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Letter to] My dear Sir [manuscript

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Holograph, signedTitle devised by catalogerManuscript letterhead signed "To the Editor of the Liberator"Harriet Martineau addresses William Lloyd Garrison with "much surprise & more concern" regarding an "attack" against George Jacob Holyoake, authored by William James Linton and published in the Liberator. Martineau states her wish that the Liberator had awaited additional "evidence or other testimony" concerning Holyoake prior to committing itself to the piece published, and asserts it an "absurdity" to charge Holyoake with "desiring to conceal his opinions" and with attempting to "get rid of the word Atheism". Martineau refutes Linton's charge of Holyoake's "sneaking", pointing to his imprisonment for atheism, and his subsequent continuation of his public speaking and writing on the subject following his release. Martineau argues for a distinction between the terms "atheism" and "secularism", noting that the latter includes but is not limited to atheists, and asserts that secularism as a concept does not inherently presuppose atheism on the part of its adherents, nor possesses atheism as its object. Martineau concludes by affirming that Holyoake takes "no opportunity of denouncing the instiution of slavery", and requests that Garrison print her rebuttal to Linton's piece in the pages of the Liberator
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