CHARLES R. DOUGLASS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Washington. D.C.¹Charles’s letter was written on stationery with the following printed letterhead: “war department / bureau refugees, freedmen, and abandoned lands / office general superintendent schools.” 26 February 1869.

DEAR FATHER

Yours of the 19th inst. came today. I have been unwell for several days, but am again at my desk. I am sorry to hear of your ill health;²The first noted reference to Douglass feeling ill was in a 21 January 1869 letter written to him by his daughter, Rosetta Douglass Sprague. At the end her letter, she wrote, “I trust your throat is improving if not I do not see how you can fill your appointments west.” Rosetta evidently became increasingly concerned; she followed up in later letters, inquiring whether he had an adequate cloak to keep him warm, since snow had been falling well into late February. Rosetta Douglass Sprague to FD, 21 January, 18, 25 February 1869, General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 424–425L, 426R–429L, 429R–430, 431–432L, FD Papers, DLC. knowing that it must be more disagreeable to be unwell while traveling & lecturing than when at home.

We have had grand weather here ever since you left, and several of my neighbors have sown peas, and are preparing their ground for other produce. I have had a large quantity of manure hauled, and have engaged a man to plough my lot next monday.

Since you wrote me in regard to the Bust, I have been anxiously awaiting its arrival, but as yet it has not come.³In June 1868, Charles Douglass had written his father to acknowledge receipt of a newspaper clipping describing an effort undertaken in Cincinnati to commission a bust of the senior Douglass. He requested that his father send him the bust or a photograph of it whenever possible. Charles R. Douglass to FD, 9 June 1868, General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 379–80, DLC.

General Howard is just home, and reports seeing you announced in several places where he has been.⁴General Oliver Otis Howard had departed the capital for a lecture tour of midwestern cities in late January and did not return until late February. Carpenter, Sword and Olive Branch, 201. I had an introduction to a daughter of Hon J. R. Giddings⁵Joshua Reed Giddings (1795–1864), an antislavery congressman from Ohio, was first elected to the House of Representatives as a Whig in 1838. He vigorously opposed the “gag rule,” the annexation of Texas, and the Mexican War. In 1842, Giddings received a congressional sanction for his actions during negotiations with Great Britain over the affair. While negotiations were underway, he introduced resolutions supporting the right of slaves aboard the British ship to mutiny. Giddings immediately resigned his seat, appealed to his constituents, and won reelection by an overwhelming margin. In 1848, Giddings left the Whig party to join the Free Soilers and then allied himself with the Republicans after passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Passed over for renomination in 1858 on account of his antislavery radicalism and declining health, Giddings was a delegate to the 1860 Republican Convention, at which he and his allies forced the adoption of a plank endorsing the principles of the Declaration of Independence. In the last three years of his life, Giddings served as the consul general to Canada. Stewart, ; , 4: 478; , 7: 260–61; (online). (Mrs. Juliane)⁶ Laura Giddings (1839–84), youngest daughter of the veteran antislavery Ohio political leader Joshua R. Giddings, married the Indiana Republican George W. Julian on 31 December 1863. After Julian’s congressional career ended in 1871, the couple moved from Washington, D.C., to Irvington, Indiana. Cleveland , 11 January 1864; Find a Grave (online). a few days ago, and was invited to her house. Her husband is a member of Congress.⁷George Washington Julian (1817–99), born in Centerville, Indiana, had a long career as an antislavery and reform politician. Essentially self-educated, Julian taught elementary school for three years before becoming a lawyer in 1840. Despite a youthful conversion from Quakerism to Unitarianism, Julian retained great sympathy for the slave. He was elected to the Indiana legislature in 1845 as a Whig, but became a Free Soiler in 1848 and served a term in Congress (1849–51). In April 1852, Julian and Douglass were featured speakers at the Cincinnati Anti-Slavery Convention. Later that year, Julian was the unsuccessful Free Soil candidate for vice president. An early Republican, he returned to the House of Representatives in 1860 for five consecutive terms. As a congressman, Julian
championed civil rights for the freedmen, woman suffrage, and public land policy reform. Offended by the corruption of the Grant administration, Julian supported the Liberal Republican movement and eventually became a Democrat. Patrick W. Riddleberger, (Indianapolis, Ind., 1966); , 3: 486.

I bought me a good substantial cooking stove a few days ago, the first new one I ever had, and it cost me $25.00 the price was $30. I am gradually getting my house furnished, and one of these days hope to be able to give you comfortable lodgings when you come this way.

If you have an extra violin to dispose of I should be very happy to have it.

Great preparations are being made for the coming Inagural, and a grand time is anticipated by all.⁸Ulysses S. Grant was inaugurated as the eighteenth president of the United States on 4 March 1869. After extensive preparations, Washington, D.C., welcomed large crowds of enthusiastic Republican supporters. Grant refused to ride with the outgoing president, Andrew Johnson, to the inauguration at the Capitol, and the latter boycotted the ceremony altogether. The parade was heavily decorated, and Grant’s carriage was accompanied by a large number of marching soldiers. After attending Vice President Schuyler Colfax’s swearing-in in the Senate Chamber, Grant went to the inaugural stand on the Capitol’s east front. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase then swore Grant in, and the new president delivered one of the shortest-ever inaugural addresses. His inaugural ball was held later at the Treasury Building. Washington , 3, 4, 5 March 1869; Calhoun, , 65–68.

I dont think Nathan⁹Nathan Sprague. leaves the hill because some of the family dislike him, he may use that as an excuse, but if that was the real cause he would have left long ago. I have no friendship for Sprague, but I have never tried to have him leave your place, although he has tried by mispresentations to have me, and the other boys sent away. He should not complain now, and if he leaves when you wish him to stay he shows his ingratitude to you for all you have done for him. I am sure now that none of us boys are at home he has no serious opposition in anything he chooses to do. When I worked the place he boasted that he could make a living thus and intimated that I didn’t half work; now he has more ground than I had, with a house on the place; horse, wagon, & carriage at his disposal, and talks of leaving.

Sprague has the advantage of mother, he writes, and if mother wants a letter written she has to go to Rosetta,¹⁰Rosetta Douglass Sprague. and there it goes, and you only get one side of what transpires. I cant hear from home when you are absent because mother¹¹Anna Murray Douglass. cant write, and I suppose Rosetta wont write to me for her. I write once in a while but never receive any reply. William¹²Charles is no doubt referring to one of the several young men named William (such as William Oliver and William Winston) who worked on his father’s newspapers as either an apprentice or an assistant in the 1850s and early 1860s. The editors, however, have not been able to determine the exact identity of the William in question. , ser. 3, 2: 253; Fought, , 125–25, 128, 344n. wrote once in a while, but now he has stopped.

Little Freddie learns to talk quite rapidly.¹³ Charles Frederick Douglass was twenty months old at the time. Fought, , 310.

All send love, Aff. Yr. Son

CHAS. R. DOUG LASS

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 432R–36L, FD Papers, DLC.