Cassius M. Clay to Frederick Douglass, July 28, 1871

CASSIUS M. CLAY TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

N[ew] York, [N.Y.]^{1Clay supplied additional address information: “Box 4950.” This letter was marked at the top “Private” by Clay.} 28 July 1871.^{2Clay mistakenly dated this letter as 18 July 1871 when he was replying to a letter from Douglass dated 26 July 1871. The editors have concluded that the correct date of composition must have been 28 July 1871.}

HON. F’—DOUGLAS

ROCHESTER

NY

DEAR SIR,

Your letter of the 26th is received. I never knew at the time I wrote you that you had a son Frederic—so I overlooked the “jr”.

As you say men who have reached one standpoint in life are not to be moved by argument—each no doubt having made up a judgement on all the data presentable. I therefore say only a word in reply: first, that I do not propose to rest my future upon my past—however secure—but so long as I live to feel the same interest in the Blacks—on whose emancipation my fame rests—and to [illegible] the same measure of success in the future as in the past.

First then whilst it would have been good policy as I think to have executed a few leading rebels promptly—it certainly is bad policy to keep up proscription and irritation after all prospect of an aggressive policy is past. In this Govenor Andrews^{3 John Albion Andrew (1818–67), governor of Massachusetts, was born in Windham, Maine, and educated at Bowdoin College. After his graduation in 1837, he settled in Boston and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar. Although he was one of the founders of the Free Soil party, Andrew did not hold public office until 1858, when he was elected to the Massachusetts General Court as a Republican. In 1860 he not only headed his state’s delegation to the Republican National Convention, but also was elected governor, a position he held until January 1866. Throughout the Civil War, he was an outspoken advocate of emancipation and a leader in persuading the Lincoln administration to enlist blacks in the Union army. After the Confederate surrender, however, Andrew recommended a conciliatory Reconstruction policy toward southern whites. On 19 November 1859, Andrew was chosen to chair and speak at the meeting of John Brown’s sympathizers in Tremont Temple. Lib., 25 November 1859; Henry Greenleaf Pearson, The Life of John A. Andrew: Governor of Massachusetts, 1861–1865, 2 vols. (Boston, 1904); ACAB, 1:72–73; NCAB, 1:118; DAB, 2:279–81.}—one of the truest and wisest of our friends agreed with me.

I have no fear with you that the fruits of the war are to be lost by a liberal policy towards the South. On the contrary the danger to the Blacks is in the widening the difference between the whites & Blacks—the whites being superior in numbers, and at present in intelligence & wealth in the South.

Therefore if Grant comes with the sword, & Greeley or Sumner^{4Horace Greeley and Charles Sumner.} with the olive branch—I go for the man of “peace.”

All experience shows that no party can live long in a free country— and I would <wish> the Blacks to show magnanimity to the rebels—that they might in turn in the day of need receive it.

With regard to Grant’s nepotism—I wrote hastily—and did not intend to write it with his European appointments: His nepotism here is beyond controversy^{5Critics and admirers of Ulysses S. Grant, then and now, agree that he was far too generous in using his power and influence to advance the interests of his friends and family members. In fact, some family members appear to have built their entire careers upon his largesse. Such was the case with Grant’s brother-in-law the Reverend Michael John Cramer (1835–98), the husband of his youngest sister, Mary Frances (1839–1905). Grant procured a chaplain position for Cramer, a Swiss-born Methodist clergyman, at a hospital during the Civil War, and another at an army barracks in Covington, Kentucky, after the war. Cramer then used his significant initiative to accumulate so many recommendations from prominent men from both parties that Grant felt it impossible to deny his appeal to be resident minister in Denmark, a post he held for eleven years. Based upon this experience, Cramer acquired the same position in his native Switzerland from 1881 to 1885. Largely because of the prestige he acquired in the diplomatic service, he taught at several universities and seminaries until his death in 1898. During the last year of his life, Cramer cashed in on the Grant name one final time, publishing a book revealing private conversations and letters his brother-in-law had shared with him. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 14 June 1872; Michael John Cramer, Ulysses S. Grant: Conversations and Unpublished Letters (New York, 1897), 7–8; Summers, Era of Good Stealings, 95; Chernow, Grant, 638, 717, 875; Office of the Historian, Department of State, “Michael John Cramer (1835–1898),” history.state.gov; Find a Grave (online).} —and his promotions in the Diplomatic service except the elevation of his brother-in-law was confined so far as I was aware to Bancroft.^{6George Bancroft.} I have not seen the list nor taken the trouble to look into the details—my purpose was in writing a hasty letter to a friend to note the crimes of the President—and in that I see no reason to change my opinions from what you say about it.

With regard to Cuba, I believe as I live that a majority of the American people desired a fair course of neutrality observed between Cuba and her tyrants that Grant & Fish^{7Hamilton Fish.} would not allow—and but for the message and influence of Grant against the Republicans moving for Cuban independence—a majority of the Republicans would have done their duty to Cuba!

Fish is another of the men voting for Democrats to the last hour; who are now foisted upon us (voting for Hoffman!)^{8Clay believed that Hamilton Fish had supported the Democrat John T. Hoffman in his race for mayor of New York City (1866) or for governor of New York (1868). A pre–Civil War Whig, Fish had opposed abolitionism and only reluctantly affiliated himself with the nascent Republican party. Politically inactive during the Civil War and the early years of Reconstruction, Fish might have given his support to the moderate Hoffman as some other conservative Republicans in the state did. Calhoun, Presidency of Grant, 152–54; Homer A. Stebbins, “A Political History of the State of New York, 1865–1869,” in [Columbia University] Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, 55: 106–07, 370 (New York, 1913).} and who was mean enough to blackguard the Cuban Patriots after betraying them.

Very truly yours,

CASSIUS M. CLAY

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 600–02, FD Papers, DLC.

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