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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

364

body. For him it builded no school-house, and for him it erected no church.
So far as he was concerned freedom was a mockery, and law was the
instrument of tyranny. In spite of law and gospel, despite of statutes which thralled
him and opportunities which jeered at him, he made himself by trampling on
the law and breaking through the thick darkness that encompassed him. There
is no sadder commentary upon American slavery than the life of Frederick
Douglass. He put it under his feet and stood erect in the majesty of his
intellect; but how many intellects as brilliant and as powerful as his it stamped
upon and crushed, no mortal can tell until the secrets of its terrible despotism
are fully revealed. Thanks to the conquering might of American freemen, such
sad beginnings of such illustrious lives as that of Frederick Douglass are no
longer possible; and that they are no longer possible, is largely due to him
who, when his lips were unlocked, became a deliverer of his people. Not alone
did his voice proclaim emancipation. Eloquent as was that voice, his life in its
pathos and in its grandeur, was more eloquent still; and where shall be found,
in the annals of humanity, a sweeter rendering of poetic justice than that he,
who has passed through such vicissitudes of degradation and exaltation, has
been permitted to behold the redemption of his race?

"Rochester is proud to remember that Frederick Douglass was, for many
years, one of her citizens. He who pointed out the house where Douglass
lived, hardly exaggerated when he called it the residence of the greatest of
our citizens; for Douglass must rank as among the greatest men, not only of
this city, but of the nation as well—great in gilts, greater in utilizing them,
great in his inspiration, greater in his efforts for humanity, great in the
persuasion of his speech, greater in the purpose that informed it.

"Rochester could do nothing more graceful than to perpetuate in marble
the features of this citizen in her hall of learning; and it is pleasant for her to
know that he so well appreciates the esteem in which he is held here. It was
a thoughtful thing for Rochester to do, and the response is as heartfelt as the
tribute is appropriate."

CHAPTER XVIII.
"HONOR TO WHOM IIONOR.'"

Grateful recognition—Friends in need—Lucretia, Mott Lydia Maria Child Sarah and Angelina

Grimké—Abby Kelley—H. Beecher Stowe Other Friends Woman Suffrage.

Gratitude to benefactors is a well recognized virtue, and to express it in
some form or other, however imperfectly, is a duty to ourselves as well as