The Frederick Douglass Papers: Series Three: Correspondence, Volume 2: 1853-1865 9780300235241

Table of contents :
Editorial Advisory Board
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations and Sigla
Introduction to Volume Two
Timeline of Douglass’s Life
Illustrations
CORRESPONDENCE OF DOUGLASS
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
Calendar of Correspondence Not Printed
Index

Citation preview

THE FREDERICK DOUGLASS PAPERS Series Three: Correspondence

VOLUME 2: 1853–1865

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Frederick Douglass, c. 1853. Frontispiece, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). Courtesy of the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries.

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THE FREDERICK DOUGLASS PAPERS Series Three: Correspondence Volume 2: 1853–1865

John R. McKivigan, Editor Associate Editors: L. Diane Barnes, Jeffery A. Duvall Assistant Editors: James A. Hanna, Heather L. Kaufman, Whitney R. Smith Research Assistants: Eamonn P. Brandon, Bridget Brown, Kate Burzlaff, Randolph Gaines, Austen Hurt, Rebecca A. Pattillo, Alex Smith, Andrew Wiley, Lauren Zachary

Yale University Press

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New Haven and London

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Published with assistance from The National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Copyright © 2018 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] (U.S. office) or [email protected] (U.K. office). Set in Times Roman type by Newgen North America. Printed in the United States of America. ISBN: 978-0-300-21830-5 (cloth : alk. paper) Library of Congress Control Number: 2017942334 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (Permanence of Paper). 10 9

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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Mary F. Berry Richard J. M. Blackett David W. Blight Robert Hall Stanley Harrold Nancy A. Hewitt Howard R. Lamar Robert S. Levine John Stauffer

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Contents

Acknowledgments Abbreviations and Sigla Introduction to Volume Two Timeline of Douglass’s Life Illustrations

xv xvii xxi xxvii xxxiv

CORRESPONDENCE OF DOUGLASS 1853 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 14 January 1853 Abner Bates to Frederick Douglass, 11 February 1853 Gerrit Smith to Frederick Douglass, 24 February 1853 Frederick Douglass to Harriet Beecher Stowe, 8 March 1853 Martin Robinson Delany to Frederick Douglass, 20 March 1853 Henry Patrick to Frederick Douglass, 4 April 1853 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 6 April 1853 Frederick Douglass to William H. Seward, 16 April 1853 Uriah Boston to Frederick Douglass, April 1853 Frederick Douglass to William H. Seward, 23 April 1853 James Catlin to Frederick Douglass, 25 May 1853 William W. Chapman to Frederick Douglass, 18 June 1853 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 15 July 1853 L. Delos Mansfield to Frederick Douglass, 12 August 1853 John Brown to Frederick Douglass, 18 August 1853 Frederick Douglass to Charles Sumner, 2 September 1853 James Monroe Whitfield to Frederick Douglass, 15 November 1853 Martin Robinson Delany to Frederick Douglass, 22 November 1853 Charlotte K—— to Frederick Douglass, 26 November 1853 W. L. Crandal to Frederick Douglass, 10 December 1853 John Boyer Vashon to Frederick Douglass, 17 December 1853 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 23 December 1853 Richard Baxter Foster to Frederick Douglass, 28 December 1853 Charles W. Stuart to Frederick Douglass, 31 December 1853

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CONTENTS

1854 Julia Griffiths to Frederick Douglass, 9 January 1854 John Brown to Frederick Douglass, 9 January 1854 Frederick Douglass to Calvin Stowe, 17 January 1854 Frederick Douglass to Charles Sumner, 27 February 1854 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 6 March 1854 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 18 March 1854 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 29 April 1854 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 6 May 1854 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 19 May 1854 Gerrit Smith to Frederick Douglass, 12 June 1854 James Rawson Johnson to Frederick Douglass, 4 July 1854 Nemo to Frederick Douglass, 19 July 1854 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 22 August 1854 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 23 August 1854 Gerrit Smith to Frederick Douglass, 28 August 1854 Amos Gerry Beman to Frederick Douglass, 4 September 1854 Frederick Douglass to Amos Gerry Beman, 6 September 1854 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 7 September 1854 Jehiel C. Beman to Frederick Douglass, 7 September 1854 Franklin Turner to Frederick Douglass, 13 October 1854 Josiah Letchworth to Frederick Douglass, 27 October 1854 George DeBaptiste to Frederick Douglass, 5 November 1854 William Wright to Frederick Douglass, 17 November 1854 Jermain Wesley Loguen to Frederick Douglass, 4 December 1854 George Weir, Jr., to Frederick Douglass, 11 December 1854

69 69 72 73 74 75 76 78 79 80 81 84 87 89 90 101 102 103 105 107 109 111 112 116 118

1855 Inspector to Frederick Douglass, 24 February 1855 Lewis Tappan to Frederick Douglass, 9 March 1855 Isaiah C. Weir to Frederick Douglass, 12 March 1855 William Wells Brown to Frederick Douglass, 16 March 1855 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 27 March 1855 Russell Lant Carpenter to Frederick Douglass, 13 April 1855 Frederick Douglass to Charles Sumner, 24 April 1855 Frederick Douglass to James McCune Smith, 2 July 1855 Julia Griffiths to Frederick Douglass, 2 July 1855 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 18 July 1855 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 14 August 1855

119 122 124 125 127 128 129 131 133 143 144

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CONTENTS

John Brown, Jr., to Frederick Douglass, 15 August 1855 Uriah Boston to Frederick Douglass, 28 September 1855 Philip Church Schuyler to Frederick Douglass, 7 October 1855 James Rawson Johnson to Frederick Douglass, 18 October 1855 William E. Whiting to Frederick Douglass, 23 November 1855 Cynthia Potter Bliss to Frederick Douglass, 23 November 1855 Harriet Beecher Stowe to Frederick Douglass, 24 November 1855 Frederick Douglass to Simeon S. Jocelyn, 15 December 1855 Lewis Tappan to Frederick Douglass, 21 December 1855 1856 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 1 January 1856 Frederick Douglass to William Lloyd Garrison, 13 January 1856 John Manross to Frederick Douglass, 14 January 1856 Frederick Douglass to Alta Lucia Gray Hilliard Wallingford, 28 January 1856 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 20 February 1856 Charles W. Stuart to Frederick Douglass, 10 March 1856 Frederick Douglass to Alta Lucia Gray Hilliard Wallingford, 14 March 1856 Rebecca Williamson to Frederick Douglass, 30 March 1856 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 12 April 1856 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 16 April 1856 Frederick Douglass to Benjamin Coates, 17 April 1856 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 1 May 1856 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 23 May 1856 Hiram Putnam to Frederick Douglass, 7 July 1856 Frederick Douglass to Joseph Comstock Hathaway, 29 July 1856 John W. Hurn to Frederick Douglass, 24 August 1856 J. W. Fox to Frederick Douglass, 29 August 1856 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 31 August 1856 Auburn to Frederick Douglass, 5 September 1856 Frederick Douglass to Susan Inches Lesley, 6 September 1856 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 6 September 1856 Lewis Tappan to Frederick Douglass, 6 December 1856 Frederick Douglass to John Brown, 7 December 1856 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 16 December 1856 Lewis Tappan to Frederick Douglass, 19 December 1856 Lewis Tappan to Frederick Douglass, 27 December 1856

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145 149 152 156 159 160 162 163 164 165 166 167 172 174 175 177 178 179 180 182 184 185 187 188 189 192 193 195 197 198 199 200 201 202 205

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1857 Thomas Smith to Frederick Douglass, 28 February 1857 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 16 April 1857 Frederick Douglass to Lydia Dennett, 17 April 1857 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 20 April 1857 Frederick Douglass to the Secretary of the Edinburgh Ladies’ New Anti-Slavery Association, 9 July 1857 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 13 October 1857 Frederick Douglass to Maria G. Porter, 13 October 1857 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 14 December 1857 Normal to Frederick Douglass, 25 December 1857 1858 Frederick Douglass to Mary Anne Day Brown, 30 January 1858 John Brown to Frederick Douglass, 22 June 1858 Frederick Douglass to Samuel D. Porter, 21 July 1858 Ottilie Assing to Frederick Douglass, 12 August 1858 Frederick Douglass to Margaret Denman Cropper, 3 September 1858 Frederick Douglass to Isaac Butts, 11 October 1858 Stephen A. Myers to Frederick Douglass, 6 December 1858 James McCune Smith to Frederick Douglass, 28 December 1858 1859 James McCune Smith to Frederick Douglass, 12 January 1859 Rosetta Douglass to Frederick Douglass, 2 February 1859 Julia Griffiths to Frederick Douglass 4 February 1859 Stephen A. Myers to Frederick Douglass, 1 March 1859 William James Watkins to Frederick Douglass, 4 March 1859 Frederick Douglass to John Jay, 11 April 1859 John Jay to Frederick Douglass, 26 May 1859 Frederick Douglass to Margaret Denman Cropper, 27 May 1859 Frederick Douglass to James Hall, 10 June 1859 Amy Post to Frederick Douglass, 13 June 1859 Gerrit Smith to Frederick Douglass, 19 September 1859 Frederick Douglass to Hugh Auld, 4 October 1859 Frederick Douglass to Samuel P. Allen, 31 October 1859 Frederick Douglass to Maria Lamb Webb, 30 November 1859 Rosetta Douglass to Frederick Douglass, 6 December 1859 Frederick Douglass to Helen Doncaster, 7 December 1859

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208 208 209 211 212 214 215 215 217 224 226 227 228 231 233 236 239 241 247 250 254 256 265 265 266 268 269 272 275 277 281 283 286

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Annie Douglass to Frederick Douglass, 7 December 1859 Frederick Douglass to Elihu Burritt, 31 December 1859

287 288

1860 Frederick Douglass to Maria G. Porter, 11 January 1860 Frederick Douglass to Amy Post, January 1860 Frederick Douglass to George Thompson, 18 February 1860 Frederick Douglass to Charles Sumner, 9 June 1860 Frederick Douglass to James Redpath, 29 June 1860 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 2 July 1860 Frederick Douglass to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 25 August 1860 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 7 September 1860 Frederick Douglass to “A Friend in England,” 9 October 1860 Frederick Douglass to William Lloyd Garrison, 15 October 1860 Charles Happ to Frederick Douglass, 15 October 1860 Frederick Douglass to Charles Happ, 16 October 1860 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 18 December 1860 Frederick Douglass to Sarah Southam Cash, December 1860

291 294 299 300 301 303 305 306 307 311 313 313 314 316

1861 Frederick Douglass to William Buell Sprague, 1 May 1861 Frederick Douglass to Susan B. Anthony, 5 June 1861 Martha Waldo Brown Greene to Frederick Douglass, 8 November 1861 Julia Griffiths Crofts to Frederick Douglass, 6 December 1861 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 22 December 1861 Maria Lamb Webb to Frederick Douglass, 31 December 1861 1862 Frederick Douglass to “A Friend in England,” 7 March 1862 Frederick Douglass to George Barrell Cheever, 5 April 1862 Frederick Douglass to Charles Sumner, 8 April 1862 Theodore Tilton to Frederick Douglass, 30 April 1862 W. W. Tate to Frederick Douglass, 2 June 1862 Alexander Crummell to Frederick Douglass, 12 July 1862 Austin Willey to Frederick Douglass, 26 July 1862 Frederick Douglass to Samuel Clarke Pomeroy, 27 August 1862 Rosetta Douglass to Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass, 31 August 1862 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 8 September 1862

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Montgomery Blair to Frederick Douglass, 11 September 1862 Frederick Douglass to Montgomery Blair, 16 September 1862 Rosetta Douglass to Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass, 24 September 1862 Rosetta Douglass to Frederick Douglass, 9 October 1862 Frederick Douglass to Theodore Tilton, 21 October 1862 Frederick Douglass to Theodore Tilton, 22 November 1862 John Jones to Frederick Douglass, 1 December 1862 Henry Richardson to Frederick Douglass, 4 December 1862 Julia Griffiths Crofts to Frederick Douglass, 5 December 1862 John Elliot Cairnes to Frederick Douglass, 31 December 1862 1863 H. Ford Douglas to Frederick Douglass, 8 January 1863 Frederick Douglass to Samuel J. May, 28 January 1863 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 6 March 1863 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 9 March 1863 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 14 April 1863 George Evans to Frederick Douglass, 6 June 1863 Lucinda Hosmer to Frederick Douglass, 7 June 1863 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 19 June 1863 Frederick Douglass to Edwin M. Stanton, 13 July 1863 Lewis H. Douglass to Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass, 20 July 1863 Frederick Douglass to Robert Hamilton, 27 July 1863 Frederick Douglass to George L. Stearns, 1 August 1863 Frederick Douglass to George L. Stearns, 12 August 1863 Charles W. Foster to Frederick Douglass, 13 August 1863 Frederick Douglass to Edwin M. Stanton, 17 August 1863 Frederick Douglass to Thomas Webster, 18 August 1863 Frederick Douglass to Charles W. Foster, 24 August 1863 George L. Stearns to Frederick Douglass, 29 August 1863 Charles R. Douglass to Frederick Douglass, 8 September 1863 Charles R. Douglass to Frederick Douglass, 18 September 1863 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 10 October 1863 Frederick Douglass to Louise Tobias Dorsey, 21 November 1863 1864 Mary Browne Carpenter to Frederick Douglass, 19 February 1864 Frederick Douglass to Edward Gilbert, 22 May 1864

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348 350 361 365 369 371 372 373 377 379 381 384 386 389 390 391 394 402 404 405 409 412 416 420 420 421 422 423 424 426 427 428 431 436

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Charles R. Douglass to Frederick Douglass, 31 May 1864 Frederick Douglass to Mary Browne Carpenter, June 1864 Julia Griffiths Crofts to Frederick Douglass, 19 August 1864 Lewis H. Douglass to Frederick Douglass, 22 August 1864 Frederick Douglass to Abraham Lincoln, 29 August 1864 Frederick Douglass to William Lloyd Garrison, 17 September 1864 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 21 September 1864 Frederick Douglass to Theodore Tilton, 15 October 1864 Frederick Douglass to Jacob C. White, Jr., December 1864 1865 Frederick Douglass to Julia Griffiths Crofts, 4 January 1865 Charles R. Douglass to Frederick Douglass, 9 February 1865 Charles R. Douglass to Frederick Douglass, 19 February 1865 Rosetta Douglass Sprague to Frederick Douglass, 21 February 1865 Julia Griffiths Crofts to Frederick Douglass, 28 April 1865 Frederick Douglass to Charles Sumner, 29 April 1865 Frederick Douglass to James Miller McKim, 2 May 1865 Frederick Douglass to Sylvester Rosa Koëhler, 9 June 1865 Lewis H. Douglass to Frederick Douglass, 9 June 1865 Frederick Douglass to William Syphax and John F. Cook, 1 July 1865 Frederick Douglass to Lydia Maria Child, 30 July 1865 Frederick Douglass to William J. Wilson, 8 August 1865 Frederick Douglass to Mary Todd Lincoln, 17 August 1865 William J. Wilson to Frederick Douglass, 6 September 1865 Frederick Douglass to Louise Tobias Dorsey, 19 September 1865 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 8 October 1865 Calendar of Correspondence Not Printed Index

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437 441 447 452 454 456 460 460 466 468 471 474 476 478 481 482 484 485 489 491 493 497 498 503 505 507 605

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Acknowledgments

Producing another scholarly edited volume of the correspondence of Frederick Douglass was a multiyear endeavor in which numerous individuals and institutions provided significant assistance to the staff of this project. We apologize if we fail in these brief acknowledgments to thank each of them as fully as they deserve. Work on the collection of the documents reproduced in this volume began at the project’s first institutional home, Yale University, under the direction of our first editor, John W. Blassingame. It was continued at our second home, West Virginia University, and culminated at Indiana University–Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI), where the Douglass Papers project relocated in the summer of 1998. The libraries at all three institutions assisted us significantly. Documents were called to our attention by staff members at repositories or archives acknowledged in individual source notes. Former staff members James H. Cook at West Virginia University and Rachael Drenvnosky at IUPUI merit special thanks for managing our swelling databases as the number of letters to and from Douglass grew. Selecting the correspondence to reproduce and edit likewise spanned a considerable number of years, beginning at West Virginia University. Besides the individuals listed on our title pages, Emily Hall, Peter P. Hinks, Heather Hutchinson, and Sarah K. Wagner all merit acknowledgment for their participation in this task. Special assistance was supplied by Norman Dann and A. J. Aiseirithe in our document transcription and verification process. At IUPUI, the School of Liberal Arts and the Departments of History and English deserve thanks for their institutional support. A special debt is owed to the following people at IUPUI for their assistance with the project: Robert Barrows, Didier Gondola, Nathan Houser, Megan Liu, Kara Petersen, David Pfeifer, Rob Rebein, Martha Rujuwa, Thomas Upton, and Marianne Wokeck. Gratitude is also due a number of specific individuals and organizations. Timothy Connelly and Lucy Barber from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, along with the staff of the National xv

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Endowment for the Humanities, supplied valuable advice to the Douglass Papers project over the years. Ann Gordon, director of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton–Susan B. Anthony Papers, assisted the Douglass Papers staff in locating documents. Richard G. Carlson, former member of the Douglass Papers staff, helped formulate the editorial procedures for this series. Professor Jonathan R. Eller, senior textual editor at the Institute for American Thought at IUPUI, also helped significantly in finalizing textual-editing procedures. Emily Baker and Lynette Taylor, research assistants, supplied valuable help in the final phases of work on this volume. Finally, we would like to thank Laura Davulis, our former editor at Yale University Press, and Stacey M. Robertson and Wilson J. Moses, our scholarly reviewers for that press, for their advice and encouragement.

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Abbreviations and Sigla

Abbreviations Whenever possible, these abbreviations follow the standard Library of Congress symbols for libraries and other repositories. Additional abbreviations of other repositories and publications follow the forms established by earlier series of the Douglass Papers, provided they appear three or more times in this volume; all abbreviations for publications appear in earlier series. ACAB ANB ASB BDUSC (online) BFASR CHSL CSmH CtHIS CtNHAAHS CtY CWH DAB DANB DCB (online) DLC DM DNA DNB EAAH

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography American National Biography Anti-Slavery Bugle Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–Present (online) British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter Connecticut State Library Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens Connecticut Historical Society Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Yale University, Sterling Memorial Library Civil War History Dictionary of American Biography Dictionary of American Negro Biography Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online) Library of Congress Douglass’ Monthly United States, National Archives and Records Administration The Dictionary of National Biography Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619– 1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass xvii

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FD FDP IcHi JNH JSH KHi LNArc Lib. MB MdAHR MdHis MH-H MHiS MiU-C MWA NASS NAW NBu NCAB NEQ NHB NHi NhHis NIC NjP NN NNC NRU NS NSyU ODNB (online) OED PHi PPAmP PSC-Hi PTu RH

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ABBREVIATIONS AND SIGLA

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass’ Paper Chicago Historical Society Journal of Negro History Journal of Southern History Kansas State Historical Society Tulane University, Amistad Research Center Liberator Boston Public Library Maryland Hall of Records Maryland Colonization Society Papers Harvard University, Houghton Library Massachusetts Historical Society University of Michigan, William L. Clements Library American Antiquarian Society National Anti-Slavery Standard Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary Buffalo and Erie County Public Library National Cyclopaedia of American Biography New England Quarterly Negro History Bulletin New York Historical Society New Hampshire Historical Society Cornell University Princeton University New York Public Library Columbia University University of Rochester North Star Syracuse University Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online) Oxford English Dictionary Historical Society of Pennsylvania American Philosophical Society Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College Temple University Rochester History

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UkOxU-Rh ViU WAA

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Oxford University, Bodleian Library, Rhodes House University of Virginia Weekly Anglo-African Sigla Used to Describe Letters

The following sigla are used to describe the handwriting, form, and signature of each letter published in this volume or entered into the volume’s comprehensive calendar of correspondence. The first two capital letters describe the written form of the document: AL: autograph letter (in author’s hand) HL: handwritten letter by someone other than the author PL: printed letter (typeset for a newspaper, pamphlet, journal, or book) TL: typed letter (typewritten on a machine) The lowercase letter, when pertinent, describes the state of the letter: d: draft (a letter composed, but not sent to the intended recipient) f: fragment (an incomplete letter, with either lost or destroyed components) e: excerpt (a partially reprinted letter from either an autograph letter or a previously published source) The omission of incidental material in newspaper reprints, such as an insignificant postscript in a reprinted letter, does not render the reprinted letter an excerpt. The third capital letter describes the signature: S: signed by author Sr: signed with a representation of the author’s signature I: initialed by the author Ir: initialed with a representation of the author’s initials The absence of a third capital letter indicates no signature or representation. Common examples would thus read ALS (autographed letter signed by the author) or PLSr (printed letter, signed, with a representation).

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Introduction to Volume Two John R. McKivigan In this collection, the second of five contemplated volumes of Frederick Douglass’s correspondence, the editors have followed the selection principles laid out in the editorial method published in volume 1. The current volume covers correspondence to and from Douglass in the years 1853 to 1865. The Douglass Papers staff located 1,255 letters for this time period and selected 219, or just over 17 percent, of them for publication. The remaining 1,036 letters are summarized in the volume’s calendar. Of the 1,255 letters, 286 were autograph letters, written in the author’s hand. These letters were recovered by the project from thirty-eight repositories in the United States and Great Britain. Two hundred eighteen of the autograph letters, or approximately 75 percent of them, were found in three libraries: the Library of Congress, the Syracuse University Library, and the University of Rochester Library. For this volume, the project selected and reproduced 134 of these autograph letters, from thirty-two different repositories. Of the remaining 969 letters, the closest known source to the original manuscript letter for all but four documents is a text printed in a newspaper from the era. Douglass’s letters were discovered in fourteen newspapers of the period, but 943, nearly 90 percent, were first published in one of the two newspapers edited by Douglass himself, the Frederick Douglass’ Paper and Douglass’ Monthly. The project reproduced 84, less than 9 percent, of these letters that have survived only in an earlier printed form. Of the 219 letters selected for publication in this volume, 115 were written by Douglass and 104 were written to him. Although this ratio of letters to and from Douglass is almost even, 87 percent (1,095/1,255) of all surviving letters from this time period were written to him. Thus, the letters chosen for inclusion here represent over 70 percent (115/162) of those written by Douglass, compared to just under 10 percent (104/1,093) of those written to him. This seeming imbalance is understandable, since many of the unprinted letters (listed in the calendar) were written to Douglass as a newspaper editor and lacked substantive content, repetitively expressed an opinion, or simply reported an event. In the letters for this time period, Douglass’s correspondents represent not only many of the leading names in the antislavery movement on both xxi

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sides of the Atlantic, but also many less well-remembered figures in a variety of reform movements. Likewise, a significant number of women and African Americans are numbered among the correspondents. The letters in this volume follow Douglass as he searched for more beneficial alliances and more effective tactics in the battle against slavery. By 1853, the estrangement from his original abolitionist mentors, followers of the Boston editor William Lloyd Garrison, reached the point that almost no communication between Douglass and this group occurred until after the Civil War’s conclusion. Instead, Douglass moved closer to the political abolition camp led by the wealthy New Yorker Gerrit Smith. Numerous letters between the two men document Douglass’s great financial dependence on Smith to maintain his journalistic operation. Douglass’s devoted editorial assistant, the visiting British abolitionist Julia Griffiths, figured in Douglass’s correspondence with other abolitionists, and the letters reveal her major role in keeping the paper afloat. She acted both as an intermediary with Smith and as a tireless fund-raiser who sought alternative revenue sources for Douglass. Following Griffiths’s return to Great Britain in the summer of 1855, the Douglass-Smith correspondence records the gradual deterioration of the finances of Douglass’s editorial operations. Now separated by an ocean from her reform partner, Julia Griffiths emerged as a significant new voice in Douglass’s correspondence. She sent him a stream of letters recounting her travels throughout England and Scotland to set up female abolitionist societies to collect funds for the Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Griffiths’s presence in Britain appears to have stimulated an increase in the correspondence received from abolitionists whom Douglass had met during his visit there in the mid-1840s. In 1855, Douglass published his second of three autobiographies, My Bondage and My Freedom. His correspondence contains interesting details on the book’s composition, the praise he received from readers, and his efforts to expand its sales. A great deal of Douglass’s surviving correspondence documents the intense lecturing schedule he maintained on behalf of the abolitionist cause. He recounts frequent tribulations with the nation’s inadequate transportation system, made worse by encounters with racial discrimination. To friends, Douglass’s letters revealed that his demanding lecturing tours habitually left him exhausted and hoarse—or worse, seriously ill. Other letters provide insights into Douglass’s attitudes toward causes such as woman suffrage, Spiritualism, and hydropathy. In 1858, Douglass

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wrote a letter to the Rochester press declaring that he had never endured more public opposition in his adopted hometown than when he spoke at a woman suffrage event there with Susan B. Anthony. The next year, a longtime Rochester abolitionist friend, Amy Post, wrote Douglass to appeal that he keep an open mind about the spiritualism she and her husband, Isaac, had embraced. Another abolitionist, James Catlin, counseled Douglass on the superiority of water cures to the medicines prescribed by the physicians of the era. Douglass’s correspondence displays his leading role in trying to unite northern free blacks in a national council to demand equal rights. Many letters expose the controversy that occurred when Douglass’s attempts to create a manual-labor college for African American students went aground after Harriet Beecher Stowe failed to raise her anticipated share of the funds for the project. For the next several years, letters document the bitter infighting in black circles, which intensified after Douglass’s former editorial associate Martin Delany began to promote African emigration; it continued until the decade’s end, when the Haitian government attempted to recruit free American blacks to emigrate. Many other letters from the 1850s recount the numerous obstacles that free African Americans encountered in economic life, employment, and politics. In letters addressed to Douglass as a newspaper editor and in private correspondence, disputes over colonization, education, religion, temperance, and economic opportunity were as common as discussions of antislavery tactics. In the late 1850s, the focus of much of Douglass’s correspondence with other black leaders shifted to discussing efforts to obtain equal rights in the northern states. Among his white correspondents, Douglass demonstrated the highest degree of intimacy with Gerrit Smith. He wrote Smith often while the latter was serving a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Smith’s brief tenure there coincided with the debates over the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which rejuvenated northern moderate antislavery sentiment. Douglass corresponded with several leaders of the newly founded Republican party, including William H. Seward and Charles Sumner. Such letters reveal Douglass, and many other black abolitionists, as wavering in their support between Smith’s radical political abolitionists and the Republicans in both the 1856 and 1860 presidential campaigns and the 1858 New York state elections. Many letters display severe disappointment that most northern whites were content to halt slavery’s expansion rather than force its end in the southern states. x

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Such sentiment helps explain Douglass’s move in the 1850s toward the use of violent antislavery tactics. Several letters in this volume recount details of the Underground Railroad aiding slaves to escape, which include the use of force to resist attempts by authorities to return runaways to their owners. In often cryptically worded correspondence, Douglass and other “operators” reveal a highly organized network used to hasten runaway slaves to safer locations. John Brown and other correspondents provided reports directly from the Kansas Territory on the intensifying free-state struggle there. Given the conspiratorial nature of the event, only a few tantalizing hints regarding the Harpers Ferry raid are hidden in this correspondence. Following that bloody encounter, several letters between Douglass and other abolitionists recount his hasty flight out of the country to evade arrest for his assistance to Brown. Douglass’s correspondence reveals that he was unhappy with the tepid antislavery position of Abraham Lincoln and the Republican party during the 1860 election campaign and even following secession and the start of the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation pleased Douglass, and several private meetings with the president caused some improvement in their relationship, but his letters document that Douglass still supported the abortive efforts to replace Lincoln with a different Republican presidential candidate in 1864. A large number of letters during the war years detail Douglass’s activities as a recruiter of African Americans for the Union army. These letters display Douglass’s anger when the federal government reneged on its promise to give him an officer’s commission, ultimately causing his resignation. Despite this grievance, two of Douglass’s three sons entered Union army ranks. Lewis H. Douglass’s letters to his father provide interesting accounts of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, including the unit’s participation in the calamitous assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina in July 1864. Charles R. Douglass sent his father letters recounting the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment’s action in combat before Petersburg, Virginia, and as guard troops for Confederate prisoners of war in Maryland. At the war’s end, Lewis sent his father word that he had managed to locate several relatives in Talbot County, Maryland, with whom the elder Douglass had had no contact for a quarter century. Letters from other Douglass children also play an interesting part in this volume. Only a single letter from his youngest daughter, Annie, who died in 1860, has survived, but her older sister Rosetta kept her father well informed about her education and the start of her teaching career. The lat-

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ter’s letters, in particular, provide valuable observations on issues of class and color inside the African American community. A different insight into Douglass’s family life comes from letters from Ottilie Assing, the German immigrant journalist who became his intimate confidante. Such familial and other personal letters play a much larger role in Douglass’s correspondence in the three remaining volumes of this series. The conclusion of the second volume of the Correspondence Series brings Douglass to a critical moment in his own life as well as in the history of the antislavery movement and the nation itself. The end of slavery and the Civil War in 1865 promised a new day for African Americans. Future volumes will reveal that both Douglass’s public career and the struggle for racial justice in the United States were far from over.

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Timeline of Douglass’s Life

1853 January

March

6–8 July

November

Winter

Published his novella “The Heroic Slave,” a fictional account of Madison Washington, the leader of the 1841 Creole slave-ship mutiny. Story is included in Autographs for Freedom, a collection of antislavery writings edited by Julia Griffiths and sold to raise funds for Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Visited Harriet Beecher Stowe at her home in Andover, Massachusetts, and enlisted her support for his plan to establish an industrial school to train black artisans. Attended Colored National Convention in Rochester, New York. Criticized by Charles R. Remond and other black leaders for his industrial school proposal on the grounds that the school would promote segregation. Attacked by Wendell Phillips for having criticized the unorthodox religious views of some abolitionists, further widening the split between Douglass and leaders of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison’s Liberator alluded to Griffiths having caused “much unhappiness” in the Douglass household; Douglass attacked Garrison in Frederick Douglass’ Paper for involving his family in a public controversy and accused him of believing that blacks were inferior to whites; Garrison responded in the Liberator, charging Douglass with “apostasy,” “defamation,” and “treachery.” 1854

10–11 May

Attended the anniversary meeting of both the American Anti-Slavery Society and its rival, the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. xxvii

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12 July

7 August

TIMELINE OF DOUGLASS’S LIFE

After significant research and preparation, delivered his widely reported address on ethnology at the Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio. Political mentor Gerrit Smith resigned his seat in the House of Representatives out of frustration with the legislative process. 1855

16 February

19 March

Mid-June 26–28 June

August 16–18 October

Addressed an audience, including many influential New York political leaders, in the state assembly building in Albany. Delivered his famous lecture “The Anti-Slavery Movement” to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. Julia Griffiths left Rochester to return to Great Britain. In the company of Gerrit Smith, John Brown, James McCune Smith, William Goodell, and many other militant abolitionists, black and white, helped found the Radical Abolitionist party at a convention in Syracuse, New York. Published his second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom. Attended Colored National Convention in Philadelphia, where he expressed disappointment at the small amount of funds raised by Harriet Beecher Stowe for the proposed industrial college. 1856

c. 21 February– 13 March 28–29 May

Summer

July

Lecture tour of Ohio netted Douglass a sorely needed $500 for his newspaper. After considerable urging by Gerrit Smith, attended the Radical Abolitionist party’s nominating convention in Syracuse. With his newspaper deeply in debt, explored the possibility of a merger with William Goodell’s Radical Abolitionist. Met the German immigrant journalist Ottilie Assing for the first time.

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TIMELINE OF DOUGLASS’S LIFE

15 August

late August– early September 1 October

7 December

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Editorially endorsed the Republican party’s presidential ticket of John C. Frémont and William Dayton as the most electable antislavery ticket. Campaigned for the Republican presidential ticket in Ohio. Authored resolutions at the Jerry Rescue Anniversary Celebrations in Syracuse, which were widely interpreted as endorsing violent antislavery tactics. Visited by John Brown in Rochester. 1857

14 May

3 August

Addressed an anniversary meeting of the American Abolition Society in New York City, condemning the recent Dred Scott Supreme Court ruling. Made the principal address at the West Indian Emancipation Day celebration in Canandaigua, New York, and published his speech, together with his May address on Dred Scott, in a pamphlet. 1858

late January– early February 14 May June 2 August

7 October

John Brown resided at Douglass’s Rochester home for three weeks, planning his raid on Harpers Ferry. Attended the National Women’s Rights Convention in New York City. Launched a new periodical, the Douglass’ Monthly, aimed largely at British readers. Injured when a platform collapsed while delivering speech at the West Indian Emancipation Day Celebration in Poughkeepsie, New York. Presided over an anti-capital-punishment rally in Rochester to protest the execution of Ira Stout, a convicted murderer. 1859

February

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Delivered the lecture “Self-Made Man” for the first of over fifty times during his career while on a speaking tour of Illinois and Wisconsin.

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TIMELINE OF DOUGLASS’S LIFE

12 May

Delivered a public eulogy for the antislavery jurist William Jay in New York City. 19–21 August Met with John Brown at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, but did not join the plot to attack the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. 4 October Wrote a public letter to his old master Hugh Auld, revealing his recent reunion with the latter’s niece, Amanda Auld Sears. 19–21 October Following the Harpers Ferry raid, Douglass fled from Philadelphia to Rochester and finally to Canada. 12 November Sailed from Quebec and then on to Great Britain for safety because of his prior close connections with the head plotter, John Brown. 24 November– Used the home of Julia Griffiths Crofts in Halifax as c. 15 January 1860 his base for an extensive lecturing campaign across central and northern England. 1860 20 January– 29 March February– March

13 March Mid-April 19 September

c. 2 October November– April 1861 3 December

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Lectured mainly in Scotland, defending John Brown’s actions. Engaged in public controversy in Scotland with the British Garrisonian George Thompson over conflicting views on the standing of slavery under the U.S. Constitution. Daughter Annie Douglass died. Returned to the United States, arriving in Portland, Maine. Having endorsed the Radical Abolitionist Gerrit Smith for president the preceding month, attended a convention in Worcester, Massachusetts, organized by Stephen S. Foster, in unsuccessful bid to win their backing for Smith. Campaigned extensively in western New York in support of a state equal suffrage referendum. Considered visiting Haiti to explore its suitability as an emigration site for American free blacks. Participated in a Boston commemoration of the death of John Brown, which was disrupted by mob assault.

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TIMELINE OF DOUGLASS’S LIFE

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1861 April

May–June

3 December

Civil War began with an attack on Fort Sumter by Confederate forces; Douglass denounced secession but called on the Lincoln administration to make the goal of the war emancipation as well as reunion. Lectured on many Sunday afternoons on the progress of the war in Rochester’s Spring Street A.M.E. Church, critical of Lincoln for not taking stronger antislavery action. Delivered his “Pictures and Progress” lyceum lecture to the Parker Fraternity Course in Boston, initiating a new dimension in his public speaking. 1862

5 February

August– September

1 September

22 November

31 December

Lectured in a series sponsored by the Emancipation League of Boston, calling on the federal government to enlist black soldiers as means of facilitating a Union victory. Publicly opposed proposals to colonize American blacks in Central America advocated by Senator Samuel S. Pomeroy of Kansas and Montgomery Blair, U.S. postmaster general. After passing her qualifying examinations, Douglass’s daughter Rosetta began teaching in Salem, New Jersey. His “The Slave’s Appeal to Great Britain” was published in the New York Independent to counter proConfederate propaganda there. Attended a celebration in Boston for the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. 1863

February

18 May

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Began recruiting free black Union soldiers for the state of Massachusetts. His sons Lewis and Charles are among his first recruits. Attended the presentation of colors by Governor John A. Andrew to the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment in Readville.

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18 July 1 August

10 August Mid-August

Late September– Mid-October 24 December

TIMELINE OF DOUGLASS’S LIFE

Son Lewis participated in the failed assault on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina. Resigned as an army recruiter after protesting the lack of equal pay and promotion opportunities given black Union soldiers. Had interviews with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C. Returned to Rochester and issued the valedictory issue of the Douglass’ Monthly in anticipation of receiving a military commission, which never arrived. In the company of Ottilie Assing, made daily visits to son Lewis in New York City hospital during his recuperation from war injuries. Daughter Rosetta married Nathan Sprague. 1864

May

22 May 19 August

4–6 October

17–29 November

Son Charles saw combat with the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign in Virginia. Signed a public call for a convention to replace Lincoln as Republican presidential candidate in 1864. Met with President Lincoln in the White House, to discuss means to recruit more slaves to run away from Southern masters and enlist in the Union army. Presided at the National Convention of Colored Men in Syracuse and gave a lukewarm endorsement to Lincoln’s reelection as preferable to a Democrat regaining the White House. Delivered a series of public lectures in his old hometown of Baltimore, highlighted by a reunion with his long-separated sister Eliza Bailey Mitchell. 1865

4 March 15 April

Attended Lincoln’s second inauguration in Washington, D.C. Addressed a memorial meeting in Rochester for the assassinated President Lincoln.

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TIMELINE OF DOUGLASS’S LIFE

9 May

10 May

June

August– October

29 September

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Attended the American Freedmen’s Aid Union anniversary in New York City and argued that equal rights should be the group’s principal goal. Attended the annual meeting of the American AntiSlavery Society and argued against the organization’s dissolution, which Garrison had proposed. Son Lewis visited St. Michaels, Maryland, and reestablished Douglass’s contact with many family members separated by slavery. Entered a public controversy with fellow blacks William J. Wilson and Henry Highland Garnet by opposing the efforts of the Colored People’s Educational Monument Association to establish a school for the children of freedmen in Washington as a memorial to Lincoln. Honored guest at the opening dedication of the Douglass Institute in Baltimore.

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Gerrit Smith, c. 1855–65. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. [LCDIG-cwpbh-02632]. Rosetta Douglass, n.d. Courtesy of the National Park Service, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, Washington, D.C., FRDO 4812.

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Amy Post, n.d. Courtesy of the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries. John Brown, n.d. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. [LC-USZ62–106337].

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Abraham Lincoln, 1865. Photograph by Alexander Gardner. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. [LC-DIG-ppmsca-19208]. George Luther Stearns, 1855. Courtesy of the Boyd B. Stutler Collection, West Virginia State Archives.

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Charles R. Douglass in uniform, c. 1864–1865. Courtesy of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University Archives, Howard University, Washington, D.C.

Lewis H. Douglass in uniform, c. 1864–1865. Courtesy of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University Archives, Howard University, Washington, D.C.

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Lincoln’s second inauguration, 1865. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. [LC-DIG-npcc-29803].

Frederick Douglass, c. 1860. Unidentified artist. Salted paper print. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

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THE FREDERICK DOUGLASS PAPERS Series Three: Correspondence

VOLUME 2: 1853–1865

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH 1 Rochester[, New York]. 14 Jan[uary] 1853[.]

Hon. Gerrit Smith, I have troubled you So little with my pen Since you were elected to congress2—that I fear you will begin to think that your elevation has desolved the bonds of my grateful affection. It is not So however, A thoughtful regard for your precious time—and a knowledge of the fact that you are increasingly occupied, is my apology. I am impatient to meet you at the rescue trials.3 I want to See and hear you on that great occasion—for great it will be—and I mean to have a String of appointments which will bring me up at Albany, on the 25th[.]4 Our paper is getting on well. Subscribers are renewing their Subscriptions—and a career of usefulness Seems to unfold before it. My health was never better than during this winter and my Spirits—though Subject to Some clouds—are quite bright. Mrs Smith,5 intended to have called yesterday at the office, but feeble health prevented. My friend Miss Griffiths6 has twice called upon her at Mrs Talman’s7 and once to tea. She was much delighted with the kind reception given her by Mrs T. But what kind of news is this to be telling one, now burdened with the “affairs of State”? Well, I know that Gerrit Smith the man—is before Gerrit Smith the “honorable member.” A very unpleasant controverSy is Springing up among the fugitives in Canada8—Mr Ward9—and Miss Shadd10 on the one Side, Mr11 and Mrs Bibb12—on the other. The question is, whether “The Refugees Home Society” ought, or ought not be Supported. Bibb thinks it ought—Ward thinks it not. Both Sides Shall be heard in our paper. I think of Changing the name of my paper—or in other words giving my paper a name, for as friend Garison13 clearly proved—my paper is without a name—Will you not Suggest one? I Shall look my reputation for being unStable if I dont change Soon. How would this do. “The Black Man” —or this “The agitator” or this, “The Jerry Level ”14 or this: “The Brotherhood ” 1

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The black Man—is good but common—The agitator—is good but promises too much—the brotherhood might imply the exclusion of the Sisterhood—upon the whole I like the “Jerry Level ” best—That’s destinctive—Smooth—and conveys the true Antislavery ideas. But I Shall wait your Suggestion—and Shall doubtless adopt it—when it comes My family are all well—except Colds, of these they have all had a plenty. Yours most truly, FREDERICK DOUGLASS ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Gerrit Smith (1797–1874), a New York businessman and land speculator, became best known for his philanthropic work in such reform efforts as temperance and abolition. Between 1828 and 1835, he donated large sums of money to the American Colonization Society, but abandoned that movement in 1835 when his sympathies shifted to immediate abolition. In the 1840s he gave approximately 140,000 acres of land in upstate New York to three thousand black settlers, thus enabling them to qualify to vote. Smith was a founder and frequent candidate of the Liberty party, running for governor of New York on that ticket in 1840 and winning a seat in Congress in 1852. When the Free Soil merger with moderate antislavery Democrats and Whigs lured away many Liberty party supporters, Smith helped bankroll the Liberty party until 1860. Smith befriended Douglass when the latter moved to Rochester, and Smith frequently assisted in financing Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Like Douglass, Smith supported John Brown, but psychological stress caused by the failure at Harpers Ferry brought on the first of a series of bipolar episodes that greatly reduced his subsequent reform activities. Ralph Volney Harlow, Gerrit Smith: Philanthropist and Reformer (1939; New York, 1972); Gerald Sorin, The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism (Westport, Conn., 1971), 269–87; Lewis Perry, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought (Ithaca, N.Y., 1973), 170–80; John R. McKivigan and Madeleine Leveille, “The ‘Black Dream’ of Gerrit Smith, New York Abolitionist,” Syracuse University Library Associates Courier, 20:51–76 (Fall 1985); National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 63 vols., (New York, 1893–1984), 2:322– 23; Dictionary of American Biography, 20 vols. (New York, 1928–36), 17:270–71. 2. Gerrit Smith was elected to Congress from his upstate New York district as an antislavery “Independent” in November 1852. From the time Smith was elected to the time of this correspondence, only one letter from Douglass to Smith has been located. In this letter, dated 6 November 1852, Douglass wrote Smith to congratulate him on his recent election to Congress. Douglass Papers, ser. 3, 1:486–88; Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 6 November 1852, Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU; NASS, 11 November 1852; Phillip S. Foner, ed., The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 5 vols. (New York, 1950–75), 2:219–20. 3. Although a leading plotter of the successful rescue of the fugitive slave William “Jerry” McHenry in Syracuse in October 1851, Gerrit Smith was not among those indicted for violating the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The trial of the defendants began in January 1852 in Albany. A six-lawyer legal team represented the twenty-six defendants. Smith attended the Albany proceedings, and many press reports incorrectly identified him as a member of the defense team. After an initial hearing, the court postponed the trial. Smith soon thereafter began to develop concerns about the antislavery sentiments of several of the defense lawyers; he became a member of the New York bar in October 1852. The Jerry Rescuers’ trial resumed in January 1853, with Smith acting as one of the defense lawyers. FDP, 5 February 1852; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 298–303; Jayme A. Sokolow, “The Jerry McHenry Rescue and the Growth of Northern Antislavery Sentiment during the 1850s,” Journal of American Studies, 16:433–37 (December 1982).

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4. Two days after writing this letter, Douglass spoke in Rushville, New York. His next recorded speaking engagements were in Troy and Albany, New York, from 25 January to 5 February 1853. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 2:xxxiii. 5. On 2 January 1822, Ann Carroll Fitzhugh (1805–75), sometimes called “Nancy,” became the second wife of Gerrit Smith. She was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, where her father, William Fitzhugh (1761–1839), was a prominent planter connected with elite families. In 1800, Fitzhugh entered into a real estate venture with his neighbors Charles Carroll and Nathaniel Rochester. The three purchased land in upstate New York and established the town of Rochester, where Fitzhugh moved his family in 1815. He became a prominent resident and philanthropist and contributed to the growth of the town into a city. Gerrit and Ann Smith had eight children, including Elizabeth Smith Miller (1822–1911), who followed in her father’s footsteps to become an activist and reformer in her own right. Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography, 3d ed. (New York, 1909), 27; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 16; Robert F. McNamara, “Charles Carroll of Belle Vue: Co-founder of Rochester,” RH, 42:1, 13 (October 1980). 6. A native of London, Julia Griffiths (1811–95) was the oldest of seven children born to Thomas Griffiths, a onetime stationer turned publisher and bookseller, and his wife Charlotte Powis. She first met Douglass during the latter half of 1846 when he lectured in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where she was visiting with friends. Her mother had been a friend of William Wilberforce, who had advocated for the abolition of slavery in England, and she herself was active in the British antislavery movement. Charmed by the American, Griffiths followed Douglass back to the United States with her younger sister, Eliza, in 1848. In 1850, Eliza married John Dick, one of Douglass’s printers for the North Star, and the couple moved to Toronto. Julia became a constant companion and partner to Douglass and a leading antislavery organizer in Rochester for the next five years. She contributed to the North Star as copy editor and journalist, and saved the paper from financial ruin by organizing its books and by aggressively pursuing subscribers and donations. She helped found the Western New York AntiSlavery Society, acting as its secretary, and organized the Rochester Anti-Slavery Fair. Initially, she lived with the Douglass family, which led to tension in the household and to unsubstantiated rumors that Douglass and Griffiths shared more than a business relationship. In 1853, the vicious attacks upon her in abolitionist newspapers drove her from the Douglass home and finally forced her to return to England in 1855, ostensibly to raise funds for the North Star. In 1859 she married a Methodist minister from Halifax, Henry O. Crofts (1814–80), who acted as an agent for Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Through the Civil War, she continued to organize and revitalize ladies’ antislavery societies and to lecture against slavery. After the war and her husband’s death, she ran a boarding school and worked as a governess. Her friendship with Douglass continued in frequent correspondence, and she welcomed him and his second wife, Helen Pitts Douglass, when they visited England in 1886. British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter, new ser., 5:82 (1 April 1857); 1871 England Census, Durham County, Gateshead, 41; London, England: Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812, Ancestry. com; Maria Diedrich, Love Across Color Lines: Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass (New York, 1999), 179–84; Waldo E. Martin, Jr., The Mind of Frederick Douglass (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1984), 40– 41; Janet Douglas, “A Cherished Friendship: Julia Griffiths Crofts and Frederick Douglass,” Slavery and Abolition, 33:265–74 (June 2012); Erwin Palmer, “A Partnership in the Abolition Movement,” University of Rochester Library Bulletin, 26:1–17 (Autumn/Winter 1970–71). 7. Mary E. Fitzhugh Talman (1809–92), born in Hagerstown, Maryland, was the daughter of William Fitzhugh and the sister of Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith, Gerrit Smith’s wife. She married John T. Talman, a Rochester businessman who owned the building in which Douglass ran his newspapers. John Talman died before 1850, and his wife inherited his share of the building. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 97; Daily American Directory for the City of Rochester [for 1851–1852] (Rochester, 1851), 250. 8. The controversy to which Douglass refers was a virulent dispute among blacks in Canada. At the center of the debate was the Refugee Home Society, which was founded in 1852 to create a black settlement in Canada West (present-day Ontario). The mission of the society was to raise funds in

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America to buy 50,000 acres of Canadian farmland that would then be sold at a low rate to recently immigrated blacks. Samuel Ringgold Ward and Mary Ann Shadd opposed this plan as a form of begging, and instead encouraged self-sufficiency and integration. They saw Canada as a permanent home, and assimilation as the best way to a better life. Henry Bibb represented another viewpoint and worked to raise funds for the Refugee Home Society. He advocated racial separatism and envisioned an eventual return to the United States. Douglass published a letter in which Bibb defended his views and argued that the Refugee Home Society’s actions were not a type of begging. Throughout the controversy, Douglass published letters from Lewis Tappan, George Whipple, and C. C. Foote that supported Bibb and the Refugee Home Society. He also published a letter from Ward arguing against it, and a report from a meeting of colored citizens of Windsor in which the Refugee Home Society was denounced. FDP, 3 June, 29 October 1852, 21 January, 22 April 1853; Jane Rhodes, Mary Ann Shadd Cary: The Black Press and Protest in the Nineteenth Century (Bloomington, Ind., 1998), 41–42, 45; Charles J. Heglar, introduction to The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb: An American Slave, Henry Bibb (Madison, Wisc., 2001), xiii. 9. Samuel Ringgold Ward (1817–66) was a black Congregational minister, abolitionist, editor, and orator. Around 1820, Ward escaped from slavery with his family. By 1834 he had become active in abolitionist circles and later lectured for the American Anti-Slavery Society. After 1844 Ward also acted as a spokesman for the Liberty party. In the 1840s he edited two Syracuse-based abolitionist newspapers, including the Impartial Citizen, but both failed financially. Following his 1851 involvement in the Jerry Rescue, he immigrated to Canada. Ward’s involvement in abolitionist activities necessarily brought him into close contact with Douglass, who remarked that “as an orator and thinker he [Ward] was vastly superior . . . to any of us,” and that “the splendors of his intellect went directly to the glory of his race.” Samuel Ringgold Ward, Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro: His Anti-Slavery Labours in the United States, Canada, & England (1855; New York, 1968); Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 3:217; Benjamin Quarles, Black Abolitionists (New York, 1969), 79, 98, 133, 138, 210. 10. Mary Ann Camberton Shadd Cary (1823–93) was born free in Wilmington, Delaware, to a family of prominent black abolitionists. She was educated at a private Quaker school and went on to teach at several schools for black children. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, Shadd Cary became an outspoken advocate for voluntary immigration to Canada, and in the fall of 1851 she moved to Canada and opened a school. She married Thomas Fauntleroy Cary, and together they had two children. While in Canada, she partnered with Samuel Ringgold Ward to publish a newspaper, the Provincial Freeman, in Toronto. Her controversial opinions and forceful style earned her much criticism, her most notable feud being with Henry Bibb. She returned to the United States in 1863 to recruit soldiers for the Civil War. She studied law at Howard University after the war, receiving her degree in 1883. Throughout her life, she was active in many causes, including abolition, emigration, women’s rights, African American rights, and temperance. Jim Bearden and Linda Jean Butler, Shadd: The Life and Times of Mary Shadd Cary (Toronto, 1977); Rhodes, Mary Ann Shadd Cary; DCB (online); John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 24 vols. (New York, 1999), 4:522–23. 11. Henry Bibb (1815–54) first escaped from slavery in Shelby County, Kentucky, in 1837. In attempting to rescue his wife, Melinda, and their daughter, Mary Frances, he was recaptured, but escaped again in 1842. Settling in Detroit, he became active in antislavery politics and attended the black state convention in 1843. He became a lecturer for the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society in 1845, touring New England in 1846, and attended the Boston reception to welcome Douglass upon his return from England in 1847. In 1849 he became an agent for the North Star and published his own Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb. After the federal government passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Bibb became interested in Canadian colonization and founded a journal, the Voice of the Fugitive (1851–53). He became the recording secretary of the Benevolent Association, which purchased land in Canada West, was active in the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada, and was an officer and trustee of the Refugee Home Society, the organization formed when the Benevolent As-

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sociation merged with a similar Detroit organization. NS, 24 March 1848, 12, 19 January, 16 February, 18 May, 15, 22 June 1849; Lib., 1 June 1849; FDP, 11 August 1854; Gilbert Osofsky, ed., Puttin’ On Ole Massa: The Slave Narratives of Henry Bibb, William Wells Brown, and Solomon Northup (New York, 1969), 64, 74–82, 154–64; David M. Katzman, Before the Ghetto: Black Detroit in the Nineteenth Century (Urbana, Ill., 1973), 14–16, 39, 41–42; Floyd J. Miller, The Search for a Black Nationality: Black Emigration and Colonization, 1787–1863 (Chicago, 1975), 106–07, 110–15, 149; William H. Pease and Jane H. Pease, Black Utopia: Negro Communal Experiments in America (Madison, Wisc., 1963), 109–22; idem, They Who Would Be Free: Blacks’ Search for Freedom, 1830–1861 (New York, 1974), 65, 252–53; Robin W. Winks, The Blacks in Canada: A History, 2d ed. (New Haven, Conn., 1997), 204–08, 254–55, 396–97; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 61–62, 185, 218–19; Fred Landon, “Henry Bibb: A Colonizer,” JNH, 5:437–47 (October 1920). 12. Henry Bibb had two wives, one enslaved and one free; Douglass is referring to Mary E. Miles (c. 1820–77), Bibb’s second wife. Mary was born free in Rhode Island and attended school in Massachusetts. She was trained as a teacher and taught for much of her life. Through their involvement in the abolitionist movement, Bibb and Miles met in 1847 and were married the next year. Following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the couple moved to Canada West, where Bibb began his abolitionist newspaper and Mary taught in a school for fugitive slave children and worked as a dressmaker. She was a founding member of the Anti-Slavery Society of Windsor and played an active editorial role in her husband’s paper. After Bibb’s death in 1854, she married Isaac N. Cary, brotherin-law of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, an adversary of the Bibbs. In the early 1870s she moved to Boston, where she lived until her death. Heglar, introduction, viii–xi; Jessie Carney Smith, ed., Notable Black American Women, Book 3 (New York, 2003), 30–33. 13. William Lloyd Garrison (1805–79) was so closely identified with the abolitionist movement in the United States that his name became almost synonymous with the cause. He began his career as an apprentice printer on the Newburyport (Mass.) Herald at the age of thirteen. Garrison became editor of the Newburyport Free Press in 1826, but the paper closed within a year. He became associated with a series of periodicals in Boston that advocated reform, and then Benjamin Lundy introduced him to the antislavery cause. Garrison and Lundy edited the Genius of Universal Emancipation in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1829 to 1830, when a libel suit against them forced the paper to close and landed Garrison in jail. After his release, he courted the wealthy merchants of New York and Boston in order to start the Liberator (1831–65), a weekly journal based in Boston in which he advocated an immediate end to slavery. Garrison’s brand of abolition condemned any institution that tolerated the existence of slavery, including churches, political parties, and even the United States itself, or any scheme aimed at removing black people from the United States. Instead, Garrison hoped to demonstrate to the public that slavery was morally wrong, thereby forcing its end in an almost millennial moment of emancipation. His approach appealed to both white and black antislavery advocates, but earned him many enemies among those only moderately opposed to slavery and slaveholders alike. Seeing the need for action and organization beyond the pages of the Liberator, Garrison joined with other abolitionists to form the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831. Two years later he helped form the larger American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1833 he established ties with English abolitionists after a trip to Great Britain, and he later brought the noted and notorious speaker George Thompson to the United States for a tour. Ever the radical, Garrison expanded his interests to include women’s rights after female delegates were excluded from the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840. The issue of women’s participation in the antislavery movement and Garrison’s absolute refusal to turn to politics to end slavery caused a division in the American Anti-Slavery Society. Those who opposed women acting as speakers and who hoped to use politics to realize abolition formed the “New Organization.” Garrison’s ideas were so closely associated with the “Old Organization” that its adherents became known more frequently as the “Garrisonians.” With the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, Garrison believed that he had accomplished his life’s work and that of the antislavery movement. He then resigned from the presidency of the American Anti-Slavery Society and closed

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the Liberator. Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805–1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children, 4 vols. (New York, 1885–89); Henry Mayer, All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery (New York, 1998); James Brewer Stewart, William Lloyd Garrison and the Challenge of Emancipation (Arlington Heights, Ill., 1992); John L. Thomas, The Liberator: William Lloyd Garrison (Boston, 1963); DAB, 7:168–72. 14. The phrase “Jerry level” originated in a campaign speech delivered by Gerrit Smith. On 12 August 1852 at a convention in Pittsburgh, Smith urged his supporters “to come up to the Jerry level” by denying the legality of slavery. In this case, “Jerry” refers to the widely publicized fugitive slave case known as the Jerry Rescue. In October 1851, the fugitive William “Jerry” McHenry was rescued following his arrest by two marshals in Syracuse, New York. The ensuing legal case and the phrase “Jerry level” became symbols of opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. In an editorial celebrating Smith’s election, Douglass remarked, “Our representative will go to Congress with the ‘JERRY LEVEL’ IN HIS HAND.” Another editorial admonished William H. Seward, Thurlow Weed, and Horace Greeley to “avow themselves to be on the ‘Jerry level,’ denying that slave laws have any validity.” FDP, 3 September, 12, 26 November 1852.

ABNER BATES1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Syracuse, [N.Y.] 11 Feb[ruary] 1853[.]

Frederick Douglass or Wm Bloss2 } Rochester, These men3 Came from Mc Cune Smith4 New York and I have ticketed them to you trusting that you will see them put on their way from Rochester Yours Truly A. BATES5 ALS: Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society Papers, MiU-C. 1. Probably Abner Bates (1807–90), a Syracuse, New York, tanner and store owner. Bates was an abolitionist religious “comeouter” who quit the Presbyterians in protest of their fellowship of slaveholders. He was active in the Underground Railroad; some of the planning for the Jerry Rescue was conducted in his store. Bates also was a prominent member of the New York State Temperance Society. NASS, 11 July 1850; FDP, 8 June 1855; Gurney S. Strong, Early Landmarks of Syracuse (Syracuse, N.Y., 1894), 281, 291; Milton C. Sernett, North Star Country: Upstate New York and the Crusade for African American Freedom (Syracuse, N.Y., 2002), 321. 2. William Clough Bloss (1795–1863) was born in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts. A committed abolitionist, Bloss was also an advocate for reforms in temperance laws, capital punishment, and woman suffrage. In 1833, Bloss promoted a series of antislavery meetings and helped organize the first abolitionist convention in Monroe County, New York. Active in the Underground Railroad, Bloss sheltered fugitive slaves in his home. Along with other members of the Rochester Anti-Slavery Society, he began publishing the Rights of Man, an abolitionist newspaper, in 1834. Ten years later the Whig party elected Bloss to the state assembly, where he unsuccessfully fought for a state amendment banning discrimination in voting rights based on race. ANB, 3:54–55. 3. These fugitive slaves cannot be identified. 4. James McCune Smith (1813–65), a prominent black physician, abolitionist, and writer, was born in New York City to an enslaved father and a self-emancipated mother. He attended the New

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York African Free School, but was denied admission to Columbia University, Geneva Medical College, and the New York Academy of Medicine. He turned to the University of Glasgow in Scotland, where he received a B.A. (1835), M.A. (1836), and M.D. (1837). Upon returning to New York, he opened a pharmacy and medical practice that catered to both blacks and whites. He became involved in the abolitionist movement, serving as an associate editor of the Colored American in 1839, contributed regularly to the Anglo-African Magazine, and wrote correspondence for the North Star and Frederick Douglass’ Paper under the pseudonym “Communipaw.” Smith also wrote the introduction to Douglass’s second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). In 1861, Smith helped finance the revival of the Weekly Anglo-African to oppose black colonization and emigration, and he was a prominent member of the New York City Young Men’s Association, the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and the New York African Society for Mutual Relief. He was the sole attending physician of the Society for the Promotion of Education Among Colored Children, a member and vestryman of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, and a trustee of the New York Society for the Promotion of Education Among Colored Children. In 1863 Wilberforce College appointed Smith professor of anthropology, but illness kept him from assuming his post. Lib., 1 June 1838; FDP, 18 May 1855; Douglass Papers, ser. 2:7–19; Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, 243; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 90–92, 103, 110; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 115, 134; Rhoda G. Freeman, “The Free Negro in New York City in the Era before the Civil War” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1966), 40–42, 177, 186, 195, 200, 247, 276, 286, 325, 353, 393; DAB, 27:288–89. 5. William Bloss adds a note, dated 12 February 1853, indicating his receipt of Bates’s letter and money via Maria G. Porter (1805–96). Porter was born in Bristol, Maine. At twenty years of age, she moved with her family, to Rochester, New York, where she remained until her death. Maria helped to found the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society and served as its treasurer for many years. She ran a boardinghouse in Rochester, which was a stop on the Underground Railroad from which she helped many fugitive slaves escape to freedom. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 57; The Rochester Directory, Containing a General Directory of the Citizens, a Business Directory, and the City and County Register for the Year Beginning July, 1[,] 1880 (Rochester, 1880), 58; FDP, 26 February 1852; Rochester Herald, 14 December 1896; New York Times, 15 December 1896; (Bangor, Me.) Daily Whig & Courier, 17 December 1896; William F. Peck, History of Rochester and Monroe County, New York, 2 vols. (New York, 1908), 1:243.

GERRIT SMITH TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Peterboro, [N.Y.] 24 Feb[ruary] 1853.

Mr. Douglass :— The account in yesterday’s Tribune1 of the meeting in Syracuse, 22d inst., is not free from mistakes. 1st. It represents the meeting to have been a Free Democratic State Convention, whereas it was a Liberty Party State Convention.2 2d. It makes me compare Judge Hall3 with the infamous Jeffries.4 But what I said was, that the practice in the U. S. Courts in Philadelphia, Boston, and Albany, in requiring Jurors to swear to uphold an enactment for slavery,5 if the Judge shall tell them it is constitutional, is an encroachment on the rights of Jurors, of which even Jeffries himself was not guilty.

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3d. It makes me say, that one of the Jurors in the Enoch Reed6 case “avowed, that the conviction was caused by physical exhaustion.”7 That it was so caused was, however, but the opinion, which Mr. May8 and I expressed in the Convention. What Mr. May and I said of this Juror was, that he appeared to regret the verdict. Another Juror,[]also, as I was informed by District Attorney Colvin,9 regretted it. 4th. It makes me say, that, were I on trial, I would “tell all about it”—that is, about the rescue of Jerry. This was said by Mr. May—not by myself. 5th. It leaves room for the belief, that I boasted in the Convention, that I had argued Judge Hall into my “position on the question of slavery.” Indeed, I wish, that I had been able to do so. But I have no evidence, that I was. It is true, that, in a conversation with me, he declared, that he would forcibly resist a certain outrage upon his family; and it is, therefore, true, that he c[a]nnot, without great and guilty inconsistency, punish the forcible resistance of an attempt to enslave. But it is not true, that this declaration of the Judge was produced by any power of argument on my part. GERRIT SMITH. PLSr: FDP, 4 March 1853. 1. Horace Greeley founded the New York Tribune in 1841. Following stints editing two small campaign papers, the Log Cabin and the Jeffersonian, Greeley printed the first four-page, five-column issue of the Tribune on 10 April 1841. Conceived as a “cheap” political paper that honest workingmen could turn to for moral direction and nonpartisan political analysis, the Tribune was to be antislavery, anti-rum, anti-tobacco, anti-seduction, anti-grogshops, anti-brothel, and anti-gambling house, among other things. With the financial talents of the Whig lawyer Thomas McElrath, Greeley built the Tribune into a profitable enterprise, printing a daily morning edition as well as a weekly edition, which was sold mainly by $2 yearly subscription. Within only a few years, the Tribune became the leader in national news, and Greeley was the best-known newspaperman in the country. George H. Douglas, The Golden Age of the Newspaper (Westport, Conn., 1999), 39–43; Louis M. Starr, Bohemian Brigade: Civil War Newsmen in Action (New York, 1954), 98–116; ANB, 8:806–08. 2. The Liberty party remnant, led by Gerrit Smith, held a convention on 22 February 1853 at the Congregational Church in Syracuse, New York. In an article entitled “Free Democratic State Convention,” the New York Daily Tribune reported the resolutions passed and recorded Gerrit Smith’s comments about the Jerry Rescue trials in its 24 February issue. The convention was covered in greater detail in the 4 March issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. The convention’s attendees were members of the Liberty party; both Douglass and Gerrit Smith were in attendance. Topics included the association of the Liberty party with other parties, the Fugitive Slave Law, criticism of the judiciary conducting the Jerry Rescue trials, the Constitution as it related to the issue of slavery, prejudice, future prospects for blacks, and the anticipation of a financial gift from Harriet Beecher Stowe to endow a manual-labor college. New York Daily Tribune, 24 February 1853; FDP, 4 March 1853; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 2:xxxiii. 3. Nathan Kelsey Hall (1810–74) was born and educated in Marcellus, Onondaga County, New York. He studied law with Millard Fillmore, and the two men formed a legal practice together. In 1842, Hall was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Erie County. He remained on the

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bench until he was elected to the state assembly in 1845, then to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1847, serving only one term. Hall continued to practice law until Fillmore appointed him postmaster general in 1850. He later briefly held the position of secretary of the interior, and Fillmore appointed him federal judge of the Northern District of New York in 1852. He remained on the bench until his death. FDP, 11 February 1853; New York Times, 3 March 1874; David McAdam et al., eds., History of the Bench and Bar of New York, 2 vols. (New York, 1897), 2:341; James O. Putnam, “Nathan Kelsey Hall,” Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, 4:285–98 (1896); Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 6 vols. (New York, 1888–89), 3:43; Robert Sobel, ed., Biographical Directory of the United States Executive Branch, 1774–1989 (Westport, Conn., 1990), 158–59; Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–Present (online); NCAB, 6:183; DAB, 8:141–42. 4. Gerrit Smith refers to the British judge George Jeffreys (1645–89), who was often referred to as the “hanging judge.” Jeffreys was born at his family estate, Acton Park, near Wrexham in Denbighshire, England. He attended Cambridge University without graduating and joined the bar in 1668. Jeffreys was elected common sergeant of London in 1671, knighted by Charles II, and became a member of the king’s counsel in 1677. Jeffreys maintained a hard line against those accused of treason or seditious writing, often using his powers of persuasion to sway hung juries. With the accession of James II, Jeffreys was elevated to chief justice of the King’s Bench in 1683, raised to the peerage as first Baron Jeffreys of Wem in 1685, and became lord chancellor. Jeffreys earned his nickname as a result of his involvement in the “Bloody Assizes,” proceedings related to a rebellion mounted by the Duke of Monmouth and his followers against James II. Of the 2,600 people who were detained, almost half confessed to treason, 1,381 were tried, most were convicted, and 200 were executed. The remainder and those who confessed were sent to the West Indies. Humphrey W. Woolrych, The Life of Judge Jeffreys (Philadelphia,1852), 149–206; H. B. Irving, The Life of Judge Jeffreys (New York, 1898), 258–308; Juliet Gardiner, ed., Who’s Who in British History (London, 2000), 458; George E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, rev. ed., 6 vols. (1910–59; Gloucester, Eng., 2000), 3:83–84. 5. While no record could be located of the judicial practice requiring jurors to swear to uphold an enactment for slavery, it was common for judges to instruct juries that their decisions had to be based on law rather than conscience. In Van Metre v. Mitchell, heard in Pennsylvania in October 1853, Circuit Justice Robert Grier instructed the jury to disregard personal feelings about human rights and reach a decision considering only the legalities of the case involving the Fugitive Slave Law. Other cases featuring similar jury instructions include Giltner v. Gorham in Michigan, 1848; the United States v. Morris in Boston, May 1851; and Weimer v. Sloane in Ohio, October 1854. The Federal Cases: Comprising Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit and District Courts of the United States, 30 vols. (St. Paul, Minn., 1894–97), 10:432, 28:1039; Stanley W. Campbell, The Slave Catchers: Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850–1860 (1968; Chapel Hill, N.C., 1970), 137–38; Robert M. Cover, Justice Accused: Antislavery and the Judicial Process (New Haven, Conn., 1975), 231–32, 260–61; Jeffrey Abramson, We, the Jury: The Jury System and the Ideal of Democracy (New York, 1994), 80–81. 6. Enoch Reed (?–1853) participated in the 1 October 1851 raid in Syracuse to free Jerry McHenry. All but one of the participants in the Jerry Rescue were charged with treason, but were later acquitted. Reed was the only man to be convicted. He died before his appeal could be heard. Lib., 17 June 1853; Campbell, Slave Catchers, 156; Paul Finkelman et. al., eds., Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass, 3 vols. (New York, 2006), 2:76. 7. The New York Daily Tribune claimed that Gerrit Smith asserted that one of the jurors at Enoch Reed’s trial, a Mr. Waggoner, expressed regret over the verdict and attributed his guilty vote to exhaustion. The article also quoted Smith as having stated that “the course pursued by Judge Hall at Albany . . . surpassed in outrage anything in the conduct of the infamous Jeffries.” Smith was pleased at the outcome of the trials, but stated that he “would have been more gratified had the accused boldly avowed their agency in the Jerry rescue.” He indicated that he would have done so, and that he and the

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Reverend Samuel J. May were the responsible rescuers of Jerry, an assertion with which May agreed. Smith claimed that if he were put on trial, he would admit all. Smith and May were never tried. Smith noted that he sat by Judge Nathan K. Hall during the rescue trials, that he argued his case against slavery to the judge, and that he “brought him round virtually to his position upon the question of Slavery.” New York Daily Tribune, 24 February 1853; FDP, 4 March 1853. 8. Samuel Joseph May (1797–1871), a prominent Unitarian minister from Boston, was an active Garrisonian abolitionist. He worked to integrate his congregations and shocked his parishioners by inviting Angelina Grimké to address them on the subject of abolition. A general agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society in the early 1830s, May also advocated women’s rights, temperance, peace, and the abolition of capital punishment. In 1845 he moved to Syracuse, New York, where he became active in the Underground Railroad. Donald Yacovone, Samuel Joseph May and the Dilemmas of the Liberal Persuasion, 1797–1871 (Philadelphia, 1991); DAB, 6:447–48. 9. Andrew J. Colvin (1808–89) began his legal career at the age of sixteen, when he joined the law office of Martin Van Buren. Colvin served as city attorney and corporation counsel for Albany, New York, before becoming district attorney of Albany County. Colvin also served as counsel for the defense in the Jerry Rescue Trials of 1853. In 1859 he was elected to the New York State Senate. Colvin voted for the first appropriation of equipment for Northern troops and encouraged his colleagues to do likewise following the attack on Fort Sumter. Upon his retirement from the state senate, Colvin continued his private law practice in Albany. New York Times, 27 January 1853, 21 July 1889.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO HARRIET BEECHER STOWE1 Rochester, [N.Y.] 8 March 1853.

Mrs. H. B. Stowe. My Dear Mrs. Stowe:— You kindly informed me, when at your house, a fortnight ago,2 that you designed to do something which should permanently contribute to the improvement and elevation of the free colored people in the United States. You especially expressed an interest in such of this class as had become free by their own exertions, and desired most of all to be of service to them. In what manner, and by what means, you can assist this class most successfully, is the subject upon which you have done me the honor to ask my opinion. Begging you to excuse the unavoidable delay,3 I will now most gladly comply with your request, but before doing so, I desire to express, dear Madam, my deep sense of the value of the services which you have already rendered my afflicted and persecuted people, by the publication of your inimitable book on the subject of slavery.4 That contribution to our bleeding cause, alone, involves us in a debt of gratitude which cannot be measured; and your resolution to make other exertions on our behalf excites in me emotions and sentiments, which I scarcely need try to give forth in words. Suffice it to say, that I believe you have the blessings of

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your enslaved countrymen and countrywomen; and the still higher reward which comes to the soul in the smiles of our merciful Heavenly father, whose ear is ever open to the cries of the oppressed. With such sentiments, dear Madam, I will at once proceed to lay before you, in as few words as the nature of the case will allow, my humble views in the premises. First of all, let me briefly state the nature of the disease, before I undertake to prescribe the remedy. Three things are notoriously true of us, as a people. These are poverty, ignorance and degradation. Of course there are exceptions to this general statement: but these are so few as only to prove its essential truthfulness. I shall not stop here to inquire minutely into the causes. It is enough that we shall agree upon the character of the evil, whose existence we deplore, and upon some plan for its removal. I assert, then, that poverty, ignorance and degradation are the combined evils; or, in other words, these constitute the social disease of the free colored people in the United States. To deliver them from this triple malady, is to improve and elevate them, by which I mean simply to put them on an equal footing with their white fellow-countrymen in the sacred right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”5 I am for no fancied or artificial elevation, but only ask fair play.—How shall this be obtained? I answer, first, not by establishing for our use high schools and colleges. Such institutions are, in my judgment, beyond our immediate occasions, and are not adapted to our present most pressing wants. High schools and colleges are excellent institutions, and will, in due season, be greatly subservient to our progress; but they are the result, as well as they are the demand of a point of progress, which we, as a people, have not yet attained. Accustomed, as we have been, to the rougher and harder modes of living, and of gaining a livelihood, we cannot, and we ought not to hope that, in a single leap from our low condition, we can reach that of Ministers, Lawyers, Doctors, Editors, Merchants, &c. These will, doubtless, be attained by us; but this will only be, when we have patiently and laboriously, and I may add, successfully mastered and passed through the intermediate gradations of agriculture and the mechanic arts. Besides, there are (and perhaps this is a better reason for my view of the case) numerous institutions of learning in this country, already thrown open to colored youth. To my thinking, there are quite as many facilities now afforded to the colored people,6 as they can spare the time, from the sterner duties of life, to avail themselves of. In their present condition of poverty, they cannot spare their sons and daughters two

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or three years at boarding schools or colleges, to say nothing of finding the means to sustain them while at such institutions. I take it, therefore, that we are well provided for in this respect; and that it may be fairly inferred from the past that the facilities for our education, so far as schools and colleges in the Free States are concerned, will increase quite in proportion with our future wants. Colleges have been open to colored youth in this country during the last dozen years. Yet few, comparatively, have acquired a classical education; and even this few have found themselves educated far above a living condition, there being no methods by which they could turn their learning to account. Several of this latter class have entered the ministry, but you need not be told that an educated people is needed to sustain an educated ministry;—There must be a certain amount of cultivation among the people to sustain such a ministry. At present, we have not that cultivation amongst us; and therefore, we value, in the preacher, strong lungs, rather than high learning. I do not say that educated ministers are not needed amongst us. Far from it! I wish there were more of them; but to increase their number is not the largest benefit you can bestow upon us. You, dear Madam, can help the masses.—You can do something for the thousands; and by lifting these from the depths of poverty and ignorance, you can make an educated ministry and an educated class possible. In the present circumstances, prejudice is a bar to the educated black minister among the whites; and ignorance is a bar to him among the blacks. We have now two or three colored lawyers in this country;7 and I rejoice in the fact; for it affords very gratifying evidence of our progress. Yet it must be confessed that, in point of success, our lawyers are as great failures as are our ministers. White people will not employ them to the obvious embarrassment of their causes, and the blacks, taking their cue from the whites, have not sufficient confidence in their abilities to employ them. Hence, educated colored men, among the colored people, are at a very great discount. It would seem that education and emigration go together with us; for as soon as a man rises amongst us, capable, by his genius and learning, to us great service, just so soon as he finds that he can serve himself better by going elsewhere. In proof of this, I might instance the Russwurms8—the Garnetts9—the Wards10 —the Crummells11 and others—all men of superior ability and attainments, and capable of removing mountains of prejudice against their race, by their simple presence in this country; but these gentlemen, finding themselves embarrassed here by the peculiar disadvantages to which I have referred— disadvantages in

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part growing out of their education—being repelled by ignorance on the one hand, and prejudice on the other, and having no taste to continue a contest against such odds, they have sought more congenial climes, where they can live more peaceable and quiet lives. I regret their election—but I cannot blame them; for, with an equal amount of education, and the hard lot which was theirs, I might follow their example. But, again, it has been said that the colored people must become farmers—that they must go on the land, in order to their elevation. Hence, many benevolent people are contributing the necessary funds to purchase land in Canada,12 and elsewhere, for them.—The prince of good men, Gerrit Smith, has given away thousands of acres to colored men in this State, thinking, doubtless, that in so doing he was conferring a blessing upon them.13 Now, while I do not undervalue the efforts which have been made, and are still being made in this direction, yet I must say that I have far less confidence in such efforts, than I have in the benevolence which prompts them. Agricultural pursuits are not, as I think, suited to our condition. The reason of this is not to be found so much in the occupation, (for it is a noble and enobling one,) as in the people themselves. That is only a remedy, which can be applied to the case; and the difficulty in the agricultural pursuits as a remedy for the evils of poverty and ignorance amongst us, is that it cannot, for various reasons, be applied. We cannot apply it, because it is almost impossible to get colored men to go on the land. From some cause or other, (perhaps the adage that misery loves company14 will explain,) colored people will congregate in the large towns and cities; and they will endure any amount of hardship and privation rather than separate and go into the country. Again, very few have the means to set up for themselves, or to get where they could do so. Another consideration against expending energy in this direction is our want of self- reliance. Slavery, more than all things else, robs its victims of self-reliance. To go into the western wilderness, and there to lay the foundation of future society, requires more of that important quality than a life of slavery has left us. This may sound strange to you, coming, as it does, from a colored man; but I am dealing with facts; and those never accommodate themselves to the feelings or wishes of any. They don’t ask, but take leave to be. It is a fact then, and not less so because I wish it were otherwise, that the colored people are wanting in self-reliance—too fond of society—too eager for immediate results—and too little skilled in mechanics or husbandry to attempt to overcome the wilderness; at least, until they have overcome obstacles less formidable.—Therefore I look to other

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means than agricultural pursuits for the elevation and improvement of colored people. Of course, I allege this of the many. There are exceptions. Individuals amongst us, with commendable zeal, industry, perseverance and self reliance, have found, and are finding, in agricultural pursuits, the means of supporting, improving and educating their families. The plan which I contemplate will, (if carried into effect,) greatly increase the number of this class—since it will prepare others to meet the rugged duties which a pioneer agricultural condition must impose upon all who take it upon them. What I propose is intended simply to prepare men for the work of getting an honest living—not out of dishonest men— but out of an honest earth. Again, there is little reason to hope that any considerable number of the free colored people will ever be induced to leave this country, even if such a thing were desirable. The black man, (un-like the Indian,) loves civilization. He does not make very great progress in civilization himself, but he likes to be in the midst of it, and prefers to share its most galling evils, to encountering barbarism. Then the love of the country—the dread of isolation—the lack of adventurous spirit—and the thought of seeming to desert their “brethren in bonds,” are a powerful and perpetual check upon all schemes of colonization, which look to the removal of the colored people, without the slaves. The truth is, dear Madam, we are here, and here we are likely to remain. Individuals emigrate—nations never. We have grown up with this Republic; and I see nothing in our character, or even in the character of the American people, as yet, which compels the belief that we must leave the United States. If, then, we are to remain here, the question for the wise and good is precisely that you have submitted to me—and that which I fear I have been, perhaps, too slow in answering—namely, what can be done to improve the condition of the free colored people of the United States? The plan which I humbly submit in answer to this inquiry, (and in the hope that it may find favor with you, dear Madam, and with the many friends of humanity who honor, love, and co-operate with you,) is the establishment in Rochester, N. Y.—or in some other part of the United States, equally favorable to such an enterprise— of an Industrial College, in which shall be taught several important branches of the mechanic arts. This college to be open to colored youth. I will pass over, for the present, the details of such an institution as that I propose. It is not worth while that I should dwell upon these at all. Once convinced that something of the sort is needed, and the organizing power will be forthcoming. It is the peculiarity of your favored race that they

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can always do what they think necessary to be done. I can safely trust all details to yourself, and to the wise and good people whom you represent in the interest you take in my oppressed fellow-countrymen. Never having myself had a day’s schooling all my life, I may not be expected to be able to map out the details of a plan so comprehensive as that involved in the idea of a college. I repeat then, I leave the organization and administration to the superior wisdom of yourself and the friends that second your noble efforts. The argument in favor of an Industrial College, (a college to be conducted by the best men, and the best workmen, which the mechanic arts can afford—a College where colored youth can be instructed to use their hands, as well as their heads—where they can be put in possession of the means of getting a living—whether their lot in after life may be cast among civilized or uncivilized men—whether they choose to stay here, or prefer to return to the land of their fathers,) is briefly this—prejudice against the free colored people in the United States has shown itself nowhere so invincible as among mechanics. The farmer and the professional man cherish no feeling so bitter as that cherished by these. The latter would starve us out of the country entirely. At this moment, I can more easily get my son15 into a lawyer’s office, to study law, than I can into a blacksmith’s shop, to blow the bellows, and to wield the sledgehammer. Denied the means of learning useful trades, we are pressed into the narrowest limits to obtain a livelihood. In times past we have been the hewers of wood and the drawers of water16 for American society, and we once enjoyed a monopoly in menial employments, but this is so no longer—even these employments are rapidly passing away out of our hands. The fact is, (every day begins with the lesson, and ends with the lesson,) that colored men must learn trades—must find new employments, new modes of usefulness to society—or that they must decay under the pressing wants to which their condition is rapidly bringing them. We must become mechanics—we must build, as well as live in houses—we must make, as well as use furniture—we must construct bridges, as well as pass over them—before we can properly live, or be respected by our fellow men. We need mechanics, as well as ministers. We need workers in iron[,] wood, clay, and in leather. We have orators, authors and other professio[illegible] [illegible]; but these reach only a certain [illegible] [illegible] get respect for our race in certain select ways. To live here as we ought, we must fasten ourselves to our countrymen through their every day and cardinal wants. We must not only be able to black boots, but to make them. At present, we are unknown in the  Northern

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States, as mechanics. We give no proof of genius or skill at the County, the State, or the National Fairs. We are unknown at any of the great exhibitions of the industry of our fellow-citizens—and being unknown, we are unconsidered. The fact that we make no show of our ability, is held conclusive of our inability to make any. Hence, all the indifference and contempt, with which incapacity is regarded, fall upon us, and that too, when we have had no means of disproving the injurious opinion of our natural inferiority. I have, during the last dozen years, denied, before the Americans, that we are an inferior race. But this has been done by arguments, based upon admitted principles, rather than by the presentation of facts. Now, firmly believing, as I do, that there are skill, invention power, industry, and real mechanical genius among the colored people, which will bear favorable testimony for them, and which only need the means to develop them, I am decidedly in favor of the establishment of such a college as I have mentioned. The benefits of such an institution would not be confined to the Northern States, nor to the free colored people: they would extend over the whole Union. The slave, not less than the freeman, would be benefitted by such an institution. It must be confessed that the most powerful argument, now used by the Southern slave-holder—and the one most soothing to his conscience—is, that derived from the low condition of the free colored people at the North. I have long felt that too little attention has been given, by our truest friends, in this country, to removing this stumbling block out of the way of the slave’s liberation. The most telling, the most killing refutation of slavery, is the presentation of an industrious, enterprising, upright, thrifty and intelligent free black population. Such a population, I believe, would rise in the Northern States, under the fostering care of such a College as that supposed. To show that we are capable of becoming mechanics, I might adduce any amount of testimony; but dear Madam, I need not ring the changes on such a proposition.—There is no question in the mind of any unprejudiced person, that the negro is capable of making a good mechanic. Indeed even those who cherish the bitterest feelings towards us have admitted that the apprehension that negroes might be employed in their stead, dictated the policy of excluding them from trades altogether; but I will not dwell upon this point, as I fear I have already trespassed too long upon your precious time, and written more than I ought to expect you to read. Allow me to say, in conclusion, that I believe every intelligent colored man in America will approve and rejoice at the establishment of some

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such institution as that now suggested. There are many respectable colored men, fathers of large families, having boys nearly grown up, whose minds are tossed by day and by night, with the anxious enquiry, what shall I do with my boys? Such an institution would meet the wants of such persons. Then, too, the establishment of such an institution would be in character with the eminently practical philanthropy of your transatlantic friends.17—America could scarcely object to it, as an attempt to agitate the public mind on the subject of slavery, or to “dissolve the Union.” It could not be tortured into a cause for hard words by the American people: but the noble and good of all classes would see in the effort an excellent motive, a benevolent object, temperately, wisely, and practically manifested. Wishing you, dear Madam, renewed health, a pleasant passage and safe return to your native land, I am, most truly, your grateful friend, FREDERICK DOUGLASS. PLSr: FDP, 2 December 1853. 1. Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe (1811–96), the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and a member of the outspoken Beecher family, began writing early in life and pioneered the use of slang and regional dialects in her works. Although Uncle Tom’s Cabin remains the most famous of Stowe’s writings, she published a number of novels that were widely read in the nineteenth century, including a second novel on slavery, Dred (1855). Stowe never spoke publicly on behalf of abolition, but her name was one of those most closely associated with the cause because of the overwhelming international popularity of these novels. She and Douglass continued to correspond after this letter, meeting for the first time in 1853. Although he criticized her for advocating colonization and for failing to donate proceeds from Uncle Tom’s Cabin to the antislavery cause, to which she responded with a less than enlightened attitude, she defended him against Garrison. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Compiled from her Letters and Journals by her Son, Charles Edward Stowe, ed. Charles Edward Stowe (Boston, 1890); idem, Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe, ed. Annie Fields (Boston, 1897); Catherine Gilbertson, Harriet Beecher Stowe (New York, 1937); Joan D. Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life (New York, 1994); Forrest Wilson, Crusader in Crinoline: The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe (New York, 1941). 2. Douglass reported on his visit to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s home in Andover, Massachusetts, sometime in February 1853, in an editorial entitled, “A Day and a Night in ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’,” FDP, 4 March 1853; Robert S. Levine, Martin Delany, Frederick Douglass, and the Politics of Representative Identity (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1997), 77–78. 3. In a different editorial on 4 March 1853, Douglass reported that he had been traveling for the past six weeks throughout central and eastern New York with the black abolitionists Stephen Myers, James Wesley Loguen, and Solomon Northrup. FDP, 4 March 1853. 4. Harriet Beecher Stowe began writing the first instalments of what was to become Uncle Tom’s Cabin in March 1851. The fictionalized account of slavery and the Underground Railroad was initially serialized in the Washington (D.C.) National Era from June 1851 through April 1852. Appearing in book form the next year as Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, the novel quickly achieved international success. About three hundred thousand copies were sold in America during the first year, and English sales ultimately exceeded one and a half million. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the first American novel to sell more than a million copies. Its success generated further interest

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in the antislavery movement in the North, while it deepened alienation in the South. Many blacks and abolitionists qualified their praise for the book because of their disapproval of Stowe’s advocacy of colonization. Claire Parfait, The Publishing History of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” 1852–2002 (Aldershot, Hampshire, Eng., 2007), 67–89, 203–06; Marie Caskey, Chariot of Fire: Religion and the Beecher Family (New Haven, Conn., 1978), 3–33, 169–207; Wilson, Crusader in Crinoline, 283–98. 5. Douglass refers to the Declaration of Independence, but the phrase “pursuit of happiness” dates back to John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1693). John Locke, The Philosophical Works of John Locke, ed. J. A. St. John, 2 vols. (London, 1894), 2:391–93. 6. Most Northern public and private schools in the 1850s either excluded black students or segregated them in inferior facilities; however, a small but growing number of entrepreneurial schools for African Americans had been founded to compensate for this shortage of educational opportunities. Beginning with Alexander Twilight at Middlebury College in 1823, a few African Americans attended and even received degrees from Northern colleges. Leonard P. Curry, The Free Black in Urban America, 1800–1850 (Chicago, 1981), 147–73. 7. A small number of blacks had been admitted to the bar in the United States by the time of Douglass’s 1853 letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe. Douglass was likely aware of Macon Bolling Allen, the first black lawyer in the United States, who was admitted to the state bar of Maine in 1844 and moved the next year to Boston, Massachusetts, to practice law in Suffolk County. Robert Morris, mentioned in Frederick Douglass’ Paper, was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1847 and worked for thirty-five years as a lawyer in Suffolk County, where he became well known as a representative for local blacks and Irish immigrants. Douglass was also familiar with John Mercer Langston. The son of a white slaveholding planter and an emancipated black–Native American, Langston entered the state bar of Ohio in 1854 and spent much of his life advocating for civil rights, most notably during Reconstruction. Two other black attorneys, Jonathan Jasper Wright and Edward Garrison Draper, practiced law before the Civil War. Wright, who studied law before the Civil War in Montrose, Pennsylvania, was not officially admitted to the state’s bar until 1865, primarily because of racial prejudice. Draper worked as a teacher in Baltimore before being admitted to the Maryland bar in 1857, albeit with the understanding that he would practice law only in Liberia. New York Emancipator, 17 May 1838; Lib., 9 May 1845; FDP, 13 May 1852; J. Clay Smith, Jr., Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844–1944 (Philadelphia, 1993), 152–53, 163–64, 407–09; Walter J. Leonard, “The Development of the Black Bar,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 407:134–43 (May 1973); ANB, 1:335–36; 13:164–66; 15:913–14; 24:34–35. 8. John Brown Russwurm (1799–1851) was the coeditor of Freedom’s Journal, the first blackowned, black-operated newspaper in the United States. After graduating in 1826 from Bowdoin College in Maine, he met Samuel Cornish and began Freedom’s Journal. In his native New York City, Russwurm was highly regarded within his community. While working as coeditor, he taught at a free evening school in New York City. Believing that blacks should take the lead in uplifting their own people, Russwurm saw colonization in Liberia as the best option for blacks to improve their status. In 1829 he left the Freedom’s Journal and migrated to the colony of Liberia. Frankie Hutton, Early Black Press in America, 1827 to 1860 (Westport, Conn., 1993), 4–7, 123–24; ANB, 19:117–18. 9. Born a slave in Kent County, Maryland, Henry Highland Garnet (1815–82) fled north with his parents in 1824. He attended the African Free School in New York City, the Noyes Academy in Canaan, New Hampshire, and the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, New York. Garnet was one of the founders of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and a stump speaker for the Liberty party. Licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Troy in 1842, Garnet went to Jamaica in 1852 as a missionary of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland. An early proponent of black immigration to Africa and founder of the African Civilization Society, Garnet, in his appeal sanctioning slave uprisings before a National Negro Convention in Buffalo, New York, in August 1843, praised Madison Washington. After the Civil War, Garnet was president of Avery College in Pittsburgh and U.S. minister to Liberia (1881–82). Joel Schor, Henry Highland Garnet: A Voice of Black Radicalism in

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the Nineteenth Century (Westport, Conn., 1977); Dorothy Sterling, ed., Speak Out in Thunder Tones: Letters and Other Writings by Black Northerners, 1787–1865 (1973; New York, 1998), 376; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 68, 185, 216–17, 226–27; ANB, 8:735–36. 10. Samuel Ringgold Ward. 11. Raised and educated in New York, Alexander Crummell (1819–98) became an Episcopal priest, an active member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and a contributor to the Colored American. He believed that black people should develop and support separate organizations that focused on the specific interests of African Americans. Although Crummell opposed the American Colonization Society, for which Douglass praised him, he later supported black immigration to Africa after spending twenty years in Liberia, 1850–70. He and Douglass differed on some issues, including what type of education was most useful for black people, the importance of racial difference, and the legacy of slavery in the years after the Civil War. William H. Ferris, Alexander Crummell: An Apostle of Negro Culture (1920; New York, 1969); Wilson Jeremiah Moses, Alexander Crummell: A Study of Civilization and Discontent (New York, 1989); Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, eds., Dictionary of American Negro Biography (New York, 1982), 145–47; ANB, 5:820–22. 12. Fugitive slaves from the United States began to settle in Upper Canada in the early 1820s. There they formed their own communities, including Amherstburg, Ontario, and Wilberforce. Although not restricted legally, the fugitives were not welcomed by most white Canadians. In the 1840s, the situation of the Canadian black communities worsened. Many fugitives fled to Canada West, greatly increasing the black population there and intensifying the negative reaction of whites. Black settlements such as Dawn, patterned on the Wilberforce settlement, struggled financially to survive. Black settlers in Dawn and other communities faced inflated land prices, mismanagement, and economic distress. Jason H. Silverman, Unwelcome Guests: Canada West’s Response to American Fugitive Slaves, 1800–1865 (Millwood, N.Y., 1985), 21–22, 53–64; Pease and Pease, Black Utopia, 63–70. 13. In 1847 Gerrit Smith donated 140,000 acres of land in upstate New York to be granted in parcels to three thousand African American citizens of New York. Spread between Franklin and Essex counties, the parcels consisted of marginal farmland, but offered an opportunity for independence that many eagerly embraced. Smith’s generosity was lauded at black conventions across the region. NS, 3 December 1847, 7 January, 18, 25 February 1848, 12 January 1849. 14. English use of the proverb “misery loves company” began around 1349, but the phrase is also attributed to ancient writers such as Sophocles (around 408 B.C.E.). Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (New York, 1997), 422. 15. Douglass had three sons, Lewis Henry Douglass (1840–1908), Frederick Douglass, Jr. (1842– 92), and Charles Remond Douglass (1844–1920). Lewis was born in New Bedford, and his brothers in Lynn. All three attended school in Rochester, where they also worked in their father’s newspaper office. During the Civil War, Lewis and Charles enlisted in the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry, rising to the rank of sergeant. Lewis and Frederick Jr., eventually became printers, although they suffered racial discrimination. Indeed, Lewis was able to find employment at the Government Printing Office only through his father’s connections. Frederick Jr. became an editor and writer. Charles, named for Charles Lenox Remond, worked for the federal government as a clerk in the Freedmen’s Bureau and in the Treasury Department, and as consul in Santo Domingo. NASS, 22 May 1869; Rochester Union and Advertiser, 6 August 1869; Rochester Democrat and American, 5 November 1870; Detroit Plaindealer, 12 August 1892; William S. McFeely, Frederick Douglass (New York, 1991), 81, 97, 103, 230, 235, 239, 248–49, 257–58, 271–72, 306, 342, 372. 16. Josh. 9:21. 17. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an international best seller. In April 1853, Stowe undertook the first of several tours of Great Britain that increased the sales of Uncle Tom’s Cabin there to much more than a million copies. Her book influenced over a half a million women in the British Isles to sign a petition on behalf of the American slaves. A “Penny Offering,” ultimately totaling over

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$20,000, was collected for Stowe in Britain for use in the antislavery cause. Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 232–51; Levine, Representative Identity, 75–78, 87–89.

MARTIN ROBINSON DELANY1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Pittsburgh, [Pa.] 20 March 1853.

Frederick Douglass, Esq: Dear Sir:— I notice in your paper of March 4th, an article2 in which you speak of having paid a visit to Mrs. H. E. B. Stowe, for the purpose, as you say, of consulting her. “[A]s to some method which should contribute successfully, and permanently, to the improvement and elevation of the free people of color in the United States.” Also, in the number of March 18th, in an article by a writer over the initials of “P. C. S,”3 in reference to the same subject, he concludes by saying, “I await with much interest the suggestions of Mrs. Stowe in this matter.” Now I simply wish to say, that we have always fallen into great errors in efforts of this kind, going to others than the intelligent and experienced among ourselves; and in all due respect and defference to Mrs. Stowe, I beg leave to say, that she knows nothing about us, “the Free Colored people of the United States,” neither does any other white person—and, consequently, can contrive no successful scheme for our elevation; it must be done by ourselves. I am aware, that I differ with many in thus expressing myself, but I cannot help it; though I stand alone, and offend my best friends, so help me God! [I]n a matter of such moment and importance, I will express my opinion. Why, in God’s name, don’t the leaders among our people make suggestions, and consult the most competent among their own brethren concerning our elevation? This they do not do; and I have not known one, whose province it was to do so, to go ten miles for such a purpose. We shall never [a]ffect anything until this is done. I accord with the suggestions of H. O. Wagoner4 for a National Council or Consultation5 of our people, provided intelligence, maturity and experience, in matters among them, could be so gathered together; other than this, would be a mere mockery—like the Convention of 1848,6 a coming together of rivals, to test their success for the “biggest offices.” As God lives, I will never, knowingly, lend my aid to any such work, while our brethren groan in vassalage and bondage, and I and mine under oppression and degradation, such as we now suffer.

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I would not give the counsel of one dozen intelligent colored freemen of the right stamp, for that of all the white and unsuitable colored persons in the land. But something must be done, and that speedily. The so called free states, by their acts, are now virtually saying to the South, “you shall not emancipate; your blacks must be slaves; and should they come North, there is no refuge for them.” I shall not be surprised to see, at no distant day, a solemn Convention called by the whites in the North, to deliberate on the propriety of changing the whole policy to that of slave states. This will be the remedy to prevent dissolution; and it will come, mark that! [A]nything on the part of the American people to save their Union. Mark me—the non-slaveholding states will become slave states. Yours for God and Humanity, M. R. DELANY.7 PLSr: FDP, 1 April 1853. 1. Born to a free mother and a slave father in Charlestown in western Virginia, Martin Robinson Delany (1812–85) was an editor, physician, and leading advocate of black emigration. In 1822, Delany and his mother moved to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where his father later joined them, and the young Delany attended a local school. In 1831 he moved to Pittsburgh, where he worked as a barber, attended a school run by a black Methodist minister, and studied medicine. Between 1843 and 1847, Delany was editor of the Mystery, a black Pittsburgh newspaper. For the next two years he served as coeditor of Douglass’s North Star and lectured extensively to gain new subscriptions for that paper. In 1850 and 1851, Delany attended Harvard Medical School, but owing to protests from white students, the school denied him admission to the final term needed to complete his medical degree. The following year he wrote The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered (1852), in which he argued that emigration was the only remedy for the oppressed state of black Americans. When many black abolitionists, including Douglass, rejected Delany’s position, he organized a series of National Emigration Conventions that met in 1854, 1856, and 1858. These assemblies created a permanent National Board of Commissioners, of which Delany was president and chief propagandist. In 1856, Delany moved to Chatham, Canada West, and three years later he explored the Niger River Valley in Africa, looking for possible emigration sites. His novel Blake was serialized in the Weekly Anglo-African from November 1861 through May 1862. During the Civil War, Delany served the North first as a recruiter and examining surgeon and eventually as a major of the 104th U.S. Colored Troops. From 1865 to 1868, Delany was a Freedmen’s Bureau officer in South Carolina and later was active in that state’s politics, running unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor on the Independent Republican ticket in 1874. Martin R. Delany, Blake; or, The Huts of America, ed. Floyd J. Miller (Boston, 1970), ix; Thomas Holt, Black over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina during Reconstruction (Urbana, Ill., 1977), 74–75, 176–77; Dorothy Sterling, The Making of an Afro-American: Martin Robinson Delany, 1812–1885 (Garden City, N.Y., 1971); Victor Ullman, Martin R. Delany: The Beginnings of Black Nationalism (Boston, 1971); Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, 115–33, 171–83; DAB, 5:219–20. 2. Delany quotes from an article by Douglass entitled “A Day and a Night in ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’,” which appeared in Frederick Douglass’ Paper on 4 March 1853. 3. P.C.S.’s letter to the editor appeared in the 18 March 1853 edition of Frederick Douglass’ Paper.

