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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 333

person other than myself to attend upon him at the Executive Mansion and
perform the ceremony of introduction on state occasions. But it was said,
that this statement did not cover the whole ground; that it was customary for
the United States Marshal of the District of Columbia to perform this social
office; and that the usage had come to have almost the force of law. I met
this at the time, and I meet it now by denying the binding force of this cus-
tom. No President has any right or power to make his example the rule for
his successor. The custom of inviting the Marshal to do this duty was made
by a President, and could be as properly unmade by a President. Besides, the
usage is altogether a modern one, and had its origin in peculiar circum-
stances, and was justified by those circumstances. It was introduced in time
of war by President Lincoln when he made his old law partner and intimate
acquaintance Marshal of the District, and was continued by Gen. Grant when
he appointed a relative of his, Gen. Sharp, to the same office. But again it
was said that President Hayes only departed from this custom because the
Marshal in my case was a colored man. The answer I made to this, and now
make to it, is, that it is a gratuitous assumption and entirely begs the ques-
tion. It may or may not be true that my complexion was the cause of this
departure, but no man has any right to assume that position in advance of a
plain declaration to that effect by President Hayes himself. Never have I
heard from him any such declaration or intimation. In so far as my inter-
course with him is concerned, I can say that I at no time discovered in him
a feeling of aversion to me on account of my complexion, or on any other
account, and, unless I am greatly deceived. I was ever a welcome visitor at
the Executive Mansion on state occasions and all others, while Rutherford
B. Hayes was President of the United States. I have further to say that I have
many times during his administration had the honor to introduce distin-
guished strangers to him, both of native and foreign birth, and never had
reason to feel myself slighted by himself or his amiable wife; and I think he
would he a very unreasonable man who could desire for himself or for any
other, a larger measure of respect and consideration than this at the hands of
a man and woman occupying the exalted positions of Mr. and Mrs. Hayes.

I should not do entire justice to the Honorable ex-President if I did not
bear additional testimony to his noble and generous spirit. When all
Washington was in an uproar, and a wild clamor rent the air for my removal
from the office of Marshal on account of the lecture delivered by me in
Baltimore, when petitions were flowing in upon him demanding my degra-
dation, he nobly rebuked the mad spirit of persecution by openly declaring
his purpose to retain me in my place.