Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
242 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
DOUGLASS, LINCOLN AND GRANT.
Mr. Douglass was a consistent man. He had
no erratic moods or vagaries. There were men,
great men, who drew away from Abraham
Lincoln because, carrying upon his shoulders,
like Atlas, this great American world, he seemed
to move so slow. They were lighter loaded and
could dance and cut capers along such a rugged
pathway. But not Frederick Douglass. He
saw where God was walking on that field and
believed that Mr. Lincoln was walking with God.
There were men, great men, who broke with
President Grant. But not Frederick Douglass.
He believed in the man who had fought the
nation's battles through. And of Santo Domingo
he said: "Since liberty and equality have
become the law of the land I am for extending
our dominion whenever and wherever such extension
can peaceably and honorably be accomplished."
A wiser saying to-day than when it
was uttered.
If any man had a right to criticise and break
down, if he could, the public policy of our great
leaders and executives on the subject of human
freedom it was Mr. Douglass. But he had not
so learned the duty of a citizen, nor the art of
statesmanship. It was his to suggest and counsel
and then patiently wait. Lord Beaconsfield
has said, " Everything comes, if a man will only