FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH

Rochester, [N.Y.] 15 July 1853.
HON: GERRIT SMITH.
MY DEAR SIR.
May you Soon recover your wonted health. The last tiding from you were
encouraging. You were remembered at our Convention¹In July 1853, the National Convention of Colored Citizens, consisting of 140 delegates from nine states, met in Rochester, New York. The Reverend J. W. C. Pennington served as president, with Frederick Douglass, William C. Nell, and John B. Vashon sharing the office of vice president. Because of Douglass’s role in chairing the Committee on Declaration of Sentiments, he was in charge of drawing up the “Address of the Colored Convention to the People of the United States,” which outlined demands for basic rights. The convention debated the controversial issue of whether to found a labor college and sponsor the institution. The delegates established the National Council of the Colored People to support educational programs, economic cooperatives, employment opportunities, and to establish a black press. Although the council met only three times before dissolving, it was the first major attempt to organize black action for advancement. Philip S. Foner, History of Black Americans: From the Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom to the Eve of the Compromise of 1850 (Westport, Conn., 1983), 316–18; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:170–73. last week. We

cannot for get you when we think of our cause and its friends. You will be
pleased to learn that the Local effect²Coverage in the Rochester Daily Advertiser was limited to general reports of the events that took place on 6 and 7 July 1853 in the “Home Matters” column. No editorials were written. The 6 July item reported on the opening of the convention, noting that the “specimens of oratorical power displayed” promised “some pretty tall speaking before the Convention adjourns.” The 7 July issue discussed the reopening of the convention and noted several of the members present, including J. McCune Smith, J. W. Pennington, Douglass, John W. Loguen, John Mercer Langston, Charles H. Reason, J. B. Vashon, and C. L. Remond. Coverage in the Daily Rochester Union was similarly brief. Efforts to open and organize the convention delegates dominated the entry published in the 6 July issue, noting that “some of the most influential colored men in the country” were present, including “Dr. J. McCune Smith, Rev. Mr. Pennington, Langston, Douglass, Vashon, Ray, Day, Remond, [and] Downing.” The 7 July issue focused on the debate over the adoption of a report prepared by the Committee on the Social Condition of the Colored Citizens. The item noted that the report was ultimately rejected and the convention recessed. Neither paper provided general or editorial coverage beyond 7 July 1853. Rochester Daily Union, 6, 7 July 1853; Rochester Daily Advertiser, 6, 7 July 1853. of the convention has been excellent. The current of feeling towards Colored people has been wonderfully
i[m]proved by the Convention. In truth, the talent and eloquence displayed
took our opponents by Surprise. It would have warmed your heart to have
Seen and heard on the occasion. I had been deeply concerned for the
result of the Convention for weeks before it was held. I now feel abun
dantly releived. My best hopes have been Surpassed. We had one Lady
delegate—Mrs. Jeffrey³Mary Ann Jeffrey and her husband, Jason Jeffrey, a porter at the Eagle Hotel of Geneva, New York, were leading figures in that town’s African American community. Jason Jeffrey attended the 1843 National Negro Convention in Buffalo and gathered subscribers for Douglass’s North Star. Mary Ann Jeffrey served on a committee to raise funds for Henry Bibb’s periodical, the Impartial Citizen. Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 15 July 1853, Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU; “Minutes of the National Convention of Colored Citizens: Held at Buffalo, on the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th of August, 1843,” in Minutes of the Proceedings of the National Negro Conventions, 1830–1864, ed. Howard Holman Bell (New York, 1969), 19–20; FDP, 24 June 1853; Kathryn Grover, Make a Way Somehow: African-American Life in a Northern Community, 1790-1965 (Syracuse, N.Y., 1994), 221. of Geneva—and Strange to Say we had the good
Sense to make no fuss about it. My friend Julia⁴Julia Griffiths. Sends Love to yourself
and Dear Mrs. Smith.⁵Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith.

Truly and affectionately, yours,
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

[P.S.] I hope you will like my address to the people of the United States.
It is Some what tame—but perhaps it will reach Some minds—which a
more Spirited document would not.

F.D.

ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU.