Eulogy on the Life and Services OF Hon. Frederick Douglass.

byRev. Alex an Crummell.

In studying Mr. Douglass, we may be led into extreme enthusiasm. If we are so led the subject is our apology. This is the time for eulogy--this is the time for presenting those characteristics which will be of benefit to us and lead to a higher plane of living.

As we consider what might be the theme for our remarks, so many virtues of this man crowd upon our minds that we are brought to pause where we shall first begin.

Let us then trace some lines of his character and come to some lesson that surely must be there.

What use are we to make of such a character as Frederick Douglass? Let his life be a lesson to all our children. Let his virtues be rehearsed to future generations. Let not one of us forget to hold him up as a pattern for young men in any station of life.

Paul on Mars hill is not a more striking and valuable lesson than Mr. Douglass upon the platform. They, both apostles, preached the doctrines of their Master. The Pauline echoes have been intensified by the Douglass reverberation; the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, was their theme. Contemplate the Douglass character as you will, it is one of moral sublimity. His daring grand, his courage awe-striking. "He stood "where Moses stood and viewed the landscape o'er." Ever conscious of his moral defense he could not be affrighted from his post. Xenophon in his Memorabilia says of Socrates: "Of those who knew what sort of a man Socrates was, such as were lovers of virtue continue to regret him above all other men even to the present day as having contributed in the highest degree to their advancement in goodness. To me being such as I have described him, so pious that he did nothing without the sanction of the gods; so just that he wronged no man in the most trifling affairs, but was of service, in the most important matters, to those who enjoyed his society; so temperate that he never preferred pleasure to virtue; so wise that he never erred in distinguishing between better and worse, needing no counsel from others, but being sufficient in himself to discriminate between them; so able to explain and settle questions by argument; so capable of 00022discerning the characters of others, of confuting those who were in error, and of exhorting them to virtue and honor--to me,I say, he seemed to be such as the best and happiest of men would be. But if any one disapproves of my opinion, let him compare the conduct of others with that of Socrates and determine accordingly."

Is there a line, a word, or a sentiment in this extract not having positive fitness in its application to Mr. Douglass? Is he not regretted by those who love virtue? Have not his words and example contributed to the advancement of good in others? What has Douglass done without the sanction of the moral code? In that, he is pious like Socrates. He wronged no man in trivial matters and was of service in important affairs. So temperate that he always discountenanced pleasure virtuous. He distinguished between better and worse. No matter how dark the encircling gloom, wisdom's kindly light always led him, thereby making him sufficient in himself to discriminate between them. Able indeed in explanation and argument; penetrating in his discernment of the characters of others; capable to confute the wrong and exhort to the right. To me I say, he seemed as the best and happiest of men would be. If any man disapproves of my opinion let him compare the conduct of Douglass with that of others and decide for himself.

Where in nature must we turn for a proper symbol of Frederick Douglass? If we seek it in the forest and view the giants there, as we read their lessons we must talk for them to give expression to their silent language. If we scan history, we fail to find the counterpart; for as lofty as may be the reality before us, it does not fit the conception of those who have known Mr. Douglass. Howl, fir-tree, for the cedar of Lebanon is fallen,

The cedar of Lebanon was held by the ancient Hebrew prophets and sacred writers as of great importance for its adaptability as a symbol for manly virtues and its fitness for figurative application. Its longevity is great; it towers skyward till its branches seem to kiss the blue vault. It stands for power and teaches prosperity. Erectness is in its character. It is a type of rectitude, its bole being as straight as righteousness itself. One or two of its strong arms rise higher than the rest, while all present a protecting shade and covering aspect, with foliage ever green as the eternal truths it typifies. Its roots are deeply embedded in earth's mold.

Striking indeed is the poetic similarity between the cedar of Lebanon and Frederick Douglass. Of a towering stature-blessed with a long life--a cedar in giant physical cast; emblematic of prosperity in his intellectual and material growth, with integrity as pronounced as the shaft of the cedar; his oratory and sage insight standing as counterparts of the sky-piercing branches of the cedar 00033tree. The foundation on which Douglass built his enduring character is like the deep root embedded in nature's gifts--drawing from her rich stores their sustenance, and lending influences which are ever fresh as the rich and green foliage.

