FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH

Rochester, [N.Y.] 2 Sept[ember] 1851.

Gerrit Smith Esq.Smith, 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.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

I thank you sincerely for your response to the appeal of my friend Miss Griffiths.¹On 26 August 1851 Julia Griffiths wrote to Gerrit Smith, describing Douglass’s depressed state over the debts recently accumulated by the new Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Griffiths predicted that the newspaper would be in a better financial state by the fall, but asked Smith for an immediate contribution of $200 to assist Douglass’s editorial operations. Julia Griffiths to Gerrit Smith, 26 August 1851, Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. I regretted that you should be so soon called upon for. a helping hand,²The term “a helping hand” derives from a Latin proverb, “Give a helping hand to a man in trouble.” Stevenson, Book of Proverbs, 1129. especially in view of the very large draw which the ChaplinChaplin, William Lawrence

In August 1850 William L. Chaplin (1796-1871) was among a group arrested for aiding fugitive slaves. Originally a lawyer, Chaplin left his legal practice in Easton, Massachusetts, to devote himself to the abolitionist movement in New York in the 1830s. He worked for the Liberty party as a lecturer and editor, becoming an associate of Gerrit Smith. In 1850 Chaplin assisted a group of slaves who had escaped from slave owners Alexander H. Stephens and Robert Toombs. Authorities arrested Chaplin and charged him with violating the Fugitive Slave Act in both Washington, D.C., and Maryland. Three of Chaplin’s longtime New York abolitionist friends, James C. Jackson, Joseph C. Hathaway, and Theodosia Gilbert, rushed to Washington to attend to Chaplin’s needs while jailed. Free Democrat Congressman Joshua Giddings and Senator Salmon P. Chase aided in Chaplin’s legal defense. Opponents of the Fugitive Slave Act, led by Smith, rallied around the case and posted the bond of $25,000 for Chaplin. Back in New York in 1851, Chaplin refused to return south for his trial and worked only briefly to raise funds to reimburse those who stood his bail. He drifted away from Gerrit Smith and, together with Jackson and Hathaway, moved into the Free Democratic camp. Chaplin later married Gilbert and joined Jackson in operating a water cure establishment in Glen Haven, New York. Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 3 vols. (Boston, 1874), 2:80-82; Stanley Harrold, Subversives: Antislavery Community in Washington, D.C., 1826-1865 (Baton Rouge, La., 2003), 157-62; Friedman, Gregarioas Saints, 123; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 290-95; Lawrence J. Friedman, “The Gerrit Smith Circle: Abolitionism in the Burned-Over District,” CWH, 26:19-37 (March 1980).In August 1850 William L. Chaplin (1796-1871) was among a group arrested for aiding fugitive slaves. Originally a lawyer, Chaplin left his legal practice in Easton, Massachusetts, to devote himself to the abolitionist movement in New York in the 1830s. He worked for the Liberty party as a lecturer and editor, becoming an associate of Gerrit Smith. In 1850 Chaplin assisted a group of slaves who had escaped from slave owners Alexander H. Stephens and Robert Toombs. Authorities arrested Chaplin and charged him with violating the Fugitive Slave Act in both Washington, D.C., and Maryland. Three of Chaplin’s longtime New York abolitionist friends, James C. Jackson, Joseph C. Hathaway, and Theodosia Gilbert, rushed to Washington to attend to Chaplin’s needs while jailed. Free Democrat Congressman Joshua Giddings and Senator Salmon P. Chase aided in Chaplin’s legal defense. Opponents of the Fugitive Slave Act, led by Smith, rallied around the case and posted the bond of $25,000 for Chaplin. Back in New York in 1851, Chaplin refused to return south for his trial and worked only briefly to raise funds to reimburse those who stood his bail. He drifted away from Gerrit Smith and, together with Jackson and Hathaway, moved into the Free Democratic camp. Chaplin later married Gilbert and joined Jackson in operating a water cure establishment in Glen Haven, New York. Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 3 vols. (Boston, 1874), 2:80-82; Stanley Harrold, Subversives: Antislavery Community in Washington, D.C., 1826-1865 (Baton Rouge, La., 2003), 157-62; Friedman, Gregarioas Saints, 123; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 290-95; Lawrence J. Friedman, “The Gerrit Smith Circle: Abolitionism in the Burned-Over District,” CWH, 26:19-37 (March 1980). Case³William L. Chaplin. has made upon your purse—but necessity, my friend, would listen to no regrets. I was under the hammer, and my friend Julia seeing it cried out in my behalf. You came to my help, and I am on my legs again. I bless you for it, and that God, the friend of whose poor, you are, will ever bless you.

Have you seen Judge ConklinConkling, Alfred

Alfred Conkling (1789–1874) is best known as a New York jurist. In 1825 John Quincy Adams appointed him as a federal judge for the northern New York district. He sat on the bench for twenty-seven years. In 1851 Conkling drew the ire of many antislavery activists when he bound over for trial the rescuers of William “Jerry” McHenry and then allowed himself to be removed from the subsequent trials. Conkling later served as U.S. minister to Mexico (1 852) and practiced private law upon his return. His son, Roscoe, became a Republican U.S. congressman and senator and sometime political ally of Douglass after the Civil War. FDP, 30 October 1851, 5 February 1852; BDAC, 816; DAB, 4:345–46. ’s⁴Alfred Conkling. decision in the case of the man Daniel? As a whole it is a cheering affair. The Judge has appealed to principles in that decision which leaves slavery—property in the souls and bodies of men—without a single constitutional leg to stand upon. It is an important sign of progress of sound views on this subject when a Judge of such standing—falls back upon such principles of legal interpretation—as have made you regarded as a dangerous man.

I have received your circular in behalf of my paper.⁵The circular to which Douglass refers has not been located. You are a little more than just to me in your estimate of my ability.

With the aid of this circular and my own efforts in the lecturing field,⁶Douglass made an extended lecture tour in central New York in early October and traveled to Rhode Island in November to address at least one abolitionist meeting there. FDP, 18 September 1851. I hope to be able to pass through the autumn into the New Year free from debt.

A Female Antislavery Society has been formed in Rochester⁷In 1835 the women of Rochester, New York, organized the Female Anti-Slavery Society to express their antislavery sentiments. The organization proclaimed slavery a sin and called for the immediate, uncompensated abolition of slavery. The movement was little more than a social club until Julia Griffiths reorganized the group in 1850. The new Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society, a community sewing circle and antislavery association, aimed to cooperate with everyone opposed to slavery regardless of political affiliation or connection to a particular group of abolitionists. The society advocated faith in established churches and “morally self conscious politics,” thereby discouraging Garrisonian women from joining. Although the new organization never numbered more than twenty-five members, the group proved successful at fundraising to assist Douglass. FDP, 4 September 1852; Hewitt, Women’s Activism and Social Change, 81–84, 150–52, 173; Palmer, “Partnership in the Abolition Movement,” 4–5. from which I am expecting much aid. The Ladies who compose it are persons upon whom I can rely. They are intellegent and sound in our views of anti-slavery action. The constitution of the Society with the names of officers will appear in the paper of this week. Julia Griffiths is highly pleased with the results of her labors in forming this Society. I am glad on her account that she has surrounded herself with such friends.

Please remember my Love to Mrs. Smith.⁸Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith.

Most truly your grateful friend

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU. PLSr: Foner, Life and Writings, 2:158–59.