Ottilie Assing to Frederick Douglass, December 18, 1878

OTTILIE ASSING TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Hoboken[, N.J.] 18 D[e]c[ember] 1878.

MY DEAR FRIEND:

I am glad to learn that notwithstanding the election frauds and outrages in the South, notwithstanding the virtual disfranchisement of the Blacks you are yet capable of taking a hopeful view of the political situation, since thus far I have always found you a trustworthy barometer, quite as reliable—to say the least, as the men in the houses “where the weather is made” which we can see from your hill. Although I cannot entirely share it I find it a comfort that you don’t despair of the future. The other day I had a talk with Mr. Wehle,^{1Charles Wehle (1827–1900) was born in Budapest, Hungary, and immigrated to the United States in 1850. He became a naturalized citizen in 1854 while living in Hoboken, New Jersey. In 1858 he married Emily Arend (1838–1922), a German immigrant, with whom he had ten children. Wehle initially worked as a business agent, but by 1870 he was a successful attorney with a practice based in Manhattan. By 1880, he and his family were living in Manhattan, where he remained for the rest of his life. 1860 U.S. Census, New Jersey, Hudson County, 25; 1870 U.S. Census, New Jersey, Hudson County, 7; 1880 U.S. Census, New York, New York County, 519C–519D; “U.S., Passport Applications, 1795–1925”; “New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Death Index, 1862–1948.”} whom—though he is by no means a man of deep intellect, I have thus far found correct in his political anticipations, and consequently felt alarmed to learn that he is by no means confident about our power to carry the next Presidential election, and what outrages and abominations will be perpetuated before that time by a Congess with a Democratic majority in both houses!^{2In the Forty-fifth Congress (1875–79), Republicans had the majority in the Senate, and the Democrats in the House. During the 1878 midterm elections, Democrats gained control of the Senate yet lost their House majority, thanks to the election of several third-party candidates. Since Democrats retained a plurality of House members, they stayed in control of the chamber. “Party Divisions of the House of Representatives, 1st Congress–73rd Congress (1789–1935),” history.house.gov; “Party Divisions in the Senate,” senate.gov.}—Did I tell you that I am again a regular reader of the Tribune and that we are on the very best terms? Is Whitelaw Reed^{3William Whitelaw Reid.} still the Chief Editor?

I never thought Charlotte Forten^{4Charlotte Forten married the black Presbyterian minister Francis J. Grimké in December 1878. The new couple moved to Jacksonville, Florida, but returned to Washington, D.C., in 1889. Janice Sumler-Edmond, “Charlotte Forten Grimké,” in Darlene Clark Hine, ed., Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, 2 vols. (New York, 1993): 1: 505–07.} more than one of the half and half ones who may always be made to crowd back to the old sheep pen if brought under retrograde influences. It is on this account that I never can

assent to anything short of unconditional, radical unbelief. If you leave the smallest backdoor, nay, a mere rathole open for the old faith you always risk that the whole devil with horns and hoofs, Trinity, hell salvation and all the other entities of the old gospel shop will again force his way in.

I wish you will remain faithful to your good resolution not to lend money again. When I saw all those little scraps of promissory notes I knew that they were no more than so many pieces of waste paper, Mr. Osgood’s^{5The editors have not been able to identify Mr. Osgood or confirm that he owed money to Douglass. By December 1878, Douglass had lived in Washington, D.C., for nearly eight years, and his former house in Rochester had burned in the summer of 1872. Therefore, it seems most likely that Mr. Osgood was someone both Douglass and Assing knew either in Washington, D.C., or Hoboken, New Jersey, where Assing lived. While the editors have been unable to locate anyone by this name in the Hoboken city directories during the relevant time period, three men named Osgood were residing in Washington, D.C., in the late 1870s: Worth Osgood, William C. Osgood, and James B. Osgood. Worth Osgood and James B. Osgood can easily be eliminated as Douglass’s debtor: Worth Osgood was a successful patent attorney, and James B. Osgood, a clerk in the auditor’s office, had sufficient wealth to employ two servants. The third man, William C. Osgood, a clerk in the patent office, remains a candidate for the man who owed Douglass money, but this identification is speculative at best. 1880 U.S. Census, District of Columbia, Washington, 11; Wirt Robinson, ed., Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. (Saginaw, Mich., 1920), 6A:141; Blight, Prophet of Freedom, 588, 606; Fought, Women, 213; “U.S., City Directories, 1822–1995”; “U.S., Register of Civil Military, and Naval Services, 1863–1909,” Ancestry.com.} of all others since he knew very well that you would not strip him of the old rag carpets, boot jacks and cloth horses which he has pledged as security. As for feeding the other hangers on, who claim relationship, I should not object if only I felt certain that you were laying by enough to dispense entirely with lecturing even if your term of officeholding should come to an end with that of the present Administration. Provided you have enough through life I shall neither worry about the rest since I too feel convinced that all that you have acquired by your labor will be squandered without benefit to anybody.—No improvement concerning the fatal house. The store still arrear and the druggist does not pay his rent. The other day I have had to pay hundred dollars taxes out of my pocket, making an irretrievable loss of 550 dollars since the first of May. Miss Fehr^{6Eliza Broquet Fehr.} can have a convenient house in New-York whenever she chooses, and is determined to take it by the first of May at the latest, and even earlier if she finds some other boarders before that time. You are mistaken in supposing that Dr. Frauenstein^{7Gustav Frauenstein.} had any plans about going to Washington this winter. He told me and I wrote you that he might possibly think of such a trip by next spring.

The inclosed pictures are for the two little girls in the place of the pictures that I used to cut for them or to draw on the slate. They are not too much spoiled yet to be amused by such trifles. My Maca sends his best thanks to Mrs. Douglass^{8Anna Murray Douglass.} for the walnuts and is passionately fond of them. He was silent all the time I was absent and has been talking charmingly from the moment I came back. He is convinced that I belong to him exclusively; what do you think of it? My love to my four legged good daughter, Rock and Nellie Grant^{9Nellie Grant is likely one of Douglass’s horses. In a letter dated 22 April 1879, Assing notes that Douglass had been having difficulties with Nellie Grant, even though he “treated her gently.” She also mentions that Nathan Sprague was the animal’s original owner and implies that he may have taken advantage of his father-in-law in the transaction. Rock is probably another horse, although the editors cannot confirm that. Ottilie Assing to Douglass, 22 April 1879, General Correspondence File, reel 3, frames 328R–30, FD Papers, DLC.}!

Yours ever

OTTILIA

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 3, frames 299R–301L, FD Papers, DLC.

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