Year: 1866

From the Washington Chronicle.


The lecture of Mr.. Frederick Douglass at
the First Presbyterian Church, on Four-and-
a-half street. on the ASSASSINATION and its
Lessons" delivered last evening for the ben
eft of the National Home Association for
Colored Orphans, drew an immense audi
ence. Every seat in the spacious edi6ce was
filed and chairs were called in requisition
to fill every available foot of space ON the
floor. Many others were unable TO obtain
seats.


Chief Justice Chase presided, and Judge
Kelley and Judge Wilmot, well known as
the author of the Wilmot proviso, occupied
seats near the speaker.


On entering the room, Mr.. Douglass was
greeted with loud and long-continued ap-
plause. After the reading Of a chapter by
Rev. Dr. Sunderland, and prayer BY Rev.
DIR. Nadal, Chief Justice Chase rose TO in
troduce the speaker. He said that many
wears ago, in one of the counties of Mary
land, Young mana slave-felt stirring
within him the irrepressible desire for free
dom. He fed from slavery to free State /;
then, self-enfranchised, he became self-edu-
Gated. Suffering much, he progressed in in
tellectual culture until he took his place
among the most intelligent in the land. He
comes before you tonight to plead the cause
of his down-trodden race. The slave, self
enfranchised-t man, self-educated-has
taken rank as one of the foremost orators OF
the nation. His name is Fred. Douglass. II
is known throughout the country, and now
introduce him to you.


Mr.. Douglass stepped forward, and was
received with enthusiastic demonstrations Of
applause. He spoke substantially as fol-
lows:


He expressed his sincere thanks, first TO
Chief Justice Chase, for the kind and COM
plimentary introduction he had been pleased
to give him to this refined and intellectual
audience He was here to speak about the
assassination and its lesSens and desired to
declare at the outset that he did not wish to
be understood to assume the office of teach
er, as might be inferred from the title of his
lecture. To those who knew him he need
not discIaim this; they knew well the dis
tance to be travelled from the corn-feld to
DIR. Sunderland's pulpit.


Mankind were indebted for the progress
they have made in civilization to two kinds
of teachers-great men and great events.
There were some minds able to discover in
the most occult beginning grand result,
but most men were taught by events. From
them are learned those principles without
which no nation can be permanently pros
porous or great. The masses are always en-
gagged chiefly in the struggle for existence,
and have little time to give to theories. A
few can comprehend rule and the reasons
therefor, but the many require illustrations
before they can be instructed. Long be-
fore our land was rent with civil war, and
in the face of sixty years Of unbroken pros
perity, a few good and clear-minded men,
ranging themselves beside the down-trodden
and oppressed, and looking up from that
lowly position TO the source of eternal JUS
tice, foresaw and warned us Of all the evils
that came upon us but they were unheeded.
The tears of the slave-mother who saw her
child placed upon the auction-block anointed
the eyes Of the few, and they saw and warned
us that there must come day of retribu-
ticn; but nothing short of the thunders of
Sumter could open the eyes of the masses
to the dangers of fostering a privileged
class in a republic.


The past year has witnessed two great
events. The first was the downfall of the
rebellion. Unlikemost rebellions, this was
undertaken not to assert any great right, or
to redress any great wrong, but to maintain
the ascendency of privileged class, and to
hold race in perpetual bondage. When
this rebellion fell, it was fondly hoped that
the South would be constructed by the war,
and, that with the death Of slavery, would
be settled all the questions pertaining there
to-that they would be settled forever, be-
cause settled in accordance with the prin-
ciples Of eternal justice.


The other event was something unpreee-
dented in our history; it was the inaugura-
ton of new crime-a stranger to our lati-
tude We had heard of it among the mon
arches of Europe, where men were goaded to
desperation by tyranny, but had never
dreamed that in this land of free ballots, a
crime SO monstrous as the assassination Of
our Chief Magistrate could be possible. Bus
we were mistaken We had fiend among
us whose presence had not been taken into
account


A new year had lately dawned upon us.
We had hoped much upon it, but there was
reason for grave apprehension. There was
reason TO fear that il might witness some
thing worse than even assassination, and
this crime which we had cause to dread was
nothing less than the abandonment of all
the advantages won BY the war-the freeing
of the American bondman. Oh when viii
the American people learn rightly the lef-
sons of their own history? Many shocks
have fallen upon them, chief among which
was the assassination. Had the question of
settling the status of the negro been sub
mitted 10 them on the morning after that
event, there is no doubt as to what they
would have done. They would have put
away from among them every vestige Of
slavery.


1t was not necessary that he should call
attention to the effect of that atrocious crime;
the recollection of it was fresh in every
mind. 1t was as If some strong conyulsion
of nature had occurred. Had a city been
swallowed up by an earthquake, had the
graves opened and the sheeted dead walked
forth in our streets, it could not have pro-
duced more profound sensation than did
this startling event. The calamity was so
sudden, and so out Of joint with the sense Of
security prevailing among us, that few of us
could believe the dreadful news to be true
As at no time before, the loyal people were
rejoicing in victory Richmond had fallen !;
Lee, the patrician, commanding an army
composed of the elite of the South, had sur
rendered to GRAM, the plebeian; Wilning-
ton and Mobile were in our hands; South
Carolina had received from Sherman the
chastisement she merited, and in Charleston,
the cradle Of secession, loyal black troops
had marched through the streets to the tune
of "Old John Brown"


The people were already beginning 10
manifest a desire to conciliate, and that
maudlin magnanimity that is now our
greatest danger. 1t was becoming fashion
able to speak Of rebel generals in terms Of
the highest respect, and men we're almost as
| thankful to Lee for surrendering a. to Grant
for making him surrender. But what did
this leniency avail? Was the iron heart OF
slavery softened by it? No; nor ever will
be- Nothing viii ever soften it save the
military power OF the United States. For it
seized that moment when there..was nothing to


be gained, and when we Of the North were
meditating mercy, TO deal upon the nations
head its heaviest blow, by numbering man
the most beloved the nation has ever known.
| He was not here TO deliver lecture on
| the character Of Mr.. Lincoln. On this there
| is little left TO be said, especially after the
brilliant Grafton Of yesterday; and yet there
| is a charm in il which makes it always an
| interesting subject to an American audience.
| When our great military chieftains are for
| gotten. and the war itself shall seem mere


speck in the distance, Abraham Lincoln,
| like dear old John Brown, viii still find elO-
quent tongues 10 speak Of his name. The
| difficulties thai he met on the threshold Of
| his poxer. the conscientious earnestness and


energy with which he grappled them, the
Il = 4 g. m.1 aks.k