For Frederick Douglass' Paper.

MY FIRST VISIT TO PETERBORO.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ESQ: MY DEAR SIR:—After an hour's ride on the rail road from this city, I was landed at Canastota, and two hours more, by sleigh over high snow drifts for nine miles, I was set down at a rickety looking place called a tavern. If it had been most any other place than Peterboro, I should have said it lived by selling the infernal article which causes so much trouble and loss of life at the far west. Such were the indications inside as
well as out. It required positive information to remove this impression. The "home" contains about eighty houses, generally small, but neat and comfortable. Very many of these homes are the gifts of Mr. and Mrs. Smith to the present occupants. They stand most of them on the south side of the Park, which extends the length of the Village.

The place takes its name from Peter Smith, father of GerritSmith, 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. , who bought form the Oneidas sixty thousand acres of land more than a half century ago, laid out the town, and built the house now occupied by his son, the world renowned and loved Gerrit. May he live to occupy it a half century to come!

This house has lately undergone most thorough repairs, having been enlarged, macademized, &c., with all the improvements of warming and ventilation. Its amplitude partakes of the heart and mind of its owner. Gerrit Smith, from home, is seen and heard, to be loved and admired; Gerrit Smith, at home, settles this love into a conviction; you instinctively venerate the man, for that noble simplicity which governs all things within and without. You see and hear, yourself to become a better man.

He is physically, mentally, and religiously, an illustration of the paradox, a "Man-Child."—It is hard to understand this spontaneous outflow of warm-h[e]arted impulses, from a man possessing such great wealth and such superior physical and mental capabilities, only as it is inspired by the love that flows through the channel of redemption. The stranger is made to feel at his case, and to drink in of the spirit of love that penetrates every department of his household.

The Family Devotion around the domestic Altar, is not the least feature of interest of this remarkable house. Mr. S. leads the exercises, by reading a hymn after putting in the hands of each member a book, and with that deep, mellow voice strikes the tune. After which, be repeated without the Bible, the Psalm, "The Lord is my Shepherd," with that impressiveness, which makes one feel as though the words were dropping from the lips that first spoke them.—Because of feebleness of health, I saw but little of Mrs. Smith, but enough to convince me that Mr. Smith showed as much wisdom in the choice of a wife, as he has manifested benevolence, in the distribution of a large fortune.

Mr. Smith is deeply interested in the "Free State" movements of Kansas, and thinks that blood will have to be shed before the question is settled. He is, therefore, very anxious that the best, and most speedy preparations should be made to meet any and every contingency that may arise of invasion of the Territory.—He says one hundred thousand dollars ought immediately to be raised for the purpose of buying arms, ammunition, and provisions, to be forwarded as early as possible, and has paid himself already one thousand dollars for that purpose, besides giving me one hundred dollars towards the "Fund" for the redemption of "Kansas Free State Scrip."

In the course of conversation, his controversy with the incidentally came up. He observed that he considered their attack upon him very unjust, as well as unkind; but still he had great respect for the , as able and generally honest, and read it next in interest to the Bible.

Yours truly,

PHILIP C. SCHUYLER.

SYRACUSE, Feb. 10th, '56.