182

334 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

One other word. During the tumult raised against me in consequence of
this lecture on the "National Capital," Mr. Columbus Alexander, one of the
old and wealthy citizens of Washington, who was on my bond for twenty
thousand dollars, was repeatedly besought to withdraw his name, and thus
leave me disqualified; but like the President, both he and my other bonds-
man, Mr. George Hill, Jr., were steadfast and immovable. I was not surprised
that Mr. Hill stood bravely by me, for he was a Republican; but I was sur-
prised and gratified that Mr. Alexander, a Democrat, and, I believe, once a
slaveholder, had not only the courage, but the magnanimity to give me fair
play in this fight. What I have said of these gentlemen, can be extended to
very few others in this community, during that period of excitement, among
either the white or colored citizens, for, with the exception of Dr. Charles B.
Purvis, no colored man in the city uttered one public word in defence or
extenuation of me or of my Baltimore speech.

This violent hostility kindled against me was singularly evanescent. It
came like a whirlwind, and like a whirlwind departed. I soon saw nothing of
it, either in the courts among the lawyers, or on the streets among the people;
for it was discovered that there was really in my speech at Baltimore nothing
which made me "worthy of stripes or of bonds."

I can say from my experience in the office of United States Marshal of
the District of Columbia, it was every way agreeable. When it was an open
question whether I should take the office or not, it was apprehended and
predicted if I should accept it in face of the opposition of the lawyers and
judges of the courts, I should be subjected to numberless suits for damages,
and so vexed and worried that the office would be rendered valueless to me;
that it would not only eat up my salary, but possibly endanger what little I
might have laid up for a rainy day. I have now to report that this apprehen-
sion was in no sense realized. What might have happened had the members
of the District bar been half as malicious and spiteful as they had been indus-
triously represented as being, or if I had not secured as my assistant a man
so capable, industrious, vigilant, and careful as Mr. L. P. Williams, of course
I cannot know. But I am bound to praise the bridge that carries me safely
over it. I think it will ever stand as a witness to my fitness for the position of
Marshal, that I had the wisdom to select for my assistant a gentleman so well
instructed and competent. I also take pleasure in bearing testimony to the
generosity of Mr. Phillips, the assistant Marshal who preceded Mr. Williams
in that office, in giving the new assistant valuable information as to the vari-
ous duties he would be called upon to perform. I have further to say of my
experience in the Marshal's office, that while I have reason to know that the