y the leading
abolitionists, who knew only too well the precarious support which a
fifth anti-slavery paper, edited by a colored man, must have, and who
appreciated to the full Douglass's unrivalled powers as a lecturer
in the field ... As anticipated, it nearly proved the ruin of its
projector; but by extraordinary exertions it was kept alive, not,
however, on the platform of Garrisonian abolitionism. The necessary
support could only be secured by a change of principles in accordance
with Mr. Douglass's immediate (political abolition) environment."

Douglass's own statement does not differ very widely from this,
except that he does not admit the mercenary motive for his change
of principles. It was in deference, however, to the feelings of his
former associates that the _North Star_ was established at Rochester
instead of in the East, where the field for anti-slavery papers was
already fully occupied. In Rochester, then as now the centre of a
thrifty, liberal, and progressive population, Douglass gradually won
the sympathy and support which such an enterprise demanded.

The _North Star_, in size, typography, and interest, compared
favorably with the other weeklies of the day, and lived for seventeen
years. It had, however, its "ups and downs." At one time the editor
had mortgaged his house to pay the running expenses; but friends came
to his aid, his debts were paid, and the circulation of the paper
doubled. In _My Bondage and My Freedom_ Douglass gives the names of
numerous persons who helped him in these earlier years of editorial
effort, among whom were a dozen of the most distinguished public men
of his day. After the _North Star_ had been in existence several
years, its name was changed to _Frederick Douglass's Paper_, to give
it a more distinctive designation, the newspaper firmament already
scintillating with many other "Stars."

In later years Douglass speaks of this newspaper enterprise as one of
the wisest things he ever undertook. To paraphrase Lord Bacon's famous
maxim, much reading of life and of books had made him a full man, and
much speaking had made him a ready man. The attempt to put facts
and arguments into literary form tended to make him more logical
in reasoning and more exact in statement. One of the effects of
Douglass's editorial responsibility and the influences brought to bear
upon him by reason of it, was a change in his political views. Until
he began the publication of the _North Star_