Frederick Douglass -- Lincoln's Respect

 

In February 1864 before Douglass would pen his request [that his son Charles be discharged from the army], he delivered an address at Cooper Union in Philadelphia that stated his view of the mission of a war, which had “filled our land with mere stumps of men, ridged our soil with 200,000 rudely-formed graves, and mantled it all over with the shadow of death.”  Growing support of the Democratic Party’s desire to reach a compromise with the Confederacy to end the war had caused Douglass to reaffirm his position.

 

I end where I began. No war but an Abolition war; no peace but an Abolition peace; liberty for all, chains for none; the black man a soldier in war, a laborer in peace, a voter at the South as well as at the North, America his permanent home, and all Americans his fellow countrymen.  Such, fellow-citizens, is my idea for the mission of this war (McFeely 231).

 

Many Republicans during the early months of 1864 favored nominating a different man as their Presidential candidate for the upcoming election.  Former senator Salmon P. Chase and former candidate John C. Fremont were two possibilities.  Douglass liked the President personally, but another man less concerned about the prejudiced sentiment of the populace might accomplish more.  He would not oppose Lincoln’s abandonment.  In June, however, the Party did nominate Lincoln; now the nation would choose between the cautious, well-intentioned incumbent and former General George B. McClellan, whom abolitionists feared would negotiate away Negro emancipation.

 

During the fall months the war continued to go badly for the President.  General Grant’s campaign towards Richmond was halted at Petersburg, and General Sherman’s invasion of Georgia had apparently been nothing more than a campaign of skirmish and maneuver.  Now the President himself seemed certain that he would be defeated in the November election.  On August 19 he met for the second time with Douglass, to discuss and formulate a desperate plan.

 

The President wanted to make a strong effort to persuade slaves within the Confederacy to escape to freedom.  Such a mass exodus might help win the war before McClellan’s inauguration in 1865. The war had to end before McClellan had Presidential power.  Otherwise, Lincoln was certain that McClellan, to end the war, would give the South back its slaves.  Lincoln wanted Douglass to devise a plan and be the “general agent” to carry it out.

 

Douglass proposed in a letter dated August 29 that local agents be recruited at points along the front “most accessible to large bodies of slaves.”  They should be people who knew the territory.  Whether they would go behind the rebel lines themselves to encourage slaves to run away or advise such action from a place of safety, Douglass did not mention.

 

Douglass’s suggestions were never acted upon.  In early September General Sherman’s forces captured Atlanta, and the nation’s resulting jubilation seemed to foretell that Abraham Lincoln would serve a second term.

 

After Lincoln’s re-election Douglass resumed his lecture schedule, but he managed to be in Washington for the second inaugural.  In fact he was in the crowd waiting for the opening of the ceremonies when he saw Lincoln touch the Vice-President at his side, say something and direct the other’s eyes toward Douglass.  It would have been cause for a moment of pride had not Andrew Johnson frowned.  Douglass turned to the colored woman who stood beside him and whispered, “Whatever Andrew Johnson may be, he certainly is no friend of our race” (Bontemps 244-245).

 

Douglass decided that he would attend Lincoln’s reception at the White House later that day and persuaded the woman standing next to him, Mrs. Thomas J. Dorsey, to accompany him. No black man had ever before presented himself at such a function.  Douglass felt he had every right to, considering what the war had been fought for, what black soldiers had died for, and what he had done personally in behalf of the nation and his race.  His appearance would be a test of the sincerity of the administration not only to bring about emancipation of all slaves but equality of citizenship.

 

Together they joined the procession moving toward the entrance.  At the door two outraged policemen pounced upon Douglass.  His arms clamped firmly in their hands, he heard them explain, with obvious insincerity, that they had been ordered to admit no Negroes.

 

… Douglass calmly told the guards he did not believe they had any such orders.  Mr. Lincoln would certainly not approve, he ventured.  When the policemen attempted to rush him and Mrs. Dorsey into the exit, he decided to be as willful as they were.  He was there to congratulate the President, not to be tricked and insulted.  Seeing a familiar face in the line, he asked the individual going in if he would kindly inform Mr. Lincoln that Frederick Douglass was at the door-detained.

 

The response came quickly, and Douglass and Mrs. Dorsey were ushered into the East Room.  Towering over the crowd, Lincoln saw and greeted the highly visible Douglass from a distance.  “Here comes my friend Douglass.  I am glad to see you.  I saw you in the crowd today, listening to my inaugural address.  How did you like it?”

 

Douglass hedged.  He was reluctant to hold up the line.  “There are thousands waiting,” he said.

 

“No.  No.  You must stop a little,” Lincoln insisted.  “I want to know what you think of it.”

 

Douglass’s voice trembled.  “Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort.”

 

“I’m glad you liked it,” Lincoln murmured.

 

By then Douglass and Mrs. Dorsey were moving along again, but the brief incident had not escaped notice.  The nest day it was widely discussed.  Frederick Douglass at the Presidential reception.  … Lincoln chatting with him while others waited.  But to Douglass it was simply confirmation of the opinion he had already formed of the Emancipator’s attitude (Bontemps 245-246).

 

One month later the President was dead, assassinated by the half-mad actor, John Wilkes Booth.  Douglass was in Rochester when news of Lincoln’s death reached him.  He spoke at what may have been the first memorial service for Lincoln in any American city.  Douglass’s grief was genuine.  One observer, seeing him walk along Main Street, observed, “He had no word of greeting, only a hand pressure for his nearest friends.”   When Mrs. Lincoln sent Douglass the President’s walking stick, with a note explaining that Lincoln had spoken to her about sending Douglass some token of his respect, Douglass was doubly grieved (Bontemps 246-247).

 

It seemed no one who had championed the cause of the black man could fill the void left by the Emancipator’s death.  Certainly not the new President, Andrew Johnson.  But then Douglass’s despair was diverted by events that brought a swift end of the war.  General Lee surrendered his army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia.  Remnants of Confederate forces elsewhere gave up their arms.

 

Douglass quickly perceived that the immediate future of his race would be determined by how the seceded Southern states were readmitted into the Union.  Radical Congressmen demanded that stern penalties be levied against those who had served the Confederacy.  One condition for readmitting the states would be the enfranchisement of the Negro.  President Johnson, however, favored lenient terms of readmission, and, Douglass suspected, continued domination of former slaves.  Because it would protect his people and permit them to vote, Douglass was determined that Radical Republican Congressional reconstruction be enacted.

 

The war between the states had ended.  The struggle to establish equality had not.

 

 

Works cited:

 

Bontempts, Arna, Free at Last, the Life of Frederick Douglass, New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1971.  Print

 

McFeely, William S.  Frederick Douglass.  New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1991.  Print.