J[amaes] R[awson] Johnson to Frederick Douglass, September 1860

DEAR DOUGLASS:—With much interest I have read an article in your September number, headed, 'What is the duty of Radical Abolitionists in the present campaign?' My answer is, let us vote for Lincoln and Hamlin, unless by so doing we indorse the pro-slavery concessions of Lincoln and the Republican platform. If my vote for Lincoln must be regarded as signifying that I agree with him that the Fugitive Slave Enactment is constitutional, then may my ashes mingle with the ashes of John Rogers, or 'let me die the death of the righteous' John Brown, before I will do such a deed.

But this is the way I view it: My vote for Lincoln says—'Let slavery be kept out of the Territories, that they may come into the Union' as FREE STATES; and thus the way be opened for the peaceful and legal abolition of American slavery. An objector may say—the Democrats may follow your example, and say, 'We vote for our candidates for the positive good which they will do for the liberty.' Answer—Not one such good thing do they promise to do.

J. R. JOHNSON.