[Letter to] Dear friend
Contributors: Chapman, Maria Weston, 1806-1885, recipient
Series: Maria Weston Chapman Correspondence (1835-1885)
Published: 1846
Place of publication: Watertown, [Mass.]
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Subjects: Correspondence; Women abolitionists; Antislavery movements; History
Notes: Holograph, signed.

William Abijah White has determined not to comply with Mrs. Maria Weston Chapman's request that he speak some evening at the anti-slavery fair. He explains the reason: the directing spirit of both the Massachusetts and the American Anti-Slavery Societies seems to him narrow and intolerant. He gives examples, including the assertion that no abolitionist can consistently remain in a pro-slavery church or party. He recalls that "the treatment a man differing from ourselves receives in our meetings, is such as to prevent anyone from wishing to bear it more than once." William Abijah White's decision rests mainly on his seeing no reason why the Chronotype should be considered less fit as an advertising medium than the post or atlas.