The Douglass education is not the so-called of the school, emanating from the teacher. There is an education which includes in its elements all the forces of nature, all the forms of social environments, all the chance incidents of observation and all the imprints from whatever source influencing that pliable composition called the soul of man. Unlettered, with neither primary course or classics. Douglass was by his intellect and oratory able, like the fisherman of old, to become a profound thinker and to perplex the doctors. He sounded the depths of the human heart and penned immortal works. His analysis and insight into character were accurate. Born great, experience was his school and God the director. In that school no lifeless words fall from the master's lips, no listless souls attend. Inspiration is the motive, and justice promulgated to man the curriculum. "Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." Mr. Douglass was of the first class, and he achieved distinction through that gift of nature. Instead of needing stimulus from others, he stimulated others. Injustice done to man nerved him for the conflict. It was so when he incited the other slaves to join the plot to run away, and that spirit of leadership dominated his whole life.

Can we commune with our own thoughts and say that the validity of our knowledge of Mr. Douglass is unquestioned? Do we know him? Is that mighty instrument of God more scrutable to us than the genius of Shakespeare and the soul of Milton to their contemporaries? I believe not. Time must alone reveal to man what the treasure is. It is but the fate of man to be honored no more in his own time than in his own country. Luther is known better today than in the 15th century. Milton is admired more now than when he penned his immortal lines "to the height of the great argument, asserted eternal Providence and justified the ways of God to man." The debt of gratitude, being greater than the ordinary, is no more understood in great men's day than is the magnitude of his work.

Jesus Christ is honored more today than when Pilate found no fault with him, even when a few believed that he spake as never man spake before. The natural attitude of men truly great is interesting at first to view, then enchanting to study. They seem from their birth to force antagonism. They are living challenges for conflict against all that is vicious and strong and they are conspicuous examples as objects of adverse attacks from social surroundings. Often 00044they come into this world tasting the pangs of hunger, wearing the mantle of poverty, and denied social advantages--all of which seem only to intensify their natures to endeavor and make invincible their careers. With them every rebuff brings forth a new power and a greater display of patience. Every opposing obstacle displays heretofore hidden ability which leaping higher clears away every bar to their progress. Great characters are of more value for the future than the present. Douglass was maligned, so was Christ. The flight into Egypt attests a principle. Mohammed must needs seek safety in Medina. Luther found an asylum in Wartburg. It requires the development of ages to fit the hand and mind to analyze a truly great man. He is always far in advance of his times. Ordinary experiences give no instructions as to solving the thoughts of sages. It is easier to tell who are great than to tell what is greatness. It is less difficult to know the thing than to tell what the thing is. Great men are not as frequent as was supposed by a recent Methodist conference. Of the Douglass mold there are but a quartet in American history.

Of the Douglass personal presence nothing can be said to enlighten the American mind. To view it is to have emotions and intellectual experiences combined. "What a piece of work was this man. How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable." Today there are men who have hung as transfixed by his presence and eloquence, who cannot fathom the spell nor express the emotion. To the day of his death his appearance at any place was as pronounced and irresistible an event as the presence of the mighty Lear of Shakespeare. At once the grand central figure; at once the magic presence, with such kingly men to enrich the scene.

That snow-capped brow seated aloft upon an eminence of four-score years, Jove-like with its verbal thunders, carried with it the halo of the sage, a paragon among men, a conception from God. God made a gift to man in the Douglass person. Born for no meaner purpose than would challenge the gratitude of the world and make for itself a monument in the hearts of an appreciative race.

By the mandate of an inscrutable Providence we are ushered into this world. We play our parts, and are taken into the mysteries of the great unknown. A little while here and all is gone--for a time the prattle of infancy--then the joyousness and freshness of childhood--the gayer hours of youth--the cares of manhood-the disappointments and aftermath of age--then a few more sorrows and a few more joys, and a few more tears and a few more smiles and all is over--our parts are performed and all is past.

