WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
From a mezzotint engraving by John Sartain (1836), 
 after a painting by M. C. Torrey (1835). 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD 
 GARRISON 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN JAY CHAPMAN 
 
 FRONTISPIECE 
 
 Second Edition 
 Revised and Enlarged 
 
 BOSTON 
 THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS 
 
CHRONOLOGY 
 
 1805. Born, December 10, at Newburyport, Mass. 
 1818. Apprenticed printer in Newburyport Herald 
 
 office. 
 1826. Buys Essex Courant and founds Free Press. 
 
 1828. Edits National Philanthropist. 
 Meets Benjamin Lundy. 
 
 1829. Edits Burlington (Vt.) Journal of the Times. 
 Park St. Church address on Colonization. 
 
 1830. Associate editor of Genius of Universal 
 
 Emancipation. 
 
 Sued by Francis Todd for libel in Baltimore. 
 Convicted and jailed. 
 
 1831. Issues first number of Liberator. 
 Indicted in North Carolina. 
 
 1832. Founds New England Anti-Slavery Society. 
 Issues Thoughts on Colonization. 
 
 First visit to England. 
 
 1834. Marries Helen Eliza Benson. 
 
 1835. Marked for assassination. 
 
 1836. Mobbed in Boston. 
 
 1838. Speaks at Pennsylvania Hall, Phila. 
 
 1839. First speech in Faneuil Hall. 
 
 1840. Second visit to British Isles. 
 
 1842. Reads Irish address in Faneuil Hall. 
 Mobbed at Syracuse. 
 
 1843. Calls the Constitution "a covenant with 
 
 death," etc. 
 President of American Anti-Slavery Society. 
 
 1844. Offers disunion resolutions at Faneuil Hall. 
 1846. Third visit to British Isles. 
 
 vii 
 
CHRONOLOGY 
 
 1847. Mobbed at Harrisburg, Pa. 
 
 1848. Leads Anti-Sabbath Convention. 
 
 1850. At Anniversary of American Anti-Slavery 
 
 Society (the Rynders Mob), New York 
 City. 
 At first Woman s Rights Convention in Mass. 
 
 1851. Selections from his Writings published. 
 
 1853. Mobbed at Bible Convention in Cincinnati. 
 
 1854. Burns the Constitution of the U. S. 
 
 1855. Calls the Union "a house divided against 
 
 itself." 
 
 1857. Meets John Brown. 
 1859. Reviews Brown s Virginia Raid. 
 1862. Cooper Union Lecture on Abolitionists and 
 
 the War. 
 
 1864. Defends Lincoln against W. Phillips. 
 
 1865. Visits South Carolina. 
 Valedictory of the Liberator. 
 
 1867. Fourth visit to England and first to France. 
 
 1868. Regular contributor to New York Inde 
 
 pendent. 
 
 1876. Mrs. Garrison dies. 
 1879. Dies, May 24. 
 
 vm 
 
PREFACE FOR SECOND EDITION 
 1921 
 
 I ONCE knew a man who wrote a brilliant 
 biography of Abraham Lincoln. He himself 
 belonged to the Civil War epochj and while 
 writing the book in about the year 1895, he be 
 came so absorbed and excited by that war as 
 he studied it, and lived it over again, that he 
 could not sleep at night. He paced the room, 
 lost in thought, awed by his subject. It was a 
 contemporary of this biographer who told me 
 that, while the Civil War was in progress, the 
 enthusiastic historian had taken no interest in 
 it; it did n t seem to attract his attention. 
 
 This anecdote shows how much easier it is to 
 see a hero in the past than in the present. The 
 historian is a book- trained man; records and 
 documents speak to him; dead things live 
 again. But he cannot get his mind into focus 
 upon anything so near as the present. He is 
 distracted by the present, but supported by the 
 past; for in the past he is not alone. As he 
 studies it, the whole literature of his chosen 
 period holds up his hands : hundreds of minds 
 rush to his aid, while all religion and philos 
 ophy stand at his elbow. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 It is easy to explain why Garrison has never 
 been adopted as a popular hero in America. 
 He gave a purge to his countrymen, and the 
 bitter taste of it remained in our mouths ever 
 after. Moreover, the odium of Slavery, which 
 he branded on America s brow, seemed to 
 survive in the very name of Garrison, and we 
 would willingly have forgotten the man. After 
 the Civil War there was not, apparently, time 
 for our scholars to think about him. Certain 
 it is that the educated American has known 
 little about him, and shies and mutters at his 
 name. And yet equally certain is it that the 
 history of the United States between 1800 and 
 1860 will some day be rewritten with this man 
 as its central figure. 
 
 How soon will that day come, and what will 
 be the signs of its dawning? The laws of mind 
 and nature are not likely to be reversed to save 
 the feelings and prejudices of the American 
 people, a people who are not given to historic 
 speculation and who have been mentally en 
 feebled by success. It is not for Garrison 
 that I am concerned, but for a people that 
 praises the prophets, builds altars to courage, 
 enshrines the idea of the Individual Soul ; but a 
 people, it would seem, who cannot see a real 
 man when he appears, because he makes them 
 uncomfortable. Garrison made his compa- 
 
PREFACE 
 
 triots uncomfortable ; even to read about him 
 made them uncomfortable but yesterday. 
 
 In reprinting this little book, the thought 
 crosses my mind that perhaps the shock and 
 anguish of the Great War, which so humanized 
 our nation, may have left us with a keener, 
 more religious, and more dramatic understand 
 ing of our Anti-slavery period than we pos 
 sessed prior to 1 9 1 4 . Certainly when this book 
 appeared in 1913, the average American seem 
 ed to hear the name of Garrison with distaste, 
 and to regard a book about him as superfluous. 
 While I was writing it, one of my best friends, 
 and a very learned gentleman, said to me, "A 
 book about William Lloyd Garrison? Heave 
 a brick at him for me"! and the popular 
 feeling in America of that day seemed to sup 
 port the remark. But the times have changed. 
 The flames of the Great War have passed 
 through us. The successive shocks of that 
 experience struck upon our people till we re 
 sounded in unison like a great bell; and there 
 is not a soul among us that has not been shaken 
 to its depths. 
 
 The heroic echoes of the terrible struggle 
 have died away and left all the nations dizzy 
 and defocalized, worn out by effort and emo 
 tion, and, apparently, more cynical and bent 
 on petty aims than they were before the 
 xi 
 
PREFACE 
 
 ordeal. But this tidal revulsion is in the way 
 of Nature. She acts by waves and inunda 
 tions, by recessions, mud-flats, and desolation. 
 It appears just now as if all the tin cans and 
 dead dogs of humanity were exposed to view. 
 Nevertheless, the tides will surge in once more. 
 The devastated regions will be reclaimed and 
 reanimated in spots, of course, and irregu 
 larly as is Nature s wont. The great, heroic 
 impulse of that war is not really lost. It lies 
 invisibly planted in our hearts, and especially 
 in the hearts of the younger generation, who 
 will never know from how many old shibbo 
 leths and cramping views they have been lib 
 erated by having taken part in something 
 that was universal. Our own past will assume 
 fresh aspects in our eyes. Americans will 
 come to see their own history in a more normal 
 ^perspective than they did formerly. The fog 
 1 of self-consciousness that has hung above our 
 I Anti-slavery period will be dissipated in the 
 l minds of our historians, and we shall see Garri- 
 l son as one of our greatest heroes a man born 
 I to a task as large as his country s destiny, who 
 i turned the tide of his age, and left an imprint 
 j of his mind and character upon us, as certain 
 and as visible as the imprint left upon us by 
 
 | Washington himself. T T r 
 
 v J J *" 
 
 JANUARY 1921. 
 
 xii 
 
CAL1FORK: 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD 
 GARRISON 
 
 I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE periods of history that are most inter 
 esting are those which have been lighted up 
 by spiritual bonfires. As we read about 
 such epochs we seem to feel the fires re 
 kindling in our bosoms. Through the iden 
 tity of those historic flames with our own, we 
 become aware of our portion in the past, and 
 of our mission in the present. The names 
 of the actors, to be sure, are changed; the 
 names of the forces at work vary con 
 tinually. Yet the substance of the story is 
 ever the same ; the fable deals with ourselves. 
 And therefore that fable stirs the intimate 
 embers in us. Here, within us, are those 
 smothered and banked furnaces which the 
 stride of History has left behind it the 
 only now living part, the only real part and 
 absolute remnant of the divine pageant. 
 There are some periods of great confla- 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 gration where a whole epoch is lighted up 
 with one greafc flame of idea, which takes 
 perhaps a few decades to arise, blaze, and 
 fall; during which time it shows all men in 
 its glare. Willy-nilly they can be and are 
 seen by this light and by no other. Willy- 
 nilly their chief interest for the future lies 
 in their relation to this idea. In spite of 
 themselves they are thrilling, illustrative 
 figures, seen in lurid and logical distortion, 
 abstracts and epitomes of human life. 
 Nay, they stand forever as creatures that 
 have been caught and held, cracked open, 
 thrown living upon a screen, burned alive 
 perhaps by a searching and terrible bonfire 
 and recorded in the act as the citizens of 
 Pompeii were recorded by the eruption of 
 Mount Vesuvius. 
 
 It happened that a period of this kind 
 f passed over the United States between the 
 years 1830 and 1865. There is nothing to 
 be found in that epoch which does not draw 
 its significance, its interest, its permanent 
 power from the slavery question. There 
 is no man whose life falls within that epoch 
 whose character was not controlled by that 
 question, or whose portrait can be seen by 
 any other light than the light of that fire. 
 Subtract that light and you have darkness; 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 you cannot see the man at all. In the biog 
 raphies of certain distinguished conserva 
 tives of that time you may often observe 
 the softening of the portrait by the omission 
 of unpleasant records, the omission by the 
 biographers of those test judgments and 
 test ordeals with which the times were well 
 supplied. By these omissions the man van 
 ishes from the page of his own book. The 
 page grows suddenly blank. You check 
 yourself and wonder who it was that you 
 were reading about. Now the reason of 
 this disappearance of the leading character 
 from your mind is that the biographer has 
 drawn someone who could not have existed. 
 The man must have answered aye or nay 
 to the question which the times were put 
 ting. And, in fact, he did so answer. By 
 this answer he could have been seen. With 
 out it he does not exist. 
 
 I confess that I had rather stand out for 
 posterity in a hideous silhouette, as having 
 been wrong on every question of my time, 
 than be erased into a cipher by my biog 
 rapher. But biographers do not feel in this 
 way toward their heroes. Each one feels 
 that he has undertaken to do his best by his 
 patron. Therefore they stand the man un 
 der a north light in a photographer s attic, 
 3 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 suggest his attitude, and thus take the pic 
 ture; whereas, in real life, the man was 
 standing on the balcony of a burning build 
 ing which the next moment collapsed, and 
 in it he was crushed beyond the semblance 
 of humanity. The Civil War, -that war 
 with its years of interminable length, its 
 battles of such successive and monstrous 
 carnage, its dragged-out reiterations of hor 
 ror and agony, and its even worse tortures 
 of hope deferred, hope all but extinct, 
 that war of which it is impossible to read 
 even a summary without becoming so worn 
 out by distress that you forget everything 
 that went before in the country s history 
 and emerge, as it were, a new man at the 
 close of your perusal ; that war was no ac 
 cident. It was involved in every syllable 
 which every inhabitant of America uttered 
 or neglected to utter in regard to the slavery 
 question between 1830 and 1860. The 
 gathering and coming on of that war, its 
 vaporous distillation from the breath of 
 every man, its slow, inevitable formation in 
 the sky, its retreats and apparent dispersals, 
 its renewed visibilities all of them gov 
 erned by some inscrutable logic and its 
 final descent in lightning and deluge ; these 
 matters make the history of the interval be- 
 
 4 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 tween 1830 and 1865. That history is all 
 one galvanic throb, one course of human 
 passion, one Nemesis, one deliverance. 
 And with the assassination of Lincoln in 
 1865 there falls from on high the great, uni 
 fying stroke that leaves the tragedy sublime. 
 No poet ever invented such a scheme of 
 curse, so all-involving, so remotely rising in 
 an obscure past and holding an entire nation 
 in its mysterious bondage a scheme based 
 on natural law, led forward and unfolded 
 from mood to mood, from climax to climax, 
 and plunging at the close into the depths of 
 a fathomless pity. The action of the drama 
 is upon such a scale that a quarter of the 
 earth has to be devoted to it. Yet the argu 
 ment is so trite that it will hardly bear state 
 ment. Perhaps the true way to view the 
 whole matter is to regard it as the throwing 
 off by healthy morality of a little piece of 
 left-over wickedness that bad heritage of 
 antiquity, domestic slavery. The logical and 
 awful steps by which the process went for 
 ward merely exhibit familiar, moral, and 
 poetic truth. What else could they exhibit ? 
 We are ungrateful to the intellects of the 
 past; or rather, like children we take it for 
 granted that somebody must supply us with 
 our supper and our ideas ; and, for the most 
 5 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 part, it is difficult to discover the extent of 
 our indebtedness, whether, for example, to 
 Charlemagne or to the scholars who have re 
 vealed him. Yet everything we know and 
 live by is due to the mind of someone in the 
 past: its formulation, at any rate, was the 
 act of a man. 
 
 These same illuminations of history that 
 we have been speaking of were due to the 
 enlightenment of individual minds. Our 
 Revolution of 1776 was made interesting 
 by its state papers, and to-day our knowl 
 edge of that time is a knowledge of the 
 minds of Washington, Franklin, and the 
 other patriots. Now the light by which we 
 to-day see the Anti-slavery period was first 
 shed on it by one man William Lloyd 
 Garrison. That slavery was wrong, every 
 one knew in his heart. The point seen by 
 Garrison was the practical point that the 
 slavery issue was the only thing worth 
 thinking about, and that all else must be 
 postponed till slavery was abolished. He 
 saw this by a God-given act of vision in 
 1829; and it was true. The history of the 
 spread of this idea of Garrison s is the his 
 tory of the United States during the thirty 
 years after it loomed in his mind. From 
 the day Garrison established the Lib- 
 6 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 erator he was the strongest man in America. 
 He was affected in his thought by no one. 
 What he was thinking, all men were des 
 tined to think. How had he found that 
 clew and skeleton-key to his age, which put 
 him in possession of such terrible power? 
 What he hurled in the air went everywhere 
 and smote all men. Tide and tempest served 
 him. His power of arousing uncontrol 
 lable disgust was a gift, like magic; and 
 he seems to sail upon it as a demon upon the 
 wind. Not Andrew Jackson, nor John 
 Quincy Adams, nor Webster, nor Clay, nor 
 Benton, nor Calhoun, who dance like 
 shadows about his machine, but William 
 Lloyd Garrison becomes the central figure in 
 American life. 
 
 If one could see a mystical presentation 
 of the epoch, one would see Garrison as a 
 Titan, turning a giant grindstone or elec 
 trical power-wheel, from which radiated vi 
 brations in larger and in ever larger, more 
 communicative circles and spheres of agita 
 tion, till there was not a man, woman, or 
 child in America who was not a-tremble. 
 
 We know, of course, that the source of 
 
 these radiations was not in Garrison. They 
 
 came from the infinite and passed out into 
 
 the infinite. Had there been no Garrison 
 
 7 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 they would somehow have arrived and at 
 some time would have prevailed. But his 
 torically speaking they did actually pass 
 through Garrison: he vitalized and perma 
 nently changed this nation as much as one 
 man ever did the same for any nation in the 
 history of the world. 
 
II 
 
 THE BACKGROUND 
 
 LET us consider the first fifty years of our 
 national history. There was never a mo 
 ment during this time when the slavery is 
 sue was not a sleeping serpent. That issue 
 lay coiled up under the table during the de 
 liberations of the Constitutional Convention 
 in 1787. It was, owing to the invention of 
 the cotton gin, more than half awake at the 
 time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 ; and 
 slavery was continued in the Louisiana Ter 
 ritory by the terms of the treaty. There 
 after slavery was always in everyone s 
 mind, though not always on his tongue. A 
 slave state and a free state were, as a matter 
 of practice, always admitted in pairs. Thus, 
 Vermont and Kentucky, Tennessee and 
 Ohio, Louisiana and Indiana, Mississippi 
 and Illinois, had each been offset against 
 the other. This was to preserve the balance 
 of power. The whole country, however, 
 was in a state of unstable equilibrium and 
 9 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 the era of good feeling oscillated upon the 
 top of a craggy peak. 
 
 At last, in 1818-20, came two years of 
 fierce, open struggle over slavery in the ad 
 mission of Missouri, which state was 
 formed from part of the Louisiana Pur 
 chase. Southern threats of disunion clashed 
 with Northern taunts of defiance in the 
 House of Representatives. In the outcome, 
 the Missouri Compromise admitted Missouri 
 with slavery; and prohibited slavery in that 
 part of the Louisiana Purchase which lay 
 north of the latitude of 36 30 , except in the 
 portion included in Missouri. This corn- 
 promise became, in the public mind, as sacred 
 as the Constitution itself; so that when, in 
 1854, the Compromise was repealed, the 
 whole North felt that the bottom had 
 dropped out of their government. The 
 North believed itself to be betrayed. The 
 savage feeling which led up to war developed 
 rapidly at the North after this time. The 
 war came as the final outcome of a great 
 malady. But we must return to 1820. 
 
 During the decade that followed the Mis 
 souri Compromise everyone in America fell 
 sick. It was not a sickness that kept men 
 in bed. They went about their business 
 the lawyer to court, the lady to pay calls, the 
 10 
 
THE BACKGROUND 
 
 merchant to his wharf. The amusements, 
 and the religious, literary, and educational 
 occupations of mankind went forward as 
 usual. But they all went forward under 
 the gradually descending fringe of a mist, 
 an unwholesome-feeling cloud of oppres 
 sion. No one could say why it was that his 
 food did not nourish him quite as it used to 
 do, nor his unspoken philosophy of life any 
 longer cover the needs of his nature. This 
 was especially strange, because everybody 
 ought to have been perfectly happy. Had 
 not the country emerged from the War of 
 the Revolution in the shape of a new and 
 glorious Birth of Time a sample to all 
 mankind ? Had it not survived the dangers 
 of the second war with Great Britain ? And 
 what then remained for us except to go for 
 ward victoriously and become a splendid, 
 successful, vigorous, and benevolent people? 
 Everything was settled that concerned the 
 stability of our form of government. The 
 future could surely contain nothing except 
 joyous progress. 
 
 The Americans of 1820-30 expounded the 
 glorious nature of their own destiny. 
 They challenged the casual visitor to deny 
 it; and became quite noted for their insist 
 ence upon this claim, and for their deter- 
 ii 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 mination to secure the acknowledgement of it 
 by all men-. 
 
 At the bottom of this nervous concern 
 there was not, as is generally supposed, 
 merely the bumptious pride and ignorance 
 of a new nation. There was something 
 more complex and more honorable; there 
 was an inner knowledge that none of these 
 things wftf true. This knowledge was 
 forced upon our fathers by their familiarity 
 with their own political literature and with 
 the Declaration of Independence in partic 
 ular. There was a chasm between the 
 agreeable statement that all men are created 
 free and equal, and the horrible fact of hu 
 man slavery. The thought of this incon 
 gruity troubled every American. No 
 recondite or difficult reasoning was re 
 quired to produce the mental anguish 
 that now began to oppress America. The 
 only thing necessary was leisure for anguish, 
 and this leisure first became possible at the 
 close of the second war with Great Britain. 
 The operation of the thought was almost en 
 tirely unconscious, and its issue in pain al 
 most entirely unexpressed. 
 
 The articulate classes had not talked much 
 about slavery since the days of the consti 
 tutional compromises, and it is the aged Jef- 
 12 
 
THE BACKGROUND 
 
 ferson who writes from Monticello apropos 
 of the Missouri Compromise " This 
 momentous question, like a fire-bell in the 
 night, awakened and filled me with terror. 
 I considered it at once the knell of the 
 Union." 
 
 Now there never was a moment in the 
 history of the country when this fire-bell 
 was quite silent. The educational policy 
 of the articulate classes of society during 
 the first fifty years of the Nation s life had 
 been to hush the bell. 
 
 Ever since the Southern members in the 
 Constitutional Convention had showed their 
 teeth, and threatened to withdraw if slavery 
 were disturbed, a policy of silence had been 
 adopted. The questions covered by the 
 Constitution were to be regarded as con 
 clusively settled. The bandages must never 
 be taken off them. Any person who re 
 views the history of the American Revolu 
 tion can sympathize with this timidity; for 
 it seems like a miracle that the Colonies 
 should ever have come together so an 
 tagonistic were their interests, and their 
 ideals. The Colonists feared some new 
 breach, and there ensued a non-intellectual 
 determination that certain questions should 
 not be re-examined: this determination 
 13 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 gradually grew into our great stupefying 
 dogma which says to the private citizen, 
 " This is our way of doing things : you-be- 
 damned : intellect has nothing to do with the 
 matter: it is American." This dogma, 
 which arose out of the needs of our early 
 days, has become the most widespread form 
 of metaphysical faith among us. No doubt 
 all nations harbor similar prejudices as to 
 their own institutions; but the nations of 
 Europe have been jostled into liberalism by 
 their contiguity one with another; and the 
 jostling is now being extended to us. Dur 
 ing our early history, however, we were iso 
 lated, and our intellectual classes took their 
 American history a little too seriously. The 
 state of mind of our statesmen and scholars 
 in that epoch is well summed up in Web 
 ster s reply to Hayne. That speech closes 
 an epoch. It is the great paving-stone of 
 conclusive demonstration, placed upon the 
 mouth of a natural spring. 
 
 All this while something had been left out 
 in all the nation s political and social phi 
 losophy something which policy forbade 
 men to search for, and this something was 
 beginning to move in the pit of the stomach 
 of Americans, and to make them feel ex 
 ceedingly and vaguely ill. In order to bind 
 14 
 
THE BACKGROUND 
 
 the Colonies into a more lasting union, a 
 certain suppression of truth, a certain tram 
 pling upon instinct had been resorted to in 
 the Constitution. All the parties to that 
 instrument thoroughly understood the in 
 iquity of slavery and deplored it. All the 
 parties were ashamed of slavery and yet felt 
 obliged to perpetuate it. They wrapped up 
 a twenty years protection of the African 
 slave trade in a colorless phrase. 
 
 " The migration or importation of such 
 persons as any of the states now existing 
 shall think proper to admit, shall not be 
 prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 
 one thousand eight hundred and eight, but 
 a tax or duty may be imposed on such im 
 portations, not exceeding ten dollars for 
 each person." 
 
 Now the slave trade meant the purchase 
 upon African coasts of negroes and ne- 
 gresses, their branding, herding, manacling, 
 and transportation between decks across 
 tropical seas. The African slave trade is 
 probably the most brutal organized crime in 
 history. Our fathers did not dare to name 
 it. So of the fugitive-slave law; the 
 Constitution deals with it in the cruel, quiet 
 way in which monstrous tyranny deals with 
 the fictions of administrative law. "No 
 15 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 person held to service or labor in one state 
 under the laws thereof, escaping into another, 
 shall, in consequence of any law or regula 
 tion therein, be discharged from such serv 
 ice or labor; but shall be delivered up on 
 claim of the party to whom such service or 
 labor may be due." 
 
 In an age in which the Inquisition is abso 
 lutely dominant, its officials are almost kind. 
 The leaden touch of hypocrisy was thus in 
 the heart of our Constitution. Cold-heart- 
 edness radiated from the Ark of our 
 Covenant. We condone this because we 
 know that many of these fathers really 
 did believe that slavery was probably going 
 to diminish and die out in the country. 
 Even while protecting it they hoped for the 
 best, and knew not what they did. But as 
 slavery became more important instead of 
 less important, and as the cruelty of it be 
 came more visible, the bond of the document 
 pressed upon the conscience of the people. 
 We had undertaken more than we could per 
 form. The suppression of truth, the tramp 
 ling upon instinct, which we had accepted 
 as a duty, was stifling us. For the first 
 fifty years of our national life no reaction 
 was visible. And then there ensued a fer 
 mentation, a tumult in the heart which noth- 
 16 
 
THE BACKGROUND 
 
 ing could quell. This tumult began long 
 before it showed itself. Its dialectic and 
 logic were developed and ready for use, like 
 the wings of the locust in the shell. The na 
 tures of men were beginning to heave and 
 to swell and at last, when Garrison speaks 
 out, behold, he is in electrical communica 
 tion with an age over-charged with passion. 
 His thought is understood immediately. 
 Every implication, every consequence, every 
 remote contingency has been anticipated in 
 the public consciousness, and there ensues 
 .explosion after explosion: crash generates 
 crash: storm- routes of continuous passion 
 plow the heavens across the continent from 
 sea to sea. In truth our whole civilization, 
 I our social life, our religious feelings, our 
 political ideas, had all become accommo 
 dated to cruelty, representative of tyranny. 
 The gigantic backbone of business-interest 
 was a slavery backbone. We were a slave 
 republic. For a generation, nay, for two 
 hundred years, we had tolerated slavery; 
 and for a generation it had been a sacred 
 thing a man must suppress his feelings in 
 speaking of it. 
 
 Now there is nothing more injurious to 
 the character and to the intellect than the 
 suppression of generous emotion. It means 
 17 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 death: sickness to the individual, blight to 
 the race. Compassion shining through the 
 heart wears the very name and face of Di 
 vine Life. It makes the limbs strong and 
 the mind capable ; it strengthens the stomach 
 and supports the intestines. Cramp this 
 emotion, and you will have a half-dead man, 
 whose children will be less well-nourished 
 than himself. 
 
 It is hard to imagine the falsetto condi 
 tion of life in the Northern States in 1829; 
 the lack of spontaneity and naturalness 
 about everybody, so far as externals went, 
 and the presence of extreme solicitude in 
 the bottom of everybody s heart. Emerson 
 speaks in his journal (1834) of the fine man 
 ners of the young Southerners, brought up 
 amidst slavery, and of the deference which 
 Northerners, both old and young, habitually 
 paid to the people of the South. It seems 
 to have been regarded as a social duty at the 
 North to shield the feelings of Southerners, 
 and, as it were, to apologize for not owning 
 slaves. The feelings of the Northern phi 
 lanthropist, however, were never regarded 
 with delicacy. On the contrary it was 
 thought to be his duty to suppress his feel 
 ings. Any exhibition of humane sentiment 
 where slavery was concerned and it was 
 18 
 
THE BACKGROUND 
 
 always concerned was punished immedi 
 ately. The most natural impulses, the most 
 simple acts of human piety could be indulged 
 in only through an initiation of fierce pain, 
 generally followed by social ostracism. The 
 right to draw one s breath involved a strug 
 gle with Apollyon. 
 
 " Only a few days before one of our meet 
 ings," writes Henry I. Bowditch, one of 
 Garrison s early recruits from the social 
 world of Boston, " a young lady had hoped 
 that I * would never become an Abolitionist/ 
 and about the same time Frederick Doug 
 lass appeared as a runaway slave. He was 
 at the meeting in Marlboro 5 Chapel. Of 
 course I was introduced to him, and, as I 
 would have invited a white friend, I asked 
 him home to dine with me in my small abode 
 in Bedford Street. It is useless to deny that 
 I did not like the thought of walking with 
 him in open midday up Washington Street. 
 I hoped I would not meet any of my ac 
 quaintances. I had, however, hardly turned 
 into the street before I met the young lady 
 who had expressed her wish as above stated. 
 I am glad now to say that I did not skulk. 
 I looked at her straight and bowed in my 
 most gracious manner as if I were all 
 right/ while I saw by her look of regret that 
 19 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 she thought me all wrong/ It was, how 
 ever, something like a cold sponge-bath, 
 that Washington Street walk by the side of 
 a black man, rather terrible at the outset, 
 but wonderfully warming and refreshing 
 afterwards ! I had literally jumped * in 
 medias res/ But I did not hear until years 
 afterwards, and a long time after Douglass 
 had held office in Washington under Federal 
 Government, and the slavery of his own race 
 had been washed out in blood, what I was 
 doing for him at the moment that as a friend 
 I asked him to walk home with me to dinner. 
 How little do we appreciate acts that seem 
 trivial or something worse to us, but which 
 to others, affected by such acts, are of in 
 dispensable importance! Beautiful to me 
 seems now the act, inasmuch as it helped to 
 raise a poor, down-trodden soul into a 
 proper self -appreciation. And how much I 
 thank God that He led me by giving me a 
 love of freedom, and something like a con 
 science to act as I did then." * 
 
 The strain of that walk upon Bowditch 
 
 *Many years afterwards, when an assemblage of 
 anti-slavery veterans and hosts of young colored 
 men were honoring Frederick Douglass in a public 
 hall in Boston, he alluded to this incident with the 
 remark, " Dr. Bowditch I greet joyfully here, for he 
 first treated me as if I were a man." 
 20 
 
THE BACKGROUND 
 
 is felt forty years later in his account of it. 
 The profound political instinct which led 
 him to take the walk is as noticeable as the 
 religious nature of his impulse. It is won 
 derful to reflect how little the significance 
 of the act could have been understood by 
 any casual observer of the scene. Here is 
 a man who turns down one street rather 
 than another, upon meeting an acquaintance. 
 He looks like a gentleman doing an act of 
 politeness ; while he is, in fact, a saint going 
 through the fire for his faith, and a hero sav 
 ing the republic. So banal are externals, so 
 deep is reality. But our present interest in 
 the incident lies in this that it measures 
 the separation of Massachusetts from the 
 ordinary standards of Europe. Frederick 
 Douglass was almost a man of genius and 
 he looked like a man of genius. His photo 
 graph at the time of his escape from slav 
 ery might be the photograph of a musician 
 or a painter. He was the kind of man who, 
 in a Paris or London salon, would excite 
 anyone s passing notice, as perhaps a South 
 American diplomat or artist. 
 
 An intelligent foreign observer might 
 have told Bowditch that the sufferings 
 which both Bowditch and Douglass were 
 enduring betrayed the fact that a social 
 
 21 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 revolution was under way. They were 
 the sign of an approaching homogeneity. 
 This universal disturbance, this universal 
 throe is the first thing that all the people 
 of the United States ever experienced to 
 gether. Their former unions had been 
 political and external : this was spiritual and 
 internal. 
 
 We are familiar with the Northern form 
 of the uneasiness, because the Northerner 
 could speak. He cried out ; and through his 
 utterance came the cure. But of the pain of 
 the Southerner, to whom all expression of 
 feeling was denied, we know nothing. 
 With the rise of Abolition, perished every 
 vestige of free speech at the South. Events 
 now converged to crush the manhood out 
 of the slave-holding classes. A Southerner 
 could not be gentle, unselfish, quick to speak 
 his thought, or genuinely interested in any 
 thing. His opinions were prepared for him 
 before he was born; and they were light- 
 killing illusions the precursors of mania. 
 The enactment of very stringent and in 
 human slave codes, and the prohibition of all 
 education to the slaves followed in the wake 
 of the Abolition outbreaks. The maturing 
 of a sort of philosophy of slavery, accord 
 ing to which slavery was seen as the cor- 
 
 22 
 
THE BACKGROUND 
 
 nerstone of religion and progress, was the 
 work of the following decade, and the task 
 of Calhoun. The corollaries to this philos 
 ophy which involved an abandonment of 
 popular education, and the cutting-off of the 
 South from every intellectual contact with 
 the civilization of Europe, were duly worked 
 out during the next thirty years. By the 
 time the war came there existed a sort of 
 Religion of Slavedom. The Pro-slavery 
 Northern Democrats of Buchanan s time 
 held opinions which would have shocked the 
 most pronounced slaveholders of 1820. 
 
 During all this time Virginia and the 
 Carolinas which constituted the Holy Land 
 of the Slave Dispensation endured a si 
 lent exodus and migration on the part of the 
 more liberal spirits. Men even went to 
 New Orleans to escape the tyranny of slave 
 opinion at Charleston. Thus were the souls 
 of Americans squeezed and their tempers 
 made acid. A slightly too ready responsive 
 ness to stimulus of any kind came to be the 
 mark of the American, whether at the North 
 or at the South; the difference being that 
 the too ready response at the South was apt 
 to be an insult, at the North an apology. 
 
 This hair-trigger nervousness on the part 
 of everybody was the result of poison in the 
 23 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 system. What could the manly Southern 
 youth do? Leave all and follow Abolition? 
 He knew of Abolition only that it was a vil 
 lainous attack on his father s character and 
 property. He was in the grip of a relent 
 less, moving hurricane of distorted views, 
 false feelings, erroneous philosophy; and he 
 knew nothing clearly, understood nothing 
 clearly, until he perished upon the battle 
 fields of the Civil War, fighting like a hero. 
 It is impossible in describing the course of 
 the Slave Power between 1832-65 to avoid 
 harsh language. If ever wickedness came 
 upward in the counsels of men, it did so 
 here. Yet there are elements in all these 
 matters which elude our analysis. The vir 
 tues glimmer and seem to go out; but they 
 are never really extinguished. How much 
 idealism, how much latent heroism must 
 have existed in the South during all these 
 years before the war, was seen when the war 
 came. Villains do not choose for them 
 selves Commanders like Robert E. Lee and 
 Stonewall Jackson. It is lost, that old so 
 ciety, and it died almost speechless died 
 justly and inevitably. Yet we do well to 
 remember with what a flame of sacrifice 
 it perished, to remember with what force, 
 what devotion, what heroism, Humanity 
 24 
 
THE BACKGROUND 
 
 showed herself to be still adorned in that 
 hour of an all-devouring atonement. 
 
 The great fever came to an end with 
 Appomattox. The delirium stopped: the 
 plague had been expelled. The nation was 
 not dead : the nation was at the beginning of 
 a long convalescence. It is, however, about 
 the earlier symptoms of the disorder that I 
 would speak here, about the presentiments 
 of headache and nausea, and about that 
 dreadfullest moment in all sickness (as it 
 seems to me), the moment when we admit 
 that something serious is coming on. 
 
 The struggle between the North and the 
 South began over free speech about the 
 negro, and especially about the right of 
 benevolent people at the North to extend 
 their benevolence to the negro, as, for in 
 stance, in their schools, Sunday-schools, hos 
 pitals, etc. Now the South sincerely be 
 lieved that the Missouri Compromise of 
 1820 had morally bound the North not to 
 talk about slavery in private conversation, 
 and not to treat the negro as a human being. 
 The South had succeeded in imposing this 
 conviction upon the whole North. 
 
 " The patriotism of all classes," wrote Ed 
 ward Everett, Governor of Massachusetts, 
 in a message to his Legislature, " the patri- 
 25 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 otism of all classes must be invoked to ab 
 stain from discussion, which by exasperat 
 ing the master, can have no other effect than 
 to render more oppressive the condition of 
 the slave." 
 
 This paralysis of dumbness and of fear 
 touched everyone. It was not exactly fear, 
 either, but a sort of subtle freemasonry, 
 a secret belief that nothing must be dis 
 turbed. The Southerners lived in sincere 
 terror of slave uprisings and they man 
 aged to convey a mysterious tremor to the 
 North upon the subject. 
 
 Dr. Charming was jjiat age s figure-head. 
 He was the most eminent man in -the coun 
 try; the moral sciences were his province. 
 He was, therefore, constantly appealed to 
 by all persons and parties upon the slavery 
 question. His responses and his conduct 
 upon such occasions give the best key to that 
 age which we have ; and his character will be 
 discussed as long as posterity takes an in 
 terest in the epoch. This must be my ex 
 cuse for recurring to Dr. Channing from 
 time to time and for using him, at this 
 point, to illustrate the flatness and tameness 
 of good men in that age ; yes, to illustrate the 
 spiritual domination of evil at the time when 
 Garrison began his crusade. The drawing- 
 26 
 
THE BACKGROUND 
 
 rooms of our grandfathers times contained 
 automata; ghosts clustered about the din 
 ner tables. The people had forgotten what 
 the sound of a man s voice was like. That 
 is why they were so startled by Garrison. 
 
 Even Channing, who was a true saint, 
 and, when time was given him, a cour 
 ageous man, is an injured being like a 
 beautiful plant which has grown to ma 
 turity in a dungeon. Under the pres 
 sure of his own conscience and of certain 
 hammering Abojitionists^ who jvere _ his 
 friends, he wrote an analysis of slavery, 
 and stood shoulder to shoulder with the 
 Abolitionists on the question of free speech. 
 It is to his everlasting honor that he did this : 
 for he sincerely deplored the methods of the 
 Abolitionists and was incapable of under 
 standing their mission. By his writings on 
 slavery and by his act in standing by the 
 Abolitionists on the question of free speech, 
 Channing became a broken idol to all of the 
 South and to half of his Boston admirers. 
 We must never confound him, as the Abo 
 litionists were prone to do, with the contem 
 porary flock of time-serving parsons. 
 Channing was a man who could, and did, go 
 through the fire for principle. But he was 
 a man lacking in instinct, a sad man, too 
 27 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 reasonable to understand this crisis or know 
 how to meet it. He was trampled upon by 
 his congregation, and knew not how to save 
 himself. 
 
 Dr. Channing s coldness toward Abolition 
 might be shown by his words to Daniel 
 Webster in 1828, deprecating any agitation 
 of the slavery question ; by his studied avoid 
 ance of Garrison in social life; by his inabil 
 ity, even in the Essay on Slavery, to see the 
 importance of the Abolition movement ; or 
 in a hundred other ways. On the other 
 hand, Dr. Channing s services to the Anti- 
 slavery cause could be illustrated by this 
 same essay, and by the esteem and love 
 which many leading Anti-slavery people al 
 ways bore him. Let us, however, go to the 
 bottom of the whole matter. 
 
 On January i3th, 1840, Dr. Charles Fol- 
 len, a German enthusiast and one of the few 
 highly educated men among the Abolition 
 ists, was burned alive in the ill-fated steamer 
 Lexington, while on a journey from New 
 York to Boston. Follen was a young doc 
 tor of laws and a teacher at the University 
 of Jena, who had been prosecuted for his 
 liberal opinions by the reactionary govern 
 ments of Prussia and Austria in 1824. He 
 had fled to Switzerland and thence to the 
 
THE BACKGROUND 
 
 United States. His friends in this country 
 secured him a post as lecturer, and after 
 wards as professor, at Harvard College; 
 which post he lost through expressing his 
 opinions on slavery. He afterwards took a 
 pastorate in the Unitarian Church and lost 
 it through the same cause. 
 
 Pollen was what Goethe used to call a 
 "Schoene Seek," beloved of all. He 
 was an especial friend of Channing s. His 
 tragic death was at the time considered by 
 the Abolitionists as the severest blow which 
 they had yet received. They sought a place 
 to hold a commemorative meeting in his 
 honor, and they applied to Channing for 
 permission to use his church; which Chan 
 ning accorded. The standing committee of 
 the church, however, cancelled this permis 
 sion. Channing s biographer speaks as fol 
 lows: 
 
 "Nothing in all his (Channing s) in 
 tercourse with his people, nothing in his 
 whole Anti-slavery experience, caused him so 
 much pain as a refusal of the use of the 
 church to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery 
 Society, on the sad occasion when all true- 
 hearted persons were called to mourn the 
 awful death of Charles Pollen, and when 
 the Rev. S. J. May had prepared a discourse 
 29 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 in commemoration of the rare virtues of 
 that heroic and honored man. It was not 
 only the insult to the memory of a beloved 
 friend that grieved him though this could 
 not but shock his quick and delicate feel 
 ings; still less was it the disregard, under 
 such touching circumstances, of his well- 
 known wishes, that wounded him most 
 deeply; but this manifestation of a want of 
 high sentiment in the congregation to which, 
 for so many years, he had officiated as pas 
 tor, made him question the usefulness of his 
 whole ministry. To what end had he 
 poured out his soul, if such conduct was a 
 practical embodiment of the principles and 
 precepts which he had so earnestly incul 
 cated? This event brought home to his 
 heart the conviction that the need was very 
 urgent of a thorough application of the 
 Christian law of love to all existing social 
 relations. " 
 
 It is evident to the common mind that 
 Channing should have resigned his post 
 rather than accept this affront from his flock. 
 Nay, Channing should have resigned twenty 
 years earlier, and upon the first occasion 
 when any such subjection of his own im 
 pulses was required of him. The anecdote 
 shows the skeleton that lurked in all the 
 30 
 
THE BACKGROUND 
 
 vestry rooms of that period. It shows also 
 how partial are the philosophic illuminations 
 of men. Dr. Channing disbelieved in the 
 principle of association. It was one of the 
 points in his disapproval of the Anti-slavery 
 people that they worked through associa 
 tions; for he had a philosophic disbelief in 
 the theory of association. I share this dis 
 belief with Dr. Channing; the miserable 
 squabbles between Anti-slavery associations 
 in which the reformers wasted their force 
 and impaired their tempers, show very 
 clearly the dangers inherent in association, 
 which dangers Channing very clearly saw. 
 Yet Channing was himself the servant of an 
 association; and every fault in his relation 
 to the great moral question of his time may 
 be traced to that fact. 
 
 Association, business or social, literary 
 or artistic, religious or scientific, all as 
 sociation is opposed to any disrupting idea. 
 The merchants and lawyers of Boston fled 
 Abolition as a plague ; they regarded Aboli 
 tion as an enemy to be fought with all weap 
 ons. Garrison was once taken to hear Dr. 
 Channing by an acquaintance of both parties, 
 and he sat in a pew which belonged to a con 
 servative family, but which that family had 
 been in the habit of throwing open to others. 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 On the Tuesday following this apparition of 
 Garrison in the sacred pew, the future use 
 of it was withdrawn by a stiff note from the 
 conservative family. The reason for this 
 excess of caution was that the South disci 
 plined Northern merchants by a withdrawal 
 of business; and the South kept its eyes 
 open. A rumor that Garrison had been seen 
 in a particular pew might make the pew- 
 owner a marked man for commercial punish 
 ment. "Mr. May," said a New York mer 
 chant of the first rank to the reformer, whom 
 he summoned to an interview during the 
 progress of an Anti-slavery meeting, " Mr. 
 May, we are not such fools as not to know 
 that slavery is a great evil; a great wrong. 
 But it was consented to by the founders of 
 our Republic. It was provided for in the 
 Constitution of our Union. A great portion 
 of the property of the Southerners is in 
 vested under its sanction; and the business 
 of the North, as well as the South, has be 
 come adjusted to it. There are millions 
 upon millions of dollars due from South 
 erners to the merchants and mechanics of 
 this city alone, the payment of which would 
 be jeopardized by any rupture between the 
 North and the South. We cannot afford, 
 sir, to let you and your associates succeed 
 32 
 
THE BACKGROUND 
 
 in your endeavor to overthrow slavery. It 
 is not a matter of principle with us. It is 
 a matter of business necessity. We cannot 
 afford to let you succeed. And I have called 
 you out to let you know, and to let your fel 
 low laborers know, that we do not mean to 
 allow you to succeed. We mean, sir," said 
 he, with increased emphasis, "we mean, 
 sir, to put you Abolitionists down, by fair 
 means if we can, by foul means if we must." 
 Truly the world was not very different 
 then from what it is to-day. If a man takes 
 a stand against any business interest, how 
 ever iniquitous, that interest will strike at 
 him on the following day. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE FIGURE 
 
 THE essential quality of all this old society 
 was that it was cold. In the last analysis, 
 after the historical and constitutional ques 
 tions have been patiently analyzed, after eco 
 nomics and sociology have had their say, 
 the trouble with the American of 1830 was 
 that he had a cold heart. Cruelty, lust, busi 
 ness interest, remoteness from European in 
 fluence had led to the establishment of an un 
 feeling civilization. The essential quality 
 of Garrison is that he is hot. This must be 
 borne in mind at every moment as the chief 
 and real quality of Garrison. Disregard the 
 arguments; sink every intellectual concep 
 tion, every bit of logic and of analysis, and 
 look upon the age: you see a cold age. 
 Look upon Garrison : you see a hot coal of 
 fire. He plunges through the icy at 
 mosphere like a burning meteorite from an 
 other planet. 
 
 j. There is a second contrast. The age was 
 {conciliatory: Garrison is aggressive. These 
 34 
 
THE FIGURE 
 
 two forms of the contrast between Garrison 
 and his age lie close together and merge 
 into each other: yet they are not entirely 
 identical : the first concerns the emotions, the 
 second, the intellect. Conciliation was the 
 sin of that age. Now this anti-type, this 
 personified enemy of his age, Garrison, 
 must in his nature be self-reliant, self-assert 
 ive, self-sufficient. He relates himself to 
 no precedent. He strikes out from his inner 
 thought. He is even swords-drawn with 
 his own thought of yesterday. When he 
 changes his mind he asks God to forgive him 
 for ever having thought otherwise. His in 
 stinct is so thoroughly opposed to any au 
 thority except the inner light of conscience, 
 that he makes that conscience his local, 
 momentary conscience into a column of 
 smoke sent by the Lord. Not Bunyan, not 
 Luther is greater than Garrison on this side 
 of his nature. He is not an intellectual per 
 son. He is not a highly educated man. 
 But he is a Will of the first magnitude, a will 
 made perfect, because almost entirely uncon 
 scious, almost entirely dedicated and sub 
 dued to its mission. 
 
