[Letter to] My dear Friend
Contributors: Chapman, Maria Weston, 1806-1885, recipient
Series: Maria Weston Chapman Correspondence (1835-1885)
Published: 1843
Place of publication: West Winfield, [NY]
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Subjects: Correspondence; Wesleyan Methodist Church of America; Liberty press; Women abolitionists; Antislavery movements; History
Notes: Holograph, signed.

Alluding to a letter from Maria Weston Chapman in which Abby Kelley Foster was apparently asked to define her position, Foster declares: "My life is a constant definition." Enough abuse of Abby K. Foster will be seen in the next Liberty Press to satisfy the most doubtful. Abby Kelley Foster refers to a convention in Winfield. There are hundreds of recent converts, not yet thoroughly indoctrinated, whom Abby K. Foster holds in her hand. A one-day meeting was held at Canastata previous to the State Nominating Convention. Abby Kelley Foster comments on the Wesleyans and their attitude toward the "infidel Garrisonians." About $130 were raised, "and the triumph over the New-organizers was quite delightful." She tells how "the muck worms [William Lawrence] Chaplan & [James Caleb] Jackson crawled into the convention. Their solemnity was broken into by that crazy [Stephen S.] Foster ..." Abby K. Foster thinks Stephen S. Foster may "crush New Organization and save the true abolitionists of the party ..." She recounts the appeals for cooperation made to the opponents: "But our tears were all in vain ...[Alvan] Stewart declared it necessary to go to the ballot box in order to be an abolitionist and J.C. Jackson would not work in a society with nonresistants." The opposing party withdrew to a schoolhouse where they had "as large a number as ourselves." Abby K. Foster asks Maria W. Chapman "never again to suspect me of being under the influence of such reptiles as Jackson and Co." Abby K. Foster wants Stephen S. Foster to stay in the central part of the state. "Between you and I, that Western [State] Society is merely a name and the Central Society would be were I not here." Criticizes David L. Child in the Standard.