00055

Various indeed are those parts, some roles are more pronounced --some more prominent--some more creditable--some more reprehensible than others; but all to some purpose, all to some effect. Fortunate is the man whose imprints are of good to others--unfortunate indeed is he who sees the light of day, journeys through from early dawn to mid-day glare, glides into the twilight of warning manhood, and then falls to sleep in the great hereafter without paying the debt or his being by some good done--some profit brought to the aggregate of human existence.

It is said that man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn. The opposite is equally true, that man's humanity makes countless thousands glad. None deserve more the laurel wreath than he who wins it through his sympathies for the human race. The broader the circle of those sympathies the brighter should shine the crown of reward. Judged by the most severe standard Mr. Douglass, because of the catholicity of his sympathies, has now and will ever wear a victor's adornment, undimmed by the dust of ages, and unharmed by the ravages of time. Built as is his personality upon a pedestal whose base is eternal principles of justice and fraternity, whose every composing stone a setting from the inexhaustible quarry of God's treasure house, one name is assured as a light of history to inspire the weak and goad the lagging on to action. The entire category of higher principles, every benevolent desire, every sentiment and emotion dominating the human breast for man's welfare were expounded, defended, encouraged, and exalted in his life and hurled with effectiveness against their opposites. Name the cause calling for strong arms to defend it, words to encourage it, money to further it, that did not get its defense, its encouragement, and its financial aid from him. The Irish cause demanded his attention. The suffering of the serfs of Russia engaged his favorable consideration. The Negro problem both here and in Africa drew forth the Douglass powers--none such were ever equaled before-injustice to women elicited his endeavors. He was ever ready to stand forth in his personality as an impress, to use his voice to persuade or dissuade, his means to further the elevation of woman as the sure path to substantial human progress.

The Douglass oratory is unique, Born of nature; rugged at times, at others melodious; soft and pleasing at others; suited to any purpose desired. His voice possessed a rich diversity of intonations, running the gamut for every shade of sentiment, every form of desire, every grade of passion, every plane of pathos; a voice "that can swell the soul to rage or kindle soft desire"; can melt the hardened criminal to tears and make furious the gentlest woman. Mr. Douglass had a capability for every pitch of nature from wit and humor to 00066sublime eloquence, and for every adornment of art. What he said of Garrison may be said of him: "Mighty in words, mighty in truth, mighty in their simple earnestness." "His words," as Melancthon said of Luther,"born not on his lips but in his soul."

Time has proved Mr. Douglass a man of prophetic vision. In truth, no man is great without the touch of the inspiration of prophesy. The wisdom that makes a man great is the power to see coming events--that power which penetrates with mystical lore and gives reasonable assurance of a triumphant cause. Wise men take present conditions; decide for the future, not upon superficial grounds but take the measure not only of the probable but of the inevitable. No matter how dark the way to the goal--"sometimes the shadows how deep," yet they never halt, seldom stumble, and always follow a guide though leading through mires and bogs of opposition, even unto martyrdom; yet with a firm and abiding faith in the sure success of a course selected on principle. Such a sage was Mr. Douglass. Did he not meet the most pronounced opposition? Did he not suffer the most positive outrages? Did he not risk his life and receive bodily harm for a cause great to humanity? He might have escaped the turmoil and horrors of the day by remaining a fugitive, yet he accepted it all for principle's sake, which sustained his personal courage and placed him on a height with no cloud about him but the nebulae of the acclamation of a thankful people. What but a prophetic soul could mount to such sublime heights with such anchors on his wings?

Let us venture to make a reasonable prediction. When the question of this day cease to be agitated--when the historian shall have fought the battles incident to preserving the annals and biographies--when to know of Lincoln will be through the printed page--when Emancipation will be only a theme for scholarly disquisition, and Reconstruction a problem to be viewed not by everyday experiences, when the muse of history shall have enshrined her heroes and set upon the shelves the urns within which are written the history of the men of our day--then the histrionic art will deal with Frederick Douglass as a colossal character and the playwright make his fame by exercising his genius on a dramatic personation of him.

