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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 327

degree of pride that I am able to say that my opinion of the wisdom of send-
ing Mr. Bassett to Hayti has been fully justified by the creditable manner in
which, for eight years, he discharged the difficult duties of that position; for
I have the assurance of Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State of the United
States, that Mr. Bassett was a good Minister. In so many words, the ex-
Secretary told me, that he "wished that one-half of his ministers abroad
performed their duties as well as Mr. Bassett." To those who knew Hon.
Hamilton Fish, this compliment will not be deemed slight, for few men are
less given to exaggeration and arc more scrupulously exact in the observance
of law, and in the use of language, than is that gentleman. While speaking in
this strain of complacency in reference to Mr. Bassett. I take pleasure also in
bearing my teststimony based upon knowledge obtained at the State
Department, that Mr. John Mercer Langston, the present Minister to Haïti,
has acquitted himself with equal wisdom and ability to that of Mr. Bassett in
the same position. Having known both these gentlemen in their youth, when
the one was at Yale, and the other at Oberlin College, and witnessed their
efforts to quality themselves for positions of usefulness, it has afforded me
no limited satisfaction to see them rise in the world. Such men increase the
faith of all in the possibilities of their race, and make it easier for those who
are to come alter them.

The unveiling of Lincoln Monument in Lincoln Park, Washington, April
14th 1876, and the part taken by me in the ceremonies of that grand occa-
sion, take rank among the most interesting incidents of my life, since they
brought me into mental communication with a greater number of the influ-
ential and distinguished men of the country than any I had before known.
There were present the President of the United States and his Cabinet,
Judges of the Supreme Court, members of the Senate and House of
Representatives, and many thousands of citizens to listen to my address upon
the illustrious man in whose memory the colored people of the United States
had, as a mark of their gratitude, erected that impressive monument.
Occasions like this have done wonders in the removal of popular prejudice,
and in lifting into consideration the colored race; and I reckon it one of the
high privileges of my life, that I was permitted to have a share in this and
several other like celebrations.

The progress of a nation is sometimes indicated by small things. When
Henry WiIson, an honored Senator and Vice-President of the United States,
died in the capitol of the nation, it was a significant and telling indication of
national advance, when three colored citizens, Mr. Robert Purvis, Mr. James
Wormley, and myself, were selected with the Senate committee, to accom-