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Again [Uriah Boston] to Frederick Douglass, July 16, 1853

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For Frederick Douglass' Paper.

NEW YORK, July 16th, 1853.

MR. EDITOR:—The Buckeyes and their friends have been "about," I tell you. They
not only carried the meeting, in Dr. Pen-
nington's church, by storm last night, but
carried the Sixth Avenue cars, and the Crys-
tal Palace during the day. Our phlegmatic
and fat fellow Gothamites have been "laying
pipe," or lines of circumvallation since the
May meetings, about the shamefully exclu-
sive Sixth Avenue cars; and they have been
casting the "Horoscope," as to whether col-
ored people would be admitted to the Crys-
tal Palace—(on this last subject it has been
whispered that the minister of St. Phillips,
by special request of the Churchwarden and
Vestry, has nearly prepared a greasy sermon
to reconcile even his parishioners to the in-
dignity of exclusion from the Palace; when
a young Buckeye and his friends, in a few
minutes, quietly toed the mark, and settled
the question. Honor to the West! It GROWS
MEN!! ALL HAIL TO THE PRODUCER! I sup-
pose that wicked David Jenkins, of Ohio,
would add "three groans for the East; it
uses up manhood; down with the consumer!"
Consarn the fellow!

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PRESIDENTIANA.

Standing in the procession—waiting—mob
on the 14th inst., as the President passed
along Broadway with his beaver up, and rath-
er off, some uncircumcised white man im-
pudently remarked, "Why, his hair looks
like a nigger's!" And so does his complex-
ion: well, now, "I want to know!" Where
is Ethiop?

Has a little tar, a very little tar, crept into
the [illegible] chair? or is it only a proof of
the theory, that the residence during several
generations in our continent gradually
changes the complexion from white to cop-
per color. Where is Communipaw?

The Metropolitan Hotel of our city has a
large corps of well-drilled and officered col-
ored waiters. At the magnificent banquet
last night, when the President rose to speak,
the room, by his request, was cleared of these
attendants: but by construction of the en-
trances, our brethren (as in other cases which
might be cited) stood at a very wide door,
which, somehow, could not be shut, as listen-
ers. Well, you know the Metropolitan is at
the corner of Broadway and Prince Streets,
and Dr. Pennington's church is two short
squares off—, so there were two great
meetings within hearing of each other, and
each easily heard the cheers of the other.

As I was saying, the President rose, and
the room was cleared of his colored breth-
ren, (he himself might easily pass for a col-
ored man,) and the President said, in the
course of his remarks (now first reported ex-
clusively for Frederick Douglass' Paper,) "if
colored men could drill with muskets, as well as
they do with plates, they would make a dangerous enemy."

Well now, "I want to know." The edge
of this joke, is, that the very men who caused
this remark, the very waiters ejected from
the room, were, almost to a man, well-drilled
soldiers, being members of the Hannibal
Guards, Carrie Guards and Tinker Guards.
And it does reflect very great credit on the
military acuteness of Franklin Pierce, that
he saw at once, from their movements, these
soldiers in disguise. Where is your literary
Editor? Cannot she furnish, just here, that
fine passage from Scott, where the monks,
bearing the coffin, with a live warrior in it,
suddenly throw off their cowls and cloaks,
draw swords and "go in?"

Yours,

AGAIN.

Creator

Boston, Uriah (Again)

Date

1853-07-16

Description

Again [Uriah Boston] to Frederick Douglass. PLSr: Frederick DouglassP, 22 July 1853. Comments on President Pierce’s visit to New York City.

Publisher

This document was calendared in the published volume and has not been published in full before.

Collection

Frederick Douglass' Paper

Type

Letters

Publication Status

Unpublished

Source

Frederick Douglass' Paper