FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO CHARLES CARROLL FULTON¹The Baltimore was owned at this time by Charles Carroll Fulton (1815–83). After working as a journalist in Philadelphia and Georgetown, Fulton purchased partial ownership of the in 1853 and became its editor. A die-hard Whig, Fulton backed John Bell in the 1860 presidential election. He supported the Union cause in the Civil War and became a loyal Republican, serving eight years on its national committee. Grant appointed Fulton to the same Santo Domingo Commission in 1871 that Douglass served on as assistant secretary. Richard A. Schwarzlose, , 2 vols. (Evanston, Ill., 1989), 1: 249; Scharf, , 610–11.

Baltimore, [Md.] 20 August 1869.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE BALTIMORE AMERICAN:

A most shameful fraud has been perpetrated upon the good people of
Frederick. The man guilty of it deserves more lashes than I would like
to see laid upon the back of a pickpocket, highway robber or horse thief.
The mean creature, whoever he may be, should be blistered with execration. Whatever other fault I may be justly chargeable with, those who have
known my course for thirty years will acquit me of wantonly breaking
my engagements. It is true that my name has often been used without my
authority, and that disappointments by that means have been caused, but
no sensible person holds me responsible for such disappointments. A man

with a name in any measure known to the public has no remedy for this
evil. Mean and unprincipled sneaks often resort to such tricks to secure an
influence for themselves or for others. [But] I [come] to the case in hand:

More than a month ago I was invited to deliver an address in Frederick,
Maryland, by Mr. H. C. Naill.²Henry Clay Naill. The date for the occasion was the 15th of
August, which was subsequently changed by Mr. Naill to the 18th, and still
later to the 17th of August. I agreed to every change, and pledged myself
to be present. Well now, why was I not present? I will tell you and your
respected readers at once. After preparing my speech for the occasion, after working upon it for many days, after thinking and feeling much of the
grand occasion upon which I was to meet so many of the citizens of my
native State, after much anxiety about the journey and about the impression
I should make upon the good people of Frederick; in short, after setting out
from home on the 13th of August, determined to be on time and to have a
day or two to spare in case of accident; after reaching Washington, and when
I was thus just within a few hours of Frederick, lo! I received the following
telegram from home, which had reached there just after my departure for
Frederick: “.”

Now, Mr. Editor, this telegram was the sole cause of the disappointment at Frederick. I had fully intended to fill the appointment; had travelled a night and a day to meet it, had labored hard to prepare for it, had
spent my time and my money to get to it, and just as I thought my work all
complete, I was disappointed in the shameful manner mentioned.

What could I have done in the circumstances? How could I have acted
differently? I could not treat this telegram with less respect than I treated
all others which had come to me signed H. C. Naill. In a place like Frederick I could not think Mr. Naill so unknown to telegraph operators that his
name could be forged, and I therefore treated it as genuine, and waited for
the promised explanation. The affair will only make me a little more careful as to where and with whom I make engagements to spend my time,
my money and my strength in future, for there is nothing very pleasant
in working several weeks in preparing an address and spending thirty or
forty dollars in traveling expenses, only to have one’s labor for his pains.

Respectfully yours,

FREDERICK DOUG LASS.

PLSr: Baltimore , 21 August 1869.