LETTERS TO CATHERINE E. BEECHER, IN REPLY TO AN ESSAY ON SLAVERY AND ABOLITIONISM, ADDRESSED TO A. E. GRIMKÉ. REVISED BY THE AUTHOR. BOSTON: PRINTED BY ISAAC KNAPP, 25, CORNHILL. 1838. Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1838, by ISAAC KNAPP, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. LETTER I. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF ABOLITIONISTS. BROOKLINE, Mass., _6 month, 12th, 1837_. MY DEAR FRIEND: Thy book has appeared just at a time, when, from the nature of my engagements, it will be impossible for me to give it that attention which so weighty a subject demands. Incessantly occupied in prosecuting a mission, the responsibilities of which task all my powers, I can reply to it only by desultory letters, thrown from my pen as I travel from place to place. I prefer this mode to that of taking as long a time to answer it, as thou didst to determine upon the best method by which to counteract the effect of my testimony at the north--which, as the preface of thy book informs me, was thy main design. Thou thinkest I have not been ‘sufficiently informed in regard to the feelings and opinions of Christian females at the North’ on the subject of slavery; for that in fact they hold the same _principles_ with Abolitionists, although they condemn their measures. Wilt thou permit me to receive their principles from thy pen? Thus instructed, however misinformed I may heretofore have been, I can hardly fail of attaining to accurate knowledge. Let us examine them, to see how far they correspond with the principles held by Abolitionists.