Buffalo, Jan. 29, 1848.

Messrs. Douglass & Delany:—Gentlemen: In my last, I promised that you should hear from me often. In the fulfilment of that promise, I feel that my whole duty is not discharged short of the accompanying, prerequisites necessary, and no doubt always acceptable, especially in a new movement like yours, and burdened with matters of such momentous import. I therefore enclose an addition to your subscription list. While so doing, I feel that a more appropriate opportunity could not present itself to say a word in regard to the position we occupy,—a glance at which, for years past, has, to me, always brought with it its accompanyment of sorrow. In this age of false reasoning, when the ethics of the learned and great are measured by circumstances, and dealt out by expediency, it is a matter of no surprise that subjects of incalculable blessing to the human race are sacrificed for the aggrandisement of the favored few; especially when men of intelligence will stand up and proclaim before the highest legislative tribunal in the nation, that the institution of Slavery is a part and parcel of the great compact; that it perfectly accords with the spirit and meaning of the word republican;—a nation which for more than half a century has boasted of her constitution and just equalization of laws; of her republicanism and her virtues; a nation which annually, on the fourth day of July, sends up her merry peals of joy and thanksgiving to the God of Liberty, that he has so distinguished her above other nations of the earth; a nation the safety of whose coming destiny alone rests upon the perpetuity of that republican principle which our forefathers waded in blood to achieve, but in part experienced; a principle which is dear to every true American, the basis upon which his liberty rests, and his incentive to action is founded.

I repeat, that in an age like this, it is not strange that a full application of these repub[li]can principles should be witheld from us, leaving the position we occupy, or the working out of these great principles of reform, mainly dependant upon our own exertions.—My cause for complaint, and to which I design making these few suggestions directly bear, has its apparent origin among ourselves, either in the large amount of unconsciousness in regard to the important position we occupy, and the duties that devolve upon us in working out our own redemption, or else it is based upon the principle of self-exaltation. I am sorry to be compelled to make this sweeping assertion, but I ask if it is not strange, amid all the intelligence our people possess, the difficulties to be met, and the haven in view, that our position is not fully realized? It seems that almost every redeeming feature or wise plan adopted to hasten and usher in that delightful morn, meets its most deadly thrusts from the hands of those whom it was intended to benefit. Instead of laying aside minor difficulties, or differences of opinion on irrelevant points, and coming up in one solid phalanx, to do battle with this giant Slavery, there seems to be a continual disposition to lurk by the wayside, and oppose this and that important movement; withholding their influence and means; but never backward to give liberally to support the low, miserable, pro-slavery, unintellectual dogmas, with which the world is filled. This paper cannot have their support, because its editors conscienciously believe that not only Slavery is sinful, and that the combined efforts of man should be arrayed against it; but they also believe that wars should cease, and that man should cease to imbrue his hands in the blood of his fellow man; that capital punishment should cease, &c., &c.; and this movement cannot have my support, because such an one failed, or it started from such and such a place, or by or through such and such hands. I will not numerate farther. These are the difficulties, my friends, which must be overcome. This quarrelling about what some call extraneous matter, diverting the attention from the great object in view, must be surrendered; and the overthrow of the monster iniquity, Slavery, be the rallying point around which our interests revolve, and to which all others should be subservient. Although I have differed many years from the views of some of the great pioneers in this branch of reform, far be it from me to cherish a single thought, so long as they prove faithful to the slave, of refusing to extend to them the right hand of fellowship; in fact, many of the first coadjutors, with Wm. L. GarrisonGarrison, William Lloyd

