Letters to Catherine E. Beecher

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.