ANNA DICKINSON  General correspondence  Stowe, Harriet B.
[May 22, 1869 & undated][*[Stowe E Beecher]*]

Dear Miss Dickinson,
This is to introduce my nephew
Mr. George Beecher. He will
probably present before you the
cause of our three hundred boys 
who want you to give them 
a lecture—They are a noble
set & for many reasons it
would do great good for you
to speak in Andover.
One reason I wish you
wd come is that then I hope
you will come & give us a 
little visit — Please do come
— & please come to us when 
you come We all want
to see & hear you
your affectionate friend H.B. StoweMiss Dickinson this letter was
to introduce me that I might
ask you on behalf of the young men
in the Academy at Andover to give
them a lecture. I understand that
you leave these parts tomorrow. Will
it be possible for you to grant this
request any time before the last of
April. If it is in any way possible
and in conformity with your pleasure
& will you please send me a note
to that effect at Andover, Mass. or 
signify as much in a note to myaunt Ms. Stowe. I am sorry
that circumstances are such that
I cannot see you but shall still
mail in hope that you will be pleased
to accept my Aunt's invitation, and
that of the young men of Andover
to lecture before them.
Your obl. servant
G.B. BeecherJames T. Fields.
James R. Osgood.
John S. Clark.
Fields, Osgood & Co.
(Successors to TICKNOR & FIELDS), Publishers, 
No. 124 Tremont Street, Boston. 
(New York Office, No. 713, Broadway.)
Boston, Boston May 22 1869.

My Dear Anna,
Dont pray think your
grandmother is meddling with things none
o her concern, but you promised me
so strict & faithful you would write
that inquiry to Fields & Osgood that
I took it for granted it had been 
written in a communication with
them & so made the inquiry how
it had turned out -
But as the commercial
honor of the firm with which I
am embarked is a matter in
which I am deeply concernedI took occasion to have a full 
& free conversation with Mr. Osgood
which has ended in a manner
perfectly satisfactory to me.  
He showed me first a letter from 
Miss Elisabeth Peabody sister of Nan 
Hawthorne who had had her mind
troubled with the same feeling of 
disproportionate results between her 
ideas of the worth of her husbands 
works profits. Mr Osgood offered
as he how over to your opportunity 
of fully examining all the books 
& accounts of the firm and Miss 
Peabody who was competent to 
make it,  (having herself kept 
a book store) next through the 

whole thing faithfully. & I want 
to copy a passage from [it] her letter because 
the case is analogous to yours. 
“You ask me to say in a note, in view
 of suggestions having been made to Miss 
Hawthorne by persons without knowledge 
but speaking from vague impressions 
of what they thought ought to be the
income of the works of her husband 
involving allegations derogatory to 
your treatment of the Estate.  
What my views are of your [accounts] conduct 
in the premises after my evaluation 
of all your accounts is choosing 
printers, paper makers, book binders, 
publishers files & publishers orders
& more sale reports
  I feel bound to say that allthese papers are consistent 
with each other and agree in 
bearing not the statement you 
made at first. Viz that so much 
has been the actual demand 
& sale of Mr Hawthornes works. 
That neither publisher nor author
have received since the firm
has been established an average 
of even one thousand dollars a 
year - the profits hitherto 
have been just about equal to 
each."

This case shows you dear Anna 
how quite possible it is for flying
rumors to embarrass our mind
& also that there is no remedy 
but clear accounts for such 


troubles—also it shows you 
how impossible it must be to
a great firm to have any real
failure in accounts unless these 
various departments of printing 
book binding &c &c all belong 
to one house & are under one 
man-
I have also been over the 
whole evidence in regard to our
 friend Gail & I think her mind 
has been troubled & misled
 in the same way as Mrs. Hawthorne
was—& I will yet I think be 
able to get testimony from her
referens that places the 
honor of the firm above question
- I am sorry this thing has been[?], because the honor of a firm 
is like that of a woman-
 always injured by being called in question -
When I see you I shall have 
the means of showing you exactly 
the truth in this matter as I 
shall obtain them from the referens(?)- 
I am perfectly firm on this 
truth and honor of this house 
and satisfied with their evident 
open fairness in being willing to 
be examined-
I trust you will  look through 
your accounts I have a clean 
clear sense of being [?] right . 
I hope to have that visit from 
you yet - don’t hurry your book 
lets get it all right- your loving granny H Stowe
I lay on my sofa all alone
on Saturday night & read your
book all through & when I got
through I rose up mentally & fell
on your neck & said well done
good & faithful Anna - daughter
of my soul. I thank you for this
Your poor old grandma in the
work rejoices to find it in your 
brave young hands.
I did long to see you & say
all this - fancy then how
provoked I was to know that you
were in town all this time
& I knew it not - I might have
said it in good earnest Well
dear child god bless you - Your 
book is a noble deed & will do 
good I am sure
Your loving HB Stowe
overDon't mind what any body says
about it [a] in a work of art
Works of art be hanged!— you 
had a braver thought than thatA Brave Noble Book

