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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 276

ation. Hitherto, he had not shown himself a man of heroic measures, and,
properly enough, this step belonged to that class. It must be the end of all
compromises with slavery — a declaration that thereafter the war was to be
conducted on a new principle, with a new aim. It would be a full and fair
assertion that the government would neither trifle, nor be trifled with any
longer. But would it come? On the side of doubt, it was said that Mr.
Lincoln's kindly nature might cause him to relent at the last moment; that
Mrs. Lincoln, coming from an old slaveholding family, would influence him
to delay, and give the slaveholders one other chance.* Every moment of waiting
chilled our hopes, and strengthened our tears. A line of messengers was
established between the telegraph office and the platform of Tremont
Temple, and the time was occupied with brief speeches from Hon. Thomas
Russell of Plymouth, Miss Anna E. Dickenson (a lady of marvelous eloquence),
Rev. Mr. Grimes, J. Sella Martin, William Wells Brown, and
myself. But speaking or listening to speeches was not the thing for which the
people had come together. The time for argument was passed. It was not
logic, but the trump of jubilee, which everybody wanted to hear. We were
waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky, which should rend the fetters
of four millions of slaves; we were watching, as it were, by the dim light of
the stars, for the dawn of a new day; we were longing for the answer to the
agonizing prayers of centuries. Remembering those in bonds as bound with
them, we wanted to join in the shout for freedom, and in the anthem of the
redeemed.

Eight, nine, ten o'clock came and went , and still no word. A visible
shadow seemed falling on the expecting throng, which the confident utterances
of the speakers sought in vain to dispel. At last, when patience was
well-nigh exhausted, and suspense was becoming agony, a man (I think it
was Judge Russell) with hasty step advanced through the crowd, and with a
face fairly illumined with the news he bore, exclaimed in tones that thrilled
all hearts, "It is coming" "It is on the wires!!" The effect of this announcement
was startling beyond description, and the scene was wild and grand.
Joy and gladness exhausted all forms of expression from shouts of praise, to
sobs and tears. My old friend Rue, a colored preacher, a man of wonderful
vocal power, expressed the heartfelt emotion of the hour, when he led all
voices in the anthem, "Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea, Jehovah
hath triumphed, his people are free." About twelve o'clock, seeing there was
no disposition to retire from the hall, which must be vacated, my friend

* I have reason to know that this supposition did Mrs. Lincoln great injustice.