had lived through it; and he promptly presented himself at
the place of assembly. His reception by his fellow-delegates was not
cordial, and he seemed condemned to march alone in the procession,
when Theodore Tilton, at that time editor of the _Independent_, paired
off with him, and marched by his side through the streets of the
Quaker City. The result was gratifying alike to Douglass and the
friends of liberty and progress. He was cheered enthusiastically all
along the line of march, and became as popular in the convention as he
had hitherto been neglected.

A romantic incident of this march was a pleasant meeting, on the
street, with a daughter of Mrs. Lucretia Auld, the mistress who had
treated him kindly during his childhood on the Lloyd plantation. The
Aulds had always taken an interest in Douglass's career,--he had,
indeed, given the family a wide though not altogether enviable
reputation in his books and lectures,--and this good lady had followed
the procession for miles, that she might have the opportunity to speak
to her grandfather's former slave and see him walk in the procession.

In the convention "the ever-ready and imperial Douglass," as Colonel
Higginson describes him, spoke in behalf of his race. The convention,
however, divided upon the question of negro suffrage, and adjourned
without decisive action. But under President Grant's administration
the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, and by the solemn sanction of the
Constitution the ballot was conferred upon the black men upon the same
terms as those upon which it was enjoyed by the whites.

XI.

It is perhaps fitting, before we take leave of Douglass, to give some
estimate of the remarkable oratory which gave him his hold upon
the past generation. For, while his labors as editor and in other
directions were of great value to the cause of freedom, it is upon his
genius as an orator that his fame must ultimately rest.

While Douglass's color put him in a class by himself among great
orators, and although his slave past threw around him an element of
romance that added charm to his eloquence, these were mere incidental
elements of distinction. The North was full of fugitive slaves, and
more than one had passionately proclaimed his wrongs. There were
several colored orators who stood high in the councils of the
abolitionists and did good service for the cause of humanity.

Douglass possessed, in large measure, the physical equipment most
imp