Description

Holograph, signed.Title devised by cataloger.Extracts from this letter are printed in Liberator of December 29, 1837 (Vol. VII, no. 53).On verso, the letter is addressed to "Mr. Wm Lloyd Garrison. Editor of the Liberator. 25 Cornhill. Boston."Samuel Joseph May writes to William Lloyd Garrison informing him he expects to visit Boston for a few days in January. He then shares his dissapointment that "the anti slavery cause is to me more gloomy and unpromising than it has every been." May adds that he fears "the evangelical character of our enterprise is or soon will be lost sight of." He discusses a letter he wrote to Beriah Green criticizing the conduct of the American Anti-Slavery Society's Executive Committee for "the course they have pursued respecting the lamentable death of Br[other Elijah P.] Lovejoy." May asks Garrison to publish it in the Liberator so that the public will be aware "that some of us do heartily disapprove the course of Lovejoy and his associates." He also provides his views "of the meeting held, and the speeches made at Faneuil Hall" and is outraged that "we hear from men in high stations, such sentiments as were uttered there by Mr. [James Trecothick] Austin!" May is critical of the Boston city government for objecting to using the space for an antislavery meeting sponsored by William Ellery Channing, and declares, "The Dr. [Channing] deserves our thanks, and the blessings of the enslaved, for what he has done." May then describes a lecture he gave in...

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Boston Public Library

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