From the Archives: Letters:
Frederick Douglass to W.J. Watkins, Esq.

Appearing in the FREDERICK DOUGLASS PAPER, Rochester, New York 

June 23, 1854
Letter from the Editor

SHERMAN, Chautauque County,
June 19th, 1854.

Library of Congress

W. J. WATKINS, Esq.: MY DEAR SIR: - I have time to send you but a line or two for our next number. What with lecturing, travelling and conversing, you will easily believe, I have little time for disposition for writing. I am in Chautauque for the first time, and am much pleased with it every way. It is a County remarkable for excellent water, good pastorage, fine cattle and honest people. I should think there is very little liquor used or abused in the county. I have not seen a drunken man since I entered it. - There are sprinkled over the county a few genuine abolitionists, a good may Free Soilers, and the majority of the people are ready to strike any where and any how against slavery, which may be suggested by WM. H. SEWARD. They are Seward Whigs, and are impatient to have the brave leader point the way. I hope he will do it, and leave the old faithless and worthless Whig national organization to go to pieces, where it ought to have gone instantly upon the adoption of its infamous and ruinous platform in 1852. - The people are here in advance of there leaders and are restrained only by the desire to move, when they do move in a body, and with a power which will be felt.
You know I came into this County with a view to attend a series of meetings in company with J. W. LOGUEN, of Syracuse - a man, the qualities of whose head and heart make him every way an excellent companion and a most desirable co laborer. The meetings here were planned by him, and were his meetings, I being called into the County to assist him in holding them. Our first appointment was at FREDONIA, a very pretty village about three miles from Dunkirk. It was easy to see on our arrival, that the town was unusually active and thronged. The people had come in from the country to attend the meeting in considerable numbers, from ten to fifteen miles around. At two and a half o'clock in the afternoon, a hall capable of holding seven hundred people, was about two thirds full. This looked well for a week, as this the busiest season of the year among farmers of this latitude; and it showed that the slave catching in New York and Boston had been heard of, deplored, and detested in the extreme of Western New York. In Fredonia, as in all other parts of Chautauque County, there is the best evidence that the people are profoundly moved on the Anti-Slavery question. The meeting in the evening was most densely packed, and we had many proofs that a good impression was made.
Our next appointment was at Delanti, in the town of Stockton, nine miles from FREDONIA. Two meetings were held here, in the afternoon and evening, both largely attended, some of the audience having come over twenty miles to attend. The evening meeting here was especially effective. Brother LOGUEN dwelt with much eloquence and power upon the right of the hunted Fugitive, to stand for his life, and liberty, and his duty, to only five up the latter with the former.
We left Delanti in a very hopeful condition. The people were taking and talking in the earnest, and pretty generally on the right side. Could there be placed in the lecturing field during the next four months, one hundred good and able men, this State might be made and Anti-Slavery State. Brother Loguen and myself were taken from Delanti to Jamestown, our next appointment by Mr. BURDICH, to whom we felt grateful for that, and other favors, during our stay in Delanti. At Jamestown, we were again greeted by large and overflowing masses. A reference here to a remark made by Rev. Mr. GILLETT, the Presbyterian Clergyman, who on giving notice of our meeting, gave a local interest to the occasion. He had said that it was not proper to give Anti-Slavery notices from the pulpit. To this remark, I alluded, at some length, regarding it as an index of the sentiments of the clergy on the subject. The minister was in the house, though I was not aware of it at the time. When I sat down, Brother Loguen, kindly, and characteristically, said, that as Mr. Gillett had been quite directly alluded to, opportunity would be given for him to reply. Mr. Gillett rise, and said briefly that he had been misrepresented, and that he had given the notice, and had done so with pleasure. In view of his apparently frank avowal, I at once made a full retraction of may animadversions, so far as they had a personal being on Mr. Gillett, and if the matter had ended here, I should have left Jamestown regarding Mr. Gillett as having been aligned, but he rose again and gave a full statement of what he really did say, showing that in his first statement he had only told a part of the truth; and it turned out that the sentiment upon which I had animadverted, was really uttered by him - was now reiterated by him - I therefore retracted my retraction, leaving the Rev. Mr. Gillett to dispose of the matter among the people to whom his Pro-Slavery character is known.
Ou would have been pleased to have seen the emphatic manner in which the people confirmed the justice of my remarks as applied to the case in hand. It was a reminder to which the Rev. Mr. Gillett will do well to take heed. In the evening, the Methodist church, a large building, was densely packed - crowds were seen leaving the house unable to gain admission. Brother Loguen and I addressed the meeting at much length and I hope not without good effect. The speech of my co-worker was on this occasion full of genuine pathos, moral force, and manly indignation. Slavery never looked more foul, an cold blooded and fiendish, than while Loguen portrayed the sale and carrying away of his sister's children - a scene witnessed by himself, and had left in him an ineffaceable impression. His manly form shook, and his voice choked for utterance as he recalled and strove to bring before his hearers the thrilling scene. There were many tears and heart throbbings occasioned on his narration, showing that all feeling had not fled from Anti-Slavery meetings.
The crowning Convention was held Saturday and Sunday, in a beautiful grove in SUGAR GROVE, Warren County, Pennsylvania, about thee miles from Busti. The responsibility of getting up this meeting rested upon the Storom family at Busti - an enterprising family of farmers, well to do on the world and when I tell you that these industrious and well to do farmers are of the color of you and me, you will derive from it the right lesson, and draw from it the right hopes for our whole people.
I observed that this family (it is a large one) had so deported itself, that that white, people among whom they moved, appeared to regard and treat them precisely as respectable people ought to be treated. Mr. and Mrs. Storom went from Utica into Chautauque County, nearly forty years ago, and carried all they then owned on the back of a single ox. There were no roads then as now; they traveled in the woods, by cuts in the trees and reached their present home at the need of three weeks. They have raised a large family and are now surrounded with every needed comfort, and withal, are not too old or worn out to enjoy it. The example thus glanced at, is worthy to be followed. I call upon colored men in cities all over the country to turn their faces to the wilderness, and follow the brave example set them by Mr. and Mrs. Storom.
But a word of the Convention; it was, as I have said, the crowning one of all. It reminded me of some of the meetings held in Ohio several years ago, by Mr. Garrison and myself, when it was impossible to meet with a house spacious enough to hold the people. The grove presented a beautiful and cheering appearance, especially on Sunday. Seats had been arranged on the gradually sloping hill side, sufficous to accommodate about five hundred persons, fronting the platform. These seats were filled by Ladies', and formed a little more than a half circle. Around these stood a large boy of men - real men - hardy and sunburnt. On the outside were drown upon in various position, horses and carriages in great numbers. These carriages furnished convenient seats for their owners. I never attended an out door meeting which was so orderly and impressive as that at Sugar Grove yesterday. The meeting was strictly a religious Anti-Slavery meeting, and left a most favorable impression for the cause. In addition to the speeches made by brother Loguen and myself, Lewis CLARK, well known as an efficient and Anti-Slavery speaker, addressed the people to marked acceptance. After speaking at this meeting at great length, a carriage being in waiting for me, I parted from brother Loguen and came to Sherman, twenty miles distant, and spoke to a large meeting last night in the Congregational meeting house. I have not my face towards Toronto, Canada.

Truly and fraternally yours,
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.