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4. One of Douglass’s most enduring friendships was with Henry O. Wagoner, Sr. (1816–1901). Born in Hagerstown, Maryland, to a formerly enslaved mother and a German father, Wagoner learned to read and write despite a lack of formal education. He spent most of his youth working on western Maryland farms, but fled to Ohio in 1838 for fear that his Underground Railroad activities had aroused suspicion. The following year he moved to Galena, Illinois, where he found employment as a newspaper typesetter and bill collector. He next worked for a newspaper and taught school in Chatham, Canada West, from 1843 until he relocated to Chicago in 1846 to run a profitable milling business. Wagoner met Douglass during one of the latter’s lecture tours in Illinois in the late 1840s and became an occasional correspondent for Douglass’s newspaper. Wagoner participated in abolitionist activities and aided John Brown in March 1858 by offering his mill as a hiding place for escaping Missouri slaves en route to Canada. During the Civil War, Wagoner recruited black troops for regiments in Illinois and Massachusetts. In 1865 he settled in Denver, Colorado, where he established a barbering business and quickly became a leader in the African American community. An active Republican, Wagoner campaigned for equal male suffrage when Colorado applied for statehood in the 1860s, served as deputy sheriff of Arapaho County, Colorado, between 1865 and 1875, and received an appointment as clerk of the Colorado state legislature in 1876. With years of friendship between them, Wagoner and Douglass aided each other’s adult sons. In 1866, Wagoner hosted Frederick Jr. and Lewis in Denver, teaching them typography. Eight years later Douglass returned the favor by helping secure Henry O. Wagoner, Jr., a position as consular clerk in Paris, France. The younger Wagoner died in Lyons, France, and upon the elder Wagoner’s request, Douglass looked for the grave during his 1886 European tour. Henry O. Wagoner to Douglass, 27 August 1866, 10 December 1873, 23 March 1878, 13 July, 13 October 1885, 19 August 1886, 1 September 1890, 17 August 1893, Henry O. Wagoner, Jr., to Douglass, 2 April 1874, 12 May 1877, Douglass to Lewis Douglass, 24  January 1887, General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 197–98, 700–703, 733–36, reel 3, frames 122–26, 241–43, reel 4, frames 193, 217–19, 380–81, reel 5, frames 783–84, reel 32, frames 250–51, FD Papers, DLC; NS, 18 February 1848, 24 August 1849; FDP, 11 December 1851; Denver Rocky Mountain News, 28 December 1901; William J. Simmons, Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising (1887; Chicago 1970), 679–84; Benjamin Quarles, Allies for Freedom: Blacks and John Brown (New York, 1974), 39, 59; Quintard Taylor, In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528–1990 (New York, 1998), 123. 5. In a letter to Douglass, H. O. Wagoner suggested a “North American Convention of colored men.” In an editorial in the same issue of his paper, Douglass had seconded Wagoner’s proposal for a national gathering of leading African Americans “for the purpose of seriously and solemnly considering our present state and condition, and of deliberating, as to the best course to be pursued in relation thereto.” FDP, 18 March 1853. 6. Delany negatively characterizes the National Convention of Colored Citizens, held in Cleveland, Ohio, on 6–8 September 1848. Delany had played an active role at the gathering, and Douglass had been elected its presiding officer. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 2:xxiii; Howard Holman Bell, A Survey of the Negro Convention Movement, 1830–1861 (New York, 1969), 94–98. 7. In editorial remarks immediately following this letter, Douglass disagrees with Delany’s criticisms of Harriet Beecher Stowe, encourages unity, and suggests that supporters should heed anyone who attempts to help the African American cause.

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HENRY PATRICK1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Bunker Hill, [Mass.] 4 April 1853.

Dear Douglass:— In view of the portentious crisis which stares our colored population in the face, I cannot but admire the independent and fearless spirit of our friend M. R. Delany, manifested in his letter to you of the 22d March.2 Your remarks on it are no less admirable for the prudence and wisdom exhibited. I rejoice to witness all the elements necessary to meet the threatened storm combined in our colored citizens.—Friend Delany and yourself are equally necessary to arouse the dormant energies, and develop the God-given powers of our colored brethren. A very large majority of the people in the British Colonies in America, previous to our Revolution, would have been satisfied under the British yoke, had it not been for a few such spirits as Patrick Henry,3 who chose liberty or death! 4 Yet the more cautious, who exhausted every hope of reconciliation in petitions and remonstrances to the King and Parliament, were no less instrumental in preparing the oppressed for a successful resistance. Let us all, who prefer anything which despots can inflict, rather than prove recreant to God and humanity, “stand in our lot,”5 and faithfully carry out our own convictions of duty, and abstain from censuring those who honestly differ from us in the modus opperandi.6 There are now, as formally hypocrites and tories,7 who “assume the livery of Heaven to serve the devil in.”8 Those, however, may be known by the company they keep.9 Those who respect the Divine Law, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, will uncompromisingly contend that “the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.”10 And whether the descendants of the Dutch, Irish, African, or any other people born under our government, become victims of attainder 11 or expatriation, such men should pledge themselves to each other to resist such devilism unto blood if need be. I hope to see a glorious National Convention of colored citizens who will rebuke Illinois and other States for their violation of the Federal Constitution.12 If all the guarantees of the Federal Constitution in favor of human rights,13 must be trampled in the dust, until blood shall flow from colored citizens, the cause of liberty will then be sustained by the patriots of all colors.

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HENRY PATRICK TO DOUGLASS, 4 APRIL 1853

If this time must come before our modern Whigs and Democrats will recognize the truth of the Declaration of Independence, I say let it come! The sword or the ballot-box must decide the question. HENRY PATRICK. PLSr: FDP, 15 April 1853. 1. Assumed to be a pseudonym. 2. An allusion to the letter from Martin Robinson Delany to Douglass, written on 20 March 1853 and published in the FDP on 22 March 1853. That letter is published in this volume. 3. Patrick Henry (1736–99), a Virginia patriot, lawyer, and Revolutionary statesman, attended the First Continental Congress at Philadelphia and was governor of Virginia from 1776 to 1779. Douglass paraphrases Patrick Henry’s speech at a Virginia revolutionary convention on 23 March 1775. William Wirt, The Life and Character of Patrick Henry, rev. ed. (New York, 1832); DAB, 7:554–59. 4. A paraphrase of Patrick Henry’s speech in the Virginia Convention, 23 March 1775, as recorded in William Wirt, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry, 7th ed. (New York, 1834), 141. 5. Dan. 12:13. 6. The Latin term “modus operandi” means “method of operating.” 7. North American colonists who supported the British cause during the American Revolution were branded “Tories” by their political opponents. They were named after the British political party of the era that supported the notion of God-ordained kingly authority, or “divine right.” They held a deep attachment to the Anglican Church and believed the crown and church to be the chief preservatives of the British political, religious, and social order. Mark M. Boatner III, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, 3d ed. (Mechanicsburg, Pa., 1996), 661; L. Sandy Maisel, Political Parties and Elections in the United States: An Encyclopedia, 2 vols. (New York, 1991), 2:1123–24; John Cannon, ed., The Oxford Companion to British History (Oxford, Eng., 1997), 923. 8. Robert Pollok, The Course of Time, A Poem, 7th ed., 10 vols. (London, 1828), 8:295. 9. A proverb dating to mid-sixteenth century England. Elizabeth Knowles, ed., Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 6th ed. (New York, 2004), 626. 10. Patrick quotes the first clause of article IV, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, often dubbed the “Privileges and Immunities Clause” or the “Comity Clause.” During Reconstruction, this clause was incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment. 11. An action by a legislature to condemn and punish someone for a crime without benefit of a trial. 12. During the 1850s, Illinois, Indiana, and Oregon enacted or revised so-called Black Laws and sometimes incorporated anti-immigration provisions into state constitutions. Under the terms of the Illinois statute approved in February 1853, any black or mulatto immigrant remaining in the state more than ten days with the apparent intention of taking up residence was subject to an initial fine of $50, and multiples of that amount for repeated offenses. Those African Americans unable to pay the fine would be incarcerated and sold “at public auction . . . to any person or persons who will pay said fine and costs for the shortest time; and said purchaser shall have the right to compel said negro or mulatto to work for, and serve out said time, and he shall furnish said negro or mulatto with comfortable food, clothing and lodging during said servitude.” Proceeds from fines or sales were to be equally divided between the person making the initial complaint and a special county “charity fund” established “for the express purpose of relieving the poor.” Although seldom enforced, the Illinois law remained on the books until 1865 and was formally upheld by the state supreme court. Lib., 1 April 1853; Leon F. Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790–1860 (Chicago, 1961), 70–71; Henry W. Farnam, Chapters in the History of Social Legislation in the United States to 1860 (Washington, D.C., 1938), 219–20. 13. An allusion to the Bill of Rights.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester, [N.Y.] 6 April [1853].

My dear Friend. Your note and the Land Reform proceeding came this morning—the latter too late for this week’s issue.—they Shall appear in next weeks paper.1 I have received and have accepted an invit[at]ion from Lewis Tappan Esqr. To make a Speech at the May meeting of the American and Foreign. Anti Slavery Society in New york.2 I have done this, not with out conSideration;—and having weighed every objection to it, my mind is made up. I Shall not trouble you with my reasons for doing So here—I may have to give them here after. I am now Suffering from my old bronchitis affection—but hope to be all right for the May meetings. That hundred dollars you kindly Sent came in well—Where Shall I look when that fi fty is paid in? This may be looking most too far a head. But I can-t help it— the thought will come. By the way—I have to thank you for just the most trim and gentlemanly, Suit of clothes I ever had on—am Saving them for the New york occasion.3 Ward,4 I See is to go to England—he is a Strange genius and I think one that will take well in England—after its Canada train ing. But I won-t tresspass upon your precious time Ever your devoted friend. FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

[P.S.] My friend Julia5 desires her love to you. ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. No letter from Gerrit Smith or an account of a Land Reform convention fitting this description appeared in subsequent issues of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. 2. Frederick Douglass’ Paper in its 15 April 1853 issue began carrying announcements of the forthcoming annual meetings of both the Garrisonian American Anti-Slavery Society and its rival, the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, led by Lewis Tappan, to be held in New York City on 11 May 1853. Although the latter announcement promised that the meeting would be “addressed by several distinguished speakers,” Douglass was not named. FDP, 15 April 1853. 3. Frederick Douglass attended the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society anniversary meeting at the Broadway Tabernacle in New York City on 11 May 1853. He delivered an address on the condition and prospects of black people in the United States. Minutes of the meeting were printed in the New York Tribune and reprinted in Frederick Douglass’ Paper. New York Tribune, 12 May 1853; FDP, 6 May, 27 May 1853. 4. Samuel Ringgold Ward. 5. Julia Griffiths.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO WILLIAM H. SEWARD1 Rochester[, N.Y.] 16 April [1853.]

Hon: Wm H. Seward. My dear Sir, I thank you Sincerely for your prompt and promising response to my begging note.2—I wish Sir, to make myself thouroghly acqainted with the public Labors of your life—and although I have already made Some progress in this line—I feel that there is much yet to be learned. I am even now but as a boy of fifteen, less than that Space of time has past Since I escaped from Slavery—He who helps fit me for the voyage of life, Shall not lack my gratitude—Pardon me for tress passing upon your time. I am most truly yours—With high esteem— FREDERICK DOUGLASS. ALS: William Henry Seward Papers, NRU. 1. William Henry Seward (1801–72) was a New York state senator (1830–32) and governor (1839–43) before serving as a U.S. senator (1849–61). He originally belonged to the Anti-Mason party, but became a leader of the Whig party during the 1830s and 1840s. By 1855, Seward had moved his allegiance to the Republican party. During the Compromise of 1850, he first invoked the concept of “a higher law than the Constitution” to support abolition. As the decade progressed, Seward became more outspoken against slavery, characterizing the struggle as an “irrepressible conflict” between opposing forces. In 1856 and 1860, he unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination, and instead became Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of state in 1861. Seward’s influence as secretary of state prevented European recognition of the Confederacy during the Civil War, and in 1867 he negotiated the U.S. purchase of the Alaska territory, which became known as “Seward’s Folly.” Frederic Bancroft, The Life of William H. Seward, 2 vols. (1899–1900; Gloucester, Mass., 1967); ACAB, 5:470–73; DAB, 16:615–21. 2. No specific letter from Douglass to Seward requesting funds has been located. Douglass possibly refers to a notice published in his paper on 8 April 1853, entitled “Money! Money!! Money!!!,” in which he urges delinquent subscribers to pay off their accounts. FDP, 8 April 1853.

URIAH BOSTON1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS [Poughkeepsie, N.Y. April 1853.]

Mr. F. Douglass: Sir:— If to notify parents in blazing capitals,2 as you did, not to permit their boys to learn the barbers’ trade, was not an attack on that business as a business derogatory to the interests of the colored race, and of such character as to degrade them, I know not how else you could have done so. If your read-

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ers did not understand you to say in that article, that barbers are a servile class, and the barbers’ trade of a servile character, then I will confess myself mistaken, and beg your pardon for writing to you on the subject. Such is my understanding of the matter, and I think such is the understanding of your readers. Now, sir, in opposition to this, your opinion, I know that the barbers’ business is not degrading, nor are barbers’ servile. On the contrary, they are, in every way, as intelligent and respectable as any other class of business men, and much more so than some others—Knowing this, as you ought to know also, I did not approve of what you said, and wishing to express my opinion in the matter, thinking that you would, perhaps, retract, or say something to produce a correct opinion among your readers, or, at least, so to qualify your remarks as not to reflect upon a very large class of business men among our people. But, instead of publishing my article, or sending it to me in silence, you, for some reason, severely and contemptuously rebuke and ridicule me before your readers. This I regret, much more than I should have regretted the return to me of my manuscript without notice from you; and, also, much more than I should regretted to have had your readers see that my letter was not fit for publication, by reason of my bad “chirography3 and grammar;” for neither of which would they have blamed you. This is all I have to say, and therefore close by requesting you to give place to this, and therein oblige your reader, subscriber, and well-wisher.4 Respectfully, URIAH BOSTON. PLSr: FDP, 22 April 1853. 1. Uriah Boston (1815–89) was born in Pennsylvania and later moved to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he owned and operated a successful barbershop. A strong supporter of the black press, Boston corresponded regularly with Frederick Douglass’ Paper, and as an activist, he was best known for his support for expanding black voting rights in New York State. From 1840 to 1846 he led the Dutchess County Suffrage Committee, in 1853 he participated in the black national convention and served on the New York State Council for Colored People, and in 1855 he formed the Poughkeepsie Political Suffrage Association to work for equal voting rights. Dutchess (N.Y.) Courier, 16 June 1889; C. Peter Ripley, ed., The Black Abolitionist Papers, 5 vols. (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1985–92), 4:279–80. 2. Douglass published an editorial entitled “Make Your Son’s Mechanics and Farmers, not Waiters, Porters, and Barbers,” which advised black men to work, save their money, and purchase land. According to Douglass, African Americans should avoid such service-related professions as barbering because they did not contribute to an “elevation of character and social standing.” FDP, 8 April 1853. 3. Handwriting, penmanship. 4. Uriah Boston’s letter to Douglass was published in the 22 April 1853 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO WILLIAM H. SEWARD Rochester[, N.Y.] 23 April 1853. m

Hon. W H. Seward. My very Dear Sir. Give me leave to thank you for your encouraging words, and for the valuable donation of your “Works,”1 which have just come to hand. I Shall read every Syllable in these volumes; and, Shall try to master (So far as my negro intellect is capable) the various Subjects which have there engaged your attention, thought and Study. I promise this as the best return I can now make for your great kindness in Sending me the Books. In looking on these compendious volumes, it Seems almost incredible that their author is So young.2 The labors of three Score years Seem piled up in these volumes. I thank God, My dear Sir—that you are Still young, vigorous and Strong, inSpiring hope in the hearts of the poor and the oppressed, and Striking terror in those of oppressors and tyrants. The great truths uttered by you in the hearing of the nation, Still ring in the ears of all who would Shut out the Spirit of God—from the councils of men. My Dear Sir, as a friend to the Slave with whom I am identified, I put my trust in you as far as I dare put trust in an arm of flesh. Slaveholders fear you. I will trust you, Your philosophy is not my philosophy, but you have said and done that which which removes from me all timidity in addressing you and the timidity of my people is great. Allow me to Say one word further. The political parties are much out of joint. The peace of the Democratic party is, evidently, but a patched up affair, it is, Simply, a puting new wine into old bottles.3 The Whig party has failed, and fallen to pieces.4 You, my dear Sir, have the organising power, and have the voice to command and give Shape to the cause of your country, and to the cause of human Liberty. For my part, I long—to See the day when it shall be proclaimed, from one end of this Union, to the other, that Wm H Seward is no longer a member of the old Whig party,5 but is at the head of a great party of freedom, of justice, and truth, whose business it will be to find out and to re in act the Laws of the Living God. Can a State rest upon Selfishness, upon injustice, cruelty, oppression, Slavery? No! And the Salvation of this republic can only be Secured by the utter repudiation of these abominations. Dis[e]ntangle the Republic from Slavery, and the Republic may live—link its destiny with the frightful monster, and the bolts of offended Heaven will rain down on both.

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JAMES CATLIN TO DOUGLASS, 25 MAY 1853

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May God give you Strength for the great work which is before you, and Shield from every hurtful influence. I am, dear Sir, Most Truly your grateful friend. FRED DOUGLASS. ALS: William Henry Seward Papers, NRU. 1. Probably a reference to the four-volume collection The Works of William H. Seward, edited by George E. Baker and published in New York in 1853. 2. Seward was fifty-two years of age when his Works were first published. DAB, 16: 615–21. 3. A paraphrase of parables told by Jesus in both Mark 2:22 and Matt. 9:13. 4. Weakened by the ambivalence of their 1852 presidential candidate, Winfield Scott, toward the Compromise of 1850, rising support for nativism in politics, and economic trends that diminished the appeal of traditional party programs such as the protective tariff, the Whig party suffered significant losses in voter support in the fall 1852 elections and ultimately succumbed to the sectional political controversy created in 1854 by Stephen Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act. Michael F. Holt, The Political Crisis of the 1850s (New York, 1978), 101–81. 5. Seward and most of his closest New York political allies clung to their Whig identity even after that party began to rapidly disintegrate following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the defection of many other Whigs, including Seward’s intrastate Whig rival Millard Fillmore, to the new nativist political movement nicknamed the Know-Nothings. A coalition of Know-Nothing and Whig legislators rejected Fillmore and reelected Seward to a new term in the U.S. Senate in February 1855. Seward and his followers officially merged themselves with the Republican party at a Syracuse convention in September 1855. Bancroft, Life of William H. Seward, 1:366–86; Holt, Political Crisis of the 1850s, 159.

JAMES CATLIN1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Mercer, Pa. 25 May 1853.

My Dear Frederick:— Here I am at last, in a large water cure establishment,2 with the prospect of fair success. I have scarcely seen a copy of your paper this month, so busy have I been in leaving my old home,3 and making a commencement here. But I cannot get on, even in a water cure, without my anti-slavery and temperance papers; and as yours stands first on the list, please change my address at once, and let me receive it here. How prospers our noble cause: My whole heart is with it, and I am sometimes almost resolved to devote all my time to it. A part of my time must go to it while I live and the monster wrong of slavery exists. But in seeking my own health, I have learned to restore the health of others; and so, following the opening made by our good friends, and the friends of humanity and of the right in all directions—Messrs. Robert Hanna4 and

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JAMES CATLIN TO DOUGLASS, 25 MAY 1853

Wm. M. Stephenson5 of this place, who have invested between $3000 and $4000 in a cure and its fixtures—I find myself here for one year at least “to heal the sick,”6 and wash disease and suffering from all who may be inclined to step into the life-giving element. And how sick is this world, physically as well as socially and morally! What need of physicians who shall be teachers and reformers. Humanity has been drugged with calomel and quinine,7 and dosed with rum, and cursed with slavery, and dwarfed with land monopoly, and stupified with tobacco and other narcotics, till there is but little strength of manhood left. The physician finds but little constitutional vigor, and the moral teacher but little high purpose and susceptible moral feeling with which to work. So we have to make small beginnings, slow progress, and let patience have its perfect work. Nevertheless, my brother, let us be of good cheer; for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. The Free Democracy of Mercer county held their county meeting yesterday, to elect delegates to the State Conventions and make their county nominations. The party is not dead in this State.8 It will increase. The people know there is no political or moral soundness in the principles of the old parties. They hate the Compromise measures,9 and inwardly despise the political jugglers who mouth out the lying words that they are either just or constitutional or necessary, sunken and obtuse as we are. Everybody feels and knows, each one for himself and herself, that the Fugitive Slave Act is neither just law or good morals, or decent politics, or necessary and wise legislation, and they cannot much longer stick to the parties that will stick to it, because a few thousand slave-breeders and slave-traders tell them they shall. But here I must stop. My friends are requested to address me at “Mercer, Pa.” I remain yours in every good word and work, JAMES CATLIN.

PLSr: FDP, 3 June 1853. 1. James Catlin (1824–90), physician and businessman, attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. His wife, Martha Van Rensselaer, also a physician, opened their home in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania, as a station of the Underground Railroad. Together with his brother, Henry, Catlin published the abolitionist weekly True American in Erie, Pennsylvania, from 1853 to 1861. In 1853 the Catlins were hired by the owners of the Mercer Water-Cure, Robert Hanna and William M. Stephenson. Water-Cure Journal, 13:45, 91 (February and April 1852); Mary Ellen Snodgrass, The

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WILLIAM W. CHAPMAN TO DOUGLASS, 18 JUNE 1853

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Underground Railroad: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations, 2 vols. (Armonk, N.Y., 2007–08), 1:106. 2. William M. Stephenson opened the Mercer Water-Cure at the beginning of 1853. By July of the same year, Dr. James Catlin and his wife, Martha Van Rensselaer, were managing it. Harry B. Weiss and Howard R. Kemble, The Great American Water-Cure Craze, A History of Hydropathy in the United States, (Trenton, N.J., 1967), 194. 3. Catlin had previously resided in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania. 4. Robert Hanna (1802–72) was a businessman and abolitionist. He married Mary Craig, and they built a home on Pitt and East Beaver streets in Mercer, Pennsylvania, which became a stop along the Underground Railroad. Hanna was the chairman of the Mercer County Anti-Slavery Society. Anna Pierpont Siviter, Recollections of War and Peace, 1861–1868, Charles Henry Ambler, ed. (New York, 1938), 373–74; Charles L. Blockson, The Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania (Jacksonville, N.C., 1981), 126. 5. William M. Stephenson (1808–61) was a successful lawyer in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. He was an active conductor on the Underground Railroad and helped build up the Republican party in northwestern Pennsylvania. History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, 1888), 261. 6. Luke 9:2 or 10:9. 7. These were two very common drugs in the Civil War era. Calomel was a tasteless powder mainly consisting of mercurous chloride, which was used medicinally as a cathartic. Quinine, which occurs naturally in the bark of the cinchona tree, was used as a medicine to reduce fever in malaria victims. Michael A. Flannery, Civil War Pharmacy: A History of Drugs, Drug Supply and Provision, and Therapeutics for the Union and Confederacy (New York, 2004), 143–44. 8. The Free Democratic party in Pennsylvania suffered a greater loss of electoral support in 1852 than did the Free Soil 1848 ticket in any state. Mercer County, in the northwestern portion of the state, however, was near the antislavery stronghold of Ohio’s Western Reserve, and the Free Democrats survived there until the following year’s passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act revived the slavery extension issue across the North. Frederick J. Blue, The Free Soilers: Third Party Politics, 1848–54 (Urbana, Ill., 1973), 260–61, 266. 9. Probably a reference to the effort by leaders of both major political parties to rally voters behind the package of congressional legislation known as the Compromise of 1850, which was designed to resolve the dispute over slavery’s admission to the territories gained in the Mexican War and other sectionally divisive issues, including laws that required all citizens to return runaway slaves to their masters. While support for compromise was strong in much of the North, political abolitionists, along with an increasing number of defectors from the old parties, were joining forces and forming new moderate antislavery coalitions such as the Free Soil and the Free Democratic parties. Holt, Political Crisis of the 1850s, 67–138; EAAH, 1:179–81.

WILLIAM W. CHAPMAN1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Minetto, [N.Y.] 18 June 1853.

I have perused with deep interest the “Call for a Colored Convention,” published in your paper, to be held at Rochester, the 6th of July ensuing.2 The principle and design embodied in the notice, with one exception, meet my views and approbation. I should be highly gratified to be present, and identify myself with the Convention, but for the feature of exclusiveness

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WILLIAM W. CHAPMAN TO DOUGLASS, 18 JUNE 1853

which characterizes the invitation. Perhaps I am the only person who feels embarrassed by it. I call your attention to it, from the fact that it is quite unlike your former principles, inasmuch as you have frequently complained of this element in the palefaced associations and arrangements of this country, and its deadly influence upon the colored people.—Would not the attendance and co operation of such men as Goodell, Smith, and Garrison3 have given great and thrilling interest to your deliberations? Mr. Smith has publicly acknowledged himself a colored man. And many of us are, nevertheless, assimilated to you by our complexion and sympathies; at least, the complexion of our hearts and activities place us in strong affinity to you. In my communications with mankind, in an associated or individual form, the term color has long since become obsolete. The barriers and peculiarities attached to nationality and caste must be sacrificed, ere the blessings of human liberty can be realized by all. Now, in this anticipated Convention, and in all future efforts, the colored people must set the example of equality, and establish the rules of affiliation on their proper basis and abide by them, come what will. Affectionately, &c., W. W. CHAPMAN. PLSr: FDP, 1 July 1853. 1. Born in Sherburne, New York, William W. Chapman (1807–?) resided in Minetto, Oswego County. He was active in the later incarnation of the Liberty party, led by Gerrit Smith, and occasionally contributed letters to Frederick Douglass’ Paper. William W. Chapman to Douglass, 31 May, 23 December 1854 in FDP, 9 June 1854, 4 January 1855; James McCune Smith, The Works of James McCune Smith: Black Abolitionist and Intellectual, ed. John Stauffer (New York, 2006), 134. 2. In an editorial entitled “Call for a Colored National Convention,” Douglass invited representatives to convene in Rochester for a national convention for people of color on 6 July 1853. The purpose of the convention was to “confer and deliberate upon their present condition, and upon principles and measures important to their welfare, progress and general improvement.” Interested organizations were urged to appoint and send between one and three delegates to the convention. FDP, 24 June 1853. 3. William Goodell, Gerrit Smith, and William Lloyd Garrison.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester, [N.Y.] 15 July 1853.

Hon: Gerrit Smith. My dear Sir. May you Soon recover your wonted health. The last tiding from you were encouraging. You were remembered at our Convention1 last week. We

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cannot for get you when we think of our cause and its friends. You will be pleased to learn that the Local effect2 of the convention has been excellent. The current of feeling towards Colored people has been wonderfully i[m]proved by the Convention. In truth, the talent and eloquence displayed took our opponents by Surprise. It would have warmed your heart to have Seen and heard on the occasion. I had been deeply concerned for the result of the Convention for weeks before it was held. I now feel abundantly releived. My best hopes have been Surpassed. We had one Lady delegate—Mrs. Jeffrey3 of Geneva—and Strange to Say we had the good Sense to make no fuss about it. My friend Julia4 Sends Love to yourself and Dear Mrs. Smith.5 Truly and affectionately, yours, FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

[P.S.] I hope you will like my address to the people of the United States. It is Some what tame—but perhaps it will reach Some minds—which a more Spirited document would not. F.D. ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. In July 1853, the National Convention of Colored Citizens, consisting of 140 delegates from nine states, met in Rochester, New York. The Reverend J. W. C. Pennington served as president, with Frederick Douglass, William C. Nell, and John B. Vashon sharing the office of vice president. Because of Douglass’s role in chairing the Committee on Declaration of Sentiments, he was in charge of drawing up the “Address of the Colored Convention to the People of the United States,” which outlined demands for basic rights. The convention debated the controversial issue of whether to found a labor college and sponsor the institution. The delegates established the National Council of the Colored People to support educational programs, economic cooperatives, employment opportunities, and to establish a black press. Although the council met only three times before dissolving, it was the first major attempt to organize black action for advancement. Philip S. Foner, History of Black Americans: From the Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom to the Eve of the Compromise of 1850 (Westport, Conn., 1983), 316–18; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:170–73. 2. Coverage in the Rochester Daily Advertiser was limited to general reports of the events that took place on 6 and 7 July 1853 in the “Home Matters” column. No editorials were written. The 6 July item reported on the opening of the convention, noting that the “specimens of oratorical power displayed” promised “some pretty tall speaking before the Convention adjourns.” The 7 July issue discussed the reopening of the convention and noted several of the members present, including J. McCune Smith, J. W. Pennington, Douglass, John W. Loguen, John Mercer Langston, Charles H. Reason, J. B. Vashon, and C. L. Remond. Coverage in the Daily Rochester Union was similarly brief. Efforts to open and organize the convention delegates dominated the entry published in the 6 July issue, noting that “some of the most influential colored men in the country” were present, including “Dr. J. McCune Smith, Rev. Mr. Pennington, Langston, Douglass, Vashon, Ray, Day, Remond, [and] Downing.” The 7 July issue focused on the debate over the adoption of a report prepared by the Committee on the Social Condition of the Colored Citizens. The item noted that the report was ultimately rejected and the convention recessed. Neither paper provided general or editorial coverage beyond 7 July 1853. Rochester Daily Union, 6, 7 July 1853; Rochester Daily Advertiser, 6, 7 July 1853.

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DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH, 15 JULY 1853

3. Mary Ann Jeffrey and her husband, Jason Jeffrey, a porter at the Eagle Hotel of Geneva, New York, were leading figures in that town’s African American community. Jason Jeffrey attended the 1843 National Negro Convention in Buffalo and gathered subscribers for Douglass’s North Star. Mary Ann Jeffrey served on a committee to raise funds for Henry Bibb’s periodical, the Impartial Citizen. Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 15 July 1853, Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU; “Minutes of the National Convention of Colored Citizens: Held at Buffalo, on the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th of August, 1843,” in Minutes of the Proceedings of the National Negro Conventions, 1830–1864, ed. Howard Holman Bell (New York, 1969), 19–20; FDP, 24 June 1853; Kathryn Grover, Make a Way Somehow: African-American Life in a Northern Community, 1790–1965 (Syracuse, N.Y., 1994), 221. 4. Julia Griffiths. 5. Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith.

L. DELOS MANSFIELD1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS New York, [N.Y.] 12 Aug[ust] 1853.

My Dear Douglass:— Your paper is a welcome visitor, as it comes weekly to my table; and I feel more interest in its prosperity, than I care to entertain without expressing. I regard it as the organ of your deeply-wronged and oppressed people; and as such, eminently deserving of the patronage of all who are interested in their moral, social and political elevation. I am pained at the course pursued towards you in Boston, by those whom common interests should have led to make common cause with you. I honor your independence in denying that in order to evince your gratitude toward Mr. Garrison,2 you must be a mental menial. You do well to carry out the abolition doctrines to their legitimate issues, by insisting that liberty of speech and thought, are to be held the birthright of men, equally with personal liberty. There is a want of magnanimity in the course pursued toward you by some of your old friends, that surprises me; but I will hope, that even those will award to you, ultimately, the privilege of being yourself—of being a man—at liberty to disagree with benefactors, without the charge of “ingratitude.” I was much gratified by the honorable manner in which your people acquitted themselves at your “National Convention.”3 I think it must exert a powerful influence in correcting that false and mischievous notion of the incapacity of your people for a high degree of improvement. It is plain that prejudice is giving way considerably, and that your people will steadily move forward to a position of social equality with the white race. Even in our great cotton mart there is a little prospect of the ultimate re-

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moval of that vulgar and senseless prejudice, which now excludes colored people from our cars and stages.4 A colored friend of mine, from the West Indies, an invalid, was obliged, when alone, to mount the omnibus (though scarcely possessed of sufficient strength to do so;) but when I was with him, I took him inside unmolested. I think a little effort on the part of white friends, to bring in their colored brethren to the public conveyances, would gradually overcome the prejudice which now exists. Prejudice is a plant of slow growth, and is generally eradicated by the same progress. Formerly rummies,5 and all sorts of vagabonds, had free access to the cars, while respectable colored people were excluded. I see, however, that lately one of the most respectable of our city roads has refused men who are drunk; and I hope they will soon rescind their barbarous practice of excluding persons on account of color. The influx of Chinese,6 and others from the East Indies, to attend our Great Exhibition,7 will aid, I hope, in this matter; for they are generally of quite a dark complexion. I hope, too, that European feelings, exhibited in the visitants at the Exhibition, will do something in that direction. A friend of mine, and one of the most beloved and worthy members of our church, who went as a servant in the family of one of our wealthy merchant princes, about a year since, to make the tour of Europe—writes me from Paris, that his color (he is black) is no bar to his associations there with the whites;8 and his complaint is that he is noticed too much, and he  evidently feels embarrassed to be addressed and treated as an equal. The family declare that “he receives more attentions than they do.” Oh! [W]hat miserable democrats are Americans! [A]nd what a miserable Christianity it is, too, which tolerates caste in our churches! I am happy to say, however, that by the blessing of God, New York is to have one more church (though it be of humble dimensions compared with our urban pagodas) where a free gospel is to be preached to all, without distinction of color. The Advent Mission Church 9 (of which I have the care) have erected a neat and comfortable chapel at 39 Forsyth St., where negro pews have no place, and we intend never shall. Where colored people are at home, by an acknowledged right, not by an especial patronage, sometimes quite as humiliating as actual deprecation of place. I hope sometime to hear your earnest and eloquent appeals within the walls of our chapel, in behalf of your injured race, with whom I deeply sympathize, and for whose good I am ever ready to be used.

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L. DELOS MANSFIELD TO DOUGLASS, 12 AUGUST 1853

In addition to my own and our church’s sympathy for your cause, we are laid under some obligation to make our chapel useful to the cause of the oppressed, from the fact, that Gerrit Smith, Arthur Tappan,10 Dennis Harris,11 S. P. Townsend,12 and others, have not forgotten us in their munificent and numerous contributions to the cause of humanity. Yours sincerely, L. D. MANSFIELD. PLSr: FDP, 19 August 1853. 1. Born in Rodman, New York, the Reverend Dr. L. Delos Mansfield (1821–1900) attended Oberlin College, performed missionary work in the West Indies, became the pastor of churches in California, Illinois, and New York, and acted as the principal and president of the Rockland Female Institute in Nyack, New York. Along with Douglass, he served as a representative for New York at the 1856 Radical Abolitionists’ convention in Syracuse. In 1857, while residing in Auburn, New York, Mansfield participated in activities associated with the Underground Railroad. New York Herald, 28 May 1856; Boston Recorder, 5 September 1867; San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, 9 April 1878; Chicago Inter Ocean, 9 April 1878, 9 May 1881, 15 May 1887, 13 January 1889; New York Times, 12 May 1900; William Still, The Underground Rail Road (Philadelphia, 1872), 54. 2. William Lloyd Garrison. 3. Mansfield refers to the National Convention of Colored Citizens held in Rochester, New York, on 6, 7, and 8 July 1853. FDP, 24 June 1853. 4. For much of the nineteenth century, custom and social attitudes limited blacks’ use of public transportation. As early as 1841 the Massachusetts railroad offices began using the phrase “Jim Crow” to designate passenger cars for blacks. This term and practice quickly became widespread and was codified into law in the 1890s as states began restricting transportation for blacks. Most laws focused on railroad transportation, but steamboats, stagecoaches, and street railway systems were also affected. A Philadelphia district court upheld a ruling in 1861 requiring blacks to ride on the outside of streetcars regardless of the car’s seating or standing capacity or the state of the weather. The federal government sanctioned such practices and laws in 1878 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Louisiana state statute prohibiting racial discrimination in transportation, on the grounds that the law interfered with interstate commerce. Abraham L. Davis and Barbara Luck Graham, The Supreme Court, Race, and Civil Rights (Thousand Oaks, Calif., 1995), 18, 21, 40; Foner, History of Black Americans, 200–202. 5. Drunkards. 6. Although it is impossible to determine what precisely led Mansfield to anticipate an “influx” of Asians intent upon visiting the New York Crystal Palace Exhibition (or as it was known officially, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations) in 1853, he was not alone in doing so. In 1852 the Brooklyn Circular endorsed New York’s upcoming world’s fair as a symbol of the idea that “national prejudices and national egotisms [were] being displaced by the truths of solidarity and universal brotherhood.” Emblematic of this new era, according to the Circular, was the fact that people as disparate as Turks, Russians, and Chinese would be able to “mingle [freely] in one enterprise” with English and American visitors. There is little evidence, however, that this proved to be the case. Although the fair included displays of Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian artifacts, most were taken from private collections belonging to either American or European collectors. Neither China nor most other Asian nations submitted exhibitions of their own. According to city officials, fewer than 150 Chinese resided in New York in the early 1850s. Brooklyn (N.Y.) Circular, 24 November 1852; Warren I. Cohen, East Asian Art and American Culture: A Study in International Relations (New

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York, 1992), 13, 20–21; John Kuo Wei Tchen, New York before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture, 1776–1882 (Baltimore, 1999), 74–77. 7. Inspired by London’s larger and more famous “Crystal Palace Exhibition” of 1851, the New York World’s Fair—also known as the New York Crystal Palace Exhibition—opened in mid-July 1853 with 4,854 industrial, agricultural, and art exhibits from the United States and twenty-three foreign countries. A decline in attendance and revenues prompted beleaguered stockholders to name P. T. Barnum president of the exhibition in 1854. When Barnum’s showmanship failed to revive the fair, the project was abandoned. Frank Monaghan, The New York World’s Fair 1939: “The Fairs of the Past and the Fair of Tomorrow” (New York, 1939), 14–15; James Ford Rhodes, History of the United State: From the Compromise of 1850 to the End of the Roosevelt Administration, 9 vols. (New York, 1886–1929), 1:414–16. 8. The French briefly abolished slavery in 1794 before reinstating the practice in 1802. The proclamation of the Second Republic in 1848 permanently abolished slavery, but in the early nineteenth century, African Americans living in France were rare. Those that did travel across the Atlantic were often artists, musicians, lawyers, or professors who settled in Paris. Most were members of the wealthy New Orleans elite and already spoke French. While allowed to pursue a wider range of opportunities and careers in France, blacks still faced racial prejudice. William B. Cohen, The French Encounter with Africans: White Response to Blacks, 1530–1880 (Bloomington, Ind., 1980), 181, 209; Michel Fabre, From Harlem to Paris: Black American Writers in France, 1840–1980 (Urbana, Ill., 1991), 9, 17, 27, 337; Sue Peabody, “There are No Slaves in France”: The Political Culture of Race and Slavery in the Ancien Régime (New York, 1996), 58; Patrice Higonnet, Paris: Capital of the World, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge, Mass., 2002), 339–40. 9. The Reverend Mansfield was the pastor of the Advent Mission Church located at 39 Forsyth Street in New York City. New York Times, 10 December 1853. 10. Arthur Tappan (1786–1865) began work as a dry-goods clerk in Boston, but by the age of fifty had become a prosperous silk-jobbing merchant in New York City. Believing that his wealth obligated him to be “a steward of the Lord,” Tappan gave generously of his time and money to such reform organizations as the American Bible Society, the American Tract Society, the American Home Missionary Society, and other efforts committed to rooting out moral vice of every sort, including intemperance. Oberlin College was founded largely through his financial contributions, and he made timely contributions at an early period to Garrison’s Liberator. After renouncing his membership in the American Colonization Society, Tappan devoted most of his philanthropic energies to the antislavery movement. In 1833 he helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society, but seven years later he left the organization because of tactical disagreements with the Garrisonians and helped organize the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Tappan served as the first president of both these major antislavery organizations and was an early supporter of the Liberty party. When missionary societies with which he had been affiliated failed to adhere to his antislavery principles, he cut his connection with them and, in 1846, helped establish the American Missionary Association. Tappan tried to promote schools and colleges for free blacks in the North, but local racist feeling frustrated his efforts. Lewis Tappan, The Life of Arthur Tappan (New York, 1870); Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War against Slavery (Cleveland, 1969); ACAB, 6:33; NCAB, 2:320–21; DAB, 18:298–300, 303–04. 11. Dennis Harris (c. 1806–68) was an ardent abolitionist and New York businessman. His New Congress Sugar Refinery in New York was a popular stop on the Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves. Harris was instrumental in opening 158th Street in New York City to water traffic when he built a dock and obtained a charter for steamboat service that allowed him to transport passengers. New York Times, 30 March 1868; Reginald Pelham Bolton, Washington Heights, Manhattan: It’s Eventful Past (New York, 1924), 114–15; Tom Calarco, The Underground Railroad in the Adirondack Region (Jefferson, N.C., 2004), 178.

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12. Described in the New York Times as the “sarsapharilla millionaire,” Dr. Samuel P. Townsend (1813–70) suffered a serious financial loss in 1858 after losing a suit concerning the division of corporate assets with the family of a deceased partner. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, New York, 362A; New York Daily Times, 2 February 1858.

JOHN BROWN 1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Akron, Ohio. 18 Aug[ust] 1853.

Frederick Douglass, Esq: Dear Sir : — In your paper of the 12th inst., I find a letter from J. W. Loguen2 dated August 5th.—This letter has a certain music in it that so fills my ear, that I cannot well suppress the pleasure it affords.3 I allude to this language in particular, “and especially of one who is not only a fugitive but a prisoner under the, hellish Fugitive Slave Law for loving liberty, not only for myself, but also for a brother” Jerry. For this I am with others to be tried4 in an American court on the 4th Tuesday of Sept. next, at Canandaigua. In this I glory, I can well assure you. That which so much charms me is this, “In this I glory.”5 Allow me to say (in the language of another) hereafter, that shall be my music. This with me comes up to the full measure of a man. First, he puts his shoulder to the wheel of his own liberty; next he is in earnest to help his neighbor to secure the same right; and last, though not least, he glories in the trials and sufferings he is subjected to for doing so. This is the “first ripe fruit my soul desired.[“]6 When shall I taste it again? When shall it be filled? I would a thousand times rather share with Loguen in his glorying, and his suffering too, than to receive all the honors that ever Millard Fillmore,7 Daniel Webster,8 and all other such like traitorous “lickspittles”9 could even dream of. He says again, “and now, sir, I am to be tried in a Republican Court of Justice for loving liberty for a Brother.” He says “I am glad of it.”—Could the heroes of history (or of fable) surpass that? Go then, noble spirit—go to your trial, and to suffering, too (if need be.) “The blood of the martyrs will be the seed of the church.”10 I go for agitating and agitating again in the true Loguen style. “My dear friend, I have an old grey-headed mother, and sisters, and Brothers all in slavery at this time, and as God is my judge I would much much rather to day hear of them swimming in blood and nobly contending for their rights, even at cost of their own lives, than have them remain passive slaves all the rest of their days.” “I feel ready to try titles at any time with the slaveholder, or his meaner lickspittlers of the north.” “Death is sweeter

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than slavery.” Such language coming as it does from one on whom the forty (thousand) tyrants have now got their hand, on you cannot too often repeat in your Paper. Friend Douglass I have been waiting and watching with longing eyes for many years to see some full sized colored men leaping their full length above the surface of the water and I hope some day to see Loguen, and to give him such a shake of the hand, as will make his snap. “God helps them that help themselves, as poor Richard says.”11 Yours in truth, JOHN BROWN. PLSr: FDP, 26 August 1853. 1. Born in Torrington, Connecticut, John Brown (1790–1859) grew up in Hudson, Ohio. After receiving a rudimentary education, he failed successively as a tanner, a wool dealer, and a farmer. Long a supporter of emancipation, Brown became more militant in his antislavery activities after passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. In 1855, Brown followed four of his sons to Kansas, where he became a leader of the armed opposition to the admission of the territory as a slave state. His participation in the massacre of proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek in May 1856 made him a nationally known figure. In 1857, Brown secretly began to recruit men and raise funds to establish a base in the southern Appalachian Mountains from which to raid plantations and free slaves. Brown’s plotting culminated in the unsuccessful attack by a small band on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October 1859. Captured and tried for treason under Virginia law, he was executed on 2 December 1859 and immediately became a martyr figure to many Northerners. Stephen Oates, To Purge This Land with Blood: A Biography of John Brown, 2d. ed. (New York, 1984); Richard O. Boyer, The Legend of John Brown: A Biography and a History (New York, 1973); ACAB, 1:404–07; NCAB, 2:307–08; DAB, 3:131–34. 2. Jermain Wesley Loguen (1813–72), a black abolitionist and minister, was born into slavery in Davidson County, Tennessee. Originally named Jarm Logue, he was the son of an enslaved woman and her white owner, David Logue. In 1835, after his father sold his mother and sister, Loguen chose to escape. He first fled to Upper Canada, but relocated to Rochester in 1837. He opened schools for black children in Utica and Syracuse before his ordination as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1842. Loguen originally supported the antislavery principles of William Lloyd Garrison, believing in nonpolitical action and nonviolence, but in the 1840s began to endorse political action as a means for change in the struggle against slavery. By 1844 Loguen had become a regular lecturer on the antislavery circuit, working closely with the western New York abolitionist circle that included Douglass, Samuel J. May, and Gerrit Smith. His house in Syracuse was an important stop for slaves bound for Canada on the Underground Railroad, and he devoted much time to the Syracuse Fugitive Aid Society. Fear of prosecution for his role in the rescue of the fugitive William “Jerry” McHenry led him to flee temporarily to Canada West, but he returned to Syracuse early in 1852 to resume his work on behalf of fugitives. He later recruited black troops for the Union army during the Civil War and established African Methodist Episcopal Zionist congregations in the South during Reconstruction. J[ermain] W[esley] Loguen, The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman: A Narrative of Real Life (Syracuse, N.Y., 1859), 425–33; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 67; ANB, 13:848–49. 3. Brown refers to Jermain Wesley Loguen’s letter, which was published in the 12 August 1853 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. In his letter, Loguen states that he was caught while helping the  fugitive slave “Jerry” and that he is scheduled to be tried on charges related to the Fugitive Slave Law.

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4. Although indicted, Jermain Wesley Loguen was never tried for his role in the Jerry Rescue. To avoid arrest, Loguen fled to Canada, where he remained until the following spring. Of the thirteen indictments issued in the case, only four were ever heard in court. The trials were scheduled to begin in January 1852, but were postponed to June and then to October. They were finally heard in January of the following year. The remaining indictments, including Loguen’s, were again postponed and adjourned before finally being dropped. Loguen, Narrative, 437, 442; Earl E. Sperry, The Jerry Rescue (Syracuse, N.Y., 1921), 27–28; Fergus M. Bordewich, Bound for Canaan (New York, 2005), 127, 434; EAAH, 2:298. 5. This phrase originated in Dante’s “Canzone 13,” a lyrical poem that dates to c. 1300: “You can give me what no one else can, for Love has put into your hands the power of life and death over me, and in this I glory.” K[enelm] Foster and P[atrick] Boyde, eds., Dante’s Lyric Poetry, 2 vols. (London, 1967), 1:28–29. 6. A slight misquoting of Mic. 7:1. 7. Millard Fillmore (1800–84), thirteenth president of the United States, represented the Buffalo region in the New York state legislature (1828–32) and in the U.S. House of Representatives (1833–35, 1837–43), where he generally voted with the Henry Clay wing of the Whig party. Defeated in the 1844 New York governor’s race, Fillmore secured the Whig vice presidential nomination in 1848 and assumed the presidency upon Zachary Taylor’s death in July 1850. Fillmore vigorously advocated the passage of the Compromise of 1850 and signed each of its measures into law. Denied his party’s nomination in 1852, Fillmore ran for president on the American party ticket in 1856 and supported John Bell and the Constitutional Union party in 1860. NCAB, 6:177–78; DAB, 6:380–82. 8. Daniel Webster (1782–1852) was a lawyer and statesman known for his stirring oratory. As a lawyer, he successfully argued many cases before the Supreme Court, such as the 1816 Dartmouth College case and the 1819 McCulloch v. Maryland case, earning him a reputation as a strong nationalist. During the War of 1812, Webster represented New Hampshire in Congress (1812–16). In 1827 he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, where he remained in service through most of his life. He continued to take strong nationalist positions in political debates, attacking Andrew Jackson’s 1832 veto of the Second Bank of the United States and opposing Nullification in 1832–33. Webster accepted appointment as secretary of state under William Henry Harrison and was the sole cabinet member from Harrison’s presidency to retain his office during John Tyler’s administration. In 1842 he negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty with Great Britain, establishing the modern boundary between the United States and Canada, but resigned his post a year later and returned to the Senate in 1845. In 1848 Webster made an unsuccessful bid for the Whig presidential nomination, losing to Zachary Taylor, a hero of the Mexican War. In 1850, Webster again left the Senate to act as secretary of state, this time under Millard Fillmore, placing him in a good position for the presidency, but he lost the 1852 Whig nomination to Winfield Scott. Although not an abolitionist, he opposed the extension of slavery, taking stands against the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Mexican War, and the enforcement of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. Robert V. Remini, Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time (New York, 1997), 15–21; DAB, 11:585–92; ANB, 22: 865–68. 9. A lickspittle, in common usage, was someone who exhibited the qualities of a toady, a sycophant, or a flatterer. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, ed. John Ayto (New York, 2005), 816. 10. The phrase may originate with Tertullian’s Apology, which was composed in 197 C.E. as an “open letter” to the Roman Empire objecting to the persecution of Christians. Roy Joseph Deferrari, ed., The Fathers of the Church, series 10: Tertullian, Apologetical Works and Minucius Felix Octavius (1950; Washington, D.C., 1962), 3–4, 125. 11. The expression “God helps them that help themselves” is attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac (1732–58; New York, 1980), 54.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO CHARLES SUMNER1 Rochester[, N.Y.] 2 Sept[ember] 1853.

Hon. Chas. Sumner. My dear Sir. Accept my thanks for your note of Aug 31st2 The speech3 of mr. Wakins,4 found its way into my columns. Simply as the production of a colored man. I dissent from its Spirit and its philosophy. It evinced the possession of talent by its Author—and for this it was published. I saw your Speech on [the] Militia question,5 and marked it for publication—but I am so much on the wing—so much from home—and with al—have so little order, that—The paper Containing your Speech Slipped through my fingers—and is gone.6 You will, therefore, do me a Service by Sending the Speech—, It Shall be published at once. I understand your views and feelings on the subject of peace and war exactly—and am prepared with every disposition, to do you justicefully. Mr Watkins—is a young man—a man of some promise—I should think. He is now in a School of reformers7—a School through which I have passed—a School which has many good qualities—but a School too narrow in its philosophy—and too bigoted in Spirit to do justice to any who venture to differ from it. I am at this moment assailed with more bitterness by that School than from any other quarter—I need much of your self possession and patience. I am often tempted to Strike back and I am not Sure that I will not do So at Some future time. For the present, however, I propose for myself Silence under every provocation. Especially do I wish to maintain Silence under whatever Mr Garrison8 may Say. I stand in relation to him something like that of a child to a parent. But not so in relation to any other man of the party. You will bear with me if I take this occasion to explain the cause of much ill feeling in that quarter towards me. My first offense was Starting my paper against their advice—My 2d offense—was refusing to make it the organ of their Society—My third offense the abandonment of the non voting theory. It will be news to you—when I tell you that Mr. Garrison—and Mrs Chapman9—upon the Starting of my paper10 —wrote, immediately to my friends in England—counseling the with draw ment of all support from it, on the ground that there was no need of Such a paper—and that the “Standard”11 and “Liberator”12 were quite Sufficient. They wrote in various directions predicting the failure of the paper—complimenting me as

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a speaker—decrying me as a writer—and regretting the loss of me in the lecturing field. This was the best possible way to undermine and destroy my paper. Yet the attempt failed—and ought to have failed—Not that I can boast of the power they deny me—I mean the power to write, but they might have given me a fair opportunity to try my hand without their volunteer disparagements. They might have allowed my friends to ascertain, for themselves, how far I was capable of Serving the anti Slavery Cause with my pen. But I am taking up too much of your precious time. Pardon the freedom of this note, and believe me, [Y]our Sincere and Grateful friend— FREDERICK DOUGLASS ALS: Charles Sumner Correspondence, MH-H. 1. Best remembered as the victim of a vicious attack by a congressional colleague, Charles Sumner (1811–74), U.S. senator from Massachusetts (1851–74), was dedicated to the cause of emancipation. Born in Boston, Sumner attended and then taught at Harvard College. He engaged in a semi-successful law practice until his outspoken opposition to the United States war against Mexico thrust him into politics. He was a founder of the Free Soil Party in Massachusetts, and a coalition of Free Soilers and Democrats elected him to the U.S. Senate in 1850. Immediately embroiling himself in the heated topic of slavery, Sumner became an outspoken advocate of emancipation and repeatedly refuted compromises proposed by Henry Clay and others. After one particularly scathing speech in the Senate against slavery, Sumner was brutally beaten with a cane by a Southern representative, which necessitated years of recovery before Sumner was able to reenter the Senate. Sumner’s lasting legacy was to turn popular sentiment in the North toward emancipation, and after the Civil War, he continued to fight for the individual freedoms of blacks until his sudden death in 1874. Frederick J. Blue, Charles Sumner and the Conscience of the North (Arlington Heights, Ill., 1994); David Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War (New York, 1960); DAB, 18:208–14. 2. This letter has not survived. 3. Perhaps Douglass alludes to the report by Watkins of a meeting of Boston blacks on 2 August 1853, published in Frederick Douglass’ Paper on 12 August 1853. Both Douglass and Watkins spoke at the meeting. FDP, 12 August 1853. 4. William James Watkins (c. 1826–?), a freeborn African American, was a machinist during his younger years, but in 1865 he became one of the first African American lawyers. Originally a Garrisonian, Watkins broke with that organization and later joined Douglass as a political abolitionist. In 1853 he moved to Rochester and served as associate editor of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Watkins was also active in the Underground Railroad and supported migration to Haiti as a means of hastening abolition. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 2:442; Walter M. Merrill and Louis Ruchames, eds., The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, 6 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1971–81), 4:428n; Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, 139–40, 243–47; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 243, 275–76; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 178, 187–89, 230; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:155–56n. 5. In June 1853 delegates assembled in Boston to write a new constitution for Massachusetts. Since most states maintained militias in the nineteenth century, the composition and duties of the Massachusetts Militia were on the list of revisions. Delegate Henry Wilson moved to include a provision in the new constitution to make “no distinction of color or race” in the composition of state militias. Delegate Charles Sumner rose and spoke in favor of the new provision, but held reservations.

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So that the provision would comply with the U.S. Constitution and its requirements for a national militia, Sumner suggested that Wilson amend his motion and replace any mention of “militia” in the new state constitution with “military companies.” Sumner concluded, “Massachusetts may proudly declare that in her own volunteer military companies, marshaled under her own local laws, there shall be no distinction of color or race.” Charles Sumner, Recent Speeches and Addresses by Charles Sumner, (Boston, 1856), 191–202. 6. Douglass is in error. He had already published the remarks by Sumner on the militia provisions in the new Massachusetts state constitution in Frederick Douglass’ Paper, 15 July 1853. 7. Douglass alludes to his prior connections with the Garrisonian, or “old organization,” abolitionists. Douglass broke with his original antislavery mentors in the early 1850s when he embraced political abolitionism and repudiated the Garrisonian tenet that the U.S. Constitution was a proslavery document. Watkins made a similar change in his abolitionist allegiances shortly thereafter. Martin, Mind of Frederick Douglass, 36–39; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:155–56. 8. William Lloyd Garrison. 9. Maria Weston Chapman (1806–85), known as “Garrison’s lieutenant,” was a forceful writer and editor of several antislavery periodicals. Daughter of wealthy Bostonians who educated her and her sisters in Europe, she briefly supervised one of the nation’s first female high schools. After marrying the merchant Henry Grafton Chapman in 1830, she became active in the abolitionist movement. When her husband died in 1842, abolition became the consuming work of her life. Chapman was a driving force in both the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and the American Anti-Slavery Society. Although she shunned public speaking, she served on committees and organized bazaars and other fund-raising events for the Garrisonians. She edited the annual report of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, and she assisted in editing both the Liberator and the National AntiSlavery Standard. Clare Taylor, Women of the Anti-Slavery Movement: The Weston Sisters (New York, 1995); Catherine Clinton, “Maria Weston Chapman,” in Portraits of American Women, comp. G. J. Barker-Benfield and Catherine Clinton, 2 vols. (New York, 1991), 1:147–67; Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease, Bound with Them in Chains: A Biographical History of the Antislavery Movement (Westport, Conn., 1972), 28–59; Edward T. James et al., eds., Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, 3 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), 1:324–25; DAB, 4:19. 10. An estrangement between Douglass and Boston Garrisonians had been growing since the former returned from Great Britain in early 1847 with enough money donated from abolitionists there to begin his own newspaper. Garrison, Edmund Quincy, and other Boston abolitionists believed that they had persuaded Douglass to abandon this plan in early summer. A warm public reception during a western tour later that year, however, convinced Douglass to begin his own newspaper in Rochester, a considerable distance from the Garrisonians’ East Coast bases of strength. In a letter to his wife, Helen, in October 1847, Garrison branded Douglass’s decision to launch the North Star “impulsive, inconsiderate, and highly inconsistent with his earlier decision in Boston against doing so,” and predicted that the British abolitionists would be offended by “such a strange somerset” (i.e., somersault). Only a few weeks after this letter to Sumner, the feud between Douglass and the Garrisonians became more public and acrimonious, and the two parties were never reconciled. Benjamin Quarles, Frederick Douglass (Washington, D.C., 1948), 58, 78; Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 3:532–33. 11. The American Anti-Slavery Society published the New York–based National Anti-Slavery Standard as the society’s official publication from 1840 to 1870. Merton L. Dillon, The Abolitionists: The Growth of a Dissenting Minority (DeKalb, Ill., 1974), 213. 12. William Lloyd Garrison published the weekly Boston newspaper the Liberator from 1831 to 1865. The paper advocated women’s rights, temperance, pacifism, and a variety of other reforms in addition to immediate emancipation. Thomas, Liberator, 127–28, 436; DAB, 7:168–72.

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JAMES MONROE WHITFIELD1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS —Buffalo, N.Y. 15 Nov[ember] 1853.

Mr. Editor, Nothing can be more unpleasant than to differ in opinion upon important points, from those for whom we entertain the highest respect and the kindest affection; but when, by such persons, our position is perseveringly misunderstood, it is no more than just that we should claim the privilege of correcting such misrepresentations; and if in such case, the much in little, (multum in parvo)2 principle should be apparently neglected, it may be readily accounted for upon the ground that it is easier to make or deny charges than it is to substantiate or refute them. That you would not have been satisfied with such a summary disposition of your article as you made with the call, is evident from the peculiar umbrage3 given to you by the only portion of my letter in which such a disposition was made of any part of your article, and that was the portion where you announced it to be, in your opinion, uncalled for, unwise, unfortunate, and premature; and I, in answer, quoted the well matured opinion of such men as Wm. Webb,4 J. J. G. Bias,5 M. M. Clark,6 M. R. Delany,7 Wm Lambert,8 A. R Green,9 H. Bibb,10 J. T. Holley,11 W. C. Munroe,12 A. M. Summer,13 and others, supposing them to be worth as much on one side of a question, with which they are equally conversant, as those of F. Douglass and W. J. Watkins14 are on the other. In other words, that such men are capable of thinking and acting for themselves, especially upon questions vitally connected with their own interests, and to which their attention has been earnestly devoted for years. In your reply to my letter, you, rather disingenuously, I think, try to convey the impression that you are attacked for presuming to differ in opinion from these gentlemen, when you very well know that the letter was called forth by your severe attack upon those gentlemen for presuming to differ in opinion from you.15 But you are unwilling to admit that you made many “severe and unjust strictures upon the emigration movement, or commented upon it at length.” You must certainly be aware that in an article like the one in question, consisting of bare assertion, unsustained by facts or arguments, “the multum in parvo principle” may be carried to perfection, and without being lengthy, you can be both severe and unjust. We may differ in relation to what number shall be denominated many, but I will arrange the charges in regular order, and ask you to substantiate them, or do not blame us for characterizing them as severe and unjust.

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1. It is uncalled for. 2. Unwise. 3. Unfortunate. 4. Premature. 5. Will please our enemies 6. It is ungentlemanly. 7 Opposed in spirit and in purpose to the Rochester Convention. 8 Narrow and illiberal. 9. Cowardly. In my former letter I remarked that probably the opponents of emigration did not desire anything like a fair discussion of the question, but would endeavor, to excite prejudice beforehand, by raising the cry of colonization, expatriation, &c.; and the result shows that my expectations were well founded, for you inform your readers that “ ‘Tis colonization after all arrayed in the baptismal robes of emigration.” It matters but little to us what name you give us, so long as you do not misrepresent our position. You speak of my calling the condition of the colored people in this country hopeless, and draw the inference that I “do not believe that the two races can live, and move, and have their being together in this country;” I would ask you to carefully look over my letter again, and see if there is anything in it to justify such remarks. What are the fundamental points laid down in that letter [illegible] the basis of any discussion on the subject? 1st. That the mass of the colored people in this country must ever remain here, and never can by any possibility be brought to emigrate en masse; and that, therefore, the stereotyped arguments on the practicability, or impracticability, of en masse emigration, are a tissue of nonsense on both sides, and unworthy a moment’s consideration. 2nd, That the tendency of political events is towards the formation of a great nation, or family of nations, occupying the tropical regions of this continent and its islands, in which the black is to be the predominant race, at least in numbers; and that true policy requires that it should be rendered predominant politically, as well as numerically. 3rd, That the reflex influence of such a power, with the increased activity which its reaction will excite in the colored people of this country, will be the only thing sufficiently powerful to remove the existing prejudice, unless the bleaching theory should prevail in practice, and the Negro race be absorbed, and its identity lost in that of the Caucasian. A consummation which our bitterest enemies, however much they may oppose it in theory, are striving with all their might to reduce to practice, and which every friend of liberty and morality should endeavor to prevent. It must be evident to every one, that the brotherhood and equality of mankind cannot be vindicated by a process, which leaves an oppressed and degraded class at the mercy of the brutal lust of their oppressors, until by an unlimited system of concubinage, steadily pursued for ages, the differences of race and color are lost, and the heterogeneous mass becomes moulded into a homogeneous people—nor by one race

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occupying everywhere a secondary and dependant position, while the other occupies a primary and independent one—but full and fair equality can be looked for, only through the existence of national organizations of the different races, each occupying the same manly, independent, self|governing position. Then, and not until then, can amalgamation, or social intercourse, take place without disgrace to either party; but in the present condition of the races, all such amalgamation, or social intercourse, must be conducted in such a manner as to be shameful and humiliating in the utmost degree, to the proscribed class. Yet we have men among us, who, on general subjects, evince sufficient intelligence and self-respect, men that act as leaders of the people, who when colored conventions are called, to labor for the rights which have been wrested from us, or colored institutions are proposed, for the purpose of enabling colored youth to obtain some of the facilities for instruction so unjustly withheld from them, while so liberally awarded to the whites—condemn such conventions and institutions as being proscriptive, not for excluding white men from equal participation in their privileges, but for not giving a special invitation to the class who have cast us out from among them with contempt, and would hardly shake hands with us with a pair of tongs. With just as much reason might the beggar in his wretched hovel be accused of proscription, who should sit down to his meagre repast without sending a special invitation to the wealthy banker who would kick him out of doors if he attempted to enter his premises to share it with him. You say that “colonizationists are resolved to drive us from the country, and care but very little where we go. That they don’t dread so much our emigration to the West Indies, or Central and South America, or the Canadas, as our proximity to those of our brethren who are in bonds;” and declare your intention to remain here where God has placed you. Did you really mean what you wrote then? I think not. Let us examine and see. God placed you in Maryland,16 right by the side of your “brethren in bonds,” where you could remember them as being bound with them in the most literal sense. Why did you not remain in that proximity instead of going to Massachusetts and New York? Was it not because in spite of that proximity you found you could not help yourselves, much less your “brethren in bonds;” and by removing to a free State you could do more to elevate yourselves and improve your own condition, and as a necessary consequence to benefit your brethren also? If such be the case, why should you censure us for following out the same logical deductions a step farther, and drawing the conclusion that we can exercise a greater influ-

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ence for bettering the condition of ourselves, and our enslaved brethren by moving into a free nation than we can by remaining in a slaveholding one; especially when our proximity to our brethren in bonds will be no wise diminished thereby; for if either Canada, the West Indies or Central America, be chosen, particularly the two latter, we shall be at least as near to the mass of our “brethren in bonds” as you will be in Rochester. Our enemies are not so ignorant as not to see that the existence of an independent community of negroes upon their southern frontier, is a dangerous example to be held out to their slaves; hence their threats of going to war if necessary to prevent the abolition of slavery in Cuba—their machinations to foment discord in and prevent the growth and prosperity of Hayti17— and their systematic attempts to spread erroneous impressions relative to the efforts of emancipation in the British and French islands. They also see that the surest way of keeping the negroes down is to prevent their concentration, as much as possible, when they might learn to know and respect each other, and become acquainted with their own strength and resources, and keep them “scattered and peeled,” “meted out and trodden down”18 in their midst, constrained to engage in the lowest and most menial occupations, and by the pressure of circumstances around them deprived of the power of acting with energy and efficiency or unitedly upon any subject; and to turn the course of those who may be disposed to emigrate towards Africa where it will be impossible for them to exert the same influence upon slavery here, that they would if located in the West India islands, or the adjacent parts of the continent. In accordance with this policy we see that they are ready to go to war or at lest to threaten it, for the purpose of preventing the abolition of slavery in Cuba19 which would secure negro ascendancy there, and at the same time are willing to pay $100,000,000,20 for the purpose of admitting Cuba into the Union, where the whole power of this great confederacy can be wielded to crush the black, and keep him forever in a state of servile dependence upon the white. It is rather amusing to see the course pursued by the enemies of this movement; public meetings and individuals have expressed their opinion in sorrow, or in anger, according to the mood of the different persons; yet not one of them have ventured to attack any of the positions laid down by us, but each erects his man of straw, names him emigration movement, and fires away at him with all his might. Mr. David Jenkins21 of Columbus, Ohio, in a letter to the Aliened American 22 works himself up into a perfect frenzy; and in language similar to that of the New York Herald,23 when stirring up the ruffians of that city to mob anti-slavery meetings, calls on

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the people of Cleveland not to suffer the Convention to be held there.24 He may rest assured that the Convention25 will be held. A public meeting also held at Columbus, over which the same gentleman presided, informs us that it “no longer sees us as friends, but inveterate enemies and haters of the cause we once advocated,” and invokes “shame and indignation” upon us. The answer to these brethren is that in whatever light they may see us, we shall continue to be, as we have been heretofore, the staunch friends of every thing in our judgement calculated to promote the elevation of our race, and the uncompromising enemies of every thing which, in our opinion, tends to degrade it. Many of the signers of that call, have entertained for years the same opinion of the policy of emigration which they now advocate. The writer of this article at least, (and I may say the same of several others,) has entertained the same opinion from boyhood, and time has but served to strengthen his convictions. The first article I ever wrote for publication, was as Chairman of a Committee appointed by a meeting of the colored citizens of Cleveland, held in the winter of 1838–9 to prepare an address on the subject of emigration, recommending a concentration upon the borders of the United States, having particular reference to California. That address was adopted, nearly or quite, unanimously by the meeting, and published in some of the papers; and was assailed on all sides with the fiercest animosity. I have lived to see men who ridiculed the idea of going to California, to build up the country, and be possessors and owners of the soil, the makers of its laws, and controllers of its destiny; after waiting until white men have gone in and possessed the soil, and made laws to degrade the negro below the level of the brute, while welcoming the men of every other race and nation—after all this, you can see these same men flocking in crowds to California, to perform the menial services of white men, and no warning voice is heard from any of our mentors, probably because they are satisfied with that state of things, as one to which they are accustomed. To see the white independent, the black dependent; the white filling the high, the black the low positions in society; the white making and executing the laws, the black not allowed to testify in a court of justice; in short the white the master, the black the servant. If such a course as this is pursued, what stronger proof could be desired by our enemies in support of their favorite argument, that the negro is incapable of self- government, and aspires no higher than to be a servant to the whites. You say that your “trust is not in an arm of flesh, but in Him who maketh the clouds His chariot, and rides upon the wings of the wind; that

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He is just, and His justice shall not sleep forever;” and express your belief that “He will yet declare concerning us, as of His oppressed people of old, I have seen, I have seen, the afflictions of my people, and am come down to deliver them” Did you mean to carry out the parallel to its full extent, and intimate that He will deliver us “as He did His oppressed people of old,” by bringing us out in a body, “with a high hand, and with an outstretched arm?” If so, you are greater emigrationists than I am. I too have implicit faith in the justice of the same Almighty Being, and that faith is none the less strong because I believe that in the natural world, He works by natural means, and uses arms of flesh to work out His own Omniscient purposes, or to use your own words, in another column of the same paper, that He helps those who help themselves. To call upon the Lord to do that for us which we should perform ourselves, is but a solemn mockery, too much akin to the hypocritical cant of the pious knaves who defend slavery, with all its train of hellish abominations, as a Heaven-ordained institution, and traffic in the bodies and souls of men for the glory of God. What we have to do then, is, to put our own hands to the plow, assured that if we do our share of the work, God will not fail to perform His; remembering that “who would be free themselves must strike the blow;”26 “and work out their own salvation.”27 Respectfully Yours, J. M. WHITFIELD PLSr: FDP, 25 November 1853. 1. James Monroe Whitfield (1822–71), barber and poet, was born in New Hampshire. During the winter of 1838–39, the Young Men’s Union Society of Cleveland appointed sixteen-year-old Whitfield to deliver an address on the subject of emigration. He urged that blacks establish separate settlements in the United States or on its borders. By the mid-1850s, he had become a major spokesman for black emigration. After he moved to Buffalo, New York, in 1841, Whitfield worked as a barber and wrote poetry. Several of his poems had already been published in the North Star when Douglass visited Whitfield in Buffalo in late June 1850. Recounting their visit, Douglass lamented, “That talents so commanding, gifts so rare, poetic powers so distinguished, should be tied to the handle of a razor and buried in the precincts of a barber’s shop, and that he who possesses them should be consigned, by the malignant arrangements of society, to occupy a position so menial, is painfully disheartening.” Whitfield was a delegate to the black convention in Rochester in 1853. He endorsed and attended the 1854 emigration convention in Cleveland, which commissioned him to investigate Central America as a site for prospective black settlements. Convinced that “full and fair equality [could] be looked for, only through the existence of national organizations of the different races,” Whitfield hoped that the emigration of black Americans would contribute to the emergence of a powerful and independent black nation in the American hemisphere. Before leaving Buffalo around 1859, Whitfield published a volume of poetry, America, and Other Poems (Buffalo, 1853), which he dedicated to Martin R. Delany. Later poems appeared in the Liberator, the San Francisco Pacific Appeal, and the San Francisco Elevator. After the Civil War, Whitfield’s principal residence seems to have been in San Francisco, though he also lived in Portland, Oregon, and in Idaho. Between 1864 and 1869

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he was Masonic Grand Master of California. FDP, 25 November 1853; Salem (Ohio) Anti-Slavery Bugle, 24 August 1850; Martin R. Delany, The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered (1852; New York, 1968), 132; Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, 137–40; Joan R. Sherman, “James Monroe Whitfield, Poet and Emigrationist: A Voice of Protest and Despair,” JNH, 57:169–76 (April 1972). 2. The phrase “multum in parvo” translates to “much information condensed into few words or into a small compass.” Whitfield disagrees with Douglass on the subject of emigration and appears to suggest that the issue warrants a lengthier discussion. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 941. 3. Whitfield submitted for publication a notice entitled “Call for a National Emigration Convention of Colored Men” to be held in Cleveland, Ohio on 24–26 August 1854. Douglass printed the notice in the 26 August 1853 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Douglass, who was opposed to emigration, also published an editorial notice in the same issue, suggesting that the convention was “uncalled for, unwise, unfortunate, and premature.” 4. William Webb (1812–68), a free black, was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, but spent his youth and young adulthood in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. An ordained African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) clergyman in Carlisle, Webb supervised the Young Men’s Debating Society, organized a black savings company, and worked as a subscription agent for the Colored American. Webb represented Carlisle at the black state conventions of 1841 and 1848. Moving to Pittsburgh in the early 1850s, Webb opened a grocery store and became a subscription agent for Mary Ann Shadd’s Provincial Freeman. Webb was a strong supporter of black emigration and worked with Martin R. Delany to organize the National Emigration Convention in 1854 in Cleveland. Webb moved to Detroit in 1858, where he again supported himself by running a grocery store. In Detroit, he assisted in helping fugitive slaves and participated in the Refugee Home Society affairs. Webb hosted a meeting in his home between John Brown and local black leaders in an attempt to generate support for Brown’s insurrectionary plans. Webb later helped found Detroit’s John Brown League. After the Civil War, Webb cofounded the Michigan Freedmen’s Aid Society. His posthumous autobiography, The History of William Webb, was published in 1873. Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:162. 5. An early African American physician, James J. Gould Bias (?–1864) attended the Eclectic Medical College of Philadelphia in 1851 and 1852. An advocate of temperance and popular education, as well as a leading elder of the A.M.E. Church, Bias supported abolitionist activities in Philadelphia. 1848 Mail Book of the NS, 163, FD Papers Project, InIU; NS, 5 January 1849; Theophilus Gould Steward, Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry: From 1864 to 1914 (Philadelphia, 1921), 20. 6. The Revered Molson M. Clark (or Clarke) (c. 1794–1874), born to free parents in Delaware, began school in Philadelphia and studied at Jefferson College in Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, but apparently never graduated. Upon leaving college, Clark was hired as a teacher by black residents of Buffalo, New York, but left after eighteen months to establish schools for blacks in Ohio, where he helped circulate petitions requesting the state legislature to repeal discriminatory education laws. Clark occasionally attended meetings of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. He joined the Presbyterian Church in 1828 and the A.M.E. Church in 1840. He preached for two years on the Hillsboro Circuit before being ordained an elder. At the A.M.E. General Conference of 1844, Clark was named the ‘church’s general book agent, but he resigned in 1845 to accept a pastorate in Washington, D.C. In 1846, he and the Reverend Daniel A. Payne of Bethel Church, Baltimore, were selected to represent the A.M.E. Church at the Evangelical Alliance meeting in London. Payne returned to Baltimore after his ship was disabled by a storm; Clark managed to reach London barely a day before the meeting adjourned. Alliance leaders appended fund-raising appeals on behalf of his church to their antislavery lectures. Although denounced by Douglass, Henry C. Wright, and a number of Scottish Garrisonians, Clark received enthusiastic support and cooperation from more moderate clergymen and abolitionists, forged close ties with many Free Church leaders, and visited Edinburgh in May 1847 at the invitation of Robert S. Candlish. Before leaving the British Isles, Clark published Tract on American Slavery (Bradford, Eng., 1847), which denounced Northern race prejudice and advocated emancipa-

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tion. From 1852 to 1854, Clark served as editor of the newly founded Christian Recorder, and in 1856 he backed an unsuccessful attempt to strengthen the A.M.E. Church’s official stand against slavery. Later active in Missouri, Clark died in Alton, Illinois. Richard Thurrow to William Lloyd Garrison, 17 June 1847, in Lib., 9 July 1847; Aberdeen (Scot.) Banner, 30 October 1846; San Francisco Elevator, 31 October 1874; Daniel A. Payne, History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (1891; New York, 1969), 130, 145, 162, 167, 172, 190–92, 197–203, 274–76, 278–79, 315–16, 335–45; idem, Recollections of Seventy Years (Nashville, Tenn., 1888), 82–91; Charles Spencer Smith, A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church . . . From 1856 to 1922 (Philadelphia, 1922), 341, 413, 428–29, 464, 495–96, 525, 539–45; Charles H. Wesley, “The Negro in the Organization of Abolition,” Phylon, 2:234 (Autumn 1941). 7. Martin Robinson Delany. 8. William Lambert (1815–90) was a prominent Michigan abolitionist and a leader in the Detroit black community. He was a well-to-do tailor who died with an estate valued at $70,000. Active in the Underground Railroad, he helped escaped slaves cross Lake Erie to Canada. Lambert was a founding member of the Colored Vigilant Committee, a group of Michigan African Americans who petitioned the state government for greater African American freedoms and civil rights. Katherine Du Pre Lumpkin, “ ‘The General Plan Was Freedom’: A Negro Secret Order on the Underground Railroad,” Phylon, 28:63–77 (Spring 1967). 9. Augustus R. Green (?–1878) was born in Virginia to free black parents. After his family settled in Pennsylvania, Green received a basic education and apprenticed as a blacksmith. He joined the A.M.E. Church in 1841 and unsuccessfully attempted to establish an A.M.E manual labor school outside Columbus, Ohio. In 1848, Green became the editor of an A.M.E publication, the Christian Herald. During the 1850s, he worked in favor of black immigration to Canada and was a leading delegate to the 1854 and 1856 National Emigration Conventions. Despite personal opposition to the separation of African Americans in Canada from the A.M.E. Church, he attended the British Methodist Episcopal Church’s founding convention in 1856. Moving to Windsor, Canada, in 1860, Green joined the B.M.E. Church. Attempting to strengthen the black Canadian press, Green published the True Royalist and Weekly Intelligencer, but it failed after only ten issues in 1860–61. In the latter year, Green challenged the B.M.E. leadership and was expelled from the denomination. After his expulsion, he presided as bishop of the Independent Methodist Episcopal Church, a splinter denomination composed of B.M.E. dissidents. Green rejoined the A.M.E. after moving to Washington, D.C. in the late ‘1860s. He died in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he had been assigned an A.M.E. pastorate, while providing medical assistance during a yellow fever epidemic. Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 2:495–96. 10. Henry Bibb. 11. Born free in Washington, D.C., James Theodore Holly (1829–1911) was a missionary and bishop who strongly supported black emigration. Holly married Charlotte Ann Gordon in 1851, and together they had five children. During the time he was coeditor of the Canadian-based newspaper Voice of the Fugitive, he argued that black emigration was the only solution to slavery, and worked for Henry Bibb’s Refugee Home Society. In 1854 he served as a delegate to the fi rst National Emigration Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Holly abandoned his Roman Catholic upbringing and converted to the Protestant Episcopal Church, becoming a deacon in 1855 and a priest the following year. He then immigrated to Haiti with hopes of encouraging other African Americans to follow him and to join the Episcopal Church. He was the cofounder of the Convocation of the Protestant Episcopal Society for Promoting the Extension of the Work among Colored People, a movement that actively supported black emigration and missions for the Episcopal Church. In 1857, Holly published Vindication of the Capacity of the Negro Race for Self Government and Civilized Progress. In 1874, he became the first African American to be consecrated bishop of the Episcopal Church at Grace Church in New York City, and later served as priest of the Orthodox Apostolic Church of Haiti. The Haitian population of his church never exceeded more than one thousand. Until his death, in Port-au-Prince, he maintained

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his belief that emigration was only solution to the problems created by slavery in the United States. EAACH, 1293; DANB, 319–20. 12. Born in Ohio, the Reverend William Charles Munroe (c. 1834–?) was a black minister in Detroit, Michigan. In 1847, he attended the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York as part of the delegation from the Diocese of Michigan. Convention records indicate that Munroe was a deacon who officiated for a black congregation in Detroit. At the denomination’s 1853 convention, he was listed as the rector of St. Matthew’s Church located on Fort Street in Detroit. Munroe served as a delegate at the National Convention of Colored People held in Rochester in July 1853, and was appointed to the National Council. A supporter of the emigration of free African Americans, Munroe was elected president at the National Emigration Convention held in Cleveland, Ohio, on 24 August 1854. The 138 delegates “adopted a platform favorable to the segregation of the colored race” by emigration from the United States “to some other country on the Western Continent.” Munroe was appointed chair of John Brown’s Constitutional Convention held in Chatham, Ontario, on 8 May 1858, and served as a missionary in Haiti. 1860 U.S. Census, Michigan, Shiawassee County, 858; James H. Wellings, Directory of the City of Detroit and Register of Michigan, for the Year 1846 (Detroit, 1846), 123; FDP, 15 July, 23 November 1853, 8 September 1854; Daily Cleveland Herald, 25 August 1854; James Theodore Holly, A Vindication of the Capacity of the Negro Race for Self-Government, and Civilized Progress, as Demonstrated by Historical Events of the Haytian Revolution (New Haven, Conn., 1857), 3; Proceedings of the . . . Protestant Episcopal Church . . . in the City of New-York, from October 6th, to October 28th . . . 1847 (New York, 1847), 266; Proceedings of the . . . Protestant Episcopal Church . . . in the City of New York, from October 5th, to October 26th . . . 1853 (Philadelphia, 1854), 442; Proceedings of the National Emigration Convention of Colored People, Held at Cleveland, Ohio . . . 24th, 25th and 26th of August, 1854 (Pittsburgh, 1854), 6; Silas Farmer, History of Detroit and Wayne County and Early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present (New York, 1890), 591–92; Richard J. Hinton, “John Brown and His Men,” Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, 27:695 (January–June 1889); Philip S. Foner and Robert J. Branham, eds., Lift Every Voice: African American Oratory, 1787–1900 (Tuscaloosa, 1998), 288. 13. Alphonso M. Sumner was the editor of the Cincinnati Disenfranchised American. Formerly of Tennessee, Sumner was a free black barber who helped organize the first school for Nashville’s blacks. After being accused of aiding fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad in 1836, Sumner fled to Cincinnati, where he founded the Disenfranchised American, Cincinnati’s first black newspaper. Sumner played a leading role in the 1843 black state convention held in Columbus and was a delegate to the 1843 National Negro Convention in Buffalo. Little information about Sumner’s newspaper has survived, other than that a committee of Cincinnati blacks served as its publisher, and a mob of whites destroyed its press during Cincinnati’s 1841 race riots. Sumner published the paper until 1863, when the Cincinnati Colored Citizen succeeded it. Bobby L. Lovett, The African-American History of Nashville, Tennessee, 1780–1930: Elites and Dilemmas (Fayetteville, Ark., 1999), 34–35; Armistead S. Pride and Clint C. Wilson, Jr., A History of the Black Press (Washington, D.C., 1997), 62; Phillip S. Foner and George E. Walker, Proceedings of the Black State Conventions, 1840–1865, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1979–80), 2:306–21. 14. William James Watkins. 15. Whitfield refers to the National Convention of Colored Men that was held at Corinthian Hall on 6 through 8 July 1853 in Rochester. Frederick Douglass printed a pamphlet of the convention’s proceedings. Interested readers could purchase a copy at the offices of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. FDP, 23 September 1853; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 2:xxxiii. 16. Douglass’s grandmother Betsy Bailey raised him on a farm owned by their master, Aaron Anthony, along the banks of the Tuckahoe Creek near Hillsborough, Talbot County, Maryland. Tuckahoe Creek is a tributary of the Choptank River, which forms part of the eastern boundary of Talbot County. Tuckahoe is an Algonquin term for “root” or “mushroom.” Dickson J. Preston and Norman Harrington, Talbot County: A History (Centreville, Md., 1983), 140, 191, 256; Paul Wilstach, Tidewater Maryland (Indianapolis, Ind., 1931), 104–05; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 3, 9–10.

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17. Southern concerns over the possibility that slavery might end in the Caribbean—and the explosive impact that event might have on their own slaves—dated back to the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution in the 1790s. Indeed, Southern fears of a Haitian-type uprising ran so deep that is was not until 1862, during the Civil War, that the United States officially recognized Haiti’s independence. Nonetheless, American merchants conducted trade with Haiti, but only on terms most beneficial to their own interests. As a result, while the United States provided most of Haiti’s imports in the early nineteenth century, very little was purchased in return. The trade imbalance that followed, along with its ongoing diplomatic isolation, ensured that both Haiti’s economy and its people would struggle for survival for decades. Herbert S. Klein, African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean (New York, 1986), 90–92; Michel-Rolph Trouillot, “Haiti’s Nightmare and the Lessons of History,” in Haiti: Dangerous Crossroads, ed. North American Congress on Latin America (Boston, 1995), 123. 18. Isa. 18:7. 19. Southern fears regarding slavery in Cuba arose initially out of concern over British efforts in the 1840s to extract an agreement from Spain that would allow a mixed Spanish-British commission to take a census of all slaves illegally introduced into Cuba since 1820, when the two European powers had agreed to halt the Atlantic slave trade. Slaves so classified were to be freed. Since that category represented the bulk of Cuba’s slaves, however, such a treaty would in effect have emancipated most of the island’s enslaved population. Although the treaty was never ratified, the fear that Spain might eventually agree to a similar proposal in the future aroused the interest of proslavery forces in the United States. Following a failed attempt by the United States to purchase Cuba from Spain in 1848, a series of U.S.-based invasions of Cuba were attempted between 1849 and 1851. Led by Venezuelan-born Narciso López and supported by both Southerners and expansionists alike, but lacking the support of either the government of the United States or the people of Cuba, all such efforts failed. Although it is unknowable whether Cuba would have been annexed by the United States had one of these invasions proved successful, it is certain that the fate of Cuba remained an object of keen interest in the United States long after the Civil War and the end of slavery in both nations. Robert E. May, The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire, 1854–1861 (Gainesville, Fla., 2002), 22–76, 163–89; David M. Pletcher, The Diplomacy of Annexation: Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican War (Columbia, Mo., 1973), 571–75. 20. Fearing that the British were preparing to seize Cuba as security for interest on Spanish bonds held in England, the Polk administration in June 1848 authorized its minister to Spain, Romulus M. Saunders, to approach that government’s minister of foreign affairs. Saunders informed the Spanish authorities that although the U.S. government would “never permit Cuba to pass into the hands of any European Power . . . whilst the Island remained a possession of Spain, the U.S. would in no way interfere with it.” But Saunders was also to “stipulate” that the United States was “willing to purchase the Island if it would be agreeable to Spain to cede [it] for a pecuniary consideration.” The amount proffered by the Polk administration was $100 million, which was to be paid in installments over a period of years. The Spanish government, however, rebuffed the offer. Once it became clear that neither Great Britain nor any other foreign power was going to acquire Cuba, the matter was allowed to quietly drop. Eugene Irving McCormac, James K. Polk: A Political Biography to the End of a Career, 1845–1849 (1922; Newton, Conn., 1995); Milo Milton Quaife, ed., The Diary of James K. Polk during His Presidency, 1845 to 1849 (Chicago, 1910), 492–93; May, The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire, 23. 21. David Jenkins (c. 1816–?) was a black abolitionist from Columbus, Ohio. Born in Virginia and educated at Oberlin College, Jenkins was described by Martin R. Delany as a highly skilled craftsman: “[He] received by contract, the painting, glazing, and papering of some of the public buildings of the State, in autumn 1847. He is much respected in the capital city of his state, being extensively patronized, having on contract, the great ‘Neill House,’ and many of the largest gentlemen’s residences in the city and neighborhood, to keep in finish. Mr. Jenkins is a very useful man and member of society.” Interested in the elevation of black people in Ohio, Jenkins organized a debating society in Columbus and was active in the Masonic Lodge and in the temperance and abolition

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movements. He organized the first state convention for blacks in Ohio in 1844, and was elected vice president and appointed to the central committee during Ohio’s State Colored Convention held in Cleveland on 11 September 1852. Jenkins was a delegate from Ohio at the Colored National Convention held in Rochester in July 1853, and was appointed to its finance committee. During the Civil War, he served as a recruiting agent at Camp Delaware. Jenkins was elected vice president of the Equal Rights League Convention held on 21 September 1865 in Cleveland and was appointed sergeant at arms for the 1867 State Convention of Colored People in Columbus. 1870 U.S. Census, Ohio, Franklin County, 55; FDP, 15 September 1843, 1 October 1852, 20 May, 15 July 1853; Lib., 21 July 1865; Daily Cleveland Herald, 25 July 1863, 21 September 1865; Ripley (Ohio) Bee, 10 July 1867; New York Age, 16 January 1892; Ohio State Journal, 25 February 1870; Delany, Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People, 118; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:73. 22. The Aliened American was published and edited by William Howard Day in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1853 to 1854. It was created at the National Emigration Convention as a rival to Frederick Douglass’ Paper. The paper, which served as the official mouthpiece of both the Ohio State AntiSlavery Society and the emigration movement, met with much criticism and ceased publication when it failed to obtain adequate funding. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds., African American Lives (New York, 2004), 219; Todd Mealy, Aliened American: A Biography of William Howard Day, 2 vols. (Baltimore, 2010), 1:204–05, 209, 224; Levine, Politics of Representative Identity, 97; Rhodes, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, 76, 114. 23. Founded in 1835, the New York Herald was owned and edited by James Gordon Bennett. In 1850 the newspaper editorially supported the Whig party, but had a reputation for balanced reporting of news events. Richard Kluger and Phyllis Kluger, The Paper: The Life and Death of the “New York Herald Tribune” (New York, 1986), 44–46, 63–64. 24. No issue of the Aliened American with Jenkins’s statement has survived. 25. At the time J. M. Whitfield penned his letter to Douglass, plans were being made to hold the National Emigration Convention in Cleveland. The event eventually took place on 24–26 August 1854, with William C. Munroe presiding. Proceedings of the convention were later published. Proceedings of the National Emigration Convention of Colored People, 1854, 9; FDP, 18 November 1853. 26. Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1818), canto 2, stanza 76. George Gordon Lord Byron, The Complete Poetical Works of Lord Byron, ed. Jerome J. McGann and Barry Weller, 7 vols. (New York, 1980–93), 2:105. 27. Phil. 2:12.

MARTIN ROBINSON DELANY TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Pittsburgh, [Pa.] 22 Nov[ember] 1853.

Frederick Douglass, Esq. :— According to the note of explanation some time since received from you,1 I am satisfied to exonerate you from any design at disparagement, in the publication of the private note from me in connection with the first issue of the Call for a National Emigration Convention.2 This I should have, in justice to you, published sooner, but that you were absent from home some time after I received your note; and the Editor3 of the Aliened American will please do me the favor to publish so much of my note as pertains to this explanation

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In your paper of Nov. 18th, No. 48, Vol. 6, in remarking upon my note to Mr. John Jones,4 of Illinois, among other things you say: “The reader, to understand the injustice of this letter, should bear in mind that Mr. Jones has never written one word for our columns, in any manner reflecting upon M. R. Delany.” In your paper of October 28th,5 No. 25, I also find the following: “We copy from the Chicago Daily Tribune the resolutions on Colonization, submitted by the Chairman of the Committee, John Jones, and adopted by the Convention.” After coupling my name with the odious enemies of our race, Colonizationists, by a preceding resolution on that subject, then comes the resolution “reflecting upon M. R. Delany:” “Resolved, That we are opposed to the Call for a National Emigration Convention, as put forth by M. R. Delany; and we discover in it a spirit of disunion, which, if encouraged, will prove fatal to our hopes and aspirations as a people in this country.” The italics are my own. I know of no other logical meaning to apply to the term spirit, when used in such a connection, than design; this is its true meaning, and nothing else. How then comes Mr. Douglass to attempt to exonerate Mr. Jones from reflecting on me, by the evasion that he “had never written one word for his columns, in any manner reflecting upon M. R. Delany.” If not written for your columns, they were written and reported by Mr. Jones, and copied into your columns; and you either meant something or nothing by publishing them, before you had published any other item of the proceedings of that body. You call it dictatorial, because a man will not permit himself, designedly, to be misrepresented. Perhaps you, and those who think with you, may misrepresent others as you think proper, and no one dare to question your right to do so. If this be so, please omit me in the general conclusion. I thank you for permitting my note to appear in your columns, humbly endeavoring to avoid the charge of “dictation.” All I ask is not to be misrepresented. I more than ask it—I demand it, as I will not as I never have done, intentionally misrepresented any person. Yours for God and humanity, M. R. DELANY. PLSr: FDP, 2 December 1853. 1. This communication from Douglass to Martin R. Delany has not survived. 2. The National Emigration Convention of Colored People, led by the African American nationalist Martin R. Delany, was held at the Congregational Church in Cleveland, Ohio, on 24–26 August 1854. Over one hundred delegates, including twenty-four women, met to discuss the practicality of

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emigration. Only those promoting emigration were allowed to participate, and a representative of the opposition, John Malvin, was denied the opportunity to speak. The National Board of Commissioners was formed to compete with Douglass’s National Council and to formulate a plan to assist blacks with emigration. As a temporary solution, the board recommended buying land in Canada, but eventually wanted to enable blacks to relocate to the West Indies or to South and Central America. Proceedings of the National Emigration Convention of Colored People, 1854, 5, 7, 21, 28, 30, 37, 43; Levine, Politics of Representative Identity, 97; David D. Van Tassel and John J. Grabowski, eds., The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (Bloomington, Ind., 1996), 732. 3. William Howard Day. 4. John Jones (1816–79), often referred to by contemporaries and the press as the “most prominent colored citizen of Chicago,” was the freeborn son of a free mulatto mother and a German named Bromfield. A native of Greene County, North Carolina, Jones was later apprenticed to a Tennessee tailor. Jones worked until he could save $100, then moved in 1841 to Alton, Illinois, and married Mary Richardson, whom he had met in Tennessee. In 1845 the couple moved to Chicago, where Jones taught himself to read and write and where he set up a tailor shop that catered primarily to whites. A successful businessman, Jones owned property worth an estimated $85,000 before Chicago’s Great Fire of 1871. He lectured throughout Illinois, stressing economic success and social integration as fundamental goals for black advancement. He was vice president of the 1853 Colored National Convention held in Rochester, New York, and participated in the Illinois Colored Convention of 1856. Jones’s speaking took on added fervor in 1853 when he fought laws discouraging black migration to Illinois, and again in 1864 when he led the successful fight for the repeal of Black Laws. Jones’s home was a way station for the Underground Railroad and a meeting place and guest home for fellow abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass and John Brown. Lib., 18 May 1860; Chicago Tribune, 12 March 1875, 22 May 1879; Allen H. Spear, Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto, 1890– 1920 (Chicago, 1967), 6, 55, 77, 107, 111; Harold F. Gosnell, Negro Politicians: The Rise of Negro Politics in Chicago (1935; Chicago, 1967), 81–82, 111; Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy, They Seek a City (Garden City, N.Y., 1945), 28–36; DANB, 366–67. 5. Antiemigration resolutions adopted at the Illinois Colored State Convention were published by John Jones, chair of the committee, in the 28 October 1853 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. In a letter to Douglass, published in the 18 November 1853 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Delany took issue with the resolution, suggesting that Jones and his committee had impugned Delany’s character and his motives. Douglass followed the publication of Delany’s letter with a brief response: “Well; this is decidedly one of the most querulous, dictatorial, uncharitable, hasty, and unprovoked assaults upon a worthy man which it has been our fortune or misfortune to meet with. The reader, to understand the injustice of this letter, should bear in mind that Mr. Jones has never written one word for our columns, in any manner reflecting upon M. R. Delany.” FDP, 28 October, 18 November 1853.

CHARLOTTE K——1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Pittsburgh, Pa. 26 Nov[ember] 1853.

Mr. Editor :— Oh, Mr. Editor, such times as I’ve seen about my letter! ([P]ut this into a sly corner, do.) [B]ut I can’t tell all. I have just sent my husband after a piece of roast pig, you know; and must hurry before he comes back. I haven’t time to tell you how we came to this place, nor why; but Pittsburgh is a smoky city,2 and contains a number of people to match. Such public

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meetings, such speaking—did you ever hear the deep bars of Mr. Woodson?3 The grand talk of Mr. Vashon,4 the boisterous Delany,5 the cool, calm, sensible John Peck.6 No, sir, you have not; if you would see the smoke blaze, you must come to Pittsburgh. Here the Macgregor’s foot7 is on his native heath. How they did pitch into the Rochester Convention!8 I mean Woodson, Delany and Vashon;9 the first, with his massive presence, rolled up his sleeves, and, knife in hand, “went in” at the constitution, poor thing— reminding one of a great big cook, with huge carver, cutting up a poor little reed bird.—Well, they wrestled with the people to get them set against all your grand doings. (what did you do to Woodson and Vashon?) [A]nd were getting along pretty slick when the tickets arrived from Philadelphia, containing both their names as candidates for the State Council.  Then, Presto! Whew! John Zuille10 never saw one J. Smith turn a corner quicker nor sharper than these two old fogies flapped right round, calling upon the people to vote for them! “How can we,” said one, bewildered, “Alleghanian,11 you told us to have nothing to do with it! They were both badly scratched.” Then, you see—but here comes my dear man with the roast pig’s head. Yours, CHARLOTTE K——.