 I quote here the whole of the first editorial 
 of the Liberator (January ist, 1831), be 
 cause the whole of Garrison is in it. In 
 35 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 reading it let us remember the shattering, 
 repulsive power which self-assertion exer 
 cises over smooth, cold people of good taste, 
 whose worldly fortunes and sincere spiritual 
 beliefs are bound up for all eternity with 
 smoothness, coldness, and good taste. The 
 punctuation and typesetting of the article, 
 and the verses (not his own) at the end of 
 it, may also be noted as indicating Garrison s 
 taste and education: 
 
 " In the month of August, I issued pro 
 posals for publishing the Liberator in 
 Washington City; but the enterprise, though 
 hailed in different sections of the country, 
 was palsied by public indifference. Since 
 that time, the removal of the Genius of Uni 
 versal Emancipation to the Seat of Govern 
 ment has rendered less imperious the estab 
 lishment of a similar periodical in that quar 
 ter. 
 
 " During my recent tour for the purpose 
 of exciting the minds of the people by a 
 series of discourses on the subject of slavery, 
 every place that I visited gave fresh evi 
 dence of the fact that a greater revolution 
 in public sentiment was to be effected in the 
 free States and particularly in New Eng 
 land than at the South. I found con 
 tempt more bitter, opposition more active, 
 36 
 
THE FIGURE 
 
 detraction more relentless, prejudice more 
 stubborn, and apathy more frozen, than 
 among slave-owners themselves. Of 
 course, there were individual exceptions to 
 the contrary. This state of things afflicted, 
 but did not dishearten me. I determined at 
 every hazard to lift up the standard of eman 
 cipation in the eyes of the nation, within 
 sight of Bunker Hill and in the birthplace of 
 liberty. That standard is now unfurled; 
 and long may it float, unhurt by the spolia 
 tions of time or the missiles of a desperate 
 foe yea, till every chain be broken, and 
 every bondman set free ! Let Southern op 
 pressors tremble let their secret abettors 
 tremble let their Northern apologists 
 tremble let all the enemies of the perse 
 cuted blacks tremble. 
 
 " I deem the publication of my original 
 Prospectus unnecessary, as it has obtained 
 a wide circulation. The principles therein 
 inculcated will be steadily pursued in this 
 paper, excepting that I shall not array myself 
 as the political partisan of any man. In de 
 fending the great cause of human rights, I 
 wish to derive the assistance of all religions 
 and of all parties." 
 
 Thus began Garrison in his first editorial 
 in the Liberator. Does this seem egotism, 
 37 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 this almost pompous deliberation, this taking 
 off his coat and laying it across a chair as he 
 makes his bow to the public? Yes, it is 
 egotism. It is gigantic egotism but not 
 the egotism of vanity or self-seeking. It is 
 the selfless egotism of a supreme self-asser 
 tion, put forth unconsciously by human na 
 ture; and as such it is in itself a sample of 
 what that age needed, the sample of a spirit 
 of independence without which slavery 
 never could and never would have been 
 abolished. Let us proceed with the edi 
 torial. . . . " Assenting to the self- 
 evident truth maintained in the American 
 Declaration of Independence, that all men 
 are created equal, and endowed by their 
 Creator with certain inalienable rights 
 among which are life, liberty, and the pur 
 suit of happiness/ I shall strenuously con 
 tend for the immediate enfranchisement of 
 our slave population. In Park Street 
 Church, on the Fourth of July, 1829, in an 
 address on slavery, I unreflectingly assented 
 to the popular but pernicious doctrine of 
 gradual abolition. I seize this opportunity 
 to make a full and unequivocal recantation, 
 and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, 
 of my country, and of my brethren, the poor 
 slaves, for having uttered a sentiment so full 
 38 
 
THE FIGURE 
 
 of timidity, injustice, and absurdity. A 
 similar recantation, from my pen, was pub 
 lished in the Genius of Universal Emancipa 
 tion at Baltimore, in September, 1829. My 
 conscience is now satisfied. 
 
 " I am aware that many object to the se 
 verity of my language ; but is there not cause 
 for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, 
 and as uncompromising as justice. On this 
 subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or 
 write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a 
 man whose house is on fire to give a moder 
 ate alarm ; tell him to moderately rescue his 
 wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the 
 mother to gradually extricate her babe from 
 the fire into which it has fallen ; but urge 
 me not to use moderation in a cause like the 
 present. I am in earnest I will not 
 equivocate I will not excuse I will not 
 retreat a single inch AND I WILL BE 
 HEARD. The apathy of the people is 
 enough to make every statue leap from its 
 pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of 
 the dead. 
 
 " It is pretended that I am retarding the 
 cause of emancipation by the coarseness of 
 my invective and the precipitancy of my 
 measures. The charge is not true. On this 
 question my influence humble as it is 
 39 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 is felt at this moment to a considerable ex 
 tent, and shall be felt in coming years 
 not perniciously, but beneficially not as a 
 curse, but as a blessing; and posterity will 
 bear testimony that I was right. I desire to 
 thank God that He enables me to disre 
 gard * the fear of man which bringeth a 
 snare/ and to speak his truth in its simplic 
 ity and power. . . . 
 
 . . . " And here I close with this 
 fresh dedication: 
 
 " Oppression ! I have seen thee, face to face, 
 And met thy cruel eye and cloudy brow ; 
 But thy soul-withering glance I fear not 
 
 now 
 For dread to prouder feelings doth give 
 
 place 
 
 Of deep abhorrence ! Scouring the disgrace 
 Of slavish knees that at thy footstool bow, 
 I also kneel but with far other vow 
 Do hail thee and thy herd of hirelings 
 
 base : 
 
 I swear, while life-blood warms my throb 
 bing veins, 
 Still to oppose and thwart, with heart and 
 
 hand, 
 
 Thy brutalizing sway till Afric s chains 
 Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued 
 land, 
 
 40 
 
THE FIGURE 
 
 Trampling Oppression and his iron rod : 
 Such is the vow I take - SO HELP ME 
 GOD ! " 
 
 Garrison s early history is the familiar 
 tale of poverty, and reminds one of Benja 
 min Franklin s boyhood. His mother, a 
 person of education and refinement, was, 
 during Garrison s babyhood, plunged into 
 bitter destitution. He was born in New- 
 buryport, Massachusetts, in 1805. At the 
 age of nine, in order to help pay for his 
 board, he was working for Deacon Bartlett 
 in Newburyport. Later, he learned shoe- 
 making at Lynn, cabinet-making at Haver- 
 hill, and in 1818, at the age of thirteen, was 
 apprenticed to a printer and newspaper pub 
 lisher. Now began his true education. He 
 read Scott, Byron, Moore, Pope, and Camp 
 bell; and at the age of seventeen, was writ 
 ing newspaper articles in the style of the 
 day. By the time he was twenty, Garrison 
 was a thoroughgoing printer and journalist ; 
 and during the last three years of his ap 
 prenticeship he had entire charge of his mas 
 ter s paper. During the next four years, he 
 edited four newspapers, and embraced va 
 rious reforms besides Anti-slavery, e. g., 
 Temperance, Education, Peace, Sabbatarian 
 ism, etc. He seems at this period to be 
 41 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 like a hound on a scent, as he takes up 
 and abandons one newspaper after another. 
 He is already a reformer, already a boiling 
 enthusiast, already an insuppressible Vol 
 ubility, already one-ideaed upon any sub 
 ject that he treats. If his theme be 
 Temperance, then moderate drinking is 
 the worst enemy of man. He joins most 
 heartily in the anathema against to 
 bacco either in chewing, smoking, or snuff 
 ing. He is against capital punishment and 
 imprisonment for debt, and it is safe to say 
 that he would, at a moment s notice, have 
 delivered a violent judgment upon any sub 
 ject that aroused his compassion. 
 
 Whatever else he was, he was a full-grown 
 being at the age of twenty-four, when Ben 
 jamin Lundy persuaded him to devote his 
 life to the cause of the slave. Benjamin 
 Lundy, the quiet Quaker, had been editing 
 the Genius of Universal Emancipation since 
 1821, and was at this time (1828) estab 
 lished in Baltimore, where he had recently 
 been assaulted and almost killed in the 
 streets by Austin Woolfolk, a slave trader. 
 Lundy s practice was to walk from town to 
 town throughout the country, founding Anti- 
 slavery societies, and introducing his news 
 paper. He first met Garrison while he was 
 42 
 
THE FIGURE 
 
 on a visit to Boston, and at a later date he 
 walked from Baltimore to Bennington, Ver 
 mont, where Garrison was editing a journal, 
 in order to convert Garrison. He suc 
 ceeded. Garrison left Vermont and became 
 co-editor of the Genius in Baltimore. Be 
 fore he migrated to Baltimore, however, he 
 visited Boston and there on July 4th, 1829, 
 he delivered an address in the Park Street 
 Church which is really the beginning of his 
 mission. The Reverend John Pierpont 
 (the grandfather of Pierpont Morgan) 
 was present and wrote a hymn for the oc 
 casion. Whittier, a stripling, was also pres 
 ent. The tone and substance of this ad 
 dress are strikingly like those of Emerson s 
 Phi Beta Kappa address (delivered six years 
 later), in which Emerson made his manly 
 salutatory to his age. Garrison s words are 
 as follows: 
 
 " I speak not as a partisan or an opponent 
 of any man or measures, when I say that 
 our politics are rotten to the core. We 
 boast of our freedom, who go shackled to 
 the polls, year after year, by tens, and hun 
 dreds, and thousands! We talk of free 
 agency, who are the veriest machines the 
 merest automata in the hands of unprin 
 cipled jugglers ! We prate of integrity, and 
 43 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 virtue, and independence, who sell our birth 
 right for office, and who, nine times in ten, 
 do not get Esau s bargain no, not even a 
 mess of pottage ! Is it republicanism to say 
 that the majority can do no wrong? Then 
 I am not a republican. Is it aristocracy to 
 say that the people sometimes shamefully 
 abuse their high trust? Then I am an aris 
 tocrat. . . . 
 
 " Before God, I must say, that such a glar 
 ing contradiction as exists between our creed 
 and practice, the annals of six thousand 
 years cannot parallel. In view of it, I am 
 ashamed of my country. I am sick of our 
 unmeaning declamation in praise of lib 
 erty and equality; of our hypocritical cant 
 about the unalienable rights of man. I 
 could not, for my right hand, stand up be 
 fore a European assembly, and exult that I 
 am an American citizen, and denounce the 
 usurpations of a kingly government as 
 wicked and unjust; or, should I make the 
 attempt, the recollection of my country s 
 barbarity and despotism would blister my 
 lips, and cover my cheeks with burning 
 blushes of shame." 
 
 Let us now take a few sentences from 
 Emerson s Phi Beta Kappa address : 
 
 "The spirit of the American freeman is 
 44 
 
THE FIGURE 
 
 already suspected to be timid, imitative, 
 tame. Public and private avarice make the 
 air we breathe thick and fat. The scholar 
 is decent, indolent, complaisant. See al 
 ready the tragic consequence. The mind of 
 this country, taught to aim at low objects, 
 eats upon itself. . . . Young men of 
 the fairest promise, who begin life upon 
 our shores, inflated by the mountain winds, 
 shined upon by all the stars of God, find 
 the earth below not in unison with these, 
 but are hindered from action by the dis 
 gust which the principles on which busi 
 ness is managed inspire, and turn drudges, 
 or die of disgust, some of them suicides. 
 What is the remedy? They did not yet 
 see, and thousands of young men as hope 
 ful now crowding to the barriers for the 
 career do not yet see, that if the single 
 man plant himself indomitably on his 
 instincts, and there abide, the huge world 
 will come round to him." 
 
 The difference between Emerson and 
 Garrison is that Emerson is interested in aes 
 thetic, Garrison in social matters. The one 
 represents the world of intellect, the other, 
 the world of feeling. Both speak the same 
 idea, each according to his own idiom. 
 Both are, in essence, affronting the same 
 45 
 
W>LLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 evil the Dominion of Slavery. The dif 
 ference is that Garrison has seen the evil 
 plainly, and has laid his hand upon it; Em 
 erson was to live in ignorance of its specific 
 nature for many years to come. I shall 
 revert again to the relation between these 
 two young men, both so noble, both of 
 such immense consequence to the country, 
 each of them, in a sense, the father of all 
 of us whose spirits were raised up by God 
 to shed new life upon America. 
 
 We must return to Garrison as the co- 
 editor with Lundy of the Genius of Uni 
 versal Emancipation in Baltimore. Inas 
 much as Garrison had already received his 
 revelation as to immediate emancipation, 
 and Lundy favored slower methods, the 
 two partners agreed to sign their articles 
 separately. Baltimore was, at that time, the 
 most northern port in the coastwise slave 
 trade: and Garrison constantly saw the 
 slaves being shipped south in New England 
 bottoms. It was not long before Garrison 
 was thrown into jail in Baltimore as the re 
 sult of a suit for criminal libel, brought by 
 a New England slave trader whom he had 
 denounced. The Mr. Todd whom he " li 
 beled," and about whom he spoke only the 
 truth, was a fellow townsman of Garrison s, 
 46 
 
THE FIGURE 
 
 being a native of Newburyport, Mass., and 
 was thus a natural target for Garrison s in 
 vective. Garrison remained in jail seven 
 weeks, during which time he conducted a 
 most telling campaign of pamphlets, private 
 letters and public cards, sonnets, letters to 
 editors, etc., with the result that the whole 
 of America heard of the incident. Mr. Ar 
 thur Tappan of New York became inter 
 ested in the case, and secured Garrison s re 
 lease by paying the fine of one hundred 
 dollars. This was in the spring of 1830. 
 
 Thus it may be seen that at the time that 
 Garrison returned to Boston and established 
 his Liberator (1830-31) he was twenty-five / 
 years old, a consummate controversialist, - | 
 and the apostle of a new theory Immedi- ^ 
 ate Emancipation, for which he had already 
 suffered imprisonment. The world has no 
 terrors for a man like this. 
 
 Anti-slavery action did not begin with 
 Garrison. There had been Anti-slavery so 
 cieties for fifty years before him; there ex 
 isted in 1830 perhaps a hundred and fifty 
 of them, many of them being in the slave 
 states. But the new movement did not 
 spring jrom these old societies. It was mili 
 tant as they were not: it was dissatisfied 
 with their mild methods and inactivity: in 
 47 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 fact, it denounced them. The new move 
 ment came bursting up like a subterranean 
 torrent. 
 
 I have no doubt that Garrison and his 
 mission were somehow fundamentally con 
 nected with the labors of the Anti-slavery 
 men who kept the name of mercy alive be 
 tween 1776 and 1820. Yet these old agen 
 cies were upheaved from beneath. Aboli 
 tion appeared at the North and over 
 slaughed them; the Slave Power developed 
 new heat at the South and burned out the 
 roots of them. Any single anecdote of 
 those times will be apt to illustrate both 
 i sides of the question, i. e., the new vulture 
 \quality of slavery at the South, and the new 
 Ibulldog quality of Abolition at the North. 
 For instance, when the Southern statesmen 
 recognized the existence of Abolition, they 
 began passing laws against the introduction 
 of Abolition literature into the South, and 
 they began to correspond with Northern 
 statesmen and officials with the aim of sup 
 pressing Garrison. The Legislature of 
 Georgia, in 1831, offered a reward of 
 $5000 for the arrest and conviction of Gar 
 rison under the law r s of Georgia. The 
 Southern press went into paroxysms of 
 clamorous rage. On the other hand, Gar- 
 
THE FIGURE 
 
 rison is by no means deficient in vigor of 
 feeling. The following is his comment on 
 the reward: 
 
 " A price set upon the head of a citizen 
 of Massachusetts for what ? For dar 
 ing to give his opinions of the moral aspect 
 of slavery! Where is the liberty of the 
 press and of speech ? Where the spirit of our 
 fathers? Where the immunities secured to 
 us by our Bill of Rights? Are we the 
 slaves of Southern taskmasters? Is it 
 treason to maintain the principles of the 
 Declaration of Independence? Must we 
 say that slavery is a sacred and benevolent 
 institution, or be silent? Know this, ye 
 senatorial patrons of kidnappers! that we 
 despise your threats as much as we deplore 
 your infatuation: nay, more know that 
 a hundred men stand ready to fill our place 
 as soon as it is made vacant by violence. 
 The Liberator shall yet live live to warn 
 you of your danger and guilt live to 
 plead for the perishing slaves live to hail 
 the day of universal emancipation!" 
 
 Now we can see at a glance that this new j 
 Abolition is much more than Abolition: it 
 is Courage. Garrison s tone here takes us 
 back a generation to James Otis, to John 
 Adams, and to the other Revolutionary he- 
 49 
 
roes; and he is really standing for constitu 
 tional liberty quite as distinctly, and at as 
 crucial a moment, as those gentlemen had 
 done. Garrison s language is harsh ; but he 
 is almost the only out-and-out masculine 
 person in the North. No: there was one 
 other the aged John Quincy Adams ; and 
 Adams was as harsh, and as unmeasured, as 
 Garrison. Nay, Adams was personally bit 
 ter, which Garrison never was. Adams 
 was, in reality, a survivor of 1776, an un 
 tamed aristocrat and he bore a vase of 
 the old fire in his bosom. This was per 
 mitted to Adams because no one could 
 stop him; but men vaguely imagined that 
 Garrison s fire could be put out. 
 
 In 1831, Garrison was indicted in North 
 Carolina. The South was not wrong in 
 thinking that the official classes at the North 
 would lend aid in suppressing the new 
 movement. Judge Thatcher of the Munici 
 pal Court in Boston made a charge to the 
 Grand Jury (1832) in which he laid the 
 foundation for the criminal prosecution of 
 Abolitionists. No one could tell just how 
 far subserviency might go. The Mayor of 
 Boston, Harrison Gray Otis, was nat 
 urally appealed to by the Southern states 
 men to protect them against the circulation 
 so 
 
THE FIGURE 
 
 of Abolition literature. It was in 1829 that 
 Otis was first called on to do something 
 about " Walker s appeal," a fierce, Biblical 
 pamphlet, full of power, written by a col 
 ored man in Boston and urging the slaves 
 to rise. Otis replied that the author had 
 not made himself amenable to the laws of 
 Massachusetts, and that the book had caused 
 no excitement in Boston. Garrison had 
 had nothing to do with Walker s pamphlet, 
 and had publicly condemned its doctrines. 
 None the less, Walker s appeal was an out 
 crop of the same subterranean fire that 
 coursed through Garrison, and when Nat 
 Turner s Slave Rebellion broke out (1831) 
 and a dozen white families were murdered 
 in Virginia, the whole South was thrown 
 into a panic, and attributed the insurrection 
 to the teachings of the Abolitionists. 
 
 This puny rebellion was easily put down. 
 Turner was hanged, his followers were 
 burnt with hot irons, their faces were muti 
 lated, their jaws broken asunder, their ham 
 strings cut, their bodies stuck like hogs, their 
 heads spiked to the whipping-post. No con 
 nection was ever discovered between Nat 
 Turner s Rebellion and the Abolitionists, 
 who never at any time sent their papers to 
 slaves. The illiteracy of the blacks made it 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 improbable that they had been influenced by 
 any sort of writings. And yet one cannot 
 help feeling that the existence of a militant 
 propaganda in their behalf had reached the 
 consciousness of the slaves, and that this 
 rising was the outcome of the new age. 
 Angels wings were beating upon the air, 
 and charging it with both life and death, 
 till even dumb slaves felt the impulsion. 
 Various Southern governors, statesmen, 
 and newspapers renewed the campaign 
 against the Liberator, and Otis was again 
 appealed to. 
 
 " To be more specific in our object," says 
 the National Intelligencer which was pub 
 lished in Washington, and was one of the 
 most influential journals of the epoch, " we 
 now appeal to the worthy Mayor of the 
 City of Boston, whether no law can be 
 found to prevent the publication, in the city 
 over which he presides, of such diabolical 
 papers (copies of the Liberator) as we 
 have seen a sample of here in the hands of 
 slaves, and of which there are many in cir 
 culation to the south of us. We have no 
 doubt whatever of the feelings of Mr. Otis 
 on this subject, or those of his respectable 
 constituents. We know they would prompt 
 him and them to arrest the instigator of 
 52 
 
THE FIGURE 
 
 human butchery in his mad career. We 
 know the difficulty which surrounds the 
 subject, because the nuisance is not a nui 
 sance, technically speaking, within the lim 
 its of Massachusetts. But, surely, if the 
 courts of law have no power, public opin 
 ion has to interfere, until the intelligent 
 Legislature of Massachusetts can provide a 
 durable remedy for this most appalling 
 grievance. . . ." 
 
 Robert Y. Hayne of Columbia, S. C, 
 begged Otis to find out whether Garrison 
 had mailed him (Hayne) a copy of the 
 Liberator. Otis obsequiously sent a deputy 
 to question Garrison. This was something 
 very like a prostitution of his office on the 
 part of Mayor Otis; because what Hayne 
 wanted was to obtain evidence to be used 
 in a criminal prosecution of Garrison. Gar 
 rison at once becomes the able constitutional 
 lawyer. 
 
 " The Hon. Robert Y. Hayne of Colum 
 bia, S. C.," says the Liberator of October 
 29th, 1831, " (through the medium of a 
 letter), wishes to know of the Mayor of 
 Boston, who sent a number of the Liberator 
 to him, a few weeks ago. The Mayor of 
 Boston (through the medium of a deputy) 
 wishes to know of Mr. Garrison whether he 
 53 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 sent the aforesaid number to the aforesaid 
 individual. Mr. Garrison (through the 
 medium of his paper) wishes to know of 
 the Hon. Robert Y. Hayne of Columbia, 
 S. C., and the Mayor of Boston, what 
 authority they have to put such questions ? " 
 We can see in this, as in all the rest of 
 Garrison s activity, the tactician of genius. 
 We can see also the inner relation between 
 morality and constitutional law, which ex 
 ists in all ages. The Reformer is always 
 struggling against arbitrary power. He in 
 vokes the protection of some law or cus 
 tom which exists, or ought to exist. In 
 cases where this law or custom has a his 
 toric basis, the struggle goes on in the form 
 of constitutional law. The picture of the 
 Reformer is always the picture of Courage 
 and of Mercy: the courageous man who is, 
 by his conduct, protecting the weak. It is 
 this vision of courage and mercy in opera 
 tion, that melts the heart and inspires new 
 courage and mercy in the beholder. Here is 
 the great question which stands behind all the 
 details ; for courage and mercy are of eternal 
 importance. That is why we hear so much 
 of Pym, Hampden, etc. Their conduct has 
 a direct relation to present conditions. No 
 day passes in which every man is not put 
 54 
 
THE FIGURE 
 
 to the test many times over, as to his per 
 sonal relation towards the cowardices and 
 cruelties of his own age. 
 
 Mayor Otis saw nothing important in the 
 episode which has given him a Dantesque 
 immortality. He had never heard of the 
 Liberator. He therefore, procured a copy 
 of it. 
 
 "I am told," he said, "that it is sup 
 ported chiefly by the free colored people ; 
 that the number of subscribers in Balti 
 more and Washington exceeds that of those 
 in this city, and that it is gratuitously left 
 at one or two of the reading-rooms in this 
 place. It is edited by an individual who 
 formerly lived at Baltimore, where his feel 
 ings have been exasperated by some occur 
 rences consequent to his publications there, 
 on topics connected with the condition of 
 slaves in this country. . . ." 
 
 At a later period Otis wrote: 
 
 " Some time afterward, it was reported 
 to me by the city officers that they had fer 
 reted out the paper and its editor; that his 
 office was an obscure hole, his only visible 
 auxiliary a negro boy, and his supporters 
 a very few insignificant persons of all col 
 ors. This information, with the consent of 
 the aldermen, I communicated to the above- 
 55 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 named governors, with an assurance of my 
 belief that the new fanaticism had not made, 
 nor was likely to make, proselytes among 
 the respectable classes of our people. In 
 this, however, I was mistaken." 
 
 History has left us, in this anecdote, a sil 
 houette of Harrison Gray Otis, one of Bos 
 ton s most eminent personages at that time, 
 the representative of the old Puritan 
 blood, of the education, wealth, good looks, 
 social prominence, and political power of 
 Boston s leaders. In how short a time, and 
 with how easy a transformation does patriot 
 turn tyrant. Here is the nephew of James 
 Otis, hand in glove with the iniquity of his 
 age. He who was rocked in the cradle of 
 liberty, is now the agent of the Inquisition. 
 And he is perfectly innocent. He is a mere 
 toy and creature of his time. A new issue 
 has arisen that neither he nor his generation 
 understand, and behold, they have become 
 oppressors. 
 
 The Hercules that is to save mankind 
 from these monsters is in the meanwhile 
 working fourteen hours a day, setting type. 
 The Liberator was begun without a dollar 
 of capital and without a single subscriber. 
 Garrison and his partner, Isaac Knapp, a 
 young white man equally poor and equally 
 56 
 
THE FIGURE 
 
 able to bear privation, composed, set, and 
 printed the paper themselves. They lived 
 chiefly upon bread and milk, a few cakes 
 and a little fruit, obtained from the baker s 
 shop opposite and from a petty cake and 
 fruit shop in the basement. " I was often at 
 the office of the Liberator," wrote the Rev. 
 James C. White. " I knew of his (Garri 
 son s) self-denials. I knew he slept in the 
 office with a table for a bed, a book for a 
 pillow, and a self -prepared scanty meal for 
 his rations in the office, while he set up his 
 articles in the Liberator with his own hand, 
 and without previous committal to paper." 
 " It was a pretty large room," says Jo- 
 siah Copley, who visited it in the winter of 
 1832-33, "but there was nothing in it to 
 relieve its dreariness but two or three very 
 common chairs and a pine desk in the cor 
 ner, at which a pale, delicate, and appar 
 ently over-tasked gentleman was sitting. 
 . . . I never was more astonished. All 
 my preconceptions were at fault. My ideal 
 of the man was that of a stout, rugged, 
 dark-visaged desperado something like 
 we picture a pirate. He was a quiet, gen 
 tle, and I might say handsome man a 
 gentleman indeed, in every sense of the 
 word." 
 
 57 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 " The dingy walls ; the small windows, 
 bespattered with printer s ink; the press 
 standing in one corner; the composing- 
 stands opposite ; the long editorial and mail 
 ing table, covered with newspapers ; the bed 
 of the editor and publisher on the floor 
 all these," says Oliver Johnson, " make a 
 picture never to be forgotten." 
 
IV 
 
 PICTURES OF THE 
 STRUGGLE 
 
 THERE are pages in the memoirs of Anti 
 slavery that shine with a light which sancti 
 fies this continent, and which will be un- 
 diminished a thousand years hence. Nay, 
 it will shine more clearly then than now; 
 for we are still living in the valley of the 
 shadow of death. 
 
 The war followed so quickly upon the 
 true awakening of the nation as to the na 
 ture of slavery that those early watchers, 
 whose cries had aroused us, were still in 
 Coventry; they were still held to be odious, 
 although their piercing appeal had put life 
 and religion into all. The North died for 
 the slave, with condemnation of the Aboli 
 tionist upon its lips. This paradoxical out 
 come was due to the rapidity with which 
 events moved during the final crisis. A 
 revolution may be studied in its origins, and 
 may be comprehended through its results; 
 but during the actual cascade that leads from 
 the one epoch to the other, scene succeeds 
 59 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 scene with such fury that history becomes 
 unintelligible. In the years that intervened 
 between the Kansas troubles and the out 
 break of the war, so many things happened 
 at once that all issues and all feelings were 
 telescoped together. There followed the 
 picturesque horrors and scenes of war-time; 
 there followed the new patriotism, the new 
 heroes, the New Legend all of it so 
 vivid, so drenched in grief, so glorified 
 by honor, so informed with the mean 
 ing of a new heaven and a new earth, that 
 ^the immediate past was belittled. The 
 \ Abolitionists thus passed straight from 
 the odium of people preaching unpleasant 
 truth to the odium of people proclaim 
 ing what everybody knows. They have never 
 had a heyday. Their cause triumphed 
 but not they themselves. They still re 
 main under a cloud in America, and 
 are regarded with some distrust by the 
 historian and by the common man. I 
 can scarcely find a man who sees in these 
 early Abolitionists, as I do, the lamp and 
 light of the whole after-coming epoch. 
 Perhaps our age is still too near to theirs to 
 do it justice; and the mere flight of time 
 may bring men to a truer perspective of the 
 whole matter. 
 
 60 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 Religious animosities do not die out in 
 a moment. Many of us still feel a lambent 
 and rising heat course through our veins 
 in reading the history of the religious 
 wars of three centuries ago. This is be 
 cause those wars have come down in fam 
 ily life, and are thus a part of the 
 intimate personal history of men. So of 
 this just-buried cause, Abolition. Consider 
 how the American of to-day reads the Con 
 stitutional History of the years before the 
 war. Nullification, the Texas scheme, the 
 Mexican War, the Repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise, the Kansas troubles all 
 these things and every subsidiary foreign 
 or domestic issue in our annals, are interest 
 ing to us because we feel so intimately the 
 hot place in each one of them. Part 
 of this heat comes from prejudice and ac 
 cident, part of it from the central focus of 
 truth; and we cannot always be sure which 
 kind it is that burns in us. But there is a 
 species of glow that can be trusted. It 
 comes to us when we read accounts of hero 
 ism. Tales of noble self-sacrifice never re 
 main mere adjuncts to a creed, or portions 
 of a partisan tradition. They contain in 
 themselves the whole of salvation. Poster 
 ity will recur to the age of the Anti-slavery 
 61 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 movement in order to find there those little 
 digests of human nature which are true to 
 all time. Here are the gems in the treas 
 ury of a nation s life; and it matters not to 
 later ages whether the geological strata in 
 which they lie embedded be Catholic or 
 Protestant, Christian or pagan, political or 
 religious. 
 
 Whenever a reform movement is started 
 in this world and is making headway, the 
 evils which it threatens instinctively strive 
 to gain control over it. We see this every 
 day in our local citizens movements, which 
 always begin by sincere activity, and 
 almost always grow effete through capture 
 by the politicians. Our civil service asso 
 ciations tend to become absorbed by the 
 political parties, who man them with paid 
 officials, and run up the expenses till the 
 cure has become a part of the disease. This 
 oscillation between reform and absorption 
 goes on ceaselessly; and the young prophet 
 always finds himself obliged to attack and 
 destroy some sham reform association, 
 bearing a fine name, before he can get at 
 the real evil. Let us note this also; that a 
 somnolent and inactive reform association, 
 with a fine name, and an aroma of original 
 benevolence about it, and perhaps even a 
 62 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 superficially good record, is the very sort of 
 association to attract respectable, rich, lazy, 
 and conservative people. 
 
 The Colonization Society in 1830 
 sented an extreme case of sham reform. 
 It had been started in 1816 in Virginia, with 
 the avowed object of transporting free ne 
 groes to Africa. It had been pushed with 
 diligence and paraded as the cure for the 
 evils of slavery, and its benevolence was as 
 sumed on all hands. Everybody of conse 
 quence belonged to it. Garrison, himself, 
 joined it in good faith. This Colonization 
 Society had, by an invisible process, half 
 conscious, half unconscious, been trans 
 formed into a serviceable organ and mem 
 ber of the Slave Power. In order to in 
 vestigate the real functions of this society, 
 Garrison, in 1831, obtained from its head 
 quarters at Washington, the files of its doc 
 uments and of its newspaper, the African 
 Repository. 
 
 " The result of his labors," says Oliver 
 Johnson, " was seen in a bulky pamphlet, 
 that came from the press in the spring, en 
 titled Thoughts on African Colonization; 
 or, an Impartial Exhibition of the Doc 
 trines, Principles and Purposes of the 
 American Colonization Society; together 
 63 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 with the Resolutions, Addresses and Re 
 monstrances of the Free People of Color/ 
 As a compilation of facts and authorities it 
 was unanswerable and overwhelming. It 
 condemned the Colonization Society out of 
 its own mouth, and by a weight of evidence 
 that was irresistible. There was just 
 enough of comment to elucidate the testi 
 mony from official sources and bring it 
 within the comprehension of the simplest 
 reader. His indictment contained ten aver 
 ments, viz. : i. The American Colonization 
 Society is pledged not to oppose the system 
 of slavery; 2. It apologizes for slavery and 
 slave-holders; 3. It recognizes slaves as 
 property; 4. It increases the value of slaves; 
 
 5. It is the enemy of immediate abolition; 
 
 6. It is nourished by fear and selfishness; 
 
 7. It aims at the utter expulsion of the 
 blacks; 8, It is the disparager of the free 
 blacks; 9. It denies the possibility of elevat 
 ing the blacks in this country; 10. It de 
 ceives and misleads the Nation. Each of 
 these averments was supported by pages of 
 citations from the annual reports of the so 
 ciety, from the pages of its official organ, 
 the African Repository, and from the 
 speeches of its leading champions in all 
 parts of the country. It was impossible to 
 
 64 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 set this evidence aside, and equally so to re 
 sist the conclusions drawn therefrom. The 
 work could not be, and therefore was not 
 answered." 
 
 The book made a tremendous sensation 
 and became the arsenal of the Abolitionists in 
 this country and of their exponents abroad. 
 " It was early in 1852, I think," says Elizur 
 Wright, " that Mr. Garrison struck the 
 greatest blow of his life or any man s 
 life by publishing in a thick pamphlet, 
 with all the emphasis that a printer knows 
 how to give to types, his Thoughts on Col 
 onisation/ The Colonization Society was 
 an embodiment of the public consciousness. 
 It was prevalent, it was a part of the peo 
 ple s daily life. All the great divines be 
 longed to it, all the academic bigwigs, so 
 cial figure-heads and moneyed men. And 
 yet, in fact, Colonization was a sort of ob 
 scene dragon that lay before the Palace of 
 Slavery to devour or corrupt all assailants. 
 Garrison attacked it like Perseus, with a 
 ferocity which to this day is thrilling. His 
 eyes, his words, and his sword flash and 
 glitter. And he slew it. He cut off its 
 supplies, he destroyed its reputation in Eu 
 rope; and he thereby opened the path be 
 tween the Abolition movement and the con- 
 65 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 science of America. Nothing he ever did 
 was more able. Nothing that Frederick 
 the Great, Washington or Napoleon ever 
 did in the field of war was more brilliant 
 than this political foray of Garrison, then 
 at the age of twenty-seven, upon the key- 
 position and jugular vein of slavery. 
 
 Among the immediate consequences of 
 Garrison s pamphlet on colonization was 
 the contest over Lane Seminary at Cin 
 cinnati, a contest which became the storm 
 center of Abolition influence for a year, and 
 qualified public opinion ever after. I quote 
 part of the account given by Oliver John 
 son from his well-known volume on Gar 
 rison and his time from which many of 
 these illustrations are taken. Johnson was 
 a right-hand man of Garrison s and at 
 times was editor and co-editor of the Lib 
 erator. He gave up his life to Anti-slavery, 
 and is a fair example of the sort of man 
 who came into existence, as if by miracle, 
 when Garrison stamped his foot in 1830. 
 
 " The founding of Lane Seminary, at the 
 gateway of the great West, was a part of 
 this plan, to extend the influence of Ortho 
 doxy, and Dr. Beecher,* being generally 
 
 * Rev. Lyman Beecher, father of Henry Ward 
 Beecher and of Harriet Beecher Stowe. 
 66 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 recognized as the leader of New England 
 Revivalism, and the strongest representa 
 tive of the advanced school of Orthodoxy 
 at that day, Mr. Tappan thought that he 
 of all others was the man best fitted to train 
 a body of ministers for the new field. The 
 Doctor, after considerable delay, and to the 
 great grief of his Boston church, accepted 
 the appointment. Such was his fame that 
 a large class of students, of unusual ma 
 turity of judgment and ripeness of Chris 
 tian experience, was at once attracted to the 
 Seminary. In the literary and theological 
 departments together, they numbered about 
 one hundred and ten. Eleven of these were 
 from different slave States; seven were 
 sons of slaveholders; one was himself a 
 slaveholder, and one had purchased his free 
 dom from cruel bondage by the payment of 
 a large sum of money, which he had earned 
 by extra labor. Besides these there were 
 ten others who had resided for longer or 
 shorter periods in the slave States, and 
 made careful observation of the character 
 and workings of slavery. The youngest 
 of these students was nineteen years of age ; 
 most of those in the theological department 
 were more than twenty-six, and several 
 were over thirty. Most if not all of them 
 67 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 had been converted in the revivals of that 
 period, and were filled with the revival spirit 
 in which Dr. Beecher so much delighted. 
 A more earnest and devoted band of stu 
 dents was probably never gathered in any 
 theological seminary. The Doctor had 
 great pride as well as confidence in them." 
 
 The students in this Seminary at Cincin 
 nati were planning to form a Colonization 
 Society, and Garrison s pamphlet being in the 
 air, its arguments were being used to op 
 pose the plan. The students therefore 
 organized a nine days solemn debate 
 upon the whole matter, with the result 
 that Garrison and Immediate Emanci 
 pation carried the day. In the meantime 
 the country at large took an interest in the 
 affair, and the press assailed the Seminary 
 as a hotbed of Abolition. Dr. Lyman 
 Beecher and the trustees were harried and 
 threatened. The hearts of the Abolition 
 ists were stirred to the depths. 
 
 " In every part of the free States," says 
 Oliver Johnson, " there were Christian men 
 and godly women not a few, who prayed to 
 God night and day that Lyman Beecher 
 might be imbued with strength and courage 
 to stand up nobly in the face of the storm 
 that raged around him, and maintain the 
 68 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 right of his pupils, as candidates for the 
 Christian ministry, to investigate and dis 
 cuss the subject of slavery, and to bear their 
 testimony against it as a sin, and & mighty 
 hindrance to the spread of the Gospel." 
 
 At last, the trustees of the Seminary, 
 thinking to avoid the danger, forbade the 
 students to discuss slavery at all even in 
 private. The outcome was that seventy or 
 eighty students resigned in a body. The 
 institution was disgraced and wrecked; it 
 never recovered from the experience. The 
 greatest result of the episode, however, was 
 this, that the young men who resigned be 
 came, by force of circumstances, something 
 like public characters. Their first step was 
 a public one into the arena. They issued 
 an appeal to the Christian public, and many 
 of them went out into the world as protag 
 onists of Abolition. 
 
 Here was a miraculous draught indeed; 
 for, of course, among them were men of 
 mark; and Theodore D. Weld, the ring 
 leader, was, as Johnson says, the peer of 
 Beecher himself in native ability. Thus 
 burst a seed-pod of Abolition. This propa- 
 gative influence had been in Garrison s 
 pamphlet. That pamphlet evoked, it elicited, 
 it agitated. When we come later to review 
 69 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 Garrison s writings, let us remember what 
 these writings accomplished. Let us re 
 member that, however tedious this pamphlet 
 on Colonization may seem to us, however 
 dead it may fall, under criticism, to-day, it 
 had this life-giving quality in its own time. 
 Another of the early picturesque episodes 
 of Anti-slavery history was the case of Pru 
 dence Crandall. It set the world ringing, 
 and caused new champions to step forward, 
 fully armed, out of that mystical wood 
 which ever fringes the open lawns where 
 heroes are at combat. 
 
 I again quote from Oliver Johnson: 
 " In 1832, Prudence Crandall, a Quaker 
 young woman of high character, established 
 in Canterbury, Windham County, Conn., a 
 school for young ladies. Now there was 
 in that town a respectable colored farmer 
 named Harris, who had a daughter, a bright 
 girl of seventeen, who, having passed cred 
 itably through one of the district schools, 
 desired to qualify herself to be a teacher of 
 colored children. She was a girl of pleas 
 ing appearance and manners, a member of 
 the Congregational church, and of a hue 
 not darker than that of some persons who 
 pass for white. Miss Crandall, good 
 Quaker that she was, admitted this girl to 
 70 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 her school. The pupils, some of whom had 
 been associated with her in the district 
 school, made no objection; but some of the 
 parents were offended, and demanded the 
 removal of the dark-skinned pupil. Miss 
 Crandall made a strong appeal in behalf 
 of the girl, and did her best to overcome the 
 prejudices of the objectors, but in vain. 
 After reflection she came to the conclusion, 
 from a sense of duty, to open her school to 
 other girls of a dark complexion. The an 
 nouncement of her purpose threw the whole 
 town into a ferment. A town-meeting was 
 held in the Congregational church, and so 
 fierce was the excitement that the Rev. 
 Samuel J. May and Mr. Arnold Buffum, 
 the Quaker President of the New England 
 Anti-Slavery Society, who had been deputed 
 by Miss Crandall to speak for her, were 
 denied a hearing." 
 
 Why has this woman no tablet? Will 
 the annals of Canterbury, Connecticut, show 
 a more heroic figure during the next thou 
 sand years that the hamlet waits to cele 
 brate its patron saint? Had Prudence 
 Crandall lived in the time of Diocletian, or 
 in the time of Savonarola, or in the time 
 of Garibaldi, she would have had a shrine 
 to which Americans would have flocked to- 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 day. Not without immense influence was 
 the stand she made. It cost two years of 
 struggle, during which the Slave Power, as 
 we have seen, passed such bills to suppress 
 her as, in the rebound, weakened its hold 
 on the people of the North. We now find it 
 hard to imagine that, in 1834, it should 
 have been a crime in Connecticut to give 
 primary education to colored girls. Yet 
 such was the case. Prudence Crandall was 
 indicted. 
 
 At her first trial there was a disagreement 
 of the jury. Upon the second she was con 
 victed. An appeal was thereupon taken 
 and was followed by a disagreement among 1 
 the judges. Thereafter the matter was al 
 lowed to drop, through the finding of a 
 flaw in the indictment. All this, however, 
 was not done in a corner, nor without the 
 indignation of all warm-hearted people, nor 
 without the exhibition of splendid legal 
 ability on both sides of the contest. Im 
 portant law-suits were the bull-fights of 
 America before the war. This one called 
 into being a new local newspaper, supported 
 by Arthur Tappan, because the existing pa 
 pers would publish only the Pro-slavery side 
 of the contest. It called into activity also 
 several new propagandists of the first order, 
 72 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 including C. C. Burleigh, who was turned 
 from the career of a brilliant advocate and 
 was transformed for life into an evangelist 
 of liberty, through the courage of this 
 woman. Her story showed the lengths to 
 which the Slave Power not only would but 
 could go at the North, and gave a glance 
 into the burning pit, which even casual and 
 callous persons could not forget. 
 
