H[enry] O. Wagoner to Frederick Douglass, March 7, 1860

THE CHICAGO ELECTION.

CHICAGO, March 7th, 1860.

FRIEND DOUGLASS: MY DEAR SIR:—Since witnessing, as I have done for the last ten days, the almost superhuman efforts of the Slavery party to carry the charter election of Chicago for Mayor, and other municipal officers, the devices resorted to in the way of importing large gangs of Irishmen from the surrounding towns, and from a distance—the incitations of free whiskey to goad these wretched men on to madness and folly, to vote down the 'Black Republican' legal voters of Chicago—their imprecations, hootings, howlings and yellings, like so many devils in the streets and alleys, by day and by night, and which, by the way, did more in six days previous to the election to manufacture Republican votes, than the advocacy of the cause by the Republicans themselves; but, as the glorious result has this morning proved, were all to no purpose,—I say, after having witnessed all these things, I am more than ever convinced of the 'irrepressible' power of Freedom, and the inherent weakness of Slavery. Not less am I convinced of another important truth, upon which I would urge every prudent and well-informed colored man to act;—it is this, though a man may himself be deprived of the exercise of his vote, yet he may exert an influence vastly superior to that of his own individual vote. I say this, because I know—a person who, by judicious and careful management, influenced some eight or nine votes during ten days previous to the election. This was done by prudent management and ernest labor.

The result of this election has stricken a death blow to Stephen Arnold Douglas, the arch enemy of the colored man. We, of Illinois, know this man well, as we have heard him again and again talk, both publicly and privately. He has repeated the old story so often, until he had worked himself up to the belief that he could glide into the Presidential chair on the 'Negro Question'—Niggar

Question, as he refinedly calls it—and hence, he never makes a speech, or conducts a political conversation, without descending to that great subject, never failing to array 'Negro Equality' in all its most hideous deformity. He has had the most implicit faith in the use of his great principles, 'Popular Sovereignty' and 'Negro Equality.' Should this great man's labors for the destruction of 'Negro Equality,' and the elevation of 'Popular Sovereignty,' be rewarded at Charleston, by being thrown overboard, as a reward for his cringing and dirt-eating services, it would be a fit event for a commemorative demonstration by at least the colored people of Illinois.

Yours in haste,

H. O. WAGONER.