WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 ^Etat. 72. 
 Front the bust by Anne Whitney, 1878. 
 
MY COIllY IS THE WORLD: 
 MY COUNTRYMEN ARE ALL MANKIND. 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 
 
 1805-1879 
 
 THE STORY OF HIS LIFE 
 
 TOLD BY HIS CHILDREN 
 
 VOLUME I. 1805-1835 
 
 EJ 
 
 NEW-YORK: THE CENTURY CO. 
 
 1885 
 
Copyright, 1885, by 
 WENDELL PHILLIPS GARRISON 
 
 and 
 FRANCIS JACKSON GARRISON. 
 
The truth is, he who commences any reform ivhich at last becomes 
 one of transcendent importance and is crowned with victory, is always 
 ill-judged and unfairly estimated. At the outset he is looked upon 
 with contempt, and treated in the most opprobrious manner, as a wild 
 fanatic or a dangerous disorganize)*. In due time the cause grows and 
 advances to its sure triumph ; and in proportion as it nears the goal, 
 the popular estimate of his character changes, till finally excessive 
 panegyric is substituted for outrageous abuse. The praise, on the one 
 hand, and the defamation on the other, are equally unmerited. In the 
 clear light of Reason, it will be seen that he simply stood up to discharge 
 a duty which he owed to his God, to his fellow-men, to the land of his 
 nativity. 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON, at the Celebra 
 tion of the Twentieth Anniversary of the 
 Liberator, Jan. 24, 1851. 
 
 It appears to us a self-evident truth, that, whatever the gospel is 
 designed to destroy at any period of the icorld, being contrary to it, 
 
 ought NOW to be abandoned. 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON, in the Declaration 
 of Sentiments of the Peace Convention at 
 Boston, Sept. 18-20, 1838. 
 
 In short, I did what I could for the redemption of the human 
 race. 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON to Henry c. Wright, 
 
 Aug. 23, 1840. 
 
TO 
 
 SAMUEL MAY, 
 
 OF LEICESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, 
 WHO FREED FROM TOIL AND CARE THE DECLINING YEARS OF 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, 
 
 THIS WORK IS GRATEFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY 
 INSCRIBED. 
 
 noMs haec otia fecit. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE delicacy of the task begun in these volumes called 
 for an unusually copious reference to authorities. In order 
 to effect a division between the specialist and the general 
 reader, indications of the sources (together with sundry ex 
 plicatory entries) are placed in the margin, opposite the line 
 or passage to which they relate. These, though sometimes 
 immediately helpful, can be neglected by any one not intent 
 on enlarging his information or proving the veracity of the 
 narrative. The foot-notes, on the other hand, however much 
 they interrupt the reader s progress, cannot, as a rule, safely 
 be overlooked. Taken together, the two sets of references 
 will meet, it is hoped, the requirements of study, of contro 
 versy, and of veneration. 
 
 By far the greater number of them are to the Liberator, 
 which, to an extent seldom witnessed in journalism, in 
 volves at once the biography and the autobiography of its 
 editor, and which, as has been truthfully said, contains " the 
 archives of the abolition cause" and "the spirit of the age 
 on the great subject of slavery." Moreover, its files are 
 accessible in the principal public libraries of the country. 1 
 
 1 The following is a list of the completest known to us : MAINE, Portland, 
 Public Library. MASSACHUSETTS, Boston, Public Library, Athenaeum ; 
 Cambridge, Harvard College Library; Worcester, American Antiquarian 
 Society. RHODE ISLAND, Providence, Rhode Island Historical Society. 
 NEW YORK, New York City, Astor Library ; Brooklyn, Long Island His 
 torical Society; Ithaca, Cornell University Library. OHIO, Cincinnati, 
 Public Library. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Washington, Library of Congress. 
 In private hands we can enumerate complete sets in possession of Mr. 
 Garrison s family at Roxbury, Mass., and of the Misses Weston at Wey- 
 mouth, Mass., and one nearly complete in the great anti-slavery collection 
 of Mr. Daniel Parish, of New YoA: City The occasionally faulty paging 
 of the Liberator we have endeavored to rectify in our references. 
 
 ix 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 We have assumed, without fear or question, the entire good 
 faith of the reproductions from other newspapers which 
 abound in the Liberator particularly those contained in " The 
 Refuge of Oppression," the great repository of sentiments 
 hostile to the abolition movement. 
 
