HENRY PATRICK¹Assumed to be a pseudonym. 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.²An 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.
Your remarks on it are no less admirable for the prudence and wisdom ex-
hibited. I rejoice to witness all the elements necessary to meet the threat-
ened storm combined in our colored citizens.—Friend Delany and your-
self 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,³Patrick 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. who chose liberty or death!⁴A paraphrase of Patrick Henry’s speech in the Virginia Convention, 23 March 1775, as re corded in William Wirt, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry, 7th ed. (New York, 1834), 141. Yet the more
cautious, who exhausted every hope of reconciliation in petitions and re-
monstrances 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,”⁵Dan. 12:13. and faithfully carry out our own convictions
of duty, and abstain from censuring those who honestly differ from us in
the modus opperandi.⁶The Latin term “modus operandi” means “method of operating.” There are now, as formally hypocrites and tories,⁷North 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.
who “assume the livery of Heaven to serve the devil in.⁸Robert Pollok, The Course of Time, A Poem, 7th ed., 10 vols. (London, 1828), 8:295. Those, however,
may be known by the company they keep.⁹A proverb dating to mid-sixteenth century England. Elizabeth Knowles, ed., Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 6th ed. (New York, 2004), 626. Those who respect the Divine
Law, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, will uncom-
promisingly contend that “the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.”¹⁰Patrick 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. And whether
the descendants of the Dutch, Irish, African, or any other people born un-
der our government, become victims of attainder¹¹An action by a legislature to condemn and punish someone for a crime without benefit of a trial. 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 Con-
stitution.¹²During 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. If all the guarantees of the Federal Constitution in favor of
human rights,¹³An allusion to the Bill of Rights. 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.