Henry Highland Gamet to Frederick Douglass, August 31, 1849
HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Peterboro, [N.Y.] 31 Aug[ust 1849].
MR. DOUGLASS:—
In the last number of the North Star, you offer me an opportunity, to speak for myself, through the same medium through which you have slandered and traduced me.1Douglass declared himself willing to publish Gamet’s response to his criticism in the North Star of Garnet’s plan to distribute Bibles to slaves and his censorious behavior at a New York meeting on 10 May 1849. NS, 15 June, 31 August 1849. I thank you for it, and at the same time I assure you, that whenever you lay a[s]ide low and vulgar personalities, and call me out as a gentleman, I will answer, and not otherwise. I had two reasons for not resorting to your paper in order to make a reply. First, b[e]cause I addressed a letter to you last winter for publication, expressive of my gratitude to some of my anti-slavery friends in Penn Yan,2Mary A. Jeffrey of Geneva, New York, eighteen miles north of Penn Yan, raised funds for Garnet at this time. Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:40n. and you did not suffer it to see the light, because it contained some views which were unpalatable to you. And in the second place, because I thought it unlikely that after having wilfully misrepresented me, you could not even “for a pretence” show so much liberality.
You heard that my friends, and the friends of universal freedom in England, had invited me to visit that country,3British supporters of the Free Produce Movement had invited Garnet to lecture for their cause in England during autumn 1849. NS, 27 July 1849; Schor, Henry Highland Garnet, 104. and immediately you became very much alarmed, and your friends also. The reason for this trouble of mind on your part I have not been able to determine, unless it is, that you have the spirit of the Old Roman, and believe that “the world was made for Caesar.”4A quotation from Joseph Addison’s 1713 play, Cato. Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy in Five Acts (London, 1867), act 5, sc. 1. You did not even want to know whether I was going to that country, before you labored like a Hercules5The mythological hero Heracles, also known as Hercules, was the son of the Greek god Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. He possessed unnatural virility and strength, allowing him to perform extraordinary physical feats. Praeger Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Civilization (New York, 1967), 230–34. to blacken my character in the eyes of a people who may never see me. I knew sir, that in your hot pursuit after a worthless, and a transient fame, you would sometimes stoop to mean things, but I never dreamed that you would ever sink so low, that you would have to reach up, standing on tip-toe, to find that level of meanness where common knaves are inclined to pause. Ah, sir, the green-eyed monster6The term “green-eyed monster” is a metaphor for jealousy. Othello, act 3, sc. 3, lines 189–91. has made you mad. Pardon me, when I tell you that you never imbibed a spirit so narrow from any dark son of our native Maryland, living or dead. But why should I marvel? When did you ever manifest friendship to any colored ma[n] who differed with you in sentiment? You deign not to mention the name of the noble Alexander Crummell;7Raised and educated in New York, Alexander Crummell (1819–98) became an Episcopal priest, an active member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and a contributor to the Colored American. He believed that black peOple should develop and support separate organizations that focused on the specific interests of African Americans. Although Crummell opposed the American Colonization Society, for which Douglass praised him, he later supported black immigration to Africa after living in Liberia from 1850 to 1870. He and Douglass differed on various issues, including the type of education most useful for black people, the importance of racial difference, and the legacy of slavery in the years after the Civil War. Moses, Alexander Crummell; William H. Ferris, Alexander Crummell: An Apostle of Negro Culture (1920:, New York, 1969); ANB, 5:820–22; DANB, 145–47. you have stabbed at J. W. C. Pennington; you have tried to ruin that eloquent fugitive Henry Bibb; and you have vainly attempted to crush that intellectual giant Samuel R. Ward. But you are at home in the company of Thomas Van Rensselaer, editor of the Ram’s Horn, whom you have accused of falsehood.8Douglass, always strong-willed, at times engaged in public and private arguments with prominent members of the reform community. In the spring and snmmer of 1849, he managed to offend several prominent black abolitionists. In addition to openly criticizing Garnet’s commitment to the Free Produce Movement, in May 1849 Douglass engaged in a public debate with Samuel Ringgold Ward over the value of the U.S. Constitution to the antislavery cause. In an editorial following the New York meeting, Douglass insisted that “we, of course, still hold the truth on the subject, however plain the opposite may appear to Mr. WARD and his friends.” Douglass’s editorial report of an April 1849 New York black convention offered a backhanded compliment to his fellow editor Thomas Van Rensselaer of the Ram's Horn. According to Douglass, Van Rensselaer’s “rough, ‘Ram’s Horn,’ off hand manner is not agreeable to many, but all must confess that there is power and spirit in the enemy and wields his dangerous weapons in all directions; sometimes mistaking friends for foes, his war club makes sad havoc among his own soldiers.” In May 1849 Douglass also publicly criticized Henry Bibb’s campaign to send Bibles to southern slaves, speaking at length in opposition to the plan at the annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The Bibles-for-Slaves scheme was broadly supported by such prominent abolitionists as Ward and Garnet, as well as Bibb. Douglass’s remarks put him at odds with all these individuals, at least temporarily. Bibb apparently remained bitter about Douglass’s attacks, for he delayed sending Douglass a copy of his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Henry Bibb, which was published in the summer of 1849. When it finally arrived, Douglass quipped in his editorial, “After waiting several weeks, we have received a copy of this little work. Why it did not come to hand sooner, we do not know, unless its author felt it proper to serve a black editor last.” NS, 4, 25 May, 1, 15, 22 June, 6 July, 17 August 1849. What think, you of the old adage, Show me a man’s company, and I will tell you what he
is?9An adaptation of a quotation from Don Quixote: “Tell me thy company, and I’ll tell thee what thou art.” Miguel Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote de la Mancha, trans. Charles Jarvis (New York, 1900), 518.
