Plymouth, Mass. April 6^th, 1877

Frederick Douglass Esqr

My Dear Sir,

Amid the sad and pleasant memories, that crowd upon an old man in his eighty ninth year, there is kindly left an opening for enjoyment of the present, in the prosperity of friends, and in better hopes for his country.

Two grandaughters, now verging to womanhood, that constitute my family, in tender memorial of the principles and feelings of their departed mother and grandmother, join me, in sending our congratulations

for your late honorable appointment—this from our hearts, both for personal and typical reasons. The time should come when there shall be, for the attainment of office or honors in our Country, or standing in social life, no Pariahs, but the dishonest and incompetent. In this congratulation, without special consultation, I know I can speak for all the friends of your youth, who remain this side of the river.

Wendell PhillipsPhillips, Wendell

Boston-born and Harvard-educated Wendell Phillips (1811-84) ranked second only to Garrison in influence in the American Anti-Slavery Society in the 1840s and 1850s. Bored with the legal profession and influenced by his antislavery fiancee, Ann Terry Greene, Phillips dedicated himself to abolitionism beginning in 1837. A highly gifted orator, Phillips was in demand as a lecturer even in nonabolitionist circles. Besides abolition, Phillips championed woman suffrage, prohibition, penal reform, Indian rights, and legislative protection for workers. When Garrison retired from the presidency of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1865, Phillips assumed the post and led abolitionists until passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. James Brewer Stewart, Wendell Phillips: Liberty's Hero (Baton Rouge, La., 1986); Irving H. Bartlett, Wendell Phillips: Brahmin Radical (Boston, 1961); DAB, 14:546-47. lectured in our Village a few evenings since. He is growing old, but he so revived former associations, that I cannot hold back from this intrusion on your busy life.

Very truly y^r ob^t servt.

Wm. ThomasThomas, William

William Thomas (1789-1882) was the great-grandson and bore the name of William Thomas, a merchant adventurer of London who traded with the Pilgrims of the American colonies. His father, Joshua Thomas, served in the Revolutionary War as an aide-de-camp of General John Thomas of Kingston. Joshua married Isabella Stevenson of Boston, and they had three children: John Boles, William, and Joshua. William graduated from Harvard in 1807 and went on to study law with his father in Plymouth. In 1816 he married Sarah Warren Seven, and they had a daughter named Ann Seven. William practiced law in Plymouth and for several years edited the Old Colony Memorial while writing editorials for the North American Review. He was also well known for his abolitionist views and friendship with Garrison, Phillips, and Douglass. William Thomas to Douglass, 6 April 1877, Miscellaneous Manuscripts, MPlyS; Boston Daily Advertiser, 22 September 1882.

[written on cover]: Ans 4/10/77