P. S.—Address me, care of Fairfax C. Wilson,12 Pittsburgh, Pa. PLSr: FDP, 26 November 1853. 1. Charlotte K—— was a pseudonymous correspondent to Frederick Douglass’s Paper; her true identity is unknown. Little is known about this person other than that she corresponded from Pittsburgh. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., foreword to The Works of James McCune Smith: Black Intellectual and Abolitionist, ed. John Stauffer (New York, 2006), xxx; Christopher L. Webber, American to the Backbone: The Life of James W. C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists (New York, 2011), 357; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:226n. 2. As early as the 1850s, Pittsburgh was home to a high concentration of heavy industries such as ironworks, foundries, and cotton mills, which together produced a great deal of air pollution. This earned it the nickname the “Smoky City.” Edward K. Muller and Joel A. Tarr, “The Interaction of Natural and Built Environments in the Pittsburgh Landscape,” in Devastation and Renewal: An Environmental History of Pittsburgh and Its Region, ed. Joel A. Tarr (Pittsburgh, 2003), 16; Joseph L. Scarpaci and Kevin J. Patrick, eds., Pittsburgh and the Appalachians: Cultural and Natural Resources in a Postindustrial Age (Pittsburgh, 2006), 81. 3. Lewis Woodson (1806–78), a black nationalist and abolitionist, was born in Greenbriar County, Virginia. During the War of 1812, he served in the U.S. Navy as a cabin boy. After moving to Ohio in 1820, Woodson taught in black schools in Chillicothe, Columbus, and Gainesville. While teaching, he founded the African Education and Benevolent Society to help support black children

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who were prevented by state law from attending public schools. He also aided the Underground Railroad, and once went to Kentucky to rescue a fugitive slave who had been kidnapped in Ohio. In 1831, Woodson moved to Pittsburgh, where he taught school, worked as a barber, and earned extra income by lecturing on physiology and hygiene. In 1832 he cofounded the Pittsburgh African Educational Society with John B. Vashon. Under the pseudonym “Augustine,” he wrote to the Colored American in the 1830s, espousing moral reform and black nationalism. Having been ordained by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1828, Woodson ministered at a Pittsburgh A.M.E. church for nearly three decades. He organized Pittsburgh’s first black temperance society in 1834, was a trustee of Wilberforce University, and a manager of the abolitionist Union Missionary Society. He participated in the black national convention movement in the 1830s and attended the black state convention of Pennsylvania in 1841. During the 1850s, Woodson was a strong a proponent of the National Council of the Colored People. Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 3:259–60. 4. John Boyer Vashon (?–1853) operated a barbershop and bathhouse in Pittsburgh. He joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and served on its board of managers in the 1830s. Vashon attended several National Negro Conventions, including the 1853 Rochester gathering that launched the National Council of Colored Men. Douglass frequently visited Vashon’s home while touring the Midwest and eulogized him as “one of the most consistent advocates of the slave’s freedom, and of the colored man’s elevation, who has yet arisen among our proscribed race.” FDP, 20 August 1852, 15 July 1853, 6 January, 8 September 1854; Salem [Ohio] Anti-Slavery Bugle, 7 January 1854; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 20–33, 81, 108, 200; R. J. M. Blackett, “ . . . ‘Freedom, or the Martyr’s Grave’: Black Pittsburgh’s Aid to the Fugitive Slave,” Western Pennsylvania History, 61:117–34 (April 1978). 5. Martin Robinson Delany. 6. John Peck (?–1885), agent for the Liberator, Emancipator, Weekly Advocate, and Colored American, was a self-employed barber in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, who later worked as a clothier, restaurateur, and wigmaker in Pittsburgh. After 1847, Peck is also identified as a minister. He presided at the State Convention of Colored Freemen in Pennsylvania in 1841 and attended nearly every National Negro Convention held between 1831 and 1864. The Rochester convention of 1853 named him an original delegate to the National Council. From 1849 until 1854, Peck sat on the board of trustees of the Allegheny Institute, a school designed to train black teachers and ministers. After 1857 he briefly supported emigration as a solution to the problems faced by black Americans. Peck secured a place on the executive committee of the Church Anti-Slavery Society of Pittsburgh in 1860 and became vice president of the National Equal Rights League in 1864. George H. Thurston, Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny Cities, . . . for 1865–‘66 (Pittsburgh, 1865), 281; New York Weekly Advocate, 7 January 1837; New York Colored American, 4 March 1837; NS, 25 August 1848; FDP, 27 January, 28 July, 1, 8 September 1854, 30 March 1855; New York Principia, 11 February 1860; Cleveland Gazette, 5 December 1885; Proceedings of the Colored National Convention, Held in Rochester, July 6th, 7th and 8th, 1853 (Rochester, 1853), 6, 46; Proceedings of the National Convention of Colored Men, Held in the City of Syracuse, N.Y., October 4, 5, 6, and 7, 1864 (Syracuse, N.Y., 1864), 29; Ullman, Martin R. Delany, 18, 31, 41–47; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 20, 26, 33, 110, 231. 7. The phrase is taken from Sir Walter Scott’s Rob Roy (1817): “Speak out, sir, and do not Maister or Campbell me—my foot is on my native heath, and my name is MacGregor!” Walter Scott, Rob Roy (London, 1966), 323. 8. On 6–8 July 1853, the National Convention of Colored Men met in Rochester, New York. More than one hundred delegates from several Northern states were present. Frederick Douglass was chair of the Committee on the Declaration of Sentiments, and he coauthored and read “Address of the Colored National Convention to the United States,” which stated the case for full citizenship for black Americans. FDP, 15, 22 July, 5 August 1853. 9. Although Lewis Woodson and John B. Vashon attended the National Convention of Colored Men in Rochester, neither was selected for membership on the National Council of the Colored People created by that body, which may have caused them to feel slighted. FDP, 15, 22 July 1853.

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10. John J. Zuille (1814–94) was a black printer and teacher who served as a leader in New York’s African American community. Born in Bermuda, he settled in New York City in the 1830s. After moving to New York, he worked for the Colored American. In 1830, Zuille attended the first National Negro Convention in Philadelphia as a delegate from New York. In the 1840s, Zuille taught at Colored Public School No. 2. During the early 1850s he opened a successful printing business. From the time he settled in New York until the abolition of slavery, Zuille actively worked to gain equal rights for African Americans by supporting state conventions and facilitating petition drives. He served prominently in several important African American organizations, including the New York Political Association, the Phoenix Society, the United Anti-Slavery Society, and the African Society for Mutual Relief (as secretary). In the 1850s, Zuille was chairman of the Committee of Thirteen, a group of New York black civic leaders who worked against the Fugitive Slave Laws, colonization, and racial discrimination. He suffered property loss in the 1863 New York City draft riots, and in the aftermath he moved his family to Hartford, Connecticut. Zuille worked as a cashier at the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Bank’s New York City branch from 1866 to 1874. Webber, American to the Backbone, 357; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 3:337–38nn; Daniel Perlman, “Organizations of the Free Negro in New York City, 1800–1860,” JNH, 56:188 (July 1971). 11. Pittsburgh is located at the edge of the Allegheny Mountains. The Alleghenies extend from north-central Pennsylvania into southwestern Virginia and form a section of the Appalachian Mountains. Scarpaci and Patrick, Pittsburgh and the Appalachians, 1; Leon E. Seltzer, ed., The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World (1952; New York, 1970), 46. 12. In all probability this was Fairfax C. Milton (c. 1843–?). A barber, Milton was listed as a member of John Boyer Vashon’s household in the 1850 Census. Between 1856–57 and 1868–69 he appears in Pittsburgh’s City Directories (at least once as Fairfax C. Millin). After 1869, however, he disappears from that city’s records. 1850 U.S. Census, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, 32; George H. Thurston, Directory of Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Birmingham . . . for 1856–1857 (Pittsburgh, 1856), 41; George H. Thurston, Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities 1868/1869 (Pittsburgh, 1868), 265.

W. L. CRANDAL1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Syracuse, [N.Y.] 10 Dec[ember]1853.

Frederick Douglass :— I thank you, in the name of Freedom, for the counterblast in your paper of to-day,2 to the outrageous calumnies, detractions, and wholly unchristian attacks on you in the Liberator,3 Anti-Slavery Standard,4 and Pennsylvania Freeman.5 From the outset, I knew they had mistaken their mission; that they were not raised up of God or the Devil to break down Frederick Douglass; and for the very good reason,[]that, in these latter days, the weaker are not anointed to break down the stronger. Now, as to the absurd non-resistant, non-voting notions of these people, I have neither objection nor criticism; it is a matter for them; but as to their infernal attacks on you, I have something to say. The decencies of our half-civilization, are to be observed, even towards those who do not belong to the “Superior Class”

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of our charity-loving, kind, and merciful American Society. Yes, Mr. Garrison;6 you must understand, that when your “non-resistant” pen, can trace the lines on the hearth stone, for matter to point your calumnies against one you hate, every decent man in Christendom, has an interest in what you say. And, for shame! [T]o thus assault a member of a down-trodden race, who, in the same breath, you declare: are not capable of perceiving the “demands,” or of understanding the “philosophy of the operation” that is to take the hands of cowardly villains from off their throats! Your article of to-day, will endear you to thousands; for they know there is noble work for you, with them, to do. Self-respect demanded it. Again you have the thanks of your friend. W. L. CRANDAL. PLSr: FDP, 16 December 1853. 1. W. L. Crandall was superintendent of the Onondaga County schools in 1850. He also reported on the trial of Henry Allen, a sheriff tried for arresting a fugitive slave. In the 1840s he had been one of the publishers of the Onondaga Standard. Syracuse Daily Journal, 30 May 1851; Edward Smith, A History of the Schools of Syracuse from Its Early Settlement to January 1, 1893 (Syracuse, N.Y., 1893), 59; J. H. French, Gazetteer of the State of New York (Syracuse, N.Y., 1860), 475. 2. Articles from the Liberator, the National Anti-Slavery Standard, the Pennsylvania Freeman, and the Anti-Slavery Bugle were reprinted in the 9 December 1853 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper under the heading “Spirit of the Garrisonians.” All were critical of Douglass, accusing him of withdrawing from the Garrisonians because of changes in his political opinion about slavery and the Constitution; of making false accusations against Wendell Phillips, Edmund Quincy, Robert Purvis, C. Lenox Remond, and William L. Nell; of transferring his allegiance to political abolitionists such as Gerrit Smith, William Goodell, and Samuel R. Ward; and of treachery and public displays of hostility toward Garrison and his friends. Douglass was also censured for his endorsement of accusations of religious infidelity made against Henry C. Wright, Parker Pillsbury, and Stephen S. Foster. Douglass responded to these criticisms in the same issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. In a lengthy editorial entitled “The Liberator, A. S. Standard, Penn. Freeman, A. S. Bugle—William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass; or A Review of Anti-Slavery Relations,” Douglass accused his critics of forming a conspiracy to discredit him. Douglass asserted that he was not ungrateful to his Garrisonian mentors. Rather, he had experienced a reversal of opinion that was not popular among his former associates. Douglass denied accusations that he had political ambitions, and assured his readers that he was not attempting to take over the antislavery movement and its funds. In general, Douglass suggested that the Garrisonians were responsible for escalating the controversy. FDP, 9 December 1853. 3. William Lloyd Garrison published the weekly Boston newspaper the Liberator from 1831 to 1865. The paper advocated women’s rights, temperance, pacifism, and a variety of other reforms in addition to immediate emancipation. Thomas, Liberator, 127–28, 436; DAB, 7:168–72. 4. The American Anti-Slavery Society published the New York–based National Anti-Slavery Standard as the society’s official publication from 1840 to 1870. Dillon, The Abolitionists, 213. 5. A weekly abolitionist newspaper published in Philadelphia between 1836 and 1854, the Pennsylvania Freeman was the official organ of the Eastern Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. Early editors included Benjamin Lundy and John Greenleaf Whittier; later editors included Charles C. Burleigh, James Miller McKim, Mary Grew, Oliver Johnson, and Cyrus M. Burleigh. The journal advocated Garrisonian reforms, but was more moderate in its editorial style, in keeping with the views of the Quaker-dominated membership of the organization. John W. Blassingame, Mae G. Henderson,

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and Jessica M. Dunn, eds., Antislavery Newspapers and Periodicals, 5 vols. (Boston, 1980–84), 3:57–59; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 3:391–92n. 6. William Lloyd Garrison.

JOHN BOYER VASHON TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Pittsburgh, [Pa.] 17 Dec[ember] 1853.

Frederick Douglass, Esq:— My Dear Tried Friend:— Your paper of the 9th inst. came to hand a few days ago, and was welcomed to my table as it always is; and when I read the first page, and saw that some of the strongest arms in the Anti-Slavery cause were flinging darts at your head, I began to fear and tremble with dread, for I verily thought, that bold, unceasing and untiring friend (Frederick Douglass) of the poor bleeding Slave, would have been crushed, and that the usefulness of him, who is the praise of our whole people, was lost forever,—but after I turned to the second and third pages, I there saw that you had fended off every blow, that had been thrown at you by the “Superior Class,” and that not a hair of your head was hurt. I regret very much to see our Anti Slavery friends wasting their powers upon each other; and if it is possible, I regret much more when such feuds are carried into the household, and make a savage attack upon an innocent female,1 whose humanity, caused her to leave native country, home and friends, to help the Anti-Slavery cause, and do something for her poor bleeding sisters, who are whipped, outraged and sold by the “Superior Class.” I have the pleasure of being acquainted with that Lady,[]and have conversed with her on the subject of American Slavery, and I am satisfied, that she is a philanthropist of the right stamp. Now, Friend Douglass, I hope you never will leave the AntiSlavery field so long as there is one slave whose throat is under the heel of one of the members of the “Superior Class.” Yours for Liberty, J. B. VASHON.2 PLSr: FDP, 17 December 1853. 1. Julia Griffiths. 2. Douglass added the following comment immediately after Vashon’s letter: “We publish the above letter as the testimony of a true and courageous friend of his people—assured that in so doing, we are only performing an act which, were Mr. Vashon living, he would entirely approve.—It is right that this letter should go on record as a part of the antislavery history of the times, for it shows that the writer of it stood on the side of his people, even when they were attacked by his venerated friends.—Editor.”

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 23 Dec[ember] 1853.

Hon. Gerrit Smith. My dear Sir, Please Send me your Speech on the president’s1 meSSage.2 I Shall publiSh the telegraphic report of it from the Tribune3—with the debate to which it gave rise—and the various accounts of the whole as they come to hand. You have been Spared to Say one great word in the ear of this nation. Blest may that word be! May it bring forth fruit—thirty—Sixty, and an hundred fold. Let me have the Speech in full. My readers love the Slave, love the truth, and love Gerrit Smith, the friend of both. You have realized the fondest hopes of your friends. May God preServe you and Strengthen you. Manfully and CourageouSly, you have met the crises. In Congress, as in Peterboro’4 you have planted yourSelf upon the immutable laws of justice. Now Let the winds blow, the rains decend, and the floods come, the house Shall Stand. A line from you to my paper will do me good—but I don-t exact it. Please make my love to your Dear family—and Believe Me—Always Most faithfully yours F. DOUGLASS. ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Franklin Pierce (1804–69), a Democrat, became the fourteenth president (1853–57) of the United States. Pierce graduated from Bowdoin College (1824); sat in the New Hampshire legislature (1829–32), where he twice served as speaker; and represented his native state in the House of Representatives (1833–37) and the Senate (1837–42). In 1842 he resumed his law practice in Concord, New Hampshire, and became a leading organizer of the state Democratic party machine. Strongly favoring the annexation of Texas, Pierce volunteered in 1846 for military duty in the war with Mexico, and was appointed a brigadier general the next year. Pierce won the heavily contested Democratic party nomination in 1852 and went on to easily defeat the Whig candidate, Winfield Scott, for the presidency. Pierce’s support for passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and for attempts to annex Cuba were widely blamed for inflaming sectional tensions. The Democrats rejected Pierce and nominated James Buchanan for president in 1856. Roy Franklin Nichols, Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills (Philadelphia, 1931); ACAB, 5:7–12; NCAB, 4:145–46; DAB, 14:576–80. 2. On 5 December 1853, President Pierce delivered his first annual message in Washington, D.C., addressing such issues as taxes, the armed forces, railroads, and states’ rights. In addition, Pierce discussed the matter of Martin Koszta, a Hungarian who came to the United States in 1850 with the intention of becoming a citizen. Koszta was seized and detained by the Austrians while traveling abroad in 1853. When the U.S. consul failed to get him released, Commander Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham of the U.S. Navy began to work for Koszta’s freedom. Koszta was then put in the custody of the French consul general until an agreement could be reached. He was soon released and returned to the United States. The emperor of Austria, unsatisfied with how the affair was handled, demanded

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the U.S. government surrender Koszta. In his message, Pierce stated his support for the conduct of the U.S. officials, claiming their actions were legally justifiable and had his full approval. It was on this international affair that Gerrit Smith delivered his speech before Congress on 20 December 1853. New York Tribune, 21 December 1853; A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 20 vols. (New York, 1897), 6:2740–59. 3. Pierce’s address was printed in the New York Tribune, 21 December 1853. 4. Gerrit Smith resided in Peterboro, New York, a town founded in 1806 by his father. In July 1834 he was present when a local antislavery organization was formed, but he did not join, because of his membership in the American Colonization Society. Smith soon changed his allegiance to the abolitionist cause. After an antislavery meeting was violently disrupted in nearby Utica in October 1835, Smith chaired a meeting of the newly formed New York Anti-Slavery Society in Peterboro during which he delivered an impassioned speech arguing that free speech and criticism must be protected and were necessary to end slavery. He was nominated to Congress against his own wishes and elected by a plurality in 1852. He made his antislavery stance known a mere eight days after taking office by publicly criticizing the administration for allowing slavery to continue. His longest congressional speech was against the Kansas-Nebraska Act in April 1854. He went on to sign “The Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Congress to the People of the United States,” which served to consolidate opposition to the bill. Refusing to participate in a Whig party plan to stop the bill by absenting himself and denying a quorum, Smith nevertheless spoke adamantly against it and cast his vote against the measure, which ultimately became law. Smith chose not to complete his term of office and resigned on 7 August 1854, returning to Peterboro to continue his reform efforts. Frothingham, Gerrit Smith, 164–65, 212, 219–20, 226; Sernett, North Star Country, 152; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 4, 64, 117, 122, 321–30.

RICHARD BAXTER FOSTER1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Richmond, Iowa. 28 Dec[ember] 1853[.]

Mr. Douglass: Dear Sir:— I wish to take your paper for the coming year, but never having seen a copy of it, do not know the terms. If you will enroll my name on the list of your subscribers, and send me the paper, as soon as I receive a copy I will forward the subscription price.2 I have three special reasons for desiring to take your paper. 1. The fact that a colored man can edit an able paper is standing demonstration of the falsity of the principles by which the spirit of caste (on which slavery is founded) seeks to justify itself. I wish to know the nature and real extent of that fact; and I wish, in my degree, to give encouragement and sympathy to the man who rises above such dispiriting influences as crush the colored race of this land. 2. I wish to take a paper that is committed to the anti-slavery construction of the Constitution. For myself, I could stand on Garrison’s platform3 with reference to that point, sooner than I could on Mann’s;4 but I like Goodell’s5 better than either. I know that

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as Garrison says, if you are right “the courts have all been wrong—the legislative assemblies all wrong—the decisions of the constitutional expounders all wrong—the people, with out distinction of party, for more than sixty years, all wrong in regard to the design and spirit of the Federal Constitution”6 —yet I agree with you and disagree with all these for three reasons: 1. I must make the Constitution anti-slavery, or refuse to vote, and so lose the voice of a citizen, which I wish to make heard against the usurpations of the slave power. 2. The words of the instrument—the history of its formation—the fundamental principles of all law and all government—and the Declaration of Independence, equally binding with the Constitution—all allow, all compel me to do so. I think the Free Democracy of the West—I mean Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin—are ready to take your ground. 3. My third reason for wishing your paper, is, that I want to be thoroughly informed of Gerrit Smith’s course in Congress. I am looking to see his course constitute as important an era in our national legislation as J. Q. Adams7 did. Pardon me for writing at such length. I thought, as you probably have few subscribers in Iowa, you might like to know with what motives a stranger, at such a distance sent for your paper. Yours truly, R. B. FOSTER. PLSr: FDP, 13 January 1854. 1. Probably Richard Baxter Foster (1826–1901), an 1851 Dartmouth graduate who began teaching in Iowa in 1851. He was a supporter of the free-state cause in Kansas in 1856 and enlisted as a private in an Iowa regiment in the Civil War, but accepted a lieutenant’s commission of the 62nd Colored Infantry Regiment in 1863. After the war, he served as principal of the Lincoln Institute for black students in Jefferson City, Missouri, and as a Methodist minister. George T. Chapman, Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College (Cambridge, Mass., 1867), 388; N[athan] F. Carter, The Native Ministry of New Hampshire (Concord, N.H., 1906), 322–23. 2. Douglass listed his subscription rates weekly on the second page of Frederick Douglass’ Paper as two dollars for a single copy per month sent for one year. 3. In May 1844, the American Anti-Slavery Society, which had been under the control of followers of William Lloyd Garrison since 1840, adopted a resolution calling for Northern secession from the Union as a means of depriving the institution of slavery of outside support. Garrison and his followers believed that the Constitution was an immoral covenant that allowed compromise with the South, thus perpetuating slavery. Garrisonians found their disunionist position an extremely effective propaganda device with which to castigate Northerners for their complicity with slavery, which, they claimed, stemmed from cooperation with the South under what they deemed the “proslavery” U.S. Constitution. Stanley Harrold, American Abolitionists (New York, 2001), 35–36; Walter M. Merrill, Against Wind and Tide: A Biography of William Lloyd Garrison (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 204–06; Perry, Radical Abolitionism, 161–66. 4. The noted American education reformer Horace Mann (1796–1859) was the youngest son of a yeoman farmer from Franklin, Massachusetts. Admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1823, Mann practiced law in Dedham and Boston until 1833, and was elected to the Massachusetts General Court

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(1827–33). From 1833 to 1837 he served in the state senate, advocating state care for the insane and manifesting an interest in educational reform. As secretary (1837–48) of the Massachusetts Board of Education, the first such institution in the country, and as editor (1838–48) of his semimonthly Common School Journal, Mann promoted a tax-supported system of public school education, seeing a nonsectarian common school education as an economic leveler and the foundation of democratic government. In 1848, Mann, a Whig, succeeded John Quincy Adams as representative for Massachusetts’s eighth congressional district, and two years later he was reelected as a Free Soiler. In. Congress, Mann was an outspoken opponent of the extension of slavery in the territories and, thus, opposed the 1850 compromise measures. During the last years of his life, Mann acted as the first president (1852–59) of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Horace Mann, Slavery: Letters and Speeches (Boston, 1853), 225, 324; Jonathan Messerli, Horace Mann: A Biography (New York, 1972); Ernest Cassara, “Reformer as Politician: Horace Mann and the Anti-Slavery Struggle in Congress, 1848–1853,” Journal of American Studies, 5:247–63 (December 1971); Larry Gara, “Horace Mann: Antislavery Congressman,” Historian, 32:19–33 (November 1969); ACAB, 4:190–91; NCAB, 3:78–79; DAB, 12:240–43. 5. In the early 1840s, the Reverend William Goodell (1792–1878) began advocating the position that the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted as an antislavery document. Most likely, he had been converted to this position by his fellow New York political abolitionist Alvan Stewart. Goodell’s Views of American Constitutional Law, in Its Bearing upon American Slavery (Utica, N.Y., 1844) was soon seconded by Lysander Spooner’s The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (Boston, 1845). Goodell’s and Spooner’s constitutional interpretation became a fundamental principle for the small post-1848 Liberty party faction led by Gerrit Smith, which Douglass later joined. William M. Wiecek, The Sources of Antislavery Constitutionalism, 1760–1848 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1977), 250–75; Meyer Leon Perkal, “William Goodell: A Life of Reform” (Ph.D. diss., City University of New York, 1972), 213–22. 6. Probably not a direct quotation from William Lloyd Garrison, but a characterization of his view that the U.S. Constitution condoned and protected the institution of slavery. EAAH, 2:716–17. 7. The eldest son of John Adams, John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) served as the American ambassador to the Netherlands, Berlin, Russia, and England during the early years of the Republic. He also held office as U.S. senator from Massachusetts (1803–08), secretary of state in James Monroe’s cabinet (1817–25), and president of the United States (1825–29). From 1831 until his death, Adams sat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he opposed slavery and its extension and fought the “gag rule” on abolitionist petitions. In late 1831, he made his first antislavery speech on the floor of Congress, introducing fifteen petitions from Pennsylvania Quakers praying for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Adams defended a band of captured Africans before the Supreme Court in the Amistad case in 1841. Despite his association with the abolitionist cause, Adams said that he personally favored ending only the slave trade. Samuel F. Bemis, John Quincy Adams and the Union (New York, 1956); Leonard L. Richards, The Life and Times of Congressman John Quincy Adams (New York, 1986); Paul C. Nagel, John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life (New York, 1997).

CHARLES W. STUART1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Lora, C.[anada] W.[est] 31 December [1853.]

Frederick Douglass, Esq.:— I thank you for the transmission to me of the last few numbers of your paper,[]which I have received, and have the pleasure to enclose you two dollars as my subscription for 1854.

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CHARLES W. STUART TO DOUGLASS, 31 DECEMBER 1853

Your general course,[]as far as known to me, is highly pleasing to me, and I am persuaded, so far, that the general influence of your paper, is conducive to the best and highest interests of society and of your country.— That we may know each other the better, I beg to mention to you, that the sentiments entertained in the extract2 in your paper of December 2d, from the Progressive Christian, are cordially mine. In your previous paper, of Nov. 25th—several questions are proposed on “the just and equal rights of women.”3 Permit me the following brief replies to some of these questions: The 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th, are to me unexceptionable; not women simply, but human nature, is wronged, in my opinion, by such expressions as are therein adverted to. 5th. In every association,[]whether conjugal or other, good order indespensably needs a head; and men are the head both by nature and revelation. Where the property of the woman is separate, her separate rights are secured by law. 6th. If the question relates to unmarried women of mature age, and to their being represented by men, I see no reason. 7th. Measure the nature of woman, and her paramount and most important duties, propriety commit her political security, to the jurisdiction of men. 9th. Because the practical right of the suffrage would lead woman into circumstances totally at variance with their own best interests and happiness, and obstructive of that holy influence, so noble and so mighty, with which God has endowed them, as women, and which is impossible to man as men. A little work, called “Woman’s Mission”4 portrays my sentiments on the question of woman’s rights; her distinctive and peculiar rights as woman; and whatever exemptions may or do exist, and I believe there are exceptions; yet generally speaking, I can conceive, no greater outrage upon human happiness and virtue, than the intrusion of woman, into these walks of life, which properly belong to men only. That women are wronged in the existing state of society, I have long felt and lamented—and I delight in every thing which appear, to me, surely to lend, fully and cordially to right them. But that they would or could be righted or honored, by treating them morally and socially, as men, thereby destroying, as I think would inevitably be the case, all that gives to woman her distinctive loveliness, and her peculiarly pure and powerful influence for the regeneration of mankind, appears to me, one of the greatest fic-

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tions, which the spirit of dogmatic infidelity, could possibly broach. The enormous evils done by this spirit, to the Anti-Slavery cause especially, and even by these the integrity and benevolence of whose institutions in many cases, I cannot doubt, ever glare before me. Your letter to the most admirable Mrs. H. B. Stowe,5 greatly delights me; but I should have been glad, had you added to your idea of an Industrial College, an Agricultural department. I purpose shortly to send you a pamphlet,6 published by me, some years ago, in England,—accept and make what use, or no use of it, as you please. It is thoroughly anti-colonizationist; man rises by contending lawfully with wrong, trusting in God; not by mistrusting God, and flying from the holy strife; and greatly outraged as the class called colored are in your country, by brazen-faced guilt in power, yet, as a class, they have a nobler opportunity for heroically and lawfully contending for the most sacred rights of human nature in their own persons, than ever before has been enjoyed, by the victims of similarly outrageous oppression. In governments altogether tyrants, such as Russia, Austria, France and the popery in Europe,7 and the Slave Codes in your Slave States, this is impossible. Brute force, lords it there, without control. But with you, it is otherwise. The fundamental liberty, secured to you by the noble Constitution of your country, when not perverted and abused, stands by you thro’ God. That perversion and abuse, have not eternity in them— with all the other features of Satan’s horrible dominion on earth; they are drawing to a close, and to you and to your people, is committed in this respect, the vindication by lawful, peaceable and holy means, of the noblest of all modern causes; the cause of God and man on earth! Shrink not, fear not, fly not. Your victory, however protracted, and even this, whatever sufferings, is as sure, if you persevere, as the Supreme existence of Jehovah. C. STUART.8 PLSr: FDP, 31 December 1853. 1. Born to a British officer in Bermuda, Charles W. Stuart (1781–1865) grew up on military posts before receiving a formal education in Belfast, Ireland. He joined the East India Company’s army in 1798 and served in it for thirteen years. After his military service, he migrated to America before settling in Amherstburg, Canada, where he became a lay preacher and missionary. Later licensed as a Presbyterian preacher, he drew on his Calvinistic beliefs when forming his stance on slavery. On his return to Britain in 1829, he joined the abolitionist movement. During his participation in the antislavery cause, he wrote over two dozen pamphlets, including The West India Question. In agitating against the colonization movement, he applied the organizational techniques he had perfected in Britain to the movement in the United States. Besides being one of the major influences on the American abolition movement, he was involved in the temperance movement in England and

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Scotland. Anthony J. Barker, Captain Charles Stuart: Anglo-American Abolitionist (Baton Rouge, La., 1986); DAB, 18:162; ANB, 21:65–67. 2. Stuart identifies an untitled article he had written for Adin Ballou’s utopian periodical the Progressive Christian, which Douglass had reprinted. In the article, Stuart defended the views of political abolitionists in the Liberty party from editorial attacks made by Garrisonian members of the American Anti-Slavery Society. FDP, 2 December 1853. 3. Frederick Douglass’ Paper published a call notice entitled “The Just and Equal Rights of Women,” requesting those interested in that subject to gather at a convention in Rochester on 30 November through 1 December 1853. FDP, 25 November 1853. 4. Woman’s Mission, published anonymously in London in 1839 and later attributed to Sarah Lewis, was based on Louis-Amié Martin’s 1834 French publication De l’éducation des mères de famille. Lewis’s text argues for distinctly domestic roles for women and opposes women’s rights. Her argument to restrict women to moral influence within the home was a key text in the Victorian effort to spiritualize women. Sarah Lewis and Louis-Aimé Martin, Woman’s Mission, 4th ed. (London, 1839), 12, 152; Janet L. Larson, “Lady-Wrestling for Victorian Soul: Discourse, Gender, and Spirituality in Women’s Texts,” Religion and Literature, 23:44 (Autumn 1991); “Sarah Lewis,” ODNB (online). 5. Probably Stuart refers to the letter of 8 March 1853 from Douglass to Harriet Beecher Stowe, widely publicized at the time of the Colored National Convention held in Rochester that July and reproduced in this volume. 6. Stuart could be referring to either of his two anticolonization pamphlets. Both Remarks on the Colony of Liberia and the American Colonization Society and Prejudice Vincible; or, the Practicability of Conquering Prejudice by Better Means than by Slavery and Exile were originally published in London in 1832. C[harles] Stuart, Remarks on the Colony of Liberia and the American Colonization Society (London, 1832); C[harles] Stuart, A Letter to Thomas Clarkson, by James Cropper and Prejudice Vincible; or The Practicability of Conquering Prejudice by Better Means by Slavery and Exile; in Relation to the American Colonization Society (Liverpool, Eng.,1832); Barker, Captain Charles Stuart, 314. 7. Stuart, who by the 1850s had become an increasingly enthusiastic supporter of British imperialism, was probably referring to the suppression of rights (especially those involving suffrage) that occurred across Europe following the failure of the revolutions of 1848. The only European countries that had successfully avoided revolution—and the backlash that followed—were either ones that made sufficient concessions in time to prevent an uprising (such as Great Britain) or those where the opposition to the government was too weak or insignificant to matter, such as Russia. Robert Gildea, Barricades and Borders: Europe 1800–1914, 3d ed. (New York, 2003), 83–104; Barker, Captain Charles Stuart, 138–89, 263, 289. 8. Douglass inserted the following editorial comment after he reprinted Stuart’s letter: “Among the names of those we early learned to love, as the true friends of human nature, whether under a black or a white complexion, was that of the writer above; and we esteem it a very great privilege to welcome anything he may be disposed to write on the subject of human welfare, to a place in our columns.—Editor.”

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JULIA GRIFFITHS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS [n.p.] 9 January 1854.

Frederick Douglass: Dear Friend :— Several months ago, a friend of mine,1 who has taken a lively interest in your paper, and has done much to sustain you in your efforts to render it useful to the enslaved and oppressed people of this country, suggested to me the plan of raising the sum of one thousand dollars, (in ten dollar donations,) towards a contingent fund, to be placed at your service. This suggestion pleased me; I resolved to carry it out. I have now the pleasure of reporting the following responses to my appeal—and hope in the course of the next few months to be able to report the names of other generous friends of that cause, to which you are devoting your time and talents. Your friend, JULIA GRIFFITHS.2 PLSr, FDP, 13 January 1854. 1. The first name Griffiths placed on the list of contributors following her letter was that of Gerrit Smith. Considering Smith’s history of financial subsidization of Douglass’s journalism, he is the most likely person to whom Griffiths is referring. 2. Douglass praises Griffiths’s work in an editorial introduction to the letter. In two columns following Griffiths’s letter, Frederick Douglass’ Paper printed forty-two names of individuals who had contributed ten dollars to sustain the newspaper. One listing was for “Two Friends,” who apparently combined their donations to reach the required ten-dollar amount. FDP, 13 January 1854.

JOHN BROWN TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Akron, O[hio]. 9 Jan[uary] 1854.

F. Douglass, Esq: Dear Sir:— I have thought much of late of the extreme wickedness of persons who use their influence to bring law and order, and good government, and courts of justice into disrespect and contempt with mankind, and do what in their power lies to destroy confidence in legislative bodies, and to bring magistrates judges, and other officers of the law into disrespect amongst men. Such persons, whoever they may be, would break down all that opposes the passions of fallen men; and could they fully carry out their measures, would give to the world a constant succession of murder, revenge, robbery, fire and famine; or, first, of anarchy in all its horrid forms; and then

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of the most bloody despotisms, to be again succeeded by anarchy, and that again to terminate in a despotism. What punishment ever inflicted by man, or even threatened of God, can be too severe for those whose influence is a thousand times more malignant than the atmosphere of the deadly Upas1—for those who hate the right and the Most High? I will now inquire who are such malignant spirits—such fiends clothed in human form? Amongst the first are men who, neglecting honorable and useful labor to seek office and electioneer, have come to be a majority in our national Legislature, and in most of our State Legislatures, and who there pass unjust and wicked enactments, and call them laws. Another set are from the same description of men, and who fill the offices of Chief Magistrate of the United States, and of different States, and affix the official signature to such enactments. Next come another set from the same horde, who fill the offices of judge, justice, commissioner, &c., who follow that which is altogether unjust. Next come a set of Capt Rynders2 men—marshals, sheriffs, constables, policemen—brave cat paws of the last named, ever prompt to execute their decision. Another set are such as sometimes succeed in getting nominated for some office, and are very loud at hotels, in cars, on steam-boats and in stages, urging upon others the duty of fulfilling all our solemn engagements. And “last, but not least,”3 come the devils, drummers and fifers—such fellows as in black cloth get into the “sacred desk,” there to publish the Gospel, (no doubt;) for numbers of them are Doctors of Divinity. But what Gospel do they preach? Is it the Gospel of God, or of the Son of God? God commands, “That which is altogether just shalt thou follow;”4 and every man’s conscience says Amen! God commanded, “That thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose, in one of thy gates where it liketh him best. Thou shalt not oppress him.”5 Every man’s conscience says Amen to that command. The Son of God said— “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the Prophets.”6 The conscience of every man that ever read or heard that command says Amen! But what says these so called Divines? You must obey the enactments of the United States Congress, even to the violation of conscience, and the trampling under foot of the laws of our final Judge. “Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood.”7 There is one other set of the same throngers of the “broad way,” which I have not mentioned. (Would to God I had already done!) I mean Editors

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of, and writers to pro-slavery newspapers and other periodicals. These seem to vie with each other in urging men on to greater and still greater lengths in stifling conscience, and insulting God. What, I ask, could possibly tend so to destroy all possible respect for legislators, presidents, judges, or other magistrates or officers—or to root out all confidence in the integrity of civil rulers and courts, as well as legislative bodies, as the passing of enactments which it is self-evident are most abominably wicked and unjust, dignifying them with the name of laws, and then employing the public purse and sword to execute them? But I have done. I am too destitute of words to express the tithe of what I feel, and utterly incapable of doing the subject any possible degree of justice, in my own estimation. My only encouragement to begin, was the earnest wish that if I might express, so that it may be understood at all, an important fact, that you or some friend of God and the right, will take it up and clothe it in the suitable language to be noticed and felt. I want to have the inquiry everywhere raised—Who are the men that are undermining our truly republican and democratic institutions at their very foundation? I forgot to head my remarks “Law and Order.” Yours in Truth, JOHN BROWN. PLSr: FDP, 27 January 1854. 1. John Brown likens the destructive influence of proslavery supporters, especially those who retain some official capacity, to the upas tree. The upas, Antiaris toxicara, is native to Java and other Indonesian islands, Africa, and China. The extremely poisonous sap of some varieties is used to treat the tips of poisonous darts, spears, and arrows. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1435. 2. Isaiah Rynders (1804–85), New York City gang leader and Tammany Hall boss of the sixth ward, was a powerful figure throughout the late antebellum era. Of German and Irish background, Rynders was born in Waterford, New York, and attended school until about age twelve, when he shipped out as a deckhand on a riverboat running between Troy and New York City. He later either owned or commanded a small Hudson River sloop, retaining the title “Captain” for the rest of his career. Abandoning maritime pursuits around 1830, Rynders spent several years in the South, where he gained a lasting, and possibly exaggerated, reputation as a duelist, gambler, and horse-racing enthusiast. In the late 1830s, he returned to New York City and established himself in the slum area known as Five Points. Active in Democratic politics from the time of his arrival, Rynders opened a public house on Park Row that became a gathering place for local Tammany leaders as well as the headquarters of the infamous Empire Club, a band of street toughs fi rst recruited by Rynders to disrupt Whig political rallies during the election of 1844. Over the next dozen years, Rynders’s services to the Democratic party brought him a series of local federal offices. When not intimidating political opponents, Rynders and his followers participated in a number of rowdy civil disturbances, including the bloody Astor Place Opera House riots of May 1849. A staunch defender of slavery, Rynders became the nemesis of New York abolitionists during the 1840s and 1850s, periodically disrupting their meetings with tactics he had perfected in the political arena. As early as 1857, however, he began to lose his grip on the Five Points gangs, and despite being a Copperhead during the Civil War, he

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had to appeal for police protection during the 1863 draft riots. Rynders remained active in New York Democratic politics after the war, holding a variety of minor city and county offices throughout the 1860s and 1870s. Pennsylvania Freeman, 17 May 1849; New York Times, 14 January 1885; New York Tribune, 14 January 1885; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 2:237n; Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld (New York, 1928), 43–45; James McCague, The Second Rebellion: The Story of the New York City Draft Riots of 1863 (New York, 1968), 118. 3. This phrase appears to have originated in 1580 when John Lyly used it in the didactic romance Euphues and His England. John Lyly, The Complete Works of John Lyly, ed. R. Warwick Bond, 3 vols. (Oxford, Eng., 1902), 2:113. 4. Deut. 16:20. 5. Deut. 23:15–16. 6. Matt. 7:12. 7. Neh. 13:29.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO CALVIN STOWE1 Roch[ester, N.Y.] 17 Jan[uary] 1854.

Dear Dr Stowe, Please accept my Sincere thanks for the volumes five in number2—just come to hand, intended to assist me in the Study of the Claims of the Bible as a Devine revealation. The thought that I am an object of your Care has Comfort in it. I will read and Study these Books—and Some day give you some idea of the progress I have made on the Subject. At present I Shall be too much in the Lecturing field to Study—but if all be well, Shall have more time in Summer—Tomorrow Evening I begin a Series of appointments made for me in New hampShere.3 Please remember me Kindly to Mrs Stowe.4 And Believe, me very gratefully your friend FREDERICK DOUGLASS ALS: Frederick Douglass Collection, ICHi. 1. Calvin Ellis Stowe (1802–86) met Harriet Beecher during the 1830s when he was a professor of theology under Lyman Beecher at Lane Seminary in Ohio. The two were married in 1836, following the death of Stowe’s first wife. Throughout their marriage, Stowe remained a strong supporter of Harriet’s literary career. Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 93–94, 96–99, 167–68; DAB, 18:115. 2. The books that Stowe sent Douglass have not been identified. In 1867, Stowe published Origin and History of the Books of the Bible, both the Canonical and the Apocryphal. This was one of the earliest attempts by an American scholar to assess the Bible from a historical perspective. C. E. Stowe, Origin and History of the Books of the Bible, both the Canonical and the Apocryphal, Designed to Show What the Bible is Not, What It is, and How to Use It (Hartford, Conn., 1868). 3. Douglass, in a letter he wrote and planned to publish in his newspaper, announced that he had left Rochester on 17 January 1854 and commenced a speaking tour in New Hampshire with an address in Nashua the next day. FDP, 27 January 1854. 4. Harriet Beecher Stowe.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO CHARLES SUMNER Rochester[, N.Y.] 27 February 1854.

Hon. Chas. Sumner, My Dear Sir:— All the friends of freedom, in every State, and of every color, may claim you, just now, as their representative. As one of your Sable conStituents— My dear Sir, I deSire to thank you, for your noble Speech1 for freedom, and for your country, which I have now read twice over. When Messrs. Chase,2 Wade,3 and Seward,4 had Spoken, I could not See, what remained for you to Say. The reSult Shows that the world is larger than it looks to be from the little valley where I live. If I thought you were, or could be, dissatisfied with your Speech, I Should have to conSider you a hard MaSter—and a very unreasonable man. It is Sad to think that after all the efforts of your Spartan band,5 this wicked measure will pass—A victory now for freedom, would be the turning point—in freedom’s favour—But “God dwells in eternity”, and it may be time enough yet—Heaven PreServe you—and Strengthen you. Yours, Most truly, and gratefully, FREDERICK DOUGLASS ALS: Charles Sumner Papers, MH-H. 1. Charles Sumner addressed the U.S. Senate on 21 February 1854. His speech, against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise by the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act, was reprinted in Frederick Douglass’ Paper under the column heading “The Landmark of Freedom.” FDP, 10 March 1854. 2. Salmon Portland Chase (1808–73) served as a U.S. senator, cabinet officer, and chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He taught school briefly in Washington, D.C., before settling in Cincinnati and beginning a legal career. There he defended a number of fugitive slaves and acted as legal counsel for the abolitionist James G. Birney. Initially a Whig, Chase joined the Liberty party in 1840, and presided at the Buffalo Convention of the Free Soil party in 1848. A coalition of Free Soilers and Democrats in the Ohio legislature sent Chase to the U.S. Senate in 1849, where he remained until 1854. He strongly opposed the Compromise of 1850 and favored the restriction of slavery by federal law. In the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Chase joined the Republican party and won the governorship of Ohio in 1855. After resuming his U.S. Senate seat in 1861, he resigned to become Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of the treasury. Closely aligned with radical Republicans in Congress, Chase became the focus of opposition to Lincoln within the Republican party. Although he resigned from his cabinet post and challenged Lincoln for the 1864 presidential nomination, the latter appointed him chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Throughout his political career, Chase was a strong proponent of black suffrage and the radical program of Reconstruction. In 1868, Chase again sought the Democratic presidential nomination as a Democrat, but attracted little support. Frederick J. Blue, Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics (Kent, Ohio, 1987); James Brewer Stewart, Joshua R. Giddings and the Tactics of Radical Politics (Cleveland, 1970), 116–18, 153–54; Richard H. Sewell, Ballots for Freedom: Antislavery Politics in the United States, 1837–1860 (New York, 1976), 90; Reinhard H. Luthin, “Salmon P. Chase’s Political Career before the Civil War,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 29:517–40 (March 1943); DAB, 4:27–34.

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3. The political abolitionist Edward Wade (1802–66) was born in rural Massachusetts and moved to Andover, Ohio, in 1821 with his family. He trained for the law with the nationally prominent Ohio attorney Elisha Whittlesey, who practiced alongside Edward’s more famous brother, Benjamin. Despite receiving little formal education, both Edward and Benjamin went on to practice law in Jefferson, Ohio, and had respectable political careers. In 1842, Edward joined the Liberty party and later the Free Soil party, while Benjamin remained a Whig until they both joined the Republican party at its formation in 1854. Edward served in the House in 1853 as a Free Soiler and then as a Republican until 1861, when he retired because of poor health and returned to his law practice in Cleveland. Frederick J. Blue, No Taint of Compromise: Crusaders in Antislavery Politics (Baton Rouge, La., 2005), xiv, 11, 213–14; BDUSC (online). 4. William H. Seward. 5. Douglass compares the small group of antislavery congressmen who unsuccessfully tried to block passage of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act to the Spartans’ attempt at Thermopylae to delay the Persian invasion of Greece. Blue, Free Soilers, 280–83.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester, 6 March [1854].1

Hon: Gerrit Smith. My dear Sir: I am Slowly recovering from my illness2—and hope Soon to be at work again. I am, with you, quite Sorry, that W. H. Seward’s abolitionism is not of a more decided a type; and that he annexes So many hard conditions to the freedom of the Slave, in the D.C.3 yet So anxious am I, to See Emancipation there, I would See it at almost any price, and Since we cannot have you, and Such as you to propose plans in Congress for Emancipation I am glad of even So much as Wm H. Seward’s plan. As to “indemnifying” Slaveholders, that is by no means So repulsive to me Since your great Speech on the Nebraska Bill4 —which Speech by the way, I was reading but yesterday—I hope it will not be long before I Shall See and hear again—for I always feel the better for having Seen —I am Dear Sir, Yours as ever truly and affectionately FREDERICK DOUGLASS PLSr: FDP, 17 March 1854. Reprinted in NASS, 25 March 1854; Philadelphia Freeman, 30 March 1854; Lib., 31 March 1854; ASB, 1 April 1854. 1. Several of the events to which Douglass refers to in this letter to Gerrit Smith occurred in April 1854, leading the editors to conclude that the letter was misdated. The most probable correct date is 6 May 1854. 2. Although it is impossible to determine the exact nature of Douglass’s illness, it is likely that it resulted from exposure to the cold and snow that he complained about in his “Letters from the Editor” column in February while on a lecture tour of New England. Whatever the nature of his illness,

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it probably occurred in the later weeks of February, since he reported on 8 February that he expected to arrive back in Rochester before the next edition of Frederick Douglass’ Paper was published on the 17th. In fact, he did not return to Rochester until 3 March. FDP, 3 February, 17 February, 3 March 1854. 3. Perhaps an allusion to the position taken by William H. Seward in an address in the U.S. Senate on 17 February 1854 in opposition to passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Seward attacked the Democratic party’s position that popular sovereignty should guide whether slavery could be established in a federal territory. Seward ridiculed the Democrats’ claim that Congress had no authority over slavery in a territory, since that matter is constitutionally the right of the citizens of a territory, by noting that Congress had often exercised its authority over slavery in the District of Columbia. Smith and Douglass appear to regret that Seward did not advocate that Congress exercise those same powers to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. FDP, 10 March 1854. 4. Smith delivered his principal address in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act in the House of Representative on 6 April 1854. Douglass published a brief synopsis of that speech in his paper on 21 April 1854 and the entire text of the speech on 12 May 1854. Douglass alludes to a passage in Smith’s speech in which the veteran abolitionist conceded that the North had long profited from the establishment of slavery in the South and was thereby obligated to aid in its extinguishment. Smith advocated a federal appropriation of $400 million to compensate slaveholders for emancipation. In 1857, well after the end of his congressional career, Smith joined with the Quaker abolitionist Elihu Burritt to hold a national convention to advocate for compensated emancipation. Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 326–31; Betty L. Fladeland, “Compensated Emancipated Emancipation: A Rejected Alternative,” JSH, 42:183–84 (May 1976).

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester, [N.Y.] 18 March [1854].

Hon: Gerrit Smith My Dear Friend. I am at home, and have your welcome notes.1 You have only to vote and Speak the convictions of your head and heart to have my earnest, though feeble Support. I knew you would vote against the homestead Bill, as Soon as I learned that the mean and wicked—amendment of Mr Wright2 had prevailed. Thomas Davis,3 is known to me—and I was prepared to hear that he voted right. His opinions have changed much Since our first acquaintance. Now more than twelve years: but his heart is, No doubt as noble as ever. There was a good chance on Wright’s “White” amendment, to have recounted Some of the patriotic Services of the Colored people—and to have made and argument in favour of their citizenShip—But one Man cannot Say everything—and perhaps, the time, was not allowed. I brought to gether Some facts on this point for the Colored Convention4 held here last Summer—which may prove convenient to you—I therefore take the

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Liberty to Send them. My friend Julia,5 comes homes highly gratified, perhaps I ought to Say, extatic with her visit6 to Washington— Believe me always, truly and gratefully Your friend, FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Douglass refers to a letter dated 6 March 1854 from Gerrit Smith. The letter, published in the 17 March 1854 edition of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, is Smith’s account of the House vote on the homestead bill. Specifically, Smith, who had previously supported land reform, chose to vote against the bill because it limited suffrage to white people. FDP, 17 March 1854; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 255–58. 2. An experienced lawyer in Wilkes-Barre, Hendrick Bradley Wright (1808–81) served as a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania (1853–54, 1861–62, 1877–78, and 1879–80). In his first term in Congress, Wright argued for amending the 1854 homestead bill to clarify that land entitlements be given only to whites. Laura Jensen, Patriots, Settlers, and the Origins of American Social Policy (New York, 2003), 198; BDUSC (online). 3. Thomas Davis (1806–95), a wealthy jeweler, immigrated to Providence from Ireland in 1817. He first married Eliza Chase, a friend of Helen Garrison and sister of the Providence wool merchant William M. Chase. After Eliza’s death, he married Paulina Kellogg Wright, an abolitionist and women’s rights activist, in 1849. Davis served in both houses of the Rhode Island legislature and one term in the U.S. Congress (1853–55). Davis made an address in the House denouncing the Kansas-Nebraska Act on 9 May 1854, which was republished as a pamphlet and widely circulated. Benjamin F. Moore, Providence Almanac and Business Directory for the Year 1843 (Providence, R.I., 1843), 46; Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 1:151n, 330n, 2:308n; BDUSC (online). 4. A reference to the National Convention for People of Color, held in Rochester, N.Y., on 6, 7, 8 July 1853. 5. Julia Griffiths. 6. Julia Griffiths arrived in Washington, D.C., on 15 February 1854. While there she frequently attended sessions of Congress to hear senators and representatives speak, including Lewis Cass, Stephen A. Douglas, Charles Sumner, and William Henry Seward. She also met with Sarah Grimké, Senator Salmon P. Chase, and Gerrit Smith. FDP, 24 February, 3, 17 March 1854.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 29 April 1854[.]

Hon Gerrit Smith, My dear Sir, It is too bad that we cannot have your Speech1 when people are anxious to read it. YourS, and that of Mr Benton,2 will, I presume, be be the last on the Nebraska bill, which will be generally read. The Subject has been worn thread bare. One of the firSt privileges which I had hoped to enjoy on reaching home from Cincinnati3—was the reading of a full report of your Speech. You will be glad to know that my visit to Cincinnati added

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conSiderably to my list of Subscribers, and made me, as well as the cause, some friends. I aimed there, to uphold our hope of inspiring doctrine of of the unconstitutionality and illegality of Slavery, but what am I in the hands of the Subtle Burliegh?4 Wherever I have gone in the State of Ohio among the friends of freedom, I have met with but one feeling respecting you and your courSe in congress. I need not tell you what that feeling is, but it gives your Sable friend pleasure to know that it is not unfavorable, either your head or your heart, but honorable to both. I thank you for your Several kind notes—we are all well here. Love to Mrs Smith,5 Always yours most truly FREDERICK DOUGLASS ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Gerrit Smith’s speech against passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was delivered in Congress on 6 April 1854 and published in an expanded form in the 12 May 1854 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Smith opposed the bill because it limited suffrage to white men who held citizenship (it completely excluded blacks and immigrants), and because it recognized a national policy of “nonintervention” that would allow each state to determine whether it would legalize slavery. 2. Thomas Hart Benton (1782–1858) served as a U.S. senator from Missouri from 1821 to 1851. Born near Hillsboro, North Carolina, Benton briefly studied at the University of North Carolina and at William and Mary College. Despite a promising legal and political career in Tennessee, Benton migrated to Missouri after service in the War of 1812. Elected to the Senate upon Missouri’s admission to the Union, he became an important Jacksonian Democrat and spokesman for western interests. His support for gradual emancipation caused Benton to lose his Senate seat in 1850. He returned to Congress as a representative from 1853 to 1855, but lost his bid for a second term after speaking out against the Kansas-Nebraska Act on 25 April 1854. Thomas Hart Benton, Thirty Years’ View; or, a History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850, 2 vols. (New York, 1854–56), 2:782; Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas H. Benton (Boston, 1899); Elbert B. Smith, Magnificent Missourian: The Life of Thomas Hart Benton (Philadelphia, 1958); William N. Chambers, Old Bullion Benton, Senator from the New West: Thomas Hart Benton, 1782–1858 (Boston, 1956); ACAB, 1:241–43; DAB, 2:210–13. 3. Frederick Douglass spoke at an antislavery convention held at Greenwood Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 11–13 April, then spoke at Zion Baptist Church on Third Street in Cincinnati on 14 April 1854. FDP, 7, 28 April 1854; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 2:xxxvi; Stacey M. Robertson, Hearts Beating for Liberty: Women Abolitionists in the Old Northwest (Chapel Hill, N.C., 2010), 104–09. 4. Among those attending the Cincinnati antislavery convention was the Garrisonian abolitionist Charles Calistus Burleigh (1810–78). Burleigh was born in Plainfield, Connecticut, and received his early schooling at the Plainfield Academy. While studying law, an attack he published on the Connecticut “Black Law” attracted the attention of the abolitionist Samuel J. May. Burleigh was instrumental in protecting William Lloyd Garrison from a mob in Boston in October 1835, and shortly thereafter became a regular contributor to the Liberator. In the late 1830s, Burleigh became one of the editors of the Pennsylvania Freeman, later the organ of the Eastern Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. Active in a number of reform movements, Burleigh plunged into the anti-Sabbatarian campaign after he was arrested in West Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1847 for selling antislavery literature

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on Sunday. In 1845 he published a pamphlet, Thoughts on the Death Penalty, condemning capital punishment. He participated in the woman suffrage conventions at Cleveland and New York in 1854 and in the American Equal Rights Association meeting in 1867. In the 1870s he joined his brother, William Henry, in the campaign for temperance reform. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, eds., History of Woman Suffrage, 6 vols. (Rochester, 1881–1922), 1:148–51; Robertson, Hearts Beating for Liberty, 104–05, 108, 113, 130; C. B. Galbreath, “Anti-Slavery Movement in Columbiana County,” Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, 30: 389–91 (October 1921); ACAB, 1:455; DAB, 3:284–85. 5. Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 6 May 1854.

Hon. Gerrit Smith. My dear Sir: I am grateful for your notice of me in Congress.1 How lost to all sense of right, are your Brother Legislators, that in the face of your Manly and Christian opposition, the abominable and proScriptive amendment was adopted. Of your Speech on the Nebraska Bill, aSide from all my admiration and love for the friend of my poor people—I must pronounce it the mightiest and grandest production, ever before delivered in the House or Senate of this Nation. I am about leaving home for Newyork.2 I am glad to See you intend Speaking at length on the post office. And Pacific Rail Road question.3 In haste Your faithful friend FREDERICK DOUGLASS ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Perhaps Douglass refers to remarks made by Smith during a House debate over the KansasNebraska Act on 3 May 1854, during which he referred to Douglass as “the man of America” and “one of the ablest speakers and writers in this country.” Douglass later republished Smith’s remarks in his newspaper. FDP, 19 May 1854. 2. Douglass traveled to New York City to attend the meeting of the American and Foreign AntiSlavery Society, held as part of the city’s “Anniversary Week.” FDP, 19 May 1854. 3. When a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives to reduce postage rates, Smith proposed an amendment to permit the reduction for two years and then to abolish the entire Post Office Department. Smith opposed federal grants of land to railroads, but favored appropriations of tax dollars to support such construction projects. Congressional Globe, 33rd Cong., 1st Sess., 1342, 1405; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 323–24.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 19 May 1854.

Hon: Gerrit Smith My Dear Sir, I am again at my post. I found the packit of your Speech1 here on my return from Newyork—I am very glad to have them to dispose of. It is the best antiSlavery document for the times—Now extant—Is it not too bad that Antislavery men Should do up all the argument on the Slavery Side against you? I was Sick of the dogmatism and canting Superior honesty— indulged in at Newyork—by the Speakers at the late meeting of the Am A. S. Society2—With some of them the best evidence that a man can give of being a knave is to profeSS to believe in the Soundness of your views respecting the Constitution. With the manner of your opposition to the KanSas Nebraska Bill3—those who know you most and love you best are entirely Satisfied. It would not look degnified, or Consistent to see Gerrit Smith either leading or following what at best Must be pronounced a factious opposition. I hope Cuttings amendment4 will fail, and if we must have the the repeal of the Missouri reStriction5 let nothing be done to Soften the harShness of the Measure. My faithful Friend Julia6 desires best Love—Always Yours Truly FREDERICK DOUGLASS. ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Douglass returned from speaking in New York at the annual meetings of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and the American Missionary Association on 10–11 May 1854. The speech to which he refers was probably the one delivered by Gerrit Smith to the House on 6 April 1854 in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Douglass published a notice in the 16 May 1854 edition of FDP announcing that Buell & Blanchard, a printing firm in Washington, D.C., would be reproducing the contents of Smith’s speech and selling them to interested parties for $1.50 each. British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter, new ser., 2:82–83 (1 April 1854); New York Daily Tribune, 11  May 1854; New York Herald, 11 May 1854; New York Daily Times, 11 May 1854; New York Morning Express, 12 May 1854; New York Independent, 18 May 1854; FDP, 19, 26 May 1854; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 2:xxxvi, 479–90. 2. The American Anti-Slavery Society held its twentieth anniversary meeting on 10 May 1854 at the headquarters of New York’s Broadway Universalist Society. The convention’s main speaker, Wendell Phillips, called for a “total revolution in the religious and political institutions of the country.” New York Daily Tribune, 11 May 1854. 3. The much-amended bill to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska was originally introduced into Congress by Senator Stephen A. Douglass of Illinois. The measure invoked “popular sovereignty” to allow residents of those territories to decide whether to permit slavery. In the final version, passed on 30 May 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act voided the provision of the Missouri

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Compromise of 1820 that forbade slavery in the old Louisiana Purchase north of 36° 30′’ and established the doctrine of congressional noninterventention regarding slavery in the territories. P. Orman Ray, The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise: Its Origin and Authorship (Cleveland, 1909), 16, 182–87; David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 (New York, 1976), 55, 160–77; Michael F. Holt, The Fate of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War (New York, 2004), 103–05. 4. Born in New York City, Francis Brockholst Cutting (1804–70) won election to the Thirtyfifth Congress in 1853 as a Democrat from his birth state. He graduated from the Litchfield Law School in Connecticut and was admitted to the bar in 1827. Cutting practiced law in New York City until he was elected to the state assembly in 1836 and later to Congress. He served only one term in the House of Representatives, during which time he played an active role in the adoption of the 1855 statute that extended citizenship to children of Americans who were born abroad and voted in favor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Cutting is perhaps best remembered for his quarrel with John C. Breckinridge, then a Democratic congressman from Kentucky. Cutting successfully moved to refer the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which had already passed in the Senate, to the Committee of the Whole. Breckinridge contended that Cutting, who publicly supported the bill, had effectively buried it and suggested that Cutting was two-faced. The verbal exchanges turned insulting and almost led to a duel. After fulfilling his term in office, Cutting returned to the practice of law in New York City. New York Weekly Herald, 8 April, 9 December 1854; Montpelier Watchman and State Journal, 2 June 1854; Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, 28 June 1870; San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, 28 June 1870; Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, 22 July 1864; Frank H. Heck, Proud Kentuckian: John C. Breckinridge, 1821–1875 (Lexington, Ky., 1976), 43; BDUSC (online). 5. A reference to the 36° 30′ line in the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which divided the Louisiana Purchase into free and slave territories. Glover Moore, The Missouri Controversy, 1819–1821 (Lexington, Ky., 1953), 41–47, 59–64, 84–89, 115. 6. Julia Griffiths.

GERRIT SMITH TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Washington, [D.C.] 12 June 1854.

Fredk Douglass— My friend, I this [day receive] the accompanying list—. There is certainly some merit in the lines1—You will judge whether enough to justify you in giving them a place in your Paper—If you print them, [do send Mr. Haynes]2 a [couple] of copies of the Paper [containing them]— I see you are [mentioned] for Congress.3 My heart would leap for joy at your election. It would be the greatest blow yet struck for the redemption of the slave. Oh how I should love [to] [work] for your election! Truly yours GERRIT SMITH ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 34, frame 3, FD Papers, DLC. 1. Smith received a poem entitled “Nebraska” from an admirer, Daniel Haynes. Douglass published the poem in his newspaper several weeks later. FDP, 30 June 1854.

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2. The published poem identifies its author, Daniel Haynes (1783–1870), as a resident of East Nassau, a small village in Rensselaer County, New York. The son of Daniel Haynes and his second wife, Mary Horton, Haynes was born in Brimfield, Massachusetts. A physician, Haynes set up practice initially in Bethlehem, Albany County, New York, where he married Magdalena Burnett in 1804. They had three children, including Dr. John H. Haynes and Daniel A. Haynes, a member of the Ohio State Legislature, judge of the Montgomery Superior Court, president of both the Dayton Bank and the Dayton Insurance Company, and director of the Dayton & Western Railroad. By 1815, Haynes had moved his family to Chatham in Columbia County, where his first wife died in 1842. The following year, he married a widow, Angeline Debol, and joined his son’s practice in Rensselaer County, New York. He was widowed a second time in 1853, and by 1860 he was living with his son’s family, having become deaf. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Rensselaer County, 740; 1860 U.S Census, New York, Rensselaer County, 126–27; Frank Conover, ed., Centennial Portrait and Biographical Record of the City of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio (Logansport, Ind., 1897), 177–78; Frances Haynes, ed., Walter Haynes of Sutton Mandeville, Wiltshire, England, and Sudbury, Massachusetts and His Descendants, 1583–1928 (Haverhill, Mass., 1929), 70, 77–76, 91–92. 3. Several newspapers hinted at the possibility of the National Liberty party running Frederick Douglass for Congress in 1854. There is no evidence, however, to prove that the party leadership ever intended to implement such a plan or that Douglass harbored this political ambition. About the time of Smith’s letter to Douglass, the Rochester correspondent of the Syracuse Evening Standard reported on rumors in the city that some Whig factions had discussed nominating Douglass for Congress. In Douglass’s absence from Rochester, his assistant editor, William J. Watkins, published a brief, humorous account of the incident. FDP, 23 June 1854; John Stauffer, The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race (Cambridge, Mass., 2001), 24; Charles H. Wesley, “The Participation of Negroes in Anti-Slavery Political Parties,” JNH, 29:68–69 (January 1944).

JAMES RAWSON JOHNSON1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Wading River, L[.] I., [N.Y.] 4 July [18]54.

My Dear Douglass:— I never felt so solemn—never so heavy at heart any 4th of July, in my life. While I am writing, I hear the sound of cannon from Greenport, on Long Island; and the water of the L. I. Sound,2 is such a faithful conductor of sound, that I plainly hear the booming cannon from old Connecticut, the State where I drew my infant breath, and where the bodies of my dear parents rest in their graves. But to these noisy expressions of joy, there is no response from my bosom. That fugitive from American oppression, Anthony Burns,3 has a stronger hold on my mind at this hour, than the “heroes of the Revolution.” He attempted to apply the doctrines which they asserted, and lo! the arm of the United States of America is raised to crush him! Is it so? or am I in the midst of a vexatious, troubled dream?—Yes, it is so; the terrible reality is upon us. I am sad to-day, because my hopes for the peaceful abolition of American slavery greatly decline. My expectation of its speedy abolition

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increases. But the indications seem to be, that the needful work will come amid scenes of terrible and bloody revolution. Never did such a paragraph as the preceding, ever escape from my pen, or in public from my lips; this is the first occasion on which it finds open utterance. My mind might be in a more hopeful mode if I were in your Anti-Slavery Celebration at Rochester.4 But I am on the east end of Long Island, where may be seen marked and numerous specimens of the climax of pro-slavery stupidity at the North. That devoted man of God, (who has gone to his rest,) Rev. CHARLES KNOWLES,5 who was for some twelve years pastor of the Congregational Church at River Head, L. I., made an anti-slavery mark on some minds, by his faithful testimony for the slave—“He being dead, yet speaketh.”6 What yet remains of that good man’s influence, constitutes the greater part of the anti-slavery germ which is found on this part of the Island. Such a fact may encourage all present laborers in the cause to do what they can to leave the right impress on the human mind, to be transmitted to other generations. Ah! I see; now I am getting hopeful again. My eye is directed to moral influence for the extinction of slavery. When I look at the stratagems, zeal, and union of the upholders of slavery—at the money construction which the popular mind has received from high authority concerning the Constitution of the United States— more than all, when I see popular church organization on the side of the oppressor, thus holding up a mighty shield between public opinion and the vile political parties—then am I ready to conclude, slavery will be abolished by a bloody revolution. I look, and yet cherish the hope that the great work will be done peacefully, and by appropriate and dignified legislation. For such a result, it is our business to aim zealously and continually, and for the other result, to prepare. We must try the full power of moral and legal means. We must do our best with Bibles and ballots, and only as the last resort, come to bullets and bayonets. Yours, J. R. J. PLSr: FDP, 4 July 1854. 1. Probably the frequent correspondent of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, James Rawson Johnson, an African American abolitionist from Syracuse, New York. Johnson was a supporter of the Liberty party and the religious abolitionist cause, as well as hydropathy. FDP, 26 June, 11 September, 9 October 1851, 1 January, 12, 26 February, 25 March, 8 April, 20 May, 9 July, 15 October 1852; Douglass Papers, ser. 3, 1:582–84, 587–88, 590–92, 596, 599. 2. Long Island Sound separates Long Island, New York, and the southeastern shore of New York from the East River to Upper New York Bay, and connects with the northern Block Island

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Sound, located southwest of New London, Connecticut. Ninety miles long and three to twenty miles wide, it is fed by the northern Housatonic, Connecticut, and Thames rivers. Its major port cities are New Haven, New London, and Bridgeport, Connecticut. It is a primary shipping route along the Atlantic coast and a popular residential boating center. Saul Cohen, ed., The Columbia Gazetteer of the World, 3 vols. (New York, 1998), 2:1774; Seltzer, Columbia Lippancott Gazetteer of the World, 1079. 3. The fugitive slave Anthony Burns (1834–62) precipitated one of the most dramatic incidents connected with enforcement of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. Born in Stafford County, Virginia, Burns was hired out from age seven onward. On reaching his late teens, he was sent to Richmond, where he soon began working under the nominal supervision of a local druggist, who allowed Burns to find his own employment and report back every two weeks with his earnings. Aided by a sympathetic seaman, Burns stowed away on a Northern merchant ship in February 1854 and reached Boston early the next month. He remained there until 24 May 1854, when he was arrested on a warrant from Edward G. Loring, a fugitive slave commissioner. Fearful of his fate and apparently intimidated by the presence of his master and other hostile whites, Burns initially wanted to return south voluntarily and had to be persuaded to even accept legal counsel. Coinciding as it did with congressional passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Burns’s arrest and confinement caused intense excitement among antislavery Bostonians. An emotion-charged evening rally at Faneuil Hall ended in violence when Thomas Wentworth Higginson led an unsuccessful mob attack on the courthouse where Burns was being held. Efforts to purchase Burns’s freedom were thwarted, and Richard Henry Dana’s able but hastily contrived legal defense proved futile. President Franklin Pierce, anxious to appease Southern supporters, sent federal troops to Boston to assist in the fugitive’s rendition. On 2 June 1854, Boston police, together with 1,500 volunteer militiamen and military detachments from Rhode Island and New Hampshire, escorted Burns through crowds of would-be rescuers and saw him safely aboard the U.S. revenue cutter Morris, bound for Norfolk, Virginia. After several months’ confinement in Richmond, Burns was sold at auction for $910 to a North Carolina slave trader. In February 1855, Northern sympathizers led by the black Boston clergyman Leonard A. Grimes purchased Burns’s freedom for $1,300. As a slave, Burns had been a devout Christian and Baptist lay preacher. He continued his ministerial career as a free man, and after studying at Oberlin College and Fairmont Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, he assumed the pastorate of Zion Church in St. Catharines, Canada West. Anthony Burns to Richard Henry Dana, 23 August 1854, in Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies, ed. John W. Blassingame (Baton Rouge, La., 1977), 109; Charles Emery Stevens, Anthony Burns: A History (1856; New York, 1969); Marion Gleason McDougall and Albert Bushnell Hart, eds., Fugitive Slaves, 1619–1865 (1891; New York, 1967), 44–45; Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease, The Fugitive Law and Anthony Burns: A Problem in Law Enforcement (Philadelphia, 1975); Campbell, Slave Catchers, 31, 99–100, 106, 117–21; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 207–09; Samuel Shapiro, “The Rendition of Anthony Burns,” JNH, 44:34–51 (January 1959); Donald M. Jacobs, “A History of the Boston Negro from the Revolution to the Civil War” (Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1968), 286–91; DANB, 80–81. 4. Frederick Douglass’ Paper contains no description of such an event held in Rochester in 1854. In an editorial published in the 16 June 1854 issue, Douglass suggested that his readers use that year’s Fourth of July as an occasion to find him additional subscribers. FDP, 16 June 1854. 5. The Reverend Charles J. Knowles (c. 1804–50) presided over the River Head Congregational Church in Long Island and was a regular contributor to the American Tract Society and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. American Tract Society, Twentieth Annual Report . . . 1845 (New York, 1845), 186; American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Thirty-Ninth Annual Report . . . 1848 (Boston, 1848), 29. 6. Heb. 11:4.

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NEMO1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Long Island, [N.Y.] 19 July 1854.

To Frederick Douglass, Esq.: In the days of our last great Convention,2 (Held in that hot month, July, ‘fifty-three, Where—’tis hardly worth while for to mention— You know as well as you know A, B, C.) There arose, with “our” joint approbation Another black sheet 3 in this “Land of the Free” 4 This sheet, for each aim and intention, That had Equality—Freedom at stake, “On its face”5 seemed, without contravention, A good source from which to make A bright light, to shine on our nation— An original Light—not opaque. This light having fixed to its nucleus— (We mean the place where each ray meets a ray: Ah! its focus—for mistakes, excuse us—) A light in itself—a real Day:6 Seeming bright, clear, sunny, not nebulous— “A perfect God-send,” as some folks would say. But, to abandon this style of figurative, The name of this sheet we’ve not given; ’Twas the Aliened American, active For the rights of all black men and women. During the few months that we had a sight of it, Its columns were graced now and then With the “thoughts” of—now, pray, don’t make light of it— Some truly illustrious men. At the head of the list stood our Pennington,7 Who never did lag or grow weary, In serving up in the American, The facts of “Our Case with the” “Ferry.”8 Then there was that great man, Delany,9 Who wrote as if some foreign nation

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Would soon see him; and some say—not many— That he soon leaves for the Ivory Station.10 And Still,11 too, a great Emigrationist, Who, ’tis said—but we would believe it, As quick as we’d believe he’s a Deist— Still hangs for “the flesh-pots of Egypt.”12 Still wrote, too, and the lecturing Spectator,13 And ladies—of whose names we’ll mention, Fanny Homewood,14 Maria,15 and Ida— Of whose sex there needs be no contention. And a sensible man, styled Viator, Who “went down ’pon” the Industrial School;16 And a chap, self-entitled Occator, Who was not very bright, though no fool. And Veritas—a life-preserver— Who, by means of a powder or pill, Or e’en pistol—ha! foolish Observer17— Seems inclined more to cure than to kill. And of other good writers a host, Had this very “dear Aliened ” to boast of; But, for all that, it gave up the ghost,18 And since last May has never been heard of. But, for all that, we would not complain, If it had died like a “person of honor,” ’Stead of hinting, “I’ll be with you again,” Said, “I’m going! I’m gone!! I’m a goner !!!” Now can you, my noble Fred. Douglass, Of this lost sheet give us information; Do us good—yourself good—and justice To its patrons all over the nation? Yours, NEMO. PLSr: FDP, 19 July 1854. 1. This was the only letter from “Nemo” to Frederick Douglass’ Paper, and the correspondent’s identity has not been determined. “Nemo” is Latin for “no man.” 2. Probably an allusion to the National Convention of Colored Men, held at Corinthian Hall on 6–8 July 1853 in Rochester. FDP, 23 September 1853; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 2:xxxiii.

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3. That newspaper was the Cleveland-based Aliened American, edited by William H. Day. The newspaper was sympathetic to the plans for African American emigration advocated by Martin Delany and others. Miller, The Search for a Black Nationality, 141–42; Levine, Politics of Representative Identity, 92. 4. Nemo sarcastically alludes to the lyrics of the national anthem. 5. A literal translation of the Latin legal term prima facie. 6. A reference to the editor of the Aliened American, William Howard Day (1825–1900). Day was born in New York City. He attended a high school in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he became interested in printing. Possessing considerable skill in Latin and Greek, he was accepted to Oberlin College, from which he graduated in 1847. Day then settled in Cleveland. Soon after, he began to work on repealing the Black Laws of Ohio, calling a convention of African Americans, which met in Cleveland in 1848. He served as chairman on the council that initiated plans for the National Convention of Colored Freemen, of which Frederick Douglass later served as president. This convention served as the forerunner of the more famous meeting of 1853 that took place in Rochester. Day worked as a compositor for the Cleveland Daily True Democrat in 1851–52 before launching his Aliened American, which served as a strong advocate of abolition and social justice for blacks. Moving to Canada to improve his health, Day printed John Brown’s revolutionary provisional constitution for the United States, which was to be implemented if Brown proved successful at Harpers Ferry. Day traveled extensively overseas and founded the African Aid Society with Martin R. Delany. While in Europe, he was welcomed by the lord mayor of Dublin and spoke to several women’s organizations. Returning home after five years, Day became an inspector of schools for freedmen in Maryland and Delaware and founded 140 schools. In 1867 Day was ordained a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. I. Garland Penn, The Afrro-American Press and its Editors (Springfield, Mass., 1891), 74–76; ANB, 6: 275–76. 7. Born a slave in Maryland, James William Charles Pennington (1809–71) was a blacksmith until he ran away to Pennsylvania in his early twenties. After spending several months studying under a Quaker teacher who sheltered him, he moved to New York City, where he continued his education. He studied theology and eventually became a pastor. Pennington kept his status as a runaway slave secret until the late 1840s, when he published his autobiography, The Fugitive Blacksmith. In 1850, he went to Europe, where Scottish friends purchased his freedom the following year. From 1847 to 1855, Pennington served as pastor of Shiloh Presbyterian Church, one of the most respected African American Presbyterian congregations in the United States. In addition to his involvement in the American Anti-Slavery Society, which he helped found in 1833, Pennington was an advocate of African American abolitionist and religious organizations. He founded the Union Missionary Society, which later became the American Missionary Association. Pennington performed the marriage ceremony of Frederick Douglass and Anna Murray after Douglass’s escape from slavery in 1838. R. J. M. Blackett, Beating against the Barriers: The Lives of Six Nineteenth-Century Afro-Americans (Ithaca, N.Y., 1986), 52–53; Herman E. Thomas, James W. C. Pennington, African American Churchman and Abolitionist (New York, 1995), 3–27, 137–38, 171; Martin, Mind of Frederick Douglass, 14–15; Freeman, “Free Negro in New York City,” 405; NCAB, 14:307; DAB, 7:441–42. 8. The Reverend J. W. C. Pennington worked to publicize the discrimination practiced in the mid-1850s against black passengers aboard New York City’s Fulton Street Ferry by publishing articles in Frederick Douglass’ Paper, the New York Times, and the Aliened American. FDP, 3 December 1852; New York Daily Times, 10, 11 August 1854. 9. Martin R. Delany. 10. Delany finally completed a long-contemplated trip to West Africa in 1859–60 to study the prospects for African American immigration there. Peter Hinks and John McKivigan, eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition, 2 vols. (Westport, Conn., 2007), 1:212–13. 11. James N. Still (1815–?) of Brooklyn, New York, combined reform activities with a career as a self-employed tailor and clothing retailer. Still won praise from Douglass for being a leading supporter of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, and probably penned articles under the pseudonym “Observer.”

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Though not well educated, Still gained some reputation as an intellectual. An active proponent of black rights, Still argued that the way to achieve social equality with whites was through wealth, since he believed that wealth led to empowerment. Still aided fugitives to freedom through New York City via the Underground Railroad. In 1856, after he moved to Shrewsbury, New Jersey, the Commissioners of the National Emigration Convention, led by Martin R. Delany, named Still an editor of a projected scholarly journal, the Afric-American Quarterly Repository. FDP, 15 January, 11 March, 17 December 1852, 6 May, 10 June 1853, 11 January 1855; William H. Smith, Smith’s Brooklyn Directory for 1854 and 1855: Being a General Directory of the Inhabitants and a Street and Avenue Guide (Brooklyn, N.Y., 1854), 461; Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, 166; Ullman, Martin R. Delany, 182. 12. Exod. 16:3. 13. No surviving issue of the Cleveland Aliened American contains a letter from a correspondent nicknamed “SPECTATOR.” 14. Fanny Homewood was the pseudonym of Mary Frances Vashon Colder (1817–54). She was married to Benjamin Colder, lived in Pittsburgh, and was the daughter of the black abolitionist and civic leader John B. Vashon. Upon her early death, her brother, the noted black abolitionist, lawyer, and educator George B. Vashon, took charge of her four children. Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 3:226n; Paul N. D. Thornell, “The Absent Ones and the Providers: A Biography of the Vashons,” JNH, 83:284–301 (Autumn, 1998). 15. Regrettably, no surviving issue of the Aliened American contains items from the following correspondents: “Maria,” “Ida,” “Viator,” “Occator,” or “Veritas.” 16. The “industrial school” was a reference to the proposed manual labor school advanced by the National Convention of Colored Citizens at Rochester in July 1853. Douglass supported the plan and the National Council created at that convention, both of which were opposed by most African Americans favoring emigration. Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, 134–39; Levine, Politics of Representative Identity, 87–89. 17. “Observer” was the usual pseudonym employed by James N. Still. 18. A paraphrase of Acts 12:23.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 22 Aug[ust] 1854.

Hon: Gerrit Smith, My dear Sir. In this week’s paper you will See that I ask your views on Several points.1 Do go into the matters there brought for ward, as fully as you Can. I readily See that your point of look out, has been Such during the Session of Congress just closed, as to afford you Special facilities for forming intelligent views on all the points respecting which I ask you to Speak. Knowing completely your office has exposed you to the inflictions as well as the afflictions of correspondents, I have aimed to trouble you as little as possible. I wanted you to have all your precious time and Strength for this Great work in which you were engaged. I do not regret this prudence and hope you do not.

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Now about your Letter to your ConStituents: Laying aside all friendly partiality of which, I am ConScious, I pronounce it, on every point, except one, an invulnerable and every way Satisfactory document. In every Step of your Congressional movement my heart and judgement have gone with you, except your remarks touching the annexation of Cuba.2 Here I hesitated, and have finally come Strongly to wish, Such views were not your’s. This much is due to frankness. You may ask why I have not Said as much in my paper. I answer, I Saw with Shame and mortification deep & entense, that a Swarm of hungry birds were picking at you, with no other apparent motive than to prove Gerrit Smith as weak as themselves— I did wish to Show myself not of that class. Some of this class of writers, make you a great political Sinner for reSigning your Seat3 in Congress. What would have been lauded as highly democratic and magnanimous in others, is treachery and meanness in you. Giving up place and power, at a point, when that place was every hour becoming more honorable and when that power, was becoming more and more widely felt Should have given rise to other reflections than those with which you have been greeted. My dear Sir, While I do not See the wisdom of the idea of getting Cuba into the union with or without slavery, it is proper to Say, that the avowal one way or the other, does not touch the antiSlavery integrity of any man. A warm personal friend of mine Mr Jennings of Cork4 called on me this after having Spent Several months in Cuba and told me that anexation would be an incalculable benefit to the Slaves of Cuba. He instanced the terrible cruelties of Slavery in Cuba— the enormous disproportion of males to females—the dreadful evils arising therefrom— and the total moral unfitness of the Cuban population to deal with System of Slavery—the entire absence of any thought there, of the Sinfulness of Slavery— made it, as he thought desireable—even to the slaves themselves to be brought under the American government. His argument made an impression on my mind at the time— but did not at all, Satisfy me, that the Slaves of Cuba would be better off, for being in this union. Always most truly yours, FREDERICK DOUGLASS. ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Douglass published a letter to Smith in the 25 August 1854 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, requesting Smith’s impressions of congressional support for antislavery issues. 2. Smith’s views on the annexation of Cuba were published in a letter to his constituents in the 18 August 1854 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Criticized for supporting the annexation of a

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country that had not abolished slavery, Smith defended his position by suggesting that such a union would ultimately bring an end to the African slave trade with Cuba and strengthen the antislavery movement in America. 3. Probably feeling uncustomarily impotent as a member of the small militant antislavery minority in the House of Representatives, Smith submitted his resignation of his seat on 7 August 1854, well before his term’s end. As Douglass states, many abolitionists of a variety of factions criticized Smith for taking that course. Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 331–32. 4. While in Cork, Douglass stayed with Ann and Thomas Jennings and their eight children. Their daughters, Charlotte, Helen, Isabel, and Jane, were active in the Cork Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society and collected contributions for the Boston Anti-Slavery Bazaar. Isabel Jennings served as co-secretary of the society and later supported Douglass’s newspaper through donations to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Bazaar. Clare Taylor, British and American Abolitionists: An Episode in Transatlantic Understanding (Edinburgh, Scot., 1974), 159, 243–44; Patricia J. Ferreira, “Frederick Douglass in Ireland: The Dublin Edition of his Narrative,” New Hibernia Review, 5:57 (Spring 2001); Ellen M. Oldham, “Irish Support of the Abolitionist Movement,” Boston Public Library Quarterly, 10:175–80 (October 1958).

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester, [N.Y.] 23 August 1854.

Hon. Gerrit Smith: My Dear Sir :— Now that you have laid down the burden of Congressional duties, and are among your native Peterborough hills,1 allow me to solicit (what, if given, I am sure, will be of service to the Anti Slavery cause) your views, 1st. Of the present posture of the Anti-Slavery question generally. 2dly. What hope, if any, may be predicated of the present Congress. 3dly. The nature, character, and extent of influence exerted in Congress, by the Anti-Slavery members of the House. 4thly. Who are the most effective supporters of Slavery there, and the means of their efficiency. 5thly. Your impressions concerning the character, learning, ability, of members generally, and anything touching the House of Representatives, which may serve to give the public an insight into the proceedings of that body A compliance with the above, will be gratefully appreciated, by Your faithful friend, FREDERICK DOUGLASS. PLSr: FDP, 25 August 1854. 1. Today the Gerrit Smith Estate is registered as a National Historic Landmark and is located at 4543 Peterboro Road in Peterboro, New York. Gerrit Smith inherited the estate and its thirty acres

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upon the death of his father, Peter Smith, a wealthy land speculator, in 1837. Begun in 1799, the main residence was updated in 1855, but burned down in 1936. While the Smith home had an impressive exterior, the interior was described as austere, since it contained no mirrors, heavy draperies, or expensive carpets and furniture. There were approximately thirty ancillary buildings, which either housed or employed men to maintain the estate. Frothingham, Gerrit Smith, 137–38.

GERRIT SMITH TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Peterboro, [N.Y.] 28 Aug[ust] 1854.

Frederick Douglass : My Dear Friend :— I see, in your last paper, your letter to myself. I shall take great pleasure in answering your questions, since you are of the number of those whose wishes I am especially glad to gratify. 1st. As you are aware, I went to Congress with very little hope of the peaceful termination of American slavery. I have returned with less. I still see no evidence, that the North will act effectually for such termination—for I still see no evidence, that it will act honestly for it. It is true, that I learn of anti-Nebraska indignation meetings,1 all over the North. But this does not greatly encourage me. It is repentance, not indignation, which the North needs to feel, and to manifest. It becomes not the North to be angry with the South about the Nebraska bill, or about any other pro-slavery thing.—Her duty is to confess her shame and sorrow, that her political, ecclesiastical, and commercial influence has gone to uphold slavery, and to deceive the but-too-willing-to-be deceived South into the belief, that slavery is right, or, at least, excusable. Had there been such confession, there would have been no Nebraska bill to get angry about, or to make party capital of. Had there been such confession, the South would have had no heart to extend slavery. All her concern would have been to abolish it. Now, for the North to be honest in the matter of slavery, is to treat it as they would any other great crime; and, therefore, to deny, that there can be a law for it. It is, in a word, to do unto others, in that matter, as they would have others do unto them, in it. Do the people of the North believe, that they would honor and obey slavery, as law, should it ever lay claim to their own necks? If they do not, then they are dishonest, in acknowledging it to be law, when others are its victims. Is it said, that the honesty, which I here commend, would exasperate the South? I answer, that it would go far to conquer the South. Let the

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North say: “We have sinned against our enslaved brother, in acknowledging, that the immeasurable crime against him is capable of the obligations and sacredness of law. We will do so no more—whatever Constitutions and Statutes may require of us, and however great the losses we may suffer in our trade, and in our political and religious party connexions.” Let the North speak such words of penitence and principle—and the South will listen. When the Northern heart begins to melt, the Southern heart, also, will begin to melt. It is demonstrations of our honesty, not of our cunning, which are needed to influence and convert the South. The tricks,2 which Northern Legislatures have resorted to, or threatened to resort to, for the purpose of evading, or nullifying, the fugitive servant clause of the Constitution and the fugitive servant statutes of Congress, can have no tendency to inspire the South either with the fear of us, or the love of us. I need not say it for the ten thousandth time—that my eyes detect no slavery in the Constitution, and that I utterly deny, that the attempt to smuggle slavery into it was, at all, successful. But the great mass of the Northern people widely disagree with me, at this point; and, hence, what is required of them by the spirit of truth and the God of truth is, not to practice indirection and fraud, but frankly to acknowledge, that the South has their bond, and that so wicked is the bond, that conscience constrains them to refuse, at whatever hazard, to fulfil it. I referred to the fact, that my hope of the bloodless termination of American slavery is less now than it was, when I went to Congress. I confess, that I did hope to find some Southern men there, who are willing to aid in bringing about such a termination. But I found none of them, who are willing to lift so much, as a finger, to this end. A few Southern members of Congress seek, by means of nonsensical and wicked speculations on the nature of the African and on the Divine purposes, to persuade themselves, that slavery is right in itself. As a matter of course, such contend, that slavery should endure forever. But even with the mass of them, the case is very little more hopeful.—It is true, that they admit, that slavery is, in itself, an evil. But they will do nothing to put an end to it. They had rather amuse themselves with the notion, that Colonization will drain it off, or with some other equally great absurdity—if, indeed, there is, or can be, any other as great. The more, however, that I know of this class of Southern men, the more satisfied I am, that even those of them, who are the most deeply convinced of the wrongfulness of slavery, regard the evil as too formidable for their little courage to grapple with. They are

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cowed in the presence of its magnitude: and they prefer to let it roll on to an indefinite future, and to a posterity, which, they hope, will have more advantages than now exist, for happily disposing of it. 2nd. You ask, if the anti-slavery cause has any thing to hope for from the present Congress. It has not. What can Liberty hope from a Congress, that commits so heinous a crime against her, as to pass the Nebraska bill? What from a House of Representatives,3 not fifty members of which dared to say, that they were in favor of repealing the fugitive slave Act? 3d. You wish my opinions of the influence of the anti-slavery members of Congress.—I had rather give you my opinions of the members; and, then, you can judge for yourself what must be the character and extent of the influence, which they exert. I take it for granted, that you mean by anti-slavery members those only, who are known as abolitionists, and who accept the reproach of being abolitionists. Chase4 is wise, learned, upright. He is an able lawyer and an able statesman. His range of thought and information is wide; and, even without special preparation, he can speak well on the subjects, that come before him. Sumner5 is not so ready and versatile, as Chase. But put into his hands a subject, which interests his heart—Peace or Freedom, for instance—and give him time to elaborate it—and where is the man, who can speak or write better? Sumner is as guileless and ingenuous as a child: and, hence my astonishment at the base and ferocious feeling manifested toward him, at one period of the Session. Chase and Sumner are gentlemen—christian gentlemen. Great is my love of them: and were I to add, “passing the love of women,”6 I should not be guilty of great extravagance. Gillette7 has been in the Senate but a short time:—long enough, however, to give evidence, that he has a sound head and a sound heart. He loves the anti slavery cause, as well as Chase and Sumner; and surpasses them in zeal for the no less precious cause of temperance. To come to the abolitionists in the House. All know “Old Giddings.”8 An able man is he. His rough, strong, common sense is worth infinitely more than the refinement and polish of which so many light-minded men are vain. He is ready and powerful in debate. An honest and fearless man, too, is he. I shall never forget the many proofs which I witnessed of his unflinching devotion to the right and the true. If his severity upon slaveholders is, sometimes, excessive, nevertheless it is not for them to complain of it. He learned it of them. Or, to say the least, it is a very natural retaliation for the wrongs and outrages, which, for a dozen or fifteen years, they have

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been industriously heaping upon him. Greatly do I rejoice to see that the friends of freedom have taken him up for another election to Congress. They honor themselves in honoring him. There should not be one vote against him. I must not fail to advert, in this connexion, to my great obligations9 to Mr. Giddings for the assistance, which he so kindly and generously afforded me, in my ignorance of the rules of the House. We turn, next, to Edward Wade of Ohio. A stranger, looking over the House, would make no account of that black little fellow, who sits, in one corner of it. But let him read Edward Wade’s remarkably strong speech on the Nebraska bill,10 or hear one of his pithy five minutes speeches, and he will find that he has another occasion for applying the Savior’s injunction: “Judge not according to the appearance.”11 Wade is an eminently conscientious and religious man. I am glad to see, that he, too, is nominated for another election to Congress. He should be, as often as he is willing to take the nomination. Colonel DeWitt12 of Massachusetts was sick much of the Session. All, who were so fortunate, as to become acquainted with him, were impressed with his good sense, generous disposition, and agreeable manners. As Davis13 of Rhode Island was chosen by the Democratic party, that party may not thank me for calling him an abolitionist.—Nevertheless, he is one. He has a mother’s heart for every human being, and that makes him an abolitionist. I sat next to him, during the whole Session: and I esteemed it no small privilege to sit, for so long a time, by the side of one, who is so sincere, so affectionate, so philanthropic. Davis is a plain, not forcible, speaker. The city of Providence owes him much for his effective speeches in behalf of a large, (perhaps, too large) appropriation for building her custom-house. I have, now, spoken of all the abolitionists in Congress, save myself: and, since, in the judgment of many, I have fallen from abolition grace, I had better not speak of myself. Do not exult over my apostacy. Even you, though a literally “died in the wool”14 abolitionist, should rather be admonished by my apostacy to take heed lest you yourself fall. 4th. In answer to your fourth question, I would say, that all the members of Congress, who belong to the Whig or Democratic party, are necessarily “supporters of slavery.” Every national party in this country must be pro-slavery. The South will come into no party, and abide in no party, that is anti-slavery I cheerfully admit, that there is many a Whig, and that there is many a Democrat, earnestly anti-slavery. Nevertheless, their

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individual influence against slavery is as nothing compared with their party influence for it. As well may a man, with a mill-stone tied to his neck,15 try to save his drowning fellows, as a Whig or a Democrat try, under his heavy pro-slavery load, to promote the anti-slavery cause. His antislavery endeavors, however sincere, are all frustrated by his pro-slavery party connexion: and that connexion must be dissolved ere he can give effect to those endeavors.—Our national parties, ecclesiastical, as well as political, once abolished and the peaceful death of slavery would be a speedy event.—But the great reason, why we are denied the prospect of this happy event, is that the members of these parties love them too well, and are too far under their infatuating influence, to consent to their abolition. 5th. I proceed to answer your last inquiry. There are in the House a number of gentlemen of remarkable capacity and training for the transaction of business. Conspicuously among them are Haven16 of New York, and Orr17 of South Carolina, and Phelps18 of Mobile—all three of whom are not only judicious, and clear-headed, but swift, in business. Breckenridge19 of Kentucky is, perhaps, behind none of them. He gave us but few specimens of his powers. They were sufficient, however, to prove, that his very keen and vigorous intellect is habituated to business. Judging from the admirable discharge of his duties, as Speaker, Boyd20 of Kentucky must be, in all aspects, one of the best business men in the House. Letcher21 of Virginia, and Jones22 of Tennessee, are as expert in stopping business, as any members of the House are in doing it: and to stop business is, often times, more meritorious and useful than to do it. Chandler23 of Pennsylvania, is prominent among the scholars of the House. Judge Perkins24 of Louisiana, struck me as a gentleman of very great refinement, both in mind and manner. F. P. Stanton25 has a rich and beautiful mind. Its turn is as speculative, as R. H. Stanton’s26 is practical. The former of these brothers lives in Tennessee. The latter in Kentucky. With the single exception of Richard, who is all facts and figures, the whole Stanton family, in several of its generations, is highly poetical. The House can boast of wits, also. Ewing27 of Kentucky, is inferior to none of them. I could name several members of the House who are decidedly eloquent. Gov. Smith28 of Virginia, with his lively mind, smooth and ready utterance, and various other qualities, must be very effective “on the stump.”29 I wish Banks30 of Massachusetts, would lay hold of themes worthy of his fine powers of oratory. He would find it easier to be eloquent on

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them than on inferior subjects. Indeed, a great cause is itself eloquence; and the most, which he, who speaks for it, needs to do, is to stand out of its way, and let it speak for itself. Benton31 in respect to his remarkable fulness of political knowledge, and, in some other respects also, is, of course, the great man of the House. But he is not the only strong man there. There are more than twenty in the Body, who deserve to be called strong men. There is no lack of talent in it. I wish I could add, that there is no lack of morals and manners in it. But, whilst some of the members are emphatically gentlemen, in their spirit and in their personal habits, there are more of them, who use profane language, or defile themselves with tobacco, or poison themselves with rum. I trust, that the day has already dawned, in which it will not be allowed, that gentlemen can be guilty of such coarse and insulting wickedness, of such sheer nastiness, and of such low and mad sensuality. You were a slave, until you had reached manhood. Hence, the world is surprised, that you have risen into the highest class of public writers and public speakers.—It is no less cause of surprise, how ever, that you are a dignified and refined gentleman. Nevertheless, gentle man, and scholar, and orator, as you are, there are strenuous objections to your taking your seat in Congress. How ludicrous a figure, in the eye of reason, is that member of Congress (and there are more than fifty such!) who, in one breath, swears, that he would not so disgrace himself, as to sit by the side of “Fred. Douglass;” and who, in the next breath, squirts his tobacco juice upon the carpet! I became pretty well acquainted with nearly all the members of the House. In very many of them there was much to please me—much, indeed, to win my affectionate regards. Nevertheless, I could not be blind to the glaring fact, that Congress preeminently needs to witness the achievements of the Temperance reformation,32 and the Tobacco reformation,33 and the religion of Jesus Christ. Your friend, GERRIT SMITH. PLSr: FDP, 1 September 1854; NASS, 16 September 1854; [Gerrit Smith], Speeches of Gerrit Smith in Congress (New York, 1856), 403–11. 1. Stephen A. Douglas introduced his legislation to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska in January 1854, and it passed after considerable amending on 30 May 1854. Public protests against the measure’s voiding of the Missouri Compromise’s provisions restricting slavery within the old Louisiana Purchase began almost immediately in the North. The anti-Nebraska political coalitions produced as a result eventually merged into the Republican party. Louis Filler, The Crusade against Slavery, 1830–1860 (London, 1960), 229–30; Ray, Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 16, 182–87.

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2. Both article IV, section 2, clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, also known as the Fugitive Slave Clause, and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 provided for the legal return of slaves who had escaped to freedom. In 1842, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Prigg v. Pennsylvania that state officials were not required to assist in the return of fugitive slaves, essentially rendering efforts to recover slaves impossible. Connecticut passed a law that forbade judges to take cognizance of such cases; Indiana, New York, and Vermont had laws that provided for trial by jury in cases involving fugitive slaves; and Pennsylvania and Ohio passed laws to prevent kidnapping. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 attempted to circumvent all such legal obstructions by bringing federal authority to bear on the rendition of runaway slaves, but instead caused several Northern states to enact a new series of “personal liberty laws” in the 1850s to protect accused runaway slaves. John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (New York, 1994), 192; Campbell, Slave Catchers, 10; EAAH, 1:278–81. 3. Smith alludes to the failure of antislavery congressmen to get the House of Representatives to consider resolutions submitted from several Northern states during the Thirty-third Congress for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, as well as defeat of the Kansas-Nebraska legislation. Charles Sumner headed similar efforts in the U.S. Senate. Derek R. Everett, “Frontiers Within: State Boundaries and Borderlands in the American West” (Ph.D. diss., University of Arkansas, 2008), 65–66. 4. Salmon P. Chase. 5. Charles Sumner. 6. 2 Sam. 1:26. 7. Francis Gillette (1807–79) was born in Connecticut and graduated from Yale College in 1829. He served as a Whig member in the Connecticut house of representatives in 1832, 1836, and 1838, where he aligned himself with the legislature’s antislavery contingent and supported an amendment in 1838 to remove the word “white” from the Connecticut state constitution. Gillette’s home in Hartford, Connecticut, was used as a station on the Underground Railroad. He ran unsuccessfully as the Liberty party’s candidate for governor of Connecticut in 1841. From 1841 to 1853, Gillette made repeated runs for the governor’s office as a candidate of the Liberty party and then the Free Soil party. In 1854, Gillette was elected as a Free Soil party candidate to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate, where he served until the end of 1855; he did not run for reelection. During his brief stay in Congress, Gillette voted against the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Gillette went on to help found the Republican party in Connecticut, worked in the temperance movement, and was active in educational reform, serving as chairman of the state board of education from 1849 to 1865. Darcy G. Richardson, Others: ThirdParty Politics From the Nation’s Founding to the Rise and Fall of the Greenback-Labor Party, (Lincoln, Neb., 2004), 399; BDUSC (online). 8. Joshua Reed Giddings (1795–1864), a radical abolitionist and congressman from Ohio, was first elected to the House of Representatives as a Whig in 1838. He vigorously opposed the gag rule, the annexation of Texas, and the Mexican War. In 1842, Giddings was sanctioned by the House for his actions during negotiations with Great Britain over the Creole affair. While negotiations were underway, he introduced resolutions supporting the right of slaves aboard the British ship to mutiny. In 1848, Giddings left the Whig party to join the Free Soilers and then allied himself with the Republicans after the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In late October 1852, Giddings went to New York, where he joined Douglass in the campaign to elect Smith to Congress. FDP, 29 October 1852; Stewart, Joshua R. Giddings; ACAB, 4:478; BDUSC (online). 9. Giddings befriended Smith after his election, frequently dining with him and working with him to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 317, 329. 10. During House debate on the Kansas-Nebraska Act on 3 May 1854, Edward Wade of Ohio announced his opposition to the legislation. Specifically, Wade opposed the extension of suffrage only to whites and “the exclusion of all foreigners from its bounty” in the government of those territories. FDP, 19 May 1854. 11. John 7:24.

