Page:Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1882).djvu/24

 IS INTRODUCTION.

emelly wronged race, in the teeth of American prejudice and in face of nearly every kind of hindrance and draw-back, has come to be one of the foremost orators of the age, with a reputation established on both sides of the Atlantic; a writer of power and elegance of expression; a thinker whose views are potent in controlling and shaping public opinion ; a high officer in the National Government; a cultivated gentleman whose virtues as a husband, father, and citizen are the highest honor a man can have.

Frederick Douglass stands upon a pedestal ; he has reached this lofty height through years of toil and strife, but it has been the strife of moral ideas ; strife in the battle for human rights. No bitter memories come from this strife ; no feelings of remorse can rise to cast their gloomy shadows over his soul ; Douglass has now reached and passed the meridian of life, his co-laborers in the strife have now nearly all passed away. Garrison has gone, Gerritt Smith has gone, Giddings and Sumner have gone, — nearly all the early abolitionists are gone to their reward. The culmination of his life work has been reached ; the object dear to his heart — the Emancipation of the slaves — has been accomplished, through the blessings of God; he stands facing the goal, already reached by his co- laborers, with a halo of peace about him, and nothing but serenity and gratitude must fill his breast. To those, who in the past — in ante-bellum days— in any degree shared with Douglass his hopes and feelings on the slavery question, this serenity of mind, this gratitude, can be understood and felt. All Americans, no matter what may- have been their views on slavery, now that freedom has come and slavery is ended, must have a restful feeling and be glad that the source of bitterness and trouble is removed. The man who is sorry because of the abolition of slavery, has outlived his day and generation ; he should have insisted upon being buried with the "lost cause" at Appomattox.

We rejoice that Douglass has attained unto this exalted position — this pedestal. It has been honorably reached ; it is