Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
64 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
affords us an eminence from which we may in a
measure survey both the past and the future. It
is one of those days which may well count for a
thousand years.
" Until this day twenty years ago there was a
vast incubus on the breast of the American people,
which baffled all the wisdom of American
statesmanship. Slavery, the sum of all villainies,
like a vulture, was gnawing at the republic. Until
this day there stretched away behind us an awful
chasm of darkness and despair of more than two
centuries. Until this day the American slave,
bound in chains, tossed his fettered hands on high
and groaned for freedom's gift in vain. Until
this day the colored people of the United States
lived in the shadow of death, hell, and the grave,
and had no visible future.
" 'Agonized heart throbs convulsed them while sleeping,
And the wind whispered death, while over them sweeping.'"
"Until this day we knew not when or how
the war for the union would end; until this day
it was doubtful whether liberty and union would
triumph, or slavery and barbarism. Until this
day victory had largely followed the arms of the
Confederate army. Until this day the mighty
conflict between the North and South appeared
to the eye of the civilized world, as destitute of
moral qualities. Until this day the sympathies of
the world were largely in favor of the Southern