[Letter to] Beloved Friend
Contributors: May, Samuel J. (Samuel Joseph), 1797-1871, recipient
Series: William Lloyd Garrison Correspondence (1823-1879)
Published: 1856
Place of publication: Boston, [Mass.]
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Subjects: Correspondence; History; Antislavery movements; Abolitionists
Notes: Holograph, signed.

William Lloyd Garrison rejoices in Samuel Joseph May's convalescence. Garrison tells of his own mishaps since meeting May at the Syracuse depot: he lectured in Rochester on the worst night of inclement weather and became ill with inflamed lungs. Garrison suggests beginning the future lecture course in the autumn, ending before January. Garrison is convinced that Kansas will be a slave state. President Pierce is ready to do what the slave power demands. Gerrit Smith, Ward Beecher, and Theodore Parker trust more in rifles than in peaceful methods. This is time for "radical peace men to renew their testimonies." Garrison denounces the machinations of Julia Griffiths and the unscrupulousness of Frederick Douglass. Garrison thinks it is ludicrous that Lewis Tappan, Frederick Douglass, McCune Smith, Goodell, and Gerrit Smith have called a convention for the purpose of nominating presidential candidates. The tone of the Republican Party is becoming more "feeble and indefinite."

Merrill, Walter M. Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, v.4, no.138.