J. SELLA MARTIN TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

South Glens Falls[, N.Y.] 24 August 1869.

MY DEAR MR DOUGLASS

I was profoundly surprised, and I may add, disappointed at the intelligence conveyed by your note from Washington of the 17th inst.¹No copy of this letter from Douglass to Martin, dated 17 August 1869, has survived. As noted in preceding letters, Douglass did visit Washington, D.C., in mid-August on his way to an abortive lecture engagement in Frederick, Maryland.

I feel sure you would not recommend me to take hold of an Enterprise
of this nature unless the moral conditions were such as would allow you
to accept the like responsibility other things being agreeable. I learn from
Mr Hawes²John H. Hawes. that you do not think other things agreeable

Now in all fullness of confidence I am bound, in justice to myself, as
well as under considerations of faithfulness to our great, and now somewhat
imperiled [illegible] <cause>, to ask what are the grounds of your change of
purpose in taking the Captaincy of this or a similar Newspaper? Would you
not be free? Then neither would I. Is there too little color in the make up? Or
too much personal interest in the promoters? These objections well weigh
as strongly with me as they do with you. In short I will not go into the matter unless you do also and that in some responsible position. You know my
choice as to the character of that position It is that you should be the Helmsman. But if it be really true that it is impossible for you to take the first position then it will be my duty to take that position only —your
name as corresponding Editor I t have if I touch the Enterprise.

I told Haws that I would not touch the affair except upon the following
conditions:

First you must be at the very least corresponding Editor. 2d that he
get out, that I might see it, a specimen Copy of the . 3d that its
policy must be left entirely to me and my advisers among colored men.
4th that I should be in no way bound to aid the business manager except
as I thought best, and 5th that no Executive Committee should interfere
with the distinctive features of the conduct of the Paper which would be
to refract and the reflect the sentiments and wants of the Freedmen. In
other words, we as Northern people should use the advantages that belong

to our position in free Society to lay bare mere party machinations and
so draw out the best intelligence of those to whom we speak while at the
same time we should fearlessly Express the peculiar grievances of those
who might become victims of even the radicals.

I insist in short upon our organ being the of the radicals.

Haws cheerfully promised compliance with all these things and left
as he said the most essential of them to me to carry out—namely to secure
your co-operation. Please let me hear from you in full by return Post.

Mrs Martin³J. Sella Martin had married Sarah Ann Lattimore (?–1891) of Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1858. The couple had one surviving child, Josephine Sarah Martin. Sarah and Josephine later served as witnesses at the wedding of Douglass to Helen Pitts in 1884. McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 319. wishes to be remembered and to congratulate you upon
the joy of <having> such a daughter-in-law as Fred. Jr has just taken to his
bosom.⁴Frederick Douglass, Jr., married Virginia L. M. Hewlett on 4 August 1869 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She wishes to be remembered to Mrs Douglass⁵Anna Murray Douglass. and to express
her regrets conjointly with my own that we can not accept Lewis’⁶Lewis H. Douglass. invitation to be round your way in October when he will follow in the recent
footsteps of his [illegible] brother Fred.⁷After a lengthy engagement, Lewis H. Douglass married Helen Amelia Loguen on 7 October 1869 in Syracuse, New York. Douglass Papers, ser. 3, 2: 369n; Bernier and Taylor, If I Survive, 20; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 222.

Yours faithfully

SELLA MARTIN

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 491–92, FD Papers, DLC.