[Letter to] My Dear Friend
Contributors: May, Samuel J. (Samuel Joseph), 1797-1871, recipient
Series: William Lloyd Garrison Correspondence (1823-1879)
Published: 1848
Place of publication: Boston, [Mass.]
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Subjects: Correspondence; History; Antislavery movements; Abolitionists
Notes: Holograph, signed.

On page one of this manuscript, there is a letter by William Lloyd Garrison to Rev. Samuel Joseph May, dated April 7th, 1848. Garrison says that last night a good looking mulatto man about 25 or 30 years of age, named William Halyard, visited him and asked for pecuniary aid to buy his mother from slavery in Maryland. Halyard brought with him a printed letter as credentials purportedly by Samuel Joseph May. The letter was transcribed and copied by Samuel May, Jr., on to page three of this manuscript. William Lloyd Garrison asks Samuel Joseph May to write a letter, "denying the authenticity of the document, and giving such information as you can in regard to this imposter." William Lloyd Garrison and his wife and family have been sick. In particular, his baby is sick with a lung fever.

On page three of this manuscript, there is a copy of William Halyard's letter of recommendation. It was transcribed by Samuel May, Jr., from a printed paper. The letter claims that "Wm. Halyard has lived in our city off and on for four years, and his character is good and pure; he belongs to the Wesley Church in Syracuse." The letter asks you to support William Halyard in raising money to buy his mother.

On the bottom of page three, there is note written by Samuel May, Jr., Boston, Apr. 7th, regarding William Halyard: "Don't do us the injustice to suppose that we believed the man when he said you gave him the above. He stuck to it that you did, but I told him he was only adding falsehood to falsehood. He is a fair, i.e. honest looking man, but a great scamp nevertheless. He also had a forged letter from Julie Aimes (meaning Julius R. Ames) of Albanny."

Merrill, Walter M. Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, v.3, no.227.