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-79) was the foremost white abolitionist of the nineteenth century and was credited with the discovery of Douglass as a speaker at an antislavery meeting in Nantucket in 1841. He began his career as an apprentice printer on the Newburyport (Mass.) Herald at the age of thirteen. Garrison became editor of the Newburyport Free Press in 1826, but the paper closed within a year. He was then associated with a series of periodicals in Boston that advocated reform before Benjamin Lundy offered the young journalist the opportunity to write for his antislavery newspaper. Garrison joined Lundy in editing the Genius of Universal Emancipation in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1829, during the last year of the paper's 1821-1830 run. In 1830 a libel suit against the editors forced the paper to close and landed Garrison in jail. After his release, he courted the wealthy merchants of New York and Boston in order to start the Liberator (1831-65), a weekly journal based in Boston in which he advocated an immediate end to slavery. Garrison's brand of abolition condemned any institution that would tolerate the existence of slavery, including churches, political parties. and even the United States itself and any scheme aimed at removing black people from the country. Instead, Garrison hoped to raise the public's awareness that slavery was morally wrong and thereby force its end in an almost millennial moment of emancipation. His approach appealed to both white and black antislavery advocates but earned him many enemies among those only moderately opposed to slavery and slaveholders alike. Seeing the need for greater action and organization beyond the pages of the Liberator; Garrison joined with other abolitionists to form the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831. Two years later he helped found the larger American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1833 he established ties with English abolitionists after a trip to Great Britain, and he later brought the noted and notorious speaker George Thompson to the United States for a tour. Garrison also dedicated himself to women's rights, encouraging women to enter the public sphere by inviting them, via the Liberator, to form female antislavery societies. In addition to the thirty-three women's antislavery societies that flourished by 1838, Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society welcomed women as well as blacks into its ranks. However, female delegates were excluded from the World's Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 in London. The issue of women's participation in the antislavery movement and Garrison's absolute refusal to turn to politics to end slavery caused a division in the American Anti-Slavery Society. Brothers Lewis and Arthur Tappan, who opposed women's acting as speakers and who hoped to use politics toward abolition, broke with Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society, forming the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, or the "New Organization" in 1841. Garrison's ideas were so closely associated with the "Old Organization" that the American Anti-Slavery Society became known simply as the "Garrisonians." With the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, Garrison believed that he had accomplished his life's work and that of the antislavery movement. He then resigned from the presidency of the American Anti-Slavery Society and closed the Liberator. Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children, 4 vols. (New York, 188589); Henry Mayer, All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery (New York, 1998); James Brewer Stewart, William Lloyd Garrison and the Challenge of Emancipation (Arlington Heights, Ill., 1992); John L. Thomas, The Liberator: William Lloyd Garrison (Boston, 1963); Dictionary of American Biography, 20 vols. (New York, 1928-36), 7:168-72. , as their leader, have ever lain nearest my heart, and shall ever receive my warmest approval. I should be happy to see some abler pen take hold of this view of the subject, and enlarge more fully upon the imperfect views set forth.

Yours for the oppressed,

A. H. FRANCIS.Francis, Abner Hunt

Abner Hunt Francis (1812-72), born on a farm near Flemington, New Jersey, lived in a number of locations throughout his life and became a leader of the black community wherever he resided. In Trenton, New Jersey, he protested against the American Colonization Society, acted as a subscription agent for the Liberator, and attended national black conventions in 1833 and 1834. In 1836 Francis moved to Buffalo, New York, where he established a clothing business. Not only was Francis a leading member of the integrated Buffalo Anti-Slavery Society, but he also spoke at the First of August celebrations of West Indian Emancipation, sought integration of schools, coordinated a state suffrage campaign, and acted as an agent for the Palladium of Liberty, published in Columbus, Ohio, and the North Star. In 1850 Francis openly opposed the Fugitive Slave Law and encouraged others to do so. In mid-1851, he and his wife Lynda relocated to Portland, Oregon, despite an 1849 law that prohibited black settlement in the Oregon Territory. Oregon courts in 1851 ordered 0. B. Francis, Abner's brother, to leave the territory under the exclusionary law. Two hundred eleven leading residents of Oregon offered a petition to the legislature requesting that the Francis brothers be given an exemption. The brothers were not forced to leave, but intolerance of blacks in Oregon continued to grow. In 1860 Abner and Lynda Francis moved to Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada, where Francis became the first black elected to the city council in 1865 and remained a well-respected citizen until his death. Elizabeth McLagan, A Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940 (Portland, Ore., 1980), 88-89; Arthur 0. White, "The Black Movement against Jim Crow Education in Buffalo, New York, 1800-1900," Phylon, 30:380 (Winter 1969); Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:102, 105-07n.