Frederick Douglass to Sarah Jane Clarke Lippincott ("Grace Greenwood")¹Sarah Jane Clarke Lippincott (1823–1904) wrote poetry and children’s stories under the pseudonym “Grace Greenwood.” Originally from Pompeii, New York, Lippincott relocated to New Brighton, Pennsylvania, in 1842. Two years later she began her literary career by publishing in numer- ous periodicals. She became an editorial assistant for Godey’s Ladies Book but was fired for her anti- slavery writings. Lippincott then moved to Washington, D.C., where she wrote for the National Era. In 1853 she married and moved to Philadelphia, where she launched her own successful children’s magazine, the Little Pilgrim. Merrill and Ruchames, , 3:513n; , 2:407–09.

Washington[,] D.C. 24 M[ar]ch 1877[.]

All right, my kind friend, there is much in what you Say of the Many good words you have said of me, not only in the article in the “Times,” to which I took a solitary exception, but in many other articles reaching over many years.²Greenwood wrote regularly for the New York Times from Washington, D.C., in the 1870s, often in a signed column entitled “Washington Notes.” None of these appear to be the one to which Douglass referred, but perhaps he believes her responsible for the positive coverage of his nomination by President Rutherford B. Hayes to become marshal of the District of Columbia. New York , 16, 17, 18, 20 March 1877. I remember you for them all and thank you for them all. I now bet- ter comprehend your aim in the “Times” than upon the first reading your article, and yet I think you make me deeper and less transparent than I am. Few however, have the ability to see themselves as others see them and perhaps I may seem a little less frank to others than I seem to others, I am glad you think my not being better understood by you my own fault—since this puts it in my power to remove the cause. Do you know, or would you believe, that after all the good things you have said of me—after all the service I have known you to render to the cause of justice, liberty and humanity, after all the kindness shown me at the fireside of your dear father and mother,³Greenwood was the youngest of eleven children born to Dr. Thaddeus C. Clarke (1770–1854) and Deborah Baker Clarke (c. 1791–1874). Thaddeus, originally from Lebanon, Connecticut, was a physician. Deborah, a native of Brooklyn, Connecticut, was educated in English classics and helped ignite Greenwood’s interest in literature. New York Times, 7 January 1875; Donna Born, “Sara Jane Clarke Lippincott (23 September 1823–20 April 1904),” in , ed. Perry J. Ashley, vol. 43 of (Detroit, Mich., 1985), 303–09. after all your brave conduct in standing up for truth and enlightenment, at an early day, when to oppose slavery was to invite to your head the shafts of ridicule and even violence—after your full, free and conspicuous recognition of my rights and feelings, more than thirty years ago, when my manhood was insulted and wounded—on my passage from New Brighten⁴New Brighton is located in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, along the Beaver River, and is less than thirty miles northwest of Pittsburgh. In a letter written by Douglass to Sydney H. Gay dated 20 August 1847, Douglass recounted his travels from Pittsburgh to New Brighton to visit Grace Green- wood and attend several abolitionist meetings there. During his travels aboard a steamboat, Douglass wrote that “no dinner was furnished, for the very American reason, that a goodly number of persons on board were coloured, and it was deemed probable that some of them might presume to dine, and would thus give offence to the white skinned aristocracy.” This may be the incident to which Douglass refers in his letter to Greenwood. While in New Brighton, Douglass, along with William Lloyd Garrison and Martin Delany, spoke at two meetings on Saturday, 14 August 1847. Both meetings were held in the upper room of a general store and were well attended by several hundred people despite the cramped conditions. Douglass to Sydney H. Gay, 20 August 1847, in , ser. 3, 1:234–37; Lib., 20 August 1847; Merrill and Ruchames, , 3:510–11. to Pittsburg—I say, would you believe after all these proofs of your interest in myself as well as in my cause—I have still felt that there was a cool stream running between us. I think now that this must have arisen in some measure from the fact that our courses were in different directions. You have been ministering

to a class occupying a place beyond me. You are not only reformatory and beneficent—but you are learned and philosophical, courted by the high and great at home and abroad—and I have been your humble friend all the while—standing at a respectful distance but admiring you and following you in all these thirty four years with the best wishes that one heart can feel for the welfare, prosperity and happiness that on soul can feel for another. From the time when in the fullness of your youth and beauty—you brought to me you brought to me for my opinion some of your earliest productions, I have never ceased to follow you in all your career with sentiments of respect and affection—I have even flattered my self that I had some hand in bringing you to the attention of the broad world—that I helped & to remove your distrust of your own ability as a writer—and encouraged you to venture into the arena of literature where you have shown for thirty years and more, as one of the most graceful of american writers—I have secretly shared your glory. But I only meant to tell you that all is quiet on the Potomac—and that you and I are even bet- ter friends to day than ever before, As soon as I can I shall see you and let you have a peep into those fancied depths—which will when you have seen them—not seem so deep after all. If all this shall seem over done I assure you that it is only seeming—I have never spoken more sincerely than in this imperfect and hastily written note.

FREDERICK (AS OF OLD)

ALS: Frederick Douglass Manuscripts, CtY.