It is quite likely, however, that he narrowly escaped Brown’s fate.  When the raid at Harpers Ferry had roused the country, Douglass, with other leading Northern men, was indicted in Virginia for complicity in the affair.  Brown’s correspondence had fallen into the hands of the Virginia authorities, and certain letters seemed to implicate Douglass.  A trial in Virginia meant almost certain death.  Governor Wise, of Virginia, would have hung him with cheerful alacrity, and publicly expressed his desire to do so.  Douglass, with timely warning that extradition papers had been issued for his arrest, escaped to Canada.  He had previously planned a second visit to England, and the John Brown affair had delayed his departure by some days.  He sailed from Quebec, November 12, 1859.

After a most uncomfortable winter voyage of fourteen days Douglass found himself again in England, an object of marked interest and in very great demand as a speaker.  Six months he spent on the hospitable shores of Great Britain, lecturing on John Brown, on slavery and other subjects, and renewing the friendships of former years.  Being informed of the death of his youngest daughter, he cut short his visit, which he had meant to extend to France, and returned to the United States.  So rapid had been the course of events since his departure that the excitement over the John Brown raid had subsided.  The first Lincoln campaign was in active progress; and the whole country quivered with vague anticipation of the impending crisis which was to end the conflict of irreconcilable principles, and sweep slavery out of the path of civilization and progress.  Douglass plunged into the campaign with his accustomed zeal, and did what he could to promote the triumph of the Republican party.  Lincoln was elected, and in a few short months the country found itself in the midst of war.  God was not dead, and slavery was to end in blood.

IX.

Ever mindful of his people and seeking always to promote their welfare, Douglass was one of those who urged, in all his addresses at this period, the abolition of slavery and the arming of the negroes as the most effective means of crushing the rebellion.  In 1862 he delivered a series of lectures in New England under the auspices of the recently formed Emancipation League, which contended for abolition as a military necessity.

The first or conditional emancipation proclamation was issued in September, 1862; and shortly afterward Douglass published a pamphlet for circulation in Great Britain, entitled The Slave’s Appeal to Great Britain, in which he urged the English people to refuse recognition of the independence of the Confederate States.  He always endeavored in his public utterances to remove the doubts and fears of those who were tempted to leave the negroes in slavery because of the difficulty of disposing of them after they became free.  Douglass,