CHARLES R. DOUGLASS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Washington, D.C. 22 December 1869.

DEAR FATHER,

I have just received your letter of the 19th inst., and also received one
from you about a week ago.¹Neither of these two letters from Douglass to his son Charles has been located. I should have written to you often, but did not
know your whereabouts.

I feel very grateful for your long letter, and shall endeavor to give you
all the news, which I think will interest you.

The Convention was a decided success and reflects credit on all who
were in any way connected with it. The delegates were composed of Colored and white males, and Colored and white females, all classes being
represented.²Over one hundred delegates from twenty-three states and the District of Columbia attended the National Colored Labor Convention that met at Union League Hall in Washington, D.C., on 6–10 December 1869. The movement for this convention began at a meeting in Baltimore the preceding August, led by Isaac Myers. Many leading African Americans spoke at the convention, including John M. Langston, George T. Downing, George B. Vashon, William J. Wilson, and J. Sella Martin. White sympathizers such as the Pennsylvania congressman William D. Kelly, the abolitionist editor Aaron M. Powell, and General O. O. Howard of the Freedmen’s Bureau also addressed the gathering. The convention created a permanent organization, the National Labor Union, with Myers as its president and Lewis Douglass as its corresponding secretary. The was named the official organ of the new union by the convention. Philadelphia , 14 August 1869; , 13 January 1870; Sumner Eliot Matison, “The Labor Union and the Negro during Reconstruction,” , 33: 426–68 (October 1948).

Lewis was one of the two Secretaries,³When the National Colored Labor Convention completed its organization, it elected William U. Saunders of Nevada and Lewis H. Douglass from the District of Columbia as its secretaries. , 13 January 1870. and really performed all the
important work in that direction.

The Convention was presided over by Hon. Jas. Harris of North Carolina State Senate, a very smart and efficient officer. He presided with dignity and coolness.⁴The National Colored Labor Convention selected James Henry Harris (1832–91) of North Carolina as its presiding officer. Born a slave, he gained his freedom in 1848, moved north, and eventually graduated from Oberlin College. He recruited African American soldiers for the Union army and returned to North Carolina after the Civil War. A founder of the state’s Republican party, he was elected to terms in both the House and Senate during Reconstruction. Harris lost two elections to the U.S. House of Representatives but remained active in national Republican party activities as a Raleigh newspaper editor. Elizabeth Balanoff, “Negro Legislators in the North Carolina General Assembly, July, 1868–February, 1872,” , 49: 22–55 (January 1972).

Lewis presented the most important resolution that was offered during the session, and it was so regarded by all. It was for the organization
of a National Labor Bureau with Headquarters at Washington D.C., and
from which Charters would be granted to State Labor Unions, whereby
the colored laboring classes can be brought together and a unity of wages
for the different trades agreed upon.⁵On the third day of the convention, Lewis H. Douglass introduced a resolution calling for a committee to “draft a plan for the organization of unions among colored men to secure the recognition of colored mechanics and laboring men in the workshops of the country.” The convention passed the resolution and authorized the creation of such a bureau, to be based in the District of Columbia, to deal with the convention’s unfinished business. , 13 January 1870.

Hon. A. M. Clapp, Govt. Printer, was invited to address the Convention, and in the course of his remarks, referring to Lewis’ appointment, he
said that he must confess that when young Douglass’ was introduced to
him, and his name announced there was magic in it. He paid Lewis many
very high compliments as a printer which were received with defeaning
applause.⁶There is no report of the speech by Almon Mason Clapp to the labor convention that Charles Douglass describes.

The Convention numbered nearly 200 delegates representing nearly
every State in the Union, mostly Southern however.

Fred. is pushing his claims and I think is in a fair way to get employment either in the Capitol or Government Printing Office,⁷Most likely this is Charles’s reference to his brother’s failed attempt to obtain a position in the office of the Recorder of Deeds. Frederick Douglass, Jr., moved to Washington, D.C., in 1868 and opened a grocery store in Potomac City (now known as Anacostia). In August 1869 he married Virginia L. M. Hewlett at her family home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and returned to Washington, D.C., with his new bride shortly thereafter. During this period, both he and his brother Lewis were frustrated in their efforts to find gainful employment; prejudice within the all-white printer’s union prevented their membership in it, so both brothers sought employment with the federal government. Although Frederick Jr.’s efforts in that endeavor failed, by the end of the year he was employed as a printer for the . Blight, , 504; Bernier and Taylor, , 27–28. and his
wife has been tendered a school in Potomac City at a salary of $35 per
month. I have been figuring quite largely in the papers with regard to our
school system in Potomac City. We have three schools in our town all of
which are being taught by white teachers with salaries ranging from $35
to $75 per month. I had a meeting called of the citizens and drew up a

series of resolutions to be presented to the Commissioner of our District
requesting the appointment of at least one colored teacher in three, and
being ignored by him I wrote and published an account of the interview
& of his indifference to our claims. It had the desired effect, for shortly
afterwards he addressed me a note tendering one of the Schools to Fred’s
wife which she will accept.⁸Although Charles R. Douglass was actively engaged in efforts to hire African American teachers in the Washington, D.C. school system, it is unclear how directly he was involved in the hiring of his sister-in-law. What is certain, however, is that when Virginia L. M. Hewlett Douglass was hired in 1870, she became the first African American teacher in the D.C. school system. Bernier and Taylor, , 36, 626–27; Fought, , 268.

With regard to my chances for promotion I will state that I did not expect one before Congress should meet, & since they have met Judge Kelley⁹William Darrah Kelley. has been unusually busy, but soon after the recess over the holidays I
shall push my claims.

I have had many drawbacks since you were here on account of sickness &c., & my trip to Rochester.

I will be able on June 30th to present you with a mortgage covering
the whole amount you loaned me with the interest for the time, and shall
continue my interest until I can settle the whole debt. Libbie wants to go
home to spend two or three months until after about the first of February,
and her mother is quite anxious for her to come. I want to let her go, as it
will earn me something, that is the expense of keeping house on so large
a scale as I now am, during her absence. The children are growing finely,
and Freddie is in his element & I trust nothing will occur to prevent him
from keeping up until at least you can see him when he is perfectly well.¹⁰At this time, Charles R. and Elizabeth “Libbie” Murphy Douglass had two children: Charles Frederick, age 2, and Joseph Henry, 5 months. Their next child, Annie Elizabeth, was born in June 1871. Bernier and Taylor, , xlix; Fought, , 310.

I see by the papers that you are meeting with great success, which I
am proud to know. We look anxiously for the 24th January.

It was my intention when you should come here <to> mention the
purchase of a house here to you. Washington is building up rapidly, & on
Capitol Hill there are many fine sites for a dwelling. Houses bring high
rents here at all seasons of the year, and $5000 would build a nice pressed
brick front house with 8 rooms. I <will> write to you at Rochester. Bill,¹¹No doubt this is a reference to the same William mentioned in Charles R. Douglass’s letter of 26 February 1869, but again the editors cannot confirm which of the several Williams who worked for and lived with the Douglass family in Rochester over the years is intended. Whichever William it was, by June 1870 he was no longer residing with the Douglass family, since the census records only one young man (age fifteen), named Richard Floyd, living with Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass. 1870 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 191.
sent the apples, they are very good.

Love from all, Yr. Son.

CHAS. R. DOUG LASS

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames, 508R–10L, FD Papers, DLC.