Year: 1872




DOUGLAss--AN ABLE REVIEW OF GRANTS


ADMINISTRATION BY A CoLoRED CLER-
oYMAN.


We reproduce the following letter
from the New York Tribune:


Tho Hon. Frederick Douglass:


DEAR S1R-For nearly twenty years
l have sat at your feet to learn the
duties Of O black man toward his
race. l think you will bear me wit
ness that I have paid you the wor-
ship which an ordinary mind owes
to genius, and that in all public gath
erings my enthusiasm has been con-
tagious, go that on three several oc-
casions I have been an assistant Of
those who lifted you to the highest
honors the negro race had in its gift
the presidency Of three national
conventions. II, therefore, I differ
from you now, our past relations will
absolve me from the apparent sins of
egotism and sel6shness. mean sell
fishness, because find the following
paragraph in the Ne,0 National Era.
In speaking Of MIR. Greeley you say ::


He has united his fortune with a
party, based upon personal griev-
ances, and not upon broad grounds
of national good. Personal disap-
pointments, personal envy, personal
resentments, personal ambitions, have
united in peronal opposition to Grant
and in personal favor Of Horace
Greeley. Now, we are utterly op-
posed to this sort of personal poll
tics A man who abandons party
because his party has not the same
sense Of his personal merits, that he
has himself, and who joins another,
hoping for better luck with the new
than with the old, may be courage
Gus as we'll as cunning, but it is inn
possible to commend such q one for
political wisdom or virtue. He acts
upon the principle that what is good
for him must be good to the country,
and makes himself greater than the
nation, aud a(1irms that part is
more than the whole. He puts him
self first and country last. He may
not always do this consciously, but,
whether intentionally or not, the
thing is done and the whole Gin
cinnati movement has it's foundation,
its starting point and handspring in
this sort of personal politics, They
accuse General Grant of personal
government, while every department
of it is as independent to-day of the
executive as under any sdministra-
ton since Washington.


Now, sir, I think I understand
your personal feelings and your po-
litical ethics, and / honor them when
seen from your standpoint. A long
life of usefulness and the outgrowth
of a competency in your ripened
years give you an exalted look and
a serene spirit. But we were not all
born Fred. Douglasses, and those
who may yet rival you have got to
stand on their lot and master their
surroundings, as you mastered yours,
before they can attain to the disin-
terested plane upon which your pow
ers and your experience have lifted
you.


I think you are mistaken in esti-
mating the Cincinnati convention by
your abomination Of personalities
Men as strong in moral convictions,
and as disinterested as yourself, were
there. I have not time, nor would
the journals grant space to say all I
desired about personal disappoint-
ments," personal envy" personal
ambition" ETC., but word in pass
ing may be useful in reminding you
that Grant and his friends have set
the examples in christening the per-
sonalities you denounce. When Cen
eral Grant tried to have A. T. Stew
art made Secretary Of the Treasury,
and failed, be showed his personal
disappointment by ignoring those
who pointed out the law forbidding
l