Frederick Douglass, Esq.:
Dear Sir:—
CommunipawSmith, James McCune

James McCune Smith (1813–65), a prominent black physician, abolitionist, and writer, was born in New York City to an enslaved father and a self-emancipated mother. He attended the New York African Free School, but was denied admission to Columbia University, Geneva Medical College, and the New York Academy of Medicine. He turned to the University of Glasgow in Scotland, where he received a B.A. (1835), M.A. (1836), and M.D. (1837). Upon returning to New York, he opened a pharmacy and medical practice that catered to both blacks and whites. He became involved in the abolitionist movement, serving as an associate editor of the Colored American in 1839, contributed regularly to the Anglo-African Magazine, and wrote correspondence for the North Star and Frederick Douglass’ Paper under the pseudonym “Communipaw.” Smith also wrote the introduction to Douglass’s second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). In 1861, Smith helped finance the revival of the Weekly Anglo-African to oppose black colonization and emigration, and he was a prominent member of the New York City Young Men’s Association, the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and the New York African Society for Mutual Relief. He was the sole attending physician of the Society for the Promotion of Education Among Colored Children, a member and vestryman of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, and a trustee of the New York Society for the Promotion of Education Among Colored Children. In 1863 Wilberforce College appointed Smith professor of anthropology, but illness kept him from assuming his post. Lib., 1 June 1838; FDP, 18 May 1855; Douglass Papers, ser. 2:7–19; Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, 243; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 90–92, 103, 110; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 115, 134; Rhoda G. Freeman, “The Free Negro in New York City in the Era before the Civil War” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1966), 40–42, 177, 186, 195, 200, 247, 276, 286, 325, 353, 393; DAB, 27:288–89. says (August 6) "Professor Allen overwhelms me." Well, I am glad he has owned up. He asks, further, "If the Jews of old were a mixed race, as he says, (July 30,) how are the modern Jews a "single race," as cited by him in the same paper? That is, how can you mix wine, gin, and water, and after a thousand years, the resultant be pure water? Now this sounds very astute and cunning, but it is pure sophism, and nothing more. Communipaw does not deny that the ancient Jews were a mixed race; my answer to his query, therefore, is this simply: the modern Jews are not a mixed race, because they do not intermarry with other races, nor in any way mingle their blood with the blood of other races. Communipaw asks further, "What does the Professor mean by a "single race!" My reply to this query is this simply: by a "single race," I mean a race which does not intermarry with other races, nor in any way mingle its blood with the blood of other races. Communipaw further asks, if I can make out that there is "a single race of mankind in contradistinction to any other, or all other races of mankind?" My reply at this point, is this simply: I can make out no such thing; and, further, have never, at any time, written any article which implies any intention or desire, on my part, to make out any such thing, as no one better knowns than Communipaw. "Of one blood are all the nations of earty created." Here is a plain statement of the oneness of race of all mankind; and yet no one better knows than Communipaw, that, on entering the field of ethnography, we are compelled, for scientific purposes, to speak of "this race," and "that race" of "mixed races," and so on down to the end of the chapter. Communipaw further states that the "Chinese are a mixed race." So, I would reply, are the Anglo-Saxons a mixed race also; and yet if a nation of Anglo-Saxons were to shut themselves up for hundreds and hundreds of years, refusing to receive foreigners among them, and to intermarry with them, the common sense of mankind would decide, that for all the purposes of an enthnographical discussion, they, (the Anglo-Saxons,) under the circumstances, might properly be called a "single race." Indeed, if this view of the subject be not adopted, we talk nonsense when we talk of the "African," the "Celtic," the "Mongolian," or the "Saxon" race, or any race whatever, save the HUMAN race. But I will prolong this discussion on my part. It cannot amount to no more on either side than a war of words, since, as to the theory mooted, Communipaw and myself hold precisely the same opinion. I say this in full confidence; for I know who Communipaw is and have read his opinions when he was not trying his skill at raising a point.

Now to another subject. A few words about Hayti. Several merchants of Boston have signed and sent a petition to Congress, (which petition has been presented,) praying for the recognition, by this government, of the independence of Hayti. No one, I presume, supposes that such a petition will, for a moment, be seriously entertained by Congress. Receive a black or colored ambassador at Washington, to be "conversing, and [dancing] and waltzing and polking with the wives and daughters of white Secretaries, Senators, and Representatives!" Certainly not—not if said black or colored ambassador were in talents, character, and personal appearance, superior to all the dignitaries in Christendon. This would be to strike a blow by far too terrible at the spirit of caste, and to undo the foundations of American Slavery. Besides, colored men of respectability and character can "converse, and dance, and waltz and polk," at the most brilliant courts of Europe, 'mid lords and dukes, and such like; but Americans have too much greatness of heart, and depth of soul, to allow them to be guilty of distinguishing between character and color—man and his skin. Besides, further, slaveholders rule this country, and though they may miss the figure occasionally, they will, by no means, be likely to make so magnificent a mistake as to grant the prayer of the petitioners. No! no! The devilish spirit of compromise, with indignity and death, has run mad with American character; and Hayti will have to trudge along, as hitherto, unrecognized by this mighty republic. But more of Hayti, anon.
Yours,
Wm. G. Allen.Allen, William G.

Son of a free black mother and a white immigrant father, William G. Allen (1820–?) grew up in southeastern Virginia. After graduating from the Oneida Institute in New York, Allen taught school in Canada and New York. Allen was a popular lecturer and was regarded as an expert on black history and literature. In 1844, while teaching in Troy, New York, he assisted Henry Highland Garnet in editing the National Watchman, a temperance and abolitionist newspaper aimed at black readers. Shortly after having its title changed to the Clarion, the short-lived paper failed in 1847. No issues are known to have survived. In 1850 Allen became a professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres at New York Central College in McGrawville, New York, where he caused a public furor by marrying one of his white female students in 1852. The following year the Allens sailed to Great Britain, where William lectured for the abolitionist cause, and both he and his wife operated a series of small schools. Hutton, Early Black Press in America, 9; R. J. M. Blackett, “William G. Allen: The Forgotten Professor,” CWH, 26:39–52 (March 1980); Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:135–36n; ANB, 1:346–47.
McGrawville, New York, August 9th, 1852.