FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO AMY POST

Washington[,] D.C. 18 July 1872.

MY DEAR FRIEND:

I have not forgotten my promise to send you a line. I hope you are well.
I see that the heats of July to in Rochester have been very trying—and I
naturally think of health as the best thing though among the most uncertain things of life. The heat in Washington is greater than is remembered
before by the oldest inhabitant—from ninety five to one hundred in the
shade for weeks together.¹Douglass correctly reports record heat for the month of July in the District of Columbia, which would not be surpassed for over a century. Washington , 26 August 2016. I often sigh for the shade of my Rochester trees
and for the pleasant calls I occasionally made to your house. But I am in
the harness and must needs work while it is day. My Bonds are yet giving me trouble. There was a mistake in the numbers—and one Bond that
I represented as burnt, has been found in the Treasury—This of course,
casts a doubt upon all the rest.²Douglass reported a loss of $11,000 in bonds in the fire that destroyed his Rochester home. He ultimately recovered that money from the Treasury Department. Douglass calculated that after the insurance settlement, he lost between four and five thousand dollars and never returned permanently to Rochester. McFeely, , 275. I can come to no decision about building again in Rochester while the Bonds question remains. I am leaving
here for Virginia in a few days to stump³Douglass campaigned in the company of the Republican vice presidential candidate, Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, in Richmond, Virginia, on 24 July 1872. The next day, he addressed a Republican rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. Finally, on 27 July 1872, he joined John Mercer Langston in Wilmington, North Carolina, for a final speech in this short southern campaign tour. Richmond (Va.) , 24, 25 July 1872; Richmond (Va.) , 24, 25 July 1872; Raleigh (N.C.) , 27 July 1872; Raleigh (N.C.) , 27 July 1872; San Francisco , 27 July 1872; , 1 August 1872. for the election of Grant and
Wilson[.]⁴Henry Wilson. My line of argument will be, that Grant’s position is pure and
simple—while that of Greeley⁵Horace Greeley. is mixed and ambiguous. I shall admit that

I should on personal grounds like to vote for Greeley if I really knew what
I am voting for.—and which of the many Greeleys my vote would elect.
For there <are> a great many Greeleys. If I could select the right one I
would gladly give him my vote—But just here is the trouble. This many
sided man has been on all sides—one does not know which will finally
control. His going over to Democracy to get elected president is against
him⁶Democratic party’s national convention, meeting in Baltimore, had just nominated Horace Greeley as its presidential candidate, though Greeley had already accepted the presidential nomination of the Liberal Republican party. Douglass is rehearsing with Post the attack he planned to make in upcoming campaign speeches about Greeley’s inconsistent political record. , ser. 1, 4: 302–12, 322–41; , 11 July 1872.—Our country wants certainty—and wants the confidence and repose which only certainty can give—Hence I am in short I am for Grant. I
hope to be in Rochester for a few days about the 1st of August⁷There is no surviving evidence of a visit by Douglass to Rochester in August 1872. He campaigned for the Republican ticket in Virginia and North Carolina in late July, and correspondence indicates that he was away from Washington in early August, but it is not clear where he traveled. Douglass was back at his Washington residence in mid-August and then departed to campaign for the Republican ticket in Maine for the remainder of the month. He delivered some campaign speeches in New York in September, but not in Rochester. Douglass to C. J. Langdon, in Bangor (Me.) , 23 August 1872; Douglass to Edwin D. Morgan, 16 August 1872, Edwin D. Morgan Manuscripts, NN; , 1 August 1872; Rochester , 6 August 1872; Boston , 20 August 1872.—All good
things to you my friend—

Yours Truly

FREDK DOUG LASS

ALS: Post Family Papers, Rush Rhees Library, NRU.