[Letter to] Dear George
Contributors: Benson, George William, 1808-1879, recipient
Series: William Lloyd Garrison Correspondence (1823-1879)
Published: 1841
Place of publication: Cambridgeport, [Mass.]
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Subjects: Correspondence; Liberator (Boston, Mass. : 1831); History; Antislavery movements; Abolitionists
Notes: Holograph, signed.

William Lloyd Garrison believes that Isaac Knapp's circular letter, which is hostile to Garrison and the Liberator committee, was drawn up by Joel Prentiss Bishop. Seth Sprague of Duxbury sees the devil let loose in the old Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison denies the charges brought against him. He believes that the circular letter will do a great deal of mischief and presumes that it will be widely disseminated in England. The Liberator receipts fall $500 short of expenses. Garrison approves of David Lee Child's article in the Standard.

This letter was written on the verso and blank pages of a printed circular letter by Isaac Knapp, Dec. 6, 1841, and endorsed by J. Cutts Smith and Hamlett Bates. In the circular letter, Isaac Knapp condemns William Lloyd Garrison with this accusation: "The climax has been capped, the Liberator, which money could not buy, has been wrested from me under circumstances which, however they may look in the eye of the law, (and it is not now my object to pass judgment on the legality of the transaction) should cover my former associate, Mr. Garrison, with shame, and his prompters and counsel with the brand of ineffable meanness." Knapp announces his intention to start a new newspaper, the "true" Liberator, to be called Knapp's Liberator. Knapp requests funds to cover the cost of printing the first issue.

On page one of this manuscript there is a handwritten note by Isaac Knapp to the editor of the Liberator, Dec. 8, 1841. The note has been crossed out. Isaac Knapp writes: "I have this day issued the annexed circular. You, in my opinion, being, next to myself, the most interested, are herewith furnished with the first copy I send forth."

Merrill, Walter M. Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, v.3, no.18.