Frederick Douglass to Hamilton Fish, April 3, 1871

FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO HAMILTON FISH^{1Hamilton Fish (1808–93) was born in New York City, graduated from Columbia College in 1827, and was admitted to the bar in 1830. Fish successfully ran for Congress in 1842 on the Whig ticket and was elected governor in 1848. He ran for the Senate in 1851, when he was not reenominated for governor, and served until his term expired in 1857. Fish joined the Republican party after the demise of the Whig party. His record in the Senate was unremarkable, but President Grant offered him the position of secretary of state in 1867. Foreign relations issues confronting Fish included difficulties with Cuba, the failure of negotiations for the construction of an interoceanic canal, and the recall of the Russian minister Konstantin Catacazy in 1871. His most notable achievement was to arrange a settlement with Great Britain in regard to damages suffered by northern shipping during the Civil War from warships supplied to the Confederacy by Britain while the country was ostensibly neutral. Fish retired from public life at the end of Grant’s presidency. ACAB, 2: 463–64; DAB, 6: 397–400; ANB (online).}

Washington[,] D.C. 3 April 1871.

HON: HAMILTON FISH: SECRETARY OF STATE, OF THE UNITED STATES.

SIR:

In pursuance of the commission given under your hand, dated January fourteenth 1871 duly appointing me assistant secretary to the commission in relation to the Republic of Dominica, authorized by a resolution of Congress, approved January 12th 1871,^{2The congressional resolution creating the Commission of Inquiry to Santo Domingo passed on 12 January 1871, as Douglass indicates. He received an appointment to serve as assistant secretary under direction of the commission’s secretary, Allan A. Burton, but was frequently assigned additional duties such as interviewing English-speaking inhabitants of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Blight, Prophet of Freedom, 538–45, 833.} I respectfully beg leave to state, that my official relation to the said commission has now ceased. I had the honor to accompany the Commission as directed during their whole time of duration in the West Indies and returned with them to the United States landing at Charleston.^{3The official report of the Santo Domingo Commission indicates that the returning party arrived aboard the U.S.S. Tennessee at Charleston, South Carolina, on 26 March 1871. Members proceeded by train northward to Washington, D.C. Report of the Commission of Inquiry to Santo Domingo, with the Introductory Message of the President, Special Reports Made to the Commission, State Papers Furnished by the Dominican Government, and the Statements of over Seventy Witnesses (Washington, D.C., 1871), 5.} Regretting that my services in the capacity authorized by the terms of my appointment were inconsiderable and unimportant, I can nevertheless assure you that such other services in connection with the objects of the mission as the honorable commissioners [illegible] [fit] were pleased to inquire at my hands were promptly and cheerfully rendered.

I am, dear sir, very respectfully your most obedient servant

FREDK DOUG LASS

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frame 589, FD Papers, DLC.