Cut Down in the Midst of His Usefulness: An Address Delivered in Washington, D.C. On March 3, 1885
CUT DOWN IN THE MIDST OF HIS USEFULNESS:
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
ON 3 MARCH 1885
(Washington,
D.C, 1885), 30-31. Other text in Speech File, reel 12, frame 17, FD Papers, DLC.
On 3 March 1885, Douglass delivered a brief eulogy during a memorial
service at the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., for
the recently deceased Wiley Lane, Professor of Greek at Howard University.
Organized by the Alumni Association of the College Department of Howard
University, the services began with a musical selection by the host church’s
choir and a prayer by the president of Howard, the Reverend William W.
Patton. The president of the Alumni Association, Richard T. Moss, then
delivered a short address on Lane’s character. Next, J. H. Howard read
resolutions of condolence and James M. Gregory delivered the principal
eulogy. The Reverend Francis Grimké, Douglass, and colleagues of Lane’s at
Howard, Francis L. Cardozo, Charles H. A. Bulkley, George William Cook,
and Thomas Robinson, followed with brief remarks. After the adoption of the
resolutions of condolence, the services ended with a benediction by the
Reverend Mr. Grimké. Washington , 4 March 1885; Washington
, 4 March 1885; Cleveland , 14 March, 4 April
1885.
: In the whirl of excitement of this
city, the press of strangers in the midst of which I have been to-day, I am
little fitted to make any remarks on this interesting occasion, and I had
hoped that, considering the number of gentlemen announced to speak, I
might be allowed to remain silent. I, however, gladly bear my testimony to
the high character and worth of our deceased friend, Wiley Lane,1Wiley Lane (1852-85) was professor of Greek at Howard University and the assistant principal of its normal school department when he died on 16 February 1885. Born of free black parents at Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Lane acquired a rudimentary education there under private instruction. In 1870 he entered the preparatory department at Howard University and advanced to the college department in 1873. Lane received his A.B. degree in 1877 and then underwent two years of further undergraduate study at Amherst College. Following the completion of the M.A. degree from Howard in 1881, Lane accepted appointment to that university's faculty. Renowned for his linguistic abilities and knowledge of European art, Lane had planned to tour Europe and study modern Greek in Athens during the spring and summer of 1885. Logan, , 37-38; , 3; Cleveland , 17 January, 21 February, 14 March 1885. and
mingle my sorrow with yours that one so young should be cut down in the
midst of his years and his usefulness. It is to me a great satisfaction that the
meeting before me is so large, and the respect to our departed friend is so
full and pronounced. Woe! woe! to any people who fail in tokens of respect
to their noble dead. Your assembling here to-night is proof of your grateful
appreciation of a good and true man, who, though gone from us, has left us
a high example of character and a sacred radiance of goodness. Mr. Lane
was not only, as some say, a credit to his race, he was that and more. It is
something to be a scholar, and Wiley Lane was a man among men and a
scholar among scholars. He made the impression upon me of being a
Christian gentleman, not merely an honor to the Negro race, but an honor
to humanity. I accept the estimate given of him by his friend, the Rev. Mr.
Grimké.2Francis James Grimké (1849-1930) was pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., from 1878 until his death, leaving the post only briefly from 1885 through 1889 to serve as a minister in Jacksonville, Florida. Born on a plantation near Charleston, South Carolina, of the union of his slave mother, Nancy Weston, with her white owner, Henry Grimké, Francis spent the antebellum years as a de facto free person. Upon their father's death, Henry Grimké’s legitimate son Montague inherited Francis and several years later sold him to a Confederate officer to serve as a valet during the Civil War. After the war Francis attended a school for freedmen operated by Sarah Pillsbury, wife of abolitionist Parker Pillsbury. With the assistance of the Pillsburys and of Sarah and Angelina Grimké, who publicly acknowledged him as their nephew, Francis continued his education at Lincoln and Howard universities. After first studying law, Grimké finally decided to enter the ministry and graduated from the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1878. During his long pastorate in Washington, Grimké became a leader in the city's black community and appeared frequently at public meetings with Douglass. Dedicated to Howard University, he served on its board of trustees for forty-five years (1880-1925). Throughout his long career, Grimké often attacked the racism of American religious and political institutions and joined forces with W. E. B. DuBois to condemn the accommodationist tactics of Booker T. Washington. Logan, , 103, 137, 191-92; Henry Justin Ferry, “Francis James Grimké: Portrait of a Black Puritan" (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1970); , 273-75. l was not as well acquainted with Mr. Lane as many who now
hear me. My first knowledge of him was obtained a year ago at the Monday
Evening Literary Club in this city, when he gave an essay on art.3The Monday Evening Literary Club was an exclusive Washington, D.C., society comprised of the city’s leading black intellectuals and businessmen. Some prominent local blacks, such as William Calvin Chase, editor of the Washington , criticized the club as “a caste organization." Such controversy did not prevent Douglass from lecturing to the group and attending their public programs. Douglass was present when Wiley Lane delivered a talk on Greek Art to the Monday Evening Literary Club on 24 January 1881 and complimented the speaker on his learned performance. Green, , 139, 150; Washington , 29 January, 12 February 1881; Cleveland , 13 June 1885. I listened
to that essay with surprise and delight. It was a new field of thought opened
to me, and a new revelation to me of the mental ability which belongs to the
student, the scholar, and the man of severe esthetic taste. After listening to
him as I did with pleasure and hope on that occasion, I cultivated his
acquaintance, and esteemed him highly as a rising young man and an honor
to humanity.