Mr. Cleveland. He was under no political obligation to me whatever; yet I held the office of Recorder nearly a whole year under his Administration, an office by law held not for any term but solely at the pleasure of the President. He could have removed me at his pleasure at any time after his inauguration. When he asked for my resignation, he simply asked me to set a time when it would be agreeable to me to tender it. I did set the time, and when that time arrived I sent in my resignation. His manner toward me was in every way courteous, and I have nothing whatever to complain of. While in office, President Cleveland treated me as he treated other office-holders in the District. He was brave enough to invite Mrs. Douglass and myself to all his grand receptions, thus rebuking the timidity-I need not say cowardice or prejudice—of his predecessor. I am a Republican, and if living shall do all I can to elect a Republican in 1888; but I know manliness wherever I find it; and I have found it in President Cleveland, and I should despise myself if I should let any one think otherwise. Whatever else he may be, he is not a snob; and he is not a coward. Yours very truly,

66 'FRED'K DOUGLASS.”

CHAPTER XIV.

THE NATION'S PROBLEM.

RELEASE from the cares of office enabled Douglass to give his thoughts more fully than had recently been possible to such questions as, how his brethren are prospering at the South; what they have a right to ask from the national Government for their more complete protection and education; which party is doing them the best service; and what steps ought to be taken for their relief by individuals outside of politics.

In the address which he made on April 16, 1886, in memory of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, he mentioned the significant fact that the occasion was celebrated for the first time by the colored people in two rival gatherings. His own hope that negroes would be better treated after they had ceased to help the Republican party rule at the South, had been sadly disappointed. "Their condition seems no better and not much worse than under previous administrations. Lynch law, violence, and murder have gone on about the same as formerly, and without the least show of federal interference or popular rebuke." "There have also been the usual number of outrages committed against the civil rights of colored citizens on highways and by

ways, by land and by water; and the courts of the country, under the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, have shown the same disposition to punish the innocent and shield the guilty, as during the presidency of Mr. Arthur." "The

truth is that neither the Republican party nor the Democratic party has yet complied with the solemn oath taken by their respective representatives to support the Constitution and execute the laws enacted under its provisions." . . "Has any of our Republican presidents since Grant earnestly endeavored to establish justice in the South?"

Referring to the charge that "Negroes are by nature the criminal class of America," he said :

"I admit the charge, but deny that nature, race, or color has anything to do with the fact. Any other race, with the same antecedents and the same conditions, would show a similar thieving propensity. The American people have this lesson to learn, that where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property would be safe." While I hold now, as I held years ago, that the South is the natural home of the colored race, and that there must the destiny of that race be mainly worked out, I still believe that means can be and ought to be adopted, to assist in the emigration of such of their number as may wish to change their residence to parts of the country, where their civil and political rights are better protected than at present they can be at the South."

He had no sympathy with those colored men who wished to take an independent position in politics. "The Republican party is not perfect; it is cautious.

even to the point of timidity; but it is the best friend we have."

He took the same ground on revisiting Boston, where, on Saturday, May 22, two days after delivering the John Brown lecture in the Music Hall, he was the guest of those leading Republicans who compose the Massachusetts Club. The dinner was at Young's Hotel, and he said:

"I have so seldom dined in my life, that I am at a loss to know how to make an after-dinner speech. I have heard say that such speeches should be witty; and I am no wit. I have heard say that they should be short. I never made a short speech in my life with which I was satisfied; and I don't know that I ever made a long speech with which anybody else was satisfied."

After expressing his wonder at finding himself in such company, and hearing no one say "Douglass, get out," he continued thus:

I am sometimes asked 'How are your people getting along at the South?' I am at a loss sometimes to know to whom they refer. Who are my people at the South? I am in a position to speak more impartially, perhaps, than any man in this room as regards the merits of the two races, for I occupy a middle position." . . . "It would be as appropriate to ask, 'How are the white people of the South getting along?' as to ask how the colored people are getting along. The two should go together one cannot get along without the other." . . . " Men ask me if I don't think that the condition of the freedmen is hopeless. I tell them 'Never!' I have seen too much progress."

After referring to what had been suffered by his people and also by himself, he said, "Now, I look around in vain for anybody to insult me." He was, however, very desirous that much more stress should

be laid, in the campaign of 1888, on the duty of the nation toward the freedman, than was actually the case. He deeply regretted the decision against the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Bill, and said : "I am one of those who pray to my God every day for a Supreme Court of the United States that shall be as true to liberty as ever Judge Taney was to slavery."

On Monday evening, May 24, he spoke at the Woman Suffrage meeting in Tremont Temple, and began with the words, "It is a long time since it was my privilege to address a convention of reformers in Boston." After referring to the opposition, which had been made to the speaking of women in public, he said:

"In bearing this cross, and maintaining this conflict, woman has risen in grandeur and glory, like the rainbow above the storm. In securing the right to think and speak, the right to use her voice and her pen, she has secured the means of victory in all other right directions; for speech is the lever that moves the world." He rejoiced in her attainment of a higher education and larger opportunities for supporting herself; and he held that "There is not one reason, not one consideration of justice and expediency, upon which man can claim the right to vote, which does not equally apply to woman." . . . law takes no thought of sex when it accuses her of crime, why should it take thought of sex when it bestows its privileges?" 'If man could represent woman, it follows that woman could represent man, but no opponent of woman suffrage would admit that woman could represent him in the government."

"

If the

"Believing, as I firmly do believe, that human nature as a whole, contains more good than evil, I am willing to trust the whole, rather than a part, in the conduct of human affairs."

"What could be more absurd upon the face of it, than to