Rochester 26th June,

Saml. D. Porter Esqr.Porter, Samuel D.

Samuel D. Porter (1808-81), a prosperous land agent, moved to Rochester, New York, from Waldoborough, Maine, in 1835. His wife, Susan Farley Porter, founded and belonged to several reform organizations, and he served as the first president of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society. The Porters aided fugitive slaves in crossing the border into Canada, and their barn was reputed to be a common hiding place. In the 1840s Samuel joined the Liberty party and supported the Free Soil party while attempting to mediate between Garrisonian abolitionists and those who, like himself. sought the end of slavery through political agitation. Additionally, he was a perennial candidate for mayor, running on an antislavery plat-form. Although he became a Republican in the late 1850s, he broke with that party in the 1870s, charging that it had abandoned reform and the plight of the freedmen. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Monroe County, 92; Nancy A. Hewitt, Women's Activism and Social Change: Rochester, New York, 1822-1872 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1984), 60, 120, 149, 180, 206; Dexter Perkins, "Rochester One Hundred Years Ago," RH, 1:1-24 (July 1939).

My Dear Sir,

You will do me a kindness by calling at my office to morrow forenoon, I have secured Corinthian Hall for the morning of the 4th. and am quite anxcious that the proceedings shall be worthy of the day.

I think that if you would consent to preceed me by reading the declaration and making such remarks, as that document and the occasion would naturally suggest, you would render the cause essential Service.

Please Call

Most Truly Yours

Frederick Douglass