New York Janry 14, 1862

Dear Douglass,

There is much that might and that I would like like to say to you in reference to the times, but somehow I feel a growing aversion to writing. I want to see you. Allow me to suggest a thought, Could there have been agitated and the result have been less consummated
to the extent it had been; in the matter of getting us from our home by those who would have us go: three years ago; without at least a solemn protest. Is not this indifference [accountable?] to a very great extent. to the secret undermining of interested salaried Cold men? But I did not set down to write about this. it was to say: that first a word should be heard from our representative man as to the times: there will arise a great anxiety to hear same: can not a good be effected in satisfying the anxiety and

at the same time make something uneccessarily. Would not a lecture by Frederick Douglass in Coopers Institute on the Cold Man's [reaction?] to the mas pay 5- The expenses all told would be I am $25. 500 persons will come the [illegible] & only Could one not calculate upon to a certainty double that number if no more. We might divide the profits over the expenses, what think you of the propositions, to be the more effective [illegible] it should be as soon as possible

Remember me kindly to the family. [Illegible] part time at Boston & part at Vermont,

Your in haste

Geo T DowningDowning, George T.

George T. Downing (1819-1903) was the eldest son of Thomas Downing, a well-known black restaurateur in New York City. After an education at the city's segregated Mulberry Street School and at Hamilton College, he worked in his father's business until 1855, when he opened a hotel in Newport, Rhode Island. Downing was active in the Underground Railroad and led a successful effort to integrate Rhode Island public schools. He supported Douglass in the public controversy with Henry H. Garnet over the merits of the latter's African Civilization Society. In 1859 Downing presided over a convention of New England blacks that gave a qualified endorsement to the Republican party. During the Civil War, Downing moved to Washington, D.C., and became manager of the House of Representatives' restaurant. In February 1866 Downing was the chairman of a committee of blacks,including Douglass, who attended an interview with President Andrew Johnson during which the chief executive urged his audience to abandon their advocacy of black suffrage. Lib., 20 July 1855; New York Weekly Anglo-African, 19 September 1859, 21 April 1860; NASS, 24 February 1866; Cleveland Gazette, 12 September 1885; New York Times, 22 July 1903; Simmons, Men of Mark, 1003-06; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 145, 150, 190, 218-19; McPherson, Struggle for Equality, 343-46; Guichard Parris, "George T. Downing," NHB, 5:42 (November 1941); Freeman, "The Free Negro in New York City," 46, 49-56; DANB, 187-88.

3 Broad St Newport