Morrisville, August 4th, 1852.

Dear Douglass:—Our Madison friends have just closed on of the most encouraging county meetings I have ever attended. I forward you herewith the minutes. The meeting was called at one P.M.; but by ten o'clock in the forenoon many had got together. Among these, we noticed our friend, D. H. Frost, Esq., of the Oneida Telegraph; Rev. A Scoffield, of Georgetown; Rev. B. F. Remington, of Peterboro; O. Simmons, Esq., [illegible] Bronson, Esq., B. Woodman, Esq., and others of the tried and true. The Rev. Mr. Gonzalves, whose name you have doubtless noticed, as a converted Roman Catholic, who has taken up his residence in Madison County, and who, we should judge, is a thorough-going abolitionist, was also present. The signs indicated a full and spirited meeting, in which we were not disappointed. The current, as you will see by the resolutions passed, was strong towards union with the Pittsburgh Convention, pro-rated that the body took right ground, of which there are indications. Letters of an encouraging character were read from the Hon. E. W. Fox, of Orleans County, and the Hon. S. P. Chase. God grant that there may be union between all classes of abolitionists, not only in name, but in truth, and on truth!

Yours as ever,

Geroge G. Ritchie

MADISON COUNTY LIBERTY PARTY CONVENTION.

At one P.M., the Convention met in the Presbyterian house, and was called to order by the Rev. A SCOFIELD, of Georgetown, who nominated B. WOODMAN, Esq., of Madison, for President of the Convention.

Rev. GEORGE G. RITCHIE, of Clinton, was chosen Secretary.

GERRIT SMITH, Esq.Smith, 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. , of Peterboro, Rev. B. C. HAWLEY, of Cesonaria, and S. S. ABBOTT, Esq., of Hamilton, were appointed a committee on resolutions.

During the absence of the committee, the Rev. Mr. SCOFIELD, by request, read the calls for the meeting, after which, he addressed the Convention.

GERRIT SMITH, Esq., from the committee on resolutions, reported the following:

Resolved, That, with both the great political parties pledged to uphold slavery, and

the fugitive slave law, and one of them to "[...]," and the other to "[illegible]" all discussion of these topics, and with the current religion on the side of parties, and, moreover, with a God in heaven to defend the cause of the oppressed, the prospect before this pre-eminently guilty nation, is, but too probably, one of darkness and death, instead of light and life.

Resolved, That neither the consideration that we are but a small number, nor the consideration that we are not like to attain that object, should be allowed to relax our endeavors, to bring the government of this nation to the side of truth and justice.

Resolved, That, inasmuch as no such abomination of slavery can be legalized, it is comparatively unimportant whether the Federal Constitution does, or does not attempt it.

Resolved, That the right to elect rulers is neither derived by Americans from the Federal Constitution, nor by others from the concessions of despots; but that, whatever the human regulations for its exercise, the right itself is derived from God, and should be [illegible] in every case where it can be.

Resolved, That, in the [...] that the approaching Convention at Pittsburgh will be a Convention not for our class, but for all classes of the friends of freedom, we proceed to appoint delegates to it; and, resolved, further, that the following persons be the delegates, viz: Gerrit Smith, of Peterboro, S. E. Church, of Hamilton; Henry Seymour, of Lebanon.

Resolved, That we hope that the Pittsburgh Convention will organize a permanent and [illegible] democratic party; and that it will distinctly and emphatically repudiate the idea that [...] form of piracy, can be legalized.

Resolved, That, as the approaching National Liberty Party Convention, at Buffalo, is to be a mass Convention of men and women, we appoint no delegates to it, but simply recommend all who love the principles of that party to endeavor to attend it.

Voted to accept the report of the Committee.

The resolutions were then read separately and adopted, with but two disputing votes on the question of adopting the first.

S. E. Church, Esq., offered a resolution endorsing the Buffalo Platform; but after discussion, it was withdrawn.

Voted, That when the Convention adjourn, it do so to the last Wednesday in August, at eleven, A.M.

Voted to adjourn.

Brownell WoodmanWoodman, Brownell

, Pres't.

George G. RitchieRitchie, George G.

George Galvin Ritchie (1819–53) was a married father of three from Rochester, New York, when he became a theological student at Madison University, later Colgate University, in Hamilton, New York. In 1846 he founded the school’s first student newspaper, the Hamilton Student, but soon raised faculty ire by republishing abolitionist tracts written by Gerrit Smith. In January 1847 he wrote an editorial denouncing New York voters and the state’s religious press as either “pro-slavery in their sentiments” or “indifferent to the subject.” The school expelled Ritchie, but he continued to publish his weekly newspaper, renamed the Christian Reformer, until September 1847. He remained an active abolitionist in Baptist church and Liberty party circles until his death. Hamilton (N.Y.) Colgate University News, 15 May 1998. , Sec'y.