wild fiction. The Times regards the work which Douglass rendered in this respect as the greatest of the services he rendered to his race. The abolition work could have been carried to a successful issue by Phillips, Garrison, Whittier, the Joys, Powell and the other able and earnest white men who were enlisted in the cause, but these could not have done the especial work that Douglass did in proving the capacity of the race for freedom.

From the "Indianapolis Journal," Indianapolis, Ind., Feb. 21, 1895.] Frederick Douglass was the man who compelled a reluctant people to admit that a man of African blood could be an intellectual force. In the face of obstacles now not possible, the born slave rose steadily, step by step, to the position of one of the really great men of the period in which he lived. Long before the war, with an intellectual persistence which was only less admirable than his high moral courage he had won a reputation as one of the great orators to whom cultivated audiences would listen. . . . In short, all his years of vigorous manhood he has presented to his countrymen of all races a character and a career which all must admire, and which all can contemplate with profit. He will hold a place in history among the greatest of Americans.

From the New York "Mail and Express," New York, Feb. 21, 1895.]

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

In the death of Frederick Douglass we lose the last conspicuous figure in that brilliant and picturesque group of anti-slavery agitators and orators who made so deep an impress upon their contemporaries and who will be gratefully and reverently remembered by all future generations.

Frederick Douglass occupied a position in that fierce struggle that was altogether unique. His relation to the curse of slavery was that of both victim and victor. Beyond the wonderful eloquence of his words he spoke with the wounds and chains of a slave. The combination was irresistible. From 1838, when he made his escape from the South to New England, down to Lincoln's immortal Emancipation Proclamation, he never ceased to make war upon the barbarous system of slavery.

Frederick Douglass was a prodigy of his race. He was cast in the mould of true greatness. The color of his skin could not hide the glory of his soul. His race extraction could not detract from his rank in great talents and good deeds. He was a great orator, measured from whatever standard. His distinction and standing in this respect would

have been neither increased nor diminished by the possession of a white skin. He did not shine with an artificial or a borrowed light. His brilliancy was from within. It was a radiation and not a reflection. He was respected and consulted by the great anti-slavery leaders, and was held in affectionate regard by both Lincoln and Grant. He was an honor to his country and an example to his race. He linked his life and his talents to noble causes in behalf of humanity. His death is a calamity to his race and a loss to the country.

From the "Topeka Capital," Kansas, Feb. 21, 1895.]

Frederick Douglass was a man of high intellectual qualities. He was a natural orator, spoke in pure English, fluently, gracefully and with extraordinary power. What he did by his attractive address and bearing, his personal character and his surprising natural talents, at a critical period, for the good name of the negro race in America, it is difficult perhaps to exaggerate. In the last Republican National Convention, Frederick Douglass was a conspicuous figure, sitting on the platform behind the chairman, his tall form surmounted by a still shaggy head of perfectly white hair. His entrance to the hall was, at every session, the signal for general applause and cheers, and he was persistently importuned to address the convention.

At the time of Mr. Douglass' death, he was hard at work in behalf of the colored people of the South, and, on the very day of his death the personal columns of the newspapers contained a reference to the. work he was doing. The colored people of the United States may well venerate his memory; not alone for what he did, but also for what he was, the prophecy of a coming race.

From the "Springfield Republican," Mass., Feb. 21, 1895.]

FREDERICK DOUGLASS DEAD.

In the person of Frederick Douglass, whose death occurred yesterday at his home in Anacostia, a suburb of the National Capital, was embodied the cause of a race and the highest development it has reached, and his departure closes the era of African slavery in America with the most powerful emphasis, while it affords a supreme example of the new era of entire equality which has begun, and despite all discouraging incidents of transition, is to continue, until the brotherhood of humanity on lines of character, cultivation and principle, is triumphant over the petty and irrational prejudice of mere race antagonism.

Douglass was essentially a great man. Escaping from slavery when he was twenty-one years old, in three years after he had begun in a Massachusetts seaport town to be a leader of his race and an orator for the

abolition of slavery: he became an associate of Garrison and Phillips, of Stephen S. Foster, Abby Kelly and Parker Pillsbury, of the Buffums and Tappans, of Charles Remond, Samuel J. May and Charles C. Burleigh, in the great abolition warfare. He went to England and stirred the moral sense of the English people, which so often compels the allegiance of its politicians and statesmen in behalf of moral causes. He became an editor as well as an orator, and one of the considerable forces in awakening the dull consciences of the Northern States to that sensitive pitch where Abraham Lincoln found it when his declaration that the nation could not exist unless it became all slave or all free struck the sure doom of the institution and its doughface supporters. Later, Douglass was the confidant of John Brown, in his chimerical, but noble attack upon slavery in its stronghold; and since all this has been done, he has been honored with high public office, as a Marshal of the United States, Recorder of the District of Columbia, an ambassador and a special diplomatic agent. In every position Douglass showed a capacity which justified his appointment and service, even though he was not always successful, or always in accord with the best thing to be done.

