Rochester, May 24, 1869

Dear Sir:

Your note concerning remarks supposed to have been made by me at the Memorial Meeting in Washington last winter, came in my absence, which will explain the delay of this answer. The anidote to which you refer, must have been related by some other person. I was not present at that meeting—and hardly know how my name got mixed up with the utterances made on that occasion. Any knowledge of the late Thaddias Stevens—was derived from his acts and his speeches. I have viewed and heard him from the Gallery of the House of Representatives as many thousands of his countrymen have done, and though invited to call upon him, I refrained from doing so because I saw him almost constantly surrounded by a crowd of eager candidates for recognition and attention. Regard for the venerable statesman and patriarch withheld me from

the honor, the privilege of even pressing his hand, in respectful friendship and gratitude. With no other personal knowledge of Thaddius Stevens—than is open to all, I hardly need trouble you, with anything more than to say, I join with all that is the Loyal, just and Liberty loving people of the United States, in according him the highest place among the Statesmen who grappled with the issues raised by the recent Slaveholder's rebellion. My impressions of the man derived from close observation of his manner and bearing on the floor of the house, whether in debate or in repose, are very vivid and will never be forgotten. Nowhere in the great assembly of which he was a member, could be seen concentrated in any one man so much of real power as in mr Stevens. There was in him the power of conviction, the power of will, the power of knowledge, and the power of conscious ability a power which only death could master.

Nothing new can be said of his recent achievements. You live in Gettysburg—where mr Stevens began the practice of the Law—where his political career commenced, and where he first began to unfold those great qualities of mind and heart—which at last made him more potent in Congress than and in the country than even the President and Cabinet combined. How he wrought in his little office in Gettysburg, how he labored at the bar, how he counselled the erring, how he defended the poor, how without fee or rewards he gave his time and talents to the runaway slave, saving him from the remorseless clutches of kidnappers who prowled along the dividing line of freedom and slavery. You can tell by anidote and record more accurate and reliable than anything I can say relate. I shall look for your Biography of Mr Stevens with great interest.

Very truly Yours—

Frederick Douglass—