Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 39
ginia would blow him and his hostages sky-high,
rather than that he should hold Harper's Ferry
an hour. Our talk was long and earnest; we
spent the most of Saturday and a part of Sunday
in this debate—Brown for Harper's Ferry, and I
against it; he for striking a blow which should
instantly rouse the country, and I for the policy
of gradually and unaccountably drawing off slaves
to the mountains, as at first suggested and proposed
by him. When I found that he had fully
made up his mind and could not be dissuaded, I
turned to Shields Green and told him he heard
what Captain Brown had said ; his old plan was
changed, and that I should return home, and if
he wished to go with me he could do so. Captain
Brown urged us both to go with him, but I
could not do so, and could but feel that he was
about to rivet the fetters more firmly than ever
on the limbs of the enslaved. In parting he put
his arms around me in a manner more than
friendly, and said: ' Come with me, Douglass, I
will defend you with my life. I want you for a
special purpose. When I strike, the bees will
begin to swarm, and I shall want you to help hive
them.' But my discretion or my cowardice made
me proof against the dear old man's eloquence—
perhaps it was something of both which determined
my course. When about to leave I asked
Green what he had decided to do, and was sur-