The Saint Paul globe., 1905-02-21
COLORED FOLK HONOR
DOUGLASS MEMORY
Negroes of Seven Cities Join
i'm Memorial to Their
Hero

Memorial services for Frederick
Douglass, the American orator
and publiciSt, were held last night at
st. James Afro-American church. Full
Ter and Jay streets.
w. r. Morris, the Minneapolis color
ed attorney, was the orator of the oc-
casion, and an incidental programmes
OF addresses and musical members was
given. There was very large attend
ance of the colOred people of st. Paul.
MIR. Morris Grafton was a prsonaI
trloute to the gifts of the most dis
ungulShed representative of his race.
ana an appreciation of Douglass influ-
ence upon the public mind of his time.
He said in part:
Every nation has it's hero. every race
us great men, but it remained for the
negro race in America to produce a man
unlike all others-a genius of his own. a
DIIIilaht, though lone star. without a con-
slehaCon. For every great chara cter that
can De brought forth in the new world
equally as great. if not greater can be
snow SHOWN IN IN the old But when we bring
toTth Frederick Dougla ss-the slave, the
freeman, the orator, the statesman-he
cannot be matched in the annals of the
world. marvellous as an orator, he was
eS remarkable as slave.
Suffered as a slave
The most debasing Influences the direst
SIEuelues. the most eXasperating insults.
the most glaring affronts and the inhu-
man depriVatiOnS OF American slavery
5 oOIld not crush out his inbOrn manhood
he spent in slavery were the foundation
ana preparation for the glorious work he
oId. Those years make valuable and
accurate addition to the eventfuI occur
rences OF the nineteenth century He
loved his fellow slaves and though i'm the
same plight, pitied them. AS slave
douglass was grand and noble though
he drank the bitterness of bondage TO t6a
dregs. The lesson it taught him was
that true manhood is a part of a man
and no human institution can crush the
grandeur from a splendid and magnificent
soul; that earnest self-relance deter
mined energy and fixed purpose can over
come come the greatest obstacles; that God
helps those who help themselves. and that
tle world respects manhood even in a
slave. His escape across the ocean after
the John Brown raid is romantic His
pure life and spotleSS character are sweet
Dy contrast with the lives of mere pol
ltlclanS and time serving statesmen.
FOR more than forty years he was be-
Tore the world as writer and speaker
Dusy. active, wonderful years I attempt
10 pay honor to Frederick Douglass-a
great and good man, patriot without
or the rights and liberties of men a pow
er on the platform and in the councils of
the nation. He was the Nestor of our
race during his nearly half century Of
active service. The race that honors its
eminent dead, honors and ennobles itself.
architect and builder of his own charac-
ter. fortune and future, Frederick Douglass
was that man.
Honor to His Memory
The vast world of thought and reason.
the liberty loving and just, the pure
hearted and honest-thinking will pay
reVerentlal honorS to his memory in the
ages yet to come. His name and his in
fiuence viii be lauded wherever men pay
tribute to real worth. prize genius or es-
TEEN virtue For more than three score
years and ten he pleaded for the freedom
OF our people and in that remarkable
contest he came out more than con-
querer. He lived to see every vestige of
human slavery blotted out forever in this
country.
He was student of profound knowledge
and statesman of great wisdom and
foresight. The entire nation, even the
world. suffered a great loss when he died
For his life is a lesson that can weiI he
learned by all. 1t is that fortitude. man
mood, real worth, courage to advocate the
right. will eventually win reverence, hon
or and respect