Autograph Note Signed

This noted New Hampshire abolitionist, civil leader and merchant (part owner of a handful of ships) served in the state legislature (1825-28, 1830) and as president of the Portsmouth Temperance Society and the American Peace Society (1841-46); he founded the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane, worked at the U.S. Patent Office (1854-66), and penned page-turners such as "Outline of a System of Mechanical Philosophy" (1851), "Arithmetical Calculations of the Elements of the Orbit of the Moon" (1855) and "Studies of the Earth" (1860). ANS, 1p, 7 3/4" X 9 3/4", Portsmouth, NH, 25 January 1841. Addressed to John R. French (1819-90, publisher, editor, North Carolina congressman). Near fine. As a young man, French published and co-edited the journal of the New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society, one of the first anti-slavery newspapers out of New Hampshire's capital city of Concord -- and in this letter the newly-named American Peace Society president sends French (as "Agent for the 'Herald of Freedom'") "three dollars wh.[ich] is to pay bal.[ance] due 93¢ and the balance as advance pay for the comeing year for which please give me credit" -- presumably a subscription to the pioneering "Herald of Freedom." Intriguing.