Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
182 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLAS^.
assassin's bullet went crashing through his brain,
it would have been entirely like him to have implored
mercy for his merciless murderer. " Malice
toward none, charity toward all," was his
motto in life and in death.
" It is worthy of remark, too, that William the
Silent and Abraham Lincoln were alike fortunate
as to the time at which they were called
away from the stormy scenes of life. Both saw
the mighty works of their great lives nearly completed,
and died amid the glorious triumphs of
their respective causes.
William, though long under the ban of pope
and king, and denounced by both as an outlaw,
though long pursued by assassins, though large
rewards had been offered for any one who would
murder him, though five different attempts had
been made upon his life, lived to see his country
free, his Spanish enemies worn out and
broken down, the sectarian divisions of his
country healed, the armies of Spain defeated and
driven away from his country, its proud navies
swept from the sea, and the pillars of the Dutch
Republic, of which he was chief builder, firmly
established.
" Men now make pilgrimages to the place where
William fell, and, while freedom has a home anywhere
on American soil, grateful pilgrims will
find their way to the grave of Abraham Lincoln,