Susan B. Anthony to Frederick Douglass, January 13, 1873

SUSAN B. ANTHONY TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Washington[, D.C.] 13 Jan[uary 18]73.

ROOM 125—NATIONAL HOTEL

DEAR FRIEND DOUGLASS—

I hope to see you here personally—but more than all—I want you to speak your strong word for the power & majesty of the Old Charter of Rights to

protect all citizens under the government in their right to vote—you, with your old Liberty Party Construction of the U.S. Constitution must be in harmony with us that it guarantees a Republican form <of> Gov’t in each state—& not a Repub. form must be passed on the freedom & franchise of every <class of> U.S. Citizens—^{1Through the late 1840s, Douglass’s views on the Constitution coincided with the Garrisonian belief that the country’s founding document supported proslavery interests. In a March 1849 editorial in the North Star, Douglass outlined his position and concluded that the Constitution was “radically and essentially pro-slavery.” Following his move to Rochester and his close association with political abolitionists such as Gerrit Smith, Douglass began to reevaluate that position. Douglass came to believe that those sections of the Constitution that excluded the sanction of “property in man” offered evidence that the founding fathers had in fact viewed slavery as evil and had even planned for its eventual abolition. He also observed that those clauses that the Garrisonians and slaveholders used to justify the proslavery nature of the document did not explicitly mention slavery at all. Coming to a more literal interpretation, like the one held by political abolitionists, by 1851 Douglass was beginning instead to interpret those clauses dealing with the basic freedoms as expressly antislavery statements. His political-abolitionist colleagues, centered on the remnant of the Liberty party, congratulated him “upon the change of sentiment” he now expressed. Gerrit Smith remarked, “I have observed for years, that you were coming to this conclusion.” Gerrit Smith to Douglass, 9 June 1851, Bob Markle to Douglass, 20 August 1851, Douglass Papers, ser. 3, 1: 450–54, 476–81; NS, 16 March 1849, 28 August 1851; Salem (Ohio) Anti-Slavery Bugle, 2 August 1851; FDP, 24 July 1851; Martin, Mind of Frederick Douglass, 31, 37–38.}

Sincerely yours

SUSAN B. ANTHONY

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 642R–43, FD Papers, DLC.