Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
278 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
One of the things that I am especially proud
of to-day is that this greatest representative that
our race has yet produced, was a pure man, a man
of unblemished reputation, a man of sterling integrity
of character, whose example we can commend
to our children, and to the generations that
are yet to come.
Let us make much of this, and let the fiat go
forth, let it ring out from every pulpit, and from
every schoolhouse, from every hilltop and from
every valley, that any man who aspires to leadership
among us must be pure. In the presence
of the splendid record that is before me, with the
full knowledge of what this man was, of what his
sentiments were, I stand here to-day and, in the
name of Frederick Douglass, I say to this black
race, all over this country, Stand up for a pure
leadership ; honor the men, and the men only,
whose character you can respect, and whose example
you can commend to your children.
" God give us men,—
Men whom the lust of office does not kill,
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy,
Men who possess opinions and a will,
Men who have honor, men who will not lie ;
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking."
And such was the great man whose memory
we honor to-day.