Letter from Jacob Lybrand.

Mr. Frederick Douglass: Dear Sir:— Several numbers of the "Frederick Douglass' Paper," directed to me, have come to hand. Allow me to say, that I am more than gratified to know that the country is indebted to you for one of the very best papers extant. It has been my privilege to be a subscriber, at different times, to a number of newspapers; and on three occasions, I have aided in the establishing of papers advocating the cause of the Slaves. But we can now say, that there is a periodical owned and ably conducted by one who, until recently, was himself a slave. I trust that you have a large list of subscribers among the colored people. If you have not, they are recreant to their duty; decidedly so, if they are aware of the Frederick Douglass' Paper. If they are not advised of the publication, they should be made acquainted with the fact. Every means should be resorted to, in order to put them in possession of the circumstance.

It should be the pride of colored Americans, to sustain a paper belonging to one of their number; for what is more elevating, what is more calculated to give dignity to a community, than a well-conducted newspaper! And whatever may be done by others for the benefit and advantage of the colored people in the United States, it is requisite that the "free people of color," as they are termed, should do considerable for themselves, and for their brethren in slavery. Free, "as they are termed," I may well say, for it is a gross libel to any that they are free. And that they are not free, is a libel upon our professions of Republicanism. Why, in the so-called Free States, not content with the hindrances and obstructions that have ever been placed in their way by the Constitutions and Laws of the country, they continue to devise ways and means to make their condition still more uncomfortable; and in some instances compelling them to leave the homes of their birth! Truly is it a mockery to call this a Republic; this a Democratic Nation! It would seem that the country had got beyond shame; that none of her false pretensions to Liberty will call up a blush! I cannot, however, but believe that a better "time is coming;" a "day of reckoning." And oh! that we may not be dealt with fully according to our deserts! I cannot, in the words of Jefferson, avoid saying that "I tremble for my country," in view of what we may expect, of what we are deserving!

The Fugitive Slave Law, that abomination of abominations, is doing its work of misery, devastation and death in the land, but what its ultimate result will be, time must determine. Can it be, in this enlightened "day and generation," that such a law is tolerated in a Nation that makes such great pretensions to liberty? The country that boasts of being the "Freest Nation upon earth!" That it is a law, is most humiliatingly true; and that it has advocates, and many of them, is also true. How long the law will continue, is yet to be told!

I see it noticed in the papers, that the

Mayor of New York is [about to extend] the hospitalities of the city to Kossuth and his companions, on their arrival. But should someone or more of those who are held as slaves by citizens of these United States flee from the bondage they are enduring in the Southern States, the worse species of tyranny upon the known earth, all things considered, and seek protection in the great—I wish I could say good, also—city of New York, what might they expect? What would they probably receive? Why, they would be handed over to the "manstealers" to those who deal in the souls of their fellowmen; so that they might not only be continued in Slavery, but, in addition thereto, tortured for daring practically to believe the truths advanced in the Declaration of Independence. To use a sentiment of Him of whom it is said "never man spake like this man," varying the words to suit the occasion, I remark, that in relation to the reception designed to bestow upon the noble, liberty-loving Kossuth and his companions, this ought to be done. But when the inhabitants of our country, those who are as much entitled to citizenship as any within its broad domains, are fleeing from worse than Egyptian bondage, by not extending to them at least as much hospitality, is to omit "the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy, and faith."

It is said that the "Compromises of the Constitution" required the passage of that Law! And those who advance that opinion are not only among the most forward in their efforts to sustain that instrument but are also among the loudest in their cries for Liberty and Freedom. They doubtless mean Freedom for themselves; for it is madness, and worse, to pretend that they mean Liberty for all. But does the Constitution of the United States, in order to carry out its purposes and intents, demand such a law? If it does, better far that the Constitution should be rent to pieces and the fragments scattered to the four winds of Heaven, than that we should live under such a Charter.

Before the formation of the Liberty PartyLiberty Party

The Liberty party was organized on 1 April 1840 in Albany, New York. The central principle of this third party was the abolition of slavery. Specific proposals included abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, ending Jim Crow practices, and opposing the colonization movement. Whereas prominent antislavery figures such as Myron Holley, Gerrit Smith, Joshua Leavitt, and William Goodell all supported the creation of a political party dedicated to antislavery principles, some abolitionists--most notably William Lloyd Garrison and his followers--disapproved of the move to political action. Garrisonians argued that a separate party would divide rather than unite abolitionists. Drawing a large portion of its support from New York, the Liberty party nonetheless persevered for several years. By the 1848 presidential election, however, most Liberty party members had moved to the newly formed Free Soil party. A small faction led by Gerrit Smith retained much of the Liberty party's platform under the name of the Radical Abolition party. Alan M. Kraut, "The Forgotten Reformers: A Profile of Third Party Abolitionists in Antebellum New York," in Antislavery Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Abolitionists, ed. Lewis Perry and Michael Fellman (Baton Rouge, La., 1979), 119-45; Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 43-47, 152-69, 285-87. , that organization that has since been swallowed up by the Free Soil movement; and as a party, in consequence, become extinct, and in advance of any suggestion on the subject, I believe, by the late, lamented Myron HollyHolley, Myron