 It was while this long contest was in 
 progress that the National Anti-Slavery So 
 ciety was formed by a meeting at Phila 
 delphia of about sixty Abolitionists, from 
 eleven states. How young these men were 
 may be judged by the fact that forty-five 
 of them survived to witness the emancipa 
 tion of the slaves thirty years later. I 
 quote a few paragraphs from Samuel J. 
 May s reminiscences, which picture the state 
 of mind of these men as their deliberations 
 of several days drew to a close. The men 
 had, for the most part, never seen each 
 other before this meeting. A declaration 
 of principles had been prepared. 
 
 " Between twelve and one o clock," says 
 Mr. May, " we repaired with the Declara 
 tion to the hall. Edwin P. Atlee, the chair 
 man, read it to the Convention. Never in 
 my life have I seen a deeper impression 
 73 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 made by words than was made by that ad 
 mirable document upon all who were there 
 present. . . . 
 
 "At the suggestion of an Orthodox 
 brother, and without a vote of the Conven 
 tion, our President himself, then an Ortho 
 dox minister, readily condescended to the 
 scruples of our Quaker brethren, so far as 
 not to call upon any individual to offer 
 prayer; but at the opening of our sessions 
 each day he gave notice that a portion of 
 time would be spent in prayer. Any one 
 prayed aloud who was moved to do so. It 
 was at the suggestion also of an Orthodox 
 member that we agreed to dispense with all 
 titles, civil or ecclesiastical. Accordingly, 
 you will not find in the published minutes of 
 the Convention appendages to any names, 
 neither D. D., nor Rev., nor Hon., nor Esq., 
 no, not even plain Mr. We met as fel 
 low men, in the cause of suffering fellow 
 men. . . . 
 
 " I cannot describe the holy enthusiasm 
 which lighted up every face as we gathered 
 around the table on which the Declaration 
 lay, to put our names to that sacred instru 
 ment. It seemed to me that every man s 
 heart was in his hand as if every one 
 felt that he was about to offer himself a 
 74 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 living sacrifice in the cause of freedom, and 
 to do it cheerfully. There are moments 
 when heart touches heart, and souls flow 
 into one another. That was such a moment. 
 I was in them and they in me; we were all 
 one. There was no need that each should 
 tell the other how he felt and what he 
 thought, for we were in each other s bos 
 oms. I am sure there was not, in all our 
 hearts, the thought of ever making violent, 
 much less mortal, defense of the liberty of 
 speech, or the freedom of the press, or of 
 our own persons, though we foresaw that 
 they all would be grievously outraged. 
 Our President, Beriah Green, in his ad 
 mirable closing speech, gave utterance to 
 what we all felt and intended should be our 
 course of conduct. He distinctly foretold 
 the obloquy, the despiteful treatment, the 
 bitter persecution, perhaps even the cruel 
 deaths we were going to encounter in the 
 prosecution of the undertaking to which we 
 had bound ourselves." 
 
 The age played its part quite handsomely 
 in apportioning persecution to the new 
 preachers of the Gospel. The case of Amos 
 Dresser may be cited as a sample from 
 Oliver Johnson: 
 
 " Amos Dresser, a young theological stu- 
 75 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 dent (a native of Berkshire County, Mass.), 
 went to Nashville, Tenn., in the summer of 
 1835, to sell the Cottage Bible/ His 
 crime was that he was a member of an anti- 
 slavery society, and that he had some anti- 
 slavery tracts in his trunk. For this he 
 was flogged in the public square of the city, 
 under the direction of a Vigilance Commit 
 tee, composed of the most distinguished cit 
 izens, some of them prominent members of 
 churches. He received twenty lashes on 
 the bare back from a cowskin. On the 
 previous Sunday he had received the bread 
 and wine of the communion from the hands 
 of one of the members of that Vigilance 
 Committee! Another member of the Com 
 mittee was a prominent Methodist, whose 
 house was the resort of the preachers and 
 bishops of his denomination." 
 
 Now Dresser was a Massachusetts man. 
 One wonders how the slaveholders would 
 have behaved if a Southerner had, for any 
 cause whatever, been treated in Massachu 
 setts as Dresser was treated in Tennessee. 
 But the North made no complaints. It is 
 incredible and this is the difficulty which 
 the whole epoch presents to us it is in 
 credible that the earth should ever have nur 
 tured such a race of cowards as the dom- 
 76 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 inant classes in our Northern States seem 
 to have been. And yet we know they were 
 no worse, nor very different from other 
 persons recorded in history; they furnish 
 merely an acute, recent example of how 
 self-interest can corrupt character, of how 
 tyranny can delude intellect. The suffer 
 ings of such persons as Dresser are never 
 lost. It required just such exhibitions as 
 this to make the North see to what depths 
 it had sunk. For many years, however, the 
 North could draw no inference from such 
 cases, except this : that persons like 
 Dresser were misguided fools, who inter 
 fered with matters best left alone. 
 
 The next picture must be of another kind. 
 It shall be of the young Puritan divine, 
 Samuel J. May, a descendant of the Sewalls 
 and Quincys and of all that Eighteenth Cen 
 tury New England aristocracy of learning 
 and virtue, which seems to have dwindled 
 and withered in a single generation, 
 and left except for one or two bright 
 spirits nothing but shadow-characters, 
 and feeble-natured persons on the stage. 
 The occasion of May s conversion was 
 Garrison s first Boston address, which 
 was given in 1830 in Julien Hall, the hall 
 being lent for the purpose by an associa- 
 77 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 tion of avowed infidels. Garrison had but 
 recently denounced the principles of these 
 men ; for at this time he was intensely ortho 
 dox. The lesson in charity he thus re 
 ceived from opponents must have been 
 salutary, even to him. The whole inci 
 dent, including May s conversion, shows 
 how closely knitted together are all the lib 
 eral impulses in a community. At this 
 time May was thirty-three. His family be 
 sought him to shun the new fanaticism ; but 
 he put their counsels gently aside. May is 
 the angel of Anti-slavery. He gives the 
 following account of his conversion: 
 
 " Presently the young man (Garrison) 
 arose, modestly, but with an air of calm 
 determination, and delivered such a lec 
 ture as he only, I believe, at that time, could 
 have written; for he only had had his eyes 
 so anointed that he could see that outrages 
 perpetrated upon Africans were wrongs 
 done to our common humanity; he only, I 
 believe, had had his ears so completely un 
 stopped of prejudice against color that 
 the cries of enslaved black men and black 
 women sounded to him as if they came from 
 brothers and sisters. 
 
 " He began with expressing deep regret 
 and shame for the zeal he had lately mani- 
 78 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 fested in the Colonization cause. It was, 
 he confessed, a zeal without knowledge. 
 He had been deceived by the misrepresenta 
 tions so diligently given, throughout the 
 free States by Southern agents, of the de 
 sign and tendency of the Colonization 
 scheme. During his few months residence 
 in Maryland he had been completely unde 
 ceived. He had there found out that the 
 design of those who originated, and the es 
 pecial intentions of those in the Southern 
 States that engaged in the plan, were to re 
 move from the country, as a disturbing 
 element in slaveholding communities, all 
 the free colored people, so that the bondmen 
 might the more easily be held in subjection. 
 He exhibited in graphic sketches and glow 
 ing colors the suffering of the enslaved, and 
 denounced the plan of Colonization as de 
 vised and adapted to perpetuate the system, 
 and intensify the wrongs of American 
 slavery, and therefore utterly undeserving 
 of the patronage of lovers of liberty and 
 friends of humanity. 
 
 " Never before was I so affected by the 
 speech of man. When he had ceased speak 
 ing I said to those around me : * That is a 
 providential man; he is a prophet; he will 
 shake our nation to its center, but he will 
 79 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 shake slavery out of it. We ought to know 
 him, we ought to help him. Come, let us 
 go and give him our hands/ Mr. Sewall 
 and Mr. Alcott went up with me, and we 
 introduced each other. I said to him : l Mr. 
 Garrison, I am not sure that I can indorse 
 all you have said this evening. Much of it 
 requires careful consideration. But I am 
 prepared to embrace you. I am sure you 
 are called to a great work and I mean to 
 help you/ 
 
 With a mind as acute as a lawyer s, and 
 a spirit as unselfish as a seraph s, May 
 plunged into the cause. It is he who ap 
 peared upon the scene to protect and to repre 
 sent Prudence Crandall at the meeting 
 of her townsfolk which it was not safe for 
 her to attend. It is he who has left us the 
 best short book on the early years of the 
 movement, from which book many of these 
 illustrations are taken. He was of milder 
 speech than Garrison. " O my friend," 
 cried May at the close of an expostulation 
 with Garrison, " do try to moderate your 
 indignation, and keep more cool; why, you 
 are all on fire." Garrison stopped, laid his 
 hand on May s shoulder with a kind but 
 emphatic pressure, and said slowly: 
 " Brother May, I have need to be all on fire, 
 80 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 for I have mountains of ice about me to 
 melt." "From that time to this," adds 
 Mr. May, " I have never said a word to 
 Mr. Garrison in complaint of his style. I 
 am more than half satisfied that he was 
 right then, and we who objected were mis 
 taken." 
 
 May was not so political-minded as Gar 
 rison; he had not Garrison s strategic un 
 derstanding of the fight, nor Garrison s gift 
 of becoming the central whirpool of idea and 
 of persecution. But he was the diviner spirit 
 of the two. I do not think Garrison could 
 have made the following appeal. It moves 
 in a region of humility which is foreign to 
 Garrison s nature, to his tactics and to his 
 genius. Dr. Channing had been a family 
 friend of the Mays, and had been particu 
 larly kind to Samuel when the latter was a 
 small boy. This affectionate relationship 
 had never been shaken. The story must be 
 told by May himself. 
 
 " Late in the year 1834," says Mr. May, 
 " being on a visit in Boston, I spent several 
 hours with Dr. Channing in earnest conver 
 sation upon Abolitionism and Abolitionists. 
 My habitual reverence for him was such 
 that I had always been apt to defer per 
 haps too readily to his opinions, or not to 
 81 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 make a very stout defense of my own when 
 they differed from his. But at the time to 
 which I refer I had become so thoroughly 
 convinced of the truth of the essential doc 
 trines of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 
 and so earnestly engaged in the dissemina 
 tion of them that our conversation assumed, 
 more than it had ever done, the character 
 of a debate. He acknowledged the ines 
 timable importance of the object we had in 
 view. The evils of Slavery, he assented, 
 could not be overstated. He allowed that 
 removal to Africa ought not to be made 
 a condition of the liberation of the enslaved. 
 But he hesitated still to accept the doctrine 
 of immediate emancipation. His principal 
 objections, however, were alleged against 
 the severity of our denunciations, the 
 harshness of our epithets, the vehemence, 
 heat, and excitement caused by the ha 
 rangues at our meetings, and still more by 
 Mr. Garrison s Liberator. The Doctor 
 dwelt upon these objections, which, if they 
 were as well founded as he assumed them 
 to be, lay against what was only incidental, 
 not an essential part of our movement. He 
 dwelt upon them until I became impa 
 tient, and, forgetting for the moment my 
 wonted deference, I broke out with not a 
 82 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 little warmth of expression and manner: 
 " * Dr. Channing, I said, I am tired of 
 these complaints. The cause of suffering 
 humanity, the cause of our oppressed, 
 crushed colored countrymen, has called as 
 loudly upon others as upon us Abolitionists. 
 It was just as incumbent upon others as 
 upon us to espouse it. We are not to blame 
 that wiser and better men did not espouse 
 it long ago. The cry of millions, suffering 
 the cruel bondage in our land, had been 
 heard for half a century and disregarded. 
 " The wise and prudent " saw the terrible 
 wrong, but thought it not wise and prudent 
 to lift a finger for its correction. The 
 priests and Levites beheld their robbed and 
 wounded countrymen, but passed by on the 
 other side. The children of Abraham held 
 their peace, and at last " the very stones 
 have cried out " in abhorrence of this tre 
 mendous iniquity; and you must expect 
 them to cry out like " the stones." You 
 must not wonder if many of those who have 
 been left to take up this great cause, do not 
 plead it in all that seemliness of phrase 
 which the scholars and practiced rhetori 
 cians of our country might use. You must 
 not expect them to manage with all the 
 calmness and discretion that clergymen and 
 83 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 statesmen might exhibit. But the scholars, 
 the statesmen, the clergy had done nothing, 
 did not seem about to do anything; and 
 for my part I thank God that at last any 
 persons, be they who they may, have ear 
 nestly engaged in this cause; for no move 
 ment can be in vain. We Abolitionists are 
 what we are babes, sucklings, obscure 
 men, silly women, publicans, sinners, and we 
 shall manage this matter just as might be 
 expected of such persons as we are. It is 
 unbecoming in abler men who stood by and 
 would do nothing to complain of us because 
 we do no better. 
 
 " * Dr. Channing, I continued with in 
 creased earnestness, it is not our fault 
 that those who might have conducted this 
 great reform more prudently have left it to 
 us to manage as we may. It is not our 
 fault that those who might have pleaded for 
 the enslaved so much more wisely and elo 
 quently, both with the pen and the living 
 voice, than we can, have been silent. We 
 are not to blame, sir, that you, who, more 
 perhaps than any other man, might have so 
 raised the voice of remonstrance that it 
 should have been heard throughout the 
 length and breadth of the land we are 
 not to blame, sir, that you have not so 
 84 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 spoken. And now that inferior men have 
 been compelled to speak and act against 
 what you acknowledge to be an awful sys 
 tem of iniquity, it is not becoming in you 
 to complain of us because we do it in an 
 inferior style. Why, sir, have you not 
 taken this matter in hand yourself? Why 
 have you not spoken to the nation long ago, 
 as you, better than any other one, could 
 have spoken ? 
 
 " At this point I bethought me to whom 
 I was administering this rebuke, the man 
 who stood among the highest of the great 
 and good in our land, the man whose 
 reputation for wisdom and sanctity had be 
 come world-wide, the man, too, who had 
 ever treated me with the kindness of a 
 father, and whom, from my childhood, I 
 had been accustomed to revere more than 
 any one living. I was almost overwhelmed 
 with a sense of my temerity. His counte 
 nance showed that he was much moved. I 
 could not suppose he would receive all I had 
 said very graciously. I waited his reply in 
 painful expectation. The minutes seemed 
 very long that elapsed before the silence was 
 broken. Then in a very subdued manner 
 and in the kindliest tones of his voice he 
 said, * Brother May, I acknowledge the jus- 
 85 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 tice of your reproof. I have been silent 
 too long. Never shall I forget his words, 
 look and whole appearance. I then and 
 there saw the beauty, the magnanimity, the 
 humility of a truly great Christian soul. He 
 was exalted in my esteem more even than 
 before." 
 
 Surely this is as moving an appeal as one 
 man ever made to another; and the figures 
 of May and Channing seem to stand as in a 
 bas-relief symbolizing the old and the new 
 generation. Are the caverns of Anti-slav 
 ery controversy strewn with fragments of 
 such marble as this ? I know that Emerson 
 used to say that eloquence was dog-cheap at 
 Anti-slavery meetings; but I did not expect 
 to find gestures so sublime or episodes so 
 moving. The figures of Hebrew history 
 of Jacob and Joseph, of Nathan and David, 
 of Hagar and Ishmael rise before us in 
 their solemn, soul-subduing reality; and are 
 one in spirit with these Anti-slavery scenes. 
 
 My shelves are lined with books about 
 Saint Francis of Assisi ; my walls are pa 
 pered with photographs of men of genius in 
 Florence, and of saints in Sienna. I desire 
 also to remember the saints of New Eng 
 land. We Americans are digging for art 
 and for intellect in Troy, in Sardis and in 
 86 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 Egypt. Let us sometimes also dig in the 
 old records of our own towns; and, while 
 doing so, let us pray that mind be given us 
 to understand what we bring to light. 
 
 In the year following his interview with 
 May (1836), Dr. Channing published his 
 famous pamphlet on Slavery, which was of 
 enormous value to the Anti-slavery cause, 
 though it did not coincide with Abolition 
 opinion. It condemned Slavery to heart s 
 content, but did not advocate immediate ac 
 tion. The engines of rationalism and the 
 fountains of morality were by Channing 
 turned upon the entire subject. This was 
 no half -work: it was thorough. Chan 
 ning s name carried the book into houses, 
 both at the North and in the South where 
 no Abolition literature could penetrate; 
 and made it a mile-stone in the progress 
 of Anti-slavery. Its most lasting im 
 portance to posterity, however, is that 
 it proves Channing s courage, and shows 
 that his occasional subserviency toward his 
 Trustees was not due to a defect in his na 
 ture, but to a defect in his education, a de 
 fect in his vision. Could the matter have 
 been explained to his mind through the 
 elaborate machinery of his own philosophy, 
 he would have broken his chains. There 
 87 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 are plenty of people to whom the crucial 
 problems of their own lives never get pre 
 sented in terms that they can understand. 
 
 Abolitionists were, of course, not satisfied 
 with Channing s pamphlet ; for he could not 
 sanction their views ; and indeed he repeated 
 many of the commonplace charges against 
 them, e. g., "that the Abolitionists exag 
 gerated the importance of their cause; that 
 they sent their literature to the slave; 
 that their language was too violent/ etc. 
 Most of these charges appear to-day to con 
 tradict the main thesis of the book, and to 
 record merely the nervous petulance of that 
 age. 
 
 The Slave Barons and their Boston 
 friends were cut to the heart by Channing s 
 essay. They denounced him as an even 
 more dangerous enemy than Garrison. If, 
 at times, we feel dissatisfied with Chan 
 ning s caution, we should remember that he 
 was a middle-aged man when these prob 
 lems arose. Channing was born in 1780; 
 and Anti-slavery was an agony in the blood 
 of young men, in 1829. 
 
 I have referred to John Quincy Adams 
 detestation of slavery. He was, however, 
 never an Abolitionist, and he did not even 
 favor the abolition of slavery in the District 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 of Columbia. For this latter opinion he had 
 the most fantastic reason; namely that, al 
 though the residents of the District had no 
 votes, and were governed by Congress, nev 
 ertheless he felt himself to be all the 
 more bound in honor to act during his term 
 in Congress as if he were the representative 
 chosen by the people of that District; that 
 is, to act according to what he knew to be 
 the will of his quasi constituents. But, for 
 his real constituents he held no such rever 
 ence, and in his dealings with them he was 
 governed by his own conscience. Such are 
 the vagaries of men. 
 
 The romantic, extravagant nature of this 
 man was, at an early age, put in irons to 
 law, diplomacy, politics, and administrative 
 duty. He was a born agitator, who ap 
 peared at a time when his peculiar talents 
 were not demanded by the age. In John 
 Quincy Adams boyhood all the talents and 
 energies of this country were required for 
 the assembling, setting in motion, and keep 
 ing together of the machineries of our new 
 Government. There was no demand for 
 an agitator, whose function is always to dis 
 place, to disperse, and to pull apart. And 
 thus it happened with John Quincy Adams I 
 that he was never young till he was old. I 
 89 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 The opportunity to exercise his extraordi 
 nary talents for agitation came when he 
 took his seat in Congress toward the close 
 of his long, brilliant career. He proceeded 
 to focus the entire attention of the country 
 upon one or two points of parliamentary 
 procedure. 
 
 Now an agitator is a man who is willing 
 to make use of the members of government, 
 not only for the various purposes for which 
 they are framed, as, e. g., the Legislature 
 to legislate, the Judiciary to adjudicate, the 
 Executive to administer, etc., but this man 
 makes use of any or all of them as a ma 
 chine to spread an idea. He uses the forms 
 of government as an educational apparatus. 
 The branch of the Anti-slavery cause which 
 it became Adams fate to develop, was the 
 conflict between Slavery and the right to 
 petition. The policy of the Slave Power 
 was to smother all petitions upon the sub 
 ject of Slavery which came before Con 
 gress, by laying them upon the table unread. 
 During half a dozen years Adams fought 
 this fight practically alone. If we picture 
 to ourselves a man who had grown up with 
 the country, who had the most intimate 
 recondite, passionate knowledge of its con 
 stitutional law, dedicating himself to the 
 90 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 plainest proposition regarding free speech, 
 and proclaiming it in the face of a howling 
 but comparatively unlettered majority, who 
 seethed, and raged, and raved about him like 
 the waves about a light-house we have 
 John Quincy Adams at an age of over 
 seventy, presenting the Abolition petitions 
 in Congress. His figure is part of the Anti- 
 slavery struggle. It is clear to our instinct 
 that if Adams did not have Abolition in his 
 veins, he had something almost as good; he 
 had the thing that Abolition was the sign 
 of, namely, courage. His peculiar kind of 
 courage was, in one sense, not as good as 
 Abolition ; for it was not an elixir. It would 
 never have abolished slavery : it was not self- 
 perpetuating. It would have died with him. 
 Yet the passion within- him, which he 
 cloaked under the name of Free Speech, was 
 in reality the Will to Pity, the Will to Love, 
 the Will to express freely that emotional 
 side of man s nature with which he himself 
 was so richly endowed. This is why the 
 last page of this man s life lifts him into 
 a new kind of greatness. It makes no dif 
 ference what he did before this era. His 
 service to the Abolition cause was propor 
 tionate to his position. His conduct showed! 
 the country what slavery pointed to, and 
 91 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 demonstrated also the conservative nature 
 of Abolition. It showed that Abolition was 
 at one with the foundations of society. 
 The aristocracy of Boston, during these 
 years, regarded John Quincy Adams as an 
 enfant terrible; but the people of Massa 
 chusetts stood by him and, in the end, ral 
 lied to congratulate him at a monster meet 
 ing. Human nature could not withhold its 
 tribute of admiration. 
 
 George Thompson, an Englishman, whose 
 life had been devoted to the cause of Anti- 
 slavery in the British colonies, and who 
 was one of the greatest popular orators 
 of that day, had done more than any 
 one man to abolish West Indian Slavery; 
 and it was natural that Garrison, who 
 went to England in 1833 for conference 
 with the victorious British Abolition 
 ists, should enlist Thompson in the Ameri 
 can cause and bring him to America. Upon 
 the passage of the Act abolishing Slavery 
 in the West Indies, Lord Brougham had 
 risen in the House of Lords and said : " I rise 
 to take the crown of this most glorious vic 
 tory from every other head, and place it 
 upon George Thompson s. He has done 
 more than any other man to achieve it." 
 
 One can imagine how the Americans of 
 92 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 1833, who set a price on the heads of their 
 own compatriots when they were Abolition 
 ists, would welcome the most powerful, the 
 most popular living advocate of the hated 
 cause a stranger and an Englishman. 
 Thompson was mobbed and hounded, threat 
 ened, insulted, and would have been killed 
 if fate had assisted ever so little by lending 
 the opportunity. I shall content myself 
 with giving Mr. May s description of 
 Thompson s eloquence. 
 
 " Mr. Thompson then went on to give us 
 a graphic, glowing account of the long and 
 fierce conflict they had had in England for 
 the abolition of slavery in the British West 
 Indies. His eloquence rose to a still higher 
 order. His narrative became a continuous 
 metaphor, admirably sustained. He repre 
 sented the Anti-slavery enterprise in which 
 he had been so long engaged as a stout, well- 
 built ship, manned by a noble-hearted crew, 
 launched upon a stormy ocean, bound to 
 carry inestimable relief to 800,000 sufferers 
 in a far-distant land. He clothed all kinds 
 of opposition they had met, all the difficul 
 ties they had contended with, in imagery 
 suggested by the observation and experience 
 of the voyager across the Atlantic in the 
 most tempestuous season of the year. In 
 93 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 the height of his descriptions, my attention 
 was withdrawn from the emotions enkindled 
 in my own bosom sufficiently to observe the 
 effect of his eloquence upon half a dozen 
 boys, of twelve or fourteen years of age, sit 
 ting together not far from the platform. 
 They were completely possessed by it. 
 When the ship reeled or plunged or stag 
 gered in the storms, they unconsciously 
 went through the same motions. W r hen the 
 enemy attacked her, the boys took the live 
 liest part in battle manning the guns, or 
 handing shot and shell, or pressing forward 
 to repulse the boarders. When the ship 
 struck upon an iceberg, the boys almost fell 
 from their seats in the recoil. When the 
 sails and topmasts were well-nigh carried 
 away by the gale, they seemed to be strain 
 ing themselves to prevent the damage; and 
 when at length the ship triumphantly sailed 
 into her destined port with colors flying and 
 signals of glad tidings floating from her 
 topmast, and the shout of welcome rose 
 from thousands of expectant freedmen on 
 the shore, the boys gave three loud cheers, 
 Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! This irre 
 pressible explosion of their feelings brought 
 them at once to themselves. They blushed, 
 94 
 
PICTURES OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 covered their faces, sank down on their 
 seats, one of them upon the floor." 
 
 It was one thing for the American to thrill 
 for the liberty of Greece, Poland, or Hun 
 gary; and another to allow foreign enthu 
 siasts to thrill over American Anti-slavery. 
 Thompson was marked for assassination and 
 kidnapping; and a gibbet was erected for 
 him in Boston. It was Thompson whom the 
 mob were in search of when they caught 
 Garrison at the meeting of the Female Anti- 
 slavery Society, soon to be described. The 
 impertinence of Thompson consisted in his 
 being a foreigner, and this fact played upon 
 the peculiar American weakness our sen 
 sitiveness to foreign opinion. " He comes 
 here from the dark corrupt institutions of 
 Europe," said Mr. Sprague in Faneuil Hall, 
 " to enlighten us upon the rights of man and 
 the moral duties of our own condition. Re 
 ceived by our hospitality, he stands here 
 upon our soil, protected by our laws, and 
 hurls firebrands, arrows and death into 
 the habitations of our neighbors, and 
 friends, and brothers; and when he shall 
 have kindled a conflagration which is sweep 
 ing in desolation over the land, he has only 
 to embark for his own country, and there 
 
 95 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 look serenely back with indifference or ex 
 ultation upon the widespread ruin by which 
 our cities are wrapt in flames, and our gar 
 ments rolled in blood. ... If the storm 
 comes, we must abide its pelting; if convul 
 sions come, we must be in the midst of them. 
 To us, then, it belongs to judge of the ex 
 igencies of our own condition, to provide for 
 our own safety, and perform our own duties 
 without the audacious interference of for 
 eign emissaries." 
 
 I am grateful to this man, George Thomp 
 son. He stood for courage in 1835 in Mas 
 sachusetts. He typified courage also at a 
 later time during the Civil War when he 
 stood with John Bright and W. E. Forster as 
 the expounders of the cause of the North 
 before the people of Great Britain. He was 
 one of the friends of the United States to 
 whom it is due that England s governing 
 classes did not assist the South openly, and 
 thereby give rise to an age-long, never-dying 
 antagonism between England and America. 
 I am glad that George Thompson lived 
 to be thanked by Lincoln and his Cab 
 inet, and to be ceremoniously received in a 
 House of Representatives thronged with 
 the best intellects arid hearts in America. 
 
V 
 THE CRISIS 
 
 I HAVE given the foregoing sketches almost 
 at random, and, where possible, in the words 
 of others, in order to call up the decade be 
 tween 1830 and 1840 without myself feeling 
 the responsibility of a historian, and without 
 asking the reader to give a chronological at 
 tention. Facts often speak for themselves 
 more truly, the less we explain them; and 
 the philosophy of history is perhaps a delu 
 sion. 
 
 It was between 1830 and 1840 that the 
 real work of Garrison was done. At the 
 beginning of that decade Abolition was a 
 cry in the wilderness : at the end of it, Ab 
 olition was a part of the American mind. 
 Garrison s occupation throughout the epoch 
 was to tend his engine his Liberator 
 and to assist in the formation of Anti-slavery 
 societies. Every breath of the movement 
 was chronicled in the Liberator, every new 
 convert wrote to Garrison for help. Gar-L 
 rison was the focus, the exchange, the center f 
 97 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 and heart of Anti-slavery activity. He was 
 the channel into which the new streams 
 flowed. If a drop of Abolition fell from 
 the sky anywhere in America, it was found 
 in the Liberator upon the following morn 
 ing. This drawing of the new men into a 
 knowledge of each other made magical heat. 
 Every Abolition act or thought went im 
 mediately into the general Abolition con 
 sciousness. It was Garrison who caused the 
 heat-lightning of 1825 to turn into the thun 
 derbolts of 1835. His gift of doing this 
 was his greatness. 
 
 We must imagine Garrison then, as 
 always, behind and underneath the ma 
 chinery and in touch with all the forces at 
 work, writing away at his terrible Lib 
 erator fomenting, rebuking, retorting, 
 supporting, expounding, thundering, scold 
 ing. The continuousness of Garrison is ap 
 palling, and fatigues even the retrospective 
 imagination of posterity: he is like an all- 
 night hotel : he is possessed : he is like some 
 thing let loose. I dread the din of him. I 
 cover my head and fix my mind on other 
 things; but there is Garrison hammering 
 away, till he catches my eye and forces me 
 to attend to him. If Garrison can do this to 
 me, who am protected from dread of him by 
 98 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 eighty years of intervening time, think 
 how his lash must have fallen upon the thin 
 skins of our ancestors ! 
 
 Garrison, then, and his propaganda went 
 forward; the South under its resentment 
 swelled and fretted, and every phase of the 
 matter was day by day recorded in the Lib 
 erator, which remains as the inexhaustible 
 coal-bed and historical deposit of these 
 things. Every leaf and twig, every letter, 
 every quarrel, every prayer, is here pre 
 served in the immortality of petrifac 
 tion. To be in himself the focalization 
 and to leave behind him the fossilization 
 of that wonderful epoch was Garrison s 
 function. 
 
 The crisis in the struggle came in 1835-6, 
 when a great attempt was seriously made 
 by the whole organized force of the Slave 
 Power to put down the Abolitionists. This 
 suppression was to be done in the or 
 dinary, historic way through laws to be 
 made against them, and through violence, 
 where law fell short. It will be seen in an 
 instant that law was, throughout, on the 
 side of the Abolitionists; and this is the 
 reason why the violence was so great. The 
 South could not get at Garrison through 
 sheriffs and jailers. Therefore it was 
 
 99 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 tempted to resort to riots and extra-legal ter 
 rorism. It was lured into the fabrication of 
 myths as for instance, the myth that the 
 constitution protected slavery against ad 
 verse opinion, the myth that the Abolition 
 ists favored slave-insurrection, the myth 
 that the language of the Abolitionists was so 
 extreme as to make them the enemies of so 
 ciety, the exceedingly absurd myth that to 
 send Anti-slavery publications through the 
 United States mails directed to adult white 
 men in the South was, somehow, an atro 
 cious outrage. 
 
 The truth is that between 1830 and 1835, 
 the element of passion was rising past the 
 danger point, and running into something 
 like insanity in the Southern mind. A mad 
 man believes his own logic, and ever drives 
 it further. The failure of law to protect 
 the South left no accurate demarcation as 
 to their demands. At the beginning, the 
 slaveholders protested that Garrison should 
 be silenced, because he was a fanatic ; but be 
 fore long they were demanding that the 
 Abolitionists should be hanged, and were 
 mingling the name of Channing in their 
 execrations. In the beginning they de 
 manded only to be let alone ; but before long 
 they were swearing that the South should 
 
 100 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 buy and sell slaves underneath Bunker Hill 
 monument. 
 
 This tidal fury could not be conciliated. 
 Anything that threatened the existence of 
 Slavery stimulated the fury and the time 
 had come when all nature began to threaten 
 Slavery. Slavery began, in fact, to stalk 
 abroad and horrify the world : Slavery came 
 out of its lair. At first there were meetings 
 in the South, destruction of Abolition liter 
 ature in the mails; then white Vigilance 
 Committees, and State Legislatures called, in 
 chorus, upon the North to stop the plague 
 of Abolition by the enactment of stringent 
 laws against the reformers. A giant dem 
 onstration was planned by the friends of 
 the South to take place at Faneuil Hall in 
 Boston 1500 names being appended to 
 the call for the meeting. This meeting was 
 to demonstrate the good faith of the North 
 towards the slaveholders, and to give public 
 opinion a set towards the enactment of 
 criminal statutes against Anti-slavery. The 
 meeting was a tremendous success and 
 proved to be a sort of " view-halloo " for 
 Slavery. It was naturally followed by an 
 increase of riots and mob violence against 
 the Abolitionists. The most important of 
 the new ebullitions was the so called Boston 
 101 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 mob (October 21, 1835), which led Garri 
 son about with a rope round him and 
 might easily have ended in his death. Gen 
 eral Jackson, the President of the United 
 States, referred to the recent Pro-slavery 
 demonstration at the North in his Message 
 to Congress, in December, 1835. 
 
 " It is fortunate for the country," he says, 
 " that the good sense, the generous feeling, 
 and the deep-rooted attachment of the peo 
 ple of the non-slaveholding States to the 
 Union, and to their fellow citizens of the 
 same blood in the South, have given so 
 strong and impressive a tone to the senti 
 ments entertained against the proceedings of 
 the misguided persons who have engaged in 
 these unconstitutional and wicked attempts 
 [ to circulate through the mails inflamma 
 tory appeals addressed to the passions of the 
 slaves ]." 
 
 Here was support from high quarters. 
 It was not till January, 1836, that the time 
 came for Edward Everett, Governor of 
 Massachusetts, to take notice of the entreat 
 ies of the Southern States. In his Message 
 to the Massachusetts Legislature he intimated 
 that the Abolitionists could be punished un 
 der the law as it stood : because " whatever 
 by direct and necessary operation is calcula- 
 102 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 ted to excite insurrection among slaves may 
 be prosecuted as a misdemeanor at common 
 law." This part of his Message was re 
 ferred to a joint Committee of Five of the 
 Legislature, together with the Southern en 
 treaties. It was in the hearings before this 
 committee, that the work was done which 
 put an end to Southern hopes of enslaving 
 Massachusetts. The great attempt was 
 foiled. The South had done its utmost to 
 suppress Abolition, and had failed. After 
 this time, Abolition is in the field as an ac 
 cepted fact. Within eight years thereafter, 
 in 1844, Birney was nominated for the 
 Presidency as the candidate of a third party. 
 We must think of this whole Southern 
 movement as a big, mountainous wave, in 
 volving multitudinous lesser waves and ed 
 dies, which, as it rolled forward and surged 
 back, created complex disturbances, all inter 
 locked with one another. The power of the 
 South was exerted over the President at 
 Washington and over the ruffian on the 
 street corner, and it was all one power, one 
 pull together, one control. Let us take a 
 rapid but clear glance over certain stages of 
 the movement which have already been men 
 tioned. The popular feeling at the South, 
 which was the motive power of the whole 
 103 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 affair, may be illustrated in a paragraph from 
 the Richmond Whig: 
 
 "Let the hell-hounds of the North be 
 ware. Let them not feel too much security 
 in their homes, or imagine that they who 
 throw firebrands, although from, as they 
 think, so safe a distance, will be permitted to 
 escape with impunity. There are thousands 
 now animated with a spirit to brave every 
 danger to bring these felons to justice on the 
 soil of the Southern States, whose women 
 and children they have dared to endan 
 ger by their hell-concocted plots. We have 
 feared that Southern exasperation would 
 seize some of the prime conspirators in their 
 very beds, and drag them to meet the pun 
 ishment due their offenses. We fear it no 
 longer. We hope it may be so, and our ap 
 plause as one man shall follow the success 
 ful enterprise." 
 
 This then is the outer ring of fiery feeling 
 which dreamed of moving Northward and 
 doing, it knew not what, to put down Aboli 
 tion. The spirit of violence, as shown, for 
 instance, in the breaking into of the United 
 States Post-office at Charleston, S. C, and 
 the seizing of Abolition newspapers for a 
 bonfire, was redoubled by the attitude of 
 the Federal authorities. The United States 
 104 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 Postmaster-General, Amos Kendall, a Mas 
 sachusetts man, approved the deed. Now, 
 the only reason why riots do not occur every 
 day, accompanied by destruction of property 
 and injury to unoffending persons, is that 
 the strong arm of law and order is 
 against the ubiquitous loafer and ruffian. 
 Once let this gentleman see a chance of riot 
 ing with impunity, and he instantly appears 
 and riots. How easily then did disturb 
 ances follow when State and National of 
 ficials, as well as the rich and respectable 
 classes, gave the cue. The average man at 
 the time we are chronicling really believed 
 that the Abolitionist was a criminal in es 
 sence, and ought to be proclaimed as such by 
 law. 
 
 The Anti-slavery writers, in describing 
 this period, use the terminology of fiercer 
 times. Harriet Martineau calls it a " Mar 
 tyr Age," and we constantly hear of the 
 " reign of terror " in 1835. Now the term 
 " persecution " is apt to call up in our minds 
 the fiercest images of history, scenes of 
 bloodshed and tyranny, combats with wild 
 beasts in the amphitheater, executions in the 
 market-place, men driven to hide in caves in 
 the rocks, etc. The unpleasantnesses and 
 injustices to which the Abolitionists were 
 105 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 subjected never justified a literal appli 
 cation of the terms " martyr," " reign of 
 terror," etc. ; but the word " persecution " 
 is most aptly used to describe their 
 sufferings, if we reflect that there are 
 persecutions which do not result in death. 
 Prudence Crandall was certainly persecu 
 ted; the Abolitionist was harassed and his 
 life was made as uncomfortable as the law 
 would permit. The outrages, both legal and 
 extra-legal, which fell upon Anti-slavery 
 people, may be studied at leisure in the press 
 of the time. They lie upon any page of the 
 history of that day. The following are 
 severe cases. They are mentioned in the 
 large life of Garrison: 
 
 " Dr. Reuben Crandall, a perfectly inno 
 cent man and younger brother of Prudence 
 Crandall, was thrown into a noisome jail in 
 Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, on 
 a charge of circulating Tappan, Garrison & 
 Company s papers, encouraging the negroes 
 to insurrection/ for which a mob would fain 
 have lynched him. ... It was nearly 
 a year before he was brought to trial, and 
 meantime his health had been ruined." 
 
 " Five thousand dollars were offered on 
 the Exchange in New York for the head of 
 Arthur Tappan on Friday last," writes 
 106 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 Henry Benson to Garrison. " Elizur 
 Wright is barricading his house with shut 
 ters, bars and bolts/ 
 
 " How imminent is the danger that hovers 
 about the persons of our friends, George 
 Thompson and Arthur Tappan ! " writes 
 Garrison to George Benson. " Rewards for 
 the seizure of the latter are multiplying 
 in one place they offer three thousand dol 
 lars, for his t ears a purse has been made 
 up, publicly, of $20,000, in New Orleans for 
 his person. I, too, I desire to bless God, 
 am involved in almost equal peril. I 
 have just received a letter written evidently 
 by a friendly hand, in which I am apprised 
 that my life is sought after, and a reward 
 of $20,000 has been offered for my head by 
 six Mississippians. He says Beware of 
 the assassin ! May God protect you ! and 
 signs himself A Marylander, and a resi 
 dent of Philadelphia/ 
 
 " Typical cases were the town-meeting 
 appointment of a vigilance committee to 
 prevent Anti-slavery meetings in Canaan, N. 
 H. ; the arrest of the Rev. George Storrs, at 
 Northfield, in the same State, in a friendly 
 pulpit, at the close of a discourse on slavery, 
 as a common brawler/ and his subsequent 
 sentence by a justice of the peace to hard 
 107 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 labor in the House of Correction for three 
 months (not sustained on appeal) ; and the 
 repeated destruction of Birney s Philan 
 thropist printing-office by the gentlemen of 
 property and standing in Cincinnati an 
 outrage bearing a close resemblance to that 
 engendered by the Faneuil Hall meeting, and 
 ending in a midnight raid upon the colored 
 homes of the city, with the connivance of 
 the mayor." 
 
 As for mere social ostracism, the refusal 
 on the part of Beacon Street to ask Wendell 
 Phillips to dinner, the black-balling at the 
 Clubs in New York of distinguished Aboli 
 tionists, the Muse of History cannot re 
 cord these things among her tragedies. We 
 have seen, in the case of Henry I. Bowditch 
 and his walk with Douglass, upon what plane 
 the drama moved. It was a drama of char 
 acter, rather than a drama of blood. 
 The Anti-slavery people are, however, not 
 inexcusable in calling this epoch " the reign 
 of terror." It was, at any rate, a reign of 
 brickbats and anathema, which developed 
 here and there into tarring and feathering 
 and murder. The reason why it did not 
 turn into a veritable reign of terror, a time 
 of proscription and execution, is that the 
 middle classes at the North awoke out of 
 108 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 their lethargy, and protected the reformers 
 instead of oppressing them. The passions 
 were there ; the introverted enthusiasm of the 
 South and the martyr spirit of the Abolition 
 ist were there. There also was the pliant 
 tool between them the Northern business 
 man. This tool, however, broke. 
 
 The great meeting in Faneuil Hall, al 
 ready spoken of, a meeting attended by nu 
 merous Southerners who made the journey 
 to Boston on purpose, represents the apogee 
 of the Sun of Liberty in America. In con 
 sidering this meeting we are again baffled by 
 the strangeness of its historic atmosphere; 
 the low pulse of the Northerner is a puzzle 
 to us. It is easy to understand and sym 
 pathize with the Southern tiger bereft of his 
 prey, and with the Northern lamb who lifts 
 up his voice for justice before being de 
 voured. The first is the typical tyrant, and 
 the second the typical saint. The conduct, 
 however, of the Massachusetts Philistine, 
 who looks like an educated gentleman and 
 acts the part of a terrified servant, is a dif 
 ficult thing to understand. We can get a 
 sidelong glimpse into the mystery by remem 
 bering how people behave in moments of 
 panic with what meanness, with what ir 
 rational thoughtlessness, with what denial of 
 109 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 their true selves. Now the Massachusetts 
 statesmen, business men, and persons of dis 
 tinction and wealth, had lived for years in a 
 state of continuous panic. This had shred 
 ded them into spectres. It is quite true that 
 there was a spiritual " reign of terror " at 
 this epoch, a terror which intimately affected 
 all classes, and the Abolitionists phrase is 
 thus truer than it seemed. 
 
 Peleg Sprague, one of Massachusetts 
 most distinguished men, a United States 
 Senator and former Congressman, and a 
 thoroughly representative mouthpiece of the 
 Conservative classes at the North, spoke as 
 follows at the memorable Pro-slavery meet 
 ing in Faneuil Hall: 
 
 " Time was, when ... the generous 
 and gallant Southrons came to our aid, and 
 our fathers refused not to hold communion 
 with slaveholders. . . . When He, that 
 slaveholder (pointing to the full-length por 
 trait of Washington), who from this can 
 vas smiles upon you his children with 
 paternal benignity, came with other slave 
 holders to drive the British myrmidons from 
 this city and this hall, our fathers did not re 
 fuse to hold communion with him or them. 
 With slaveholders they formed the Confed 
 eration, neither asking nor receiving any 
 no 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 right to interfere in their domestic relations ; 
 with them they made the Declaration of In 
 dependence, coming from the pen of that 
 other slaveholder, Thomas Jefferson, a name 
 dear to every friend of human rights. 
 And in the original draft of that Declara 
 tion was contained a most eloquent passage 
 upon this very topic of negro slavery, which 
 was stricken out in deference to the wishes 
 of members from the South." 
 
