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_Letter from Frederick Douglass_.
ROCHESTER, _August_ 29, 1868.
DEAR HARRIET: I am glad to know that the story of your eventful
life has been written by a kind lady, and that the same is soon to
be published. You ask for what you do not need when you call upon
me for a word of commendation. I need such words from you far more
than you can need them from me, especially where your superior
labors and devotion to the cause of the lately enslaved of our
land are known as I know them. The difference between us is very
marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our
cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement
at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in
a private way. I have wrought in the day--you in the night. I have
had the applause of the crowd and the satisfaction that comes of
being approved by the multitude, while the most that you have done
has been witnessed by a few trembling, scarred, and foot-sore
bondmen and women, whom you have led out of the house of bondage,
and whose heartfelt "_God bless you_" has been your only reward.
The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of
your devotion to freedom and of your heroism. Excepting John
Brown--of sacred memory--I know of no one who has willingly
encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people
than you have. Much that you have done would seem improbable to
those who do not know you as I know you. It is to me a great
pleasure and a great privilege to bear testimony to your character
and your works, and to say to those to whom you may come, that I
regard you in every way truthful and trustworthy.
Your friend,