FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO THEODORE TILTON

Washington[,] D.C. 5 Oct[ober] 1880.

MY DEAR THEODORE.

I am happy in the thought that you are again safely on your native soil and
give you joy in the marriage of your precious Florence.¹Douglass probably refers to Tilton’s daughter Florence (1858–1920), who married William Halsey Pelton (1856–91), a native of Louisiana, on 10 September 1880. The Peltons lived in Europe. After William died of a morphine overdose, Florence returned to Brooklyn, where she operated the Pelton School of Music for over thirty years. The couple’s only child, Agnes L. Pelton, became a renowned modernist painter. J. M. Pelton, A Genealogy of the Pelton Family in America (Albany, N.Y., 1892), 584; Don R. Severson, Finding Paradise: Island Art in Private Collections (Honolulu, Hawaii, 2002), 120. I remember her
as a thoughtful and lovely child one who would be especially observed
among ten thousand children greatly resembling yourself—I need not tell
you that my warmest wishes to Heaven are such that her marriage may be
happy and a balm to your own brave heard heart now and always for our
friendship knows no pause this side death and will not then if another life
remains for us.

I have read and reread your volume of Poems²Tilton’s Thou and I: A Lyric of Human Life was published in 1879 by the New York City firm owned by Richard Worthington. Douglass refers to one of the major poems in that book, “The Grave on the Prairie.” Theodore Tilton, Thou and I: A Lyric of Human Life, with Other Poems (New York, 1879), 99–110.—with ever increasing interest and admiration. Several of them according to my judgement take rank
with best of our day and Language. I do not think you will agree with me but
I will venture to say you never wrote anything more touching and beautiful
than those lines on the grave on the Praire. “Thou and I” is one of my best
beloved volumes. It echoes more that I have heard sounding in my soul for
many years, than any Book that I can now think of. We have here a reading circle the members of which meet weekly. Each reads from his favorite
author. I have read from “Thou and I” several times—but fear that in no instance, I <have> brought out your full meaning. I have done the best I could.

Should you come to Washington this winter,³Tilton might have visited the United States following his daughter’s wedding in London on 17 September 1880. Pelton, Genealogy of the Pelton Family, 584. I do wish you could
manage to give me one day of your precious time. I know this is asking
a great deal—but you will not blame, though it be too much. I can never
entertain you as you can me.

I am deep just now in Politics—Last week I was in North Carolina.⁴On 1 October 1880, Douglass spoke at the Annual Exposition of the Colored People of North Carolina in Raleigh. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 4: nxxxvii.
This week I go to Indiana, where I have already spent two or three week
on the stump.⁵Throughout the early weeks of September 1880, Douglass toured Indiana, speaking in Noblesville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Evansville, and Columbus. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 4: xi; Indianapolis Leader, 4, 11 September 1880. I Shall be glad when the campaign closes—but shall work

on Since the war, I have not felt that a Republican victory was more important and desirable than now.

Please when you write to Mrs Pelton⁶Probably Florence Tilton Pelton. mention me kindly to her—and
do me the like favor to all your dear ones.

I suppose you will now spend your life much upon the ocean—winter
in this country and summer in London. Should I be turned out of office
which I almost hope will be the [case] you will see me in England. I wish
to visit that country once more before I finish my piece on the stage of life.
Let what will come

I am always inflexibly yours

FREDK DOUGLASS

ALS: Charles Roberts Manuscripts, PHC.