundred and forty-six.

HUGH AULD.

"Sealed and delivered in presence of T. Hanson Belt.
"JAMES N. S. T. WRIGHT."

Mr. Douglass had returned to America, but the truths he proclaimed in England, Ireland, and Scotland echoed adown their mountains, and reverberated among their hills. The Church of Scotland and the press of England were distressed with the problem of slavery. The public conscience had been touched, and there was "no rest for the wicked." Mr. Douglass had received his name--Douglass--from Nathan Johnson, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, because he had just been reading about the virtuous Douglass in the works of Sir Walter Scott. How wonderful then, in the light of a few years, that a fugitive slave from America, bearing one of the most powerful names in Scotland should lean against the pillars of the _Free Church of Scotland_, and meet and vanquish its brightest and ablest teachers (the friends of slavery, unfortunately), Doctors Cunningham and Candlish!

It will be remembered that Mr. Garrison had built his school upon the fundamental idea that slavery was constitutional; and that in order to secure the overthrow of the institution he was compelled to do his work outside of the Constitution; and to effect the good desired, the Union should be dissolved. With these views Mr. Douglass had coincided at first, and into the ranks of this party he had entered. But upon his return from England he changed his residence and views about the same time, and established his home and a newspaper in Rochester, New York State. Mr. Douglass gave his reasons for leaving the Garrisonian party as follows:

"About four years ago, upon a reconsideration of the whole
subject, I became convinced that there was no necessity for
dissolving the 'union between the northern and southern states';
that to seek this dissolution was no part of my duty as an
abolitionist; that to abstain from voting, was to refuse to
exercise a legitimate and powerful means for abolishing slavery;
and that the constitution of the United States not only contained
no guarantees in favor of slavery, but, on the contrary, it is,
in its letter and spirit, an anti-slavery instrument, demanding
the abolition of slavery as a condition of its own existence, as
the supreme law of the land."[125]

It was charged by some persons that for financial reasons Mr. Douglass changed his views and residence; that the Garrisonians were poor; but that Gerrit Smith was rich; and that he assisted Mr. Douglass in establishing the "North Star," a weekly paper. But Mr. Douglass was a man of boldness of thought and independence of character; and whatever the motives were which led him away from his early friends he at least deserved credit for possessing the courage necessary to such a change. But Mr. Douglass was not the only anti-slavery man who imagined that the Constitution was an anti-slavery instrument. This was the error of Charles Sumner. Slavery was as legal as the right of the Government to coin money. As has been shown already, it was recognized and protected by law when the British sceptre ruled the colonies; it was recognized by all the courts during the Confederacy; it was acknowledged as a legal fact by the Treaty of Paris of 1782, and of Ghent in 1814: the gentlemen who framed the Constitution fixed the basis of representation in Congress upon three fifths of the slaves; and gave the owners of slaves a fugitive slave law, at the birth of the nation, by which to hunt their slaves in all the States and Territories of North America. But Mr. Douglass lived long enough to see that he was wrong and Mr. Garrison right; that the dissolution of the Union was the only way to free his race. In his way he did his part as faithfully and as honestly as any of his brethren in either one of the anti-slavery parties.

Having established a reputation as an orator in England and America; and having lifted over the tangled path of his fugitive brethren the unerring, friendly "North Star," he now turned his attention to debating. It was a matter of regret that two such powerful and accomplished orators as Frederick Douglass and Samuel Ringgold Ward should have taken up so much precious time in splitting hairs on the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of slavery. Perhaps it did good. It certainly did the men good. It was an education to them, and exciting to their audiences. Mr. Douglass's forte was in oratory; in exposing the hideousness of slavery and the wrongs of his race. Mr. Ward--a _protégé_ of Gerrit Smith's--was scholarly, thoughtful, logical, and eloquent. Mr. Douglass was generally worsted in debate, but always triumphant in oratory. A careful study of Mr. Douglass's speeches from the time he began his career as a public speaker down to the present time reveals wonderful progress in their grammatical and synthetical structure. He grew all the time. On the 12th of May, 1846, he delivered a speech at Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, England, from which the following is extracted:

"All the slaveholder asks of me is silence. He does not ask me to
go abroad and preach _in favor_ of slavery; he does not ask any
one to do that. He would not say that slavery is a good thing,
but the best under the circumstances. The slaveholders want total
darkness on the subject. They want the hatchway shut down, that
the monster may crawl in his den of darkness, crushing human
hopes and happiness, destroying the bondman at will, and having
no one to reprove or rebuke him. Slavery shrinks from the light;
it hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest its deeds
should be reproved. To tear off the mask from this abominable
system, to expose it to the light of heaven, aye, to the heat of
the sun, that it may burn and wither it out of existence, is my
object in coining to this country. I want the slaveholder
surrounded, as by a wall of anti-slavery fire, so that he may see
the condemnation of himself and his system glaring down in
letters of light. I want him to feel that he has no sympathy in
England, Scotland, or Ireland; that he has none in Canada, none
in Mexico, none among the poor wild Indians; that the voice of
the civilized, aye, and savage world is against him. I would have
condemnation blaze down upon him in every direction, till,
stunned and overwhelmed with shame and confusion, he is compelled
to let go the grasp he holds upon the persons of his victims, and
restore them to their long-lost rights."

