The debates in our meetings have been quite spirited on8 several topics. Alvan Stewart came pretty near carrying his
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him utterly from continuing his editorial work.
With1 difficulty in January could he complete his annual report to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and it was delivered piecemeal fresh from composition.2 In March, by the urgent advice of his brother-in-law, he took several3 ‘courses’ of drugs and sweating at a Thomsonian infirmary.
But his best medicine was change of air and of scene, even when attended with a very considerable amount of mental excitement.
He did not miss the anniversary meeting in New York; nor was he spared the nervous strain of the climax of the Reign of Terror— the burning of Pennsylvania Hall.
He delivered two elaborate addresses—one for the Fourth of July in4 Boston,5 prepared at a week's notice from the Massachusetts Board, which found him lying on the bed with a slow fever; another for the first of August in the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, on the crowning event of that day, the voluntary abandonment of the6 apprenticeship system by Jamaica and the other British colonies, and the complete acceptance of emancipation.
He did not arrive in New York in season for the opening of the protracted meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society, nor did he take any conspicuous part in the debates.
He was named one of a committee to prepare7 a declaration concerning the common error that the antislavery enterprise was of a political, and not of a religious character.
To his wife he writes from the metropolis on Monday, May 7, 1838:
1 Ms. Jan. 15, 1838, W. L. G. to G. W. Benson.
2 The portion that dealt with the Clerical Appeal, not having been submitted for approval to the Board, was referred back by the Society, with instructions, in publishing, to retain the decided condemnation of that movement, while modifying, if necessary, any undue personal severity. On April 24, Mr. Garrison writes from Boston to S. J. May: ‘My annual report is at last out. Bro. Phelps wrote a protest against that part of it relating to the Clerical Appeal, and had it printed; but, I am happy to say, both for his own sake and the cause, has concluded to suppress it. More on this subject when I see you’ (Ms.)
3 Ms. Mar. 10, April 7, 1838, W. L. G. to G. W. Benson.
4 Lib. 8.99, 109; Ms. June 28, 1838, W. L. G. to F. Jackson.
5 Printed in pamphlet form by Isaac Knapp.
8 Ms.
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