FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO WILLIAM SLADE

Rochester, [N.Y.] 12 Aug[ust] 1867.

MY DEAR SIR:

I duly estimate the importance of the office that you in your kindness
would procure for me. It would furnish me instrumentalities and opportunities which—I doubt not—I should have the heart and the head to employ greatly to the advantage of our newly emancipated people, especially
if I should be assisted—I I undoubtedly should be—by President Johnson,
if appointed by him.¹The act of 3 March 1865 creating the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands placed it under the control of the War Department within the executive branch. The president, as commander in chief, held the authority to appoint or relieve from command all high-ranking military officers, though such decisions were executed through the secretary of war and the chief of the army. The bureau’s first commissioner, Major General Oliver Otis Howard, was selected by President Lincoln, but appointed by Andrew Johnson in May 1865. Prompted by the complaints of white southerners, Johnson quickly grew to detest the Freedmen’s Bureau and attempted to abolish it by vetoing legislation to extend its life in February 1866. When Congress overrode that veto, Johnson limited the bureau’s power and scope throughout the last two years of his administration. Inevitably, Johnson came to loathe General Howard and spoke openly about replacing him during 1867. Since Johnson habitually expressed, both privately and publicly, his desires to dismiss many subordinates (including key cabinet members) throughout his tenure, it is difficult to determine the seriousness of his intentions to either relieve Howard or replace him with a prominent African American such as Frederick Douglass or John Mercer Langston, as was reported in the press. Alexandria (Va.) Gazette, 10 September 1867; Washington Evening Star, 12 September 1867; George R. Bentley, A History of the Freedmen’s Bureau (Philadelphia, 1955), 196; Paul H. Bergeron, Andrew Johnson’s Civil War and Reconstruction (Knoxville, 2011), 145–79; John Cox and LaWanda Cox, “General O. O. Howard and the ‘Misrepresented Bureau,’” JSH, 19: 427–56 (November 1953); Sweet, “Representative,” 34: 38–39. Nevertheless, my dear Sir, without pronouncing at
all upon the character and fitness of the present incumbent of the Bureau,
with my present views of duty I could not accept that office if it were tendered me. You will please accept my thanks for your kind offices in this
matter. I shall always be glad to hear from you. Your position gives you
decided advantages in the way of information and I should be very glad at
any time to learn the direction of events. Should President Johnson place

a colored man at the head of the Bureau, it would more than all other acts
of his demonstrate his purpose of being the Moses of the colored race in
the United States.²Andrew Johnson made his controversial “Moses of the colored men” speech on 24 October 1864 while military governor of Tennessee and vice presidential candidate of the Union party under Abraham Lincoln. Called upon to address a predominantly African American Union party campaign rally in Nashville, Johnson stated that the sight of “this vast crowd of colored people” made him wish that “a Moses might arise who should lead them safely to their promised land of freedom and happiness.” In response, some in the enthusiastic crowd shouted, “You are our Moses!” Notoriously bombastic on the political stump, Johnson declared, “Well, then, humble and unworthy as I am, if no other better shall be found, I will indeed be your Moses, and lead you through the Red Sea of war and bondage to a fairer future of liberty and peace.” The speech raised African Americans’ hopes that Johnson might be their political champion, but these expectations were quickly dashed once he became president and failed to act in defense of freedmen. Johnson, Papers of Andrew Johnson, 7: 251–53; David Warren Bowen, Andrew Johnson and the Negro (Knoxville, Tenn., 1989), 80–82; Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein and Richard Zuczek, Andrew Johnson: A Biographical Companion (Santa Barbara, Calif., 2001), 201. My kindest regards to Mrs. Slade.³Josephine Slade was the wife of William Slade, who served as usher and valet in the Lincoln White House and as steward, responsible for the Executive Mansion’s finances, during Andrew Johnson’s presidency. Since three of the Slade children were regular playmates of Tad Lincoln, both in the White House and at the Slade residence, Josephine and Mary Lincoln became warm friends. After Lincoln’s assassination, Mary gave the bloodstained dress she wore to Ford’s Theater to Josephine, who in later years cut it into pieces that she presented to family members as heirlooms. Elizabeth Keckley, Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House (New York, 1868), 202, 310; Washington, They Knew Lincoln, 108–10; Sweet, “Representative,” 34: 29–30.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 299–300, FD Papers, DLC.