 There is something about this language so 
 far removed from good sense that it gives us 
 pause. That something is the influence of 
 terror. Mr. Harrison Gray Otis, who 
 moved on a still higher social plane than 
 Sprague, nay, who stood very near the gods 
 in the imagination of Bostonians, spoke as 
 follows : 
 
 " I deny that any body of men can law 
 fully associate for the purpose of undermin 
 ing, more than for overthrowing, the gov 
 ernment of our sister States. There may 
 be no statute to make such combinations 
 penal, because the offense is of a new com 
 plexion." 
 
 Mr. Otis found an even stronger objec 
 tion to the Society in " its evident direction 
 towards becoming a political association, 
 whose object it will be, and whose tendency 
 in 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 now is, to bear directly upon the ballot-boxes 
 and to influence the elections," as in the re 
 cent case of Abbott Lawrence. " How soon 
 might you see a majority in Congress re 
 turned under the influence of (Anti-slavery) 
 associations ? " 
 
 Otis reasoning here is the chattering of 
 teeth. "The ballot-box and election!" 
 why not ? The slavery issue to come into 
 politics who can prevent it? Where are 
 we? Who is talking? Have I read that 
 sentence aright? Such questions go 
 through one s mind no matter how often 
 one re-reads these speeches. It must be con 
 fessed that a city is not far from chaos when 
 so much passion and so faint a rationality 
 can go forth as the voice of her powerful 
 classes, and of her educated men. The situ 
 ation was greatly alleviated by the good 
 sense and calmness of the Abolitionists ; for 
 although Garrison s language was generally 
 blatant, his conduct was invariably exem 
 plary; and the reformers course of action in 
 legal and legislative maneuvering was often 
 brilliant in the extreme. 
 
 The Boston Abolitionists behaved during 
 this trying season with circumspection. 
 After the Faneuil Hall demonstration, 
 Mayor Lyman, who had presided at that 
 
 112 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 meeting, had, in a courteous if not friendly 
 manner, privately counseled them to dis 
 continue their meetings while the public 
 mind was so heated, at the same time assur 
 ing them that he would protect them in their 
 rights if they chose to exercise them. They 
 therefore held only their constitutional 
 meetings ; and it was one of these which 
 fell due on Wednesday, October 14, the an 
 niversary of the formation of the Boston 
 Female Anti-Slavery Society. This meeting 
 was postponed and duly advertised for Octo 
 ber 21, 1835. On that day a Pro-slavery 
 mob, organized by newspaper men and busi 
 ness men, and composed of from two to five 
 thousand particularly respectable persons, 
 was got together for the purpose of tarring 
 and feathering George Thompson, who was 
 believed to be at the meeting. As Thomp 
 son was not to be found, the mob cried out 
 for Garrison. It surged into the women s 
 meeting where Garrison was. For some 
 time the thirty women went forward with 
 their prayers and proceedings while the mob 
 howled upon them. Garrison left the meet 
 ing in order to protect it, but could not es 
 cape from the building on account of the 
 crowd. He therefore retreated across the 
 hall to the Anti-slavery office which hap- 
 113 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 pened to be in the same building. Thither 
 the crowd followed him. 
 
 " An assault," according to Garrison s ac 
 count of the matter, " was now made upon 
 the door of the office, the lower panel of 
 which was instantly dashed to pieces. 
 Stooping down and glaring upon me as I sat 
 at the desk, writing an account of the riot 
 to a distant friend, the ruffians cried out 
 There he is ! That s Garrison ! Out with 
 the scoundrel ! etc., etc. Turning to Mr. 
 Burleigh, I said * You may as well open 
 the door, and let them come in and do their 
 worst. But he, with great presence of 
 mind, went out, locked the door, put the key 
 in his pocket, and by his admirable firmness 
 succeeded in keeping the office safe." 
 
 Mayor Lyman now appeared upon the 
 scene, and prevailed upon the women to 
 adjourn. They passed down the staircase 
 " amid manifestations of revengeful bru 
 tality " and so, in a close column, to the 
 house of Francis Jackson, a new and power 
 ful recruit to their cause. Mayor Lyman 
 now had to deal with the mob. Their at 
 tention had been attracted to the Anti-slav 
 ery sign board and Mayor Lyman permitted 
 its demolition by the crowd, a betrayal of 
 his trust as custodian of property and of the 
 114 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 peace which Garrison never forgave. The 
 Mayor thereupon devoted his energies to 
 helping Garrison to make good his escape 
 from the mob. Garrison was induced to 
 get out of a rear window, and one of the 
 sheriffs, in order to persuade the crowd to 
 disperse, announced that Garrison had es 
 caped. The crowd, however, got on his 
 track and followed after him. It came up 
 with him in a carpenter s shop. The 
 crowd was made up of both friends and 
 foes. 
 
 " On seeing me/ continues Garrison, 
 " three or four of the rioters, uttering a yell, 
 furiously dragged me to the window, with 
 the intention of hurling me from that height 
 to the ground; but one of them relented and 
 said Don t let us kill him outright. So 
 they drew me back, and coiled a rope about 
 my body probably to drag me through 
 the streets. I bowed to the mob, and re 
 questing them to wait patiently until I could 
 descend, went down upon a ladder that was 
 raised for that purpose. I fortunately ex 
 tricated myself from the rope, and was 
 seized by two or three powerful men, to 
 whose firmness, policy, and muscular energy 
 I am probably indebted for my preservation. 
 They led me along bareheaded (for I had 
 us 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 lost my hat), through a mighty crowd, ever 
 and anon shouting, He shan t be hurt ! 
 You shan t hurt him! Don t hurt him! 
 He is an American/ etc., etc. This seemed 
 to excite sympathy among many in the 
 crowd, and they reiterated the cry, He 
 shan t be hurt! " 
 
 At this point we will turn to Charles Bur- 
 leigh s tale : " Going to the Post-office, I saw 
 the crowd pouring out from Wilson s Lane 
 into State Street with a deal of clamor and 
 shouting, and heard the exulting cry, 
 * They ve got him they ve got him/ And 
 so, sure enough, they had. The tide set to 
 ward the south door of the City Hall, and 
 in a few minutes I saw Garrison between 
 two men who held him and led him along, 
 while the throng pressed on every side, as 
 if eager to devour him alive. His head was 
 bare, his face a little more highly colored 
 than in his most tranquil moments, as if 
 flushed by moderate exercise, and his counte 
 nance composed." In the upshot, Mayor 
 Lyman s efforts to save him were successful ; 
 and Garrison was forthwith jailed for the 
 night as a disturber of the peace. 
 
 Throughout this episode Garrison acted 
 with wisdom and courage. Had he behaved 
 in any different manner, had he shown fight, 
 116 
 
THE CRISIS i 
 
 as Love joy did at Alton, had his followers! 
 become exasperated, bloodshed would prob-; 
 ably have followed and the whole contro-J 
 versy in Boston would thenceforth have been 
 overcast by the spirit of civil war. The 
 thing to be noted is that Garrison s conduct 
 during this mob was an exemplification of 
 the whole Anti-slavery policy, which had 
 been fully set out in the documents and liter 
 ature of the movement during the preceding 
 five years. Moral agitation with no resort 
 to force, no resistance to force, was the Ab 
 olition watchword. 
 
 When a whole age is completely insane 
 upon some subject, sane views upon that 
 subject will seem like madness to the age. 
 It was thus perfectly normal that the as 
 sembly of moderate and holy persons who 
 met in Philadelphia to form the national 
 Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, and parted, as 
 we have seen, with tears and prayers, 
 should have been both watched and guarded 
 by the police. These men seemed to that age 
 like dangerous malefactors. So also was it 
 accordant with spiritual law that Garrison 
 should have been shut up as a rioter on the 
 night following the Boston mob. He was 
 a man of little humor where his principles 
 were at stake, and could see nothing in the 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 arrest but a ghastly paradox; whereas in 
 reality that arrest is a charming epitome of 
 the times. 
 
 How much danger was Garrison in while 
 being dragged and hustled through the 
 streets of Boston? Was there a pot of hot 
 tar and a bath of feathers waiting at some 
 convenient corner, which would have been 
 produced and set in operation on the Com 
 mon, but for Mayor Lyman s timely inter 
 ference? Very likely there was. There 
 seems to have been a plan to maltreat 
 Thompson, which plan was divulged to the 
 public through broadsides and to Garrison 
 through anonymous letters, one of the let 
 ters being friendly. We see the Garrison 
 mob to-day as the sticking-point of violence 
 in Boston. We know that this mob was not 
 followed by a series of mobs. We see 
 that it did no damage to speak of ; and there 
 fore we cannot help thinking of it as a harm 
 less affair. But a mob has always some 
 thing devilish and incalculable in its action, 
 and a mob led by gentlemen, a mob in which 
 the ruffian saw that he was supported by the 
 Bank President, and that no prosecution 
 could possibly follow in the wake of the day, 
 might be the most dangerous of all mobs. 
 The experience of Birney and his press in 
 118 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 Ohio, of Lovejoy and his press in Illinois, 
 the burning of Pennsylvania Hall in Phila 
 delphia and countless other acts of violence 
 show that the Abolitionists did right to be 
 alarmed. 
 
 As a matter of fact they were seriously 
 frightened. Though Garrison and the 
 ladies put on as bold a front as they could, 
 they did not feel like shaking hands with 
 their old friend Mayor Lyman and regard 
 ing that mob as a joke. There was, after 
 all, a real and terrific force at the back of 
 the mob. It was the mob of the Richmond 
 Whig, of the Faneuil Hall Pro-Slavery meet 
 ing. The Southern fire had moved North, 
 and seemed to encircle the Anti-slavery agi 
 tators. The " gentlemen of property and 
 standing " to use the pompous newspaper 
 phrase of the day who led the mob, were 
 actuated by one of the major passions of hu 
 manity defense of property. 
 
 For in a big sense, in a metaphorical sense, 
 the South was right ; and all this Abolition 
 movement was a servile uprising. The slave 
 heart and soul had somehow come into com 
 munion with the Anti-slavery heart and soul, 
 and together they were generating an earth 
 quake beneath the slaver s feet. This 
 whole religious message is mirrored in 
 119 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 " Uncle Tom s Cabin," a book which it took 
 twenty years of Abolition to make the soil 
 for. " Uncle Tom s Cabin " appeared in 
 1852 and is to-day our key to that whole 
 epoch : but the vision of that book was in 
 the heart of the Anti-slavery people long 
 before. They gave that vision to the world ; 
 they gave it to Harriet Beecher. The pic 
 tures and thoughts of " Uncle Tom s Cabin " 
 were sown into the mind of Harriet Beecher 
 as a child; the emotion of it was generated 
 in 1829. And so the early instinct to put 
 down this whole movement as a servile in 
 surrection had justification in fact. 
 
 As a general rule servile insurrections are 
 put down by officials; by judges, sheriffs and 
 troops. Historic reasons made this course 
 not feasible at the North. Therefore the 
 deluded upper classes of Boston, who had 
 thrown in their fortunes with slavery, did 
 what all determined men do when law fails 
 them they took the field personally. The 
 women who marched through the rioters 
 trembled with antagonism, if not with fear. 
 One of them wrote afterwards: 
 
 " When we emerged into the open day 
 light, there went up a roar of rage and con 
 tempt, which increased when they saw that 
 we did not intend to separate, but walked 
 
 120 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 in regular procession. They slowly gave 
 way as we came out. As far as we could 
 look either way the crowd extended evi 
 dently of the so-called * wealthy and respect 
 able/ the moral worth/ the influence and 
 standing/ We saw the faces of those we 
 had, till now, thought friends; men whom 
 we never before met without giving the 
 hand in friendly salutation; men whom till 
 now we should have called upon for con 
 demnation of ruffianism, with confidence 
 that the appeal would be answered." 
 
 There is something old-world, something 
 more like the Eighteenth Century than the 
 Nineteenth in this scene ; I would not miss it 
 out of our history. But the people who took 
 part in it could never think of it lightly. 
 It was too real, too fierce, too dangerous. 
 The mob was too near, and its genteel char 
 acter was unpleasant. I have at times 
 thought that the Anti-slavery people were 
 almost ungrateful to Theodore Lyman. To 
 them he was a man who had not done his 
 duty; he should have protected their sign. 
 He should have defied and dispersed the 
 rioters, instead of conciliating the mob and 
 dispersing the ladies meeting. He should 
 have jailed the ringleaders in the riot and 
 conducted Garrison in safety to his home. 
 121 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 And yet, for an official during a great mania, 
 and for a man by nature timid during a riot, 
 he seems to me to have done fairly well. 
 He appeared upon the scene of conflict, and 
 in the end saved Garrison from the clutches 
 of the mob. The Abolitionists, like lawyers 
 in a jury case, never missed a point; and 
 the points against Lyman were obvious. 
 He was a pawn in their demonstration. It 
 was their function to throw up a clear sil 
 houette of the times, and to show just how 
 far Theodore Lyman had fallen short of 
 efficient courage, and Boston, of liberty. 
 We cannot hold them to the historic per 
 spective, nor expect them to display a ju 
 dicial temper upon the matter. 
 
 I myself, however, feel grateful to Ly 
 man for saving Garrison; though I also re 
 spect Garrison for not altering his criticism 
 by an iota because of the personal question. 
 He could not step aside for a moment and 
 play the part of philosophic spectator. As 
 well expect a point which is moving 
 in a curve in obedience to an alge 
 braical formula to change its course for 
 reasons of politeness. Let us not forget 
 that all these people were wound up, and 
 that each man and each group of men in the 
 struggle was following a track like one of 
 122 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 the heavenly bodies; being governed by a 
 logic, unseen, mighty, and terrible, leading 
 to greater things. 
 
 The Boston mob gives a barometrical rec 
 ord of conditions in the North in 1835. 
 Every village had its Garrison, its Mayor 
 Lyman, its Francis Jackson. Moved by 
 the spectacle of Garrison s persecution, 
 Charles Sumner, Henry I. Bowditch, and 
 Wendell Phillips became converts to the 
 cause. Every village in the North after 
 October 21, produced its Bowditch, its Sum 
 ner, its Phillips. There were now six State 
 and three hundred auxiliary Anti-slavery 
 societies, all formed since 1831. "So 
 then," comments Garrison, " we derive from 
 our opponents these instructive but paradox 
 ical facts that without numbers, we are 
 multitudinous; that without power, we are 
 sapping the foundations of the Confederacy; 
 that without a plan, we are hastening the 
 abolition of slavery; and without reason 
 or talent we are rapidly converting the 
 nation." 
 
 For the second time within three months 
 it became wise for Garrison to leave Bos 
 ton. His landlord, quite naturally, feared 
 for the safety of his house. The printing- 
 office of the Liberator was closed, and the 
 123 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 work was done clandestinely elsewhere. 
 During this winter the Abolitionists kept 
 rather quiet ; but they emerged in the spring 
 to attend the Lunt Committee that Com 
 mittee appointed by Governor Everett to con 
 sider the requests from Southern legislatures 
 that Massachusetts should do something to 
 suppress Anti-slavery. The first hearing in 
 the matter was held on March 4th, 1836, at 
 the State House. The audience was so large 
 that the Hall of the House of Representa 
 tives had to be used. Many women, includ 
 ing Harriet Martineau, were there, and the 
 social, political and mercantile classes of 
 Boston were represented. When the meet 
 ing came to order Samuel J. May set forth 
 the history of Abolition and showed the 
 mildness of its methods. Ellis Gray Lor- 
 ing, one of the earliest aristocrats to join 
 the cause, reviewed the perfect legality of 
 the ideals and conduct of the Anti-slavery 
 societies. The gentle Charles Pollen, a 
 learned and saintly man, began to expound 
 the rights of man and to explain to the Com 
 mittee the natural sequence of cause and ef 
 fect which existed between the Faneuil Hall 
 Pro-slavery meeting in August and the treat 
 ment of Garrison by the mob in October. 
 Chairman Lunt, who seems to have been a 
 124 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 narrow partisan who little understood the 
 issue under discussion, and who thought it 
 his duty towards his constituents to brow 
 beat the reformers, declined to allow Pollen 
 to pursue this line of argument. The Abo 
 litionists, upon this rebuff, brought the hear 
 ing promptly to a close, asserting that they 
 must be allowed to make their own argu 
 ments or none. They immediately peti 
 tioned the Legislature for permission to 
 argue their own case in their own way be 
 fore the Committee. This militant front 
 assumed by the little body of Protestants 
 was a very able piece of tactics. Their real 
 appeal was, of course, directed to the grand 
 public not to the public of the city of 
 Boston, but to the people of the State of 
 Massachusetts who were watching the whole 
 proceeding with passionate interest. Would 
 the Legislature dare to refuse the Abo 
 litionists permission to present their own 
 arguments in their own way? The permis 
 sion was granted. 
 
 The second hearing before the Lunt Com 
 mittee was a stormy one. It was naturally 
 crowded, because of the issues raised by the 
 first. Mr. Lunt behaved, strange to say, 
 with the same singular stupidity as at the 
 first meeting. Let us remember that this 
 125 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 hearing was for the moment the center of 
 the great storm of passion that had moved 
 up from the South during the preceding 
 year and by which it was hoped that the 
 Abolition cause would be engulfed and ob 
 literated. The center of the storm, how 
 ever, is perfectly calm. The voice that 
 comes from it is not a still small voice, but 
 a very calm voice. It is the voice of Sam 
 uel J. May. " It seemed," said Mr. May, 
 addressing the chairman, " it seemed on the 
 4th instant that the chairman considered 
 that we came here by his grace to exculpate 
 ourselves from the charges alleged against 
 us by the legislatures of several of the 
 Southern States ; and that we were not to be 
 permitted to express our anxious apprehen 
 sions of the effects of any acts by our Legis 
 lature intended to gratify the wishes of those 
 States. In order, therefore, that we might 
 appear before you in the exercise of our 
 right as free citizens, we have appealed to 
 the Senate and House of Representatives, 
 and have their permission to do so. Dr. 
 Pollen was setting before you what we deem 
 the most serious evil to be apprehended from 
 any condemnatory resolutions which the 
 Legislature might be induced to pass; and 
 if he is not permitted to press this upon 
 126 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 your consideration our interview with the 
 Committee must end here." 
 
 Mr. Pollen was allowed by the chairman 
 to proceed, but the following speaker, Rev. 
 William Goodell, was compelled to sit down 
 by the chairman. He was at the moment in 
 the midst of a most telling quotation from 
 Gov. McDuffie, of South Carolina, who had 
 said that "the laboring population of no na 
 tion on earth are entitled to liberty or capa 
 ble of enjoying it." " Sit down," said Mr. 
 Lunt, " the Committee will hear no more of 
 it." The Abolitionists immediately and 
 meekly showed their compliance by begin 
 ning to leave the Hall. 
 
 This is magnificent agitation : it is impos 
 sible for reformers to be more able than this. 
 Such conduct sends out an appeal to com 
 mon sense, to justice, to fair play, to the 
 mind of the average man and of the cour 
 ageous person everywhere. And lo, before 
 the Hall had emptied itself, there came a re 
 sponse to that appeal, a response from one 
 whose mere name was a summary of the 
 traditions he spoke for. :t The audience 
 here began to leave the Hall," continues Mr. 
 May, " but were arrested by a voice in their 
 midst. It was the voice of Gamaliel Brad 
 ford, not a member of the Anti-Slavery So- 
 127 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 ciety, who had come there only as a specta 
 tor, but had been so moved by what he had 
 witnessed that he pronounced an eloquent, 
 thrilling, impassioned, but respectful ap 
 peal in favor of free discussion." When 
 Bradford sat down Mr. George Bond, one 
 of the most prominent merchants and esti 
 mable gentlemen of Boston, made a speech 
 to the same effect. 
 
 Abolition thus began to penetrate the stal 
 wart and sensible classes. It could no longer 
 be regarded as merely the infatuation of 
 foolish persons. There were still to be years 
 of struggle, but the loneliness was at an end. 
 The great shattering climax of all this pe 
 riod was the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy, a 
 young Presbyterian minister and native of 
 Maine, on November 7th, 1837, at Alton, 
 111. He was shot down as he emerged from 
 the burning building in which the last of 
 four Anti-slavery printing-presses perished 
 at the hands of infuriated Pro-slavery 
 rioters. Lovejoy, though a clergyman, had 
 determined to protect his rights of free 
 speech under the Constitutional forms of 
 self-defense. He and his friends had 
 armed themselves according to law, and 
 were under the protection of the Mayor of 
 the town. They thus stood like the embat- 
 128 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 tied farmer at Lexington nay, more 
 strongly, for these men were not Revolu 
 tionists, but peaceful citizens resisting illegal 
 violence. Love joy was ruthlessly shot 
 down by a shower of bullets from the street. 
 Here was something that the average Ameri 
 can could understand. It was not expressed 
 in Biblical language, nor did it come from a 
 saint; but it spoke to the fighting instinct in 
 the common man. 
 
 Nothing except John Brown s Raid ever \ 
 sent such a shock across the continent, or so 
 stirred the North to understand and to re 
 sist the advance of slavery as Lovejoy s 
 murder. The Abolitionists of Boston im 
 mediately sought Faneuil Hall, which was 
 at first refused. Dr. Channing, head 
 ing the free-speech movement, joined 
 with the Abolitionists in claiming the 
 right to use the Hall. It was felt that the 
 great public was behind this claim : the use 
 of the Hall was granted. There followed 
 that meeting to which the dazzling elo 
 quence of Wendell Phillips has given im 
 mortality. It was a free-speech, not an 
 Abolition meeting, its object being to pro 
 test against Lovejoy s murder as a crime 
 against the statutory right of free speech. 
 
 We see here a very different situation 
 129 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 from the state of things at the Faneuil Hall 
 Pro-slavery meeting of 1835, when slavery 
 had hired the Hall and held the floor. At 
 the Lovejoy meeting freedom had hired the 
 Hall and held the floor. Nevertheless the 
 meeting was to some extent packed by the 
 Pro-slavery element who hoped to stampede 
 it in favor of the South. Phillips was an 
 unknown young lawyer, the scion of a very 
 distinguished family, and he had gone to the 
 meeting without any intention of taking 
 part in its proceedings. He was drawn into 
 the fray by the extraordinary speech of 
 James T. Austin, attorney-general of Mas 
 sachusetts and leader of the conservatives. 
 Austin declared that Lovejoy was not only 
 presumptuous and imprudent while he lived, 
 but that he " died as the fool dieth." He 
 compared the murderers of Lovejoy with 
 the men who destroyed the tea in Boston 
 harbor, and said that wherever the Aboli 
 tion fever raged there were mobs and mur 
 ders. Austin was vociferously applauded! 
 and there was some prospect that the whole 
 meeting would break up in a riot. Phil 
 lips had great difficulty in getting the atten 
 tion of the audience. " Mr. Chairman," he 
 said, " we have met for the freest discussion 
 of these resolutions and the events which 
 130 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 gave rise to them." (Cries of " question," 
 "hear him," "go on," "no gagging" 
 etc.) "I hope I shall be permitted to ex 
 press my surprise at the sentiments of the 
 last speaker surprise not only at such sen 
 timents from such a man, but at the applause 
 they have received within these walls. A 
 comparison has been drawn between the 
 events of the Revolution and the tragedy at 
 Alton. We have heard it asserted here, in 
 Faneuil Hall, that Great Britain had a right 
 to tax the Colonies; and we have heard the 
 mob at Alton, the drunken murderers of 
 Lovejoy, compared to those patriot fathers 
 who threw the tea overboard! (Great ap 
 plause.) Fellow-citizens, is this Faneuil 
 Hall doctrine ? " (" No, no.") After giv 
 ing a clear exposition of the difference be 
 tween the riot at Alton and the Boston Tea 
 Party, Phillips continued : " Sir, when I 
 heard the gentleman lay down principles 
 which place the murderers of Alton side by 
 side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy 
 and Adams, I thought those pictured lips 
 (pointing to the portraits in the Hall) 
 would have broken into voice to rebuke the 
 recreant American the slanderer of the 
 dead. (Great applause and counter -ap 
 plause. ) The gentleman said that he should 
 131 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 sink into insignificance if he dared not gain 
 say the principles of these resolutions. 
 Sir, for the sentiments he has uttered, on 
 soil consecrated by the prayers of Puritans, 
 and the blood of patriots, the earth should 
 have yawned and swallowed him up." 
 (Applause and hisses, with cries of " Take 
 that back! ") The uproar became so great 
 that for a time no one could be heard. At 
 length the Hon. William Sturgis came to 
 Mr. Phillips s side at the front of the plat 
 form. He was met with cries of " Phillips 
 or nobody," " Make him take back rec 
 reant; he shan t go on till he takes it 
 back." When it was understood that Mr. 
 Sturgis meant to sustain, not to interrupt 
 Mr. Phillips, he was listened to and said, 
 " I did not come here to take part in this 
 discussion, nor do I intend to; but I do en 
 treat you, fellow citizens, by everything you 
 hold sacred, I conjure you by every asso 
 ciation connected with this Hall, consecrated 
 by our Fathers to freedom of discussion, 
 that you listen to every man who addresses 
 you in a decorous manner." Phillips re 
 sumed his speech and made in this, his de 
 but, one of the best remembered triumphs in 
 a life of oratory. His speech, though im 
 perfectly reported, is one of those historic 
 speeches which carry their eloquence to the 
 132 
 
THE CRISIS 
 
 reader, even through the disguise of print. 
 When Phillips was asked afterwards what 
 his thoughts were during the delivery of it, 
 he said he was thinking of nothing except 
 the carrying of resolutions. This he ac 
 complished and the vote of the meeting was 
 cast for freedom: the murderers of Love- 
 joy were denounced. 
 
 The practical importance of this outcome 
 to the Abolitionists is brought home to us 
 in a letter written by one of them, a woman, 
 to a friend in England. " Stout men, my 
 husband for instance, came home that day 
 and lifted up their voices and wept. Dr. 
 Channing did not know how dangerous an 
 experiment, as people count danger, he ad 
 ventured. We knew that we must send 
 our children out of town and sleep in our 
 day garments that night, unless free dis 
 cussion prevailed." 
 
 The burning of Pennsylvania Hall, in 
 Philadelphia, in May, 1838, was among the 
 last of the outrages committed during this 
 epoch of persecution. There seems after 
 this to have been a simmering down of the 
 antagonism of the public to the Abolition 
 ists, and it was not until 1850 that another 
 great attempt, the last attempt, was made 
 by the united South to control the destinies 
 of the North. 
 
VI 
 
 RETROSPECT AND 
 PROSPECT 
 
 IT seems to be always the case in human af 
 fairs that conditions grow better and worse 
 at the same time. An evil reaches its cli 
 max at the very moment that the corrective 
 reform is making a hidden march upon it 
 from an unexpected quarter. And so this 
 epoch of crisis in mob violence against Ab 
 olition must be recorded as the epoch during- 
 which Abolition passed from the stage of 
 moral agitation into the arena of practical 
 politics. The Anti-slavery men had begun 
 by heckling the clergy; they divided up the 
 country into districts and sent their dreaded 
 emissaries with lists of questions which the 
 parsons had to answer. This process rent 
 the churches, or rather it revealed the fact 
 that the churches were Pro-slavery. In like 
 manner the questioning of all candidates for 
 office was taken up by the Abolitionists. 
 In the year 1840 there were two thousand 
 Anti-slavery societies with a membership of 
 134 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 
 
 two hundred thousand. It is apparent that 
 the political parties at the North were about 
 to feel the same disruptive power run 
 through their vitals that the churches had 
 felt. 
 
 If you take up a history of the United 
 States, or the biography of a statesman of 
 this time, you will find that the author only 
 begins to deal with Abolition in about the 
 year 1840, that is, after it has reached the 
 political stage. He writes perhaps a few 
 pages, as Mr. Rhodes does, about the rise 
 of the movement, taking for granted that 
 the reader knows how Abolition got started, 
 and why it was able so soon to overshadow 
 all other questions. The same thing occurs 
 in the history of the rise of Christianity; 
 with this difference that the early stages 
 of Christianity are involved in obscurity; 
 whereas the activities of the early years of 
 Abolition are recorded in accessible and 
 thrilling books. The historian, as a gen 
 eral rule, gives us only the history of 
 politics. He seems not to be interested in 
 the beginnings of things. And yet, those 
 beginnings are the seed. The beginnings 
 of any movement, the epoch when it is in 
 the stage of idea, of agitation, of moral im 
 pulse, and before it has assumed a shape 
 135 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 that can be termed political, these begin 
 nings show its nature. In them you find 
 the explanation of the later political stages. 
 
 The history of the Anti-slavery struggle 
 after 1840 that is to say, the history of 
 political Anti-slavery has been well an 
 alyzed and understood, and can be traced 
 in the biographies of our statesmen. I am 
 not going to retrace it in this essay; for I 
 believe that Garrison s distinctive work was 
 accomplished before 1840. I shall content 
 myself with a few observations which apply 
 to the whole period between 1830 and 1860, 
 and which are equally true of the agita 
 tional era and of the political era of the 
 struggle. 
 
 The spread of Anti-slavery sentiment 
 was brought about through the doings of 
 the Slave Power. From the time when the 
 State of Georgia in 1830 offered a reward 
 for the arrest of Garrison, till South Caro 
 lina seceded in 1860, the education of the 
 North was due to the activity of the South. 
 While North and South were in ignorance 
 of this fact, the form of the reaction and 
 inter-action between Northern and South 
 ern elements was the inevitable form 
 through which such a drama must pass. 
 The Slave Power believed that Garrison, 
 136 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 
 
 with some almost superhuman agency, was 
 moving upon it to devour it. Slavery, dur 
 ing the whole course of its long suicide, 
 was, in its own view, striving to save it 
 self from destruction. The Abolitionists 
 brought into the conflict the element of 
 Fate. The South knew that no form of 
 compromise could bind Garrison. It felt 
 this with the instinct of the hunted animal. 
 It aimed a blow at the enemy, Abolition; 
 and it struck free speech, it struck the right 
 of petition, trial by jury, education, benevo 
 lence, common sense. Slavery began its 
 death agony in 1830, and was driven from 
 one step to another merely as a consequence 
 of the nature of man. If the South could 
 have smiled at Abolition, if it could have 
 kept its temper and lent no hand in assist 
 ing the Abolitionists to bring forward their 
 cause, then the way of the reformers would 
 have been hard. This would have hap 
 pened, perhaps, if Anti-slavery in America 
 had been a pioneer cause, a new light lead 
 ing the world. But our Anti-slavery cause 
 was a mere means of catching up with Eu 
 rope. The moral power of humanity at 
 large prevented South Carolina from smil 
 ing at Abolition. The slave-owners trem 
 bled because they were a part of the thing 
 137 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 which criticized them. Massachusetts and 
 South Carolina were parts of that modern 
 world in which their heart-strings met. 
 This solidarity between the North and the 
 South was the cause of the anguish, and the 
 means of the cure. 
 
 In the early days of any movement it is 
 only the expert who can read the times cor 
 rectly. The lean prophet, in whose bosom 
 the turmoil of a new age begins, sees proofs 
 of that age everywhere. He thinks of 
 nothing else, he cares for nothing else. 
 Thus the Abolitionists could see in 1830 
 what the average man could not understand 
 till 1845 tnat tne Slave Power was a 
 Moloch which controlled the politics of the 
 North and which, in the nature of things, 
 could stick at nothing while engaged in per 
 petuating that control. Garrison or May 
 could perceive this in 1828 by taking an ob 
 servation of Edward Everett or of Daniel 
 Webster. But the average citizen could 
 not see it; he lacked the detachment. His 
 obfuscation was a part of the problem, a 
 part of the evil in the period. In 1845 it 
 required the Annexation of Texas to show 
 to the man in the street those same truths 
 which the Abolitionists had seen so plainly 
 fifteen years before. The Annexation of 
 138 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 
 
 Texas was the most educational of all the 
 convulsive demonstrations of the South. 
 
 Where did the motive power reside from 
 which all these changes proceeded? Was 
 this motive power the conscience of the Ab 
 olitionists? I do not think so. The Abo 
 litionists stand nearer to a sense of justice, 
 nearer to rational modern life than the rest 
 of our compatriots of that time. But the 
 Abolitionists were not the motive power; 
 they were merely the point of entrance of 
 new life into the community. Every 
 stroke of his pulse that told an Abolition 
 ist that something must be done about 
 slavery, could perform its functions only 
 by flashing down to Georgia, and coming 
 back in the form of anger and of grief. 
 Every argument that split a vestry, or left 
 a mind ruined was necessary. It was es 
 sential that these things should come. 
 
 The metaphysical question was always 
 the same, namely : " How far legal argu 
 ment is valid when it contravenes human 
 feelings ? " The question assumed various 
 forms while the fire was eating its way 
 through society towards the powder maga 
 zine; but the substance of it never varied. 
 The whole age-long contest in all its Pro 
 tean forms is summarized in a well-known 
 139 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 legal anecdote. Judge Harrington of Ver 
 mont is said to have told the attorney for 
 a Southern owner who was seeking to re 
 cover a fugitive slave in 1808, that his " evi 
 dence of ownership " was insufficient. 
 " What evidence does your Honor re 
 quire? " " Nothing less than a bill of sale 
 from God Almighty." This story gives 
 the two elements, pity and business inter 
 est, expressed in terms of constitutional ar 
 gument. It summarizes the labors of our 
 statesmen, Webster, Calhoun, Sumner, 
 Taney, Douglas, Lincoln, each of whom 
 had his bout with the problem. The unfor 
 tunate American statesmen who were 
 obliged to formulate a philosophy upon the 
 matter seem to me like that procession of 
 hypocrites in Dante s Purgatory, robed in 
 mantles of lead. They emerge, each bent 
 down with his weight of logic, blinded by 
 his view of the inherited curse nursing 
 his critique of the constitution; they file 
 across the pages of our history from Jef 
 ferson to Lincoln sad, perplexed men. 
 
 The solution given by Garrison to the 
 
 puzzle was that the law must give way, that 
 
 the Constitution was of no importance, 
 
 \ after all. This is what any American 
 
 would have answered had the question con- 
 
 140 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 
 
 cerned the Constitution of Switzerland or 
 of Patagonia. But, for some reason, our 
 own Constitution was regarded differently. 
 I suppose that the politics, theology, and 
 formal organization of the whole world are 
 never so important as they pretend to be. 
 The element of material interest in these 
 matters gives them their awful weight to 
 contemporaries. When we are dealing with 
 a past age this element evaporates, and we 
 see clearly that most of the importances of 
 the world have no claim to our reverence. 
 Now when a man has felt in this way about 
 his own age, we call him a great man; be 
 cause we agree with him. For this is the 
 test, and the only conceivable test of great 
 ness that a man shall look upon his own 
 age, and see it in the same light as that in 
 which posterity sees it. We must concede 
 greatness to Garrison. His early editorials 
 upon the question of "disunion show that he 
 viewed our Constitution in true historical 
 perspective as early as 1832. 
 
 Let us now remember some of the phases 
 of the nightmare which, like a continuous 
 Dreyfus case, perplexed all honest men, all 
 thinking men in America for two genera 
 tions. The Constitution was so inwoven 
 with our social life that the conflict be- 
 141 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 tween the letter and the spirit was ubiqui 
 tous. The restless probings went forward at 
 the fireside, in the club, in the shop; no pil 
 low was free from them. Slavery covered 
 every sentiment with a cloak. Slavery was 
 in literature, in religion, in custom. This 
 social, daily, domestic, discussion and heart 
 burn was the true means of regeneration. 
 The political history of slavery was to be 
 the outcome of this fireside discussion. 
 The constitutional theory which any man 
 held was, in this epoch, the outcome of his 
 personal struggle with evil. In other 
 words the slavery question had become the 
 symbol of the relation between good and 
 evil in practical life. We notice in all this 
 the tardiness of the political world in ab 
 sorbing new ideas. The world of politics 
 is always twenty years behind the world of 
 thought. The world of politics lives and 
 works in ideals which are twenty years old. 
 The result of all the upturnings of con 
 science, which went forward in millions of 
 private breasts, was at length seen in the 
 formation of the Republican Party. By 
 the time that party was formed one could 
 distinguish (as Mr. Rhodes points out), 
 two classes of men among its members : 
 the men actuated by pity for the slave, of 
 142 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 
 
 whom Sumner was the type; and the men 
 actuated by resentment at being ruled from 
 the South, of whom Seward was the type. 
 It was, however, the Abolition tom-tom that 
 had called both classes from the deep; and 
 the Seward class was but an imperfect, 
 half -a wakened example of the true thing. 
 The Seward class could never stand fire. 
 Its courage, for the infusion of courage 
 was the sole function of that tom-tom, its 
 courage was in the head and not, as yet, in 
 the vitals. This class was subject to splen 
 did visitations of new idea; and yet it was 
 also subject to the occasional panic-stricken 
 discovery that the bottom had dropped out 
 after all, and that one must go softly, be 
 cause life could not be trusted. 
 
 The abstract, inscrutable nature of the 
 contest between Freedom and Slavery first 
 began to be revealed to the politicians in 
 about 1850; and men then began to feel that 
 the whole historic sequence of things was 
 a fate-drama. Even then, everybody in 
 politics was afraid to speak plainly about 
 slavery. It required, for instance, notable 
 insight as well as great political courage 
 for Lincoln to state what was known to 
 everyone. In 1858 he took his political 
 life in his hands, and spoke of " the house 
 143 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 divided against itself." His associates 
 were scandalized by his rashness, and 
 begged him to omit the phrase. Merciful 
 heavens! Had not this house been di 
 vided against itself for three-quarters of a 
 century? Yes, truly, this whole matter 
 was a fate-drama, and in a deeper sense 
 than Seward imagined or than even Lin 
 coln could guess. Seward with his percep 
 tion of the " irrepressible conflict between 
 opposing and enduring forces," and Lincoln 
 with his vision of the blood of white men, 
 drawn by the sword, which should repay 
 the blood of slaves that had been drawn by 
 the lash saw only the main crash of the 
 drama. The reality of it was profounder, 
 and the trailing consequences of it were to 
 be more terrible than they suspected. 
 
 The intellectual and moral heritages of 
 slavery are with us still. The timidity of 
 our public life and of our private conversa 
 tion is a tradition from those times, which 
 fifty years of freedom have not sufficed to 
 efface. The morbid sensitiveness of the 
 American to new political ideas has been a 
 mystery to Europe. We cannot bear to 
 hear a proposition plainly put ; or let me 
 say, we are only recently beginning to cast 
 off our hothouse condition, and to bear the 
 144 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 
 
 sun and wind of the natural world. I dcy 
 not know anything which measures the 
 timidity of the American nation better than 
 the moderation of Lincoln s speeches, a 
 moderation which he was obliged to adopt 
 in order to be listened to. He was always 
 in danger of showing his heart; he must 
 avoid the taint of Abolition, the suspicion 
 of any attack upon the Constitution. He 
 must step gingerly and remember what part 
 of the State of Illinois he is in at the mo 
 ment. Even when the war breaks out Lin 
 coln is obliged to invent a way of looking 
 at that war which shall place the Union 
 cause in a popular light. He is obliged to 
 pretend that the war is not primarily about 
 slavery at all. He is obliged to speak about 
 the war in such a way as would be incom 
 prehensible to any one who is not a close 
 student of our conditions. He must re 
 member the Border States. 
 
 Here was a war over slavery which had 
 been visibly brewing for more than a life 
 time. The Anti-slavery party comes into 
 power; the Slave States revolt and the 
 question is whether the Government shall 
 prosecute a war and extinguish slavery 
 or not. This is the way in which the edu 
 cated foreigner viewed the matter, and he 
 145 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 was right. There were, however, in the 
 Northern and Border States, many educated 
 Americans who had from their cradles been 
 taught to regard slavery as a thing almost 
 sacred a thing which could not rightfully 
 become a cause of war between the States. 
 Therefore great caution had to be used in 
 making any popular statement of the mat 
 ter. This war must be looked upon as a 
 war, not about Slavery but about Union. 
 Lincoln was thus obliged to befog his State 
 papers with such careful statements as to 
 his being for the Union without slavery, or 
 for the Union with slavery, that the out 
 sider really began to doubt whether, per 
 haps, Lincoln meant that slavery might be 
 retained in the end. Even in this crisis no 
 one in political life was allowed to speak 
 in plain terms. To do so was regarded as 
 most unwise. The misguided and half- 
 minded man of America had been trained 
 to believe that Slavery was sacred; but 
 for the Union he will die. So long as 
 you call it Union he is ready to die for 
 humanity. 
 
 Lincoln, then, during the years of his 
 leadership was obliged to stoop to the com 
 plex, peculiar, and inferior character of the 
 contemporary mind. He was one of the 
 146 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 
 
 greatest political geniuses and one of the 
 most beautiful characters that ever lived; 
 and he managed somehow to be intellectu 
 ally honest and very nearly frank while ful 
 filling his mission. Yet I can never read 
 his debates with Douglas or consider his 
 Border-State policy without being struck 
 by the technical nature of all our history. 
 One of Lincoln s chief interests in life, from 
 early manhood onward, lay in emancipa 
 tion. This he could not say and remain in 
 politics; nay, he could not think it and re 
 main in politics. He could not quite know 
 himself and yet remain in politics. The 
 awful weight of a creed that was never 
 quite true the creed of the Constitution 
 pressed down upon the intellects of our 
 public men. This was the dower and curse 
 of slavery. 
 
 The value of the epoch during which 
 the curse was cast off is that, in 
 reading about it, we can see thought move, 
 and can find ourselves in sympathy with all 
 shades of reform. Let us take an example 
 at random, as one might take a drop of 
 water for a sample of the ocean. In the 
 dawn of the Abolition movement its ad 
 herents in New York State, who were re 
 sponsible, educated and propertied persons, 
 147 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 were a fittk a fa. id of die Gamsomans of 
 Barton. The principles of the New York 
 grotip are wefl stated bjr William Jay in 
 tlie first nnnzfoer of die Emancipator, and 
 arc in striking contrast to the declarations 
 cf Garrison in the first number of the Lt- 
 crater, wbkh I have qt*3ted on a previous 
 page. Taj writes: 
 
 * The disty and pclky of irrr^eciit * 
 errareip&ti/^ti, altfarjcgh dear to ts, arc 
 so to TTTgltitories of people who 
 assd ficcsrclj wish its 
 
 takt it for grarte/i, no rnatt^r why 
 or wherefore, that if the slave* were D^TT 
 liberated they wc-cM instantly cti die 
 ai? acd re tbs cweHing? of their ben- 
 Ker^ce thesse good pec-pk kx)k 
 
 the a/irocates of exaancipaty^t: as a 
 set c <-2rger-/55 fanatks, wrxi are jeep- 
 arCzirg tr/t p*sce cf the Sotah^rn States 
 a^i rrretr^? the fe~*r of the Jave* by the 
 rery artsrrpt to break them. In th^ir opts- 
 ioc th dave* are sr^t ct for fre?td^j 
 therefore it i* sftce^^r to wait 
 
 whiten cas be brctsgtx o*rer to ct:r 
 
 th/rsr are 
 
. :_ v : 
 
 
 .-. :_ 
 
 : . : 
 
 cmr 
 
 ..-.-: 
 
 ;_- ;_ -. : 
 
WILLIAM tLOYD GARRISON 
 
 are concerned, from that of slavery in the 
 Southern States. 
 
 "As a member of Congress, I should 
 think myself no more authorized to legis 
 late for the slaves in Virginia than for the 
 serfs of Russia. But Congress has full 
 authority to abolish slavery in the District, 
 and I think it to be its duty to do so. The 
 public need information respecting the 
 abominations committed at Washington 
 with the sanction of their Representatives 
 abominations which will cease whenever 
 those Representatives please. If this sub 
 ject is fully and ably pressed upon the at 
 tention of our electors, they may perhaps 
 be induced to require pledges from candi 
 dates for Congress for their votes for the 
 removal of this foul stain from our National 
 Government. As to the Colonization So 
 ciety, it is neither a wicked conspiracy upon 
 the one hand nor a panacea for slavery on 
 the other. Many good and wise men be 
 long to it and believe in its efficacy." 
 
