[n.p.] [31 December 1861.]

MY DEAR FRIEND

Along with this note I [expect] Lewis Tappan will send thee an order for 5 pounds British which I have the pleasure of sending thee as a small token of the interest some here feel in thy Antislavery Paper and the advocacy of the rights of the coloured people which thou art continuing to maintain[.| I cannot say this is from the Irish Ladies Antislavery Society[.]¹Several veteran Dublin abolitionists formed the Irish Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in the 1850s. Though an Irish organization, its membership was predominantly Protestant. Despite the society’s stated goal of bringing the abolitionist cause to the attention of the Irish, its members mainly sent homemade goods, such as silk goods, to Rochester for auction at the yearly antislavery bazaar. The society also made contributions to Frederick Douglass to support his newspaper, and Douglass regularly printed news of the society’s annual meetings in Dublin. , 6 May 1859; Maria Luddy, (Cambridge, Eng. 1995), 66. In fact it is made up of contributions from a few friends of my own.

The aid formerly sent from the Society for fugitives in the Northern parts bordering on Canada not being now required and Friends in England who are likely also to be joined by many in Ireland are making up a handsome subscription for the assistance of the slaves who have fled within the Federal lines and thence passed into the Federal States has caused our Society this year to issue no circular and ask for no subscriptions.

I often think of thy remark that [illegible] for slavery is [illegible] be hard to inflict a greater evil on a people—than to fix among them the idea that they are to be supported in some way without effort on their own part. And that there is danger sending among them from they know not where and large quantities of clothing may lead them to depend on outside help rather than upon their own energies. The good sense and the force of these remarks are exemplified in all cases of long continued assistance thus bestowed whether with the [illegible] here as with the escaping fugitive slaves in your land. Aid must and should be given in case of peculiar pressure and poverty but if long continued the spirit of the people and their self supporting energies will be ruined[.]

The families of the muslin weavers in the Cotton manufacturing districts of this country are just now passing through a dreadful ordeal—no employment and bad harvests have placed them in a very destitute state—till that fearful war of yours terminates I fear they have little chance of work and it is very bad for them as well as very difficult to support them by charity.— Still it must be done—in the present emergency.

Wilhelmina²Wilhelmina Webb (c. 1832-98) was the daughter of William and Maria Lamb Webb. Legg, , 83. is here beside me and sends [illegible] her kind remembrance[.] Our young people are greatly wishing for thy carte—It would oblige me if thou could send it. Affectionately & truly thy friend

MARIA WEBB

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 9, frames 352-53, FD Papers, DLC.