CHARLES SUMNER TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Washington, [D.C.] [May 1872.]¹Sumner dated this letter to Douglass only as “Sunday.” The letter’s contents allude to the growing estrangement of Sumner from the Grant administration, which occurred in the spring of 1872 as the Liberal Republican movement began organizing to challenge the president’s renomina tion in the fall. Sumner was in the capital during the first half of the year, but Douglass traveled in the Midwest on the lyceum circuit in January and then went to New Orleans in April to attend the National Convention of Colored People. In his absence, the printed several editorials condemning the Liberal Republican movement and supporting Grant. On 25 April 1872, the published a short article predicting that Sumner would not join any exodus from the Republican party but would instead endorse Grant if renominated. In April and May 1872, Sumner was writing old friends, trying to enlist aid in blocking Grant in order “to save the Republican party, now imperiled by selfish men,” and this outreach to Douglass might have occurred then. , ser. 1, 4: xxx, 293–99; , 1 February, 25 April 1872; Palmer,, 2: 584–90.

DEAR MR DOUGLASS,

I started yesterday to find you at yr office but was detained on the way
until it was too late. I shall try again tomorrow.²There is no report of such a personal meeting occurring between Sumner and Douglass. Since many Republicans saw the Liberal Republicans as little different from Democrats (indeed, the Liberal Republican nominee, Horace Greeley, also became the Democratic nominee), Douglass saw Sumner’s support of Greeley as a betrayal. Throughout the summer of 1872, the paper continued to print editorials against Sumner’s position as well as resolutions from around the country lamenting his choice to remove himself from the Republican party. By September, the was regularly republishing criticism of Sumner, for example, “No one has been so overrated on one side of his intellection and personal life as Senator Sumner.” While no one wished to denounce the “lifelong devotion of Hon. Charles Sumner to [colored persons’] welfare,” the paper felt that in voting for the Democrats “in preference to the National Republican’s nominee, he has not only erred, but has suffered his personal hostility to General Grant to warp his better judgement.” In , Douglass admitted his deep remorse at this estrangement from Sumner, whose sincerity he never questioned. , ser. 1, 4: 397–401; , ser. 2, 3: 319–20; , 6 June, 15 August, 5, 12 September 1872.

I long to talk with you about the Republican party & its perils to
which I fear you are not sufficiently flexible, if I may judge from your
paper, which I read regretfully. Pray don’t drive the wedge to split us.

Let us try to leave the colored people in their rights and [illegible] the
energies of this people from the real quest.

Ever yours

CHARLES SUMNER

ALS: Gilder-Lehrman Collection, NNPML.