realized many years afterwards at Tuskegee.

If you knew Mr. Douglass, you perhaps know that the last years of his
life were devoted to an attempt to found such a school.

The Rochester movement came to naught, but its influence upon the
colored people of the country was wide spread, chiefly because of the
character of the men who composed it.

Its proceedings were published in the "North Star," and so far as I
know, nowhere else. The file of that paper was destroyed with Mr.
Douglass' Rochester house, and, unless in the Congressional Library,
no copy now exists.

The convention at Syracuse, 1864, was another note-worthy assemblage.
Its was the formulation of a plan of organization known as the
National Equal Rights League. The rivalry between Mr. Douglass and
Mr. Langston prevented the wide usefulness of which the organization
was capable.

Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois organized auxiliary State leagues,
and in each State much good was done. Mr. Langston, president elect
of the National Organization, never called it together. * * *

I have written at length and yet have not answered your questions as
to men whose names deserve to be embalmed in your proposed book.

It will take time and thought for the compilation of such a list. The
men who officiated in the conventions of which I have written, were
mostly small men, great only in their zeal for the welfare of their
people.

I am, Sir,

With respect yours,

PETER H. CLARK.

St. Louis, Mo., Dec. 21, 1901.

Within these ten years from 1837 to 1847, a new figure appears on the
scene, a man, though not born free like Paul, yet like the chief captain,
obtained it at a great price. The career of Frederick Douglass was but
preliminary prior to his return from England, and his settlement at
Rochester, N. Y., as editor of "The North Star." By a most remarkable
coincidence, the very first article in the first number of "The North
Star," published January, 1848, is an extended notice of the National
Colored Convention held at the Liberty Street Church, Troy, New York,
October 9, 1847. Nathan Johnson was President, Dr. James McCune Smith,
Peyton Harris, New York, James W. C. Pennington, Connecticut, were Vice
Presidents, Wm. H. Topp, Albany, N. Y., Charles B. Ray, New York City, and
William C. Nell of Boston, were Secretaries