Ask the Scholar

Maynard King writes to William Lloyd Garrison identifying himself as an agent of the Liberator and saying the paper is "emphatically the great mouth peace [sic] by which and through which Gods poor could speak." He suggests that since the abolition cause is suffering, even in Massachusetts, and the Liberator "is the only paper through which at present pure Anti-Slavery principles can be promulgated that it ought to adhere to its first love" and stop covering other topics not connected with abolitionism. "We feel that to fill up the columns of the Libreator at this time with subjects foreign to the A[nti] S[lavery] Cause (however good in themselves) is injustice to the slave and to say the least a kind of gradualism," King argues. He explains that he does not object to Garrison advocating other causes, and says he would even consider subscribing to another Garrison newspaper that considered other subjects not related to slavery, but he insists, "Let the Liberator be the Liberator of the Slave ..." King adds that departure from only advocating against slavery has also kept some new subscribers away from the paper and he fears it will cause others to stop their subscription. He says he could "tribble [sic] the number [of subscribers] if I could assure them that it could be what it originally was."