Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 247
Thine exile is over. Thou art dowered with the
freedom of the city of God. All hail and
farewell!
Prof. John Hutchinson came to attend the
funeral, as the only survivor of the famous
Hutchinson family and the only living representative
of the " old guard " of abolition agitators.
Though bearing the burden of nearly fourscore
years, his long hair and beard silvered by age,
his step was firm and his voice strong and clear.
It was his family that did so much in former days
by their sweet songs to bring about the emancipation
of the slave. He was present to pay his
tribute of respect to his friend and coworker in
the abolition cause. After speaking of his labors
with Mr. Douglass, he referred to the scenes of
the New York riots, when Douglass and Ward,
two liberated slaves, with the white abolitionists,
faced the angry mob. He spoke of other incidents
in the life of Mr. Douglass — his fight against
slavery and struggles for manhood rights, — and
then chanted in a tone low and sweet a requiem
ode to the dead, closing with the refrain: —
" Lay him low, lay him low
Under the grasses or under the snow;
What cares he ? He cannot know.
Lay him low, lay him low."
In the absence of the Haytien minister, who
was unable to be present at the funeral, Mr.