For Frederick Douglass' Paper.

LETTER FROM REV. DR. PENNINGTON.

You are aware, perhaps, that statements have been going the rounds for some time past, tending—I will not say designed—to convict me of pro-slavery sentiment and action. My aversion to controversy is one of the reasons why I have not, ere this, taken notice of these statements in this public manner. Those who know me, personally, will appreciate this reason.

There is a point, however, beyond which even forbearance ceases to be a virtue.—That men, belonging to a race which has done so much to oppress, wrong, and outrage my race, should take so special pains to convict me of treachery to my own race, is beyond endurance. Knowing your kindness of heart, I appeal to you, sir, to allow me space in your columns, from time to time, to defend myself against these cruel and unreasonable aggressions. My motto is "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." Give good old Truth time, and she will beat the world.

Sir, I have deeply engraven on my soul's memory twenty-one years' awful experience of Slavery, in all its forms; and twenty-nine years of self-denying, hazardous, odious, expensive abolition in which I will yield to no man the palm—no, sir, not even to yourself.

I think, therefore, I may afford to speak a few words, when accused of treachery to my race. The time and manner of my escape from American Slavery, and of my entrance upon the Anti-Slavery platform of the world, have been such as to form in me, sentiments, and views too independent for some who have stepped upon our platform since.

I shall show you, sir, in the course of these forced papers, that when I escaped from slavery in our state of Maryland, there was no vigilance committee in existence—there was no one of the present anti-slavery societies in existence—that no one of the present anti-slavery leaders had appeared upon the platform.

You will, therefore, appreciate me when I say, that I feel indignant at the thought of asking any man or party of men to endorse my abolitionism. I ask no man what opinions I shall hold and advocate in my pulpit, and on the public platform, on the question of immediate and gradual emancipation.—The right of the slave to take boats, horses, money, and even lives, in order to secure his freedom—the right of others to help

him in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Law—the obligation of government to compensate slaveholders as an effective inducement to give up their slaves—the propriety of redeeming the poor fugitive who has been captured, or who is in danger of being arrested—the inconsistency of professed abolitionists trading in slave grown Cotton, Rice, Sugar, &c., for gain and luxury—that sort
of communion with man-stealers in the counting room which makes millionaires by scores annually; my views upon these and kindred subjects, connected with American Slavery, sir, are neither bought nor borrowed from any class of men—I inherit them from the bosom of my dear enslaved mother, and as I love her memory, I will stand by them till I die.

If the time has come, when colored men are to be persecuted for freedom of opinion in regard to their own cause, let us know it, and let us prepare for an open and manly fight.

J. W. C. PENNINGTON.

NEW YORK, Feb. 1855.