215

OverviewTranscribeVersionsHelp

Facsimile

Transcription

Status: Complete

LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

367

real gentlemen; intelligent, aspiring, and those who fully appreciated all my
efforts in behalf of our common cause. Especially have I found this to be the
case in the East. A more gentlemanly and self-respecting class of men it would
be difficult to find, than those to be met on the various lines between New
York and Boston. I have never wanted for kind attention, or any effort they
could make to render my journeying with them smooth and pleasant. I owe
this solely to my work in our common cause, and to their intelligent estimate
of the value of that work. Republics are said to be ungrateful, but ingratitude
is not among the weaknesses of my people. No people ever had a more lively
sense of the value of faithful endeavor to serve their interests than they. But
for this feeling towards me on their part, I might have passed many nights
hungry and cold, and without any place to lay my head. I need not name my
colored friends to whom I am thus indebted. They do not desire such mention,
but I wish any who have shown me kindness, even so much as to give me a
cup of cold water, to feel themselves included in my thanks.

It is also due to myself, to make some more emphatic mention than I
have yet done, of the honorable women, who have not only assisted me, but
who according to their opportunity and ability, have generously contributed
to the abolition of slavery and the recognition of the equal manhood of the
colored race. When the true history of the anti-slavery cause shall be written,
woman will occupy a large space in its pages; for the cause of the slave has
been peculiarly woman's cause. Her heart and her conscience have supplied
in large degree its motive and mainspring. Her skill, industry, patience, and
perseverance have been wonderfully manifest in every trial hour. Not only
did her feet run on "'willing errands," and her fingers do the work which in
large degree supplied the sinews of war, but her deep moral convictions, and
her tender human sensibilities, found convincing and persuasive expression
by her pen and her voice. Foremost among these notable American women,
who in point of clearness of vision, breadth of understanding, fullness of
knowledge, catholicity of spirit, weight of character, and widespread
influence, was Lucretia Mott of Philadelphia. Great as this woman was in speech,
and persuasive as she was in her writings, she was incomparably greater in
her presence. She spoke to the world through every line of her countenance.
In her there was no lack of symmetry—no contradiction between her thought
and act. Seated in an anti-slavery meeting, looking benignantly around upon
the assembly, her silent presence made others eloquent, and carried the
argument home to the heart of the audience.

The known approval of such a woman of any cause, went far to
commend it.

Notes and Questions

Nobody has written a note for this page yet

Please sign in to write a note for this page