Rochester, [N.Y.] 7 Sept[ember] 1860[.]

MY DEAR SIRSmith, Gerrit

Gerrit Smith (1797– 1874), a New York businessman and land speculator, became best known for his philanthropic work for such reform causes as temperance and abolition. Between 1828 and 1835, he donated large sums of money to the American Colonization Society, but abandoned that movement in 1835 when his sympathies shifted to the immediate abolitionists. In the 1840s, he gave approximately 140,000 acres of land in upstate New York to three thousand black settlers, thus qualifying them to vote. Smith was a founder and frequent candidate of the Liberty party, running for governor of New York on that ticket in 1840 and winning a seat in Congress in 1852. When the Free Soil merger with moderate antislavery Democrats and Whigs lured away many Liberty party supporters, Smith helped bankroll that organization until 1860. Smith befriended Douglass when the latter moved to Rochester, and Smith frequently helped finance Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Like Douglass, Smith supported John Brown, but psychological stress caused by the failure at Harpers Ferry brought on the first of a series of bipolar episodes that greatly reduced his subsequent reform activities. Ralph Volney Harlow, Gerrit Smith: Philanthropist and Reformer (1939; New York, 1972); Gerald Sorin, The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism (Westport, Conn., 1971), 269– 87; Lewis Perry, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought (Ithaca, N.Y., 1973), 170– 80; John R. McKivigan and Madeleine Leveille, “The ‘Black Dream’ of Gerrit Smith, New York Abolitionist,” Syracuse University Library Associates Courier, 20:61– 76 (Fall 1985); NCAB , 2:322– 23; DAB, 17:270– 71. :

The more I think of that Worcester Convention¹ The Political Abolition Convention, called by Stephen Foster and John Pierpont for 19 September 1860. the more feel the importance of your attending it. I do hope that no surmountable difficulty²Following the failure of John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry, Gerrit Smith, one of the main conspirators, suffered a psychological breakdown. He experienced guilt and regret for his actions and soon stopped eating and sleeping. He became delirious, paranoid, and fixated on the seventeen men who died in the raid as well as on Brown’s imminent execution. In November 1859, Smith’s family
admitted him to the Utica Insane Asylum, where he spent a month recovering from what might have been an episode of bipolar affective disorder. The impact of this breakdown exacerbated Smith’s long-standing digestive and sleep ailments. His physical and mental state remained erratic for the remainder of his life. Stauffer, , 42-43, 242-45, 262; Harlow, , 410-11; McKivigan and Leveille, “ 'Black Dream’ of Gerrit Smith,” 64-76. will prevent your being there. Your health is as precious to me as to any one outside your Dear family Circle and I would urge nothing that might endanger it. I really think that your health of body and mind would be improved by taking that Eastern trip. The freinds of Freedom and humanity know there obligations to you. You have served your day and generation as a workman who need not be ashamed of his work; but you have not done yet. When I See Lord BroughamBrougham, Henry Peter, first Baron Brougham and Vaux

Henry Peter Brougham (1778-1868), first Baron Brougham and Vaux, rose from advocate in the Scottish southern circuit to become lord high chancellor in the ministry of Lord Charles Grey in the early 1830s and a prominent leader of the Whig party in Parliament. Founder of the Edinburgh Review, Brougham is chiefly remembered for his efforts on behalf of legal, educational, and electoral reform, and for the role he played in the parliamentary struggle to abolish slavery. Arthur Aspinall, Lord Brougham and the Whig Party (1927; Manchester, Eng., 1972); Chester W. New, The Life of Henry Brougham to 1830 (Oxford, Eng., 1961); DNB, 2:1356-66. ³Henry Peter Brougham (1778-1868), first baron Brougham and Vaux, rose from advocate in the Scottish southern circuit to become lord high chancellor in the ministry of Lord Charles Grey in the early 1830s and a prominent leader of the Whig party in Parliament. Founder of the , Brougham is chiefly remembered for his efforts on behalf of legal, educational, and electoral reform, and for the role he played in the parliamentary struggle to abolish slavery. Arthur Aspinall, (1927; Manchester, Eng., 1972); Chester W. New, (Oxford, Eng., 1961); , 2:1356-66. over years old, Standing up and delivering an address of two hours—I cannot think of your ceasing to attend public meetings.

