areer, that of fruition.
Not every worthy life receives its reward in this world; but Douglass,
having fought the good fight, was now singled out, by virtue of his
prominence, for various honors and emoluments at the hands of the
public. He was urged by many friends to take up his residence in some
Southern district and run for Congress; but from modesty or some doubt
of his fitness--which one would think he need not have felt--and the
consideration that his people needed an advocate at the North to keep
alive there the friendship and zeal for liberty that had accomplished
so much for his race, he did not adopt the suggestion.

In 1860 [1870] Douglass moved to Washington, and began [took over] the
publication of the _New National Era_, a weekly paper devoted to the
interests of the colored race. The venture did not receive the support
hoped for; and the paper was turned over to Douglass's two [oldest]
sons, Lewis and Frederick, and was finally abandoned [in 1874],
Douglass having sunk about ten thousand dollars in the enterprise.
Later newspapers for circulation among the colored people have proved
more successful; and it ought to be a matter of interest that the race
which thirty years ago could not support one publication, edited by
its most prominent man, now maintains several hundred newspapers which
make their appearance regularly.

In 1871 Douglass was elected president of the Freedmans Bank.
This ill-starred venture was then apparently in the full tide of
prosperity, and promised to be a great lever in the uplifting of
the submerged race. Douglass, soon after his election as president,
discovered the insolvency of the institution, and insisted that it be
closed up. The negro was in the hands of his friends, and was destined
to suffer for their mistakes as well as his own.

Other honors that fell to Douglass were less empty than the presidency
of a bankrupt bank. In 1870 he was appointed by President Grant a
member of the Santo Domingo Commission, the object of which was to
arrange terms for the annexation of the mulatto republic to the Union.
Some of the best friends of the colored race, among them Senator
Sumner, opposed this step; but Douglass maintained that to receive
Santo Domingo as a State would add to its strength and importance. The
scheme ultimately fell through, whether for the good or ill of Santo
Domingo can best be judged when the results of more recent annexation
schemes [1898: Puerto Rico, Guam