Lucretia Mott Letter

LUCRETIA MOTT LETTER.31 great consummation under William Penn a little more than two decades later. In 1701 William Penn himself was the guest of the Indians of the Susquehanna right " Nobly at y" Kings Palace " at Conestoga, as was also his son William Penn, Jr., in 1704. Thomas Chalkley, the minister, was there in 1706, and James Logan made several visits. " Kentmere Lodge," Moylan, Pennsylvania, 18: xii: 1921. LUCRETIA MOTT LETTER. The letter which follows has been presented to the Friends' Historical Society by Mrs. G. W. Cutter, of Philadelphia, in whose family it has long remained. The note paper on which the letter is written is headed with the seal of the British and Foreign AntiSlavery Society, with the figure of a kneeling slave in chains, and the motto beneath, " Am I not a man and a Brother ? " This seal was adopted upon the formation of the Society in 1787, owing to the efforts of Thomas Clarkson and his band of famous associates. His " History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade " should be familiar to Friends, and the later efforts of John G. Whittier and William Lloyd Garrison, with whom Lucretia Mott worked indefatigably . She and her husband had recently returned from England, where they had been among the American delegates to the great " General Conference " of the Society in London, and where Lucretia Mott was not permitted to attend in her official capacity, because of the resolution that no women were to be seated as delegates. The Conference met in June, 1840. After a most interesting visit, when they met many of those dedicated men and women of all denominations who were active in the anti-slavery movement, James and Lucretia sailed from Liverpool August 27, arriving at New York after a passage of twenty-nine days ! This letter was written about three months afterward. Amelia M. Gum mere. Respected Friend, A. S. Lippincott: I hope before this that thou hast received an acknowledgment from Jas. S. Gibbons of thy generous contribution in aid of the National 32BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Standard. I have waited to hear from him before I thanked thee for the sum given and the note accompanying it, which I sent to New York. A letter from James to C. C. Burleigh makes mention of it in grateful terms. I entirely accord with thy remarks on the importance of the paper, as well as other Abolition periodicals, not being turned aside from their direct object, to assail one another. There has been too much of it, and it has doubtless checked the onward course of the Anti-Slavery movement . But the attentive reader will discover that much in the " Old Organization " papers has been on the defensive side—if that will excuse it. A sectarian spirit found its way into our ranks and made similar ravages to those made in our religious Society some ten or twelve years ago, when many thought it necessary to defend our simple faith by replies to orthodox accusations. I never, however, felt much interest in those controversies ; neither now do I read with any satisfaction the criminations and recriminations which sometimes mar our pages. I hope therefore thy word of exhortation will be suffered among them, and that thou wilt retain an interest and guardian care over the advocates of the cause of the suffering and the dumb. With thanks, on behalf of the Society, for thy gift, I am thine for Truth and Liberty, Philada. i2mo. 8, 1840.Lucretia Mott. [To A. S. Lippincott, Esq. 369 Arch St.] INDEXING THE ARCH STREET RECORDS. By Max I. Reich. The work of indexing and cataloging the contents of the old vault attached to the Arch Street Meeting House is still in progress. There has been hidden away in the vault an accumulation of manuscripts and rare publications of literary value. The undersigned, who has been engaged for some time in examining and classifying this valuable literary hoard, has discovered documents bearing on the early history of the settlement of Friends in Philadelphia ; on the relations of Friends with the Indians from the earliest times ; on the rise and growth of the concern which crystallized in the...