Frederick Douglass has thus shown as wide a scope of ability as any man could be expected to reach, even with the advantages of free birth and absence of all those prejudices, which gathered around his career. He was a slave born in disgrace, suffering abuse and degradation, friendless and alone, save for other slaves, as hopeless as himself. He won recognition as a master of the rare faculty of eloquence, the moving power over men which marks the orator from the days of Demosthenes to our own. No one who has heard Douglass speak will ever forget that most impressive presence. As a young man, his uncommon stature, his powerful physique, his strongly marked features, and a certain repressed rage which spoke through them, together with the wealth of native argument and ready illustration, which formed the staple of his addresses, bore his hearers on a stream of irresistible feeling. His oratory was no more notable than in this fact-that as the day of success drew near his whole tone was changed to fit the new prospect, and after the war had determined the freedom of his race, stern, but calm argument was the staple of his speech, with only so much of the intense fervor of the prophet's indignation as served to show that the fire did not burn low, but was restrained by the statesman's wisdom. This is not to say that Douglass was always wise. He was wiser than his friend Wendell Phillips, but there were many matters in respect to which he was in error. Nevertheless, it is to be said that few men with the background of his bitter experience, the character of his origin, the fate of his kindred, the ever-present burden of his race, could have been so self-contained, so well controlled, and so full of charity and consideration for the slow movement toward equal justice and the end of cruel prejudice as Douglass was.

His own race was often turned against him for a brief time by their conservative quality, but it was generally recognized, nevertheless, that Douglass held his offices and estimated his place as so much gained for the cause of the negro, and not as personal matters. He will be regarded as the greatest man of the negro race.

From the 'Times," Pittsburg, Pa., Feb. 21, 1895.]

THE DEATH OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

With the death of Frederick Douglass passes away an interesting figure of even more than national prominence. Born to the color and condition of his mother; with no name even, except one which was the badge of slavery, he escaped to the free North, applied his mind to study as he had opportunity and from his first oration of which we have any knowledge, he claimed an equal place upon the platform side by side with the foremost leaders of the most vital thought of his time. Who can measure or guess how much the influence of his splendid abilities in winning respect for the race of his mother had to do with the spread of abolition sentiment, which was the vital impulse of the war, and made the Emancipation Proclamation its natural and acceptable fruit? No man who ever heard Frederick Douglass speak in those days of his power could ever again believe that the black man was fit for no place in the world but the place of a slave. Other black men of exceptional ability there have been, and under the new conditions there will be many more. But Frederick Douglass has a place in history which is all his own, and the lesson that he taught can never be forgotten.

From the "News," Indianapolis, Ind., Feb. 21, 1895.]

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

The death of Frederick Douglass removes the most distinguished of American negroes. In the great strides which the race has made since the war of the rebellion, many men have displayed ability in various directions; not a few have demonstrated capacity for business or for the practice of the professions. But Frederick Douglass has not only given proof of signal ability and great intellectual force, but his high integrity, sincerity and earnestness have always been recognized and appreciated, and never questioned. It is not unfair to say that in the instances of some other negroes who have been prominent in politics, the same order of intellectual ability, steadfastness and integrity have not been so happily combined. Mr. Douglass always enjoyed the respect of the great body of the American people. He was keenly appreciative of the many difficulties to be overcome in the elevation of

the race. Others less just and sane have been abusive, but while Mr. Douglass was, through many years, a speaker and writer on topics related to the advancement of his own people, he always viewed the subject comprehensively. He was too sound a student of history and science, and he knew too well his own people and their condition to rush into abuse where conservative counsel alone could advance the causes dear to his heart.

Mr. Douglass' struggles and achievements would have been praiseworthy and admirable in a man of whatever race or color. In the instance of a man who began life under the most discouraging circumstances imaginable they lift him to a high place among the men of the time. We do not recall that the honesty of his motives was ever doubted, or that he ever failed of any task assumed, or any duty imposed upon him. As a public officer he acquitted himself with honor and credit, and socially he seems to have been pretty generally received in circles which his talents and instincts entitled him to enter. The perplexities of what is called, for the sake of convenience, the negro problem, increase rather than diminish. Wise guidance from men of high character among their own people could be of great help in the solution of these puzzling questions. It would be well for the country and for the American negro if there were many such men as Frederick Douglass to address their talents and influence to completing the work of which emancipation was only the beginning.

From the "Bee," Sacramento, California, Feb. 21, 1895.]
A DEAD BLACK LION.

One of America's great men is no more. Frederick Douglass, with the blood of Ethiopia in his veins, was successful in raising himself above his station, and in carving out for himself a name that will last in history. Douglass was not what could properly be called a remarkably brilliant man, but he was endowed with something far above mere brilliancy. He had purpose, vigor, energy; he fought for a grand cause which he grandly championed. He was soulful. He put his whole heart into his work. His speeches were rugged in their English-good and pure, but not polished; rather the rough, reliable granite. But the auditors always knew that back of his words were his heart throbs-and therein lay his power A man may erase and erase, polish and polish, change synonym after synonym, until what he is to speak swings and sways with its melodious rhythm, enchanting the hearers as it falls musically from the tongue of the orator. Yet, if the soul of the speaker, his conscience, the indomitable energy of an honest purpose, are not back of the words, they will fall as soothingly on the ear as the tinkling drops of a fountain, and with about as much