Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

LETTERS. 145
dred letters, and to have to station myself on the
steps of the State House this winter, to besiege people. Sims is a skilful mechanic and his master asks
$1,800 for him. A large sum for an abolitionist to
get out of pro-slavery purses! But I got it! I got it!
I got it! Hurrah! I had written only eighteen letters, when one gentleman promised to pay the whole
sum, provided I would not mention his name.
TO HON. LEMIUEL SHAW.
MEDFORD, January 3, 1861.
To THE HoN. LEMUEL SHAW, - By this mail I
send you three pamphlets, for which I ask a candid
perusal. With deep sadness I saw your respected
and influential name signed to an address in favor of
repealing the Personal Liberty Bill. I trust you will
not deem me disrespectful if I ask whether you have
reflected well on all the bearings of this important
subject. Perhaps you may consider me, and those
with whom I labor, as persons prone to look only on
one side. Grant that it is so - is it not the neglected
side? is it not the right side? And are not you
yourself, in common with all human beings, liable to
look upon things too much from one point of view?
I presume that your social environment is almost
entirely conservative; and conservative of habits and
stereotyped sayings, rather than of the original principles on which the government of this country was
founded. Have you carefully examined and duly
considered the other side? This mutual agreement
between North and South to keep millions of fellowbeings in abject degradation and misery cannot possibly be right. No sophistry can make it appear so
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