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25 SEPTEMBER 1872 333

just met in the canvass in Maine.²⁵ He introduced the regular Maine style
of cheering, and three rousing cheers were the result.) ²⁶

THIS DEMOCRATIC CONVERSION SHOULD NOT BE
TRUSTED: AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN NEW YORK,
NEW YORK, ON 25 SEPTEMBER 1872

New York Times, 26 September 1872.

On the evening of 25 September 1872, Douglass appeared at the Cooper
Institute in New York City to speak at the third of a weekly series of mass
Republican rallies intended to run until the close of the election. This oration
was one of numerous campaign speeches Douglass made for the Republicans
between late August and late October in Maine, Massachusetts, New York,
and Pennsylvania. Prior to Douglass’s lecture, the chairman of the rally,
Luther R. Marsh, introduced the first speaker, Edwards Pierrepont, an influ-
ential local lawyer and former U.S. district attorney. Pierrepont attacked the
accuracy of Charles Sumner’s recent statement on Grant and characterized the
president as a quiet man of action and leadership and Horace Greeley as a
good and kindly journalist who could never govern a nation. Marsh next
introduced Douglass, whom the audience, despite the stifling heat and poor
circulation of air in the cramped hall, greeted with loud ovations. According
to the New York Times, when Douglass finished his speech, “he waved his
handkerchief three times, each wave eliciting a thundering cheer that made the
walls ring. At the end of the last, three additional cheers were given for
Douglass.” New York Herald, 26 September 1872.

FELLOW-CITIZENS: For the first time in the history of this Republic, the
whole body of colored citizens will have the right to vote for a President of

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new Republican party in 1856, he won election as governor that year but resigned after a few weeks to
begin a new Senate term (1857—61). His tenure as vice president was unremarkable and Lincoln
replaced him with Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. Hamlin returned to the U.S. Senate for two more
terms (1869—81) where he joined Radical Republicans on Reconstruction issues. After brief service as
ambassador to Spain (1881—82), he retired from public life. H. Draper Hunt, Hannibal Hamlin of
Maine: Lincoln's First Vice-President (Syracuse, NY, 1969); ACAB, 3 : 65; DAB, 8 : 196—98.

25. Douglass appeared in Republican campaign rallies in Maine with Hannibal Hamlin in
Bangor on 19 August 1872 and in Newport on 20 August 1872, and with Benjamin F. Butler in Portland
on 27 August 1872 and in Farmington on 31 August 1872. All three appeared together at Augusta on 30
August 1872. Boston Daily Evening Transcript, 20 August 1872; Bangor (Me) Daily Whig and
Courier, 20, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31 August 1872; Portland (Me.) Transcript, 30, 31 August 1872.

26. From Boston Daily Advertiser, 6 September 1872.