Publication: FREDERICK DOUGLASS PAPER
Date: June 10, 1852
F. DouglassTitle: LETTER FROM WILLIAM G. ALLEN. -------
Location: Rochester, New York
LETTER FROM WILLIAM G. ALLEN.
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FREDERICK DOUGLASS: DEAR SIR: - Several persons, in reading my list article in your paper of the 20th, remarked to me that
some of my statements seemed at variance with each other. Now I have not the vanity to suppose that what I write is of so
great importance as to make any very great impression either way; nevertheless, what I do write, I should be glad to have
understood, and to set the matter beyond a doubt, I therefore address you these lines. The discrepancies, whatever they may
be, which the article contains, are seeming, not real.
In alluding to the Luca boys, I claim for them, that "for whatever of genius they possess, (and that is unquestionably great,)
they are not indebted to one drop of the blood of the 'superior race.' Further down, alluding to African nationality, I assert
that, "if the peculiarities of the African race were drawn out without intermixture, they would develop a civilization very
good indeed, indeed so good as to be almost good for nothing;" "that nations, worthy of the name, could only be produced by
a fusion of races. The discrepancy (only apparent) vanishes, if the distinction between races and nations is kept in mind.
The African race, in musical gifts, is superior to other races; but what sort of a
Faithfully yours,
WM. G. ALLEN.
McGRAWVILLE, N.Y., May 31, 1852.