Letter from Samuel Joseph May, Syracuse, [New York], to Mary Anne Estlin, 1863 Feb[ruary] 14

@ Boston Public Library

Description

Holograph, signed.Title devised by cataloger.Samuel Joseph May writes to Mary Anne Estlin in regards to his domestic, parochial, and public affairs. He writes of the National Freedman's Relief Association's plans. When the American Civil War ends, he hopes this organization will supersede the American Anti-Slavery Society's responsibilties. They have already done much for the cause, such as sending boxes of clothing to Port Royal as well as "two excellent female teachers." He writes his dismay that his friends in England "fail to discern the real cause of our horrid war, to see its inevitable tendency, and to rejoice with us that slavery is to be undermined and overthrown, whether our politicians & statesmen intend it or not." He finds it surprising that so many English abolitionists support the rebels over the loyal states. He says the Democratic party have "led to act & vote as if the rights of slaveholders were more sacred than the rights of man." He is disappointed by English abolitionists' lack of faith in the Union and their support for the "Southern oligarchy, because the President of our Republic and many of our leading statesmen, who are not now and never were abolitionists, have declared the preservation of the Union, not the abolition of slavery--to be their main object. Few of our politicians have looked at slavery from a moral point of sight." He discusses current politics and is pleased that antislavery meetings in Great Britain are "coming to the right view of the subject and...

Type:

Text

Format:

Correspondence Manuscripts

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No known copyright restrictions.No known restrictions on use.

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https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/2z111486t