To Rev. Samuel J. May.
Wayland, 1867.
Your anti-slavery sketches 1 carry me back pleasantly to those bygone days when our souls were raised above the level of common life by the glorious inspiration of unselfish zeal.
It seems but a little while ago, and yet men speak of it as a “dead subject,” so swiftly the world whirls round, carrying us, and all memory of us, with it!
In your very kind notice of me, you have exaggerated some things, and omitted others.
I don't think I lost so much “per annum” by espousing the antislavery cause.
At all events, I think the indefinite statement that my literary prospects were much injured by it would have been better.
With regard to society, I was a gainer decidedly; for though the respectables, who had condescended to patronize me, forthwith sent me “to Coventry,” anti-slavery introduced
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me to the noblest and best of the land, intellectually and morally, and knit us together in that firm friendship which grows out of sympathy in a good but unpopular cause.
Besides, it is impossible to estimate how much one's own character gains by a warfare which keeps the intellect wide awake, and compels one to reflect upon moral principles.
I was quite surprised, one day, by a note from the trustees of the Boston Athenaeum, offering me the free use of the library, the same as if I owned a share.... I had never asked such a favor, and I am not aware that any friend of mine had ever solicited it. My husband was anti-slavery, and it was the theme of many of our conversations while Garrison was in prison.
About the time of the unexpected attention from the trustees, Mr. Garrison came to Boston, and I had a talk with him. Consequently the first use I made of my Athenaeum privilege was to take out some books on that subject, with a view to writing my “Appeal.”
A few weeks after the “Appeal” was published, I received another note from the trustees, informing me that at a recent meeting they had passed a vote to take away my privilege, lest it should prove an inconvenient precedent! 