Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
62 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
Douglass in an appropriate and eulogistic address,
closing with these words : " I now, gentlemen,
have the honor to present to you Frederick
Douglass, the distinguished guest of this happy
occasion, whose fame as an orator and an earnest
and effective worker in the cause of human liberty
is not confined to one continent, but known
throughout the civilized world, and whose name
is a household word, cherished and loved by millions
who, from writhing under the cruel chains
of slavery, have at last been brought into the
bright sunlight of freedom. He will now respond
to the toast, * The Day,' this, the twentieth anniversary
of the one fixed by the sainted Lincoln,
when the Emancipation Proclamation should go
into full force and effect."
In responding to the sentiment Mr. Douglass
said:—
" Mr. President and gentlemen, since you have
taken me into your confidence, my life, as most of
you know, was begun under a great shadow.
Before I was made part of this breathing world
the chains were forged for my limbs, and the whip
of a slave master was plaited for my back, and
while I have labored and suffered in the cause of
justice and liberty, I have no doleful words to
utter here to-night. It was said of a great Irish
orator, speaking of Irish liberty, that he had
rocked it in its cradle and had followed it to its