 These New York men are in a more ra 
 tional state of mind than Garrison was. 
 When in 1833 Samuel J. May begged Wil 
 liam Jay to join in forming a national An 
 ti-Slavery Society, Jay paused. I suppose 
 he had been reading the Liberator. He de- 
 150 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 
 
 clined to join, on the ground that the local 
 Societies could do the work as well for the 
 time being, and that the great objection to 
 Anti-slavery societies was that they aimed 
 at unconstitutional interference with 
 slavery. He suggested that if a National 
 Society was to be formed, it should show, 
 by its constitution, that the objects were le 
 gal, that is to say, it should acknowledge the 
 exclusive rights of the Southern States to 
 settle the matter of slavery within their own 
 boundaries, and claim only the right to urge 
 Congress to abolish slavery in the District 
 of Columbia, and the territories. 
 
 The new Society did, in fact, adopt care 
 fully drawn provisions expressive of Jay s 
 idea, and Mr. Tuckerman, in his memoir 
 of Jay, comments upon the circumstance as 
 follows : " Looked at by the light of sub 
 sequent events, the importance of placing 
 Anti-slavery upon a Constitutional basis 
 cannot be over-rated. Upon the principles 
 thus distinctly avowed rested the moral and 
 political strength of the movement during 
 the struggle of thirty years." It is impos 
 sible not to feel the truth of this reflection. 
 The average American mind could only 
 deal with the slavery matter when presented 
 in legal form. Mr. Garrison, in spite of 
 151 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 his denunciation of the Union, felt the force 
 of this appeal to law and order. He actu 
 ally signed the declarations of the new So 
 ciety, which put the movement on a con 
 servative basis, and he wrote editorially in 
 the Liberator as follows : " Abolitionists as 
 clearly understand and as sacredly regard 
 the Constitutional powers of Congress as 
 do their traducers, and they know and have 
 again and again asserted that Congress has 
 no more rightful authority to sit in judg 
 ment upon Southern slavery than it has to 
 legislate upon the abolition of slavery in 
 the French colonies." This editorial is en 
 tirely out of key with Mr. Garrison s fun 
 damental beliefs, as we shall see later. We 
 have to remember, in reviewing any con 
 vulsive epoch in history, how frequently 
 men, even great men, have been jolted for 
 ward and back between conflicting points of 
 view. Garrison was subject to these re 
 vulsions, and was totally unconscious of his 
 inconsistencies. 
 
 The point I would here make is that all 
 these various and contradictory dogmas 
 were necessary. Each one was an inev 
 itable progression, going on in somebody s 
 mind, and each helped to move the argu 
 ment along. It is easy to see that the atti- 
 152 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 
 
 tude of Jay in recommending legal action 
 only, and the attitude of Garrison in de 
 nouncing the Constitution, as he did most 
 of the time, were both of them necessary 
 to the working-out of the problem. 
 
 There was another element of complica 
 tion which assisted in disintegrating the 
 Anti-slavery cause. As time went on 
 Garrison kept confiding his new de 
 velopments and changes in opinion 
 to the columns of the Liberator. His 
 views upon Peace, No-government, Wom 
 an s Rights, Non-resistance, as they formed 
 themselves within him, were advocated 
 with an incredible volubility which dis 
 quieted many other Abolitionists. After 
 one or two attempts at schism, the more 
 conservative Abolitionists formed a new 
 Society which went by the name of the 
 New Organization. With whom shall we 
 sympathize among all these contending 
 sects? Manifestly with them all. Let us 
 examine the case of Woman s Rights. 
 Women had been working in the Massa 
 chusetts Society and in the National So 
 ciety from the beginning. Women were 
 among the ablest, the most effective, the 
 most saintly, the most distinguished, of the 
 workers in the Abolition cause. Should 
 153 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 they be admitted to equal fellowship or not? 
 Manifestly they must be so admitted. Yet 
 to do this identified the cause of Abolition 
 with the theory of Woman s Rights, a con 
 clusion most repugnant to many excellent 
 Anti-slavery people. There must follow, 
 then, a multiplication of sects; this was one 
 of the logical necessities of the situation. 
 
 Now there was no person in the Aboli 
 tion camp who understood these matters 
 from a philosophic point of view. The 
 New Organizationists were struggling to 
 keep the cause pure, to keep it from being 
 mixed up with other causes and ideas, such 
 as Woman s Rights, Non-resistance, etc. 
 Garrison was also struggling to keep the 
 cause pure; to prevent it from being di 
 luted, and from falling into the hands of 
 sectarians, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc. 
 In 1840 we find the Garrisonians chartering 
 a steamboat, and taking several hundred 
 men and women from Massachusetts, in 
 order to " carry " the annual meeting in New 
 York City for his ideas. Jay seems to have 
 understood that the confusion was past cure, 
 though he did not quite perceive that it 
 was inevitable. His personal course was to 
 resign from the Anti-slavery organizations 
 when they veered away from Constitutional 
 iS4 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 
 
 methods. He again became a free lance. 
 In 1846 he writes : " Our Anti-slavery so 
 cieties are for the most part virtually de 
 funct. Anti-slavery conventions are what 
 ever the leaders present happen to be ; some 
 times disgustingly irreligious, and very 
 often Jacobinical and disorganizing; and 
 frequently prescriptive of such of their 
 brethren who will not consent to render 
 Abolition a mere instrument for effecting 
 certain political changes having no relation 
 whatever to slavery/ 
 
 Now let us take one step further and 
 note this: that at the time of the An 
 nexation of Texas, Jay had arrived at Gar 
 rison s views as to the necessity of breaking 
 up the Union. " Should the slaveholders 
 succeed/ says Jay, " in their design of an 
 nexing Texas, then indeed would I not 
 merely discuss, but with all my powers 
 would I advocate an immediate dissolution. 
 I love my children, my friends, my country 
 too well to leave them the prey to the ac 
 cursed Government which would be sure 
 to follow." And again : " A separation will 
 be more easily effected now than when the 
 relative strength of the South shall have 
 been greatly augmented. Hereafter we 
 shall be as serfs rebelling against their 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 bonds. Now, if the North pleases, we may 
 dissolve the Union without spilling a drop 
 of blood." 
 
 It is impossible not to sympathize with 
 the state of mind revealed in these last sen 
 tences a state of mind to which Jay has 
 been brought by the march of events. The 
 truth is that the whole vast problem was 
 constantly moving forward. Not only 
 Garrison and Jay, but every soul who lived 
 in America during these years held fluctuat 
 ing views about the matter of slavery; and 
 the complex controversy moved forward 
 like a glacier, cracking and bending and 
 groaning, and marking the everlasting rocks 
 as it progressed. In the end, we come to 
 see that the whole struggle was a solid 
 struggle, an ever-changing Unity, an or 
 chestra in which all the various instruments 
 were interdependent and responsive to one 
 another. We see also that each individual 
 then living was somehow a little microcosm 
 which reflected and had relations with the 
 whole moving miracle; and that every ele 
 ment of the great universe was represented 
 in him. We can perceive plainly, to-day, 
 how necessary it was that each error should 
 be made; that Garrison should issue his in 
 consecutive fulminations of dogma, and 
 156 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 
 
 that Jay should retire in gloom, when the 
 cause entered politics. We see how inev 
 itable it was that the cause should be be 
 trayed and polluted, soiled and kneaded into 
 the mire of the world, woven into the web 
 of American life. Gradually the leaven 
 was invading and qualifying the whole 
 lump. 
 
VII 
 THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 IN calling up the spirit of Garrison out of 
 the irrecoverable past we must never for 
 get that he was but a part of something; 
 we must call up the whole epoch. Garrison 
 was as much an outcome of slavery as was 
 " Uncle Tom s Cabin " or John C. Calhoun. 
 He is a spiritual product; he is that sup 
 pressed part of man s nature, which could 
 not co-exist with slavery. He is like a 
 fiery salamander, who should emerge dur 
 ing a glacial epoch crawling out from a 
 volcano that was all the time hidden beneath 
 the ice-crust. It is through the hot breath 
 of this salamander that verdure is to be 
 brought back to the earth, and the benign 
 climate of modern life restored to America. 
 To the conservative minds of his own time 
 he appeared to be a monster; and he was a 
 monster a monster of virtue, a monster 
 of love a monster of power. 
 
 Let us not judge but only examine him. 
 Fortunately the materials are abundant, the 
 158 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 record is complete. His life in four enor 
 mous volumes has been written by his chil 
 dren; and the children of Garrison sup 
 press nothing. We are brought into ab 
 solute contact with all of Garrison s singu 
 larities. This biography is no{ a critical 
 work : it is, one might say, ja_wpjjc_of^ idol 
 atry, hvery little""EattIeis fought over 
 again, and every word or gesture of the 
 protagonist is deemed sacred. The reader 
 feels oppressed by the one-sidedness of this 
 procedure. One becomes sorry for the 
 other actors in the great drama: for 
 after all, these men could not help 
 it that they were not Garrison; they 
 seem to live out their lives under 
 the pitiful inferiority of not being Garri 
 son. For instance, Cassius M. Clay of 
 Kentucky went to Yale College, and was, 
 as a youth, converted to Anti-slavery by a 
 lecture of Garrison s at New Haven. Clay 
 returned to Kentucky, emancipated his 
 slaves, and thereafter made relentless war 
 on slavery, thus furnishing, say Garrison s 
 biographers, " an example without parallel 
 both of heroism and of the folly of attempt 
 ing to undermine the slave power from 
 within" The italics are mine. But why 
 do Garrison s children think it folly for a 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 Southerner to agitate against slavery in 
 Kentucky? It seems to me that to do so 
 was right. I believe that the agitation of 
 Clay in Kentucky somehow went to a spot 
 in the slavery question that nothing else 
 could have reached. It affected Garrison 
 himself as nothing else ever affected him : it 
 softened him. It was the conduct of Clay 
 and Rankin (another Southerner) which 
 caused Garrison to offer a resolution at the 
 Cincinnati convention in 1853, m which 
 he stated that the Abolitionists of the coun 
 try were as much interested in the welfare 
 of the slaveholders as they were in the ele 
 vation of the slaves. His habitual attitude 
 towards the slaveholders had always been, 
 " We do not acknowledge them to be 
 within the pale of Christianity, of Repub 
 licanism, of humanity. This we say dis 
 passionately, and not for the sake of using 
 strong language." 
 
 Garrison, then, was touched by the almost 
 miraculous courage of Clay. If there had 
 been a few more such Southern Abolition 
 ists, the bitterness of this whole epoch might 
 have been qualified. It was, however, one of 
 the stock taunts made against Garrison that 
 he did not go South to agitate; and, there 
 fore, these biographers reason that any agita- 
 160 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 m of slavery in the South must be " folly." 
 ic four great volumes contain frequent 
 tie hacks and side-cuts out of old contro- 
 rsies which are wearying to the modern 
 ader. Nevertheless, the volumes contain 
 >o such mountains of precious ore, such a 
 instaking recovery of everything germane 
 
 the subject, such an angel-minded pres- 
 tation of the blind side of Garrison, with 
 e record of things said against him 
 at the reader is left with nothing but 
 atitude to these children who are so like 
 e father that their very deficiencies, 
 ^htly taken, illuminate their subject. The 
 lildren of Garrison have not written a phil- 
 lophic history.* But there are other things 
 
 the world besides criticism, and some 
 ings more rare and more beautiful than the 
 itical intellect. There is praise and wor- 
 lip ; there is reverence and love ; there is the 
 rasole that turns towards the sun and fol- 
 >ws him from the orient to his setting, 
 
 * "Writing not without bias, surely, but in a spirit 
 nulous of the absolute fairness which distinguished 
 ir father, we have done little more than coordinate 
 aterials to serve posterity in forming that judgment 
 : him which we have no desire to forestall. In a 
 :erary point of view, we have aimed at nothing 
 ore than clearness, sequence and proportion." Life 
 Garrison. Preface, p. xii. 
 161 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 ever in a dream, ever without knowing that 
 he has changed his position, because for her 
 he has not moved or changed; to her he is 
 only himself. 
 
 Garrison was a man of action, that is to 
 say, a man to whom ideas were revealed in 
 relation to passing events, and who saw in 
 ideas the levers and weapons with which he 
 might act upon the world. A seer on the 
 other hand is a man who views passing 
 events by the light of ideas, and who 
 counts upon his vision, not upon his action, 
 for influence. The seer feels that the mere 
 utterance of his thought, nay the mere 
 vision of it, fulfills his function. Garrison 
 was not a man of this kind. His mission 
 was more lowly, more popular, more vis 
 ible; and his intellectual grasp was re 
 stricted and uncertain. Garrison was a 
 man of the market-place. Language to 
 him was not the mere means of stating 
 truth, but a mace to break open a jail. He 
 was to be the instrument of great and rapid 
 changes in public opinion during an epoch 
 of terrible and fluctuating excitement. The 
 thing which he is to see, to say, and to pro 
 claim, from moment to moment, is as 
 freshly given to him by prodigal nature, is 
 as truly spontaneous, as the song of the 
 162 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 thrush. He never calculates, he acts upon 
 inspiration; he is always ingenuous, inno 
 cent, self-poised, and, as it were, inside of 
 some self-acting machinery which controls 
 his course, and rolls out the carpet of his 
 life for him to walk on. We must remem 
 ber this; for it is almost impossible not to 
 use words which imply the contrary in de 
 scribing the acts of the practical man the 
 man who utters sharp sayings in order to 
 gain attention, the man who gives no quar 
 ter when in the ring. 
 
 In reviewing the life of such a man we 
 must take the logic of it as a whole; we 
 must feel the unity of it as an organic proc 
 ess and torrent of force. It will contain 
 many breaks in metaphysical unity; yet 
 through these breaks may be seen the gush 
 ing stream of the spirit. I believe that Gar 
 rison shifted his ground and changed his 
 mind less often than most men of that 
 kaleidoscopic epoch. But we must not try 
 to make him out more consistent than he 
 was. All politics, including reform agita 
 tion, proceeds from day to day and from 
 year to year under the illusion that the 
 thing in hand is more important than it 
 really is. All the actors are at every mo 
 ment somewhat deceived; and to each of 
 163 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 them the thing in hand ever a little blots 
 out the sky. The agitator lives in a realm 
 of exaggeration, of broadsides and italic 
 types, of stampings of the foot and clench- 
 ings of the hand. He uses the terms and 
 phrases of immortal truth to clamp together 
 his leaky raft. The "belle rponse " of 
 the martyr, the deep apothegm of the sage, 
 and the words of Christ, are ever on his 
 lips. Such things pass muster in politics 
 without exciting comment. And yet, these 
 statements of ideal truth, like the axioms of 
 arithmetic, never quite square with the ma 
 terial world. They can only be felt and be 
 lieved in mentally. You can never find or 
 measure out an exact pound of anything or 
 lay off a true mile; nor can you assign any 
 accurate value to the influence of a good 
 deed. Nevertheless, the inaccuracy which 
 is permissible in the market-place is very 
 much greater than the inaccuracy permissi 
 ble to the historian who sits in his closet 
 endeavoring to think clearly upon the mat 
 ter. 
 
 The source of Garrison s power was the 
 Bible. From his earliest days he read the 
 Bible constantly, and prayed constantly. It 
 was with this fire that he started his con 
 flagration. Now the Bible is many things. 
 164 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 It is a key to metaphysical truth, it is a 
 compendium of large human wisdom, it is 
 a code of ethics, it is the history of a race, 
 and many other things beside. To Garri 
 son, the Bible was the many-piped organ to 
 which he sang the song of his life, and the 
 arsenal from which he drew the weapons 
 of his warfare. I doubt if any man ever 
 knew the Bible so well, or could produce a 
 text to fit a political emergency with such 
 startling felicity as Garrison. Take for 
 example, the text provided by him for Wen 
 dell Phillips s speech on the Sunday morn 
 ing following Lincoln s call for troops in 
 1861. " Therefore thus saith the Lord ; Ye 
 have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming 
 liberty everyone to his brother, and every 
 man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim a 
 liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, 
 to the pestilence, and to the famine." 
 
 I doubt whether Cromwell or Milton 
 could have rivaled Garrison in this field of 
 quotation; and the power of quotation is as 
 dreadful a weapon as any which the human 
 intellect can forge. From his boyhood up 
 ward Garrison s mind was soaked in the 
 Bible and in no other book. His " Causes " 
 are all drawn from the Bible, and most of 
 them may be traced to the phrases and 
 165 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 thoughts of Christ, as for instance Peace 
 (Peace I give unto you), Perfectionism 
 (Be ye therefore perfect), Non-resistance 
 (Resist not evil), Anti-sabbatarianism 
 (The Lord is Lord of the Sabbath). So 
 also, a prejudice against all fixed forms of 
 worship, against the authority of human 
 government, against every binding of the 
 spirit into conformity with human law 
 all these things grew up in Garrison s mind 
 out of his Bible reading; as they have done 
 in the minds of so many other men before 
 and after him. He, himself, was not going 
 to be bound, and never was bound, by any 
 declaration nor by any document. He even 
 arrived at distrusting the Bible itself, per 
 ceiving that the Bible itself was often a 
 tyrant much as Christ saw the tyranny of 
 the law of Moses. All this part of Garri 
 son s mental activity is his true vocation. 
 Here he rages like a lion of Judah. By 
 these onslaughts he is freeing people from 
 their mental bonds : he is shaking down the 
 palaces of Babylon. 
 
 His age was the age of social experi 
 ments, and he was ever ready to take on a 
 new one. This hospitality to new dogmas 
 annoyed his associates, and led, as we have 
 seen, to revolts, schisms, and heresies in 
 166 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 the Anti-slavery ranks. Garrison seems to 
 have been assailed by such multitudinous 
 revelations from on high that he was 
 obliged to publish one dispensation in order 
 to clear the wires for the next. There is 
 one of these manifestoes which reveals the 
 impromptu character of them all. " De 
 spite its length/ say the biographers, " the 
 greater part of this important document 
 must be given here." There follow several 
 pages of fine print, concerning the causes 
 uppermost in Garrison s mind, which evi 
 dently had filled up all the space in the Liber 
 ator, or used up all the ink in the office ; and 
 yet it appears at the close, that Garrison has 
 forgotten to say anything about woman s 
 rights. And so he calls out, like a man 
 upon a departing stage-coach : " As our ob 
 ject is universal emancipation, to redeem 
 women as well as men from a servile to an 
 equal condition we shall go for the 
 RIGHTS OF WOMEN to their utmost extent." 
 In those days societies were founded for 
 everything. No one ever paused to con 
 sider what things could or could not be 
 accomplished through organization, nor 
 how far the sayings of Christ were parts of 
 one another, nor whether at the bottom of 
 all these questions there lay some truth 
 167 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 which enveloped them all. Every one 
 rushed to utterance, and Garrison more than 
 all men put together. So long as we con 
 sider his utterances in the large, as part of 
 the upturning of that age, as the sine qua 
 non of a new epoch, we love and value 
 them. It is only when we collocate them, 
 analyze them, and try to find something for 
 our own souls in them, that they turn out 
 to be emergency cries. They were de 
 signed towards local ends, they were prac 
 tical politics, they do not always cohere 
 with one another. 
 
 The great thesis to which he devoted his 
 life, however, was unquestionably sound. 
 He thus announced it in the Liberator in 
 1832: 
 
 " There is much declamation about the 
 sacredness of the compact which was 
 formed between the free and slave States, 
 on the adoption of the Constitution. A 
 sacred compact, forsooth ! We pronounce 
 it the most bloody and heaven-daring ar 
 rangement ever made by men for the con 
 tinuance and protection of a system of the 
 most atrocious villainy ever exhibited upon 
 the earth. Yes, we recognize the compact, 
 but with feelings of shame and indignation ; 
 and it will be held in everlasting infamy by 
 168 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 the friends of justice and humanity 
 throughout the world. It was a compact 
 formed at the sacrifice of the bodies and 
 souls of millions of our race, for the sake 
 of achieving a political object an un 
 blushing and monstrous coalition to do evil 
 that good might come. Such a compact 
 was in the nature of things, and according 
 to the law of God, null and void from the 
 beginning. No body of men ever had the 
 right to guarantee the holding of human be 
 ings in bondage. 
 
 " Who or what were the framers of our 
 Government that they should dare confirm 
 and authorize such high-handed villainy 
 such a flagrant robbery of the inalienable 
 rights of man such a glaring violation of 
 all the precepts and injunctions of the Gos 
 pel such a savage war upon a sixth part 
 of our whole population? They were men, 
 like ourselves as fallible, as sinful, as 
 weak, as ourselves. By the infamous bar 
 gain which they made between themselves, 
 they virtually dethroned the Most High 
 God, and trampled beneath their feet their 
 own solemn and heaven-attested Declara 
 tion, that all men are created equal, and en 
 dowed by their Creator with certain in 
 alienable rights among which are life, 
 169 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They 
 had no lawful power to bind themselves or 
 their posterity for one hour for one mo 
 ment by such an unholy alliance. It was 
 not valid then it is not valid now. Still 
 they persisted in maintaining it and still 
 do their successors, the people of Mas 
 sachusetts, of New England, and of 
 the twelve free States, persist in maintain 
 ing it. A sacred compact! a sacred 
 compact! What, then, is wicked and igno 
 minious ? 
 
 "It is said that if you agitate this ques 
 tion you will divide the Union. Believe it 
 not; but should disunion follow, the fault 
 will not be yours. You must perform your 
 duty, faithfully, fearlessly and promptly, 
 and leave the consequences to God: that 
 duty clearly is, to cease from giving coun 
 tenance and protection to Southern kid 
 nappers. Let them separate, if they can mus 
 ter courage enough and the liberation of 
 their slaves is certain. Be assured that 
 slavery will very speedily destroy this Union 
 if it be let alone; but even if the Union can 
 be preserved by treading upon the necks, 
 spilling the blood, and destroying the souls 
 of millions of your race, we say it is not 
 worth a price like this, and that it is in the 
 170 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 highest degree criminal for you to continue 
 the present compact. Let the pillars 
 thereof fall let the superstructure crum 
 ble into dust if it must be upheld by rob 
 bery and oppression." 
 
 This statement of Garrison s is, to my 
 mind, the best thing ever said about slavery 
 in the United States. There is no exag 
 geration in the statement: it is absolutely 
 true. It is a complete answer to the Con- > 
 stitutional point; and makes all our ante 
 bellum public men (including Lincoln) ap 
 pear a little benighted. They are like men 
 who have been born in a darkness and have 
 lived always in a twilight. They all have 
 a slight, congenital weakness of the eye, 
 which prevents them from taking the day 
 light view of this whole matter. 
 
 We ourselves to-day are so habituated to \ 
 the historic obfuscation of our ancestors 
 that we make allowance for it more al 
 lowance, indeed, than we ought to make. 
 We have, by inheritance, rather weak eyes 
 on this subject ourselves. The true cause 
 
 der as to i - h< a ^cyp cj\ Atin^rfTfti i ^ M 4^"^**^ 
 not that Garrison. 
 
 only^onejperson_m Amer 
 ica, with^a 9 tearfieST "Eet us now turn 
 forward over ten years of history in- 
 171 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 eluding all the pictures of struggle and in 
 cidents referred to in the earlier pages, and 
 let us read Garrison s most famous exposi 
 tion of his theme uttered in 1842: 
 
 " We affirm that the Union is not of 
 heaven. It is founded in unrighteousness 
 and cemented with blood. It is the work 
 of men s hands, and they worship the idol 
 which they have made. It is a horrible 
 mockery of freedom. In all its parts and 
 proportions it is misshapen, incongruous, un 
 natural. The message of the prophet to the 
 people in Jerusalem describes the exact char 
 acter of our * republican Compact : Hear 
 the Word of the Lord, ye scornful men that 
 rule this people. Because ye have said, We 
 have made a covenant with Death, and with 
 Hell are we at agreement; when the over 
 flowing scourge shall pass through, it shall 
 not come unto us : for we have made lies our 
 refuge, and under falsehood have we hid 
 ourselves: Therefore thus saith the Lord 
 God, Judgment will I lay to the line, and 
 righteousness to the plummet: and the hail 
 shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the 
 water shall overflow the hiding-place. And 
 your covenant with Death shall be annulled, 
 and your agreement with Hell shall not 
 stand; when the overflowing scourge shall 
 172 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 pass through then ye shall be trodden down 
 by it. 
 
 " Another message of the same inspired 
 prophet is equally applicable : Thus saith 
 the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despised 
 this word, and trust in oppression and per- 
 verseness, and stay thereon : Therefore, this 
 iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to 
 fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose 
 breaking cometh suddenly, AT AN INSTANT. 
 And he shall break it as the breaking of a 
 potter s vessel that is broken to pieces; he 
 shall not spare: so that there shall not be 
 found in the bursting of it, a sherd to take 
 fire from the hearth, or to take water withal 
 out of the pit. 
 
 " Slavery is a combination of Death and 
 Hell, and with it the North have made a 
 covenant and are at agreement. As an ele 
 ment of the Government it is omnipotent, 
 omniscient, omnipresent. As a component 
 part of the Union it is necessarily a national 
 interest. Divorced from Northern protec 
 tion it dies ; with that protection, it enlarges 
 its boundaries, multiplies its victims, and 
 extends its ravages." 
 
 These passages are too direct to be called 
 extravagant. They are appalling. They 
 are magnificent. And they came much 
 173 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 nearer to expressing the general opinion of 
 the country in 1842 than the milder words 
 quoted above came to expressing the con 
 temporary opinion of 1832. Education was 
 marching, the case was beginning to be un 
 derstood. Within three years after Garri 
 son s denunciation of the Constitution as an 
 agreement with Hell, the Annexation of 
 Texas brought thousands of the most con 
 servative minds in the country, including 
 Channing, to the point of abandoning the 
 Constitution; and when in 1854 Garrison 
 publicly burned the Constitution on the 
 Fourth of July, the incident was of slight 
 importance. Civil War was already inevi 
 table: the dragon s teeth had been sown: 
 the blades of bright bayonets could be seen 
 pushing up through the soil in Kansas. 
 
 We see, then, the profound unity of Garri 
 son s whole course, and may examine with 
 indulgence some minor failures in logic 
 which are very characteristic of him very 
 characteristic, indeed, of all practical-minded 
 men who, after making one fault of logic, 
 proceed to joggle themselves back again to 
 their true work by committing a second. 
 It is apparent that a man who assumes Gar 
 rison s grounds as to the importance of the 
 spirit, and the unimportance of everything 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION . 
 
 else, can never turn aside and adopt any 
 institution, without doing violence to his own 
 principles. To disparage all government 
 because it is "the letter that killeth," and 
 thereafter to swear fealty to some party, or 
 adopt a symbol, or advise a friend to vote 
 with the Whigs is inconsistent. One who 
 believes in standing for absolute principle 
 can never indorse some political scheme on 
 the ground that " this time it doesn t count." 
 One who believes it wrong to meet force 
 with force cannot retain the privilege of ap 
 proving some particular war or some par 
 ticular act of self-defense, which seems to 
 him to be useful. Garrison had not the 
 mental training to perceive this, and to do 
 so would have involved his retirement from 
 the camp to the closet: it would have in 
 volved his being someone else. Suffice it to 
 say that from time to time his nature drew 
 a veil over his theories, and so obscured 
 them that he was able to support the Consti 
 tution of the United States, to rejoice in 
 bloodshed, to take active part in political 
 contests, both in the great occasional Na 
 tional elections (as when he came out for 
 Lincoln or Fremont), and in the continuous 
 petty politics of the Anti-slavery cause. 
 After having supported one of these hu- 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 man institutions with zeal, and having justi 
 fied his conduct with facile and self-deceiv 
 ing casuistry, he would again ascend the 
 mountain, the veil would be withdrawn from 
 his intellect, and he would see his true vision 
 once more and proclaim it with renewed fer 
 vor: the vision, namely, that no institution 
 should be held sacred. 
 
 Let us now look upon Garrison s dealings 
 with Anti-slavery societies, newspapers, 
 and meetings by the light of the foregoing 
 views. When a new religious movement 
 begins to stir in a community, its members 
 are drawn together through the spiritual 
 likeness of one to the other. They are few : 
 they are held together by persecution: they 
 have all things in common. They need no 
 creed; they all feel as one. This stage can 
 not endure; for someone arises who wishes 
 to hold office. The Apostles began quarrel 
 ing as to who should be greatest even during 
 Christ s lifetime. As soon as any organiza 
 tion is formed, there arise differences of 
 opinion, and the era of politics is reached. 
 With our modern ideas of club organization 
 for everything, a political element enters into 
 any cause whenever two or three are gath 
 ered together in it. It ought to be a les 
 son to us to observe how completely all men, 
 176 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 even great men, are the children of their 
 age. Garrison took up the propagation of 
 the Anti-slavery cause by means of Demo 
 cratic societies a means which ties up any 
 cause into little tight knots as it goes along, 
 much as certain forms of crochet work prog 
 ress by adding little groups of hard knots to 
 other groups of hard knots. The machinery 
 of his movement made vigilance essential. 
 He might be outvoted, his newspaper might 
 be taken from him, his control might be de 
 stroyed at any juncture. He is obliged, at 
 intervals, to throw himself into the intrigue 
 of Anti-slavery government, with the words 
 of Moses on his lips and some vote-getting, 
 hall-packing device in his mind. This was 
 not true of the earliest years of the move- jC 
 ment; but came about through the mighty 
 logic of natural law as the movement spread. 
 Persecution purifies any new religion. As 
 the wave of persecution which had held the 
 Abolitionists together from 1830 to 1837 
 began to subside, quarrels broke out. It was 
 not until 1850 when the triumph of the 
 Slave Power in the passage of the Compro 
 mise Bill, gave rise to a new and short perse 
 cution, that the Anti-slavery people enjoyed 
 again a short period of unity and peace. 
 The inevitable quarrels over creed and 
 177 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 dogma set in in 1839. Anti-slavery de 
 veloped a complex and bitter political ac 
 tivity. This is the epoch of mutual pro 
 scriptions. The purity of the faith is ever 
 at stake, New Organization is branded by 
 Old Organization " as the worst form of pro- 
 slavery. " The Tocsin of Liberty main 
 tained : " The simple truth is, the American 
 A. S. Society has linked itself to pro-slavery, 
 to get friends and, like the Colonization 
 Society, it has become an obstacle to prog 
 ress which must be removed." Mr. Garri 
 son reported from the business committee, 
 " that we cannot regard any man as a con 
 sistent Abolitionist who, while holding to 
 the popular construction of the Constitution, 
 makes himself a party to that instrument, by 
 taking any office under it requiring an oath, 
 or voting for its support." 
 
 We can see to-day that it was through 
 these very struggles that the new thought 
 was penetrating the community. It is at 
 first through the multiplication of new agen 
 cies, and later through an attack upon ex 
 isting agencies, and an absorption into the 
 older organs of society, that new thought 
 always sinks and spreads, touching and 
 changing society both visibly and invisibly. 
 This process is inevitable, but Garrison 
 178 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 quarreled with it. He was ever wanting to 
 keep the faith pure. He saw that no one else 
 cared so much about the subject as he him 
 self did; and he thought that he must keep 
 the precious ichor from pollution. As late 
 as 1857, he moaned that if it had not been 
 for the split in the Anti-slavery ranks in 
 1840, slavery might have been abolished be 
 fore then. It was not given to him to see 
 that he could have kept himself and all his 
 following clear of all entanglements, and 
 could have exerted the maximum of influ 
 ence with the minimum of effort, if he had 
 simply formed no organization, but had 
 merely taken in subscriptions for the cause, 
 in his own name, and to do with as he 
 pleased. His organization and his Liberator 
 were in any case, and always, mere personal \t 
 organs of his own : they followed his mental 
 vagaries, they stuck to him, they were him 
 self; and this same result could have been 
 accomplished with infinite heart s ease in 
 stead of infinite heart s anguish, had Garri 
 son but seen how to do it. In adopting a 
 formal organization he was adopting part 
 of the very element that his thought re 
 jected: he was fighting the cause of no- 
 government by means of a "machine"; he 
 was supporting the spirit by votes. 
 179 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 Hence Garrison s share in all the weari 
 some, little, and at times, degraded bicker 
 ing between Anti-slavery societies; hence 
 much personal vilification and heated talk 
 over trifles. We see here also that these de 
 fects in Garrison proceed from a want of 
 philosophic continuity of thought. Philo 
 sophic insight he had, but philosophic conti 
 nuity he had not. There came a time in the 
 forties when he seems to have half -perceived 
 the nature of his own mission to have 
 half-seen, at least for a moment, that there 
 were to be no simon-pure Abolitionists ex 
 cept himself, and that his function was to in 
 fluence the world from where he stood. 
 This insight was probably the result of 
 watching the same phenomena occur again 
 and again, of seeing his Cause move con 
 stantly forward through an infinite series of 
 failures : " As fast as we, the Old Organi 
 zation, make Abolitionists, the new converts 
 run right into the Liberty Party, and become 
 almost wholly hostile to us. This results 
 from the strong leaning of our National 
 character to politics. ... It is dis 
 heartening to see that every blow we strike 
 thus tells in a degree against ourselves, and 
 yet duty bids us keep on striking." It is 
 Wendell Phillips who in this passage is ac- 
 180 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 curately describing the operation of a great 
 law of influence, and who yet seems to see 
 in it merely evidence of human perversity. 
 Later on, and especially during the war, Gar 
 rison became reconciled to that law, which 
 his own life had ever blindly obeyed and ex 
 emplified. 
 
 I must now speak of the matter of strong 
 language. The prophet, great or small, is 
 not so much an individual, as a part of the 
 consciousness of all men. He acts in a par 
 ticular way upon the force of life, just as a 
 prism acts in a particular way upon light. 
 He is formed by pressure of some sort, and 
 appears at critical times, just as a prism is 
 created by pressure in the womb of the 
 mountain. His understanding of his own 
 function is uncertain, and there have been 
 many plain-minded prophets who could suf 
 fer martyrdom, but not explain. I cannot 
 find that even Socrates exactly understood 
 the theory of agitation. The. world some 
 times thinks of these men as stupid people 
 who know not what they would be at. We 
 should think of them as spirits who enact 
 a lesson rather than as moralists who read 
 a lecture. Let every man carry home what 
 he can from the auto-da-fe. The prophets 
 are hot volcanic lava, rolling out of some 
 181 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 hidden furnace which is really a distribu 
 tive furnace, and overflows to a lesser de 
 gree in other men. 
 
 The aerolites which fall in Terra del Fuego 
 show much the same chemical nature as 
 those of Iceland. So of these accusing, 
 flaming aerolites of politics. The Jewish 
 prophet is the most soft-hearted of them all, 
 and it is to this variety that Garrison be 
 longs. These men see the suffering of the 
 world, and they see or feel the relation be 
 tween the suffering of one man and the 
 selfishness of the next. The greatest of 
 them all speaks thus : 
 
 " For they bind heavy burdens and griev 
 ous to be borne, and lay them on men s 
 shoulders ; but they themselves will not move 
 them with one of their fingers. But all 
 their works they do for to be seen of men : 
 they make broad their phylacteries, and en 
 large the borders of their garments, and 
 love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the 
 chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings 
 in the markets, and to be called of men, 
 Rabbi, Rabbi. 
 
 " But woe unto you, scribes and Phari 
 sees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the 
 kingdom of heaven against men: for ye 
 neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye 
 182 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 them that are entering to go in. Woe unto 
 ye, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for 
 ye devour widows houses, and for a pre 
 tence make long prayers : therefore ye shall 
 receive the greater damnation. Woe unto 
 you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for 
 ye compass sea and land to make one prose 
 lyte; and when he is made, ye make him 
 twofold more the child of hell than your 
 selves. Woe unto you, ye blind guides, 
 which say, Whosoever shall swear by the 
 temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall 
 swear by the gold of the temple he is a 
 debtor! 
 
 " Ye fools and blind : for whether is 
 greater, the gold, or the temple that sancti- 
 fieth the gold? Woe unto ye, scribes and 
 Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of 
 mint, and anise, and cummin, and have 
 omitted the weightier matters of the law, 
 judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye 
 to have done and not leave the other undone. 
 Woe unto ye, scribes and Pharisees, hypo 
 crites! because ye build the tombs of the 
 prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the 
 righteous, and say, If we had been in the 
 days of our fathers, we would not have been 
 partakers with them in the blood of the 
 prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto 
 183 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 yourselves, that ye are the children of them 
 which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then 
 the measure of your fathers. 
 
 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, 
 how can ye escape the damnation of hell? 
 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you proph 
 ets, and wise men, and scribes: and some 
 of them ye shall kill and crucify, and 
 some of them ye shall scourge in your syna 
 gogues, and persecute them from city to 
 city: that upon you may come all the 
 righteous blood shed upon the earth, from 
 the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of 
 Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew 
 between the temple and the altar. Verily 
 I say unto you, all these things shall come 
 upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jeru 
 salem, thou that killest the prophets, and 
 stonest them which are sent unto thee, how 
 often would I have gathered thy children 
 together, even as a hen gathereth her chick 
 ens under her wings, and ye would not! 
 Behold your house is left unto you desolate. 
 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me 
 henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he 
 that cometh in the name of the Lord. 55 
 
 The tone of these denunciations is not an 
 accidental characteristic of Christ s. It is 
 an organic product, a concomitant of the 
 184 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 hottest, most personal love of men that has 
 ever been known upon the earth. Here 
 then is an outpouring of lava. Vainly 
 might we call this passion, idle, unphilo- 
 sophical, lacking in courtesy; or say that it 
 fails to distinguish between the sinner and 
 the sin. Granted : granted. Yet this is the 
 way a man speaks who feels as Christ felt. 
 If Christ s way of feeling be right, there is 
 something right about his mode of expres 
 sion. Somewhere, somehow, this heat is 
 valuable. In some sense these whirling 
 words are true, just, adequate and scientific. 
 They do something which nothing else will 
 do. You say there is evil in them. You 
 are mistaken : there is no evil in them : there 
 is nothing uncharitable in them. They are 
 the terrible music of social agony. You 
 would speak thus yourself, could you see as 
 clearly, feel as keenly, as did Christ. Your 
 calmness is only possible because your heart 
 is cold, or your eyes dim. 
 
 Let us now remember what mild gentle 
 men those Pharisees were, to whom Christ 
 used such strong language. How inoffen 
 sive their vices a little usury, some busi 
 ness villainy, perhaps, a good deal of con 
 ventional hypocrisy, front pews in church, 
 public charity-giving. That old Jewish so- 
 185 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 ciety was probably the most moral society 
 that ever existed. If we consider its thou 
 sand years of prophets, its literature of ethics 
 and of devotion, its popular passion for the 
 ology, its passion for those discussions which 
 went on constantly in temple and market 
 place, and which show a deeper clutch upon 
 truth than Athens at her best could show 
 if we consider what sort of men 
 those scribes and Pharisees probably were, 
 we shall have to confess that Christ s rebuke 
 fell on men whose faults were mild com 
 pared to the atrocities visible in the modern 
 world. Examine the morning newspaper 
 and you will find fiendish cruelties unknown 
 in Judsea. 
 
 At the back of the prophet s emotion is 
 his vision of a relation between innocent suf 
 fering and half-innocent selfishness. If you 
 should see a man being burned alive by re 
 spectable rate-payers, you would cry out, 
 you yet not you but something in you 
 would burst into agonized protest, accusing 
 those rate-payers ; and your language would 
 be harsh. Such is the explanation of the 
 strong language of Anti-slavery. The Ab 
 olitionists were the only people in the coun 
 try who effectually saw what was going on. 
 They saw the slave-block, they saw the child 
 186 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 reft from the mother, they saw the floggings 
 and the despair. A hundred volumes might 
 be compiled out of old newspapers by cull 
 ing advertisements like the following from 
 the Charleston Courier in 1825 : 
 
 " Twenty dollars reward. Ran away 
 from the subscriber, on the I4th instant, a 
 negro girl named Molly. She is 16 or 17 
 years of age, slim made, lately branded on 
 her left cheek, thus, * R, and a piece is taken 
 off her left ear on the same side; the same 
 letter is branded on the inside of both her 
 
 legs " ABNER Ross 
 
 " Fairfield District, S. C." 
 Let any serious-minded man read a few 
 pages of the Key to " Uncle Tom s Cabin," 
 or of Theodore D. Weld s book on American 
 Slavery, before he decides to discountenance 
 strong language. The people of the South 
 did not know about the horrors of slavery, 
 and taught their children not to see them; 
 they glossed them over, as the inevitable un 
 pleasantnesses of life are always glossed 
 over. John S. Wise was a typical child of 
 the South, save that he had a Northern 
 mother. He was the son of Henry A. 
 Wise, the famous Governor of Virginia, and 
 he has given us a book of memoirs, " The 
 187 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 End of An Era," which will be read as long 
 as the Civil War is remembered. John S. 
 Wise had never heard of a slave-auction, till 
 a Northern uncle, whom he met or visited in 
 Philadelphia, took him to see " Uncle Tom s 
 Cabin " on the stage. This was in the fif 
 ties, and when John S. Wise was a young 
 lad. On returning to Richmond he visited 
 a slave-auction, and was as much horrified 
 as a Northern boy would have been. The 
 horrors of slavery were unknown to the 
 South, and ten times more unknown to the 
 North, when the Abolitionists discovered 
 them. 
 
 I have noticed in recent years one or two 
 denunciations of business wickedness, in 
 which a fierce invective seemed to tear the 
 skin from the victim s body. One writer 
 pictured the descent of disease upon the bad 
 man how his hair fell from his scalp. 
 Now in all these cases in the case of 
 Christ, of the Abolitionists, and of the de 
 nouncers of business wickedness the deli 
 cate mind is shocked. It is shocked because 
 it reads in cold blood what is merely the in 
 stinctive expression of hot feeling. It sees 
 malice where there is no malice. The 
 truth is that instinctive expression does 
 something which philosophic analysis can- 
 188 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 not do : it reaches the soul, it raises the tem 
 perature and lets in light. The danger of 
 denunciation lies in the temptation to use 
 denunciation as a method of reform. The 
 spontaneous cry of pity ought never to be 
 transformed into a lash; nor should the 
 flames of righteous indignation be ex 
 ploited politically, and used to cook up re 
 form. There is nothing of this kind in the 
 New Testament, but there was a good deal 
 of it in Anti-slavery history. Garrison 
 made a method of personal vilification; he 
 would cover the wicked with " thick in 
 famy." He was a gadfly and a fury in his 
 own conception. His utterances are not al 
 ways, like Christ s, lyrical utterances; they 
 are calculated attacks. This is hardly a 
 matter, however, upon which one can make 
 a general statement that will cover all cases. 
 The particular thing uttered by Garrison 
 must, in each case, be considered by itself. 
 There are moments when Garrison is in 
 spired. His faith is perfect. In reviewing 
 the first year of the Liberator s activity, he 
 wrote : " Last year I felt as if I were fight 
 ing single-handed against the great enemy; 
 now I see around me a host of valiant war 
 riors, armed with weapons of an immortal 
 temper, whom nothing can daunt, and who 
 189 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 are pledged to the end of the contest. The 
 number is increasing with singular rapidity. 
 The standard which has been lifted up in 
 Boston is attracting the gaze of the nation, 
 and inspiring the drooping hearts of thou 
 sands with hope and courage. 
 
