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386
LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

to ask me to give him the names of several colored men who could fill such
places with credit to the Government and to themselves. All this was ended
by the accursed bullet of the assassin. I therefore not only shared the general
sorrow of the woe smitten Nation, but lamented the loss of a great benefactor.
Nothing could be more sad and pathetic than the death of this loveable
man. It was his lot, while in full health, standing at the gateway of a great
office armed with power and supplied with opportunity: with high and pure
purposes in life and with heart and mind cheerfully surveying the broad field
of duty outstretched before him, to be suddenly and without warning cut
down in an instant, in the midst of his years and in the fullness of his honors.
There was no true man in the land who did not share the pain of the illustrious
sufferer while he lingered in life, or who could refuse a tear when the
final hour came when his life and suffering ended.

CHAPTER IV.
RECORDER OF DEEDS.

Activity in behalf of his people – Income of the Recorder of Deeds – False impressions as to his
wealth – Appeals for assistance – Persistent beggars.

Although I was not reappointed to the office of Marshal of the District of
Columbia as I had reason to expect and to believe that I should be, not only
because under me the office had been conducted blamelessly, but because
President Garfield had solemnly promised Senator Conkling that I should be
so appointed, I was given the office of Recorder of Deeds for the District of
Columbia. This office was, in many respects, more congenial to my feelings
than was that of United States Marshal of the District which made me the
daily witness in the criminal court of a side of the District life to me most
painful and repulsive. Happily, I was never required to personally superintend
or witness an execution or to take any part in one. That sad and solemn
business had, prior to my appointment, been committed to the warden of the
jail, but the contact with the criminal class and the responsibility of watching
and taking care of criminals were in every way distasteful to me, and
hence I would, under any circumstances, have preferred the office of
Recorder of Deeds to that of Marshal. The duties of Recorder, though specific,
exacting and imperative, are easily performed. The office is one that
imposes no social duties whatever and therefore neither fettered my pen nor
silenced my voice in the cause of my people. I wrote much and spoke often,
and perhaps, because of this activity, gave to envious tongues a pretext