Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
2l8 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
intense excitement. Every one, while expressing
words of regret and sorrow, was ready to bear
testimony to the high character and worth of the
illustrious dead.
Mrs. Douglass, speaking to a reporter the
night of her husband's death, said:—
His health had been the very best of late,
and the great activity with which he preserved
his interest in the events of the day had never permitted
her to suppose that he was in the slightest
decline of his vigor. He has never been troubled
with heart disease, and such an end was* far from
his mind or any of those about him. She fully
appreciated his public work, and it was but yesterday
that he was talking to her with regard to
his public life. She had expressed her belief to
him that he was still called upon to live a public
life, and he expressed his great desire to do so,
and felt fully able and vigorous enough.
As a further evidence of his apparent vigor of
health, he had made an engagement to speak
that same evening at the Campbell A. M. E.
Church of Hillsdale. Mr. Douglass breathed
his last just as the carriage arrived which was
sent to convey him to this church.
FUNERAL SERVICES.
The public funeral services of Frederick
Douglass were held in the Metropolitan A. M. E.