 The hitherto unpublished manuscripts of which such exten 
 sive use has been made in composing the present work, form 
 part of what is beyond doubt the largest and most important 
 collection of anti-slavery autographs in existence chance- 
 medley as it is. This collection will be deposited with the 
 Boston Public Library in perpetuity, for the use of students. 
 Mr. Garrison s letters have been set apart by themselves, 
 and will likewise be open to inspection at the same institu 
 tion j but, for family reasons, some few of those partially 
 quoted in the succeeding narrative have been reserved from 
 the gift to the public. A certain number, also, of which we 
 have been permitted to make copies, remain in private hands. 
 
 In so large a mass of numerical references there cannot fail 
 to be errors both of transcription and of typography. Errors 
 of fact, too, have doubtless escaped our vigilance. For all 
 these, whether in text, margin, or note, or in the index (which 
 has been turned to biographical account), we ask indulgence, 
 and invite friendly correction through the publishers, or 
 through either of the undersigned. We have been extremely 
 fortunate in having had the criticism, either for the manu 
 scripts or for the proof-sheets, of Samuel May, Oliver Johnson, 
 and Maria Weston Chapman, three veterans of the cause, as 
 intimately acquainted with the subject of this memoir as any 
 persons, not of his own family, living or departed, that could 
 be named. To our lasting regret, Mrs. Chapman did not 
 survive to read the closing chapters of the second volume. 
 
 The illustrations, thanks to the liberality of the publishers, 
 are more numerous than we could have expected. Preference 
 has been given to portraits, and among these to such as have 
 never been engraved before. Some that might, from the 
 close personal relations of the subjects of them to Mr. Gar- 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 rison, have appeared here, will find an appropriate place in 
 subsequent volumes. Our endeavor has been, where possible, 
 to secure portraits most nearly contemporaneous with the 
 beginnings of the anti-slavery cause. In this we have been 
 fairly successful, through the kind assistance of friends and 
 relatives, to whom we here renew our hearty acknowledg 
 ments. 
 
 To enumerate all those to whom we are under obligations 
 in the preparation of the text, would be difficult, and we must 
 beg them collectively to accept our assurances of gratitude. 
 One who is no longer with us, however, deserves to be named 
 for her extraordinary services in arranging the manuscript 
 treasures described above. Their availability has added in 
 calculable value to our labors, and will be a lasting monument 
 to the memory of Mary Pratt Garrison. j 
 
 For the period covered by these volumes, Mr. Garrison j 
 was the incarnation of the cause which he founded. On 
 this account it has been extremely difficult to keep within 
 strictly biographical limits, as well as to reduce the bulk of 
 this work. On both sides we are probably open to censure. 
 As regards bulkiness. let it be remembered what self-denial 
 and toil were necessary to tell so much in so little compass. 
 And, for the rest, if anything admitted be thought irrelevant 
 to the biography, may it be pardoned as throwing light upon 
 one of the greatest moral movements in the annals of man- 1 
 kind. We are more apprehensive, in truth, that fault will be 
 found with us for omissions in regard to general anti-slavery 
 history, or to Mr. Garrison s co-workers. Here, in all sin 
 cerity, we must plead our simple intention to produce a 
 biography. So far as we have adhered to this, we may 
 possibly be charged with prolixity, but we may safely chal 
 lenge any one to show that concealment has been practised, 
 where, indeed, there was nothing to conceal. 
 
