J[ohn] B[rown] to Frederick Douglass, April 15, 1856

For Frederick Douglass' Paper.

CONNECTICUT REPUBLICANISM.

FARMINGTON, Conn., April 15, 1856.

MR. DOUGLASS: DEAR SIR:—In reading your paper to-night, I was surprised to see quoted an extract from the Hartford Courant, to show what "Connecticut Republicanism" is.

Allow me, my dear sir, to assert, that the Hartford Courant is not, nor never has been, the organ of the Republican party in this State; but—as any one can see who reads this article from which you quote—is the organ of the American Party. The article to which you allude was written to induce this party to unite with the Republican Party in the then approaching election.

The Hartford Courant—to which in an evil day I became a subscriber—did, under its former Editor, oppose manfully the Nebraska fraud.— But since his death, the paper has been under the editorial care of a tenth rate politician.— He is a nephew of ex-President Day, of Yale College, but as unlike him as Frederick Douglass is unlike Stephen Douglas. The one, a gentleman—the other, a—. Mr. Day's antecedents while in Yale College and elsewhere would lead any one who knew him to expect just such an article from his pen as that to which you refer. The organ of the Republican party in Connecticut is the Connecticut Press, a copy of which I will send you that you may judge what the "Republicans of Connecticut" think of the Courant and its Party. It is unaccountable to me how you could have made the mistake you did. You certainly could not have read the whole of the obnoxious article, nor could you have known anything about the politics of the Courant. How ridiculous it will appear to a citizen of Connecticut to hear the Courant accused of denouncing the K. N's, or speaking contemptuously of Whigs.

The Republicans fused with Americans because they saw no other way in which Toney could be defeated; and if you wish to know what the views of the Republicans of Connecticut are, in regard to the colored man, read the speeches of Hon. Francis Gillette in the U. S. Senate. With the hope that you will acknowledge the error in which you have fallen, I subscribe myself, Respectfully yours, J. B.

[We cheerfully give place to the above letter, in order to correct the error, into which we, with others, have fallen. The Courant is, then, a Know Nothing paper, an organ of that party, and this is the party with which the Republicans united for the time being.—ED.]