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CHARLES R. DOUGLASS TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS
[Washington, D.C.1Charles’s letter was on stationery with the following printed letterhead: “Treasury Department / Third Auditor’s Office.” c. 22 April] 1869.
DEAR FATHER:
I am seated at my desk in the Treasury Department of the United States, having received the last official paper necessary to my appointment on yesterday.2After the Civil War, Charles settled in Washington, D.C., and found employment as a clerk in the Freedmen’s Bureau (1867–69) and later, in early May 1869, in the Treasury Department. After his father purchased the New National Era in 1870, Charles acted as a correspondent for the newspaper. In 1871, he served as a clerk to the Santo Domingo Commission, and was later appointed consul at Puerto Plata, Santa Domingo, by President Ulysses S. Grant, serving in this position from 1875 to 1879. Returning to the United States in 1879, he entered the import-export business while living in Corona, New York. In 1882, Charles moved back to Washington, D.C., and took a job as an examiner in the Pension Bureau, where he remained until entering the real estate business in 1892. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 3: 860, ser. 3, 1: 126; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 239, 257–58, 272; EAAH, 1: 407–08. I feel as though I have got something worth being proud of, for it is no easy matter to get in this Dept. and what is more, I am in the highest Bureau in the Department, as all accounts against the Government for settlement receive their last examination in this office, and each clerk is held strictly to an account for all mistakes wherby over issues may be made of Govt. money.
We have but little writing to do, most of our work being by figures. I have already been congratulated for my aptness in the routine of business in the office.
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The papers have made a mistake in my name making it Robert R. Douglass.
Fred. will no doubt receive a position of some kind in this office in a few days, at least Sec’y Boutwell3Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, George Sewall Boutwell (1818–1905) served as a Democratic state representative and governor before reaching the age of thirty-five. Vehemently opposed to slavery, Boutwell switched political affiliations in the 1850s and helped found his state’s Republican party in 1855. The first commissioner of internal revenue (1862–63), Boutwell was elected three times as a Radical Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives (1863–69). There he served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, helped frame the Fourteenth Amendment, championed the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, and was one of the House managers during the Senate impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson. Appointed secretary of the treasury by Ulysses S. Grant in 1869, Boutwell served for four years before being elected to the U.S. Senate. He later represented the United States as a diplomatic consul in Haiti (1885), Hawaii (1886), and Chile (1893–94). Robert Sobel and John Raimo, eds., Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789–1978, 6 vols. (Westport, Conn., 1978), 2: 703–04; Robert Sobel, ed., Biographical Directory of the United States Executive Branch, 1774–1977 (Westport, Conn., 1977), 32–33; ACAB, 1: 331–32; NCAB, 4: 382–83; DAB, 2: 489–90; BDUSC (online). has offered it.
I intend to stick by Judge Kelley4William Darrah Kelley. & I wish you would be kind enough to write him a line thanking him for the interest he has so kindly taken in my behalf.5In a letter to his father dated 4 April 1869, Charles stated that he had been promised a clerkship in the Treasury Department and that he expected to receive an official job offer at any time. He explained that although he had received a number of strong recommendations from Republican leaders (including Senators Roscoe Conkling and Samuel C. Pomeroy and Representative George W. Julian), it was Judge William D. Kelley who had been instrumental in arranging the job with Secretary of the Treasury George S. Boutwell. Charles added that in exchange for his assistance, the judge had simply asked him to do “some extra writing for [him] out of office hours,” which he was more than willing to do. Charles R. Douglass to Douglass, 4 April 1869, General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 447R–49, FD Papers, DLC. He has been a true friend to me, and he may in a short time be able to render me further assistance.
My garden is flourishing. Love from all to all at home. Aff. Yr. Son
CHAS. R. DOUG LASS
ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 516–18, FD Papers, DLC.
