Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 33
States—that slavery could only be effectually
destroyed by dissolving the union. He now held
the opposite view, and ably defended his changed
opinions through the columns of the North Star.
In June, 1872, he suffered a severe loss. His
house was burned down, and among the other
losses he sustained was that of twelve volumes of
his paper. These he has been able to replace
only in part. The destruction of these volumes
is not a loss to the editor alone ; it is also a loss
to the country, for they contained some of his
best thoughts upon many of the most important
questions which were before the people from
1848 to i860.
Mr. Douglass during one winter delivered a
course of lectures on Sunday evening of each
week in Corinthian Hall, in Rochester, and these
lectures contributed in creating a healthy antislavery
sentiment in that city and western New
York. In the midst of all these duties he also
found time to act as conductor of the Underground
railroad. It was his business to receive
fugitive slaves, secrete them, raise means, and
send them on to Canada.
Soon after he began to publish his paper, he
became acquainted with John Brown, then residing
in Springfield, Mass. Mr. Douglass on invitation
visited that personage, who afterwards
became so famous, and thus describes him: " In