OTTILIE ASSING TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Boston[, Mass.] 6 Sept[ember] 1878.

My dear Friend:

You know by this time that I was here early enough to receive your last
good note directly out of the letter carrier’s hands. I have no fear of the
“experiment” as far as I am concerned, and the question is only whether
and how will stand it? I know exactly my own feelings, but from all
which you have told me about yourself and others I have come to the conclusion that in some respects I am so entirely unlike the majority of men
that I cannot well consider myself at all a standard by which to measure
the feelings and sensations of others. A queer and unfortunate mixture of
earthly and unearthly matter!

Last night I made my annual pilgrimage to Mr. Garrison.¹During a stay with the Koëhlers in Boston, Assing made the acquaintance of Fanny Garrison Villard, William Lloyd Garrison’s daughter. On a visit to the Villard home, Assing spoke with Garrison at length. Diedrich, Love across Color Lines, 288. He seemed
quite pleased to see me, had thought that it was about time for me to come
and the evening was spent in very interesting and animated conversation.
He is strong and fresh and looks nearly as he did twenty-four years ago
when I saw him the first time.²Accounts of when Assing and Garrison first met are not explicit. According to one historian, they first met at the American Anti-Slavery Society anniversary meeting in May 1854. But another historian, while confirming that Assing heard Garrison speak at the convention, does not confirm that they met. Diedrich, Love across Color Lines, 116; Lohmann, Radical Passion, 364. He seems to like wonderfully to be—as if
it were—interviewed about the political situation and I was delighted to
find that we agreed about every question. He too is of opinion that Grant³Ulysses S. Grant.
is the only man who can save us from a crushing defeat in 1880 unless
something quite unexpected should turn up.⁴In his private correspondence and public statements, Garrison strongly condemned the “Southern policy” of President Rutherford B. Hayes and compared it unfavorably with that pursued by President Grant. Garrison died on 24 May 1879 before the serious beginning of the 1880 presidential campaign. William Lloyd Garrison to William E. Chandler, 21 January 1878, in Merrill and Ruchames, Garrison Letters, 6: 7, 9–10, 500, 547–48. About Butler⁵Benjamin Franklin Butler. whom he too
defended yet a year ago, he thinks now as we do and I think, almost all
decent Republicans. I feel satisfied now that he never left the Democratic
party for the sake of conviction, and principle, but simply because as a
shrewd trickster that he is, he judged it played out and foresaw that further adherence to it would have been a barrier to his <further> success in

Massachusetts in those days.⁶Benjamin F. Butler ran unsuccessfully for the Massachusetts governorship in 1878 and 1879 as an Independent, with the backing of the Greenback party. In 1880 he openly joined the Democratic party and successfully campaigned for the governorship in 1882. West, Lincoln’s Scapegoat General, 365–68; ANB (online). Strange that Wendell Phillips—honest and
truthful as he is, yet indorses the demagogue and his inflation humbug
with which he caters to the illusions and vagaries of the ignorant masses.⁷Wendell Phillips was a close friend of Benjamin F. Butler for much of his life, vocally supporting him throughout his post–Civil War political career. In January 1880 the Massachusetts Greenback party nominated Butler for governor and Wendell Phillips for lieutenant governor, but the pair declined to run. Martyn, Wendell Phillips, 386–88; Sacramento Daily Record-Union, 1 Jan 1880.

I was allowed to take possession of the house without any formality
because Mr. Fehr⁸Julius Fehr. himself wished me to do so. He is none the worse for it
and I am spared a great deal of delay, vexation and expense, since the sale
could not take place but six months after the foreclosure and meanwhile
the house would stand half empty in its present neglected and unsightly
condition without yielding any interest. Even as it is, matters look ugly
enough and I don’t expect anything like comfort and quiet until I shall
succeed to get rid of this ponderous millstone.

Have you noticed what a cruel monster the orthodox are again making of their god on the occasion of the yellow fever calamity?⁹In 1878, nearly twenty thousand people died from yellow fever, mostly in the southern region of the United States and particularly in the Mississippi Valley. Molly Caldwell Crosby, The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic That Shaped Our History (New York, 2006), 74–75. A wise and
kind father who just for his own private pleasure and amusement inflicts
such horrible suffering on his children, and yet notwithstanding all his
wisdom and justice is so whimsical and open to outside influences that
they hope to coax him by prayer! And yet this is evidently what the Episcopal bishops recently assembled in New-York are trying in ordering a
prayer for the occasion.¹⁰At the annual convention of the New York diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Bishop Horace Potter thanked church members for their prayers and “bountiful gifts of mercy” for victims of the yellow fever epidemic in the South. Journal of the Proceedings of the Ninety-fifth Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New-York, Which Assembled in St. John’s Chapel in the City of New-York, on Wednesday, September 25, A.D. 1878 (New York, 1878), 61–64. Such notions are natural enough for peoples in
the infancy of civilization, but in the present state of science and enlightenment! The old prostitute dies hard, but doomed she is none the less.

Mary Ann¹¹Since no one by this name is known to have been a member of Douglass’s family or household, it seems likely that Assing is referring to either Anna Murray Douglass or Louisa Sprague. Both nursed Douglass’s daughter-in-law Libbie during her final illness. Given that Assing’s usual nickname for Anna Murray Douglass was “Border State,” this may be her nickname for Louisa Sprague, but the editors cannot conclusively determine that to be the case. Mary Elizabeth “Libbie” Murphy Douglass died on 21 September 1878. Blight, Prophet of Freedom, 678; Fought, Women, 223; Diedrich, Love across Color Lines, 344. must indeed be capable of a degree of devotion for which
I should hardly have given her credit. Her assistance will certainly be of
great value, for there is not a speck of hope for poor Libbie,¹²Mary Elizabeth Murphy Douglass. as Frauenstein¹³Karl Heinrich Gustav Frauenstein (1832–95) was a German national who immigrated to the United States in 1857. After spending several years as a rancher in Texas, he enrolled in Columbia University’s school of medicine in 1865. While attending school, Frauenstein boarded with Assing’s friends the Koëhlers in Hoboken, New Jersey. After graduating from medical school in 1868, he set up a successful private practice in Manhattan, where he remained for the rest of his life. 1870 U.S. Census, New York, New York County, 50; Columbia University, Officers and Graduates of Columbia University: Originally the College of the Province of New York, Known as King’s College; General Catalog, 1754–1900 (New York, 1900), 215; Diedrich, Love across Color Lines, 275; Lohmann, Radical Passion, 343, 357, 363; “U.S. School Catalogs, 1765–1935,” Ancestry.com;” U.S., City Directories, 1822–1995.” tells me, and consequently more and more nursing will be needed.

The Koehlers¹⁴Sylvester, Rosa, and Amalie Koëhler. have now all their children at home. The house is
crowded but all are cozy and merry. They all send love to you. A[r]rivederci amico mio!¹⁵In Italian: “Good-bye, my friend.”

Yours ever

OTTILIA

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 3, frames 269–71L, FD Papers, DLC.