HENRY O. WAGONER TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Chicago, Ill. 27 Nov[ember] 1851.

FRIEND DOUGLASS:

DEAR SIR:—

This is Thanksgiving-day, a day set apart, as you know, by a great portion of the American people, as a day of fasting and prayer to God, for His manifold blessings and favors bestowed upon them during the past year.¹The American holiday Thanksgiving was based upon a 1621 feast held when the governor of the Plymouth colony, William Bradford, declared a day of celebration to commemorate the survival of the settlement through its first year. Although the Continental Congress called for days of thanksgiving during the American Revolution, Thanksgiving was not recognized nationally until George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving proclamation, setting Thursday, 26 November 1789, as a day for giving thanks to God for the establishment of the Constitution. Between 1789 and 1863 Thanksgiving celebrations were not universally observed nor were their dates uniform. The push for the establishment of Thanksgiving as a legal holiday is largely credited to Sarah Josepha Hale, who described the holiday in her 1827 novel Northwood. In 1846, as editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, Hale began to publish a series of pleas for the establishment of Thanksgiving and wrote letters to governors throughout the Union to support her pleas. George William Douglas, The American Book of Days (New York, 1937), 587–91; Ralph Linton and Adelin Linton, We Gather Together: The Story of Thanksgiving (New York, 1949), 41, 83–97.

Now, friend Douglass, with this custom and example before us, may I not be allowed to say that if there ever was a people in this wide world who should implore the Almighty God in their behalf, it is we, the colored people of the United States. With this preface, I would humbly suggest, (and surely no professing christian, either North or South, would object to it,) that we, the colored people of the United States, and, if possible, of all America, do agree to set apart one day of the year, which may be hereafter agreed upon, to be kept as a day of humiliation and prayer to Almighty God, for His assistance, guidance and protection; and by an HUMBLE, SINCERE, and PERSEVERING devotion to the principles of Christianity, may we not hope, by these means, that a “God of Justice and Mercy will hear our cries, and awaken to our distresses, by diffusing light and love of liberty among the people[”]?²In 1786 Thomas Jefferson wrote to Jean Nicolas de Meusnier, a friend in France, about the failure of the Virginia legislature to include an emancipation clause in a slave law recently enacted. Concerning the slaves, Jefferson wrote, “When the measure of their tears shall be full, when their groans shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, doubtless, a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light and liberality among their oppressors, or, at length, by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to the things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of a blind fatality.” Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. H[enry] A[ugustine] Washington, 9 vols. (New York, 1854), 9:279. Our appeals to the “lower law,” have been met with objections, at almost every turn, but surely, no christian will object to our appeals to the “higher law,”³The term “higher law” became associated with the abolition movement in March 1850 when William H. Seward, then a U.S. senator from New York, used it in a speech decrying the Compromise of 1850. American jurists and statesmen have long held that statutes and legal decisions, including the Constitution itself, should reflect the will of God, but Seward garnered national attention for using the term to condemn the admission of territory into the Union under conditions that would allow slavery. “But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes,” he wrote. California, he continued, “is a part, no inconsiderable part, of the common heritage of mankind, bestowed upon them by the Creator of the universe.” Although Seward was a moderate who favored the gradual emancipation of slaves, his statement was interpreted as a radical proclamation that subverted the authority of the Constitution. Antislavery factions circulated copies of Seward’s speech, which received an enthusiastic reception, and proslavery forces branded Seward a dangerous extremist. J[ay] Budziszewski, Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law (Downers Grove, Ill., 1997), 196–219; Edward S. Corwin, The “Higher Law” Background of American Constitutional Law (Ithaca, N.Y., 1955), 1–89; William H. Seward, Works of William H. Seward, ed. George E. Baker, 5 vols. (Boston, 1884), 1:51–93, 4:319; Glyndon G. Van Deusen, William Henry Seward (New York, 1967), 113–28; McKivigan, War against Proslavery Religion, 153–54. in a quiet, “peaceable” manner.

I would suggest Christmas or New Year, as being the most suitable day as then our brethren at the South could, at the same time, join in such devotional services. I speak of Christmas or New Year, because they are days that are almost universally kept at the South.

In presenting the above proposition, 1 am persuaded that every christian and clergyman in the country will extend to us their aid and encouragement. With this, I shall not pursue the subject further, at this time.