I am not a physician and my opinion may not be worth much—but I think I never Saw or heard you, at any time within the last ten years when you Seemed better able to with stand the wear and tear of public meetings. I did not urge you very strongly when in your presence, to go—Dear Mrs SmithSmith, Ann Carroll Fitzhugh

On 2 January 1822, Ann Carroll Fitzhugh (1805–75), sometimes called “Nancy,” became the second wife of Gerrit Smith. She was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, where her father, William Fitzhugh (1761–1839), was a prominent planter connected to elite families. In 1800 Fitzhugh entered into a real estate venture with his neighbors Charles Carroll and Nathaniel Rochester. The three purchased land in upstate New York and established the town of Rochester, where Fitzhugh moved his family in 1815. He became a prominent resident and philanthropist, contributing to the growth of the town into a City. Gerrit and Ann Smith had eight children, including Elizabeth Smith Miller (1822–1911), who followed in her father’ s footsteps to become an activist and reformer in her own right. Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography (New York, 1909), 27; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 16; Robert McNamara, “Charles Carroll of Belle Vue: Co-founder of Rochester,” RH, 42:1, 13 (October 1980). ⁴Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith. did that much better than either Mr FosterFoster, Stephen Symonds

Born in Canterbury, New Hampshire, radical abolitionist Stephen Symonds Foster (1809-81) studied at Dartmouth College. In 1837, a year before his graduation, he helped to organize the New Hampshire Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society. Foster briefly attended Union Theological Seminary in New York, but by 1839 he had repudiated the ministry. He developed his criticisms of American churches most fully in The Brotherhood of Thieves; or, A True Picture of the American Church Clergy (1843). His practice of interrupting a church service to speak out against complicity with slavery frequently provoked violent reaction. While Foster and his wife, Abby Kelley, whom he married in 1815, were agents for the American Anti-Slavery Society for nearly twenty years, their relationship with the Garrisonians was at best one of strained cooperation. Although Foster believed that the Constitution was a proslavery document, he periodically dabbled in politics. In 1843-44 he endorsed the Liberty party. In the late 1850s, having altered his view of the nature of the Constitution, Foster sought to establish a disunion party "whose avowed aim. . .[would] be the overthrow of the government. . .& whose will. . .[would] be expressed through the ballot box." In the mid-1850s he also argued in favor of slave rebellion in his Revolution the Only Remedy for Slavery (1855). A proponent of distributing land to the freedmen, Foster was disappointed with federal Reconstruction policies. He devoted the last years of his life to agitating on behalf of temperance and women's rights. Parker Pillsbury, Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles (Concord, N.H., 1883), 123-55; Lillie B. Chace Wyman, "Reminiscences of Two Abolitionists," New England Magazine, 27:536-50 (January 1903); Parker Pillsbury, "Stephen Symonds Foster,'' Granite Monthly, 5:369-75 (August 1882); Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease, Bound with Them in Chains: A Biographical History of the Antislavery Movement (Westport, Conn., 1972), 191-217; Louis Filler, "Parker Pillsbury: An Anti-Slavery Apostle," NEQ, 19:315-37 (September 1946); ACAB, 2:514-15; NCAB, 2:328-29; DAB, 6:558-59. ,⁵Stephen Symonds Foster. or I, could do. I do hope She Succeeded.

The Special Subject on which you would be most expected to Speak—relates to the powers of the Federal Government. You could Show as no other man can how the Federal government can reach and overthrow American Slavery. Will you my friend take this matter in to account and do attend the Convention if possible.

Yours Very truly

FREDK DOUGLASS

ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU.