October 13, 1865
Colored men in Baltimore have purchased a building, and organized The Douglass Institute, the purpose of which is “the intellectual advancement of the colored portion of the community.” At the official opening of the building, Douglass’ speech is published here.
April 7, 1865
Frederick Douglass is featured speaker.
September 23, 1864
Douglass writes about a letter of his recently sent to an English correspondent, and published subsequently in the Liberator. Douglass comments on that letter, and in the context, recalls some of his previous criticism of Lincoln, and reasons why he has withheld his support from Lincoln. He says that circumstances have now changed, and he now urges that “every man who wishes well to the slave and to the country should at once rally with all the warmth and earnestness of his nature to the support of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson……”
December 14, 1860
A long article, signed by C.K.W., gives a detailed account of the event, including an account of the re-convened meeting at the Joy Street church. Among those who were on the platform, and speakers, were Wendell Phillips, Maria Chapman, Frederick Douglass, F. B.Sanborn, and John Brown, Jr.
November 11, 1859
A large part of this edition is devoted to response to Harper’s Ferry, and to Brown.
Letter from Frederick Douglass
Some excerpts: “The taking of Harper’s Ferry was a measure never encouraged by my word or by my vote, at any time or place…. 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……Some reflection may be made upon my leaving on a tour to England at this time. I have only to say, that my going to that country has been rather delayed than hastened by the insurrection at Harper’s Ferry. All knew that I had intended to leave here in the first week of November.”
November 4, 1859
Here is notice that the Fifth Fraternity Lecture promised by Douglass did not occur. “Mr. Douglass, however, did not appear, and the explanation of his absence by the Committee gave us to understand that he does not now consider himself safe in any part of the United States, in consequence of his alleged implication in the Harpers’ Ferry invasion.” ….”The vacancy thus made at the late hour had been filled by the voluntary offer of Henry D. Thoreau of Concord, who took for his subject one in whom all mankind are now interested, ‘Captain John Brown of Ossawattomie’. This exciting theme seemed to have awakened ‘the hermit of Concord’ from his usual state of philosophic indifference, and he spoke with real enthusiasm … bestowing hearty praise upon the enterprise at Harper’s Ferry….”
A comment by the editor, says that Thoreau had distorted Garrison’s early word that the attempt at Harper’s Ferry was insane, into a charge that he, Garrison, had represented Brown himself as insane.
February 6, 1857
“To give up the Union would be a cruel abandonment of the slave to slavery, inasmuch as it would place him in the same relation to the people of the North, as is sustained by the same people to the slaves of Cuba and the Brazils; we might yet promptly ask the restless Liberator, why they wait for a dissolution in order to begin the work of forcible emancipation, when they know that such an invasion by the North would be the quickest and surest way to put an end to the Union itself? “
February 9, 1855
A letter to Garrison, comes from “R.T.”, in Philadelphia. It comments on the oratorical power of Douglass, and cites parts of the speech in which Douglass says that some Abolitionists “claim that the principles which underlie the Anti-Slavery movement were discovered by Mr. Garrison, and his coadjutors.” The writer says that Douglass spent part of this three hour speech denouncing the lie the claim. The writer indicates that he had to leave the meeting before the speech was concluded, “But I am told, by one who listened to the whole of it, that throughout he (Douglass) sustained his reputation as an ingenious traducer and base calumniator. He repeated all the stale cant and twaddle about the Anti-Sabbath and Anti-Bible character of Mr. Garrison and his friends, and intimated that, under the garb of Humanity, they were endeavoring to uproot Christianity! –thus appealing to the lowest sectarian prejudices of his audience He asserted ‘that the old basis of Anti-Slavery action, that the slave was a man and a brother, and that we should feel for him as bound with him, was laid aside for political catchwords, such as “Down with the Constitution,” and “No Union with Slaveholders!”
The Editor places a pointed finger at this response: “A colored friend, of great respectability in Philadelphia, referring to Mr. Douglass’s venomous lectures in that city, says, ‘Allow me to say, that the disaffected to our cause, and its advocates, in Philadelphia, are a mere fraction. The respect, gratitude and confidence of the great body of our people are with you. How could it be otherwise?’”
December 29, 1854
From Frederick Douglass’s Paper, comes a letter signed by Laura. S. Holland, telling of the severe treatment of Fairbanks at the hands of Kentucky authorities, by whom he is held in prison. “When such diabolical deeds are being committed without the utterance of a disapproving sentence from a vast majority, we have no grounds to hope for reformation only in Revolution….”
August 25, 1854
Under the Refuge of Oppression column, from the Norfolk (VA) Daily News: “The nigger statesman of the North, is, we learn, to be brought forward for Congress in the Monroe district of New York. His advent in the capitol, as a representative of the people, is doubtless anticipated with pride and pleasure by Greeley and Giddings, Garrison, and Gerrit Smith, and a host of other kindred spirits, whose Anglo-Saxon skins belie the nigger nature within…”