Columbus, O.,
Oct. 25, 1848.
Friends Douglass & Delany:ー
I take the liberty of troubling you again with a few lines about our doings here. On Friday, the 20th, John Van Buren delivered an address to our citizens. At one o’clock, before he had arrived, the Hall of Representatives was filled to overflowing; and it was found necessary for the immense crowd that had assembled to adjourn to the public ground in the rear of the State House; where the orator mounted the stand, and spoke for two hours with great eloquence and effect, on the subject of Free Soil. The State Convention of the other party was not half so large as this meeting.
Mr. Snodgrass, the editor of the Saturday Visitor, arrived in this city on Sunday night, and addressed the colored people at the Baptist Church. He spoke on the duty of the colored people being active on the great reforms of the day. His address made a deep, and it is to be hoped an effective and lasting impression. The house was crowded.
Yours for the oppressed,
D. JENKINSJenkins, David

David Jenkins (c. 1816–76) was a Black abolitionist from Columbus, Ohio. Born in Virginia and educated at Oberlin College, Jenkins was described by Martin R. Delany as a highly skilled craftsman: “[He] received by contract, the painting, glazing, and papering of some of the public buildings of the State, in autumn 1847. He is much respected in the capital city of his state, being extensively patronized, having on contract, the great ‘Neill House,’ and many of the largest gentlemen’s residences in the city and neighborhood, to keep in finish. Mr. Jenkins is a very useful man and member of society.” Interested in the elevation of Black people in Ohio, Jenkins organized a debating society in Columbus and was active in the Masonic Lodge and in the temperance and abolition movements. He organized the first state convention for Blacks in Ohio in 1844 and was elected vice president and appointed to the central committee during Ohio’s State Colored Convention held in Cleveland on 11 September 1852. Jenkins was a delegate from Ohio at the Colored National Convention held in Rochester in July 1853 and was appointed to its finance committee. During the Civil War, he served as a recruiting agent at Camp Delaware. Jenkins was elected vice president of the Equal Rights League Convention held on 21 September 1865 in Cleveland and was appointed sergeant at arms for the 1867 State Convention of Colored People in Columbus. Jenkins removed to Mississippi in 1872 and became a member of that state’s legislature. He died suddenly in Canton, Mississippi in 1876 and foul play was immediately suspected. Frederick Douglass' Paper, 15 September 1843, 1 October 1852, 20 May, 15 July 1853; Liberator, 21 July 1865; Daily Cleveland Herald, 25 July 1863, 21 September 1865; Ripley (Ohio) Bee, 10 July 1867; Ohio State Journal, 25 February 1870; Cincinnati Commercial, 17 April 1872; Cincinnati Daily Gazette, 27 September 1876; Cincinnati Daily Times, 13 September 1876; New York Age, 16 January 1892; 1870 U.S. Census, Ohio, Franklin County, 55; Delany, Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People, 118; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:73. .