Description

Holograph, signed.Title devised by cataloger.On verso, the letter is addressed to "Mr Wm Lloyd Garrison. Editor of the Liberator. Boston."Samuel Joseph May writes to William Lloyd Garrison sharing his "dislike" of Garrison's "strictures upon the part of Dr. Channing's Letter to Abolitionists, in which he exhorts us to adhere to the pacific principles that we avowed in the beginning of our career." May warns that, "if we do not steadfastly adhere to them, the evangelical character of our enterprise will be soon lost." He then criticizes abolitionists as a whole, and the Emancipator newspaper, "the official paper of the American Anti-Slavery Society," for not condemning "Brother [Elijah P.] Lovejoy's resort to physical force." Furthermore, May challenges the American Anti-Slavery Society for violating the nonviolent principles put forward in the organization's own Constitution and Declaration of Sentiments, asking, "What must be the effect of the course pursued ... to destroy the confidence of our fellow citizens in the sincerity of our solemn declarations?" May reminds Garrison of a letter he wrote to the Emancipator, "a fortnight ago," critical of Beriah Green and the American Anti-Slavery Society's Executive Committee, saying he "is sorry it has not yet been published" (the letter is published in the Liberator of January 5, 1838 [Vol. VIII, no. 1]). He then argues for Garrison to consider the views of Channing, and asks him to publish this letter in the Liberator.

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Boston Public Library

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Digital Commonwealth