Frederick Douglass Gerrit Smith, February 28, 1852
FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO GERRIT SMITH
Rochester, [N.Y.] 28 Feb[ruary] 1852.
Gerrit Smith Esq.
MY DEAR SIR,
I have just read your letter on colonizeation,1Douglass devoted five columns of his newspaper to reproducing Gerrit Smith’s letter to New York governor Washington Hunt. FDP, 4 March 1852. adressed to Gov. Hunt.2A longtime lawyer from Lockport, New York, Washington Hunt (1811–67) served three terms in the U.S. Congress (1843–49) and one as state comptroller (1849–50) as a Whig. In 1850 he pulled together the feuding Fillmore and Seward factions of his party to win a narrow victory in his campaign for governor over Democrat Horatio Seymour. Defeated for reelection, Hunt retired to Lockport. In the 1860s he shifted his political allegiance to the Democratic party. New York Times, 3 February 1867; Sobel and Raimo, Dictionary of Governors, 3:1081; DAB, 9:395–96. I read it to my friend Julia,3Julia Griffiths. at the North Star office. Pardon me, your letter
has filled me with a deeper Love, and a higher admiration, than my heart had yet known. You have inflicted the heaviest blow upon the colonizeation scheme, which it has recieved for many years. God bless you for this noble letter. It is worthy to succeed your powerful address to the voters of your county.
I shall do my best to get your letter into my columns, as perfect as it is, in your circular. I hope you have sent one of these circulars to all each of the Antislavery Journals, the letter ought to have the widest circulation. It is a letter for the Nation, and one which the nation would do well to read.
I am more and more desireous that, you should be here on the 18 & 19th March. I will not hear you say that, you are unpopular without asking and using my right to dissent. You are a popular man, in the most blessed sense in which a human being can be. The hearts of all good men bless thee.
I am, in haste, yours most truly and affectionately,
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
ALS: Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU.