CHARLES SUMNER TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Nahant[,¹Nahant was a resort community along Massachusetts Bay south of Lynn. Sumner spent many summer days there as a guest of friends such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who maintained a vacation home in Nahant. Shotwell, , 706; Seltzer, , 1277. Mass. 1872.]²Sumner provided only “Thursday” as the letter’s date.

NAHANT

THURSDAY

DEAR MR DOUGLASS,

Since my note of this Monday Mr Longfellow³Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) was one of the most prominent American authors of the nineteenth century. Born in Portland, Maine, Longfellow graduated from Bowdoin College in the same class as Nathaniel Hawthorne. He studied languages in Europe, accepted a professorship in modern languages at Bowdoin (1829–35), and later relocated permanently to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he accepted the Smith professorship of French and Spanish at Harvard College. Early in his career, Longfellow published translations of foreign works; by 1833, he was receiving considerable publishing success with his own prose and poetry. He was catapulted to literary stardom with the appearance of his prose romance Hyperion in 1839. In 1842 he published , which made an important contribution to the antislavery movement. Over a long and highly productive career, Longfellow authored numerous collections of poetry and prose. He is best remembered for his long poem (1855), which portrays Native Americans with dignity and respect, and (1858), treating the life and adventures of the Pilgrim leader. Cecil B. Williams, (New York, 1964), 139–40; Newton Arvin, (Boston, 1963), 77–78; James D. Hart, , 6th ed. (New York, 1995), 387–88; , 4: 10–15; , 11: 382–87; (online). has read to me what purports to be an interview where are attributed to me words about you which

never crossed my lips. I said that, whatever Mr Douglass might think of
the Presidential indignity every body has a liberty to express an opinion
<on it> in as much as it concerned the race.⁴During the 1872 presidential election, Sumner repeatedly criticized President Grant for excluding Douglass from dining with the other Santo Domingo commissioners at the Executive Mansion on 30 March 1871. While Douglass initially remained quiet on this subject, he felt it necessary to defend Grant during the election. Perhaps Sumner is referring here to an interview he gave on this subject in which his feelings regarding Grant and his slighting of Douglass might have been embellished for political purposes. , 18 July, 12 September, 19 September 1872; Sumner, , 15: 151–52, 205–08.

I write this because I am determined that no ill-will or carelessness of
others shall make trouble between us.

Ever sincerely yours,

CHARLES SUMNER

ALS: Gilder-Lehrman Collection, NNPML.