So we thought as we laid down
What Answer? The first St??y published
by Anna Dickinson.
       It is one of those books
which belong to the class of 
Deeds not words. To call it a 
novel & to talk over it any of 
the hacknied cant of the [nature] artistic
merits of the Story— or to judge
of it merely as a story, is for
us Americans in this hour of
our trial, as out of place as
for King David to have criticised
the literary merits of the little
work of fiction addresses to 
him by Nathan the prophet
in the matter of Uriah the 
Hittite.
    The book is a solemn, earnest,
thrilling, enthusiastic appealin which a noble woman, herself
at ease, blessed with flattering 
friends, with applause, with 
admiration, takes all in her
hand and risks all in pleading 
the cause of the poorest, the
much despised, the much maligned
& scorned of God's creatures.
[It is] In the form of a story she makes [the] a
most condensed,earnest, & powerful
appeal to the heart & conscience
of this American Nation on the
Sin of Caste — a sin of which
she makes us feel we have
[but] been but half [been] convinced [of] &
[of] for  which we have only begun
to find a place of repentence.
    If any body can read that
book unmoved we have only 
pity for [them] him. No American, 
however conscientiously [they] he may
have espoused the cause of the4
slave, but may [begun] gain from it
a deeper, truer baptism [of] into the
great doctrine of Christianity
that in Christ Jesus [there is neither bound nor free] no distinction 
of race -
[The] What gives this story an
awful power is its truth -
Under a thin veil of fiction
it presents facts - facts of 
[most awful] , most appalling
suggestiveness, & we beg
the reader to [note] notice [read]  carefully the modest
confirmatory note of Miss
Dickinson at the end of the book. [She speaks
in great part We have reason to know for know that
in great race of it she speaks]]
She speaks of that she knows & 
testifies of what she has seen,
throughout the whole story is very evident.
Even the part that at first
strikes one [as] with [most] most
of [the] an air of fiction - the
portrait of the heroine [of the]
[strong] & her father & brother


We have reason to know is drawn
from actual, literal observation,
That such a book as this is
needed among us yet is evident
from the fact that the State
of Connecticut with all the signs
& wonders of [the great conflict] God's great
controversy with us yet ringing
in her ears & dazzling her eyes
still [persisted] persists in refusing to
the negro who. has. helped us
in our battles, the simplest right
of a citizenship. Traitors, copperheads
- all nations & names however
mean & degraded [might] may drop
their votes - but brave black
hands scarred with fightings
for us [were] are beaten back -
That such a book is needed is
evident from the very issue of
the presidential election now
before usThere is a party whose war
cry is "a white mans government
& no place for the negro."  There
are already significant & aweful
indications [What is to become]  
 [of their] of this people the South of what may be the fate if that the South if that 
party prevails
Miss Dickinsons book puts
the solemn question to the
American Nation   What answer?
Let the answer come
at the polls -
H B StoweHartford, June 23
1870
Dear Lady Amberley,
I must seize a moment to thank you for sending me
your admirable address before the Strand Institute. It
is one of the best and most complete presentations I
ever saw and we in America must thank you for it. It is
a noble deed for you to speak because you are in no sense
in need of the rights as a sufferer from the wrongs you
speak of.
I have just made an abstract of it for the Christian
Mission my brother's paper and mine and shall send you
the paper when it appears. I am delighted to hear you so
gallantly resolving to push the question and make a
hustings affair of it. Go on my dear, you are sure to
conquer and you fight charmingly and your victory must
precede ours. You preceded us in negro emancipation and
you will in this - you handle your weapons beatifully.
There is some sense in ranks and all that sort of thing,
sometimes, when the right sort of person makes it a fort
for fighting the battles of humanity and there are weak
fashionables here in America who will hear a Viscountess
of Duchess when wd scoff at Miss (?)S --ton or Susan
Anthony. That, you see, amuses me - for I dont like you
one whit the more for your rank and station, tho I do like
you the more for the use you are making of it. 
I like you for being a whole hearted large souled
generous woman, brave and courageous - gallant and
chivalrous and bless God that you happen in this day of
ours to be in the nobility. Lord Amberley's (?) reticences
please me no less. His statement of the importance of
suffrage to the weak hits the nail strait on the nead.
That is why we gave it to the negro and the Chinese man - 
and why we ought still more to give it to the women of the
same. To be sure universal suffrage is a terrible thing
but there is no help for it  -it has got to come and we
may as well let it come under guidance as without.
"The Kingdom" is coming and the world is frightened
with the answer to its prayers. A colored stewardess on
the steamer said to me the other day "We keep a prayin'
every day "Thy will be done" but when it is done what a
fuss we make about it!"
[AC 7033]
We have all been spending the winter at Florida
among the orange trees. it is a wild uncultured country
forest all around, the sea on one side and the broad
St. Johns five miles wide on the other. From September
to May our trees have been burdened with fruit. Now we
are back in our Hartford house where we had so pleasant
a visit from you. My daughters send you their love and
my husband desires his regards to yourself and Lord
Amberley. We hope to see him one day Premier of England.
Ever truly yours,
H.B. Stowe.