Journal Sketches.

Friendship, June 18th, 1851.

Frederick Douglass:—The FRIENDSHIP meeting is now well on the way. A man is speaking whom we all delight to hear. He is a fugitive emphatically. His name is J. W. Loguen. The lower part of the house is full, our Chairman is MR. PETER ROBERTSON of this place, not long since from Peterboro. By the way, he is the man who was disciplined by Gerrit SmithSmith, Gerrit

Gerrit Smith (1797– 1874), a New York businessman and land speculator, became best known for his philanthropic work for such reform causes as temperance and abolition. Between 1828 and 1835, he donated large sums of money to the American Colonization Society, but abandoned that movement in 1835 when his sympathies shifted to the immediate abolitionists. In the 1840s, he gave approximately 140,000 acres of land in upstate New York to three thousand black settlers, thus qualifying them to vote. Smith was a founder and frequent candidate of the Liberty party, running for governor of New York on that ticket in 1840 and winning a seat in Congress in 1852. When the Free Soil merger with moderate antislavery Democrats and Whigs lured away many Liberty party supporters, Smith helped bankroll that organization until 1860. Smith befriended Douglass when the latter moved to Rochester, and Smith frequently helped finance Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Like Douglass, Smith supported John Brown, but psychological stress caused by the failure at Harpers Ferry brought on the first of a series of bipolar episodes that greatly reduced his subsequent reform activities. Ralph Volney Harlow, Gerrit Smith: Philanthropist and Reformer (1939; New York, 1972); Gerald Sorin, The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism (Westport, Conn., 1971), 269– 87; Lewis Perry, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought (Ithaca, N.Y., 1973), 170– 80; John R. McKivigan and Madeleine Leveille, “The ‘Black Dream’ of Gerrit Smith, New York Abolitionist,” Syracuse University Library Associates Courier, 20:61– 76 (Fall 1985); NCAB , 2:322– 23; DAB, 17:270– 71. for sustaining sectarianism. Our cleark is Asa N. Cole of Belfast. The paper which he presented to the business committee, forms the main part of their report. C. C. Foot is here, and is now speaking, making a deep impression on the minds of all.

Our resolutions are of the most radical character. They air at a thorough re-organization of the Liberty Party; first, in this country, and so on throughout all the counties of the State. Calvin FairbanksFairbank, Calvin

Born in Wyoming County, New York, the Reverend Calvin Fairbank (1816–98) was a Methodist preacher and abolitionist in Jeffersonville, Indiana. There, he helped forty- seven fugitive slaves escape from Kentucky. Later caught and sentenced to 300 lashes, he also served a four-year prison term. Undeterred, Fairbank resumed his Underground Railroad activities. He was arrested again in 1852 and sentenced to fifteen years in a Kentucky prison for another attempted slave rescue. Finally, in early 1864, Kentucky’s acting governor, Richard T. Jacob, pardoned and released Fairbank, who subsequently returned to upstate New York. Calvin Fairbank, Rev. Calvin Fairbank during Slavery Times(1890; New York, 1969), 3, 157, 184, 186, 191; Siebert, Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom, 157–59. now speaks. I turn aside from convention matters to say, that William L. ChaplinChaplin, William Lawrence

