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Dear Bradburn, I came home from My plan for starting a paper here would be
something like this. I suppose you could command some little money if it should
be necessary—a few hundred dollars. The paper should be only a weekly. You
should find some practical printer to take hold with you—if he has a little
capital, it would be desirable, perhaps White & Potter would do it. To
start with, you should get Wards’ subscription list, if possible, (to his
Impartial Citizen). It is probably worth nothing to him, and you could get it
for a trifle. And as he is lecturing about the country, you should employ him
to get subscribers. For fifty cents a subscriber, I think he would work hard
for you, and get—great money. Perhaps you could also get the subscription
list of the Liberty Party Paper. It is about time for that paper to die. It has
lived to be about the age of the Albany Patriot, and Model Worker, when they
died. Perhaps, however, Smith would not consent that that paper be given up,
unless he expected your paper would be a mere tin trumpet for him. He seems to
regard it as indispensable that he should have at least one wind instrument in
his employ. But you can judge of that. If you could get the subscription lists
of the Impartial Citizen and Liberty Party Paper, you would start on a good
footing. Then you have more or less friends scattered over the country who
would subscribe—and many who would take a personal interest to get others to
subscribe. Then, there are a great many men scattered over Massachusetts, and
indeed all New England, who are dissatisfied with mere free soilism—and would
lend heart and hand to the support of a thoroughgoing paper. Beside Ward, as an agent, I presume you
could get the Scotchman ____. He has become convinced of the truth of my
doctrine, he says, and he would make a capital hand at getting subscribers. There is also a Green brother of Bernish[?],
who sells anti-slavery books. I presume he would be glad of an agency to get
subscribers for you. Other agents might also be obtained no doubt. The very name of your paper “The
Anti-Slavery Constitutionalist” would bring you a great many subscribers. And I
think it would not be a year before your paper would be established on a living
basis. But it would require some energy on the part of the publisher. It would
be indispensable that you have a practical man interested in you. As for your getting a living out of any
paper in These are briefly my notions. I was in hope
I should see you, and converse with you fully on this subject before you went
to If you write to me, direct to I shall expect to hear from you. Yours truly Lysander
Spooner P.S. I do not
consider it indispensable that you should get the subscription list of the
Liberty Party Paper, but if you could get it, it would be a great help. May 12—I called at Hildreth’s last evening.
Mrs. Hildreth has just buried her sister who has beenso long sick— |