Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
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#Q4 L^E OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
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in using manuscript, yet some im-
*JS°/& tt .*: ?«^anjages have resulted from this practlce.
"* He* was'led to investigate more extensively
the subjects on which he wrote, and to take more
time for preparation; and thus made his speeches
more complete. Formerly, many of his best extemporaneous
efforts were never fully reported,
and consequently much that he said has been
lost. His later lectures and speeches have been
preserved in manuscript form, and when published
together, as they will be one day, will prove
a valuable contribution to literature.
Some of his best lectures are The Mission of
the War, The Sources of Danger to the Republic,
Self-made Men, Recollections of the Antislavery
Contest, William the Silent, Santo Domingo,
The National Capital, Abraham Lincoln,
John Brown.
The discourses of Mr. Douglass when reviewed,
will bear the test of criticism, and will be
found to contain the requisites of a correct and
finished style. His language is pure, his words
are choice, and in accordance with the best usage.
His sentences are constructed in the English
idiom, and have the elements of strength because
preference is given in their formation to short
Anglo-Saxon words, rather than to those derived
from Latin and Greek. So carefully is the rule
of propriety observed by him that one would