faces no scorn of his complexion.  He had travelled over the four kingdoms, and had encountered no sign of disrespect.  He had been lionized in London, had spoken every night of his last month there, and had declined as many more invitations.  He had shaken hands with the venerable Clarkson, and had breakfasted with the philosopher Combe, the author of The Constitution of Man.  He had won the friendship of John Bright, had broken bread with Sir John Bowring, had been introduced to Lord Brougham, the brilliant leader of the Liberal party, and had listened to his wonderful eloquence.  He had met Douglas Jerrold, the famous wit, and had been entertained by the poet William Howitt, who made a farewell speech in his honor.  Everywhere he had denounced slavery, everywhere hospitable doors had opened wide to receive him, everywhere he had made friends for himself and his cause.  A slave and an outcast at home, he had been made to feel himself a gentleman, had been the companion of great men and good women.  Urged to remain in this land of freedom, and offered aid to establish himself in life there, his heart bled for his less fortunate brethren in captivity; and, with the God-speed of his English friends ringing in his ears, he went back to America,—­to scorn, to obloquy, to ostracism, but after all to the work to which he had been ordained, and which he was so well qualified to perform.

VII.

Douglass landed April 20, 1847.  He returned to the United States with the intention of publishing the newspaper for which his English friends had so kindly furnished the means; but his plan meeting with opposition from his abolitionist friends, who thought the platform offered him a better field for usefulness, he deferred the enterprise until near the end of the year.  In the mean time he plunged again into the thick of the anti-slavery agitation.  We find him lecturing in May in the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, and writing letters to the anti-slavery papers.  In June he was elected president of the New England Anti-slavery Convention.  In August and September he went on a lecturing tour with Garrison and others through Pennsylvania and Ohio.  On this tour the party attended the commencement exercises of Oberlin College, famous for its anti-slavery principles and practice, and spoke to immense meetings at various places in Ohio and New York.  Their cause was growing in popular favor; and, in places where formerly they had spoken out of doors because of the difficulty of securing a place of meeting, they were now compelled to speak in the open air, because the churches and halls would not contain their audiences.