ROSCOE CONKLING TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Washington[, D.C.]¹Conkling added “Senate Chamber” and “Personal” to the heading of this letter. 23 Dec[ember] 1880.

MY DEAR SIR:

Two days had not gone between your note²Douglass’s letter to Conkling has not survived. and my answer, but for no end
of things including more than a foot deep of letters needing quick reply.

I do not want you “removed” as marshall,³With James Garfield’s election as president the previous month, all incumbent political appointees of Rutherford B. Hayes, including Douglass, faced potential replacement. This was made all the more likely because Douglass had supported the nomination of former president Ulysses S. Grant—not Garfield—as the Republican candidate. In his third autobiography, Douglass asserts that Conkling had gotten Garfield’s commitment to retain Douglass as marshal of the District of Columbia. Instead, Garfield replaced Douglass as marshal and appointed him to the less prestigious but more lucrative post of recorder of deeds for the District. , ser. 2, 3: 383–87; Blight, , 613–14. and I can tell why to all
who need telling—you do not need it.

Now, it will embarrass me at this moment to write a letter to the gentleman you name touching any appointment to office, or retention in it.
Presently, and seasonably, it will not embarrass me to utter my voice
for you in any presence.

You will apprehend me I am sure. I have excused myself in all cases,
from writing now in such matters. If however you know any reason why
another method [some what], but not too much, later on, will not as well
avail you, please feel quite to so signify, and always feel free to tell me
how I can usefully signify the regard and esteem in which I hold you.

Your friend

ROSCOE CONKLING

ALS: Martha Waldo Greene and William R. Sherman Collection, Brown University.