JAMES MCCUNE SMITH TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

New York, [N.Y.] 12 Jan[uary] 1859.

MR. EDITOR:—

When William WhipperWhipper, William

William Whipper (1804-76) first became known for his "free labor and temperance" grocery in Philadelphia. During the 1830s Whipper attended the annual National Negro Conventions regularly, and in 1835 he helped found the American Moral Reform Society and served as the editor of its journal, the National Reformer. That same year, Whipper moved to Pennsylvania's interior, where he became involved in the lumber business and in the Underground Railroad. Initially Whipper rejected the idea of racially based reform movements, but late in life he came to accept African American organizations as necessary for the attainment of racial equality. Because he desired the "moral elevation" of African Americans within American society, he often agreed with Douglass's approach to political and social reform. During the 1850s Whipper supported the emigrationist movement, but the outbreak of the Civil War prevented him from moving himself and his family to Canada. Instead, he returned to Philadelphia after the war and worked as a cashier for the Freedman's Bank, which failed in 1873. Richard P. McCormick, "William Whipper: Moral Reformer," Pennsvlvania History, 43:23-48 (January 1976); Jack Salzman, David L. Smith, and Cornel West, eds., Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 5 vols. (New York, 1996), 5:2817-18; DANB, 643. intimated my desire to triumph over him in our late ‘‘apathy discussion,”¹In a letter published in the 16 April 1858 issue of , 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 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 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 fee 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 amend their civil rights. 16 April, 4 June, 12, 20 August, 3 September 1858. 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;²James 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 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. , 12 August 1858. they were simply a statement of the particulars, any one of which constitute citizenship, and all of them, except one³Under 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" mean 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 voting 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, 134-35, 142; Roy H. Akagi, "The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1838," 48:317-19, 329 (October 1924). 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,⁴Smith 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, (New York, 2008), 99; Stauffer, 5. 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 Lafayette⁵The 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. , 3:586; , 10:535-39. on his visit to the New York African free school,⁶The 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 (New York, 1830), 7, 34-36, 51-52, 85-86, 97, 106, 111-12; Stauffer, 86-88; , 3:168-69. 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,”⁷This 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 of "some pumpkins" to refer to anything significant throughout the rest of their journey. James Fennell, (Philadelphia, 1814), 72; John Russell Bartlett, (Boston, 1859), 427-28. I strove to enlighten the Philadelphians on the subject of Phrenology⁸Phrenology was a popular pseudoscience of the nineteenth century that involved the study of the human head. Phrenologists belived that certain shapes or bumps founds 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 , 10 September 1835; Roger Cooter, (Cambridge, Eng., 1984), 40, 80, 89. 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

in October of that year;⁹Smith 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. 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——,¹⁰Smith 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). 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 mygetting 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 brethren¹¹An 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. at a long
range.

Our good city of New York was refreshed last week with a visit and a lecture¹²On 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. 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.¹³Douglass 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 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. 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,¹⁴William Jay. in the Anniversary week of next May. They were unanimously adopted.

On Tuesday, 4th inst., the Masonic Fraternity¹⁵The 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. had a grand gathering at Stuyvesant Institute, Broadway;¹⁶In 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. a poem was well read by Mr. Ellis Potter of this city; an oration was delivered by the Rev. J. Theodore Holly¹⁷ 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 first 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. of New Haven, (brother of the lamented poet.)—The orator gave a concise history of Masonry,¹⁸The 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 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). 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

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 daguerreotype¹⁹Daguerreotypy 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. 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,

COMMUNIPAWSmith, James McCune

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 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. .²⁰The pen name of James McCune Smith.

PLSr: FDP, 21 January 1859.