FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO AMY POST

[Rochester, N. Y.]¹ The placeline of the letter also includes “North Star Office.” 4 Feb[ruary 1850].

MY DEAR FRIEND AMY.

I am sory that my notice of the recent fair, does not please you. In that notice I aimed to be truthful as well as hopeful, and to give the fair its due. I had two duties to perform in that notice—to give credit to our few Dear friends who have labored faithfully to make the fair successful—and at the same time to do justice to the absent, by making them know the truth with respect to the result. This I have done in the fewest possible words. My interest and my desires are on the side of the most hopeful and encouraging account that could be given—but the facts were such that had I written such an account I should have been convicted before this community as an untruthful man.²Douglass’ s report of the Rochester fair appeared in the 1 February 1 850 issue of the North Star. In this article, he deemed the fair a “failure” because its organizers raised only $117. I do not DESPISE the sum realised, and have said nothing which justly bears such a construction.

Nor have I said that the tendency of the fair was wholly immoral. These are your remarks dear friend, not mine certainly.

Faithfully—and affectionately Yours

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

ALS: Post Family Papers, NRU.