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12. Alexander De Witt (1798–1879) was a congressman from Oxford, Massachusetts. Of limited education, De Witt began working at fifteen in the manufacturing of cotton thread. He also held numerous positions, primarily directorships, in the railroad, banking, and insurance industries. De Witt’s public service began in the state legislature (1830–36), followed by four terms in the state senate (1842–53), and two terms in Congress (1853–57). He is best known for his participation in the Free Soil party. It is unknown how he came to be called “colonel.” Lowell (Mass.) Daily Citizen, 15 January 1879; Thomas William Herringshaw, Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography, 5 vols. (Chicago, 1909–14), 2:263; BDUSC (online). 13. Thomas Davis. 14. Perhaps Smith miswrote the idiom “dyed in the wool.” The phrase, originating from a description of how raw wool retains dye, is often used to express a person’s intransigence. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 427–28. 15. Possibly a paraphrase of Matt. 18:6, Mark 9:42, or Luke 17:2. 16. Solomon George Haven (1810–61) was a Whig congressman from western New York who served three terms. Haven received a common education and was privately tutored in the classics. While he was working on a medical degree, his interests changed, and he entered into the study of law under the direction of Governor John Young while supporting himself by teaching school. Haven became a partner in the firm of Fillmore, Hall, and Haven. His public service included terms as commissioner of deeds, district attorney, and mayor of Buffalo before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. ACAB, 3:118; BDUSC (online). 17. James Lawrence Orr (1822–1873) was a Democratic congressman from South Carolina. He held the position of Speaker of the House during the Thirty-fifth Congress (1857–59). Educated at the University of Virginia, Orr established and ran the Anderson (S.C.) Gazette for two years before entering the practice of law. He served two terms as a state representative before being elected to Congress in 1848. Orr continued with public service after leaving Congress in 1860, serving as a Confederate state senator, governor of South Carolina, and a circuit court judge. Ulysses S. Grant appointed him U.S. minister to Russia, where he served until his death. Gerrit Smith’s observations regarding Orr’s business acumen may be attributed to his well-articulated stances on such economic issues as the tariff, public debt, and the national bank. Roger P. Leemhuis, James L. Orr and the Sectional Conflict (Washington, D.C., 1979); ACAB, 4:593; ANB, 16:768–69; BDUSC (online). 18. Born in Simsbury, Connecticut, John Smith Phelps (1814–86) was a Democratic congressman from Missouri (1845–63). Educated at Washington (Trinity) College in Hartford, Connecticut, Phelps practiced law in his hometown before moving to Missouri in 1837. He maintained a large farm and continued the practice of law until he entered the Missouri legislature in 1840, and then served for eighteen years in Congress. He chaired the influential Committee on Ways and Means during the time of Smith’s brief career in the House. When the Civil War broke out, Phelps enlisted as a private in a Missouri Union regiment, rising to the rank of colonel. He was later appointed military governor of Arkansas by Abraham Lincoln. Phelps continued to practice law until his death. ANB, 17:431–32; BDUSC (online). 19. John Cabell Breckinridge (1821–75), of Lexington, Kentucky, was a lawyer, soldier, and Democratic politician. Educated at Centre College, Transylvania University, and the College of New Jersey (Princeton), he won election to the state legislature in 1849, to Congress in 1851, and to the vice presidency in 1856. In 1859, while still vice president, he was chosen to fill a Senate term slated to begin in March 1861. During the 1860 Democratic convention in Charleston, South Carolina, he declined to be considered a presidential candidate, but later accepted nomination by the anti-Douglas wing of the party, which met in Baltimore in June 1860. In the general election, Breckinridge received nearly 700,000 votes, running third behind Lincoln and Douglas. In his brief tenure as senator, he attempted to ward off secession by urging the implementation of the Crittenden Compromise. When Union troops secured Kentucky, Breckinridge resigned from the Senate and joined both the Kentucky (Confederate) provisional government and the Confederate army, in which he rose to the

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rank of major general. After the war, Breckinridge escaped to Cuba and lived briefly in Europe and Canada before returning to his Kentucky law practice in 1868. William C. Davis, Breckinridge: Statesman, Soldier, Symbol (Baton Rouge, La., 1974); Heck, Proud Kentuckian; DAB, 3:7–10. 20. Linn Boyd (1800–59) was a Democratic congressman from Kentucky (1835–37, 1839–55). He received little formal education, ‘and became a farmer and a politician, following in his father’s footsteps. His public career began in the Kentucky statehouse, where he served four terms. Initially elected to Congress as a supporter of Andrew Jackson, Boyd capped his Washington career by serving for two terms as Speaker of the House (1851–55), including the turbulent period surrounding the House approval of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Boyd was later elected lieutenant governor, but died before taking office. Holman Hamilton, “Kentucky’s Linn Boyd and the Dramatic Days of 1850,” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, 55:3, 185–95 (July 1957); ACAB, 1:340–41; DAB, 2:527–28; ANB, 3:313–14; BDUSC (online). 21. John Letcher (1813–84) was educated at Randolph-Macon College and Washington College, both in Virginia. The editor of the Lexington (Va.) Valley Star from 1840 to 1850, Letcher also practiced law. He served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1851–59) as a Democrat. Gerrit Smith’s observation about Letcher’s business acumen may be attributed to the latter’s conservative stand against governmental spending. After leaving the House, Letcher held the governorship of Virginia (1860–64) during most of the Civil War. F. N. Boney, John Letcher of Virginia: The Story of Virginia’s Civil War Governor (University, Ala., 1966); ACAB, 3:699; DAB, 11:192; ANB, 13:526–28; BDUSC (online). 22. George Washington Jones (1806–84) was born in Virginia and later migrated with his family to Tennessee. Jones was apprenticed to work in the saddle trade. He held several public offices before being elected to the state legislature in 1835, where he established a reputation for honesty and integrity. His tenure in the state senate was marked by his distrust of banks. Jones was particularly proud of his support for the bill that abolished imprisonment for debt. Jones resigned his seat in 1840 for a position as court clerk of Lincoln County. Jones returned to politics, winning the first of eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1843. Jones sat on the Ways and Means Committee for three terms. Considered an expert on parliamentary procedure, he frequently presided over the House when the Speaker stepped down. Jones withdrew from his race for reelection in 1859, but remained active in state politics, becoming president of the state party convention in 1860 and representing Tennessee’s 7th District in the Confederate Congress. Jonathan Atkins, “The Purest Democrat: The Career of Congressman George W. Jones,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 65:21 (Spring 2006); BDUSC (online). 23. A native of Massachusetts, Joseph Ripley Chandler (1792–1880) relocated to Philadelphia, where he operated a female seminary and edited several periodicals. He became president of the board of directors of Girard College, founded to educate orphan boys; in addition, he championed prison reform. Elected to Congress in 1849 as a Whig, Chandler served three terms, but was defeated for reelection in 1854. In Congress, Chandler was known for scholarliness and eloquence. President Buchanan later appointed Chandler U.S. minister to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. He was an accomplished writer, publishing books, essays, pamphlets, and addresses on a number of subjects. ACAB, 1:573; DAB, 3:614–15; BDUSC (online). 24. John Perkins, Jr. (1819–85), was born in Natchez, Mississippi. Son of a cotton planter and judge, he graduated from Yale College and Harvard Law School and established a law practice in New Orleans. He began public service in 1851 when he was appointed district judge. Perkins was elected to the Thirty-third Congress in 1852, serving one term before returning to the bench. He then served as a delegate to the Louisiana Secession Convention in Baton Rouge in 1861. As chairman of the Committee of Fifteen, Perkins prepared the secession ordinance that was passed on 16 January 1861. He later served in the Congress of the Confederate States. At the conclusion of the Civil War, Perkins briefly resided in Mexico and Europe, returning to Louisiana shortly before his death. Robert Dabney Calhoun, “The John Perkins Family of Northeast Louisiana,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, 19:70–88 (January 1936); BDUSC (online).

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25. A native of Alexandria, Virginia, Frederick Perry Stanton (1814–94) attended Columbian College, now George Washington University, in 1833. Upon graduation, he read law, was admitted to the bar of Alexandria in 1834, and later practiced in Memphis, Tennessee. Stanton was elected to Congress in 1845 as a Democratic representative from Tennessee, and served for the next ten years. He was first a member and then chair of the Committee for Naval Affairs. His last term in congress was spent on the Judiciary Committee, which he chaired, too. In 1857, President Buchanan selected Stanton as governor of the Kansas Territory. Stanton, a supporter of slavery, appointed delegates to the Lecompton Convention, which drew up a state constitution authorizing slavery. Stanton later took notice of the people’s’ wishes, reevaluated his own views, and helped promote a referendum on the Lecompton constitution. The vote resulted in the defeat of the constitution, after which Stanton switched his political affiliation to the Free-State party. He remained territorial governor until Kansas’s admission to the Union in 1861, when he was defeated for a seat in the U.S. Senate. During the Civil War, Stanton returned east to practice law in Washington, D.C., and later settled in Florida. ACAB, 5:650; DAB, 17:523–24; BDUSC (online). 26. The older brother of Frederick Perry Stanton, Richard Henry Stanton (1812–91) was also born in Alexandria, Virginia. He studied law and began a legal practice in Maysville, Kentucky, in 1835. From 1835 to 1842, he also edited the Maysville Monitor. A Democrat, Stanton served in Congress from 1849 to 1855. After failing to be reelected to a fourth term, Stanton worked as Kentucky’s state attorney from 1858 to 1861. After serving as a district judge from 1868 to 1874, he practiced law until his retirement in 1885. BDUSC (online). 27. After attending public schools, Presley Underwood Ewing (1822–54) graduated from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and Transylvania University’s law school in Lexington, Kentucky; he studied theology, too, at the Baptist Seminary at Newton, Massachusetts. He later practiced law in Russellville until being elected to the Kentucky legislature (1848–49). In 1851, Ewing was elected as a Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives; he died in office. BDUSC (online). 28. William Smith (1797–1887) was born in Marengo, King George County, Virginia, and educated at private schools in both Virginia and Connecticut, where he studied law. Admitted to the bar in 1818, Smith began practicing in Culpeper, Culpeper County, Virginia. After establishing a line of U.S. mail and passenger coaches through four states in 1831, Smith served in Virginia’s state senate from 1836 to 1841. He was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives (1841–43), but lost his bid for a second term. Smith was elected governor of Virginia in 1846 and served in that position until 1849. In that year, Smith made an unsuccessful attempt to run for the U.S. Senate. He moved to California, where in 1850 he served as the president of the first Democratic state convention. After returning to Virginia in 1852, Smith was again elected to the U.S. House, where he served until 1861. Following Virginia’s secession, Smith served as colonel of the Forty-ninth Regiment of the Virginia Infantry, and was eventually promoted to major general, despite being “wholly ignorant of drill and tactics.” He was elected to the Confederate Congress in 1862 and became governor of Virginia in 1864, where he served until 1865. He subsequently retired to his estate near Warrentown, Virginia, where he served as a member of the state board of delegates from 1877 to 1879. Concord NewHampshire Statesman and State Journal, 19 December 1845; Richmond Daily Examiner, 2 January 1864; Atchison (Kan.) Daily Globe, 28 March 1887; Richard Nelson Current, ed., Encyclopedia of the Confederacy, 4 vols. (New York, 1993), 4:1479–81; BDUSC (online). 29. The phrase “on the stump” refers to the use of a tree stump as a platform for public speakers. Over time, it came to be associated with political orators. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1334. 30. After completing a common-school education in Waltham, Massachusetts, and a stint in a cotton mill superintended by his father, Nathaniel Prentiss Banks (1816–94) pursued a number of occupations—actor, lawyer, newspaper editor—before winning election to the Massachusetts legislature on his seventh attempt. Banks served two terms in Congress (1853–57), first as a Democrat and then as a Know-Nothing. He resigned from Congress to serve three one-year terms as the Republican governor of Massachusetts. In 1861, Banks was appointed major general in the Union army, but in

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December 1862, following two defeats by Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, he was transferred to Louisiana to replace Benjamin Butler as commander of the occupation forces. Banks received considerable censure from abolitionist groups for his attempts to accommodate Louisiana planters by establishing a code for black labor that coerced “idle” freedmen either to return to their plantations or to work on government-controlled estates. In the spring of 1864, Banks’s skill as a military commander again came into question when his expedition up the Red River was routed by the Confederates. His checkered military career did not, however, deter Massachusetts voters from sending him back to Congress for seven more intermittent terms after the Civil War. Fred Harvey Harrington, Fighting Politician: Major General N. P. Banks (Philadelphia, 1948); C. Peter Ripley, Slaves and Freedmen in Civil War Louisiana (Baton Rouge, La., 1976), 45–56; James M. McPherson, The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction (Princeton, N.J., 1964), 128–31; ACAB, 1:158–59; NCAB, 4:222–23; DAB, 1:577–80. 31. Thomas Hart Benton. 32. Uncoordinated efforts to reduce the excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages began in the United States in the early nineteenth century. The large-scale religious revival movement known as the Second Great Awakening made “teetotalism,” or the total abstention from all alcohol, a goal of its moral reformation of the nation. The American Temperance Union (ATU), founded in 1826, claimed over a million members, female as well as male, in 8,000 chapters across the country. Nationally, temperance movement activities focused primarily on the evils of alcohol consumption and intoxication, the benefits of abstinence, and on changing American alcohol culture through moral reform. Locally, some temperance groups looked to restrict public access to alcohol as a way to limit consumption. In 1851, Maine instituted a statewide prohibition on the manufacture and sale of alcohol, setting a model that eleven other Northern states soon copied. Strong opposition from alcohol manufacturers, immigrant groups, the courts, and many politicians, however, caused this early experiment in prohibition to be abandoned by the start of the Civil War. Ian R. Tyrell, Sobering Up: From Temperance to Prohibition in Antebellum America, 1800–1860 (Westport, Conn., 1979), 33–48, 135–59, 195–206; W. J. Rorabaugh, The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition (New York, 1981), 5–122. 33. The antebellum movement to curtail tobacco consumption developed in parallel with the larger antialcohol campaign. Criticism of tobacco usage dated to the colonial era, but organized efforts to prohibit the practice of smoking began in the years following the Second Great Awakening. The American Anti-Tobacco Society, formed in 1849, focused on the deleterious impact of smoking on health and morals. The society and many individual reformers prepared and circulated literature aimed at changing public attitudes regarding smoking. The Civil War, however, produced an increase in the smoking of cigars and the newly introduced cigarettes, erasing most of the progress made by the original antitobacco crusade. Ruth Clifford Engs, Clean Living Movements: American Cycles of Health Reform (Westport, Conn., 2000), 42–44; Joseph C. Robert, The Story of Tobacco in America (New York, 1949), 106–11.

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AMOS GERRY BEMAN1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS New Haven, Conn. 4 Sept[ember] 1854.

Mr. Douglass: Dear Sir :— Previous to the arrival of your paper of the 1st inst., I had been informed by a mutual friend—one of the members of the Council, and present at the recent meeting in Cleveland, Ohio2—that W. H. Day,3 Esq., and others, had protested against the fairness and truthfulness of your published account of that meeting. Well, I took the paper expecting to find clear and explicit charges and specifications against that statement, with the proof in the shape of testimony from those who were members of the Council, and present all the time, and, therefore, able to “speak of what they knew, and to testify of what they had seen;[“] but I must say, that I am disappointed, and after carefully reviewing the whole proceedings of the Council, I am satisfied, however painful the avowal, that your statement, in all material points, is a fair and truthful representation of the doings and spirit of that meeting.—This is my opinion. “To accuse and prove are very different things;”4 and when the protesters shall proceed to fulfil their pledge now given to the public, and present a statement of facts with the proof by which they are sustained, I shall with pleasure and candor examine it in the light of what I know to be the facts in the case, and will only say now, “that when they next do ride a race, may I be there to see.” Respectfully yours, AMOS GERRY BEMAN. PLSr: FDP, 8 September 1854. 1. Denied regular admission to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, Amos Gerry Beman (1812–74) studied privately with a white student until, threatened with physical violence, he left for Hartford, where he taught briefly in a black school. In 1835 he studied at the Oneida Institute. Three years later the Hartford North Association of Congregational Churches accepted Beman as a licensed candidate for the ministry, and in 1841 he became the first settled black pastor of the Temple Street African Church in New Haven. Like his father, Jehiel C. Beman, he combined preaching with active participation in several reform movements. At the founding convention of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1840, Beman filled the post of assistant secretary, and in 1844 and 1845 he served as president of Connecticut’s black temperance society. In 1843 he presided at the National Convention of Colored Citizens in Buffalo; twelve years later, at the Philadelphia convention, he was again in the chair. In the interim, he led an unsuccessful campaign for black suffrage in Connecticut and held numerous convention offices. The Rochester convention of 1853 named Beman an original delegate to the National Council. In 1858, Beman resigned his New Haven pulpit, partly in response to pressures generated by his marriage to a white woman after the death of his first wife

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in 1856. A succession of scattered and briefly held jobs in New England and on Long Island followed. After the Civil War, he engaged in Presbyterian mission work among Tennessee freedmen and served short ministries in Baltimore, Maryland, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Throughout his later career, Beman maintained a New Haven residence, and in 1872 he served as chaplain of the Connecticut senate. Proceedings of the Colored National Convention, 1853, 46; Cleveland Gazette, 2 February 1884; New Haven (Conn.) Palladium, 15, 16 May 1888; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 46, 68, 79, 112; Robert A. Warner, “Amos Gerry Beman—1812–1874, A Memoir on a Forgotten Leader,” JNH, 22:200–221 (April 1937); David O. White, “Hartford’s African Schools, 1830–1868,” Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin, 39:47–53 (April 1974); Patrick C. Kennicott, “Negro Antislavery Speakers in America” (Ph.D. diss., Florida State University, 1967), 58–61. 2. A meeting of the National Council, created by the July 1853 Rochester National Convention of Colored Citizens, convened in Cleveland, Ohio, on 19 July 1854. Douglass reported the proceedings of this meeting in his newspaper on 28 July 1854. William D. Day, William C. Nell, and three others publicly protested that Douglass had knowingly published “gross misrepresentations” of what had occurred in Cleveland, especially in regard to their arguments against the Council’s proposed Manual Labor Institute. In the 1 September 1853 issue of his newspaper, to which Beman alludes, Douglass published brief letters from three Council members, J. D. Bonner, John F. Williams, and William H. Storum, attesting to the accuracy of his reporting. FDP, 28 July, 1 September 1854. 3. William Howard Day. 4. John 3:11.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO AMOS GERRY BEMAN Rochester[, N.Y.] 6 Sept[ember] 1854.

Dear Amos, Thank you. That will do exactly. We Stand five to six1—and have the advantage of Standing like six individual men—and not like “nine pins”2— Set up only to be knocked down. Day3 and Nell.4 head and tail Booker and Wall— Halland5 all. Are now driven to the wall. The paper has been Sent to the Rev. E. P. Rogers6 —as you have directed me—and that dollar came Safely to hand for which, the thanks of your friend FREDERICK DOUGLASS. ALS: Amos Beman Manuscripts, CtNHAAHS. 1. Douglass refers to the division of opinion on the National Council of the Colored People over support of the Manual Labor Institute at the group’s 19 July 1854 meeting at Cleveland. FDP, 28 July 1854. 2. In ninepins, an early form of bowling, a player threw a heavy wooden ball (called a bowl) at nine pins set on the ground in an attempt to knock them down. If a player knocked down all the pins

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before his or her turn was up, the pins were reset up for an extra throw. After each player’s turn, the pins were set up for the next player. George Forrest, Every Boy’s Book: A Complete Encyclopædia of Sports and Amusements, Intended to Afford Recreation and Instruction to Boys in Their Leisure Hours (New York, 1855), 32. 3. William H. Day. 4. William Cooper Nell (1816–74), a black Garrisonian abolitionist, was the original publisher of Douglass’s North Star. A graduate of Boston’s segregated Smith School, Nell studied law but never practiced. During the early 1840s, he worked for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and the Liberator. From 1847 to 1851 he assisted Douglass on the North Star and served as acting editor when Douglass was absent on speaking tours. Nell remained a Garrisonian loyalist and severed his ties with the North Star when Douglass shifted his allegiances to the political abolitionist faction led by Gerrit Smith. At meetings of the Colored National Convention and its Council in the 1850s, Nell, an opponent of racially exclusive organizations, attacked Douglass’s plans for a black manual-labor college on the grounds that it would hinder, not help, the movement for racial equality. In addition to his abolitionist activities, Nell wrote important pioneer histories of American blacks. In 1858, Nell staged the first Crispus Attucks celebration. During Lincoln’s administration, Nell was appointed to be a clerk in the Boston post office. NS, 16 February 1849; FDP, 12, 19 August, 9 December 1853, 28  February, 31 March 1854, 12 January 1856; San Francisco Elevator, 27 June 1874; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 86, 245, 254; Robert P. Smith, “William Cooper Nell: Crusading Black Abolitionist,” JNH, 55:182–99 (July 1970); NCAB, 14:306; ACAB, 4:489; DAB, 13:413. 5. William H. Day and William C. Nell rallied most of their support on the National Council from Ohio African Americans. John Booker of Columbus had been active in state organizations of free blacks in Ohio since the late 1840s. O. S. B. Wall of Oberlin attended the Ohio black state convention in 1858. Justin Holland (1819–87), a black Cleveland musician, had written to the 1850 convention advocating efforts to enfranchise African American males. NS, 8 December 1848; FDP, 28 July 1854; Foner and Walker, Black State Conventions, 1:219, 242, 247, 250, 254, 258, 274–75, 318–19, 332–33, 337; Barbara Clemenson, “Justin Holland: Black Guitarist in the Western Reserve,” Western Reserve Studies Symposium (Cleveland, 1989), 7. 6. Probably the Reverend Elymas Payson Rogers (1815–61). The son of a Connecticut free black farm family, Rogers was educated in Hartford. He taught in Peterboro and Rochester, New York, and then attended the Oneida Institute. In 1841, Rogers settled in Newark, New Jersey, where he again taught, and four years later he became a Presbyterian minister, presiding over the Plane Street Church for fourteen years. A supporter of Henry H. Garnet’s African Civilization Society, Rogers sailed to Africa as a missionary but died after less than two months there. DANB, 531.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 7 Sept[ember]1854.

Hon: Gerrit Smith. My dear friend, I have this moment got your letter. The great wrong done1 to our mutual friend (for he is my friend as well as yours) Hon: Thomas Davis, has been as well repared as it could be in this weeks edition of my paper. The whole thing is bad, and I have Suffered much about it—yet I cannot Say as you do, that the loss of a thousand dollars from my pockit book, would not

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have hurt me So much as that mistake. Money is too useful too Scarce with me too hard to get hold of and too easily got rid of in a thousand ways, and I am too often called upon by printers and paper makers to pay what I owe, to make the thought of Such a comparison, possible with me. Your letter2 was addressed to me. I was proud to have, what I must call the most beautiful letter I remember ever to have read, addressed to me. I was anxious from the moment I received it—and knowing my inaptitude as to little niceties, in composition, I did not trust myself to read the proof but gave it into the hands of my friend Miss Griffiths3 and the printer—with every injunction, that the letter Should appear absolutely free from errors. That great pains were taken with that letter I know. I am pained and mortified at the result. Had I read the proof mySelf which other errors might have crept into your letter—I think this would not—for I know Thomas Davis—have known him long. I have heard him Speak often. To me, he is even more than a plain and forcible Speaker— he is really eloquent. I have heard him, when his words have had that in them in them, which goes Straight to the Soul—and Shakes the Spirits of men. The best place in the world to try a man’s eloquence—is among his friends and neighbors—at a moment—when Some great interest is excited—and there is derision. The man that can arrest his neighbors and compel them to Stand Still when they were just about to rush on—or who can rouse them to action, when they have been revitted to the Spot by doubt—is what I call an eloquent man, and Such a man is Thomas Davis. I have Seen the proofs of what I Say in him. At the time when the Suffrage Party of Rhode Island4 committed the Sad mistake of reStricting the rights of Suffrage to white persons in the new Constitution—a mistake the effects of which that party is Suffering from at this day. Though it was committed under Strong temptation and twelve years ago—Mr Davis was deeply moved against the injustice, and poured out repeated denunciations against it, which would have commanded attention for the Speaker, in the most dignified body on earth. His Speeches were usually Short but I observed that the effect they produced was lasting. Knowing Mr Davis as I do know him—I should have detected the injustice my types have done him— But Thomas Davis is not only and eloquent man H he is also a reasonable man—and I am Sure you can make all right with him. I would write to him mySelf but I much dislike to intrude mySelf upon the attention of men So much engaged as he is. Always yours Truly FRED. DOUGLASS.

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ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Douglass expresses regret over some compositorial errors published in Frederick Douglass’ Paper and indicates the extent of his regret by comparing it to a substantial financial loss. Douglass printed a letter from Gerrit Smith dated 28 August 1854 in the 1 September issue. In the letter, Smith discussed Thomas Davis, but the reprinted version contained errors that made some of Smith’s intended compliments appear unflattering. Specifically, the reprint stated that Davis “has a mother’s [instead of ‘brother’s’] heart for every human being.” Also, Smith considered Davis to be “a plain, not [instead of ‘but’] forcible, speaker.” The “repair” that Douglass mentions is a brief correction posted in the 8 September issue. FDP, 1, 8 September 1854. 2. Douglass refers to Gerrit Smith’s letter dated 28 August 1854, in which he provides his impressions of House members and their support for issues related to antislavery. It was later printed in Frederick Douglass’ Paper on 1 September 1854 and is reprinted in this volume. 3. Julia Griffiths. 4. In the early 1840s, Rhode Island was one of the last Northern states whose constitution retained a property-owning qualification for voting. In October 1841, the Suffrage party of Rhode Island called an extralegal convention to write a new state constitution. As part of the new constitution, the party proposed eliminating all property qualifications for white males, including those foreign born, but excluded African Americans entirely. Although Douglass and other leading abolitionists joined the efforts of the Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society to sway the new party to delete this clause, the convention delegates refused to do so, and the constitution was overwhelmingly approved. Rhode Island state authorities, however, did not recognize the Suffrage party’s constitution. In November 1841, the state government convened a legal constitutional convention, but the electorate rejected its efforts in March 1842. A month later the Suffrage party, operating under its own constitution, elected its leader, Thomas Dorr, governor of Rhode Island. After a failed attempt to seize the Providence Arsenal, Dorr fled the state and the Suffrage party fell apart. Supporters of the officially sanctioned constitutional convention—reorganized as the Law and Order party—reconvened and drafted a new constitution, which gave African Americans’ the right to vote. But it limited the franchise to nativeborn adult males and left intact a minimal property qualification for all voters. In November 1842, after a year of turmoil, Rhode Island adopted the Law and Order party’s constitution. Thomas J. Baldino and Kyle L. Kreider, Of the People, by the People, for the People: A Documentary Record of Voting Rights and Electoral Reform, 2 vols. (Denver, Colo., 2010), 1:47; Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (New York, 2009), 59–60; Hanes Walton, Jr., Sherman C. Puckett, and Donald R. Deskins, Jr., The African American Electorate: A Statistical History, 2 vols. (Los Angeles, 2012), 1:138–39.

JEHIEL C. BEMAN1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Middletown, Conn. 7 Sept[ember 18]54.

Frederick Douglass, Esq: Dear Sir:— I would inform you, that we have had a recent arrival from the land of chains and whips, where the image of the Divine Being is bought and sold. But, thank the good Lord! [W]hen he arrived at our office, we, at once, recognized him as a man and a brother. Some twenty summers had passed over him in that heaven-cursed land. His conveyance was by the

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Underground Railroad.2 This company is composed of anti-Nebraska men of the first water, and Maine Law men at that; and I would just say, we passed him to the next depot, on the same road.—The Underground Railroad, by the way, is in good repair, and our office is open for business in our line at all hours, either day or night, and our cars run on the Trail.—The engine is also in first rate order, and our officers are the most trusty, selected from the most experienced of our number—some having been employed in the work for a number of years. And now, dear Sir, if you will have the goodness to recommend our road to the travelling public, you will oblige the Association. Yours, for the Oppressed, J. C. B. AGENT. PLIr: FDP, 22 September 1854. 1. Born a freeman, Jehiel Cephas Beman (1789–1858) was a black shoemaker and the pastor of an African Methodist Episcopal Zion church in Middletown, Connecticut. As an active abolitionist, Beman helped establish dozens of black congregations and attempted to found a black college in New Haven. These actions caught the attention of white abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison. Beman was recruited as a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society and as an agent for Garrison’s Liberator. Beman accepted a ministerial position in Boston in 1838, but soon after cut his connection with the Garrisonians. He joined the ranks of a rival abolition group, the Massachusetts Abolition Society, and later supported the Liberty and Free Soil parties. During the 1840s and 1850s, Beman devoted most of his time to the antislavery cause: attending and chairing abolitionist conventions; raising money for indigent, former, or runaway slaves’ legal fees; and helping slaves reach freedom via the Underground Railroad. He received recognition in 1853 for his dedication and leadership when he was elected to the National Council of the Colored People. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:61n; Horatio T. Strother, The Underground Railroad in Connecticut (Middletown, Conn., 1962), 38, 91, 139–40, 153–54; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 3:17, 23, 309n, 450–56, 4:11n, 261, 263n, 312; Kathleen Housley, “ ‘Yours for the Oppressed’: The Life of Jehiel C. Beman,” JNH, 77:17–29 (Winter 1992); Jennifer Lee James, “Jehiel C. Beman: A Leader of the Northern Free Black Community,” JNH, 82:133–57 (Winter 1997). 2. Historical sources confirm that Jehiel C. Beman, Jesse G. Baldwin, and Benjamin Douglas were among the active Underground Railroad conductors in Middletown. These men assisted fugitive slaves arriving by boat on the Connecticut River from Haddam, Chester, Deep River, and Old Lyme, or overland from New Haven, Madison, or Westbrook. From Middletown, fugitives were sent to Hartford by boat or to Farmington by land on their way north. Strother, Underground Railroad in Connecticut, 119–20, 139–41.

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FRANKLIN TURNER1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Philadelphia, [Pa.] 13 Oct[ober] 1854.

Frederick Douglass: Honored Sir:— For some time, it has been in the minds of many of your friends in Pennsylvania, to request you, as you have been going from post to post, doing battle for freedom, to pay them a visit. They have felt that your coming would do much to harmonize and encourage the oppressed and enable you, at the same time to deal very effective blows against the slave system. To this end the subject was introduced and considered at three public meetings, held in this city. The result is show[n] in the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted: Resolved, That in Frederick Douglass’ Paper we recognize a powerful engine to our elevation, and a true defender of our rights. Resolved, that we acknowledge in Frederick Douglass, a firm and able champion of Human Rights, and one whom we delight to honor, as worthy our warmest support and confidence. Resolved, That a committee of 50 be appointed to invite Frederick Douglass to visit Philadelphia at such time as may suit his convenience, to address the people on the subject of American Slavery, and on the elevation of the Free Colored People of the United States. In behalf thereof of the people, we, the committee organized to carry out the last resolve, cordially invite you, dear sir, to Philadelphia, to speak on the great questions appertaining to human liberty, and beg that as early as possible you will communicate to us your decision.2 The committee are authorized to say, that all expenses in travelling from and to Rochester, and those necessarily connected with your stay in Philadelphia, will be cheerfully liquidated by the people, through them. With sentiments of friendship, and esteem, we are in the cause of Freedom, Yours, very respectfully, FRANKLIN TURNER, Cha’n. CHARLES L. REASON,3 Sec’y.4 PLSr: FDP, 1 December 1854. 1. Franklin Turner, a Philadelphia abolitionist, headed the Committee of Fifty that invited Douglass to speak in that city in 1854. In 1855, Turner attended and served on the business committee at the national convention of free blacks held in Philadelphia. In 1860, he wrote a public letter

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condemning emigration; it was used by George T. Downing and Charles L. Reason at a New York City mass meeting considering Henry Highland Garnet’s African Civilization Society. Proceedings of the Colored National Convention, Held in Franklin Hall, Sixth Street, Below Arch, Philadelphia, October 16th, 17th and 18th, 1855 (Salem, N.J., 1856), 3, 8; Proceedings of the Colored National Convention, 1853, 46; FDP, 1 December 1854; Lib., 4 May 1860; Bell, Survey of the Negro Convention Movement, 232–35. 2. Douglass did not visit Philadelphia in response to this invitation until late January 1855, in the middle of a six-week lecturing tour on the Eastern Seaboard. On that stop in Philadelphia, he spoke at the Israel Church on Gaskill Street on 29 January; Franklin Hall on 30 January; and Union Church on Coates Street on January 31st. FDP, 9 February 1855; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxi. 3. Born in New York City, the son of Haitian émigrés, Charles Lewis Reason (1818–93) was a prominent leader in the black community of his native city and state for over fifty years. From the age of fourteen until his death, he taught in or oversaw black schools in New York City, except for the brief period in the 1850s when he headed the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, and the few years before then that he spent as professor of belles lettres, French, and mathematics at New York Central College in McGrawville. He was the first black man to hold a professorship in an American college. Reason helped organize the New York Society for the Promotion of Education among Colored Children, a black organization that won from the state legislature in 1847 authority over black schools in New York City. After the Civil War, he helped lead the successful effort to integrate the city school system. Reason was no less active in the antebellum struggle to pressure the New York legislature into abolishing the property qualifications for black voters. In this connection, he served as secretary of the Association for the Political Improvement of the People of Color in 1837 (or 1838) and as secretary of the State Convention of Colored Citizens, which met in Albany in 1840. Reason’s opposition to Negro colonization, moreover, was of long standing, beginning in 1838, when he joined in the call for a “Great Anti-Colonization Meeting” in New York City, and carrying through into the 1850s, when he was outspoken in his criticism of the African Civilization Society, the black colonizationist organization. NASS, 3 May 1849; NS, 27 April, 4, 30 May 1849; FDP, 15 July 1853, 17  February 1854, 21 September 1855; Cleveland Gazette, 5 September 1885; Simmons, Men of Mark, 1105–09; Robert C. Dick, Black Protest: Issues and Tactics (Westport, Conn., 1974), 21, 50, 190; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 114, 145, 172; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 10, 86–87, 148, 175, 258, 270–71; Anthony R. Mayo, “Charles Lewis Reason,” NHB, 5:212–15 (June 1942); Charles H. Wesley, “The Negroes of New York in the Emancipation Movement,” JNH, 24:65–103 (January 1939); Freeman, “Free Negro in New York City,” 41–42, 53, 136, 188, 237, 279, 345, 350, 353, 368. 4. The following were listed as additional signatories to this invitation: I. C. Weir, Charles H. Bustill, Charles Simpson, Henry Gordon, Jonathan C. Miller, Joshua Brown, Samuel H. Barrett, William H. Burley, John C. Bowers, David B. Bowers, Stephen Smith, William Moore, A. S. Driver, E. Black, John Hitchens, Benjamin F. Templeton, Samuel Nickless, John Balden, William Decordever, James McCrummill, S. Van Brakle, U. B. Vidal, Perry Miller, Perry Tillman, Thomas C. Burton, Davis D. Turner, E. J. Adams, Daniel Colly, J. J. Gould Bias, William Douglass, J. P. Campbell, Abraham Licklez, William G. Chapen, Jacob B. Young, John H. Hughes, John C. Cornish, William Whipper, and W. F. Keeling.

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JOSIAH LETCHWORTH1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Auburn, [N.Y.] 27 Oct[ober] 1854.

Frederick Douglass: Esteemed Friend:— I see you sign under the cognomen of “American Freedom,” that sounds well to my ear; but knowing, as I think I do, that thousands are on your side in anticipating the day when this shall no longer be a question—but shall stand on the basis on which it was originally placed; to wit, “that we hold it to be a self-evident truth.”2 You will permit me to express my sincere regret, that you are assisting to lead off a fraction under a different name, with no difference of sentiment, for which you give us no equivalent. We cannot all think alike, as is evident from the want of union among abolitionists. Now, would you not feel to regret in the event of those conflicting influences presenting themselves, if the absence of the vote of your friends should defeat the candidates, the most friendly to the cause of freedom and temperance? Perhaps we may not come quite up to your standard, but there is an onward progress in that direction. Now, sir, it is not my wish to despoil you, or Garrison, or Gerrit Smith, of any of the laurels3 you may think yourselves entitled to; but if I had time, methinks I could demonstrate that the pro-slavery folks have assisted you most mightily; and but for them and their acts, the abolition party would be but a small affair, comparatively, from the fact, that it is but few besides the friends of freedom that care to pay for your paper. The additions to your ranks are first disgusted with the acts of the pro-slavery parties, and then listen to hear what you have to say. I feel in hopes that few can be lead away by your special pleading. We know full well that the present Whig ticket,4 endorsed by the Anti-Nebraska Convention, as well as the Temperance Convention, embodies the principle of freedom; and if it succeeds, there will be no misunderstanding at Washington, but if it fails, through your failing to grant it support, then it will be in vain to carry any influence, thereby stating that we should have been in the majority, if principles were a test. No, its votes will be wanting, and I fear too many; there’s your Hards, and Softs, and Silver Grays,5 and KnowNothings.6 If these unite, we are done for, I fear. Mammon7 will do more than principles sometimes. Yours, J. LETCHWORTH

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PLSr: FDP, 27 October 1854. 1. Josiah Letchworth (1791–1857) was born in Philadelphia. After marrying Ann Hause in 1815, he moved to Burlington, New Jersey, where he pursued a living as a saddler. Letchworth later lived and worked in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and the Black River region of New York. After 1819, Letchworth removed to Moravia, New York, and later to Sherwood in the same state. It was in Sherwood, that Letchworth began to involve himself in several reform movements. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and became heavily involved in the emerging temperance movement. Letchworth similarly became involved in the antislavery movement, long before its beliefs were widely accepted. He declined the nomination of the Whig party to run for the New York State Assembly. In 1852 Letchworth moved to Auburn, New York, where he resided until his death. His sons William Pryor and Josiah Jr. later went on to earn renown as businessmen in Buffalo. Memorial and Family History of Erie County, New York: Biographical and Geneological Illustrated, 2 vols. (New York, 1906–08) 1:187–89; Elliot G. Storke and James H. Smith, History of Cayuga County, New York (Syracuse, N.Y., 1879), 269; Emily Howland, “Early History of Friends in Cayuga County, N.Y.” in Collections Of Cayuga County Historical Society (Auburn, N.Y., 1882), 49–90. 2. A paraphrase of the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence. 3. A symbolic recognition of achievement. 4. Auburn, New York, was host to a number of political conventions on 25 and 26 September 1854. The Free Democratic party met on both days and nominated a state ticket identical to that recently nominated by the state’s Whigs, headed by Myron H. Clark. An “Anti-Nebraska Convention” met on the latter date and debated organizing a state Republican party. A meeting of seceders from that convention declared that Henry J. Raymond, the “fusion” candidate for lieutenant governor and founder of the New York Daily Times, was neither sufficiently antislavery nor pro-temperance. Clark eventually won the governor’s office and identified himself with the Republican party. FDP. 6 October 1854; Bancroft, Life of William H. Seward, 1:366–71; Robert Sobel and John Raimo, eds., Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789–1978, 4 vols. (Westport, Conn., 1978), 3:1082–83. 5. Silver Gray Whigs were conservative, proslavery supporters of President Millard Fillmore within the Whig party. The Whigs had a “Silver Gray” organization as early as 1836, but that group solely comprised men over sixty years of age. Francis Granger of New York popularized the term in the 1850s, but then the phrase was used derisively for Whigs of any age whose views were seen as out of touch with the rest of the Whig party, especially on the issue of slavery. Holt, Fate of Their Country, 87–88, 105, 107–08; Hans Sperber and Travis Trittschuh, American Political Terms: An Historical Dictionary, (Detroit, 1962), 404–05. 6. Nativists organized lodges and semipolitical clubs in reaction to the waves of Catholic immigrants that began coming to the United States in the 1830s. Frequently engaging in violence against the largely Democratic Irish voters, these lodge members were reputed to answer, “I know nothing” when questioned by police. The nativist movement, dubbed “Know-Nothings” by their opponents, became a significant political force in the 1850s as the Whig party declined. Under the banner of the American party, nativists ran ex-president Millard Fillmore for the White House in 1856. His third-place finish caused the Know-Nothings’ political power to steadily decline thereafter. Maisel, Political Parties and Elections, 1:549–50. 7. “Mammon” is the Mishnaic Hebrew word for “wealth” or “money.” It is also “broadly parallel [in meaning] to that of Qumran hoˉ n, which often refers to the money or wealth which the member is required to bring into the community when he joins it.” Mammon is referred to in the Bible, specifically in Matt. 6:24 and Luke 16:9–11. David Noel Freedman et al., eds, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols. (New York, 1992), 4:490.

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GEORGE DEBAPTISTE1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Detroit, [Mich.] 5 Nov[ember] 1854.

Dear Douglass:— Perhaps you may want to know something about the people out here. Well, all the good news I have, is, that the Underground Railroad Company2 is doing a very large business at this time, and the stock is up above any other Company here. We have had, within the last ten or fifteen days, fifty-three first class passengers landed at this point, by the Express train from the South. We expect ten more tonight. They all look well. I think our conductors take first rate care of them on the way. We have not had a single disaster on our Road, though our trains run at night altogether. We never want any head lights; our engines all know the depots, and turn off places without lights. We shall make out a Report of our doing for the last four months in a few days, and will send you a copy. Yours for the slave, G. D. BAPTIST. PLSr: FDP, 17 November 1854. 1. George DeBaptiste (1814–75) was born a free black in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to William and Eliza DeBaptiste. He married Lucinda Lee, and in 1838 moved to Madison, Indiana. While in Madison, DeBaptiste was suspected of aiding and abetting runaway slaves, and was ordered to post a five-hundred-dollar bond. Retaining a lawyer, he appealed the decision to the circuit court and finally to the state supreme court, whose decision overturned that of the lower courts. DeBaptiste went on to become the valet of William Henry Harrison, accompanying him to Washington upon his election to the presidency in 1841. Following Harrison’s death in April of that year, DeBaptiste returned to Madison. In 1846, DeBaptiste moved to Detroit and soon became a leader in the Underground Railroad. In March 1859, he participated in the meeting in Detroit between Frederick Douglass and John Brown during which Brown’s proposed slave uprising was considered. After the outbreak of the Civil War, DeBaptiste aided in the recruitment of Michigan’s colored regiment. In the 1870s, he sat on Detroit’s first black jury, was elected as a delegate to the local Republican senatorial convention, and was instrumental in integrating Detroit’s public schools. DeBaptiste became one of Detroit’s wealthiest black citizens. Katzman, Before the Ghetto, 14–15, 41, 178; Bordewich, Bound for Canaan, 1–3, 197, 202–06, 410, 412; DANB, 166. 2. Reportedly the busiest Underground Railroad gateway to Canada, Detroit had a very active Vigilance Committee by the mid-1840s, led by the white Quaker William Lambert and the black abolitionists Henry Bibb and George DeBaptiste. The group publicly reported escorting hundreds of fugitive slaves each year to safety in Canada. Bordewich, Bound for Canaan, 257–59, 382–84, 410.

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WILLIAM WRIGHT1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Columbia, Pa. 17 Nov[ember] 1854.

Mr. Editor: Sir:— Your argument on the subject of “Prejudice,” as reported in the Standard,2 I shall not attempt to follow, but will take your own sentiments as found under the editorial head of your paper of Oct 6th.3 You assert that “Poor Remond4 foolishly affirmed his belief that it was the black man’s color—an assertion which, if true, takes this hateful prejudice out of the category of sin, pride and folly, and makes it natural, and therefore unblameworthy; for, to like black, blue, green, or yellow, or to like neither black, blue, green or yellow, is a mere matter of taste, and no one can be blamed for their preference either way, or neither way; but very different is this to the feeling we denominate ‘prejudice against color;’ ‘tis the very worst form and manifestation of human pride, selfishness and hatred, and which would manifest itself quite as violently, and as wickedly, if the victims were as white as the driven snow, instead of being black.” The above extract embraces the whole force of your argument; and it is quite strange, friend Douglass, that this prejudice, which you regard as sinful when applied to condition, and which Mr. Green5 characterizes as “murderous everywhere,” should so far change its nature when applied to color, that it loses its rank in the “category of sin,” and dwindles into sinless “preference,” or matter of taste. It will require a micro-scopic vision to discover the point or dividing line between “prejudice and preference.” It must be as narrow as that which separates “light from heat,” and its geographical boundary must lie between justice and injustice. I confess, I have no chart that will guide me to that peculiar spot. It does, however, appear to my mind that if it be sinful for this “murderous prejudice” to inflict its penalties on any people, on account of their condition, (when the fault of that condition may in part be the result of their own imprudent actors,) it would be equally sinful, if not more so, when applied to their complexions over which they can have no control. Therefore, I am inclined to believe that Mr. R.6 would not have come nearer the mark if he had have been wise enough to have used the term condition, instead of color. I do most heartily agree with your description of both “prejudice and preference.” They are so universal in their nature and actions, that they

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do not separately belong to any one complexion, but are fostered by all complexions. You have admitted that sinless “preference” may rest on color; and until you prove that its concomitant “prejudice” may not also be against color, you will not have given a good reason why Remond’s “admission” was a “foolish one.” Now, this leads us to the important inquiry, From whence do these “prejudices” and “preferences” emanate? Are they not wholly instinctive in their nature, and do they not represent the various emanations of the human heart, from the most exalted purity to the most debasing corruption? I assert that they are purely instinctive, and are not “endowed with brains,” or the “reasoning faculties,” or they would at least be entitled to “toleration,” and might possibly be to the respect of mankind. They possess the same senses, and are guided by the same “light.” They have the same power of seeing, hearing, tasting, and smelling, and therefore, it is very natural they should be attracted by the same objects. Or will you have the one roaming over the world in search of condition, while the other is revelling amid the variegated hues of complexion. It appears to my mind that “prejudice” is but “preference” intensified by “human pride, selfishness and hatred;” and that the same persons may be victimized by its influence in one community and idolized in another, and all on account of their complexions. For the proof of this assertion, I will refer you to Messrs. Douglass, Remond, Garnett,7 Pennington8 and Ward,9 and all others who have visited England, Ireland and Wales, either on their own business, or as missionaries in the cause of the slaves, or travelled throughout New England, as compared with Pennsylvania. It will scarcely be denied that New England abolitionists have shown such a preference for the talents of colored men, that they have often eulogized their public efforts far beyond their own highest conception of their merits, and very far beyond what their “own people” conceived they were justly entitled to. Now, if this “prejudice” was founded on condition, it would not exist among the colored people themselves, because their condition and connexion with respect to liberty and slavery being the same, no cause for prejudice would exist; yet, however unwilling we may be to confess it, this same prejudice exercises an evil influence among the colored people, and has often affected the stability of their institutions, and the happiness of their social circles. I will now refer to an argument used by Mr. Remond, which I have not seen contradicted, viz: “That color was the pivot on which this whole question turned.”10 Now, if this be true, it is morally certain that if there

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was no pivot, or resting place, there would be no “turning,” which, being legitimately interpreted, means that if there were no difference in the complexion of the people of this count[r]y, there would be no complexional prejudice. It was both ingenious and logical in Mr. Green to say that “color was of no account.” By this assertion he probably meant to show that this prejudice had not only existed, but could continue to exist without the attracting allurements of color. To this I will agree as an ancient question; and as it affected ancient nationalities, and the Quakers, Jews, Catholics, North American Indians, and perhaps a few other—and I will accept his definition as a “Biblical” question. It was the scourge of the Children of Israel, and its potency was felt by both Jews and Gentiles. It was visible at the Crucifixion of Christ, and the martyrdom of the Apostles, as well as in the Holy Cross and the Protestant Reformation. Then the pivot on which this prejudice rested or turned, was the invasion of some territory—national feud—birthright claim to sovereignty, or the profession of some new, pure, or idolatrous faith, or worldly distinctions, such as poverty and wealth, &c. But so far as this prejudice affects the colored population of this country, more of these impediments exist. They have no peculiar titles to territories, honors or wealth; and here, in this country, poverty is no crime. They are not the advocates of any unpopular tenets of religious faith, and have no peculiar religion of their own, but have fostered and adopted the religious faith of those with whom they are surrounded.—Therefore, looking at this subject in the light of the past and present, I say I must differ with him when I say, that as an American question, the pivot on which this prejudice rests, is the “color of the skin.” W. W. PLIr: FDP, 1 December 1854. 1. Probably William Wright, a Quaker and abolitionist, who began assisting slaves to freedom at age sixteen. The grandson of the founder of Columbia, Adams County, Pennsylvania, Wright married Phebe Wierman in 1817, and the couple subsequently became active Underground Railroad conductors. Wright served as manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840 and as a delegate from Adams County to the Republican state convention, where he supported the nomination of John C. Frémont for president. An account of ‘the experience of a fugitive who lived with the Wrights for six months can be found in The Fugitive Blacksmith; or, Events in the History of James W. C. Pennington. Wright’s six children and many relatives were also involved in freeing slaves. It is estimated that Wright assisted in freeing nearly one thousand slaves during his lifetime. Snodgrass, The Underground Railroad, 2:590; Still, Underground Railroad, 691–95. 2. Held in Syracuse, New York, on 29–30 September 1854, the semiannual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society was characterized by heated debate. Sparked by a series of resolu-

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tions presented by the Business Committee, the morning and afternoon sessions on the first day focused almost exclusively on discord between the organization and the Liberty party, and the larger question whether the U.S. Constitution was “proslavery.” If so, they debated whether members of the society could in good conscience participate (in any fashion, including voting) in government without compromising their principles. As reported in the National Anti-Slavery Standard, William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith, Beriah Green, Samuel J. May, Abram Pryne, and Andrew T. Foss led the discussion that ensued. NASS, 7 October 1854. 3. Wright refers to an editorial item in the 6 October 1854 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, entitled “State Convention of the Liberty Party—Semi-Annual Meeting of the American A. S. Society—The Jerry Rescue Celebration.” The editorial recounts and comments on a heated discussion at a special meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society held in Syracuse, New York, in which Gerrit Smith, William Lloyd Garrison, William Wells Brown, Charles Lenox Remond, Beriah Green, and Frederick Douglass debated the subject of prejudice. According to Douglass, Smith asked Remond to provide a philosophical explanation for prejudice, to which Remond replied, “It’s the black man’s color.” FDP, 6 October 1854. 4. Charles Lenox Remond (1810–73), the first black lecturer hired by any antislavery society, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, to the daughter of a black hero of the American Revolution and a former slave from Curaçao. In his youth, he learned about the horrors of slavery from his father and experienced the segregation and discrimination practiced by Northern whites. In the late 1820s and early 1830s, Remond read David Walker’s Appeal and became acquainted with William Lloyd Garrison, which led him to dedicate his life to abolitionism. He became an agent for the Liberator and joined the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society shortly thereafter. In 1838 he began lecturing for the American Anti-Slavery Society. Both his color and his ability made him a very popular speaker in both the United States and Great Britain, where he attended the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention as a delegate in 1840. Remond was the sole black lecturer for antislavery societies until Frederick Douglass began speaking in 1842. For a time, Remond and Douglass worked the lecture circuit together. Douglass admired Remond, the more experienced speaker, and named a son for him. Through the 1840s, however, Remond remained a steadfast Garrisonian while Douglass began to favor political action to end slavery, and their friendship suffered. Their goals, however, remained the same, and like Douglass, Remond recruited black soldiers for the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. After the war, just before his death, Remond urged abolitionists to continue their fight by combatting the racial prejudice that persisted in both the North and South after the end of slavery. Les Wallace, “Charles Lenox Remond: The Lost Prince of Abolitionism,” NHB, 40:696– 701 (May–June 1977); William E. Ward, “Charles Lenox Remond: Black Abolitionist, 1838–1873” (Ph.D. diss., Clark University, 1977); NCAB, 2:303; DAB, 15:499–500. 5. Probably Beriah Green (1795–1874), an early immediate abolitionist who chaired the founding convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. A graduate of Middlebury College and Andover Seminary, Green served as a professor at Western Reserve College. He was the founder and president, from 1833 to its closing in 1844, of the Oneida Institute, a pioneering interracial college, in Whiteboro, New York. Green was active in the early Liberty party and later in Gerrit Smith’s band of radical political abolitionists. Later, he ministered to an antislavery Congregational Church in Whiteboro until 1867. Milton C. Sernett, Abolition’s Axe: Beriah Green, Oneida Institute, and the Black Freedom Struggle (Syracuse, N.Y., 1986); John R. McKivigan, War against Proslavery Religion: Abolitionism and the Northern Churches, 1830–1865 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1984), 147; DAB, 7:539–40. 6. Charles Lenox Remond. 7. Henry Highland Garnett. 8. James W. C. Pennington. 9. Samuel Ringgold Ward. 10. The issue that dominated the final sessions of the semiannual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society was triggered by Remond, who stated that “so far from advocating the antislavery character of the Constitution and Government, it [was] better . . . to see how far there [was]

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freedom in our atmosphere.” Following an exchange between Remond and William Wells Brown (who maintained that more was being done in Europe to “ameliorate the condition of the people than in America”), Garrison asked Brown to discuss whether Europeans suffered from what he termed “colourphobia.” Brown stated that prejudice originated in “slave states because slavery existed there,” and that in Europe he had neither witnessed nor experienced any “prejudice against a person because of colour.” His conclusion, as a result, was that “prejudice against colour [was] not known” outside America and that “it [was] prejudice against condition, not colour; only the colour is a mark to instance the condition.” Beriah Green concurred, noting that “colourphobia [was] what in Europe [was] called caste, and in the Bible respect of persons.” He then stated that “colour was of no account [and that] it [was] only the index of slavery, and despised for that cause.” Green concluded by arguing, “In some parts of the world, and at some ages of the world, this colour was considered attractive.” Both Remond and Gerrit Smith disagreed, maintaining that the “prejudice against colour” was “deeper than the cord of caste.” When queried by Green, however, Remond did concede that (in the United States) the condition of being enslaved did “intensify this prejudice.” At the conclusion of the final session Garrison made a plea for unity by stating that “we must not be divided into Liberty Party, Garrisonians and Free Democrats when the South is united,” but instead “let our anti-slavery be No. 1; our party and sect No. 100.” Greeted by cheers, Garrison, however, then remarked that “every anti-slavery man [was] of necessity a Disunionist” and that even though “Gerrit Smith [thought] he [could] make the Constitution anti-slavery . . . when he [had] done it, he [could] make no one believe it.” Garrison concluded the session by noting that calling the U.S. government a Democracy “was an outrage upon man’s understanding.” NASS, 7 October 1854.

JERMAIN WESLEY LOGUEN TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Madison Co[., N.Y.] 4 Dec[ember] 1854.

My Dear Friend Douglass:— I am now snowed in within six miles of our good and glorious friend, Gerrit Smith’s house,1 and I can feel the influence so sensibly of this model man among white men, that I have thought that I could not improve the time better than to write a few lines to my model man among colored men; and that man is Frederick Douglass. I know of nothing that will be more agreeable to me, than to report to you a little of my whereabouts. I am in Clarkville,2 very comfortably situated, (after a hard day’s work on the Sabbath,) in the kind family of N. S. Cady,3 Esq., of Clarkville. I had meetings at Canastota4 and this place; they were well attended for such a day, for it snowed hard all day. The meeting in this place in the evening, was a sterling one, and I talked to the people as well as I knew how. It seemed to have a good effect upon them, and I think good was done. I had a good time myself with Brother Stickney’s5 people. I was to go North to-day to attend other meetings; but the snow—O the snow, it compells me to disappoint, and will for some days. There are some things that we cannot overrule, you know, in this world. I am trying, in connec-

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tion with talking on slavery, to do something for our brethren that are so nobly struggling from bondage to freedom; and a noble struggle it is, to try to be free. We are passing them every week, more or less. I congratulate you on your late triumphant tour at the West,6 and your safe return to your own State again, where hundreds of us rejoice to know that you are one among us, for we consider it an honor to live in the State where your influence is felt, as it is in the State of New York. Would to God we had a Frederick Douglass in every State of this wicked and hellish Union of political and church devils. O that every man among us would truly be himself, and not ape after those that would use us meanly, for their own convenience. (O, let us be men and not apes!) We cannot all be Douglasses; but we could do a mighty work in this land for outraged humanity. I rejoice at the stand that some of our friends have taken in the State of Pa., in inviting Frederick Douglass to their State,7 where much has been done by some to destroy his influence.—We are happy to see such honorable names among the many—as Dr. J. J. Gould Bias, Prof. C. L. Reason, and Wm. Whipper and others. If the Lord will enable you to raise such a flame for liberty, in other parts of the State, as you did in Sugar Grove, Pa., last summer,8 I shall rejoice greatly; for that was a time that will never be forgotten by many of the friends in Sugar Grove, Pa. I have seen a great many men that called themselves the ministers of the most high God; (and many of them, no doubt, were;) but I never, in all my remembrance, saw the man that looked more heavenly to me than did Frederick Douglass, the beautiful Sabbath day that he stood in that Grove to address the hundreds that had come from afar to listen to his unbounded eloquence. But enough from me, for the half cannot be told by our pen. Truly your friend, J. W. L. PLIr: FDP, 15 December 1854. 1. In Peterboro, New York. 2. Loguen’s letter was published in the 15 December 1854 edition of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. The paper identified his location as Clarkville, New York, but a transcription error might have occurred. Loguen more likely wrote Douglass from either Clarksville or Clockville, New York, since both of these communities and Peterboro are located in Madison County. J. Thomas and T. Baldwin, eds., Lippincott’s Pronouncing Gazetteer: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer, or Geographical Dictionary, of the World, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1856), 1:461, 467. 3. A cousin of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Nathan Stanton Cady (1803–63) was a successful merchant. Stanton also held local office in the towns of Clockville, Lenox, and Rome, New York. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Madison County, 348; William Reddy and W. S. Smyth, First Fifty Years of Cazenovia Seminary, 1825–1875: Its History—Proceedings of the Semi-Centennial Jubilee— General

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Catalogue (Cazenovia, N.Y., 1877), 669; Orrin Peter Allen, Descendants of Nicholas Cady of Watertown, Mass., 1645–1910 (Palmer, Mass., 1910), 173, 327. 4. The farming and manufacturing community of Canastota is located in Madison County, New York, approximately twenty miles east of Syracuse. Seltzer, Gazetteer of the World, 322; Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer of the World, 522. 5. The son of Marcus Stickney, a merchant in Lockport, New York, Washington Stickney inherited that business, but also ministered to an antislavery congregation in the Niagara County community. Stickney was an officer of the Lockport Anti-Slavery Society and attended conventions of the Liberty party. FDP, 25 September 1851, 15 December 1854. 6. Douglass went on several speaking tours of the western United States and Canada in 1854. Loguen probably alludes to Douglass’s seven-week trip through Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio. FDP, 29 September, 20, 27 October, 3, 10, 17, 24 November 1854; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 1:xxxvii, 538–59. 7. This invitation from Franklin Turner of 13 October 1854 is published above. Douglass conducted that visit to Pennsylvania in late January 1855 as part of an extensive East Coast speaking tour. FDP, 9 February 1855; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxi. 8. Douglass visited Sugar Grove, Warren County, Pennsylvania, on 18 June 1854 to participate in a two-day abolitionist convention there. Douglass recounted that he had “never attended an out door meeting which was so orderly and impressive. . . . The meeting was strictly a religious AntiSlavery meeting, and left a most favorable impression for the cause.” Frederick Douglass to William J. Watkins, 19 June 1854, in FDP, 23 June 1854.

GEORGE WEIR, JR.,1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Buffalo, [N.Y.] 11 Dec[ember] 1854.

Mr. Editor:— A few mornings since, I was awakened at an early hour by an immense noise and confusion at my door. Being suddenly awakened, I sprang up, and ran down stairs to ascertain the cause of such strange excitement. When, to my surprise, I found—notwithstanding the “immense heavy snow drifts”—that a train of cars belonging to the Underground Railroad had just arrived, bringing eight passengers, six men and two women, all direct from “Old Kentuck.”—Of course the doors of the depot were thrown open, and in they marched, rank and file, led by T. R., Esq[.]., one of the conductors on the road. After a few moment’s conversation, we conducted them to a public house kept by one of our people. When they had an opportunity of thoroughly warming and refreshing themselves— the inner as well as outer man—they were allowed to remain with us until one o’clock, when a sleigh was provided, and the eight happy souls, in charge of Phoenix Lansing,2 Esq[.] , one of our active and energetic townsmen, were driven to Black Rock, and in a few moment’s more were safely landed on the other side of Jordan—when one universal shout of joy ascended to Him who had been their guide and guardian from a land

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of slavery and despotism to a land of liberty and light. But the most singular circumstance in connection with this matter is, that just as they had landed on the Canada side, the cars on the Great Western Railroad3 arrived from the West, and to the surprise and astonishment of our friends, the first man that stepped from the cars, was a Kentuckian, the next door neighbor to the owner of three of our party. You may imagine the feelings of our friends at so strange and unexpected a meeting. “But,” says they to their neighbor, “We are all here.” Yours, in hopes of another arrival, GEORGE WEIR, JR. PLSr: FDP, 4 January 1855. 1. The son of a minister of Buffalo’s Vine Street African Methodist Episcopal Church, George Weir, Jr., was a minister and abolitionist in Buffalo. Arthur O. White, “The Black Movement against Jim Crow Education in Buffalo, NewYork, 1800–1900,” Phylon, 30:383 (Winter 1969). 2. Phoenix Lansing operated a barbershop on the corner of Michigan and Seneca streets in Buffalo in the 1850s. The Commercial Advertiser Directory for the City of Buffalo, 1858 (Buffalo, 1858), 203. 3. Canada’s Great Western Railway was originally incorporated in 1834 as the London and Gore Railroad Company. It changed its name to the Great Western Rail Road Company in 1845, and again in 1853, becoming the Great Western Railway. Funded by a combination of American, British, and Canadian investments, the Great Western opened its main line, which linked Niagara Falls to Windsor (opposite Detroit), a distance of over two hundred miles, in 1854. By 1882, when the Great Western merged with its chief rival, the Grand Trunk Railway, it operated over nine hundred miles of track stretching from New York, across southern Ontario, and into Michigan. Boston American Railway Times, 19 January 1854; James H. Marsh, ed., The Canadian Encyclopedia, 3 vols. (Edmonton, 1985), 2:772.

INSPECTOR1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Albany, [N.Y.] 24 February 1855.

Dear Friend Douglass:— The principal topic of conversation among all circles in this city, for the past week, has been Frederick Douglass’ great speech on Friday evening last in the Capitol.2 The fact that “Fred. Douglass” was to speak in the Assembly Chamber, was simply announced in the daily papers,3 without any effort to give especial publicity to it; and notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, the beautiful and commodious Hall was filled to its utmost capacity, long before the hour at which the meeting was to commence arrived—not with those who usually attend such meetings, but grave judges, senators, editors, and many of the first ladies of the city. Among the most

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prominent were Judge Harris,4 Thurlow Weed5—whom every body, that is any body, knows—Speaker Littlejohn,6 Lieut. Gov. Raymond,7 Senators Crosby,8 Brooks,9 and Dickinson,10 and in fact the whole Legislature. Every body who heard the speech spoke of it as a masterly, eloquent, and unanswerable effort. I will not mention any of the encomiums which were lashed upon it, for the reason that they will never see the light. The impression produced by the speech must be great good to the cause. Our colored citizens have sent in a petition,11 numerously signed, asking the Legislature to adopt the preliminary measures to remove the political disabilities under which we labor. The feeling here among the members seems to be favorable; and all things considered among them, the good spirits in which the majority of the Legislature are, consequent upon the return of that noble champion of equal rights for all, (without regard to clime or color,) William H. Seward. It is much to be regretted that our colored friends, in various parts of the State, do not inundate the Legislature with petitions—for I think it entirely safe to affirm, that we will never get our rights unless we ask for them. The colored Methodist friends have nearly finished a very neat and comfortable House of Worship, quite eligibly situated in Hamilton Street.12 If any one person is more entitled to credit than another, that person is the Rev. Mr. Weir,13 who took hold and acted nobly in getting means to erect it. Mr. Weir is one who acts as well as talks. Verily, he will have his reward. INSPECTOR. PLSr: FDP, 16 March 1855. 1. The identity of “Inspector” cannot be determined. Douglass published one other letter in this newspaper from this correspondent, dated 24 April1855, discussing the New York legislature’s failure to permit African American suffrage in the state. Albany was home to a large black and abolitionist community, any of a number of whom could have written Douglass. FDP, 4 May 1855; Foner and Walker, Black State Conventions, 54–97. 2. Douglass published a brief editorial in Frederick Douglass’ Paper on 23 February 1855, thanking Stephen S. Myers and James W. Randolph for sending him letters attesting to the positive reception of his address in Albany. Douglass singled out Myers for his role in organizing the event and getting many distinguished people to attend. 3. This was an accurate depiction of the brief announcement in the Albany Evening Journal for Douglass’s lecture “The Rights of Man,” given the following day in the State Assembly’s chamber. Albany Evening Journal, 15 February 1855. 4. Ira Harris (1802–75) was born in Montgomery County, New York. After graduating from Union College in Schenectady, New York, he studied law in Albany. In 1827 he was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in Albany. He lectured at the Albany Law School upon its founding, in 1850. Harris served as a justice of the New York State Supreme Court from 1847 to 1859; was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate, where he served one term (1861–67); and returned to the Albany Law School in 1867, where he remained until his death in 1875. BDUSC (online).

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5. Beginning as a printer’s apprentice, Thurlow Weed (1797–1882) had become one of the nation’s leading political journalists by midcentury. In 1830 he founded the Albany Evening Journal as the state organ of the Anti-Masonic party. Allying himself with the rising politician William H. Seward, Weed became a powerful figure in the Whig and the Republican parties. Although he preferred a more moderate antislavery approach, he nevertheless frequently praised Douglass’s abolitionist activities. Weed’s national influence declined after the Civil War, but he played a key role in persuading Republicans in New York to select Douglass as one of their presidential electors in 1872. Glyndon G. Van Deusen, Thurlow Weed: Wizard of the Lobby (Boston, 1947); NCAB, 3:12–13; DAB, 19:598–600. 6. Born in Oneida County, N.Y., De Witt Clinton Littlejohn (1818–92) briefly attended college before pursuing a number of mercantile pursuits. He was elected mayor of Oswego, New York, in 1849 and again in 1855. Originally a Whig, Littlejohn joined the Republican party upon its organization. He was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1853–55, 1857, 1859–61, 1866, 1867, 1870, 1871, and 1884, and he served as Speaker in 1859–61, 1866, 1867, 1870, and 1871. Littlejohn worked vigorously for Abraham Lincoln; he was offered a position as consul at Liverpool, but declined the post. In 1862, Littlejohn helped raise the 110th Regiment of the New York Volunteers, eventually becoming its colonel. He resigned his commission in the following year upon being elected to Congress from New York’s Twenty-second District, where he served until 1865. Littlejohn was deeply involved in the formation of the unsuccessful New-York and Oswego Midland Railroad Company, which opened in 1871. It was reorganized as the New-York, Ontario and Western Railroad in 1873. In 1872, Littlejohn temporarily left the Republican party to support Democrat Horace Greeley’s bid for president. He later returned to the Republican fold and was elected to the New York State Assembly for the twelfth time in 1884. BDUSC (online). 7. Henry Jarvis Raymond (1820–69), journalist and politician, was born in Lima, New York. After graduating from the University of Vermont in 1840, he moved to New York to work for Horace Greeley’s New York Daily Tribune. In 1848, uncomfortable under the sway of the liberal reformist Greeley, the more conservative Raymond left his mentor’s newspaper to become the editor of the New York Courier and Enquirer and soon after Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. Increasingly disturbed by the political partisanship of city newspapers, Raymond and another associate inaugurated the New York Daily Times in September 1851 with the intention of more dispassionately reporting the day’s events. Raymond remained editor of the prosperous paper until his death in 1869, but was also a key figure at both the state and national level in the Whig and Republican parties, eventually gaining in a seat in Congress from 1865 to 1867. Francis Brown, Raymond of the Times (New York, 1951); NCAB, 8:482–83; DAB, 15:408–12; BDUSC (online). 8. Clarkson Floyd Crosby (1817–58) was born to William Bedlow Crosby and Harriet Ashton (Clarkson) Crosby. He attended Union College, but being independently wealthy, he never practiced any particular profession. On 8 September 1838, he married Angelica Schuyler, with whom he had two children. One of them, John Schuyler Crosby, became territorial governor of Montana. Crosby resided in Albany County, New York, and served in the New York State Assembly in 1845. In both 1854 and 1855, Crosby was elected from the Eleventh District to the New York State Senate. New York Times, 23 February 1858; Franklin B. Hough, comp., The New York Civil List: Containing the Names and Origins of the Civil Divisions, and the Names and Dates of Election or Appointment of the Principal State and County Officers, from the Revolution to the Present Time (Albany, N.Y., 1858), 137, 140, 230, 268, 331. 9. Erastus Brooks (1815–1886) was born in Portland, Maine. He attended Brown University but did not graduate, leaving college early to start a newspaper in Maine. In 1840 he joined his brother James as a managing editor of the New York Express. Brooks gained recognition for his opposition in a public debate to the Roman Catholic Church’s exemption from property taxes. He served in the New York State Senate from 1853 to 1857 as a member of the Know-Nothing, or American, party. In 1856 he was the American party’s nominee for governor of New York, but lost the election and subsequently joined the Democratic party. Brooks served in the New York state constitutional convention

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of 1866–67 and on the constitution commission of 1872–73. He served Richmond County in the New York State Assembly from 1878 to 1883. Brooks was a founder of the Associated Press, and served for a time as its manager. NCAB, 6:47–48l; DAB, 3:76–77. 10. Andrew Bray Dickinson (1801–73) of Steuben County served as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1830. From 1840 to 1843 he represented the Sixth District, and from 1854 to 1855 the Twenty-sixth District, in the New York State Senate. In 1856 he was a member of the New York’ delegation to the National Republican Convention. A friend of Secretary of State William H. Seward, Dickinson was appointed U.S. minister to Nicaragua in 1861. His tenure, which lasted until 1869, is most notable for the Dickinson-Ayon Treaty (1867), which guaranteed the United States transit rights, free ports, and limited rights of military intervention. The treaty, which remained in effect until the end of the century, kept open the Nicaraguan transit route (as an alternative to Panama) for the location of a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. De Alva Stanwood Alexander, A Political History of the State of New York, 3 vols. (1906; Port Washington, N. Y., 1969), 2: 39–45, 397–401; Jay Monaghan, Abraham Lincoln Deals with Foreign Affairs: A Diplomat in Carpet Slippers (1945; New York, 1997), 68; David M. Pletcher, The Diplomacy of Trade and Investment: American Economic Expansion in the Hemisphere, 1865–1900 (Columbia, Mo., 1998), 123. 11. In his second letter to Douglass, dated 24 April 1855, Inspector described the lobbying by New York African Americans to get the State Assembly to begin the process of removing the disabilities that restricted black ‘men’s ability to vote. A petition from Long Island blacks to remove the property qualifications for suffrage launched the effort. Political alignments in the New York legislature were undergoing a rapid transformation, and a coalition of Whigs, Know-Nothings, and Republicans passed a measure in April, by a vote of 66–34, to remove that requirement. The reform attempt, however, failed the next day in the state senate. Black leaders in New York such as James McCune Smith credited Douglass’s lecture in the state capitol in February with having assisted the suffrage effort immeasurably. FDP, 16 March, 4 May 1855; Phyllis F. Field, The Politics of Race in New York: The Struggle for Black Suffrage in the Civil War Era (Ithaca, N.Y., 1982), 89–93. 12. The Israel A.M.E. Church, on Hamilton Street, in Albany, New York, is the oldest black church in New York’s ‘ capital. The Albany congregation dates from 1828, when it was established by the Reverend William Cornish. The first structure, built on a lot purchased in 1842, burned three years after the church began building it. The second attempt at construction on Hamilton Street was finished in 1854. It is believed that the church’s pastor at the time, Thomas Jackson, designed the building. Harriet Tubman used the church as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Albany (N.Y.) Times Union, 7 May 1988; Marcella Thum, Hipocrene U.S.A Guide to Black America: A Directory of Historic and Cultural Sites Relating to Black America (New York, 1991), 231. 13. The Reverend George Weir, Sr., presided at Buffalo’s Vine Street A.M.E. Church. Both Weir and his son, carrying the same name, corresponded frequently with Frederick Douglass’ Paper on antislavery activities in the Buffalo region. FDP, 31 March 1854, 15 February 1856, 20 February, 13 November 1857, 12 November, 3 December 1858; Foner and Walker, Black State Conventions, 1:80.

LEWIS TAPPAN1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Brooklyn, N.Y. 9 March [1855].

My dear friend Douglass, I hear that you are sick.2 Receive my sympathy. But, after your great labors I am not surprised. For aught I see you must now be contented to rest awhile. You have done the work of two or three men for some time!

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[N]ature now asserts her claims, and is teaching you that you are but a man. Rest, rest, rest is absolutely necessary—that is intellectual rest. Bodily exercise in the open air (moderate and daily!) will do you good. Don’t think this temporary suspension will be lost time—O, see—it will be time gained. Wilberforce,3 after working with brains and fingers, 14 hours a day for many years, finding it was killing him, came to the resolution (probably under the advice of some good physician) to cut off one third of the time devoted to labor. He found, after a while, that he could do more work in 9 or 10 hours than he had been accustomed to do in 14! Had he come to the sage conclusion that it does not depend upon the number of hours we devote to business, but upon the strength of body & mind we bring to it. Ergo: Frederick Douglass, when discharged by his present physician—if he sticks to his advice—will probably do more in 6 hours daily labor than he has ever got done in 12; but then! this 6 or 8 hours hours must be all he does in the 24. After all, what weak creatures we are without Divine help. We must go to the Great Physician of Soul & body, and cast all our cares upon Him, for “He careth for us.”4 Is not this a delightful thought! Bear up then—be not worried—nor impatient. In good time you will resume your useful labor. Affecy yours, LEWIS TAPPAN ALS: Lewis Tappan Papers, DLC. 1. Lewis Tappan (1788–1873), an affluent New York merchant and abolitionist, devoted much of his considerable wealth and energy to religious and reform causes such as abolitionism. Tappan was an early supporter of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and the American Bible Society, a founder of the New York Evangelist, and a patron of Oberlin College. Tappan helped organize the New York Anti-Slavery Society and the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. In 1840, he broke with William Lloyd Garrison over the advisability of linking abolitionism with other reforms such as women’s rights. He was a founder and leading figure in the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and maintained close ties with British abolitionists opposed to Garrison. Tappan played a leading part in securing the freedom of the African captives on the slave ship Amistad in 1841. In 1846, Tappan abandoned efforts to convert older benevolent societies to abolitionism and founded the American Missionary Association. Focused mainly on the religious sphere, Tappan gave only a lukewarm endorsement to political abolitionism. Wyatt-Brown, Lewis Tappan; DAB, 18:303–04. 2. In a brief editorial in Frederick Douglass’s Paper, Julia Griffiths reported that since Douglass’s return to Rochester after a seven-week speaking tour of the Northeast, he had been too ill to attend to his responsibilities at the newspaper or to answer letters. She also reported that a local physician who was caring for Douglass recommended rest as the key to his recovery. FDP, 2 March 1855. 3. William Wilberforce (1759–1833), British reformer, author, and member of Parliament, joined the antislavery movement in 1787 at the urging of Thomas Clarkson and others. Over the next two decades, Wilberforce led the parliamentary campaign, which culminated in the law of 1807 banning the

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Atlantic slave trade and establishing the African Institution. In 1823, Wilberforce joined other prominent abolitionists to organize the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery. That same year he published An Appeal to the Religion, Justice, and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire in behalf of the Slaves of the West Indies and inaugurated the emancipation struggle in Parliament by presenting a Quaker abolitionist petition. Wilberforce’s sympathy for the plight of West Indian bondsmen seldom extended to the poor of his own country. On domestic issues, he frequently aided governmental attempts to crush political dissent and control the labor force, supporting the Sedition Act of 1795, the Combination Law of 1799, and the suspension of habeas corpus in 1818. Reginald Coupland, Wilberforce: A Narrative (Oxford, Eng., 1923); David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770–1823 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1975), 460–61; DNB, 21:208–17. 4. Tappan paraphrases 1 Pet. 5:7.

ISAIAH C. WEIR1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Philadelphia, [Pa.] 12 March 1855.

Mr. Frederick Douglass: Dear Sir:— I notice in your paper of the 23d of last month, a letter (purporting to be from a Philadelphian to the editor of the Liberator) attempting to give some account of you and your lectures while with us.2 I have been expecting that something would be said in that direction; but, certainly did not anticipate anything so brazen and insulting to the colored people of our city as the letter to which I refer. I do not intend to reply to said letter, at this time, but will attempt a refutation as soon as the name of the author is known. I prefer always to know the character and quality of my name before I expend my ammunition. Nevertheless, should the name fail to appear in endorsement of said article, I shall then attend to it, as I would to any other series of unendorsed falsehoods. But ‘tis proper here to say, that, should any (hitherto) respectable name appear in said connexion, I promise all the civilities that are due from one man to another, in the discussion of a subject involving similar issues. And now a word in reference to a colored friend of great respectability, in Philadelphia,3 and the disaffected to our cause. If ‘tis meant by disaffected to refer to the friends, and approves of Frederick Douglass and his course, I here say, for the benefit of all whom it may concern, (and without fear of contradiction,) that a common prison car would hold all the colored men (without crowding) who do or ever have had anything to do with public affairs in our city, who are not friends, and approve Frederick Douglass and his course; and to say that such approval and friendship

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involve, necessarily, disaffection to the anti-slavery cause, is either silly or vicious. Yours truly, ISAIAH C. WEER. PLSr: FDP, 30 March 1855. 1. Isaiah C. Wears (1822–1900) of Philadelphia, whose last name was variously reported as “Ware,” “Weer,” “Weir,” and “Wier,” was a barber and close associate of William Still in that city’s Vigilance Committee. He was an active participant at the State Convention of Colored Citizens of Pennsylvania, held in Harrisburg in December 1848. In 1855, Douglass reported that Wears was scheduled to speak at a West Indian Emancipation celebration in Philadelphia. After the Civil War, Wears attended the National Convention of Colored Men in January 1869, and campaigned with Douglass for the Republican presidential ticket in New York in 1880. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 4:581; Christian G. Samito, Becoming American under Fire: Irish Americans, African Americans, and the Politics of Citizenship during the Civil War Era (Ithaca, N.Y., 2009), 164–66; Foner and Branhan, Lift Every Voice, 375–77; Foner and Walker, Black State Conventions, 1:119–21; Harry C. Silcox, “The Black ‘Better Class’ Political Dilemma: Philadelphia Prototype Isaiah C. Wears,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 113:45–47 (January 1989). 2. Douglass spoke three times in Philadelphia in early 1855. He spoke at the Israel Church on Gaskill Street on 29 January; at Franklin Hall on 30 January; and at the Union Church on Coates Street on 31 January 1855. An unsigned letter to William Lloyd Garrison, published in the 3 February 1855 issue of the Liberator, was reprinted in the 23 February 1855 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, with the purpose of criticizing Douglass and his antislavery rhetoric. According to the author, Douglass “repeated all the stale cant and twaddle about the Anti-Sabbath and Anti-Bible, character of Mr. Garrison and his friends, and intimated that, under the garb of Humanity, they were endeavoring to uproot Christianity!—thus appealing to the lowest sectarian prejudices of his audience.” 3. The following insert was published in the 23 February 1855 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper as a response to the anonymous criticism of Douglass’s antislavery lecture in Philadelphia. The insert stated, “A colored friend, of great respectability, in Philadelphia, referring to Mr. Douglass’ venomous lectures in that city, says – ‘Allow me to say, that the disaffected to our cause, and its advocates, in Philadelphia, are no mere faction. The respect, gratitude and confidence of the great body of our people are with you. How could it be otherwise?’ ” The identities of the “friend” and the “disaffected” are unknown.

WILLIAM WELLS BROWN1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS [n.p.] [16 March 1855.]

To Frederick Douglass. Sir : Had not your many changes and re-changes prepared me to be astonished at nothing that you might say, or do, I would have been somewhat surprised at the attack made upon me by you, in your paper of the 2d of March.2 You commence by saying, “we do regret that he should feel called

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upon to show his faithfulness to the American Anti-Slavery Society by covering us with dishonor.” Let me say to you, Frederick Douglass, that my difference with you has nothing whatever to do with the American Anti-Slavery Society, and no one knows that better than yourself. And I regard such an insinuation as fit only to come from one whose feelings are entirely lost to all sense of shame. My charge against you is, that, just before I left the United States for England,3 you wrote a private letter 4 to a distinguished Abolitionist in Great Britain, injurious to me, and intended to forestall my movements there. In a note5 which I forwarded to you, to your address at Rochester on the 20th of January last, I gave you to understand that I had been made aware of your having acted in that underhand manner. The following is a part of the note I sent you more than a month ago. “During my sojourn in England, and several months after my arrival there, and while spending a few days with a friend of yours, the post brought me a letter, which had been re-mailed in London, and it proved to be from you, dated at New Bedford. After I had finished reading the letter, your friend seemed anxious to learn its contents. I handed it to her, with the request that she would read it; your friend appeared much astonished at the kindness expressed by you to me, and exclaimed, ‘Douglass has done you a great injustice,’ and immediately revealed to me the contents of a letter which she had received from you, some months before, and which was written a short time previous to my departure from America. I need not say that the very unfavorable position in which your letter placed me before your friend, secured for me a cold reception at her hands. I need not name the lady; you know to whom I refer, unless you wrote to more than one.” Your attack upon me, in your paper of the 2d inst., in which you ask for “facts,” when my note containing the above had been in your possession more than a month, shows too well your wish to make a sneaking fling at me, instead of seeking for “facts,” and acting the part of an honorable man. Why did you not give my note a place in your paper, and make such comments as you thought best? No, that would not have suited you. But, anxious to heap insult upon injury,6 you resort to the mode most congenial to your feelings and sense of justice. Had I not thought it due to the public to state the above “facts,” I would have treated your scurillous paragraph with that silence and contempt that all such articles so justly deserve. However, no future insinuation of yours, no matter how false or unjust, shall provoke from me a reply. WILLIAM WELLS BROWN.7

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PLSr: FDP, 16 March 1855. 1. William Wells Brown (c. 1814–84) was born a slave in Lexington, Kentucky, but escaped to freedom in Ohio in 1834. After settling in Cleveland, he worked on a Lake Erie steamboat, from which he helped many fugitive slaves escape to Canada. In the 1840s he moved his family to New York, where he began lecturing for the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society and the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (1843–49). In 1847, Brown published his first book, Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself, and moved to Boston. From 1849 to 1854 he traveled and lecturer in Europe, meeting many prominent figures and publishing two more books: Three Years in Europe; Or, Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met (1852) and Clotel; Or, The President’s Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States (1853), the first novel known to be written by an African American. After friends in England purchased his freedom in 1854, he returned to the United States to continue his work in the abolitionist, temperance, woman suffrage, and prison reform movements. He also wrote four books about African American history. During the Civil War, Brown joined Douglass in recruiting blacks for the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Lib., 12 January 1855; London Lancet, 6 December 1884; DAB, 3:161; DANB, 71–73. 2. Douglass published a brief editorial under the title “WILLIAM WELLS BROWN,” complaining that Brown had shown “his faithfulness to the American Anti-Slavery Society, by covering us with reproach and dishonor.” Douglass called upon Brown to write and explain the evidence to support his charges. FDP, 2 March 1854. 3. Brown departed Boston for England in October 1849. Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 1:154n. 4. No surviving letter meeting this description has been located. 5. The letter of Brown to Douglass of 20 January 1855 has not survived. 6. A paraphrase of 1 Pet. 3:9. 7. In a printed editorial following the letter, Douglass replies to Brown and requests the “facts” of his accusations.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 27 March 1855.

Hon Gerrit Smith— My dear Sir— I am glad my Speech1 pleased you. I had a pretty high opinion of it before—and your kind approval has not detracted from that opinion—I did, in my Spoken Speech, accord all due honor to the Clear lighted, and right hearted Elizabeth Herrick.2 The omission is only in my printed Speech— The correction Shall be made in the pamphlet edition—which I am about to publish. Oh! yes—do let us have a National Liberty Party Convention3—Let us have a Strong Call—We must leave the free Soilers4 and garrisonians5—to uphold their own Standards—and Stand on our own ground—. You have but to Speak the word—to have a grand convention here—and here is the place to have it. Do you, my dear Sir, write the Call—No other

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man muSt write the Call for the Liberty Party—while Gerrit Smith lives and is able to wield a pen. Most truly yourS, Always, FRED. DOUGLASS ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. The speech that Douglass refers to was delivered to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society on 19 March 1855 at Corinthian Hall. Douglass had delivered versions of this lecture, entitled “The Anti-Slavery Movement,” many times that winter to audiences in New England, Pennsylvania, and New York. He printed a text of the speech in his weekly on 23 March 1855, and later had it republished as a pamphlet. While Douglass failed to credit the contribution of Elizabeth Heyrick to abolitionism in his newspaper account of the speech, he did add a reference to her in the pamphlet’s text. FDP, 23 March 1855; Frederick Douglass, The Anti-Slavery Movement: A Lecture by Frederick Douglass, Before the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society (Rochester, 1855), 13. 2. The English Quaker Elizabeth Heyrick (c. 1769–1831) wrote the pamphlet Immediate, Not Gradual Abolition; or An Inquiry into the Shortest, Safest, and Most Effectual Means of Getting Rid of West Indiana Slavery (London, 1824). C. Duncan Rice, The Rise and Fall of Black Slavery (New York, 1975), 254. 3. In a public letter dated 4 April 1855, published later in this volume, Douglass joined Gerrit Smith and six other abolitionist veterans in a call for a Radical Political Abolitionist Convention to be held in Syracuse, New York, on 26–28 June 1855. FDP, 13 April 1855. 4. Members of the political organization, founded in Buffalo, New York, in August 1848, worked to resist the further extension of slavery into western territories of the United States. The group ran candidates for national office under the label Free Soil party in 1848 and Free Democratic party in 1852, as well as candidates for state and local office in the same era. Blue, The Free Soilers, 70–80, 169. 5. In May 1840, the American abolitionist movement divided into hostile, competing factions. The Boston editor William Lloyd Garrison led the most perfectionist-inclined group, most of whose members abandoned the nation’s religious and political institutions for being hopelessly corrupted by tolerance toward slavery. Garrison’s followers, who retained control of the American Anti-Slavery Society, were popularly referred to as “Garrisonians.” McKivigan, War against Proslavery Religion, 56–92.

RUSSELL LANT CARPENTER1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Birkenhead, [Eng.] 13 April [1855].

Dear Sir:— I take advantage of an opportunity, to send you a few thoughts, which have been long in my mind. Slavery is maintained in a variety of ways, and it is desirable that there should be a corresponding variety in the methods of assailing it. Liberty is promoted by liberty of action, liberty of thought, and liberty of conscience: it is endangered, when we malign or disparage those who exercise their right to differ from us. I fully believe in the honesty and talent

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of abolitionists who are much opposed to each other; if they cannot agree, let them, at least, cease from the injurious and unchristian practice of mutual recrimination.—Conflicts between those who have been friends are always painful and humiliating; and where even victory is a grief, flight is the truest honor. There are many who will be rejoiced, when you no longer admit into your columns attacks upon those to whom humanity is greatly indebted, though they have their share of human imperfections. In the judgment of impartial readers, those will show themselves the best friends of Freedom, who rise superior to provocation, and hasten to display that forbearance and love, without which Freedom itself is a doubtful and short-lived blessing. Yours, respectfully, RUSSELL LANT CARPENTER2 PLSr: FDP, 4 May 1855. 1. The Reverend Russell Lant Carpenter (1816–92), a Unitarian minister, spent his childhood in Bristol, England. He attended Bristol College in preparation for a life of ministry, continued his studies at Manchester and York colleges, and in 1840 became one of the first to graduate from London University. Because of his deep involvement in the temperance movement, Carpenter quit his pastorate at Bridgwater, England, since part of the church’s endowment came from taverns selling liquors. In August 1849 he journeyed to the United States, where he spent a full year preaching from Montreal to St. Louis to Boston. His father, Lant Carpenter, was a well-known teacher whose Unitarian writings were known to the antislavery men of the day. Russell Carpenter became acquainted with Garrison, Douglass, and others. He married in 1853 after returning to England, and continued his ministerial work there until his death. His works include an edited volume about his father’s life, Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Lant Carpenter, LL.D. (1842); Discourses and Devotional Services (1849); A Monotessaron (1851); and a biography of his brother, Philip, Memoirs of the Life and Work of Philip Pearsall Carpenter (1880). Carpenter contributed frequently to the Inquirer and other periodicals. London Inquirer, 30 January 1892. 2. Douglass follows Carpenter’s letter by commending his philosophical approach to the contentious differences between abolitionist groups. He praises Carpenter’s approach while adding that he believes it necessary to continue to fight against exclusive abolitionist groups.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO CHARLES SUMNER Rochester[, N.Y.] 24 April 1855.

Hon Chas Sumner. My dear Sir, There were two points in your address, which grated a little on my ear at the moment, and to which I would have Called your attention immediately after the its delivery in Rochester had opportunity permitted. The first claimed that mr Garrison originated the preSent Anti Slavery

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movement—a claim which I do not regard as well grounded and I think I have succeeded in Showing this in a lecture recently delivered in Rochester1 and in Several other places during the past winter. Mr Garrison found the Anti Slavery movement already in existence when he stepped to the Side of Benjamin Lundy2 in Baltimore. The second point was your very gaurded disclaimer, touching the Social elevation of the Colored [illegible]. It seemed to me that, considering the obStinate and persecuting Character of Ameri can prejudice against color, and the readiness with which those who entertain it avail themselves of every implication in its favor, your remark on that point was un fortunate. I may be a little SenSative on the Subject of our Social position. I think I have become more so of late, because I have detected, in some of my old Comrades, Something like a falling away from their first Love, touching the recognition of the entire manhood and Social equality of the Colored people. I do not mean by this, that every Colored man, without regard to his Character or attainments, Shall be recognised as socially equal to white people, who are in these respects Superior to him; but I do mean to say, that the Simple fact of Color Should not be the criterion, by which to ascertain, or to fix the Social Station of any. Let every man, with out regard to Color go wherever his Character and abilities naturally carry him. And further let there be no public opinion already to repelxx any who are in these respects fit for high Social position. For my own individual part as a Colored man, I have little of which to Complain. I have found mySelf Socially higher than I am placed politically. The most debased white man in Newyork is my Superior at the Ballot box—but not So in a social point of view. In the one Case Color is the Standard of fitness or unfitness in the other Character. I thank you, heartily, my dear Sir, for honoring me with the opportunity of dropping these Suggestions for your perusal. With the Spirit and manner of your noble address, I was not only pleased—but profoundly gratified—and I thank God that, talents and acquirements So high as yours, are devoted to the Service of my Crushed and bleading race. Believe me, My dear Sir Your faithful[]and grateful friend, FREDERICK DOUGLASS ALS: Charles Sumner Correspondence, MH-H. 1. A reference to Douglass’s “Anti-Slavery Movement” lecture given on 19 March 1855 in Corinthian Hall, which was sponsored by the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:14–51.

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2. The child of New Jersey Quakers, Benjamin Lundy (1789–1839) was trained in the saddler’s trade. After living for a time in western Virginia, Lundy moved to Ohio, where he joined Charles Osborn in the publication of a pioneering antislavery newspaper, the Philanthropist. In 1821 he began his own paper, the Genius of Universal Emancipation, which he published first in Greenville, Tennessee, then in Baltimore, and finally in Washington, D.C. Lundy’s associate editor while in Baltimore was the young and unknown William Lloyd Garrison. In the early 1830s, Lundy championed black colonization in Texas, which he visited three times. He later supplied valuable eyewitness information about conditions in Texas to congressmen who were battling against its annexation as a slave state. From 1836 to 1838 he edited the Philadelphia National Enquirer, an organ of the Pennsylvania State Anti-Slavery Society. In the last years of his life, Lundy moved to Illinois and revived publication of the Genius. Merton L. Dillon, Benjamin Lundy and the Struggle for Negro Freedom (Urbana, Ill., 1966); Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States through 260 Years, 1690 to 1950, rev. ed. (New York, 1950), 206; ACAB, 4:4; NCAB, 2:20; DAB, 11:506–07.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO JAMES MCCUNE SMITH1 Rochester, N.Y. 2 July 1855.

Dear Friend: I have long entertained, as you very well know, a somewhat positive repugnance to writing or speaking anything for the public, which could, with any degree of plausibility, make me liable to the imputation of seeking personal notoriety, for its own sake. Entertaining that feeling very sincerely, and permitting its control, perhaps, quite unreasonably, I have often refused to narrate my personal experience in public anti-slavery meetings, and in sympathizing circles, when urged to do so by friends, with whose views and wishes, ordinarily, it were a pleasure to comply. In my letters and speeches, I have generally aimed to discuss the question of Slavery in the light of fundamental principles, and upon facts, notorious and open to all; making, I trust, no more of the fact of my own former enslavement, than circumstances seemed absolutely to require. I have never placed my opposition to slavery on a basis so narrow as my own enslavement, but rather upon the indestructible and unchangeable laws of human nature, every one of which is perpetually and flagrantly violated by the slave system. I have also felt that it was best for those having histories worth the writing—or supposed to be so—to commit such work to hands other than their own. To write of one’s self, in such a manner as not to incur the imputation of weakness, vanity, and egotism, is a work within the ability of but few; and I have little reason to believe that I belong to that fortunate few.

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These considerations caused me to hesitate, when first you kindly urged me to prepare for publication a full account of my life as a slave, and my life as a freeman. Nevertheless, I see, with you, many reasons for regarding my autobiography as exceptional in its character, and as being, in some sense, naturally beyond the reach of those reproaches which honorable and sensitive minds dislike to incur. It is not to illustrate any heroic achievements of a man, but to vindicate a just and beneficent principle, in its application to the whole human family, by letting in the light of truth upon a system, esteemed by some as a blessing, and by others as a curse and a crime. I agree with you, that this system is now at the bar of public opinion—not only of this country, but of the whole civilized world—for judgment. Its friends have made for it the usual plea— “not guilty;” the case must, therefore, proceed. Any facts, either from slaves, slaveholders, or by-standers, calculated to enlighten the public mind, by revealing the true nature, character, and tendency of the slave system, are in order, and can scarcely be innocently withheld. I see, too, that there are special reasons why I should write my own biography, in preference to employing another to do it. Not only is slavery on trial, but unfortunately, the enslaved people are also on trial. It is alleged, that they are, naturally, inferior; that they are so low in the scale of humanity, and so utterly stupid, that they are unconscious of their wrongs, and do not apprehend their rights. Looking, then, at your request, from this stand-point, and wishing everything of which you think me capable to go to the benefit of my afflicted people, I part with my doubts and hesitation, and proceed to furnish you the desired manuscript; hoping that you may be able to make such arrangements for its publication as shall be best adapted to accomplish that good which you so enthusiastically anticipate. FREDERICK DOUGLASS. PLSr: Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 2:5–6. 1. The “Friend” to whom Douglass addressed this letter appears to be the author of the introduction to My Bondage and My Freedom, James McCune Smith.

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JULIA GRIFFITHS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Ship Yorkshire,1 [n.p.] 2 July 1855.

