CHARLES R. DOUGLASS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Washington, D.C.¹On the line following his signature, Charles Douglass added: “264. G. M.” 18 July 1867.

DEAR FATHER

I was called upon early this morning by Mr Carter Stewart²Born in Virginia, Carter A. Stewart (c. 1828–91) was a successful mixed-race barber, prominent in the black community of Washington, D.C. In 1868 he was elected to the city’s common council, and in 1869 he was appointed to the board of aldermen. 1860 U.S. Census, District of Columbia, Washington, 12; 1870 U.S. Census, District of Columbia, Washington, 14; 1880 U.S. Census, District of Columbia, Washington, 32–33; Scott E. Casper, (New York, 2008), 122; Kate Masur, (Chapel Hill, N.C., 2010), 153–54, 162. who stated
to me that Mr. Lannon (Ex-Marshall of this Dist. under President Lincoln’s administration,)³Ward Hill Lamon (1828–93) was born near Winchester, Virginia, in what is now Berkeley County, West Virginia. In the late 1840s, after studying medicine for two years, he moved to Kentucky to study law at the University of Louisville. In 1851, Lamon settled in Danville, Illinois, and opened his first law office. Within a few years, he and Abraham Lincoln, with whom he became friends while riding central Illinois’s Eighth Judicial Circuit, formed an informal law partnership. An early supporter of the future president’s political aspirations, Lamon helped organize Lincoln’s famous but failed senatorial campaign (against Stephen Douglas) in 1858 and worked on his presidential campaign in 1860. After receiving what were perceived as credible death threats, Lincoln asked Lamon to accompany him as his personal bodyguard when he traveled to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration in early 1861. In April of that same year, Lincoln appointed Lamon U.S. marshal for Washington, D.C., with the primary responsibility of continuing to ensure the president’s safety. On the day Lincoln was killed, Lamon was on assignment in Richmond, Virginia. For the rest of his life, Lamon maintained that if he had been present, he could have prevented the assassination. Following Lincoln’s death, Lamon resigned as U.S. marshal and returned to the practice of law, forming a partnership with former attorney general and secretary of state Jeremiah Black. Around 1870, he began work on a planned two-volume biography of Lincoln, but soon tired of the project and turned it over to a ghostwriter—his partner’s son, Chauncey F. Black. In 1872, when the first volume of the biography () was published, both the critics and the public were offended by its sometimes less than flattering portrayal of the late president, and it proved to be a financial disaster. As a result, any thought of a second volume was abandoned. Lamon ended his partnership with Black in 1879 and moved to Colorado, where he practiced law on his own until 1883. At one point during that period, he was seriously considered a candidate for the position of postmaster of Denver, but Robert Todd Lincoln, who had been greatly offended by Lamon’s biography of his father, blocked his nomination. After closing his practice in Denver, he traveled widely before settling in Berkeley County, West Virginia. Harold Holzer, (New York, 2008), 287, 404, 480; Spencer C. Tucker, ed., , 6 vols. (Santa Barbara, Calif., 2013), 1: 1095; (online). called upon him yesterday and requested him to
write you immediately and assertain in a quiet way whether you would accept the position as Chief of the Freedman’s Bureau⁴Based on the content of several letters published in this volume, it seems unlikely that Douglass was ever officially offered the job of heading the Freedmen’s Bureau. According to a letter (dated 18 August 1867) from William Slade, the White House steward who seems to have played a pivotal role in trying to engineer Douglass’s appointment, it is not even certain that Johnson ever seriously considered Douglass as a candidate for the job. In fact, Slade indicates that having heard from one of the president’s secretaries that Johnson was thinking of appointing an African American to head the bureau, he contacted Douglass on his own to see whether he would be interested in the position. Had Douglass said yes, Slade would have tried to convince the president to select Douglass, but since Douglass tacitly declined the job, Slade wrote that he never brought the matter to Johnson’s attention. Given these circumstances, it seems doubtful that Douglass received a formal offer from Johnson to take charge of the Freedmen’s Bureau. William Slade to Douglass, 18 August 1867, General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 305–306, FD Papers, DLC; McFeely, , 259–61. (the place that Genl.
Howard⁵Oliver Otis Howard. now occupies) if tendered to you. If you would, an immediate
reply is requested, either by telegraph to me or letter. If you should not
accept, the Marshall will drop the matter not wishing it to become public;
but it is his wish with many others to know whether you would accept,
before any movement is taken in the matter.

I would like to see you at the head of this Bureau. You posess more
than the necessary qualifications for the management of it. It does not require military knowledge, and the work is easier than lecturing and travelling. My hope is, that you wont refuse the position if tendered.

Love to all at home. An immediate reply to this is earnestly requested.
I am further authorized to state that, should you consent to accept the position it will not be made public, until it is certain that the position is really
tendered, of course if not, then have to be made public.

Aff. Yr. Son

CHARLES R. DOUGLASS

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 287–88, FD Papers, DLC.