The American Anti-Slavery Society Protests President Andrew Jackson's Censorship of its Publications

New York, December 26, 1835. Bifolium. Three-page printed circular, signed in type by Arthur Tappan, William Jay, John Rankin, Abraham L. Cox, Lewis Tappan, et al. With an autograph letter, signed by John Rankin to reformer and abolitionist Rev. Samuel J. May, dated New York, January 5, 1836, at bottom of address leaf, "I have the pleasure of acknowledging receipt of your favor of 2nd inst with Check for Two Hundred & fifty Dollars on acct of Collections by you in Subscriptions for American A(nti) S(lavery) Soc(iet)y. The within document I have thought would be more acceptable to you than a letter sheet." Addressed by Rankin on verso, docketing and red wax seal at same. Creasing from old folds.

Abolitionist and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) Rev. Samuel J. May's (1797-1871) copy of this very rare circular, printed by the AASS in response to President Andrew Jackson’s censorship of their publications during their Great Postal Campaign.

Addressed to President Jackson, the present circular responds to his charge made during his 1835 State of the Union Address to Congress that the AASS "attempts to circulate through the mails inflammatory appeals, addressed to the passions of the slaves, in prints and in various sorts of publications, calculated to stimulate them to insurrection, and to produce all the horrors of a servile war..." The AASS responds to this in five lengthy protests: the first claiming the President has assumed power not belonging to his office, secondly and thirdly to the publicity of his accusations and the inopportunity to defend themselves before he made his public charge, fourthly, the vagueness of his charges, and finally, that they are untrue. In response to the seizing of their publications by postmasters, they write, "It may not be uninteresting to you sir, to be informed in what manner your 'Subordinate' in New York, who, on your 'responsibility' is exercising the functions of Censor of the American press, discharges the arduous duties of this untried, and until now, unheard of office. We beg leave to assure you, that his task is executed with a simplicity of principle, and celerity of despatch unknown to any Censor of the press in France or Austria. Your Subordinate decides upon the incendiary character of the publications committed to the Post Office, by a glance at the wrappers or bags in which they are contained. No packages sent to be mailed from our office, and directed to a slave state, can escape the vigilance of this inspector of canvass and brown paper..."

In the Spring of 1835, the AASS launched a dramatic campaign to bring their message to the Southern populace. Dubbed the Great Postal Campaign, the AASS sought to flood the South with anti-slavery tracts and periodicals. Once begun, the plan had the opposite effect, and instead of creating converts it unleashed a wave of repression across the South, uniting Southerners against the Society, and leading to the confiscation and burning of their publications. In an act of censorship, Postmaster General Amos Kendall, a close ally of President Jackson, gave permission to Southern postmasters to refuse the delivery of anti-slavery material. In one of the most violent outbursts, in Charleston, South Carolina on July 29, 1835, over 3,000 people gathered at the city's main post office and destroyed abolitionist material and burned the effigies of three leading abolitionists. In 1836, Congress passed resolutions authored by Henry L. Pinckney of South Carolina to censure debates on slavery. Known as the "gag rule" the resolution ruled that, "All petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers, relating in any way, or to any extent whatsoever, to the subject of slavery or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid on the table and...no further action whatever shall be had thereon..." It remained in effect until 1844.

Formed in Philadelphia in 1833 by 60 prominent abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison, the AASS was a nationwide organization committed to the immediate emancipation of all enslaved people. The group employed a wide range of tactics, including the publication of pamphlets, broadsides, and circulars, sponsoring lectures, encouraging acts of civil disobedience, and boycotting goods produced by enslaved labor, to compel a national moral reckoning with slavery. Among the Society's founding figures was the Rev. Samuel J. May (1797–1871). Though initially drawn to colonization as a young man, May underwent a shift in conviction around 1830 when William Lloyd Garrison persuaded him to embrace immediate abolitionism. From that point forward, May dedicated himself to the cause, even in the face of violence. Together with Garrison, he helped establish both the New England Anti-Slavery Society (NEASS) and the AASS itself, where he sat on the executive committee alongside Lewis Tappan and worked as a paid agent.

May's activism extended beyond the organization's leadership. He publicly supported Prudence Crandall's effort to operate a school for Black girls in Canterbury, Connecticut, and he published The Unionist, an abolitionist newspaper, beginning in 1833. He also lent his assistance to the formation of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1834. Deeply committed to racial equality, May consistently advocated for racial and gender-integrated abolition at a time when many reformers favored segregated groups and refused membership based on sex and color. He actively aided people escaping from bondage and was an acquaintance with Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass, and he served as president of the Syracuse Fugitive Aid Society. On behalf of the AASS, May traveled to Canada to visit communities of formerly enslaved people who had settled there, and with the outbreak of the Civil War, he founded one of the earliest Freedmen's Relief Associations, in 1862. During the postwar period he became a vocal proponent of Radical Reconstruction, and championed voting rights, education, and land redistribution for the newly freed population. Alongside this, he was a vocal feminist, pacifist, and education and labor reformer.

Rare, we cannot find any copies in the available online auctions records, while OCLC does not locate any copies.