Communipaw [James McCune Smith] to Frederick Douglass, February 21, 1857

For Frederick Douglass' Paper.

FROM OUR NEW YORK CORRESPONDENT.

MR. EDITOR:—What that South, with the Administration in its hands, and a working majority in Congress, has failed to do by Compromise Bills, Fugitive Slave Bills, and Kansas-Nebraska Acts, seems thoroughly done by the institution of the great Republican party—there is a HUSH, almost perfect, IN THE SLAVERY AGITATION.

There is no use denying that fact, that the Slave Question is now, at rest, more surrounded with positive inertia, now, than at any moment since the formation of the Federal Government. Even the great agitators of this question find their occupation gone. Wendell Phillips, from being a bold criminator, has become a warm eulogizer of Washington in the matter of Slavery. Edmund Quincy throws the glare of his glittering steel around theatrical and operatic Prima Donnas, or reveals, with his armor on, in the glories of Delmonico's pates and ragouts, on either of which he will back his opinions with a heavy bet; and even Mr. Garrison finds the scantiest audiences in our Empire State, which he could pierce, through the adamantine coats of Democratic rule, whilst it remains imperious to his stalwart blows, under the wet blanket of Republicanism! Whilst Parker Pillsbury turns an honest penny by rehearsing before New England Lyceums his European experiences, always sure to end by stating the fact that no dates grow on that continent. And were it not that the Great Boston Anti-Slavery Bazaar has been most successful in furnishing, in advance of the regular Marchands des Modes, the newest and costliest fancy goods for the aristocracy of that city I greatly fear that my dear friends of the A. S. Standard would be in the position of the grasshopper who crawled to the summit of a mullein leaf, and looked round the country with tears in his eyes in the vain search for something to eat. Theodore Parker is silent.

This is a sad state of things. I trace them to the Republican party, because that party has notoriously absorbed the anti-slavery sentiment of the North; and being—now that the Presidential excitement is over—an aimless party, its performance leaves the anti-slavery sentiment of the North an aimless sentiment. Had the Pierce Administration four years longer to run I do not know but it might do something to galvanize the Republican party into temporary activity; but the sober and timid nature of Mr. Buchanan, to say nothing of the oiliness, the caution, and the firm prudence of his character, leaves nothing to hope for of this

kind from his government.

Now, are we to suffer the anti-slavery sentiment to die the death which surrounds the Temperance cause with almost hopeless gloom? Is there no way of giving a definite, loving, practical aim to this anti-slavery sentiment? May we not by the proposal of some practicable measure, to be accompanied within definite time, organize anew, and impel with fresh vigor, this noblest sentiment of our time and country? For if this sentiment perish, so will the Republic; if it live, and succeed, so will the Republic. Let us glance over the face of the country and search deeply into the public heart, and see if there be not a fibre which may be stirred into the needed pulsations. Poor and purblind in this matter myself, I cannot hope to say any thing, or point out any thing of much avail. I can only state what I dimly see and actually feel.

Nineteen years from the fourth of July next, will be just One Hundred years from the fourth of July, 1776, when the Declaration of American Independence was adopted; may it not be made, by common acclaim, the JUBILEE OF AMERICAN FREEDOM, WHEN ALL THE OPPRESSED SHALL GO FREE? What a theme for oratory! What a throb for the public heart! Bring it fairly before the people and they must be carried along with its generous impulse.

Now, if this matter be worth thinking about, give it a thought and let your readers do the same; and let it be fairly canvassed, and if favorably thought of, begin the work, for I know no man living so able as yourself to "shake the pillars of the commonweal."

Yours, COMMUNIPAW.

NEW YORK, Feb. 21, 1857.