This was in 1846. On the 5th of July, 1852, at Rochester, New York, he, perhaps, made the most effective speech of his life. The poet Sheridan has written: "Eloquence consists in the man, the subject, and the occasion." None of these conditions were wanting. There was the man, the incomparable Douglass; the wrongs of slavery was his subject; and the occasion was the 4th of July.

"FELLOW-CITIZENS:--Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I
called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I
represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great
principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied
in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I,
therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the
national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express devout
gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to
us?

"Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative
answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then
would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For
who is there so cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm
him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that
would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so
stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the
hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude
had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like
that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the 'lame man leap as
an hart.'

"But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad
sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the
pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only
reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in
which you this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich
inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence,
bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The
sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought
stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is _yours_, not
_mine_. _You_ may rejoice, _I_ must mourn. 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 to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct.
And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a
nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by
the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable
ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and
woe-smitten people.

"'By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when
we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the
midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive
required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us
mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we
sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O
Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not
remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.'

"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. America is false to the past,
false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to
the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave
on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is
outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name
of the Constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and
trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all
the emphasis I can command, every thing that serves to perpetuate
slavery--the great sin and shame of America! 'I will not
equivocate; I will not excuse'; I will use the severest language
I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man,
whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at
heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just."

His speech in England was labored, heavy, and some portions of it ambitious. But here are measured sentences, graceful transitions, truth made forcible, and the oratory refined. Thus he went on from good to better, until the managers of leading lecture-courses of the land felt that the season would not be a success without Frederick Douglass. He began to venture into deeper water; to expound problems not exactly in line with the only theme that he was complete master of. His attempts at wit usually missed fire. He could not be funny. He was in earnest from the first moment the light broke into his mind in Baltimore. He was rarely eloquent except when denouncing slavery. He was not at his best in abstract thought: too much logic dampened his enthusiasm; and an attempt at elaborate preparation weakened his discourse. He was majestic when speaking of the insults he had received or the wrongs his race were suffering. Martin Luther said during the religious struggle in Germany for freedom of thought: "Sorrow has pressed many sweet songs out of me." It was the sorrows of the child-heart of Douglass the chattel, and the sorrows of the great man-heart of Douglass the human being, that gave the world such remarkable eloquence. There were but two chords in his soul that could yield a rich sound, viz.: sorrow and indignation. Sorrow for the helpless slave, and indignation against the heartless master, made him grand, majestic, and eloquent beyond comparison.

Although he was going constantly he saved his means, and raised a family of two girls--one dying in her teens, an affliction he took deeply to heart--and three boys. When the war was on at high tide, and Colored soldiers required, he gave all he had, three stalwart boys, while he made it very uncomfortable for the Copperheads at home. At the close of the war he moved to Washington and became deeply interested in the practical work of reconstruction. He was appointed one of the Commissioners to visit San Domingo, when General Grant recommended its annexation to the United States; was a trustee of Howard University and of the Freedman's Savings Bank and Trust Company. Unfortunately he accepted the presidency of the latter institution after nearly all the thieves had got through with it, and was its official head when the crash and ruin came.

Mr. Douglass's home[126] life has been pure and elevated. He has done well by his boys; and has aided many young men to places of usefulness and profit. He strangely and violently opposed the exodus of his race from the South, and thereby incurred the opposition of the Northern press and the anathemas of the Colored people. It was not just the thing, men said--white and black,--for a man who had been a slave in the South, and had come North to find a market for his labor, to oppose his brethren in their flight from economic slavery and the shot-gun policy of the South. His efforts to state and justify his position before the Colored people of New York were received with an impatient air and tolerated even for the time with ill grace. Before the Social Science Congress at Saratoga, New York, he met Richard T. Greener, a young Colored man, in a discussion of this subject. But Mr. Greener, a son of Harvard College, with a keen and merciless logic, cut right through the sophistries of Mr. Douglass; and although the latter gentleman threw bouquets at the audience, and indulged in the most exquisite word-painting, he was compelled to leave the field a vanquished disputant.

President Hayes appointed Mr. Douglass United States Marshall for the District of Columbia, an office which he held until President Garfield made him Recorder of Deeds for the same district. He has accumulated a comfortable little fortune, has published three books, edited two newspapers, passed through a checkered and busy life; and to-day, full of honors and years, he stands confessedly as the first man of his race in North America. Not that he is the greatest in every sense; but considering "the depths from whence he came," the work he has accomplished, the character untarnished,--his memory and character, like the granite shaft, will have an enduring and undying place in the gratitude of humanity throughout the world.