If the historian be no harsher than the truth demands, and the facts are prominent, that play will be easier to write than to set when written. To teach the lesson of history from the life of Mr. Douglass will require an acre for a stage, a multitude for the company, a nation's interests as a theme, and a prophet from God as a hero. What must be the mold of the man to personate the Douglass? He must stand as Saul of old, from his shoulders up above his fellow-men. Symmetrical in character and harmonious in outline. 00077When standing before the audience he must have the dignity of the lion and the strength of the ox, the gentleness of the lamb, the tenderness of the mother. An Ingomar he must be in patience, an Othello in honesty, a Mark Antony in persuasiveness, a Cicero in thundering ponderousness, a Demosthenes in insinuating irony and caustic satire, black but comely, a personage fair indeed to look upon, an advocate to prize, an adversary to fear. At once gentle in speech, yet terrible in philippics-able to melt to tears or to exasperate to madness. A man of harmonious contradictions, charitable and forgiving in his nature. In the play he must be the noblest roman of them all.

There may be grades of greatness considered from a convenient standpoint, but philosophically there is but one greatness. Its differentia are superiority, it is the superlative. When once recognized none other can be considered. Greatness must not be measured by any other standard than that graded and marked by ethical principle; that that is the being of God. "God alone is great." As man shows the image of his Maker is he great. The display of divine attributes conditions the standard. Lincoln is great and more prominent than John Brown, but John Brown is greater. Caesar is great, and stands in the index line of secular history as the "foremost man of all the world," yet Christ is greater. Daniel Webster stands as the culmination of American institutions and the result of New England's advancement and refinement, but as a true representative of the genius of American philanthropy Douglass is greater. Webster made apologies for the wrong. Douglass was as uncompromising as the truth, and as just as justice herself.

Prominence is not greatness. Sesostris, Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, all are great, but greater are Moses, Cicero, Luther, and Douglass. That quartet ruled by might from physical forces. Their empires went to pieces as their bodies disintegrated. Their achievements lasted only while they controlled them. Their works lived because they lived. But this quartette were themselves controlled by the powers by which they controlled others. Their conquests and creations were in the realm of thought. They wrought in spirit and in spirit they live. Their souls are marching on. Their preaching can outlive principalities, empires, hammered brass, carved stone, or molded bronze. These will pass to their elements, leaving and ever moving principle and stamp of the Divine Nature. Products of physical sciences are subject to the mutations of time and discovery. Spiritual results are unchangeable.

A thorough study of the life of Mr. Douglass will prove a philosophy 00088of being worth the time. Environments may be forceful in the shaping of character. Much is said about the depths from which he sprang. Those depths were external to his soul. He was born in the heights and the depths could not contain that proud spirit. How else are we to account for his ethereal flights. He soared without encouragement and in spite of discouragement. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Can a fountain shoot higher than its source? Douglass could not have been other than he was.

"Can it be that perpetual sleep rests upon Quintillius? When will modesty and the sister of Justice, uncorrupted Faith, and naked truth find any equal to him?"

He had that nice knowledge of men without which no man can be great. His sense of justice was combined with and softened by benevolence. He loved his friends and they remained true to him until death. Industrious, shrewd, great and brilliant in political life, a penetrating student of politics he followed the highest intellectual pursuits.

Mr. Douglass was truly sent of God. Human ingenuity could not break his mission. The slavery drag-net for his apprehension failed to catch the fearless champion, and had it done so he would have broken through its meshes or have died the death of a martyr to a righteous cause; but his soul, strengthened by its return to the God who gave it, would have marched on mighty in battle, mighty in victory. The whole contemplation is too rich, too high, too beautiful for earthly confines alone. We must look for the outcome in the state of the soul redeemed, entered into the joys of the New Jerusalem. "But now he has come unto the Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels * * * and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." "What needs," my Douglass, "for his honoured bones,The labour of an age in piled stones?Or that his hallowed reliques he hidUnder a starry-pointing pyramid?Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,What needst thou such weak witness of thy name?Thou, in our wonder and astonishment,Hast built thyself a live-long monument.For whilst to the shame of slow-endeavoring art,Thy easy numbers flow; and that each heartHath, from the leaves of thy unvalued book,Those Delphic lines with deep impression took;Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving,Dost make us marble with too much conceiving,And, so sepulchred, in such pomp dost lie,That kings, for such a tomb, would wish to die."