ul.
But this must fade!
Only the soul, grows never old:
They most agree, who most are free:
Liberty is the food of love!
The heavens, the earth, man's heart, and sea,
Forever cry, _let all be Free_!

[Illustration: (signature) C. M. Clay.]

KENTUCKY, 1853.

[Illustration: Frederick Douglass (Engraved by J. C. Buttre)]

_To the Editor of the "Autographs for Freedom."_

DEAR MADAM,--

If the enclosed paragraph from a speech of mine delivered in
May last, at the anniversary meeting of the American and
Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, shall be deemed suited to the
pages of the forthcoming annual, please accept it as my
contribution.

With great respect,

[Illustration: (signature) Frederick Douglass]

ROCHESTER, November, 1853.

Extract.

No colored man, with any nervous sensibility, can stand before an
American audience without an intense and painful sense of the
disadvantages imposed by his color. He feels little borne up by that
brotherly sympathy and generous enthusiasm, which give wings to the
eloquence, and strength to the hearts of other men, who advocate other
and more popular causes. The ground which a colored man occupies in
this country is, every inch of it, sternly disputed. Sir, were I a
white man, speaking for the right of white men, I should in this
country have a smooth sea and a fair wind. It is, perhaps, creditable
to the American people (and I am not the man to detract from their
credit) that they listen eagerly to the report of wrongs endured by
distant nations. The Hungarian, the Italian, the Irishman, the Jew and
the Gentile, all find in this goodly land a home; and when any of
them, or all of them, desire to speak, they find willing ears, warm
hearts, and open hands. For these people, the Americans have
principles of justice, maxims of mercy, sentiments of religion, and
feelings of brotherhood in abundance. But for _my_ poor people, (alas,
how poor!)--enslaved, scourged, blasted, overwhelmed, and ruined, it
would appear that America had neither justice, mercy, nor religion.
She has no scales in which to weigh our wrongs, and no standard by
which to measure our rights. Just here lies the grand difficulty of
the colored man's cause. It is found in the fact, that we may not
avail ourselves of the just force of admitted American principles. If
I do not misinterpret the feelings and philosophy of my