August 10th, 1863
President Abraham Lincoln Meets with Samuel Pomeroy and Frederick Douglas
President Abraham Lincoln
President Abraham Lincoln met with Senator Samuel Pomeroy, of Kansas, and with abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass. Lincoln’s personal secretary John Hay recorded, “[Douglass] intends to go south and help the recruiting among his people.” Also on this day, Lincoln adds the endorsement, “I concur,” to a letter that the Secretary of the Interior John Usher and Senator Pomeroy signed. The letter acknowledges, “Douglass, is . . . a loyal, free, man, and is, hence, entitled to travel, unmolested. We trust he will be recognized everywhere, as a free man, and a gentleman.