[Letter to] Dear Wife
Contributors: Garrison, Helen Eliza, 1811-1876, recipient
Series: William Lloyd Garrison Correspondence (1823-1879)
Published: 1842
Place of publication: Syracuse, [NY]
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Subjects: Correspondence; History; Antislavery movements; Abolitionists
Notes: Holograph, signed.

William Lloyd Garrison praises the hospitality in this section (of the country). Garrison left Waterloo for Syracuse accompanied by John Anderson Collins and James C. Hathaway. They were entertained in the splendid mansion of Stephen Smith and Wing Russell. Collins became ill and went to bed at once. The convention opened with only eleven people present in the morning. It was crowded in the evening. Garrison made a stir with heresies on the "subject of temple worship, the church, the priesthood, the Sabbath, &c." The next day, Stephen Symonds Foster declared "that the Methodist Episcopal Church is worse than any brothel in the city of New-York," which caused a riot. On another day, Stephen Symonds Foster gained a respectful audience and was followed by the lawyers Hiram Cummings and D. D. Hillis as opponents. The town is in a ferment, but the tide is "turning in our favor." Garrison wishes that Stephen Symonds Foster would use more discretion. Garrison expects to lecture in Albany on Saturday. He has been troubled by influenza. Garrison writes: "On my return, I have many marvellous things to relate to you about animal magnetism, having seen many experiments, and in which I am a full believer."

Merrill, Walter M. Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, v.3, no.48.