Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
courage displayed by the gentlemen at whose
call I am here. There is felt to be a principle
in the matter placing it far above egotism or
personal vanity; a principle which gives to this
occasion a general, and, I had almost said, an
universal interest. I engage, to-day, for the first
time, in the exercises of any college commencement.
It is a new chapter in my humble experience.
The usual course, at such times, I believe,
is to call to the platform men of age and distinction,
eminent for eloquence, mental ability, and
scholarly attainments—men whose high culture,
severe training, great experience, large observation,
and peculiar aptitude for teaching, qualify
them to instruct even the already well instructed,
and to impart a glow, a luster, to the acquirements
of those who are passing from the halls of
learning to the broad theater of active life. To
no such high endeavor as this, is your humble
speaker fitted; and it was with much distrust
and hesitation that he accepted the invitation, so
kindly and perseveringly given, to occupy a portion
of your attention here to-day.
" I express the hope, then, gentlemen, that this
acknowledgment of the novelty of my position,
and my unaffected and honest confession of inaptitude,
will awaken a sentiment of generous
indulgence towards the scattered thoughts I have
been able to fling together, with a view of pre-