Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 213
overwhelmed by the great force of the opposition.
Through a long and eventful life, he has never
been known to deny his principles through fear
or timidity or for the sake of temporary advantage.
No one is ever long in doubt on which side
of any important question he stands. Having
satisfied himself which side is the right side, his
course is neither vacillating nor uncertain.
He is a man of great force of will, and is very
much like Mr. Garrison in this respect, who, it
will be remembered, placed at the head of the
Liberator^ when he first began to publish it, these
words, "I am in earnest, I will not equivocate, I
will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch-
I will be heard." The success of the anti-slavery
cause required that men of such force of character
and determination should be its champions.
Without them there could have been no success.
Mr. Douglass is one of the best examples the
country affords of what a man of character and
ability may become by energy and industry.
Franklin, Henry Clay, Webster, Lincoln, Wilson,
Garfield, and Grant are given as illustrations of
the developing influences of our country. These
men all rose from poverty and obscurity to high
places in the government, but Mr. Douglass
sprang from depths which these men never knew
in their experience. With them it was possible
to obtain the highest honor in the gift of the