 With these explanatory remarks, we offer to Mr. Garrison s 
 countrymen to his countrymen in the narrow sense and in 
 that of his favorite motto a faithful portrait of his life. 
 
XU PREFACE. 
 
 Writing not without bias, surely, but in a spirit emulous of 
 the absolute fairness which distinguished our father, we have 
 done little more than coordinate materials to serve posterity in 
 forming that judgment of him which we have no desire to 
 forestall. In a literary point of view, we have aimed at 
 nothing more than clearness, sequence, and proportion. 
 
 The force of this narrative is cumulative, in a high degree. 
 No one let the observation seem ever so naif who does not 
 read it consecutively, and (from the pains we have been at to 
 avoid repetition) closely, will arrive at a just conception of 
 the man, the cause, or the times. Many threads, of course, 
 lead nowhere. Individual careers are not followed out to the 
 end, whether more or less intimately connected with Mr. Gar 
 rison s. The threads of his development, on the other hand, 
 are kept together as sedulously as in a novel. 
 
 In the field to which we now invite the general reader we 
 have had almost no predecessors. The growing but still small 
 number of anti-slavery memoirs 1 afford hardly a glimpse of 
 the inner working of the organization which it was Mr. Gar 
 rison s destiny to create and to direct. In the following pages 
 we are brought face to face with a world which will appear 
 wholly new and strange to the generation now upon the scene. 
 The school histories of the United States, with scarcely an 
 exception, ignore it altogether ; it barely conies within the 
 horizon of the manuals of American history ; it is invisible in 
 the biographies of public men of the era before the rise of the 
 Republican party, or even down to the eve of the Rebellion. 
 Yet the abolitionists, it is now confessed, were all the time 
 occupied with the main question of American politics with 
 
 1 Among the more recent, see particularly the Lives of Arthur Tappan, 
 Samuel J. May/Gerrit Smith, James and Lucretia Mott, George Bradburn ; 
 S. J. May s Recollections of our Anti-Slavery Conflict ; the Letters of 
 Lydia Maria Child ; Parker Pillsbury s Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apos 
 tles ; and Oliver Johnson s Garrison and his Times. The last-named 
 work, composed and published since Mr. Garrison s death, is the best and 
 indeed the only general view of his career, particularly from the anti- 
 slavery standpoint. It can be read with profit both before and after the 
 reading of the present biography. 
 
PREFACE. X1U 
 
 what had been the main question ever since the formation of 
 the Constitution. 
 
 It will, however, quickly appear that while abolitionism is 
 the leading phase of the present biography, a host of other 
 reforms enter in by virtue of Mr. Garrison s profoundly 
 religious nature. No one so perfectly and conspicuously rep 
 resented that remarkable age of ferment, between 1825 and 
 1840, which will always be full of attraction for the philosophic 
 mind. We have elsewhere called it the revival age. Modern 
 science dates no further back : steam, chemistry, and elec 
 tricity began then to work together for the marvellous ma 
 terial development of the race, and for the corresponding 
 expansion of the human spirit. The authority of the Bible, 
 as an infallible and universally applicable guide to conduct, 
 reached then its highest pitch. No one now aiming to effect 
 a great moral revolution would consider it indispensable to 
 yoke the churches to his scheme, or to prove its legitimacy by 
 chapter and verse from either Testament. From this point of 
 view the anti-slavery agitation possesses peculiar interest, as 
 probably the last great reform that the world is likely to see 
 based upon the Bible and carried out with a millennial fervor. 
 The so-called Christian contemporaries of Mr. Garrison judged 
 him and his "isms" not by the Bible to which he constantly 
 (though not exclusively) referred them, but by temporary 
 considerations, of personal advantage and public welfare, 
 which have always prevailed with the human race above 
 abstract professions, however sacred. A generation which is 
 at last conscious of the law of evolution illustrated by Darwin, 
 and is familiar with his views on the origin of the human 
 species, on the derivation of the moral sense and of the sanc 
 tions of morality, may find it hard to sympathize with Mr. 
 Garrison s scriptural propaganda, yet ought to be able to 
 decide impartially between him and his opponents on the 
 common ground of loyalty to Revelation. 
 
