LEWIS TAPPAN¹Lewis Tappan (1788-1873), an affluent New York merchant and abolitionist, devoted much of his considerable wealth and energy to religious and reform causes such as abolitionism. Tappan was an early supporter of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and the American Bible Society, a founder of the New York Evangelist, and a patron of Oberlin College. Tappan helped organize the New York Anti-Slavery Society and the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. In 1840, he broke with William Lloyd Garrison over the advisability of linking abolitionism with other reforms such as women’s rights. He was a founder and leading figure in the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and maintained close ties with British abolitionists opposed to Garrison. Tappan played a leading part in securing the freedom of the African captives on the slave ship in 1841. In 1846, Tappan abandoned efforts to convert older benevolent societies to abolitionism
and founded the American Missionary Association. Focused mainly on the religious sphere, Tappan gave only a lukewarm endorsement to political abolitionism. Wyatt-Brown, ; ,
18:303-04. TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Brooklyn, N.Y. 9 March [1855].

MY DEAR FRIEND DOUGLASS,

I hear that you are sick.²In a brief editorial in Julia Griffiths reported that since Douglass’s return to Rochester after a seven-week speaking tour of the Northeast, he had been too ill to attend to his responsibilities at the newspaper or to answer letters. She also reported that a local physician who was caring for Douglass recommended rest as the key to his recovery. , 2 March 1855. Receive my sympathy. But, after your great labors I am not surprised. For aught I see you must now be contented to rest awhile. You have done the work of two or three men for some time! [N]ature now asserts her claims, and is teaching you that you are but a man. Rest, , REST is absolutely necessary—that is intellectual rest. Bodily exercise in the open air (moderate and daily!) will do you good. Don’t think this temporary suspension will be lost time—O, see—it will be time gained. Wilberforce,³William Wilberforce (1759-1833), British reformer, author, and member of Parliament, joined the antislavery movement in 1787 at the urging of Thomas Clarkson and others. Over the next two decades, Wilberforce led the parliamentary campaign, which culminated in the law of 1807 banning theAtlantic slave trade and establishing the African Institution. In 1823, Wilberforce joined other prominent abolitionists to organize the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery. That same year he published and inaugurated the emancipation struggle in Parliament by presenting a Quaker abolitionist petition. Wilberforce’s sympathy for the plight of West Indian bondsmen seldom extended to the poor of his own country. On domestic issues, he frequently aided governmental attempts to crush political dissent and control the labor force, supporting the Sedition Act of 1795, the Combination Law of 1799, and the suspension of habeas corpus in 1818. Reginald Coupland, (Oxford, Eng., 1923); David Brion Davis, (Ithaca, N.Y., 1975), 460-61; , 21:208-17. after working with brains and fingers, 14 hours a day for many years, finding it was killing him, came to the resolution (probably under the advice of some good physician) to cut off one third of the time devoted to labor. He found, after a while, that he could do more work in 9 or 10 hours than he had been accustomed to do in 14! Had he come to the sage conclusion that it does not depend upon the number of hours we devote to business, but upon the strength of body & mind we bring to it. : Frederick Douglass, when discharged by his present physician—if he sticks to his advice—will probably do more in 6 hours daily labor than he has ever got done in 12; but then! this 6 or 8 hours hours must be ALL he does in the 24.

After all, what weak creatures we are without Divine help. We must go to the Great Physician of Soul & body, and cast all our cares upon Him, for “He careth for us."⁴ Tappan paraphrases 1 Pet. 5:7. Is not this a delightful thought!

Bear up then—be not worried—nor impatient. In good time you will resume your useful labor.

Affecy yours,

LEWIS TAPPAN

ALS: Lewis Tappan Papers, DLC.