Henrietta, Dec. 11, 1847

Frederick Douglass—Dear Sir:—I received the first number of the "North Star," through the post-office, this week, the meaning of which, I suppose, is, "Take it, and hand in your two dollars." But I was taking so many papers, and my means so limited, that I said to myself, Can’t do any such thing—I have enough now—twice as many papers as I can read, and my means won’t allow me to take any more: but I will just look into it, and see what it is going to be. So I read the salutatory—the address to "our oppressed countrymen," and the letter to Henry ClayClay, Henry

Henry Clay (1777-1852), a native Virginian, entered politics during the 1790s in his adopted state of Kentucky and rose quickly to national prominence. As a congressman, senator, secretary of state, founder of the Whig party, and regular presidential candidate, Clay espoused broadly nationalistic programs designed to avoid sectional antagonism caused by the issue of slavery. He figured prominently in the debates that led to the passage of the Missouri Compromise, and he was a leading architect of the Compromise of 1850. His support of the American Colonization Society earned him the lasting hostility of Garrisonian abolitionists. In Congress, Clay vigorously opposed abolitionist petitions against slavery in the District of Columbia. Robert V. Remini, Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union (New York, 1991); Richard H. Sewell, Ballots for Freedom: Antislavery Politics in the United States, 1837-1860 (New York, 1976), 109; DAB, 4:73-79. . Enough, said I; I have read more than two dollar’s worth already. I can’t refuse. So I have added the "North Star" to my large list of freedom’s advocates.

Respectfully yours,

JAMES SPERRYSperry, James

James Sperry (c. 1787-1867) was a farmer and surveyor living in Henrietta, New York in the mid-nineteenth century. He was one of the earliest settlers in Monroe County, New York, coming from Massachusetts as a young man. He was a proponent of education and helped with the creation of the Monroe Academy near Rochester. The high school in Henrietta was once named for James Sperry. Rochester (NY) Evening Post, 15 June 1866; 1850 and 1860 U. S. Census, Henrietta, Monroe, New York; Orsamus Turner, History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps & Gorham’s Purchase, and Morris’ Reserve (Rochester, N.Y.: William Alling, 1852), 191-94; Margaret Schmitt MacNab, Katherine W. Thompson, and Shirley Cox Husted, Northfield on the Genessee (Rochester, N.Y.: Monroe County Historian’s Office, 1981), 292-93. .