FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH

Washington[,] D.C. 17 Sept[ember] 1874.

HON. GERRIT SMITH.

MY DEAR SIR:

I am glad you approve my speech at Bridgeport¹Douglass may have spoken in Bridgeport, Connecticut, sometime in August 1874 during the three weeks of travel away from Washington, D.C., that he had taken following the closing of the Freedmen’s Bank. Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 25 August 1874, Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. and am still more glad
that you find strength and inclination to speak and write in the interest of
my race and the national welfare. You once told me in Jerry rescue times,
when you had written a long series of annual addresses for the rescue celebrations²On 1 October 1852, an estimated five thousand people attended the Syracuse celebration organized by Samuel Joseph May to honor the first anniversary of the rescue of William “Jerry” McHenry, a black cooper arrested under the Fugitive Slave Law. The celebration continued to be held annually on 1 October by New York abolitionists until 1860. Douglass usually attended and spoke at these public events, as he did in 1855, although that year he apologized to his readers for the “ague and fever speech” he delivered. FDP, 9 October 1851, 1, 8, 15, 29 October 1852, 5 October 1855; Mabee, Black Freedom, 307–08; Yacovone, Samuel Joseph May, 150–51. that you thought you might live till you were eighty. I hope you
will live that and more, but whether you do or not, you have already done
an eighty years work in the cause of truth and humanity. Until now I did
not know your agency in giving a ³In 1839, the American Anti-Slavery Society published American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses, compiled by the abolitionist Theodore Weld as a way to educate northerners about the evils of slavery. Several abolitionists contributed to the book by giving testimony about their direct encounters with slavery in the South. More importantly, the publication included facts about slavery given by the slaveholders themselves as printed in southern newspapers, letters, periodicals, and books. Throughout the book are multiple examples of the advertisements for runaway slaves. In an 1892 newspaper interview, Douglass described Weld’s book as “the most powerful work of its kind written in the anti-slavery cause.” Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 5: 497; Cleveland Gazette, 10 September 1892; Theodore Weld, American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses (New York, 1839). to the World—I
have not now a copy of that Book. Mine, given me when I entered the anti
slavery field, by Wendell Phillips, was consumed with my house at Rochester. You will do me a kindness and have my thanks, if you will let me have
one of the few copies you have for your children. Love to your dear family.

Truly your friend

FREDK DOUGLASS

ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU.