In the presidential election of 1860, Frederick Douglass supported Abraham Lincoln. After Lincoln's election and the outbreak of the Civil War, Douglass continued to press for the freedom of slaves and a new cause, the introduction of Black soldiers into the Union army. In 1863, both of these things happened. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and Congress passed a law approving Black soldiers in the army.

After the war, Douglass took up a new campaign: giving Blacks the right to vote. He campaigned for Ulysses S. Grant for president. Two years after Grant took office, in 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment took effect, guaranteeing Blacks the right to vote.

Douglass was later named marshal for Washington, D.C. For this job, he oversaw the criminal justice system in the nation's capital. He was also named recorder of deeds, another important Washington job.

Frederick Douglass died in 1882 after a long illness. His voice continued to be heard long after his death.

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