[Letter to] My dearest Lizzy
Contributors: Laugel, Elizabeth Bates Chapman, b. 1831, recipient
Series: Maria Weston Chapman Correspondence (1835-1885)
Published: 1864
Place of publication: Weymouth, [Mass.]
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Number of pages: 10
Subjects: Correspondence; Women abolitionists; Antislavery movements; History
Notes: Holograph, signed.

Maria Weston Chapman wrote a long letter to Elizabeth Bates Chapman Laugel, which she never received, as her sister Anne [Greene Chapman Dicey] chose not to forward it because the letter mentioned Harriet Martineau, "who has insulted Lizzy so." From this starting point, Maria W. Chapman discusses the emotional and injudicious intolerance of differences which now prevail. Chapman comments: "Why hate, or be sorry, that another cannot think as we do?" Chapman favors Lincoln "because, to a progressive domestic policy, he adds a friendly foreign one." She objects to bullying the government, as Wendell [Phillips] advises. Chapman cannot counsel "violence or passion interference or obtrusion." Nor would she write to her daughters after learning "that you did not want to hear from me as I am -- & not made up into a false appearance." Chapman was satisfied with [George] Thompson's talk to 4000 people. Bella [Deborah Weston] and Caroline [Weston] attended a reception given by Governor Andrew and others. Bella would not convey to Thompson that Maria W. Chapman was pleased with his lecture.