Garrison, Francis Jackson:

[Autograph Letter, Signed, by Francis Jackson Garrison, Responding to a Descendant of Samuel Fessenden About Matters Concerning Their Abolitionist Forebears].

"Rockledge," Roxbury, Ma: June 20, 1875. [2]pp., on a single folded sheet. Minor wear and creasing. Very good. Item #5695

Francis Jackson Garrison (1848-1916) was the youngest child of William Lloyd Garrison and Helen Eliza Benson Garrison. Here, Garrison writes from the family home, Rockledge in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and responds to a woman named Mattie about her grandfather, Maine abolitionist and politician Samuel Fessenden. Garrison notes that he looked for information in "the Liberator file" (his late father's abolitionist newspaper) and didn't find much, but still provides her with a full-page quote in the words of William Lloyd Garrison. The second page reads: "At the third decade meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society, held at Philadelphia, December 3, 1863, the President (Mr. Garrison) said: 'The next letter is from a very near, and dear, and reverend friend, Hon. Samuel Fessenden, of Portland, Maine, father of Hon. William Pitt Fessenden, who is one of the leading Senators of the United States. He is now, of course, advanced in years; and, having nearly lost his eyesight, is compelled to use an amanuensis in order to have his sentiments recorded. Among a host of friends and coadjutors, I hardly know of one whom I esteem and reverence more than I do Samuel Fessenden of Maine. The circumstances in which I became acquainted with him are to me peculiarly touching, as they are certainly enduring in my recollection. I trust he will be spared to witness, before his removal, the utter extermination of slavery from our country, and to join in the song of jubilee.'"

Price: $350