FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO SALMON P. CHASE

Rochester, [N.Y.] 30 May 1850.

Hon. S. P. ChaseChase, Salmon Portland

Salmon Portland Chase (1808-73) served as a U.S. senator, cabinet officer, and chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He taught school briefly in Washington, D.C., before settling in Cincinnati and beginning a legal career. There he defended a number of fugitive slaves and acted as legal counsel for the abolitionist James G. Birney. Initially a Whig, Chase joined the Liberty party in 1840, and presided at the Buffalo Convention of the Free Soil party in 1848. A coalition of Free Soilers and Democrats in the Ohio legislature sent Chase to the U.S. Senate in 1849, where he remained until 1854. He strongly opposed the Compromise of 1850 and favored the restriction of slavery by federal law. In the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Chase joined the Republican party and won the governorship of Ohio in 1855. After resuming his U.S. Senate seat in 1861, he resigned to become Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of the treasury. Closely aligned with radical Republicans in Congress, Chase became the focus of opposition to Lincoln within the Republican party. Although he resigned from his cabinet post and challenged Lincoln for the 1864 presidential nomination, the latter appointed him chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Throughout his political career, Chase was a strong proponent of black suffrage and the radical program of Reconstruction. In 1868, Chase again sought the Democratic presidential nomination as a Democrat, but attracted little support. Frederick J. Blue, Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics (Kent, Ohio, 1987); James Brewer Stewart, Joshua R. Giddings and the Tactics of Radical Politics (Cleveland, 1970), 116-18, 153-54; Richard H. Sewell, Ballots for Freedom: Antislavery Politics in the United States, 1837-1860 (New York, 1976), 90; Reinhard H. Luthin, “Salmon P. Chase’s Political Career before the Civil War,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 29:517-40 (March 1943); DAB,4:27-34. .

MY DEAR SIR,

I feel honored by the receipt of your favor of 4th May,¹Salmon P. Chase’s 4 May 1850 letter to Douglass appears in this volume. and should have replied to it sooner, but for my absence from home.²Douglass traveled to New York City for the anniversary meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which was held at the Broadway Tabernacle on 7 May 1850. He remained in the city for another week to attend a fundraising fair for the benefit of the North Star. NS, 16 May 1850. Please accept my thanks for the donation of five dollars as well for its morale as for its intrinsic value.

On the subject, on which you have done me the honor to ask my views, I have taken the liberty to enclose two articles from my pen—originally published in my paper, the “North Star.” The article under the caption “The destiny of Colored Americans,”³Douglass published the editorial “The Destiny of Colored Americans” in the 16 November 1849 issue of the North Star. although not as elaborate and as well supported by argument as it might easily have been, contains my present opinion, as to the probability of our remaining in this country. You will observe that, in my speculation, I make no reference to Climate and its influence in determining the question of our destiny. It is my humble opinion that this is a question with which climate and geography have but little to do. Experience, I think, has demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubts, that the black’ s man’s constitution as readily adapts itself to one climate as another. I think that the causes likely to influence or affect our destiny, are wholly moral and political, and although these do not appear very favorable to our remaining here—viewed unconnected with the parts—yet I think there has been no time in the history of our country when there were more favorable indications than are to be seen at this day.

Most gratefully yours

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

ALS: Chase Papers, DLC. PLSr: Foner, Life and Writings, 2:120–21; Chase, Chase Papers, 2:296–97.