Erastus F. Brown to Frederick Douglass, September 4, 1855

For Frederick Douglass' Paper.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ESQ.:—DEAR SIR:— What is the value of the Union? Is it valuable as it enables the rich merchants of the North to trade with ease with the consumers of the South, who make their money by robbery, and murders, or is it valuable only as it upholds the doctrines, embodied in the Declaration of Independence?

The Union was established to secure to man his natural rights, and to enable him to live in the enjoyment of life, of liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Constitution is now interpreted to prove that a man may lawfully be treated as a thing, a chattel, a slave. I agree

[illegible] with your correspondent, U. B., that the dissolution of the Union is a duty, because it is not a union o fjustice, but a union of States, upholding villainy which legalizes crime, murder, and despotism. I wholly disagree with you that the dissolution of the Union would be a crime to the slave, by fastening his chains firmer upon him; is not every thing now done by the South that probably can be done to secure slave property? You speak of the five million bayonets which will be used in the case of dissolution to keep the slaves is subjection. Have they not these now? and do they not use them now when necessary? Now they have the support of the United States bayonets, which they would not have in case of dissolution. Do you not believe that if Mason and Dixon's line was the Southern boundary of a Republic in which slave catching was prohibited, that thousands and thousands of slaves would escape where one does at the present time? You state in your Bondage and Freedom that one great obstacle to running away in the slave's mind is the fear of his being recaptured in the free States. I admit that we owe a great debt to the slave, but you will not assert, that the South can in justice demand our continuance in the Union.— Then dissolve the Union, and the Northern slave breeding States will be depopulated, the fountain will be dry at its source, slavery will die, our duty to the slave will be done, our conscience will be clear, and there will be more need of agitation. Why should we remain in union with those why daily and constantly revile us, who steal from us habitually and who curse us while they steal? What if our father, or mother, or sister, or brother, or even our wife, should treat us so? would not the family union be justly dissolved? Think you are more of the Union of these States, than of the union which exists between yourselves, and your much loved family? and what can we now do for the slave of the South that we could not do in case of dissolution of the Union? U. B. asserts that a dissolution of the Union would put the colored churches at the North, in a flourishing condition but you state, that you are not anxious just now for such a state of things; if you only knew of the deplorable condition of the colored churches hereabouts, you would change your opinion.

Very respectfully yours,

ERASTUS F. BROWN

HARLEN, N. Y. Sept 4, 1855.