GERRIT SMITH TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Peterboro, [N .Y.] 9 Feb[ruary] 1849.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS—

I lay down the last North Star to tell you how happy the reading of it has made me.

It has long been a question of deep interest with me, whether the colored men of the North will take the ground that the Federal Constitution requires the abolition of American slavery.¹Gerrit Smith was among the earliest advocates of antislavery politics, but originally held the conventional position that the U.S. Constitution safeguarded slavery in states where it was already established. By 1847, however, Smith had adopted the more radical view that the Constitution was inherently hostile to slavery. His lobbying of Douglass was instrumental in persuading the black abolitionist to convert from the contrary Garrisonian position that the Constitution was a proslavery document. In the mid-1850s Smith, Douglass, William Goodell, and a small band formed the Radical Abolition party with antislavery constitutionalism as a central tenet. John Stauffer, The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race (Cambridge, Mass., 2002), 22–23, 25–27, 31, 164–68; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 280–81; Wiecek, Sources of Antislavery Constitutionalism, 253, 258–59. I have been sure that they would, if such men as Douglass, 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. , RemondRemond, Charles Lenox

Charles Lenox Remond (1810-73), the first black lecturer hired by any antislavery society, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, to the daughter of a black hero of the American Revolution and a former slave from Curaçao. In his youth, he learned about the horrors of slavery from his father and experienced the segregation and discrimination practiced by Northern whites. In the late 1820s and early 1830s, Remond read David Walker’s Appeal and became acquainted with William Lloyd Garrison, which led him to dedicate his life to abolitionism. Remond became active in reform movements at an early age. A member of the Colored Association of Massachusetts when it merged with the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, he became an officer in the latter organization. He became an agent for the Liberator and joined the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society shortly thereafter. In 1838 he began lecturing for the American Anti-Slavery Society. Both his color and his ability made him a very popular speaker in both the United States and Great Britain, where he attended the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention as a delegate in 1840 in London. Remond was the sole black lecturer for antislavery societies until Frederick Douglass began speaking in 1842. For a time, Remond and Douglass worked the lecture circuit together. Douglass admired Remond, the more experienced speaker, and named a son for him. Remond traveled and lectured in the British Isles for some sixteen months. Upon his return, Remond was employed as a lecture agent by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Through the 1840s, however, Remond remained a steadfast Garrisonian while Douglass began to favor political action to end slavery, and their friendship suffered. Their close association was troubled as a rift between Douglass and Garrison threatened, and in 1852 Remond announced his intention to cancel his subscription to Frederick Douglass' Paper in protest against Douglass's adoption of non-Garrisonian views of the U.S. Constitution. Their goals, however, remained the same, and like Douglass, Remond recruited black soldiers for the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. After the war, just before his death, Remond urged abolitionists to continue their fight by combatting the racial prejudice that persisted in both the North and South after the end of slavery. Illness curtailed his reform activities after the war. Les Wallace, "Charles Lenox Remond: The Lost Prince of Abolitionism," NHB, 40:696-701 (May-June 1977); William E. Ward, "Charles Lenox Remond: Black Abolitionist, 1838-1873" (Ph.D. diss., Clark University, 1977); FDP, 20 May 1852; New York Daily Times, 26 December 1873; NNE, 8 January 1874; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 46; NCAB, 2:303; DAB, 15:499-500. ,²Both Robert Purvis and Charles Lenox Remond remained loyal to the Garrisonian position that the U.S. Constitution protected slavery. They therefore refused to vote, denounced the Liberty party, and endorsed northern “disunionism” to escape culpability for defending slavery. In 1852, when Douglass had abandoned those positions, Purvis publicly condemned Douglass and cancelled his subscription to Frederick Douglass’ Paper. FDP, 20 May 1852; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 79–80, 89, 196, 245, 294–95; Stewart, Holy Warriors, 98–99. &c., &c., should agree on this subject with GarnetGarnet, Henry Highland

