A Macedonian Cry.
Dear Douglass: -
I send a letter from our good friend, M. B. Vail, of Madilla. - He lives in a dreadful desert, and wants your paper to cheer him. I hope you will send it to him. If you choose to publish his letter it may bring help when it is so much needed.
J. T.Thomas, John

John Thomas (1814–92), an abolitionist and newspaper editor from Syracuse, New York, merged his Liberty Party Paper with Douglass’s North Star in June 1851. Thomas’s paper, which he published in Syracuse from 1849 to 1851, was rapidly failing despite the financial backing of Gerrit Smith. The new paper created from the merger was Frederick Douglass’ Paper, the name indicating which editor would be in control of the venture. Thomas agreed to accept a subordinate position as assistant editor and remained in Syracuse to conduct those duties. Thomas later became widely known for his participation in the Jerry Rescue, the rescue of the fugitive slave William “Jerry” McHenry in Syracuse on 1 October 1851. NS, 12 June 1851; Detroit Plaindealer, 15 April 1892; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 187–88, 380.

Madilla, Aug. 6th, 1851.

Bro. Thomas, Sir: -
When I saw you last in Syracuse, I gave you fifty cents, and told you to send me your paper to that amount, which you did, and I presume a considerable more, of which I am very grateful. But it has been a long time since I had an anti-slavery paper to read. There is not an abolitionist in town of the Gerrit SmithSmith, Gerrit

Gerrit Smith (1797– 1874), a New York businessman and land speculator, became best known for his philanthropic work for such reform causes as temperance and abolition. Between 1828 and 1835, he donated large sums of money to the American Colonization Society, but abandoned that movement in 1835 when his sympathies shifted to the immediate abolitionists. In the 1840s, he gave approximately 140,000 acres of land in upstate New York to three thousand black settlers, thus qualifying them to vote. Smith was a founder and frequent candidate of the Liberty party, running for governor of New York on that ticket in 1840 and winning a seat in Congress in 1852. When the Free Soil merger with moderate antislavery Democrats and Whigs lured away many Liberty party supporters, Smith helped bankroll that organization until 1860. Smith befriended Douglass when the latter moved to Rochester, and Smith frequently helped finance Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Like Douglass, Smith supported John Brown, but psychological stress caused by the failure at Harpers Ferry brought on the first of a series of bipolar episodes that greatly reduced his subsequent reform activities. Ralph Volney Harlow, Gerrit Smith: Philanthropist and Reformer (1939; New York, 1972); Gerald Sorin, The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism (Westport, Conn., 1971), 269– 87; Lewis Perry, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought (Ithaca, N.Y., 1973), 170– 80; John R. McKivigan and Madeleine Leveille, “The ‘Black Dream’ of Gerrit Smith, New York Abolitionist,” Syracuse University Library Associates Courier, 20:61– 76 (Fall 1985); NCAB , 2:322– 23; DAB, 17:270– 71. stamp, except myself. - There are 3 or 4 that are called abolitionists, but when they vote, they are with the whigs. They belong to pro-slavery churches; we have no other, and as for preaching, we have none but time-serving ministers, and I have not heard but one anti-slavery sermon since I left Carlandville. You may judge that I am almost in a state of starvation for the want of abolition food. I have heard by some way or other, that your paper had stopped or united with the North Star. I am desirous of subscribing for one or the other. Please send me a copy, and I will send the money as soon as I receive it. Direct it to M. B. Vail, Unadilla Village, Otsego Co., N.Y.

As it regards the church and society, they are what you would expect, where the majority of the inhabitants belong to the Episcopal Church, and the most prominent members are dealers in whiskey, and some of them keep it to give away, and all for the infamous slave bill. You may judge what kind of religion our village is composed of. Licentiousness and intemperance are not a test in the character of their candidates for town or county officers. Wo be to them! How I should like to have Douglass, Ward, or Loguen come here and talk to them a few times. But I must close.

Yours respectfully,

M. B. Vail.