W. L. CRANDAL¹W. 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. 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,²Articles 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. to the outrageous calumnies, detractions, and wholly unchristian
attacks on you in the Liberator,³William 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.
Anti-Slavery Standard,⁴The 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. and Pennsylvania Freeman.⁵A 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, and Jessica M. Dunn, eds., Antislavery Newspapers and Periodicals, 5 vols. (Boston, 1980-84), 3:57-59; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 3:391-92n. 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”