NEWPORT, R. I., Aug. 6th, 1853.

DEAR DOUGLASS:—Enclosed is $13—the
result of a trifling effort. May every colored
man make a similar one. They owe it to the
paper, as an able and efficient agent and de
fender of their cause. And to you, as repre
senting them faithfully, able, and honorably.

Horace Greeley calls upon us to do some
thing. We can point to things done. Let us be
able to say that we support an organ devot
ed to our interests, and it will be an earnest
of our determination to "do something."

Yours truly,

GEO. T. DOWNINGDowning, George T.

George T. Downing (1819-1903) was the eldest son of Thomas Downing, a well-known black restaurateur in New York City. After an education at the city's segregated Mulberry Street School and at Hamilton College, he worked in his father's business until 1855, when he opened a hotel in Newport, Rhode Island. Downing was active in the Underground Railroad and led a successful effort to integrate Rhode Island public schools. He supported Douglass in the public controversy with Henry H. Garnet over the merits of the latter's African Civilization Society. In 1859 Downing presided over a convention of New England blacks that gave a qualified endorsement to the Republican party. During the Civil War, Downing moved to Washington, D.C., and became manager of the House of Representatives' restaurant. In February 1866 Downing was the chairman of a committee of blacks,including Douglass, who attended an interview with President Andrew Johnson during which the chief executive urged his audience to abandon their advocacy of black suffrage. Lib., 20 July 1855; New York Weekly Anglo-African, 19 September 1859, 21 April 1860; NASS, 24 February 1866; Cleveland Gazette, 12 September 1885; New York Times, 22 July 1903; Simmons, Men of Mark, 1003-06; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 145, 150, 190, 218-19; McPherson, Struggle for Equality, 343-46; Guichard Parris, "George T. Downing," NHB, 5:42 (November 1941); Freeman, "The Free Negro in New York City," 46, 49-56; DANB, 187-88. .