March 27, 1840
From the Connecticut Observer, an item from Kelley, Berlin, Feb 3, 1840
Responding to the argument, advanced by many, that public opinion is against having women speak in public meetings, here is part of what she says:
“… I would appeal to common sense, whether pubic opinion is a safe guide? Has not this same despot, ruling with an iron sceptre, legalized every sin? Farewell, then, public opinion — thou art an unsafe a bad teacher. Let us call upon common sense to guide us in this country……. If we can but obtain the pure waters of truth, why should we be so scrupulous about the form of the vessel through which we receive it?:” Common sense is not thus scrupulous.”
June 5, 1840
Appearing under Refuge of Oppression are minutes of a Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society, from the New Haven Record.
Abby Kelley appears at the meeting, and her presence creates controversy. She is “distinquished for her effrontery in practically asserting the right of her sex to an equal place with men.” After some discussion, she is allowed to speak. After her speech, the chairman of the meeting announced that he could no longer serve in that role, and expressed his views about her speech. He is more than ever convinced “that it is dangerous to allow women to have a voice in public deliberations. Their influence was too powerful; yet not by the power of their arguments, but by the fascination of their looks and the sorcery of their tongue, by taking advantage of the gallantry of the men, they would in all cases carry the day, whether their cause was right or wrong!” Later, Kelley rises to speak again, the Chair objects and is sustained. Then there is a vote not to allow women to vote. Finally, midst some confusion, as the meeting adjourns, it is announced that Miss Kelley would speak at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
February 18, 1842
This meeting, held in the Representatives’ Hall, began at an early evening hour, and continued until almost eleven. Speakers included Remond, Phillips, Frederick Douglass, Abby Kelley, and Garrison. It is said of Douglass: “who made, perhaps, although void of any regular education, the best speech of the evening everything considered. He showed great imitative powers, and gave an amusing exhibition of the southern style of preaching to slaves, and the corresponding practice, which seemed to interest the meeting greatly. His natie talents are evidently of a high order.”
September’s 2, 1842
From an “Observer”, Canandaigua Lake, August, 1842 . Very critical review of Kelley’s attacks on the Liberty Party. “Abby’s course may do much harm to the cause of the slave…. Hold the abolitionists responsible for her wild and reckless attacks,…..”
August 4, 1843
Here is reference to Alvan Stewart’s advice that abolitionists not attend the many conventions which have been publicized. He is “attached” to the Liberty Party, and the AAS Society, which sponsors the conventions, recognizes no such party. Stewart, in particular attacks the ‘Massachusetts abolitionists’, charging that they are ‘No Human-Government Men’. Then there follows an extract from Stewart’s letter: “Last November, I told William Lloyd Garrison, in my own house, that he and his friends had no remedy for slavery except the one that I have just stated — a sort of universal millennium. He admitted it. He said that he, ‘would not petition or vote for the slave’s deliverance, if he knew that would accomplish it.’
‘Why’, said I.
‘Because that would be using our corrupt human government.’……He further said , he had no doubt, the time would come when voting would be regarded as infamous, and the same as visiting the gambling-table or the brothel….”
There is a printed response from Abby Kelley, in which she calls attention to the huge number of petitions recently filed in the state legislature by abolitionists in the state, and fundamentally says that Stewart’s complaint is only that they do not support the Liberty Party, or his candidacy.
October 4, 1844
Under the Refuge of Oppression there is an article from the Boston Mercantile Journal, very critical of Kelley. On page three there is a strong response. “The editor of this Journal is one of those unprincipled, time-serving men, whose rule of right is popular opinion, and who are as incapable of appreciating as they are of performing great and noble deeds in the cause of humanity…” It goes on to name the article as vulgar and brutal “in derogation of that gifted and philanthropic woman, the ornament of her sex, Abby Kelley…..
July 11, 1845
From the New Lisbon (Ohio) Aurora. An account of a meeting in the Protestant Methodist Church, which had previously experienced “the awful flagellations of Abby Kelley’ inflicted on them, and then two preachers denounced the American Anti-Slavery Society “as an infidel organization, and the Rev. Masonic elder poured forth his little spite on the head of Abby in no stinte manner.. But no such oppressors do hurt her influence, for the people will go and hear, not withstanding the clerical bulls to the contrary……”
Sept 19, 1845
Here is an account of how Kelley, after venturing to speak in a Quaker Meeting, in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, having been cautioned several times, against speaking, was finally dragged out.
December 4, 1846
Under title Where Stands Massachusetts, there is a private letter to Garrison from Stephen Foster, lamenting the cool reception he and Abby have received in Hubbardston and Worcester. “..it was like attempting to thaw ice amid the eternal snows of the polar regions. It is enough to chill one’s blood only to step into our meetings and witness the cold indifference which sits brooding on the features of our audience…. Massachusetts, it seems to me, has fallen immensely since I left the State two years ago…… I hope it is not so in every part of the State…..”
March 9, 1849
Joseph Merrill writes from Danvers (New Mills), Feb 22, 1849, and praises highly both of the Fosters, who have held a series of meetings in that town.
