Letter from Samuel Johnson, North Andover, [Mass.], to William Lloyd Garrison, Feb[ruary] 8 [18]78

Samuel Johnson writes William Lloyd Garrison thanking him for the copy of his letter to W.E. Chandler. Johnson states that he is always happy to read whatever Garrison "may write on these momentous issues". Johnson expresses his desire that Benjamin Hayes, Stanley Matthews and Robert G. Ingersoll be "exposed, & punished". Johnson asserts to Garrison that the February 2nd edition of the Boston Journal contains a "virtual confession, or rather an authoritative admission, of the Bargain with the Southern Democrats" (the Compromise of 1877). Johnson praises Senator James G. Blaine's speech on the "Silver Bill" (the Bland-Allison Act), and declares that Blaine "should have been President".
Courtesy of Boston Public Library