Ask the Scholar

George Bourne writes to William Lloyd Garrison discussing "the discord which has arisen among our Brethren in Massachusetts," saying it "is of an extensive and deeply-rooted character." He cites Joshua Leavitt's plan to publish a copy of the first number of the Liberator in his newspaper, the Emancipator, "to verify that there has been a departure from the primitive basis on which the Liberator was established." Bourne recalls his own warning to Garrison, years earlier, that giving space in the Liberator to topics not directly connected to abolitionism would create "disorganizing effects." He complains that "there is a caustic and contemptuous impeachment of each other's integrity and philanthropy which pierces me to the heart." Bourne references the "Clerical Appeal" in 1837 and assures Garrison that "whoever was the author of the [current] strife, and whoever may be most guilty, I think, there has been error all around." He then objects to "the inflexible pertinacity with which some of our professed Anti-Slavery men have attempted to drive the adoption of dogmas and measures altogether severed from the Abolition of Slavery." Bourne remarks that the strife is harmful to the movement and notes that A.A. "Phelps' sneers and insinuations against you, and the retorts upon him, are indescribably prejudicial to the holy warfare." He objects to the publication of the newspaper, "the [Massachusetts] Abolitionist," saying it "is mischievous and will end in evil" but repeats that many felt it was necessary "to issue another periodical which all Anti-Slavery men could read without reference to discordant themes." On verso, Bourne comments that "this scrawl is a memento of affection" and adds sarcastically that he "intended to have written you a long letter, but unexpected interruptions, have forced me to be short!"