FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO WENDELL PHILLIPS

Glasgow, [Scot.] 28 April 1846.

MY DEAR MR. PHILLIPS—

I am glad to hear from you in any capacity, whither it Be in the dignified character of a committee of one, or in the affectionate character of a sincere friend. I have often thought of writing you a friendly letter since I came to this country, and have only been deterred from assuming so much by my great inferiority to yourself. Do not scold me, for this, for I tell you the truth when I say that I have for you such grateful regard and admiration—that I can not bring myself to approach you familiarly. You have been to me—a brother—but so much more than a brother—in imparting to me information and good counsel that I feel more like a diciple to you, than a familiar friend. And this is by no means a painful feeling. I love to look up to you as such. Your advice to me on leaving the united states for this country I have strictly adhered to. I have not gone Near the London Committee.¹The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. I have acted in in every way independent of them, and as if they did not exist. This course has made my path any thing but easy thus far—so far as the good opinion of that committee and those who sympathize with it is concirned. They look upon me—with the same feelings—with which they regarded yourself and Mr. GarrisonGarrison, William Lloyd

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-79) was the foremost white abolitionist of the nineteenth century and was credited with the discovery of Douglass as a speaker at an antislavery meeting in Nantucket in 1841. He began his career as an apprentice printer on the Newburyport (Mass.) Herald at the age of thirteen. Garrison became editor of the Newburyport Free Press in 1826, but the paper closed within a year. He was then associated with a series of periodicals in Boston that advocated reform before Benjamin Lundy offered the young journalist the opportunity to write for his antislavery newspaper. Garrison joined Lundy in editing the Genius of Universal Emancipation in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1829, during the last year of the paper's 1821-1830 run. In 1830 a libel suit against the editors forced the paper to close and landed Garrison in jail. After his release, he courted the wealthy merchants of New York and Boston in order to start the Liberator (1831-65), a weekly journal based in Boston in which he advocated an immediate end to slavery. Garrison's brand of abolition condemned any institution that would tolerate the existence of slavery, including churches, political parties. and even the United States itself and any scheme aimed at removing black people from the country. Instead, Garrison hoped to raise the public's awareness that slavery was morally wrong and thereby force its end in an almost millennial moment of emancipation. His approach appealed to both white and black antislavery advocates but earned him many enemies among those only moderately opposed to slavery and slaveholders alike. Seeing the need for greater action and organization beyond the pages of the Liberator; Garrison joined with other abolitionists to form the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831. Two years later he helped found the larger American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1833 he established ties with English abolitionists after a trip to Great Britain, and he later brought the noted and notorious speaker George Thompson to the United States for a tour. Garrison also dedicated himself to women's rights, encouraging women to enter the public sphere by inviting them, via the Liberator, to form female antislavery societies. In addition to the thirty-three women's antislavery societies that flourished by 1838, Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society welcomed women as well as blacks into its ranks. However, female delegates were excluded from the World's Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 in London. The issue of women's participation in the antislavery movement and Garrison's absolute refusal to turn to politics to end slavery caused a division in the American Anti-Slavery Society. Brothers Lewis and Arthur Tappan, who opposed women's acting as speakers and who hoped to use politics toward abolition, broke with Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society, forming the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, or the "New Organization" in 1841. Garrison's ideas were so closely associated with the "Old Organization" that the American Anti-Slavery Society became known simply as the "Garrisonians." With the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, Garrison believed that he had accomplished his life's work and that of the antislavery movement. He then resigned from the presidency of the American Anti-Slavery Society and closed the Liberator. Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children, 4 vols. (New York, 188589); Henry Mayer, All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery (New York, 1998); James Brewer Stewart, William Lloyd Garrison and the Challenge of Emancipation (Arlington Heights, Ill., 1992); John L. Thomas, The Liberator: William Lloyd Garrison (Boston, 1963); Dictionary of American Biography, 20 vols. (New York, 1928-36), 7:168-72. in 1840[.] Still I have no reason to complain. I have got on thus far much better than I anticipated. I have sold some two thousand copies of my narrative—the proceeds of which together with what has been given me by friends who needed not to be solicited has put me quite at ease—as to travelling expences, which by the way are very great in this country being about double to what they are in the U.S.