 While the present instalment of Mr. Garrison s Life presents 
 the fundamental characteristics of the man, much remains to 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 be told both as regards his anti-slavery policy and his religious 
 growth. His domestic aspect, here shown only incidentally, 
 must also be postponed. Such leisure as we can snatch from 
 engrossing daily occupation shall be given to the further 
 prosecution of our reluctant but dutiful undertaking. Its 
 toilsomeness is lightened not by the feeling that we are vin 
 dicating our parent, but by the hope that the unfinished work 
 of his life, the unfulfilled aspirations of his youth as of his 
 old age, will be promoted by this review of his fortunate career. 
 " To banish war from the earth, to stay the ravages of intem 
 perance, ... to unfetter those who have been enthralled 
 by chains which we have forged [as in the subjection of women] , 
 and to spread the light of knowledge and religious liberty 
 wherever darkness and superstition reign" are still the highest 
 aims of every lover of his kind. They were all summed up in 
 the doctrine of Peace arrived at, enunciated, and exemplified 
 by the subject of this biography. May our imperfect illustra 
 tion of it do something to console and strengthen those whose 
 hearts are sickened by the world-prevailing spirit of violence 
 and destructiveness. May it also serve to enlighten moralists 
 who, without having openly repudiated the Sermon on the 
 Mount as a rule of conduct, regard Christian non-resistance 
 as an absurdity. 
 
 WENDELL PHILLIPS GARRISON, New York. 
 FRANCIS JACKSON GARRISON, Boston. 
 
 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 OF THE BOSTON MOB, 
 
 1885. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 THE following pages were both stereotyped and printed before we had 
 an opportunity of examining that rare work by the Rev. George Bourne, 
 The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable (Philadelphia, 1816). We failed 
 to recognize as an extract from it the sentiment ascribed to Bourne" 
 and placed by Mr. Garrison at the head of the first column of No. 17 of 
 Volume I. of the Liberator (see the facsimile facing p. 232 within). Had 
 we not overlooked this, we should have given to Bourne the distinction 
 allowed to the Rev. James Duncan on p. 144 within, of being the first to 
 broach the doctrine of immediatism in the United States. The passage in 
 question is found on p. 12 of the appendix (dated Sept. 6, 1815): "The 
 system is so entirely corrupt that it admits of no cure but by a total and 
 immediate abolition. For a gradual emancipation is a virtual recognition 
 of the right, and establishes the rectitude of the practice. If it be just for 
 one moment, it is hallowed for ever ; and if it be inequitable, not a day 
 should it be tolerated." The same phraseology, "immediate and total 
 abolition," occurs on p. 19 of the main text, while gradualism is repudiated 
 expressly on pp. 133, 139, 140, and generally by the whole tenor of the 
 argument. Moreover, a full year before the formation of the American 
 Colonization Society, Bourne wrote (p. 134) : " How shall we expel the evil? 
 Colonization is totally impracticable." 
 
 We have unconsciously furnished, on p. 207 within, proof that Mr. Gar 
 rison was familiar with The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable as early as 
 Sept. 13, 1830, for the quoted passage beginning, "For this thing which it 
 cannot bear," etc., was taken from p. 57 of Bourne. So, likewise, the 
 inquiry on p. 206, "Are there not Balaams in our land who prophesy in 
 the name of the Lord, but covet the presents of Balak ? " reproduced an 
 affirmation of Bourne s (p. 19). So, again, the spirited passage in Mr. Gar 
 rison s Liberator salutatory, p. 225 within, "On this subject, I do not wish 
 to think, or speak, or write, with moderation," etc., was borrowed (and 
 bettered) from Charles James Fox as cited on p. 4 of Bourne. 
 
