For Frederick Douglass' Paper

J. N. T. TUCKER.

FRIEND DOUGLASS:—On Saturday P. M., Nov. 11th, I visited J. N. T. Tucker, in the Raymond Street Jail, Brooklyn. My opinion is that he was decidedly insane at the time when he killed his son. It is probable that for several years he has been suffering aberration of mind to so great an extent, that he ought to have been under treatment in some good insane hospital—or better yet, at some good water-cure establishment.—How much wrong habits had to do with injuring his mind, is a question of much importance, and doubtless, the answer to it would be full of instructive warning. Mr. Tucker says that he took brandy as a medicine. That is a dangerous experiment.—When I looked upon him in his cell, it deeply affected my heart, as I recollected what eloquence I had heard from his lips. Our prayer should be, "Hold thou me up, and I should be safe." There is no other safety for any one of us.

Yours,

J. R. J.Johnson, James Rawson

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; DouglassPapers, ser. 3, 1:582-84, 587-88, 590-92, 596, 599.