FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO JOHN SHERMAN

Washington, D.C. 13 M[ar]ch 1877.

HON: JOHN SHERMAN:

SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE U.S.¹While Douglass addressed this letter to John Sherman, the secretary of state in Rutherford B. Hayes’s administration, that office was actually held by William M. Evarts. Hayes appointed Evarts on 7 March 1877, and he began serving on 12 March. “Biographies of the Secretaries of State: William Maxwell Evarts (1818–1901),” history.state.gov.

DEAR SIR:

Not wishing to trouble the President by repeated calls or by deputations of
my friends, knowing as I do the pressure of business now upon him, I have
felt it might be well to say to you, that the United States Marshalship for
the District of Columbia with which my name has been coupled will be
entirely agreeablyg agreeable to my wishes—and I believe will be gratifying to a large-class of the American people of all colors and races—

Very truly yours

FREDK DOUGLASS—²Sherman added the following notation after he received the letter from Douglass: “I call the special attention of the President to this note of Fred Douglass with my hearty approval—John Sherman.”

ALS: Rutherford B. Hayes Manuscripts, OFH.