 It would have gratified us to give in their proper places these illustra 
 tions of Mr. Garrison s obligations to the work as avowed by him on p. 306. 
 He never surpassed its " harsh language," or the " Scriptural pungency " 
 of its arraignment of pro-slavery churches, clergy and Christian professors. 
 Those to whom this bold abolition landmark is inaccessible, may see an 
 exceUent summary of it in the Boston Commomvealth of July 25, 1885. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON, at the age of 30 Frontispiece. 
 
 From the cabinet oil-paint- ^ by M. C. Torrey (1835), now in 
 the possession of Mr. Edwaiv M. Davis, Philadelphia. (See 
 Vol. 2, p. 69.) John Sartain s contemporary engraving (pub 
 lished June 4, 1836) was readily recognized as a likeness by all 
 the Garrison infants in arms. George Thompson took to 
 England in 1835 a replica of the oil-painting, 
 
 BIRTHPLACE AND GRAMMAR SCHOOL to face p. 28 
 
 From photographs. 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON, at the age of 20 to face p. 56 
 
 From the life-size oil-painting by William Swain, a crude 
 "practice" portrait, chiefly valuable for its general testimony 
 as to the hair and dress of the subject. Mr. Thomas B. Law- 
 son, himself an artist and a schoolmate of Mr. Garrison s, who 
 remembers the execution of this painting, now finds no resem 
 blance in it. He says (MS. May 26, 1885) : " Your father was 
 in true form not out of balance as in the engraving : his hair 
 a rich dark brown; his forehead high and very white; his 
 cheeks decidedly roseate ; his lips full, sensitive and ruddy , 
 his eyes intent wide open, of a yellowish hazel ; with fine 
 teeth, rather larger than the average , and a complexion more 
 fair, more silvery white, than I ever saw upon a man." 
 
 BENJAMIN LUNDY to face p. 88 
 
 From Sartain s mezzotint engraving, June, 1838, after the 
 painting by A. Dickinson. Another mezzotint, by W. Warner, 
 from the same painting, accompanies the Life of Lundy. 
 
 ARTHUR TAPPAN, at about the age of 76 to face p. 190 
 
 From a photograph taken about 1862-63. 
 
 SAMUEL EDMUND SEWALL, at about the age of 63 .... to face p. 214 
 From a photograph taken about 1862. 
 
XV111 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 He sells the paper, and returns to his trade in Boston, 
 where he makes a caucus speech in favor of H. G. Otis. 
 He is made editor of the National Philanthropist, a total- 
 abstinence paper ; but resigns and accepts an offer from 
 Vermont, meantime meeting with Benjamin Lundy. 
 
 CHAPTER V. THE JOURNAL OF THE TIMES (1828-1829).. 
 
 101-138 
 
 Garrison edits this new paper in Bennington, Vt., in advo 
 cacy of the reelection of President John Quincy Adams, but 
 also begins in it his first warfare on slavery. Lundy visits 
 him and engages him as associate editor of the Genius. 
 Returning to Boston, Garrison delivers an anti-slavery 
 Fourth of July address at Park-St. Church, with a perfunc 
 tory approval of Colonization : and then removes to 
 Baltimore. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. THE GENIUS OF UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION 
 
 (1829-1830) 139-173 
 
 Garrison advocates, on his own responsibility and under his 
 own signature, the doctrine of Immediate Emancipation, 
 and causes a ruinous decline in the patronage of the Genius. 
 For denouncing the transfer of slaves between Baltimore 
 and New Orleans, in a ship belonging to Francis Todd, of 
 Newburyport, he is indicted for libel by the Grand Jury, 
 tried, convicted, and sent to jail. The partnership with 
 Lundy ends. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. BALTIMORE JAIL, AND AFTER (1830). . .174-218 
 Ransomed by Arthur Tappan, Garrison abandons Balti 
 more, and journeys to Boston, lecturing on abolition by the 
 way. He issues a prospectus for an anti-slavery journal to 
 be published in Washington, but perceives that the North 
 first needs conversion. A lecture in Julien Hall secures 
 him the necessary friends, and he forms a partnership with 
 Isaac Knapp to publish the Liberator in Boston. 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL THE LIBERATOR (1831) 219-276 
 
