Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 265
kingly gentleman. That was Frederick Douglass.
If you and I have never challenged long and
loud public sentiment of our day, never will
tribute like this await us. It was because he
lived in the dark and cold reproach that we now
bring him into the warmth of this tribute. It is
not simply a tribute to the man. A personal
tribute loses itself in the thought that it is transfigured
in the impersonal. We are here honoring
the race of Frederick Douglass. White people
have assembled here to do honor to black people.
Here is an instance of kingly mind, of kingly
heart, of kingly manner; an instance of honoring
him and honoring his race.
" Not only do I like to think that in the 150,-
000 people of Rochester but three or four will
be picked out twenty years hence as first citizens,
but that of these two will be of those who have
been bond men and bond women. And one of
the two is lying here before us to-day. Few
people in Rochester ever became famous
throughout the state; very few people in Rochester
ever became famous throughout the whole
of America, but here is a man whom the newspapers
of two continents have printed editorials
about during the past week. He is one of the
three or four who may be called the first citizens
of Rochester.
" We have as yet but one bronze monument