 " As for myself, whatever may be my fate 
 
 whether I fall in the spring-time of man 
 hood by the hand of the assassin, or be im 
 mured in a Georgia cell, or be permitted to 
 live to a ripe old age I know that the suc 
 cess of your cause depends nothing upon my 
 existence. I am but as a drop in the ocean, 
 which, if it be separated, cannot be missed. 
 My own faith is strong my vision, clear 
 
 my consolation, great. * Who art thou 
 
 great mountain? Before Zerubbabel 
 thou shalt become a plain : and he shall bring 
 the headstone thereof with shoutings, cry 
 ing, Grace, grace unto it ! Surely this is 
 beautiful : it is inspired; it is unconscious. 
 
 The following description of the Coloniza 
 tion Society seems to me to be truly Hebraic 
 in its celestial rage " Upon this pamphlet 
 
 1 shall be willing to stake my reputation for 
 honesty, prudence, benevolence, truth, and 
 sagaciousness. If I do not prove the Colo 
 nization spirit to be a creature without heart, 
 without brains, eyeless, unnatural, hypocriti- 
 
 190 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 cal, relentless, unjust, then nothing is capable 
 of demonstration." The reader may turn 
 over Garrison s utterances and pick out the 
 lyrical from the political by the light of his 
 own feeling. In doing so he will find him 
 self forgiving more, the more he becomes ac 
 quainted with Garrison s world. The fol 
 lowing words about Henry Clay seem cruel : 
 " Henry Clay with one foot in the grave, 
 and just ready to have body and soul cast 
 into Hell as if eager to make his damna 
 tion doubly sure, rises in the United States 
 Senate and proposes an inquiry into the ex 
 pediency of passing yet another law, by 
 which every one who shall dare peep or mut 
 ter against the execution of the Fugitive 
 Slave Law shall have his life crushed out." 
 
 When we learn, however, that the Fugi 
 tive Slave Law of 1850 provided that the 
 negro in Massachusetts might be identified 
 through the mere affidavit of the slave 
 holder agent; that the slave could not testify 
 himself; that there was no trial by jury; 
 that the commissioner s fee was doubled if 
 the slaveholder prevailed ; that the bystander 
 could be summoned to aid in preventing an 
 escape, and that, in case any person assisted 
 the escape, such person should be fined a 
 thousand dollars, or imprisoned not exceed- 
 191 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 ing six months ; when we learn that modern 
 historians have accounted for its diabolical 
 provisions by suggesting that this Fugitive 
 Slave Bill was intended to involve such hu 
 miliation to the North that the North would 
 not swallow it, but would reject it and 
 thereby give the South grounds for seces 
 sion; when we reflect that the North did 
 swallow this law, and that thousands of 
 free colored people throughout the Northern 
 cities, innocent and industrious citizens, 
 were at that time fleeing to Canada ; when 
 we remember these facts, we begin to feel 
 that Garrison s language was by no means 
 too strong. 
 
 When all has been said in his favor, there 
 remains a certain debauchery of language in 
 Garrison, which came from his occupation: 
 he was a journalist. If a man writes all the 
 time, his mannerisms become intensified. 
 Garrison became a common scold and yet 
 not a common scold, because his inner 
 temper was perfect, and his subject the great 
 subject of the age. He is ever driving his 
 Cause, and feels he must evoke immediate 
 response at every instant. His lack of good 
 taste is not unconnected with his weakness 
 in abstract thinking. To him Slavery in 
 the concrete was the evil. He had not the 
 192 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 philosophic power to perceive that sin was 
 the real evil. The evils were injustice, 
 cruelty, murder, lust, egoism. These things 
 he believed to be the outcome of Slavery. 
 
 It is not, however, the harshness of lan 
 guage that we are quarreling with. What 
 rh gp1pacu>g ^g fry Garrison is the element of x v/ 
 policy, the wholesale element in his method. I 
 But let us beware lest in straining at a gnat 
 we swallow a camel; and let us remember 
 that what is offensive to us, physicked the 
 nation. The young Garrison, the man of 
 twenty-four, when he discovered Immediate 
 Emancipation, was the vortex of an unseen 
 whirlpool. Through his brain spun the tur- 
 billion. Something was to break forth; for 
 the power was bursting its envelope. The 
 flood issued in the form in which we know 
 it with purposed vilification, with exco 
 riating harshness, with calculated ferocity. 
 Only in this manner could it issue : the dam 
 could hold the flood no longer, nor lift it 
 into poetic expression. 
 
 If you take the great political agitators of 
 the world like Luther, Calvin, Savonarola, 
 Garibaldi, or certain of the English church 
 reformers, you will find that these men al 
 ways live under a terrible strain, and they 
 generally give way somewhere. No one can 
 193 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 imagine how fierce is the blast upon a man s 
 nervous system, when he stands in the midst 
 of universal antagonism, solitary and at 
 bay. The continuousness of the trial is apt 
 to wear upon the character of reformers. 
 Through vanity, or love of power, or 
 through sheer nervous exhaustion, they be 
 come guilty of cruelty or tainted with ambi 
 tion. There is generally something to for 
 give in the history of such men. Now Gar 
 rison is almost perfect: he is perfect in his 
 lack of personal ambition, in his indifference 
 to power, in his courage, his faith, his per 
 sistence, his benevolence. When he breaks 
 down it is in driblets, and every day in 
 the bad taste and self-indulgence of a dis 
 gusting rhetoric, in his inability to " shut 
 up " about anything, in his use of the per 
 sonal pronoun. Through these channels his 
 nervous exhaustion is worked off, and the 
 inner heart of the creature is left free from 
 the great temptations. 
 
 All this armor of language was the para 
 phernalia of the arena, which was, as it 
 were, handed to Garrison from without 
 from on high, from within. He puts it on, 
 and enters the lists : he puts it off, and takes 
 supper with his family. As for the kind of 
 man which he really was, the testimony is 
 194 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 universal and uniform. I copy one or two 
 phrases almost at random, from among the 
 innumerable descriptions of him. Richard 
 D. Webb, an Irish Abolitionist, and a very 
 old friend of all the Anti-slavery people, 
 wrote: "I . . . spent three weeks with 
 the Garrisons in Paris and Switzerland. It 
 was a time of intense enjoyment, for I ex 
 ceedingly liked my companions. . . . 
 As to Mr. Garrison himself, he is the most 
 delightful man I have ever known mag 
 nanimous, generous, considerate, and, as far 
 as I can see, every way morally excellent. 
 I can perceive that he has large faith, is very 
 credulous, is not deeply read, and has little 
 of the curiosity or thirst for knowledge 
 which educated people are prone to. But, 
 take him for all in all, I know no such other 
 man. His children are most affectionate 
 and free with him yet they have their own 
 opinions and express them freely, even when 
 they differ most widely from his. . . . 
 People who travel together have an excellent 
 opportunity of knowing and testing one an 
 other. ... I have never on the whole 
 known a man who bears to be more thor 
 oughly known, or is so sure to be loved and 
 reverenced." 
 
 Harriet Martineau has left us a record of 
 195 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 her first impressions in all their freshness : 
 " At ten o clock he came, accompanied by 
 his introducer. His aspect put to flight in 
 an instant what prejudices his slanderers had 
 raised in me. I was wholly taken by sur 
 prise. It was a countenance glowing with 
 health, and wholly expressive of purity, ani 
 mation, and gentleness. I did not wonder 
 at the citizen who, seeing a print of Garrison 
 at a shop window without a name to it, went 
 in and bought it, and framed it as the most 
 saintlike of countenances. The end of the 
 story is, that when the citizen found whose 
 portrait he had been hanging up in his par 
 lor, he took the print out of the frame and 
 huddled it away/ 
 
 The lion and the lamb dwelt together in 
 Garrison ; but the lion was a peculiar lion, he 
 was never really in control of Garrison, as 
 the lion in Luther was sometimes in control 
 of Luther. The following anecdote from 
 Mr. May s reminiscences gives us a glimpse 
 of the social side of Garrison and shows the 
 perplexities into which his methods of agita 
 tion naturally led the public. The scene is 
 upon a steamboat. 
 
 " There was much earnest talking by other 
 parties beside our own. Presently a gentle 
 man turned from one of them to me and 
 196 
 
THE MAN OF ACTION 
 
 said, What, sir, are the Abolitionists going 
 to do in Philadelphia? I informed him 
 that we intended to form a National Anti- 
 Slavery Society. This brought from him an 
 outpouring of the commonplace objections 
 to our enterprise, which I replied to as well 
 as I was able. Mr. Garrison drew near, and 
 I soon shifted my part of the discussion into 
 his hands, and listened with delight to the 
 admirable manner in which he expounded 
 and maintained the doctrines and purposes 
 of those who believed with him that the 
 slaves the blackest of them were men, 
 entitled as much as the whitest and most 
 exalted men in the land to their liberty, to a 
 residence here, if they chose, and to acquire 
 as much wisdom, as much property, and as 
 high a position as they may. 
 
 " After a long conversation, which at 
 tracted as many as could get within hearing, 
 the gentleman said, courteously : I have 
 been much interested, sir, in what you have 
 said, and in the exceedingly frank and tem 
 perate manner in which you have treated the 
 subject. If all Abolitionists were like you, 
 there would be much less opposition to your 
 enterprise. But, sir, depend upon it, that 
 hair-brained, reckless, violent fanatic, Gar 
 rison, will damage, if he does not shipwreck, 
 197 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 any cause. Stepping forward, I replied, 
 * Allow me, sir, to introduce you to Mr. Gar 
 rison, of whom you entertain so bad an opin 
 ion. The gentleman you have been talking 
 with is he. " 
 
 The gayety of temperament and a certain 
 bubbling power of enjoyment which Garri 
 son possessed he shared with all, or almost 
 all, the Abolitionists ; their work made them 
 happy. " I have seen him intimately," said 
 Wendell Phillips, " for thirty years, while 
 raining on his head was the hate of the com 
 munity, when by every possible form of ex 
 pression malignity let him know that it 
 wished him all sorts of harm. I never saw 
 him unhappy. I never saw the moment that 
 serene abounding faith in the rectitude of his 
 motive, the soundness of his method, and 
 the certainty of success did not lift him 
 above all possibility of being reached by 
 any clamor about him." 
 
VIII 
 THE RYNDERS MOB 
 
 THE Anti-slavery meeting at the Broadway 
 Tabernacle on May 7, 1850, which goes by 
 the name of the Rynders Mob, has an inter 
 est quite beyond the boundaries of its epoch. 
 It gives an example of how any disturbance 
 that arises in a public meeting ought to be 
 handled by the managers of the meeting. 
 It has a lesson for all agitators and popular 
 speakers. It gives, indeed, a picture of 
 humanity during a turbulent crisis, a pic 
 ture that is Athenian, Roman, Mediaeval, 
 modern a scene of democratic life, flung 
 to us from the ages. I shall copy the ac 
 count of this meeting almost verbatim from 
 the large Life of Garrison. No comment 
 can add to the power of it. 
 
 We have to remember that Webster had 
 made his famous Compromise speech just 
 two months before this meeting; and that 
 the phalanxes of all conservative people, 
 from George Ticknor, in Boston, to the row 
 dies on the Bowery in New York, were be- 
 199 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 ing marshalled to repress Abolition as they 
 had not been marshalled since 1835. It 
 must be noted also that this attempt suc 
 ceeded on the whole. In spite of the tri 
 umph which the Abolitionists scored at this 
 particular meeting, it became impossible for 
 them to hold meetings in great cities for 
 some time afterwards. The complicity of 
 the Churches with Slavery is now almost 
 forgotten. Among the Abolitionists dur 
 ing the critical epoch there was to be 
 found no Episcopal clergyman (save the 
 Rev. E. M. P. Wells, of Boston, who early 
 withdrew from the Cause) and no Catholic 
 priest. The Abolition leaders were, never 
 theless, drawn largely from the clerical 
 ranks ; but they were Unitarians, Methodists, 
 Congregationalists, Baptists, etc., and were 
 generally driven from their own pulpits in 
 consequence of their opinions about Slavery. 
 The Ecclesiastical Apologists for Slavery 
 founded their case upon the New Testament. 
 A literature of exegesis was in existence of 
 which the "View of Slavery" by John 
 Henry Hopkins, D.D., LL.D., Episcopal 
 Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont, is a late 
 example. At this time Zachary Taylor, a 
 slaveholder and a devout Episcopalian, was 
 president of the United States. 
 200 
 
THE RYNDERS MOB 
 
 The situation was a difficult one for the 
 Evangelical, anti-sectarian mind to deal with. 
 What was the use of quoting the New Testa 
 ment to slaveholders, who were already for 
 tified out of that very volume? The effect 
 of the situation on Garrison s temperament 
 may be seen in the meeting at the Taber 
 nacle. There is a demonic element in what 
 he says : his utterance is forced out of him : 
 it is not calculated. You could not repro 
 duce the spirit of this utterance except at 
 the cost of two centuries of human passion. 
 There is a demonic element also in Garri 
 son s courage. He displays, on this occa 
 sion, at least two kinds of genius, the genius 
 of satire, Voltaire might have uttered the 
 scathing slashes about " Christ in the presi 
 dential chair," and the all but antipodal 
 genius of infinite sweetness of temperament. 
 
 The New York Herald in advance of the 
 meeting denounced Garrison for many days 
 in succession, and advised the breaking up 
 of the meeting by violence. According to 
 the Herald, " Garrison boldly urges the ut 
 ter overthrow of the churches, the Sabbath, 
 and the Bible. Nothing has been sacred 
 with him but the ideal intellect of the negro 
 race. To elevate this chimera, he has urged 
 the necessity of an immediate overthrow of 
 201 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 the Government, a total disrespect for the 
 Constitution, actual disruption and annihila 
 tion of the Union, and a cessation of all 
 order, legal or divine, which does not square 
 with his narrow views of what constitutes 
 human liberty. Never, in the time of the 
 French Revolution and blasphemous atheism, 
 was there more malevolence and unblushing 
 wickedness avowed than by this same Gar 
 rison. Indeed, he surpasses Robespierre and 
 his associates, for he has no design of build 
 ing up. His only object is to destroy. 
 . . . In Boston, a few months ago, a 
 convention was held, the object of which 
 was the overthrow of Sunday worship. 
 Thus it appears that nothing divine or sec 
 ular is respected by these fanatics. . . . 
 When free discussion does not promote the 
 public good, it has no more right to exist 
 than a bad government that is dangerous and 
 oppressive to the common weal. It should 
 be overthrown. On the question of useful 
 ness to the public of the packed, organized 
 meetings of these Abolitionists, socialists, 
 Sabbath-breakers, and anarchists, there can 
 be but one result arrived at by prudence 
 and patriotism. They are dangerous as 
 semblies calculated for mischief, and 
 treasonable in their character and purposes. 
 
 202 
 
THE RYNDERS MOB 
 
 Though the law cannot reach them, public 
 opinion can; and as, in England, a peaceful 
 dissent from such doctrines as these fellows 
 would promulgate a strong expression of 
 hisses and by counter statements and exposi 
 tions, so here in New York we may antici 
 pate that there are those who will enter the 
 arena of discussion, and send out the true 
 opinion of the public. . . ." 
 
 The meeting of May 7, at the Tabernacle, 
 was a vast assembly which contained many 
 respectable people, intermingled with whom 
 was an organized element of impending 
 mob. The leader of the mob was a well- 
 know ruffian called Isaiah Rynders, " a na 
 tive American, of mixed German and Irish 
 lineage, now some forty-six years of age. 
 He began life as a boatman on the Hudson 
 River, and, passing easily into the sporting 
 class, went to seek his fortunes as a profes 
 sional gambler in the paradise of the South 
 west. In this region he became familiar 
 with all forms of violence, including the in 
 stitution of slavery. After many personal 
 hazards and vicissitudes, he returned to New 
 York city, where he proved to be admirably 
 qualified for local political leadership in con 
 nection with Tammany Hall. A sporting- 
 house which he opened became a Democratic 
 203 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 rendezvous and the headquarters of the Em 
 pire Club, an organization of roughs and 
 desperadoes who acknowledged his cap 
 taincy. His campaigning in behalf of Polk 
 and Dallas in 1844 secured him the friendly 
 patronage of the successful candidate for 
 Vice-President, and he took office as 
 Weigher in the Custom-house of the me 
 tropolis. He found time, while thus em 
 ployed, to engineer the Astor Place riot on 
 behalf of the actor Forrest against his Eng 
 lish rival Macready, on May 10, 1849, an d 
 the year 1850 opened with his trial for this 
 atrocity and his successful defense by John 
 Van Buren. On February 16 he and his 
 Club broke up an anti-Wilmot- Proviso meet 
 ing in New York a seeming inconsistency, 
 but it was charged against Rynders that he 
 had offered to give the State of New York 
 to Clay in the election of 1844 for $30,000, 
 and had met with reluctant refusal. In 
 March he was arrested for a brutal assault 
 on a -gentleman in a hotel, but the victim and 
 the witnesses found it prudent not to appear 
 against a ruffian who did not hesitate to 
 threaten the district-attorney in open court. 
 Meanwhile, the new Whig Administration 
 quite justifiably discharged Rynders from 
 the Custom-house, leaving him free to pose 
 204 
 
THE RYNDERS MOB 
 
 as a savior of the Union against traitors 
 a savior of society against blasphemers and 
 infidels wherever encountered. . . ." 
 
 When the meeting was brought to order 
 Mr. Garrison, as an opening exercise, read 
 certain passages of the Bible, chosen with 
 reference to their bearing upon the slave 
 trade : " The Lord standeth up to plead, 
 and standeth to judge the people. . . . 
 What mean ye that ye beat my people to 
 pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith 
 the Lord God of Hosts. . . . Associ 
 ate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be 
 broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye 
 shall be broken in pieces. . . . They all 
 lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man 
 his brother with a net. . . . Hide the 
 outcasts, bewray not him that wandereth; 
 let mine outcasts dwell with thee ; be thou a 
 covert to them from the face of the spoiler." 
 
 " To Dr. Furness, who sat beside Mr. 
 Garrison, these selections (in full, not in our 
 abstract) seemed most admirably adapted to 
 the existing state of our country. His read 
 ing, however, was not remarkably effective. 
 It was like the ordinary reading of the pul 
 pit, and hence not calculated to stir the 
 wrath of the ungodly. 
 
 " The reading of the Treasurer s report 
 
 205 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 followed, and then Mr. Garrison, resigning 
 the chair to Francis Jackson, proceeded to 
 make the first speech of the day. 
 
 " He began," says Dr. Furness, " with 
 stating that they, the members of the Anti- 
 Slavery Society, regarded the Anti-slavery 
 cause as emphatically the Christian move 
 ment of the day. Nothing could be more 
 explicit than his recognition of the truth and 
 divine authority of the Christianity of the 
 New Testament. He went on to examine 
 the popular tests of religion, and to show 
 their defectiveness. In so doing, his man 
 ner was grave and dignified. There was no 
 bitterness, no levity. His manner of speak 
 ing was simple, clerical, and Christian. His 
 subject was, substantially, that we have, over 
 and over again, in all the pulpits of the land 
 the inconsistency of our profession and 
 practice although not with the same appli 
 cation. . . . Mr. Garrison said great 
 importance was attached to a belief in Jesus. 
 We were told that we must believe in Jesus. 
 And yet this faith in Jesus had no vitality, 
 no practical bearing on conduct and char 
 acter. He had previously, however, passed 
 in rapid review the chief religious denomina 
 tions, showing that they uttered no protest 
 against the sins of the nation. He spoke 
 206 
 
THE RYNDERS MOB 
 
 first in this connection of the Roman Catho 
 lic Church, stating that its priests and mem 
 bers held slaves without incurring the re 
 buke of the Church." 
 
 Up to this time the only symptoms of op 
 position had been some ill-timed and sense 
 less applause or what seemed such. And 
 as it came from one little portion of the audi 
 ence, Dr. Furness asked Wendell Phillips at 
 his side what it meant. It means, he said, 
 t that there is to be a row/ The reference 
 to the Catholic Church gave the first opening 
 to the leader of the gang." 
 
 The following is from the New York Her 
 ald s account of the meeting : " Captain Ryn- 
 ders (who occupied a position in the back 
 ground, at one side of the organ-loft, and 
 commanding a bird s-eye view of the whole 
 scene beneath) here said : Will you allow me 
 to ask you a question? (Excitement and con 
 fusion.) 
 
 " Mr. Garrison Yes, sir. 
 
 " Captain Rynders The question I 
 would ask is, whether there are no other 
 churches as well as the Catholic Church, 
 whose clergy and lay members hold slaves? 
 
 " Mr. Garrison Will the friend wait 
 for a moment, and I will answer him in 
 reference to other churches." (Cheers.) 
 207 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 (Dr. Furness says that Mr. Garrison ex 
 pressed no surprise at the interruption. 
 There was not the slightest change in his 
 manner or his voice. He simply said : " My 
 friend, if you will wait a moment, your ques 
 tion shall be answered," or something to that 
 effect. There instantly arose a loud clapping 
 around the stranger in the gallery, and from 
 the outskirts of the audience, at different 
 points.) 
 
 Captain Rynders then resumed his seat. 
 Mr. Garrison thus proceeded : " Shall we 
 look to the Episcopal Church for hope ? It 
 was the boast of John C. Calhoun, shortly 
 before his death, that that church was im 
 pregnable to Anti-slavery. That vaunt was 
 founded on truth, for the Episcopal clergy 
 and laity are buyers and sellers of human 
 flesh. We cannot, therefore, look to them. 
 Shall we look to the Presbyterian Church? 
 The whole weight of it is on the side of op 
 pression. Ministers and people buy and sell 
 slaves, apparently without any compunc 
 tious visitings of conscience. We cannot, 
 therefore, look to them, nor to the Baptists, 
 nor the Methodists ; for they, too, are against 
 the slave, and all the sects are combined to 
 prevent that jubilee which it is the will of 
 God should come. . . . 
 208 
 
THE RYNDERS MOB 
 
 " Be not startled when I say that a belief 
 in Jesus is no evidence of goodness (hisses) ; 
 no, friends. 
 
 " Voice Yes it is. 
 
 " Mr. Garrison Our friend says yes ; 
 my position is no. It is worthless as a 
 test, for the reason I have already assigned 
 in reference to the other tests. His praises 
 are sung in Louisiana, Alabama, and the 
 other Southern States just as well as in 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 " Captain Rynders Are you aware that 
 the slaves in the South have their prayer- 
 meetings in honor of Christ? 
 
 " Mr. Garrison Not a slaveholding or a 
 slave-breeding Jesus. (Sensation.) The 
 slaves believe in a Jesus that strikes off 
 chains. In this country, Jesus has become 
 obsolete. A profession in him is no longer 
 a test. Who objects to his course in Ju 
 daea? The old Pharisees are extinct, and 
 may safely be denounced. Jesus is the most 
 respectable person in the United States. 
 (Great sensation, and murmurs of disap 
 probation.) Jesus sits in the President s 
 chair of the United States. <A thrill of 
 horror here seemed to run through the as 
 sembly.) Zachary Taylor sits there, which 
 is the same thing, for he believes in Jesus. 
 209 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 He believes in war, and the Jesus that gave 
 the Mexicans hell/ (Sensation, uproar, and 
 confusion.) 
 
 " The name of Zachary Taylor had 
 scarcely passed Mr. Garrison s lips when 
 Captain Rynders, with something like a 
 howl, forsaking his strategic position on the 
 border-line of the gallery and the platform, 
 dashed headlong down towards the speaker s 
 desk, followed, with shouting and impreca 
 tions and a terrifying noise, by the mass of 
 his backers. The audience, despite a natural 
 agitation, gave way to no panic. The 
 Abolitionist leaders upon the platform re 
 mained imperturbable. * I was not aware, 
 writes Dr. Furness, * of being under any ap 
 prehension of personal violence. We were 
 all like General Jackson s cotton-bales at 
 New Orleans. Our demeanor made it im 
 possible for the rioters to use any physical 
 force against us. Rynders found himself 
 in the midst of Francis and Edmund Jack 
 son, of Wendell Phillips, of Edmund 
 Quincy, of Charles F. Hovey, of William 
 H. Furness, of Samuel May, Jr., of Sydney 
 Howard Gay, of Isaac T. Hopper, of Henry 
 C. Wright, of Abby Kelley Foster, of Fred- 
 erick Douglass, of Mr. Garrison against 
 whom his menaces were specially directed. 
 210 
 
THE RYNDERS MOB 
 
 Never was a human being more out of his 
 element." 
 
 The following, according to the Herald, 
 was what greeted Mr. Garrison s ear: 
 
 " Captain Rynders (clenching his fist) 
 I will not allow you to assail the President 
 of the United States. You shan t do it 
 (shaking his fist at Mr. Garrison). 
 
 " Many voices Turn him out, turn him 
 out! 
 
 " Captain Rynders If a million of you 
 were there, I would not allow the President 
 of the United States to be insulted. As 
 long as you confined yourself to your sub 
 ject, I did not interfere; but I will not per 
 mit you or any other man to misrepresent 
 the President." 
 
 Mr. Garrison, as fhe Rev. Samuel May 
 testifies, " calmly replied that he had simply 
 quoted some recent words of General Tay 
 lor, and appealed to the audience if he had 
 said aught in disrespect of him." " You 
 ought not to interrupt us," he continued to 
 Rynders in the quietest manner conceiv 
 able, as Dr. Furness relates. " We go upon 
 the principle of hearing everybody. If you 
 wish to speak, I will keep order, and you 
 shall be heard." The din, however, in 
 creased. " The Hutchinsons," continues Dr. 
 
 211 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 Furness, " who were wont to sing at the 
 Anti-slavery meetings, were in the gallery, 
 and they attempted to raise a song, to soothe 
 the savages with music. But it was of no 
 avail. Rynders drowned their fine voices 
 with noise and shouting." Still, a knock 
 down argument with a live combatant would 
 have suited him better than mere Bedlam- 
 itish disturbance. He was almost gratified 
 by young Thomas L. Kane, son of Judge 
 Kane of Philadelphia, who, seeing the rush 
 of the mob upon the platform, had himself 
 leaped there, to protect his townsman, Dr. 
 Furness. They shall not touch a hair of 
 your head," he said in a tone of great ex 
 citement; and, as the strain became more 
 intense, he rushed up to Rynders and shook 
 his fist in his face. "He said to me [Dr. 
 Furness] with the deepest emphasis: If he 
 touches Mr. Garrison Til kill him. " But 
 Mr. Garrison s composure was more than 
 a coat of mail. 
 
 The knot was cut by Francis Jackson s 
 formal offer of the floor to Rynders as soon 
 as Mr. Garrison had finished his remarks; 
 with an invitation meanwhile to take a seat 
 on the platform. This, says Mr. May, he 
 scoutingly refused ; but, seeing the manifest 
 fairness of the president s offer, drew back a 
 
 212 
 
THE RYNDERS MOB 
 
 little, and stood, with folded arms, waiting 
 for Mr. Garrison to conclude, which soon he 
 did offering a resolution in these terms : 
 
 " Resolved, That the Anti-slavery move 
 ment, instead of being * infidel/ in an evil 
 sense (as is falsely alleged), is truly Chris 
 tian, in the primitive meaning of that term, 
 and the special embodiment in this country 
 of whatever is loyal to God and benevolent 
 to man; and that, in view of the palpable 
 enormity of slavery of the religious and 
 political professions of the people of the 
 age in which we live, blazing with the con 
 centrated light of many centuries indif 
 ference or hostility to this movement indi 
 cates a state of mind more culpable than was 
 manifested by the Jewish nation in rejecting 
 Jesus as the Messiah, eighteen hundred years 
 ago."_ 
 
 With these words the speaker retired, to 
 resume the presidency of the meeting. 
 
 " The close of Mr. Garrison s address," 
 says Dr. Furness, " brought down Rynders 
 again, who vociferated and harangued, at 
 one time on the platform, and then pushing 
 down into the aisles, like a madman followed 
 by his keepers. Through the whole, noth 
 ing could be more patient and serene than 
 the bearing of Mr. Garrison. I have al- 
 213 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 ways revered Mr. Garrison for his devoted, 
 uncompromising fidelity to his great cause. 
 To-day I was touched to the heart by his 
 calm and gentle manners. There was no 
 agitation, no scorn, no heat, but the quiet 
 ness of a man engaged in simple duties." 
 
 After some parleying, it appeared that 
 Rynders had a spokesman who preferred to 
 speak after Dr. Furness. 
 
 " Accordingly," says the latter, " I spoke 
 my little, anxiously prepared word. I never 
 recall that hour without blessing myself that 
 I was called to speak precisely at that mo 
 ment. At any other stage of the proceed 
 ings, it would have been wretchedly out of 
 place. As it was, my speech fitted in almost 
 as well as if it had been impromptu, although 
 a sharp eye might easily have discovered 
 that I was speaking memoriter. Rynders 
 interrupted me again and again, exclaiming 
 that I lied, that I was personal ; but he ended 
 with applauding me ! " 
 
 No greater contrast to what was to follow 
 could possibly be imagined than the genial 
 manner, firm tones, and self-possession, the 
 refined discourse, of this Unitarian clergy 
 man, who was felt to have turned the cur 
 rent of the meeting. There uprose, as per 
 agreement, one " Professor " Grant, a seedy- 
 214 
 
THE RYNDERS MOB 
 
 looking personage, having one hand tied 
 round with a dirty cotton cloth. Mr. Garri 
 son recognized him as a former pressman in 
 the Liberator office. His thesis was that the 
 blacks were not men, but belonged to the 
 monkey tribe. His speech proved dull and 
 tiresome, and was made sport of by his own 
 set, whom Mr. Garrison had to call to order. 
 There were now loud cries for Frederick 
 Douglass, who came forward to where Ryn- 
 ders stood in the conspicuous position he 
 had taken when he thought the meeting was 
 his, and who remained in it, too mortified 
 even to creep away, when he found it was 
 somebody else s. " Now you can speak," 
 said he to Douglass; " but mind what I say: 
 if you speak disrespectfully (of the South, 
 or Washington, or Patrick Henry) I ll 
 knock you off the stage." Nothing daunted, 
 the ex-fugitive from greater terrors began: 
 
 (< The gentleman who has just spoken has 
 undertaken to prove that the blacks are not 
 human beings. He has examined our 
 whole conformation, from top to toe. I 
 cannot follow him in his argument. I will 
 assist him in it, however. I offer myself 
 for your examination. Am I a man ? " 
 
 The audience responded with a thunder 
 ous affirmative, which Captain Rynders 
 215 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 sought to break by exclaiming: " You are 
 not a black man; you are only half a nig 
 ger." " Then," replied Mr. Douglass, turn 
 ing upon him with the blandest of smiles 
 and an almost affectionate obeisance, " I am 
 half-brother to Captain Rynders!" He 
 would not deny that he was the son of a 
 slaveholder, born of Southern " amalgama 
 tion " ; a fugitive, too, like Kossuth " an 
 other half-brother of mine" (to Rynders). 
 He spoke of the difficulties thrown in the 
 way of industrious colored people at the 
 North, as he had himself experienced 
 this by way of answer to Horace Greeley, 
 who had recently complained of their in 
 efficiency and dependence. Criticism of the 
 editor of the Tribune being grateful to 
 Rynders, a political adversary, " he added 
 a word to Douglass s against Greeley. * I 
 am happy/ said Douglass, f to have the as 
 sent of my half-brother here/ pointing to 
 Rynders, and convulsing the audience with 
 laughter. After this, Rynders, finding how 
 he was played with, took care to hold his 
 peace; but someone of Rynders company 
 in the gallery undertook to interrupt the 
 speaker. It s of no use/ said Mr. Doug 
 lass, I ve Captain Rynders here to back 
 me! " We were born here," he said 
 216 
 
THE RYNDERS MOB 
 
 finally, " we are not dying out, and we mean 
 to stay here. We made the clothes you have 
 on, the sugar you put into your tea. We 
 would do more if allowed." " Yes," said 
 a voice in the crowd, " you would cut our 
 throats for us." " No," was the quick re 
 sponse, " but we would cut your hair for 
 you." 
 
 Douglass concluded his triumphant re 
 marks by calling upon the Rev. Samuel R. 
 Ward, editor of the Impartial Citizen, to 
 succeed him. " All eyes," says Dr. Fur- 
 ness, " were instantly turned to the back of 
 the platform, or stage rather, so dramatic 
 was the scene; and there, amidst a group, 
 stood a large man, so black that, as Wendell 
 Phillips said, when he shut his eyes you 
 could not see him. As he approached, 
 Rynders exclaimed : Well, this is the orig 
 inal nigger. I ve heard of the magnanim 
 ity of Captain Rynders/ said Ward, but 
 the half has not been told me! And then 
 he went on with a noble voice and his speech 
 was such a strain of eloquence as I never 
 heard excelled before or since." The mob 
 had to applaud him, too, and it is the high 
 est praise to record that his unpremeditated 
 utterance maintained the level of Doug 
 lass s, and ended the meeting with a sense 
 217 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 of climax demonstrating alike the hu 
 manity and the capacity of the full-blooded 
 negro. 
 
 " When he ceased speaking, the time had 
 expired for which the Tabernacle was en 
 gaged, and we had to adjourn. Never," 
 continues Dr. Furness, " was there a 
 grander triumph of intelligence, of mind, 
 over brute force. Two colored men, whose 
 claim to be considered human was denied, 
 had, by mere force of intellect, overwhelmed 
 their maligners with confusion. As the 
 audience was thinning out, I went down on 
 the floor to see some friends there. Ryn- 
 ders came by. I could not help saying to 
 him : How shall I thank you for what you 
 have done for us to-day? Well/ said 
 he, * I do not like to hear my country 
 abused, but that last thing that you said, 
 that s the truth/ That last thing was, I be 
 lieve, a simple assertion of the right of the 
 people to think and speak freely/ 
 
IX 
 GARRISON AND EMERSON 
 
 THESE two men were almost exactly the 
 same age; for Emerson was born in 1803 
 and Garrison in 1805. The precocity of 
 Garrison, however, who became one of the 
 figure-heads of his day at the age of twenty- 
 four, and the tardy, inward development of 
 Emerson, who did not become widely 
 known till almost twenty years later, seem 
 to class them in separate generations. 
 Each of the men was a specialist of the ex- 
 tremest kind; Garrison, devoted to the vis 
 ible and particular evils of his times, Emer 
 son, seeking always the abstraction, and able 
 to see the facts before his face only by the 
 aid of general laws; Garrison all heart, 
 Emerson all head; Garrison determined to 
 remake the world, Emerson convinced that 
 he must keep his eyes on the stars and wait 
 for his message. Each of these men was, 
 nevertheless, twin to the other. Their 
 spirit was the same, and the influence of 
 each was a strand in the same reaction, a 
 219 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 cry from the same abyss. Emerson, no less 
 than Garrison, was the voice of Abolition, 
 and the dying Theodore Parker names him 
 as a prophet. I should sum up Garrison s 
 whole life-work in one word, Courage. 
 And I cannot find another word, except 
 Courage, to sum up Emerson. 
 
 The function of Garrison was to crack 
 up, to dissolve. He cannot bear to see two 
 men agree about anything, he cannot tol 
 erate assent; toleration is the enemy, tol 
 eration is the sin of the age. In like man 
 ner is Emerson a sphinx who puts questions 
 to his age. His thought cannot be under 
 stood without a thorough pulling-down of 
 extant prejudices. Both men are dissolv 
 ents. With Emerson, this was idea; with 
 Garrison, it was function. Garrison does, 
 he knows not what he talks foaming, he 
 cannot fit two conceptions together; but he 
 is generally, and on the whole, the agent of 
 dissolution and re-crystallization. Emer 
 son has only one note. He sits helplessly 
 on his perch and utters his note ; waits 
 a while, and again utters his note ; and he is 
 everywhere and always the agent of disso 
 lution and re-crystallization. To compare 
 the relations of these men to each other 
 brings out very vividly the strong and the 
 220 
 
GARRISON AND EMERSON 
 
 weak sides of each of them; for each seems 
 to split the age, and show the sutures in the 
 skull of the world; each is the key to the 
 puzzle, and each is the missing half of the 
 other s nature. That they did not under 
 stand one another, that there was no plane 
 on which they could meet (except for a 
 flash), is a sort of proof, by paradox, that 
 they stood for the same thing expressed in 
 different symbols. 
 
 Never in all literature has there been such 
 a passionate proclamation of the individual 
 as Emerson makes ; and one of the few men 
 that ever lived, who best fulfills Emerson s 
 ideal picture of the influential individual, is 
 Garrison. It is indeed strange to reflect 
 that Emerson s life was given up to pictur 
 ing the strong man who sheds all positive 
 influence upon his age, and receives nothing 
 from it, and yet to remember that Garri 
 son s activity in real life was unsympathetic 
 and even repulsive to Emerson. 
 
 The fame of the two men is unequal ; be 
 cause Emerson had about him a dry glint 
 of the eternal, and his mind was a unity; 
 whereas Garrison was a professional agi 
 tator and his mind was sometimes at odds 
 with itself. The power that counts to 
 wards fame seems to be the power of vision. 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 A man with vision leaves behind him a clear 
 picture, consistent with itself, easily under 
 stood, popular, enduring; and though there 
 be but few strokes in the sketch, his thought 
 carries. The practical man, though he have 
 the heart of the Samaritan, and do the work 
 of a Titan, deals in more ephemeral sym 
 bols and is sooner forgotten. There was 
 no single contemporary whose nature cov 
 ered the divergent fields of both of these 
 men. The Anti-slavery cause was always 
 badly crippled for lack of a philosopher; 
 and Emerson s influence has always stood in 
 need of more animal life as a vehicle to 
 float it towards mankind. Let us review 
 the points at which the careers of the two 
 men touched each other; remembering all 
 the time that any age is a unity, that all men 
 who live in it are members of each other, 
 and that the Unconscious is the important 
 part of life. 
 
 Emerson, after the loss of his first wife, 
 followed by a breakdown in health and a 
 year of gloomy travel in Europe, returned 
 to Boston in 1833, a frail man of thirty, 
 with a theological training, the tastes of a 
 recluse, and an immense, unworldly ambi 
 tion. To live in a village, to write in his 
 journal, to walk in the woods and ruminate, 
 
 222 
 
GARRISON AND EMERSON 
 
 such was to be his existence. The or 
 ganic reticence of Emerson has all but con 
 cealed the strong current of purpose that 
 ran beneath the apparent futility of his ex 
 ternal life. He was indeed a man of iron ; 
 and both he and Garrison might be com 
 pared to Ignatius Loyola in respect to their 
 will. Emerson writes in his journal in 
 
 1834: 
 
 The philosophy of Waiting needs some 
 times to be unfolded. Thus he who is 
 qualified to act upon the public, if he does 
 not act on many, may yet act intensely on 
 a few; if he does not act much upon any, 
 but, from insulated condition and unfit com 
 panions, seems quite withdrawn into him 
 self, still, if he know and feel his obliga 
 tions, he may be (unknown and uncon 
 sciously) hiving knowledge and concentrat 
 ing powers to act well hereafter, and a very 
 remote hereafter." " A remote hereafter," 
 this was ever in Emerson s mind. He 
 feels himself to be an outpost or advance 
 guard of future wisdom. " It is a mani 
 fest interest which comes home to my bosom 
 and every man s bosom," he continues a 
 page or two later, " that there should be on 
 every tower Watchers set to observe and 
 report of every new ray of light, in what 
 223 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 quarter soever of Heaven it should appear, 
 and their report should be eagerly and rev 
 erently received. There is no offense done, 
 certainly, to the community in distinctly 
 stating the claims of this office. It is not 
 a coveted office: it is open to all men." 
 
 Never for one moment was Emerson s 
 mission far from his thought. His fear of 
 approaching it, his excessive reverence for 
 it, is due to his artistic instinct ; just as Gar 
 rison s blatancy about his mission the 
 same mission is a part of Garrison s lack 
 of artistic instinct. With that gleam of 
 practical sagacity which distinguished him, 
 Emerson had resigned from the Church at 
 the first whisper of coercion. He was a 
 free man. He was freer than Channing. 
 He was freer even than Garrison ; for Gar 
 rison kept founding Societies which gave 
 him endless trouble. Emerson s early and 
 unobtrusive retirement from office shows us 
 an amusing exchange of roles between the 
 two; for in this instance Emerson, the 
 recluse, knew the world better than Garri 
 son, the man of action. But Emerson 
 knew the world only in spots. His diary 
 shows us a mind that is almost callow. 
 
 " Never numbers," he writes, " but the 
 simple and wise shall judge, not the Whar- 
 224 
 
GARRISON AND EMERSON 
 
 tons and Drakes, but some divine savage 
 like Webster, Wordsworth, and Reed, 
 whom neither the town nor the college ever 
 made, shall say that we shall all believe. 
 How we thirst for a natural thinker/ 
 Emerson s " natural thinking " leads him to 
 collocate the names of great men very un 
 expectedly and somewhat mysteriously. 
 Entries like the foregoing seem more like 
 the work of a man of twenty than of thirty. 
 We must note in the following not only the 
 lack of emotional life which is implied: we 
 must note also its perfect intellectual poise. 
 " You affirm," says Emerson in his jour 
 nal, "that the moral development contains 
 all the intellectual, and that Jesus was the 
 perfect man. I bow in reverence un 
 feigned before that benign man. I know 
 more, hope more, am more, because he has 
 lived. But, if you tell me that in your 
 opinion, he hath fulfilled all the conditions 
 of man s existence, carried out to the ut 
 most, at least by implication, all man s pow 
 ers, I suspend my assent. I do not see in 
 him cheerfulness: I do not see in him the 
 love of natural science: I see in him no 
 kindness for art: I see in him nothing of 
 Socrates, of Laplace, of Shakespeare. The 
 perfect man should remind us of all great 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 men. Do you ask me if I would rattier 
 resemble Jesus than any other man? If I 
 should say Yes, I should suspect myself of 
 superstition." 
 
 This passage is like the stalk of the pie 
 plant without the sap. But nature had 
 gifts in her lap for the youth that penned 
 it; and imagination can detect some sort of 
 power even here. Here is at least a crea 
 ture who will test other persons by him 
 self, and not himself by others. The lack 
 ing element seems to be experience ex 
 perience of persons, experience of litera 
 ture, experience of emotion. He has the 
 coldness of crystal, but also its transparent 
 purity. You would not suspect the man 
 who writes thus of holding a pastorate over 
 souls of secretly regarding himself as a 
 bishop and an apostle to lost sheep. Yet 
 such was the fact. A care for men, a love 
 of mankind, is the motive power in him. 
 
 Emerson is a man whom we are obliged 
 to understand all the time by the light of 
 what only breaks out of him once in seven 
 years and endures but for two seconds. By 
 the spark of this betrayal we know him : 
 witness the opening of his Cooper Union 
 address which I shall quote shortly. 
 
 The Abolitionists, of course, made a de- 
 226 
 
GARRISON AND EMERSON 
 
 scent upon Emerson in their diocesan 
 rounds for they visited and proselytized 
 everyone. May and Thompson, two of 
 Garrison s lieutenants, called upon Emerson. 
 Their mission was incomprehensible to 
 Emerson, who writes in his journal : " Our 
 good friend, Samuel J. May, may instruct us 
 in many things." He admired May but not 
 Thompson, of whom he says : " He belongs 
 I fear to that great class of the Vanity- 
 stricken. An inordinate thirst for notice 
 cannot be gratified until it has found in its 
 gropings what is called a cause that men 
 will bow to ; tying himself fast to that, the 
 small man is then at liberty to consider all 
 objections made to him as proofs of folly 
 and the devil in the objector, and, under 
 that screen, if he gets a rotten egg or two, 
 yet his name sounds through the world and 
 he is praised and praised." 
 
