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328 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

pany his honored remains from Washington to the grand old commonwealth
he loved so well, and whom in turn she had so greatly loved and honored. It
was meet and right that we should be represented in the long procession that
met those remains in every State between here and Massachusetts, for Henry
Wilson was among the foremost friends of the colored race in this country,
and this was the first time in its history when a colored man was made a
pall-bearer at the funeral, as I was in this instance, of a Vice-President of the
United States.

An appointment to any important and lucrative office under the United
States government, usually brings its recipient a large measure of praise and
congratulation on the one hand, and much abuse and disparagement on the
other; and he may think himself singularly fortunate if the censure does not
exceed the praise. I need not dwell upon the causes of this extravagance, but
I may say there is no office of any value in the country which is not desired
and sought by many persons equally meritorious and equally deserving. But
as only one person can be appointed to any one office, only one can be
pleased, while many are offended; unhappily, resentment follows disap-
pointment, and this resentment often finds expression in disparagement and
abuse of the successful man. As in most else that I have said, I borrow this
reflection from my own experience.

My appointment as United States Marshal of the District of Columbia,
was in keeping with the rest of my life, as a freeman. It was an innovation
upon long established usage, and opposed to the general current of sentiment
in the community. It came upon the people of the District as a gross surprise,
and almost a punishment; and provoked something like a scream—I will not
say a yell—of popular displeasure. As soon as I was named by President
Hayes for the place, efforts were made by members of the bar to defeat my
confirmation before the Senate. All sorts of reasons against my appointment,
but the true one, were given, and that was withheld more from a sense of
shame, than from a sense of justice. The apprehension doubtless was, that if
appointed marshal, I would surround myself with colored deputies, colored
bailiffs, colored messengers, and pack the jury box with colored jurors; in a
word, Africanize the courts. But the most dreadful thing threatened, was a
colored man at the Executive Mansion in white kid gloves, sparrow-tailed
coat, patent leather boots, and alabaster cravat, performing the ceremony—a
very empty one—of introducing the aristocratic citizens of the republic to
the President of the United States. This was something entirely too much to
be borne; and men asked themselves in view of it, to what is the world com-
ing? and where will these things stop? Dreadful! Dreadful!

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