HENRY O. WAGONER TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Denver, Colo. 17 Sept[ember] 1870.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ESQ.,

MY DEAR OLD FRIEND:

I have just received a copy of the NEW NATIONAL ERA, and rejoice on
seeing your name in connection with it; as I did twenty-four years ago on

seeing your name in connection with the old .¹In November 1847, after completing his speaking tour of western states, Douglass moved to Rochester, New York, to prepare publication of his own weekly newspaper, the North Star, with funds donated by British abolitionists. Douglass’s name for the journal undoubtedly referred to the star (Polaris) that served as a guide for fugitive slaves fleeing north. By locating his newspaper in Rochester, Douglass established his independence from William Lloyd Garrison and the New England Garrisonian abolitionists. The Rochester region of western New York was known as a hotbed of reform and as a final stop on the Underground Railroad. Political abolitionists and other reformers in the area offered significant encouragement and support for Douglass’s publication. The first issue of the North Star appeared on 3 December 1847. In 1851 the North Star merged with a political abolitionist newspaper, the Liberty Party Paper, and was renamed Frederick Douglass’ Paper. NS, 21 January, 5 February 1848; James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton, In Hope of Liberty: Culture, Community, and Protest among Northern Free Blacks, 1700–1860 (New York, 1997), 250–51; Wolseley, Black Press, 20. Many and great
have been the changes which have crowded rapidly upon the heels of each
other since that eventful period. It is a proud satisfaction to you and I to
feel that we have done something in the cause of the down-trodden and
oppressed, who have, at last, swelled beyond the measure of their chains,
and now stand forth in their manhood, completely enfranchised. This is
not, in my humble judgment, the result of a special Providence, but it is
the result of the inevitable logic of events—aye, of adopting means to
ends. What our people now need most is , , and of religion. They have long been fanatically, emotionally religious.
Preaching and praying—aye, are but feathers in comparison with
deeds. Words are only valuable as they conduce to . Of course, I do
not mean to undervalue the importance of words timely and fitly spoken. I
mean, so to speak, that we have emerged from the chapter of Resolutions,
on paper, and have entered upon the chapter of . It has now come to
the pith and point of the matter, that it is not so much what we as it
is what we . Then I would say, and especially to our youth, let all your
movements, energies, and acts bend in the right direction. But enough of
this simple and commonplace talk.

Inclosed find $2.50, the price of one year’s subscription for the NEW NATIONAL ERA.²The first page of the New National Era at the time of this letter states that the cost of an annual subscription was $2.50 per year, with a discounted price of $10 for a five-year subscription. These fees were payable in advance. NNE, 6 October 1870. I will do all I can for the paper.

Your friend and brother,

H. O. WAGONER

PLSr:, 29 September 1870.