 Any one who has followed May and 
 Thompson through good and evil report, 
 who has felt the heat and depth of their 
 devotion to truth, must almost wince at see 
 ing what effect a visit from them produced 
 upon the chill-blooded young parson who 
 sat in his meager study, reading his thread 
 bare library in the village of Concord. 
 
 We are brought to see by such anecdotes 
 227 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 as this that Anti-slavery was a sort of spe 
 cial illumination. The greatest saints lived 
 without an understanding of Abolition till, 
 suddenly one day, Abolition broke out in 
 their hearts and made them miserable. 
 Abolition was a disease the disease 
 caused by the flooding of withered natures 
 with new health. The infection jumped 
 from one man to another. Genius and tal 
 ent had nothing to do with it ; learning and 
 piety seem to have been immune to it. 
 Emerson was no nearer to an understanding 
 of it than if he had been a clerk in a drug- 
 shop. He had, moreover, a dry disposi 
 tion, a cold wind seemed to blow out of 
 him, and the sweat and unction of emo 
 tion were always antipathetic to him. 
 Nevertheless Emerson thought about the 
 Abolitionists. It cannot be said that he 
 thought about slavery. He neither saw nor 
 knew much about slavery. But he looked 
 out of his window and saw Garrison and 
 the Abolitionists shouting in the streets. 
 They invaded his musings : they troubled his 
 solitude. He tries to shelve them in his 
 mind by a final analysis ; but he never quite 
 suits himself, and so tries again. His lec 
 ture on " The Times " in 1841, is in reality 
 a lecture upon Garrison and Garrison s mul- 
 228 
 
GARRISON AND EMERSON 
 
 titudinous causes. The rather old-maidish 
 young Emerson was disgusted by the mis 
 cellaneous and ramping enthusiasm of Gar 
 rison. He says, for instance, in the lecture 
 on "The Times": 
 
 " These reforms are our contemporaries ; 
 they are ourselves ; our own light and sight, 
 and conscience; they only name the relation 
 which subsists between us and the vicious 
 institutions which they go to rectify." 
 This is complimentary to the reformers: 
 they have at any rate, discovered the evils. 
 But Emerson goes on almost immediately: 
 " The young men who have been vexing so 
 ciety these last years with regenerative 
 methods, seem to have made this mistake; 
 they all exaggerated some special means, 
 and all failed to see that the Reform of Re 
 forms must be accomplished without means. 
 . . . Those who are urging with most 
 ardor what are called the greatest benefits 
 to mankind, are narrow, self-pleasing, con 
 ceited men, and affect us as the insane do. 
 They bite us and we run mad also. I 
 think the work of the reformers as innocent 
 as other work that is done around them; 
 but when I have seen it near I do not like it 
 better." 
 
 It appears, then, through these last-quoted 
 229 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 phrases, that Emerson thinks the reformers 
 are quite off the track, after all. But in the 
 final sentence of the essay there is another 
 phrase to the effect " that the highest com 
 pliment man receives from Heaven is the 
 sending to him its disguised and discred 
 ited angels." So Garrison, it appears, was 
 a disguised angel, after all. The essay on 
 " The Times " is a glacial attempt to explain 
 the function of the Reformer. It contains 
 valuable ideas, and beautiful ideas; but it 
 leaves unbridged the chasm between the ap 
 parent odiousness of the reformer and his 
 real utility. It explains nothing: it demon 
 strates only that Emerson did not under 
 stand these particular " times " but was 
 greatly puzzled by them. Dr. Holmes has 
 said " that it would have taken a long time 
 to get rid of slavery if some of Emerson s 
 teachings in this lecture had been accepted 
 as the whole gospel of liberty." " But," he 
 adds, " how much its last sentence covers 
 with its soothing tribute ! " 
 
 Sometimes in reading this essay on " The 
 Times," it has seemed to me as if the whole 
 of it were tinctured with condescension ; 
 just as the paragraph about Christ quoted 
 above is unpleasant through its crudity of 
 feeling. There is, however, no condescen- 
 230 
 
GARRISON AND EMERSON 
 
 sion in either passage. Emerson was the 
 last man in the world to feel condescension. 
 If he had had an inkling of what Garrison s 
 activity signified he would have shouted ap 
 proval. Emerson s humility was abun 
 dantly approved in the outcome. Let this 
 be noted : Emerson was a perfectly coura 
 geous person ; regard for appearance has 
 nothing to do with the ineffectually of his 
 perceptions. Upon Lovejoy s murder, in 
 1837, Emerson " sternly rejoiced," says Dr. 
 Edward W. Emerson, " that one was found 
 to die for humanity and the rights of free 
 speech and opinion " ; and soon thereafter 
 Emerson delivered a lecture in Boston in 
 which " he suddenly looked the Boston audi 
 ence in the eyes " as he said these words 
 about Lovejoy, " and a shudder seemed to 
 run through the audience, yet unprepared 
 for this bold word, for a martyr of an un 
 popular Cause." Dr. Emerson cites this 
 episode twice over, once in the Journals, 
 and once in the Works, and he adds, " of 
 course Lovejoy had other defenders in Bos 
 ton." Yes, Lovejoy certainly had other de 
 fenders in Boston; and it is fortunate for 
 us that he had. 
 
 Emerson s words of approbation for 
 Lovejoy seem to have been carefully 
 231 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 weighed, and he does not mention slavery. 
 He belonged, in fact, to that large class of 
 people who were shocked because free 
 speech was murdered in Love joy s murder. 
 Now, inasmuch as Emerson was lecturing 
 before very conservative people, even this 
 reference to " free speech and opinion " 
 called up before the imagination of the audi 
 ence the spectre of the Abolition Cause; 
 and a shudder warmed the room. Even so 
 remote an approval of Abolition as this, was 
 thought to be very bold in Mr. Emerson. 
 
 I believe that had it not been for Garrison 
 and his crew, Mr. Emerson would have seen 
 nothing in the street as he looked out of 
 his window in the years 1833-1840. He 
 would, therefore, have turned his eyes upon 
 the heavens, and continued to develop a neo- 
 platonic philosophy. The thing which he 
 did develop during these years, and while he 
 was thinking a good deal about Garrison, 
 and wondering what was the matter with 
 Garrison, the outcome of Emerson s re 
 flections upon Garrison, was that picture 
 of the Just Man which runs through Emer 
 son s thought; that theory of the perfect 
 man, the Overman, the Apollonian saint, 
 who accomplishes all reforms without using 
 
 any visible means. 
 
 232 
 
GARRISON AND EMERSON 
 
 In 1844, Emerson gives us a glimpse of 
 this Overman in an essay entitled " The 
 New England Reformers." The essay 
 records a lack of progress in Emerson s 
 thought, and shows that he had as yet no 
 idea of the difference between Anti-slavery 
 and the other many and clamoring reforms 
 of the day. Like the essay on " The 
 Times " it contains beautiful ideas, but be 
 trays ignorance of this particular matter 
 Anti-slavery. "The man who shall be 
 born," he says, " whose advent men and 
 events prepare and foreshow, is one who 
 shall enjoy his connection with a higher 
 life, with the man within man; shall de 
 stroy distrust by his trust, shall use his 
 native but forgotten methods, shall not 
 take counsel of flesh and blood, but shall 
 rely on the Law alive and beautiful which 
 works over our heads and under our 
 feet." " If," he says on another page, 
 " we start objections to your project, oh, 
 friend of the slave, or friend of the poor 
 or of the race, understand well it is because 
 we wish to drive you to drive us into your 
 measures. We wish to hear ourselves con 
 futed. We are haunted with a belief that 
 you have a secret which it would highliest 
 advantage us to learn, and we would force 
 233 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 you to impart it to us, though it should 
 bring us to prison or to worse extrem- 
 ity." 
 
 This last passage is an echo of the ad 
 mirable fooling of Plato s dialogues. But 
 it is not in phrases like these that men show 
 their understanding of a subject like 
 slavery. The time shall come when the fire 
 shall descend on Emerson and he shall tear 
 his mantle and put dust upon his head. If 
 you would see how a man speaks when the 
 virus of Anti-slavery has really entered his 
 veins, you must turn to the address that 
 Emerson delivered at Cooper Union in New 
 York on March 7th, 1854. It is the Fugi 
 tive Slave Law that has aroused the seer 
 and wrenched him from his tripod. He 
 hates to leave his study, yet must leave it. 
 His voice is strident; he forgets the ameni 
 ties, and begins speaking almost without 
 making a bow to his audience, and while he 
 is still removing his overcoat. 
 
 " I do not often speak to public questions; 
 they are odious and hurtful, and it seems 
 like meddling or leaving your work. I 
 have my own spirits in prison ; spirits in 
 deeper prisons, whom no man visits if I do 
 not. And then I see what havoc it makes 
 with any good mind, a dissipated philan- 
 234 
 
GARRISON AND EMERSON 
 
 thropy. The one thing not to be forgiven 
 to intellectual persons is, not to know their 
 own tasks, or to take their ideas from 
 others. From this want of manly rest in 
 their own and rash acceptance of other peo 
 ple s watchwords, come the imbecility and 
 fatigue of their conversation." He contin 
 ues to speak in haste, making use of the 
 personal pronoun belligerent, reckless. 
 " I have lived all my life without suffering 
 any known inconvenience from American 
 Slavery: I never saw it; I never heard the 
 whip; I never felt the check on my free 
 speech and action, until, the other day, when 
 Mr. Webster, by his personal influence, 
 brought the Fugitive Slave Law on the 
 country. I say Mr. Webster, for though 
 the Bill was not his, it is yet notorious that 
 he was the life and soul of it, that he gave 
 it all he had : it cost him his life, and under 
 the shadow of his great name inferior men 
 sheltered themselves, threw their ballots for 
 it and made the law. I say inferior men. 
 There were all sorts of what are called 
 brilliant men, accomplished men, men of 
 high station, a President of the United 
 States, Senators, men of eloquent speech, 
 but men without self-respect, without char 
 acter, and it was strange to see that office, 
 235 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 age, fame, talent, even a repute for honesty, 
 all count for nothing. " 
 
 Emerson next discovers that Webster 
 (formerly one of his gods) has never said 
 anything of any consequence anyway. " If 
 his moral sensibility had been proportioned 
 to the force of his understanding, what lim 
 its could have been set to his genius and 
 beneficent power? But he wanted that deep 
 source of inspiration. Hence a sterility of 
 thought, the want of generalization in his 
 speeches, and the curious fact that, with a 
 general ability which impresses all the 
 world, there is not a single general remark, 
 not an observation on life and manners, not 
 an aphorism that can pass into literature 
 from his writings." 
 
 Emerson now has the disease of Anti- 
 slavery. The proof is that he feels obliged 
 to take some sort of personal action. He 
 feels responsible to the community for the 
 educated classes. " The way in which the 
 country was dragged to consent to this (the 
 Fugitive Slave Law), and the disastrous de 
 fection (on the miserable cry of Union) 
 of the men of letters, of the colleges, of 
 educated men, nay, of some preachers of 
 religion was the darkest passage in the 
 history." And again: "Yet the lovers of 
 236 
 
GARRISON AND EMERSON 
 
 liberty may with reason tax the coldness 
 and indifferentism of scholars and literary 
 men. They are lovers of liberty in Greece 
 and Rome and in the English Common 
 wealth, but they are lukewarm lovers of 
 the liberty of America in 1854. The Uni 
 versities are not, as in Hobbes s time, the 
 core of rebellion, no, but the seat of inert 
 ness." We find no avoidance of the word 
 " slavery " in this address. Every other 
 word seems to be "Slavery, slavery!" 
 " A man who steals another man s labor 
 steals away his own faculties; his integrity, 
 his humanity is flowing away from him. 
 The habit of oppression cuts out the moral 
 eyes, and, though the intellect goes on sim 
 ulating the moral as before, its sanity is 
 gradually destroyed. It takes away the 
 presentiments." And finally in the last 
 paragraph, comes a fierce, frank, almost in 
 coherent, acknowledgment of the country s 
 debt to the Abolitionists. " I respect the 
 Anti-Slavery Society. It is the Cassandra 
 that has foretold all that has befallen, fact 
 for fact, years ago ; foretold all, and no man 
 laid it to heart. It seemed, as the Turks 
 say, * Fate makes that a man should not 
 believe his own eyes. But the Fugitive 
 Slave Law did much to unglue the eyes of 
 237 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 men, and now the Nebraska Bill leaves us 
 staring. The Anti-Slavery Society will add 
 many members this year. The Whig Party 
 will join it : the Democrats will join it. 
 The population of the Free States will join 
 it. I doubt not, at last, the Slave States 
 will join it. But be that sooner or later 
 and whoever comes or stays away, I hope 
 we have reached the end of our unbelief, 
 have come to a belief that there is a divine 
 Providence in the world, which will not 
 save us but through our own cooperation." 
 Happy Emerson, who has lived to be so 
 moved! Now what is it that has brought 
 Emerson to this pass? It is Daniel Web 
 ster s defection. Webster s defection was 
 like the falling of a mighty tower that 
 jarred whole classes and categories of men 
 into an understanding of the Slave Power. 
 It did what neither Lovejoy s murder, nor 
 the Annexation of Texas was able to do: 
 it waked up " the better element." To 
 this group, the better element, Emerson be 
 longed by education and tradition. He 
 crossed the Jordan along with the rest of 
 his caste. This was just twenty-five years 
 after Garrison s discovery of Immediate 
 Emancipation: for these things were hid 
 den from the wise and prudent and were 
 238 
 
GARRISON AND EMERSON 
 
 revealed unto babes. The Abolitionists had 
 been studying Daniel Webster for fifteen 
 years. They had seen the menace in sticks 
 and straws; Emerson sees it in the earth 
 quake. They had then left their desks and 
 hearths as he does now, and had talked on 
 street corners to any one who would listen 
 about "slavery, slavery, slavery!" 
 
 Now it seems to me clear that Emerson 
 had, from the beginning, been dealing with 
 souls in slavery. This was the vision he 
 saw, a vision which was consequent upon 
 the Slave Epoch, a vision of moral slavery. 
 And the man of Emerson s imagination, 
 who is to set free these slaves is Emerson 
 himself. This Overman is certainly a 
 beautiful person. He does suggest truths, 
 this Apollo-like person of Emerson s, 
 he is valuable and he is beautiful. All of 
 Emerson s abstractions and summaries of 
 moral idea bear somewhat the same sort of 
 relation to the real world that this Overman 
 bears to Garrison. They are spirit-pictures, 
 drawn from the life, a life never fully un 
 derstood in its throb and passion; yet the 
 pictures are given with such accuracy, such 
 nobility, such power, that they speak for 
 ever. They are the artistic outcome of our 
 Anti-slavery period. Garrison set a great 
 239 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 brazen trumpet to his lips and blew; and 
 the walls of Jericho fell. Garrison dies, 
 and his trumpet sounds no more. Never 
 theless, the small, inner, silver trumpet of 
 Emerson caught and sounded the same 
 note; and it continues to sound the note, 
 shaking down the walls of inner Jerichoes 
 in men of later and ever later generations. 
 
X 
 
 FOREIGN INFLUENCE 
 SUMMARY 
 
 IN every great fluctuation that takes place 
 in human society, whether it be a moral, 
 a political, or even an industrial phenome 
 non, force converges upon some one man. 
 and makes him the metaphysical center and 
 thought- focus of the movement. The man 
 is always a little metamorphosed by his of 
 fice, a little deified by it. He is endued with 
 supernatural sagacity, or piety, or resiliency. 
 He is fed with artificial life, through the 
 fact that thousands of men are sustaining 
 him by their attention and in their hope. 
 Thus in 1858, Lincoln suddenly became the 
 great general-agent of political Anti- 
 slavery in America; because his brain was 
 exactly fitted for this work, which deified 
 him quite rapidly. So of a hundred other 
 cases of deification or demonization : 
 leaders seem to be grabbed, used and flung 
 aside by immaterial and pitiless currents of 
 force, which had as lief destroy as benefit 
 their darlings. Witness the career of 
 Stephen A. Douglas. 
 
 241 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 Garrison was the leader of Abolition 
 rom its inception to its triumph. His 
 genius, and his activity kept it a unity, de 
 spite the incessant tearing and crumbling 
 [hat were the normal accompaniment of its 
 reading influence. " I have never met the 
 lan or woman," said Wendell Phillips in 
 1865, " who had struck any effectual blow 
 at the slave system in this country, whose 
 action was not born out of the heart and 
 conscience of William Lloyd Garrison." 
 There is a certain verbal exaggeration in 
 Phillips statement; but the idea conveyed 
 is true. Garrison s preeminence is incon 
 testable. In agitation, as elsewhere, the 
 great man eats up the little man ; he sets the 
 clock in the little man s bosom by his own 
 chronometer or rather, all this is done 
 for both of them by the stress of the times. 
 There never was a leader of men more 
 completely consumed by his mission than 
 Garrison. His life was sucked up into An 
 ti-slavery. He had no attention for other 
 things. How he obtained food and lodg 
 ing for his family during all these years is 
 a mystery. From time to time, it seems, 
 his friends would relieve his wants, or pay 
 a doctor s bill. He was supported by his 
 Cause: the benevolence which he generated 
 242 
 
FOREIGN INFLUENCE 
 
 fed him. At the close of the war Garrison 
 occupied a position of great eminence; and 
 he could have cut a figure in public had he 
 wished it. For, although the Abolitionists 
 and Lincoln s Administration found some 
 difficulty in coming to understand each 
 other at the outset, they were in moral 
 union before long; and they fought the war 
 through together. " It was my privilege 
 once, and once only, to talk with Abraham^ 
 Lincoln,, at Petersburg, Va., April 1%~i86$^ 
 says Daniel H. Chamberlain. " His face, 
 his figure, his attitudes, his words, form the 
 most remarkable picture in my memory, and 
 will, while memory lasts. I spoke to him 
 of the country s gratitude for his great de 
 liverance of the slaves. His sad face 
 beamed for a moment with happiness as he 
 answered in exact substance, and very 
 nearly in words : * I have been only an in 
 strument. The logic and moral power of 
 Garrison, and the Anti-slavery people of 
 the country, and the army have done all. 
 Garrison had no worldly ambition; he 
 even declined to favor Governor Andrew 
 for a cabinet office in the days of the tri 
 umph of Abolition at the close of the war. 
 He neglected and refused to write his own 
 memoirs though offered large sums of 
 243 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 money to do so. He sank into private life 
 as easily as if he had truly been the benevo 
 lent, self-educated clockmaker of a Pick 
 wickian kind, whose type he physically re 
 sembled. The storm which had engen 
 dered this dragon passed over, and left be 
 hind it a placid old man. 
 
 We must now revert to certain ante 
 bellum doings of the Abolitionists which 
 had a profound influence upon the diplo 
 matic history of the country during the 
 war. While the demoniac Garrison was, in 
 1833, stirring his American caldron with 
 his right hand, he reached over with his 
 left and set a-going another vessel in Eng 
 land, which was destined to be of enormous 
 importance to this country. Garrison 
 made five journeys to England, namely in 
 1833, 1840, 1846 and 1867, and 1877. In 
 the first, he clasped hands with all the 
 philanthropists in England who were, at 
 that time, assembled to witness the final tri 
 umph of the law abolishing Slavery in the 
 West Indies. His immediate object in this 
 journey was to unmask the American Col 
 onization Society before the British public, 
 and to bring the non-conformist conscience 
 of England into true relations with Ameri 
 can Abolition. He visited the venerable 
 244 
 
FOREIGN INFLUENCE 
 
 Clarkson, he met Wilberforce, Zachary 
 Macaulay, Samuel Gurney, Thomas Fowell 
 Buxton, and many other men and women of 
 this kind. At the suggestion of Daniel 
 O Connell he held a meeting in Exeter Hall, 
 where O Connell spoke. Garrison was at 
 one with these warm-hearted people in Eng 
 land as water is at one with water. They 
 loved him; they doted on him, and he on 
 them. 
 
 As we have seen, George Thompson came 
 to America in 1835, as an apostle to the 
 Abolition Cause. Harriet Martineau came 
 as a traveler in the same year. By her 
 writings, and especially by her " Martyr 
 Age in America/ she explained to the Eng 
 lish mind the Anti-slavery situation in this 
 country. After the year 1835 there existed 
 a bond between the philanthropists of Eng 
 land and of America. Constant inter 
 course, the sending of money and articles 
 from England to the Cause in America, and 
 an affectionate personal correspondence be 
 tween the most unselfish classes in each coun 
 try, led to the consolidation of a sort of 
 Anglo-Saxon alliance of the only desirable 
 kind an alliance between loving and pub 
 lic-spirited persons in each country. As the 
 outcome of this international union, which 
 245 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 was inaugurated in 1833, a spiritual alliance 
 of private persons succeeded thirty years 
 later in controlling the diplomatic relations 
 between the two countries and in averting 
 war. It was, perhaps, the first time in his 
 tory that such a thing could have occurred ; 
 and the incident shows us that the influence 
 of private morality upon world politics is 
 by no means imperceptible. 
 
 In 1840 a good many of the Abolitionists 
 went to England to attend a World s Con 
 vention, and to renew their acquaintance 
 with O Connell, Buxton, Elizabeth Fry, the 
 Howetts, Elizabeth Pease and others. The 
 later visit of Garrison to England in 1846, 
 was due to a picturesque episode in Anti- 
 slavery history. A free church in Scotland 
 had accepted money subscribed by slave 
 holders in Charleston; and Edinburgh be 
 came for a few weeks the focus of Anti- 
 slavery agitation. " Send back the money " 
 was placarded upon the streets, while Eng 
 lish and American Abolitionists flocked to 
 the fray. Garrison took this occasion to go 
 to London and attend a World s Temperance 
 Convention, then in session at the London 
 Literary Institute. Immediately thereafter 
 he organized an Anti-Slavery League, and 
 held " a real old-fashioned Anti-slavery 
 246 
 
FOREIGN INFLUENCE 
 
 meeting/ the first that had ever been held 
 in London. The astonishing freedom with 
 which he dealt out blows and caresses to 
 the British public, the perfectly popular, 
 jocular, boisterous tone of his speech on 
 this occasion reminds one of Luther, and 
 shows a new side to Garrison s powers. 
 His success with the public was great. 
 Now it happened that there was still an 
 other World s Conference going on in Lon 
 don at that time, namely a meeting of the 
 Evangelical Alliance, which was a union of 
 protestant clergy from various parts of the 
 world. Garrison and Thompson took, of 
 course, no share in the deliberations of these 
 clergymen, but watched their proceedings 
 with interest. The slave question was al 
 ready burning hotly in the Alliance. The 
 contested point was whether slaveholders 
 were to be admitted to fellowship. After 
 much wrangling and reference to commit 
 tees, etc., the Alliance decided for the ad 
 mission of slaveholders. Imagine the state 
 of mind of Thompson and Garrison! 
 They instantly called a meeting at Exeter 
 Hall under the auspices of their own new 
 born League: and they proceeded to de 
 nounce the Evangelical Alliance yes, they 
 denounced it out of existence to the great 
 247 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 encouragement of the whole Abolition 
 movement in America and elsewhere. This 
 procedure occupied but a few days, and 
 shows how much an active man can do, even 
 upon a foreign soil, when he is dealing with 
 matters peculiarly within his own province 
 of understanding. 
 
 Garrison s personal relations with the 
 British philanthropists can best be under 
 stood by reflecting upon his social isolation 
 in America and upon the natural warmth of 
 temperament in himself and in these Eng 
 lish friends. " I did not hear without great 
 emotion that you are returned to England, 
 and I look forward with great happiness to 
 meeting you in these better times," writes 
 the Duchess of Sutherland in 1867. Har 
 riet Martineau wrote just before her death 
 in 1876: "I can say no more. My de 
 parture is evidently near, and I hold the pen 
 with difficulty. Accept the sympathy and 
 reverent blessing of your old friend, Har 
 riet Martineau." 
 
 " I have watched his career with no com 
 mon interest, even when I was too young to 
 take much part in public affairs ; and I have 
 kept within my heart his name and the 
 names of those who have been associated 
 with him in every step he has taken." It 
 248 
 
FOREIGN INFLUENCE 
 
 is John Bright who spoke thus, at the great 
 Garrison banquet given in London in 1867. 
 The voice of Bright here spoke for that 
 whole world of liberal sentiment in Eng 
 land which first rose to power through the 
 passage of the Reform Bill of 1832. It 
 spoke for Glasgow and Edinborough, for 
 Lancashire and Yorkshire for the new 
 Burgherdom which came into the world her 
 alding religious freedom, popular education, 
 and the protection of the humbler classes. 
 
 Garrison was better known to the work 
 ing classes in Great Britain than in his own 
 country. " During my visit to England," 
 said Henry Ward Beecher, speaking in 
 1863, " it was my privilege to address, in 
 various places, very large audiences, and I 
 never made mention of the names of any 
 of those men whom you most revere and 
 love, without calling down the wildest dem 
 onstrations of popular enthusiasm. I never 
 mentioned the names of Mr. Phillips or Mr. 
 Garrison, that it did not call forth a storm 
 of approbation." 
 
 It was through all this intercourse be 
 tween the Abolitionists and the liberals of 
 England that there grew up that under 
 standing which the middle classes of Eng 
 land possessed as to the nature of the Amer- 
 
 249 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 ican struggle in 1860 to 1865; and which 
 alone averted the recognition of the South 
 ern Confederacy by the British Govern 
 ment In reading the life of Charles 
 Francis Adams, it has always been a sur 
 prise to me to find how well informed the 
 cotton spinners, operatives, and small 
 tradesmen of England were upon the very 
 point which the governing classes were so 
 unwilling to understand. The story of the 
 support given to the Northern cause by the 
 cotton spinners of Lancashire, who were be 
 ing starved to death by the blockade of our 
 Southern ports, is among the most moving 
 stories in history. They could not be in 
 duced to protest or to ask their own Govern 
 ment for relief against that blockade. 
 They would not take sides against the 
 United States Government whose action 
 was crushing them, because that Govern 
 ment stood for the freedom of the slave. 
 The tale resembles the story of some siege 
 at which not merely the safety of a city, 
 but the fate of all humanity is at stake. 
 These humble creatures saved us. It was 
 due to their fortitude that Great Britain did 
 not openly recognize the Confederacy. 
 Had the masses of England sustained the 
 official classes in regard to the American 
 250 
 
FOREIGN INFLUENCE 
 
 question, some sort of intervention by Eng 
 land in American affairs would in all prob 
 ability have followed. 
 
 The Englishmen whose influence edu 
 cated and sustained the working classes 
 upon this whole matter were John Stuart 
 Mill, John Bright, Richard Cobden, Lord 
 Houghton, William E. Forster, George 
 Thompson, Goldwin Smith, Justin Mc 
 Carthy, Thomas Hughes, Herbert Spencer, 
 Professor J. E. Cairnes as well as the 
 Gurneys, Buxtons, Webbs, and Clarksons 
 of the previous generation: that is to say 
 they were the heart and conscience of Eng 
 land of which Garrison had found himself 
 to be a part in the early days, and by which 
 the whole Anti-slavery movement had been 
 comprehendingly followed during thirty 
 years. The lower classes in England saw 
 that the battle raging in America was their 
 own battle, and that upon the maintenance 
 of the cause of free labor the progress of 
 popular institutions all over the world 
 largely depended. 
 
 When Garrison visited England in 1867 
 he was greeted as the Giant of an Idea 
 ought to be greeted. Public receptions and 
 lunches were given in his honor in London, 
 Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh, and 
 251 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 Glasgow; and many names of note were to 
 be found subscribed under words of wel 
 come. Charles Darwin wrote, twelve years 
 later, to young Garrison : " Thank you for 
 the memorials of Garrison, a name to be for 
 ever revered." I would not cite the fetes 
 and ovations given to Garrison in London 
 in 1867 as proving more than they do prove. 
 We ought to examine the list of guests at 
 the banquets and read the current newspaper 
 editorials by the light of the events of that 
 day, before deciding that Garrison s virtue 
 was alone responsible for all this enthusi 
 asm. I believe that Great Britain seized 
 upon the London Banquet to Garrison as 
 an opportunity for making a sort of amende 
 for her unfriendly conduct during our cri 
 sis; and that persons attended this break 
 fast in 1867 who would not have been found 
 at such a celebration if it had occurred in 
 June, 1863. But whatever may have been 
 the intentions of the Englishmen who, in 
 1867, gave Garrison a banquet, they did 
 right to honor him; and their action gives 
 the cue to posterity. It was Garrison who 
 saved this nation. In his youth he gave us 
 the issue through which alone salvation 
 could come; and by his life he created the 
 spirit through which that issue triumphed. - 
 252 
 
FOREIGN INFLUENCE 
 
 When the strands of this great web are 
 brought together, they are seen to be as 
 light as gossamer: the whole expanding 
 Cosmos of Slavery may be drawn back 
 ward through a gold ring. Slavery in the 
 North American Colonies was an outcome 
 of that geographical remoteness which has 
 so much hampered our progress. Slavery 
 was a form of outrage which could linger on 
 in outlying corners of the globe, long after 
 it had become impossible in the centers of 
 Western civilization. It had no legal in 
 ception in our Colonies : it was older than 
 law. But it grew with our growth. The 
 arrangement between the Colonies which 
 goes by the name of the " New England\ 
 Confederation of 1643" contained a clause j 
 for the rendition of fugitive slaves. Be- \ 
 fore the year 1862 there was never a mo 
 ment in our history when slavery could have 
 been abolished by the popular will. The\ 
 United States Constitution of 1789 could \ 
 never have been adopted by the Southern / 
 States had it not contained clauses protect-! 
 ing slavery. Slavery was in the blood of/ 
 our people. During the thirty years, from 
 1830 to 1860, while the system was being 
 driven out of the blood of our people 
 through the power of the New Testament, 
 253 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 there grew up a natural illusion, that the 
 whole matter was one of municipal law. 
 In reality the matter was one of influence, 
 in which law only played a part. 
 
 The American temperament had thus 
 been under the harrow of iniquity for two 
 hundred years. During all this time 
 slavery had been commercially an error, in 
 tellectually a blight, in every social aspect 
 a poison. The toxin of it engendered in 
 the Southerner that subtle quality, known 
 and feared by the Greeks an un-awed self- 
 will. This quality is a mere inability to 
 give way, and shows that the inner will of 
 the man is closed to the great creative force 
 of the universe. If he cannot let this force 
 in, he will be destroyed by it. Nature con 
 spires against him; humanity joins hands 
 against him. His fall is certain. 
 
 The toxin of slavery engendered also in 
 the Northerner the correlative sin to self- 
 will, namely, a mean submission. The 
 Southerner could not give way: he did not 
 know how to yield. The Northerner could 
 not stand fast: he always yielded. If you 
 subtract the slave, who stands between these 
 two samples of damaged temperament, you 
 will still have a symbol of the institution of 
 slavery in these two divergent attitudes of 
 254 
 
FOREIGN INFLUENCE 
 
 degradation. Do not seek for the fault in 
 conventions or in Constitutions. There is 
 no fault: there is only a moral situation, 
 having a geographical origin. 
 
 During all this time the stars were fight 
 ing against slavery. They fought behind 
 clouds and darkly for two hundred years; 
 and at last their influence began to develop 
 visible symptoms of cure. A very small part 
 of life or history is ever visible, and it is 
 only by inference that we know what pow 
 ers have been at work; but in 1829 it is 
 plain that some terrible drug is in operation ( 
 in America. Whether this hot liquid was ; 
 first born in the vitals of the slave we do 
 not know. It seems to me that the origin ^ 
 of it must have been in the slave himself; 
 and that it was mystically transmitted to \ 
 the Abolitionist, in whom it appeared as 
 pity. We know that the drops of this pity \ 
 had a peculiar, stimulating power on the / 
 earth a dynamic, critical power, a sort i 
 of prison-piercing faculty, which sent < 
 voltages of electrical shock through human 
 ity. It is plain that all this conductivity 
 to the ideas of Abolition was a part of 
 Abolition. The sensitiveness of the South 
 to criticism was also a part of Abolition. 
 
 There began, therefore, in about 1830, a 
 255 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 course of shuttling passion, which seems 
 ever to repeat itself and to run upon a cir 
 cuit. A wave of criticism from the North 
 arouses violent opposition at the South : this 
 awakens the North to new criticism. As 
 the result of each reaction the South loses 
 /a little and the North gains a little. Now 
 /the relative numbers and resources of the 
 1 North were, during all this time, increasing 
 \so rapidly that nothing but hypnotism could 
 ceep her in subjection to the Slave Power. 
 And the days of hypnotism were plainly at 
 in end; the days of shock and question were 
 dome. Whatever the South did, turned out 
 TO be shocking, and to be mistaken. What 
 ever the South did, returned to plague the 
 ^ inventor. The Missouri Compromise of 
 1820 was a Southern victory and jarred 
 upon the Northern conscience a little. 
 Nine years thereafter arises Abolition. 
 i/The offer of a reward for Garrison by the 
 State of Georgia in 1831 weakened the 
 South; the elaborate attempts to suppress 
 i4he Abolitionists in 1835 weakened the 
 ^ South ; the Annexation of Texas weakened 
 I her. The Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, the 
 \s Repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, 
 u-the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the invasion of 
 Kansas by the Border Ruffians, the Dred 
 256 
 
FOREIGN INFLUENCE 
 
 Scott Decision each one of these things, 
 though apparently a victory, proved in the 
 end to be a boomerang, which operated to 
 weaken the South and to awaken the North. 
 On the other hand the North seemed to be 
 protected from the consequences of moral 
 error. The greatest illustration of this is 
 the case of John Brown, whose crimes were 
 at first not credited, and later were sanctified 
 by contemporary Northern opinion. 
 
 Curiously enough, the political control of] 
 the South went on growing stronger and \ 
 stronger while the basis for this control ( 
 its hold on the Northern imagination \ 
 was growing weaker and weaker. In other J 
 words, the Southern leaders always won: 
 their cause always lost. Some Nemesis 
 was working out. The mecanique of each 
 successive step in the process was always the 
 same. The weapon of the South was her 
 threat of disunion. This threat seems to 
 have had the effect of a spell upon our 
 Northern ancestors. Disunion was in their 
 opinion too horrible to be named, and much 
 too terrible to be executed. The mere 
 thought of it shattered Northern nerves. 
 A world without the United States Consti 
 tution seemed to Northern men like a world 
 before God s arrival chaos come again. 
 257 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 It was this threat of disunion that carried 
 the Missouri Compromise in 1820, gave the 
 moral victory to the Nullifiers in 1832, car 
 ried the Compromise measures of 1850, re 
 pealed the Missouri Compromise in 1854, 
 elected Buchanan in 1856, and ruled the 
 fortunes of the Republic in collateral mat 
 ters between these crises. 
 
 The North was so accustomed to knuck- 
 
 | ling under at the sound of that threat that 
 when Secession actually took place in 1860, 
 
 i when the worst had happened and the 
 
 \Union was irretrievably shattered, the 
 ySForth begged for more compromises : it 
 proposed to woo the South back through 
 new concessions. It offered another Fugi 
 tive Slave Law which should be embodied 
 in the Constitution. The triumphant Re 
 publican Party seems to have been stunned, 
 and could not believe that the long- 
 dreamed-of catastrophe had actually oc 
 curred. It will be observed that both North 
 and South upon this occasion merely played 
 their stock parts. The South, through the 
 habit of self-will, seceded. The North, 
 through the tradition of self-abasement, 
 begged her to come back. 
 
 f Then occurred a thing which no one ex- 
 ) pected. The submerged courage, the abased 
 
FOREIGN INFLUENCE 
 
 self-assertion of the Northern people broke 
 suddenly into expression. Fort Sumter was 
 fired on, and every one of twenty millions 
 of people received a shock that gave him 
 a new kind of an organ for a heart. The 
 dramatic nature of this climax was greatly 
 enhanced by the slow manner of its coming 
 on, by the dreadful waiting of the previous 
 months, by the cowardice and inefficiency of 
 the politicians, and by the dumbness of all 
 the oracles. Garrison, at this juncture, is 
 as empty as the prophets of Baal : he knows 
 nothing. Earth s remedies have failed. 
 No one is abreast of the situation. Lincoln 
 only waits. At this moment, when the ca 
 tastrophe is in the sky and the thud of Fate s 
 footsteps can be heard, there occurred that 
 thing which Herndon had spoken of in a 
 prophetic letter one year earlier. Hern 
 don wrote his last letter to Theodore Parker 
 on December 15, 1859. "The Republicans 
 in Congress," he says, " are grinding off the 
 flesh from their kneecaps, attempting to con 
 vince the South that we are cowards. We 
 are cowards, that is, our representatives are. 
 . . . The South is now catechising the 
 North. To this question, What is the true 
 end of man? it stands and shiveringly an 
 swers, The chief end of man is to support 
 259 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 the nigger institutions, and to apologize to 
 despots. The Senators are all on their 
 knees. So are the Representatives. Let 
 them shrive themselves there, and mankind 
 will avenge the humiliation in the future. 
 This is God s constant mode of operation. 
 The race will pull the trigger which the in 
 dividual refused to touch. God will cry to 
 the race Fire and it will fire." 
 
 Never did the calculating human intellect 
 more completely break down in the whole 
 legal history of America. Never did so 
 much ability prove so impotent to under 
 stand or to assist a social development. Sal 
 vation came in spite of all men through 
 the invisible. Courage came back with the 
 war, a certain great, gross courage, 
 mixed with carnage and barbarity as the 
 courage of war ever must be, yet still 
 courage. This was the precious part of the 
 war; for this courage was but a sample 
 thread of a new kind of life which trusts 
 generous feelings, relies upon the unseen, 
 is in union with the unconscious operations 
 of the spirit. 
 
 260 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 The harvest is past, the summer is ended and 
 are not saved. Jeremiah 8:20. 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 THE Anti-slavery epoch presents a perfect 
 example of the rise, progress, and victory of 
 a moral cause. This cause was so obvious, so 
 inevitable, its roots were so deep in human 
 nature and in history, that its victory was 
 assured from the beginning. In studying 
 it, all our wonder and all our attention may 
 be reserved for the manner of its rise, the 
 form of its advance, and the mode of its vic 
 tory. 
 
 Historians are apt to apportion praise and 
 blame to the Abolitionists, to the Southern 
 leaders, to the Republican Party, to the gen 
 erals during the war, to the troops upon one 
 side or the other in the terrible conflict. But 
 such appraisements are either the aftermath 
 of partisan feeling, or they are the judg 
 ments of men who have not realized the pro 
 fundity and the complexity of the whole 
 movement the inevitability not only of 
 the outcome, but of the process. That Gar 
 rison should have disapproved of the entry 
 of Abolition into party politics, and that he 
 should have raved like a hen upon the river 
 263 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 bank when he saw the ducklings he had 
 hatched rush into political waters; that the 
 great intellect of Calhoun should have been 
 driven forward by a suicidal logic into 
 theories that were at war with the world s 
 whole inheritance of truth; that Webster 
 should have been now right, now wrong, or 
 the Supreme Court now enlightened by a 
 flickering compassion or again overshad 
 owed by the Spirit of Crime; such facts 
 as these are parts of the great story, and can 
 hardly be handled or sampled by themselves, 
 hardly separated, even for a moment, from 
 their context. 
 
 The private judgments which we are 
 tempted to utter concerning critical phases 
 or moments in any great cycle and sweep of 
 destiny, are never conclusive, never impor 
 tant. We cannot know the truth about any 
 of these things. No one can be sure that 
 Garrison did not exert greater influence upon 
 practical politics through his dogma of non- 
 resistance than he could have done through 
 an active participation in government. No 
 one can state the precise value of the Liberty 
 Party and the Free Soil Movement ; no one 
 can weigh the influence of " Uncle Tom s 
 Cabin." All that we can be sure of is the 
 great movement itself, which emerges, 
 264 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 winds, coils, progresses, now gleaming and 
 flashing beneath the surface, now emerging 
 above the surface of social and political life 
 in America, like a great golden serpent, 
 a mysterious all-pervading influence, su 
 pernal, mythological, typifying the regen 
 eration of a people. 
 
 The Legend is so vast, and moves at such 
 a pace from beginning to end, that no two 
 minds can agree about its details. Yet that 
 Legend is at all points illuminated with the 
 inner light of poetry and religion. It has 
 an artistic unity, it moves like a very com 
 plicated sonata; so that we who regard it, 
 somehow see our own souls in it, and draw 
 out of it only what we put into it. The 
 Anti-slavery Legend will reflect the spiritual 
 history of any mind that looks into it; it is 
 a mirror of the soul. It is a sort of the 
 saurus of moral illustration. The reason is 
 that we were deeply diseased; we were in 
 immense danger; we were covered with 
 scales, and our mind was threatened. Our 
 whole civilization was iridescent with the 
 same poison. But we were healed, we 
 were saved. And in the course of our 
 cure every process and function of health 
 was revealed. 
 
 To talk about the present is always diffi- 
 265 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 cult. The past is easy; but when in the 
 course of any discussion we approach the 
 present, we approach the unknowable. The 
 present can by no means be brought into his 
 toric focus. If then we look about us in 
 America to-day, having in our minds some 
 reminiscence of history, let us beware of 
 certitude: let us touch upon what we see 
 with merely a hint and a query. I will, 
 then, do no more than name three shapes 
 which I see or seem to see and which may 
 be thought of as apparitions or as passing 
 fancies ; the first is a kind of specter, the 
 second is a visitation from on high, the 
 third is a prophecy. They are namely : the 
 Decay of Learning, the Rise of Love, and 
 the ultimate Revival of Spiritual Interests. 
 The dying-off of our older cultivation, 
 which gives so much concern to all intelli 
 gent persons in America, does not indicate 
 death. It is due to two causes, one of 
 them being the historic and withering in 
 fluence of isolation and of commerce; the 
 other being the present preoccupation of 
 our noblest minds with philanthropic work. 
 New life is at hand, though it exists in 
 forms which the intellect has never grasped, 
 and never can grasp. Before* however, 
 speaking of the future, we must look back 
 266 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 once more upon the discouraging side of 
 life in America on the decay of learning. 
 From an external point of view, the Anti- 
 slavery epoch can be very simply seen as the 
 epoch during which America was returning 
 to the family of European nations from the 
 exile which her connection with slavery had 
 imposed upon her. The struggle over 
 slavery while it lasted left her citizens 
 neither time nor attention for general edu 
 cation. In 1830, we found ourselves iso 
 lated and it took us thirty years of work to 
 break down the barriers between ourselves 
 and the modern world. The intellect and 
 passion of the country was given up during 
 this time to a terrible conflict between pro 
 phetic morality on the one hand and the un 
 profitable sophistries of law, politics and 
 government on the other. Our attitude 
 towards Europe was unintelligent; our ex 
 perience in ideas (other than prophetic 
 ethics and Constitutional Law) was nil. 
 The consequence was that the American 
 fell tremendously behind the European in 
 general cultivation. 
 
 Now the period after our return to social 
 
 life the period, namely, between 1865 an( i 
 
 the present time coincides with the rise 
 
 of modern commerce, so that we no sooner 
 
 267 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 got free from one enemy to the soul than 
 we were fastened upon by another and 
 that other the half-brother and blood rela 
 tion of the first. I will not try to analyze 
 America nor define her relation to Europe. 
 I will only point out our most dreadful de 
 fects, and this only as a prelude to mention 
 ing our hopes of salvation. 
 
