W[illiam] P[erkins] to Frederick Douglass, August 30, 1858

GERMAN FLATTS, N.Y., Aug. 30, '58.

MR. EDITOR:—The following letter was commenced over a week ago, but owing to the press of business it has not been completed before. Here it is in scraps as they could be dropped now and then, in a leisure moment.

It would be to me a source of great satisfaction to see GERRIT SMITH seated by the voters of the Empire State in their Gubernatorial chair.

The prospect of such a consummation would be proportionally brightened by the plan the independent candidate proposes. He would have half a dozen great meetings in different parts of the State, attended by all the candidates, to invest with real life, what has hitherto for the most part existed by on parchment, the national constitutional guarantee of "freedom of speech."

To bring out of the original chaotic mass, the order and beauty of the material world, Divine Wisdom showed the adaptedness of the dissemination of that important material has the history of all ages been pointing, to show its adaptedness to bring out of the chaotic mass of all the relics of barbarism, the order and beauty of the institutions of civilized society. Could influences be brought to bear upon the citizens of this State, to sway their suffrage by the force of truth, as independent men, sons worthy of their independent sires, our hope would be most sanguinely expectant of success. Then would "the able philanthropist of Peterboro'"—as the Utica Observer styles him—who proffered his own Peterboro in 1835 to the hunted and persecuted convention of the friends of freedom from that city, be able to exclaim without a figure, "No pent up Utica contracts our powers; the whole unbounded continent is ours." For, in the language of the revolutionary patriot, in his bulletin from Philadelphia the day after signing the Declaration of Independence, "Great is truth, great is liberty, great is humanity, and they must and will—yes, will now prevail, and prove it too by placing the independent candidate not only in a Gubernatorial chair in 1858, but in the Presidential seat in 1860. A hint to the means of such a result. I can speak of a very prevalent opinion prevailing here among the 10th Legion, which, by the way, don't go for Caesar any more, but have left him and the Empire, and go now for the "REPUBLIC"—they are beginning to say

"great is Liberty"—and say it very bold too; they generally say in words like this, or to this effect, "You must train in the ranks first, before you can be captain."

Permit me to express my opinion of these mealy words of the Utica Observer, et id omne genus of Observer`s. I think they indicate the heap of meal in the tub, and we think the opinion of some old rat, "I don't like that heap yonder, though it looks like a heap of meal," might be suggestive that it is well to look out for danger, lest the hungry and starving fugitives who really are in want of meal, should find instead of a real heap of it, themselves reclutched in the claws of power, and helpless victims in the jaws of Grimalkin, the friends of man not being yet sufficiently UNITED to break those jaws, and pluck the spoiled out of their teeth.

That a party has succeeded in placing in the Presidential chair a candidate who could stake his hope of success upon his recommendation of Cuba by purchase, fraud, or force, (anyhow, only so that it is got,) for the extension not of the area of human freedom, but of the area of human bondage--a party who hold "there shall be no bolting the regular nominations," though the candidate should be in their own chosen phrase, "Old Buck" himself —a party held together by the cohesive power that unites freebooters on both sea and land—is occular demonstration of the importance of combining very element of political power, if possible, to successfully withstand the present administration of the national government (and its "argus-eyed" coadjutors in the Empire State) in its perseveringly pertinacious efforts, using as it does all its powers for the subversion of the rights of man, and the extension and perpetuation to remotest generations of a despotism in which inheres every element of "the vilest system of oppression that every saw the sun."

In 1856, the platform of the Republican party was laid, and a standard bearer selected, who boldly elevated it above the rocky hearts of oppressors. They read its motto, "No more slave States," and began quaking, and have ever since been quaking for fear of those things which are coming upon them, their justly impending doom. Their consciences bear them witness, in the language of Jefferson, that the Almighty has no attribute that can take sides with oppressors. The birds are fluttering; their feathers are flying, for the great hunter's shot have been taking effect in his last hunt among the game on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains.

Hence I have regarded the Republican

party, indicated by the signs of the times, as the means which Providence is raising up to fulfil the prophecy of the great Republican prophet, "A God of Justice will doubtless awaken to the distress of the oppressed."—Looking over the list of the State Republican Committee published in your paper I, come to to the last name, and though last, not least. For here is opportunity for the fulfilment of that very ancient prophecy, "the last shall be first."

Of his humanity instincts, we can says, without fear of contradiction, they would prove the pillars strong enough to support an Arcade of Liberty, long and broad enough to cover our whole land. Should Providence require, he would be a ready victim to another Wyoming Massacre, himself a martyr to Liberty. Of his doctrine, we will say he is a leveler, and would time and space permit, we could specify to show it, not of the leveling down, but of the leveling up system of Universal Humanity, the very essence of the doctrine of Young America.

This life is a voucher, on an important subject, that he hold to the advice of the Wise Man--"It is not good for princes to drink strong drink, lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the judgement of any of the afflicted."

W. P.