Myron Holley (1779- 1841), one of the founders of the Liberty party, was born in Salisbury, Connecticut and educated at Williams College. After practicing law briefly in his native state, he moved to Canandaigua, New York, where he operated a bookstore, served as county clerk, and won election to the New York General Assembly. An early supporter of the Erie Canal, Holley was appointed a member and treasurer of the canal commission in 1816 and successfully supervised the project until 1824, when he resigned after the discovery of a deficiency in his accounts. Though later found blameless of any crime, he reimbursed the state from his own funds. A leading Anti-Mason, Holley attended that party's 1830 national convention in Philadelphia and authored its Address. . .to the People of the United States. Between 1831 and 1835 he edited two party organs, the Lyons (N.Y.) Countryman and the Hartford (Conn.) Free Elector. Relocating in Rochester, New York, Holley delivered his first antislavery speech in February 1838 and the following winter served as an antislavery lecturer. In June 1839 he began publication of the Rochester Freeman. Disenchanted with both the Whigs and Democrats, Holley urged the organization of a separate antislavery party, winning support for that position at various county and state abolitionist conventions in 1839. At the national antislavery convention held in Albany in April 1840 he successfully introduced a resolution calling for the nomination of a slate of anti-slavery candidates for national office. Holley actively campaigned for James G. Birney, the presidential nominee of the new Liberty party. [Elizur Wright, Jr.], Myron Holley: What He Did for Liberty and True Religion (Boston, 1882); Sewell, Ballots for Freedom, 54, 58, 61, 66, 71; Alice Hatcher Henderson, "The History of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society" (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1963), 234-43, 296-31; ACAB, 3; DAB 9:150-51. , I proposed the formation of a "Party in Politics, the avowed object of which should be to obtain an amendment to the National Constitution, to prohibit slavery from being tolerated within the borders our of then happy and mighty REPUBLIC." At that time I was a citizen of Wisconsin. From the time the Liberty Party was established, until its dissolution, I always acted with it. The Free Soil Party, I never associated myself with, and have had no cause to regret that I did not. The Abolitionists are wont to speak of the corruptions of the "two great parties," alluding to the Whig, and the Democratic, so-called.—But I very much question whether either of them exceeded, if indeed, they equalled in corruption, the Free Soil Party!!!

Although I acted with the Liberty Party, and did so conscientiously, I have ever been of opinion that a party founded upon the principles which I recommended would have been better, and have been more effective.—It is what the country now needs; what it will ever want, until the amendment is brought about. It would seem that present circumstances make it more requisite than when I first suggested it. If for no other reasons the mere fact that there is such a vast difference

of opinion in relation to the Constitution's anti-slavery, or pro-slavery character—some contending that it is purely an anti-slavery docmnent; others, that it guarantees slavery. Whatever may be the meaning of the Constitution, one thing is certain—lamentably true, that slavery has not only been tolerated ever since the establishment of the government, but that it has always ruled the nation. Cannot we have a fundamental law of the land that persons can understand alike, on such an important subject as human slavery? what a horrid system to contemplate: one that we know to be either anti-slavery or pro-slavery. We must have such a Constitution! We will have such a Charter, and it will be one of LIBERTY! But when will that be?

For "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity," and an advocate of political rights, irrespective of color, sex, and nation.

Your friend,

Jacob LybrandLybrand, Jacob

Jacob Lybrand (c. 1805–75) was born in Philadelphia but was living in Wisconsin by at least 1836. In Wisconsin, he was very active in the Liberty Party and the Liberty Association. Lybrand was put forward on several occasions for office and in 1848 was a delegate to the Buffalo Free Soil convention. He arrived in Iowa in about 1849, and settled in Allamakee County in 1850/51, planning the town that took his name. Lybrand also founded Knob Prairie (now West Union). Eventually, he relocated north to Minnesota, moving around frequently, until 1875. “Jacob Lybrand,” Redwood (Minn.) Gazette, 4 March 1875; Early M. Hancock, Past and Present of Alamakee County, Iowa, 2 vols. (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1913), 1: 498; Reinhard O. Johnson, The Liberty Party, 1840–1848: Antislavery Third-Party Politics in the United States (Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 2021), 358. .

Lybrand, Iowa, Oct. 20th, 1851.