W[illia]m Lloyd Garrison, Maria W[eston] Chapman, and Edmund Quincy Printed Circular to John Smith, March 1, 1839

Boston Mar 1. 1839.

Dear Friend:

The executive committee of the N. E. nonResistance Society at a
meeting recently held, noted, that letters be addressed to all persons known to
have adopted the principles of non Resistance, or who are favourable to their
free discussion stating the claims & the wants of the Society, & requesting such
pecuniary aid at their hands as the cause requires. It is in obedience
to this vote that this letter is addressed to you.

It is unnessary for us to enlarge upon the object of the Society. They are
briefly set forth in the Declaration of Sentiments, which we have put forth
to the world & in the constitution of the Society. We have neither time nor
space to expatiate upon the infinite importance of the principles we hold, &
which we would fain apply to the business of the world as well or to the
regulation of undivided hearts & lives - principles, the adoption or re-
jection of which, will we are assured determine the happiness or the misery
the human race throughout all time, & whose influences will reach beyond the
bounds of time & stretch far into the endless ages of eternity. The law to
which we have submitted ourselves, through obedience to which we have found
rest to our souls, whose light burden & easy yoke we have combined together
that we may, in all love, persuade our brethern to take when upon themselves, is
that paramount law of our being, to bring to light & exemplify which, the
song of God came into the world and, after a life of privations & persecution
was at last nailed "for our advantage to the bitter cross" - even the perfect
& peaceable law of love. We are confirmed in the belief, that this is the
great law of our nature, by beholding in the world around us the mournful
signs of the ruin which men have brought upon themselves by refusing to obey
it. We see it in the vaunted, yet vain, schemes of government, which they have
devised for their own protection - combinations, which crush the poor & igno-
-rant offender which they elevate wealthy & instructed criminals to the rank
of the makers or administrations of their laws. We see it in the corrupt churches
which make our land a spiritual desolation. We see it in an ambitious and
self-seeking clergy, who claiming a title from Heaven to lord it over the
consciences of their brethren, pervert souls from the right ways, teaching for doc-
-trines the commandments of men; - teaching that the impartial Father of all the
dwellers upon the earth, sanctions the enslaving & imbruting of His own chil-
-dren; that He permits the traffic in the poison which consumes the bodies and the
souls of men; that He is not displeased at the indulgence of ambition, covet-
-ousness & revenge, provided they be displayed in certain modes of mans
own appointing; that He allows, nay commands, man to slay his brother,