Julia M. Boardman to Frederick Douglass, February 16, 1880

JULIA M. BOARDMAN^{1Probably Julia Maria Boardman (1843–88), who appears in the 1880 federal census for New Milford, Connecticut. She was one of several boarders in the household of the physician J. Knight Bacon and his wife, Sophia. Boardman is listed as a widow, age forty-three, but her tombstone gives her birth date as 1843. 1880 U.S. Census, Connecticut, Litchfield County, 567D; Find a Grave (online).} TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

New Milford[, Conn.] 16 Feb[ruary 1880.]

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Thanks for your assurance that “letters or otherwise” I am not likely to be forgotten. I find I am not capable of dealing with such subtlety and wit and truthfulness as are manifested in your last letter—I suppose you might have told me that the bridges were burned George Washington to the contrary notwithstanding^{2During the American Revolution, General George Washington (1732–99), commander of the Continental Army and later first president of the United States, ordered his troops to harass the British and make their advance more difficult, particularly by burning bridges whenever possible. Boardman may have been familiar with the 1834 edition of Washington’s writings, in which this policy appears in detail. Jared Sparks, ed., The Writings of George Washington, 12 vols. (Boston, 1833–39), 4: 158; Frank E. Grizzard, George Washington: A Biographical Companion (Santa Barbara, Calif., 2002), 50.} even when they had not been, but believe me I do fully appreciate your candor, and the delicate compliment implied in not doing as I asked.

Yes, I think I should like to spend quite as much time in shopping if I was in Washington now as when I was there a month ago. I am happy to know that you are not breaking your heart over your friends loss, and I suppose a small bowl of water to be sufficient to cover all her sorrows— Still judging by myself I should think she might find the consolation she most needs in the locality I mentioned in my last—Don’t you think she would find comfort in her loneliness there? I imagine I shall get about as satisfactory <an> answer to this question as I did about her age; however you were right to reply by saying that the question, was so intensely womanlike; and, by using various other witty expressions, avoid giving a direct answer, so intensely manlike—

Nevertheless, I highly approve your gallantry in not betraying what is considered the dearest secret of a womans heart after she reaches a certain age—so do right in saying that you have thought of your friend for a

long time, but always as belonging to another—but she is free now. I fear there would not be breathing room for me, even in the City of “magnificent distances”^{3This mocking description of Washington, D.C., dates to the early nineteenth century. Its authorship is disputed; Congressman John Randolph of Virginia is sometimes credited, but others attribute the phrase to the Portuguese minister plenipotentiary to the United States during James Madison’s administration, José Correia de Serra. He established his nation’s mission in the more cultured city of Philadelphia and visited Washington only out of necessity. George Morgan, The Life of James Monroe (Boston, 1921), 441.} if “the dear lady” were there at the same time.

Enclosed I send a notice of a course of lectures to be delivered by Mr. John Fiske,^{4John Fiske (1842–1901), a historian who made the concepts of evolutionary science accessible to the public, was born Edmund Fisk Green in Hartford, Connecticut. Because of family financial problems, at the age of one, he was sent to live with his grandparents in Middletown, Connecticut, where he lived until matriculating at Harvard College in 1860. After his father’s death in 1855, he legally changed his name to “Fisk,” adding the e some years later. Fiske became fascinated by Herbert Spencer’s writings on the science of evolution and published a two-volume commentary on the subject in 1874. Placed on annual retainer to produce works of history by the Houghton Mifflin Company in 1888, Fiske researched and wrote multiple volumes, including The Critical Period of American History, 1783–1789 (1888), The Beginnings of New England (1889), and The American Revolution, 2 vols. (1891). Paul Lawrence Farber, The Temptations of Evolutionary Ethics (Berkeley, Calif., 1998), 53–54; ANB (online).} one of my very best friends, and one whom I have known for many years as we are both from Middletown Connecticut altho his home has been in Cambridge and mine in New Milford during the last twelve years. We have had occasional correspondence and he has always sent me his books as they were published, his “Cosmic Philosophy” and others. I wish if you can conveniently you would go and hear him, I think you might be interested, and I should like to know how you like my friends manner. I regret that he was not in Washington while I was there—You do not say that you are better—I sincerely hope that you are so—Tell the “red beauty” that she is not to take another lady to ride, stopping to rest frequently, merely because she is called by my name. Do you think April a pleasant month, and are the roads good in the vicinity of Capital hill at that time of the year?

You know that if my shipping excursions are too frequent, those with whom I exchange articles of value, will find it necessary to give only the slightest hint of their wishes in the matter. Don’t you think you had best part with the lines for which I ask? I shall leave it to your judgement to decide, believing that you will judge right.

Very truly yours

J. A. B.

ALI: General Correspondence File, reel 8, frames 607–09L, FD Papers, DLC.

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