Born a slave in Kent County, Maryland, Henry Highland Garnet (1815-82) fled north with his parents in 1824. He attended the African Free School in New York City, the Noyes Academy in Canaan, New Hampshire, and the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, New York. Garnet was one of the founders of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and a stump speaker for the Liberty party. Licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Troy in 1842, Garnet went to Jamaica in 1852 as a missionary of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland. An early proponent of black emigration to Africa and founder of the African Civilization Society, Garnet, in his appeal sanctioning slave uprisings before a National Negro Convention in Buffalo, New York, in August 1843, praised the slave rebel Madison Washington. After the Civil War, Garnet was president of Avery College in Pittsburgh and the U.S. minister to Liberia (1881-82). Joel Schor, Henry Highland Garnet: A Voice of Black Radicalism in the Nineteenth Century (Westport, Conn., 1977); Dorothy Sterling, ed., Speak Out in Thunder Tones: Letters and Other Writings by Black Northerners, 1787-1865 (Garden City, N.Y., 1973), 376; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 68, 185, 216-17, 226-27; ANB, 8:735-36. ,³At an 1848 meeting of the Liberty League held in Buffalo, New York, Henry Highland Garnet and Douglass each outlined their opposing positions on slavery and the Constitution. In support for the Constitution as an antislavery document, Garnet placed emphasis on the document’s preamble and the use of the word “person” instead of “slave.” He submitted that the ambiguous nature of the Constitution itself allowed it to be interpreted in favor of liberty and antislavery. Schor, Henry Highland Garnet, 934–94. WardWard, Samuel Ringgold

Samuel Ringgold Ward (1817-c. 1866) was a Congregational minister, abolitionist, editor, and orator. His parents carried him along on their escape from slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore in about 1820. The family settled six years later in New York City, where young Ward received an elementary education. In 1833 he embraced religion and received ordination in 1839. His two New York congregations, at South Butler (1841-43) and Courtland (1846-51), consisted mostly of whites, but Ward vigorously agitated for the rights of both slaves and free blacks. The American Anti-Slavery Society appointed Ward a lecturing agent in 1839. As one of the earliest black supporters of political abolitionism, Ward acted as spokesman for the Liberty party after 1844. Ward studied law and medicine briefly, and also tried his hand at editing during the late 1840s. His Impartial Citizen, published from Syracuse, and another newspaper venture both failed financially. In 1851 Ward's leading role in the Jerry Rescue caused him to fear arrest and to emigrate to Canada. There he launched the Provincial Freeman in 1853 and acted as agent for the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada. In the latter capacity, Ward journeyed to Britain in 1853 on a fundraising tour. In 1855 Ward published his Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro and accepted a British Quaker's gift of fifty acres of land in Jamaica. He lived his last decade on that island, farming, writing, and ministering to a small Baptist congregation. Ward’s involvement in abolitionist activities necessarily brought him into close contact with Douglass, who remarked that “as an orator and thinker he [Ward] was vastly superior . . . to any of us,” and that “the splendors of his intellect went directly to the glory of his race.” Douglass, Life and Times (1881), 284; Samuel Ringgold Ward, Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro: His Anti-Slavery Labours in the United States, Canada and England (1855; New York, 1968); NS, 2 February 1849; Robin W. Winks, The Blacks in Canada: A History, 2d ed. (New Haven, Conn., 1997), 206-08, 227, 265-66, 361,395; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 79, 98, 133, 138, 210. ,⁴Samuel Ringgold Ward (1817–66) was a black Congregational minister, abolitionist, editor, and orator. Around 1820 Ward escaped from slavery with his family. By 1834 he had become active in abolitionist circles and later lectured for the American Anti-Slavery Society. After 1844 Ward also acted as a spokesman for the Liberty party. In the 1840s he edited two Syracuse-based abolitionist newspapers, including the Impartial Citizen, but both failed financially. Following his 1851 involvement in the Jerry Rescue, he immigrated to Canada. Ward’s involvement in abolitionist activities necessarily brought him into close contact with Douglass, who remarked that “as an orator and thinker he [Ward] was vastly superior . . . to any of us,” and that “the splendors of his intellect went directly to the glory of his race.” Douglass, Life and Times (1881), 284; Samuel Ringgold Ward, Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro: His Anti-Slavery Labours in the United States, Canada and England (1855; New York, 1968); Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 79, 98, 133, 138, 210. &c., &c.