 I confess that a certain hard-eyed, cold- 
 hearted look in the American sometimes 
 causes me to remember that Slavery was al 
 ways Commerce, and that Commerce is to 
 some extent always Slavery. Such great 
 wealth as has been created in America since 
 1865 would have hardened the eyes of any 
 generation that looked on it. We have in 
 deed been born to calamity in America, and 
 our miseries have come thickly upon us. If 
 you will walk back across the whole history 
 of the world, you will find that respect for 
 learning has never before fallen so low as it 
 has fallen in the United States to-day. If 
 you start anywhere in Europe and trace your 
 way back to ancient Egypt, you will find no 
 age without its savants, its thinkers, men who 
 know something of the past, living some 
 times in caves and sometimes in drawing- 
 rooms, yet always, in a certain sense, the 
 publicists of their times. These are the 
 268 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 men through whom, to some extent, re 
 ligion, education, and the traditions of 
 spiritual life are transmitted from age to 
 age. There have always been enough of 
 such men in every age to secure popular re 
 spect for the idea for which they stand, 
 the idea of continuity. There has been no 
 real break in European culture. During 
 the dark ages the most visible and most 
 powerful influence upon popular imagina 
 tion consisted in the monuments of a gigan 
 tic past. Indeed, for many centuries there 
 after, the overwhelming influence of an 
 tiquity cowed the world. That element has 
 endured in European education in the form 
 of a reverence for the past. It stands 
 behind every man as a sort of sounding- 
 board in his mind, an invisible chamber of 
 consciousness that gives resonance to his 
 voice. 
 
 If to-day you fall into casual conversation 
 with almost any European, you will feel the 
 influence of these vistas of education. The 
 man s mind is inured to thought. What 
 you say to him is native to his soul. He 
 has heard something like it before. He 
 knows of the existence of the Empire of the 
 Intellect. He is interested in the spiritual 
 history of the world. All this illumination 
 269 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 is no personal merit in the individual you 
 speak to. He has lived near to the scholar, 
 the musician, the painter, the antiquarian, 
 the philologist, the mathematician. 
 
 It happened that a series of misfortunes 
 so widowed America that we have all but 
 lost the past. Much baggage was jettisoned 
 in the original transit across the sea, 
 much lost during our colonial and frontier 
 period, and finally we were stripped 
 bare by the pirate Slavery, and marooned 
 for seventy years in a sort of Babylonian 
 captivity. I think there is enough in all 
 this to account for the bleakness of Ameri 
 can life as contrasted with European life. 
 I think that the emotions must in youth 
 be fed upon a sort of pabulum that comes 
 down out of the past songs, aspirations, 
 stories, prayers, reverence for humanity, 
 knowledge of God; or else some dread 
 ful barrenness will set in and paralyze 
 the intellect of a race. The question some 
 times forces itself upon me, Is not the Ger 
 man citizen of the second generation, who 
 walks the streets of New York to-day, more 
 truly a barbarian than his Gothic ancestor 
 who invaded Europe in the fourth century 
 A.D., and whose magnificent vernacular 
 is preserved in Ulfilas translation of the 
 270 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 Scriptures? In piety, in knowledge of 
 poetry, in reverence, the Goth was more 
 advanced than his American descendant. 
 I say, the Suabian peasant of to-day seems 
 to me to be superior to the American farmer 
 in many of those things that make life deep 
 and cause society to endure. 
 
 To cut loose, to cast away, to destroy, 
 seems to be our impulse. We do not want 
 the past. This awful loss of all the terms 
 of thought, this beggary of intellect, is 
 shown in the unwillingness of the average 
 man in America to go to the bottom of any 
 subject, his mental inertia, his hatred of im 
 personal thought, his belief in labor-saving, 
 his indifference to truth. The state of mind 
 in which commercial classes spend their lives 
 is not that of pure, self-sacrificing spiritual 
 perception. The commercial mind seems, 
 in its essence, to be the natural enemy of 
 love, religion, and truth ; and when, as at the 
 present moment in America, we have com 
 merce dominant in an era whose character 
 istic note is contempt for the past, we can 
 hardly expect a picturesque, pleasing, or 
 harmonious social life. 
 
 Much is lost sight of, much is forgotten 
 among us; much is unknown that in any 
 European country would be familiar. For 
 271 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 instance, this very man, William Lloyd Gar 
 rison, is almost forgotten among us. He 
 lived a life of heroism and of practical 
 achievement; the beauty of his whole course 
 was extraordinary, and his type of character 
 is very rare. Had he lived in Europe he 
 would have been classified at once among 
 the great figures of his own generation. 
 Indeed he was so classified from across the 
 sea. His character would have been prized 
 thereafter as a national possession. But in 
 America all that the educated man of to-day 
 knows of Garrison is that he was one who 
 held impractical views and used over-strong 
 language during the Anti-slavery struggle. 
 
 All this feebleness, whose evidences I have 
 been reviewing, comes, I believe, from a 
 central deficiency of life in the American 
 people. It is not a thing which can be 
 cured in the college, or in the school, or in 
 the drawing-room; though the cure will 
 show in all such places as fast as the great 
 patient improves. 
 
 During the very epoch (the decade suc 
 ceeding the close of the war) when our 
 intellectual blight was at its worst, there 
 began to appear among us compassionate 
 persons founding newsboys halls in the 
 Five Points, prison angels, and police court 
 272 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 visitors, saints knocking at the doors of the 
 poor men filled with love and pity. This 
 new gospel of love now absorbs whole 
 classes of people in American life, and 
 swallows the young as the Crusades once 
 swallowed them. I hear schoolmasters and 
 learned men complain that their most bril 
 liant classical scholars insist upon doing 
 settlement work the moment they graduate. 
 Why do the young people of both sexes 
 take this course? What planetary influ 
 ence depletes the exhausted ranks of 
 scholarship, and makes traitors of these 
 trained minds to the cause of learning? 
 In their new career their old education goes 
 apparently for nothing. They themselves 
 cannot tell you. And yet they are justified. 
 These young people are being governed by 
 that higher law which governed St. Fran 
 cis the law which he also knew how to 
 obey but could not explain. Our young 
 people express by their conduct a more 
 potent indictment of the cultivation and 
 science of the older, dying epoch than could 
 be written with the pen of Ezekiel. The 
 age has nothing in it that satisfies them: 
 they therefore turn away from it: they 
 satisfy themselves elsewhere. In so doing 
 they create a new age. The deeper needs of 
 273 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 humanity can only be met slowly. It re 
 quired several hundred years for the mean 
 ing and importance of St. Francis to be 
 come apparent. To his contemporaries he 
 seemed to be a disciple sent to the poor; 
 yet his influence ultimately qualified the art 
 and letters, and tinged the philosophy of 
 life of several centuries. 
 
 All these new saints of ours. new 
 Christians, and loving persons who crowd 
 the slums, and rediscover Christ in them 
 selves and in others lack power to ex 
 plain; they merely exist. Through them, 
 or rather through the heart which they in 
 fuse, literature and intellect will return, art 
 and mental vigor will be restored to us. It 
 would seem that the bowels and viscera of 
 society must be heated first, and thereafter 
 in time it may be a century or two a 
 warmer life will reach the mind. These 
 new grubs that creep out of the ground, 
 these golden bees that dart by us in the sun 
 shine, going so directly to their work like 
 camp nurses, are more perfect creatures 
 than we are, in that they deal with human 
 ity as a unit. You and I are nothing to 
 them. They have a relation to the whole. 
 They are living in a beam which we do 
 not see, they are the servants of a great 
 274 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 cure which we cannot give, and do not un 
 derstand. 
 
 So also in regard to the Anti-Slavery 
 Movement; the importance of that Move 
 ment comes from the fact that it meant 
 piety, truth, and love. The rest is illusion. 
 In a certain sense the slaves were freed too 
 soon. That short-sighted element in the 
 philosophy of Abolition, which saw Slav 
 ery as the Antichrist (whereas the spiritual 
 domination of evil was the real Antichrist), 
 ended by putting Slavery to its purgation 
 so quickly and so convulsively that many 
 features and visiting cards of slavery were 
 left behind in the nervous system of the 
 people. This was no one s fault: it was 
 the method of nature. An after-cure was 
 necessary ; and we have been undergoing an 
 after-cure, and need more of it. 
 
 I regret the loss of the old cultivation; 
 and yet I know that none of our older cul 
 tivation was ever quite right. The Ameri 
 can has never lived from quite the right 
 place in his bosom. Nevertheless if we 
 are but patient the loss will be restored to 
 us tenfold. We are living in the age of a 
 great regeneration. There is hardly a man 
 in whose face I do not see some form of it. 
 New hope is with us. Very different is 
 275 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 our mission from that of the Abolitionist, 
 though both are forms of the same power. 
 Anti-slavery was the narrow, burning gate 
 of heaven, seen by a few men, who fought 
 their way towards it, paying with their 
 lives for every step in their progress. 
 Crags overhung them : society hated them : 
 every man was their enemy. In our new 
 crusade no one is our enemy. The spirit 
 is felt in all men. In some, it moves in the 
 heart crying, Abba, Father. Others it 
 leaves speechless, but makes their lives 
 beautiful through unselfish labor. Still 
 others it illuminates with visions, so that 
 we see men and women who live like angels, 
 running up and down in the celestial light, 
 passing forward and back between God and 
 man, bringing health to many. In other 
 hearts it has broken the old shackles of 
 prejudice, and shown to them the common 
 bond that lives in all religion. The 
 churches have been growing liberal for 
 the first time in the history of Christianity. 
 Other classes of men glow with an enthu 
 siasm for science which is becoming a form 
 of worship for truth, differing chiefly in 
 name from religion. It is as if a truce 
 had been sounded in that antique war that 
 has raged forever over creed form and 
 276 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 scientific theory, and as if every one were 
 standing in silence, thinking of the realities 
 which lie and which have always lain be 
 hind the noisy dogmas and the certified for 
 mulas of human thought. The wrecks of 
 many creeds are being clashed together 
 like the cakes of ice in the Hudson during 
 a great February thaw; while the strong 
 river bears them all forward in triumph. 
 
 Great and small, learned and unlearned 
 meet upon that plane of common humility 
 which is their only meeting ground. It is 
 a period when the power and first-hand 
 mystery of life is recognized on every side, 
 and when the conventions and lies that dam 
 and deny that power are for the time being 
 widely broken down. I do not say that 
 the dams will remain down forever. Peo 
 ple are building at them all the time. Trade 
 interests, personal selfishnesses are indefati- 
 gably at work like ants contesting every 
 inch of the damage, inventing new dykes, 
 denying that any permanent change has 
 taken place. 
 
 Let us be glad that we are born in this 
 age and within the swirl and current of the 
 new freedom. Let us do each our share 
 to leave the dams down, and not build 
 them up in our own bosoms; for it is in 
 277 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 peoples bosoms that all these dams exist. 
 We must permit the floods of life to run 
 freely. It is not from any one of our re 
 forms, arts, sciences, and churches but out 
 of all of them that salvation flows. What 
 shall we do to assist in this great process? 
 What relation do we bear to the move 
 ment? That is the question which requires 
 a lifetime for its answer. Our knowledge 
 of the subject changes constantly under ex 
 perience. At first we desire to help vigor 
 ously; and we do all in our power to assist 
 mankind. As time goes on, we perceive 
 more and more clearly that the advancement 
 of the world does not depend upon us, but 
 that we, rather, are bound up in it, and can 
 command no foothold of our own. At last 
 we see that our very ambitions, desires and 
 hopes in the matter are a part of the Su 
 pernal Machinery moving through all things, 
 and that our souls can be satisfied and our 
 power exerted only in so far as we are 
 taken up into that original motion, and 
 merged in that primal power. Our minds 
 thus dissolve under the grinding analysis of 
 life, and leave behind nothing except God. 
 Towards him we stand and look; and we, 
 who started out with so many gifts for men, 
 have nothing left in our satchel for man 
 kind except a blessing. 
 278 
 
INDEX 
 
 Throughout the Index G. stands for the subject of the 
 memoir. 
 
 tion of, 105 ff.; in 
 Boston, 112, 113; and 
 T. Lyman, 122; and 
 the murder of Lovejoy, 
 129 ff.; in New York, 
 course of, 147 ff.; con 
 servative , form the New 
 Organization, 153; quar 
 rels among, 177 ff.; 
 discovered the horrors of 
 slavery, 188; and Emer 
 son, 226, 227; certain 
 ante-bellum doings of, 
 244 ff.; and English 
 liberals, 249, 250. And 
 see Abolition, Anti-slav 
 ery, Lunt Committee, 
 National Anti-Slavery 
 Society, Rynders Mob, 
 Thompson. 
 ADAMS, Charles Francis, 
 
 ABOLITION, Southern view 
 of, 24, 48; and Anti- 
 slavery societies, 48; 
 new type of, 49, 50; op 
 posed by official classes 
 in North, 50, 51 ; in his 
 tory, 61, 62; J. Q. 
 Adams and, 91, 92; in 
 1830 and 1840, 97 ; an ac 
 cepted fact, 103; really 
 a servile uprising, 119; 
 progress of, 128, 134 Jf.; 
 and Woman s Rights, 
 T 53 *54 conservative 
 opponents of, 199, 200; 
 leaders in, 200; a disease, 
 228; G. the leader of, 
 242. And see Abolition 
 ists, Anti-slavery ,Chan- 
 ning, Emerson, R. W., 
 May, S. J. 
 
 ABOLITIONISTS, and free 
 speech, 27; W. E. Chan- 
 ning and, 27, 28, 88 ; and 
 Turner s rebellion, 51, 
 52; paradoxical fate of, 
 59,60; and G. s Thoughts 
 on African Colonization, 
 65; attempt to put 
 down, in 1835-6, 99 ff.; 
 how viewed by the aver 
 age man, 105; persecu- 
 
 250. 
 
 ADAMS, John, 49. 
 
 ADAMS, John Quincy, not 
 an Abolitionist, 88, 89; 
 character of, 89, 90; his 
 service in Congress in 
 old age, 90-92; and 
 Massachusetts, 92 ; 7 , 50. 
 
 African Repository, The, 
 63, 64. 
 
 AGITATOR, what is an? 90. 
 
 279 
 
INDEX 
 
 ALCOTT, A. Bronson, 80. 
 
 ANDREW, John A., 243. 
 
 ANTI-SLAVERY, G. and, 97 
 ff.; G. s conduct during 
 Boston mob an exempli 
 fication of the policy, 
 1 17 ; political history of, 
 where to be found, 136; 
 meeting at Broadway 
 Tabernacle, 203 ff.; a 
 sort of special illumina 
 tion, 228; agitation in 
 Edinburgh, 246; meet 
 ing in London, 246, 247. 
 And see Abolition, Abo 
 litionists, National Anti- 
 Slavery Society. 
 
 ANTI -SLAVERY League, or 
 ganized by G. in London, 
 246, 247. 
 
 ANTI-SLAVERY societies 
 in 1830, 47, 48; over 
 slaughed by Abolition, 
 48; 123, 134, 135, 151, 
 I 7 6 ff. 
 
 ASSOCIATION, theory of ,31 . 
 
 ATLEE, Edwin P., 73, 74. 
 
 AUSTIN, James T., 130, 
 
 BALTIMORE, and the slave- 
 
 trade, 46; G. jailed at, 
 
 for libel, 46, 47. 
 BAPTISTS, and Abolition, 
 
 208. 
 
 BARTLETT, Deacon, 41. 
 BEECHER, Harriet, 102. 
 
 And see Stowe, Harriet 
 
 Beecher. 
 
 BEECHER, Henry Ward, 
 quoted, 249. 
 
 BEECHER, Lyman, 66 and 
 n., 67, 68, 69. 
 
 BENSON, George, 107. 
 
 BENSON, Henry, quoted, 
 106. 
 
 BENTON, Thomas H., 7. 
 
 BIBLE, the, the source of 
 G. s power, 164-166. 
 
 BIRNEY, James G., 103, 
 108, 118. 
 
 BOND, George, 128. 
 
 BOSTON, G. mobbed in, 
 101, 102, 113 ff.; Abo 
 litionists in, 112, 113; 
 Pro-slavery men in, 120, 
 121 ; Garrison mob in, 
 the sticking-point of 
 violence in, 118. And 
 see Faneuil Hall, Park 
 St. Church. 
 
 BOSTON aristocracy, and 
 J. Q. Adams, 92. 
 
 BOSTON Female Anti- 
 Slavery Society, 113. 
 
 BOSTON Tea Party, and 
 the murder of Love joy, 
 130, 131- 
 
 BOWDITCH, Henry I., quot 
 ed, 19, 20 and .; 21, 
 108, 123. 
 
 BRADFORD, Gamaliel, 127, 
 128. 
 
 BRIGHT, John, quoted, 
 249; 96, 251. 
 
 BRITISH working-classes, 
 and G., 249, 250; and 
 the Civil War, 250. 
 
 280 
 
INDEX 
 
 BROADWAY Tabernacle, 
 Anti-slavery meeting at. 
 See Rynders Mob. 
 
 BROUGHAM, Henry, Lord, 
 quoted, in Thompson, 
 92. 
 
 BROWN, John, and North 
 ern opinion, 257. 
 
 BUCHANAN, James, 23, 
 258. 
 
 BUFFUM, Arnold, 71. 
 
 BUNYAN, John, 35. 
 
 BURLEIGH, C. C., quoted, 
 in Boston Mob, 116; 73. 
 
 BUXTON, Thomas F., 245, 
 246. 
 
 CAIRNES, J. E., 251. 
 
 CALHOUN, John C., 7, 23, 
 140, 158, 193, 208. 
 
 CANTERBURY, Conn., 
 Crandall case at, 70 ff. 
 
 CHAMBERLAIN, Daniel H., 
 quoted, 243. 
 
 CHANNiNG.William Ellery, 
 and the slavery ques 
 tion, 26 Jf., 87, 88; and 
 Abolition, 27, 28, 81-86; 
 and Pollen, 29, 30; and 
 the theory of associa 
 tion, 31; G. at his 
 church, 31, 32, 100, 129, 
 133, 174, 224. 
 
 CHARLESTON, S. C., post- 
 office at, broken into, 
 104, 105. 
 
 CHARLESTON Courier, 187. 
 
 CINCINNATI Convention 
 (1853), 160. 
 
 CIVIL War, the, 4, 59, 60. 
 CLARKSON, Thomas, 245, 
 
 251- 
 
 CLAY, Cassius M., 159, 
 1 60. 
 
 CLAY, Henry, G. s stric 
 tures on, 191; 7. 
 
 COBDEN, Richard, 251. 
 
 COLONIZATION Society of 
 1830, 63 ff.; a sham re 
 form, 63; destroyed by 
 G., 65, 66; 244. 
 
 COMPROMISE of 1850, 177, 
 258. 
 
 CONSTITUTION of U. S., 
 Slavery and, 13, 15, 16, 
 140 /., i68/., 172, 173; 
 publicly burned by G., 
 174. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL Conven 
 tion (1787), 9, 13. 
 
 COOPER Union, Emerson s 
 speech at, 234 ff. 
 
 COPLEY, Josiah, quoted, 
 
 57- 
 
 COTTAGE Bible, the, 76. 
 CRANDALL, Prudence, case 
 
 of, 70 ff., indicted and 
 
 convicted, 72, 73; 80, 
 
 106. 
 
 CRANDALL, Reuben, 106. 
 CROMWELL, Oliver, 165. 
 
 DARWIN, Charles, quoted, 
 
 252. 
 DISUNION, effect of threat 
 
 of, 257, 258. 
 DOUGLAS, Stephen A., 140, 
 
 241. 
 
 281 
 
INDEX 
 
 DOUGLASS, Frederick, in 
 Boston, 19, 20 and n. t 
 2i , at Rynders Mob 
 meeting, 215, 216, 217; 
 108, 210. 
 
 DRESSER, Amos, flogging 
 
 EMANCIPATION, Immedi 
 ate, G. the apostle of, 
 47; genesis of, 47, 48; 
 238. 
 
 Emancipator, the, quoted, 
 148-150. 
 
 EMERSON, Edward W., 
 quotes, 231. 
 
 EMERSON, R. W., on the 
 relations of North and 
 South, 18; his Phi Beta 
 Kappa address (1835) 
 and G. s at Park St. 
 Church (1829), com 
 pared, 43-45; difference 
 between G. and, 45, 46, 
 219 jf.; his journal quot 
 ed, 223, 224, 225, 226; 
 and the Abolitionists, 
 226, 227, 228 ; his lecture 
 on"TheTimes, "quoted, 
 229, 230; and the mur 
 der of Love j oy , 23 1 , 234 ; 
 his "New England Re 
 formers," quoted, 233, 
 234; his Cooper Union 
 speech (1854), quoted, 
 234 J.; 86. ^ 
 
 ENGLAND, philanthropists 
 of, and the U. S., 245, 
 246; G. organizes Anti- 
 
 Slavery League In, 246; 
 why she did not recog 
 nize the Confederacy, 
 250,251. 
 
 EPISCOPALIANS, and Abo 
 lition, 200, 208. 
 
 EvANGELiCALAlliance,the , 
 slave-holders admitted 
 to, 247; denounced by 
 G. and Thompson, 247, 
 248. 
 
 EVERETT, Edward, quoted, 
 25, 26; and Abolition, 
 102, 103; 124, 138. 
 
 FANEUIL Hall, meeting of 
 friends of South in, 101, 
 109 ff.; meeting in, on 
 Love joy murder, 129^". 
 
 POLLEN, Charles, death of, 
 28; Channing and pro 
 posed meeting in com 
 memoration of, 29, 30; 
 and the Lunt Commit 
 tee, 124, 125. 
 
 FORSTER, William E., 96, 
 
 251. 
 
 FOSTER, Abby K., 210. 
 
 FRANCIS of Assisi, 86. 
 
 FRANKLIN, Benjamin, 41. 
 
 FREE States, and slave 
 states, admitted to Un 
 ion in pairs, 9. 
 
 FREEDOM, and Slavery, 
 nature of contest be 
 tween, 143. 
 
 FREMONT, John C., 175. 
 
 FRY, Elizabeth, 246. 
 
 FUGITIVE Slave Law, 15, 
 
 282 
 
INDEX 
 
 191, 192, 235, 236, 237, 
 256. 
 
 FURNESS, William H., at 
 Rynders Mob meeting, 
 205, 208, 210 ff., 218. 
 
 GARIBALDI, Guiseppe, 193. 
 
 GARRISON, Frances I. See 
 Garrison, William L., 
 Jr., and others. 
 
 GARRISON, Wendell P. 
 See Garrison, William 
 L., Jr., and others. 
 
 GARRiON,William Lloyd, 
 his relation t?o the ^ffili- 
 slavery period, 6; his 
 view of slavery and its 
 relation to the history of 
 the U. S. from 1830 to 
 1860, 6; the strongest 
 man in America, 7; his 
 influence on the nation s 
 course, 7, 8; effect of his 
 first utterances on slav 
 ery, 17; and Channing, 
 28; at Channing s 
 Church, 31,32 jhisessen- 
 tial quality, 34; aggres 
 siveness, 34^.; first edi 
 torial in the Liberator, 
 35-41 ; early history, 41, 
 42 ; persuaded by Lundy 
 to enter on what was 
 to be his life-work, 42, 
 43; edits Genius of Uni 
 versal Emancipation, 43, 
 46; address at Park St. 
 Church (1829) 43, 44, 
 compared with Emer- 
 
 283 
 
 son s Phi Beta Kappa 
 address, 43-45; differ 
 ence between Emerson 
 and, 45, 46, 219 ff.; 
 jailed at Baltimore for 
 libel, 46, 47; founds 
 Liberator, 47 ; apostle of 
 Immediate Emancipa 
 tion, 47; reward offered 
 "Tor his arrest, by Georgia 
 Legislature, 48, 49, 256; 
 and J. Q. Adams, 50; 
 indicted in No. Caro 
 lina, 50; and Hayne, 53, 
 54; and the Liberator, 57 ; 
 and the Colonization 
 iety, 63 ff.; his 
 houghts on African 
 Colonization, 63, 64, 65; 
 his Thoughts, etc. and 
 the Lane Seminary Con 
 troversy, 68 ff.; his first 
 Boston address, 77 ff.; 
 brings George Thomp 
 son to U. S., 92; his real 
 work done between 1830 
 and 1840, 97 /., 136, 
 137; his methods, 98, 
 99, 192 /.; and the 
 Boston mob, 101, 102, 
 113 /., 118, 119, 122; his 
 language and conduct, 
 112; quoted, 123; leaves 
 Boston, 123; his solution 
 of the constitutional 
 puzzle, 140; and the 
 National Anti^Slavery 
 Society, 152; his views 
 on various matters, 153, 
 
INDEX 
 
 DOUGLASS, Frederick, in 
 Boston, 19, 20 and n., 
 21 ; at Rynders Mob 
 meeting, 215, 216, 217; 
 108, 210. 
 
 DRESSER, Amos, flogging 
 of,75jf- 
 
 EMANCIPATION, Immedi 
 ate, G. the apostle of, 
 47; genesis of, 47, 48; 
 238. 
 
 Emancipator, the, quoted, 
 148-150. 
 
 EMERSON, Edward W., 
 quotes, 231. 
 
 EMERSON, R. W., on the 
 relations of North and 
 South, 18; his Phi Beta 
 Kappa address (1835) 
 and G. s at Park St. 
 Church (1829), com 
 pared, 43-45; difference 
 between G. and, 45, 46, 
 219 jf.; his journal quot 
 ed, 223, 224, 225, 226; 
 and the Abolitionists, 
 226, 227, 228 ; his lecture 
 on"TheTimes, "quoted, 
 229, 230; and the mur 
 der of Love j oy , 23 1 , 234 ; 
 his "New England Re 
 formers," quoted, 233, 
 234; his Cooper Union 
 speech (1854), quoted, 
 234 J-; 86. ^ 
 
 ENGLAND, philanthropists 
 of, and the U. S., 245, 
 246; G. organizes Anti- 
 
 Slavery League In, 246; 
 why she did not recog 
 nize the Confederacy, 
 250,251. 
 
 EPISCOPALIANS, and Abo 
 lition, 200, 208. 
 
 EvANGELiCALAlliance,the , 
 slave-holders admitted 
 to, 247; denounced by 
 G. and Thompson, 247, 
 248. 
 
 EVERETT, Edward, quoted, 
 25, 26; and Abolition, 
 102, 103; 124, 138. 
 
 FANEUIL Hall, meeting of 
 friends of South in, 101, 
 109 ff.; meeting in, on 
 Love joy murder, I2gff. 
 
 POLLEN, Charles, death of, 
 28; Channing and pro 
 posed meeting in com 
 memoration of, 29, 30; 
 and the Lunt Commit 
 tee, 124, 125. 
 
 FORSTER, William E., 96, 
 
 251. 
 
 FOSTER, Abby K., 210. 
 
 FRANCIS of Assisi, 86. 
 
 FRANKLIN, Benjamin, 41. 
 
 FREE States, and slave 
 states, admitted to Un 
 ion in pairs, 9. 
 
 FREEDOM, and Slavery, 
 nature of contest be 
 tween, 143. 
 
 FREMONT, John C., 175. 
 
 FRY, Elizabeth, 246. 
 
 FUGITIVE Slave Law, 15, 
 
 282 
 
INDEX 
 
 191, 192, 235, 236, 237, 
 256. 
 
 FURNESS, William H., at 
 Rynders Mob meeting, 
 205, 208, 210 ff., 218. 
 
 GARIBALDI, Guiseppe, 193. 
 
 GARRISON, Frances I. See 
 Garrison, William L., 
 Jr., and others. 
 
 GARRISON, Wendell P. 
 See Garrison, William 
 L., Jr., and others. 
 
 GARRISON, William Lloyd, 
 his relation tfa the ./ffiti- 
 slavery period, 6; his 
 view of slavery and its 
 relation to the history of 
 the U. S. from 1830 to 
 1860, 6; the strongest 
 man in America, 7; his 
 influence on the nation s 
 course, 7, 8; effect of his 
 first utterances on slav 
 ery, 17; and Channing, 
 28; at Channing s 
 Church , 3 1 , 32 ; his essen 
 tial quality, 34; aggres 
 siveness, 34 ff.; first edi 
 torial in the Libej&tor, 
 35-41 ; early history, 41, 
 42 ; persuaded by Lundy 
 to enter on what was 
 to be his life-work, 42, 
 43; edits Genius of Uni 
 versal Emancipation, 43, 
 46; address at Park St. 
 Church (1829) 43, 44, 
 compared with Emer- 
 
 283 
 
 son s Phi Beta Kappa 
 address, 43-45; differ 
 ence between Emerson 
 and, 45, 46, 219 ff.; 
 jailed at Baltimore for 
 libel, 46, 47; founds 
 Liberator, 47; apostle of 
 Immediate Emancipa 
 tion, 47; reward offered 
 ""Tor his arrest, by Georgia 
 Legislature, 48, 49, 256; 
 and J. Q. Adams, 50; 
 indicted in No. Caro 
 lina, 50; and Hayne, 53, 
 54; and the Liberator, 57; 
 and the Colonization 
 Society. 63 ff.; his 
 Thoughts on African 
 Colonization, 63, 64, 65; 
 his Thoughts, etc. and 
 the Lane Seminary Con 
 troversy, 68 ff.; his first 
 Boston address, 77 ff.; 
 brings George Thomp 
 son to U. S., 92; his real 
 work done between 1830 
 and 1840, 97 ff., 136, 
 137; his methods, 98, 
 99, 192 ff.; and the 
 Boston mob, 101, 102, 
 H3/., 118, 119, 122; his 
 language and conduct, 
 112; quoted, 123; leaves 
 Boston, 123; his solution 
 of the constitutional 
 puzzle, 140; and the 
 National Anti^Slavery 
 Society, 152; his views 
 on various matters, 153, 
 
INDEX 
 
 155, 156; an outcome of 
 slavery, 158; his life, 
 written by his children, 
 J 5 8 ff-! his character, 
 158 ff.; a man of action, 
 162 ; the Bible the source 
 of his powers, 164-166; 
 quoted, on the "com 
 pact" concerning slav 
 ery, 168 ff., 172, 173; 
 burns the Constitution, 
 174; unity of his course, 
 174; his dealings with 
 Anti-slavery" societies, 
 176 jf.;"his want of conti 
 nuity of thought, 1 80; his 
 strong language, 181, 
 i89;on Henry Clay, 191 ; 
 what kind of man he 
 really was, 194 ff.; R. D. 
 Webb and others quoted 
 on, 195-198; at Broad 
 way Tabernacle (Ryn- 
 dersMob) , 201 , 205 jf ./the 
 leader of Abolition from 
 inception to triumph, 
 242; his position at 
 close-of the war, 243 ; his 
 visits to England, 244, 
 245; organizesAnti-Slav- 
 ery League in London, 
 
 246, 247; denounces 
 Evangelical Alliance, 
 
 247, 248; relations with 
 British philanthropists, 
 
 248, 249; and British 
 workingmen, 249; in 
 England in 1867, 251, 
 252 ; and the firing on in 
 Fort Sumter, 259. 
 
 GARRISON, W. L., Jr., and 
 others, Life of G., quot 
 ed, 106-108, 159 ff., 
 203 ff. 
 
 GARRISON, Mrs. Fanny 
 Lloyd, G. s mother, 41. 
 
 GAY, Sydney H., 210. 
 
 Genius of Universal Eman 
 cipation, the, edited by 
 Lundy, 42; by G., 43, 
 46. 
 
 GEORGIA, Legislature of, 
 offers reward for arrest 
 and conviction of G., 
 48, 49, 256. 
 
 GOODELL, William, 127. 
 
 GRANT, "Professor," 214, 
 
 2 ?,5- 
 
 GREELEY, Horace, 216. 
 GREEN, Beriah, 74, 75. 
 GURNEY, Samuel, 245, 
 
 251. 
 
 HARRINGTON, Judge, 140. 
 
 HARRIS, Miss, colored 
 
 pupil of P. Crandall, 70, 
 
 71. 
 
 HAYNE, Robert Y., Web 
 ster s reply to, 14; ap 
 peals to Otis against G., 
 53 ; Liberator, quoted on, 
 
 53, 54- 
 
 HENRY, Patrick, 215. 
 HERNDON, William H., 
 
 quoted, 259, 260. 
 HOLMES, O. W., 230. 
 HOPKINS, John H., his 
 
 View of Slavery, 200. 
 HOPPER, Isaac T., 210. 
 
 284 
 
INDEX 
 
 HOUGHTON, Lord, 251. 
 HOVEY, Charles F., 210. 
 HOWITTS, the, 246. 
 HUGHES, Thomas, 251. 
 HUTCHINSONS, the, 211, 
 
 212. 
 
 Impartial Citizen, the, 217. 
 
 JACKSON, Andrew, quoted, 
 
 102; 7, 103,210. 
 JACKSON, Edmund, 210. 
 JACKSON, Francis, 114, 
 
 123, 206, 210, 212. 
 JACKSON, Thomas J. 
 
 (Stonewall), 24. 
 JAY, William, quoted, 148, 
 
 150, 155, 156; and Anti- 
 slavery societies, 150, 
 
 151, 153; 157- 
 JEFFERSON, Thomas, quot 
 ed, on slavery, 13; ill. 
 
 JOHNSON, Oliver, his Wil 
 liam Lloyd Garrison and 
 his Times, quoted, 58, 
 63-65, 66-68, 69, 70,71, 
 75, 76 G. s right-hand 
 man, 66; editor of Lib 
 erator, 66. 
 
 KANE, Thomas L., 212. 
 KANSAS- Nebraska Bill, 
 
 256. 
 
 KENDALL, Amos, 105. 
 KNAPP, Isaac, 56, 57. 
 KOSSUTH, Louis, 216. 
 
 LEE, Robert .,24. 
 Liberator, the, G. s first 
 editorial in, 35-41 ; 
 founded by G., 47, 56; 
 Southern campaign 
 against, 51, 52; and 
 Hayne, 53, 54; office of, 
 57, 58; office of, closed, 
 123, 124; 82, 97, 98, 99, 
 148, 150, 152, 153, 167, 
 168, 179, 189. 
 
 LINCOLN, Abraham, assas 
 sination of, 5; and slav 
 ery, 143, 144; his en 
 forced moderation, 145, 
 146; and emancipation, 
 147; 97, 140, 165, 171, 
 175,241,243, 259. 
 
 LOUISIANA Purchase, 9, 
 10. 
 
 LOUISIANA territory, slav 
 ery in, 9. 
 
 LOVEJOY, Elijah P., mur 
 der of, and its effect, 128 
 ff.; Emerson on, 231, 
 232; 117, 119,238. 
 
 LUNDY, Benjamin, 42, 43, 
 46. 
 
 LUNT, George, 124, 125, 
 127. 
 
 LUNT Committee, 124 ff. 
 
 LUTHER, Martin, 35, 193. 
 
 LYMAN, Theodore, Mayor 
 of Boston, 112, 113, 114, 
 115, 116, 121, 122, 123. 
 
 LANE Seminary, contro- MCCARTHY, Justin, 251. 
 versy over, 66 ff.; his- McDuFFiE, George, 127. 
 tory of, 66, 67. MACAULAY, Zachary, 245. 
 
 285 
 
INDEX 
 
 MARTINEAU, Harriet, 
 quoted, 195, 196, 248; 
 her Martyr A ge in A mer- 
 ica, 245; 105, 124. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS, south 
 ern attempt to enslave, 
 101-103. And see Bos 
 ton. 
 
 MATTHEW, Saint, Gospel 
 of, quoted, 181-84. 
 
 MAY, Samuel, Jr., 210, 
 
 2lf, 212. 
 
 MAY, Samuel J., quoted, 
 73-75, 78-8o, 81-86, 
 93-95, 196-98; con 
 verted to Abolition by 
 GM 77 // the angel of 
 Anti-slavery, 78; and 
 G., 80, 8 1 ; and the Lunt 
 Committee, 124, 126, 
 127; 29, 32,71,138,150, 
 227. 
 
 METHODISTS, and Aboli 
 tion, 208. 
 
 MILL, John Stuart, 251. 
 
 MILTON, John, 165. 
 
 MISSOURI, admission of, 
 with slavery, 10. 
 
 MISSOURI Compromise, 
 10, 25, 256, 258; repeal 
 of, 10, 256, 258. 
 
 NASHVILLE, vigilance com 
 mittee at, 76. 
 
 NATIONAL Anti-Slavery 
 Society founded, 73 ff.; 
 
 151- 
 
 National Intelligencer, the, 
 appeals to Otis, 52, 53. 
 
 NEGRO, the, how related 
 to the beginning of the 
 struggle between North 
 and South, 25 ff. 
 
 NEW Organization, the, 
 
 153, 154- 
 
 NEW Testament, the, and 
 slavery s apologists, 200, 
 201. 
 
 NEW York Herald, de 
 nounces G., 201-203 ; on 
 Rynders Mob, 207 ff. 
 
 NORTH Carolina, G. in 
 dicted in, 50. 
 
 O CoNNELL, Daniel, 245, 
 246. 
 
 OTIS, Harrison Gray, and 
 Southern attacks on G., 
 SO ff-; quoted, in the 
 Liberator, 54, 55; a sil 
 houette of, 56; at Fan- 
 euil Hall, in, 112. 
 
 OTIS, James, 49, 56. 
 
 PARK St. Church, G. s 
 address at, the begin 
 ning of his mission, 43. 
 
 PARKER, Theodore, 220, 
 
 259- 
 
 PEASE, Elizabeth, 246. 
 PENNSYLVANIA Hall, 
 
 Phila., burning of, 119, 
 
 133. 
 
 PHARISEES, Christ s re 
 buke to, 181-84; their 
 offenses mild compared 
 with the atrocities of to 
 day, 185, 186. 
 
 286 
 
INDEX 
 
 Philanthropist, the, 108. 
 
 PHILLIPS, Wendell, at 
 Fanueil Hall, 129, 130- 
 32; effect of his speech, 
 132, 133; quoted, 180, 
 198; 108, 123, 165, 210, 
 249. 
 
 PIERPONT, John, 43. 
 
 POLK, James K., 204. 
 
 PRESBYTERIANS, and Abo 
 lition, 208. 
 
 PRO-SLAVERY Democrats, 
 Northern, 23. 
 
 QUINCY, Edmund, 210. 
 
 RANKIN, John, 160. 
 
 REFORMER, the, 54. 
 
 REPUBLICAN Party, for 
 mation of, 142, 143, 258. 
 
 RHODES, James F., 142. 
 
 RICHMOND Whig, quoted, 
 104, 119. 
 
 ROMAN Catholics, and Ab 
 olition, 200, 207. 
 
 Ross, Abner, 187. 
 
 RYNDERS, Isaiah, his his 
 tory, 203, 204. 
 
 RYNDERS Mob, the, 203 ff. 
 
 SAVONAROLA, Girolamo, 
 
 193. 
 
 SCOTT, Dred, case of, 257. 
 SEWALL, Samuel E., 80. 
 SEWARD, W. H., 143, 144. 
 SLAVE, the, beginning of 
 
 G. s devotion to, cause 
 
 of, 42. 
 SLAVE-holding classes, 
 
 manhood crushed out of, 
 
 22. 
 
 SLAVE Power, attempts to 
 put down Abolition, 99 
 ff.; politics of the North 
 controlled by, 138. And 
 see Slavery. 
 
 SLAVE states, and free 
 states, admitted to Un 
 ion in pairs, 9. 
 
 SLAVE trade, constitu 
 tional provision con 
 cerning, 15; what it was, 
 
 15. 
 
 SLAVERY in the U. S., 
 question of, overshad 
 owing from 1830 to 
 1865, 2 ff.; from G. s 
 point of view, 6, 7; a 
 sleeping serpent in early 
 years of U. S., 9; ad 
 mission of Missouri and, 
 IO; on every man s mind 
 after 1820, 12; national 
 policy of silence con 
 cerning, 13, 14, 15; 
 reaction against that 
 policy, 1 6 ff.; effect of 
 G. s first utterance on, 
 17 ; W. E. Channing and, 
 26 ff.; attitudeof North 
 ern merchants toward, 
 32, 335 vulture quality 
 of, 48; friends of, and 
 Channing s pamphlet, 
 87, 88; J.Q.Adams and, 
 91 ; death agony of, be 
 gan in 1830, 137; and 
 Freedom, nature of 
 
 287 
 

 INDEX 
 
 contest between, 143; 
 Lincoln and, 143 jf.; and 
 the Constitution, 140 
 ff., 168 /.; attitude of 
 South toward, 187, 1 88; 
 horrors of, discovered 
 by Abolitionists, 188; 
 complicity of churches 
 with, 200; Emerson and, 
 228; history of, review, 
 2 53 ff-; influence of, 
 North and South, 254. 
 And see Colonization 
 Society, Crandall, P., 
 Lane Seminary, Love- 
 joy, E. P. 
 
 SLAVERY in West Indies, 
 abolition of, 244. 
 
 SMITH, Goldwin, 251. 
 
 SOUTH Carolina, 23, 137. 
 
 SPENCER, Herbert, 251. 
 
 SPRAGUE, Peleg, quoted, 
 95, 96; at Faneuil Hall, 
 no, in. 
 
 STORRS, George, 107, 108. 
 
 STOWE, Harriet Beecher, 
 Uncle Torrt s Cabin, 120, 
 187, 188. 
 
 STURGIS, William, 132. 
 
 SUMNER, Charles, 123, 140. 
 
 SUMTER, Fort, fired on, 
 259- 
 
 TANEY, Roger B., 140. 
 TAPPAN, Arthur, 47, 67, 
 
 72, 106, 107. 
 TAYLOR, Zachary, 200, 
 
 209, 210, 211. 
 TEXAS, Annexation of, 
 
 138, 139, 155, 174, 238, 
 256. 
 
 THATCHER, Judge, 50. 
 
 THOMPSON, George, in U. 
 S.,92/.;S. J. May and 
 Sprague quoted on, 93- 
 96; what he stood for, 
 96 ; plot to tar and feath 
 er, 113; 107, 118, 227, 
 245, 247, 251. 
 
 TICKNOR, George, 199. 
 
 Tocsin of Liberty, the, 
 quoted, 178. 
 
 TODD, Francis, "libeled" 
 by G., 46, 47. 
 
 TUCKERMAN, Bayard, Life 
 oj Wm. Jay, quoted, 1 51. 
 
 TURNER, Nat, heads Slave 
 Rebellion, 51, 52. 
 
 UNION, the, peaceful dis 
 solution of, advocated, 
 155, 156. 
 
 UNITED States, slavery 
 question in, 1830 to 
 1865, 2 ff., 6, 7; state 
 of, 1850 to 1860, 10, ii ; 
 a slave republic, 17. 
 
 VIRGINIA, 23. 
 
 WALKER S appeal, 51. 
 
 WARD, Samuel R., 217. 
 
 WASHINGTON, George, 215. 
 
 WEBB, Richard D., quot 
 ed, 195. 
 
 WEBSTER, Daniel, his Re 
 ply to Hayne, 14; 
 Channing and, 28; and 
 the Fugitive Slave Law, 
 
 288 
 
INDEX 
 
 235, 236, 238; Aboli- WISE, Henry A., 187. 
 
 tionists and, 239; 138, WISE, John S., The End of 
 
 140, 199. an Era, 187, 188. 
 
 WELD, Theodore D., 69, WOMAN S Rights, and Abo- 
 
 187. lition, 153, 154; 167. 
 
 WELLS, E. M. P., 200. WOOLFOLK, Austin, 42. 
 
 WHITE, James C., quoted, WRIGHT, Elizur, quoted, 
 
 56. 65; 107. 
 
 WHITTIER, John G., 43. WRIGHT, Henry C., 210. 
 
 289 
 
I 
 
 7 RAL LIBRARY 
 
 14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 If 6 
 
 RECEIVED 
 
 01/28-67-12M 
 
 1 1 w -a P 
 
 * * r 
 
 larP* 
 
 , , 
 
 L<(VN DEPT. 
 
U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 - :V& 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY