FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH

Washington[,] D.C. 25 August 1874[.]

HON: GER[RIT] SMITH:

MY DEAR SIR:

I have just returned home from a three weeks tour¹Neither Douglass’s surviving correspondence nor the August issues of the New National Era provide clues to his travels in early August 1874. and find your letter and
a draft of in aid of Howard University.²The New National Era published Gerrit Smith’s letter to Douglass of 5 August 1874, with which the philanthropist had sent a $1,000 check for Howard University. Smith declared: “If we would save this guilty nation we must educate its deeply wronged colored citizens. God help Howard University—its teachers and students!” NNE, 27 August 1874; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 485–86. I have not yet
seen my friend John Mercer Langston, but will probably see him to day,
when we will draw the money and hand it over to the Treasurer of Howard
University. Without waiting to see Langston and to thank you jointly with
him, I send my thanks for making me in part, the bearer of your generous
donation to this worthy institution. Trouble and violence are [damaged] in
the Southern sta[tes] and the papers represent my ra[ce] as the aggressors.
I cannot believe it. [Du]ring all the late rebellion the negroes of the south
were left on the plantations with old men children and defenseless women,
and no act of wrong was done by them to the feeblest. It is not reasonable
to suppose that these negroes have now become the demons of wrath and
fury they are now painted. I am glad to know that you still believe in us
and are ready to help us in the way of Education, which after all is our best
protection. For want of knowledge we are killed all the day long. I do not
know that I shall be able to reside in Washington in case of a change in

the administration. The wa[ve] of violence now sweeping over the South
in that case would be likely to come here also. I shall however, continue to
toil and trust and counsel my people to do the same.

My best wishes for your health and happiness—in which Mrs Doug³Anna Murray Douglass.
lass joins me.

Always truly yours

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU.