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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.

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.