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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 227

"Wishing you, dear madam, renewed health, a pleasant passage and safe
return to your native land,

"I am most truly, your grateful friend,

"FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

"Mrs. H. B. Stowe."

I was not only requested to write the foregoing letter for the purpose
indicated, but I was also asked, with admirable foresight, to see and ascertain,
as far as possible, the views of the free colored people themselves in
respect to the proposed measure for their benefit. This I was able to do in
July, 1853, at the largest and most enlightened colored convention that, up to
that time, had ever assembled in this country. This convention warmly
approved the plan of a manual labor school, as already described, and
expressed high appreciation of the wisdom and benevolence of Mrs. Stowe.
This convention was held in Rochester, N. Y., and will long be remembered
there for the surprise and gratification it caused our friends in that city. They
were not looking for such exhibition of enlightened zeal and ability as were
there displayed in speeches, addresses, and resolutions; and in the conduct
of the business for which it had assembled. Its proceedings attracted widespread
attention at home and abroad.

While Mrs. Stowe was abroad, she was attacked by the pro-slavery press
of our country so persistently and vigorously, for receiving money for her
own private use, that the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher felt called upon to notice
and reply to them in the columns of the New York Independent, of which he
was then the editor. He denied that Mrs. Stowe was gathering British gold
for herself, and referred her assailants to me, if they would learn what she
intended to do with the money. In answer to her maligners, I denounced their
accusations as groundless, and assured the public through the columns of my
paper, that the testimonial then being raised in England by Mrs. Stowe,
would be sacredly devoted to the establishment of an industrial school for
colored youth. This announcement was circulated by other journals, and the
attacks ceased. Nobody could well object to such application of money,
received from any source, at home or abroad. After her return to this country,
I called again on Mrs. Stowe, and was much disappointed to learn from her
that she had reconsidered her plan for the industrial school. I have never been
able to see any force in the reasons for this change. It is enough, however, to
say that they were sufficient for her, and that she no doubt acted conscientiously,
though her change of purpose was a great disappointment, and
placed me in an awkward position before the colored people of this country,

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