From our New York Correspondent.

NEW YORK, Nov. 21, 1853.

MR. EDITOR:—My short, but most delight
ful visit to Rochester, ended, as you know,
by a hearty shake of your hand; which set
me thinking of the terrible earnestness with
which you have embarked yourself, and your
all in the cause of the emancipation and af
franchisement of the down-trodden. I cer
tainly wish that our purse-proud brethren,
who lazily sigh for the ease of England or
Germany, or the oblivion of the steppes of
Russia, in order to escape the duties which
God has imposed on colored men in this land,
could visit your home and your office for an
hour, and witness the devotion of all your
family to the success of your paper—which
is the success of the cause also—one lad set
ting type, then folding, another feeding your
new press, and Miss R. D. just budding into
womanhood, laboring with pen in hand, by
the side of our earnest and most efficient
English benefactress—and the editor him
self so selfishly proud and so superbly am
bitious, in his shirt-sleeves, driving the press!
I say it out, right in your teeth, and dare

any man to gainsay it, that there is no man
in America so terribly in earnest in this
question of emancipation, as Frederick
Douglass. Our ease-seeking, prejudice-feel
ing brethren would see more than your ear
nestness in Rochester; they would see you
surrounded by society as highly cultivated,
as free from caste, as any upon the face of
the globe, and witness that you are a respect
ed, almost venerated ornament thereof.

But the cars are going, and by quarter be
fore 6 A. M., here am I, in the Delavan
House, Albany. My old friend Stephen My
ers kindly affords me a cold bath and break
fast. But, "what is the matter, Myers, you
look ill? have you passed through a severe
illness?" "No, we had a severe time at the
election, on Tuesday; the people would have
me run against Wm. H. Topp, and the whole
city was alive as it seldom has been, with the
contest. I didn't want to beat Topp; could
have done it; let him win by two votes."—Mr. Editor, there was a warm time in Albany,
in the election for the State Council. The
following, clipped from the Knickerbocker of
the 16th, conveys a faint idea of the "good
time:"

"COLORED PEOPLE'S ELECTION.—There was
exciting times, yesterday, among the colored
population of the city, growing out of the
election of a delegate to the National Coun
cil—an institution lately organized for the
purpose of devising means to benefit colored
people generally. Mr. W. H. Topp, Mer
chant Tailor, Broadway, was the regularly

nominated candidate, and was the choice of
the aristocratic 'colored pussins.' The bone
and sinew—the underground democracy—set up STEPHEN MYERS, who, everybody
knows, is the People's candidate. The polls
opened at an early hour, yesterday morning,
and the greatest possible excitement prevail
ed about the City Hall all day. The contest
was carried on with great spirit and enthusi
asm by the friends of both parties. Every
nook and corner in town was dragged for
voters. Even the basin and river crafts were
raked, and patriotic colored men who never
before enjoyed the privilege of expressing
their sentiments through the ballot-box, were
marched up to the polls flanked by the
friends of the candidates. The pulling, haul
ing, coaxing and threatening were excellent
imitations of the scenes witnessed at the
polls on a general election among white peo
ple. Every voter had to pay ten cents for
the privilege of voting, which goes into a
common school fund for colored people.—The fun and excitement attracted the atten
tion of a large crowd of people. The elec
tion was conducted in good nature, and pass
ed off quietly. The election resulted in the
choice of Mr. TOPP. It was close work, how
ever, as he beat Mr. MYERS by only 2 votes.
Mr. TOPP'S friends fired a salute last evening
in honor of the victory."

Voters were caught up and carried in on
the shoulders of the mixed populace. Grave
functionaries of the State and city aided and
abetted to the best of their ability; and more
than one gentleman, not far removed from
the highest office, wrung their hands because

they could not vote. I suppose they felt just
like colored men have often felt, under like
circumstances.

At the close of the poll, it was found that
there were eleven more ballots, than names
registered. The city Marshall was called in,
and "pulled" eleven ballots; the excitement
was intense, as the knowing ones saw eleven
"Topp" votes pulled; yet honor to Wm. H.
Topp, he still beat by two votes.

It is whispered, and loudly, that Myers and
Randolph did organize, very secretly, the op
position.

In Tracy some 65 votes were cast; in Ge
neva 20; in New York city and Brooklyn, I
know not how many. But Philadelphia is
the BANNER CITY; she cast twelve hundred votes! So says our friend Dr. J. J. BiasBias, James Joshua Gould

James Joshua Gould Bias (1807–60) was a physician and preacher living in Philadelphia. Born a slave in Maryland, he learned some medical knowledge while working with a physician there. When Bias obtained his freedom, he moved to Philadelphia, attending the Eclectic Medical School and graduating in 1852. He devoted much of his time before the Civil War tending to the medical and dental needs to fugitive slaves in Southeast Pennsylvania. Bias also was the pastor at the Bethel Church in Philadelphia. He played a leading role in the Colored Conventions movement, holding a number of positions. While Bias endorsed emigration, he rejected the policies of the American Colonization Society, rejecting its White leadership. “Our Philadelphia Letter,”(New York, N.Y.) Weekly Anglo-African, 7 July 1860; George F. Bragg, Jr., Men of Maryland (Baltimore: Church Advocate Press, 1925), 54–55; Michael Dickinson, “Dr. J. J. Gould Bias,” Colored Conventions Project, Coloredconventions.org. .

It is a settled fact, Mr. Editor, for future
use, that the political element in our people
is capable of large and most useful develop
ment for their own advancement. This is
the second fact brought out by the Rochester
Convention. And I have the best authority
for saying that Wm. Whipper, Esq., of Penn
sylvania, introduced this feature into the
Constitution of the Council.

It will rejoice you and a million of others
to learn that the HON. GERRIT SMITHSmith, Gerrit

Gerrit Smith (1797– 1874), a New York businessman and land speculator, became best known for his philanthropic work for such reform causes as temperance and abolition. Between 1828 and 1835, he donated large sums of money to the American Colonization Society, but abandoned that movement in 1835 when his sympathies shifted to the immediate abolitionists. In the 1840s, he gave approximately 140,000 acres of land in upstate New York to three thousand black settlers, thus qualifying them to vote. Smith was a founder and frequent candidate of the Liberty party, running for governor of New York on that ticket in 1840 and winning a seat in Congress in 1852. When the Free Soil merger with moderate antislavery Democrats and Whigs lured away many Liberty party supporters, Smith helped bankroll that organization until 1860. Smith befriended Douglass when the latter moved to Rochester, and Smith frequently helped finance Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Like Douglass, Smith supported John Brown, but psychological stress caused by the failure at Harpers Ferry brought on the first of a series of bipolar episodes that greatly reduced his subsequent reform activities. Ralph Volney Harlow, Gerrit Smith: Philanthropist and Reformer (1939; New York, 1972); Gerald Sorin, The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism (Westport, Conn., 1971), 269– 87; Lewis Perry, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought (Ithaca, N.Y., 1973), 170– 80; John R. McKivigan and Madeleine Leveille, “The ‘Black Dream’ of Gerrit Smith, New York Abolitionist,” Syracuse University Library Associates Courier, 20:61– 76 (Fall 1985); NCAB , 2:322– 23; DAB, 17:270– 71. , is now
in our city in greatly improved health; there
is no reason to doubt that on the 1st Prox.
he will be "on hand" in that particular part

of Washington to which the voice of the
people has so worthily called him.

Yours, 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. .