Ask the Scholar

Rachel W. Stearns writes to Maria Weston Chapman in regards to sending one more roll of one hundred names to the great Massachusetts petition (to the Legislature). She dwells on the difficulty of securing names and of answering the question: "who is Latimer?" fifty times over. She repeats the excuses made by those who refused to sign. A number of men refused because they had become "non-resistants, no-government, woman's rights & 2nd Advent men." The cause has progressed in Springfield, especially that of ultraism. She explains that her family is not the Springfield Stearneses who are new organization people. Her brother is Charles Stearns Greenfield, who three years ago was imprisoned in Hartford for refusing to pay a military fine and is now preaching in Kentucky. Some of the "radical ultraists" hold a conference and prayer-meeting fortnightly among the African Americans in Springfield. The Springfield anti-slavery society became auxiliary to new organization: "we would not join it." She asks Maria to send the papers she mentioned in a day or two to her cousin.