The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1905-12-30
FREDERICK ooueLAss-AN ELoa uENT TRIBUTE
BY DOCTOR OWEN MEREDITH WALLER. BROOKLYN, NJ "

NNiS VI 4 career SO WONDERFUL that
even our school children have added
them TO their limited category Of the
lights of history, nor will venture,
IN this article, to analyze a character
SO far honorcd from my experience
and mental grasp. / will attmep t only
To impart some Impressions that the
lie Of Frederick Douglass made upon
me, and in SO doing point out some
thing of what | will call his prophetic
grasp Of coming conditions and
events, which, TO my mind. clearly
Indicates an endowment of states
manship in the highest and best sense
Of the word" To see Frederick Doug
lass was TO look upon a man. His
manliness, then. | will first consider
| had the honor of meeting and CON
v,rsing with Frederick Douglass on
but one occasion. IL was during the
encampment of the Grand Army in
Boston in the summer of 1890. Apart
from his remarkable reputation ut
home and abroad. no one could meet
Frederick Douglass for the first time
without feeling his pr, sence. When
he came i'll the room | realized that
some one had added presence to a
gathering Of ordinary mortals. He
was manly in physique and bearing.
manly in address, as well as manly
in the acquisition of his sublime char
acter and illustriOus reputation. His
first discrimination between what was
really of the nature Of manhood and
what was not. even from childhood
days indicated the possession OF a
well balanced mind and sound COM
mon sense. He seemed always able
TO distinguish manliness from man.
nishness, and courage from foolhardi-
ness even in the darkest days of sla-
very on the eastern shore of Mary
land. He was manly enough to know
when a man, though in bondage. had
far better die than breathe, and so a
biographer writes, after Douglass
had submitted to inhuman and cow
ardly treatment, and had in vain ap-
pealed with Caesar. in the person Of
his owner: Henry Bib. TO avoid
chaStisement, strewed his masters
bed with pramer leaves, and was
whipped; Frederick Douglass quietly
pocketed a like fetiche. compared his
muscles with those OF Convey and
whipped him" On another and later
occasion in Gardeners shipyard in
Baltimore Frederick Douglass gave an
exhibition Of his indomitable physical
courage. His manliness at later
day was put to a test supremer than
the physical. II was after his escape
from bondage. after the early days
Of struggle for existence in the midst
OF the heartleSs competition Of the
North, after his rise to eminence as
an orator and his splendid reception
abroad after making illustriOus
friends and attracting TO himself ad-
mirers Of no mean station. II was
when he felt bound to- think for HIM
self, and reached his own conclusions
concerning the work of an abOlitinist,
and the true meaning and spirit of the
Constitution of these United States.
II was no small matter for Frederick
Douglass to find himself taking an
opposite view, and assuming posi-
ton other than that advocated by
William Lloyd Garrison and his asso-
ciates who. in so many ways, were
responsible for the discovery of Doug
lass. Upon a reconsideration OF the
whole subject became convinced,
writes Mr.. Douglass, that there was
no necessity for dissOIving the union
between the northern and southern
states: that to abstain from voting
was TO refuse to exercise 4 legitimate
and powerful means for abolishing
slavery; and that the Constitution OF
the United States not only contained
no guarantee in favor Of slavery, but
on the contrary it is in its letter and
spirit an anti-slavery instrument. de-
handing the abolition of slavery as
condition Of its own existence. rs the
supreme law of the land" You can
readily perceive how courageous THIS
man must have been TO oppose his
Interpretation Of the Constitution 10
that Of the whole body OF Abolition
lists who strictly maintained that II
not only countenanced. but protected
slavery. This change Of his position
was brought about by an equally
manly determination to publish q
newspaper, though his white friends
OF that day could not believe that /
colored man could display sufficient
I1-alnrfnl-