Letter from Wendell Phillips, [Boston, Massachusetts], to William Lloyd Garrison, [1845 June 8]

Item Information

Title:
Letter from Wendell Phillips, [Boston, Massachusetts], to William Lloyd Garrison, [1845 June 8]
Description:
Wendell Phillips writes to William Lloyd Garrison describing a meeting he attended in New Hampshire, which was conducted by Nathaniel Peabody Rogers. Phillips describes how the meeting was intended to discuss Rogers' newspaper, The Herald of Freedom, and charges Rogers had made against the Board of Managers of the New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society, but that at the meeting Rogers would not repeat or justifty his accusations. Phillips quotes Rogers as saying, "'the battle was not about the paper [the Herald of Freedom], but between himself & W.L. Garrison on the question of free speech' & 'that no one of his Massachusetts friends had the kindness, previous to the Concord meeting in December, to write to him for information.'" Phillips says that Rogers "does not seem to hold himself accountable even to truth, for the language he uses, but plays with words as with counters." He tells Garrison that his time in Concord has convinced him that these "free meetings" which Rogers supports, "are essentially 'tyrannical'. The principle, that any man may get up & speak on any subject, at any time, & whether any one has the floor or not, is of course, fit only for a mad house." He describes how this "free meeting" prevented any actual business from taking place and he regrets "the want among many of the friends of the slave, of a strict sense of private honesty as between a man and a man." Phillips also shares his hope that Rogers "might by some act, give us hope that time would make him what he once was: he who hever made to the abolitionists a request which was not granted, if it were such as honest and honorable men might accede to."
Author:
Phillips, Wendell, 1811-1884
Addressee:
Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879
Date:
June 8, 1845
Format:
Letters/Correspondence
Manuscripts
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Anti-Slavery Collection
Subjects:
Abolitionists--United States--19th century--Correspondence
Antislavery movements--United States--History--19th century
Antislavery movements--Meetings--United States--History--19th century
Social reformers--United States--History--19th century
Abolitionists--United States--History--19th century
Antislavery movements--United States
Meetings
Social reformers--United States
New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society
Phillips, Wendell, 1811-1884
French, John Robert, 1819-1890
Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879
Foster, Stephen S. (Stephen Symonds), 1809-1881
Rogers, Nathaniel Peabody, 1794-1846
Herald of freedom (Concord, N.H. : 1835)
Extent:
5 leaves (6 p.) ; 25 cm.
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/2z1106021
Terms of Use:
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
[Boston, Massachusetts]
Language:
English
Notes:
Holograph, signed.
Title devised by cataloger.
This manuscript letter contains leaves numbered 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 in the head- spine corner of each page. The complete letter is published in the Liberator of June 13, 1845 (Vol. XV, no. 24) under the heading "Letter from Wendell Phillips."
Identifier:
5859059
Call #:
MS A.1.2 v.15, p.38
Barcode:
39999085839346