Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass | Page 2

revolutionary fame, never made a speech more
eloquent in the cause of liberty, than the one we had just listened to
from the lips of that hunted fugitive. So I believed at that time--such is
my belief now. I reminded the audience of the peril which surrounded
this self-emancipated young man at the North,--even in Massachusetts,
on the soil of the Pilgrim Fathers, among the descendants of
revolutionary sires; and I appealed to them, whether they would ever
allow him to be carried back into slavery,--law or no law, constitution
or no constitution. The response was unanimous and in
thunder-tones--"NO!" "Will you succor and protect him as a
brother-man--a resident of the old Bay State?" "YES!" shouted the
whole mass, with an energy so startling, that the ruthless tyrants south
of Mason and Dixon's line might almost have heard the mighty burst of
feeling, and recognized it as the pledge of an invincible determination,
on the part of those who gave it, never to betray him that wanders, but
to hide the outcast, and firmly to abide the consequences.
It was at once deeply impressed upon my mind, that, if Mr.
DOUGLASS could be persuaded to consecrate his time and talents to
the promotion of the anti-slavery enterprise, a powerful impetus would
be given to it, and a stunning blow at the same time inflicted on
northern prejudice against a colored complexion. I therefore
endeavored to instil hope and courage into his mind, in order that he
might dare to engage in a vocation so anomalous and responsible for a
person in his situation; and I was seconded in this effort by

warm-hearted friends, especially by the late General Agent of the
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Mr. JOHN A. COLLINS, whose
judgment in this instance entirely coincided with my own. At first, he
could give no encouragement; with unfeigned diffidence, he expressed
his conviction that he was not adequate to the performance of so great a
task; the path marked out was wholly an untrodden one; he was
sincerely apprehensive that he should do more harm than good. After
much deliberation, however, he consented to make a trial; and ever
since that period, he has acted as a lecturing agent, under the auspices
either of the American or the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. In
labors he has been most abundant; and his success in combating
prejudice, in gaining proselytes, in agitating the public mind, has far
surpassed the most sanguine expectations that were raised at the
commencement of his brilliant career. He has borne himself with
gentleness and meekness, yet with true manliness of character. As a
public speaker, he excels in pathos, wit, comparison, imitation, strength
of reasoning, and fluency of language. There is in him that union of
head and heart, which is indispensable to an enlightenment of the heads
and a winning of the hearts of others. May his strength continue to be
equal to his day! May he continue to "grow in grace, and in the
knowledge of God," that he may be increasingly serviceable in the
cause of bleeding humanity, whether at home or abroad!
It is certainly a very remarkable fact, that one of the most efficient
advocates of the slave population, now before the public, is a fugitive
slave, in the person of FREDERICK DOUGLASS; and that the free
colored population of the United States are as ably represented by one
of their own number, in the person of CHARLES LENOX REMOND,
whose eloquent appeals have extorted the highest applause of
multitudes on both sides of the Atlantic. Let the calumniators of the
colored race despise themselves for their baseness and illiberality of
spirit, and henceforth cease to talk of the natural inferiority of those
who require nothing but time and opportunity to attain to the highest
point of human excellence.
It may, perhaps, be fairly questioned, whether any other portion of the
population of the earth could have endured the privations, sufferings

and horrors of slavery, without having become more degraded in the
scale of humanity than the slaves of African descent. Nothing has been
left undone to cripple their intellects, darken their minds, debase their
moral nature, obliterate all traces of their relationship to mankind; and
yet how wonderfully they have sustained the mighty load of a most
frightful bondage, under which they have been groaning for centuries!
To illustrate the effect of slavery on the white man,--to show that he
has no powers of endurance, in such a condition, superior to those of
his black brother,--DANIEL O'CONNELL, the distinguished advocate
of universal emancipation, and the mightiest champion of prostrate but
not conquered Ireland, relates the following anecdote in a speech
delivered by him in the Conciliation Hall, Dublin, before the Loyal
National Repeal Association, March 31, 1845. "No matter," said Mr.
O'CONNELL, "under what