Chillicothe, April 20, 1848.

Dear Douglass:—I arrived here from Columbus to-day, after holding two meetings among the colored citizens alone, having vainly endeavored to effect a meeting among the citizens of the place generally. When upon the eve of leaving, I was informed by a gentleman, that provided I staid another day, a meeting could be effected. But my time being precious, and having already spent sufficient in the place, I could not consent. I am of opinion, that the failure in the first place was more the effect of timidity on the part of the applicants than anything else.

For want of room in my last, I omitted to mention some incidents peculiar to the National Road, which came under my notice, travelling from Lloydsville to Columbus.—When I arrived at Cambridge, having stopped at the "Temperance House," kept by Mr. Carey, and the only Anti-Slavery hotel on that road, I was requested to stop and lecture that evening. It being on the Sabbath day, I was requested by the officiating Methodist clergyman, who sent for me to call at the church to see him, who proposed, after the sermon, to give me an opportunity to speak to the people. But this I declined, for two reasons: one, that I desired to get on to Concord, to hold a meeting there that evening, consequently could not take time to refresh; the other, that however much I may have been inclined to speak, I should not have availed myself of such an opportunity, as, at best, religious meetings are the most unfavorable to lecture before on the subject of slavery; and, still more so, immediately after a sermon, and that, too, a funeral sermon, as was the case in this instance. For me to have attempted to expose the hypocrisy of pro-slavery religion, by rebuking the infernal system of American slavery, as I most assuredly would have done, before such a congregation, and at such a time, would have been a sin unpardonable.

Cambridge is the place in which that fearless advocate of human rights, M. R. Hull, was shamefully and basely mobbed eleven times, and finally, being unable to bear the continued heavy loss consequent from such attacks upon his property, was driven to Concord, a few miles west. Although I have spoken in many of the most pro-slavery places since I have been in this State, even where there had never before been an Anti-Slavery lecture, yet, at the most shameful treatment received by Hull, I felt so indignant, that I would not speak in the place. I was entreated by the few anti-slavery friends there to stay and hold a meeting, but peremptorily refused. In this I may have been wrong, and if so, plead guilty to the charge, but could not at the time persuade myself that there was any duty incumbent on me; as it appeared to me, that those that "are righteous, shall be righteous still," and as to the others, they were given over to a "hardness of heart." I went on to Concord, but held no meeting in consequence of the absence of Mr. Hull. Saw his wife, but did not make myself known to her. The people of Concord whom I conversed with, though evidently anti-mobocratic in feeling and principle, yet appeared as little concerned about anti-slavery as they were about the piracy on the Northern coast of Africa.

Although I have met with enough to rebuke in almost every place I have visited, yet have never met, nor did I expect to meet, with anything like the miserable truckling to the slave-power, and low servility manifested at most every house upon the road, and in every town through which I passed. Indeed, I cannot permit myself to believe that there is in either Asia or Africa, short of the most consummately ignorant, and degradedly barbarous, a tribe or clan of heathen that can be found, among whom a stranger, of whatever nation or clime, would not meet with more civility, than a colored person—at least than I received from Lloydsville to Zanesville upon this "National Road," and that, too, a road which is one of the greatest highway thoroughfares in the country—a thoroughfare along which people of all kinds and grades are continually passing. There is a manifest depravity on the part of many of the people in this country, which, if it be not speedily remedied, will as is now apparent militate greatly to the detriment of the National prosperity. It is the reckless disregard of the rights of individuals that causes the tottering fabrics of nations to fall. This constant and unmitigated rioting upon the rights of man cannot continue forever. No! there is a just God in heaven, and His justice cannot forever sleep.

Aged men and women, young men and maidens; yea, young ladies and gentlemen, (or those who pass for such;) the mechanics in their shops, the farmer in the field; all, all, as though by a single train of magnetic influence, along the whole road, were continual participants in these scenes of moral and civil outrage. Hallowing, disparaging, and frequently vulgar epithets, gestures, the pointing of the finger full in one's face, and such like, and even in several instances throwing stones and blocks, are among the indignities a colored person meets with from these National Road turnpike American Republican Christians! Respectable-looking women, standing in the doors of fine-looking houses, would call out, full in one's hearing; "Come, here goes a nigger!" when a swarm of little children would answer to the call, who, poor little dears—the manner which they spread their innocent little mouths and showed their teeth manifested evidences of great emotion for the absence of their mother's brains. I should be recreant to the cause I have espoused, did I fail to rebuke this insufferable despotism, which only requires the permission of law, to come forth in all its hideous deformity, and terrible consequences. I, and not you, am alone responsible for what I write.

