Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
Il6 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
Garrisonians was the end to be sought by the
American abolitionists as opposed to those who
believed in the anti-slavery character of the constitution
and duty of laboring inside of the government
for the abolition of slavery. Mr. Douglass,
then being in Glasgow, was invited to answer Mr.
Thompson, and did so in a speech which showed
not only his ability as a ready debater, but his
thorough understanding of the question he discussed.
The extract which we here present of
that speech will give some idea of his power of
simple statement and force of logical reasoning:—
" I have read with much care a speech delivered
in the City Hall, Glasgow, on the 28th of February,
purporting to be a reply to one made by
myself in Dr. Anderson's church a few weeks
previously. I found that speech at length in one
of your most respectable daily papers. The
minuteness and general shading of the report
bore evidence that the orator had been his own
reporter. The speech showed no marks of being
marred or mutilated in its transition from the
manuscript to the types, and no doubt may be
properly taken as a fair transcript of the orator's
utterances on that occasion. On some accounts
I read that speech with much regret, and on
others with much satisfaction. I was certainly
pleased with the evidence it afforded that the
orator had largely recovered his long-lost health,