Your comments on CalhounCalhoun, John Caldwell

John Caldwell Calhoun (1782-1850), a prominent politician from South Carolina, is best known for his advocacy of states' rights. He appeared on the national political scene in 1812 as one of the "war hawks." Calhoun quickly rose to prominence and was appointed secretary of war under James Monroe. In 1824 and 1828 he was elected vice president under Andrew Jackson, but he resigned and returned to South Carolina to defend the rights of his home state during the Nullification Controversy of 1831-32. Election to the U.S. Senate from South Carolina ensured that Calhoun would remain on the national political scene, and he returned to a cabinet post as secretary of state under John Tyler. Irving H. Bartlett, John C. Calhoun: A Biography (New York, 1993); DAB, 2:411-19. ’s⁵Best known for his advocacy of states’ rights, John Caldwell Calhoun (1782–1850), a prominent politician from South Carolina, appeared on the national political scene in 1812 as one of the “War Hawks” who entered Congress on a platform that supported the War of 1812. Calhoun quickly rose to prominence, and in his third congressional term James Monroe appointed him secretary of war. In 1824 and 1828 his popularity found him elected vice president; however, Calhoun resigned his post and returned to defend the rights of his home state of South Carolina during the Nullification Controversy of 1831 and 1832. Election to the Senate from South Carolina ensured that Calhoun would remain on the national political scene, and he returned to a cabinet post as secretary of state under John Tyler. John Niven, John C. Calhoun and the Price of Union: A Biography (Baton Rouge, La., 1988); Charles M. Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, 3 vols. (New York, 1944–51); DAB, 3:410–19. manifesto,⁶The “manifesto” Smith describes is actually a congressional committee report titled “The Address of Southern Delegates in Congress to Their Constituents.” In it, Calhoun outlined the grievances perpetrated by the enemies of slavery and warned of the dangers of admitting more free states to the Union. He believed that upsetting the balance of free and slave states would allow abolitionists to amend the Constitution and create other measures that would outlaw slavery. The address was a call for a unity among southern states to prevent any further advances by antislavery elements in Congress. It failed to gain the support he hoped for, and in fact, southern Whigs strongly opposed it. NS, 9 February 1849; Irving H. Bartlett, John C. Calhoun: A Biography (New York, 1993), 364–67; DAB, 2:411–19. and your reply to C. H. ChaseChase, Charles H.

The North Star lists a “Dr. Chase” as one of the speakers expected at the Western New York Anti-Slavery Convention. He may have been Charles Chase (0. 1820--?), a schoolteacher born in New York and boarding in the Brighton, New York, home of farmer Mather Dryer. 1850 US. Census, New York, Monroe County, Brighton (n.p.); NS, 15 December 1848. ,⁷C. H. Chase wrote to Douglass challenging him to debate the wording of a resolution, adopted by the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society in 1848, concerning the Constitution as an antislavery document. Douglass published Chase’s letter, dated 23 January 1849, along with his own reply expressing his belief that the Constitution was a proslavery document. Both letters appear in this volume. NS, 9 February 1849. cheer me with the hope that you are on the very eve of wielding the Federal Constitution for the abolition of American Slavery. When I shall see you with your lips and your newspaper doing this, great will be my rejoicing.

You admit that the Constitution is capable of an anti-slavery interpretation. Every admission which I could desire in this matter, follows necessarily from the one you have made.

I agree with you, that there is much historical proof of an attempt to smuggle slavery into the Constitution; but the attempt was unsuccessful. Still, we treat it as if it had been successful.

My neighbor Brown and I make a bargain. I draw up the instrument. We both sign it. I aimed, in drawing it up, to cheat Brown out of his horse. We litigate before His Honor, Frederick Douglass. Judge Douglass finds no difficulty in so interpreting the instrument as to leave Brown his horse, and is convinced that the horse justly belongs to Brown. But the judge sees proof outside of the instrument, that I meant to defraud Brown out of his horse. Will the judge be so partial to rascality as to award the horse to me? No; he will not. Why then should he consent to sacrifice the slave to rascally intentions? If he should, I think it must be because during the greater part of his life, he has been a slaveholder. The common opinion is, that

F. Douglass is a runaway slave. Perhaps the truer opinion is, that he is a runaway slaveholder!

Much, very much, my dear sir, do I desire to see you—now more than ever. With you and your paper on the right side, something more can be done for Liberty than has been done. Why will you not come and abide a week in this county, and make my house your home.

In great haste, your friend and brother,

GERRIT 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. .

PLSr: NS, 16 March 1849.