Stephen A. Douglas | Page 4

a cabinet-maker; but
in less than a year he quit this employer on the plea of ill-health.[11] It
is quite likely that the confinement and severe manual labor may have
overtaxed the strength of the growing boy; but it is equally clear that he
had lost his taste for cabinet work. He never again expressed a wish to
follow a trade. He again took up his abode with his mother; and, the
means now coming to hand from some source, he enrolled as a student
in Brandon Academy, with the avowed purpose of preparing for a
professional career.[12] It was a wise choice. Vermont may have lost a
skilled handworker--there are those who vouch for the excellence of his
handiwork[13]--but the Union gained a joiner of first-rate ability.
Wedding bells rang in another change in his fortunes. The marriage of
his sister to a young New Yorker from Ontario County, was followed
by the marriage of his mother to the father, Gehazi Granger. Both
couples took up their residence on the Granger estate, and thither also
went Stephen, with perhaps a sense of loneliness in his boyish heart.[14]
He was then but seventeen. This removal to New York State proved to
be his first step along a path which Vermonters were wearing toward
the West.
Happily, his academic course was not long interrupted by this
migration, for Canandaigua Academy, which offered unusual
advantages, was within easy reach from his new home. Under the wise
instruction of Professor Henry Howe, he began the study of Latin and
Greek; and by his own account made "considerable improvement,"
though there is little evidence in his later life of any acquaintance with
the classics. He took an active part in the doings of the literary societies
of the academy, distinguishing himself by his readiness in debate. His
Democratic proclivities were still strong; and he became an ardent
defender of Democracy against the rising tide of Anti-Masonry, which
was threatening to sweep New York from its political moorings.

Tradition says that young Douglass mingled much with local
politicians, learning not a little about the arts and devices by which the
Albany Regency controlled the Democratic organization in the State. In
this school of practical politics he was beyond a peradventure an apt
pupil.
A characteristic story is told of Douglass during these school days at
Canandaigua.[15] A youngster who occupied a particularly desirable
seat at table had been ousted by another lad, who claimed a better right
to the place. Some one suggested that the claimants should have the
case argued by counsel before a board of arbitration. The dispossessed
boy lost his case, because of the superior skill with which Douglass
presented the claims of his client. "It was the first assertion of the
doctrine of squatter sovereignty," said the defeated claimant, recalling
the incident years afterward, when both he and Douglas were in
politics.
Douglass was now maturing rapidly. His ideals were clearer; his native
tastes more pronounced. It is not improbable that already he looked
forward to politics as a career. At all events he took the proximate step
toward that goal by beginning the study of law in the office of local
attorneys, at the same time continuing his studies begun in the academy.
What marked him off from his comrades even at this period was his
lively acquisitiveness. He seemed to learn quite as much by indirection
as by persevering application to books.[16]
In the spring of 1833, the same unrest that sent the first Douglass across
the sea to the new world, seized the young man. Against the
remonstrances of his mother and his relatives, he started for the great
West which then spelled opportunity to so many young men. He was
only twenty years old, and he had not yet finished his academic course;
but with the impatience of ambition he was reluctant to spend four
more years in study before he could gain admission to the bar. In the
newer States of the West conditions were easier. Moreover, he was no
longer willing to be a burden to his mother, whose resources were
limited. And so, with purposes only half formed and with only enough
money for his immediate needs, he began, not so much a journey, as a

drift in a westerly direction, for he had no particular destination in
view.[17]
After a short stay in Buffalo and a visit to Niagara Falls and the battle
ground of Chippewa, the boy took a steamboat to Cleveland, where
happily he found a friend in Sherlock J. Andrews, Esquire, a successful
attorney and a man of kindly impulses. Finding the city attractive and
the requirements for the Ohio bar less rigorous, Douglass determined to
drop anchor in this pleasant port. Mr. Andrews encouraged him in this
purpose, offering the use