A letter from April 1870, written by Samuel May to Richard Davis Webb, mentioning Boston’s celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment.

Samuel May was a white abolitionist and minister from Massachusetts. He worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison and his circle of abolitionists and as an agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society for many years. May’s cousin, Samuel J. May, and Wendell Phillips were also Garrisonian abolitionists. Richard Davis Webb was an Irish journalist and abolitionist.

Transcript:

27 Hollis St. Boston, April 14. [[object Object]]

Dear friend Webb,

I am indeed delinquent in my correspondence, not with you alone, but (I fear) many - certainly, some others. And, even now, I have not the time to explain or apologize, -- of which you will doubtless be glad! To-day the citizens of Boston are celebrating the adoption of the “Fifteenth Amendment” ~ all the colored people of the city + of many neighboring towns also, and a good sprinkling of white folk beside; the day is warm + bright, + all is auspicious. At 3 o’clock. Faneuil Hall will be well filled, maybe packed, + Garrison, + Phillips, + numbers of others, are to speak. S. J. May and I, in this family, are honored with tickets of invitation to platform; and as it is now past 2 o’clock, you will perceive I have small time for writing. But I have no sinister motive in so long a silence, as I’m sure you’ll believe.

We are very sorry to have Deborah leave the country without coming to Boston, or Leicester, again. We comfort ourselves a little with sending you a few books now, and hoping that both you and she will, before long, visit America again.

I had a short note from Mary Erthin[[object Object]] yesterday, ~ written with her left hand. She said she had sent to you, some weeks time, a letter I had written to her, concerning Mrs. Robbins’s death mainly, + my father’s illness; -- and, before I had finished which, my dear father himself joined the great company of the departed. -- I was glad she sent it to you; for I quite had you in mind, all the while I was writing it. Now I must say goodbye; -- & with sincere regard

For you always

S. May