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218 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

being directed with destructive skill and effect. They clamored for more
slave States, more power in the Senate and House of Representatives, and
insisted upon the suppression of free speech. At the end of two years, in
1850, when Clay and Calhoun, two of the ablest leaders the South ever had,
were still in the Senate, we had an attempt at a settlement of differences
between the North and South which our legislators meant to be final. What
those measures were I need not here enumerate except to say that chief
among them was the Fugitive Slave Bill, framed by James M. Mason of
Virginia, and supported by Daniel Webster of Massachusetts; a bill undoubtedly
more designed to involve the North in complicity with slavery and
deaden its moral sentiment than to procure the return of fugitives to their
so-called owners. For a time this design did not altogether fail. Letters,
speeches, and pamphlets literally rained down upon the people of the North,
reminding them of their constitutional duty to hunt down and return to bondage
runaway slaves. In this the preachers were not much behind the press
and the politicians, especially that class of preachers known as Doctors of
Divinity. A long list of these came forward with their Bibles to show that
neither Christ nor his holy apostles objected to returning fugitives to slavery.
Now that that evil day is past a sight of those sermons would. I doubt not,
bring the red blush of shame to the cheeks of many.

Living as I then did in Rochester, on the border of Canada. I was compelled
to see the terribly distressing effects of this cruel enactment. Fugitive
slaves, who had lived for many years safely and securely in Western New
York and elsewhere, some of whom had by industry and economy saved
money and bought little homes for themselves and their children, were suddenly
alarmed and compelled to flee to Canada for safety as from an enemy's
land — a doomed city — and take up a dismal march to a new abode, empty-
handed, among strangers. My old friend Ward, of whom I have just now
spoken, found it necessary to give up the contest and flee to Canada, and
thousands followed his example. Bishop Daniel A. Payne, of the African
Methodist Episcopal church, came to me about this time to consult me as to
whether it was best to stand our ground or flee to Canada. When I told him
I could not desert my post until I saw I could not hold it, adding that I did
not wish to leave while Garnet and Ward remained. "Why," said he, "Ward?
Ward, he is already gone. I saw him crossing from Detroit to Windsor. I
asked him if he was going to stay, and he answered. 'Yes; we are whipped,
we are whipped! and we might as well retreat in order."' This was indeed a
stunning blow. This man had power to do more to defeat this inhuman enact-
ment than any other colored man in the land, for no other could bring such