The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-02-27
Frederick Douglass.

who has presented an irrefutable an
swer to the contention of the old slavery
times of the intellectual inferiority of
the descendants of Ham. Providence
seems to have heightened his days that
the demonstration might be complete
and might cover the widest range of
human experience. His life had been
long one, and the instances are few of
career so busy, so varied, and 80 well
sustained to the very moment when the
heeting breath suddenly left its dusky
mansion.
Frederick Douglass was born at Tuck
ahoe, near Easton, Talbot county,
Maryland, some time in February, 1917,
he supposed. His father was known
to be white man, his mother was a
slave. The former he never knew, the
latter he never saw after he was seven
years old. His origin illustrates the
essential barbarism of the institution
to whose downfall he 80 powerfully
contributed. The story of his life is
graphically told by himself in an adj
dress to colored school, some years
ago, when on visit to the place of his
birth:
IT once knew little colored boy whose
mother and father died when he was but
six years old. He was slave and had no
one to care for him. He slept on dirt
floor in a howell, and in cold weather would
crawl into meal bag head foremost and
leave his feet in the ashes to keep them
warm. Often he would roast an ear Of corn
and eat it to satisfy his hunger, and many
times has he crawled under the barn or sta
BILE and secured eggs, which he would roast
in the fire and eat. That boy did not wear
pants like you do, but tow linen shirt.
Schools were unknown to him, and he
learned to spell from an old Webster's
spelling book and to read and write from
posters on cellar and barn doors, while
boys and men would help him. He would
then preach and speak, and soon became
we'll known. He became presidential cleo
tor, United States marshal, United States
recorder, United States diplomat, and accu-
INFLATED some wealth. He wore broad
cloth and didn't have to divide crumbs
with the dogs under the table. That boy
was Frederick Douglass
Elaborated somewhat, the story would
show that this coored boy was sent at
the age of ten years to live with rela
tive OF his master in Baltimore. Later
on he hired his time'and was employed
in ship yard. In 1888, impelled by
longings for freedom, he fled from Bal
timore and slavery, and worked for sew
eral years on the wharves and in the
shops at New Bedford, Mass. William
Lloyd Garrison assisted him in his eff.
forts at self education. He first at
tracted public attention by speech at
an anti-slavery convention at Nantucket
in 1841. In the capacity of an agent of
the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society,
he travelled through New England for
four years. His graphic descriptions of
slavery and eloquent appeals attracted
and stirred large assemblages. He was
a powerful factor in arousing the north
ern conscience, in developing that in
tense feeling Of hostility to slavery that
crystalized into stern determination to
stay it's march into new territories, and
finally eliminated in the act that made
every bondman in America free. He
spoke in England in the great cause,
and English friends raised the money
with which he purchased the legal right
to his own manhood. AS editor of the
North Star at Rochester, N. Y, as the
adviser of Lincoln in matters affecting
the people of his race in the war of the
rebellion, in the work of enlisting COL
ored troops when that agency was in
voked in the defense of the Union, he
rendered important and patriotic SER
vice to the cause Of freedom. The
Offices of trust and honor to which he
was appointed when peace was restored
show in what high esteem he was held
by the party under which the rebellion
had been suppressed and the slaves set
free. The I" little colored boy" of a
Maryland slave cabin was presidential
elector at large for the proud Empire
State in 1872, and it's messenger to
carry its vote to Washington. Under
appointment by Presidents Grant and
Arthur, he held responsible offices in the
District of Columbia, and President
Harrison appointed him minister TO
Hayti.
He was held in high esteem in pri-
vate life, an esteem worthy his virtues
and sustained by his becoming bearing.
His gift of oratory, his power to sway
the human soul, like the true poets,
was born, not acquired. On the subject
of slavery, coal snatched from the
altar of dread experience gave his elo-
quence flame that illumined not even
the winged words of Phillips or Beecher