Clyde Wayne Co N.Y

March 29^th 1877

Fred^k Douglass Esq

My dear Sir–

I heartily congratulate you. You have indeed achieved a victory of which you may well be proud–And our President has done a noble act in appointing you Marshal of the District of Columbia–and the Senate have likewise done well in confirming the nomination. What a change has taken place in public opinion with the period of twenty five or thirty years?—My father was an old fashioned Abolitionist & I was educated in that political creed–and I have never changed my views in respect to Slavery. I am a Republican and always expect to be. I remember a great many years ago, when a boy, hearing you lecture upon Slavery here in Clyde and I think you was, at one time, a guest at my fathers House–I have a pamphlet

I think containing your life—publishd. about that time–American Slavery was then in full blast and I never expected to live to see the day when you would hold an office under the General Government—I believed that the time would Eventually come when colord. men would be free and enjoy the same rights as others but that I thought was so far in the Great Future that none then on Earth would ever witness it–When Rev Samuel R. WardWard, Samuel Ringgold

Samuel Ringgold Ward (1817-c. 1866) was a Congregational minister, abolitionist, editor, and orator. His parents carried him along on their escape from slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore in about 1820. The family settled six years later in New York City, where young Ward received an elementary education. In 1833 he embraced religion and received ordination in 1839. His two New York congregations, at South Butler (1841-43) and Courtland (1846-51), consisted mostly of whites, but Ward vigorously agitated for the rights of both slaves and free blacks. The American Anti-Slavery Society appointed Ward a lecturing agent in 1839. As one of the earliest black supporters of political abolitionism, Ward acted as spokesman for the Liberty party after 1844. Ward studied law and medicine briefly, and also tried his hand at editing during the late 1840s. His Impartial Citizen, published from Syracuse, and another newspaper venture both failed financially. In 1851 Ward's leading role in the Jerry Rescue caused him to fear arrest and to emigrate to Canada. There he launched the Provincial Freeman in 1853 and acted as agent for the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada. In the latter capacity, Ward journeyed to Britain in 1853 on a fundraising tour. In 1855 Ward published his Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro and accepted a British Quaker's gift of fifty acres of land in Jamaica. He lived his last decade on that island, farming, writing, and ministering to a small Baptist congregation. Ward’s involvement in abolitionist activities necessarily brought him into close contact with Douglass, who remarked that “as an orator and thinker he [Ward] was vastly superior . . . to any of us,” and that “the splendors of his intellect went directly to the glory of his race.” Douglass, Life and Times (1881), 284; Samuel Ringgold Ward, Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro: His Anti-Slavery Labours in the United States, Canada and England (1855; New York, 1968); NS, 2 February 1849; Robin W. Winks, The Blacks in Canada: A History, 2d ed. (New Haven, Conn., 1997), 206-08, 227, 265-66, 361,395; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 79, 98, 133, 138, 210. —the Colord. Clergyman that then preached at South Butler in this County lectured here—he was a guest at my father's Home–in going over to the Presbyterian Church where he was to speak, several of the first Citizens of Clyde threw rotten eggs at him—& the rabble insulted him by following at a distance and setting groans &c–this was Many Years ago–Several of these first Citizens are living here now and belong to the Republican Party–This Shows the Great Change in Public Sentiment.

At that time you were unsafe in Washington—Today, you can walk it's streets with perfect freedom and associate with the greatest and best men of the nation–

I recollect hearing you once speak in the Old Broadway Tabernacle in New York–& then you were interrupted occasionally by hisses and groans–Today, you can speak in any city in the Union and meet with tokens of appreciation.–

For all of which, let us thank God–Again, I congratulate you upon your success in becoming a Government officer and a lucrative one—

Very Truly Yours &c

Sylvester H. ClarkeClarke, Sylvester H.