as hounded by a pro-slavery mob,--but at last he represented the
popular will of its noblest citizens when they had chosen him to act
for them in the Electoral College.

Born a slave, some time during the present century, on the eastern
shore, Maryland, in the county of Talbot, and in the district of
Tuckahoe, Frederick Douglass was destined by nature and God to be a
giant in the great moral agitation for the extinction of slavery and
the redemption of his race. He came of two extremes--representative
Negro and representative Saxon. Tall, large-boned, colossal frame,
compact head, broad, expressive face adorned with small brown,
mischievous eyes, nose slightly Grecian, chin square set, and thin
lips, Frederick Douglass would attract attention upon the streets of
any city in Europe or America. His life as a slave was studded with
painful experiences. Early separation from his mother, neglect, and
then cruel treatment gave to the holy cause of freedom one of its
ablest champions, and to slavery one of its most invincible opponents.

Transferred from Talbot County to Baltimore, Maryland, where he spent
seven years, Mr. Douglass began to extend the horizon of his
intellectual vision, and to come face to face with the hideous monster
of slavery in the moments of reflection upon his condition in contrast
with that of a fairer race about him. Inadvertently his mistress began
to teach him characters of letters; but she was stopped by the advice
of her husband, because it was thought inimical to the interest of the
master to teach his slave. But having lighted the taper of knowledge
in the mind of the slave boy, it was forever beyond human power to put
it out. The incidents and surroundings of young Douglass peopled his
brain with ideas, gave wings to his thoughts and order to his
reasoning. The word of reproof, the angry look, and the precautions to
prevent him from acquiring knowledge rankled in his young heart and
covered his moral sky with thick clouds of despair. He reasoned
himself right out of slavery, and ran away and went North.

David Ruggles, a Colored gentleman of intelligence, took charge of Mr.
Douglass in New York, and sent him to New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Having married in New York a free Colored woman from Baltimore named
"Anna," he was ready now to enter upon the duties of the new life as a
freeman. He found in one Nathan Johnson, an intelligent and
industrious Colored man of New Bedford, a warm friend, who