In your assassin-like article, which you desired to take effect in England, you say that I am a man, and may stand among my brethren.—Why was all that necessary? Why raise a mortal to the sky?10In his poem “Alexander’s Feast,” John Dryden compares the lyre played by Timotheus to the pipe organ that St. Cecilia gave to mankind, stating, “He rais’d a mortal to the skies; / She drew an angel down.” John Dryden, Alexander’s Feast; Or, The Power of Music in Honour of St. Cecilia ([London, 1779]), 3. You talk of my race—pray sir, how many races of men are there? Certainly if you do not belong to my race, you must belong to that of Haman.11In the book of Esther, Haman is a nobleman in the court of King Ahasueras and a persecutor of the Jews. He builds a gallows to hang the Jew Mordecai, but when Ahasuerus accuses Haman of assaulting Queen Esther, Haman himself is hanged there. Freedman, Anchor Bible Dictionary, 3:33.
You make four charges against me, every one [o]f which is generally and particularly false; and you knew them to be such when you made them.
1. You say that I go to England to advocate a cause abroad which I have not espoused at home—the Free Produce cause.12The Free Produce Movement espoused the idea that the use of goods produced by slave labor economically supported slavery and, therefore, was tantamount to slaveholding itself. In the 1840s, Quaker congregations that had spawned the movement began to form organizations that would procure and market cane sugar, rice, coffee, and, particularly, cotton goods produced by free labor. Ruth Ketring Nuermberger, The Free Produce Movement: A Quaker Protest against Slavery (Durham, N.C., 1942), 4, 30–37, 60–61. This is untrue in two particulars. I go not for that purpose alone—I am requested to advocate the cause of freedom generally. I am a friend of Free Produce, and have humbly commenced practicing it.
2. You publish that I have no faith in the use of moral means for the extinction of American Slavery. I believe with all my heart in such means—and I believe that political power ought to be used for that end, and that when rightly used, it is strictly moral. I also believe that the slave has a moral right to use his physical power to obtain his liberty13Garnet maintained that violent antislavery tactics were both necessary and justified. That belief drew much criticism from the more pacifist abolitionists, who questioned the morality of his stance. Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 226–27; Schor, Henry Highland Garnet, 47–64.—my motto is, give me liberty, or give me death.14Patrick Henry gave an address denouncing the British Coercive Acts of 1774 to Virginia delegates at a hastily arranged convention. He delivered a rousing speech that culminated with the declaration, “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” The statement later became a slogan for radical activists in a variety of movements. Alan Palmer and Veronica Palmer, Quotations in History: A Dictionary of Historical Quotations, c. 800 A.D. to the Present (New York, 1976), 106. Dare you, Frederick Douglass, say otherwise? Speak plainly—I am “calling you out.”
3. You accuse me of being your enemy. I am not. I stand in that relation to no man. You hate me because I tell you the truth. May you seek speedy repentance.
4. You, and the Anti-Slavery Bugle,15The Anti-Slavery Bugle denounced Garnet’s plan to lecture in Great Britain on the Free Produce Movement. The paper claimed Garnet had “done every thing in his power to injure the reputation and destroy the influence of Frederick Douglass,” and remarked, “That he will misrepresent and malign Douglass in Great Britain we have no doubt, and therefore we anticipate that he will do vastly more harm than good.” NS, 31 August 1849. say that I will misrepresent you in England. My theme in that land will be of better men, and better principles than you, or those which you possess. Will the Bugle please publish this letter, and send me the paper, and I will send him a years subscription.
Some two months ago or more, Mr. Douglass challenged me, in connexion with Ward, and Bibb, to discuss the matter upon which we differed in New York in May last.16On 10 May 1 849, at a meeting in New York City, Garnet, Samuel Ringgold Ward, and Henry Bibb attempted to silence Douglass when he criticized their plan to distribute Bibles among slaves. Incensed, Douglass published an editorial denouncing the three men for their rude behavior and clarifying his position on the issue. He then invited the men to respond, expressing his own willingness to print their rebuttals in the North Star. NS, 15 June 1849; Schor, Henry Highland Garnet, 104. I accepted, but you became frightened at the mere “shaking of my goose quill.” You could not be called out. You affirmed that the project to give the slaves the Bible, is unworthy of the attention of philanthropists.17In the North Star Douglass dismissed as impracticable the idea of distributing Bibles to slaves for two reasons. First, Douglass did not agree with Garnet that the Bible was the only instrument that could give slaves the power to liberate themselves. Second, such a scheme would require the complicity of the slaveholders, who would not agree to a plan intended to facilitate the end of slavery. NS, 15, 22 June 1849. I dissent from you entirely.
Your servant,
HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET.
PLSr: NS, 7 September 1849. Reprinted in Maryland Colonization Journal, 5:42–43 (September 1849).