FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO SAMUEL D. PORTER

Washington, D.C. 30 June 1879.

S. D. PORTER ESQR

MY DEAR SIR:

I am again your debtor; but the obligation is light and pleasant. The article
to which you refer me in the Democrat, is full of Soul, written with the
skill and power of a veteran. I was vain enough to read it twice and have it
out for a Scrap Book.¹Porter sent Douglass an article published in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in response to the recent unveiling of the statue honoring him. The unsigned article, containing numerous spelling errors, praised the former Rochester resident effusively: “Douglass must rank as among the greatest men, not only of this city; but of the nation as well—great in gifts, greater in utilizing them, great in his inspiration, greater in his efforts for humanity, great in the persuasion of his speech greater in the purpose that informed it.” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 28 June 1879. My two sons, Fredk and Lewis,²Frederick Douglass, Jr., and Lewis H. Douglass. These two, along with their brother Charles R. Douglass, eventually assembled a series of scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and handwritten documents regarding their father’s post–Civil War career. The material was preserved by the Africana collector Walter O. Evans. Bernier and Taylor, If I Survive, lxxx–lxxxv. though never very
enthusiastic were very glad over it—and perhaps I may say proud. Thanks
for your gentle warning. It was like you to give it and I honor your fidelity.
The perils are abundant in every part of the voyage of life—and are as
abundant when nearing the shore as when in mid ocean. I can only promise to keep a man at the “mast head”³The term is often used interchangeably with “crow’s nest,” the spot on a ship’s tallest mast where a lookout kept watch for other ships, whales, land, etc. Joseph P. O’Flynn, Nautical Dictionary: Over 3800 Terms (Boyne City, Mich., 1992), 62. and a sharpe look out and a firm
hand upon the helm. Some degree of safety is assured by a knowledge of
danger at hand.

I see that Mrs Porter⁴After her marriage to the land agent Samuel D. Porter in 1835, Susan Farley Porter (1812–80) moved from Waldoboro, Maine, to Rochester, New York, where she became one of the city’s most active reformers. Among the founders of the Bethel Free Church, Rochester Orphan Asylum Association, and Rochester Female Anti-Slavery Society, she was also a member of the Rochester Female Charitable Society, an author of the constitution for the Home for Friendless and Virtuous Females, and president of the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 92; FDP, 11 March 1852; Hewitt, Women’s Activism and Social Change, 55–56, 59–60, 111, 119, 126–27, 147–48, 152, 159, 191, 230. is again your awareness—Please let me know
how you are getting along. I have always looked upon you as remarkably
endowed, singularly free from every thing to which disease can attach,
good at least for five and eighty and I shall be glad to think so still. You
are several years my senior—I appear much older.⁵As nearly as can be determined, Douglass was born in February 1818, making him approximately sixty-one at the time of this letter. Ledger books kept by his master, Aaron Anthony, contain a table, “My Black People,” with the notation “Frederick Augustus son of Harriott Feby 1818.” In his last autobiography, Douglass reveals that when he had a reunion with his former owner, Thomas Auld, in St. Michaels, Maryland, in June 1877, Auld relayed that information to him. Douglass Papers, ser. 2:3:347; Aaron Anthony Ledger B, 1812–26, folders 95, 165, Dodge Collection, MdAA; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 31–34, 218. My head is white my
eyes are a trifle dim—but I write in the day time without glasses—and
walk in the street with firm and elastic step—My young people tell me
that I walk too fast for them—so despite my sixty two or three years (I
know not which) I am still moving about the world with the young and
strong.

Please say to your sister Maria⁶The social activist Maria G. Porter (1805–96) was born in Bristol, Maine. At twenty, she moved with her family to Rochester, New York, where she remained until her death. Maria helped found the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society and served as its treasurer for many years; her sister Almira B. Porter (1825–79) served on the society’s executive board. Maria also ran a boardinghouse in Rochester that was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Almira taught young women at a school in Rochester. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 57; FDP, 26 February 1852; Rochester Herald, 14 December 1896; New York Times, 15 December 1896; Bangor (Me.) Daily Whig & Courier, 17 December 1896; The Rochester Directory, Containing a General Directory of the Citizens, a Business Directory, and the City and County Register for the Year Beginning July, 1 1880 (Rochester, 1880), 58; Peck, History of Rochester and Monroe County, 1: 243. that I still remember her many good
works for my oppressed people. She was always happy when I called upon
her for money to pay the passage to Canada of another fugitive slave. To
here her, business on the underground Rail Road could never be too lively.

Should any one related to you come to Washington it will give me
pleasure to serve him in any way I can. Since I have been in office I
have been visited by many of my English friends—most of them young—
people, children of good people whose acquaintance I made during my
visit thirty four years ago—I usually take them to the White house⁷In his final autobiography, Life and Times, Douglass reported that during his tenure as U.S. marshal under President Rutherford B. Hayes, “I have many times during his administration had the honor to introduce distinguished strangers to him, both of native and foreign birth, and never had reason to feel myself slighted by himself or his admirable wife.” Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 3:333. and
introduce to the Pres.t and sometimes Mrs. Hayes⁸Rutherford B. and Lucy W. Hayes.—and they go away
delighted with the warmth, cordiality and simple dignity of the president
and his household and equally well pleased to find one treated with respect

and confidence by the Chief of the Nation. My best wishes for your
speedy recovery—Please over look imperfections

Very truly yours

FREDK DOUGLASS—

[P.S.] Mrs Porter, will be glad to know that I often have good letters from
she that Miss Griffiths⁹Julia Griffiths Crofts. that was—and that as usual she is active in works
of charity. She often speaks in her letters of approaching the sunset of life
in peace. F. D.

ALS: Porter Family Manuscripts, NRU.