[John S.] Rock to Frederick Douglass, October 7, 1856
FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ESQ: DEAR SIR:—
I have been absent one month in New York,
Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. In
each of the above States I have found a strong
anti-Nebraska feeling. New York city is the
hardest place I have been in. While in that
city I went to hear the Hon. Mr. Stanton make
a speech before the Central Club; and in my
opinion it was the strongest pro-slavery speech
that I have heard during the campaign. He
not only got off the usual slang of a few party
papers and leaders, that the Republican party
is not the black man's party; but he said," the
issue is not against slavery, but it is, white men
and white labor, against black men and black
labor." If he speaks the sentiments of the
Republican Party in New York, I am certain
that he does not speak the sentiments either of
New England, Pennsylvania, or New Jersey.
In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as
New England, the Republican party aims and
seeks to check the slave power and to restore
the Government back to its original intentions.
In Pennsylvania, "the work goes bravely on;"
and hundreds are being daily added to the Re
publican ranks. It is quite probable, that in
the election which is to come off on the 14th
inst.; the vote may be a close one; but in No
vember, when all the anti-Nebraska [focus?] will
be in the field, the victory will be a glorious
one. Our foes are now secretly at work trying
to coalesce the Democratic and Know Nothing
parties; and it is reported that a certain prom
inent Know Nothing did actually agree to sell
out the American party, at least to separate the
Fillmore from the Fremont portion of the par
ty, and transfer them over to Buchanan for
thirty thousand dollars; that a colored waiter
overheard the conversation, and, true to the in
stincts of freedom, exposed the base plot to
certain prominent Fremont Americans. When
Mr. "Thingabob" had everything "cut and
dried," as he thought, he called a mass meeting
of the Americans, and when he was about to
make his incendiary speech, which was to di
vide between the joints and the marrow, the
people refused to hear him, and so Mr. "Thing-
abob" gets frantic, and is provided for at the
Lunatic Asylum, "The way of the trans
gressor is hard."
We will cite you another incident worthy of
your notice, which I have not seen published.—
Some of the Republicans in Philadelphia hav
ing heard through a private source that the
Democrats were to come out the next day in a
long and flaming advertisement in the ,
denouncing the Black Republicans, they im
mmediately set to work and made out an adver
tisement, which they headed, "The New Dem
ocratic Doctrine," in which they quoted from
numerous Democratic papers and speakers,
showing that the design of the Democratic
party is to enslave all the laboring classes of
society: and this they had inserted immediate
ly under the Democratic advertisment! A
prominent Democrat, who has a large factory
in the northern part of the city, in which some
450 hands are employed, knowing that their
great advertisement was to appear, gave his
hands at half an hour extra to listen to the
treasonable designs of the "wooly heads."—
They all listened with attention; and when he
had finished, some of them commenced to de
nounce the Republicans. On[e] of them (a Fre
mont man) having seen the paper early in the
morning, told the man to finish reading it. He
then read "The New Democratic Doctrine;"
and when he had finished, though nine-tenths
of them were Democrats, they had their eyes
opened! They formed a Republican Club on
the spot, and
In New Jersey, the Republican cause pro
gresses finely. I regret to say that there has
been but little done in that State. Mr. Bur
lingame's speech in Trenton drew the largest
audience that ever assembled in that city to hear
one ma. The speech was able and eloquent,
and every way worthy of the man. It has done
immense good in that city. The southern sec
tion of New Jersey has been almost entirely
neglected by our Republican lectures. Much
efficient service may yet be done in Cumberland,
Atlantic, Cape May, Salem and Gloucester
Counties. They are much in need of docu
ments. A few hundred dollars spent in the
gratuitous distribution of documents would
render the cause efficient service. There is
plenty of money some where; why not do
something in New Jersey?
In Delaware, there are many good Republi
cans. Fillmore is evidently, the strongest man
there now, thought it is thought that they will
go over to Buchanan before the election. The
laws are becoming very oppressive on the free
colored people in that State. A colored man
told me that it is now a State's Prison offence
for a free colored man to buy powder and shot
to go gunning with, and that any white man
who may see a colored man carrying a gun, even
if it has no lock on it, can take it from him and
keep it, and if he refuses to give it up, can have
him arrested and sent to the State's Prison.
The case of Wm. A. White John Doe,
James Reed, was decided on Thursday.
The action was brought before the Supreme
Court for damages alleged to have been com
mitted by the defendant in forcibly ejecting the
plaintiff from the Court House during the
Burns' trial. The defence set up a plea of jus
tification by reason of acting under authority
of U.S. Marshal Freeman, and that no more
force was used than was in accordance with that
authority. The jury returned a sealed verdict
for the plaintiff for three hundred dollars.
Quite an exciting discussion has been going
on between the newspapers , in relation to
an alleged expulsion of Mr. John Stephenson,
a colored member of the Mercantile Library
Association, on the 17th ult., by Mr. Ira Chase,
Jr., President of said Association. Mr. Steph
enson is a gentleman, and I can conceive of no
reason why he should have been expelled. Mr.
Stephenson started the discussion, and so far
he has decidedly the best of it. Mr. McCrea
and Mr. Chase had some angry words in rela
tion to it a few days since in Mr. C.'s store,
when Mr. C. called Mr. McCrea a liar. The
chivalric Mac, who drove Hallett out of his
shop, and proposed to shave the proprietor of
the National Theatre in his wood-house, said,
"If you were not in your own place, I would
knock you down." Whether this was the ex
plosion of the gas, or whether there was a mos
quito fight, I am unable to say. I regret that
the Association has been drawn into this affair,
and I hope they will disclaim any participation
of the disgraceful act. If Mr. Stephenson was
a full member, he had a perfect right to keep
his place. If he was not, Mr. Chase had a
right to ask him to withdraw. Mr. Stephen
son's membership is not denied.
ROCK.
BOSTON, Oct. 7, 1856.