But to the buisness. You say C L. Remond has presented a request to the Mass. Board to compensate him for losses in the cause the last four years or so—And among those a horse which died in Pennsylvania—at the time of our one hundred conventions in the west. In regard to this last

item you ask me the following questions. (To wit) 1st Was the purchase of
our horses an economical step &c. &c.

2d Did it enable us to attend more meetings than we otherwise could have done.

3d Were the localities such as friends would not have carried us from Place to place.

4th Was the travelling on horse back such a thing as a man with good judgement could have deemed for the best interest of the cause? Before answering These questions—Allow me to say That Mr. Remond Did not travel with me. Nor was I with him when he bought the horse. He travelled with Mr. GayGay, Sydney Howard

Born in Hingham, Massachusetts, Sydney Howard Gay (1814-88) abandoned the study of law in his father's office to embrace the non-violent principles of Garrisonian abolitionists. After lecturing for the American Anti-Slavery Society in the early 1840s, Gay edited its official New York City-based newspaper, the National Anti-Slavery Standard, from 1844 to 1858. From there he went to work for the New York Tribune, serving as that Republican party paper's managing editor during the Civil War. Gay held the same position at the Chicago Tribune (1868-71) and then devoted most of his energies to writing popular histories and biographies. Raimund Erhard Goerler, "Family, Self, and Anti-Slavery: Sydney Howard Gay and the Abolitionist Commitment" (Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University, 1975); ACAB, 2:618; NCAB, 2:494; DAB, 7:195. & MonroeMonroe, James (abolitionist)

James Monroe (1821-98), a young Connecticut Quaker, abandoned plans to attend college in 1839 in order to lecture for the American Anti-Slavery Society. After three years he resumed his education, first attending Yale, then transferring to Oberlin. He began teaching at Oberlin while still an undergraduate and earned a theology degree from the institution in 1849. Monroe's continued activism on behalf of African Americans led to a political career. He served in the Ohio legislature (1856-62), acted as diplomat to Brazil during the Civil War, and won a seat in Congress during Reconstruction. Catherine Rokicky, "A Life of Public Service: James Monroe of Oberlin, 1821-1898" paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Oberlin Historical and Improvement Organization, 25 April 2001; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 3:422-23. ²Sydney H. Gay and James Monroe. and I with Mr. BradburnBradburn, George

Son of a woolens manufacturer in Attleboro, Massachusetts. George Bradburn (1806-80) trained for the Unitarian ministry, but subsequently devoted his energies to championing numerous secular reforms. Bradburn also acted as an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, and he attended the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840. He was not a strict Garrisonian however, opposing all propositions in favor of dissolving the Union and favoring political means to accomplish the abolition of slavery. Bradburn represented Nantucket as a Whig in the state legislature (1839- 42), where he led the successful effort to repeal Massachusetts's antimiscegenation law. In the 1840s he lectured for the (Garrisonians and traveled with Douglass on many occasions. He later joined the Free Soil party and edited two Free Soil newspapers, the Pioneer and Herald of Freedom and the True Democrat. In addition to abolitionism. Bradburn supported women 's rights, temperance, pacifism, and an end to capital punishment. Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Eleventh Annual Report: Presented to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society by its Board of Directors (Boston, 1843 ), 44, 90-91; idem. Twelfth Annual Report: Presented to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (Boston. 1844), 34; George Bradburn, A Memorial of George Bradburn, comp. Frances H. Bradburn (Boston, 1883). , and WhiteWhite, William Abijah

