214

366

LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

I, Bowditch, Theodore Parker, Wendell Phillips, Edmund Quincy, Isaac T.
Hopper, James N. Buffum, Edward Greely Loring, Andrew Robeson, Seth
Hunt, Arnold Buffum, Nathaniel B. Borden, Bourne Spooner, William
Thomas, John Milton Earle, John Curtis, George Foster, Clother Gifford,
John Bailey, Nathaniel P. Rogers, Stephen S. Foster, Parker Pillsbury, the
Hutchinson family, Dr. Peleg Clarke, the Burleigh brothers, William Chace,
Samuel and Harvey Chace, John Brown, C. C. Eldredge, Daniel Mitchell,
William Adams, Isaac Kenyon, Joseph Sisson, Daniel Gould, the Kelton
brothers, Geo. James Adams, Martin Cheney, Edward Harris, Robert
Shrove, Alpheus Jones, Asa Fairbanks, Gen. Sam'l Fessenden, William
Aplin, John Clarke, Thomas Davis, George L. Clarke; these all took me to
their hearts and homes, and inspired me with an incentive which a
confiding and helpful friendship can alone impart.

Nor were my influential friends all of the Caucasian race. While many
of my own people thought me unwise and somewhat fanatical in announcing
myself a fugitive slave, and in practically asserting the rights of my people,
on all occasions, in season and out of season, there were brave and intelligent
men of color all over the United States who gave me their cordial sympathy
and support. Among these, and foremost, I place the name of Doctor James
McCune Smith; educated in Scotland, and breathing the free air of that
country, he came back to his native land with ideas of liberty which placed him
in advance of most of his fellow citizens of African descent. He was not only
a learned and skillful physician, but an effective speaker, and a keen and
polished writer. In my newspaper enterprise, I found in him an earnest and
effective helper. The cause of his people lost an able advocate when he died.
He was never among the timid who thought me too aggressive and wished
me to tone down my testimony to suit the times. A brave man himself, he
knew how to esteem courage in others.

Of David Ruggles I have already spoken. He gave me my send off from
New York to New Bedford, and when I came into public life, he was among
the first with words of cheer. Jehiel C. Beman too, a noble man, kindly took
me by the hand. Thomas Van Rensselaer was among my fast friends. No
young man, starting in an untried field of usefulness, and needing support,
could find that support in larger measure than I found it, in William Whipper.
Robert Purvis, William P. Powell , Nathan Johnson, Charles B. Ray, Thomas
Downing, Theodore S. Wright, Charles L. Reason. Notwithstanding what I
have said of my treatment, at times, by people of my own color, when
traveling, I am bound to say that there is another and brighter side to that picture.
Among the waiters and attendants on public conveyances, I have often found