Rochester[, N.Y.] 5 June 1861.

DEAR MISS ANTHONY:

Thanks for your note.¹ Susan B. Anthony’s note to Douglass has not been located. I see nothing at this moment against our celebrating the 4" at Clifton Springs²Frederick Douglass did not speak at the 1861 Independence Day celebration in Clifton Springs, New York, a small town in Ontario County known for its sulfur springs spa. Douglass remained in Rochester and attended an antislavery picnic in a grove near his house. The attendance was an estimated 300 by the afternoon, which was considered “not large.” Though asked to speak Douglass “excused himself” and did not make an address. Rochester , 6 July 1861.—but much in its favour. I will gladly make one of the speakers, if it shall be determined to hold Such a celebration either at Clifton Springs or any other part of Western New[]york. I rejoice not in the death of any man, but I cannot but feel, that in the death of Stephen A. Douglass,³ Stephen A. Douglas died on 3 June 1861. a most dangerous man has been removed. No man of his time has done more than he to intensify hatred of the negro, and to demoralize northern sentiment. Since Henry Clay,⁴Henry Clay (1777–1852), a native Virginian, entered politics during the 1790s in his adopted state of Kentucky and quickly rose to national prominence. As a congressman, senator, secretary of state, founder of the Whig party, and perennial presidential candidate, Clay espoused broadly nationalistic programs designed to avoid the sectional antagonism caused by the issue of slavery. He figured prominently in the debates that led to the passage of the Missouri Compromise, and he was a leading architect of the Compromise of 1850. His support of the American Colonization Society aroused the lasting hostility of Garrisonian abolitionists. In Congress, Clay vigorously opposed abolitionist petitions against slavery in the District of Columbia. Douglass and other abolitionists found him a particularly odious candidate because Northern Whigs attempted to cast the slave-owning Clay as “anti-slavery in his feelings,” which potentially undermined the Liberty party’s political base. Merrill D. Peterson, (New York, 1987); Robert V. Remini, (New York, 1991); Sewell, , 109; , 4:73–79. he has been the king of compromisers[.] Of course, I Shall see you before you before you make the final arrangements for the celebration. Is Clifton Springs the best place? With Such speakers as those named—the voice of genuine Antislavery might get a hearing—at a point more populous—But of this, we can speak when we meet.

Very Truly yours

FREDK DOUGLASS.

ALS: Ida Harper Manuscripts, CSmH.