[Abolition – Woman Suffrage – Liberty Party] Smith, Gerrit

“To the Liberty Party.” [Signed and Addressed to Abolitionist John Jay.]

Peterboro, New York: May 7, 1846. Printed circular, [3] pp. on a bifolium, 10 x 8 inches, signed by Gerrit Smith on the integral address leaf and addressed in manuscript to “John Jay Esq. / New York.” Red Peterboro May 21 postmark and “PAID 5” handstamp. Old mailing folds, light toning and scattered soiling, very good condition. Item #BK0047

An important antislavery circular by Gerrit Smith, sent and signed by Smith to fellow abolitionist John Jay (1817–1894), the New York attorney, reformer, and grandson of Chief Justice John Jay. Jay was an active abolitionist whose legal work included representing fugitive slaves and whose efforts within the Episcopal Church repeatedly pressed the denomination to confront slavery.

Smith writes here about a debate within the Liberty Party over whether it should broaden its platform beyond the abolition of slavery to encompass questions of commerce, monopolies, salaries and other economic issues. Smith argues that the party has more immediate work to do in consistently applying its fundamental principle of human equality. He attacks members who support officeholders friendly to slavery, maintain church fellowship with slaveholders, or purchase products created by enslaved labor, writing that “not one in fifty” recognizes the injustice of purchasing “the products of his unrequited and coerced toil.” He argues that the Liberty Party’s principles entitle Black Americans as well as whites to suffrage and condemns political disabilities imposed upon immigrants.

He then extends the argument explicitly to women, writing that abolitionists increasingly favor “restoring to woman her natural right of suffrage,” and predicts that continued discussion will make this conviction universal among them. The statement dates to May 1846, more than two years before the Seneca Falls Convention. Smith subsequently became an important supporter of the early women’s rights movement; the National Park Service notes his relationship with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and his support for women’s suffrage, and a letter from Smith was read at the Rochester Women’s Rights Convention in August 1848.

Smith concludes by demanding greater consistency from antislavery political activists, including refusal to consume products made by enslaved labor. He pictures Liberty men assembling to debate banks and tariffs while wearing “stolen clothes upon their backs and stolen food in their stomachs,” a particularly forceful statement of the free-produce argument. We find one copy at the Library of Congress and no separate entry in OCLC.

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Price: $1,250.00