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Letter from Samuel Joseph May, Syracuse, [N.Y.], to William Lloyd Garrison, Sep[tember] 12 1857

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Holograph, signed.Title devised by cataloger.Samuel Joseph May notifies William Lloyd Garrison of his regrets to have read, in the Liberator, Garrison's editorial concerning Gerrit Smith's speech, stating that it was "contemptuous" and "untrue". May notes that Smith has ever held the conviction shared by Dr. Follen that the citizens of free, "non slave holding states" must "share in the losses of the slave holders" upon emancipation. May asserts that he lacks any doubt that Smith holds slave holders in low esteem, but adds that Smith additionally considers the "majority" of citizens in the free states "just as for slavery in their spirit - and about as guilty as those of the South", and insists that Smith is sincere in his beliefs. May concedes that while on several points Smith's reasoning seems "strange and inconsistent", he nonetheless rebukes Garrison for his "castigation" of Smith, and charges it to have been the "most unjust thing I ever knew you to do".
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Correspondence Manuscripts
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