Born into a prominent family in Watertown, Massachusetts, William Abijah White (1818-56) graduated from Harvard University in 1838, then studied law. He abandoned a legal career to advocate such reforms as abolition and temperance. In 1843 Douglass, club in hand, charged the platform at Pendleton, Indiana, when a mob assaulted his speaking companion, White, and lacerated his scalp. On behalf of the temperance cause, White owned and edited the New Englander, the Excelsior, and the Washingtonian. In 1854 White migrated to Wisconsin, where he became an ardent Republican party leader. Lib., 5 June 1857; Garrison and Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 3:101; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 3:422n. .³George Bradburn and William A. White. I cannot therefore undertake to answer for him as to the need of his buying a horse. I can only answer for myself.—1st I do not think it was an economical step—As the travelling expences of my co-agents—were I believe less than my own. The second inquery and the third may be answered together—as follows. It is difficult to determene Whither in all cases we could have got friends to carry us from place to Place—for when we got horses we had no need of asking them to do—or testing their willingness to do so. The purchase of our horses might have enabled us to attend more meetings—though I believe those who had no horses attended as many meetings as I that had one. The fourth I decline answering. Suffice it to tell you just why I bought a horse at that time. I had nearly completed my western tour—having gone through Indianna and the most of Ohio—and of course had been carried by friends from Place to place—without any further expence than that of occasionally stoping at Hotels. When about to leave Ohio & finding that horse flesh was pretty cheap—I thought it would not be a bad speculation to buy me a horse—with my own money—bringing him on east I supposed I could get a good price for him. I bought one[.] I gave $40! for him, and deeming the labourer worthy of his hire⁴Luke 10:7.—when I had to put up at hotels, I set his expences down against the society. The faithful beast brought me from southern Ohio to Philadelphia—a distance of 500 miles. There I sold him for $50—to Mr. PurvisPurvis, Robert

Robert Purvis (1810-98) was a prominent leader of antebellum Philadelphia's black community and one of the most influential African Americans in the Garrisonian wing of the abolitionist movement. He was the son of Harriet Juda, a free black woman, and William Purvis, a white cotton broker of Charleston, South Carolina. In 1819 Robert moved north with his family to be educated. Upon his father's death in the mid-1820s, Purvis inherited a substantial fortune, which he used to support a wide array of benevolent causes, including temperance, women's rights, penal reform, and integrated education. He helped launch the Liberator in 1831, became a charter member of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, and served as both president and vice president of the Pennsylvania Anti- Slavery Society. From the 1830s onward, he actively assisted fugitives to escape slavery. Still, Underground Rail Road, 711; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 24-25, 55-56; Joseph A. Borome, "Robert Purvis and His Early Challenge to American Racism," NHB, 30:8-10 (May 1967); Pauline C. Johnson, "Robert Purvis," NHB, 5:65-66 (December 1941); NCAB, 1:413. —Making just $10 on my speculation. Here you have in simple terms, the history of my connection with horses during that tour. I had no idia when I bought the horse of making the society a party to the losses or gains of my speculation—it was purely an individual concern—and so I believe it was viewed by us all at the time. In deed so far was I from supposing otherwise I hesitated about charging the society with pay for my horse food—Feeling I had no right to charge

a society with the keeping of a horse which they did not othorize me to buy.

I am Dear Friend in great haste very truly, Yours,

F. DOUGLASS

ALS: Wendell Phillips Papers, MH-H. PLSr: Bartlett, Wendell and Ann Phillips, 118–21.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO EDMUND QUINCY¹

Glasgow, [Scot] 28 April 1846.

Edmond Quincy.

DEAR FRIEND—
Allow me to thank you for a copy of the last annual report which you kindly sent me. I have read it with much deeper interest than I could have done had I been present at the last annual meeting where it was read and its contents discoursed upon. Let me thank you too for the faithfulness with which you have sketched the history of a nother years progress in our noble cause. I never saw the utter folly and distructive enfluence of no organizeation, more plainly than when I contrasted it with the labour—of the Mass. Board, and the vigelence of you its historian. Nothing seems to have escaped you. I shall feel myself quite ev[e]n with the times w[he]n I get it full well established in my mind.

I think next year—you will have to devote a larger space in your report to Scotland. It has been & is to be the battle field of old orgenised Anti slavery action. It is now all in a blaze of antislavery excitement. You are al-