ressive in an orator. He was a man of magnificent figure, tall,
strong, his head crowned with a mass of hair which made a striking
element of his appearance. He had deep-set and flashing eyes, a firm,
well-moulded chin, a countenance somewhat severe in repose, but
capable of a wide range of expression. His voice was rich and
melodious, and of great carrying power. One writer, who knew him in
the early days of his connection with the abolitionists, says of him,
in Johnson's _Sketches of Lynn_:

"He was not then the polished orator he has since become, but even at
that early date he gave promise of the grand part he was to play in
the conflict which was to end in the destruction of the system that
had so long cursed his race.... He was more than six feet in height;
and his majestic form, as he rose to speak, straight as an arrow,
muscular yet lithe and graceful, his flashing eye, and more than all
his voice, that rivalled Webster's in its richness and in the depth
and sonorousness of its cadences, made up such an ideal of an orator
as the listeners never forgot. And they never forgot his burning
words, his pathos, nor the rich play of his humor."

The poet William Howitt said of him on his departure from England in
1847, "He has appeared in this country before the most accomplished
audiences, who were surprised, not only at his talent, but at his
extraordinary information."

In Ireland he was introduced as "the black O'Connell,"--a high
compliment; for O'Connell was at that time the idol of the Irish
people. In Scotland they called him the "black Douglass [Douglas],"
after his prototype in _The Lady of the Lake_, because of his fire
and vigor. In Rochester he was called the "swarthy Ajax," from his
indignant denunciation and defiance of the Fugitive Slave Law of
1850, which came like a flash of lightning to blast the hopes of the
anti-slavery people.

Douglass possessed in unusual degree the faculty of swaying his
audience, sometimes against their maturer judgment. There is something
in the argument from first principles which, if presented with force
and eloquence, never fails to appeal to those who are not blinded by
self-interest or deep-seated prejudice. Douglass's argument was that
of the Declaration of Independence,--"that _all_ men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. That, to secure these ri