Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1877-06-26
Fred. Douglass in Maryland.

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The Baltimore Sam gives very inter
esting report of visit made by Fred
Douglass to his old master, Capt. Thos
Auld, at st. Michael's, Talbot county
towards whom he exhibited degree o1
affection which is the crowning honor
! of his life. In speech, too, which he
was called to make to the colored peo-
pie with him he spoke words equally
creditable to his head and heart. 1t is
doubtful if heever did better act in all
his life than this visit, or one that he
will have cause to remember longer with
just and honorable pride, for he was
met with degree of friendly affection,
and himself said in straightforward,
manly way, many things calculated to
blot out former heated and bitter utter
ances. He evidently felt like one re-
turning home and receiving masters
blessing after many wanderings. Both
the master, now ripe for the tomb, and
1.-THE former slave, now covered with
honors, wept when they parted. Mr..
] Douglass spoke with love and pride for
his native State, especially the Eastern
Shore, and claimed to be, in the full
meaning of the word, an Eastern Shore
nah. We might naturally expect him,
therefore, to be opposed to the proposed
repeal of the existing State law which
gives one Of the Maryland Senators of
the United States to the Eastern Shore,
in which matter he cannot possibly be
accused Of selfishness, his peculiarly
long absence from the State precluding
1.-THE idea of his being an aspirant for the
position. He is certainly, however, one
of the talented men that the Eastern
Shore has produced, and the words of
wise reflection and advice that he ut
tered in behalf of his colored brethren
in his speech on Sunday is one of the
most signal proofs that he has given of
that fact. 1t is wholesomely in contrast
with the injudicious comments which
he INDUCED in his lecture on Washing
| tUu C1tJ UClCIC al duulCuCC vi CO1OIcO
people in Baltimore some weeks ago.
He stated that in his book written
soon after his escape he had made some
statements that lapse of time and reflec-
ton had caused him to feel he had bet
ter have left unsaid, and for aught that
he had said that was unjust to his old
master, or had wounded his feelings,
he begged his forgiveness. Capt. Aud
told him that he had never expected to
keep him in slavery, that. he knew for
ty-one years ago that he was too smart
to he slave, and that when he sent him
to Baltimore, after his difficulty at Free
lands, instead of selling him South. it
was with the expectation that he would
achieve his freedom. Douglass called
upon Capt. Auld again in the afternoon.
just before starting to the boat, to bid
him good bye, and when they parted
both men wept.
He said he did not come here to make
a speech. and did not expect this CALL
He was not here to fan the flames of Sec
tional animosity, nor to create ill-feel-
ing; nor yet to recount the wrongs in
flicted on his race for 200 years; nor to
go into antiquity for matter to stir the
blood and rouse the passions nor to in
dulge in a political haransue; nor to
expound the constitution of the United
States.
"I come, first of all" he said, ito see
my old master, from whom have been
sepaI ated for forty-one years, to shake
his hand, to look into his kind old face,
and see it beaming with light from the
other world. / have had great joy in
shaking that hand, in looking into that
face, stricken with age and disease, but
aglow with the light that comes from an
honest heart, and rejecting the glory
from the spirit-world, upon whose bor-
der he is. and where we shall soon again
meet. Forty-one years ago l left him.
left him, not because I loyed Caesar
less, but because 1 loved Rome more
Mr. Douglass then referred briefly to his
escape, and to the motive that actuated
him.
His second reason for making this
visit, he said, was that he loved Mary
land and the Eastern Shore. Eastern
Shore corn and Eastern Shore pork had
given him his muscle. He claimed to
be an Eastern Shoreman, with all that
that name implies. Mr.. Douglas ther
passed into a eulogy of the white race
and its achievements, and said to the
colored people that they were in contact
with the most favored, the most indom
liable, the most energetic race in the
world, and that he would be false to his
,, own race if he did not tell them just
! where they stood-what an immense
, distance they were behind the white
.. people. He did not believe the coloreo
!, people were fundamentally and eternal
. ly inferior to the whites, but they are
nevertheless, practically inferior. owe
,cf nf fo1I oil 1ifu until W.
: can do what white people can do. AS
long as they can build vessels and WI
cannot, we are their interiors as long a!
they can build railroads and we cannot
we are their interiors; as long as they cal
found governments and we cannot, W,
! are their interiors;" Coming down OF
the boat last night he noticed that the 10
colored people aboard made as mucl
noise as 500 whites would have, and a
,. long as they do these things they are in
y ferior to the whites.
eff twenty years from now the colore'
race as race has not advanced beyon'
the point where it was when emancipa
: ted it is a doomed race. The question
. now is, will the black man do as mucl
!, now for his master (himself) as he use'
L to do for his old master? Do you, m.
colored friends. get up as early now t
work for yourselves as you used to do t
!, work for that stern old Roman, Samue
- Hambleton For the encouragement
of the colored people, and to show then
what energy and will can do, he picture
the condition of the English-speakin
u race 500 years ago, and compared it wit
:. that race now. He illustrated it wit
- part of his argument by quoting the in
> stances ef well-known black men VIII
had risen to eminence, and was quite sc
= we're upon Professor John M. Langsto
!, for maintaining that the mulatto is th
4 4 superior of the black 1nan intellectually
- He told the colored people that the
!, must get money and keep it if the
. wished to. elevate themselves. On
: trouble with them is that they alway
- want to be going somewhere, and do NJ
.e stay in one place or at one thing Ion
:, I, enough to accumulate. A poor peopl
u are always a despised people. To be n
y spected they must get money and prol
:" erty. Without money there's no leisure
without leisure no thought; withol
"a thought no progress. Their preacher
~ should tell them more about what to q
y and less about what to feel. They shoul
d cultivate their brains more and the