Haytian government and an appropriation of three thousand
dollars from the State of New York assured the success of the plan.
September 15, 1898, was the date set for the unveiling of the
monument; but, owing to delay in the delivery of the statue, only a
part of the contemplated exercises took place. The monument, complete
with the exception of the statue which was to surmount it, was
formally turned over to the city, the presentation speech being made
by Charles P. Lee of Rochester. A solo and chorus composed for the
occasion were sung, an original poem read by T. Thomas Fortune, and
addresses delivered by John C. Dancy and John H. Smyth. Joseph H.
Douglass, a talented grandson of the orator, played a violin solo, and
Miss Susan B. Anthony recalled some reminiscences of Douglass in the
early anti-slavery days.

In June, 1899, the bronze statue of Douglass, by Sidney W. Edwards,
was installed with impressive ceremonies. The movement thus to
perpetuate the memory of Douglass had taken rise among a little band
of men of his own race, but the whole people of Rochester claimed
the right to participate in doing honor to their distinguished
fellow-citizen. The city assumed a holiday aspect. A parade of
military and civic societies was held, and an appropriate programme
rendered at the unveiling of the monument. Governor Roosevelt of New
York delivered an address; and the occasion took a memorable place in
the annals of Rochester, of which city Douglass had said, "I shall
always feel more at home there than anywhere else in this country."

In March, 1895, a few weeks after the death of Douglass, Theodore
Tilton, his personal friend for many years, published in Paris, of
which city he was then a resident, a volume of _Sonnets to the Memory
of Frederick Douglass_, from which the following lines are quoted as
the estimate of a contemporary and a fitting epilogue to this brief
sketch of so long and full a life:

"I knew the noblest giants of my day,
And _he_ was _of_ them--strong amid the strong:
But gentle too: for though he suffered wrong,
Yet the wrong-doer never heard him say,
'Thee also do I hate.' ...

A lover's lay--
No dirge--no doleful requiem song--
Is what I owe him; for I loved him long;
As dearly as a younger brother may.

Proud is the happy grief with which I sing;
For, O my Country! in the paths of men
There never walked a grander man than he!

He was a peer of prin