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294 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

line of my then convictions. I sought this valuable book at once in our bookstores,
but could not obtain it anywhere in this country. I sent to England,
where I paid the sum of seven and a half dollars for it. In addition to this
valuable work, President Anderson kindly gave me a little book entitled,
"Man and His Migrations," by Dr. R. G. Latham, and loaned me the large
work of Dr. Morton the famous Archaeologist, and that of Messrs. Nott and
Gliddon, the latter written evidently to degrade the negro and support the
then prevalent Calhoun doctrine of the rightfulness of slavery. With these
books, and occasional suggestions from Dr. Anderson and Prof. Wayland, I
set about preparing my Commencement address. For many days and nights
I toiled, and succeeded at last in getting something together in due form.
Written orations had not been in my line. I had usually depended upon my
unsystematized knowledge, and the inspiration of the hour and the occasion;
but I had now got the "scholar bee in my bonnet," and supposed that inasmuch
as I was to speak to college professors and students. I must at least
make a show of some familiarity with letters. It proved, as to its immediate
effect, a great mistake, for my carefully studied and written address, full of
learned quotations, fell dead at my feet, while a few remarks I made extemporaneously
at collation, were enthusiastically received. Nevertheless, the
reading and labor expended were of much value to me. They were needed
steps preparatory to the work upon which I was about to enter. If they failed
at the beginning, they helped to success in the end. My lecture on "The
Races of Men" was seldom called for, but that on "Self-made Men" was in
great demand, especially through the West. I found that the success of a lecturer
depends more upon the quality of his stock in store, than the amount.
My friend, Wendell Phillips (for such I esteem him), who has said more
cheering words to me, and in vindication of my race, than any man now living,
has delivered his famous lecture on the "Lost Arts" during the last forty
years; and I doubt if among all his lectures, and he has many, there is one in
such requisition as this. When Daniel O' Connell was asked why he did not
make a new speech he playfully replied, that "it would take Ireland twenty
years to learn his old ones." Upon some such consideration as this, I adhered
pretty closely to my old lecture on "Self-made Men," retouching and shading
it a little from time to time as occasion seemed to require.

Here, then, was a new vocation before me, full of advantages, mentally
and pecuniarily. When in the employment of the American Anti-Slavery
Society, my salary was about four hundred and fifty dollars a year, and I felt
I was well paid for my services; but I could now make from fifty to a hundred
dollars a night, and have the satisfaction, too, that I was in some small mea-