Letter from Harriet Beecher Stowe, Cabin, to William Lloyd Garrison, 1853 Dec[ember] 12
Description:
Harriet Beecher Stowe writes to William Lloyd Garrison discussing the feud between Garrison and Frederick Douglass. Stowe thinks that the "whole matter on both sides seems to be a want of personal confidence. The one side alledge that F. Douglass is ambitious, selfish, & ungrateful & he maintaining that the other is dictatorial &c &c ..." She tells Garrison that "we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak" and that Douglass, like "every victim which we draw up from the abyss of slavery will have in the depths of his soul a morbid spot - a deep bleeding wound." Stowe includes an excerpt from a newspaper (probably from the Pennsylvania Freeman) showing how "Douglass is cut the quick by such language" and tells Garrison that he "cannot yet close your heart on one whas has been to you as a son." She agrees "it is true that he has provoked the attack" but encourages "longer forbearance" as a wiser course for Garrison to have pursued. Still, Stowe tells him that she will try to influence Douglass to stop his attacks, saying that "waters must become calm before they reflect the image of truth." She reminds Garrison that "Douglass is a noble creature & if patience, long suffering love & brotherly kindness can save, must not be lost." Stowe insists that "whole thing ... ought to be dropped" and then asks Garrison why Henry Clarke "Wright &c [are] so sensitive to the use of the term 'infidel'[?]" She states that names are needed for different beliefs and, "If H[enry Clarke] Wright is not an infidel what is he!" Stowe then points to Garrison's "remarkable tact at conversation" and suggests that a personal interview with Douglass might "assuage something of the bitterness which Douglass feels." After ending the letter, Stowe adds a note along the spine edge of the last page, asking Garrison to send her some numbers of the Liberator that she is missing.