The North Star (Rochester)/1848/01/07/Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE.
We give our readers the following letters, at the hazard of incurring the charge of egotism. We think it due to them, to make them acquainted with the feelings of our friends, as well as our foes concerning our enterprise. We will, however, promise that far less will be said about ourself in future numbers, than appears m this week's paper. Some notices of us, copied from other papers, would have been excluded had we been at our post when they were selected. We beg of friends who favor us with communications, to write as much about the cause as possible, and dispense with as much about "the North Star" as they can conveniently.
We gratefully acknowledge the following letter from Gerrit Smith, Esq., including us among the recipients of his generous donation of land in this state. The favor is one we did not expect, and is the more highly valued on this account. We have long desired, but have never yet had the pleasure of an acquaintance with this distinguished friend of the slave, and of mankind at large. A difference of views on matters connected with the anti-slavery movement, has served to keep us personally unacquainted. This, we trust, will not always be the case. If our hearts are one, why should a difference of mind divide us? We differ widely from Mr. Smith in regard to the character of the constitution of the United States and the Union; and we are more and more confirmed in the soundness of our views, and the unsoundness of his; and yet there never was a moment since we first read his letter to Henry Clay, to the delivery of his great speech last fall, before the National Liberty Convention, that we did not regard him with grateful admiration.
Frederick Douglass—My Dear Sir:—I welcome you to the State of New York. In this, your new home, may you and yours, and your labors of love for your oppressed race, be all greatly blessed of God.
Above is my draft for five dollars, to pay for two years' subscription to your forthcoming paper.
Conformably to my purpose of giving to 3000 colored inhabitants of this State the principal share of my lands, which are fit for farming, I made out 2000 deeds last year: I am now busy, with my clerks, in making out the remaining 1000. Inasmuch as you and Mr. Nell have become inhabitants of this State, I fed at liberty to convey a parcel of land to each of you. Herewith are the deeds. I wish that the land was in a less rigorous clime; but it is smooth and arable, and not wanting in fertility. Forty acres—that is, a quarter of the same lot of which I have conveyed a quarter each to yourself and Mr. Nell,—I have given to Mr. C. L. Remond. The remaining quarter will probably be conveyed to Mr. W. W. Brown, who has also become an inhabitant of this State. One of the contiguous lots I have divided amongst four fugitive slaves, viz: Henry Bibb, and the three brothers, Lewis, Milton, and Cyrus Clark.
With great regard,
Your friend and brother,
Dear Douglass:—I hasten to congratulate you on the rising of the "North Star" in the horizon of Rochester. I have read it all with entire satisfaction—much of it with delight. It is a number one, in the best, as well as in the first sense. I hope you will write another letter to Henry Clay, and expose his folly on the subject of colonization. He ought to be put to shame for clinging to that humbug. It is a delusion, however, not yet dispelled from the minds of thousands; and Mr. Clay's commendation of it furnishes you with a fair occasion to kill that dead body once more.
Yours, truly,
W. C. Nell—Dear Sir:—"The North Star," Vol. 1, No. 1, is before me. I like the paper very much; and desiring, as they would say in Maryland, to start with you "from the jump," I enclose you the amount of my subscription for a year. I bid you God speed; and sincerely hope that great success may attend your noble enterprise. My own judgment is not worth much in regard to the style of a paper: I have some little taste, however, in regard to the appearance of those I have about me for my own use. My taste is well suited in the style and size of the "Star." The name, I think, is a happy one, indeed. There cannot, to my mind, be a more appropriate name. Let it be, then, what the Polar Star is in the heavens—brilliant, dignified, standing in bold relief, and, above all, so constant to its position, that the bewildered mariner is sure of his reckoning if he can but fix his eye upon it. So it is also to the flying bondman; and so may the "North Star" ever be.
With high esteem, yours,
Friend Douglass:—Having read the "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass," I had imagined that a paper edited by the author of that work would be both interesting and valuable; and I am happy to slate, that, in the number before me, I find my most sanguine expectations fully realized. If it had fallen to my lot to have suggested a name for the paper, it would have been most agreeable with my first impulse to have called it, "The Polar Star;" but, upon reflection, I am satisfied that "The North Star" is better, as that is the appellation more commonly given to the beautiful planet from which the paper so appropriately takes it name. I hope, therefore, that it will ever remain as it is, without the slightest alteration. That Star in the heavens, fixed, as it is, to one point, has been a safe guide to many a weary wanderer, on his lonely way from that happy land which is blessed with the religious "spirit of slaveholding, robbery, and wrong," to the more frigid, more monarchical, and, withal, more humane dominions of Queen Victoria. It not only remains stationary in its position, but it is firm and determined in its purpose. It has never been known to betray its trust. The flying, panting fugitive finds in it a friend, which neither the fear of a tyrant's frown nor the love of a tyrant's smile can possibly transform into a traitor. I anxiously hope, and do firmly believe, that this paper will remain as fearlessly fixed to one point, and as really determined in its purpose, as the lovely little planet from which it has its name. Its only point to shine from will be the naked truth—its purpose, "to attack slavery in all its" horrible "forms and aspects," until complete "emancipation" shall be proclaimed to every slave, of whatever color or sex, throughout the length and breadth of this "happy land," which is so strikingly remarkable for its "civil and religious liberty." The government of the United States appears to be fully determined that the whole of her people shall enjoy the rich blessings of her institutions, especially the three millions of colored people at the South; nor is this all: she is so anxious that neighboring nations should share bet advantages with her, that she is at this moment spending an enormous amount of treasure and blood for the purpose of establishing in Mexico that singular kind of freedom which is the lot of her colored people at home. I have only to say, in conclusion, that if the blessings of liberty and independence cannot be enjoyed in the United States, after her present civil and religious institutions cease to exist, I, for one, do not wish to enjoy such blessings. I have not the use of language to express my utter abhorrence of the hypocritical pretences to Christianity and patriotism under which this country groans. Many of those who are actively engaged in the support of the present institutions of America are very loud in such pretences.
With the hope that thou mayest be favored with entire success in thy truly laudable undertaking,
I am thy friend and welt-wisher,
Mr. Frederics Douglass-Dear Sir:—I am much pleased with the first number of your paper, and am convinced thu the principles there set forth, strictly adhered to, will effect more to accomplish the end designed than any similar organ ever commerced in this country.*****
Time forbids, in this hasty scrawl, to say more, but I intend that you shall hear from me frequently.
Yours, &c.,
Frederick Douglass—Dear Sir:—I received the first number of the "North Star," through the post-office, this week, the meaning of which, I suppose, is, "Take it, and hand in your two dollars." But I was taking so many papers, and my means so limited, that I said to myself, Can't do any such thing—I have enough now—twice as many papers as I can read, and my means won't allow me to take any more: but I will just look into it, and see what it is going to be. So I read the salutatory—the address to "our oppressed countrymen," and the letter to Henry Clay. Enough, said I; I have read more than two dollar's worth already. I can't refuse. So I have added the "North Star" to my large list of freedom's advocates.
Respectfully yours,
We extract tho following encouraging word from the correspondence of a devoted laborer in Ohio. Would that all the women of our land felt the same:
"God speed thee and thy associates in their great and good work. I will take the paper as long as I can command a dollar, even if it be only one.** I rejoice that the men whose brethren cannot speak for themselves, can and will speak in their behalf.
Yours, for our oppressed
Fellow countrymen,