Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
292 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
A writer in the New York Evangelist describes
a scene which took place in that city, and which
will give us some idea of what the effect of this
man was, as he went from place to place, a living
protest against the barbarism of slavery. He
says: " When Anthony Burns was taken by slave
hunters in the streets of Boston, and Dred Scott
was handed over in Missouri to his captors by a
Supreme Court decision, the end of forbearance
had come, the limit of endurance was passed, the
slave power had humiliated the nation. In those
days it was necessary for politicians to ' trim
ship' with extraordinary vigilance and adroitness.
To them Douglass seemed a specter of
defeat. If he lifted those once manacled arms
before the people, even before they caught the
tremulous tones of his magical voice, they were
swayed by uncontrollable emotion. Once in the
old Broadway Tabernacle, filled up to the dome, as
Douglass was announced, the vast crowd sprang
up as one man, and the Marseillaise Hymn, with a
refrain, ' Free soil, free speech, free press, free
men,' rolled out through doors and windows,
blocking the street with lingering listeners for a
hundred yards either way. Meanwhile Douglass
stood with bowed head, great tears coursing down
his cheeks." His very presence was often more
effective than the eloquence of other men.
In the second place, he consecrated to the serv-