2

486 TEXTUAL AFTERWORD

The compositors might have ended their work that very day had not Betts
changed his mind about the number of pages to be printed. For the already typeset
summary of the eighteenth chapter in the table of contents ended with a reference to
"Concluding thoughts," suggesting not only that Douglass may have originally
intended chapter XVIII as the final one—less a discrete conclusion—but that Betts
had previously seen no reason to alter the description of the chapter as the one in
which Douglass formally brought the second part of his narrative to a close. Or the
compositors might have finished their task within an hour if Betts already had in
hand the manuscript for the brief "Conclusion" that Douglass did send him, which
would fill an additional two and three-quarters pages in the nineteenth chapter of the
published volume. But whether Betts then had the manuscript for the "Conclusion"
made no immediate difference. He had already decided that a delay in the completion
of typesetting would be necessary.

The first letter concerning Betts's decision is dated 5 October 1881. He wrote
to Douglass that he was "anxious to get your book finished as soon as possible"; that
he was also anxious "to secure more manuscript" is the reason for uncertainty now
as to whether he had yet received the "Conclusion." But in fact the addition of three
pages was far short of the goal that he announced on 8 October. Neither 482 nor 485
pages derived from manuscript would do: "l desire," Betts declared, "to bring the
book up to 518 pages."³

Less clear is his motivation for adding either 33 or 36 pages of text to a narrative
that had indisputably reached its end in the eighteenth chapter—until one notes the
physical makeup of the 12mo book that appeared in late November. Bound into it
were 22 printed sheets, each of which was folded so that, when its edges were
trimmed, it comprised a gathering of 12 leaves (12mo) and thus 24 consecutively
numbered pages. What Betts appears to have considered a serious problem,
foreseeable by 5 October, was that following page 482 there would be at least nine
blank pages in the twenty-first gathering (pp. 471–94). Without the "Conclusion,"
there would be 12. There were conventional ways to solve this problem in the print
shop and bindery. He needed only to abandon the 12mo format for the twenty-first
gathering. But he chose not to do so, instead asking Douglass for "more manuscript."
Quantity, rather than quality, was Betts's concern.

Douglass had on hand, at this late stage in his career, no end of copy that could
serve as filler, and he quickly responded to Betts's 5 October request, possibly sending
him on 7 October the "Conclusion" and definitely making available then both his April
1876 speech commemorating the unveiling of the Freedmen's Monument honoring
Abraham Lincoln and a newspaper article containing his 26 September 1881 eulogy of
the late President James A. Garfield.⁴ Unfortunately, the latter would fill only three and

[footnote] 3. Sylvester M. Betts to Douglass, 5 October 1881, General Correspondence File, reel 3, frame 511,
FD Papers, DLC.

[footnote] 4. In his letter of 8 October 1881, Betts acknowledged receipt of Douglass's 7 October response to
his request. Sylvester M. Betts to Douglass, 8 October 1881. General Correspondence File, reef 3, frame