A. Cade to Frederick Douglass, February 20, 1862
Port au Prince 20 feby 1862
Honourable Sir & friend,
I received with the
utmost pleasure your valuable lines
of December last enclosed to me by
our mutual friend, Mr
have regularly received the "Douglas's Monthly."
& it is always with a new pride &
pleasure that I peruse it. My intention
& desire were to popularize it here
widely together with the Liberator by
collecting meetings & presenting them these
papers, but unfortunately, I must confess
that I found things in my country so
vastly different to what it should be if
it were in a condition of normal &
slow but encreasing prosperity that I
thought the moment not proper &
presumed not to attempt anything
of the kind yet, for, as the French
proverb says, "Ventre affamé n'a
point d'oreille"—
However there will be a change,
I hope, for, the present administration,
no one can deny, has already done a
good deal to [lessen?] the evil.
The govt has just [?] with
an English company to have a line of
steamers monthly plying between [Kingston?],
here & New York. It will begin, I think,
in March next, & will be, surely, the
pleasantest way for you to come & pay
us a visit as you intend—Need I say
how glad I will be to see you here?
Please write me to that effect—
I see that the question of the
Recognition of Hayti & Liberia is strongly
agitated in the paper. I do not forget
what you mentioned to me when in the State, about the possibility of this being
done under this administration & your
being sent as a plenipotentiary. Nothing
in the world would be more satisfactory
to us. But I must say that I fear
that it will not be so. If they have
not proclaimed liberty in their Capital
I do not understand how they can admit
therein the representant as free of a
formerly slave country nor how will the
representant of the slaves be that of
the slavers. My conviction is that your
"Union" must be blotted out before its
sin be redeemed.
I have requested my agents in
Boston, Messrs N. P [Mason?] & Co 220 State
St., to forward $5 to you for my
subscription to the "Douglass Monthly" this
year & also for a volume of your
"Freedom & Bondage" which I would
request the favor of you to send me
pr first oppy. I did already request
several friends to send it to me, but
whether negligence or forgetfulness none
has, yet, done so—
Please remember me kindly, dear
Sir, to your family & friends, &
Believe me, as ever,
Yours faithfully
A. Cade