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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 279

known activity in procuring enlistments would have made me especially
obnoxious to its murderous spirit. This was not the first time I had been in
imminent peril in New York city. My first arrival there, after my escape from
slavery, was full of danger. My passage through its borders after the attack of
John Brown on Harper's Ferry was scarcely less safe. I had encountered
Isaiah Rynders and his gang of ruffians in the old Broadway Tabernacle at our
Anti-slavery Society anniversary meeting, and I knew something of the crazy
temper of such crowds; but this anti-draft, anti-negro mob was something
more and something worse — it was a part of the rebel force, without the rebel
uniform, but with all its deadly hate: it was the fire of the enemy opened in
the rear of the loyal army. Such men as Franklin Pierce and Horatio Seymour
had done much in their utterances to encourage resistance to the drafts.
Seymour was then Governor of the State of New York, and while the mob was
doing its deadly work he addressed them as "My friends," telling them to
desist then, while he could arrange at Washington to have the draft arrested.
Had Governor Seymour been loyal to his country, and to his country's cause,
in this her moment of need, he would have burned his tongue with a red hot
iron sooner than allow it to call these thugs, thieves, and murderers his
"friends."

My interviews with President Lincoln and his able Secretary, before narrated,
greatly increased my confidence in the anti-slavery integrity of the
government, although I confess I was greatly disappointed at my failure to
receive the commission promised me by Secretary Stanton. I, however, faithfully
believed, and loudly proclaimed my belief that the rebellion would be
suppressed, the Union preserved, the slaves emancipated, and the colored
soldiers would in the end have justice done them. This confidence was
immeasurably strengthened when I saw Gen. George B. McClellan relieved
from the command of the army of the Potomac and Gen. U. S. Grant placed
at its head, and in command of all the armies of the United States. My confidence
in Gen. Grant was not entirely due to the brilliant military successes
achieved by him, but there was a moral as well as military basis for my faith
in him. He had shown his single mindedness and superiority to popular prejudice
by his prompt co-operation with President Lincoln in his policy of
employing colored troops, and his order commanding his soldiers to treat
such troops with due respect. In this way he proved himself to be not only a
wise General, but a great man — one who could adjust himself to new conditions,
and adopt the lessons taught by the events of the hour. This quality in
General Grant was and is made all the more conspicuous and striking in contrast
with his West Point education and his former political associations; for