Three Months in Philadelphia during the Winter of 1849.

Second Letter.

Frederick Douglass—Dear Friend: In my letter of last week I took occasion to state in outline, the proceedings and results of the Harrisburgh and Philadelphia Conventions, called for the purpose of securing the Elective Franchise to the colored population of that state, and I spoke of them as sad failures and attributable almost entirely to the indifference, procrastination, and illiberality of the colored people themselves; and I may be permitted to repeat, that if there is one thing more than another preventing our rise as a people, obstructing the progress of our cause, and making us a by-word and hissing in the land of our nativity, and in the midst of those institutions around which, cluster our hopes for the future, it is the spirit of envy, jealousy, and deceit entertained and practiced towards each other; this next to the inexorable prejudices of our white oppressors, hangs like a mill stone about our necks. Take Philadelphia the past winter for example, and on the subject of the Elective Franchise, and in that population of twenty thousand and upwards there was no unanimity of feeling, and liberality of sentiment sufficient to fix upon any man in their midst or from abroad, of their own complexion, to act for them as agent or lecturer; in fact, they held many meetings, and much opposition and angry debate was had before delegates to the State Convention were appointed, and the paltry amount raised to pay their travelling expenses. And the truth will sooner or later force itself upon us, that no great change in public sentiment can be effected, or any long-lost right restored, or general abuse corrected, or popular nuisance removed, until the sufferers or disfranchised signify their deep abhorrence of the injury done them, their unmistakable opposition to every form of oppression, founded upon color or other adventitious circumstance; and that it is not enough that our white friends, who are greatly in the minority, write, speak, petition and contribute, but that it is ours also to write, speak, petition and contribute, and at times and under circumstances best calculated to keep up the agitation. Let the quiet of the church, the stability of ordinary societies among us, the accumulation of dollars and cents, the anniversaries of Odd Fellow societies, the display of Free Masons, the levees of Sons and Daughters of Temperance, the suppers of Good Samaritans and Fancy Balls and parties, be made subordinate for the time being, to the great and true idea of our moral, social, political and religious recognition.

To make me a sectarian, Odd Fellow, Good Samaritan, Son of Temperance, or Free Mason, before you make me a man and a citizen, is to mock my heart, and insult my head; liberty first, names, societies and conventionalism afterwards. Of what advantage is the Church, State or any human Society or Institution to me, if I must purchase them at the price of chains, slavery and proscription? what, the glory of houses and lands if enjoyed upon sufferance? Suffer me to live on South-street, and beat and stab me for walking on the next street below, after 9 o'clock in the evening. Tell me I may walk in an Odd Fellow Society, and mob me for walking in a Temperance procession. Permit me to pass in a Free Mason procession, and club and stone me to death for being in an Anti-Slavery procession. Go when, where, and with whom we please as servants or slaves—but denied place above or beneath ground—scarcely breathing air, or drinking water as gentlemen. As musicians we may play in the centre of fashionable circles, but must not presume to walk or march on grand parade occasions; ride side by side with our white employers or masters, carry the children in our arms, kiss them and be kissed in return as servants or slaves, but must not come within hailing distance as friends or equals. Such then is our true condition; four milions of people living, acting, dying, not as God wills, but as slavery demands and prejudice complies; and who needs to be informed that any appeal from us to the law, gospel, humanity or civilization of the country, is a dead sham, and will continue to be so, until we shall grow more uneasy in our chains as slaves, and self-respectful, confident and daring in our demand for our rights as nominal freemen. The true secret is, we are slaves in our persons because we are slaves in spirit; and shame upon the craven cowards, and equal shame upon those who willingly and patiently wait for their white friends to do and dare for them, what they will not do and dare for themselves, and long, too long this has been true of us. And I ask if our fate is to be sealed through our own inertion? or whether as a people we are doomed and damned by Slavery's fiat? Let him who dares answer.

Our colored friends throughout the country know this is no fancy sketch, but every day reality; they know that when our friend Robert Purvis says, we are but miserable automata in community and in the country, he speaks a truth. And when will we better ourselves in a manner becoming our cause?

In view of our present lifeless, listless attitude to the cause emphatically our own, I again confess my self-respect as a man is humbled; my pride as a citizen is broken; my ambition as a son and brother is subdued; my aspirations to a place among my fellow countrymen have fallen; my hope in those with whom I am classed, and with whom I wish to live and die is fast losing its hold. And as one of you, and with you I submit my right to cry out against the "deep damnation" of Slavery and prejudice upon us, and my equal right to enter my solemn protest against the silence of our people, or any and every demonstration militating in any way against the progress of our cause, and pro-slavery among ourselves is equally obnoxious and detestable to my mind and feelings as among white people; and let the line be drawn as discriminating and impartial among us, as one of the means of saving us from a common slavery and a common disgrace. And I here declare that in future, I will show no more quarter or lenity, or communion with the one than the other.

Yours, truly,

ObserverStill, James N.

James N. Still (1815–?) of Brooklyn, New York, combined reform activities with a career as a self-employed tailor and clothing retailer. Still won praise from Douglass for being a leading supporter of Frederick Douglass’ Paper and probably penned articles under the pseudonym “Observer.” Though not well educated, Still gained some reputation as an intellectual. An active proponent of black rights, Still argued that the way to obtain social equality with whites was through wealth, since he believed wealth led to empowerment. Still received scorn for this belief, most ardently from “Communipaw,” another Frederick Douglass’ Paper correspondent, James McCune Smith. Still also aided fugitive slaves to freedom through New York City via the Underground Railroad. In 1856, after he moved to Shrewsbury, New Jersey, the commissioners of the National Emigration Convention, led by Martin R. Delany, named Still an editor of a projected scholarly journal Afric-American Quarterly Repository. FDP, 15 January, 11 March, 17 December 1852, 6 May, 10 June 1853, 11 January 1855; William H. Smith, Smith’s Brooklyn City Directory for 1854 and 1855: Being a General Directory of the Inhabitants and a Street and Avenue Guide (Brooklyn, N.Y., 1854), 461; Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, 166; Ullman, Martin R. Delany, 182. .