Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
184 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
commissioners, and run-betweens in general.
Men are here with all sorts of schemes and enterprises,
some with claims valid and just and some
with claims neither valid nor just. Some have to
secure the extension of a patent which ought to
be extended, and some are here to prevent such
extension. Some are here to contest the seat of
a sitting member and some are here to assist him.
" Some are here to use their influence for
friends at a distance who are too modest or too
timid to come themselves, some are here with
heads full of brains, pockets full of money, and
faces full of brass, to lobby through Congress
a great patriotic measure with millions in it, and
all are here to get something for nothing if possible.
" The faces and movements of these men are
a study, and the impression they make is far
from pleasant. There is here and there in the
crowd a face of genuine manliness and joy, but
the majority of them are wrinkled, darkened, and
distorted by lines that tell of cunning, meanness,
and servility. They are restless, eager, and
anxious.
" Nowhere will you find a greater show of insincere
politeness. The very air is vexed with clumsy
compliments and obsequious hat lifting.
"Everybody wants favor, everybody expects
favor, everybody is looking for favor, everybody is