My Dear Friend :— As we are now two thousands miles on our way to England, I may venture to commence the letter to you that I propose mailing when I reach Liverpool. Sure I am that you will be desirous to know how it fares with me on the waters of the wide Atlantic, in the good “ship Yorkshire,”—what manner of people my fellow-passengers are? [A]nd what kind of weather we have had since leaving New York? We sailed, you will remember, on the 18th of June,2 and, with the exception of the first day, the wind has been favorable; but so light have been the breezes, and so smooth the sea, that our ship has been gliding as calmly over the placid waters, as if life were one entire holiday, and we disciples of the dolce far niente. You know how thoroughly I enjoy the sea, whether I behold it shimmering in the sunlight, or darkly heaving in the storm; but I really scarcely realized, until Saturday last, that I “was once more upon sea waters—yet once more! ”3 for Lake Ontario, on a summer’s day, could not be more tranquil than this same old ocean was for twelve days—and on we glided, somewhat monotonously it must be owned, and somewhat slowly, but safely and surely, encountering only fog and drizzling rain while off the banks of Newfoundland—meeting several sailing vessels. [A]nd schooners— seeing porpoises in abundance, and a few beautiful nautilasses—and being followed by a swarm of Mother Carey’s chickens.” 4 Before I tell you what occurred on Saturday to diversify the scene, I will give a brief sketch of my fellow-passengers. The first cabin passengers are only twelve in number; so with the Captain5 and the ship doctor, we form a snug little party. We are composed of many [illegible] and we speak several languages; English, Irish, Scotch, Southerners, Yankees, and Swedes are all here; and for the most part, they are good representatives of their respective countries. In the Swedes I am greatly interested. The family comprizes a lady and gentleman and a gem of a baby. They are returning to their father land, after spending a year or two in the States; they are well acquainted with Miss Bremer,6 and admire her as a woman, more than as a writer. Like many others, I am inclined to think they are disappointed with her American book7—indeed, they say, that [illegible] as she was, from house to house, and expected and prepared for every where, and known to be a writer, it is no wonder that all of her impressions

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of people and things are couleur de rose.8 [A]nd that she appears to take a wise discrimination in the judgments she passed.—By the way Mr. and Mrs. Sow gren are well acquainted with your excellent friend, Mr. Christian Donaldson,9 and were introduced to you in Cincinnati last year; but, as you have thousands of introductions every season, it is not likely that you remember them. The young Swedish lady, now accompanying them to Stockholm, is somewhat of a heroine, altho’ she is far too modest and unassuming to think herself one. She has travelled through the United States, for the most part alone; and having a highly cultivated mind, a keen discrimination, and a sober judgement, she is not carried away by the brilliancy of the surface of things, but can reject the dross, while she accepts the pure gold. In her sweet, pure, unsophisticated nature, her strong good sense, her self-forgetfulness, and her courage, she reminds me of some of Miss Bremer’s Swedish portraitures.10 Need I say that such a person as I have described must prove a remarkably interesting companion? She is in delicate health, and has been four years absent from her native land, and her much loved home. By the way, she has just finished reading the Proof sheets11 of a certain work not unknown to you; and she expects that a great sensation will be made by the publication of Frederick Douglass “Life as a SLAVE.” A young Irish lady, returning home after a protracted visit in the States—and a pleasing intelligent Scotch lady, who is taking her deaf and dumb, and only little child to Berlin, to consult some eminent Doctors there, in the hope of obtaining a cure for the malady—two young Virginian ladies, one beautiful, one witty—both well educated—frank, natural, and unspoiled—leaving home for the first time, to spend a year or two with English relative—a rich Louisiana gentleman, a confirmed dyspeptic travelling with his nephew, (a good-natured indolent young man,) and his son, (a bright, intelligent, “Paul Dombey”12 kind of boy complete the number of my fellow passengers. But the most important person in the ship is omitted; and I must not forget the Captain—Charles Alonzo Marshall. Although quite young, he is an experienced sailor, having been at sea from a child. His face is very much the index to his character. He is upright, downright, and straightforward, often speaking rough words but really kind-hearted. “His bark is muckle waur than his bite.”13 He brags much of being a Yankee; and often seizes occasion for denouncing England—dear, old England! His sympathies, of course, are pro Russia,14 I don’t think he knows his own reason for this sympathy—for he probably has never taken five minutes’ time to analyze them. But he is a generous, good natured man—very hospitable at his table—and in manner, so like

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some of our English, blunt-spoken sailors, that I am generally, more inclined to laugh at what he says, than to quarrel with him for saying it. He has a beaming smile, and a rich, sonorous bass voice: the latter (strange as it may seem) often reminds me in tone of H. Ward Beecher.15 Captain Marshall is much liked, and highly respected by the officers and crew of his ship; and this is the surest test of character. But the doctor--oh!-the doctor—how can I describe the doctor? I wished for Dickens16 last evening, so much, to sketch (in his own inimitable way) a picture that presented itself.—If I tried every hand at it, I might not succeed, and should only fill much paper, and occupy much time to no purpose. Suffice it to say, the doctor is, in every way, a very small specimen of a man—great only in his own estimation, and in the amount of his egotism, and entirely lacking in true magnanimity and generosity.—I was not long in discovering his contempt and aversion for the “Darkies,”17 (as he termed;) nor did the manifestations of his desire to cater to Southern prejudices, and to applaud Southern institutions, pass unnoticed. He is ever ready to have a fling at the English. In this he has evinced a sad want of wisdom, as well as of taste; for a large majority of our country are strongly attached to the old country, and where he has sought to ingratiate he has missed the mark as widely, and justly as have some who sought and sought in vain for the Presidency. The officers of the ship are extremely civil and obliging. The first mate (Mr. Williams)18 is, universally, liked by the passengers; and we have an exceedingly kind stewardess.—From all this, you will see that I have reason to congratulate myself on obtaining a passage in the good ship “Yorkshire.” I did not say that the Louisiana gentleman is a large and wealthy slaveholder; report says he purchased twenty thousand dollars’ worth of slaves the day before he sailed. He is a thorough gentleman, mild and gentle in his manners, but in miserable health; and consequently so much confined to his state room that conversing with him for any length of time is impossible. One afternoon, he gave me an account of his “black people,” as he calls them, (he does not say slaves,) and tried to show me how happy and comfortable they are. He said that, before leaving home he had himself given every single slave four new suits of clothes; and he solemnly affirmed that every gentleman in Louisiana would be shut out of all good society who did not well feed, clothe, and lodge “his servants.” He said, moreover, that the laws of the State of Louisiana19 do not permit the separation of families; and that slavery there is more like

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“serfdom in Russia;”20 and then he asserted that the master, when he is absent, does not leave his overseer in the possession of unlimited power over the servants. I must do him the justice to say that he spoke with all kindness of his servants, and entered into the particulars of his arrangements for their comfort. He expressed himself more in sorrow than in anger about “the books that have been written to give false impressions on the subject.” I told him that Frederick Douglass was an intimate friend of mine.—After that announcement we spoke but little.—He felt, doubtless, that though he might gainsay “Uncle Tom,”21 as a mere fiction, Frederick Douglass was a fact undeniable. My experience of the last fortnight convinces me, more than ever, that when the Northerners are true to their convictions—true to themselves—true to the principles laid down in their glorious “Declaration of Independence”—when they shall cease to fawn upon, and to flatter the South—when they shall refuse to smile smoothly upon its beloved and “most peculiar institution”22 —when they shall decline to do the bidding of their Southern taskmasters, and no longer aid and abet them in their system of iniquity—when the mist shall roll away from before their eyes, and they shall be enabled to see for themselves, what every one else now sees for them, that the negroes are no greater slaves than they—in a word, when they shall stand up, as men, and with gallant spirits, and true hearts, re-assert their belief that “all men are created equal”23—when they shall practically carry out this creed of human brotherhood, by doing to all men as they would be done unto, then and then only, will they be free from the sin of Slavery, and exempt from participation in those awful denunciations, which a God of Justice has pronounced against all oppressors. But, alas! I am dreaming of a far off millennium, and “Awakening with a start, The waters heave around me; and on high The winds lift up their voices”—24 [A]nd over this glorious ocean we are flying at the speed of twelve knots an hour, in delightful compensation for the tediousness of the first part of our voyage. On Friday evening, after sunset, the hitherto smooth surface of the sea became disturbed—the night was dark, and we had our first experience of “the Atlantic roll.”25 When we arose on Saturday morning, the waters were of ink, and the sky of lead—all looked portentous. By mid-day the anticipated storm raged in full fury—the maddened waves dashed around us on every side, in foaming breakers, and with ceaseless

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war. Happily the wind was in our favor; so, though our good ship “Yorkshire” rolled from side to side, to the terror of some, the discomfort of others, and the enjoyment of a few, we had the satisfaction of knowing that we were rushing onward. Rumour says, that, in forty-eight consecutive hours, we went seven hundred miles; but some of us think that five hundred and fifty are nearer the mark. Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights have been wakeful ones to most of us, I assure you; and it has been amusing to hear of the plans devised for fixing us securely in our berths. I am, in this respect, a lucky wight,26 for I have the best state-room in the ship, all to myself, and when I fear being tossed out of the upper berth, I can use the lower one.—This morning, however, the sea has greatly decreased—the sun is shining—we are going at eight knots27 an hour—and now speculations are endless as to when we shall arrive in Liverpool? Tomorrow is “Independence day,”28 and it will be duly celebrated on board our patriotic ship, by firing of revolvers, and shooting of crackers! Except something very unexpected occur, worthy of narration, I shall not resume this somewhat dull epistle until I have, once more, beheld “Albion’s white cliffs.”29 I trust that you and your readers will bear with my tediousness, and will be kind enough to remember that to be the inmate of a rocking ship at sea, does not tend very much to promote clearness of vision, originality of ideas, nor facility of expression.—You and they must be so good as to take the will for the deed—and, to believe my assurance, that it will be a sincere pleasure to me to continue, during my temporary absence from Rochester, my connection with my many kind friends, through the columns of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. My interesting Swedish friend (Miss Rosalie Roos)30 has just placed in my hands some lines, which she has written for my album. They are not only beautiful, but so appropriate to my surroundings, that I shall take the liberty of here transcribing them, in the belief that they will serve to grace my matter-of-fact epistle: Between the icebergs of the north, and zones Clad by the sun in ever verdant foliage, What constant change in climate, nature, tones, In people, manners, customs, and in language— Yes! different countries fatherland we call, One is the ocean—it belongs to all. Together we’ve been rocked upon its waves, Admired its mighty beauty and its grandeur,

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Have seen it gilt by evening’s brilliant rays, Have seen it rise and fall in foaming splendour— Our fatherlands approach eve[r] more and more— Thou go’st to Albion—I to Swea’s shore. But trackless is the way we now have made; Shall thus its mem’ry die without a token, A misty vision that will sink and fade, A meteor that shines soon to be broken? No—faithfully ’tis written in my heart— Not time, not distance shall it from me part. July 9th.— I resume briefly. Off Cape Clear.31 Yesterday, at noon, we first heard the cry of “land, land,” and soon we dimly discerned (through the captain’s glass) a thin line of something that was neither sea nor sky. We had passed Cape Clear early in the morning, but it was not visible. The wind was light, through the day, but favorable, and the sea, last evening, had scarcely a ripple on its surface. Last night, we saw the light house of “Old Kinsale.”32 We were all in high spirits; and hopes were entertained that, if the breezes freshened, and the wind continued favorable, we might be in Liverpool by to-morrow morning. But, how rapidly come the changes in life at sea! Our course is suddenly arrested by the dreaded head wind, which meets us from the Bristol Channel; and from ten o’clock last night to eight o’clock this morning, we only travelled nine miles in the wrong direction. I feel thorough confidence in our captain, who is ever at his post, allowing himself little rest, and, no sleep at this juncture. Verily ‘tis no small responsibility that rests on the commander of a ship, freighted with so many human lives; and he who realizes this responsibility, must lead a life of great anxiety. Now, I must draw largely on my small stock of patience, and learn to wait, and that almost within sight of England. July 13th.—Before five o’clock this morning, I was awakened by voices shouting, “Holyhead! Holyhead!”33 and seldom have I heard more cheering sounds; for we have had three days’ perfect calm in the Channel, and very trying have some of us found it. Up I sprung—speedily was I on deck—and thence beheld the beautiful Welsh mountains, clothed with verdure, and irradiated by the soft sunshine of early morning. The sea has great charms for me—nevertheless, it is refreshing to feast one’s eyes once more on the green, green grass. We have passed the last two days and nights in much anxiety—for never has our captain known such a fog

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in the Channel—and we have been surrounded by vessels of all kinds; so, bells have been ringing, blue lights burning, and every precaution has been taken to prevent accident; but, “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain;”34 and to Him who has preserved me from the perils of the deep do I desire to render thanksgiving. We have passed Point Linus,35 and the Pilot is on board. Now the steamboat is tugging us along, and before the “evening shades prevail,”36 we may hope to be in sight of Liverpool. I do not expect to set foot on land to-night though, for there is some difficulty in passing the bar, and then the custom house visitation is in store for us. So, as the steamer leaves for the United States to-morrow, I must e’en close this before I reach dry land, or it will miss the post and be delayed five or eight days. Scott’s37 beautiful lines have been ringing in my ears all day. Perhaps I have, for the first time, fully realized their ennobling sentiments contained in them: “Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself has said, This is my own, my native land? Whose heart has ne’er within him burned, When home his footsteps he has turned, From wand’ring on a foreign strand?”38 Excuse the too apparent marks of haste. Very truly yours, JULIA GRIFFITHS. PLSr: FDP, 10 August 1855. 1. The Yorkshire was a 996-ton sailing packet constructed in 1843 for the New York City–based Black Ball Line by the shipyard of William H. Webb of the same city. Edwin L. Dunbaugh and William D. Thomas, William H. Webb: Shipbuilder (Glen Cove, N.Y., 1989), 34–35, 162. 2. The press reported that the Yorkshire departed New York City on 18 June 1855. Boston Daily Advertiser, 20 June 1855. 3. This snippet is a near quotation from Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, canto 3, stanza 2: “Once more upon the waters! Yet once more!” Byron, Complete Poetical Works of Lord Byron, 2:77. 4. Eighteenth-century sailors referred to stormy petrels, small seabirds, as Mother Carey’s chickens. According to legend, the stormy petrel carries the soul of a dead seaman, and its presence is said to be a warning of an approaching storm. Sailors were cautioned against killing petrels for fear that doing so would bring them bad luck. J. C. Cooper, Symbolic and Mythological Animals (London, 1992), 218. 5. Charles Alonzo Marshall (?–1872) was the nephew of Charles H. Marshall, owner of the Black Ball Line of North Atlantic steamships. He died while captaining a ship named for his uncle on a voyage from Liverpool to London, after which Polish immigrant passengers complained of mistreatment by the ship’s crew. New York Times, 27 May 1869, 31 August 1872; Richard C. McKay, South Street: A Maritime History of New York (Riverside, Conn., 1934), 196–97.

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6. Fredrika Bremer (1801–65), a Swedish novelist, is best remembered for Hertha, or the Story of a Soul (1856), in which she explores the relationship between an overbearing father and an independent-minded daughter, and the need for women’s liberation. Bremer spent 1849 to 1851 traveling in North America, stopping in Rochester to visit Douglass in October 1850. NS, 3 October 1850; Charlotte Bremer, ed., Life, Letters, and Posthumous Works of Fredrika Bremer (New York, 1868), 1–116; Bruce Murphy, ed., Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, 4th ed. (New York, 1996), 33. 7. During her American tour, Fredrika Bremer wrote extensive letters to her sister Agathe, commenting on matters of everyday life, including slavery. Her letters were published as The Homes of the New World: Impressions of America (New York: 1853). Bremer, Fredrika Bremer, 80–88. 8. Rose colored; the phrase implies an effort to see things in a positive light or with romantic embellishments. 9. Christian Donaldson (c.1795–?) migrated from England to Clermont County, Ohio, where he farmed. In 1829 he started a successful hardware business in Cincinnati with his younger brother William. Both men became founding members of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society in 1835 and served on its executive committee. The Donaldson brothers assisted James G. Birney in the establishment of the abolitionist weekly the Philanthropist. Christian changed his religious affiliation from Congregationalist to Unitarian in protest of the former’s tolerance of slaveholding. After William returned to England in 1844, Christian returned to Clermont County and worked with his brother Thomas on the Underground Railroad. Charles T. Greve, Centennial History of Cincinnati and Representative Citizens, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1904), 1:753, 795–96; Byron Williams, History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio, 2 vols. (Milford, Ohio, 1913), 2:266–71. 10. Bremer’s early novels and collections of sketches focused on the problems faced by single women striving for independence in early nineteenth-century Swedish society. Bremer, Fredrika Bremer, 77–80, 113–16. 11. This is more than likely a reference to My Bondage and My Freedom, which would be published the following month. Given the close relationship, both personally and professionally between Griffiths and Douglass, and the high probability that Griffiths was the anonymous author of that work’s Editor’s Preface, it is quite possible that she would have had a proof copy of the unpublished work available to lend to Rosalie Roos, a Swedish passenger, as they crossed the Atlantic. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 2:288. 12. A character in Charles Dickens’s serialized 1846 novel, Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation. The young Paul Dombey, named for his father, was timid and sickly. He died at an early age while at boarding school. Gilbert A. Pierce, The Dickens Dictionary: A Key to the Plots and Characters in the Tales of Charles Dickens (1914; New York, 1965), 288–89. 13. The quoted phrase comes from Sir Walter Scott’s The Antiquary, first published in 1816: “ ‘Monkbarn’s bark,’ said Miss Griselda Oldbuck in confidential intercourse with Miss Rebecca Blattergowl, ‘is muckle waur than his bite.’ “ Sir Walter Scott, The Antiquary (1816; London, 1966), 210. 14. An allusion to divided international sympathies caused by the Crimean War (1854–56). The conflict originated in a diplomatic contest between Russia and France to secure protective powers over Christian holy places and the Christian population of the Ottoman Empire. To force concessions, Tsar Nicholas I sent troops into Turkey’s Danubian provinces in July 1853. Earlier, Nicholas had informed the British that should negotiations fail, he planned to wage war and partition Turkey. Confident that England and France ultimately would intervene to preserve the European balance of power, the sultan declared war on Russia in October 1853. A month later, the Turks suffered a major defeat in the naval battle of Sinope. When further efforts at mediation failed, Britain and France declared war on Russia on 28 March 1854. In September, an Anglo-French army launched an invasion of Russia’s Crimean Peninsula that climaxed in a yearlong siege of the port of Sebastopol. The war, incompetently managed and fought, ended in early 1856 when the new tsar, Alexander II, agreed

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to withdraw from the Balkans and respect the neutrality of the Black Sea. W Baring Pemberton, Battles of the Crimean War (New York, 1962), 15–26; Robert C. Binkley, Realism and Nationalism, 1852–1871 (New York, 1935), 157–80. 15. Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87), fourth son of the Presbyterian clergyman Lyman Beecher and brother of antislavery novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe, was the noted pastor of Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church for forty years. After his graduation from Amherst College in 1834, Beecher studied at Lane Theological Seminary and served as pastor of Presbyterian churches in Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis, Indiana, before becoming minister at Plymouth Church in 1847. Committed to making the church an active instrument of social reform, Beecher addressed the major social and political issues of his time in forceful and dramatic sermons that established him as one of the century’s major orators. Though he denounced the evil of slavery, he denied that a constitutional basis existed for interfering with the institution in states where it already existed. Instead, Beecher urged that its exclusion from the territories would achieve abolition gradually and peacefully. His theology, minimizing doctrinal differences, stressed the religious worth of personal loyalty to Christ, and in 1882 he led his church out of the Congregational denomination. In addition to writing extensively for the secular press, Beecher edited two widely read religious journals, the New York Independent (1861–63) and the Christian Union (1870–81). The New York Congregational journalist Theodore Tilton accused Beecher of having an adulterous relation with Tilton’s wife; the allegation was made public in 1872. Beecher’s reputation survived three years of public discussion, a criminal trial, a civil trial, and an examination of the charge by the Congregational council. Caskey, Chariot of Fire, 208–48; NCAB, 3:129–30; DAB, 2:129–35. 16. Charles Dickens. 17. The first known use of the term “darky” to describe people of African descent appears in a 1775 Revolutionary War song entitled “Trip to Cambridge”: “The women ran, and the darkeys too.” Frank Moore, Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution (New York, 1856), 100. 18. John E. Williams (1816–1901), a sailing officer born in Mystic, Connecticut, was immortalized in a chorus of the sea shanty “Blow the Man Down” as “Kicking Jack Williams commands the Black Ball.” Williams achieved fame in 1860 for commanding the clipper Andrew Jackson of the Black Ball Line on a record-breaking voyage from New York City to San Francisco. Graham Seal, introduction to Ten Shanties Sung on the Australian Run, comp. George H. Haswell (1879; Mt. Hawthorn, Wash., 1992), n.p.; Charles F. Burgess, ed., Historic Groton: Comprising Historic and Descriptive Sketches (Moosup, Conn., 1909), 85. 19. Passed by France in 1724, Louisiana’s original Code Noir (Black Code) provided some legal protection to slave families. The separation of spouses was prohibited, as was the removal of children under the age of fourteen from their parents. Under Spanish rule (1762–1800), Louisiana’s slaves continued to receive some measure of protection. In the years following the Louisiana Purchase (1803), however, a series of slave codes curtailed all such legal protection offered to families. By 1829 the prohibition against separating husbands and wives was no longer in effect, and the age at which children could be sold away from their mothers had been lowered to under the age of ten. Clayton E. Jewett and John O. Allen, Slavery in the South: A State-by-State History (London, 2004), 129–31; Michael Tadman, Speculators and Slaves: Masters, Traders, and Slaves in the Old South (Madison, Wisc., 1989), 142. 20. Making up 80 percent of the population, Russian serfs were not slaves, although they could be bought and sold along with the estates they worked and lived on. In Russia, many serfs were able to exercise considerable freedom of choice in both how they farmed the land set aside for their own use and in determining how best to manage affairs in their villages. Russia’s serfs, nonetheless, lacked full civil and political rights. They were required by law to either pay rents or provide labor to their lords in exchange for access to the land. Most significantly, they were also prohibited from either selling their allotments or moving away from them. Serfdom in Russia was abolished by the Emancipation Edict of February 1861. Edward Acton, “Russia: Tsarism and the West,” in Themes in

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Modern European History, 1830–90, ed., Bruce Waller (London, Eng., 1990), 164–66, 169; David Christian, Imperial and Soviet Russia: Power, Privilege, and the Challenge of Modernity (New York, 1997), 56–58; Gildea, Barricades and Borders, 17, 155, 158–59, 183–84. 21. Published in March 1852, Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin had sold 300,000 copies by the end of that year and quickly became an international sensation. Both the novel and the novelist, however, proved to be controversial, and both were subjected to intense criticism. The Southern response was particularly harsh—one critic wrote that Stowe was “much more conversant than the majority of Southern gentlemen with moral corruption,” and another noted that the novel represented “the loathsome raking of a foul fancy.” The charges leveled against Stowe and Uncle Tom’s Cabin included complaints about the style and the accuracy of the writing, and allegations that the author’s conduct was unfeminine and motivated by a combination of malice and greed. In response to her critics, Stowe published A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1853. John R. Adams, Harriet Beecher Stowe: Updated Edition (Boston, 1989), 39–40; Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 223, 230–32. 22. Although the origin of the term “peculiar institution” as a euphemism for Southern slavery remains unclear, John C. Calhoun is generally credited with introducing it into public discourse. In December 1828, Calhoun referred to South Carolina’s “peculiar institutions” in what is commonly known as his “Exposition and Protest.” Over the following decade, “peculiar institution” gained wide acceptance as a means of referring to slavery throughout the South. John C. Calhoun, Union and Liberty: The Political Philosophy of John C. Calhoun, ed. Ross M. Lence (Indianapolis, Ind., 1992), 364, 461. 23. From the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. 24. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, canto 3, stanza 1. Byron, Complete Poetical Works of Lord Byron, 2:77. 25. The “Atlantic roll” refers to the rocking, pitching, and rolling motion that passengers experienced while sailing the rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean. An Atlantic roll could be experienced while crossing a bay, a channel, or the wider ocean. For many passengers, encountering an Atlantic roll was tantamount to the onset of seasickness. Others, however, found the experience exhilarating. Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Eng.) Newcastle Courant, 14 October 1859; Sheffield (Eng.) Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, 20 January 1876; Aberdeen (Scot.) Aberdeen Journal, 18 June 1873; London Daily News, 19 December 1874; London Morning Post, 2 January 1900. 26. A Middle English word for a creature or sentient being. 27. A knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, approximately 1.151 mph. Therefore, 8 knots an hour equals 9.208 miles per hour. 28. 4 July 1855. 29. Albion’s “white cliffs” are on the southern shore of Great Britain. Albion, meaning “white,” was the ancient Celtic name for the British Isles, given on account of the physical characteristics of the chalky white cliffs of the southern shore. Seltzer, Gazetteer of the World, 36. 30. Rosalie Roos (1823–98) born in Stockholm, Sweden, was a poet, educator, and feminist. Roos came to America to teach at Limestone College, in Gaffney, South Carolina, between the years 1851 and 1855. The diary she kept while there was later published as Travels in America. Upon termination of her teaching position, she returned to Sweden and married Knut Olivecrona, a lawyer and jurist. She is best remembered for her work for women’s rights in her native country. Rosalie Roos, Travels in America, 1851–1855, trans. Carl L. Anderson (Carbondale, Ill., 1982). 31. Cape Clear is the southernmost point in County Cork. Seltzer, Gazetteer of the World, 373. 32. A seaport town on the southern coast of Ireland in Cork County. Seltzer, Gazetteer of the World, 951. 33. A coastal town on the western side of Wales in the county of Anglesey. Seltzer, Gazetteer of the World, 296. 34. Ps. 127:1. 35. Located in North Anglesey, Wales, Point Lynas is the site of the lighthouse in the district of Amlwch. Seltzer, Gazetteer of the World, 62.

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36. The phrase “evening shades prevail” is taken from an untitled ode by Joseph Addison published in the 23 August 1712 issue of the London Spectator. The Spectator: Stereotype Edition, 2 vols. (1832; London, 1836), 534. 37. Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), Scottish poet and novelist, was one of the most prominent British authors of the early nineteenth century. Roderick Dhu, Ellen Douglas, and her father, Lord James of Douglas—a medieval Scottish chieftain—are the principal characters. Sir Walter Scott, The Complete Poetical Works of Scott (Boston, 1900), 152–208; John Lauber, Sir Walter Scott, rev. ed. (Boston, 1989), 1–6; Frank N. Magill, Critical Survey of Poetry: English Language Series, rev. ed., 8 vols. (Pasadena, Calif., 1992), 6:2903–12; Margaret Drabble, ed., The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 5th rev. ed. (New York, 1998), 542, 875–76. 38. Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto 6, stanza 1. Scott, Complete Poetical Works, 74.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 18 July 1855.

My dear Friend— Your note1 with five Dolls came safely to hand. We arrived safely at home—all the better for our visit at your home, Mrs Douglass2—has been unwell since reaching home—but is better to day. I am right glad you caught Mr Pierpont3 and have taken him to Peterboro—I should greatly like to be seated in a corner of your study & to hear the many good things which will fall from the lips of two men of so great experience. I hope you will talk about the Boston Convention4 —I am busy at work on my book—It is more of a Job than at first I supposed it would be—and I am beginning to be weary of it—Remember me most kindly and gratefully to MrS Gerrit Smith5—tell her that my wife is all the better for having seen her and joins me fully in love to her— With great respect and affection—yours— FREDERICK DOUGLASS. ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. No note or letter from Gerrit Smith matching this description has survived. 2. Anna Murray Douglass (c. 1813–82), Douglass’s first wife, was born free in Denton, Maryland. She was the eighth child of Bambarra and Mary Murray, slaves who had been manumitted shortly before her birth. At seventeen she moved to Baltimore, where she worked as a domestic and met Douglass at meetings of the East Baltimore Mental Improvement Society. In 1838, Murray helped Douglass finance his escape, and she joined him in New York City, where they were married on 15 September. During Douglass’s first tour of the British Isles (1845–47), she remained in Lynn, Massachusetts, where she supported the family by binding shoes. She gained a reputation for frugality and skillful household management, qualities that would contribute greatly to her family’s financial prosperity over the years. A member of the Lynn Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society and a regular participant in the annual antislavery bazaars in Boston, she continued her antislavery activities after

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moving to Rochester in 1847. Unlettered, reserved, and, according to her husband, never completely at ease in white company, she seldom appeared at public functions with Douglass. She was nevertheless affectionately remembered by her husband’s associates as a “warm” and “hospitable” hostess at their home. On 9 July 1882, Anna Douglass suffered an attack of paralysis in Washington, D.C., and died there on 4 August. Lib., 18 November, 2 December 1853; Philadelphia Christian Recorder, 20 July 1882; Washington (D.C.) Post, 5 August 1882; Rosetta Douglass Sprague, My Mother as I Recall Her: A Paper Delivered before the Anna Murray Douglass Union, W.C.T.U., May 10, 1900 (1900; Washington, D.C., 1923); Jane Marsh Parker, “Reminiscences of Frederick Douglass,” Outlook, 51:552–53 (6 April 1895); Dorothy Sterling, ed., We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1984), 132–37; Julie R. Nelson, “The Best of Intentions: Anna Murray Douglass, Helen Pitts Douglass, and the Challenge of Social Equality,” Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, 12:39–42 (Spring 1995); Sylvia Lyons Render, “Afro-American Women: The Outstanding and the Obscure,” Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, 32:306–10 (October 1975). 3. John Pierpont (1785–1866) was a poet and an activist Unitarian minister of Boston’s Hollis Street Church from 1819 to 1845. Douglass quoted Pierpont’s work in many speeches and writings and published this poem, composed in 1839, in the first issue of the North Star. He misquoted a line from the “The Fugitive Slave’s Apostrophe to the North Star” in a lecture to the New Lyceum in Manchester, New Hampshire, on 24 January 1854. Pierpont also appeared with Douglass and many luminaries of the abolitionist movement at the well-publicized fourteenth anniversary meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society on 9 May 1848 at the Broadway Tabernacle in New York City. NS, 3 December 1847; New York Daily Tribune, 9 May 1848; NASS, 11 May 1848; John Pierpont, The Anti-Slavery Poems of John Pierpont (Boston, 1843), 29–33; DAB, 14:586–87. 4. Possibly Douglass alludes to the planning for a “General Convention of Radical Political Abolitionists,” called for Boston on 23–25 October 1855. The call for this convention had been issued by a similarly named convention held in Syracuse on 26–28 June 1855. The earlier meeting had been attended by Douglass, Gerrit Smith, John Brown, James McCune Smith, William Goodell, and many other militant abolitionists, black and white. FDP, 28 September, 9 November 1855; Stauffer, Black Hearts of Men, 8–20. 5. Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 14 Aug[ust] 1855[.]

Hon: Gerrit Smith. My dear Friend: It would have been quite compenSation enough to know that the dedication of my Book1 afforded you pleasure. That dedication was inSerted not to place you under obligations, nor to discharge my obligation to you, but rather to couple my poor name with a name I love and honor, and have it go down on the tide of time with the advantage of that name. Nevertheless, I gratefully accept your draft for fifty dollars—I do not know, just yet, what use I Shall make of it. I am ever disposed to prefer the useful to the ornamental, and shall no doubt find some useful purpose to which I may properly devote the money—

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My family are well and join me in kind regards to you and yours. I leave home tomorrow on a four weeks Campagn thorugh Niagara and Orleans Counties.2 I shall try to uphold the great principles of freedom as laid down by yourSelf, and Mr Goodell3 at the radical abolition Convention. Yours Most truly FREDERICK DOUGLASS ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Dedicated to Gerrit Smith, Douglass’s My Bondage and My Freedom, released in August 1855, tells the story of Douglass’s life as a slave, his escape, his first fourteen years as an abolitionist, his manumission, and his life a freeman, including his ventures in the printing business. The autobiography sold five thousand copies in the first two days of its release, at $1.25 per copy, and sold one thousand in Syracuse, New York, alone. The book required second and third printings in 1856 and 1857, and by the time of the release of the German edition in 1860, some twenty thousand copies had been sold. Despite the book’s limited initial circulation, it met with rave reviews and rivaled the popularity of his autobiographical Narrative. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 2:xxx–xxxi. 2. Douglass toured central New York from 15 to 25 August 1855 in the company of William J. Watkins. After touring alone for two weeks, he attended the State Convention of Colored Men at Troy, New York, on 4–6 September 1855. FDP, August 1855; Douglass Papers, ser. 3, 3:xxii–xxiii. 3. William Goodell.

JOHN BROWN, JR.,1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Lawrence, Kansas Tr., 15 Aug[ust] 1855.

Friend Douglass : I reached this place yesterday to attend a Convention of the Free State men2 to take into consideration what means should be adopted by us in view of the present crisis in our political affairs, and though the weather has been very unfavorable, (rain every day for the past week and still raining,) yet a great number are here, and exceedingly in earnest to do something. Yesterday little more was done than accept the Report of the Business Committee.3 This morning the people in great numbers have gathered in the street and are discussing, what do you imagine? why the question which more than any other is to shake the free State party here to its very centre. I[t] is “Shall Kansas be a free White State only, or a State in which all shall have their rights protected irrespective of color?” There is a portion of the Free State party here who will recognize as a Free State only that which in letter and spirit will carry on the sublime principles of the Declaration of

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Independence; another, and perhaps larger portion, is in favor of making a free State for the white, while they would impose the most outrageous restrictions upon the colored man.4 I have said this is perhaps the largest portion of those calling themselves free State men.—Of this I am not certain; but, if they exceed [in] numbers, they do not equal in intellectual strength and discipline, and are wholly shorn of moral force. When the time comes for them to vote, the proclivities they now exhibit induce the belief that they will join the Slave State party. As usual in every great struggle between the Right and the Wrong, there is here a portion who say “let us drop all differences for the [illegible] of union, let us adopt a platform upon which all free State men can stand.” These would have us even sacrifice our most cherished anti-Slavery principles for the sake of gaining numbers. Col. Lane,5 formerly Member of Congress, [illegible] Indiana, is now addressing the Convention. He is endeavoring to extricate himself from the scrum which attaches to him here, far away, [illegible] to the very outskirts of civilization, for [having] voted in favor of the Kansas Nebraska [Bill]. He says, “I was so instructed to vote by my constituents, and as a faithful representative [am] bound to obey.”6 But this don’t take “away [out] west.” Mr. Schuyler7 of “Council City” has [illegible]ed to him, and he is “done for” in Kansas. The resolution now under discussion repudiates [a] so-called Legislature, and declares we will obey no law of its enacting. It has just passed unanimously. Another has just passed, declaring that we will resist by force the execution of [the] laws.8 Another resolution now before us calls for a Convention of delegates from the people to draft a State Convention for Kansas, and to ask for a speedy admission as a State. Upon this resolution, Col. Lane is now speaking. He says, “the line should be drawn as broad as the [ocean] between abolitionism and free Stateism.”9 As this is the sentiment of many here who [illegible] themselves “as good free State men as any body,” it is to be hoped that Anti-Slavery people at the East will, in their sympathies for the settlers of Kansas, make a just discrimination. It is certain that men pass here as good free State men, and at the same time are regarded by the pro-slavery party, as the Missourians say, all right on the goose question.”10 The last resolution referred to above has passed unanimously. Another resolution has passed approving the course of Gov. Reeder,11 and the Convention has adjourned sine die,12 but not without showing that the element of division, (the “Black law” question) though comparatively smothered, is yet sure to break out.

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Another Convention is now called to be held at a place known as Big Spring,13 12 or 15 miles above this, near the Kansas river. It was originally called by the “free white State” men in that region, and the intention is to adopt there a platform for the free State party of this Territory. While the “free white State” men loudly proclaim that they are most anxious to harmonize, and avoid any thing like division, it is perfectly evident that they are determined to secure a platform with such planks in it, that no consistent anti-Slavery man can stand upon it. I feel grieved to think that the ardent sympathies of anti-Slavery people at the North and East, and indeed of the world, are likely to be chilled if not entirely extinguished towards us, as a people, who, while struggling to defend our own rights, will consent to a scheme which robs our own fellow citizens of this republic of theirs, and that, too, in the most palpably unconstitutional manner. God grant that we may be saved from the infamy which must attach to us in the judgment of all who merit the name of freemen by so shaping our course that we shall by our united efforts promote the cause of Freedom, not that of despotism, under the specious name of the “Free State party of Kansas Territory!” Yours, for the Right, JOHN BROWN, JR. AUGUST 16TH.

P. S. I have to-day the happiness to find a much greater number of true anti-Slavery men among us than I yesterday feared, and that these are determined to maintain their principles in the trying hour. The Black Law question appears to have been sprung upon us at this juncture by those who not only hate the colored man but all lovers of Liberty for all. PLSr: FDP, 7 September 1855. 1. The eldest son of John Brown, John Brown, Jr. (1821–95), was born near Hudson, Ohio. In 1826 he moved with his family to Pennsylvania, where he was educated. Brown assisted his father in farming and tanning ventures until 1849, when the younger Brown began farming for himself in Ohio and lecturing on phrenology. In 1855 he joined the rest of his family in Kansas to fight in the Free-State cause. He was arrested and imprisoned for three months in Lecompton, Kansas, after his father killed five proslavery sympathizers in the Pottawatomie Creek massacre of May 1856. Although he assisted his father in raising funds and volunteers, the younger Brown played no active role in the raid on Harpers Ferry and went into hiding in Ashtabula, Ohio, immediately following his father’s capture. After rheumatism ended his brief service as captain of Company K, Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment during the Civil War, Brown retired to Ohio to raise grapes. Cleveland Press, 3 May 1895; Ohio Historical Society, Inventory and Calendar of the John Brown, Jr. Papers, 1830–1892 (Columbus, Ohio, 1962), 1–2; Richard J. Hinton, John Brown and His Men (1894; New York, 1968), 567; Oates, To Purge This Land, 140–45, 160, 173, 316. 2. Two simultaneous conventions met in Lawrence on 14–15 August 1855. The larger convention, led by James H. Lane and Charles Robinson, committed to organizing a Free-State party in a

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subsequent September convention at Big Springs. The second, more radical convention, attended by Brown, began organizing a rival Free-State government in opposition to the authority of the proslavery legislature recognized by the territorial governor, Andrew H. Reeder. Nicole Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era (Lawrence, Kans., 2004), 69–71; Oswald Garrison Villard, John Brown, 1800–1859, a Biography Fifty Years After, rev. ed. (New York, 1943), 102–03. 3. A committee chaired by Charles Robinson drafted the “Report of the Commission” created by the larger Lawrence gathering. It denounced the “bogus” territorial government and endorsed drafting a state constitution for Kansas’s admission to the Union that would prohibit slavery. Villard, John Brown, 102. 4. The Free-State party faction led by James H. Lane endorsed legislation to exclude all black immigration into the territory. When the party drafted the “Topeka Constitution” in late 1855, the document prohibited not only slavery but also free black settlement in the territory. A referendum on 15 December 1855 ratified the constitution overwhelmingly, including the exclusionary provision, by a vote of 1,287 to 453. Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas, 71, 75. 5. The flamboyant politician James Henry Lane (1814–66) was the son of Amos Lane, a prominent Indiana Democratic congressman and friend of Andrew Jackson. The younger Lane studied law under his father and followed him into Democratic party politics. After serving as a colonel of a volunteer regiment in the Mexican War, Lane was elected lieutenant governor of Indiana (1849–53) and then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1853–55). He declined to run for a second congressional term when his vote in favor the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 generated considerable discontent among his constituents; he instead immigrated to the Kansas Territory. After failing to create a regular Democratic party organization in Kansas, Lane took a leading role in the free-state faction in territorial politics. He became an important militia commander of the free-staters, and in 1856 he established the “Jim Lane Trail” through Iowa to circumvent a blockade by Missourians. When Kansas was admitted to the Union in 1861, the legislature elected Lane to the U.S. Senate as a Republican. Without resigning that office, he briefly fought in Union army campaigns in the West and was among the first to recruit blacks as soldiers. Loudly condemned by most Kansas Republicans for having endorsed Andrew Johnson’s veto of the Civil Rights Bill of 1866, Lane became despondent and committed suicide. John Speer, Life of Gen. James H. Lane, “The Liberator of Kansas,” with Corroborative Incidents of Pioneer History, 2d ed. (Garden City, Kan., 1897); William Elsey Connelley, James Henry Lane: The “Grim Chieftain” of Kansas (Topeka, Kans., 1899); Glenn Noble, John Brown and the Jim Lane Trail (Broken Bow, Neb., 1977), 29–31, 43–50, 54–57; ACAB, 3:606; DAB, 10:576–78. 6. According to another report, Lane told the Lawrence Convention on the previous day that while he desired the Kansas Territory to become a free state, his faith in the principle of popular sovereignty would have guided him to vote for the Kansas-Nebraska Act again. He also denied that his former Indiana constituents would have rejected his bid for another term in Congress after that 1854 vote, had he sought it. Wakarusa Kansas Herald of Freedom, 18 August 1855; Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas, 71. 7. Douglass reported staying at the home of Philip Church Schuyler (1805–72) in Ithaca, New York, during the preceding July. He praised Schuyler as “not merely an abolitionist at the ballot box, but in all relations to life.” In 1855, Schuyler moved to Kansas and became active in the territory’s free-state movement. He founded the community of Burlingame in Osage County, Kansas. FDP, 30 July 1852, 22 September 1854, 27 July 1855; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 344. 8. These were the sentiments of the resolutions passed by the smaller, more radical convention in Lawrence. John Brown, Jr., was a member of the business committee that drafted those resolutions. Villard, John Brown, 102–03. 9. Another reporter at this Lawrence convention stated that Lane claimed both he and President Franklin Pierce hoped to see the Kansas Territory enter the Union as a free state, but also that he “would prefer to see Kansas a slave State in preference to seeing it an abolition State.” Wakarusa Kansas Herald of Freedom, 18 August 1855; Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas, 71.

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10. To be sound on the slavery question. Emmett Redd and Nicole Etcheson, “ ‘Sound On the Goose’: A Search for the Answer to an Age Old ‘Question,’ “ Kansas History, 32:204 (Autumn 2009). 11. The Pennsylvania lawyer Andrew Horatio Reeder (1807–64) was an active Democrat but never held elective political office. President Franklin Pierce appointed Reeder the first territorial governor of Kansas in June 1854. When Reeder objected to the participation of Missourians in the first election for a congressional delegate, Pierce removed him on the bogus charge of illegal land speculation. Thomas A. McMullen and David Walker, eds., Biographical Directory of American Territorial Governors (Westport, Conn., 1984), 161–62. 12. Adjournment sine die is from the Latin “without day,” meaning without assigning a future meeting date. 13. A “Free State Convention,” called by the larger convention at Lawrence, met at Big Springs, Kansas Territory, and officially organized a Free-State party, repudiated the proslavery legislature, and called for a convention to meet at Topeka on 19 September to draft a state constitution. Lane’s followers dominated and blocked endorsements of abolition and pushed for a prohibition of free black settlers in the territory. Andrew H. Reeder, recently dismissed as territorial governor by President Pierce, attended this convention and became the Free-State party’s candidate for congressional delegate. Allen Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 2 vols. (New York, 1947), 2:306–11, 384–90; Potter, Impending Crisis, 199–204; Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas, 70–72.

URIAH BOSTON1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS [n.p.] [28 September 1855.]

Mr. Editor:— Your kind notice of my first communication on this subject,2 the objections made by you to the position taken, or which is the same thing, to the results cast up by me, and a desire I cherish, to benefit what I can my fellow beings, prompts me to reply to your objections; let me make myself understood, as that is important. To this end, I remark, 1st. While the South have not ceased to threaten the North with the cry of dissolution,3 Northern Representatives, in Congress, and Northern political leaders, have not failed when called to an account for their treachery to freedom, to make it the scape-goat for all their political sins. Here lies the secret of our failures on the slavery question; and we suffer ourselves to be humbuged and fooled by this Southern scare-crow. The South should be made to understand, that the Union is of more value to them, than it is to the North. My opinion is, that, if the South really believed and felt conscious that the Northern people desired to have the Union dissolved, we would hear no more about dissolution from that quarter. It was this opinion that prompted my former communication. And now, I will briefly notice your objections. 1st. There is but a very small portion of the 5 millions Southerners,4 who can use “bayonets,” and a smaller portion still, who would

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use them against the slaves. It is estimated that there are 250,000 slaveholders in the South.5 This is the highest estimate, I have seen. But admit this to be a true estimate, we may safely conclude, that many of these are unfit to take part in any effort to put down slave insurrections. Others would flee the instant danger was apprehended; others again are timid and tender. On the other hand, the slaves are hardy, being used to rough usage, and though ignorant, they are brave, and would, if properly led and controlled, by some daring leader, be too formidable a force for any army of high lived slaveholders, that could be brought against them. In addition to this, there are many of the whites there, who would take sides with the slaves. There are others from the North, that would be glad of an opportunity to aid the slaves for freedom’s sake; others, for plunder, and others again out of ill will toward the stiff, aristocracy of the South. Combine all these and they would never fail to brake every yoke. Secondly. With regard to the welfare of the slaves, they would be placed in a position to be benefited. Some would be benefited, others would not. On the whole I believe even the slaves, would be benefited by an insurrection, whither it would succeed or fail. I do not say that I desire this, but, I do believe, that we would witness an insurrection within ten years after the dissolution of the Union, that would shake the very foundation of the slave system. I repeat, I do not desire such an event, but as the South make such a hobby of dissolution, and as this would follow as one of the results of dissolution, I should not regret it, but should feel to rejoice over it, upon the principle of divine authority, as it is written: “wo[e] unto the wicked, for the reward of his hands shall be given him, and he shall eat the fruit of his doings.”6 I believe in divine justice as well as in divine benevolence, and one of the strongest convictions of my Christian faith is, that I shall be able cheerfully to say Amen, to God’s punishment of the incorrigibly wicked. “Then the wicked shall cease from troubling, and the weary shall be at rest, and the servant shall be released from his master.”7 The last and only objection remaining to be noticed, is the one relative to “accessions to colored churches,” with regard to which, permit me to say, that, though I should rather see no distinctive organizations of “colored people” yet, as they are already existing, and that according to the will of the greater portion of the people, as the best that can be had at the present, I can see no reason why they should not be improved, both in numbers and respectability.—The only result that I at present cheerfully acquiesce in, and heartily desire, is the grand final result—the destruction of slavery. The others are the means to an end. I cannot see how any one

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can doubt, that the speedy downfall of slavery, would follow the dissolution of the Union. Slavery is a system of weakness, and, if left to maintain itself, must die. This is especially true of American slavery, at this age. Why ask for proof to a self-evident fact. A man fatally diseased at the vitals is diseased in every limb; so is a system, and slavery being a system thus diseased, must die. If you say it is a healthy, sound system, than I shall be willing to dissect it, and prove its unsoundness. This I think you will not say, and therefore I drop the matter for the present. As I said before, I believe slavery is a weak system, and it has, within itself, the elements of death. It is a sick thing, kept alive by its connection with the North. Now, if this sick thing would behave itself, I would bear with it, but seeing it will give us no peace, but is all the while rumpusing, and boasting of its deeds of daring, and its strength, I say cut it lose and let us see what will come of it. Slavery reminds me of an aged piece of poetry, which personifies a certain personage who did live, but, did live hard. It runs thus: “Hunty-bunty on the wall, Hunty-bunty got a fall, All the doctors in the land, Couldn’t make Hunty-bunty stand.”8 Let me add in conclusion that I hope “all the doctors in the land” will let “Hunty-bunty” alone, and use their skill to better purpose.—At all events I hope the better portion of the family will consent to let “Huntybunty” have his own way,—let him go out and try his weakness. Respectfully, U. B. PLIr: FDP, 26 October 1855. 1. A black barber from Poughkeepsie, Uriah Boston (1815–89) was born free in Pennsylvania. He corresponded regularly with many newspapers, including Horace Greely’s New York Tribune, the New York Colored American, and the Albany Patriot as well as Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Despite his advocacy of disunionism, Boston supported political abolitionism and the attempt by New York African American males to remove all restrictions on their voting. Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:278–80; Foner and Walker, Black State Conventions, 1:81, 89. 2. Douglass published an undated letter from “U.B.” in Frederick Douglass’s Paper on 31 August 1855. In an editorial response in the same issue, Douglass branded U.B.’s arguments supporting the dissolution of the Union as a means to end slavery “unsafe, unsound, and unwarrantable.” He concluded, “But you are not the only one who has failed to convince us on this point. Try again.” 3. An allusion to the “Unionist” position taken by many Northern Whigs and Democrats on sectionally divisive issues. While often professing ethical, economic, or ideological opposition to slavery, such political leaders had opposed abolitionism as well as far milder antislavery proposals

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and instead supported various sectional “compromises” in order to avoid creating worries in the South about the security of that institution under the U.S. Constitution. Holt, The Political Crisis of the 1850s, 17–33; John M. McFaul, “Expediency vs. Morality: Jacksonian Politics and Slavery,” Journal of American History, 62:24–39 (June 1975). 4. According to the 1850 U.S. Census, the white population of the slave states was 6,184, 477, and the total number of slaves living in those states was 3,200,138. In 1860 the census reported the total number of slaves as 3,953,760, and the white population of the slave states as 8,036,700. Richard H. Steckel, “The African American Population of the United States, 1790–1920,” in A Population History of North America, ed. Michael R. Haines and Richard H. Steckel (New York, 2000), 435; Otto H. Olsen, “Historians and the Extent of Slave Ownership in the Southern United States,” Civil War History, 18:101–16 (June 1972). 5. In 1850 the U.S. Census listed 347,725 slaveholders in the United States. That figure is probably too low. In its instructions to the enumerators, the Census Bureau stipulated that only the head of each slave-owning household was to be counted as a slaveholder, since “the principal object [was] to get the number of slaves, and not that of masters or owners.” As a result, the figure is more accurately a reflection of how many slaveholding households there were in the United States in 1850, rather than the total number of slave owners. This same caveat holds true for the 395,216 slaveholders recorded in the 1860 U.S. Census. Diane Mutti Burke, On Slavery’s Border: Missouri’s Small-Slaveholding Households, 1815–1865 (Athens, Ga., 2010), 108; Susan B. Carter et al., eds., Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present, Millennial Edition, 5 vols. (New York, 2006), 2: 379. 6. Isa. 3:10–11. 7. Job 3:17, 19. 8. U.B. makes a literary allusion to “Humpty Dumpty,” which fi rst appeared in Mother Goose’s Melody in 1803, but references to a boiled concoction of ale and brandy, known as humpty-dumpty, date back to 1698. Knowles, Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 567; OED, 2d ed. (online).

PHILIP CHURCH SCHUYLER1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Council City, Kansas Territory. 7 Oct[ober] 1855.

F. Douglass, Esq.: My Dear Sir:— Some of my communications for your sheet I judge have failed to reach you. I receive the “Paper” regularly every month, by the Sante-Fee mail: this is as often as we now can receive mail matter from the East. On the 1st of January, we shall have a weekly service. I regret the loss of my last letter to you, as well as others, because, first the labor of preparing them in my situation, is something, and again, you feel that I neglect you. I see your “right arm”2 has left her post. Miss Griffiths has gone home,—can this be a permanent separation? I trust not; how can you get on without her?3 Her industry, talent, and tact for business fitted her remarkably well for the place she filled. Her courage and self-sacrifice is without precedent, as far as I am acquainted, in this or any other country. The accomplished of Britton’s daughters, united in mental, and literary effort, with

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America’s chatteled sons, to argue the cause of the oppressed of our land, is an incident grand beyond conception. I trust she is to return to resume and occupy her old position that she filled with so much credit to herself, and acceptance to the readers of the “Paper,” and support to its Editor. I see that “My Bondage and My Freedom” is having a run. God grant it abundant success; for the “material” aid it will render its worthy, and laborious subject and author, and that it flow like scolding lead into the mines of such stupid, senseless, wicked, diabolical men as Atchison,4 Stringfellow,5 Shannon,6 the apostle divine, and Shannon, the apostle politician, and burn out the black and devilish element of their souls, and soften them down to the consistence of reasonable men! The politics of Kansas are assuming an attitude of great interest. Be not astonished to see us pass out from under the lawless and damnable tyranny of our oppressors—like a bird from her trap—and having organized and transformed this territory into a star of the first magnitude, we go up to Washington even at the next session of Congress, and ask for a place among the galaxy that spangle the American banner.—Will our prayer be heard? I think it will, for it will be offered in great faith. You have seen our repudiation7 of the Missouri-Kansas Legislature with all its laws—in mass meeting at Lawrence on the 14th of August,8—and the Convention held at “Big Springs,” on the 5th ult., laying down a platform (the best that could be got) fixing a day of election for the “Free State” voters, nominating our candidate for delegate to Congress, Ex-Governor Reeder.9—We shall give him a large vote next Tuesday, and pack him with full affidavits10 of all the diabolical acts of our oppressors, and send him up to Washington, and ask for a seat on the floor of the House. Will he be denied? I trow not. At this last Convention we appointed a third, to meet at Sopeka on the 19th of Sept.,11 for the purpose of consulting upon the propriety, or expediency, of forming a State Constitution for Kansas. It was decided that we elect on the same day of our delegate to Congress, delegates to a State Constitutional Convention, to be holden at Sopeka on the fourth Tuesday of this month, to form a Constitution, and organize a State Government, and set the machine in full motion, lubricating its joints and bearings with all the wisdom, prudence, care and courage that accidental pioneers can command. What do you think of this move? Shall we succeed? Suppose we set our State Government in full operation, ply our hands to the business of law-making, and the General Government refuse us admission, and tell us we had better go back and submit to the Government they have

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created for us.12 Will we do it? I say No. Well, will Gov. Shannon call up the old screechy, territorial whisky machine, and call upon us to address ourselves to it? [P]erhaps he may. But we are “sovereigns” and were not educated to such drill; and when he says, “stack arms” we shall be ready to fire. Will the General Government come to his aid? I say, No; they will not dirty any further hands with this business. I could say a thousand other things in relation to this interesting country, but my space says stop, and my mind dwells at this time on matters more sad and personal. My friend, you have been an inmate of my house. You have slept and fed at my board. You were acquainted with the wife13 of that home, and the mother of those children composing that family circle; did you ever discover aught but harmony and peace in that home? [H]ave you not received welcome from that dear woman? [D]id you discover the curled lip, or hear the taunting word from those dear children? Ah! [T]here was peace there, because of the able dame’s well disciplined mind, and high moral sentiment of the woman who moved at the head. But, alas! [A]las! [S]he was mortal, and subject to the contingencies of death.— Death, oh! [T]hou relentless tyrant! [T]hou demanded the best, the richest jewel of my home, and that, too, in the absence of the one upon whom that home rested more particularly for guidance and support,—death by disease entered that house, he fastened upon the younger member of it, the struggle lay between him; and that gray-headed, venerable physician, who has stood by my family even since I had one,—thro’ the aid of the divine hand, he prevailed and the enemy was driven back. His voracious appetite for blood only seemed the more determined not to be foiled in his purposes; he sunk his venomous fangs into the vitals of the head and heart of that home—and took her as his prey—the husband to receive the shock as the oak does the lightning bolt—in a wild, distant country, whither had been directed his steps, with the advise and concurrence of her who is now no more. Think of his riven, broken heart—but his is light. Contemplate the ruin he spread around, in the destruction of the peace and joy of those six loved ones,—as they stood by the bed-side, and their mother gasp away her breath—and then to witness the corpse borne out of the door by the hands of strangers to its resting place—and they to return with hearts as desolate as the midnight hour. According to the accounts borne to me, the scenes attending this sad event partook almost of dramatic interest,—but I forbear. I thought it was she who should guide those tender and loved ones in their weakness, to manhood, and strength.

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What shall I now do? is an enquiry I most earnestly make of Him, who has power and mercy to bestow and will not withhold. Very truly, yours, PHILIP C. SCHUYLER. PLSr: FDP, 26 October 1855. 1. A member of one of the most prominent families in New York, Phillip Church Schuyler (1805–72) lived in Ithaca, New York, until 1855, when he moved his family to Council City in Osage County, Kansas Territory. The following year, the delegates of the free-state territorial legislature elected him secretary of state. In 1858, Council City was renamed Burlingame in honor of free-state leader Aaron Burlingame, and after it was officially incorporated in 1860, Schuyler was elected its first mayor. In 1862 he was defeated in a bid for election to the Kansas legislature on the Democratic ticket. An Illustrated Historical Atlas of Osage County, Kansas (Philadelphia, 1879), 7–9; Frank W. Blackmar, ed., Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Embracing Events, Institutions, Industries, Counties, Cities, Towns, Prominent Persons, Etc., 2 vols. (Chicago, 1912), 2:255–56; Florence C. Christoph, Schuyler Genealogy: A Compendium of Sources Pertaining to the Schuyler Families in America Prior to 1800, 3 vols. (Albany, N.Y., 1987–95), 2:36, 122. 2. Julia Griffiths. 3. Griffiths had worked as the informal business manager of Douglass’s newspapers, the North Star and Frederick Douglass’ Paper, from 1848 to the time of her return to Great Britain in early summer 1855. McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 164–65, 182. 4. David Rice Atchison (1807–86) graduated from Transylvania University and studied law in his native Kentucky before moving to Missouri in 1830. There Atchison practiced law in Liberty, Clay County, won election to the state legislature in 1834 and 1838, and rose to the rank of major general in the state militia. In 1840 he became judge of the circuit court in Platte County, and later that year he received an appointment to the U.S. Senate to complete the term of the recently deceased Louis F. Linn. He was president pro tempore of that body for much of the period between 1846 and 1855. Atchison distinguished himself in the Senate as a friend of land grants to railroads and as a foe of his Missouri colleague Thomas Hart Benton, who took a more moderate stance on slavery than Atchison. Benton, defeated for reelection in 1850 largely because of Atchison’s efforts, ran for Atchison’s seat in 1855. In a bitter campaign, Atchison appealed to proslavery sentiment in western Missouri by stressing his role in the passage of those provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska Act that repealed the Missouri Compromise. Neither Benton nor Atchison won the 1855 election, but Atchison furthered his proslavery reputation in 1856 and 1857 by leading Missourians in raids against free-soil supporters in Kansas. He later lived in Texas, where he supported the Confederate war effort, and, for his last two decades, on a farm in Gower, Missouri. Theodore C. Atchison, “David R. Atchison: A Study in American Politics,” Missouri Historical Review, 24:502–15 (July 1930); ACAB, 1:114; NCAB, 10:223; DAB, 1:402–03; BDUSC (online). 5. John H. Stringfellow (1819–1905) was a physician and a proslavery politician in Missouri and Kansas. Born into a prominent Virginia family, he went to Missouri upon graduation from the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1845. He practiced medicine in Carrollton and Platte City, Missouri, until 1854, when he moved his family to Atchison, Kansas, a town he helped found and finance. Stringfellow served as Speaker of the House in the Kansas territorial legislature of 1855 and as a colonel in the territorial militia. He also founded the Squatter Sovereign, a proslavery organ and Atchison’s first newspaper. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Stringfellow enlisted in the Confederate army as a captain. He returned to Atchison after the war, and in 1877 moved to Saint Joseph, Missouri, where he lived for the remainder of his life. Walter Williams and Floyd Calvin Shoemaker, eds., Missouri: Mother of the West, 5 vols. (Chicago, 1930), 4:389.

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6. A lawyer from St. Clairsville, Ohio, Wilson Shannon (1802–77) won the governorship of that state in 1838 and again in 1842 as a Democrat. He resigned that office to accept nomination as U.S. ambassador to Mexico from President John Tyler. In 1849 Shannon migrated to California, where he was elected for a term in the U.S. House of Representatives (1853–55). President Franklin Pierce appointed Shannon territorial governor of Kansas to replace Andrew Reeder in August 1855. Shannon’s proslavery views and ineffectual leadership encouraged an escalation of the guerrilla warfare in the territory. After a year in office, Shannon resigned and began practicing law in eastern Kansas. McMullin and Walker, Territorial Governors, 163–64. 7. Kansas’s free-state settlers and their antislavery supporters across the nation contended that the territorial legislature elected in March 1855 possessed no valid authority, because of the fraudulent participation of several thousand proslavery “border ruffians” in the voting. Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas, 50–60. 8. The Lawrence Convention of 14–15 August 1855 had called for a follow-up meeting at Big Springs on 5 September to write a state constitution and apply to Congress for admission to the Union. The Big Springs convention delegates voted to ignore the “Bogus Legislature” of the territory and create one of their own. The meeting elected Andrew H. Reeder as the territory’s delegate to Congress, over the objections of followers of James H. Lane, whose faction succeeded in having the Big Springs gathering resolve against African American immigration to Kansas. Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas, 70–73. 9. Andrew H. Reeder. 10. Written sworn statements of facts voluntarily given. 11. Called by the Big Springs Convention, the Topeka Convention of 19 September 1855 issued a call for another convention in that settlement in October to draw up a state constitution barring slavery, which would allow the Kansas Territory to apply for immediate admission to the Union. Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas, 72–73. 12. An allusion to territorial governor Wilson Shannon and the federally recognized Kansas legislature elected in the 30 March 1855 election, which was marred by the illegal participation of several thousand Missouri “border ruffians.” Kansas free-state critics denied the legality of that legislature and of the slave code it quickly enacted for the territory. Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas, 55–65. 13. The daughter of John Henry Dix and Sarah Dunning Dix of Champlain, New York, Lucy Matilda Dix (1807–55) married Philip C. Schuyler in 1832 at Seneca Falls, New York. The couple lived for much of their marriage in Ithaca, New York, and had nine children. Lucy Schuyler died in Ithaca in September 1855 and was buried there. Schuyler married Louisa Bigelow in 1860. Cuyler Reynolds, Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley, 3 vols. (New York, 1914), 2:809.

JAMES RAWSON JOHNSON TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Putnam, Conn. 18 Oct[ober] 1855.

Frederick Douglass: Dear Friend:— Those Jerry Rescue celebrations1 are like the holidays; they afford opportunities to remove misunderstandings, &c. The cordial grasp of the hand which you gave me when you cheerfully said, “Do not be so reserved, brother Johnson,” has fixed my purpose to write you a free, familiar, private letter. I have long been thinking about it, but postponed.

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After the Rev. O. M.2 came to Rochester as pastor, and gained free access to your ear, I received the impression that your manner toward me was not so full of brotherly confidence as formerly. I did not enquire  into reasons, for it has long been a practice with me, to let such matters work themselves clear. For some years past, I have been accustomed to  regard the sayings and doings of the Rev. O. M. as of minor consequence. But whether I charge that “pious” man with more than what is just— in regard to his influence on your mind, to my disadvantage, or not—I think that from some source, you received the impression that I was not as thoroughly a friend to you, and to your paper, as I had professed to be. I shall present no extended argument in my defense. I will simply make a short quotation from “A. G. B.” in your paper of Aug. 3d, ’55.3 In mentioning Greenport, L. I.,4 and the condition and aspects of the colored people in that vicinity, he says: “A lecture there some time since, by Mr. J. R. J., a correspondent of your paper, was the means of doing much good. It caused your paper to be read there; and how can they but improve with it as a missionary of light in their midst.” I am thankful for this incidental, this unsought testimony. It is from a good witness. At such results I have always aimed in regard to your paper. I am reading your book with great interest. I am noticing the hand of God in your being brought to your present position for doing good. I wish I could be at Boston with you, and other friends, next week. Perhaps I may—I will see if I can. The descendants of Gen. Israel Putnam5 meet here on the same days of our Boston Convention:6 quite a number of them are members of my congregation, and they wish me to be with them. I will consider the matter. I can so arrange it (if the Lord will) as to itinerate again, as soon as next April, or May, and lecture and preach against Slavery. I wo’d like Connecticut as my field. If the question about employing lecturers comes up at the Boston Convention you may consider my name as on the list. I will be ready to go out, if the means of proper support can be definitely pledged. If you get time to answer this, I should be happy to receive a line from you, (if we do not meet at Boston,) though I do not write this to place you under any obligation to write to me, for your hands must be tenfold full. May the Lord guard, and guide you. Yours, as ever, J. RAWSON JOHNSON.

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PLSr: FDP, 26 October 1855. 1. On 1 October 1852 an estimated five thousand people attended the Syracuse celebration organized by Samuel Joseph May to honor of the first anniversary of the rescue of William “Jerry” McHenry, a black cooper arrested under the Fugitive Slave Law on 1 October 1851. The celebration continued to be held annually on the first of October by New York abolitionists until 1860. Douglass usually spoke at these public events, as he did in 1855, although that year he apologized to his readers for the “ague and fever speech” he delivered. FDP, 9 October 1851, 1, 8, 15, 29 October 1852, 5 October 1855; Carleton Mabee, Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 through the Civil War (London, 1970), 307–08; Yacovone, Samuel Joseph May, 150–51. 2. Ovid Miner (1803–91) was born in Middletown, Vermont, and trained as a journalist while working for the Northern Spectator in nearby Poultney. In 1824 he started the Vermont Statesman, which remained in publication in Castleton until 1855. Miner next published the Middlebury Vermont American from 1828 to 1831. In 1834 he graduated from Auburn Theological Seminary and moved to Peru, New York, quitting journalism to become a Congregational minister. Miner was actively involved with the Underground Railroad and cofounded the Ticonderoga Anti-Slavery Society. He also gained notoriety for campaigning against masonry. Thomas E. Boyce, Catalogue of Officers and Students of Middlebury College in Middlebury Vermont and All Others Who Have Received Degrees, 1800 to 1889 (Middlebury, Vt., 1890), 158; Abby Maria Hemenway, ed., The Vermont Historical Gazetteer: A Magazine, Embracing A History of Each Town, Civil, Ecclesiastical, Biographical and Military, 5 vols. (Claremont, N.H. 1877), 3:516; Calarco, The Underground Railroad, 144–45. 3. Johnson refers to and later quotes an article, “An Ecclesiastical Ordination,” in the Frederick Douglass’ Paper of 3 August 1855, by the Reverend Amos G. Beman, dated 30 July 1855. 4. A terminus of the Long Island Rail Road, Greenport is a village in Suffolk County, New York, which is twenty miles northeast of River Head. Established in 1838, the town was originally known for manufacturing barrels and awnings, shipbuilding, and several fisheries. It was also once notorious for residents’ involvement in offshore whaling. Seltzer, Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World, 718; Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer of the World, 1170. 5. Israel Putnam (1718–90) was born in Salem Village, now Danvers, Massachusetts. A successful farmer, he married Hannah Pope in 1739, with whom he had ten children. In 1755, while serving in the Connecticut militia during the French and Indian War, he gained a reputation for valor, which contributed to his promotion to captain in 1755 and major in 1758. In 1758, Indians captured Putnam and were in the process of burning him alive when a French officer, Captain Molang, saved him. As a lieutenant colonel in 1759, Putnam received his first command assignment, to attack Fort Ticonderoga. After the war, he returned to his farm, but soon became involved with the Sons of Liberty and the Committee of Correspondence. In June 1775, Washington appointed Putnam one of the Continental Army’s first four major generals. Though who was in charge at the Battle of Bunker Hill is a matter of dispute, Putnam is most widely known for his participation in that battle and his words to his soldiers, “Men, you are marks-men. Don’t one of you fire until you see the white of their eyes.” Putnam was later criticized for his performance in the Battle for Long Island in August 1776. In 1779, Putnam suffered a stroke, ending his military career, and he retired to Brooklyn, Connecticut. A selfmade man, brave and compassionate, Putnam is better remembered for his personal virtues than his military accomplishments. ACAB, 5:139–41; ANB, 18:11–12. 6. Johnson alludes to the upcoming General Convention of Radical Political Abolitionists, to be held in Boston on 23–25 October 1855. That convention would adopt a constitution for the newly formed American Abolition Society. FDP, 9 November 1855.

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WILLIAM E. WHITING1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Boston, [Mass.] 23 Nov[ember] 1855.

Friend Douglass:— We have at present in our midst a representative of your suffering people,2 who has won the hearts of large numbers of the citizens of this busy, bustling metropolis. She was only about two years since “a chattel” down South, with her husband and a large number of children, and grand-children. One son, and two sons-in-law, are still in the prison house of slavery. Except these, all her other children, her grand-children, and herself, and husband, were emancipated and taken by their mistress to Iowa. With a hopeful heart, she seeks now to raise the needful sum wherewith to purchase the freedom of that one “who is bone of her bone,”3 and those two others so dear to her daughters’ hearts and to their children. Little, by little, she has gathered up by a perseverance and persuasion that none but those in her circumstances can so eloquently use, a sum almost sufficient for her purpose. She has only to collect a little more than Five Hundred Dollars more, and the work will be done! I refrain from detailing the sore trials she has endured, lest the knowledge of them should unnecessarily anger or distress your readers.—Suffice it to say, she has suffered enough, is a meek servant of the great Master, brings testimonials well authenticated, and which would interest even the most indifferent or stoical one. Next to her own touching story, and honest face, a sweetly melting appeal, written by a lady in Providence, R. I.,4 is helping to swell her collections, and I take liberty here to subjoin it,*5 that your readers may realize again the luxury of weeping over suffering humanity, if they cannot render aid thereto. WHITING. PLSr: FDP, 7 December 1855. 1. William E. Whiting (?–1882) was the treasurer and an executive committee member of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. A committed political abolitionist, Whiting joined the American Abolition Society in 1855, was treasurer of its auxiliary the New York City Abolition Society, and was a manager of the religious antislavery American Missionary Association. AM, July 1882; FDP, 27 April 1855; McKivigan, War against Proslavery Religion, 220; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:277. 2. Whiting alludes to Charlotta Gordon Pyles (c. 1806–80), who was the child of a slave father and a Seminole mother. She grew up in Kentucky, where she married a free black man and started a family. When Pyles and her children were inherited by Frances Gordon, the latter removed the slave family to Iowa and freed them. Pyles then toured the North to solicit funds to purchase the freedom of her two sons-in-law, and one of her sons who had been kidnapped from Gordon and sold

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to a Mississippi slaveholder. Pyles raised $4,300 and returned to Kentucky, where she purchased her sons-in-law’s freedom, but she was unable to ever win her son’s freedom. Margaret Ann Reid, “Charlotta Gordon Pyles,” in Notable Black American Women, ed. Jesse Carney Smith (Detroit, 1992), 534–36. 3. Possibly adapted from Gen. 2:23. 4. A poem erroneously entitled “Charlotte Piles” appeared in the 14 December 1855 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. 5. Frederick Douglass’ Paper carried the following statement immediately following Whiting’s letter: “* This Appeal will appear in our next.” FDP, 7 December 1855.

CYNTHIA POTTER BLISS1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Providence, Ill. 23 Nov[ember] 1855.

Frederick Douglass: Much Esteemed Friend:— Accompanying this note you will find a curious specimen of letter writing, and the interpretation thereof, which I hope you will accept as a child’s offering to the cause of liberty. In his infancy we dedicated our little boy2 to the cause of the slave, and he has given early promise that our hopes concerning him shall not be disappointed. The story of your wrongs has deeply affected him, and his grief has sometimes been so passionate that I have been compelled to lay aside the book and use all the skill I had to command of to soothe and quiet him without detracting from the interest of the narrative or the impression it was making. He would plead for me to read, then grieve and cry when I answered his request. He would sit in a deep study over your picture day after day, and when I told him that I knew you, and that his father knew you, and that we had both heard you speak, he was at first filled with joy, and then he cried because he did’nt know you. At last with a countenance beaming with pleasure he wanted to know if he might write you a letter. I told him yes, for I knew you would forgive the intrusion, and I hope you will also forgive my long introduction. He is five years old, old enough to be quite a scholar, but we have just commenced teaching him. He often “writes letters” and I write them off in his own language, to his little cousin in New England. My husband unites with me in sending much love and kind wishes to you, and an earnest desire for the prosperity and welfare of your family. God be praised that you have been raised up “for this purpose.”3

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I never allow myself to speak on the subject of Slavery of late years. My language is so tame and my feelings so strong, that I can’t trust myself to venture out, into this great ocean! But I rejoice that men and women have been raised up who can speak, and whose light gleams forth with promise to this bleeding and prostrate people. When shall we see you in the Prairie Land again?4 Nothing would give us more pleasure than to make you a welcome guest of our humble home. Illinois has been cursed by the crouching subservients of the slave power, but yet we hope for the triumph of those principles and those alone which can save our guilty nation. Yours, with respect, C. P. BLISS.5 PLIr: FDP, 7 December 1855. 1. Probably Cynthia Potter Bliss, an abolitionist originally from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where she organized fairs to support the antislavery cause. Potter attended the 1850 Worcester Women’s Rights Convention. Her son, Howard Clarkson Bliss, also corresponded with Douglass. She later participated in freedmen’s aid work for the American Missionary Association, educating black students in the District of Columbia. Proceedings of the Woman’s Rights Convention Held at Worcester, October 23d and 24th, 1850 (Boston, 1851), 81; Special Report of the Commissioner of Education on the Condition and Improvement of Public Schools in the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C., 1871), 242; Deborah Bingham Van Broekhoven, The Devotion of These Women: Rhode Island in the Antislavery Network (Boston, 2002), 102–03, 192–93. 2. Born in Rhode Island, Howard Clarkson Bliss (c. 1850–1922) relocated with his family to Illinois in the early 1850s. His mother approached Wheaton College in Illinois, presided over by the abolitionist minister Jonathan Blanchard, to have Howard accepted there, but no record shows that he attended. He later took over and operated his father’s successful farm and apple nursery in Bureau County, Illinois. Henry F. Kett, The Voters and Tax-payers of Bureau County, Illinois (Chicago, 1877), 247; Henry C. Bradsby, ed., History of Bureau County, Illinois (Chicago, 1885), 236. 3. Paraphrase of Ex. 9:16. 4. Douglass did not speak in Illinois again until August 1857. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxvii. 5. Douglass followed the letter from Cynthia Potter Bliss with the following: The following is the letter alluded to:— Frederick:—I wish you would come out here and see where we live; we live in Providence, Illinois, where I can run and jump as much as I please. Father and mother have read your book to me, and I am very glad you have got away from the Slaveholders. I wish all the slaves could get away where they could run and play, and have books and papers, and houses and horses, but I wouldn’t have oxen for father says, they are nothing but a trouble, tearing down fences and breaking into cornfields. I think the slaveholders are regular rascals, and if I had a cow skin I’d whip their legs off. I’m glad you got through that squabble with old Mr. Covey, and I’m glad you laid him down on the ground. I guess he will remember it. I’m glad your mother came and gave you that nice cake of gingerbread when old Aunt Katy was so cross and cruel to you.

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This is the nicest letter that I can write, I have written it to you. Hetty used to live in old Virginia, and she says Mr. Randolph had 400 slaves; now she lives here, and I’m so glad she came to help mother do the work because she tried every where to get a girl, and now Hetty helps her. Henry Bibb used to be a slave, but he got away, but his wife and child they couldn’t get away. Frederick, I never was in a printing mill, but mother has been in because she has been to Pawtucket. It made me cry to think Aunt Katy wouldn’t give you anything to eat, and I wouldn’t like to see a slaveholder, they bruise, and beat, and whip the slaves so, and they get into the habit and grow wickeder and wickeder. No one can do better than to work a little themselves. I don’t want to be a slave and I’m so glad I’m free. You can see my writing, but I don’t write so nice as you I know, I string it along, but I guess you can read what mother has written. Father has got a hundred (hundred thousand) trees and some corn and oranges, wouldn’t you like to see them? He tried to kill a wild goose to-night. This is my name. Howard Clarkson Bliss

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Andover[, n.p.] 24 Nov[ember 18]55[.]

Dear Sir Give me leave to ask whether the within extract fairly represents the remarks you made1—Until this point is ascertained I have not a basis for expressing myself at all upon the subject—If what you said is not this will you be so kind as to favor me with a Copy of what you did say. As the American Anti-Slavery Society have never in the Slightest instance volunteered me the least advice upon the subject alluded to or addressed me a syllable in the form of a letter it is only a matter of justice to them that this should be publicly understood—The passage in question is a real annoyance to me2 & I beg that you will embrace an early opportunity of giving me some definite explanation respecting it Very Truly as Ever Yr friend H B STOWE ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 1, frame 653, FD Papers, DLC. 1. Harriet Beecher Stowe probably refers to Douglass’s comments about her during the National Negro Convention held in Philadelphia on 16–18 October 1855. Douglass expressed disappointment at the small amount of money Stowe collected for the proposed Industrial College, especially during her tour of the British Isles in 1853–54. Stowe raised only $535 rather than the $10,000 that Douglass had expected. FDP, 26 October, 2 November 1852; Levine, Representative Identity, 88–89, 261n62. 2. In his remarks in Philadelphia, Douglass had charged: “From the assurance made to me by Mrs. Stowe I fully expected that on her return we should have sufficient funds to make a start in the

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college, but the Garrisonian Abolitionists had sent her packs of letters, and used their papers to prevent the contribution of funds towards it. They argued that we should not have such an institution as long as there were slaves in the country, but in this I think they had the cart before the horse.” Indeed, Stowe was not being completely candid with Douglass. In an undated letter to Wendell Phillips, Stowe complained about the pressure that African Americans had placed on her to be the principal fund-raiser for the manual-labor college, stating “Why don’t they have one—many men among the colored people are richer than I am—& better able to help such an object—Will they ever learn to walk?” FDP, 2 November 1855; Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 247; Levine, Representative Identity, 261n.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO SIMEON S. JOCELYN1 Rochester[, N.Y.] 15 Dec[ember] 1855.

S. S. Jocelyn My Dear friend. Your letter enclosing ten Dollars in aid of my paper and expressing an interest in my labors for the emancipation and elevation of the oppressed and enSlaved, came Safely to hand this morning. I thank you my good friend for both your kind words—and for your money—and not less for the former, than for the latter. I can easily underStand why you prefer to do what you have done in a Silent way—and Shall therefore attend to your directions in this regard. I Should nevertheless gladly place your name among the kind friends who have assisted me in this my time of need. “A friend ten Dollars”—will Serve as well—since you So will it. I hardly know any time during the past eight years—when a donation to my paper was more opportune than that you have now Sent me. The past has been a trying year for Anti Slavery papers of limited Circulation and that Circulation mostly among the poor. Your Grateful and faithful friend FREDERICK DOUGLASS. ALS: American Missionary Association Papers, LNArc. 1. While a student at Yale University, Simeon S. Jocelyn (1799–1879) became the minister of an African American congregation in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1831 he worked with both William Lloyd Garrison and Lewis Tappan on a controversial proposal, which provoked much local opposition, to found a college for black students in the city. In 1839 he worked with Tappan on a committee to free the slave rebels from the Amistad, who were being held for trial in New Haven. For many years Jocelyn served as the American Missionary Association’s corresponding secretary for domestic missions. McKivigan, War against Proslavery Religion, 77, 114, 191–92; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 5:36–37.

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LEWIS TAPPAN TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Brooklyn, [N.Y.] 21 Dec[ember 18]55.

Frederick Douglass My dear friend, Day before yesterday I recd your letter1—too late to answer it that day. Yesterday forenoon I went over to the City & called upon the C House Broker with whom I had left the Invoice &c. of the goods contained in the box expected from England. I learned that the vessel had not arrived. All vessels from England at this Season have long passages. I went to 48  Beekman St2 & postponed writing to you. Then I found a telegram from you. I answered it immediately & deferred sending until to-day. Your letter was 3 or 4 days reaching me. So you see, dear Douglass, that I did not neglect your request—nor will I ever if alive & well. I am glad to learn what you say about your lecturing tour, & I hope that your lectures that are to follow will be equally successful in sowing good seed & more successful at furnishing you with the material. My wife3 wants me to say, the gratification she has derived from reading your history has been very great. She reads it over & over again. Its contents will be laid up on our hearts. And the author we hold very dear. Love to your family. Yr affec friend LEWIS TAPPAN ALS: Lewis Tappan Papers, DLC. 1. That letter has not survived. 2. The New York City address of the American Abolition Society. 3. The daughter of William Jackson and Mary Woodward, Sarah Jackson Tappan (1807–84) was one of seventeen children. At the age of seventeen, she married Thomas A. Davis, who was elected mayor of Boston but died after only nine months in office. As a widow, Sarah became heavily involved in the Congregational Church and began publishing religious pamphlets for young people. Sarah met Lewis Tappan at an American Missionary Association convention in Worcester less than a year after his first wife, Susan Aspinwall Tappan, died. Tappan courted Sarah for six months before marrying her on 4 April 1854. Sarah’s reception by the Tappan children was cool, perhaps as a result of her attempts to auction off the Aspinwall family heirlooms. While her marriage with Tappan was one of convenience, it has been characterized as a good match. Sarah shared Tappan’s enthusiasm for evangelism, assumed the role of his secretary, and attended him during his travels. Along with her husband, Sarah also became involved in the activities of the Underground Railroad, hiding fugitives in the basement of their house. She continued her charity work after her husband’s death in 1873, but was forced in her final years to curtail her activities after suffering a series of strokes. Boston Congregationalist, 21 August 1884; Wyatt-Brown, Lewis Tappan, 303–04, 330, 342; EAAH, 3:225.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 1 January 1856.

Hon Gerrit Smith: My Dear friend: Your letter1 has made quite a flutter among the long Skirts—and I fear the consequences. Mrs Gage2 Seems to think that Mrs Stanton3 is not a match for you, and Summons all the sisterhood to Stand forth against the common foe. If but one in a thousand Shall respond to her call, my poor paper will have little room for aught else than their Contributions. I Shall publish Mrs—Stanton’s this week—and draw the Curtain. In truth, I think you was a little hard upon us all in that letter—Yet I cannot Say more against it—than that it was the truth over Strongly Stated. I have just returned from a Short tour in Ohio—I have had good meetings. Accept from me the heartiest Compliments of the Season—for yourself and Dear family, Yours most truly FREDERICK DOUGLASS—

[P.S.] I leave home to Spend a month in lecturing, in Maine—Saturday— ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Douglass alludes to a 1 December 1855 letter from Gerrit Smith to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, which was printed as a public circular. Stanton had earlier questioned Smith on his support for women’s rights, and Smith replied that that movement was ill prepared for the work to be done: “It is not in the proper hands; the proper hands are not to be found. The present age, although in advance of any former age, is nevertheless very far from being sufficiently under the sway of reason to take up the cause of woman and carry it forward to success.” Smith went on to endorse dress reform and woman suffrage, but despaired that most women reformers were still too timid to battle for such radical reforms. Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 106–07. 2. Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826–98), a suffragist and author, was born in Cicero, New York. She was exposed to reform movements early in life, since her family’s home served as a gathering place for suffragists, abolitionists, and temperance activists, as well as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Gage attended the Clinton Liberal Institute and eventually settled in Fayetteville, New York, with her husband, Henry, a successful dry goods merchant. She began her public activism as a suffragist at the National Women’s Rights Convention in Syracuse, in 1852. Gage befriended Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who encouraged her to lecture and organize support for the women’s rights movement. An original member of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the New York State Woman Suffrage Association, Gage became vice president and secretary of the latter in 1869, and the president of both in 1875. In 1870 she published the pamphlet Woman as Inventor, which credited women with inventing the cotton gin, medical science, and bread. Along with Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, she drafted the Woman’s Declaration of Rights in 1876, and the three coauthored the first three volumes of the magisterial six-volume History of Woman Suffrage (New York, 1881–1922). She campaigned for Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, and tried unsuccessfully to vote for him. Throughout her career, she

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published extensively, promoting the suffrage movement and calling attention to what she believed to be the inherently misogynistic nature of the doctrines of Christianity. Leila R. Brammer, Excluded from Suffrage History: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Nineteenth-Century American Feminist (Westport, Conn., 2000); Edward T. James et al., eds., Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, 3 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), 2:4–6. 3. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) was the best-known feminist of her day. Born in Johnstown, New York, and educated at Emma Willard’s Troy Female Seminary, Stanton developed an interest in abolition and other reforms during visits to the home of her cousin Gerrit Smith. Stanton become determined to advance the status of women when she and other female delegates were barred from the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840. Eight years later, Stanton, along with Lucretia Mott, organized the first-ever women’s rights convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York, where Stanton had settled with her husband, Henry B. Stanton, the antislavery politician. During Reconstruction, she opposed the ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments because they granted equal rights and suffrage to black males but ignored all females. She publicly expressed these opinions in the Revolution, the woman suffrage weekly that she edited with Parker Pillsbury, and on the platform of the National Woman Suffrage Association, which she and Susan B. Anthony founded in 1869. Besides presiding over the last organization for more than two decades, Stanton wrote numerous articles and several books, including the multivolume History of Woman Suffrage, in collaboration with Anthony and Matilda Gage. Alma Lutz, Created Equal: A Biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815–1902 (New York, 1940); Lois W. Banner, Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Radical for Woman’s Rights (Boston, 1980); NAW, 3:342–47.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON Springfield, Mass[.] 13 Jan[uary] 1856[.]

William Lloyd Garrison Esqr. Mr Garrison: Sir. I find the following from your pen, in the last number of the “Standard,”1— copied into that paper from the “Empire”—published in London, England—and Edited by George Thompson Esqr.2 My object in calling your attention to this last effort to injure, is respectfully to ask you (if not incompatable with your chosen mode of dealing with me) to point out in the pages of My Bondage and my freedom, the offensive portions of the Book to which you refer,3 thus the readers of the “Standard ” and the “Empire” may read and judge for themselves, of the justice of your denunciations— Respectfully yours— FREDERICK DOUGLASS. ALS: William Lloyd Garrison Papers, MB. 1. Douglass refers to an article published in the 12 January 1856 issue of the National AntiSlavery Standard. Entitled “A Faithful Correction and Willing Acknowledgment,” the article, reprinted from the London Empire, contains portions of a letter from William Lloyd Garrison to the

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editor of the Empire. In the letter, Garrison takes issue with Douglass’s autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom, and with his ill will toward Wendell Phillips, Garrison, and the Old Organization; in addition, he characterizes Douglass as ungrateful and disloyal to his friends. NASS, 12 January 1856; Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 2:417–18. 2. George Thompson (1804–78), a leading Garrisonian abolitionist in Britain, was born in Liverpool, England. In 1833 he formed emancipation societies in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The following year, he began a fifteen-month speaking tour in the United States; mob violence from supporters of slavery forced him to leave Boston secretly in 1835. Back in England, he again worked with British abolitionists. Thompson joined Douglass at a public meeting in Glasgow on 21 April 1840 to condemn the Free Church of Scotland’s fellowship with slaveholders. He later made two more visits to the United States on behalf of abolitionism. Lib., 29 May 1846; Garrison and Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1:434–522, 2:1–72; Howard Temperley, British Antislavery, 1833–1870 (Columbia, S.C., 1972), 237–38; C. Duncan Rice, “The Anti-Slavery Mission of George Thompson to the United States, 1834–1835,” Journal of American Studies, 2:13–31 (April 1968); DNB, 10:691. 3. The London Empire quoted a private letter from William Lloyd Garrison charging that My Bondage and My Freedom, “in its second portion, is reeking with the virus of personal maliginity towards WENDELL PHILLIPS, myself, and the old organizationists generally, and full of ingratitude and baseness towards as true and disinterested friends as any man yet had on earth, to give him aid and encouragement.” London Empire, 15 December 1855; FDP, 22 February 1855, Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 2:417.

JOHN MANROSS1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Hillsdale[,] Mich. 14 Jan[uary] 1856[.]

Dear Sir— I have lately got hold of your history by which I learn that we were almost neighbors. In 1828 1827 I was family teacher for the children of the Rev. Doctor w Wyatt2 in Baltimore and for six months the same year I was Classic teacher in the military Academy at Frederick, Md.3 I should have before stated that I was born at Clinton Oneida Co. N.Y. in 1800 I From Aug. 1828 to Aug. 1831 I was teacher at Hillsborough Academy4 in Caroline County on the border of Tuckahoe Creek which Separates it from Talbot County I was well acquainted with Mas.r Andrew Anthony5 and I believe your description of him is quite correct. I think that Captain Auld6 must have moved away before I came there. Edward Harper7 and Jo.s N. Carson8 were merchants under the hill and Mas.r Andrew had a whiskey shop on the hill. After that I lived at Denton 5 years and Greensborough 1 year and returned to Clinton N. Y. in 1837 and came here in 1838. Your description of scenery and seasons about Tuckahoe,9 is quite refreshing to me as I had not heard much from there since I left.

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If I make a few slight [illegible], I hope that they will be received in kindness. In page 37 you speak of rails thrown over the rafters for a floor, bedstead +c. I suspect they were under the rafters. You speak of the family of Peakess10 near L Lloyd’s.11 Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence is Wm. Paca, and one of the name was Governor of Maryland. I have always understood that they were of the same family (pronounced Peakes) near Lloyds. Your derivation of the word Tuckahoe12 may be quite correct, though I understood that it was of indian origin. In the fall of 1831 I was a soldier in N the famous Nat Turner’s War13 and was stationed at Denton. At some future time I hope to give you some of the details of that War and the noble daring of Southern Chivalry Yours with respect JOHN MANROSS

P. S. Aug 1, 1864—The above was written as dated and mislaid— I heard the Rev George Cookman14 preach several times. At a Camp Meeting in Queen Anns County15 he was reding the opening hymn the first day of the meeting—I cannot repeat the hymn but it was something like the following “Our spirits take their flight. “To realms of Joy and bliss.16 As he repeated the last line the scaffold on which he stood partially gave way and settled a few inches with something of a crash. He stoped a moment, then smiled and said “We are not gone yet.”——— [solid line] You divide the first and last six months in year at Covey’s with the month of August a mistake of one month only [Addenda] I send a communication If it suits you please have it printed with such alterations or amendments as you please and send me a Dozen printed slips of the same yours with Respect J. MANNROSS

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ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 1, frames 654–56, FD Papers, DLC. 1. The U.S. Census of 1850 records a “John Manruss,” originally from New York, residing in Hillsdale, Michigan. Local histories list “John Manross” as an attorney who was elected county surveyor of Hillsdale County (1845–49, 1853–55) and marshal of the city of Hillsdale (1856–58). Crisfield Johnson, History of Hillsdale County, Michigan, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (Philadelphia, 1879), 83, 112,133. 2. Probably the Protestant Episcopal Church minister William Edward Wyatt (1789–1864), the son of Canadian immigrants to New York City, where he graduated from Columbia University in 1809. He became associate rector of St. Paul’s Parish in Baltimore, one year after his 1813 ordination. After the 1827 death of the parish’s rector, Wyatt rose to that post and held it until his own death. He also taught theology at the University of Maryland and was a chaplain at the state penitentiary. Disputes between the Episcopal clergy and laity several times blocked Wyatt, a favorite of the laity, from election to the bishopric of the Diocese of Maryland. A Memorial of the Rev. William Edward Wyatt, D.D., Rector of St. Paul’s Parish, Baltimore (Baltimore, 1864). 3. Probably the Frederick Academy, which enrolled about one hundred students a year. Opened in 1797, the school offered courses in Latin and Greek, English, and mathematics to boys. In 1830, it received a charter from the Maryland General Assembly, which changed its name to Frederick College and granted it the right to confer “collegiate honors and degrees upon deserving students.” The college was allowed to “admit any of the students to any degree in any of the faculties, arts, and sciences, and liberal programs, except doctors of medicine.” Roger B. Taney, future chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, served on the board of the Frederick Academy from 1802 to 1822, and Salmon P. Chase, Taney’s successor as chief justice, tried but failed to acquire a teaching position there in the early 1820s. Frederick College closed in 1915, and the building was demolished in 1936. Bernard C. Steiner, History of Education in Maryland (Washington, D.C., 1894), 169–73; Steiner, Life of Roger Brooke Taney: Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (Baltimore, 1922), 52; Chris Heidenrich, Frederick: Local and National Crossroads (Chicago, 2003), 43. 4. Founded in 1797, the brick Hillsboro Academy in Talbot County, Maryland, was located on land donated by the planter John Hardcastle, Jr., and managed by a local board of trustees. County tax dollars and an annual contribution from the state legislature allowed the academy to educate two dozen or more students a year until after the Civil War in classics and more elementary subjects. Edward M. Noble, The History of Caroline County, Maryland, From Its Beginning, (Fredericksburg, Md., 1920), 291. 5. Andrew Skinner Anthony (1797–1833) was the eldest son of Aaron and Ann Catherine Skinner Anthony and the nephew of Edward Lloyd V. His father apprenticed him as a young man to James Neall, a cabinetmaker, in Easton, Maryland. After completing his apprenticeship, Anthony migrated to Indiana, where he married Ann Wingate of Martin County in 1823. He and his bride returned to Talbot County shortly thereafter. In 1826, Andrew’s father died, and he inherited a third of his estate, including eight slaves. Although he increased his estate and owned twenty slaves, Andrew suffered from alcoholism and operated a whiskey shop in his final years. In his Narrative, Douglass offers the following assessment of Anthon’s character: “He was known to us all as being a most cruel wretch.— a common drunkard, who had, by his reckless mismanagement and profligate dissipation, already wasted a large portion of his father’s property.” John Manross to Douglass, 14 January 1856, General Correspondence File, reel 1, frames 654–56, FD Papers, DLC; Harriet L. Anthony, annotated copy of Bondage and Freedom, folders 93, 176, Dodge Collection, MdAA; 1830 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 51; Douglass Papers, ser.2, 1:39; Dickson J. Preston, Young Frederick Douglass: The Maryland Years (Baltimore, 1980), 26, 29, 218, 224. 6. Born in St. Michael’s, Maryland, Thomas Auld (1795–1880) was the eldest son of Hugh and Zipporah Auld. Trained as a shipbuilder, Auld supervised the construction of the Lloyd sloop Sally Lloyd and subsequently became its captain. In 1823 he met and married Lucretia Anthony while

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a boarder in the Anthony home. Shortly thereafter, Auld became a storekeeper in Hillsborough, Maryland, and inherited Douglass along with ten other slaves from the estate of Aaron Anthony. He later managed a store in St. Michael’s, where he also served as postmaster before retiring to a nearby farm. The 1850 census listed him as a “farmer” with $8,500 worth of real estate. References to Thomas Auld in Douglass’s Narrative and public speeches are generally uncomplimentary, although Douglass disclaimed any personal hostility toward his former owner. The two men met once in the post-Reconstruction period when Douglass visited the dying Auld in St. Michael’s. Aaron Anthony Slave Distribution, 22 October 1827, Talbot County Distributions, V.JP#D, 58–59, MdTCH; 1850 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 1169 (free schedule); NASS, 25 November 1845; NS, 8 September 1848, 7 September 1849; Baltimore Sun, 19 June 1877; Oswald Tilghman, comp., History of Talbot County, Maryland, 1661–1861, 2 vols. (Baltimore, 1915), 1:395; Emerson B. Roberts, “A Visitation of Western Talbot,” Maryland Historical Magazine, 41:235–45 (September 1946); Dickson J. Preston, “Aaron Anthony,” (unpublished paper, Easton, Maryland, 1977), 5, MdTCH. 7. Possibly Edward Harper (?–c.1857), who lived mainly in adjacent Dorchester County, Maryland, on land owned by William S. Harper in 1842. Edward Harper owned no slaves, according to the 1840 Census. In 1842, William S. Harper sold his remaining land in Dorchester County to Jacob Wilson, including the land that Edward Harper lived on. 1840 U.S. Census, Maryland, Dorchester County Maryland, 69; Dorchester County Maryland, Chattel Records: 1842–1847, Archives of Maryland (online). 8. James N. Casson of Caroline County, Maryland, (?–c.1832) sometimes used the German ß to spell his surname. In 1832, fearing the approach of death, he wrote his “last will and testament,” leaving most of his remaining money and forty-five acres of land in Queen Anne’s County to relatives. Significantly, Casson left $1,500 to a James Reyner to take care of an “old negro woman” for the remainder of her life. Caroline County Maryland, Will Book A: 1825–53, 102–03 (online). 9. In My Bondage and My Freedom, Douglass describes the cabin where his grandparents Betsy and Isaac Bailey resided. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 2:23. 10. Douglass intended to refer to the Pacas when he mentions the Peakess family, a common local corruption of their name. The first Paca to appear in Maryland was Robert, who in 1660 was brought to the Western Shore county of Anne Arundel as an indentured servant. The death of his master soon after their arrival allowed Robert to marry his widow and come into her sizable land holdings. Despite Robert’s success as a farmer and grocer, the estate was encumbered with debt upon his death, and his stepson, widow, and son sought new opportunities in Baltimore County after extinguishing the debt. Since land was cheaper there, they began investing heavily in it; quickly increasing land values laid the foundation for the family’s prosperity. The Pacas became affluent planters in Baltimore and Harford counties and often served in official positions in the government, church, and militia. The most famous Paca in the eighteenth century was William (1740–1799), who by the 1760s was a very successful attorney in Annapolis. He became a leading opponent of British colonial policy after passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 and later signed the Declaration of Independence. He contributed much of his own money to the patriot cause, and during the Revolution and afterward he held numerous important governmental and judicial positions. In 1770, his wife inherited half of Wye Island in Queen Anne’s County, and he died there in 1799. Pacas continued to live there at elegant Wye Hall in the nineteenth century and to socialize with the nearby Lloyds and Tilghmans. Gregory A. Stiverson and Phebe R. Jacobsen, William Paca: A Biography (Baltimore, 1976); ACAB, 4:618; DAB, 14:123–24. 11. At the time of Manross’s residence in Maryland, the patriarch of the wealthy Lloyd family was Edward Lloyd V (1779–1834) of Wye House. One of the state’s largest landowners and slaveholders, he was also its most successful wheat grower and cattle raiser of the time. As a charter member of the Maryland Agricultural Society, a founder of at least two banks, and a speculator in coal lands, he became the wealthiest of a long line of Lloyds that reached back to colonial Maryland. His huge slave holdings increased from 420 in 1810 to 545 in 1830. An eager student of politics as an adolescent and

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a frequent auditor of political debate at the statehouse in Annapolis, Edward V became a DemocraticRepublican delegate to the state legislature as soon as he reached the age of majority in 1800. The following year, he was active in securing passage of a bill removing all restrictions to white male suffrage. From 1806 to 1808 he was a U.S. congressman, voting in 1807 against a bill to end the African slave trade. For the next two years he was governor of Maryland, and from 1811 to 1816 he returned to the state legislature. In 1819 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, from which he resigned in 1826 to return to the Maryland senate, where he was president until 1831. Edward V married Sally Scott Murray on 30 November 1797 and had six children with her. 1810 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 342; Tilghman, History of Talbot County, Maryland, 1:184–210; Hulbert Footner, Rivers of the Eastern Shore: Seventeen Maryland Rivers (New York, 1944), 283–90; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 26, 30, 48–54, 57–58, 74, 82; BDAC, 1403. 12. Tuckahoe is an Algonquin term for “root” or “mushroom.” Preston, Talbot County, 140, 191, 256; Wilstach, Tidewater Maryland, 104–05. 13. Nat Turner (1800–31) was a literate, enslaved carpenter and preacher, and the leader of a slave insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831. Turner’s band, which consisted of no more than seventy followers, mostly slaves, killed at least fifty-seven whites before being dispersed and captured by the local militia. The revolt triggered retaliatory murders of innocent blacks in the general area, undercut what sentiment there was in the slave states for emancipation, and heightened the Southern fear of servile insurrections. Authorities executed approximately seventeen of Turner’s followers and banished most of the remainder. Turner himself remained at large for over two months; after being captured, he supposedly dictated his “Confessions” to a local lawyer. Tried and sentenced to death on 5 November 1831, Turner was executed by hanging on 11 November 1831. The brief uprising caused a panic among slave owners throughout the South and especially in the Chesapeake Bay region, where whites like Manross were called into special military service to guard against similar outbreaks. Denton was the seat of Caroline County, Maryland. Herbert Aptheker, Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion (New York, 1966); Stephen B. Oates, The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion (1975; New York, 1990); Henry Irving Tragle, comp., The Southampton Slave Revolt of 1831: A Compilation of Source Material (Amherst, Mass., 1971); Randall M. Miller and John David Smith, eds., Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery (Westport, Conn., 1997), 744–46; Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer of the World, 1:818; ACAB, 6:187; NCAB, 13:597; DAB, 19:69–70. 14. Born into a wealthy family in Hull, England, George Cookman (1800–41) received a careful education and had begun working in his father’s merchant firm by the age of twenty. Between 1821 and 1823, he visited the United States on business, and during that sojourn became convinced of his duty to preach the gospel. Despite his father’s protestations, he resolved to settle permanently in America and become a Methodist minister. Soon after migrating in 1825, Cookman became a popular figure in the Methodists’ Philadelphia Conference, preaching throughout parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. His powerful sermons won him the position of chaplain to the U.S. Congress. As revivals swept the Eastern Shore, Cookman became the minister of the St. Michaels Methodist Episcopal church in the summer of 1829 and labored to hold it in the denomination. He remained in that position at least through the early 1830s. By 1830, Cookman was married and had two young sons. He had some antislavery leanings and apparently persuaded Samuel Harrison, one of Talbot County’s largest slaveholders, to emancipate his adult male slaves in his will. In March 1841, President William Henry Harrison entrusted Cookman with special dispatches to be delivered to England. Unfortunately, the President was lost at sea and Cookman was among the one hundred passengers who perished. 1830 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 6; Thomas H. Sewell, “St. Michaels Methodism” (Sardis Chapel M.E. Church, St. Michaels, Md., 1894), 665–67, 675–78, 680, 707; Matthew Simpson, ed., Cyclopaedia of Methodism, 5th rev. ed. (Philadelphia, 1882), 255–56; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 114–15, 226; ACAB, 1:722. 15. Queen Anne’s County, an agricultural community on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, was formed as a political unit in 1706. It is still recognized for its many historical structures, including the

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Centreville Courthouse, built in 1706, one of only two built in the eighteenth century still in operation. Seltzer, Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World, 1541; Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer of the World, 2551. 16. In 1884 the Methodist Church revised and updated the hymnal used by the United Methodist Free Churches, previously published in 1860. This revised edition contained many hymns dating from the late 1600s. The composer and lyricist of hymn 844 is listed as “Anon.,” so the hymnal does not include a record of its origin, but the lyrics in the fifth stanza are similar to what Manross attempts to quote: “And when our spirits take their flight, / Grant they may live ‘mid saints in light; / O guide them to the realms above, / Where all is joy, and peace, and love!” Methodist Free Church Hymns (London, 1889), 340.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO ALTA LUCIA GRAY HILLIARD WALLINGFORD1 New Market[, n.p.] 28 Jan[uary] 1856.