In August 1850 William L. Chaplin (1796-1871) was among a group arrested for aiding fugitive slaves. Originally a lawyer, Chaplin left his legal practice in Easton, Massachusetts, to devote himself to the abolitionist movement in New York in the 1830s. He worked for the Liberty party as a lecturer and editor, becoming an associate of Gerrit Smith. In 1850 Chaplin assisted a group of slaves who had escaped from slave owners Alexander H. Stephens and Robert Toombs. Authorities arrested Chaplin and charged him with violating the Fugitive Slave Act in both Washington, D.C., and Maryland. Three of Chaplin’s longtime New York abolitionist friends, James C. Jackson, Joseph C. Hathaway, and Theodosia Gilbert, rushed to Washington to attend to Chaplin’s needs while jailed. Free Democrat Congressman Joshua Giddings and Senator Salmon P. Chase aided in Chaplin’s legal defense. Opponents of the Fugitive Slave Act, led by Smith, rallied around the case and posted the bond of $25,000 for Chaplin. Back in New York in 1851, Chaplin refused to return south for his trial and worked only briefly to raise funds to reimburse those who stood his bail. He drifted away from Gerrit Smith and, together with Jackson and Hathaway, moved into the Free Democratic camp. Chaplin later married Gilbert and joined Jackson in operating a water cure establishment in Glen Haven, New York. Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 3 vols. (Boston, 1874), 2:80-82; Stanley Harrold, Subversives: Antislavery Community in Washington, D.C., 1826-1865 (Baton Rouge, La., 2003), 157-62; Friedman, Gregarioas Saints, 123; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 290-95; Lawrence J. Friedman, “The Gerrit Smith Circle: Abolitionism in the Burned-Over District,” CWH, 26:19-37 (March 1980).In August 1850 William L. Chaplin (1796-1871) was among a group arrested for aiding fugitive slaves. Originally a lawyer, Chaplin left his legal practice in Easton, Massachusetts, to devote himself to the abolitionist movement in New York in the 1830s. He worked for the Liberty party as a lecturer and editor, becoming an associate of Gerrit Smith. In 1850 Chaplin assisted a group of slaves who had escaped from slave owners Alexander H. Stephens and Robert Toombs. Authorities arrested Chaplin and charged him with violating the Fugitive Slave Act in both Washington, D.C., and Maryland. Three of Chaplin’s longtime New York abolitionist friends, James C. Jackson, Joseph C. Hathaway, and Theodosia Gilbert, rushed to Washington to attend to Chaplin’s needs while jailed. Free Democrat Congressman Joshua Giddings and Senator Salmon P. Chase aided in Chaplin’s legal defense. Opponents of the Fugitive Slave Act, led by Smith, rallied around the case and posted the bond of $25,000 for Chaplin. Back in New York in 1851, Chaplin refused to return south for his trial and worked only briefly to raise funds to reimburse those who stood his bail. He drifted away from Gerrit Smith and, together with Jackson and Hathaway, moved into the Free Democratic camp. Chaplin later married Gilbert and joined Jackson in operating a water cure establishment in Glen Haven, New York. Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 3 vols. (Boston, 1874), 2:80-82; Stanley Harrold, Subversives: Antislavery Community in Washington, D.C., 1826-1865 (Baton Rouge, La., 2003), 157-62; Friedman, Gregarioas Saints, 123; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 290-95; Lawrence J. Friedman, “The Gerrit Smith Circle: Abolitionism in the Burned-Over District,” CWH, 26:19-37 (March 1980). has attended meetings of late, at Dryden and Groton Village, Ludlowville, Owego, Elmira, Corning, Addison, Honesville all were of special interest. A part of the time I had the pleasure of co-operating with Chaplin in his meetings; but at time I must be ahead of him to say that "CHAPLIN IS COMING," and, to get everything ready for his having access to the people. Last Sabbath, P.M., Chaplin preached a grand sermon in the Presbyterian meeting-house in Hornellsville. If the title of "Doctor of Divinity," had not been so disgraced as to now appear as a term of reproach, I would write out Chaplin thus: (not

General,) but WILLIAM L. CHAPLIN, DOCTOR OF DIVINITY. He is a true teacher of that Divinity which allies itself to humanity. A suggestion here: If Gerrit Smith will not let us nominate him for the Presidency, then let us present the endeared name of WILLIAM LAWRENCE CHAPLIN!

Fairbanks is closing; when he acquires sytem, kindness, and prudence equal to his zeal, he will be a most efficient laborer in the cause of freedom.

"Physician heal thyself," comes to mind. The discussion is now on the mode of resisting the piratical enactment. Chaplin is reproving some of us a little for having so much of battle in us. Mr. Cole, who has long been a non-resistant, has publicly renounced that theory since "The Bill" has come upon us. This has led to a sort of parenthetical war discussion. Chaplin is now managing it just right, after the meeting had got somewhat thundering for a bloody revolution. He is bringing before us the case of Dr. Pennington, D.D., supposes that he is in the pulpit: will we give him up to a slavecatcher? (We are in the Baptist meeting-house.)

The most important object to be accomplished by this meeting immediately, is embraced in the following resolution. ALL IN THIS STATE, LOOK AT THIS:

"Resolved, That a committee of three persons be appointed to report a thorough system of political organization, and that it be a part of the business of such committee to provide for calling a meeting of the friends of freedom, at some central point in the country, at least fifteen days previous to the holding of the National Convention of the Party, to be held the coming Autumn in Buffalo!"

I suggest here: 8 or 10 days before the National Convention, let there be a State

Liberty Party meeting, unless we can in a state capacity consult at Buffalo. Perhaps we can.

June 11th, P.M.,
The business of re-organizing the Liberty Party is now before the Convention. The discussion is refreshing. Mr. Cole is speaking with great effect. He is an ardent lover of your paper. Please record him as agent. I expect to see you on the nineteenth, and hope to bring you some subscribers. The Liberty Party paper will soon gain many names.

Yours,

J. R. J.Johnson, James Rawson

Probably the frequent correspondent of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, James Rawson Johnson, an African American abolitionist from Syracuse, New York. Johnson was a supporter of the Liberty party and the religious abolitionist cause, as well as hydropathy. FDP, 26 June, 11 September, 9 October 1851, 1 January, 12, 26 February, 25 March, 8 April, 20 May, 9 July, 15 October 1852; DouglassPapers, ser. 3, 1:582-84, 587-88, 590-92, 596, 599.