WASHINGTON, Pa., July 18, 1853.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ESQ.: DEAR SIR:—Your paper of June 24th has just fallen un
der my notice. In your account of the meet
ing of the State Temperance Society, you
say "we were told, but can hardly credit the
story, that, in taking the platform, we were
hissed by Wm. H. Burleigh, the Secretary of
the Society." You do well to doubt the ac
curacy of this information, for it is totally
untrue. I hissed no speaker on that occa
sion, and never, on any occasion, did I hiss
Frederick Douglass. I respect his genius
and his eloquence too much to do that, how
ever widely I may differ from him in opin
ion.

I do not expect that all people will ap
prove of the course which I thought it right
to take at that meeting; but I am myself so
well satisfied with it, that I feel unwilling to
have it misrepresented. Still, I find that it
is misrepresented by some, and misappre
hended by others. So it was last year. It
is not my fault—for I endeavor to be very ex
plicit, both in speech and action. But both
you and I have been too long accustomed to
this sort of thing, to mind much about it;
and I seldom take the trouble to contradict
any misrepresentation that I may suffer. In
this instance I do it, because I am unwilling
that your enemies should think me guilty of
disrespect to, or a want of appreciation of, a
man whom I am happy to call my friend, as
I am very truly his.

WM. H. BURLEIGH.