Jacob Lybrand to Frederick Douglass, August 22, 1857

LETTER FROM JACOB LYBRAND.

ST. NICHOLAS, Min. Ter. Aug. 22, 1857

DEAR SIR:—Soon after Frederick Douglass` Paper was commenced, I wrote you, which article you had the kindness to publish in your paper. In that communication, as you may remember. I expressed a sincere hope that the colored people would esteem it a duty as well as a privilege to not only support the paper but to sustain it well. It is now several years since your invaluable paper has been established, and it is an honor to the age we live in and a credit to the cause it advocates, UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION! But it appears your paper does not receive the patronage which it is justly entitled to. It should be in the hands of every one, and particularly the colored inhabitants of the so-called Free States, and also those of the slave States where its circulation is allowed. Call this a Free Country, a Democratic, a Republican Government, where a paper advocating freedom and liberty is not allowed to be circulated! "Oh! shame where is thy blush!"

Those of us who have for a quarter of a century and upwards taken an interest in the Anti-slavery cause who have been advocates of the abolition of slavery, have had much to engage their attention, and have noticed the many changes and observed the different forms which the subject has assumed at different times and under various circumstances, some of which have been far from creditable to human nature and a disgrace to many of the professed friends of the cause. The cause of the slave has at times been gloomy indeed, and with not much appearance that redemption would ever arrive. It has not arrived, and when it will God only knows! And through what means is known only to Him. That it may be a victory for right is greatly to be desired. But that slavery will be abolished there is no doubt and those who are trying to prevent or retard the abolition of slavery, will regret the course they are pursuing.

That there should have been, and that there are [divers] opinions among the true friends of the Abolition of slavery is not strange; indeed it is what ought to be expected; but that they shou[l]d have ill feeling toward each other, and

manifest a spirit of rivalship is greatly to be deplored. The abolitionists should be a band of brothers each wishing well to the other, all working for the same holy purpose, and if they cannot agree as to the mode of operation, they should have confidence in the sincerity of one another, and prove their confidence and sincerity by their works. Instead of which there has been too much of a disposition to desert each other and unite with enemies under the pretence of their being friends; they should always be united against all outside pressure, come in what form it may. In all my abolition experience, I have seen nothing so much to be deplored as a disposition to gain numbers at the expense of principle, and the dissentions among real abolitionists. Being united, and acting upon principle, should be the leading motives to [activate?] us.

That slavery, when abolished, will be thro political action, there can be no doubt, unless indeed, it should be brought about by the means of a bloody revolution and even in that case, abolitionism must be sustained politically to insure its permanency. Ever since the party that is termed Garrisonian took its rise, I have regretted the ill feelings between that organization and the liberty party, or as they are more recently called the Radical Abolitionists." Those two organizations are the only true friends of the slave that have ever been formed, at least in modern times; at all events there has not been any other political organization except the one above named, that has the welfare and good of the slave in view. While all other parties or associations were or are formed upon selfish principles, whose main, and in fact only object is to study their own interest, and that at the expense of our colored brethren, the Garrisonians (how I love them) and political abolitionists are enlisted in the cause of others and that from the purest and most unselfish motives imaginable. If there was a "unity of action" between all the true friends of the slave, the downfall of slavery, that hellish monster, would be speedily brought about. Such a union ought, if possible, to be entered into. And why is it not possible? Where there is the right kind of feeling, and all actuated from principle, what is there to prevent the consummation devoutly to be wished? We should remember while debating abstruse questions that our brethren are pining away in the chains of slavery. When the Model Republican Government, as it is

termed, took its rise, we had reason to believe that [era?] this slavery would have been abolished from the "Land of the Free, and the home of the Brave," instead of which it has greatly extended its borders. And not yet satisfied with its present boundary, there is still a disposition manifested to further enlarge the "area of slavery."

Mr. Douglass, I have written a long article, so lengthy that I feel like apologizing for troubling you so much, and particularly I have no right to believe it will interest you—But still I trust that you will bear with me a little longer. I need not tell you that I never fail to read your paper when it comes to hand, and I am happy to say that it is received likely much more regularly than it was formerly. And, although it is always full of good reading, yet some of the numbers contain articles that are more attractive than others.—In the number dated July 17, 1857, the editorial article with the caption "Complimentary Flunkeyism" of which the Fourth of July Oration of Rev. Mr. Alger, delivered in Boston, is the subject, is treated in a truly and masterly style. The conduct of the "potent, grave and reverend seigniors" of the Boston Board of Aldermen, is shown up in its true light. You may justly remark, "if there is a day in the year which should be especially devoted to the utterance of the truth, the whole, truth and nothing but the truth, in relation to the position and duty of the American people concerning slavery, that day is the Fourth of July; and our orators, who, on that day, pass over the ugly scars, in order to enhance the comeliness of the Nation's features, are false to the duty which they owe their God, their country, and themselves." Many years since a very prominent member of the Democratic (?) party remarked to me that the passage in the Declaration of Independence which reads "All men are born free and equal," meant all white men. Recently several great men of the Nation, have given the passage the same construction; others call it "a rhetorical flourish." In the same number of your paper above named, the article on self Emancipation ought to be read, by every colored person in the United States, and put to good practical use.— It, a duty, an imperative duty for all those who are held as slaves—we should not admit that any persons own slaves, although they may hold them—to get their liberty if POSSIBLE, and you do well when you say to them, run away with all your might, and run away at

once." And when they get away, were the north as true to their interests as the south are to their pretended interests, there would be no occasion for those fleeing from the hell of slavery to go to Canada, to live under a Monarchical Government as being more free than the Republican Government of the United States, although it is our boast that we have the freest country upon earth, and we have for WHITE PERSONS. The North tells those "dealers in the bodies and souls" of their fellow men who are as much entitled to freedom and all other rights and privileges as themselves, when they come among them, to arrest those fleeing from the house of bondage as did the good Judge in Vermont very many years ago, "you cannot have them unless you bright suitable papers," and when asked what kind of papers he required, replied "a bill of sale from God Almighty." Talk of Personal Liberty Bills; those of modern days are weak indeed in comparison, to that of the Vermont Judge! I am sorry I have forgotten his name. If a bill of sale from the Devil would have, answered that could have easily been obtained, unless the devil would have been ashamed to protect American slavery; but the United States is not ashamed, on the contrary it is her pride and glory. It is meanness and cowardice in the extreme.

Yours, for Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

JACOB LYBRAND.