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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 311

States were quite in earnest, and bore themselves grandly in support of the
measure; but the chief speakers and advocates of suffrage on that occasion
were Mr. Theodore Tilton and Miss Anna E. Dickenson. Of course, on such
a question, I could not be expected to be silent. I was called forward, and
responded with all the energy of my soul, for I looked upon suffrage to the
negro as the only measure which could prevent him from being thrust back
into slavery.

From this time onward the question of suffrage had no rest. The rapidity
with which it gained strength was more than surprising to me.

In addition to the justice of the measure, it was soon commended by
events as a political necessity. As in the case of the abolition of slavery, the
white people of the rebellious States have themselves to thank for its adop-
tion. Had they accepted, with moderate grace, the decision of the court to
which they appealed, and the liberal conditions of peace offered to them,
and united heartily with the national government in its efforts to reconstruct
their shattered institutions, instead of sullenly refusing as they did, their
counsel and their votes to that end, they might easily have defeated the argu-
ment based upon necessity for the measure. As it was, the question was
speedily taken out of the hands of colored delegations and mere individual
efforts, and became a part of the policy of the Republican party; and
President U. S. Grant, with his characteristic nerve and clear perception of
justice, promptly recommended the great amendment to the Constitution by
which colored men are to-day invested with complete citizenship—the right
to vote and to be voted for in the American Republic.

CHAPTER XIV.
LIVING AND LEARNING.

Inducements to a political career — Objections — A newspaper enterprise — The New National
Era — Its abandonment — The Freedman's Savings and Trust Company — Sad experience —
Vindication

The adoption of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments and their incorpo-
ration into the Constitution of the United States opened a very tempting field
to my ambition, and one to which I should probably have yielded, had I been
a younger man. I was earnestly urged by many of my respected fellow-citi-
zens, both colored and white and from all sections of the country, to take up
my abode in some one of the many districts of the South where there was a
large colored vote, and get myself elected, as they were sure I easily could