DR. G. FRAUENSTEIN,

308 W. 15th Street.

New York, May 4. 1873

My dear friend,

Your two kind letters, Apr. 14 & 15, were received in due time. I delayed in answering, because I knew, my answer would reach you just about at your departure for Kentucky. Mr. Riotte may have told you, that I was misinformed, in stating, that the petition in question had been found in Mr. Robeson's Office; it was in Mr. Richardson's, the Secr^y of Treasury's Office, that it was seen & found.

It is, & would be, utterly superfluous, would I undertake to describe to you Mrs. Cable's gratitude for your self sacrificing

kindness, in trying to to lift & push that affair to its desired end. I dare say, it was, if not the hardest, at least the most disagreeable task, you ^ever imposed upon yourself, to sit & wait in an Antechamber to ask for a favor. Thanks, thousand thanks to you.

So far, we have heard nothing of the affair, and—I presume—it will require an additional stirring from your part, to recall Mr. Robeson's attention to that affair—so infinitely small when compared to the wellfare of the whole Country, and so infinitely important, when compared to the wellfare to this one family. Do you think it of sufficient help, if Mrs. Cable would go again to Washington personally, to compensate her for the expenses of travel etc.?

Miss AssingAssing, Ottilie

Ottilie Assing (1819-84) was born to Rosa Maria Antoinette Pauline Assing, a Christian, and Assur David Assing, a Jew, in Hamburg, Germany. Assing received an accelerated education from her mother and was generally described as bright and vivacious. After the death of her mother in 1840 and father in 1842, Ottilie and younger sister Ludmilla spent time with relatives, but she grew depressed and attempted suicide in 1843. After returning to Hamburg, Assing began writing reviews of local culture. In 1851 she became a correspondent for the German periodical Morganblatt fur gehildete Leser. Assing first met Frederick Douglass when she came to America in 1855, supposedly inspired to make his acquaintance after reading My Bondage and My Freedom. She arrived in Rochester and interviewed him for an article that subsequently appeared in Morganblatt. Thereafter Assing published numerous articles about Douglass for her German readership, and also translated My Bondage and My Freedom into German, contributing an introduction. The two began an intimate friendship in 1856 that lasted twenty-eight years. During that time Douglass and Assing corresponded regularly. When in the United States, Assing was a regular visitor at the Douglass home in Rochester. She was friendly with his children, although his wife, Anna Murray, did not approve of her husband's relationship. Douglass and Assing often appeared in public together, but no contemporary public speculation questioned the propriety of their relationship. Following Anna Murray Douglass's death in 1882, Assing hoped that she might become Mrs. Frederick Douglass. However, in January 1884, while Assing was in Europe, Douglass married his secretary, Helen Pitts. Becoming increasingly more ill, possibly with cancer, and despondent from Douglass's rejection, Assing committed suicide in a Paris park on 21 August 1884. She left her entire estate to Douglass. Christoph Lohmann, ed., Radical Passion: Ottilie Assing's Reports from America and Letters to Frederick Douglass (New York, 1999), 69, 329-62; Diedrich, Love across Color Lines, 7, 23, 38, 56, 184, 368, 371. is improving in the [ratio?] of a late Spring. It is to be expected; that she will recover her philosophical calmness within the cranial cavities of her auditory system for—at least—the warm sumer months; but, I am afraid, the cold winter season, will make her aware, that she has, as well as every one of us, an Achilles' heel in her body. Her self-slaughterous tendencies remain unabated, notwithstanding her improvement, and it is useless, to

reason with her on that nonsense: for, it is nonsense in itself, to reason on nonsense.

You look at the Indian Affair in the same light as I do. The revenge of logic consists in the logic of events.

With expressions of gratitude & friendship from Mrs. Cable's part as well as from myself,

Yours truly,

G. Frauenstein