I would simply observe to the friends of humanity who may pass along this road, both colored and white, that our friend Carey, in Cambridge, keeps an Anti-Slavery and Temperance hotel, directly opposite the stage house, and his friends greatly complain, and that, too, not without a just cause, that anti-slavery men frequently pass through the Cambridge in private vehicles, and stop at pro-slavery houses instead of his. Of this kind of preference, there perhaps are none more culpable than the colored people who reside in the surrounding neighborhood, who frequently ride to town on the Sabbath, none of whom ever as yet have patronized his house, although they are aware that it is an anti-slavery and temperance house, patronizing the pro-slavery house in preference, the inmates and proprietors of whom even sneer at them on their approach, and care nothing more about them than their money is concerned. I hold it to be a bounden duty for anti-slavery and temperance men and women to support anti-slavery and temperance houses, in preference to any other.

Friday evening, the 21st, delivered a lecture before the colored citizens, in the African M. E. Church, on the subject of our moral elevation, laying the claims of the North Star before them. On Saturday evening, I lectured again in the same church, and on Sabbath accompanied a large number of males and females to the "Uniontownship Settlement," nine miles from Chillicothe, and lectured to a very large assemblage of respectable colored farmers, in the colored Baptist Church, holding another meeting on the same evening two and a half miles distant, in a Methodist Church. Monday, 23d, lectured in the Colored Methodist Church, Chillicothe; and on Tuesday evening in Frankfort, 12 miles west of Chillicothe. On Wednesday, 26th, lectured again to a crowded house, in the Baptist Church, which closed my meetings for the present in this region.

I could not succeed in obtaining a church here to lecture in, so utterly indifferent are the Christians here to the cries of the groaning millions in the land. There is, notwithstanding, a decided change in the general character of the dominant people of Chillicothe—I mean the whites. Four years ago, like most of places, so servile were the people here, that a strange colored person was scarcely permitted to pass without ridicule and insult.—Nay, you could not make inquiry at the post office without meeting insult from its clerks; and, indeed, this species of petty despotism was dealt out toward the colored citizens of the place, as well as strangers. But now, there is generally that kind of courtesy and civility manifested towards one, by those with whom he may have dealings, that become people professing to be Christians. One may now pass along the streets, and enter the post office or a hotel, without incurring insult at the threshold at least.

There are quite a number of respectable colored mechanics in Chillicothe, all industriously employed; also a large number of freeholders; and more farmers round about in this neighborhood than I have ever yet met with. This is highly creditable to the colored inhabitants, and will do more towards elevating us, than all other human efforts this side of Mason and Dixon's line.

I would observe that altogether the young society in this place is not quite so commendable now as when I visited here four years since. There are some most excellent exceptions to this; but there is great room in general for improvement. There does not appear to be the general intelligence here now that there was then, though the manner in which they, as well as the old people, crowded to the churches, attentively listening to discourses upon their moral elevation, certainly manifested the greatest desire to gain information. There are now no good schools—indeed, no school at all for colored youth in Chillicothe; and upon the heads of the authors of the abominable Black Laws let the execrations of outraged humanity rest. It should be borne in mind that all the schools, or nearly so, among the colored people of Ohio, are supported, at their own private expense, while they are shamefully and tyrannically compelled to pay taxes for the education of the whites.

There are some rare spirits among the young men and women, who are endeavoring to get an efficient library, to supply them with useful information, and improve their time and talents. I have appointed here, as in Columbus, male and female agencies for the North Star.

Of those ladies and gentlemen who render me service, I will write more particularly hereafter. I leave in the morning, en route for Cincinnati.

Yours for God and humanity,

M. R. D.