Letter from John Greenleaf Whittier, Haverhill, [Massachusetts], to William Lloyd Garrison, 1833 [November] 12th

John Greenleaf Whittier writes to William Lloyd Garrison sharing his joy at the success of Garrison's "English Mission." He remarks on the progress of the antislavery cause and says that "we shall before long organize a[n antislavery] society" in Haverhill. He also asks Garrison if Samuel Joseph May. would "deliver a discourse" in the town, commenting that his "speech at the Exeter Hall meeting .. is full of high & manly truth, terrible in its rebuke, but full of justice." Whittier discusses his desire to enter "the heated furnace of modern politics" but says his "Truth & Conscience & Duty are against it" as it would close off his abolition work. He also mentions his wish to go to Philadelphia and "urge the members of my Religious Society [Quakers] .. to make their solemn testimony against Slavery visible over the whole land" but regrets that the trip will be too expensive. He then comments on the opposition to his abolitionist views among his political friends, crediting it with his loss of the nomination for state senator by one vote. He asks Garrison to call upon one of his friends in Boston, B.L. Merrick, who is ill, and if he has read the last issue of Buckingham's Magazine where he has an article about Toussaint l'Ouverture. He also states he has written another long article about Daniel O'Connell for the magazine and asks Garrison to visit him in Haverhill.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library