Dear Mrs Wallingford, I am Sorry that the Snow drifts of Maine2—which entirely blocked the wheels of travel last week, made it impossible for me to spend yesterday in Dover3—and further, prevented me from expressing to you in person,—my Sincere thanks, for the valuable addition Mrs Adams4 —Kate,5 & yourself and perhaps, others—including Dear Mr Wallingford6 —have been pleased to make to my wardrobe. It would have given me Some pleasure—to have appeared in my New Suit at Dover—but failing of this—I take the Liberty of reminding of my grateful appreciation of your kindness and continued interest in my welfare, prosperity and happiness. I esteem you among my earliest antiSlavery friends and whatever differences may arise in respect to men or measures, I hope our friendShip will ever Survive. Please remember me kindly to Mr Wallingford—to Miss Kate—and especially to your kind Sister Mrs Adams— I Shall not be able to lecture in Dover before I return to my home in the West—and probably—not again before next fall. I am Dear Madam, With Best wishes for your Health and happiness, Your faithful friend FREDERICK DOUGLASS. ALS: Miscellaneous Manuscripts, NhHis. 1. Alta Lucia Gray Hilliard Wallingford (1810–91) was the daughter of the Reverend Joseph Hilliard, minister of the Second Congregational Church of Berwick, Maine, from 1796 to 1827. In 1840 she married Zimri Scates Wallingford. Sharing her husband’s abolitionist views, she was active

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in the Dover Anti-Slavery Sewing Circle in the 1850s. D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Rockingham and Strafford Counties, New Hampshire (Philadelphia, 1882), 869–71. John B. Clarke, Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men (Manchester, N.H., 1882), 70–73; Jody R. Fernald, “Radical Reform in Public Sentiment: Lydia Dixon and the Dover, New Hampshire Ladies’ Antislavery Society,” in Slavery/Antislavery in New England, ed. Peter Benes and Jane Montague Benes (Boston, 2005), 99–100; “Zimri Scates Wallingford,” Granite Monthly: A New Hampshire Magazine, 1: 161–68 (May 1888). 2. Although the severity of the winter of 1855–56 in New England was overshadowed by that of 1856–57, which was remembered as one of the worst on record, the region did experience significant snowfall in January 1856. The storm, which battered the Atlantic coast from Maine to New York, disrupted train travel from Portland to Boston, stranded thousands of people in railroad cars outside Boston, downed telegraph wires (cutting off communication between Boston and New York City), and drove the steamer Plymouth Rock ashore on Long Island Sound. Sidney Perley, Historic Storms of New England (1891; Beverly, Mass., 2001), 273–78; Augusta Maine Farmer, 3 January, 10 January 1856. 3. Located in Piscataquis County, present-day Dover-Foxcroft is approximately thirty-five miles northwest of Bangor. Dover, on the south side of the Piscataquis River, was first settled in 1803, and Foxcroft, on the north bank, was founded three years later. The two communities merged in 1922. Seltzer, Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World, 531; Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer of the World, 863. 4. Mary Hilliard Adams (1805–82) was Alta Wallingford’s sister. She married Dr. John Owen Adams in 1831. In her later years, she and her daughter, Kate, resided with the Wallingfords in Dover, New Hampshire. 1870 U.S. Census, New Hampshire, Strafford County, 117; Marietta Frances (Stacy) Hilton, “Records of the Second Church of Berwick, Me., 1755–1857,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 74: 247, 266 (October 1920); “Zimri Scates Wallingford,” 161–68. 5. Kate Adams (c. 1834–1914) resided in the Wallingford household with her mother. The 1860 U.S. Census identifies a Kate Winn, born in Ireland, as a member of the Wallingford household. She was most likely a servant. 1860 U.S. Census, New Hampshire, Strafford County, 154. 6. Born in Milton, New Hampshire, Zimri Scates Wallingford (1816–86) was apprenticed at age twelve to a blacksmith. At fifteen he began working in the machine shop of the Great Falls Manufacturing Company in Great Falls, New Hampshire, and over the next several years he pursued that trade in Maryland, Virginia, and Philadelphia. In 1840 he married Alta Lucia Gray Hilliard. Between 1840 and 1844 they lived in Great Falls, but his increasingly outspoken support of both the temperance movement and abolition led to difficulties with his employer. Consequently, in 1844 he accepted the position of master machine builder with the Coheco Manufacturing Company in Dover, New Hampshire. Rising to the position of agent, he remained with the company until his death. Wallingford was also a partner in the Dover Navigation Company, which built schooners, one of which was the highly profitable Zimri S. Wallingford. A close friend of the Garrisonian abolitionist Parker Pillsbury, he was active in abolitionist circles in Dover throughout the 1850s. Wallingford was a vocal opponent of slavery and a leading New Hampshire Republican. In 1876 he served both as a member of the New Hampshire Constitutional Convention and as a presidential elector, casting his vote for Rutherford B. Hayes. Clarke, Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men, 70–73; Hurd, History of Rockingham and Strafford Counties, 869–71; “Zimri Scates Wallingford,” 161–68.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 20 February 1856[.]

Hon: Gerrit Smith: I cannot conSent to leave home again (as I shall do tomorrow if all be well) without Sending you a line expressing my Sincere Satisfaction, at finding you Still leading on the moral Sentiment, opposed to Slavery in every Sense, and every where, as Shown in your letter to your friend— Governor Chase.1 Your’s is the true word in the true time. Years to come it will be easier to Say all you Say, than now—and all the easier because you have made it So. I am now going to Ohio,2 to Spend a fortnight in lecturing. Thereafter, I Shall be more at home. My lecturing this winter has been constant—and as I have lectured before Lyceums—as well as other public bodies. I have, you will be glad to know, got Some money by my lectures. Five weeks Spent in New England—gave me the handsome [sum] of five hundred Dollars. In Ohio—I mainly go out as antiSlavery lecturer—and Shall get but little compensation other than what arises out of the consciousness of doing good and hastening the regeneration of the public mind. I have Stood my work well this winter—but I dare not boast much of my health—as I draw nearer the Close of winter my old throat disorder—will probably Show itself—I already begin to feel the Symptoms of its approach. Please to remember me kindly to Mrs Smith.3 Both to you and to her Anna wishes to be remembered. Yours most truly FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Salmon P. Chase. 2. Douglass had many speaking engagements in Ohio during February and March 1856. From 21 February through 13 March, he was scheduled to speak in Xenia, Bellbrook, Cedarville, Springfield, Dayton, Painesville, and Hamilton. He was scheduled to lecture in Deshler Hall in Columbus on 24 February, Smith and Nixon Hall in Cincinnati on 3 March, an unknown location in Columbus on 4 March, and Chapin’s Hall in Cleveland on 5 March. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxv. 3. Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith.

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CHARLES W. STUART TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Lora, C[anada] W[est.] 10 March 1856.

Frederick Douglass, Esq.: Dear Sir:— I thank you for your publication of Gerrit Smith’s letter to Governor Chase,1 in your 426th whole number.2 What a blessing to his country— what an honor to human nature is such a man! But there are thousands and tens of thousands in the United States, more or less like him; and as long as they remain free to feel, and to write, and to act as he does, there is yet hope for your country, fearful as is its danger; crimsoned as it is with the blood of its guiltless poor; and loathsome as is its outrageous hypocrisy, ecclesiastical and civil! May Gerrit Smith’s exposition, as luminous and unanswerable as it is considerate and kind, of the striking error of minds so characteristically noble and accomplished as Chase’s and Seward’s, &c., be blessed to their perception and acknowledgment, that the clear transgression of any of God’s fundamental laws, never can be rightfuly legalized; and, of course, that the United States system of Slavery, being the sum of all villainies, can, not only have no rightfully lawful existence; but is properly and emphatically only fit for utter abhorrence, and for immediate and thorough abolition. Yet amid all the excellencies of his glorious mind, bright in intellect, fraught with knowledge, Christian in heart, heroic in will, eloquent in utterance, person and gesture as he is, Gerrit Smith seems to me to forget himself, when he says, “all admit, that Cuba should belong to us; and all should be able to see, that Mexico must be miserable, until she becomes a part of us.”3 For my part, I cannot imagine by what law, deserving the name of law, Cuba should belong to the United States; or, that Mexico, free as she is from Slavery, must be miserable, until she becomes a member of a slaveholding nation. But even if the United States were as free as they pretend to be, I cannot see, by what right, Cuba ought to be hers, or that she would have any right to annex Mexico by aggression. Does might make right! Great Britain and France, have a better right than the United States, to attack and conquer Cuba for themselves; or to defend it from the aggressions of others. Does proximity constitute right! Then is every powerful State in the neighborhood of a weaker, entitled to conquer or annex it: and to carry this principle out (a thoroughly slaveholding and tyrannical principle)—

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every strong man would have a right to take his weaker neighbor into his charge, to govern him as he thought best. Nations and Individuals, have nothing like wisdom equity, and benevolence enough, to act sanely and honestly on such principles. Let me add a few testimonies of my own judgment in relation to yourself. Your life has attested you to me, as a vigorously independent and sincere mind; sometimes mistaken, as I think you grossly were—(though all the time with decided sincerity)—in your zealous coincidence for a season with the peculiarities of W. L. Garrison and G. Thompson:4 (natural and generous coincidences as they were, considering what you at first owed to the prompt and earnest services of the former of those gentlemen.) But fully vindicating your bright and independent integrity, by acting as you have since done, truly for yourself; and by generally seeking more to live down, than to write down, their subsequent and continued abuse. Go on—let them alone, except it be to acknowledge whatever good may be in them.—But pass by with pity their striking errors; for deeply as I differ from them in many fundamental points, I am yet quite convinced, that as far as their mere intentions go, the slave has no friends more sincere and devoted than they. You have truth on your side in your difference with them; for I believe that God is leading you, in your abolition course, and you can well afford to let growlers growl, without reply. I wish you would illustrate the fundamental axiom, that, every really wise government, must contain within itself, a lawful provision, for the fearful correction of whatever abuses may exist in its principles and practices, and that such a provision undeniably exists, in the 5th Article of your Constitutional amendments.5 CHARLES STUART. PLSr: FDP, 21 March 1856. 1. Salmon P. Chase. 2. Printed in the 22 February 1856 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper (whole no. 416), Gerrit Smith’s letter to Governor Salmon P. Chase of Ohio criticizes the latter’s endorsement of the Republican party and its cautious antislavery stand. 3. Smith’s letter to Chase included an attack on what he regarded as the Republican party’s apathy toward slavery, attributing it to the party’s stance on the potential annexation of Cuba and Mexico. According to Smith, Northerners and Southerners believed it would benefit all three nations to bring Cuba and Mexico into the Union. Although opposed to the expansion of the “slave power,” the North was willing to allow slavery to continue “where it exists” rather than eliminate it altogether. Smith argued that this stance was hypocritical and would not gain the Republican party support among abolitionists. FDP, 22 February 1856. 4. George Thompson. 5. Ratification of any proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires passage by threefourths of the states, as laid out in article V.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO ALTA LUCIA GRAY HILLIARD WALLINGFORD Rochester[, N.Y.] 14 March 1856.

My dear friend. You could not have regretted more than my Self—my inability to reach Dover for a second lecture in February. For my own Sake and for the Cause’s Sake, I would have been glad if the case had been otherwise. I had a warm, fresh word to utter there, in behalf of the slave and in behalf of universal freedom, which might have been of Service. I wanted too, to meet again, yourself and other Dear friends who have manifested an interest in my welfare and happiness—but the elements were against this and I was compelled to Submit to their decision. This winter has found me abundant in Labors—and left me much worn. I travelled during the winter about four thousand miles and have delivered nearly Seventy Speeches to large meetings of the people. I have lectured in Maine, N. Hampshere Massachusetts—R Island—Conn—Newyork—and Ohio—My extreme point in the east was Bangor—and in the west Cincinnati—During my visit to Ohio1—while at Painesville—I had the good fortune to Spend an afternoon and evening with MrS N. P. Rogers2—and several of the Children of our gifted friend now resting from his labors—where the treachery of professed friends—and the malice of open foes—are alike harmless— I had a very pleasant interview—and was much reminded both of Sunny and Shady moments Spent with the same Children and mother—when the Father was living—and mantled us all in the bright Sun Shine—or the penSive Shades of his powerful mind and heart. I am to lecture this evening in Brockport—N York3 about 20, miles from home—Pardon the brevity of this note—Love to Mr Wallingford4 to your Sister—Mrs Adams5—and to all that love this cause of human progress in your Dear family and out of it in Dover. Yours most truly and with great respect. FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Miscellaneous Manuscripts, NhHis. 1. Frederick Douglass had several speaking engagements in Ohio in early 1856, including one in Painesville, between 21 February and 13 March. The manufacturing community of Painesville, a trade and distribution point, is located in Lake County, Ohio, approximately twenty-five miles northeast of Cleveland, near Lake Erie. Though designed in 1805, Painesville was not established as a village until 1832. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxiv–xxv; Seltzer, Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World, 1411–12; Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer of the World, 2337. 2. A native of Vermont, Mary Porter Farrand Rogers (1796–1890) was the daughter of Daniel Farrand, a justice of the Vermont State Supreme Court, and his wife, Mary Porter. Her maternal grandfather was a prominent Tory, Colonel Asa Porter of Haverhill, New Hampshire. In 1822 she

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married the abolitionist editor Nathaniel Peabody Rogers. Frederic P. Wells, History of Newbury, Vermont: From the Discovery of the Coös Country to Present Time (St. Johnsbury, Vt., 1902), 542–43. 3. Douglass was scheduled to speak in Brockport, New York, on 14 March 1856. Brockport, located in Monroe County, is approximately seventeen miles west of Rochester. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxv; Thomas and Baldwin, Lippincott’s Gazetteer, 1:296. 4. Zimri Scates Wallingford. 5. Mary Hilliard Adams.

REBECCA WILLIAMSON1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Boston, [Mass.] 30 March 1856.

Dear Mr. Douglass:— A short time ago, I heard a lady (who spent several months last year in Cuba) express very strong Pro-Slavery sentiments, and though I argued with her to the best of my ability, I could not make her say that it was a sin to hold our fellow creatures in bondage. I finally, asked her to go with me on the next Sunday evening to Mr. Grimes’s2 Church. She went. It so happened, that the Rev. Mr. Garnet3 from Jamaica lectured that evening on the subject of Jamaica, before Emancipation,4 a lecture that was deeply interesting to me, and I think must have interested all who heard it. My friend, however, did not say much about it, although it was evident that she was a good deal surprised to hear so able a production from a black man. The next day I carried to her “My Bondage and My Freedom,” and asked her to read it carefully. Yesterday she returned the book. I asked her how she liked it. “I cannot tell you,” said she, “how much I liked it, but that you may know that it has done some good, I mean to subscribe for Mr. Douglass’ paper.” I told her that was good proof enough. I wanted no better—so here is her subscription for a year. Please send the paper to Miss A. M. Anderson, Boston. Yours, very respectfully, REBECCA WILLIAMSON. PLSr: FDP, 11 April 1856. 1. Probably Rebecca Williamson Dresser (1828–1906), who was born to English immigrant parents in New Brunswick, Canada. She married Edwin Dresser (cofounder of the Standard Diary Company, which was later incorporated as the Cambridgeport Diary Company) in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1859. A lifelong Unitarian, she was eulogized as “an abolitionist in the time when

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such opinions were unpopular.” Boston Christian Register, 4 January 1906; Molly McCarthy, The Accidental Diarist: A History of the Daily Planner in America (Chicago, 2013), 156–69, 200, 204, 244. 2. A free black born in Leesburg, Virginia, Leonard A. Grimes (1815–73), pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church, spent his early years in Washington, D.C., where he worked for a butcher and a druggist. After traveling through the South in the employ of a slaveholder, Grimes returned to Washington and began actively participating in the movement to assist fugitive slaves. While working as a hackman, he was charged and convicted in the escape of a family of eight slaves and served two years in a Richmond prison. Upon his release, around 1845, he moved first to New Bedford, Massachusetts, and then to Boston, where from 1848 until his death he ministered to the Twelfth Baptist Church. Grimes frequently hosted abolitionist meetings at his church, and in 1851 unsuccessfully plotted to rescue the incarcerated fugitive Thomas Sims. In 1854 he organized the attempt by Boston merchants and brokers to buy the freedom of the imprisoned Anthony Burns. The effort failed, but in the following year Grimes traveled to Baltimore and ransomed Burns from his new owner. Grimes was unsuccessfully nominated for the post of chaplain to the Massachusetts legislature in 1864. Boston Commonwealth, 12 February 1864; William Wells Brown, The Rising Son; or, the Antecedents and Advancement of the Colored Race (Boston, 1874), 534–35; John Daniels, In Freedom’s Birthplace: A Study of the Boston Negroes (Boston, 1914), 64, 452; Pease and Pease, The Fugitive Slave Law, 39–41; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 229; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 82, 146, 206, 209. 3. Henry Highland Garnet. 4. In 1833, Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act, which abolished slavery in the British West Indies. As stipulated by the act, all slaves under six years of age were freed on 1 August 1834, and all other slaves were made apprentices. Slaves who worked on the land were to serve a six-year apprenticeship before being granted their full freedom, and those who worked off the land were to serve a four-year apprenticeship. By 1838, however, the apprenticeship program had been deemed unworkable, and an Act of Emancipation granted full freedom to all former slaves on 1 August 1838. By 1844 nearly 20,000 former slave families had been settled on their own lands in Jamaica, and by 1859 it was estimated that there were roughly 50,000 black freeholders on the island. Gale L. Kenny, Contentious Liberties: American Abolitionists in Post-Emancipation Jamaica, 1834–1866 (Athens, Ga., 2010), 56; Sidney Mintz, “Labor and Sugar in Puerto Rico and Jamaica, 1800–1850,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 1:278 (March 1959).

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 12 April 1856[.]

Hon. Gerrit Smith My Dear Sir. My throat is better1—and for ten days I have been out on a lecturing tour—I am now quite hoarse—and am [illegible] to lecture in Watertown Jefferson Co2—Tues day and Wednesday of next week. My meetings are fully attended, and I beleave, make a good impression for the cause. I however, find it hard work to get new Subscribers—or to keep old ones—and my list has fallen off considerably—from what it was last year—The coming presidential Campaign will Severely try, and perhaps break down my paper. Radical Abolitionism—is too far a head of these

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degenerate times—to be well Supported. I Shall, however nail my colors to the maSt—and if I go down—it will be with all colors flying. I Shall not be able to be preSent at our nominating Convention in Syracuse3—I have appointments in Ohio at that time.4 My presence there would be more important to myself than to any Body else Upon this rely—I Shall stand by the action of the Convention—unless it Shall be less radical—than I expect it will be. Please accept my thanks for your kind mention of me, to the assembled wisdom of the State in your speech on the colored negro suffrage question. With love to your Dear family yours Truly FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. A notice posted in the 2 March 1856 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper announced that Douglass, having returned “from his recent arduous and protracted tour,” was ill and unable to answer his correspondence. Douglass suffered from a “throat disorder,” which he mentioned in a letter to Smith dated 22 March 1856. In another letter to Smith, dated 16 April 1856, Douglass stated that he would not be making a planned trip to Watertown because he had lost his voice. Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 22 March, 16 April 1856; FDP, 2 March 1856; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxv. 2. Douglass did not make his lecture appointment in Watertown, as he related in his letter to Gerrit Smith dated 16 April 1856, printed later in this volume: “I did not go to Watertown as I told you. My voice forsook me two days before and is just returning.” Watertown, New York, was the seat of Jefferson County, located approximately 160 miles west-northwest of Albany and 86 miles northnorthwest of Utica. Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 16 April 1856, Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU; Thomas and Baldwin, Lippincott’s Gazetteer, 2:2082. 3. The first Radical Abolitionist Convention was held at city hall in Syracuse, New York, on 26–28 June 1855. Gerrit Smith was named the party’s nominee for the 1856 presidential election. A second party convention was called for on 28 May 1856, again at Syracuse’s city hall. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxv, 134–42; Foner, Life and Writings, 5:385–90; Stauffer, Black Hearts of Men, 8–9, 20; EAAH, 3:8–9. 4. Douglass spoke at the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society meeting at Corinthian Hall on 22 May 1856. It is unknown what other speaking engagements he had in late May, but he must have rescheduled them, because he spoke at the Radical Abolitionist Convention on the 28th. FDP, 30 May 1856; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxv, 114–133.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 16 April 1856[.]

Hon Gerrit Smith, My Dear friend. The engagement which will prevent my 1 if my Ohio friends insist upon it, was made as long ago, as

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december 1855. I engaged to Spend the last week in May 1856—in Warren and Clinton counties—with a view to attending Several antiSlavery Conventions in those counties—It is bearly possible that I may be able to get a postponement of those conventions. I shall write to my friend Dr Watson2—of Paintersville Ohio to a effect this if possible. Nevertheless, I cannot see any pressing necessity for being present at the Convention at Syracuse. My mind is made up as to the wisdom of the radical movement—and the reasons which have convinced me—will find able men enough to enforce them in that convention—without my aid—As to doing anything for my paper in Such a convention—I have little hope. My Subscription list must be recruited not from the veterans of the cause, who for the most part, are poor and already provided for—but from the public at Large. I did not go to Watertown3 as I told you—My voice forSook me two days before and is just returning— Yours Most Truly FREDERICK DOUGLASS ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. On 28–29 May 1856, political abolitionists dissatisfied with the weak antislavery stand of the new Republican party met at city hall in Syracuse, New York, to nominate their own candidates for president and vice president. Gerrit Smith and William Goodell, the primary promoters of this Radical Abolitionist Convention, were hoping to create a “Radical Abolition Party” to replace the moribund Liberty party. A strong personal plea from Smith persuaded Douglass to cancel a scheduled lecture tour of Ohio and appear at the Syracuse convention. Northern indignation at the attacks during the preceding week on Charles Sumner in the Senate and on the free-state settlement of Lawrence, Kansas, bolstered attendance at the gathering. Joseph Plumb of New York presided over two days of deliberations, which were highlighted by the reading of an “Address” written by Smith that strongly rebuked the Republicans, and by debate over an amendment offered by Abram Pryne sanctioning the use of force to make Kansas a free state. Douglass frequently entered into the discussions. On the afternoon of 28 May, he rose to urge adoption of Smith’s “Address,” and at the evening session he joined William J. Watkins and Beriah Green in speaking to a hall crowded with delegates to the New York State Republican Convention, which was also meeting in Syracuse. The next day, the Radical Abolitionists unanimously nominated Gerrit Smith for president and the Pennsylvania lawyer Samuel McFarland for vice president. The convention then adjourned, as Douglass wrote, “to meet again at the ballot-box, November next.” A. C. Hills, a reporter, recorded the speeches. Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 22 March, 12, 16 April, 23 May 1856, Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU; New York Daily Times, 29 May 1856; New York Daily Tribune, 29 May 1856; FDP, 6 June 1856; Washington (D.C.) National Era, 26 June 1856; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxv, 134; Stauffer, Black Hearts of Men, 20. 2. John Hampton Watson (1804–83) graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in medicine in 1829. He moved to Ohio in 1835, where he practiced medicine for a few years in Paintersville, Greene County, Ohio. He won admission to the Ohio bar in 1844. A veteran abolitionist, Watson removed his family to the Kansas Territory in the late 1850s to support the free-state cause there. In 1862, Republicans elected Watson to the Kansas supreme court, but that election was later ruled invalid. He later served on the district court bench in Kansas. Daniel W. Wilder, Annals

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of Kansas (Topeka, Kans., 1875), 325–26, 345, 475, 492, 583; Michael A. Broadstone, ed., History of Greene County, Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions, 2 vols. (Indianapolis, Ind., 1918), 1:387, 568. 3. It is unknown what “lecture” Douglass intended to deliver in Watertown in April 1856. Douglass suffered from a recurring “throat disorder,” which he mentioned in a letter to Smith dated 22 March 1856. In a subsequent letter to Smith dated 12 April 1856, Douglass stated that his throat was better, but he was hoarse because he had been on a lecturing tour and was not looking forward to his trip to Watertown. Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 22 March, 12 April 1856, Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO BENJAMIN COATES1 Rochester[, N.Y.] 17 April 1856[.]

Benjamin Coates Esqr. My dear Sir. Your two letters have reached me, and should have been soon answered but for my absence from home when they arrived here. You have, My Dear Sir, given me many and striking proofs of an honest desire to assist in changing the popular estimate in which my poor people are held in this Country. I hope and believe, I am not wanting in gratitude to you for your unostentatious labors to this end, although I am not able to agree with you as to wisdom of Colonization as a means to that end. You think I do not under Stand Colonization. Perhaps, I don’t. I am Sure, however, that I underStand and appreciate your earnest and disinterested endeavors to promote the welfare, happiness, and higher development of my unfortunate race—whither in Africa or in America. This is to me a great satisfaction. I know you less as connected with Colonization than as connected with the improvement of the Character and Condition of the Colored people here. I am not about to write you an argument against Colonization. You are already acquainted with the argument. It has been repeatedly pressed upon your attention far more ably than I am able to press it—and I know to know, that when the truth strongly presented fails to convince— convincement is not likely to follow when the Same truth is but feebly and imperfectly stated—Still I am almost compelled by your own eloquent plea for Colonization, briefly to State my Convictions touching the Colonization movement—I believe then, that the agitation of Colonization has a direct tendency to devert attention from the great and paramount duty of abolition—and Stands directly in the way of the latter; that it Serves to deaden the national conscience—when it needs quickening to the great and dreadful Sin of Slavery—that it furnishes an apology for delaying

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emancipation until the whole four millions2 Can be sent to Africa—thus interposing a physical impossibility, between the Slave and his deliverance from Chains—that aims to extinguish the hope of ultimate elevation for the free negro in this Country—and to unsettle all his plans of progress here, that it robs his future in this country of all that can gladden his heart and nerve him to manly endeavors— that it serves to confirm existing prejudice as a thing natural and insurmountable—Believing all this and more—however I may feel towards Liberia3 as an existing fact— I can not do other than oppose the Colonization movement. You have large views of the future of Africa—So have I, he My heart can never be indifferent to any legitimate movement for spreading the blessings of Christianity and Civilization in that Country—But the effort must not be to get the negroes out of this Country—but to get Christianity into that. Please send me any names you may have to whom you think my Book or paper will be recieved acceptable—and either Shall be promptly Sent as you Shall derect,— I am, My Dear Sir, Your True and grateful Friend FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Benjamin Coates Manuscripts, PHi. 1. Benjamin Coates (c. 1808–87) mostly likely formed his opinions on slavery and abolition under the influence of his devout Pennsylvania Quaker parents. A successful wool merchant and a publisher, Coates was active in many antislavery organizations in Philadelphia, such as the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. Despite his abolitionist connections, Coates argued that colonization was the best way to end slavery. From the 1840s until his death, Coates actively sought financial support from wealthy donors for colonization efforts in western Africa and started a correspondence with Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a successful immigrant to Liberia. In 1858 Coates published Cotton Cultivation in Africa: Suggestions on the Importance of the Cultivation of Cotton in Africa, in Reference to the Abolition of Slavery in the United States, through the Organization of an African Civilization Society, which advocated an increase in international cotton production in order to diminish the world’s dependence on cotton from the American South. Coates believed that with a decrease in profits, Southern slave owners would be compelled to free most, and perhaps all, of their slaves. Coates’s endorsement of colonization hurt his standing in the abolitionist movement, yet Douglass defended Coates, stating that he was a “humane and benevolent man” and “no more a negro hater than we.” Douglass Papers, ser. 3, 1:538n; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:322. 2. According to the U.S. Census there were 3,204,313 slaves in the country in 1850 and 3,953,760 in 1860. Steckel, “The African American Population of the United States,” 438–39. 3. Assisted by the American Colonization Society, free black American settlers arrived in what became the Republic of Liberia in 1822. Over the next twenty-five years, new settlements were established along the coast, most notably Moesurado, founded in 1822, which became Monrovia, the new nation’s capital. The settlers, who became known as “Americo-Liberians,” declared the independence of Liberia in 1847. Along with the American emigrants, several groups of indigenous people lived in the territory, including the Kru and Grebo tribes. Immigration to Liberia from the United States continued well into the 1870s, and many of the new settlers were “recaptives,” or Africans rescued from the now illegal slave ships. Despite their belief that Africa was a promised land, Americo-Liberians

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carried over many American customs and social standards. Both the Americo-Liberians and many of the recaptives considered themselves Americans and, consequently, superior to the indigenous tribal Africans. The government of Liberia was ostensibly democratic and was modeled after that of the United States. The True Whig Party, led by Americo-Liberians, dominated Liberian politics, often offering the only candidates for office, until 12 April 1980, when the military carried out a coup d’état and took control of the nation. J. Gus Liebenow, Liberia: The Quest for Democracy (Bloomington, Ind., 1987), 11–29, 88–92, 184–96; Robert Rinehart, “Historical Setting,” Liberia: A Country Study, ed. Harold D. Nelson, 3d. ed. (Washington, D.C., 1985), 1–32; Irving Kaplan et al., “The Society and Its Environment,” Liberia, ed. Nelson, 70–72.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 1 May 1856.

Hon Gerrit Smith. My dear Friend. Mrs Douglass1 wishes me to tender her thanks for the Garden Seed kindly Sent from Peterboro. These are little things—but little things rather than large things, reveal the real qualities of the heart. I had to laugh right out when I Saw that neat little bag so carefully enclosing a few seeds—intended to speak to Senses is already refined. We both, thank Mrs Smith and yourSelf, for remembering us in these nice little tokens. Did you notice Mr Garrisons reply to Mr Granger’s2 speech?3 It is full of sophistry. I have reviewed it in part in the paper just going to press.4 In doing so I have been more concerned for the argument than for the style[.] I have made free use of your ideas in my review. Your’s Most Truly FRED. DOUGLASS. ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Anna Murray Douglass. 2. Born in Suffield Connecticut, Amos P. Granger (1789–1866) was a merchant who settled in Manlius, New York, in 1811. He was a New York state militia officer in the War of 1812, and ultimately rose to the rank of general in the militia. By 1825, Granger had moved to Syracuse, New York, and served as a city trustee for four years. A prominent Whig, he unsuccessfully ran for Congress several times, but abandoned that party after the 1852 presidential election. In 1853, Granger attended the Whig party’s Auburn Convention and wrote a series of adopted resolutions that later guided the development of the New York Republican party. As a Republican, Granger was elected to the House of Representatives for the Thirty-Fifth Congress, but retired from politics after one term. FDP, 2 May 1856; Syracuse Journal, 21 August 1866; BDUS (online). 3. In only the second speech made in Congress that declared slavery unconstitutional, New York congressman Amos P. Granger used the writ of habeas corpus to attack slavery. Since the Constitution guaranteed the writ of habeas corpus in peacetime, Granger argued that slavery violated this constitutional right by holding slaves, not convicted of any crime, in perpetual bondage. The Fugi-

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tive Slave Act of 1850 further violated habeas corpus by allowing Southern slave catchers to seize “black and white citizens” in the North and hold them without trial. William Lloyd Garrison attacked Granger’s arguments in the Liberator, asserting that the Constitution fully supported slavery. In a continuation of his earlier sentiments in favor of Northern secession, or “disunionism,” Garrison argued that if slavery was unconstitutional, why did Washington, Madison, Jefferson, and many founding fathers “maintain slaves”? Lib., 11 April 1856. 4. In a response to Garrison’s critique of Granger’s speech, Douglass staunchly defended the content of that speech and Granger’s “bravery” for bringing the slavery issue to the House floor. Douglass asserted, “Mr. Garrison’s opinion of the Constitution is the same as Robert Toombs’.” Douglass argued that the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution could be “fully applied to the negro,” and though the founders kept slaves, many were against slavery and the slave trade. Douglass further argued that Garrison’s call for Northern secession was against the principles of the Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which Garrison wrote in 1833. In conclusion, Douglass speculated on whether the South would use many of Garrison’s arguments against abolitionists. FDP, 2 May 1856.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 23 May 1856.

Hon. Gerrit Smith: My Dear Sir. I hope you are the better of your cold. If all be well I shall certainly meet you at Syracuse. I am released from my earlier appointments in Ohio. Now I want your counSel. Your unceasing interest in me and in my paper, and in the cause to which it is devoted, makes it right that I should Seek your counSel. I am almost convinced that my paper can not be sustained. I am now full fifteen hundred dollars in debt for it—and have on hand only Six hundred Dollar from my friend Julia Griffiths1—to pay my creditors. My paper is deep in its ninth year. I have done my part toward putting it on a permanent footing. I have failed, at least for the present. My credet is good and I might go on. But is it right and best? I am almost persuaded that it is not. The prospect is dark. My paper is dying of the desease which carried the “Model Worker”2 to its grave. It is opposed to the Republicans of fifty six—as it was opposed to Free Soilers in forty eight. My paper is not Republican—and therefore Republicans look coldly on it[.] It is not Garrisonian and therefore Garrisonians hate and spare no pains to destroy it. Mean while the colored people do very little to support it. Now what shall be done—Shall the paper go down and be a total wreck—or Shall it be Saved by being merged into the Radical abolitionist[?]3 Cannot the Radical abolitionist be made a weekly journal and some way be devised

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by which my subscription list be transferred to that of the abolitionist. I am sick at the thought of the failure of my paper—and humbled by the thought that no negro has yet succeeded in establishing a press in the United States—but when I a man cannot stand up he must fall down. I have struggled about nine years to establish such a press—and although I had when I began five or six thousand dollars—I should not have now, half that Sum but for the Success attending my lectures last winter and the sale of my Book—The nine years have almost gone—My Children4 are growing up—and increasing their demands upon me—and it becomes me to Submit to the humiliation of failure rather than blindly go on till all is lost. I ask nothing for my self in this business. I do not even ask for a place in the paper—but simply ask that you will help me to Save my paper from positive failure—by merging it into the radical abolitionist.5 I suggest this to your own private eye. While I do not ask any place in the Radical abolitionists—as an editor—or assistant in case my paper is merged—Yet It might be an element of strength to the concern to have me in Some way connected with it. I am, My Dear Friend, very Truly yours, FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

[P.S.] I lectured last night to the largest audience in Corinthian Hall,6 which has assembled here during the past Winter. I hope you will not consider the forgoing an appeal to your pockets— for it honestly is not. Personally I am quite “well off” in the world—Having health, and heart, a good house and lot, a little money—and a wide field of usefulness as a lecturer in the cause of freedom. My Bondage and my freedom—will Sell, as long as I can lecture—so that I regard myself well provided for— for the present. Love to Dear Mrs Smith7 Again Yours F. D. ALS: Gerrit Smith, NSyU. 1. Contributions from Gerrit Smith kept Frederick Douglass’ Paper solvent in its earliest years, and Julia Griffiths was instrumental in bringing additional revenues into the newspaper. After Griffiths’s return to Great Britain in mid-1855, the finances of Douglass’s newspaper went into steep decline: as the size of the Liberty party decreased, Douglass’s paper could not generate a sufficient number of subscribers to meet its expenses. Quarles, Frederick Douglass, 91–96. 2. The Model Worker was a weekly newspaper edited by Samuel Green in Utica, New York, in the late 1840s. It promoted the ideas of its editor’s father, Beriah Green, on manual labor education and other reform and religious causes, including abolitionism. In 1848 the Model Worker stood by

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the remnant of the Liberty party, led by Gerrit Smith, rather than joining the more popular Free Soil movement. NS, 28 July 1848; Henry J. Cookinham, History of Oneida County, New York: From 1700 to the Present Time, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1912), 1:287; Sernett, Abolition’s Axe, 27, 30–31. 3. When the Central Abolition Board, which evolved into the American Abolition Society, was created at a convention in Syracuse in late June 1855, William Goodell was a key figure. The new organization adopted Goodell’s monthly periodical, the American Jubilee, as its official journal, changing its name to the Radical Abolitionist. Although the Radical Abolitionist claimed as many as three thousand paying subscribers, it depended heavily on financial subsidies from Gerrit Smith. It was published as a monthly until December 1858, when Goodell, following quarrels with Smith on questions of religion, abandoned it. Perkal, “William Goodell,” 249–50, 253, 257, 277, 283–84; DAB, 7:384–85. 4. Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass were parents to five children: Rosetta (1839–1906), Lewis Henry (1840–1908), Frederick Jr. (1842–92), Charles Remond (1844–1920), and Annie (1849–60). 5. No such merger of Douglass’s newspaper with Goodell’s Radical Abolitionist occurred. The executive committee of the American Abolition Society discussed the idea on 17 July 1856 but tabled the notion. Smith, who remained a financial patron of both editors, most likely helped Douglass through that crisis, as he had on past occasions. Perkal, “William Goodell,” 253, 267. 6. Douglass spoke to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society at Corinthian Hall in Rochester on 22 May 1856. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxv. 7. Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith.

HIRAM PUTNAM1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Syracuse, [N.Y.] 7 July 1856.

Frederick Douglass, Esq. :— Dear Sir :— I have been in hopes you would see your way clear to vote this fall with the Republican party, and thereby strengthen the good cause. But I see you are determined to throw away all the Abolition votes you can control, and thereby work directly against the only practical liberty party that stands any chance of success. Why not go as far with that party as they promise to travel with you on the same road; and when you can go no further with them, continue your own course alone. That appears to me to be the better course, and the only one which can justify you as a liberty-loving man. I am aware that the Republican party does not take strong ground against Slavery everywhere,2 (I would that they did, it would rejoice my heart,) but they promise to do the first thing to be done, and I go with them, trusting that their success will stimulate them to go further and still onward in the good cause. I am sorry to part company with you, for I have read your paper with much pleasure for several years, but the course you have adopted for this Presidential campaign is such as I cannot approve, and I

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must confine myself to papers which advocate a different course. Please discontinue the paper to me, and if the amount enclosed does not meet the balance due you, let me know, and it shall be paid. Your friend, In the cause of universal freedom, HIRAM PUTNAM. PLSr: FDP, 25 July 1856. 1. Born in Danvers, Massachusetts, Hiram Putnam (1786–1874) was a long-tenured sea captain who moved to Syracuse, New York, in the late 1820s. There he became active in the Unitarian Church and contributed much of his time and money to the local congregation until his death. Putnam became an ardent abolitionist in Syracuse and gained the respect of many local abolitionists for his vocal opposition to slavery. After Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, he joined a committee of local abolitionists and publicly denounced President Fillmore and Congress. In addition, Putnam supported social reform through education, and backed the establishment of public schools in Syracuse and central New York. New York Times, 20 July 1852; In Memory of Captain Hiram Putnam, (n.p., c. 1874); Samuel J. May, Some Recollections of our Antislavery Conflict (Boston, 1869), 350. 2. To appeal to a broad base of Northern voters during the 1856 presidential election, the Republican party took great pains to repudiate accusations that it favored the abolition of slavery. Despite disappointing many abolitionists in the North, party leaders knew that they needed to attract former Know-Nothing and Democratic voters in order to win the presidency. The 1856 Republican platform emphasized opposition to slavery’s extension into the western territories, but was content to let slavery continue “where it already exists.” William E. Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856 (New York, 1988), 331–38, 347, 362.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO JOSEPH COMSTOCK HATHAWAY1 Rochester[, N.Y.] 29 July 1856.

J. C. Hathaway: My Dear Friend: I am just leaving for New Bedford2—and have time only for a word in response to your favor of yesterday. I should have been pleased with Burnes’3 horse—The price is higher than I wish to go—I can not allow mySelf more than two hundred dollars in horSe flesh—and from your account,—and I rely Solely upon your judgement in the matter—the beautiful dark bay mare, at two hundred dollars must answer my purpose. I shall not reach home till about the 20th August—At that time, or there after, I will be glad to have an introduction to her Lady Ship—The cash will be forth coming at that time— Tell Dear Ann4 that I was sorry not to have Seen her Self and my friend Miss Smith when they called at my office. My kindest regards to your Dear household—I am Yours Truly— FREDERICK DOUGLASS—

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ALS: African-American History Collection, MiU-C. 1. Joseph Comstock Hathaway (1810–73), a Quaker farmer from Farmington, New York, was the recording secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1843. Philadelphia Friends Review, 27:328 (10 January 1874). 2. Douglass, who regularly spoke at the annual West Indian Emancipation celebrations, attended such an event in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on 1 August 1856. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxv; EAAH, 1:242. 3. This Barnes is a possible reference to Samuel Barnes, the father of Aaron Barnes. Aaron Barnes (1819–48) was introduced to his wife, Anna Mott Cornell, in 1847 by Phoebe Hathaway, the sister of Joseph Comstock Hathaway. They were married in Rochester, New York, and left for southern New York shortly afterward. Adam Mott and Anne Mott, Their Ancestors and Their Descendants (Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 1890), 186, 369. 4. Ann is a possible reference to Anne P. Adams of Farmington, New York. Adams sometimes stayed with Joseph Comstock Hathaway’s sister, Phoebe Hathaway, and was an acquaintance of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Adams wrote two articles for Frederick Douglass’ Paper in 1853. FDP, 9, 16 September 1853; Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, ed. Ann D. Gordon, 4 vols. (New Brunswick, N.J., 1997–2006), 1:29.

JOHN W. HURN1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Philadelphia, [Pa.] 24 Aug[ust] 1856.

Friend Douglass:— Allow me to congratulate you on the higher position you have assumed. I say higher, for it is the greatest of human achievements to sacrifice the cherished sentiments of years, and bring the mind from a contemplation of the lofty ideal of political perfection, to the necessities and struggles of to-day. Besides the opposition of your own sense of consistency, (the jewel that is worshipped as the Koh-i-noor2 of morals,) you have to endure the misrepresentation of enemies, and the misunderstanding of friends. But I am happy to see that you have triumphed in spirit over all, and are bringing up your “war contingent” where it can be made available to assault at least the outworks of slavery. These outworks are often the most important of the enemy’s position. At the siege of Toulon,3 the genius of the young Napoleon4 saw that a certain outstanding tower was the true point of attack. They took it, and the city fell. The Malakoff5 was not Sebastopol, but it, in possession of the Allies, the city was untenable.—Kansas is now the Malakoff of the slave power. An outwork, thrown up within the last two years, but strong in its foundation, and commanding in position, must be taken as the prelude to further conquests. Left in possession of the slave power, the Senate necessarily continues for many years to come its ally. Taken by the forces of Freedom, the Senate may soon be ranged

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upon the side of the right. Is not this worth fighting for? The anti-slavery man who refuses to unite with others for the prohibition of slavery in Kansas, because they are not prepared to join him in abolishing it in all the Southern States, resembles a farmer who will not help his neighbors to prevent an inundation of their mutual possessions, because they are not willing to engage in the task of draining the lake from which the water flows. His plan may be the most effectual for future prevention, but they have not sufficient force to accomplish that, and unless they immediately and earnestly labor for present protection, they are overwhelmed by the rushing waters, and their fertile fields are forever added to its bounds. A true physician will not refuse to ameliorate the condition of his patient, because he cannot be certain of a permanent and radical cure— nor to prevent the spread of a disease, because he cannot eradicate its cause—nor will a sensible sick man object to the course, but will gladly avail himself of such aid as he can get now, as the only possible stepping stone to future improvement. Besides, if it be useless and wrong to labor for Freedom in Kansas, because we cannot at the same time secure it in Georgia and Alabama, then it would also be absurd to work for its triumph there unless we could do the same in Russia and Brazil, and we at once become the Quixotes6 of political righteousness. With those who assert that slavery should be abolished everywhere, I cordially agree, and extend the application of the principle to all other forms of wrong, wishing that a universal vote could be taken on the question, and I have no doubt it would be carried in the abstract by immense majorities. But, “Why thus longing why forever sighing, For the far off, unattained and dim?”7 The work for us to set ourselves about, is that which there is a fair prospect of accomplishing, wherein all the strength of the cause can be united, and no effort wasted. This combination exists in the case of Kansas, and success there will be an earnest of further and final victory, for, “Freedom’s battle once begun, Though baffled oft is ever won.” In this instance I trust not to be, “Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son.”8 Yours, truly, J. W. HURN.

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PLSr: FDP, 5 September 1856. 1. John White Hurn (1823–87), born in Norwich, England, was a telegraph operator in Cincinnati and later in Philadelphia. Hurn also engaged in a photography business while in Philadelphia, taking a daguerreotype of Douglass sometime around 1859 that has been reproduced frequently. When Douglass was lecturing in Philadelphia in October 1859, Hurn temporarily suppressed a telegram that ordered Douglass’s arrest for complicity in the Harpers Ferry raid. Instead of delivering the telegram to the Philadelphia sheriff, Hurn alerted Douglass, who fled the city. Hurn later moved to New Jersey and became a newspaper editor. Douglass to John W. Hurn, 12 June 1882, Frederick Douglass Mss., LNArc; FDP, 28 April 1854; Washington (D.C.) Evening Star, 21 February 1895; C. S. Williams, Williams’ Cincinnati Directory, City Guide, and Business Mirror; or Cincinnati Illustrated, 1853 (Cincinnati, 1853), 193, 378; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 2:472; Bessie Bristol Mason, “Louis Jules Gabriel Boussard Mounier,” Vineland Historical Magazine, 23:160 (January 1938). 2. The Koh-i-noor was the largest known diamond in the world in the 1850s. Its name in Persian means “Mountain of Light.” Discovered in India and owned by several Indian dynasties, the Koh-i-noor later came into possession of the British East India Company in 1850 and later the British monarchy. Edwin Streeter, The Greatest Diamonds in the World (London, 1882), 116–35. 3. Toulon was the first successful major military engagement in the career of Napoleon Bonaparte. On 16 September 1793, Bonaparte, only a captain at the time, was appointed commander of the French artillery at the siege of Toulon. Held by the British and their French Royalist allies, Toulon boasted what many considered one of the finest harbors in the Mediterranean and was the headquarters of the French Mediterranean fleet. Bonaparte convinced his senior officers that the key to retaking the city was a hill called the Needle Point (l’Aiguillette), which lay on a promontory at the entrance to the harbor. After taking Needle Point and strategically placing his artillery around it, Bonaparte rained a continual artillery barrage on the British fleet at anchor in the harbor. After several days of being under direct fire, the fleet was forced to evacuate, leaving the city open to attack. Following a series of successful assaults on the remaining allied infantry positions—Bonaparte had his horse shot out from under him and received what would be his only real battle wound, a bayonet thrust to the thigh, in the final assault—the French retook Toulon on 19 December 1793. Bonaparte, who had been raised to the rank of major in October, was promoted to brigadier general in recognition of his efforts at Toulon. Steven Englund, Napoleon: A Political Life (New York, 2004), 61–65; General Sir James Marshall-Cornwall, Napoleon as Military Commander (London, 1967), 35–40. 4. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) was emperor of France from 1804 to 1815. 5. The Malakoff and the Redan were the two most important forts protecting the city of Sebastopol, which was home to the Russian Black Sea fleet. Almost exactly one year after placing the city under siege, the British and French launched a simultaneous attack on the two forts in September 1855. While the French succeeded in taking the Malakoff, the Russians were able to hold off the British forces attacking the Redan. The French turned the Malakoff’s guns against the Redan, and the Russians were forced to abandon it, allowing the British to take possession. Less than twenty-four hours later, the Russians pulled their forces out of Sebastopol, burned what remained of the Black Sea fleet, and destroyed the city’s fortifications. Although hostilities dragged on until February 1856, the Crimean War effectively ended with the fall of Sebastopol. R. G. Grant, ed., 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of World History (New York, 2011), 597; Adrian Gilbert, The Encyclopedia of Warfare: From Earliest Times to the Present Day (Guilford, Conn., 2003), 183–85. 6. Hurn likens those who do not support the prohibition of slavery in Kansas without its simultaneous abolishment in Georgia and Alabama to the romantic idealist Don Quixote, the eponymous character in Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s picaresque novel, published in 1605. Quixote assumes the role of a knight-errant, long after the age of chivalry, and embarks on a quest to make right all that he imagines wrong with his world. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1134. 7. Harriet Winslow Sewall, “Why Thus Longing?” in Poems (Cambridge, Mass., 1889), 19–21. 8. Hurn quotes Lord Byron’s poem “The Giaour.” Byron, Complete Poetical Works, 3:43–44.

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J. W. FOX1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS [n.p.] [29 August 1856.]

Bro. Douglass:— I see that your reasons for acting and voting with the Republicans this fall,2 are disposed of by the Reformer, in a very summary manner.3 The Editor has not read your reasons; but in his wisdom affirms, that only one true reason can be given. He is very charitable. For he says you are too honest to give any other reason for your course that “self interest.” He does not tell us how he reaches this conclusion. As to this, we are left in the dark; unless we can divine it from our knowledge of the man. Perhaps a position assumed in the same paper will shed light on this point. He has found out how men can know God, who have never heard of Him. This new discovery will reveal how he can tell your reasons, though he has not read them. For if the Divine Existence and Character, and our relations to Him can be known by “intuition,” then, as an Editor, he has the advantage of all the rest of the world: he can reply to an opponent without reading him. This saves time. But it is a peculiar manifestation of charity. Perhaps, however, it is a fair specimen of his religion of love—a love in no way, necessarily, connected with light. For Christianity, in his estimation, has no doctrines essentially connected with the existence of love in the heart of fallen man. But, you have one thing to console you, under such an unchristian mode of disposing of your motives, in this case. Mr. Pryne4 has treated you as intelligently and candidly, as he is accustomed to treat others from whom he differs. And I am not surprised that in such a connection he should speak of the danger of losing subscribers. It is sad that a brother reformer should treat an associate in such a way. But I hope you will hold on your way, until met by more valid arguments. Yours for the truth, J. W. FOX PLSr: FDP, 29 August 1856. 1. The identity of this correspondent remains unknown. 2. In the 15 August 1856 issue of his newspaper, Douglass published an editorial entitled “Fremont and Dayton,” in which he endorsed the Republican party’s presidential ticket. Acknowledging that this endorsement would be an “unwelcome surprise” to many of his readers who supported the Radical Abolitionist party, Douglass used more than two columns to present seven arguments in the Republicans’ behalf, which concluded, “Their election will prevent the establishment of Slavery in Kansas, overthrow the Slave Rule in the Republic, protect Liberty of Speech, and of the Press, give

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DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH, 31 AUGUST 1856

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ascendancy to Northern civilization over the bludgeon and blood-hound civilization of the South, set the mark of National condemnation on Slavery, scourge doughfaces from place and from power, and inaugurate a higher and purer standard of Politics and Government.” 3. Probably the Central Reformer, published weekly in McGrawville, New York, and edited by Abram Pryne. The issue with the editorial attack on Douglass has not been located. Claudine L. Ferrell, The Abolitionist Movement (Westport, Conn., 2006), 165. 4. Abram Pryne (c. 1822–62), a theologically liberal clergyman, entered New York abolitionist circles in the 1850s. Originally a supporter of Gerrit Smith and the Liberty party, he served a term in the state legislature as a Republican representative from Wayne County (1860–62). In September 1858, Pryne and the Tennessee minister William G. Brownlow participated in a public debate over slavery, which was stenographically reported and published as a book. Along with his clerical responsibilities, Pryne edited several newspapers of his own in the mid-1850s, including the Central Reformer and the Progressive Christian. Later, he assisted Douglass with editorial tasks on Frederick Douglass’ Paper and Douglass’ Monthly. DM, 3:724 (October 1862); Lib., 30 October 1862; Ought American Slavery to be Perpetuated? A Debate between Rev. W. G. Brownlow and Rev. A. Pryne, Held at Philadelphia, September 1858 (Philadelphia, 1858).

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 31 Aug[ust] 1856.

Hon: Gerrit Smith: My Dear Friend I have not yet received your letter1 to Mr Delevan2—except as it appeared in the the Albany Evening Journal.3 You have not paid me the usual complement of Sending me an advance copy of your letter in this inStance— though you have so favored Some of my neighbors—I have, however got your letter and Shall publish it—unless you otherwise wish. My Dear Sir: You must not Strike my humble name from your list of those to whom you usually Send your thoughts. You are not likely to write anything, or to Speak anything which I Shall not gladly lay before my readers. I cannot allow mySelf to think that the failure to Send me your delevan letter was intended as a rebuke to me for my Support of Fremont4 —and yet it may be So—I should not complain if Such it Should prove, though I Should deeply regret it. I have done what Seemed to me right & proper to be done in this crises—and Can afford to be calm under the cenSure of those who cannot approve my course. I support Fremont as the best thing I can do now.—but without loosing Sight of the great doctrines and measures, inSeparable from your great name and character. I am as ever Yours Most Truly FREDERICK DOUGLASS—

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ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Douglass published a letter that Gerrit Smith wrote to William Goodell on 15 August 1856, in which Smith attacked Edward C. Delevan for announcing his intention to vote for the American party ticket candidates, Millard Fillmore and Andrew Jackson Donelson. Delevan justified his action by hoping that the nativists would more strongly support the temperance cause than Republicans would. FDP, 5 September 1856. 2. Born in Westchester County, New York, Edward Cornelius Delavan (1793–1871) was one of the nation’s best-known temperance advocates. In the 1810s and 1820s, he amassed a great fortune by importing wine from Europe and speculating in real estate in the Albany, New York, area. He came to recognize the evils of alcohol and helped found the New York State Temperance Society in 1829. Six years later, Delavan became one of the original officers of the American Temperance Union and thereafter used the bulk of his fortune to advance its work. ACAB, 2:134; NCAB, 11:207; DAB, 5:221. 3. Thurlow Weed founded the Albany Evening Journal in 1830 and remained its editor and guiding force until his retirement in 1861. Originally using its pages to support the Anti-Mason party, Weed later shifted its editorial support to the Whig party and, specifically, William Seward. The editorials in its pages opposed the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and the newspaper thus became known for its antislavery position. Frederic Hudson, Journalism in the United States, from 1690 to 1872 (New York, 1873), 397–400, 577. 4. John Charles Frémont (1813–90), the son of a French émigré schoolteacher and a mother descended from Virginia planters, was born in Savannah, Georgia, and educated at Charleston College. Frémont worked as an explorer and a topographer, a career advanced greatly by his marriage to Jessie Benton, the daughter of Senator Thomas Hart Benton, until he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the army in 1837. In the 1840s he gained national fame for commanding several mapping expeditions of the Rocky Mountains. On one of them, Frémont assumed a leading role in the Bear Flag revolt in California. When the Mexican War broke out, Frémont clashed with higher-ranking military officers in California and was court-martialed. After leaving the army, Frémont continued his western explorations and briefly served as one of California’s first U.S. senators (1850–51). Defeated for reelection as an antislavery candidate, he led another cross-continent expedition in 1853 and in 1855 moved to New York City. Opposed to both the extension of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Law, Frémont was the presidential nominee of the 1856 Republican convention and carried eleven states in a contest against the Democratic nominee, James Buchanan. At the outbreak of Civil War, Lincoln appointed Frémont major general in command of the Department of the West. On 30 August 1861, Frémont issued a proclamation emancipating the slaves of rebel Missourians, which Lincoln quickly revoked. Replaced in this western command, Frémont unsuccessfully battled Thomas (“Stonewall”) Jackson in the latter’s Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1862. A Cleveland convention of antislavery radicals seeking an alternative to Lincoln nominated Frémont for president in 1864, but the candidate withdrew when approached by the Lincoln administration. After the Civil War, Frémont lost his fortune in failed railroad promotion schemes and played only a minor role in Republican politics. Ferol Egan, Frémont: Explorer for a Restless Nation (Garden City, N.Y, 1977); Alice Eyre, The Famous Frémonts and Their America ([Santa Ana, Calif.], 1948), 17–22, 41–49, 274–80, 295–306; Allan Nevins, Frémont: Pathmarker of the West, 2 vols. (1955; New York, 1961); ACAB, 2:545–48, DAB, 7:19–23.

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AUBURN1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS [n.p.] [5 September 1856.]

My Dear Douglass:— Your leading, editorial of the 15th inst.,2 gave me a very pleasant surprise. I was not prepared to expect a change of political action so “radical,” notwithstanding I knew you to be a Radical Abolitionist. The reasons which you assign for that change are cogent, and commend my hearty approval. I have been much perplexed with our position, as Radical Abolitionists, for some weeks past; as it seemed to me, that if we went to the ballotbox, at all, we should, in effect, deposite our votes against, rather than for the end which we earnestly seek to accomplish—the overthrow of Slavery. I remember that our honored and noble standard bearer, who was nominated at Syracuse, said, on that occasion, that the nomination was made without any expectation of electing our candidate, but only to do honor to our principles.3 But it has been a question, with me, whether our Anti-Slavery and Abolition principles would be best honored by depositing our votes for a candidate who had not the remotest chance of election—which would be in effect throwing them away—or by rallying for the support of the candidate of that party, which proposes—in this special emergency, when Slavery is o’erleaping its old boundaries and displaying its piratical flag and raising its bloody battle axe, on the virgin soil of the territories of this Republic, and is seeking to make Slavery universal—to check the outsweeping tide of this terrible tyranny, and hem it in, for the time, within its present limits? There is no platform which so fully expresses my political convictions, and no Presidential candidate, which could be named, who so fully commands my sympathies and approval, as the platform and candidate of the Radical Abolition Party; and I would go a thousand miles, if need be, to vote for Gerrit Smith, if there were the faintest hope of placing him in the Presidential chair. I account him the ablest, noblest, best, and most honorable and trustworthy of all men, who have ever been put in nomination for the Chief Magistracy of our Nation, and should rejoice in a fair opportunity, to record my protest against the slanders of those who have maligned him and depreciated his eminent services in Congress. I most heartily wish Gerrit Smith might be nominated for that high office, under such auspices as would afford hope of success; it would be one of the happiest days of my life, for the hopes of the enslaved millions of our country would rise with

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the elevation of that great and good man to that post of responsibility and power. There should have been principle enough in the freemen of the North to have adopted the platform and candidate of the Radical Abolition party. There should have been sense enough in Northern men, to have seen that the very best issue and the most appropriate issue, to be made at the coming Presidential Election—in view of the manifest determination of the South to reduce the whole country to the condition of abject servility to the Slave-power—was, whether slavery should be or cease to be. This issue the Radical Abolition party would make, could it have its way, and it were well for them to put forth their address, and to disseminate their tracts and papers, and name in Convention the men whom they believed would carry out their principles and support their platform. All these things tend to enlighten and educate the people. But when we come to the ballot-box, in the present state of affairs and confess that we have no hope of our own candidate, it becomes a question of political ethics which deserves a candid and honest solution, whether we honor our principles any more by voting for a hopeless case, than by remaining at home? And further, whether the effect of a small and insignificant vote does not really retard our cause? And whether we ought not to meet Slavery on the only issue which is really made with it, at the present election, viz: Shall Slavery become national, by its extension into the territories of the United States? The design of scattering addresses, platform documents, &c., is very different from the design of voting. The former will do some good, if they do not enlighten and carry all before them; a vote has in view the single end of electing a man to office. When we confess the utter hopelessness of our candidate, we can be under no obligation to vote, at all. It is no privilege to vote, without the hope of choosing, for that is the sole object of a vote. The choice of our rulers is a great and glorious privilege; but to vote is no privilege unless there be some hope of choosing. The moral effect of a small vote, supposing it to have any moral effect, must be bad. And the influence of withholding our votes from the candidate who represents, at least the non-extension of Slavery, when they can not profitably be serviceable to our more advanced and more consistent position and candidate, seems to me must be prejudicial, on the whole to the AntiSlavery cause. I shall therefore, most conscientiously and cheerfully, join you in voting for Col. Fremont, and wait our time for a higher platform and a better man. AUBURN.

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PLSr: FDP, 5 September 1856, 1. Douglass preceded this letter with the heading “LETTER FROM AUBURN,” supplying no clue to the identity of the correspondent. FDP, 5 September 1856. 2. Douglass published an editorial entitled “Fremont and Dayton” in the “All Rights for All” column of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, transferring his support from Gerrit Smith and Samuel McFarland to the Frémont-Dayton ticket of the Republican party in the upcoming presidential election. Douglass assumed that the abolitionist candidate, Smith, would not win the election. His strategic decision to publicly back Frémont and Dayton was intended to deal a blow to the proslavery movement. FDP, 15 August 1856. 3. The Radical Abolition party had held its nominating convention in Syracuse, New York, on 28 May 1856. The approximately two hundred delegates nominated Gerrit Smith and Samuel McFarland of Pennsylvania as their presidential and vice presidential candidates. Smith wrote the party’s address to the public, declaring, “We are ready, not only to co-operate with [the Republican party], but to merge ourselves in it, the moment it shall take the ground, that there is no law for slavery—no real and obligatory law for sinking a man from manhood to chattelhood.” FDP, 6, 20 June 1856; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 363–64; Stauffer, Black Hearts of Men, 20–22, 24.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO SUSAN INCHES LESLEY1 Rochester[, N.Y.] 6 Sept[ember] 1856.

S. I. Leslie. Dear Madam: It will give me pleasure to Serve you and your friend in bringing Mother and Son together—So far as I am able. At present, I am totally ignorant of the young man’s whereabouts—but I have Several aquiantances in different parts of the Country, from North Carolina of whom I will gladly make enquiries—and Should any trace of him reach me, I will gladly inform you of the fact. It is however, exceedingly difficult to find Colored people from the South. They Change their names—and conceale their orgin for obvious reasons.2 I have been looking for a friend of mine from Slavery this 18 years—and in a measure know how to Sympathise, with your poor friend—in Search of her Son— Very Respectfully— FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: J. P. Lesley Papers, PPAmP. 1. Susan Inches Lesley (1823–1904) rose to prominence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by participating in abolitionist circles in the 1850s. Originally from Massachusetts, she left many letters about her reform activities throughout her life. Along with her husband, John Peter Lesley, a noted geologist, she financially supported an escaped slave, Mary Walker, during her stay in Philadelphia and for several years after. Lesley wrote to Frederick Douglass in 1856 to ask for his help in finding some of Walker’s children. Lesley and her husband aided the reunion of Walker with her family following the Civil War. Susan Lesley was so impressed with Walker that she named her first daughter

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after the escaped slave. Sydney Nathans, To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker (Cambridge, Mass., 2012), 3–7. 2. Many slaves who escaped to the North changed their names as an act of defiance against their former masters, who often named their slaves as a sign of their ownership and the slave’s status as property. Two well-known examples are Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. Originally named Frederick Augustus Washington Baily, Douglass first changed his last name to Johnson before finally choosing Douglass. Harriet Tubman was originally named Araminta Harriet Ross, but changed her name to Harriet Tubman after she married her first husband, John Tubman. A second reason for such a name change, as Douglass related in his Narrative, was to make apprehension and return to slavery more difficult. Douglass Papers, ser.2, 1:77; Catherine Clinton, Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom (New York, 2004), 33; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 77, 80–81.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 6 Sept[ember] 1856[.]

Hon. Gerrit Smith. My Dear Friend, I am just home from Ohio where I have been lecturing1—and find your kind letters for which please accept my thanks. What I think of your letter to our Friend William Gordell, will be Seen in my paper of yesterday.2 I had noticed your letter before your note reached me—Yes! I get it all around. Mr Garrison tries his hand upon my case this week,3 the most Skillful of them all. The Liberator and “Standard”4 —Seem more shocked, at my apostacy from the Radical Abolition Society, than at Mr May’s apota[s]y from the American Society.5 They are tender with him— but harsh with me. I shall endeavour to be at the Jerry Rescue (1st oct) Celebration6 —and possibly in Syracuse at the Liberty Party meeting on the 17th Sept.7 I am as ever yours Truly and affectionately FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers. NSyU. 1. Evidence suggests that Douglass had just returned from making campaign speeches for Frémont. An article entitled “A Black Disunionist Stumping for Fremont” published in the 8 October 1856 issue of the Newark (N.Y.) Advocate indicates that Douglass delivered election addresses for Frémont in Otisco, Onondaga County, “the other day.” Newark (N.Y.) Advocate, 8 October 1856. 2. Smith’s letter to Goodell was published in the 5 September 1856 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Smith stated that he would not vote for John C. Frémont in the upcoming presidential election, but defended the Republican candidate from claims made during a recent speech by Edward C. Delavan. Specifically, Delavan acknowledged that he was drawn to the pro-temperance plank of the Know-Nothing party and asserted that Frémont was not a viable candidate for president because he

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was Catholic. Smith’s response asserted that the Republican party had a history of supporting temperance, and that Frémont was a Protestant. FDP, 5 September 1856. 3. In an editorial entitled “Gone, Gone, Sold and Gone,” Garrison criticized Douglass’s support for the Frémont-Dayton ticket in the 29 August 1856 issue of the Liberator. Garrison asserted that Douglass’s decision was for personal gain and that, as a result, the Liberator would be the sole remaining “Radical Abolitionist” newspaper. In “Another Somerset,” published in the 5 September issue, Garrison criticized Douglass’s abandonment of Smith and the transfer of his support to a candidate, party, and principles he had previously condemned. Garrison characterized Douglass as a political chameleon, morally inconsistent and self-contradictory. Lib., 29 August, 5 September 1856. 4. The Boston Liberator and the New York National Anti-Slavery Standard. 5. A leading Garrisonian, the Unitarian minister Samuel Joseph May had relocated to Syracuse from Boston in 1845. In a Fourth of July oration in 1856, May endorsed voting for the Republican party presidential ticket, causing a round of editorials and letters to the editor criticizing or defending his position in the Garrisonian press. NASS, 2, 16, 23 August 1856; Lib., 22 August 1856; DAB, 6:447–48. 6. Douglass was scheduled to speak at the Jerry Rescue Celebration in Syracuse on 1 October 1856; he published a review of the event in Frederick Douglass’s Paper. FDP, 10 October 1856; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxvi. 7. Douglass was scheduled to speak at the Liberty party meeting held in Syracuse on 17 September 1856. Minutes of the meeting published in Frederick Douglass’ Paper, however, do not confirm his attendance. FDP, 3 October 1856; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxv.

LEWIS TAPPAN TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Brooklyn, N.Y. 6 Dec[ember] 1856.

To Frederick Douglass, Esq. My dear Sir, I do not know whether the lady to whom the enclosed note is addressed as Mrs or lady. You will at once see the propriety of the course I suggest. So many calls are made upon me that I must adopt such a rule. I have rec’d the copy of your paper of 17th Oct & thank you for it. Somehow it escaped my notice—in Oct. Probably I was about or the paper did not come. My attention has been called to the Resolutions proposed by you at Syracuse.1 [B]y an English Correspondent. All I can do, in this free country, is to express an honest opinion. Your right to offer such circulations & to publish such a paper as you choose cannot justly be questioned. All who believe it would be right in a white man to use the means for obtaining his liberty: that you recommend ought not to object to a colored man using the same means. Those means in either case are abhorrent to my mind & heart. I am truly sorry you cherish such sentiments. “Vengeance is mine &c.”2 Then at sweet peace [illegible] [illegible]

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do good. [Let us] [illegible] the [illegible] of the spirit & all will be well. [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] enslaved & the case & defense of the God. Truly yours LEWIS TAPPAN. ALS: Lewis Tappan Papers, DLC. 1. At the fifth annual Jerry Rescue Celebration in Syracuse, New York, Douglass brought four resolutions before the meeting in a speech condemning slavery. In an appeal to the religion and morality of slave owners, Douglass intimated that God would inflict “terrible penalties” on slave owners, as he had on all “oppressors of people.” He further stated, “We would rejoice in a successful slave insurrection.” In one of the blunter resolutions, Douglass argued, “In killing a slave owner to secure freedom, the slave is guilty of no crime.” Though the resolutions appeared to condone violence and slave insurrection, Douglass directed his comments at slave owners as a warning, instead of at slaves. He sought to demonstrate the danger of owning slaves by relating the fates of slave owners in past insurrections in other parts of the world. FDP, 19 December 1856. 2. Rom. 12:19.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO JOHN BROWN [n.p.] 7 Dec[ember] 1856.1 2

My Dear Captain Brown. — I am very busy at home. Will you please come up with my son Fred,3 and take a mouthful with me? In haste yours, truly, FRED. DOUGLASS. ALS: Dreer Collection, PHi 1. Although Douglass supplied no year in dating this letter, John Brown was known to have passed through Rochester in December 1856 while traveling east from Kansas to raise funds in New York and New England. Franklin B. Sanborn, ed., The Life and Letters of John Brown: Liberator of Kansas and Martyr of Virginia, 2d. ed. (Boston 1891), 341, 443; Oates, To Purge This Land, 224; Villard, John Brown, 270, 674. 2. John Brown. 3. Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Frederick Douglass, Jr. (1842–92) was the second son of Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass. Like his brothers, he was educated in Rochester’s public schools and learned the printer’s trade while assisting his father in the newspaper office. Unlike his brothers Lewis and Charles, however, Frederick Jr. did not enlist in the Union army. Instead, he acted as a recruiting agent for the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Infantry regiments. After the Civil War, Frederick Jr. tried but failed to gain membership in the typographical worker’s union in Washington, D.C. In 1866 he joined his brother Lewis in Denver, Colorado, and began working in the offices of the Red, White, and Blue Mining Company. While in Denver, Frederick Jr. received additional training as a typographer from his father’s old friend Henry O. Wagoner. He returned to Washington, D.C., in 1868, but racial prejudice again made it difficult for him to gain membership in the union. In 1870, Frederick Jr. joined his father at the New National Era, serving as the news-

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paper’s business manager. He was a frequent contributor of editorials to papers such as the Detroit Plaindealer, the New York Times, and the Baltimore National Leader. His efforts to gain public office, however, ended in failure with his unsuccessful 1873 campaign to be elected as a delegate to the Legislative Assembly of the District of Columbia. After the New National Era folded in 1874, Frederick Jr. worked as a court bailiff and later as a clerk in the Office of Records. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 3:274, 865, 910; Douglass Papers, ser. 3, 1:126; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 248–49, 272; EAAH, 1: 422–23.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 16 Dec[ember] 1856[.]

Hon. Gerrit Smith. My Dear Sir. Please accept my thanks for your generous donation of twenty dollars—I am happy to know by this expressive Sign, that you Still desire to See my paper afloat. You ought to, for you have watched over it with almost paternal interest. No, my Dear Sir. I am not a member of the Republican party.1 I am Still a radical abolitionist—and shall as ever, work with those whose antiSlavery principles are Similar to your own. My English friends—are just now dealing with me for my Jerry rescue Resolutions2—They think you were altogether too tolerant of my “abominable Sentiments”—I am writing an article3 though not a formal reply to Strictures made upon those resolutions—yet a Sort of imbodyment of the Sentiments uttered by me at the “Jerry rescue Celebration[“]— Please make my best respects to Mrs Smith—Accept my Sincere Thanks for the donation of twenty dollars— Yours Alway Most Truly FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Douglass had editorially endorsed the 1856 Republican party ticket headed by John C. Frémont rather than the Radical Abolition ticket, headed by Gerrit Smith. Smith had alienated many in his faction that summer by strong public statements in support of violent attacks on slavery. While not abandoning his candidacy officially, he announced his preference for Frémont over either James Buchanan (Democratic party) or Millard Fillmore (American party) and contributed $500 to the Republican campaign. Stauffer, Black Hearts of Men, 293; John R. McKivigan, “The Frederick Douglass–Gerrit Smith Friendship and Political Abolitionism in the 1850s,” in Frederick Douglass: New Literary and Historical Essays, ed. Eric J. Sundquist (Cambridge, Mass., 1990), 220–22; Perkal, “William Goodell,” 255–66. 2. Many of those who heard Douglass’s resolutions at the 1856 Jerry Rescue Celebration believed that he had called for open and bloody slave insurrection. The resolutions “greatly disturbed many of [Douglass’s] friends on both sides of the Atlantic.” Though Douglass did not name the

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authors, several supporters from England were particularly vociferous in their condemnation of his resolutions. Some of Douglass’s “English friends” called his statements “those shocking resolutions” and “abominable sentiments.” FDP, 19 December 1856. 3. To ameliorate criticism from abolitionists in England and the United States, Douglass used the editorial of the 19 December 1856 edition of Frederick Douglass’ Paper to assure readers that he had not called for violent insurrection at the Jerry Rescue Celebration. He explained that he had directed the resolutions to slave owners in an attempt to persuade them to release their slaves and forestall the kinds of violent slave insurrections that had shaken the Caribbean and South America. His statements were not “directed at the slave,” but were mere “reminders to slaveowners.”

LEWIS TAPPAN TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Brooklyn, N.Y. 19 Dec[ember] 1856[.]

To Frederick Douglass My dear Sir, I thank you, and your daughter1 also, for the copy of your letter to Mrs Sturge.2 It is an ingenious defence, full as much so as was Mr Burlingame’s3 with regard to Mr Brooks.4 Killing wicked men is merely destroying their visible presence among men. They still live. God has put them in this world & we have no right to send them out of it unbidden of God. I repeat, “Vengeance is mine”.5 The slaves hear a great deal of what is said & printed at the North. What is the cause of the late insurrection. Yes, I have read your paper of the 12th very thoroughly & so has my wife.6 Your appeal is very able. But I am in doubt. In your speeches & in your paper you advocate the slaughter of slaveholders. I cannot go with you. How then can I take pains to sustain your paper? Say you, Must I cease to be independent? Must I smother my convictions to please my patrons? I answer, By no means. But while you act independently so must I. How can I encourage the wider circulation of a paper, able as it is, deserving in most respects as is the editor, when I believe he is scattering “firebrands, arrows, and death.”7 There are so many things in you, my dear friend, that claim my esteem & inspire my confidence that I regret— deeply—that I am unable to go with you in all your sentiments & purposes. I have never been called a coward & I am naturally very sensitive to aggressions; but since I cordially embraced the religion of the Prince of Peace I have believed fully that the belligerent spirit of the world is totally adverse to this princaples. Besides, I think it the most unwise & inexpedient of all conduct. What I should do if attacked or saw a friend attacked I can’t say. Instincts are often stronger than arguments or principles. But it

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is my deliberate judgment that the whole policy of private & public warfare is bad—I may say wicked—and of the devil. If you will inform me thru your columns how a friend who loves you can extend the circulation of what is consonant to his tastes & principles in your able paper without extending the circulation of what he deems wrong & of evil tendency I shall be glad to read what you write. I call myself a constant reader of your paper, tho’ occasionally a number is laid aside, in the hum of business, but [illegible] [illegible]. Truly & affecy yours’ L. TAPPAN.

[P.S.] The 20 days allowed by the law for the discharge of a cargo8— “working days”—will expire on the 22d. Probably the boxes for you were at the bottom of the [illegible]. Yesterday I found an inquiry that they were not out of the vessel. I regret this delay. Please remember me to Mrs Douglass,9 & to your daughter. She writes a good hand, & is a very correct copyist. ALS: Douglass Papers, General Correspondence File, reel 1, frames 659–60, DLC. 1. Rosetta (1839–1906), the first child of Frederick and Anna Douglass, was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on 24 June 1839. As a child, she wrote and read letters for her mother, whom she assisted with housework and piece work for the shoe factories in Lynn, Massachusetts. At age seven, she was sent to school in Albany, New York, where she lived with Abigail and Lydia Mott. When the Douglass family moved to Rochester, Rosetta began attending the Seward Seminary, where her presence offended the parents of one of the white students and led to her segregation from the other pupils. Her father, in a fury, removed Rosetta from the school and hired a private tutor for her. Rosetta, along with her three brothers, then led other students in the efforts to desegregate Rochester’s public school system. From 1854 to 1855, Rosetta attended Oberlin College preparatory school, which was one of the first institutions of higher education to accept both African Americans and women. She taught in Philadelphia and Salem, New Jersey, until her marriage in 1863 to Nathan Sprague, with whom she had six children. Before her death, she wrote a memoir of her mother, which remains one of the most complete documents of Anna Murray Douglass’s life. Sprague, My Mother As I Recall Her; Sterling, We Are Your Sisters, 132–45; Ellen N. Lawson and Marlene Merrill, “The Antebellum ‘Talented Thousandth’: Black College Students at Oberlin before the Civil War,” Journal of Negro Education, 52:145 (Spring 1983); Miriam DeCosta-Willis, “Smoothing the Tucks in Father’s Linen: The Women of Cedar Hill,” Sage, 4:30–33 (Fall 1987); Render, “Afro-American Women,” 307–10. 2. Probably either Mrs. Hannah Dickinson Sturge (1816–96), second wife of the wealthy Quaker Philanthropist Joseph Sturge (1793–1859), or her sister-in-law Mrs. Lydia Albright Sturge (1807–92), wife of Edmund Sturge (1808–93). Both women, lifelong Quakers, were active in abolitionist circles in Birmingham, England. In addition to being a member of the Birmingham Ladies’ Negro’s Friend Society, Hannah Sturge was involved with the Ladies’ Temperance Movement, the antislavery Free Produce Committee, and the Infirm and Aged Women’s Society. Lydia Sturge, who served as secretary of the Birmingham Ladies’ Negro’s Friend Society for many years, was also involved with the Ladies’ Temperance Movement, the Aborigines Protection Society, and the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade. Both women hosted Frederick Douglass while he was in England in the

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1840s. Lewis Tappan included several members of the Sturge family among his correspondents. The Annual Monitor for 1894, or Obituary of the Members of the Society of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland for the Year 1893 (London, 1893), 155–68; Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 2:383–84; Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Yankee Saints and Southern Sinners (Baton Rouge, La., 1985), 94–96; Alex Tyrrell, Joseph Sturge and the Moral Radical Party in Early Victorian Britain (London, 1987), 152, 195, 200; Claire Midgley, Women against Slavery: The British Campaigns, 1780–1870 (1992; New York, 1995), 174, 187–88. 3. Tappan is referring to a duel between Congressmen Preston Smith Brooks, a Democrat of South Carolina, and Anson Burlingame, a Republican of Massachusetts, which reportedly took place in July 1856. Brooks challenged Burlingame to a duel in response to Burlingame’s June speech in the House of Representatives denouncing Brooks’s near-fatal beating of Senator Charles Sumner in May. Choosing rifles, Burlingame accepted the challenge and proposed that the duel take place on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. After initially accepting those terms, Brooks withdrew from the duel, claiming that he feared he would be assassinated if he traveled north to reach the proposed site. Burlingame emerged from the affair with his reputation much enhanced, while Brooks was labeled a coward in Northern newspapers. A native of New Berlin, New York, Anson Burlingame (1820–70) spent his childhood in Ohio and Michigan. In 1846 he graduated from Harvard Law School and went into private practice in Boston. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, Burlingame became active in the antislavery movement and swiftly earned a national reputation for his skills as an orator. After serving in the Massachusetts legislature, he was elected to Congress as a Know-Nothing in 1855. Soon afterward, he helped organize the Republican party in Massachusetts. He lost his bid for a fourth term in Congress in 1860, possibly because he devoted most of his time to campaigning for Abraham Lincoln in the Midwest while neglecting his own campaign back in Massachusetts. Burlingame was rewarded by the Lincoln administration with an appointment as U.S. minister to Austria in March 1861. After the Austrian government objected to his appointment, because of his views on Hungarian independence, Burlingame was appointed minister to China. He filled that post until 1867, when he resigned to accept a commission as China’s first official envoy to the West. As envoy, he was specifically charged with negotiating treaties with foreign powers. In 1868 he negotiated the Burlingame Treaty between the United States and China, which granted reciprocal privileges to both nations. At the time of his death, in 1870, he was negotiating a treaty with Russia. David L. Anderson, “Anson Burlingame: Reformer and Diplomat,” Civil War History, 25:293–308 (December 1979); DAB, 3:289–90; ANB, 3:965–66. 4. Preston Smith Brooks (1819–57) was born in Edgefield County, South Carolina. A member of one of the most prominent slaveholding families in South Carolina’s Upcountry, Brooks was privately educated. In 1839 he was expelled from the College of South Carolina for unruly behavior and did not receive a degree. After being wounded in a duel with Louis Wigfall in 1840, Brooks was forced to walk with a cane for the rest of his life. In 1844 he was elected to a single term in the South Carolina House of Representatives. He was admitted to the bar in 1846 and went into private practice in Edgefield County until 1853, when he was elected to Congress as a Democrat. While serving his second term in Congress, he assaulted Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner with his cane on the floor of the Senate on 22 May 1856 in response to Sumner’s “The Crime against Kansas” oration, which he had delivered two days earlier. The speech included a personal attack on Brooks’s cousin Senator Andrew P. Butler, who had not been present at the time and was therefore unable to defend himself. Although Sumner barely survived the caning, members of the House of Representatives were unable to muster the two-thirds majority required to expel a sitting member of Congress. Nonetheless, Brooks resigned his seat in July 1856. Viewed as a hero in his home state, he was promptly elected to fill the vacancy created by his own resignation. Brooks remained a member of Congress until his death in January 1857. Donald, Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, 282–97; David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, 5 vols. (Santa Barbara, Calif., 2000), 1:288–89; DAB, 3:88; ANB, 3:625–26.

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5. Rom. 12:9. 6. Sarah Jackson Tappan. 7. Prov. 26:18. 8. Tappan’s reference is to demurrage. Demurrage is a charge to the owner of any material that is not unloaded from a ship or a container before the end of a contract. The charge covers the potential lost revenue if the ship is forced to remain in port. Henry Campbell Black, A Law Dictionary Containing Defi nitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and Modern (St. Paul, Minn., 1910), 352, 439. 9. Anna Murray Douglass.

LEWIS TAPPAN TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Brooklyn, N.Y. 27 Dec[ember] [18]56[.]

Mr Frederick Douglass, Rochester, N. Y. My dear Friend, How happy it would make me if I could read, circulate and recommend your paper Cai ámóré1 as the Italians say—without reserve with all my heart! As it is (don’t divulge it!) I consider it one of the very best papers in the land—ever protesting, as I must,—against the belligerent spirit— the vindictive spirit—the blood-thirsty spirit—what shall I call it? Now I do not think you delight in human butchery, in inflicting pain upon an enemy, in killing a slaveholder even. I could not impute any thing of the kind to you. You think the killing of slaveholders may be a sad neccessity; that the dread of slaughter operates upon their fears more than any other consideration; and that an individual, or a man of men, may achieve their liberty if in no other way by destroying the lives of those who hold them in chains. You will be asking yourself, why does my friend Tappan keep writing to me on this subject? I might reply, I think of you a great deal & especially when you appeal for aid to sustain your paper, and as I generally think with a pen in my hand it is natural that I should convey my thoughts to you. Your thoughts respecting Mr Beecher’s Sermon2 coincide with mine. He preached morning and evening on the same subject. Between writings I called upon him & expressed a regret that he had done injustice to Africa.3 He had, it seems, in his mind, not Egypt, not the inhabitants on the Mediterranean coast, but the negro race surely. I recalled to his recollection what the prince of historians, Herodotus,4 says of the negroes in Egypt, describing them as Mr B. did, and yet saying

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they were considered in those days, models of beauty.5 I might have told him that Sir John Bowring6 honestly believes that the negro race is superior to the anglo Saxon race.7 But features and the tincture of the skin are nothing; the mind is the standard of the man. I had a part, as you know, in establishing the National Era.8 It was thought a great exploit to establish an anti Slavery paper at the seat of Government. Many rather bold abolitionists thought the undertaking quite premature. The decision was about as bold a one as it would be to establish an antislavery paper in Washington now to be edited by you. If you would edit a paper there on Peace principles, asserting the equality of men before the law, their rights to citizenship, to family & parental protection; advocating the sin of Slavery, its baneful effects upon Slaveholders, Slaveholding communities, and the nation; showing that it is contrary to the Constitution & the Bible; appealing to slaveholders to cease from their cruelties, to act out the principles of the Dec. of Independence, to cooperate with the North in effecting a peaceful abolition of Slavery—I would aid in an attempt to gain friends to [illegible] you to plant your standard in the District of Columbia. The announcement would cause a [illegible] of joy through the anti Slavery ranks and quicken the pulse of every slaveholder in the United States. What say you? Truly yours’ L TAPPAN. ALS: Lewis Tappan Papers, DLC. 1. Con ámoré, a commonly used Italian expression in the nineteenth century, means “to give it its fullest operation” or, in other words, a high level of dedication. The phrase was also used to modify adjectives, for example, “with con ámoré zeal.” Though the expression could be applied to many situations, it was frequently used to describe theatrical plays. London Morning Chronicle, 7 April 1821; Dublin Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 24 October 1851. 2. In addition to printing Henry Ward Beecher’s sermon from 21 December 1856, Douglass offered some commentary and objections. While Douglass praised Beecher’s antislavery efforts, he took great exception to two of his points. The first was Beecher’s statement “if the African had been as handsome as the Circassian, there would not have been a slave among us.” Douglass countered that “ugliness” had no part in the enslavement of Africans. The second was Beecher’s long assertion that Africa was a “non-entity,” and that it was Europeans who brought civilization to Africa. Douglass argued that modern civilization could be traced through Egypt to Ethiopia via those countries’ trade activities. FDP, 26 December 1856 3. Lewis Tappan refers to Beecher’s argument that “ugliness” caused other races to view the Africans as inferior, which justified enslaving them. Beecher compared the head and facial features of non-Africans and Africans, saying, “The brow of one is wide, the other narrow.” Beecher further stated that the “mouth of one is compact and small, in the other enlarged.” FDP, 26 December 1856. 4. A well-traveled Greek, Herodotus (c. 485–425 B.C.E.) is considered the father of history. He chronicled his adventures in approximately thirty manuscripts. His travels took him throughout the

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interior of the Persian Empire, northeast to Ecbatana (the summer residence of the Persian kings, located in modern Iran), southeast to Ardericca (a village in present-day Iraq near the Euphrates), east to Phoenicia (an area of Lebanon, Syria, and northern Israel), and south to Egypt. He sailed across the Black Sea and traveled through Greece, Macedonia, and southern Italy. His manuscripts document an appreciation for different races and cultures. On the people of Ethiopia he wrote: “Its inhabitants are also remarkable for their size, their beauty, and their length of life.” Arthur Holmes and Charles Bigg, eds., Catena Classicorum (London, 1873), ix–x, xv; Herodotus, The Histories, trans. Robin Waterfield (New York, 1998), 216. 5. Beecher did not cite Herodotus in his sermon. Tappan refers to Herodotus’s description, in his third book of The Histories, of an Ethiopian delegation visiting Egypt, calling them “the tallest and best-looking people in the world.” Herodotus, The Histories, trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt (New York, 2003), 178; FDP, 26 December 1856. 6. John Bowring (1792–1872) won a seat in Parliament in 1847 after having established himself as a businessman, linguist, and political journalist. He was instrumental in commercial reform and free trade agitation in England and Europe throughout the 1820s and 1830s, and became active in the Anti–Corn Law League in 1838. Bowring participated in the British abolitionist movement, attending the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840 and working with the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Appointed governor of Hong Kong in 1854, he developed commercial ties between Britain and the Far East over the next three years, including, in 1855, the negotiation of the first treaty with Siam. Bowring’s service earned him a knighthood that year. In later life, he wrote and translated works of poetry, history, and natural science. His three sons also became well known as politicians, translators, and scientists. “Minutes of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society,” American Antislavery Collection, UkOxU-Rh, 429; Sir John Bowring and Lewin B. Bowring, Autobiographical Recollections of Sir John Bowring (London, 1877); Joyce A. Youings, Sir John Bowring, 1792–1872: Aspects of His Life and Career (Plymouth, Eng., 1993); Douglas H. Maynard, “The World’s Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 47:458 (December 1960); DNB, 2:984–88. 7. Sir John Bowring’s published views do not seem to bear this out. In his autobiographical writings, collected and published by his son after his death, Bowring stated that based upon his experience, he did not believe that the “intellectual aptitudes of the blacks [were] equal to those of the whites.” He did, however, believe that in “some regions they [were] superior to those of the longhaired inhabitants.” Bowring elaborated further on this notion, stating that “having had a good deal to do with black youths and the process of education,” he felt that although “up to a certain point they, [were] even more teachable and ready then Europeans of the same age, it [was] very difficult, if not impossible, to raise them above that point,” making it hard for them to master “complicated mathematical problems, . . . high studies in astronomy, or any of the abstract sciences.” Bowring, Autobiographical Reflections of Sir John Bowring, 393. 8. Based in Washington, D.C., the National Era was an antislavery newspaper edited by Gamaliel Bailey from 1847 until his death in 1859. Because it was printed on slave soil, the National Era labored under the constant threat of mob violence; Bailey nonetheless built a subscription base of over twenty-five thousand readers. Harriet Beecher Stowe aided in this popularity when the National Era serialized Uncle Tom’s Cabin from late May 1851 through April 1852. Bailey’s moderate editorial style drew severe criticism from abolitionists such as Douglass, who referred to the National Era as “powerless for Good” in 1851. Five years later, when Lewis Tappan suggested to Bailey that he hire Douglass as a coeditor, Bailey refused, citing both his personal differences with Douglass’s radical abolitionism and the potential uproar in Washington over the appointment of a black editor to his paper. Duane Mowry, “The National Era, an Abolition Document,” Publications of the Southern History Association, 8:462–64 (November 1904); Stanley Harrold, Gamaliel Bailey and Antislavery Union (Kent, Ohio, 1986), 140–41, 192.

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THOMAS SMITH1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Gratiot, Ohio[.] 28 Feb[ruary] 1857.

“Fred. Douglass: Sir:— I have taken your paper for the last four months, and feel convinced that every white man who reads it ought to be rode on a rail, and then given a coat of tar and feathers.2 “Please publish this, and stop my paper. “Thomas Smith.”3 PLSr: FDP, 13 March 1857. 1. A Thomas S. Smith (1829–60) was buried in Gratiot, Licking County, Ohio, in 1860. Born and raised in nearby Muskingum County, Smith became a tailor there. Records indicate that he was working as a farmer at the time of his decease. 1850 U.S. Census, Ohio, Muskingum County, 79; 1860 U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule for Hopewell Township, Muskingum County, Ohio, n.p. 2. Although the origin of tarring and feathering remains obscure, the act can be traced as far back as medieval times. A well-known example dates from 1189 when Richard I of England ordered that it be used as a means of punishment for Crusaders found guilty of theft. As late as the 1770s, tarring was occasionally prescribed as a method of punishment in England. In British North America, where the earliest recorded examples of it are associated with sailors and maritime culture, tarring and feathering does not seem to have come into use until the eighteenth century. In the 1760s, however, it gained wider acceptance as a means of shaming those seen as supporting British interests against their fellow colonists. During the American Revolution, it became the nonlethal punishment of choice for those viewed as holding Tory sympathies. Tarring and feathering remained a feature of American vigilante justice into the twentieth century. Richard Maxwell Brown, Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism (New York, 1975), 56–57; Bertram WyattBrown, Honor and Violence in the Old South (New York, 1986), 187–213; Benjamin H. Irvin, “Tar, Feathers, and the Enemies of American Liberties, 1768–1776,” NEQ, 76:197–203 (June 2003). 3. Douglass followed his publication of Thomas’s letter in his newspaper with the following editorial statement: “Thomas Smith having prescribed the treatment he deems proper for white men who indulge in the practice of reading our paper, and having confessed himself guilty of the practice, we trust his neighbors will take him in hand, and administer his prescription.”

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 16 April 1857[.]

Hon: Gerrit Smith. My Dear sir: I have yet only seen the concluding part of your speech delivered on the occasion of the “Dred scott” meeting in Albany.1 You will do me a kindness by sending me a Corrected copy of it for publication. From what I have seen of it, and from what I have heard of it, I am led to think it one

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of the most effective speeches you have yet given to the cause of human freedom. Your exposure of the recently proposed “act to secure freedom to all persons within this state.” is bold and startling. Compared with this magnificent thunder, my humble words are but as the rattling of a small carriage. Please Send me the speech, and accept my thanks in behalf my self & people for having made it. I am now suffering from my old complaint of the throat. The sudden changes, and dampness of the climate here, makes sad inroads upon my health. Rosetta, my daughter, who is now in the Office with me sends love to Ms Smith and family. Yours most Truly and affectionately FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Gerrit Smith’s speech was delivered in Albany on 11 April 1857 to a large gathering of citizens opposed to the recent Dred Scott decision. Published in Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Smith’s speech addressed the constitutionality of slavery and criticized a proposed personal liberty bill in New York, which, according to Smith, recognized the lawfulness of slavery. Lib., 17 April 1857; FDP, 24 April 1857.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO LYDIA DENNETT1 Rochester[, N.Y.] 17 April 1857.

My Dear Mrs Dennett. You Said to me when I was leaving your house,2 after a good break fast, and a pleasant interview with the frank and spirited Miss Charlotte Thomas,3 “do write to me.” Well, I am writing to you. The request So kindly made, was now the less grateful to my ear, because it is one which it is often my privilege to be the recipient of. I have many Such requests made of me in my Journeyings among the Children of men, but poor mortal that I am, with hands full and head full of public pressing matters, I have fallen far short of responding to this very amiable and most friendly requests. I sometimes Satisfy my conscience for failing of this duty by asSuming, that I am merely asked to write by way of harmless compliment, and it is therefore, of little or no consequence whether I respond or no. In ninety nine cases out of every hundred this assumption is doubtless well founded. You, my Dear friend, must consider your self the “one” not the “ninety and nine”! Ask Charlotte if she hears that. But in asking me to write, you very Sagely Selected the Subject of the wished for letter. You want to know something of my family—my wife and children. I confess

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that you have given me a “large” subject to discourse upon, You could not have given me a theme more fruitful, and yet for the soul of me (if black men of African descent have Souls) I do not know where to begin. Suppose I begin with the wife. I am sad to Say that she is by no means well—and if I should write down all her complaints there would be no room even to put my name at the bottom—although the world will have it that I am actually at the bottom of it all. She has the face I was going to use terms scarcely up to the standard of modern elegance) neuralegia.4 She has a great deal to do, but little time to do it in, and withal much to try her patience and all her other very many vertues. You have doubtless in your experience, met with many excellent wives and mothers, who have been in very much the Same condition in which my wife is. She has Suffered in every—member except one—she still Seems able to use with great ease and fluency her powers of speech—and by the time I am at home a week or two longer, I shall have pretty fully learned in how many points there is need of improvement in my temper and disposition as a husband, and father, the head of a family! Amid all the vicissitudes however, I am happy to Say that my wife gives me an excellent loaf of bread,—and keeps a neat house, and has moments of marked Amiability, of all which good things, I do not fail to take due advantage. I cannot Say much for my children. I cannot be expected (with my known good taste) to praise them) —and with my natural partiality—any criticisms of mine would be of little value. I can only say they are human—with a certain degree of human nature about them—enough to make them as bad as other childrens and capable, I trust of being as good. I am doing my best to give them a plain, practical English education, a thing of value all the more, perhaps, because I never had any of any Sort. I am trying to teach them to work—and eat bread that comes by earnest Labour and I have some hope of Success in this, & not in much more than this.—My Dear friend Lydia, I do not write letters in these days of speed—I cannot take the time—and you must accept this note for the present—I was more than glad to See you when in Portland and Shall be most happy to meet you again. Please make my regards to Miss Thomas—and also—to the kind young Lady in your family. I am Dear friend Very truly yours FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Pichard-Whittier Letters, MH-H. 1. Lydia Neal Dennett (1798–1881) was born in Eliot, York County, Maine, and was raised as a Quaker. She married Oliver W. Dennett (?–1852), and they resided in a house on Spring Street in

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Portland, Maine. Lydia and Oliver Dennett were active in the antislavery movement, and their home was a popular stop on the Underground Railroad. Oliver was elected a vice president of the American Anti-Slavery Society under William Lloyd Garrison in 1851. Lydia was considered an excellent conversationalist, storyteller, speaker, and entertainer. She and her husband became friends with William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and many other abolitionists, and frequently entertained them in their home. Lib., 7 June 1844, 17 May 1850; Concord (N.H.) Independent Statesman, 9 June 1881; Helen Coffin Beedy, Mothers of Maine (Portland, 1895), 239–241. 2. Since Douglass visited the Dennett residence while on a speaking tour in the summer of 1842, it is possible that he made an additional visit when he came to Portland to speak about the Dred Scott decision at Central Hall on 30 March 1857. An account of Douglass’s speech was published in the Portland Tribune and reprinted in Frederick Douglass’ Paper. FDP, 24 April 1857; San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, 5 May 1886; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxvii. 3. Born and raised in Portland, Maine, Charlotte Julia Thomas (c. 1822–1920) was the daughter of Elias and Elizabeth Widgery Thomas, wealthy antislavery activists. The Thomas home was an important stop on the Underground Railroad, and Charlotte’s mother was known to entertain and collaborate with the activists William Lloyd Garrison, Parker Pillsbury, and Wendell Phillips. Charlotte shared her mother’s enthusiasm for activism, participating in the antislavery movement as well as the Maine Woman Suffrage Association. An accomplished entertainer, Charlotte was particularly fond of drama and the opera, and kept a literary salon that included, among others, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Newspaper accounts indicate that she donated an original oil painting of Longfellow by C. A. Cole to the Maine State Building in 1940. 1880 U.S. Census, Maine, Cumberland County, 303; Bangor Daily Whig, 25 September 1885, 1 January 1890, 5 May 1893; Beedy, Mothers of Maine, 236–39. 4. Pain associated with a damaged nerve.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH [n.p.] 20 April [18]57[.]

Hon. Gerrit Smith My dear Sir: The Bill sent to mr Green1 was by mistake. The five dollars of which he Speaks is duly Set to his credit, and the five you have now Sent shall also be Set to his credit. He Shall not be troubled with a bill again. I am amazed as well as gratified at the strength of the vote in favor of a radical abolition personal Liberty Bill.2 I am sorry the convention appointed here is given up.3 [B]ut your proposition for turning Republican Convention into Abolition oneS Strikes me fair.4 We have turned Whigs and Democrats into Republicans—and we can turn Republicans into Abolitionists. You have already gone a great way in this direction. I trace that magnificent Show of hands in the assembly directly to your Speech and Counsels.5 You cannot however, expect that your disciples Shall be quite as Successful as yourSelf—I am better of my throat trouble.

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DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH, 20 APRIL 1857

Rosa6 Joins me in Love to Mrs Smith,7 I am Dear Sir, Always yours Truly, FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. Beriah Green. 2. Following the Dred Scott decision, New York’s legislature formed a joint special committee to determine the impact of the ruling and the state’s response to it. In April 1857 the committee released a series of resolutions and a bill that stated, “Every slave who shall come, or be brought, or be, in this State, with the consent of his or her master or mistress, or who shall come or be brought or be involuntarily in this State, shall be free.” On 17 April, the bill passed the assembly but failed to receive enough votes in the senate for it to continue on to the Committee of the Whole. Thomas D. Morris, Free Men All: The Personal Liberty Laws of the North 1780–1861, (Baltimore, 1974), 182–85. 3. A circular dated 1 January 1857 called for a National Convention of Radical Abolitionists to be held in Rochester in June. The convention would discuss the prospect of nominating a candidate for president in 1860. Published weekly in Frederick Douglass’ Paper, the circular last appeared in the 17 April issue. On 1 April 1857, the Radical Abolitionist, the small party’s official newspaper, issued a call for a minimum of 500 people to pledge by 10 April to attend the convention. On failing to achieve that goal, on 1 May the Radical Abolitionist published a notice that the convention had been canceled. But in that same issue, the newspaper assured its readers that since a “large part of [the] prominent leaders [of the Republican party were] about to become Radical Abolitionists,” they would “soon” be able to “avail” themselves of that party’s “extended organization [and] save the trouble of getting up one or our own.” New York Radical Abolitionist, 1 January, 1 February, 1 April, 1 May 1857. FDP, 17 April 1857. 4. Douglass was probably referring to the Republican party’s next national convention, which took place in Chicago in May 1860, although it is also possible that he was referring to New York’s upcoming Republican party convention, which took place in Syracuse on 23 September 1857. New York Times, 28 July, 24 September 1857; Stan M. Haynes, First American Political Conventions: Transforming Presidential Nominations, 1832–1872 (Jefferson, N.C., 2012), 169–75, 203–08. 5. Following the Dred Scott decision, Gerrit Smith publicly supported the passage of personal liberty bills to protect fugitive slaves and free blacks in nonslave states. Smith’s support is evident in a letter he wrote to D. C. Littlejohn, Speaker of the New York Assembly, dated 18 March and entitled “Man is Property Everywhere & Nowhere,” and in a public speech given at Albany on 11 April. FDP, 10, 14 April 1857. 6. Rosetta Douglass. 7. Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO THE SECRETARY OF THE EDINBURGH LADIES’ NEW ANTI-SLAVERY ASSOCIATION1 Rochester. N.Y. [9] July [1857.]

