Syracuse, Sept. 22, 1851.

Dear Douglass:—I wish to say that the presidential nomination at Buffalo, if, in some respects, it has surprised, in all respects it has delighted everybody interested in reforms. I have heard but one expression; and that is one of great gratification. I know how reluctant Mr. SmithSmith, Gerrit

Gerrit Smith (1797– 1874), a New York businessman and land speculator, became best known for his philanthropic work for such reform causes as temperance and abolition. Between 1828 and 1835, he donated large sums of money to the American Colonization Society, but abandoned that movement in 1835 when his sympathies shifted to the immediate abolitionists. In the 1840s, he gave approximately 140,000 acres of land in upstate New York to three thousand black settlers, thus qualifying them to vote. Smith was a founder and frequent candidate of the Liberty party, running for governor of New York on that ticket in 1840 and winning a seat in Congress in 1852. When the Free Soil merger with moderate antislavery Democrats and Whigs lured away many Liberty party supporters, Smith helped bankroll that organization until 1860. Smith befriended Douglass when the latter moved to Rochester, and Smith frequently helped finance Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Like Douglass, Smith supported John Brown, but psychological stress caused by the failure at Harpers Ferry brought on the first of a series of bipolar episodes that greatly reduced his subsequent reform activities. Ralph Volney Harlow, Gerrit Smith: Philanthropist and Reformer (1939; New York, 1972); Gerald Sorin, The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism (Westport, Conn., 1971), 269– 87; Lewis Perry, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought (Ithaca, N.Y., 1973), 170– 80; John R. McKivigan and Madeleine Leveille, “The ‘Black Dream’ of Gerrit Smith, New York Abolitionist,” Syracuse University Library Associates Courier, 20:61– 76 (Fall 1985); NCAB , 2:322– 23; DAB, 17:270– 71. is to receive a nomination for or to take office, nevertheless when he sees how the country is advancing towards his position and principles, when he sees that it only remains firm and growing in public esteem, while all other party combinations are breaking to pieces around it and falling into disgrace, and when he further sees that the negro-hating spirit of the country turns all eyes upon him as its most acceptable and almost indispensable representative, we think he cannot but feel it to be his duty to sacrifice his prejudices and obey the call of his fellow-citizens. Gerrit Smith is the heaven-gifted and heaven-appointed agent for the redemption of his country and of his fellow-men.

Hon. Charles DurkeeDurkee, Charles

Charles Durkee (1805—70), politician and pacifist, was born in Royalton, Vermont, and educated in the town schools and at the Burlington Academy. A merchant, he emigrated in 1836 to Wisconsin, where he was one of the founders of Southport, later Kenosha. Durkee served in the territorial legislature before being elected as a Free Soiler to two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1849—53). At the World's Peace Conference in Paris in 1849 he was one of twenty-three American delegates. He later became president of the short-lived Wisconsin Peace Society. After joining the Republican party, Durkee served one term in the U.S. Senate (1855—61) and was appointed governor of Utah Territory in 1865. Curti, American Peace Crusade, 172, 217; BDAC, 839. , the candidate for the Vice Presidency, is confessedly the most popular man of his own state, and we might say in all the West. He accepted a nomination to Congress from a large number of his constituents, and he now holds his place in Congress by the spontaneous votes of a large majority of his congregational district in a glorious triumph over both the political parties. His virtues and his popularity in that district laid them both at his feet. No man in the United States is more renowned for personal loveliness, industry, courage, ability and worth.

I expect the above ticket will have a large support.

John ThomasThomas, John

John Thomas (1814–92), an abolitionist and newspaper editor from Syracuse, New York, merged his Liberty Party Paper with Douglass’s North Star in June 1851. Thomas’s paper, which he published in Syracuse from 1849 to 1851, was rapidly failing despite the financial backing of Gerrit Smith. The new paper created from the merger was Frederick Douglass’ Paper, the name indicating which editor would be in control of the venture. Thomas agreed to accept a subordinate position as assistant editor and remained in Syracuse to conduct those duties. Thomas later became widely known for his participation in the Jerry Rescue, the rescue of the fugitive slave William “Jerry” McHenry in Syracuse on 1 October 1851. NS, 12 June 1851; Detroit Plaindealer, 15 April 1892; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 187–88, 380.