FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO THEODORE TILTON

[n.p.] 17 April 1869.¹Douglass wrote the notation “Private” at the top of this letter.

MY DEAR FRIEND:—

I am just home from my winters work—Have done well—every way—I
have learned a lesson. It was a mistake—my taking a historical subject
so remote as “William the Silent” shall do better next time. I found as
usual—your lectures spoken of whenever I have been on your track with
admiration. The Art of using the mind²Douglass alludes to his friend Theodore Tilton’s very popular lecture “The Art of Using the Mind,” delivered on numerous occasions on the lyceum circuit. Peter Cherches, Star Course: Nineteenth-Century Lecture Tours and the Consolidation of Modern Celebrity (Rotterdam, Neth., 2017), 42. is especially liked—

I do not know who descended to the device exposed in the enclosed
but let the scamp feel the [illegible] of that lash of yours which knows how
to make scoundrels wince.

Love to your dear ones at home

Your devoted friend always

FREDK DOUG LASS

ALS: Alexander Gumby Manuscripts, NNC.