Record Data
Source citation
Philip S. Foner, The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass. Vol. 2. Pre-Civil War Decade 1850-1860 (New York: International Publishers, 1975), 406-407.
Type
Letter
Date Certainty
Exact
Transcriber
Leah Suhrstedt
Transcription date
Transcription
The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and other typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.
TO HON. GERRIT SMITH
My dear Sir:
The Bill sent to Mr. Green was by mistake. The five dollars of which he speaks is duly sent to his credit, and the five you have now sent shall also be set to his credit. He shall not be troubled with a bill again. I am amazed as well as gratified at the strength of the vote in favor of a radical Abolition Personal Liberty Bill. I am sorry the Convention appointed here is given up, but your proposition for turning Republican Conventions into Abolition ones strikes me fair. We have turned Whigs and Democrats into Republicans and we can turn Republicans into Abolitionists. You have already gone a great way in that direction. I trace that magnificent show of hands in the Assembly directly to your speech and counsels. You cannot, however, expect that your disciples shall be quite as successful as yourself. I am better of my throat trouble.
Rosa joins me in love to Mrs. Smith.
20 April, ’57.
My dear Sir:
The Bill sent to Mr. Green was by mistake. The five dollars of which he speaks is duly sent to his credit, and the five you have now sent shall also be set to his credit. He shall not be troubled with a bill again. I am amazed as well as gratified at the strength of the vote in favor of a radical Abolition Personal Liberty Bill. I am sorry the Convention appointed here is given up, but your proposition for turning Republican Conventions into Abolition ones strikes me fair. We have turned Whigs and Democrats into Republicans and we can turn Republicans into Abolitionists. You have already gone a great way in that direction. I trace that magnificent show of hands in the Assembly directly to your speech and counsels. You cannot, however, expect that your disciples shall be quite as successful as yourself. I am better of my throat trouble.
Rosa joins me in love to Mrs. Smith.
I am, dear Sir, always yours truly,
Frederick Douglass