 The doctrine of Immediate Emancipation, as urged in this 
 paper, excites the fears of the South, especially after the 
 Nat Turner insurrection in Virginia, and leads to public and 
 private menaces against the life of its editor, and to penal 
 enactments against taking the Liberator. Appeals for its 
 suppression are made to the city authorities of Boston ; the 
 extradition of Garrison is attempted by means of Southern 
 indictments ; and finally the Legislature of Georgia offers 
 $5000 for his apprehension. 
 
CONTENTS. Xix 
 
 PAGES 
 
 CHAPTER IX. ORGANIZATION : NEW ENGLAND ANTI-SLAVERY 
 
 SOCIETY THOUGHTS ON COLONIZATION (1832). .277-314 
 With difficulty an association is formed in Boston on the 
 basis of Garrison s doctrine. After a lecturing tour in New 
 England, he makes a destructive attack on the American 
 Colonization Society in a pamphlet called Thoughts on 
 African Colonization. 
 
 CHAPTER X. PRUDENCE CRANDALL (1833) 315-347 
 
 Garrison advises this lady as to opening a school for colored 
 girls in Canterbury, Conn., and his comments on her conse 
 quent persecution expose him to fresh libel suits. He is sent 
 by the New England A. S. Society on a mission to England, 
 to collect funds for a Manual Labor School for colored 
 youth, and to head off a Colonization agent, Elliott Cresson. 
 On passing through Connecticut he is pursued by the sheriff 
 with writs, and in New York is also in danger of kidnapping 
 by Southern emissaries. He escapes both perils, and em 
 barks for England in May. 
 
 CHAPTER XL FIRST ENGLISH MISSION (1833) 348-379 
 
 He arrives on the eve of the passage of the bill abolishing 
 slavery in the British West Indies, is cordially received by 
 the abolition leaders, and has interesting and affecting 
 interviews with Buxton, Wilberforce, and Clarkson. He 
 exposes Elliott Cresson and the Colonization scheme in 
 Exeter Hall and elsewhere, and secures a protest against 
 the latter headed by Wilberforce, who shortly dies and is 
 buried in Westminster Abbey. Garrison attends his fune 
 ral, and then sails for America in August. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY (1833).. 
 
 380-419 
 
 Garrison finds a mob prepared for him on landing in New 
 York, and a would-be mob in Boston. Visiting Canter 
 bury, he is served with the delayed libel writs, but is never 
 brought to trial. In December he effects the organization 
 at Philadelphia of a National Anti-Slavery Society, of which 
 he draws up the Declaration of Sentiments. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. MARRIAGE SHALL THE LIBERATOR DIE ? 
 
 GEORGE THOMPSON (1834) 420-467 
 
 Garrison marries Helen Eliza Benson, of Brooklyn, Conn., 
 after the Liberator has Jbeen barely saved from going under. 
 In the same month, September, George Thompson arrives 
 from England, come at Garrison s request to aid the anti- 
 slavery agitation in this country. Foreign interference is 
 resented, and he is mobbed in sundry parts of New England. 
 
xx CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. THE BOSTON MOB FIRST STAGE (1835). . 
 
