FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO THEODORE TILTON

Rutland, Vt. 2 Dec[ember] 1869.

MY DEAR MR TILTON:

I got home too late to comply with your request to prepare an article for
the Independent—which completes its second decade to day—I am on
the wing as usual—and am so much a part of my surroundings as to have
little or no time for writing—I therefore return the fee—you kindly sent
me in advance of the work you wished to have done.

I am quite full of engagements—and have thus far had excellent
houses. My “Composite Nationality” has you in its composition,¹Douglass delivered his lecture titled “Our Composite Nationality” many times in the winter 1869–70 lyceum season. By the date of this letter, he had delivered it in cities in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. None of the published reports or the two surviving manuscripts of the lecture contain a reference to Tilton. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 4: xxvi–xxvii, 240–59, 598–99; Speech File, reel 14, frames 553–95, FD Papers, DLC; Lock Haven (Pa.) Clinton Democrat, 25 November 1869; Youngstown (Ohio) Mahoning Vindicator, 26 November 1869; Burlington (Vt.) Free Press and Times, 30 November 1869. so that I
am not likely to forget that I have such a friend in the world as Theodore
Tilton. I shall look for the Independent to day with great interest—The
past twenty years afford abundant material for your pen—and I have no
doubt you have well improved the occasion.

Long live the Independent—and long live its Editor—and all who are
dear to him—

Yours Truly

FREDERICK DOUG LASS

ALS: Frederick Douglass Papers, NRU.