Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 277
name of Frederick Douglass is mentioned, or feel
the necessity of silence. No man need ever go
backward to cover anything in his life. There is
the record, covering a period of more than fifty
years, read it, and put your hand upon anything in
it, if you can. Character, character, has been one
of the things that his name has always stood for.
Physically he was great, intellectually he was
great, and morally he was great. Had he not
been, whatever may have been his other gifts and
graces he never could have risen to the place of
power and influence which for more than a generation
he has occupied. He never could have
won for himself the universal respect in which he
is held to-day. Had he not been sound morally,
we should not be here to-day to say what we are
saying, nor would any such gathering as assembled
in this city a week ago last Monday, to pay
the last tribute of respect to his memory, have
been witnessed. It was because, in addition to
the admiration which all felt for his transcendent
intellectual endowments, and his marvelous eloquence,
there was the conviction that back of,
and beyond, and above all these, there was a pure
and exalted manhood. It was because we could
say of him as Mark Antony said of Brutus,—
" His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, This was a man."