To the Secretary of the Edinburgh New Anti-Slavery Association Dear Madam: Your note of june third2 has been received. I beg in response to it, to thank the members of the Edinburgh New Anti Slavery association for

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the donation of five pounds in aid of the publication of my Anti-Slavery paper. Please assure the association that I also feel deeply grateful for the kind co-operation extended to my zealous and untiring friend Miss Griffiths3—who has labored very earnestly both here and in Great Britain to place my Anti Slavery paper on a firm and permanent basis. I much fear that these exertions, of hers have been greatly beyond her Strength, but that She is, now Seriously Suffering the Consequences of over taxed persons. I am really indebted to Miss Griffiths for these voluntary—and disinterested exertions and am deeply grateful to those dear people who aided and cheered her on in those exertions. I the more especially, Speak of the disinterestedness of Miss Griffiths, because evel minded persons, I learn, have insinuated that Miss G. is receiving donations in my name for her own benefit. There is no truth in this inSinuation or charge. All all donations made through her for the paper—or for the Fugitive fund—come directly and unfailingly to those objects. You need not be told that we have not the friendship of Mr Garrison and his friends either in this Country or in England. They have carried on the war against me with no delicate regard to the means. I am not Sure that I am more obnoxious to them than is Miss Griffiths. Indeed they regard my repudiation of their religious or irreligious teaching to her influence. I am hated not as an apostate from the Anti Slavery Cause—for all know that I am, as faithful to that Cause as I ever was, but I am an apostate from Garrisonism—an “ism”—which comprehends, opposition to the Church; the ministry, the Sabbath, and the Government as Institutions in themselves conSidered—and viewed a part from the question of Slavery. I am opposed to them at these points—and could not Send my humble influence to the spread of Such opinions in the name of the Slave or his cause. No persecution which I have received causes me any regret for the Course I have felt my duty to pursue. I have nothing new—(or that you will not get through public channels) to tell you about the present prospect of our Cause. My speech at New York4 —which I hope may have met your eye states my views of the present aspects of our cause. I am now at work less under the influence or inspiration of hope—than the Settled assurances of faith in God—and the ultimate triumph of Rightiousness in the world. The cause of the Slave is a rightious and humane one—and I believe precious in the Sight of Heaven. Though long delayed, it will triumph at last. Please excuse this short epistle— Write me when ever you may desire any information I can give—

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DOUGLASS TO SECRETARY, EDINBURGH LADIES’ ASSOCIATION, 9 JULY 1857

I am Dear Madam, With grateful Regards to the Edinburgh new A.S. association— With great Respect, Yours &c. FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 1, frames 661–63, FD Papers, DLC. 1. Founded in 1856, the Edinburgh Ladies’ New Anti-Slavery Association was an active abolitionist society in Scotland for ten years. Though the name contained the word “new,” the association was one of many in Edinburgh during the mid-nineteenth century. For several years the association held bazaars to raise funds for the abolitionist cause. After one such bazaar in 1857, the association sent 30 percent of the proceeds to Frederick Douglass in America, and 40 percent to aid fugitive slaves through American abolitionist societies. The remainder supported the organization’s continued existence. Its guiding motto was “Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them.” Although the organization identified itself as a “ladies” association, its prime benefactors were men. The society disbanded in 1866 and recorded the final distribution of its remaining funds. BFASR, 5:279 (December 1857), 14:86 (February 1866). 2. This correspondence has not survived. 3. Julia Griffiths. 4. Douglass probably alludes to his address on the Dred Scott decision, delivered in New York City in May 1857 before a meeting of the American Abolition Society. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:163–83.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 13 Oct[ober] 1857[.]

Hon. Gerrit Smith: My dear Sir: The fifty pamphlets of my two Speeches1 will be[]Sent to you to day. Three dollars and fifty cents will pay for them. I have just read Mr Garrison’s article2 on your compensation Speech, delivered at Cleveland.3 It is, to my thinking, very Smart, very adroit, very cunning, very artful, and very like Mr Garrison. He does not in that article, aim at the discovery or vindication of the Simple truth involved in the Subject, or to point out the true path of duty; his Sole aim Seems to be, to present you in a rediculous attitude before his readers. To those who only read his editorial as will be the Case with many who think they have a fair Synopsis of your views in his editorial, he will be Successful. Do write a reply4 to his most unfair treatment of your Speech and Send it to the Liberator Always Yours Truly, FREDERICK DOUGLASS ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. The pamphlet contained the text of two of Douglass’s recent speeches. The first speech was delivered on 4 August at the West Indian Emancipation celebration in Canandaigua, New York. The

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other speech, about the Dred Scott decision, was delivered on 14 May at the American Abolition Society’s anniversary meeting in New York City. Speech File, reel 14, frames 168–92, FD Papers, DLC; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxvii. 2. Garrison’s coverage of the Compensation Emancipation Convention characterized Smith, one of the keynote speakers, as eccentric, and his plan preposterous. Smith asserted that slaveholders had a moral right to compensation if slavery were abolished, an argument that Garrison believed gave them the moral and legal right to own slaves. Garrison equated Smith’s proposed plan to compensating criminals for breaking the law. Lib., 4 September, 9 October 1857. 3. Smith’s speech was delivered to the Compensation Emancipation Convention on 25 August 1857 in Cleveland, Ohio, and was covered in Frederick Douglass’ Paper and the Liberator. Just as Britain’s Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 included a £20 million parliamentary appropriation for the West Indian planters, Smith’s measure would compensate U.S. slave owners for the loss of their property, an act he hoped would encourage Southerners to support the abolition of slavery. The convention, which was organized by Smith and Elihu Burritt, resulted in the formation of the National Compensation Society. Lib., 4 September, 9 October 1857; FDP, 11 September 1857; Fladeland, “Compensated Emancipation,” 169–86; EAAH, 1:242. 4. No response from Smith to Garrison’s criticism of his stance on compensation can be located in the Liberator.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO MARIA G. PORTER Rochester[, N.Y.] 13 Oct[ober] 1857[.]

Miss Porter: William Oborne—Came to us last night from slavery. He looks fully able to take care of himself, but being destitute, he needs for the present, a little assistance to get him to Canada—$2.50 will be quite suffecient. Your Truly. FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society Collection, MiU-C.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH Rochester[, N.Y.] 14 December 1857[.]

Hon: Gerrit Smith: My dear Sir: I am most Sincerely glad to See again a letter in your well known hand writing. In your own behalf and that of your Dear family and in behalf of my woe smitten people and the thousands to whom your life is precious, I thank my God that you have been raised up from your recent illness,1 and that you begin to feel again the strength of returning health. Yes, My dear

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DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH, 14 DECEMBER 1857

Sir, I saw you, as yourself, Mrs Smith,2 Green3 and Mr Morton4 glided by the Cars in the Station at Albany. The nights Air was cold and piercing and your Step though quick was feeble. I quickly determined that it was more kind to let you pass in Silence than to stop you for a moments recognition. I deemed myself quite fortunate that I got this early glimpse of you. I had just been on a lecturing tour in Massachusetts5 and was returning home and thought I Should be telling news to my family when I should Say that you had Started for home, but the lightning had already made them acquainted with the fact. I am just home now from a Short tour in Canada where I found much desire to hear me. The great increase of Colored people, most of them quite ignorant, and Some of them vicious has raised up prejudice against Colored people in Canada6 as well as here. The masses do not look into Causes. If they find a people degraded they pity them for a while and at length despise them. Please remember me kindly to your Dear Household all My family join me in Love to you— Yours Most Truly FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. 1. In the late fall of 1857, Gerrit Smith developed a case typhoid fever while visiting New York City. After six weeks of recovery there, he returned to his home in Peterboro, New York. Several more months passed before Smith resumed his normal strenuous course of reform and business activities. Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 376–77. 2. Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith. 3. Greene Smith (1842–80) was the sole surviving son of the abolitionist Gerrit Smith. Educated by private tutors, Smith did not share his father’s appreciation of education and often clashed with his tutors. Greene Smith’s relationship with his father suffered because of Gerrit Smith’s strong belief in temperance. Smith briefly joined the Union army in 1864 and was given the rank of second lieutenant in the Fourteenth New York Artillery. After the war, he developed an interest in ornithology and built a large collection of stuffed birds. Labeled an “eccentric,” Greene Smith died among his collection at the family estate in Peterboro, New York. Chattanooga Gazette, 27 July 1864; New York Times, 24  July 1880; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 42, 189–90; Chattanooga Gazette, 27 July 1864; New York Times, 24 July 1880. 4. Edwin Morton (1832–1900) was an occasional poet and active abolitionist from Massachusetts. After graduating from Harvard in 1855, Morton easily found employment as a tutor. One of Morton’s first clients was Gerrit Smith. While in Smith’s employ, Morton became acquainted with John Brown and was present on 22 February 1859 when Brown presented his audacious plan to capture Harpers Ferry to his closest friends. To escape the possibility of having to testify against Brown and his accomplices, Morton fled to Europe in 1859 and remained there until the following year. Ill health prevented Morton from joining the Union war effort, and he remained on the home front. In 1876, Morton moved to Switzerland, where he worked as an essayist and poet until the end of his life. Franklin Sanborn, “John Brown and his Friends,” Atlantic Monthly, 30:50–61 (July 1872); E. H. Abbot, “Edwin Morton,” Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, 8:561–62 (June 1900); Edward J. Renehan, Jr., The Secret Six: The True Tale of the Men Who Conspired with John Brown (New York, 1995),

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127, 141–45, 205–06; Jeffery Rossbach, Ambivalent Conspirators: John Brown, the Secret Six, and a Theory of Slave Violence (Philadelphia, 1982), 124, 139, 141–42, 199, 220, 241. 5. Many of the issues of Frederick Douglass’ Paper from the fall of 1857 have not survived, and so no published account has been found of Douglass’s lecturing tours in Massachusetts or Canada. 6. Modern scholars concur with Douglass’s perception of growing antiblack sentiment in portions of Ontario, where fugitive slaves and free black migrants from the United States had settled in significant and gradually increasing numbers. Silverman, Unwelcome Guests, 72, 132, 157; Winks, Blacks in Canada, 114–78.

NORMAL1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Philadelphia, Penn. 25 Dec[ember] 1857. 2

Another Fugitive slave case has been called up and carried through our beautiful courts. The Fugitive whom the reports make to appear as deficient of brains as one could well be and yet lay claim to kinship with the genus homo, was condemned on his own testimony, remanded to his claimant,—without having been permitted the benefit of counsel, taken in broad day-light over the sin-cursed streets of our boasted city of Brotherly Love,3 and without a pitying voice or helping hand, thrust back into the lash-resounding knell of American slavery. Such damnable outrages are almost sufficient to drive one to atheism. How can an omnipotent Jehovah permit man whom He created “little lower than the angels”4 to ravish his fellow-men in so blackened and disgraceful a manner? One beautiful and significant feature of this whole affair is that it all took place under the very eaves of our annual Garrisonian Fair.5—Of course we do not mean to say ought against the happy ones at the Fair. Far be it from us to do so. But we must state the facts. apropos of the fair and its etecras. The Fair, that was all well enough, that is to say, it netted over a thousand dollars (so a member told us); but the convention which ran through three days we hardly know what to make of. We’ll give you the facts, and let you think of them at your leisure. The time, as was justly remarked by one of our city press, was taken up for the most part with an unprofitable discussion of points, which finally sunk down to personal abuse; and the convention barely escaped being broken up in a row. The low blackguardism of a well known loud mouthed semi-saxon individual6 who monopolized the biggest part of time, was really disgraceful to the society,—We must certainly advise the society to pandor a little less to the inordinate

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vanity and sickening self-conceit of this bombastic fulminate, and get at least some sane and sensible men to occupy their platform on Public occasions. His course bar-room attack on Frederick Douglass was as disgusting as it was cowardly. This is the second time since Mr. Douglass’ visit here, that this man has attempted to villify him before respectable audiences. Why don’t he come out when Mr. Douglass is here to answer for himself? Why does he so sedulously keep out of the way until Mr. D. is hundreds of miles off and then stab him in the dark? Why? But his attack recoiled upon him right on the spot, as the sequel will show. A hard looking customer named De Wolf7 now came forward, and commenced by declaring himself an ultra abolitionist and a non-resistant.8 He took especial pains to have people understand this last. We regret very much that he did not keep his non-resistant ideas to himself; if he had done so, he most likely would not have been called a liar and an unprincipled man, as he subsequently was.—He said he did not question the sincerity of the Garrisonians, but he was emphatically opposed to their wholesale systematic denunciations of every body and everything that does not see exactly as they do. “Honest, well-meaning men, as strong abolitionists as you are, said he, men who can go with you nine steps in ten, are driven away from you with kicks and stripes, because they cannot take the tenth.” Among other instances, he mentioned that of Frederick Douglass. “When this man was with you, he was the noblest Roman of you all,9 and you adored him almost as a son; but the instant that he changed his opinions on the constitution, you denounced him as an ingrate, the vilest of men, not because he was less an abolitionist than you, but because he differed with you on a single point.” He called such a course unwise and unjust. He then went on to say that Slaveholders should not be denounced, but reasoned with and treated like men. To those remarks Remond10 replied in his usual declamatory style, very spiritedly and with no resort to personality. The Rev. Jabes B. Campbell11 now came forward and took issue with the Garrisonians in their abuse of honest colored men and colored churches, that were fighting with all their might against oppression and wrong. He said he has had charge of colored pulpits for 20 years, and they were always open to an appeal for the slave; but he wanted his audience to understand that he was not a non-resistant, and he should never allow Chas. Lennox Remond and Robert Purvis to come into his own pulpit to denounce him and wish him and his church in perdition. Other men were as honest as they, other papers as effective as theirs. Where is a truer abolitionist than Gerrit Smith. Fred. Douglas, and Wm. Goodell, to which school he

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(Campbell) was proud to belong? Where will you find a truer advocate of the cause than “The True Wesleyan,[“]12 The N. Y. Independent13 or Fred. Douglass’ Paper? (applause) The aforesaid R. Purvis could endure this heresy no longer. He raved and tore and broke things generally, and particularly did he break vocem suam14 into sundry yells and very high notes. It was not enough for him to abuse generally everybody who sympathized with Gerrit Smith’s views, but as is his wont he had to come down to low epithets and personalties, “He said Frederick Douglass had been born a miserable suppliant slave, and he had not yet out-grown all the essential of the crawling servile, it was embedded in his bones. We did not cast him off because he changed his views, but because we believed him to be an unprincipled man. It is a libel on us; if uttered as it must have been, with a knowledge of the fact, it was a bare lie! [A]nd there was but one word which befitted its utterer, and that is, he is a liar! A black man standing for the Constitution, indeed! It was dishonesty on its very face. We have labored to very little purpose, if there were still left black men who are so detestably mean as to claim the Constitution for Freedom?” (that is to say it is a mean, cowardly piece of business for any body to differ with us, but for black men to do so, that I shan’t allow.)—Here Robert stopped for breath. In fact we believe he gave this as an excuse for stopping his classically chaste remarks. We cannot help remarking that Robert blazed from first to last without the least fraction of applause. The sharp vetran and tried warrior Dr. Bias15 here tried to get the floor, if he obtained which he would have excoriated this Purvis most thoroughly. Mr. Robert Douglass16 said he came last year to the Convention in accordance with the general invitation extended and found Spiritualists,17 Colonizationists and others allowed to speak, and he took occasion to make some remarks himself. For this he and his eloquent friend, (Dr. Bias) had been villified in The Standard,18 and he mentioned it now in order that the leading members of the Society might have an oppertunity to disclaim sympathy with the course of The Standard. ‘Brother Purvis’ was again on hand playing on his favorite harp, Frederick Douglass. De Wolf interposed, and asked what Mr. Douglass had done to merit such obloquy? Brother Purvis, said he had abused George Thomson, and doing so he has shown himself meanly base and cowardly unprincipled. He then proceeded to say “It is a lie, and the utterer is a liar four or 5 times to De Wolf whom he knew to be non-resistant. De Wolf asked to make an explanation; but ‘Brother Purvis,’ replied that a base

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calumniator should not interrupt him[.] The lordly and bombastic air of ‘Brother Purvis,’ excited laughter in De Wolf, to which ‘Brother Purvis,’ answered ‘Laugh! Oh laugh, but it is the forced laugh of conscious dishonesty &c.’ Emboldened by his triumph over a non-resistant, he was proceeding to traduce Mr. R. Douglass, when Mr. D. quietly arose and told ‘Purvis’ that he had called a man whom he knew to be a non-resistant, a liar, and had vilified absent men and dead men, but he could not throw an insult in his (Mr. D’s) teeth without meeting the consequences right on the spot. He might think of it as he chose but he could very easily tell whether he (Mr. D.) was in earnest or not. This effectually cured Purvis of personalities. Very likely this brave man, who is so good at attacking non-resistants, absent men and dead men, might have called to mind an episode a few years ago in Wesley church19 and another in Heims st.Hall.20 We know nothing about it. He quits his personalities quick enough, when he found he had a man to deal with, that we know. A lively young man, (whom we know to be a reporter of Forney’s21 paper) whose name we could not learn, now rose and took the house by storm in an eloquent vindication of Frederick Douglass and of George Washington’s22 memory. You profess sympathy for the black man in the South, but you have suffered yourself within the last hour, shamefully to abuse one of the noblest living men, Frederick Doug[l]ass. He had heard every discourse that Mr. Douglass has delivered in this city, and he strained no point when he said, that he was not only the ablest and most eloquent of American orators. But he would redeem his whole race from the charge of inferiority. Shame on you who can suffer that he should be wantonly abused on your platform, which should rather try to strengthen him and hold up his noble hand. Could his noble and manly form but enter the room at this moment, his cowardly calumniators would wilt away before him like the house-vine before the sun! And then General Washington, what is there to be gained by everlastingly traducing the memory of so great and good a man? The American people would not give audience to their doctrines if they embodied such gross calumniations of him who was first in war &c. Every sentiment of Washington was for liberty. Then he went on in the most eloquent and impressive manner. His speech acted like a rocket, (we regret that we could not [learn] the name of this young man.) Remond undertook to reply to it by calling to an account the audience for applauding. Sore yet about his defeat in the Wears23 discussion last spring, he singled out Prof. R. Cambell,24 (took him to task for applauding the [l]ast speaker) and charged him with lack of ability to un-

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derstand the Constitution and laws of the Country, and advised him to go back to the Antilles25 and try to comprehend the genius of American institutions before returning.—This was exceedingly smart in Remond, especially as he knew perfectly well that the Prof. would not have an opportunity to reply. We can tell Mr. Remond, that Prof. Campbell’s Scientific and Literary attainments have given him the audience and friendships of some of the most distinguished men of letters, not only in Philadelphia, but in the Country. Remond had better try his hand with him sometime before an impartial audience, and we guess he would come out worse excoriated than he did with Wear last spring. NORMAL. PLSr: FDP, 1 January 1858. 1. The identity of Douglass’s Philadelphia correspondent who wrote under the name “Normal” has not been determined, although he contributed numerous letters to Douglass’s newspaper in 1857 and 1858. FDP, 10 April, 8 May, 5 June 1857, 22 January, 23 April, 15 October 1858. 2. “Normal” here refers to the case of Jacob Dupen (c. 1832–?), a slave who had escaped from his owner, William M. Edelin, in Baltimore. Dupen was living as a farmer near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at the time of his arrest by U.S. marshals. He made no attempt to avoid capture and appeared confused when brought before Judge John K. Kane for a hearing on 18 December 1857. Dupen readily answered that Edelin was his master and that he had originally lived in Calvert County, Maryland, even after Kane advised him that he could refuse to answer. Dupen, who was not represented by legal counsel, was returned to slavery after the hearing. William M. Bull, a lawyer hired by Dupen’s friends, attempted to intercede on the slave’s behalf, but did not arrive until after the hearing was over. Philadelphia Bulletin, 18 December 1857; Campbell, Slave Catchers, 133, 204. 3. According to tradition, William Penn named the capital city of his colony Philadelphia, Greek for “brotherly love,” in order to reflect his ideal for the settlement. The book of Revelation mentions the name, associated with an ancient city in Asia Minor, as the location of one of the seven churches housing angels of the apocalypse. Rev. 1:11, 3:7; George R. Stewart, American PlaceNames: A Concise and Selective Dictionary for the Continental United States of America (New York, 1970), 370; Kelsie B. Harder, ed., Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names: United States and Canada (New York, 1976), 423. 4. Ps. 8:5; Heb. 2:7, 2:9. 5. From 1836 to the Civil War, the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Fair was held annually in Philadelphia under the auspices of the American Anti-Slavery Society. If possible, the fair convened in the city’s Assembly Building in conjunction with other abolitionist conventions. Many local abolitionist societies donated crafts for sale in order to raise money to support the printing of antislavery newspapers and tracts, and to provide funds for slaves fleeing north. In addition to crafts produced by local women’s abolition societies, the fair often imported crafts from British abolitionist societies. The fair, held in December, was often called the “Winter Fair.” The Pennsylvania fair was one of the longest and most successful of the many antislavery fairs in the 1850s. Prominent abolitionist speakers frequently addressed attendees and solicited donations from them. Lib., 28 January 1853; Report of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society Committee of the Fourteenth Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Fair, 9 January 1850 (Philadelphia, 1850); Julie Roy Jeffrey, The Great Silent Army of Abolitionism: Ordinary Women in the Anti-Slavery Movement (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1998), 193. 6. Probably Robert Purvis (1810–98), a prominent leader of antebellum Philadelphia’s black community and one of the most influential African Americans in the Garrisonian wing of the

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abolitionist movement. He was the son of Harriet Juda, a free black woman, and William Purvis, a white cotton broker of Charleston, South Carolina. In 1819, Robert moved north with his family to be educated. Upon his father’s death in the mid-1820s, Purvis inherited a substantial fortune, which he used to support a wide array of benevolent causes, including temperance, women’s rights, penal reform, and integrated education. He helped launch the Liberator in 1831, became a charter member of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, and served as both president and vice president of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. From the 1830s onward, he actively assisted fugitives trying to escape slavery. Following Douglass’s split with Garrison, Purvis frequently attacked Douglass in speeches. Purvis pointed some of his canards at Douglass’s relationship with Julia Griffiths. Douglass responded to many of these attacks in speeches against Garrison and Purvis and in editorials in his newspaper. Margaret Hope Bacon, But One Race: The Life of Robert Purvis (New York, 2007), 7–9, 126, 173; Still, Underground Railroad, 711; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 24–25, 55–56; Joseph A. Borome, “Robert Purvis and his Early Challenge to American Racism,” NHB, 30:8–10 (May 1967); Pauline C. Johnson, “Robert Purvis,” ibid., 5:65–66 (December 1941); NCAB, 1:413. 7. Possibly Calvin De Wolf (1815–99), an abolitionist and lawyer from Chicago. Born in Pennsylvania, De Wolfe received an education at the Grand River Institute, an Ohio manual labor school. He relocated to Illinois, where he studied law after teaching briefly. Outraged at the murder of Elijah Lovejoy, De Wolf helped found the Anti-Slavery Society of Chicago and became its secretary. He later assisted in the creation of the Western Citizen, an abolitionist newspaper. In 1858, De Wolf was part of a group indicted for assisting a runaway slave to escape, but the case was dropped under the Lincoln administration. As a Republican, he served two terms on the Chicago board of aldermen. Milwaukee Sentinel, 29 November 1899; Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago: The Beginning of a City, vol. 1: 1673–1848, (Chicago, 1937), 243–45; Howard Louis Conard, “Calvin De Wolf,” Magazine of Western History, 13: 221–25 (December 1890). 8. A nonresistant was a believer in a principled form of nonviolence or pacifism. Many abolitionist followers of William Lloyd Garrison had adopted principles of nonresistance in whole or in part by the late 1830s; they abstained from participation in the political process, viewing government as inherently coercive. Perry, Radical Abolitionism, 45–46, 76–80. 9. Julius Caesar, act 5, sc. 5, line 68. 10. Charles Lenox Remond. 11. Jabez Pitt Campbell (1815–91) was born in Slaughter Neck, Delaware, to free black parents, Anthony and Catherine Campbell. When Jabez Campbell was a youth, his father used him as a security for a debt. When Anthony could not repay the debt, Campbell was forced into slavery. After four and a half years, he was able to pay off the debt and, at age eighteen, regain his freedom. Settling in Philadelphia, Campbell became a member of the Bethel A.M.E. Church and entered the ministry in 1839. From 1856 to 1858 he served as the editor of the Christian Recorder and in 1864 was elected bishop of the A.M.E. Church. Never prominent in black antislavery activities, Campbell was a member of the American Colonization Society and became its vice president in 1876. Throughout his lifetime, he and his wife, Mary Ann, contributed money to many philanthropic institutions, including Wilberforce College in Ohio and Jabez Pitt Campbell College (later Jackson State University) in Mississippi. African Repository and Colonial Journal, 53:48 (Washington D.C., 1877); Benjamin T. Tanner, An Apology for African Methodism (Baltimore, 1867), 158–71; Jessie Carney Smith, ed., Notable Black American Women: Book II (Detroit, 1996), 80–81; Simmons, Men of Mark, 1031–33. 12. Based in New York City, the True Wesleyan was the official organ of the small abolitionist “comeouter” sect of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection, which was launched in 1843. McKivigan, War against Proslavery Religion, 85, 86, 131; Sernet, North Star Country, 83. 13. The Independent (1848–1928) was a weekly newspaper published in New York. Originally a religious newspaper, the Independent was dedicated to the survival of the Congregationalist Church after several Presbyterian and Congregationalist leaders adopted a “Plan of Union” for missionary labors in the western territories. In 1854 the Independent’s format was changed in an attempt to broaden the newspaper’s appeal to non-Congregationalist readers. Theodore Tilton, who joined the

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newspaper in 1854, placed a stronger emphasis on antislavery, temperance, and woman suffrage. The Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, an early contributor, served as editor from 1861 until 1863, when Tilton became editor in chief. In 1867, Tilton changed the Independent’s format to a weekly political magazine, and the religious emphasis was slowly abandoned. Tilton recruited Douglass to write the article “The Work Before Us” for the Independent in 1868. The magazine absorbed a rival, Harper’s Weekly, in 1916. In 1921 the Independent merged with the Weekly Review and later with the Outlook, forming the Outlook and Independent in 1928. That final incarnation folded in 1932. Lib., 8 December 1848; New York Independent, 27 August 1868; New York Times, 23 April 1916, 21 September 1921, 29 June 1932; Louis Filler, “Liberalism, Anti-Slavery, and the Founders of the Independent,” NEQ, 27:291–306 (September 1954). 14. Latin for “his voice.” 15. James J. Gould Bias. 16. Probably Robert M. J. Douglass, Jr. (1809–87), son of a British West Indies immigrant to Philadelphia who became a successful hairdresser and leader of that city’s black community. His sister was Sarah Mapps Douglass, an abolitionist and educator. A talented portrait painter, the younger Douglass became active in abolitionism in the 1830s. He visited Haiti and reported positively on conditions there. In the 1850s he was a proponent of immigration to Africa. Julie Winch, Philadelphia’s Black Elite: Activism, Accommodation, and the Struggle for Autonomy, 1787–1848 (Philadelphia, 1988), 5, 35, 50, 61, 83, 94, 129; Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 3:60. 17. Following the highly publicized claims in 1848 of Margaret and Kate Fox, two sisters from Rochester, New York, to be able to contact the spirits of the deceased via a system of audible “rappings,” belief in the powers of mediums to communicate with the dead became widespread across the United States. Andrew Jackson Davis, a prominent medium, worked hard to connect Spiritualism with the abolitionist, temperance, and women’s rights movements of the 1850s. Most abolitionists remained skeptical, but a few, such as the Boston minister John Pierpont and Douglass’s Garrisonian friends Amy and Isaac Post, became staunch believers in Spiritualism. Ronald G. Walters, American Reformers, 1815–1860 (New York, 1978), 163–71; Bret E. Carroll, Spiritualism in Antebellum America (Bloomington, Ind., 1997), 3–4, 248. 18. New York National Anti-Slavery Standard. 19. Several black churches in antebellum Philadelphia had “Wesley” in their names. The one referred to here is probably the Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church, founded in 1820 and located at the corner  of Lombard and Fifth Street. This congregation was one of the oldest in the A.M.E. Zion Church. W. E. B. Du Bois, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899; New York, 1967), 200, 211–12. 20. Probably the Odd Fellows Hall on the corner of Sixth and Haines Street in Philadelphia. The four-story building, erected in 1846 to great fanfare, housed the Grand Lodge offices for Pennsylvania. In addition to several Odd Fellows Lodges, the hall housed the Eclectic Medical College of Pennsylvania. The Odd Fellows erected their building on the same lot where abolitionists had built Pennsylvania Hall, which was burned in 1838. McElroy’s Philadelphia Directory for 1857 (Philadelphia, 1857), 900; [New York] The Golden Rule, and Odd Fellows’ Family Companion, 5:201–02 (September 1846). 21. A prominent Democratic party journalist from Pennsylvania, John Weiss Forney (1817–81) was a close ally of James Buchanan. After losing a race for a seat in the U.S. Senate to the Republican Simeon Cameron, Forney launched a newspaper, the Press, in Philadelphia in August 1857. After quarreling with Buchanan over his efforts to make Kansas a slave state, Forney shifted his allegiance to the Republicans. By 1876, Forney had changed the name of his newspaper from the Press to the Philadelphia Press. North American and United States Gazette, 14 July 1857; Centennial Newspaper Exhibition 1876 (New York, 1876), 277–79; NCAB, 3:267–68; DAB, 6:526–27. 22. In his will, George Washington (1732–99), first president of the United States, provided that all the slaves that he held in his own right be emancipated upon the death of his wife. In 1802, according to the estate inventory, 124 slaves were eventually freed. Fritz Hirschfeld, George Washington

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and Slavery: A Documentary Portrayal (Columbia, Mo., 1997), 209–12; Douglas Southall Freeman, Washington: A Biography (New York, 1968), 741. 23. Isaiah C. Weir. 24. Born in Jamaica to a free black mother and a Scottish-born planter, Robert Campbell (1829– 84) worked as a printer and a teacher before migrating to Brooklyn, New York, in 1852. Three years later, he accepted an instructor’s post at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia. He was soon drawn into antislavery and Underground Railroad work in that city’s black community. In 1859, Campbell joined Martin Delany’s Niger Valley Exploring Party. After fund-raising on behalf of the expedition in Great Britain, he accompanied Delany to West Africa in 1860. After returning to the United States, he continued to promote African migration in speeches and in writing. In February 1862, Campbell permanently relocated his family to Lagos, Nigeria, where he worked at journalistic and commercial ventures. Blackett, Beating against the Barriers, 139–82. 25. The main island group of the West Indies, the Antilles span 2,500 miles from Florida to the Venezuela coast. The archipelago is composed of the Greater Antilles (the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica) and the Lesser Antilles (the Windward Islands, the Leeward Islands, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago). These islands separate the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. Seltzer, Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World, 79; Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer of the World, 3441.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO MARY ANNE DAY BROWN1 Rochester, N[.]Y[.] 30 Jan[uar]y 1858[.]

My dear Friends: Your brave husband and father is now my guest2—and has been since Thursday of this week. Gladly indeed we hailed him—and joyfully we entertain him. It does not seem safe—or desirable for him to come to you just now—though he would most gladly do so—I shall retain him here as long as he desires to remain and would be glad for my you to meet him here. I remember with pleasure the pleasant moments spent under your roof 3—and take [illegible] small satisfaction in the thought of your Friendship—I shall be truly glad to see either of you or both of you at my house—at any time during Capt Brown’s stay— FRED. DOUGLASS— 4 ALS: John Brown Papers, KHi. Additional text in F[rancis] B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown: Liberator of Kansas, and Martyr of Virginia (Boston, 1885), 440–41. 1. The daughter of a Meadville, Pennsylvania, blacksmith, Mary Anne Day Brown (1816–84) received no formal education after her family relocated there from Granville, New York, in 1826. She married John Brown at age sixteen and bore thirteen children, seven of whom died in childhood. While most of the males of the family were participating in the antislavery struggle in Kansas and later in Maryland and Virginia, she and three daughters managed the Brown farm near North Elba, New York. After John Brown’s execution, she remained on the farm until 1864. Mary Brown spent her last twenty years living with several of her children in California. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, 497–99; Villard, John Brown, 19, 24–25; Oates, To Purge This Land, 26.

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2. John Brown visited Frederick Douglass in Rochester on at least four occasions: in December 1856, Brown was invited to dine at Douglass’s home; for three weeks beginning on 27 January 1858, Brown resided at Douglass’s house; he returned for one evening the following April; ‘and in April 1859 he stayed a few hours in Douglass’s newspaper office. Douglass to [John] Brown, 7 December 1856, Dreer Manuscripts, PHi; Douglass to [John Brown], 22 June 1858, Miscellaneous Manuscripts, NjP; Sanborn, Life and Letters of John Brown, 433–35, 440–41; Quarles, Frederick Douglass, 172–73; Quarles, Allies for Freedom, 38–44; Villard, John Brown, 317; Oates, To Purge This Land, 224–25; Horace McGuire, “Two Episodes of Anti-Slavery Days,” Publications of the Rochester Historical Society, 4:218–20 (1925). 3. The precise date of Douglass’s visit to John Brown’s home in Springfield, Massachusetts, cannot be confirmed. The most complete description of the meeting is found in Douglass’s Life and Times, in which he recollects that the evening spent with Brown occurred in 1847 at about the time of the North Star’s first appearance. The first issue of the North Star was published in Rochester, New York, on 3 December 1847, and Douglass toured Massachusetts later that month. More likely, the meeting occurred after Douglass’s lecture in Springfield on the evening of 1 February 1848. Soon after in the North Star, Douglass recounted meeting Brown then and described him as “one of the most earnest and interesting men that I have met in a long time.” Later North Star articles reveal that the two men probably met again in October and November 1848 when Douglass lectured three times in Springfield. NS, 17 January, 11 February, 17, 24 November, 8 December 1848; Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 3:245–46; Quarles, Frederick Douglass, 170–71. 4. Douglass’s letter was appended to the following letter that John Brown sent to his family: My Dear Wife & Children every one I am (Praised be God) once more in York State. Whether I shall be permitted to visit you or not this Winter or Spring I cannot now say: but it is some relief of mind to feel that I am again so near you Possibly; if I cannot go to see you; that I may be able to devise some way for some one, or more of you to meet me some where. The anxiety I feel to see my Wife; & Children once more; I am unable to describe. I want exceedingly to see my big Baby; & Ruth’s “Mums Baby”: & to see how that little company of Sheep look about this time. The cries of my poor sorrow stricken despairing Children whoose “tears on their cheeks” are ever in my Eye; & whose sighs are ever in my Ears, may however prevent my enjoying the happiness I so much desire[.] But courage Courage Courage the great works of my life* (: the unseen Hand that “girded me; & who has indeed holden my right hand; may hold it still,) though I have not known Him”; at all as I ought:)* I may yet see it accomplished; (God helping;) & be permitted to return, & rest; “[illegible]at Evening”. O my Daughter Ruth could any plan be devised whereby you could let Henry go “to School” (as you expressed it in your letter to him while in Kansas:) I would rather now have him “for another term:” than to have a Hundred average Schollars. I have a particular & very important; (but not dangerous) place for him to fill; in the “school:” & I Know of no man living; so well adapted to fill it. I am quite confident some way can be devised: so that you: & your children could be with him: & be quite happy even: & safe but “God forbid” me to flatter you into trouble. I did not do it before. My dear child could you face such music: if on a full explanation Henry could be satisfied that his family might be safe? I would make a similar enquiry of my own dear Wife; but I have kept her tumbling “here & there”; over a stormy & tempestus Sea for so many years that I cannot ask her such a question. The natural ingenuity of Salmon: in connection with some experience he, & Oliver have both had; would point him out as the next best man I could now select: but I am dumb in his case; as also in the case of Watson, & all my other sons. Jasons qualifications are some of them like Henrys also. I want to hear from you all if possible before I leave this neighborhood. Do not noise it about; that I am in these parts; & direct to N Hawkins: Care of Fredk Douglas Esqr Rochester NY. I want to hear how you all are supplied with Winter clothing, Boots, &c. God bless you all Your Affectionate Husband & Father[.]

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JOHN BROWN TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Chicago, [Ill.] 22 June 1858.

Frederick Douglas Esqr. Dear Sir When at your place I forgot in my haste to say a word in behalf of my friend Harriet Tubman1 of St Catharines C. W.2 She wants to raise $100. towards furnishing a home for herself: & her aged Father; & Mother. I know of no one better deserving assistance; has given her $25. to start the thing with. She spoke of asking you to let her travel with you a little;3 when you should be out from home. Could you not manage to make or as much as you would loose by her presence? Any thing you can do for Gen Tubman4 the man of deeds will be fully apreciated by your —— ——Sincere Friend OLD HUNDRED5 ALS: Miscellaneous Manuscripts, NjP. 1. Harriet Tubman (1820–1913) was born into slavery as Arminta Ross to slave owners Harriet Greene and Benjamin Ross, residing near Bucktown in Dorchester County, Maryland. She escaped bondage in 1849, and the following year she returned to Maryland as a conductor on the Underground Railroad to rescue her family members. Following the successful relocation of most of her family to St. Catharines, Canada, Tubman focused her efforts on rescuing as many enslaved brethren as possible, eventually directing approximately 120 men, women, and children to freedom. During the Civil War, Tubman worked for the Union army, fi rst as a cook and nurse, and then as a scout and spy in South Carolina. Jean M. Humez, Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories, (Madison, Wisc., 2003), 32–35; EAAH, 3: 247–58; EAA, 2:683–84. 2. Founded in 1790, St. Catharines was an agricultural settlement in southern Ontario that later developed into an industrial center featuring textile and paper mills. In the nineteenth century, St. Catharines was a safe haven for runaway slaves who had escaped on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman resided in St. Catharines before the Civil War and plotted many of her daring escape plans there. Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer of the World, 3:2688; EAAH, 3:247. 3. In his 1881 autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Douglass writes: “On one occasion I had eleven fugitives at the same time under my roof, and it was necessary for them to remain with me until I could collect sufficient money to get them on to Canada.” In 1851, Tubman led a group of eleven slaves from Philadelphia to New York and on to Albany and Rochester, where Douglass resided. It is generally accepted that this was the same group that Douglass sheltered. To keep secret the network of underground operators, Douglass never named Tubman in his autobiographies. Because of his discretion, there is not much evidence documenting the relationship and interactions between Douglass and Tubman before emancipation. Humez, Harriet Tubman, 92–96; Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 3:208. 4. In April 1858, John Brown was taken to St. Catharines, Canada, to meet Tubman in an effort to enlist her and other experienced Underground Railroad conductors for his prospective raid at Harpers Ferry, and to access her knowledge of the Appalachian region. Although Tubman did not join Brown in his Virginia raid, she did assist him with fund-raising and connected him with potential African Canadian recruits. Brown had such deep respect for Tubman and was so impressed with her antislavery efforts that he used male pronouns when referring to her and addressed her as “General Tubman.” Humez, Harriet Tubman, 32–35.

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5. Brown adopts the nickname “Old Hundred” perhaps as an allusion to the popular 1674 hymn “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow,” by the Anglican clergyman Thomas Ken. The song is also known as “Old Hundredth.” There are many earlier variants of the lyrics, and authorship of the melody is disputed. The version with music by Johann Sebastian Bach is the most popular. Psalm 100 and this hymn thank God for having saved the speaker from everyday dangers. William Henry Havergal, A History of the Old Hundredth Psalm Tune: With Specimens (New York, 1854), 11, 13, 22.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO SAMUEL D. PORTER1 Rochester[, N.Y.] 21 July 1858.

Sam’l Porter Esqr. Dear Sir: Mr Levi Coffin2 or Mr. John J. Gaines3 of Cincinati, will see that “a man” from Lexington Ky—is conducted through the State of Ohio Safely into Canada. On reaching Cincinati either of the gentle man named will be pleased to take charge of him, and forward him on his desired way. The getting to Cincinati is the great difficulty. I was unable to find a “Tubman” 4 or woman who would run the hazard of conductor on that end of the Road—but perhaps that has been provided for. If this be so, you may rest assured that, Levi Coffin will do the rest. I meant to have called upon you immediately on my return home— but have been confined to the house by “Jobs Comforters”5—and am so confined now. I am dear Sir, Yours Truly. FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Porter Family Papers, NRU. 1. Samuel D. Porter (1808–81), a prosperous land agent, moved to Rochester, New York, from Waldosborough, Maine, in 1835. His wife, Susan Farley Porter, founded and belonged to several reform organizations, and Porter served as the first president of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society. The Porters aided fugitive slaves in crossing the border into Canada, and their barn was reputed to be a common hiding place. In the 1840s, Samuel joined the Liberty party and supported the Free Soil party while attempting to mediate between Garrisonian abolitionists and those who, like himself, sought the end of slavery through political agitation. Additionally, he was a perennial candidate for mayor, running on an antislavery platform. Although he became a Republican in the late 1850s, he broke with that party in the 1870s, charging that it had abandoned reform and the plight of the freedmen. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 92; Nancy A. Hewitt, Women’s Activism and Social Change: Rochester, New York, 1822–1872 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1984), 60, 120, 149, 180, 206; Dexter Perkins, “Rochester One Hundred Years Ago,” RH, 1:1–24 (July 1939). 2. Levi Coffin (1798–1877) was a Quaker antislavery advocate who grew up in North Carolina. His devout religious beliefs led him to defy Southern principles and become a supporter of the antislavery cause. In 1821, Coffin, along with his cousin Vestal Coffin, organized a Sunday school for African Americans and taught some slaves how to read the Bible. Pressured by local slaveholders,

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Coffin closed his school. In 1826, he and his wife, Catherine, moved to Indiana. Coffin established a store in Wayne County and began to aid escaping slaves to freedom. For his efforts, Coffin earned the title “President of the Underground Railroad,” and his home became known as “Grand Central Station.” During his time in Indiana, Coffin was a founding member of the Indiana State Anti-Slavery Society. In 1847, he moved to Cincinnati and started a business that sold products produced by free labor only. During the Civil War, Coffin served as a member of the Western Freedmen’s Aid Society and helped educate former slaves. In 1867, he continued his antislavery work and traveled to Paris as a delegate to the International Anti-Slavery Society. A year before his death, Coffin completed an autobiography detailing his abolitionist labors. Levi Coffin, Reminiscences of Levi Coffi n, the Reputed President of the Underground Railroad: Being a Brief History of the Labors of a Lifetime in Behalf of the Slave, with Stories of Numerous Fugitives, Who Gained Their Freedom through His Instrumentality, and Many Other Incidents (Cincinnati, 1876); Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 3:39, ANB, 5:148–49; DAB, 4:268–69. 3. John Isom Gaines (1821–59) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Isom and Elizabeth Gaines. A free black, Gaines attended a primary school and later Gilmore High School in Cincinnati, where he developed his political and oratorical skills. Although he worked for several years as a dock laborer and shop owner, Gaines decided to enter the public sphere by critiquing the institution of slavery, condemning racial violence, and supporting the idea of public schools for blacks. In 1849 Gaines served as a delegate to the State Convention of Colored Citizens of Ohio and remained involved in these state conventions until his death. The 1849 convention successfully petitioned the state legislature to establish a public school system for African American children, and Gaines became the administrator. Except for the two years when Cincinnati whites took control of the black school system, Gaines served on the school board and intermittently as its clerk and administrator from 1849 until 1859. After years of struggle, the Cincinnati Colored School Board opened a high school in 1866 and, in honor of Gaines, named it Gaines High School. Nikki M. Taylor, Frontiers of Freedom: Cincinnati’s Black Community, 1802–1868 (Athens, Ohio, 2005), 164; Samuel Matthews, “John Isom Gaines: The Architect of Black Public Education,” Queen City Heritage, 45:41–48 (Spring 1987); Foner and Walker, Black State Conventions, 1:216, 294, 320, 326. 4. Harriet Tubman. 5. Douglass alludes to Job 16:2. The term “Job’s comforter” was colloquially used to refer to a person offering consolation that resulted only in further unhappiness. Douglass may be making a veiled complaint about his wife or family to his close friend Porter.

OTTILIE ASSING1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS [n.p.] [12] August 1858.

Mr. Editor:— Any one who participated in the interesting and splendid celebration of the West India Emancipation in Poughkeepsie on the second of August,2 and witnessed the powerful impression produced by your own speech, and by the proceedings generally, will experience a strange sensation, a mixture of merriment and disgust, by reading the pretended report in the N. Y. Herald of August 3d.3 If, as is said, any one who succeeds in gaining to his side all those who want to laugh, has won his game, it might seem at first sight that the reporter of the Herald had accomplished a master-

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piece in that direction. The most stoical could not read without laughing, notwithstanding the indignation, which the malice and meanness of the report, that shine in every line of it, are calculated to arouse. But the Herald is not to be judged by ordinary rules. Taking honesty and generosity as a measure for it, would be as much out of place as expecting refinement and taste from a hog; the more so, as that journal does not even pretend to be guided by such old fashioned considerations. Therefore I abstain from expressing any indignation about the vile and base attempt to heap ridicule on a race which is daily made the subject of cruelty, humiliation and oppression; but even passing entirely over this part of the question, the wit of the Herald about this matter cannot stand a closer examination. The ridiculing of an enemy, if done successfully, is certainly one of the most effectual and powerful means of annihilating him more completely than could be done by any other weapon, and in an honest struggle may be used as well as any other, provided that the attacked party really offers weak sides and that the object can be reached without violating truth, which ought to be observed as well as in any other struggle, but the venomous sting breaks off when distortions of truth, additions and omissions must be used for accomplishing this purpose. Therefore, the malice of the Herald does not hit the aim, notwithstanding the merriment which it may excite for a moment among those who want to laugh at the expense of some one else. The chief means of the Herald consists in calling to his aid American prejudice against color, by dwelling with intentional satisfaction not on anything that would seem ludicrous to any one not imbued with that prejudice, but on every trifle characteristically African in the outward appearance of the assembly. The arrows of satire ought to hit at the point, intelligible, and striking anywhere and at any time, whilst the wit of the Herald would be entirely lost to anybody not thoroughly acquainted with that local and unnatural prejudice, and where else would it be attempted to ridicule any nation by putting a stress on their national characteristics and classifying them according to such distinction, by dwelling on the aquiline noses of the Italians, the white flaxen hair of the Norwegians, or the high cheek bones of the Chinese.4 Further, the sarcasms of the Herald is not able to excite laughter by ridiculing facts as they are, but only by distorting them and omitting the really prominent features of the celebration. Had any absurdity happened, no doubt, the Herald would have been ready to seize upon it as the buzzard on carrion, and to put it before his readers in the most striking and acceptable form; but in vain was he looking for any prey of that kind, and his endeavors

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to amuse by classifying the assembly according to mahogany or ground coffee color, yellow pine, cream, &c., or by tearing out of your speech single sentences, omitting the connecting links, besides being as cheap and coarse a trick as throwing orange-peels at the heads of passers-by, rather bears testimony for the general good conduct and the tact of all present, as for the dignified and elevated character of the whole celebration. A pleasant contrast with the attacks of the Herald is offered by the impartial and appreciating report of the Times,5 which by its faithful statements of facts, and by its rendering your speech in its whole extent, presents a brilliant vindication, if any is needed at all. With peculiar satisfaction did I read the acknowledgment of the good order maintained throughout, and the decent conduct of the assembled crowd, the natural good manners, politeness and inborn tact which distinguish the colored people, no matter how low their standing in society—being rarely appreciated in this country, although they cannot fail to strike the impartial foreigner, not yet infected with American cruelty and wickedness. O. A. PLIr: FDP, 12 August 1858. 1. Probably Ottilie Assing (1819–84), who was born to Rosa Maria Antoinette Pauline Assing, a Christian, and Assur David Assing, a Jew, in Hamburg, Germany. Assing received an accelerated education from her mother and was generally described as bright and vivacious. After the death of her mother in 1840, and her father in 1842, Ottilie and her younger sister, Ludmilla, spent time with relatives, but she grew despondent and attempted suicide in 1843. After returning to Hamburg, Assing began writing reviews of local culture. In 1851, she became a correspondent for the German periodical Morgenblatt für gebildete Leser. Assing met Frederick Douglass when she came to America in 1855, supposedly inspired to make his acquaintance after reading My Bondage and My Freedom. She arrived in Rochester and interviewed him for an article that subsequently appeared in the Morgenblatt. In succeeding years, Assing published numerous articles about Douglass for her German readership, and also translated My Bondage and My Freedom into German, contributing an introduction. In 1856, the two began an intimate relationship that lasted twenty-eight years. During that time, Douglass and Assing corresponded regularly. When in the United States, Assing was a regular visitor at the Douglass home in Rochester, including in the summer of 1858, when she probably accompanied Douglass to this West Indian Emancipation celebrations in Poughkeepsie. Although she was friendly with his children, his wife, Anna Murray, did not approve of her husband’s relationship. Douglass and Assing often appeared in public together, but contemporary public speculation did not uncover their relationship. Following Anna Murray Douglass’s death in 1882, Assing hoped that she might become Mrs. Frederick Douglass. But in January 1884, while Assing was in Europe, Douglass married his secretary, Helen Pitts. Increasingly ill, possibly from cancer, and despondent from Douglass’s rejection, Assing committed suicide in a Paris park on 21 August 1884. She left her entire estate to Douglass. Christoph Lohmann, ed., Radical Passion: Ottilie Assing’s Reports from America and Letters to Frederick Douglass (New York, 1999), 69, 329–62; Diedrich, Love across Color Lines, 7, 23, 38, 56, 184, 203, 368, 371. 2. On 2 August 1858, Douglass was the featured speaker at a celebration in Poughkeepsie, New York, commemorating the twenty-fourth anniversary of West Indian Emancipation. Between three

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thousand and four thousand blacks and whites attended. The assemblage was apparently orderly, although the New York Herald labeled it witty yet “vile and base,” claiming that the blacks in the audience “amused themselves principally in roving about the grounds, eating, drinking and . . . leaving their white brethren to listen to the speakers.” Douglass’s speech was halted by the noisy arrival of a tardy delegation from Albany. As the platform guests moved about, “crack, crack, crash, crash, went the unstable frame, and down came boards, timbers, orators, officers, reporters, black and white, Quaker and elders, in one conglomerate mass of pine, hemlock and humanity!” The correspondent for the Rochester Democrat and American “saw a good sized board strike Mr. Douglass upon the head.” No one was seriously injured, and a wagon was substituted for the collapsed platform. Douglass spoke for two hours before stating he would be unable to finish that afternoon. The meeting adjourned following a song by George W. Clark and the announcement by Douglass that his son, “said to be very like his father,” was in the crowd selling copies of My Bondage and My Freedom for one dollar. Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Eagle, 31 July, 7 August 1858; New York Times, 3 August 1858; New York Herald, 3 August 1858; FDP, 12 August 1858; Foner, Life and Writings, 5:394–411. 3. Several New York newspapers reported on Douglass’s address at the celebration. Under the title of “Darkydom Powwow at Poughkeepsie,” the New York Herald published a highly distorted account of both the celebration and Douglass’s speech. The Herald focused on only two points in Douglass’s speech. First was his suggestion that the United States join Britain in offering “freedom to its subjects.” The Herald’s account paints Douglass as a British sympathizer and a champion of monarchy. The second, more vitriolic attack concerned his point about men’s laziness. Douglass suggested that all men are generally lazy, but the Herald’s account depicts him as promoting the stereotype that only Negro men were “lazy and ignorant.” New York Herald, 3 August 1858. 4. The racism of the Herald’s account of the West Indian Emancipation commemoration was not confined to Douglass’s speech. The description of nearly every speaker included a “hue of complexion” printed next to his or her name. The newspaper likewise gave a “color” breakdown of the audience, starting with white and continuing to black. Body types figured prominently in the article. The account of the stage collapse included the news that no one was injured, because of the “thickness of their skulls.” The Herald’s racism took in nonblacks, too, noting that Irish and “coolies” were built for manual labor. New York Herald, 3 August 1858. 5. In contrast to the New York Herald, the New York Times gave a far more accurate and clearer depiction of Douglass’s points. The Times article correctly recounted Douglass’s call for the end of slavery and his commendation of the British for setting a good example. Regarding Douglass’s quip about laziness, it informed readers that Douglass meant all men sometimes have lazy attitudes. The Times did not mention the color of every speaker’s skin, and it provided a dignified account of the parade and the conduct of those in attendance. The Rochester Democrat and American informed readers that one of the “most reliable reports” appeared in the New York Times, whose reporter “took with him the manuscript from which Mr. Douglass read.” New York Times, 3 August 1858; Rochester Democrat and American, 5 August 1858.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO MARGARET DENMAN CROPPER1 Rochester. N.Y[.] 3 Sept[ember] 1858.

M. rs Edward Cropper. My dear Lady: The parcel of which you wrote in your note2 of Jan. 18, and also in that of 29th June, containing a scarf as a present, to be worn by my wife,3 and a

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vol. of Dr Livingstones’ Travels in Africa4 as a present to me only reached Rochester a few days ago. My wife, is delighted with the Scarf—and instructs me to write the very best note of thanks I can for it. It is a beautiful present and quite takes the eyes of all my household. The colour Suits nicely. I thank you very Sincerely for my share in the valuable parcel— and take it as you intend it, as an evidence of your interest in the welfare and happiness of my family and of your interest in the cause to which my life is devoted. Very gratefully yours, FREDERICK DOUGLASS,

[P.S.] 20 years ago, this morning,5 I made my escape from Slavery—and have been serving the Slave ever Since, and shall continue till the Sands of Life have fallen. FD. ALS: British Anti-Slavery Manuscripts, ViU. 1. Mrs. Edward Cropper is believed to be Margaret Denman Cropper (1815–99), daughter of Thomas Denman, first Baron Denman of Dovedale, a jurist and supporter of British West Indies emancipation. Edward Cropper was recognized in the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter as having made generous contributions to its parent society, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass was likely introduced to the Croppers while traveling in the British Isles in 1845–47. He and Margaret Cropper remained in correspondence. BFASR, new ser., 3:40 (February 1841); Charles Mosley, ed., Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 vols. (Crans, Switz., 1999), 2:2178; DNB, 5:808–15. 2. This note has not survived. 3. Anna Murray Douglass. 4. David Livingstone (1813–73) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, where he trained as both a minister and a physician. In 1840 he immigrated to South Africa to conduct a mission among the native tribes. During the 1850s, Livingstone explored south-central Africa, becoming the first man to walk across the continent. He described his explorations in Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (London, 1857). In the late 1860s, Livingstone embarked on an expedition to map the complicated river systems of central Africa but died in the effort. David Mountfield, A History of African Exploration (London, 1976), 90–102, 107–21, 135–43; ACAB, 6:554–55; NCAB, 21:226; DNB, 11:1263–75; DAB, 20:337–38. 5. Douglass fled slavery in Baltimore, Maryland, on 3 September 1838, briefly seeking refuge in New York City before heading to New Bedford, Massachusetts. McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 71–74.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO ISAAC BUTTS1 Rochester, [N.Y.] 11 Oct[ober] 1858.

Mr. Editor:— May I say a word to you and your readers. I am an humble citizen, a tax payer and a legal voter, and have, in common with others, a little stake in the welfare, safety and happiness of the people of Rochester. Hence, sir, I felt a glow of satisfaction while reading your faithful and fervid denunciation of the very turbulant, disgraceful, scandalous and lawless violence, by which a meeting of peaceable citizens, assembled for a lawful purpose, was broken up at the City Hall on Thursday night.2 Nevertheless, sir, allow me to say, I have somewhat against you. I fear that that impudent band of ruffians by whom the outrage in question was perpetrated, directly under the notice of his Hon. the Mayor,3 will find an apology for their infamous and dastardly proceedings in the very article containing your spirited denunciation of the mob. You say: Susan B. Anthony,4 Frederick Douglass & Co., were in their favorite element last night—that they like nothing better to be opposed in just such a spirit as was manifested by the mob at the City Hall. Sir, in this you do as serious, but perhaps, an intentional wrong. I think the imputation entirely unjust to Miss Anthony—and I know it is unjust to me. I can safely say that it was the earnest wish of all parties favorable to the meeting, that order and decorum, in unity with the solemn interest it was held to promote, should characterize all its proceedings. It is not in any degree their fault that their earnest wishes were defeated by a ruthless mob, in mockery of all law—styling themselves the conservators of law and justice. Let not, I pray you, the wholesome rebuke you so ably administer to the mobocratic element of Rochester,5 be in any measure blunted by confounding the innocent with the guilty. The meeting at the Court House was either a lawful meeting or it was not. If it was an unlawful meeting, the civil authority should have dispersed it, but if it was a lawful meeting, by every consideration of law, justice and liberty, it ought to have been protected—no matter whether Miss Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass and company, were in or out of their element; nor whether they liked or disliked to be opposed by a mobocratic spirit.—Mobs always have apologists. They are never without excuses. They usually find them in the character or conduct of their victims. The present instance is no exception. Miss Anthony called the meeting to order. Very well, what of that? Woman was first at the sepulchre,6 and was

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first who proclaimed the fact of a risen Saviour—and woman has been first and foremost in every good word and work, ever since. The meeting on Thursday night was the result of woman’s exertions. Men generally are so wedded to selfish and worldly pursuits, that the causes of humanity and mercy would perish but for woman’s intervention Sir, I believe it is usual for those who call a meeting together, to call the meeting to order, and it was not to invite or to provoke insult that this popular usage was adhered to in the present instance; and may I not safely say, that none but the base and profligate, men of vulgar and brutal habits of thought and life, could have regarded the appearance of a lady on the platform as an invitation to disorder and indecency? Do not, I beseech you, give such base men countenance, even by the implication that there was anything wrong in an honorable woman’s calling a meeting to order, which she with other ladies had been chiefly instrumental in calling together. Rochester should at least be as considerate of the feelings of its own respectable women as of the strange ladies whom it welcomes with plaudits—as they read and sing—before hundreds of citizens in Corinthian Hall.7 But sir, what shall I say for myself. Why, I have been flattering myself with being among the most peaceable and harmless of citizens, remarkably free from all violent demonstrations—and the last man that should be suspected of having a taste or tendency for the intoxicating excitements of a mob. It is true that I have often spoken to the people of Rochester within the last seventeen years, for I often visited Rochester before I came to live here, now eleven years ago, but on none of the many occasions which I have appeared before the people, has my presence been the signal for mobocratic violence till last Thursday night. It is true I presided on that occasion—and for doing this I hold myself ready to make the ampliest apologies whenever it shall be demanded by any respectable and intelligent citizen of Rochester; but sir, I shall treat with unmitigated scorn and contempt any paltry imitation of a man, who can find no better reason for offering me an insult that that his skin differs in color from mine. Respectfully, FREDERICK DOUGLASS. PLSr: Rochester Daily Union and Advertiser, 11 October 1858. Reprinted in FDP, 15 October 1858. 1. Isaac Butts (1816–74) was the editor of the Rochester Daily Union and Advertiser in 1858. Butts, a lifelong resident of Rochester, was an influential Democratic party journalist, sometimes credited with coining the phrase “squatter sovereignty” in the debates over slavery in western territories. Rochester Daily Union and Advertiser, 14 September 1858; Chicago Inter Ocean, 21 November 1874.

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2. Isaac Butts published an editorial in the Rochester Daily Union and Advertiser, describing the anti-capital-punishment meeting held at city hall in Rochester on 7 October 1858. The meeting’s specific purpose was to gain the commutation of the sentence imposed on Ira Stout. Stout was convicted of murdering his brother-in-law, Charles W. Little, who was abusive and unfaithful to Stout’s sister. Douglass produced flyers advertising the meeting, and Susan B. Anthony circulated them. Approximately 1,500 people were in attendance. Anthony called the meeting to order, and officers were elected: Douglass, president, Isaac Post, vice president, and Anthony, secretary. The crowd heckled both Douglass and Anthony, effectively denying them the opportunity to speak. According to Butts, “Noise, confusion, uproar and riot prevailed, free speech was suppressed, and nobody is better pleased with the result than some of the chief movers in getting up the meeting.” Ira Stout was hanged on 22 October. Rochester Daily Union and Advertiser, 8 October 1858; Lib., 15 October 1858; EAAH, 1:72. 3. Charles H. Clark (?–1873), a lawyer, was elected mayor of Rochester in March 1858 and served a single, one-year term. According to an editorial in the Liberator by William Lloyd Garrison, who attended the meeting, Clark took no action to calm the angry mob, but requested that Douglass adjourn the meeting. Daily American Directory for the City of Rochester [for 1847–1848] (Rochester, N.Y., 1847), 84; Lib., 15 October 1858; Appleton’s Journal: A Magazine of General Literature, 10:768 (December 1873). 4. Best known for her partnership with Elizabeth Cady Stanton during the late nineteenthcentury woman suffrage campaign, Susan Brownell Anthony (1820–1906) became an activist through the temperance and abolitionist movements in Canajoharie and Rochester, New York. She spent her childhood in eastern Massachusetts, where she attended Quaker schools and became a teacher. In 1845 she followed her family to western New York, where they had fled to escape financial difficulties and to join a radical branch of Hicksite Quakers that included the Posts, Hallowells, and Porters. Debates with Abigail Mott, whom she had met sometime before 1845, led Anthony to join the Unitarian Church shortly after her arrival in Rochester. Anthony continued to teach for another four years, but her involvement in the Daughters of Temperance and the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society soon took most of her time. By 1851, she had become interested in the women’s rights movement; she was introduced to Stanton by Amelia Bloomer, a friend of both women. For the next half century, she and Stanton tirelessly devoted themselves to the struggle for women’s access to education, professions, and politics. Between 1856 and 1866, Anthony continued to work for the end of slavery, serving as an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society, organizing antislavery conventions in Rochester, and publishing a newspaper that endorsed suffrage for blacks and women. Ida Husted Harper, The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, 3 vols. (Indianapolis, Ind., 1898–1908); Stanton and Anthony, Selected Papers, 1:xxvi–xxviii; Blake McKelvey, “Susan B. Anthony,” RH, 7:1–24 (April 1945); ANB, 1:547–50. 5. Butts’s editorial was sympathetic toward Anthony and Douglass. He expressed his disapproval of the actions taken by the crowd, but noted that Douglass and Anthony seemed prepared for the challenge, and inferred that the mob’s behavior would ultimately gain sympathy for their cause. Rochester Daily Union and Advertiser, 8 October 1858. 6. Douglass refers to the biblical story of Christ’s resurrection. According to the Gospels, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, discovered that Jesus’s body was missing from the tomb and notified the apostles. The story is repeated in Luke 24:1–10, Mark 16:1–11, Matt. 28, and John 20. 7. Under the direction of William A. Reynolds, Corinthian Hall was built to house the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Association. The original name, The Athenaeum, was changed to Corinthian Hall due to the numerous Corinthian columns in the building’s interior. Corinthian Hall soon became a center of Rochester social life and hosted numerous speakers and musical concerts. Several universities used Corinthian Hall for classes and commencement exercises when their student bodies grew too large for campus buildings. The local abolitionist movement used the hall for numerous gatherings and conventions. Douglass spoke there often. Corinthian Hall remained in heavy use after

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the Civil War, but a fire gutted much of the interior in 1898. New York Times, 2 December 1898; William F. Peck, Semi-Centennial History of the City of Rochester with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of the Prominent Men and Pioneers (Syracuse, 1884), 139, 450, 529; Blake McKelvey, ed., The History of Rochester Libraries (Rochester, 1937), 39–41.

STEPHEN A. MYERS1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Albany, [N.Y.] 6 Dec[ember] 1858.

Friend Douglass: Sir:— In your paper of the 26th November, I perceive that you speak of William Rich,2 of Troy, as stating at a public meeting that Gerrit Smith was not in favor of equal suffrage to the colored man.3 Now, sir, as to this, I know that you have been misinformed. You may well be “surprised to learn that our old friend, Wm. Rich, of Troy, (who must know better,) [most certainly he does,] made some such declaration in a public meeting.”— “That, if true,” you say, “was the ‘most unkindest cut of all.’ ” Here, I perceive you entertain some little doubt as to the authenticity of this report; and well you may, for Mr. Rich does indeed know better than even to maintain such a thought, much less to make such a declaration in public. Neither Mr. Rich, nor any other colored man, ever said that Gerrit Smith was not in favor of equal suffrage to colored men; but, on the contrary, in the Convention at Troy, and every other meeting, sustained Gerrit Smith as a gentleman, a statesman, and a philanthropist. On that point they have never been divided. Had Mr. Douglass been at Troy at the Convention,4 as he should have been, he would, I think, have had a different opinion of those colored persons who supported the Republican candidate. But Mr. Douglass was at the Convention that nominated Mr. Smith; and although Frederick Douglass, the great orator and far-seeing politician, was one among the number who got up the Troy Convention, yet he was too shrewd to make his advent there at the convening of that Convention—for it would probably not have suited well his Gerrit Smith notion of going with a party that may render some aid and benefit to the colored man in some future generation—for, should the Radical Abolition party flourish, as it has done for the last twenty years, the present generation must pass off the stage of existence ere that can in any way have power to benefit us as a people. But, friend Douglass, the ambition of man pants for a present blessing; and although

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this idea of waiting may be very well for our children, yet we want—nay, we believe it to be our duty to go with that party who can secure us those rights for which we pray in our own day and generation, that we may enjoy those rights; and when we leave the stage of action, we may leave it with the blessed assurance that our offspring shall enjoy those rights, for which we now so earnestly contend, and not merely the “prospect” of their enjoying them at some future time. Mr. Douglass knows that in 1860, should Wm. H. Seward be nominated for the Presidency, he will be in a fix; but what of that? [Y]ou can stand just as you did in 1856. Well, you are a good politician; you can ride two horses at once, as well as any equestrian in the land. While you are at the head of the colored people of the Union, you cannot “play on a harp of a thousand strings.”5 You must come on with the victorious party. The right of suffrage we must and will have, and that at the next Legislature. You ask, “How are we endeavoring to keep our cause before the people?” Assuredly, not by adhering to a few, who can never have the power to do us any good, but with the party who have the power, and, we believe, the will to give those rights for which we ask. Again you ask, “Where are our letters and speeches, our resolutions and conventions?” We answer— wait until our Suffrage Association6 meets on the second Wednesday in January, to make arrangements to petition the Legislature to give us the right of suffrage, at which time we hope to hear your burning eloquence within the halls of the Capitol, to stir up the friends of freedom to immediate action. At that time these resolutions and speeches will all come to light. But, friend Douglass, methinks you will be between two fires,7 if, in 1860, (as is rumored,) Mr. Smith and Mr. Seward should be in the field for President; will you then ride both horses? if not, which one will you choose? Sir, I think that you then will come and “be a follower of the counsels of the Evening Journal.”8 Yours, truly, STEPHEN MYERS. PLSr: FDP, 17 December 1858. 1. Stephen A. Myers (1800–?), an African American journalist and reformer from Albany, New York, edited the Northern Star and Freemen’s Advocate. Myers was born into slavery in New York, but received his freedom at age eighteen. He founded his first abolitionist newspaper in 1842 and then merged it with Samuel Ringgold Ward’s True American in 1849 to create the Impartial Citizen. Myers relinquished his editing post to Ward, but acted as a general agent and business partner in the venture. In addition to abolition, Myers was a strong advocate of temperance, and on at least two occasions he published short-lived newspapers dedicated to that cause. In Albany, Myers operated a temperance boardinghouse and acted as president of the Delevan State Temperance Union of New

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York. He sheltered many fugitives in his home as an operator on the Underground Railroad and worked to raise funds for the Albany Vigilance Committee. Myers participated in the New York and national black convention movements and supported the Liberty party in the early 1850s. His ties to the Florence Settlement grew out of his advocacy of agrarian life as a means of black elevation. Myers acted as president and general agent of the Florence Farming Association, which encouraged blacks to occupy and farm land owned by Gerrit Smith. New York Colored American, 17 October 1840; NS, 30 June 1848, 31 January, 2, 16 February, 4 May, 29 June 1849; FDP, 10 September, 1 October 1852; Toronto Provincial Freeman, 6 December 1856; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 3:378–79n; Foner and Walker, Black State Conventions, 1:76. 2. Born in Massachusetts, William Rich (c. 1802–85) was a black barber. He and his wife, Hannah, resided in Troy, New York. In 1840, Rich was named a trustee for the Liberty Street Presbyterian Church in Troy and coordinated the purchase of the meetinghouse property for $1,000. He was active in the antislavery movement, signing the call notice for the National Convention of Colored Americans and Their Friends, held in Troy in October 1847. In 1855 he served as vice president of the New York State Suffrage Association and president of the State Convention of Colored Men. When the call notice for the National Convention of Colored Citizens of the United States was published in 1864, Rich was a signatory. He was also an active participant in the Underground Railroad. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Rensselaer County, 158B; 1880 U.S. Census, New York, Rensselaer County, 7B; New York Emancipator and Free American, 14 April 1842; Lib., 17, 24 September, 1 October 1847, 9, 16, 30 September 1864; FDP, 3 February 1854, 7, 14 September 1855; Troy (N.Y.) Daily Evening Bulletin, 26 April 1883; Arthur James Weise, The City of Troy and Its Vicinity (Troy, N.Y., 1886), 246; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:91, 214. 3. Douglass published an editorial entitled “Gerrit Smith and the Right of Suffrage,” in which he took issue with a public statement made by Rich. According to Douglass’s article, Rich claimed that Gerrit Smith was not in favor of granting suffrage to blacks. Douglass responded on Smith’s behalf, asserting that the statement was absurd. FDP, 26 November 1858. 4. The Colored Men’s State Convention was held in Troy, New York, on 14 August 1858, and William Rich was elected president. Frederick Douglass did not attend. Douglass was scheduled to speak at the Le Raysville Congregational Church in Towanda, Pennsylvania, on or about 18 September, and to attend the American Abolition Society annual meeting in Syracuse from 29 to 30 September 1858. Lib., 1 October 1858; FDP, 17 September 1858; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxxviii–xxix. 5. A variation of the phrase first appeared in Isaac Watts’s lyrics to his hymn 19, which was published in the early eighteenth century. In 1794, Watts’s lyric was incorporated into “Creation,” a new hymn published in William Billings’s The Continental Harmony. A humorous sermon titled “The Harp of a Thousand Strings; or the Quintessence of Human Wit, Waggery, and Wisdom,” was published in a book in 1858. William Billings, The Continental Harmony: Containing a Number of Anthems, Fuges, and Chorusses, in Several parts: Never Before Published (Boston, 1794), 53; S. P. Avery, comp., The Harp of a Thousand Strings; or, Laughter for a Lifetime (New York, 1858), 1–11; Edward B. Davis, “Robert Boyle as the Source of an Isaac Watts Text Set for a William Billings Anthem,” The Hymn: A Journal of Congregational Song, 53:46–47 (January 2000). 6. Myers is referring to the New York State Suffrage Association, formed in Troy, New York, by a number of black abolitionists in 1855. The association’s main goal was to eliminate restrictions on black suffrage in the state of New York. The association chose Frederick Douglass as its first leader. One of the association’s appeals to white voters was the threat from immigrants. Douglass and members of the association pointed out that native black voters could be an effective counter to immigrant voters. Field, The Politics of Race in New York, 93. 7. The source of the expression “between two fires” probably originated with Beltaine, the pre-Christian Irish holiday in which all fires were extinguished and the king lit the first fire of the night, which then was used to light all the hearths of the village. Although not based on historical fact, St. Patrick is said to have usurped the king of Tara’s authority by lighting the paschal candle before the king, which caused a major dispute. By the mid-1800s, the king’s role in Beltaine had disappeared, but the holiday continued to celebrate the opening of the agricultural season, during

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which livestock were moved onto pastureland—specifically, cattle were driven between two bonfires to protect them from disease. The practice is still observed today in some areas of Ireland. Phyllis G. Jestice, Encyclopedia of Irish Spirituality (Santa Barbara, Calif., 2000), 25–26. 8. Probably the Albany Evening Journal.

JAMES MCCUNE SMITH TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS [n.p.] New York[.] 28 Dec[ember] 1858[.]

My dear Fredk. Douglass Your “soup” letter1 rec.d I duly honored. I have engaged Garnett’s Church2 for you for Thursday evening Jan 6: and am negociating for a place in Williamsburgh, where, I learn, you will ‘draw’ better than in Brookln proper. It will probably be at Washington Hall, South Fourth or South 8th St.3 Altho’ my time is so much occupied that I am not sure of perfecting the latter arrangement. By help of Prof.r Reason,4 I hope to scare up a Literary Soc. for your lecture in this City—title N. Y. Literary Union.”5 I believe Charles6 is Pres.t and he can introduce ‘very gracefully’—you know. The Society is not very large, but it has a Prest & Secretary—who are not the same person. It is very probable that at the end of your lecture (admission 10 cents, aint it?), some resolutions will be introduced in relation to the late Judge Jay,7 concluding with appointing one Fredk Douglass’ (are you acquainted with him?) to deliver a Eulogism on the Judge before said Soc. in the May Week in this city. Quite a bright idea—and, when the eulogism is delivered, I expect it to be a very grand one and that it will reflect credit not only on the deceased Judge, and the live orator, but on the very brilliant and original conceiver of the idea. I can tell you one thing you dont know, George T. Downing8 is a great man. I heard him read, last night, the lecture which he is to deliver in various parts of Rhode-Island on the School question—it is well reasoned, and very very touching, it has been tugging and wringing at my heartStrings ever Since. We must support & encourage him. If I were an orator as Brutus9 is I would make old Rhody10 shake her skirts clear of [illegible] damnable [illegible]. Sincerely yours J. MCCUNE-SMITH ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 1, frames 666–67, FD Papers, DLC. 1. A “soup” letter is a personal letter written in haste and is not to be made public. The origin comes from a story about General Winfield Scott receiving orders from Secretary of War William

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L. Marcy during the Mexican War in 1846. Scott was preparing to eat “a hasty plate of soup” when he received a letter from Marcy. Instead of eating, Scott immediately penned a letter in reply. Unfortunately for Scott, the letter was made public and was used against him during his 1852 presidential campaign by many Democratic newspapers. Raleigh (N.C.) Semi-Weekly Register, 4 August 1852; Bismarck (N.D.) Daily Tribune, 27 September 1889; Athenaeum Journal of Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts for the Year 1853 (London, 1853), 346. 2. Henry Highland Garnet was the minister of the Shiloh Presbyterian Church in New York City in the late 1850s. Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 3:337. 3. Washington Hall was a popular gathering place for meetings, political events, and entertainment. It was located on the corner of South Seventh Street and Fourth Street (the original name of Bedford Avenue) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. The hall was used from 1856 to 1870. Cezar Del Valle, The Brooklyn Theatre Index, vol. 2, Manhattan Avenue to York Street, (Brooklyn, NY, 2010), 143. 4. Probably Charles L. Reason. 5. Several professionals in New York’s free black community formed associations to expand efforts to educate blacks in the 1850s, in order to “complete their education.” The New York Literary Union counted among its members James McCune Smith, Charles Lewis Reason, and other “young gentlemen of color.” The organization, which opened its doors also to interested whites, usually met at Levin Tilmon’s African Methodist Episcopal Church on Sixth Street in New York City. Frederick Douglass presented several lectures to the union’s membership and suggested other speakers for future engagements. The organization formed the Youth’s Literary and Productive Union to educate children and expose them to abolitionist ideas through lectures by Douglass and other prominent speakers. At a 1 February 1855 meeting, the union pledged $112 to support Douglass’s paper; as a demonstration of the members’ wealth, the union raised most of the money on the same night. FDP, 9 February 1855; EAAH, 3:11–13. 6. Probably Charles L. Reason. 7. Douglass delivered a public eulogy for antislavery jurist William Jay (1789–1858) in New York City on 12 May 1859. Jay had settled permanently on his family’s estate near Bedford, Westchester County, in southeastern New York in 1812. He served as a judge of that county’s courts from 1818 to 1843. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:249–76; NCAB, 8:74; DAB, 10:11–12. 8. George T. Downing (1819–1903) was the eldest son of Thomas Downing, a well-known black restaurateur in New York City. After an education at the city’s segregated Mulberry Street School and at Hamilton College, he worked in his father’s business until 1855, when he opened a hotel in Newport, Rhode Island. Downing was active in the Underground Railroad and led a successful effort to integrate Rhode Island public schools. He supported Douglass in the public controversy with Henry H. Garnet over the merits of the latter’s African Civilization Society. In 1859, Downing presided over a convention of New England blacks that gave a qualified endorsement to the Republican party. During the Civil War, Downing moved to Washington, D.C., to manage the House of Representatives dining room. In February 1866, Downing was the chairman of a committee of blacks, including Douglass, who held an interview with President Andrew Johnson during which the chief executive urged his audience to abandon their advocacy of black suffrage. Lib., 20 July 1855; New York Weekly Anglo-African, 19 September 1859, 21 April 1860; NASS, 24 February 1866; Cleveland Gazette, 12 September 1885; New York Times, 22 July 1903; Simmons, Men of Mark, 1003–06; McPherson, Struggle for Equality, 343–46; Guichard Parris, “George T. Downing,” NHB, 5:42 (November 1941); Freeman, “The Free Negro in New York City,” 46, 49–56; DANB, 187–88. 9. One of the assassins of Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate on the ides of March, 44 B.C.E., Marcus Junius Brutus is portrayed by Shakespeare as being bested by Marc Anthony in delivering eulogies for the slain general. Julius Caesar, act 3, sc. 2; William Smith, ed., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 3 vols. (Boston, 1849), 1:510, 539, 553–54. 10. Probably an allusion to the state of Rhode Island. The more common nickname for the state is “Little Rhode,” on account of its small size. George Earlie Shankle, State Names, Flags, Seals, Songs, Birds, Flowers, and Other Symbols (1934; New York, 1941), 143–45.

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JAMES MCCUNE SMITH TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS New York, [N.Y.] 12 Jan[uary] 1859.

Mr. Editor:— When William Whipper intimated my desire to triumph over him in our late “apathy discussion,”1 he did injustice to himself and to me. We have both too deep an interest in the good cause, and are too far advanced in life, to think of any triumph but that of the truth and the right. He also misconceived the nine propositions in my last letter;2 they were simply a statement of the particulars, any one of which constitute citizenship, and all of them, except one3 being absolutely enjoyed by the black men of Pennsylvania, constitute them citizens of that commonwealth, beyond any man’s gainsaying. In regard to the ability of the black Pennsylvanians to raise a million or two of dollars wherewith to obtain the elective franchise, it will not do for Mr. Whipper to plead their poverty, for, in the petition for the right of suffrage prepared by a committee of colored citizens of Philadelphia,4 they state that “the citizens of Philadelphia” “possess $2,685,693 worth of real and personal estate” in the year 1855. If to this be added the personal and real estate owned by black Pennsylvanians outside of Philadelphia, their actual wealth must be nearly $5,000,000 dollars; surely they could give one-fifth for so great an object as the elective franchise. William Whipper invites me to visit Pennsylvania. I am deeply sensible of the hospitable and courteous compliment—but he must excuse me; I have visited the city of Brotherly Love three times; the first visit was in 1824, when, just eleven years old, and fresh from addressing General Lafayette5 on his visit to the New York African free school,6 I repeated the address aforesaid on the deck of the steamer as she floated down the Delaware, and received a pocket full of small change, twenty-five cents of which, carefully wrapped up in a piece of cloth, I enclosed in a letter to my dear mother as my first earnings; my next visit was in the year of grace 1837, when, fresh from college, and considering myself “some pumpkins,”7 I strove to enlighten the Philadelphians on the subject of Phrenology8 and the study of the classics; this time, also, I came off sensibly heavier in pocket, than when I arrived in the Quaker City; but I rather think I was not quite so sound at heart, having received sundry batterings in that region from the artillery of dark eyes for which the city aforesaid is noted. My next visit deserves a special paragraph; it was in the year 1855; you, Mr. Editor, had been the principal caller of a Convention in that city

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in October of that year;9 I did not wish to go, as I could not see very clearly what good could be accomplished by the Convention; but, my better half insisted, as a personal favor that I should go, (and afterwards told me the reason—that there were gentlemen in and at B——,10 who would have charged me with cowardice had I staid away)—and as a dutiful husband, I went; all that I can now remember of that visit, is, three days of the very hardest mental labor I ever performed, some hard fought resolutions, in the advocacy of which your tall form and commanding voice now rise up before me, of an assurance of its safety, (the resolutions, I mean,) and my getting out of Philadelphia as fast as I could; it was immediately afterwards, that people visiting “our lane” began to enquire for the “old man,” and one impertinent youngster actually called me “Pop.” “I looked in the glass and I found it so,” for my three days’ fight in Philadelphia had turned my dark hair gray! You will readily perceive why it is that I decline brother Whipper’s spider-y invitation. I would rather fight the Keystone brethren11 at a long range. Our good city of New York was refreshed last week with a visit and a lecture12 from Frederick Douglass; and although on an inclement night, and at a season when we are crowded with attractive and distinguished lecturers, it was exceedingly well attended by a numerous as well as an appreciative audience. It was a well written, eloquent discourse, full of acute remark, and wholesome thought.—Some were disappointed, as they came to hear Frederick Douglass of old, and wished their physical nature stirred up with his bursts of passionate declamation or fiery sarcasm.—But the thinking portion of his audience were at once surprised and delighted to find their higher and nobler faculties carried captive by a train of thought and reasoning, which revealed new aspects, and deeper insights into the secret of self-made men.13 At the conclusion of the lecture, a series of resolutions were introduced by Professor C. L. Reason, requesting Mr. Douglass to deliver a Eulogy on the late Judge Jay,14 in the Anniversary week of next May. They were unanimously adopted. On Tuesday, 4th inst., the Masonic Fraternity15 had a grand gathering at Stuyvesant Institute, Broadway;16 a poem was well read by Mr. Ellis Potter of this city; an oration was delivered by the Rev. J. Theodore Holly17 of New Haven, (brother of the lamented poet.)—The orator gave a concise history of Masonry,18 and exceedingly interesting account of the rise and progress of “speculative Masonry.” Although nearly two hours long, and read from manuscript, this discourse held the large audience in wrapt

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attention. A good thing is told in regard to Mr. Holly; he is not only a learned young divine, but also a very learned Mason. In Kentucky, until a few months ago, was published a Masonic Periodical, the Editor of which announced that “no man could be a good Mason who would propose as member of the fraternity, a woman, an idiot or a negro;” the pages of this magazine were occupied by a discussion on certain points of Masonic law; among the disputants were several learned Judges of the Southern bench, and the Rev. J. Theodore Holly of New Haven; so able were the communications of the last named, that the Editor placed his name at the head of his contributors, and wrote to ask for his daguerreotype19 for an engraving to be placed in the magazine! Mr. Holly is a black man—and here was a fix! The periodical is now published in the city of New York; Mr. Holly’s contributions still appear, although the Editors, who know his complexion, have not yet taken occasion to announce it. Yours, COMMUNIPAW.20 PLSr: FDP, 21 January 1859. 1. In a letter published in the 16 April 1858 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, James McCune Smith (Communipaw) discussed what he perceived to be the apathy of black people in America. Smith felt that African Americans, who were excited at the prospect of freedom when the antislavery movement first formed, had become apathetic after witnessing years of fighting among white politicians, leaving them feeling powerless, disappointed, and alone. Douglass responded to Smith’s letter in the same issue of the newspaper. Douglass agreed that the political battles were disheartening, but felt that black people were far from apathetic and alone. In his letter to Frederick Douglass’ Paper of 30 May 1858, William Whipper asserted that the free blacks in Pennsylvania enjoyed being “the recipients of the patriotic achievements of a State that was the first in the Confederacy to strike the fetters from the bondsmen,” but that their civil rights were largely undefined in 1830. African Americans were encouraged to earn their rights and privileges by becoming virtuous, educated property owners, but twenty-five years later, their status had been significantly reduced rather than improved. Whipper concluded that blacks were apathetic because the only action that would improve their situation would require that they “become renegades in religion and morals” and a return to “ignorance, barbarism, superstition and idolatry.” Communipaw responded in the 12 August issue, noting that twenty years earlier, free blacks in Pennsylvania had had the same rights as white men, but that the state’s 1837 Constitutional Convention denied them the right to vote. He asserted that politicians were generally corrupt and that free blacks in Pennsylvania could obtain the rights they sought only by compromising their moral principles and employing corrupted means. Whipper answered Smith’s letter in the 3 September issue. According to Whipper, he characterized free blacks as “civilly and politically degraded,” while Smith characterized them as “morally and intellectually degraded.” He argued that free blacks were denied the right to vote and to hold office by the state constitution, the right to sue and to witness in a court of law by the U.S. courts, and the right to obtain passports by the government. The result, according to Whipper, was that African Americans in Pennsylvania were excluded from organized society and were unable to create or to amend their civil rights. FDP, 16 April, 4 June, 12, 20 August, 3 September 1858. 2. James McCune Smith asserted that Pennsylvania’s constitution afforded free blacks nine rights: own property, be counted in the census, marry whites, hold public office, vote, “minister in

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sacred things,” sue in the U.S. court system, obtain passports, and bear witness in a court of law. These were the same rights afforded white men. He argued that free blacks retained all these rights with the exception of the right to vote, which was denied them as a result of the 1837 Constitutional Convention. FDP, 12 August 1858. 3. Under the state constitution of 1790, Pennsylvania blacks retained the right to vote, which some had exercised since colonial times. That constitution stated its voting laws vaguely, simply declaring that “freemen” over the age of twenty-one who had lived within the state for two years and paid taxes could vote. Supporters of black voting rights determined that “freeman” meant anyone not a slave, while others believed the term did not apply to blacks in any regard. Other Northern states possessed similar voting laws regarding blacks, but in the early 1800s some of those states, including Pennsylvania, began enacting legislation to restrict blacks from voting. During the state constitutional convention of 1837–38, delegates argued over the issue of suffrage. By a vote of 77–45, the new state constitution of 1838 specified that only “white freemen” were qualified to vote. On 9 October 1838, Pennsylvania voters ratified the new constitution, officially disenfranchising the state’s black population. Winch, Philadelphia’s Black Elite, 134–35, 142; Roy H. Akagi, “The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1838,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 48:317–19, 329 (October 1924). 4. Smith is referring to an 1855 petition entitled “Memorial of Thirty Thousand Disenfranchised Citizens of Philadelphia to the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives,” sent to Washington by a group of blacks from Philadelphia. The signatories, angered by the loss of their right to vote, sought federal aid in overturning the law. But Congress, preoccupied with national issues such as the Kansas-Nebraska Act, did not help Pennsylvania blacks. A statistic cited in the petition stated that black citizens of Philadelphia possessed $2,685,693. The figure was reiterated in an 1856 study of Philadelphia blacks published by the board of education of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. As a scholar, Smith probably read governmental documents closely and most likely derived his own statistic of black Pennsylvanian wealth by adding figures from such records to the information taken from the 1855 petition. “Statistics of the Colored People of Philadelphia taken by Benjamin C. Bacon and published by order of the Board of Education of ‘The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery,’ Etc.” (Philadelphia: 1856), 15–16; Christopher Malone, Between Freedom and Bondage: Race, Party and Voting Rights in the Antebellum North (New York, 2008), 99; Stauffer, Black Hearts of Men, 5. 5. The French nobleman Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834), served as troop commander and liaison between American and French troops in the Revolutionary War. ACAB, 3:586–90; DAB, 10:535–39. 6. The New York Manumission Society established the New York African Free School in 1787 in order to educate black children. Classrooms were large, so trusted students assisted instructors by monitoring their peers and sometimes giving additional advice or instruction. The curriculum covered language arts, math, elocution, and the natural sciences as well as navigation (for boys who would eventually go to sea), sewing (for the girls), astronomy, moral instruction, and manners. James McCune Smith attended the African Free School No. 2 in New York City and graduated in 1828. While enrolled, Smith met the famed marquis de Lafayette. In 1788, Lafayette had been elected an honorary member of the school, and he visited it in 1824 while on his tour of the United States. On 10 September 1824, Smith delivered a short speech welcoming Lafayette to the school. Charles C. Andrews, The History of the New-York African Free-Schools From Their Establishment in 1787, to the Present Time: Embracing a Period of More Than Forty Years: Also a Brief Account of the Successful Labors, of the New-York Manumission Society (New York, 1830), 7, 34–36, 51–52, 85–86, 97, 106, 111–12; Stauffer, Black Hearts of Men, 86–88; EAAH, 3:168–69. 7. This expression most likely comes from the autobiography of the English actor James Fennell. Fennell was touring the cathedral of Rouen when one of his companions took more interest in the “immense pumpkins” in a nearby patch than in the cathedral. Amused, Fennell used the expression “some pumpkins” to refer to anything significant throughout the rest of their journey. James Fennell, An Apology for the Life of James Fennell, Written by Himself (Philadelphia, 1814), 72; John

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Russell Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States (Boston, 1859), 427–28. 8. Phrenology was a popular pseudoscience of the nineteenth century that involved the study of the human head. Phrenologists believed that certain shapes or bumps found in the contours of the head could predict patterns of behavior. In addition, they compared the heads of subjects belonging to different races. Some phrenologists argued that Africans were inferior due to their supposedly larger skulls. Well-known phrenologists traveled between Great Britain and the United States and lectured in major cities, including New York. Proslavery ethnologists often used evidence from phrenology when attempting to prove the biological superiority of Caucasians. New York Spectator, 10 September 1835; Roger Cooter, The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science: Phrenology and the Organization of Consent in Nineteenth-Century Britain (Cambridge, Eng., 1984), 40, 80, 89. 9. Smith refers to the Colored National Convention held at Franklin Hall in Philadelphia, 17–19 October 1855. Over one hundred delegates from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania attended. Douglass characterized the meeting as not “equal to our expectations,” because there was “too much disposition to quibble, and wrangle.” Items discussed included the adoption of resolutions pertaining to the constitutionality of slavery, the assessment of $1 per delegate, and the admission of Mary Ann Shadd to the convention. Once admitted, Shadd addressed the delegates on the subject of immigration to Canada. The delegates proposed an industrial association, the purpose of which would be the training of blacks in mechanical skills. Douglass addressed the delegates on the “present aspects of the Slavery Question.” The meeting was adjourned with no fixed date for future meetings. FDP, 26 October 1855; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxiii; Rhodes, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, 4, 211. 10. Smith most likely refers to Boston and the Garrisonians. In 1837, Smith joined the American Anti-Slavery Society, but by 1840 he had grown skeptical of abolitionist groups led by whites, such as William Lloyd Garrison. Douglass was having his own doubts about the racial attitudes of key Garrisonians by the late 1840s. When Douglass moved to Rochester and started his newspaper, Smith praised him for breaking with Garrison. Garrison and his followers promoted disunion of the United States and nonresistance, but refused to address the idea of an interracial society. Smith and Douglass believed abolition and racial equality could be gained by working with Congress to amend the Constitution. In a 20 January 1855 guest editorial in Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Smith criticized Garrison and the American Anti-Slavery Society for pushing blacks out of leadership positions even though many of them had been members of the organization from its inception. Throughout 1854– 55, Smith carried on bitter exchanges with Oliver Johnson, the editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, the official newspaper of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Because of this break with Garrison and his followers in the Boston area, Smith’s wife believed that Garrisonians would have labeled him a coward had he not attended the black convention in Philadelphia in October 1855 and faced his enemies. Stauffer, Black Hearts of Men, 20, 153–54, 160; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:259–62; David W. Blight, “In Search of Learning, Liberty, and Self Definition: James McCune Smith and the Ordeal of the Antebellum Black Intellectual,” Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, 9:7 (July 1985). 11. An allusion to Garrisonian abolitionists from Pennsylvania. The nickname “Keystone State” derives from the position of Pennsylvania as the centermost of the arching thirteen original states. Shankle, State Names, Flags, Seals, Songs, Birds, Flowers, and Other Symbols, 142–43. 12. On 6 January 1859, Frederick Douglass was scheduled to speak to the New York Literary Union at Shiloh Presbyterian Church on Prince Street in New York City. FDP, 14 January 1859; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxix. 13. Douglass delivered the lecture “Self-Made Men” more than fifty times from 1859 to 1893. He first gave the speech on a tour of Illinois and Wisconsin in February 1859, but the earliest published text of the lecture is from a version delivered on 4 January 1860 at Mechanics’ Hall in Halifax, England. In this speech, Douglass discussed the ideals of manhood, free labor, and individual independence. He also described a “self-made man” as a person who attained knowledge, used life

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experiences to build a worthy character, and succeeded without the benefit of being born into privilege. For Douglass, the idea of improving oneself was intended not for the betterment of the self but for the benefit of others in society. Throughout his career, Douglass slightly modified “Self-Made Men,” but always kept it in his repertoire of speeches. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:289, 616, ser. 2, 5:545; Nicholas Buccola, The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass: In Pursuit of American Liberty (New York, 2012), 115–16, 122. 14. William Jay. 15. The Masonic Fraternity, or Freemasonry, refers to a secret communal order that first appeared in London around 1717. The order spread to the United States, and many members of the revolutionary generation, including Washington, Franklin, and John Adams were Freemasons. Freemasonry developed as a ceremonial order designed to incorporate the principles of charity, love, and brotherhood. In 1775, Prince Hall founded the first African American Masonic lodge, in Boston, and helped establish other lodges in Providence, Rhode Island, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After Hall’s death, in 1807, his name was attached to the Grand Lodge, establishing the African American Prince Hall Masonic order. Douglass criticized African American Freemasonry, claiming that it was interested only in public display rather than in accomplishing any progress for the betterment of U.S. blacks. Corey D. B. Walker, A Noble Fight: African American Freemasonry and the Struggle for Democracy in America (Urbana, Ill., 2008), vii–ix, 48–49, 109; Winch, Philadelphia’s Black Elite, 7–8, 218. 16. In 1834, the Stuyvesant Institute was established and named after Peter Gerard Stuyvesant a millionaire New Yorker. Stuyvesant donated the land that became Stuyvesant Square in New York City, and the institute was built on this land in 1837. The institute, located at 659 Broadway, housed several groups, including the New-York Historical Society, the Lyceum of Natural History, and the YMCA. The Stuyvesant Institute housed a large meeting room, which is probably where the Masonic Fraternity met in January 1859. Smith lectured at the Stuyvesant Institute in 1841, discussing the black revolutions in the French colony of Saint-Domingue and praising its leader, Toussaint L’Ouverture. Luther S. Harris, Around Washington Square: An Illustrated History of Greenwich Village (Baltimore: 2003), 38–40; Stauffer, Black Hearts of Men, 125–26. 17. The Reverend James Theodore Holly (1829–1911) was an author, missionary, and supporter of black emigration. Holly was born to free parents in a free black community in Washington, D.C. The family moved to New York in 1843. At nineteen, Holly began work as a clerk for the abolitionist Lewis Tappan, which sparked his interest in the antislavery movement. In 1851, Holly and his wife, Charlotte, moved to Windsor, Canada, in reaction to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. He began writing in support of black emigration and started as coeditor of Henry Bibb’s newspaper, the Voice of the Fugitive. In 1854, Holly attended the first National Emigration Convention, held in Cleveland. He represented the national Emigration Board as its commissioner. In 1855, he made his fi rst trip to Haiti, and subsequently argued that American blacks would have more liberties in Haiti than they did in the United States. Although raised a Catholic, Holly converted to Episcopalianism in 1855 and became a priest a year later, settling in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1861, Holly established a colony in Haiti with 110 members of his family and his church. Within a year, disease had killed a majority of the colony, and Holly returned to the United States—but not before securing enough funds to return to Haiti and establish a mission. In 1874 he became the first African American bishop consecrated by the Protestant Episcopal Church, and he served as head of the Orthodox Apostolic Church of Haiti until his death in 1911. Louis R. Mehlinger, “The Attitude of the Free Negro toward African Colonization,” JNH, 1:299–301 (June 1916); Jack Salzman, David Lionel Smith, Cornel West, eds., Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 5 vols. (New York, 1996), 3:1293. 18. The Reverend James Theodore Holly produced A Compendium of the Fundamental Principles of Intermasonic Comity in 1858, but was unable to find a publisher, because of his race. The publication of the Grand Lodge of New York, the American Freemason, finally agreed to publish Holly’s work serially over several months throughout 1858 and 1859. Holly’s work attempted to document the rise of “speculative masonry” and to give the history and philosophy behind several key points in Masonic symbolism and ritual. Holly’s articles were useful for new members and those

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seeking to form new Masonic lodges. James Theodore Holly, “A Compendium of the Fundamental Principles of Intermasonic Comity,” American Freemason, 8:43–47 (January 1859). 19. Daguerreotypy was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate. The French inventor Louis J. M. Daguerre perfected the process after a decade of experimentation. Susan M. Barger, and William B. White, The Daguerreotype: Nineteenth-Century Technology and Modern Science (Washington, D.C., 1991), 1, 20–24, 28, 44–46. 20. The pen name of James McCune Smith.

ROSETTA DOUGLASS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Rochester[, N.Y.] 2 Feb[ruary] [18]59[.]

