Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 57
pointed by Congress to wind up the affairs of the
company.
Mr. Douglass was sent by President Grant
with Messrs. Wade, Howe, and White, commissioners
to Hayti. He took the position with
General Grant in favor of annexation of that
country to the United States. Mr. Sumner championed
the opposite view in the Senate and held
that annexation meant the extinction of the Haytian
people as such. Mr. Douglass held that a
union would give protection to the weaker state
and prosperity beyond what it could ever enjoy
as a separate government. On this question the
opinion of the country was divided. There were
strong arguments used for and against the scheme.
In the year 1872 General Grant was nominated
a second time for the presidency. The independent
republicans, dissatisfied with his administration,
nominated Horace Greeley. In the national
convention of colored men held in New Orleans
in the same year, over which Mr. Douglass presided,
an effort was made to get that body to
indorse the independent candidate. Mr. Douglass
used his influence to prevent such action,
and had he not been present it is probable that
the convention would have passed resolutions
indorsing Mr. Greeley for the presidency. Having
been chosen an elector at large of the state
of New York on the Republican ticket, he was