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Frederick Douglass's Letter.-A letter, dated Canada West, October 31, from Frederick Douglass, of Rochester, the fugitive slave, appears in the Rochester Democrat. it is in the main a denial of the reputed aspersion of Cook, that he (Douglass) promised to be at the Harper's Ferry raid, but failed from cowardice. Douglass says, "of whatever other imprudence and indiscretion I may have been guilty, I have never made a promise so rash and wild as this. The taking of Harper's Ferry was a measure never encouraged by my word or by my vote, at any time or place; my wisdom or my cowardice, has not only kept me from Harper's Ferry, but has equally kept me from making any promise to go there-I desire to be quite emphatic here-for of all guilty men, he is the guiltiest who lures his fellow men to an undertaking of this sort, under promise of resistance, which he afterwards fails to render. I therefore declare that there is no man living, and no man dead, who, if living, could truthfully say that I ever promised him or anybody else, either conditionally or otherwise, that I would be present in person at the Harper's Ferry insurrection."
Douglass concludes his letter thus:
I have no apology for keeping out of the way of those gentlemanly United States Marshals, who are said to have paid Rochester a somewhat protracted visit lately, with a view to an interview with me. A government recognizing the validity of the Dred Scott decision, at such a time as this, is not likely to have any very charitable feelings towards me, and if I am to merit its representatives, I prefer to do so, at least, upon equal terms. If I have committed any offences against society, I have done so on the soil of the state to be arraigned before an impartial jury; but I have quite inseparable objections to be caught by the hands of Mr. Buchanan, and "bagged" by Gov. Wise. * *
Some inflections may be made upon my leaving on a tour to England, just at this time. I have only to say that my going to that country has been rather delayed than bestowed by the insurrection at Harper's Ferry. All knew that I had intended to leave here in the first week of November.
