JULIA GRIFFITHS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

[n.p.] 9 January 1854.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS:

DEAR FRIEND :—

Several months ago, a friend of mine,¹The first name Griffiths placed on the list of contributors following her letter was that of Gerrit Smith. Considering Smith’s history of financial subsidization of Douglass’s journalism, he is the most likely person to whom Griffiths is referring. who has taken a lively interest in your paper, and has done much to sustain you in your efforts to render it useful to the enslaved and oppressed people of this country, suggested to me the plan of raising the sum of one thousand dollars, (in ten dollar donations,) towards a contingent fund, to be placed at your service. This suggestion pleased me; I resolved to carry it out. I have now the pleasure of reporting the following responses to my appeal—and hope in the course of the next few months to be able to report the names of other generous friends of that cause, to which you are devoting your time and talents.

Your friend,

JULIA GRIFFITHS.²Douglass praises Griffiths’s work in an editorial introduction to the letter. In two columns following Griffiths’s letter, printed forty-two names of individuals who had contributed ten dollars to sustain the newspaper. One listing was for “Two Friends,” who apparently combined their donations to reach the required ten-dollar amount. , 13 January 1854.

PLSr, , 13 January 1854.