My Dear Father, Lewis1 handed me your letter last evening, I was glad to hear from you it reached me just as I was going to hear Miss Gray the Dramatic reader.2 Charley3 sent a letter to you on monday night if he had not I should. I received also with your letter one from Miss Assing4 and one enclosed for Mrs Lehman from her. She is sighing for summer still, for she says it is only then that she enjoys herself. Miss Assing says she has one stupid girl to teach in the family where she lives5 and she thinks that if those stupid spirits6 in whom those people believe or pretend to believe would, only manifest thier existence by influencing this girl with a little industry and concentration of mind, instead of upsetting tables, and performing other mischievous tricks, they would be of more account than they are. I am striving to do all I can with my music and grammar[.] I am certain that I understand the rudiments of grammar pretty well and music too; but I need practice with the latter. The Miss Riches’ were up on Friday night last and Miss Helen played a good part of the time she wishes me to come and see her very much[.] I have promised her that I would come and expected to go this week but think not now as Mr Beecher is to lecture here two evenings7 and I am going to hear him. I will be just as well contented if you find a situation for me while out west8 for this summer and will go gladly. If you do get a place please get all the information you can about thier regulations. I wrote to Mr Clark9 before you went away asking him to let me know the salary for a teacher in thier primary department but have not received an answer yet. I expect one to night. It has been beautiful weather ever since you left and I do not think we will have much snow but it will be keen and sharp. Elizabeth10 is making preparations to read her lecture next Monday night and leave us on Tuesday or Wednesday of

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next week. I beleive she has not made any of her appointments yet but I think to day or tomorrow Lewis will attend to it. I am writing in a great deal of noise and confusion being in the schoolroom and the few who have brought thier dinners are as full of glee as possible. I hope you will have as comfortable a time as possible and that you will not return home sick. Old Brown will have to keep out of sight for a little while the Governor of Missouri has a reward of $6,000 offered for his capture11 and Hamilton has given himself up.12 Mother wishes me to give her love And enclosed you will find a note from Elizabeth and perhaps Annie13 will send a few lines. Your Affec. Daughter ROSETTA DOUGLASS ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 1, frames 668–69, FD Papers, DLC. 1. Lewis Henry Douglass (1840–1908) was the oldest of Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass’s three sons. Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Lewis attended school in Rochester. He also worked in his father’s newspaper office, where he learned the printer’s trade. During the Civil War, Lewis enlisted in the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry and rose to the rank of sergeant major. After the war, he spent several years working in Denver, Colorado, as a secretary for the Red, White, and Blue Mining Company. While there he also learned typography. In 1869 he moved to Washington, D.C., where he found employment at the Government Printing Office, largely through his father’s connections. That same year, he married Helen Amelia Loguen, daughter of Jermain Wesley Loguen. In 1873 he joined his father’s staff at the New National Era and was placed in charge of the paper’s editorials. During the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, Lewis served for two years as a member of the council of legislation for the District of Columbia and for another two years as a special agent for the post office. During the Rutherford B. Hayes administration, he served under his father as an assistant marshal for the District of Columbia. Upon leaving that post, he pursued a career in the real estate business. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 3:860; Douglass Papers, ser. 3, 1:126; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 248, 271–72; EAAH, 1:423–25. 2. Rosetta Douglass possibly refers to a performer from England known as Miss Grey. One of the principal forms of entertainment in the nineteenth century was the “dramatic reading.” Dramatic readers, usually women, stood before an audience and recited famous literature while acting out scenes. Dramatic reading was popular on both sides of the Atlantic, and several readers from England toured the United States. A Miss Grey gave readings of Shakespearean works several times in London, including King Henry VIII, to wide acclaim. London Morning Post 18 February 1854; Belfast News-Letter, 9 December 1864. 3. Charles Remond Douglass (1844–1920), who was named after the abolitionist Charles Remond, was the youngest of Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass’s sons. He was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and like his brothers, was educated in Rochester and trained by his father in the newspaper office. Like Lewis H. Douglass, Charles enlisted in the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War, but mainly served with the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment, where he was promoted to the rank of first sergeant. After the war, Charles settled in Washington, D.C., and found employment as a clerk in the Freedman’s Bureau (1867–69) and later in the Treasury Department (1869–75). After his father purchased the New National Era in 1870, Charles acted as a correspondent for the newspaper. In 1871 he served as a clerk to the Santo Domingo Commission, and President Ulysses S. Grant later appointed him consul to Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo. From 1875 to 1879 he was a clerk in the U.S. consulate in Santo Domingo. Returning to the United States in 1879, he engaged in the West Indies mercantile trade while living in Corona, New York. In 1882, Charles moved

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back to Washington, D.C., and took a job as an examiner in the Pension Bureau, where he remained until 1892, when he, like his brother, entered the real estate business. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 3:860; Douglass Papers, ser. 3, 1:126; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 239, 257–58, 272; EAAH, 1:407–08. 4. Ottilie Assing. 5. Ottilie Assing worked as a governess in the 1840s while living in Hamburg, Germany, but seems to have supported herself mainly by other means after moving to the United States in 1852. Indeed, after 1858 she lived on a combination of her earnings as a journalist and foreign correspondent and on the interest generated by investing the substantial sum of money she had inherited from her uncle Karl Varnhagen von Ense. While living in Hoboken, New Jersey (when she was not traveling or, after 1856, spending her summers in Frederick Douglass’s home), she devoted some time to tutoring the children of her friends Hans and Luise Kudlich. It is quite possible that she may have done the same thing for any child living at Mrs. Clara B. Marks’s home, on Washington Street in Hoboken, where she rented rooms from 1856 to 1865. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 3:834; Lohmann, Radical Passion, xiii–xvi, xxxiv, 365; Diedrich, Love across Color Lines, xvii, 113–15, 143, 203–07. 6. An allusion to the widespread interest in Spiritualism at the time. 7. Henry Ward Beecher delivered a lecture titled “Wastes and Burdens of Society” in Rochester, New York, on 4 February 1859. Halford R. Ryan, Henry Ward Beecher: Peripatetic Preacher (New York, 1990), 139. 8. Frederick Douglass was in Chicago at the time this letter was written. On 1 February 1859 he attended a formal reception held in his honor at the Jackson Street A.M.E. Church, organized by a group of Chicago’s black abolitionists. Over the next several days, he delivered a series of lectures at Metropolitan Hall. Afterward he spent seven weeks on a lecture tour across Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. He did not return to Rochester until the week of 18 March 1859. FDP, 18 March 1859; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxix–xxx. 9. Probably Peter Humphries Clark (c. 1829–1925). Clark was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, but he was not (as tradition maintained) the grandson of the explorer William Clark. Recent scholarship has established that his grandfather was instead a Virginia-born planter named John Clarke, who settled in Harrison County, Kentucky, in 1798. Clark’s family was manumitted in 1814 in accordance with John Clarke’s will, and they moved in 1816 to Cincinnati, where they altered the spelling of their surname. Clark was educated in a school for black children started by the Reverend Hiram S. Gilmore. In 1849 he became a teacher in the first black public school in Cincinnati, although it took a two-year court suit to force city officials to pay his salary. In addition to teaching, Clark helped edit two Free Soil party papers in the Cincinnati area: the Wilmington Herald of Freedom and the Newport News. For a brief time in 1856 he worked as an assistant editor on Frederick Douglass’ Paper. In 1857, Clark returned to Cincinnati, where he became both principal and teacher at a black elementary school. He remained there until 1866, when he became principal of the city’s segregated high school. While principal of the high school, Clark attempted to organize black teachers for the National Labor Union. Disappointment with the Republicans’ failure to protect black civil rights led him to campaign for Cincinnati’s socialist Workingmen’s party in 1877. In later years he joined the Democratic party. Falling out of favor with Cincinnati’s African American community through a combination of his opposition to desegregation and charges that he had bribed a witness in a political corruption case in an effort to save political allies from going to jail, Clark was fired from his job in 1886. After a brief tenure as principal at the segregated State Normal and Industrial School at Huntsville, Alabama, Clark settled in St. Louis, where he taught in the segregated public schools until his retirement in 1908. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:134–35; Nikki M. Taylor, America’s First Black Socialist: The Radical Life of Peter H. Clark (Lexington, Ky., 2013); ANB, 4: 943–45. 10. Possibly Elizabeth Smith Miller (1822–1911). Gerrit Smith’s only daughter, she became a women’s rights and dress reform activist. The Smith and Douglass families developed an unusually cordial cross-racial relationship in the 1850s. Elizabeth Smith Miller was a cousin and confidant of the women’s rights leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who had canceled her speaking engagements that winter in anticipation of a child due in March 1859. Miller later defended her father’s legacy, even causing the removal of any mention of a connection with John Brown from the “authorized”

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biography written by Octavius Brooks Frothingham. Stanton and Anthony, Selected Papers, 1:383– 84; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 16–17, 32, 42–43, 54, 118, 129, 454; McKivigan, “Frederick Douglass– Gerrit Smith Friendship,” 205–32. 11. On 20 December 1858, John Brown and several associates raided a plantation in Vernon County, Missouri, and freed eleven slaves, killing a white slave owner in the process. Brown defended his actions in a letter to the New York Times, arguing that freedom for the eleven slaves was worth the life of one slave owner. After Brown’s raid, the Missouri legislature immediately authorized $30,000 for Governor Robert Marcellus Stewart to spend in an effort to stop Brown. Contrary to popular belief, the Missouri legislature did not authorize a $3,000 reward for Brown’s capture, since the Missouri Constitution allowed the governor to offer only $300 for the arrest of a wanted fugitive. New York Times, 28 January 1859; Harriet C. Frazier, Runaway and Freed Missouri Slaves and Those Who Helped Them, 1763–1865 (Jefferson, N.C., 2004), 150. 12. Probably Charles Hamilton of Georgia, who migrated to Missouri and led guerrilla raids into eastern Kansas. Hamilton was notorious for the murder of five “free-state settlers” on 19 May 1858 in what became known as the Marais des Cygnes Massacre. Hamilton returned to Missouri following the massacre and surrounded himself with proslavery supporters for protection from arrest. Though he never conducted another massacre, proslavery supporters evoked Hamilton’s name as a threat to their Kansas neighbors. Hamilton was never arrested, and in January 1859 the Kansas territorial legislature granted amnesty to both proslavery and antislavery guerrillas. New York Daily Tribune, 8 January 1859; David S. Reynolds, John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights (New York, 2005), 268–70, 280–81. 13. Annie Douglass (1849–60) was the fifth and youngest child of Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass. She was born in Rochester on 22 March 1849. Following a lengthy illness, she died at home in Rochester on 13 March 1860, nine days before her eleventh birthday. At the time of her death, Douglass was staying with friends in Scotland. He had been on a lecture tour of Great Britain since November 1859, and it had been extended after the Harpers Ferry raid because of ongoing concerns over his safety if he returned to the United States. Annie’s death, however, prompted Douglass to set aside those concerns, cancel he any plans he might have had to remain abroad, and return home. By mid-April 1859 he was back in Rochester, New York. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxx–xxxii; Douglass Papers, ser. 3, 1:377; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 161, 207–08.

JULIA GRIFFITHS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Haverstock Hill[, Eng.]1 4 Feb[ruar]y [1859].

My dear friend I regret much to waste your postage—in sending what must be to you an unsatisfactory note—but I must do the bidding of the members of some of our Societies & tell you that the interests of your nice, new interesting paper will be ruined, if the papers are not regularly sent over—Mrs Johnston2 of Montrose, (an old friend,) states, she has only had 2 papers for her 10/—all the other Montrose papers were stopped, some time ago, because they did not get them regularly—& Mrs Johnstone will stop, if her paper does not reach her—The Barnsley Society3 only now take one paper—& never get it—They are very angry—& all apply to me on the subject—my old friend Mrs Fisher4 has not had a paper for many months—I will now

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send again these three addresses—& May you, dear friend, either to see to it yourself, to employ Oliver5 to see to it, or to get some careful, competent person to mail the papers regularly—For I cannot but feel & [illegible] that the directions are often but half written—& I have true reason to know, as mine have, innumerable times, been directed JULIA GRIFFITHS, JAMES GANN6 LONDON!!

[P.S.] I always tell the ladies who write to me to enquire how it is, that I cannot, tell & yet, I have inward compunctions that I scarcely tell the truth when I to Say— I am truly grieved, dear Frederick to tease you with this business; but I am most anxious that no drawback shd. exist to the wider circulation of the Paper—& its often appearing [illegible] occasionally is a great drawback—I must not write a long letter this time—Aunt7 is still confined to bed—& four ladies are here—yet I wd. not miss the mail. Pray send these people this year’s numbers, if possible—& See their names entered— A letter from Rev: M. Fisch,8 Paris, came to day, says that nine of his lady-friends will be happy to meet me there, to talk over Slavery— God bless you, My dear friend—kiss dear little Annie9 for me. Give my kind regards to all, & believe me, ever, Your true & faithful friend, JULIA GRIFFITHS—

[P.P.S.] See that the Paper is sent to— Mrs Johnstone Water Side Montrose Scotland Mr Lister10 Post Master Barnsley— Yorkshire— Mrs Fisher Mapes Hill House Willesdeer Middlesex

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[graphic line] send these regularly— Enter papers of Miss Urwick11 Joseph Allan12 Mr Manders William Webb13 } all Dublin also, Miss Hincks14 Belfast— Miss Evans,15 Clonmel Miss Forster—Clifton Mrs Young,16 Culdaff House Ireland— all paid one year— These are old subscribers, & I conclude their addresses are, already, properly entered in the book—& I have not given them here, in full— ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 8, frames 691–95, FD Papers, DLC. 1. Haverstock Hill was initially a hamlet located on the road between London and Hampstead in Middlesex County. By the eighteenth century, only six houses remained on the land, much of which was owned by Eton College. In the 1820s, several schemes to develop the land were launched, but it was not until 1830 that the first new homes, fronting Haverstock Hill Road, were built. By the mid1850s, Haverstock Hill had become a full-blown metropolitan suburb, served by three chapels, with its own post office and railway station. Both the Journeymen Tailors’ Almshouse and the Orphan Working School were located in Haverstock Hill by 1860. John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, 6 vols. (Edinburgh, Scot., 1870–72), 3:895–96; T. F. T. Baker, ed., A History of the County of Middlesex, 12 vols. (London, 1911–2004), 9:55–63. 2. Mary Cook Johnston (1802–64) of Waterside House, Montrose, Scotland. Her husband, Joseph Johnston (1802–87), was a successful salmon curer, manufacturer, and fishery owner. 1851 Scotland Census, Montrose Parish, Angus, Scotland, 12; 1881 Scotland Census, Montrose Parish, Angus, Scotland, 6; David Mitchell, The History of Montrose (Montrose, Scot., 1866), 135–36. 3. After she returned to England, Julia Griffiths helped organize a number of women’s antislavery societies between 1856 and 1857, including the one at Barnsley in the West Riding, Yorkshire. Simon Morgan, “The Political as Personal: Transatlantic Abolitionism, c. 1833–67,” in A Global History of Anti-Slavery Politics in the Nineteenth Century, ed. William Mulligan and Maurice Bric (Houndmills-Basingstoke, Eng., 2013), 86; Midgley, Women against Slavery, 206; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 159. 4. Mary A. Smith Fisher (c. 1816–?) of Mapes Hill House, Willesden, Middlesex, England. Her husband, Samuel Fisher (c. 1813–?), was a wealthy dressing case manufacturer. 1851 England Census, Willesden Parish, Middlesex, England, 14; 1861 England Census, Willesden Parish, Middlesex, England, 4.

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5. Probably William Oliver (1835–95), a native of Scotland, whom Douglass took on as an apprentice in 1851. Remaining in Douglass’s employ for a decade, he eventually became Douglass’s printer. In 1888, Oliver was elected to a single term as clerk of Monroe County. He was also named one of the honorary pallbearers at Douglass’s funeral. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 35; 1860 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 24; J. W. Thompson, An Authentic History of the Douglass Monument: Biographical Facts and Incidents in the Life of Frederick Douglass (Rochester, 1903), 24; Phillip S. Foner, Frederick Douglass: A Biography (New York, 1969), 84; Peck, History of Rochester, 1:364. 6. Julia Griffiths seems to be making a joking reference to the fictional James Gann, once a coheir of the “London firm of Gann, Blubbery and Gann,” a character in William Makepeace Thackeray’s humorous novella “A Shabby Genteel Story.” Originally appearing in Fraser’s Magazine in 1840, the novella was republished in 1853 and again in 1857 in editions of Thackeray’s collected works. In 1861 it was included as a prefix to one of his final novels, The Adventures of Philip (1861–62). The Gann family, of which James Gann, Esq., was the head, comprised the “shabby, but genteel” subjects of the story’s title. Herman Charles Merivale and Frank Thomas Marzials, The Life of W. M. Thackeray (London, 1891), vi, 203–04; Lewis Saul Benjamin, William Makepeace Thackeray: A Biography Including Hitherto Uncollected Letters and Speeches and a Bibliography of 1300 Items, 2 vols. (1910; Grosse Pointe, Mich., 1968), 2:193, 274, 285; William Makepeace Thackeray, ODNB (online). 7. Mary Powis Griffiths (c. 1789–1877), with whom Julia Griffiths; her husband, the Reverend Henry O. Crofts; and three stepdaughters (Elizabeth, Saley, and Martha Crofts) were sharing their home in both 1861 and 1871. 1861 England Census, Halifax, Yorkshire, 110; 1871 England Census, Gateshead, Durham County, 41; Janet Douglas, “A Cherished Friendship: Julia Griffiths Crofts and Frederick Douglass,” Slavery and Abolition, 33:265–74 (June 2012). 8. The Reverend George Fisch (1814–81), pastor of the French Evangelical Church at Paris. Born in Switzerland and educated in Lausanne, Fisch spent most of his career serving pastorates in France. He was a founding member of the French branch of the Evangelical Alliance and a frequent attendee of the British branch’s annual conference. In 1863 he published Nine Months in the United States during the Crisis, an account of his observations on the Civil War. Later that same year, Fisch was a signatory to the “Address of French Protestant Pastors of Every Denomination” to their British counterparts. The address, which argued that the war in the United States was motivated solely by “the desire of the South to maintain slavery,” urged British clergy to “offer those who fight for the right of oppressing the slaves no hope of ever seeing . . . Christians . . . give them the hand of fellowship.” The Christian Observer: Conducted by Members of the Established Church for the Year 1863 (London, 1863), 383–84; George Ripley and Charles A. Dana, eds., The American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge, 16 vols. (New York, 1873–76), 7:216; Evangelical Christendom, 35: 253–54 (August 1881). 9. Annie Douglass. 10. A native of Yorkshire, England, Thomas Lister (1810–88) was a well-known Quaker poet and naturalist. He first came to prominence upon the successful publication of a collection of verse, Rustic Wreath, in 1834. Through the patronage of Lord Morpeth, later the 7th Earl of Carlisle, Lister was appointed postmaster of Barnsley (Yorkshire) in 1839 without having to take the usual oath, which would have been contrary to his religious beliefs. He held the post until his retirement in 1870. He frequently contributed observations on birds and meteorological matters to the Barnsley Chronicle and regularly delivered papers on those subjects at the annual meetings of the British Association. He was also for many years president of the Barnsley Naturalists’ Society. Lister was an avid supporter of the British temperance movement. William Smith, ed., Old Yorkshire, 3 vols. (London, 1889–91), 3:241–49; ODNB (online). 11. Either Sarah Urwick (1820–1907) or her sister Elinor Urwick (1822–1902), daughters of the Reverend Dr. William Urwick (1791–1868), a Congregationalist minister and professor of dogmatics

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and pastoral theology at the Dublin Theological Institute. One of the Miss Urwicks was a member of the Ladies’ Irish Anti-Slavery Society. BFASR, 1 June 1858; Thomas A. Urwick and William Urwick, Records of the Family of Urswyk, Urswick or Urwick (London, 1893), 215–18, 224–25; ODNB (online). 12. A Quaker merchant, Joseph Allen (c. 1810–78) was the son of Edward and Ellen Allen and brother of Richard Allen (1803–86), a linen merchant and leading Dublin abolitionist. Like his brother, Joseph Allen was a member of both the Dublin Yearly Meeting and the Hibernian AntiSlavery Society. The British Friend: A Monthly Journal, 35:170 (1 June 1878), 170; Hannah Marie Wigham, A Christian Philanthropist of Dublin: A Memoir of Richard Allen (London, Eng., 1886), 97; England and Wales, National Probate Calendar: Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858–1966 (online). 13. William Webb was the husband of Maria Webb, an Irish abolitionist correspondent of Douglass’s. Webb married Maria Lamb in 1828, and the couple settled in Belfast. The family eventually included six children. A business partner in Richard Allen’s textile firm, Webb also was an active member of the Dublin Anti-Slavery Society. American Anti-Slavery Society, Letter to Louis Kossuth, Concerning Freedom and Slavery in the United States (Boston, 1852), 107; Marie-Louise Legg ed., Alfred Webb: The Autobiography of a Quaker Nationalist (Cork, Ire., 1999), 83. 14. Hannah Hincks (1798–1871), the daughter of a former professor of Hebrew at Queen’s College, the Reverend Thomas Dix Hincks (1767–1857) and his wife, Anne Boult Hincks. Hannah Hincks, an algologist, discovered a species of brown alga that was named for her, Ectocarpus hinksiae. She also contributed to George Dickie’s 1864 book, A Flora of Ulster and Botanist’s Guide to the North of Ireland. For a few years Hannah Hicks served as corresponding secretary of the Belfast Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. BFASR, 1 December 1859; Douglass Papers, ser. 3, 1:409–10; Ray Desmond, Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists (London, 1977), 310; Oldham, “Irish Support of the Abolitionist Movement,” 184–85; ODNB (online). 15. Either Miss A. D. Evans or Miss H. Evans of Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland. Both Miss Evanses were Quakers and members of the Ladies’ Irish Anti-Slavery Society. In the 1850s they operated a boarding school for “Daughters of Friends” out of their home at Prior Park. The British Friend, 16:6 (1 January 1858); BFASR, 1 June 1858. 16. Marianne Ffolliott Young (1794–1879), was the daughter of John Ffollliott, Esq., of Hollybrook House, County Sligo, Ireland, and the wife of George Young, Esq., of Culdaff House, County Donegal, Ireland. Mrs. Young was a member of the Irish Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. Her husband was for many years both a magistrate and deputy lieutenant of County Donegal. BFASR, 1 June 1858, 1 December 1859; Belfast (Ire.) News-Letter, 4 June 1877, 19 December 1879.

STEPHEN A. MYERS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Albany, [N.Y.] 1 March 1859. 1

2

In your “reply to Mr. Watkins,” of last week, my name is used several times in the course of your remarks. My offence, in your eyes, seems to be in acting with the Republican party, in order to affect certain reforms. Well, what other practical thing can I do? How much have you done by voting for Gerrit Smith? How much will you accomplish by voting for him at every election for a score of years to come? The only difference between us is, that one acts on the practical side of the question, and the

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other on the theoretic. It is all very fine to talk about the shor-tcomings of the Republican party, but the question is, What are you going to do about it? There can be but two parties, and no man who is worth reasoning with, will deny that the Republican is the best. Every body knows that for the next generation, probably, either the Democrats or Republicans must rule the State and Union. Now, what does all our theorizing amount to in face of this stubborn reality? It may do for scholars and recluses. But a living, earnest, working man wants to see some result to his labor.—The only real question before a man seeking for the equal rights of all men is, shall I vote for the Republican party or for the Democratic party? All other talk is a waste of words—mere hair splitting.3 Let us be done with it. I, for one, shall not vote for Democrats and consequently shall vote for Republicans. The Republicans in this State with few exceptions are in favor of Universal Suffrage and a Personal Liberty Bill.4 They give thousands of dollars to aid fugitive slaves. They defend our rights in the schools, the cars, and the steam boats. No candid man will deny these facts nor assert that the Democrats do any such things. Then what is the sense of all this rhetoric about “a head without a heart,” “the Serpent and political Eve of the Garden,”5 and the like. Common sense men will throw their influence, give their labor and cast their votes where they will tell. Others may indulge in air castles. STEPHEN MYERS. PLSr: FDP, 4 March 1859. 1. William J. Watkins. 2. The 25 February 1859 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, mostly likely containing Douglass’s editorial reply to William J. Watkins, has not survived. 3. The most likely origin in English of the expression “hair splitting” is Robert Boyle’s Excellence of Theology Compared With Natural Philosophy (London, 1674), author’s preface, 10: “The great difficulty . . . so to behave oneself, as to split a hair between them, and never offend either of them.” 4. Though many states adopted “personal liberty laws” to nullify the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, New York was not among them. The issue remained unresolved until 1858, when Republicans gained control of the New York State Legislature. Abolitionists and antislavery Republicans sent in numerous petitions urging the legislature to adopt a law similar to one in Massachusetts in order to create obstacles to enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. Despite divisions among conservatives in the Republican party, a select committee recommended the adoption of such a law, one that would include the phrase “every person who shall come or be brought into the State shall be free.” But conservative Republicans with Democratic allies successfully buried attempts to pass two bills sent to the legislature. Consequently, New York remained without a personal liberty law. New York Herald, 12 March 1860; Thomas D. Morris, Free Men All: The Personal Liberty Laws of the North, 1780–1861 (Baltimore, 1974), 181–83. 5. An allusion to the devil in the form of a serpent tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden. Gen. 3:1–5.

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WILLIAM JAMES WATKINS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS [n.p.] 4 March 1859.

Mr. Editor:— It is a maxim as old as the marriage covenant, that differences of opinion will exist, even in the best regulated families. This contrariety will be more or less developed, so long as man’s compound organism is in so many respects dissimilar. No two men or women are exactly alike, mentally, morally or physically. And I have never yet seen any two men, who, on all questions, entertained precisely the same opinions. And I never will until I become acquainted with two men, born with the same organism, and reared under the same circumstances. This train of thought was induced by the remark of a friend to-day, in conversation with me, “how is it that you colored men can’t all see and act alike on this Anti-Slavery question?” “For the same reason that you white men differ upon all subjects,” I promptly replied. It is, however, to me a source of the most poignant regret, when I am compelled to differ from those whose superior abilities, ripe experience, and unquestioned fidelity to the cause of Human Rights, are such as to invest any conclusion to which they may arrive, on the question of our liberties, with the force and authority of Medo-Persian law.1 But very wise men often commit very egregious blunders. They often assume positions which are untenable, and cling to the illusory imaginings of Error, with as much tenacity as they do to the living realities of an axiomatic truth. But “humanum est errare.”2 And I have no right to look for exemption in your case. I have read with much interest your strictures upon my letter.3 I beg you, however, to read that letter again. The most acute vision will fail to discern in it a single word of apology for the short-comings of the Republican party. You do not fairly meet the issue I presented, but proceed to a discussion of the characteristics of the leaders of that party. I took issue with you not because you are not a colored Black Republican, but because when a few of us are making all the exertions in our power, to secure the Elective Franchise, from those who have the ability to extend it; when we are striving to induce among our people that unanimity of action which is so desirable; instead of obtaining your co-operation, you turn a cold shoulder upon the movement, and with a spasmodic ebullition of zeal for which colored New Yorkers are eminently distinguished, press upon our consideration, the question of Equal School Rights—a

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question which, for a “long length of periods,[“] (whatever be its relative merits,) has been suffered to sleep soundly, nursed by the gentle rock of “Communipaw.”4 Ah! Mr. Editor, why is it that that sleep knew no waking until resurrected by the trumpet blast of Equal Suffrage? Now, to be candid, I am of the opinion that you are not very desirous that success should crown the special effort a few of us are now making, notwithstanding the loss of your co-operation, if not your sympathy. Why is it that this movement is now almost entirely ignored by such leading men as yourself? For I call the readers of “F. Douglass’ Paper” to bear witness to the truthfulness of  the statement, that not even you have employed your vigorous pen, during the present winter, in urging our people to act on the suffrage question. But it is not your vis inertia5 of which I most complain, but your attempted disparagement of the efforts some of us are making to induce the Republican party to act in conformity with its own platform of principles, by extending to us here in New York, while they have the power, the elective franchise. For my part, I do not feel disposed to wait for such extension until the arrival of that millennial era, when the correct views of Hon. Gerrit Smith and his gifted namesake, concerning the Constitution of the U. S., shall be adopted by the American people, and become thoroughly crystallized in their political acts. The Republican party is not, Sir, what I desire it to be, and what it must be, to preserve its vitality. Large bodies move slowly. And I am not one of those who, calling themselves Radical Abolitionists, seem to fasten upon the inconsistencies of its leaders, and because of their want of moral stamina, consign them, along with “Stephen, the colored Thurlow,”6 to “utter darkness.7” And as to your “fear that when the little joker is raised, our brethren (Meyers,8 Rich,9 Watkins,10 etc.) will look as blank with dismay, as they did in reading through Gov. Morgan’s11 first Inaugural,”12 I cannot help thinking that the wish is father to the thought, and that a defeat of the Colored Black Republican Equal Suffrage Movement,13 at present, is a consummation devoutly to be wished by you, and the few of our people who sympathize with you in your present position. For a triumph of our movement just now, would be regarded by all practical men, as a justification of the course adopted by nearly all the colored voters in the State in the recent contest for Governor. But whether successful or not this year, or the next, or the next, I know of at least one man who will not abate one jot or tittle of the perseverance of the importunate widow in the Gospel,14 the prospect of whose “continual coming” procured an answer to her petition. And of course, those who now do nothing for the cause,

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will help us celebrate the victory, and dance to the merry music of “see how we apples swim!” “Fly swiftly ‘round, ye wheels of Time, And bring the welcome day.”15 Consistency, Mr. Editor, is a jewel.16 You will remember that when the lamented Thos. L. Jennings,17 and others, were concentrating their efforts in order to procure the abolition of Caste in the cars of your city railroads, you did not see fit to attempt to divert them from the object before them, by calling in question the propriety of their throwing their entire public and organized movements into the single issue of “riding in the cars of the Third Avenue Railroad Company.”18 You urged them on. You, doubtless, were one of their number. Not even the great question of Equal School Rights was suffered to interfere. And in this you were right. In this you were wise. In this you counselled “Expediency.” One thing at a time was the emphatic language of your acts. The result of your efforts demonstrated the wisdom of your course. But now, Mr. Editor, you object to organized movements for the presentation of single issues. You appear to be very much disturbed. “Tobacco,” “signs,” “guns,” “little jokers,” “Stephen Myers,” and “purgatory,” completely block up and darken your pathway. “Single Issues!” Why, verily, my esteemed co-worker, and your able correspondent “Philo,”19 who has inaugurated an entire public and organized movement into the single Issue of the “School Question,” and who is defending it with his wonted vigor, and ability, must “stand from under.” As we both stand, pro tempore,20 as the representatives of “single issues,” I trust we shall bear each other faithful company, and not fall out by the way. A gentle hint to “Philo” is, at this time, sufficient. You “take pleasure in offering evidence” of the moral imbecility of the leaders of the Republican Party, “from no less authority than Mr. Watkins himself.” I say the leaders, for you remark, “the mass of the people are with us.” I do not know that these leaders have changed for the better. They are certainly too timid and time-serving. What I said in 1857, I have no disposition to retract, although the Address from which you quote was written not far from 55 W. Broadway,21 under the resistless influence of your mesmeric manipulations. And I never address the people on the question of Human Freedom, without endeavoring to impress upon them the necessity of compelling their leaders to maintain a more defensible, a just position. But because I denounced these leaders in 1857, am I es-

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topped from appealing to the party to forsake what you are pleased to designate, its “counting-house” policy?22 Is this a legitimate sequence of such denunciation? Every candid man must answer no. I cannot, however, sympathize with you in your wholesale denunciation of the Republican party. If what you say be correct, it is worse than modern Democracy. You give it no credit whatever. Herein lies your error.—You launch out with the broad assertion, that the “Republican party is a political, not a humanitary party, and is governed by political, not humanitary principles.” The grammatical construction of this language warrants the assertion that in your estimation, a party cannot at the same time be both political and humanitary. Political principles are not necessarily anti-humanitary; but your language implies that they are. Politics I regard as nothing more than the science of government; of good or of bad government. A man or a party may, therefore, be politico-humanitarian. You remark, farther, that the Democratic party is a party of Ideas, and is thus contra-distinguished from the Republican party, which has none. Let me quote you correctly. Speaking of the Republican party, you remark: “It is reduced to the last analysis, the party of Arithmetical Progression. In this way it is contradistinguished from the Democratic party which is the party of ideas, of bad ideas, unjust ideas, nevertheless of ideas.” The fallacy of such an assertion is as glaring as the sun in mid-heaven. The Democratic is not a party of Ideas, but of an Idea which is the exact antipode of the fundamental, all-pervading Idea or Principle which underlies the Republican party. Shall Slavery be extended or restricted? This question furnishes the battle ground of the belligerents. The Democratic party says, yes; the Republican party says, no. The Idea of extending the area of Slavery, is the only Idea which holds the Democratic party together. It lives for that purpose, and it will die for that purpose. It flashes from its eye, it burns upon its tongue, it gleams upon its brow, it rankles in its heart. Evening and morning and at noon, does it cry aloud, “Extend Slavery!” This is the burden of its song, the substance of its prayer. On the other hand, the Idea of extending the area of Freedom, is the vis preservatrix23 of the Republican party. It is, you gravely tell us, “a head without a heart.” It cares for nothing but “its own aggrandizement.” Have you fairly stated the difference between these parties? You will not affirm that you have. Look, Sir, at the origin of the Republican party. It came into being upon the wing of pro-slavery aggressions. Like the rainbow, it was born of the tempest. It was a political necessity. It was a political crystallization of that Anti-Slavery sentiment and feeling which had long

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been smothered in the Whig and Democratic parties, and which at last, burst the cerements of corruption, and with God’s sunlight flashing all around it, stood out like a promontory in the deep, blue sea, a monument of the second Revolution in our nation’s history. And shall we now refuse alliance with it, for a certain purpose, because it does not go far enough in the right direction? Let Frederick Douglass of 1856 answer the query. “We are not,” said he, “to refuse a position and actual advantage to the cause of Right and Liberty, because the entire claims of righteousness are not acceded to, and gained at the same moment. God reigns in Eternity.— The progress of mankind is slow, and when society is willing to take even one step in the right direction it may be well for the individual to help it along by precept and example.” *

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“Unquestionably, the practical carrying out of the Republican platform by the Federal Government would be a great good. We need not enumerate the various benefits which would flow from the policy therein laid down. The limitation of slavery alone would prove an immense benefit; and if the action in that direction is followed up in the States by the Republican element, as we believe it will be, all that we devoutly wish may come to pass.” Let the editor pro tem. of F. Douglass’ Paper24 swallow the above, and if the task be too difficult, let Mr. Douglass himself assist him in the attempt at deglutition. But I quote with much pleasure Wm. Lloyd Garrison’s views of the Republican party.25 I quote him for two reasons: First, because no one will accuse him of a disposition to flatter the party; Secondly, because I know of no better Anti-Slavery authority than he. What say you, Mr. Garrison? How is the Democratic party “contradistinguished” from the Republican? Hear him: “The Republican party has certainly been consistent in its efforts to prevent the extension of slavery; it has spent a vast amount of money for the purpose of enlightening the public sentiment, so as to save Kansas and Nebraska, and the vast territories of the Slave Power. Let the party have the credit of it. Why not? (Applause.) I know of nothing in this AntiSlavery cause which justifies me in being uncharitable or unfair. Give to every party its due; and I say that, up to this time, the Republican party has tried to prevent the extension of slavery, and has suffered greatly on that account. Tell me that it is to be put in the same scale with the Demo-

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cratic party—that party which is ready for every thing that the South desires, in the way of extending and eternizing slavery! How was it in the last Presidential election? Was it nothing to the credit of the Republican party, that no representative of John C. Fremont26 could stand upon Southern soil, except in peril of his life—when the whole party was outlawed in all the Southern States—when no electoral ticket bearing his name could have been tolerated in Georgia, or Alabama, or Carolina, or any Southern State—and when if Henry Wilson27 had dared to go down South, and advocate his election to the Presidency, he would have gone there as a man goes to the grave, and never would have come back to Massachusetts alive? When a party stands in that attitude to slavery, and slavery stands in that relation to it, I hold it is unfair and unjust to say that, after all, it is as bad as the party that goes all lengths for the extension and eternization of slavery. (‘Hear, hear,’ and loud applause.) “The Republican party, as a matter of fact—and we are dealing with facts—embraces the anti-slavery voters of America, wherever they are— with the exception, it may be, of the little handful who voted for Gerrit Smith.—The American people, I say, who vote, and are anti-slavery in spirit and sympathy, are all with the Republican party; not one is with the Democratic party. Among them, of course, there are all phases of sentiment, from the most radical to the most superficial.—There is a good deal of pro-slavery in the party, perhaps, but a great deal of warm and genuine anti-slavery—sympathy, generosity, kindness, pity for the slave; blindness of vision to a certain extent, a want of moral courage up to a certain point, it may be, but, nevertheless, an earnest desire and struggle to do something whereby this odious Slave Power may be driven back, hedged up, or in some way destroyed in the land. (Applause.) Judging it, as we are bound to do, by its own test, therefore, as it disclaims being an anti-slavery party, as it openly declares, that in regard to slavery where it now exists, it does not mean to raise any agitation, and only means to try to prevent its extension, to that extent, I say, the party has been true, and my sympathies, to that extent, have been with the party; for we also desire to save the great West from the encroachments of the Slave Power, and establish freedom on the Western soil. *

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“My hope is in the great Republican party; not where it stands, but it has materials for growth. The men who have gone into it are men who have suffered, or lost caste, to some extent, because they would not go

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with the Whig party or the Democratic party in their wickedness on the side of the Slave Power.” These are my sentiments, expressed much better than I can express them. And I hold that this party has accomplished at least as much practical good as those Radical Abolitionists who do little else than meet annually and quadrennially, to go through certain political motions as a compliment to the wealthy philanthropist from whom some of them are continually receiving evidences of “distinguished consideration.” WM. JAMES WATKINS. PLSr: FDP, 4 March 1859. 1. Watkins is referring to the ancient Medo-Persian Empire and the nature of its law. The MedoPersian Empire was established in 539 B.C.E. when the Medes and Persians captured Babylon. Like that of Babylon, the Medo-Persian government was monarchical, and the king’s word created laws. But under the Medo-Persian regime, once the king established a law, it could never be reversed, even by the king himself. In the Bible, Daniel refers to the nature of the Medo-Persian law: “Then the conspirators came to the king and said to him, ‘Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no interdict or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.’ ” Dan. 6:15; Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes, A History of Persia, 2 vols. (1915; New York, 1969), 1:172; Glenn E. Curtis and Eric Hooglund, eds., Iran: A Country Study (Washington, D.C., 2008), 4; Michael D. Coogan, ed., The New Oxford Annotated Bible (New York, 2007), 1266; Robert William Rogers, A History of Ancient Persia: From its Earliest Beginnings to the Death of Alexander the Great (1929; Freeport, N.Y., 1971), 63. 2. Latin for “to err is human.” 3. Watkins refers to his letter written to Douglass on 10 February 1859 and printed in the 11 February 1859 issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. In this letter, Watkins asked Douglass to limit his critique of the Republican party and to focus on the suffrage movement in New York State. Douglass responded to Watkins’s letter in an editorial in the March 1859 edition of Douglass’ Monthly. While Watkins argued that blacks needed to work with Republican leaders to secure enfranchisement, Douglass continued to criticize the Republican party, saying that suffrage would be inaccessible if advocates of the movement continued to rely on the aid of Republican leaders. In fact, he believed that suffrage could be attained were it not for these party leaders: “Could the question be submitted to the people, for a free vote, without the trammels or the influences of party leaders, we would gladly submit it to-morrow, secure in a triumphant majority.” Douglass then suggested that attention should be given to securing equal education opportunities for black children, which he labeled as a “decidedly more accessible” issue. To the dismay of Watkins, Douglass stressed the equal education issue and believed that gaining suffrage in New York would be difficult to achieve. William James Watkins to Frederick Douglass, FDP, 11 February 1859; DM, 1:33 (March 1859). 4. James McCune Smith. 5. Isaac Newton developed the concept vis inertiae, or force of inertia, in his laws of motion. I. Bernard Cohen and George E. Smith, Cambridge Companion to Newton (Cambridge, Eng., 2002) 61. 6. Stephen Myers of Albany edited temperance and antislavery newspapers and helped lead the movement for black suffrage in New York. Like Myers, Thurlow Weed, the influential Whig and later a Republican political boss, edited his newspaper, the Evening Journal, in Albany. Watkins refers to Myers as “Stephen, the colored Thurlow” because of the similarities between the two men’s occupations and dedication to the antislavery movement. Penn, The Afro-American Press, 48–51; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 33, 95, 154, 172–73, 219–20.

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7. Variants of this phrase occur frequently in the Bible. Ps. 107:14; Matt. 8:12, 25:30. 8. Stephen Myers. 9. William Rich. 10. William J. Watkins. 11. Edwin Dennison Morgan (1811–83) was born in Massachusetts and educated in the common schools of Hartford, Connecticut. After an apprenticeship in a Hartford general store, he moved to New York City, where he became a prosperous import merchant. In 1850, Morgan was elected to the state senate, where he served until elected governor on the Republican ticket in 1858. Reelected in 1860, he oversaw the enlistment of 223,000 New York men into the Union army during the Civil War’s first two years. From 1863 to 1869, Morgan served in the U.S. Senate, where he sided with the conservative Republican factions on most Reconstruction questions. James A. Rawley, Edwin D. Morgan, 1811–1883: Merchant in Politics (New York, 1955); Michael Les Benedict, A Compromise of Principle: Congressional Republicans and Reconstruction, 1863–1869 (New York, 1974), 164, 265, 298; ACAB, 4:398; NCAB, 3:51. 12. Watkins refers to abolitionists’ disappointment with New York governor Edwin Morgan’s first inaugural address in 1859. According to Douglass, Morgan ran his campaign on an antislavery platform, but many abolitionists feared that he would not support antislavery legislation once elected. These abolitionists were criticized for supporting Gerrit Smith for office instead of Morgan. The historian Eric Foner labels Morgan a moderate in the Republican party, so he was therefore less likely than a candidate like Smith to push the antislavery issue. In reference to the governor’s first inaugural speech, Douglass wrote in Douglass’ Monthly: “Governor Morgan, whose anti-slavery was so loudly proclaimed to the people before his election, finds no occasion, in his Message, to utter an anti-slavery sentence.” Abolitionists’ concerns over Morgan’s intentions were realized when he made no real effort, once in office, to support the antislavery movement. DM, 1:21 (February 1859); Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War (New York: 1995), 210. 13. Possibly a reference to the New York State Suffrage Association. 14. Luke 18:1–5. 15. “Fly swiftly ‘round, ye wheels of Time, / And bring the welcome day” was written by the English minister and hymn writer Isaac Watts (1674–1748), and the lines serve as the final two stanzas of “Hymn 21: A Vision of the Kingdom of Christ among Men.” Watts organized his written hymns into three categories: paraphrases of biblical texts, poems on general divine subjects, and hymns written for the Lord’s Supper. Inspired by Revelation 21: 1–4, “Hymn 21” falls into the first category. The hymn paraphrases verses wherein the new heaven and new earth are introduced as God’s dwelling place. Watts noted that his use of metaphor was written to conform “to the level of vulgar capacities.” The simple language of his hymns likely contributed to their popularity, since many survive into the present. Robert Goodacre, ed., The Psalms and Hymns of the Late Dr. Isaac Watts: In Two Volumes (London, 1821), 2:29; ODNB (online). 16. Most frequently stated as “Consistency, thou art a jewel,” this phrase has been attributed to a variety of sources, including the Bible, Shakespeare, and a popular eighteenth-century Scottish ballad. According to John Bartlett, none of these claims can be verified. Bartlett suggests that the phrase evolved over time and cannot be verifiably said to originate in any one place. Instead, he notes the tendency to compare virtue or excellence to the brilliance of a jewel by way of emphasis. New York Times, 26 February 1888; John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature, 10th ed. (1855; Boston, 1919), 1046. 17. A free black dry cleaner in New York City, Thomas L. Jennings (1791–1856) was probably the first African American to receive a patent for his “dry scouring” process. Jennings attended both national and state conventions, agitating for equal civil rights. Curry, Free Black in Urban America, 222; Foner and Walker, Black State Conventions, 1:88.

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18. The Third Avenue Railroad Company was a street railroad system in New York City operating in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Like most other streetcar companies of the era, the Third Avenue Railroad Company was segregated. In 1854, an incident between a black woman and a driver led to a court case and the desegregation of the company. Elizabeth Jennings (1830– 1901), the daughter of the black leader Thomas L. Jennings, was a teacher and an organist for the First Colored American Congregational Church. In July 1854, she boarded a whites-only streetcar on her way to church. When the driver insisted that she get off and wait for the car designated for blacks, she refused. The driver attempted to physically remove Jennings, and eventually did so with the aid of a police officer. At a public meeting at the First Colored American Congregational Church, Jennings’s testimony was read, and it was resolved that her case should be brought before the legal authorities. The story gained public recognition after appearing in Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune and Frederick Douglass’ Paper. In February 1855, Elizabeth Jennings v. the Third Avenue Railroad Company was brought before the Brooklyn Circuit; future U.S. president Chester A. Arthur served as Jennings’s lawyer. The decision, which went in favor of Jennings, awarded her $225 in damages and desegregated the Third Avenue Railroad Company in New York City. FDP, 28 July 1854, 2 March 1855; John H. Hewitt, Protest and Progress: New York’s First Black Episcopal Church Fights Racism (New York: 2000), 98, 101–03. 19. Probably George T. Downing. 20. This Latin phrase is best translated as “for the time being.” 21. James McCune Smith’s combined office and pharmacy was located at 55 West Broadway. When Smith first established his medical practice, he opened his office at 93 West Broadway, but relocated to this address a few years later. Stauffer, Works of James McCune Smith, xxiii; idem, Black Hearts of Men, 125; Calarco, The Underground Railroad, 255. 22. Watkins refers to what Douglass labeled the Republican party’s “counting-house” policy. Douglass was probably criticizing the Republican party’s emphasis on economic issues, even in relation to slavery. The Republicans proclaimed the superiority of free labor and viewed the South as a stagnant and aristocratic society whose reliance on the institution of slavery threatened Northern interests. Republican leaders often used their free labor economic platform to appeal to conservatives who might not have supported an antislavery policy for its own sake but who perceived some gain from halting slavery’s spread into western territories. Douglass reluctantly supported the Republican presidential ticket in 1856 but subsequently grew disappointed by the party’s emphasis on the economic dimensions of antislavery politics. In January 1859, Douglass called on antislavery advocates to “no longer follow the partial side issues” and to focus less on “free white labor” and more on the slaves in bondage. Like other abolitionists, Douglass insisted that the moral issue of antislavery politics should trump economic arguments. DM, 1:1 (January 1859); Foner, Life and Writings, 2:396–400, 441; Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 40–41, 59, 61. 23. Latin for the “preserving power.” 24. While Douglass traveled on an extended lecture tour in early 1859, James McCune Smith most likely served as the editor “pro tem” of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. In the March 1859 issue of Douglass’ Monthly, an announcement states: “Dr. James McCune Smith—This gentleman has often made us obliged to him, during the last ten years, for services to our common cause, and to Frederick Douglass’ Paper as a means of promoting that cause. He has now much increased our obligations to him, by kindly consenting to write the Editorials for our paper during our five or six weeks’ lecturing tour in the West.” DM, 1:35 (March 1859). 25. The comments by William Lloyd Garrison are from his speech at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, printed in the 4 February 1859 issue of the Liberator. There is only one difference between the text in Watkins’s letter and the newspaper version. According to the Liberator, Garrison said that the Republican party acted “so as to save Kansas and Nebraska, and the vast territories of the West from the encroachments of the Slave Power.” In his letter, Watkins leaves out the phrase “of the West, from the encroachments of.” Most likely, this was a small unintentional transcription error made by Watkins. Lib., 4 February 1859.

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26. John C. Frémont was the Republican candidate for president in 1856. 27. Elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts by a coalition of Free Soilers, Know-Nothings, and Democrats in 1855, Henry Wilson (1812–75) strongly advocated the abolition of slavery as a political goal. In 1862, he introduced a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and as a Radical Republican, he was one of the strongest voices denouncing the Black Codes enacted under Presidential Reconstruction. In 1865 he introduced a bill aimed at nullifying all laws and ordinances discriminating against freemen and former slaves. Wilson replaced Schuyler Colfax as vice president during Ulysses S. Grant’s second term, but died in office. Ernest McKay, Henry Wilson: Practical Radical; A Portrait of a Politician (London, 1971), 94–95, 197–98.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO JOHN JAY1 Rochester[, N.Y.] 11 April 1859[.]

John Jay Esqr. My dear Sir: I am much obliged by your note and the memoranda with which you have favored me. My want of skill, not my want of heart for the work caused me to hesitate when first asked to Speak in memory of your honored father.2 I have now yielded to my friends rather than to any new confidence in my ability. The most I hope to do, is to Show that my people are capable of remembering gratefully a great friend and benefactor. I am dear Sir, With Respect and Esteem, FRED: DOUGLASS ALS: John Jay Papers, NNC. 1. The son of William Jay and grandson of Chief Justice John Jay. John Jay (1817–94) was a lawyer and diplomat. Born in New York City and graduated from Columbia College, Jay was active in the Free Soil party and then the Republican party. He served the Ulysses S. Grant administration as minister to Austria-Hungary and later served on the New York Civil Service Commission. ACAB, 3:408. 2. William Jay.

JOHN JAY TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Newyork[, N.Y.] 26 May 1859.

My Dear Sir, I have read with much interest your discourse on the life & Character of my Father.1 I beg to [illegible] to you the thanks which I hardly an opportunity fully to express at the close of the evening when we listened to its delivery. I would like to have 200 copies of it in pamphlet form if it is

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proposed so to publish it, or if not then 200 copies of your paper containing it. for circulation among my own & my father friends. I am Dear Sir, Very Truly Yours JOHN JAY

[P.S.] I beg to enclose a check to cover the cost of the copies. ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 1, frames 670–71, FD Papers, DLC. 1. William Jay.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO MARGARET DENMAN CROPPER Rochester[,] N.Y. 27 May 1859.

Hon: Mrs E. Cropper. Dear Madam: I have just received, from my kind friend, Mrs Crofts,1 of Huddersfield,2 the sum of ten pounds, which she received, as a donation in aid of the publication of my anti slavery papers, from the Liverpool Anti slavery Society3 of which you are president. The help thus rendered me is most gratefully appreciated—and I beg that you will accept my warmest thanks for it, on my own account and in behalf of the cause of the american slaves— whose servant I am. You will Do me a kindness by making my thankfulness known to the members of the Liverpool society. The anti slavery cause is, certainly, going forward steadily in the U.S. Its progress, however, is not to be determined by the number or the activity of special antislavery organizations. The number and efficiency of these are not so great now as ten years ago—when agents were supported and sent out into all parts of the Country to lecture upon the evils of slavery, and the duty of emancipation. There is much of this work yet to be done—and much of it being done—but the pen and press are doing more than formerly. Books, letters, and pamphlets—newspapers, and tracts are more abundant—and our work of leavening the public mind is being done more silently—than in the days of meetings and mobs. If less is done by organizations—more is done by individuals. Besides, the subject has got before societies and Churches from which it was formerly excluded—and is undergoing discussion in them, such as it used only to get in special anti slavery meetings. Slavery is such an enormity that it cannot bear the light of discussion. If we can only keep it before the people—The people will,

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sooner or later, learn to abhor it and seek its abolition. The fact that I have been a slave—and am a Colored man—and have devoted twenty years to the service of the cause of Emancipation—has done much to incline the people to read what I write and listen to what I have to say on the subject of slavery. I am often called upon to address public meetings—to draw up resolution—and write petitions, in reference to the rights and wrongs of my people. The more independently I can perform these services—of course, the more efficiently I can do so. The assistance I receive from abroad has, therefore, a double value—it facilitates my movements—and renders it unnecessary when I wish to labor in this or that place, to look around for the means by which I am to go and come. It gives me influence with my people, since they are not, immediately, called upon to give of their penury to support me in what I do for them. My paper publish[ed] weekly—is not a source of pecuniary advantage—but a means of spreading antislavery sentiments before the public—What therefore the Liverpool Antislavery Society does for the support of it—the society does for the spread of Antislavery truth among the people of this country. I have but this morning sent off a brother fugitive slave from my house to Canada4 —the land of safety. I would have gladly retained here but the hounds (slave hunters) were known to be on his track—and it was thought best that he be sent on immediately. I was talking yesterday with Miss Porter5 the treasurer of our Ladies society here—about the condition of the fugitives in Canada—when she very thoughfu[lly] Suggested that much suffering might be saved the poor destitute fugitives—if with the clothes and little money we are able to give—we could also furnish them—with an axe—a spade or hoe—so that they could go to work at onc[e] many could get work if they had implements to work with. We decided to purchase a quantity of tools—and make every man who comes—a present of one or more as he might need. Again allow me to thank you, and the Liverpool Anti Slavery society—for the material aid you are rendering me in my efforts to free and elevate my people— I am, Dear Mrs Cropper, Yours in the cause of []humanit[y] FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: British Abolition Movement Papers, ViU. 1. Julia Griffiths Crofts. 2. Located in West Yorkshire in north-central England, Huddersfield sits on the Colne River. In the mid-nineteenth century, the area was known for its production of cotton and woolen textiles. The town also manufactured machinery and other metal products. Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer of the World, 2:1326.

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3. The Liverpool Anti-Slavery Society, or the Liverpool Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, was established in 1822 by James Cropper, a British Quaker and merchant. Many of Cropper’s female relatives were also involved in the antislavery movement, and played an active role in the development of the Liverpool Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Association in 1827. Margaret Denman Cropper, James Cropper’s daughter-in-law, served as president of the Liverpool Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Association in the 1850s. In the June 1859 edition of Douglass’ Monthly, Douglass acknowledged the monetary donation made by the Liverpool Anti-Slavery Society, which he mentions in this letter. DM, 1:89 (June 1859); David B. Davis, “James Cropper and the British Anti-Slavery Movement, 1821–1823,” JNH, 45:251 (October 1960); idem, “James Cropper and the British Anti-Slavery Movement, 1823–1833,” JNH, 46:154 (April 1961); Brian Howman, “Abolition in Liverpool,” in Liverpool and Transatlantic Slavery, ed. David Richardson, Suzanne Schwarz, and Anthony Tibbles (Liverpool, Eng., 2007), 277. 4. Frederick Douglass rarely mentioned his participation in the Underground Railroad publicly. The most recent reference to a fugitive slave in Rochester preceding the date of this letter is recorded in the April 1859 edition of Douglass’ Monthly: “A fugitive slave arrived in this city last week by way of the Underground Railroad, and after recruiting a day, was sent on his way to Canada. He was from Richmond, Va., where he held the post of bookkeeper in a large establishment.” DM, 1:64 (April 1859). 5. Maria G. Porter, president of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in 1859.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO JAMES HALL1 Rochester[,] N.Y. 10 June 1859[.]

James Hall Esqr. My dear sir: You have made me your debtor for an act of friendship for which, I beg you to believe me, extremely grateful. The curtain dropt between me and Maryland nearly twenty one years ago.2 Since Then I have been separated from all the dear ones of my youth as if by the shadow of death. Any tidings from the place, the people, the friends, and the objects associated with my youthful days have for me an interest which you can better imagine than I can express. The manumitted persons in the record sent me— are all doubtless my blood relations—but all born Since I left Maryland. Those who were known to me on the Estate are, I have reason to believe all free. Mr Thomas Auld3–has shown himself far more benevolent and noble than I supposed him to be—and than I have given him credit for in my earlier speeches and publications. He is doubtless, a much better Christian than many here at the North who call upon slave holders to Emancipate Their Slaves. His sense of Justice cost him Something. It is noble of him to make the sacrafice & to do So in a community where his justice is not popular.

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Nevertheless, considering that the average length of human life falls far below therty years4 –it Seems to me That his Charity and justice would have appeared to far better advantage had he set an earlier age, as the one at which to emancipate his servants. I am however immeasurably thankful to God that my old master has thus far put himself in harmony with the spirit of Christ–and the requirements of justice. William Watkins5–for whom you inquire still resides in Rochester– but has not been connected with me in the publication of my paper for a year past. Please write me and say whether I am at Liberty to make any public use of the record with which you have favored me. I am, Dear Sir, Very gratefully yours, FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Maryland Colonization Society Papers, MdHis. 1. Born in Cornish, New Hampshire, James Hall (1802–89) graduated from Bowdoin College’s Medical Department in 1822. After practicing medicine in Windsor, Vermont (1822–29), he took a position with the Maryland Colonization Society, partially to recover his health via a voyage to Africa. Hall quickly rose to become governor of that society’s Cape Palmas colony (1833–36). He then returned to the United States and worked as general agent for the Maryland Colonization Society for several decades. He later engaged in mercantile activity in Baltimore. New York Times, 7 September 1889; Bowdoin College, General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical College of Maine, 1794–1912 (Brunswick, Me., 1912), 317. 2. Douglass alludes to his escape from slavery in Maryland in September 1838. 3. Thomas Auld. 4. Life expectancy in the 1850s is a subject of dispute among demographers, but Douglass’s estimate seems pessimistic. American whites seem to have lived an average of approximately forty years, and slaves thirty-six years. Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman, Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Slavery (Boston, 1974), 126, 260–61; Robert William Fogel, Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery (New York, 1989), 32–34, 127–32. 5. William J. Watkins.

AMY POST1 TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Rochester, [N.Y.] 13 June 1859.

Frederick Douglass: Dear Friend: In your remarks in your last week’s paper upon “Modern Spiritualism,”2 I most heartily concur, so far as thinking it necessary that Spiritualists should be criticised and watched as closely as any other class of men and

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women, and have applyed to them the same test, “by their fruits ye shall know them,”3 as you would to any other class or sect, and when weighed in the balance and found wanting, denounce them with the same severity. But when you speak of the Spiritualism manifested in the late Waterloo Meeting of the Friends of Human Progress,4 as placing Spiritualism pre-eminently before the anti-slavery reform, you make a great mistake, I think. It was woman’s wrongs that our gentleman speaker considered pre-eminent.5 He, as I was informed, was a Spiritualist, and some twenty, or perhaps more, voted with him.—Whether they were all Spiritualists, I know not; but a much larger number, I think, of Spiritualists present voted in the negative—thoroughly understanding in their own souls that the slave woman’s wrongs are a thousand fold more terrible, and ought not for a moment to be put in competition. At a subsequent session, when the subject of Spiritualism was before the meeting for discussion, two persons, I think, expressed it as their belief that Spiritualism would do more for the overthrow of all evils in the world, than any other reform;6 but the weight of argument, and the facts presented on the negative of the question, I thought, were overwhelming. This is the point which I wish to bring out in as few words as possible. In the variety of the great and vital subjects that were presented to that meeting, and so ably discussed through the long sittings of three days, it is not strange that in some particulars your remembrance of them should be indistinct; and as a lover of truth and correctness, I tho’t you would like to have the mistake corrected. Yours, truly, A. P.7 PLIr: FDP, 24 June 1859. 1. Amy Post (1802–89) was born Amy Kirby in Jericho, New York. In 1828 she married Isaac Post, a druggist and the widower of her sister. The Posts became involved with Garrisonian abolitionism and the Underground Railroad after they moved to Rochester in 1835. Amy served as a vice president of the American Anti-Slavery Society in the 1850s and 1860s. Douglass first met the couple when he stayed at their house during a lecture tour in 1842, and their friendship influenced his choice of Rochester as the base for his newspaper the North Star. In addition to abolitionism, Amy Post participated in a broad range of reforms, including the women’s movement, which began at the convention that she helped organize in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Hewitt, Women’s Activism and Social Change: Rochester, 116–17, 119–20, 140, 143, 184, 230–31; Blake McKelvey, “Civic Medals Awarded Posthumously,” RH, 22:10 (April 1960). 2. Frederick Douglass attended the annual meeting of the Friends of Human Progress in Waterloo, New York, and recounted his observations in his newspaper on 10 June 1859. Before his description of the meeting, Douglass gave a brief overview of “Spiritualism” as he understood it. Douglass stated that he was present at some of Spiritualism’s “peculiar exhibitions,” but did not agree with its

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“supremacy over the religion of the New Testament.” After commending Spiritualists for their advocacy of education, women’s rights, temperance, and an end to sectarianism, Douglass condemned their reluctance to accept antislavery reform. According to Douglass, several Spiritualists at the meeting voted against resolutions giving prominence to antislavery reform. Douglass perceived their reluctance as an effort to seek “harmony” with Spiritualists in the South and to ensure the survival of the Spiritualist movement. FDP, 10 June 1859. 3. A slight paraphrase of a portion of the Sermon on the Mount. Matt. 7:16. 4. Douglass attended the 1859 annual meeting of the Friends for Human Progress with his friend Amy Post. The meeting lasted three days and drew large crowds each day. Despite Douglass’s assertions, and the presence of many Spiritualists, Spiritualism was not the main focus of the meeting. Speakers thoroughly discussed temperance, women’s rights, abolitionism, education reform, and an end to sectarianism. Spiritualism came up in a series of resolutions on the second day. In an address on the third day, Phillip D. Moore argued that Spiritualism was a greater friend to human rights than any church, and a better social reformer. Douglass contested these assertions on the third day in a speech that was well received by the audience, calling Spiritualism a mere “theoretical religion.” Proceedings of the Yearly Meeting of the Friends of Human Progress held at Waterloo, Seneca Co., N.Y.: The 3d, 4th, and 5th day of June, 1859 (Rochester, 1859), 3–17; FDP, 10 June 1859; Hewitt, Women’s Activism and Social Change, 135, 141, 184, 190. 5. The Friends of Human Progress discussed a number of social reforms, and women’s rights figured prominently on the second day of the meeting. The committee on resolutions presented several that called for the equality of all men in the South. Several speakers however, contested the resolutions. Dr. O. A. Wellington argued that the enslavement of women was far worse than that of slaves. Lucy M. Coleman, who spoke after Wellington, proclaimed herself “deeply sensitive” to the cause of women’s rights, but asserted that slavery was far worse. The debate over women’s rights lasted until the meeting adjourned for one hour. Proceedings of the Yearly Meeting of the Friends of Human Progress, 6–9; Hewitt, Women’s Activism and Social Change, 190. 6. Phillip D. Moore’s speech on the third day was a direct assault on organized religion in America. Moore argued that attachment to individual denominations hindered efforts at social reform. Moore argued that men had become “American slaves” to those institutions and would never advocate reform. Moore further argued that Spiritualism would lead more people to support social reforms in the coming years. Proceedings of the Yearly Meeting of the Friends of Human Progress, 10–17. 7. Douglass inserted the following editorial comment immediately following the letter from Post in his newspaper: “Remarks.—The above communication from our respected friend is correct in this particular—two gentlemen, both Spiritualists we are informed, did insist that the wrongs of the free woman were greater than those of the slave, and that the ‘Woman’s Rights’ reform was of more importance than the anti-slavery reform; but has our correspondent forgotten that Spiritualism, it was asserted, had done more for humanity in the last five years, than the Christian religion in 1800, and as a consequence, was ‘first and pre-eminent;’ and when we questioned of what it had done for the slave, we were told we must not inquire? Of course, these questions are not put to provoke a rejoinder, as we think enough has already been said upon the subject.—Ed.”: FDP, 24 June 1859.

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GERRIT SMITH TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Peterboro, [N.Y.] 19 Sept[ember] 1859.

Mr. Frederick Douglass: My Dear Friend:— I have just read the last number of your paper. Your able and interesting article on American Civilization is entitled to a wide circulation.1 I see that neither you nor our friend J. R. Johnson2 think me right in declining to attend the approaching Anniversary of the ‘Jerry Rescue.’ And so even you are still ignorant of what I mean by the phrase: ‘No law for slavery!’3 You think that all I mean by it is ‘that there can be no righteous law for slavery.’ If this is all, then I admit that you are right in placing the ‘Jerry Rescuers’ and the Republican party on the same level with myself. But this is very far from being all my meaning. Why does the Republican Legislature of our State refuse from Session to Session to enact that fugitives from the great Southern Prison House shall be protected on our soil? Because in their judgment a law—valid and obligatory notwithstanding its immorality—forbids such an enactment. But what they see to be law I see to be no law. That which restrains them imposes no restraint on me.—Neither the Fugitive Slave Law Act, nor any thing in the Constitution, could in the least degree hinder my legislating for the protection of the fugitive slave. Do I not then at this point, where you fancy I am one with the Republican party, differ very widely from it—the Legislature being admitted to represent it? And do I not also at this same point differ as widely from those ‘Jerry Rescuers’ whose votes help make a Republican Legislature? Again, were a fugitive slave seized in Albany, and about to be hurried to the South without a trial, Governor Morgan4 would doubtless be ready to wield the whole military power of the city, if need be, to secure to him what he the Governor would call a ‘fair trial.’ So would Judge Parker,5 were he the Governor: and so would Mr. Burrows,6 were he the Governor. But were I the Governor, I should be ready to wield it not only to save the slave from being hurried away, but also from the degradation and oppression of this ‘fair trial.’ I would no more permit, could I prevent it, the trial in his case of the question whether a man is a man or a chattel—a sublime and sacred immortal or a vulgar commodity—than I would permit it in the case of any one of these three distinguished gentlemen. In a word, I would regard the self-styled Court that should attempt to carry on this trial as a mob, and as much entitled as any other mob to be

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dispersed. Do I not differ then as essentially from the Republican type as I do from the Democratic or Native American? Moreover, these gentlemen, tho’ perhaps admitting the Statute to be unrighteous, would nevertheless all enforce the Fugitive Slave Statute. But I would resist its enforcement. And does not this also prove that my views of law differ from theirs?—I beg you, my dear friend, not to try any further to make it appear that I am after all like the politicians, and am no fanatic. Let my real views of law remain undisguised, even though the world shall continue to call them fanatical. I appreciate your kindness in trying to save my reputation at this point.—But you cannot save it. And so too after all I have written these many years to make plain what I mean by helping the South bear the loss of the abolition of slavery, even you do not understand me! Some people will have it that what I mean by it is to recognize the moral—others the legal right of slaveholding. You place yourself among the latter. I confess that I am well nigh discouraged from all further attempts at making myself understood at this point. Nevertheless I will in a few words undertake it once more. First, Suppose I see one man trying to murder another. I offer the murderer a hundred dollars to desist. He accepts it: and goes away declaring that I admit the right to murder. Would he represent me fairly? Second, Suppose I tell the slaveholders that I will give them all my property, ay and my life too, if they will let my oppressed brethren go free. Is this recognizing the right to hold them in slavery? Surely, no more right is recognized in this case than in the other. I have given many thousand dollars to slaveholders to induce them to liberate their slaves. Is it not absurd to say that my gifts involved the admission of their right to be slaveholders? Third, But am I to be held as recognizing either the moral or legal right of slaveholding because when telling the slaveholders what I would have the nation offer them to induce them to emancipate their slaves, I at the same time admit the connexion of the North with the South in establishing, encouraging, upholding, and continuing slavery; and infer from such connexion that the North is a responsible sharer with the South in the crime of slavery, and is therefore bound to share in the loss of abolishing it? You ask me ‘upon what principle of ethics’ I can associate with slaveholders ‘as gentlemen.’ I confess that it is perhaps not upon principle that I do so. Perhaps it is only through the force of habit—my father having been a slaveholder7 until after I had reached manhood and had formed my

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habits of intercourse with men—my wife having been a slaveholder8 when I married her—and a number of my friends and relatives still being slaveholders. Am I not, in the light of such facts, entitled to a little patience at this point? It is however but justice to myself and to the slaveholder to add, that whilst you and I do from our more favorable stand-point see the criminality of slaveholding, most slaveholders see it very imperfectly, and many do not see it at all—Hence it is not difficult to find a slaveholder who is characterized and adorned with virtues which enter largely into the composition of a gentleman. But, my old friend, if it is a wonder that I can associate with Southern men who are blinded by their education, the greater wonder is that I can associate with Northern pro-slavery men for whom this plea of blindness cannot be made. Your friend, GERRIT SMITH. PLSr: DM, 1:158 (October 1859). 1. DM, 2:150–51 (October 1859). 2. James Rawson Johnson. 3. This phrase appeared in Gerrit Smith’s 27 August 1859 letter to John L. Thomas, declining the invitation to preside over and address the celebration marking the eighth anniversary of the Jerry Rescue in Syracuse, New York. Frothingham, Gerrit Smith, 121–22. 4. Edwin Dennison Morgan. 5. Amasa Junius Parker (1807–90) was a lawyer and educator. From 1823 to 1827, Parker was principal of the Hudson Academy, and though he never attended college, he earned a bachelor of arts degree by examination from Union College. He studied law under his uncle, Amasa Parker, and was admitted to the bar in 1828. Parker practiced law in Delhi, New York, and became an active member of the Democratic party. He served as regent of the State University of New York (1835–44), was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1837–39), and served as a judge for the third district of the New York Supreme Court (1847–55). He assisted in the foundation of the Albany Law School in 1851. Parker unsuccessfully ran for governor of New York in 1856 and again in 1858. ACAB, 4:649–50; DAB, 14:214–15; BDUSC (online). 6. Lorenzo Burrows (1805–85) was the unsuccessful candidate of the nativist American party for governor of New York in 1858. Born in Connecticut, he settled in Albion, New York, and became a successful merchant. He was elected as a Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives (1849–53). BDUSC (online). 7. Gerrit Smith was the son of Peter Skenandoah Smith (1768–1837) of Dutch extraction. As a partner with John Jacob Astor in fur trading and land speculation, Smith eventually acquired over half a million acres of undeveloped land in upstate New York. In 1806 he established his commercial base at Peterboro, the town he founded in Madison County. Depressed after the death of his wife and increasingly obsessed with religious evangelism, Peter Smith turned his business over to Gerrit in 1819. Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 1–4; Stauffer, Black Hearts of Men, 74–81. 8. From a wealthy slaveholding Maryland family, Ann Carroll Fitzhugh had moved with her family to Rochester, New York, before becoming Gerrit Smith’s second wife at age seventeen in 1822. Stauffer, Black Hearts of Men, 92–94.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO HUGH AULD1 Rochester[, N.Y.] 4 Oct[ober] [1859.]2

Hugh Auld Esq My dear sir. My heart tells me that you are too noble to treat with indifference the request I am about to make. It is twenty years Since I ran[]away from you,3 or rather not from you but from Slavery, and Since then I have often felt a Strong desire to hold a little correspondence with you and to learn Something of the position and prospects of your dear children4 —They were dear to me—and are Still—indeed I feel nothing but kindness for you all—I love you, but hate Slavery. Now my dear Sir, will you favor me by dropping me a line, telling me in what year I came to live with you in Aliceanna st5 the year the Frigate was built by Mr. Beacham6 —The information is not for publication—and Shall not be published— We are all hastening where all distinctions are ended, kindness to the humblest will not be unrewarded[.] Perhaps you have heard that I have Seen Miss Amanda7 that was, Mrs Sears that is, and was treated kindly Such is the fact, Gladly would I see you and Mrs. Auld—or Miss Sopha as I used to call her.8 I could have lived with you during life in freedom though I ran[]away from you so uncerimoniously, I did not know how Soon I might be sold. But I hate to talk about that. A line from you will find me Addressed Fredk Douglass Rochester N. York. I am dear Sir very truly yours. FRED. DOUGLASS ALS: Hall Collection, MdAHR. 1. Born in Talbot County, Maryland, Hugh Auld, Jr., (1799–1861) moved to Baltimore as a young man. There, with his wife Sophia Keithley, he worked as a ship’s carpenter, master shipbuilder, shipyard foreman, and occasionally as a magistrate. Between 1826 and 1833, and again between 1836 and 1838, Douglass lived and worked in their household, lent to them by his owner, Hugh’s brother Thomas. In 1845, incensed by Douglass’s depiction of his family in the Narrative, Hugh Auld bought Douglass from Thomas Auld. According to the Pennsylvania Freeman, Auld was determined to reenslave Douglass and “place him in the cotton fields of the South” if the fugitive ever returned to the United States. In 1846 the British abolitionists Anna and Ellen Richardson raised $711.66 (£150 sterling) from British reformers and offered to buy Douglass’s freedom from Auld. Auld agreed to the sale and signed the manumission papers that made Douglass a free man. Walter Lourie to Ellis Gray Loring, 15 December 1846, reel 1, frame 644; Benjamin F. Auld to Douglass, 11, 27 September 1891, reel 6, frames 240–41, 257–58; Douglass to Benjamin F. Auld, 16 September 1891, reel 6, frames 246–47; J. C. Schaffer to Helen Pitts Douglass, 21 October 1896, reel 8, frames 92–93, all in General Correspondence File, FD Papers, DLC; Talbot County Records, V.60, 35–36, MdTCH (a copy is found on reel 1, frames 637–39, FD Papers, DLC); Hugh Auld Family Genealogical Chart, prepared

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by Carl G. Auld, Ellicott City, Md., 5 June 1976; Pennsylvania Freeman, 26 February 1846; Lib., 6 March 1846; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 81, 84–85, 92, 143, 173–75. 2. Internal evidence leads to the conclusion that this letter was composed in 1859 not 1857, as handwritten on the manuscript. There is no record that Hugh Auld ever responded to Douglass. Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 168. 3. Not until 1881 did Douglass publicly reveal the details of his escape from slavery. On 3 September 1838, he boarded a train bound north from Baltimore. Douglass had borrowed the uniform and seaman’s protection papers of a free black friend in Baltimore. Fortunately for Douglass, the conductor did not check the description in the papers carefully, and several white acquaintances on the train failed to recognize him. After changing trains several times, Douglass reached New York City and freedom. Douglass, “My Escape from Slavery,” Century Magazine, 23:125–31 (November 1881); Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 3:153–56. 4. Hugh and Sophia Auld had six children. Douglass was sent to Baltimore to act as a companion to the eldest, Thomas “Tommy” Auld (1824–48). The other Auld children were Ann Elizabeth Auld (1826–91), Benjamin Franklin Auld (1828–98), Hugh William Auld (1831–91), Edward H. Auld (1836–?), and Zepporah Frances Auld (1838–72). Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 95, 165–66, 228n. 5. Neither the 1824 nor 1827 Baltimore directories, the only extant directories in this period, list Hugh Auld’s residence. The Baltimore City Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation established that Hugh Auld’s house was on the southeast corner of Aliceanna and Durham, formerly Happy Alley, streets in Fells Point. Contemporary sources spelled the street “Alisanna” (1824) or “Alice Anna” (1827). Matchett’s Baltimore Directory for 1824 (Baltimore, 1824), 343; Matchett’s Baltimore Directory for 1827 (Baltimore, 1827), 1 (street register); Fielding Lucas, Jr., comp., Plan of the City of Baltimore (Baltimore, 1836); Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 223. 6. The firm of J. S. Beacham & Brothers, headed by James Beacham, was a leading builder of the speedy two-masted pilot schooner today remembered as the Baltimore clipper. Built in shipyards in St. Michaels and Baltimore, Beacham ships were sold to customers around the world and made their way into the opium and slave trades as well as more legitimate maritime commerce. Beacham constructed the sixty-four-gun frigate Baltimore at his Fells Point shipyard for the Brazilian navy in 1826. J. Thomas Scharf, History of Baltimore City and County: From the Earliest Period to the Present Day (Philadelphia, 1881), 293; Geoffrey M. Footner, Tidewater Triumph: The Development and Worldwide Success of the Chesapeake Bay Pilot Schooner (Centreville, Md., 1998), 9, 130, 134, 146, 151, 158–59. 7. Born in Hillsborough, Maryland, Arianna Amanda Auld Sears (1826–78) was the only child of Thomas and Lucretia Anthony Auld. In 1826, after her mother’s death and her father’s remarriage, she fell under the charge of her stepmother, Rowena Hambleton Auld. In 1843 she married John L. Sears, a Philadelphia coal merchant, with whom she had four children. The Searses moved to Philadelphia, but returned to Maryland in the early 1860s, settling in Baltimore. Amanda Sears’s childhood acquaintance with Frederick Douglass was reestablished in early October 1859 when he called upon her while on a speaking engagement in Philadelphia. Douglass and Amanda maintained a warm friendship over the years that followed. After her death, in 1878, Amanda’s husband wrote to Douglass, “God bless you for your kindness to her.” John L. Sears to Douglass, 10 January 1878, Thomas E. Sears to Douglass, 1 February 1878, General Correspondence File, reel 3, frames 215–16, 225, FD Papers, DLC; Auld Family Bible (courtesy of Carl G. Auld); New York Herald, 6 September 1866; Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 6 September 1866; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 30, 106–07, 168–70; Roberts, “Visitation of Western Talbot,” 245. 8. Sophia Keithley Auld (1797–1880) was born in Talbot County, Maryland, to Richard and Hester Keithley. Her parents were poor devout Methodists who held to the antislavery teachings of their church. Before marrying Hugh Auld, she worked as a weaver. Soon after their marriage, the couple moved to Baltimore. Both Douglass and Sophia Auld retained enormous affection for each other long after Douglass had established himself in the North. Douglass tried to visit Auld in Balti-

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more during the Civil War. Years after her death, Auld’s son Benjamin told Douglass, “Mother would always speak in the kindest terms of you, whenever your name was mentioned.” Benjamin F. Auld to Douglass, 11 September 1891, General Correspondence File, reel 6, frame 240, FD Papers, DLC; Baltimore Sun, 5 July 1880; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 87, 165–66, 168.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO SAMUEL P. ALLEN1 Canada West. 31 Oct[ober] 1859.

To the Editor of the Rochester Democrat: I notice that the telegraph makes Mr. Cook,2 (one of the unfortunate insurgents at Harper’s Ferry, and now a prisoner in the hands of the thing calling itself the Government of Virginia, but which in fact is but an organized conspiracy by one party of the people, against the other and weaker,) denounces me as a coward—and to assert that I promised to be present in person at the Harper’s Ferry Insurrection.3 This is certainly a very grave impeachment, whether viewed in its bearings upon friends, or upon foes, and you will not think it strange that I should take a somewhat serious notice of it. Having no acquaintance, whatever, with Mr. Cook, and never having exchanged a word with him about the Harper’s Ferry insurrection, I am disposed to doubt that he could have used the language concerning me, which the wires attribute to him.—The lightning, when speaking for itself, is among the most direct, reliable and truthful of things; but when speaking for the terror stricken slaveholders at Harper’s Ferry, it has been made the swiftest of liars. Under their nimble and trembling fingers, it magnified seventeen men into seven hundred—and has since filled the columns of the New York Herald for days with interminable contradictions.4 But assuming that it has told only the simple truth, as to the sayings of Mr. Cook in this instance, I have this answer to make to my accuser: Mr. Cook may be perfectly right in denouncing me as a coward. I have not one word to say in defense or vindication of my character for courage. I have always been more distinguished for running than fighting—and tried by the Harper’s Ferry insurrection test, I am most miserably deficient in courage—even more so than Cook, when he deserted his brave old captain and fled to the mountains. To this extent, Mr. Cook is entirely right, and will meet no contradiction from me or from anybody else. But wholly, grievously, and most unaccountably wrong is Mr. Cook, when he asserts that I promised to be present in person at the Harper’s Ferry insurrection. Of whatever other imprudence and indiscretion I may have been

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guilty, I have never made a promise so rash and wild as this. The taking of Harper’s Ferry was a measure never encouraged by my word or by my vote, at any time or place; my wisdom or my cowardice, has not only kept me from Harper’s Ferry, but has equally kept me from making any promise to go there. I desire to be quite emphatic here—for of all guilty men, he is the guiltiest who lures his fellow men to an undertaking of this sort, under promise of assistance, which he afterwards fails to render. I therefore declare that there is no man living, and no man dead, who if living, could truthfully say that I ever promised him or anybody else, either conditionally or otherwise, that I would be present in person at the Harper’s Ferry insurrection. My field of labor for the abolition of Slavery has not extended to an attack upon the United States’ arsenal. In the teeth of the documents already published, and of those which may hereafter be published, I affirm that no man connected with that insurrection, from its noble and heroic leader down, can connect my name with a single broken promise of any sort whatever. So much I deem it proper to say negatively. The time for a full statement of what I know, and of all I know, of this desperate but sublimely disinterested effort to emancipate the slaves of Maryland and Virginia, from their cruel task masters, has not yet come, and may never come. In the denial which I have now made, my motive is more a respectful consideration for the opinions of the slave’s friends, than from my fear of being made an accomplice in the general conspiracy against Slavery. I am ever ready to write, speak, publish, organize, combine, and even to conspire against Slavery, when there is a reasonable hope for success. Men who live by robbing their fellow men of their labor and liberty, have forfeited their right to know any thing of the thoughts, feelings or purposes of those whom they rob and plunder. They have by the single act of slaveholding, voluntarily placed themselves beyond the laws of justice and honor, and have become only fitted for companionship with thieves and pirates—the common enemies of God and of all mankind. While it shall be considered right to protect oneself against thieves, burglars, robbers and assassins, and to slay a wild beast in the act of devouring his human prey, it can never be wrong for the imbruted and whipscarred slaves, or their friends, to hunt, harrass and even strike down the traffickers in human flesh.—If any body is disposed to think less of me on account of this sentiment; or because I may have had a knowledge of what was about to occur, and did not assume the base and detestable character of an informer, he is a man whose good or bad opinion of me may be equally repugnant and despicable. Entertaining this sentiment, I may be

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asked, why I did not join John Brown—the noble old hero whose one right hand has shaken the foundation of the American Union, and whose ghost will haunt the bed-chambers of all the born and unborn Slaveholders of Virginia through all their generations, filling them with alarm and consternation! My answer to this has already been given, at least impliedly given. “The tools to those that can use them.”5 Let every man work for the abolition of Slavery in his own way. I would help all, and hinder none. My position in regard to the Harper’s Ferry Insurrection, may be easily inferred from these remarks, and I shall be glad if those papers which have spoken of me in connection with it, would find room for this brief statement. I have no apology for keeping out of the way of those gentlemanly United States Marshals, who are said to have paid Rochester a somewhat protracted visit lately, with a view to an interview with me.6 A government recognizing the validity of the Dred Scott decision, at such a time as this, is not likely to have any very charitable feelings towards me; and if I am to meet its representatives, I prefer to do so, at least, upon equal terms. If I have committed any offense against Society, I have done so on the soil of the State of New York, and I should be perfectly willing there to be arraigned before an impartial jury; but I have quite insuperable objections to being caught by the hands of Mr. Buchanan,7 and “bagged” by Gov. Wise.8 For this appears to be the arrangement.—Buchanan does the fighting and hunting, and Wise “bags” the game. Some reflections may be made upon my leaving on a tour to England, just at this time. I have only to say, that my going to that country has been rather delayed than hastened by the insurrection at Harper’s Ferry. All knew that I had intended to leave here in the first week of November.9 FREDERICK DOUGLASS. PLSr: New York Times, 3 November 1859. Other texts in Rochester Union and Advertiser, 2 November 1859; Toronto Globe, 4 November 1859; Halifax (Eng.) Courier, 3 December 1859. 1. Founded in 1836, the Rochester Democrat was a long-established city paper. It was purchased in 1846 by Alva Strong, Samuel P. Allen, and Henry Strong. By the late 1850s, the paper had morning, triweekly, and weekly editions. In 1857, the Democrat absorbed a rival, the American, and became know as the Rochester Daily Democrat and American and the weekly Monroe Democrat. Under the editorial direction of Allen (1814–?), the Democrat upheld first the Whig and then the Republican party standard in the city. A career journalist, Allen won patronage appointments as clerk of the state senate and collector of internal revenue for Monroe and Orleans counties, New York, as rewards for his political service. The issue of the Democrat publishing Douglass’s letter has not been located, so the oldest complete text from the New York Times has been reproduced. French, Gazetteer of the State of New York, 396; James H. Smith, History of Livingston County, New York: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers (Syracuse, N.Y., 1881), 388;

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Aida DiPace Donald, “The Decline of Whiggery and the Formation of the Republican Party in Rochester, 1848–1856,” RH, 20: 4–5, 15 (July 1958). 2. Born in Haddam, Connecticut, John Edwin Cook (1830–59) studied for a time at Yale University and then worked as a law clerk in Brooklyn, New York. By 1855, Cook had migrated to Kansas and was among the first to volunteer to assist Brown in his plan to raid the South. Brown sent Cook ahead to live in Harpers Ferry for more than a year before the raid. A genial and observant young man, Cook worked as a lock tender, married a local woman, and surreptitiously gathered information about the armory and its watch patrols. Part of the rear guard during the raid, he managed to escape as far north as Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, before being captured. While in jail, he wrote a public confession that implicated several of Brown’s abolitionist supporters, including Douglass, whom Cook accused of failing to bring promised reinforcements for the raid. At his trial, Cook pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he had not been informed of Brown’s true intentions until the time of the attack. After an unsuccessful escape attempt, he was executed on 16 December 1859. Hinton, John Brown, 78–79, 110, 329, 561–64; Oates, To Purge This Land, 218–19, 251–52, 275, 286, 298, 315–16, 328; Villard, John Brown, 307–08, 338, 344, 408, 446–47, 570–73. 3. John Brown led a party of twenty-one men on a raid of Harpers Ferry on 16–17 October 1859. Seven of his followers escaped, but Pennsylvania authorities later captured two of them. Oates, To Purge This Land, 299–309, 324–27, 34–52. 4. John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry caused considerable confusion in the Northern press and led to many inaccurate reports on the number and methods of Brown and his men. The New York Herald emphasized that the raid was “led by white men,” and greatly exaggerated the number of men involved in the raid. According to the Herald, there were “several hundred negros” involved in the fighting, and escaped slaves would then reinforce this number. Before U.S. military forces recaptured the arsenal, the Herald reported that there were enough men at Harpers Ferry to threaten Washington and that the city was erecting fortifications in preparation of such an attack in the next few days. New York Herald, 18, 20 October 1859. 5. This expression is commonly attributed to the English writer Thomas Carlyle. Steven Marcus, “Conceptions of the Self in an Age of Progress,” in Progress and Its Discontents, ed. Gabriel A. Almond, Marvin Chodorow and Roy Harvey Pearce, (Berkeley, Calif., 1992), 437. 6. Governor Henry A. Wise of Virginia requested federal help in apprehending Douglass, and federal officials visited Rochester, reportedly to seize Douglass. DM, 2:162–63 (November 1859); Quarles, Allies for Freedom, 114–15; idem, Frederick Douglass, 178–85. 7. President James Buchanan. 8. Henry Alexander Wise (1806–76), governor of Virginia from 1856 to 1860, graduated from Washington College in Pennsylvania, studied law under the famed jurist Henry St. George Tucker, and briefly practiced law in Nashville, Tennessee, before entering Virginia politics as a Jacksonian Democrat and opponent of nullification. Serving in Congress from 1833 to 1844, he attracted considerable notoriety for his impassioned defense of slavery and Southern rights. Wise switched allegiances for a time to the Whig party, supporting the Harrison-Tyler presidential campaign of 1840, and served as ambassador to Brazil in the Tyler administration. During the 1850s, Wise, again a Democrat, successfully opposed Know-Nothingism in Virginia, arguing in part that the new party harbored antislavery sentiments. As governor, Wise reacted zealously to John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry and desired particularly to implicate Douglass. He requested that President Buchanan hire two Virginia detectives as special federal agents to capture Douglass and deliver him to Virginia authorities. Even after Douglass left the United States, Wise employed a detective “to find out the whereabouts of the Negro Frederick Douglass and keep an eye on his movements and associates.” The Northern press reported that a group of prominent Southerners, including Wise, had offered $50,000 for Douglass’s capture. After his term as governor, Wise served as a delegate to the Washington Peace Convention of 1861 and as a general in the Confederate army. Douglass to the editor of the Rochester Democrat (and American), 31 October 1859, in Montreal Daily Transcript, 5 November 1859; DM, 2:162–63 (November 1859); Lib., 23 December 1859; FDP, 5 January 1860; Barton H.

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Wise, The Life of Henry A. Wise of Virginia, 1806–1876 (New York, 1899); Quarles, Frederick Douglass, 180–85; idem, Allies for Freedom, 115; ACAB, 6:579–80; DAB, 20:423–25. 9. On 12 November 1859, Douglass took passage from Quebec on board the steamer Nova Scotian of the Allan Line, disembarking at Liverpool, England, on 24 November 1859. New York Herald, 15 November 1859.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO MARIA LAMB WEBB1 Halifax[,] Yorkshire[, Eng.]. 30 November 1859[.]

Maria Webb My dear Friend: I am not unmindful of your kind note2 received just before leaving america—in wh[ic]h you kindly welcome me to your dear home when it may be my good fortune to come to Dublin, as I cirtainly hope it will be. You have of course heard of the circumstances under which I was left no alternative but to leave the states or be implicated with John Brown—and perhaps, share his fate. I find here, as in America, some misapprehension as to my relation to that brave and I believe good man. My letter,3 published in reply to the sayings of Mr Cook,4 published in the American papers did much to set me right before the American people and I have no doubt will do much in the same direction here. You will have probably met with this letter—and will, I am sure, be glad that I am able to deny any part of the charges brought against me in connection with the Harpers Ferry Affair. I went to Canada after the troubles at Harpers Ferry, because I had reason to know that measures were in progress to carry me into Virginia—and even if the Courts of that Slave State Should acquit me, as they would not have been very likely to do—I could never hope to get out of that State alive. If they did not kill me for being concerned with Dear Old Brown they would have done so—for my being Frederick Douglass— My friends here are doing their utmost to counter act the influence of the false Statements of Cook which have found their way into some of the English papers—and to bring me well before the people of Yorkshire. What constant trouble do I give my friends? I hope to justify their kind Solicitude in the end. My good friends Mrs Crofts5—and the Doctor6 have made me welcome to a home with them while I Stay in the Country. Julia is the Same Zealous, active and untiring worker that She ever was—and you may well suppose that our meeting was a joyous one—I am to lecture here next Wednesday night7—under the auspices of the Halifax Ladies

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Anti Slavery Soc: 8James Stansfield M.P.9 is to take the Chair. Hoping to See you ere many months— I am, with love to your Dear Husband10 and household Your every grateful friend FREDERICK DOUGLASS— ALS: Scrapbook of Maria Webb, Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History. 1. Born in Northern Ireland, the Quaker Maria Lamb Webb (1804–73) was the corresponding secretary of the Belfast Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in the 1840s. She exchanged letters with many American abolitionists, including Douglass. She was a cousin of Richard D. Webb, but became a vocal critic of the Garrisonian wing of abolitionism. Her husband, William Webb, relocated the family to Dublin in the late 1840s to work for his brother-in-law Richard Allen, a textile merchant and prominent Irish abolitionist. Although her health declined to the point that she had become housebound by 1860, she authored several well-received works on Quaker genealogy. 1847 Mail Book of the North Star, Financial Papers File, reel 29, frame 399, FD Papers, DLC; Friends’ Review: A Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal, 27:747 (June 1874) 27:754–55 (July 1874), 29:440 (February 1876); Douglas C. Raich, “Richard Davis Webb and Antislavery in Ireland,” in Antislavery Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Abolitionists, ed. Lewis Perry and Michael Fellman (Baton Rouge, La., 1979), 159; Legg, Alfred Webb, 83; Taylor, British and American Abolitionists, 297; ODNB (Online). 2. Webb’s letter to Douglass has not survived. 3. Douglass alludes to his letter of 31 October 1859 to the editor of the Rochester Democrat, which appears earlier in this volume. 4. John Edwin Cook. 5. In 1859, Julia Griffiths married the Methodist clergyman Henry O. Crofts. The couple settled in Halifax, a town in Yorkshire. As was customary for Methodist clergy, Crofts and his family traveled from parsonage to parsonage in northern England for nearly twenty years. Douglass addressed this letter to Salem Parsonage, most likely the residence of Henry and Julia Crofts at this time. McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 182, 203; Frank E. Fee, Jr., “To No One More Indebted: Frederick Douglass and Julia Griffiths, 1849–63,” Journalism History, 35:22 (Spring 2011). 6. Henry O. Crofts (c. 1813–1880), an ordained minister in the Methodist Church, served as a missionary in eastern Canada. Crofts arrived in Canada in 1842 and moved to Montreal the following year, heading several missions in the region. He later served as superintendent of missions for eastern Canada before returning to England in 1852. Crofts’s first marriage, to Saley Ann Bucknell, ended with her death in 1854. Crofts married Julia Griffiths in 1859 and continued to serve as a member of Methodist missionary organizations until his death. Nottinghamshire Guardian, 25 May 1854; Colchester (Eng.) Essex Standard, West Suffolk Gazette, and Eastern Counties’ Advertiser, 31 January 1880; Hilary M. Carey, God’s Empire: Religion and Colonization in the British World, c. 1801–1908 (Cambridge, Eng., 2011), 186; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 203. 7. On 7 December 1859, two weeks after his arrival in England, Douglass spoke to a large audience at Mechanics’ Hall in Halifax. Eight other British reformers addressed the meeting, including Henry O. Crofts. At the conclusion of his address, the audience passed a resolution welcoming Douglass to England. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:276. 8. Founded by Julia Griffiths in 1857 as a vehicle to support Douglass by raising funds and collecting items to sell at antislavery bazaars in Rochester, the Halifax Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society sponsored Douglass’s public address at Mechanics’ Hall. Halifax Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society, Third Annual Report of the Halifax Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society, March 1860 (Halifax, Eng., 1860), 1; Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 3:xxx–xxxi, 276–300, 613–14; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 1:31. 9. James Stansfield (1820–98), the son of a prominent Halifax lawyer and jurist, graduated from London University in 1844 and soon after entered the legal profession. A Unitarian and a supporter

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of numerous radical causes, including women’s rights, abolitionism, and Italian unification, he was elected to represent Halifax in Parliament in 1859; he held his seat for the next thirty-nine years. He held minor offices in the governments of Lord Palmerston and Gladstone and was an outspoken supporter of Irish Home Rule. The Annual Register: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad for the Year 1898 (London, 1899), Part 2:143–44; DNB, 22:1224–25. 10. William Webb married Maria Lamb in 1828, and the couple settled in Belfast. The family eventually included six children. Webb was both a business partner in Richard Allen’s textile firm and an active member of the Dublin Anti-Slavery Society. American Anti-Slavery Society, Letter to Kossuth, 107; Legg, Alfred Webb, 83.

ROSETTA DOUGLASS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS Rochester[, N.Y.] 6 Dec[ember] 1859.

My Dear Father Nearly two weeks have past since I wrote you last.—I think my letter will have reached you in a week from this date. I have just written a letter to Miss Assing1 since in reply to one I received from her dated Nov. 26th. The Virginia [illegible] have murdered our Hero he [illegible] his fate like a brave and good man as he was. If any one even doubted Capt. Brown’s bravery they cannot help now in feeling assured that they were mistaken in their doubt. The last letter to his wife and family is touching, and cannot fail to draw tears from the eyes of the reader. The letter is full of a Christians hope and wishes. Corinthian hall was draped in mourning last friday evening and a meeting in sympathy with Capt. Brown was held between two and three hundred assembled as [illegible] audience for Rochester.2 The flag, which was also draped in mourning hung [illegible] floating in the breeze and attracting the attention of the passers by. I felt certain that a full house would be the result. Mr. Pryne3 spoke ably, he has no style scarcely, he thunders away quite loud and suddenly his voice lowers to an ordinary pitch. Parker Pillsbury4 spoke after Mr. Payne he was very sarcastic in his remarks5 and several left the hall, he thinks Brown a greater man than Washington,6 that idea did not please the reporters at all and the next day the city papers criticized his speech severely.7 I saw Banclay Coppic8 last thursday he is quite young and is suffering from a bad cold which has settled in his lungs the result of his exposure in the mountains. He looked very much haggard. Last week a young man was arrested at Charlestown supposing him to be Banclay Coppic he now lies in their jail. [illegible] and I heard Dr. George B. Windship9 on “Physical Culture” last thursday , uncanny he performed the wonderful feat of

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lifting with his hands 904 pounds of nails in kegs, besides putting a barrel of 214 pounds on his shoulder, he is a strong man certainly very young and weighing himself 148 lbs. His lecture was most much. Annie10 attends school regularly she is the favorite of her grammar teacher he says she is the best student he has. Mrs. Prinson has written to me she is pleased with the paper and thinks the allowing Mr. Payne the editorship could not be improved. Every one that I have seen who takes the paper are pleased with the manner in which it is conducted in your absence. Annie [illegible] a part of the [illegible] page she writes daily in her English writing book and intends to astonish you with her advance in penmanship. The ground is white with snow around us and winter has come in grand earnest. Gerrit Smith is improving fast and will son be able to go to his family if he has not already gone. Every Affectious Yours ROSETTA DOUGLASS ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 32, frames 4–5, FD Papers, DLC. 1. Ottilie Assing. 2. After the court assigned John Brown’s execution date, 2 December 1859, Parker Pillsbury requested Susan B. Anthony’s assistance to secure Rochester’s Corinthian Hall for a meeting the same night. Though many abolitionists lived in Rochester and the surrounding areas, only 300 came to mourn Brown and listen to several addresses. The Reverend Abram Pryne, acting editor of Douglass’ Monthly in its owner’s absence abroad, and Parker Pillsbury spoke in praise of Brown and the cause of abolition. Several newspapers throughout the state of New York reported the meeting. Genesee County Herald, 10 December 1859; Harper, Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, 1:119. 3. Abram Pryne. 4. Parker Pillsbury (1809–98), an outspoken abolitionist orator, editor, and author, proved more demanding than Garrison himself regarding the necessity of purifying abolitionism of all tendencies toward compromise and expediency. An interest in theology and temperance led this onetime farmer to study at New Hampshire’s Gilmanton Theological Seminary. During an additional year of study at Andover, he made the acquaintance of John A. Collins, who exposed Pillsbury to the abolitionist movement. By 1840, his sharp attacks on the complicity of churches with slavery had led to the revocation of his license to preach. For the next two decades, Pillsbury lectured for the New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and American Anti-Slavery societies. He edited the Concord (N.H.) Herald of Freedom during the late 1840s and the National Anti-Slavery Standard in 1866. During the Civil War, Pillsbury criticized Union war aims, especially before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. In 1865 he broke with Garrison over the necessity for continued activity by the American Anti-Slavery Society. After the war, Pillsbury became active in the woman suffrage movement and the Free Religious Association. Stacey M. Robertson, Parker Pillsbury: Radical Abolitionist, Male Feminist (Ithaca, N.Y., 2000); Mabee, Black Freedom, 112, 221–23, 329; McPherson, Struggle for Equality, 59–60, 100–102, 305–07; Louis Filler “Parker Pillsbury: An Anti-Slavery Apostle,” New England Quarterly, 19:315–37 (September 1946); DAB, 14:608–09.

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5. Pillsbury’s address praised John Brown and defended his violent actions at Harpers Ferry. Susan B. Anthony recalled Pillsbury’s address fondly and stated that he “spoke as never before” in Brown’s defense. Samuel D. Porter, also in attendance, recalled that the event was the “only occasion that matched Pillsbury’s adjectives.” Genesee County Herald, 10 December 1859; Harper, Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, 1:119; Thirteenth Biennial Report of the Board of Directors of the Kansas State Historical Society (Topeka, Kans., 1902), 35. 6. The most controversial remark in Pillsbury’s speech was his comparison of John Brown with George Washington. Pillsbury stated that Brown had done more for liberty by his “sacrifice” than any of the founders. He concluded that Brown was “greater than they.” Pillsbury’s comparison is not surprising; he had compared Brown to Oliver Cromwell in a meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in February 1859, and to Kosciusko and Lafayette in Manchester, New Hampshire, on 28 November 1859. Lib., 2 December 1859; New York Evening Express, 6 December 1859; Bertram Wyatt Brown, “William Lloyd Garrison and Anti-Slavery Unity: A Reappraisal,” Civil War History, 13:18 (March 1967). 7. Pillsbury’s speech on the night of Brown’s execution drew instant criticism from newspapers throughout New York. Pillsbury was denounced for his defense of Brown, and several newspapers continued their criticism into 1860. They believed that only peaceful measures could bring emancipation. Pillsbury’s comparison of Brown and Washington drew the most criticism. Under the title of “The Memory of Washington Insulted,” the New York Evening Express assailed Pillsbury’s speech. The Express argued that according to Pillsbury, “traitors, insurgents, and murderers were greater than Washington.” New York Evening Express, 6 December 1859; New York Daily Union, 2 February 1860. 8. One of the five followers of John Brown to evade capture after the failure of the Harpers Ferry raid, Barclay Coppoc (1839–61), whose brother Edwin was captured in the raid and later executed, migrated to Kansas from his native Ohio in 1856. Coppoc fled to western Pennsylvania, where he parted company with other escapees and eventually made his way to safety in Iowa. He died while serving in a Kansas regiment early in the Civil War. Hinton, John Brown, 539–41; John R. McKivigan, “His Soul Goes Marching On: The Story of John Brown’s Followers after the Harpers Ferry Raid,” in Antislavery Violence: Sectional, Racial, and Cultural Conflict in Antebellum America, eds. Joh