The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1884-04-28
FkE.DEMit Il

HfASntc ktniLcti SAStctieS tlO Character
Of the tircat Negro Orator.
To Tie Editor Of The Inhligenotr.
slR:-Frederick Douglass 10 announced
for q lecture at Little Washington, Pa, on
May !, as l eco by your columns. May l
be permitted 10 say TO your readers, es.
pecially to the young men and women Of
talent and refinement, that they lose a
rare opportunity, and one that may never
recur to them, il they fail to 20 up and hear
this gifted African orator? lie is the
create st mun the Anglo-African race have
ever yet produced. When he dies no one
IKE him Can ever appear, no one with his
b%eginniDgI in slavery his struggles against
slavery, and bis triumphs over slavery.
Not one ever 60 long as tho world stands.
Greater men in other departments Of hui
muu activity, even greater orators OF color
may come along ut rare intervals through
the ages, but one born in slavery, self.edu.
Gated, per6ecuted, mobbed, abused, Wilt
fed, fighting on, and OF last gaining the
attention and applause Of all meu, and liy-
ing still to see the complete triumph Of his
darling dresms-such u one Can never
again be- born.
AS well look for a second Shakespeare or
another Webster.
He is N Of the very few good men
whom l have met in my time who can
bear the crucial test OF intimate association
without growing smaller. lie remains like
Grant, a hero even 10 bis valets-thut is, if
they happen to have sense enough to ap.
preciate genius. His dignity aud repose Of
Ipunuar nrpOAoJtvt, bow Ia, ,.s..
power, simple and unossentatious, never
desert him Tor a moment, and never fail 10
Impress the neart.t asssciates with the
heroic grandeur Of his character. He is
not only p genius in that he excels all men
OF his race il oratory and s~tatesmanehip,
but he hiss that urerring intuition of right
that belongs alone to genius, and that devo.
ton toit which marks the hero at all
times.' His convictions Of duty are deep,
strong, inmovab!e, and with the martyrs
heroism he has held 10 them steadily all
his lie. He is not tossed about by every
wind OF doctrine. YOualways know where
to find him if you know where the right ia,
Flo does not catch his inspiration from the
cry OF the vulgar mob, but tinds it in his
conscience and his reason, and utters it 10.
gardless OF It's elects AID consequence.
He is no thinner or Pharisee, no mere
mouther Of pretty phra3es to tickle the ear
and please the fancy, but be is the orator
Of the human heart in it's mobiles. exalia.
tons.
As you listen to his smooth, calm simple
but me- jastic elcquence, beautiful for its
simplicity, you could hardly believe he
ives born a slave, and that the man who
taught him 10 read did SO at the risk OF his
lie. You could hardly believe that such a
man ever walked up and down the shores
Of the Chesapeake, bareheaded, barefoot
cd, and strained his dark eyes gazing a 1.-THE
letters on the signs and on the rocks and
on the boots, wondering what they spelled!
You could hardly believe that all his boy
hood wgs spent in slavery, and that en- ILL.
terate Irish laborer was all the teacher he
eyer had in letters in all his life until he
was lwenty.six! Such struggles! Such
hairbreadth escapes! Such a flight from
slaveIy-compsrison piece with the flight
into Egypt!
How he was mobhed and left for dead.
Sec the marks on his aged brow and hands
10. day-the cruel SCARS OF slavery. Wit
ness his triumrs in England, in the pres-
Ellie VI IO1dlJ VI lle lClGS VI tle (ealU.
Hear the b%loodhounds on bis track now, as
he dies from slavery, and then listen 10
the shouts and applause o! Edinburgh and
Oxford as he portrays the horrors OF slavery
to brilliant British audiences, at q time when
he ia indicted for murder by u grand Jury
in Virginia, and a price set on his head.
Cured in one hemisphere-worshipped in
the other
See him as he is closeted with Sumner,
Wendell Phillips, Henry Wilson, Thaddeus
Stevenp, Abraham Lincoln and General
Cant, who have Summoned him to their
council boards on great affairs of Stale and
listen To his words OF moderation and
wisdom. Hayes calls him to Columbus in
the midst OF the electoral troubles and he
tells him plainly what he thinks OF his
Southern policy. And Garfield, already |
walking under the shadow OF a strange
martyrdom, calls Frederick Douglass to his
beloved Mentor. This is no fancy sketch.
These are all facts. They speak in some
hasty and imperfect way the life OF Fred.
erick Douglass, and stamp him with great.
ness, inimitable as it Is incommuniCab!e.
PRIVATE DALzgLL.