Medina, Mich., Dec., 1852.

Mr. Editor:—I wish to enquire whether any good reason can be given for the present system of choosing President, through electors. Certainly powerful reasons can be brought against it; and if there are none in favor of it, (and I confess I know of none,) why not call the attention of Congress to the subject of abolishing the system.

I, probably, feel more indignant, in consequence of having been compel'ed, at the late election, to vote the Whig Free Soil, halfway abolition ticket, instead of voting for the man of my choice, William GoodellGoodell, William

William Goodell (1792-1878), a New York abolitionist and newspaper editor, helped to form both the American Anti-Slavery Society and the Liberty party. As a writer and editor, Goodell contributed to a number of reform and antislavery publications, including the Genius of Temperance, the Emancipator, the Friend of Man, the American Jubilee, the Radical Abolitionist, and Principia. Goodell's abolitionist ideals did not always fall in line with the Garrisonians. On religion, Goodell agreed wholeheartedly that established churches supported proslavery ideology, and he went so far as to establish his own nonsectarian church in Honeoye, New York, on the principles of temperance and antislavery. In contrast, Goodell broke with the Garrisonians on the issue of politics. He helped found the Liberty party, looking to use political means in the fight against slavery. Sorin, New York Abolitionists, 57-62; Perry, Radical Abolitionism, 46-48, 180-83; DAB, 7:384-85. , as there was no electoral ticket got up for him in this State.

I cannot close without expressing my joy at the election of 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. . God be praised for one abolition Congressman!

J. S. DawesDawes, James Shaw

This is likely James Shaw Dawes (1812–96), a native of Massachusetts who steadily moved west throughout his life as a farmer. His father, John Dawes, served in the Revolution as a teenager. Dawes received a superior education to most at the time, although he never attended any higher institutions. He first moved to Medina, Michigan, in 1835. In the late 1850s he moved to Earlville, Iowa, moving later to Grinnelle, Iowa, before settling in Blue Rapids, Kansas in 1872. He was known to be active in the fight against slavery and temperance and spoke regularly about these topics in his local church. “Died,” Blue Rapids (Kans.) Times, 17 December 1896; 1850 U. S. Census, Medina, Lenawee, Michigan; 1860 U. S. Census, Oneida Township, Delaware, Iowa; 1880 U.S. Census, Blue Rapids, Marshall, Kansas.