Introduction

This draft letter was written by John Brown Francis to an unknown newspaper editor, possibly William Simons, editor of the pro-suffrage Republican Herald. While this letter is undated it appears to have been written after the Charter government’s call for a constitutional convention. In the election of delegates to this convention, which was set to convene in September 1842, African Americas were allowed to vote. Many saw this as a way of recognizing the significant role the black community played in support of the Charter government during the Dorr Rebellion. In this draft Francis rather uncharacteristically rails about an article published in the newspaper by the prominent New York abolitionist William Goodell.