H[enry] Williams, Jr., to Frederick Douglass, June 12, 1856

For Frederick Douglass' Paper.

WHAT OF THE NIGHT!

CINCINNATI, O., June 12, 1856.

DEAR DOUGLASS: SIR:—The acts and movements that surround us, prompt us to make the above query. If there ever was a time, that tried the soul of man, it is now. We need not point to the barbarism of past ages, or of any other nation, for we have it here, before our eyes—in our hearing—at our doors, in this American nation—the most hypocritical nation the SUN ever shone upon.

What of the night? It is gross darkness and bloodshed; the heart grows faint and sick, the pen falters to describe the transactions of the night. Men, women, and children, from the suckling babe upward, are assaulted, brutalized, murdered, outraged beyond expression. Houses, towns, property of every description, is pillaged, all manner of devastations carried on by the slave power, winked at by FRANKLIN PIERCE, is the order of the night.

It may be said that the bloody programme, commenced with the odious fugitive slave bill of 1850, which was signed by Millard Fillmore, a present nominee for the Chief Magistracy.—Then the efforts in 1852 to suppress the agitation of slavery in and out of Congress. Then the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which has thrown the Union into confusion, agitation, bloodshed, &c. The Capitol has fallen into ruffianism, men are made the victims of assault and battery who dare to have the manliness to write and speak in defence of FREEDOM. Men murdered by M. C.'s,—all such winked at by Congress.

The Church and Clergy of America, fostering—hurling victims into the seething, hissing Hell of American Slavery—Death chosen rather than slavery. Mothers slaying their children on soil consecrated to freedom, to save them from bondage—Franklin Pierce aiding and abetting border ruffians, rapine, murder, and all manner of atrocities, perpertrated by the Slave Power, is the order of the NIGHT.

The National Democratic Convention met here last week, in which the order of the Night was endorsed, in its platform, which is pro-slavery from centre to circumference. Efforts to suppress the agitation of slavery were renewed. If we are to judge from the past, it will prove a failure. Franklin Pierce was thrown aside like an old horse to die, and his carcass left to the carrion crows. Jas. Buchanan for President, and Jno. Breckenridge, Vice President, were the nominees.

In view of the order of the night—what the night is, ought we not to

Up, then, in freedom`s manly part,

From gray beard old, to fiery youth,

And on the nation's naked heart,

Scatter the living coals of truth?

Yours,

H. WILLIAMS, JR.