The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1917-02-17
FREDERICK DOUGLASS AND ABRA.
HAM LINCOLN.
Concluded from page ~

Convey entirely failed to reduce him to
the beast-like state of submission hoped
for, and he was turned over to his new
master, William Freeland, from whom
he planned to escape in 1886, but was
suspected, jailed and freed for lack Of
evidence.
The obstreperous slave was then ap-
prenticed to Hugh Aud at Baltimore
as a ship caulker. Characteristic of
the man, he learned the trade in one
year and in 1885 escaped disguised as a
sailor to New York City. Later for
sake of personal safety he removed to
New Bedford, Mass, where he changed
his name from Frederick Augustus
Washington Bailey, to Frederick Doug
lass.
After working three years as a la
borer, his oratorical ability was ac-
cidentally discovered through an ex-
temporaneous speech made by him at
Nantucket, Mass, in 1S41. This led to
his appointment as an agent for the
Massachusetts, Anti-Slavery Society.
To avoid recapture and return to
slavery, he went to England in 1S45,
where he lectured on abolition until
lS47. Sufficient money having been
raised to obtain his manumission, he
returned to America and until 1860 he
published a weekly anti-slavery jour
nal at Rochester, n. Y.
During the Civil War he was among
the first to suggest the use of Colored
soldiers, two of his sons entering the
army. This measure advocated so
strongly and successfully by Douglass,
brought to the Great Man of Sorrow
the first ray of optimism that pene-
trated the clouds of blunders, failures
and defeats, accumulated in the pre-
ceding years, and that threatened dis
aster to the Union.
/ do not believe it exaggerating to
say, that this decision was of unreal
lied potent, when it sent out the sum-
mons to the sons of Ethiopia giving
them their first opportunity to lay
down their lives in freedoms cause,
for the first time extending an invita-
ton to men without a flag, to assemble
and march beneath the waving folds of
Old Glory, and with the vision of imag-
ination ] can see them as with tear
dimmed eyes they gazed upward at the
shining stars in the azure field of blue,
and the brilliant stripes undulating IN
the sunshine, as with lifted caps and
appraised hands they pledged an indy
ing. unhyphenated allegiance to the
Star Spangled Banner, inwardly re-
solving to sacrifice their lives rather
than return with one star missing from
its place among the others and to them
there was a new meaning as they sang
"Mv Country IT'S of Thee" How
did they answer We are coming 200,-
900 strong. What was the portent'
1t meant the preservation of the Union.
And how we'll has this pledge been
keptS The pages of history answer,
they show that the honor of a race,
whether in ignorance or intelligence,
whether in slavery or in freedom, has
never been tainted by a single traitor
Gus act to that flag. Our fathers and
our fathers sons have answered it
with Shaw, at Wagner, in the deadly
crater ut Petersburg, on the bloody
slopes of San Juan, in the ditch at Car
rial, and last, but not least, hiking
over the burning sands of Texas.
In 1871 Douglass was appointed as
sistant secretary of the Santa-Domingo
Commission, by President Grant. At
terward he served as Marshal of the
District of Columbia from 1877 to Isl,
then as Recorder of Deeds. From 1889
to 1891 he served as American Minis
ter to Haiti.