William L. Garrison, The Liberator, The Last Issue

Description

William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator was the most prominent voice in the Abolitionist movement for 35 years.

The main article is Garrison’s opinion on ratification. Garrison considered his mission accomplished with the passage of the 13th Amendment, but he closed his newspaper’s career with an anticipation of the need for the 14th and 15th Amendments. This issue (Volume XXV, Number 52) marked the end of the run. 

Other page 1 articles include Through the Red Sea Into the Wilderness by L. Maria Child and a printing of Senator Henry Wilsons’ recent speech on emancipation.

Of greater interest is the printing in the masthead of President Lincoln’s 1864 letter to the abolitionist General James S. Wadsworth declaring his opinion that the right to vote should be extended to African American men. 

Page 207 (the third page of this broadsheet) includes an impassioned letter from Elizabeth Cady Stanton, entitled Political Rights of Woman. Stanton askes Garrison “Will the last Liberator say a word for the only remaining class of citizens outside the pale of political recognition-namely woman?” She continues, noting that women are now less free than even formerly enslaved men… She mentions a proposition submitted to Congress for an amendment to bar women from voting forever. Below her letter is a draft of a petition being submitted to Congress for Universal Suffrage. 

The newspaper is folded as usual with some of the folds starting to split; toned; light foxing; else in very good condition – still sturdy and readable.

Garrison, William L. The Liberator. Boston: J. B. Yerrington & Son, December 29, 1865, Volume XXXV. No. 52. Broadsheet Newspaper. 4p.