 468-522 
 
 An American Union is formed by orthodox clergymen in 
 the vain hope to draw off anti-slavery support from Gar 
 rison. Meetings of Southerners in New York and Rich 
 mond, denouncing the abolitionists ; anti-negro riots in 
 Philadelphia, and supposed slave-insurrections in Missis 
 sippi ; and finally the rifling of the mails and burning of 
 anti-slavery periodicals at Charleston, with the sanction 
 of the Postmaster-General, cause unparalleled excitement 
 throughout the country. The Mayor of Boston presides at 
 a town meeting called to reprobate the abolition movement, 
 and addressed by Harrison Gray Otis and Peleg Sprague. 
 Garrison leaves the city, but replies in the Liberator to the 
 Faneuil Hall speeches. A double gallows for himself and 
 Thompson is erected before his home in Boston. 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRLSOK 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 ANCESTRY. 1764-1805. 
 
 THE scenic glories of the River St. John, New Brims- CHAP. i. 
 wick, are well past on the ascent when, on the 1764^805. 
 right, the obscure outlet of the Jemseg is reached. The 
 hills on either shore have both diminished and receded ; 
 and thenceforward the voyager sees only the fringe of 
 alder bushes, or willows, which hide on the one hand the 
 level intervale, on the other the level islands, until Burton 
 heights loom up on the south, and, on the opposite bank, 
 the spires of Sheffield and of Maugerville. 1 Along this 
 lowland margin a feeble line of French Acadian settlers 
 stretched, in" the middle of the last century, from the 
 Jemseg to the Nashwaak. A couple of hundred souls 
 were still clustered at the trading station of St. Ann s 
 (now Fredericton) when, in the summer of 1761, Israel 
 Perley, of Boxford, Essex County, Massachusetts, and a 
 handful of companions, triumphing over the wilderness 
 between Machias and the St. John, looked from the 
 mouth of the Oromocto down over the gleaming waters 
 and woody plains of this romantic region. 
 
 i Pronounce " Majorville ; " and Jemseg " Jimsag." 
 
 VOL. I. 1 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 \ I. 
 
 1764-1805. 
 
 Hatheway s 
 
 Hist. New 
 
 Brunswick, 
 
 p. 7. 
 
 Ibid., p. 10. 
 
 Stickney 
 
 Genealogy, 
 
 p. 166." 
 
 Secretary s 
 book, Land 
 Office, Fred 
 eric ton, Vol. 
 
 A., p. 122. 
 
 Perley had been sent out by the Governor of Massa 
 chusetts (Bernard) on an exploring expedition. His 
 report to his neighbors in praise of these alluvial prairies 
 free of stone for the ploughshare, washed by waters 
 dense with fish, and skirted by timber abounding in 
 large game must have produced a sort of " Western 
 fever " among them. Many of his listeners had no doubt 
 served in the Nova Scotia campaigns against the French 
 which culminated in the capture of Louisburg in 1758, 
 followed by that of Quebec in 1759, and the British 
 occupation of the St. John as far as the Nashwaak ; and 
 were already aware of the natural advantages of the 
 territory. 
 
 The first Essex County migration to Nova Scotia (as 
 New Brunswick was then called) took place in the spring 
 of 1763 in a packet sloop of forty tons burthen, com 
 manded by Captain Newman. The following spring 
 brought a reinforcement of colonists in the sloop com 
 manded by Captain Howe, which " became an annual 
 trader to the River, and the only means of communica 
 tion between the Pilgrims and their native land." The 
 arrival was most timely, for an early frost had blighted 
 the crop of the previous year, and reduced the first- 
 comers almost to actual want. The settlement now 
 embraced families, more or less connected with each 
 other, from Rowley, Boxford, Byfield, Ipswich, Marble- 
 head, and adjacent towns, among whom the Perleys, 
 Stickneys, Palmers, Burpees, Barkers, Esteys, Hartts, 
 and Peabodys were prominent in numbers or in influ 
 ence. 
 
 On October 31, 1765, the district having been officially 
 surveyed by Charles Morris, sixty-five heads of families, 
 resident or represented, were granted Tract No. 109, in 
 Sunbury County. This tract, in the parish of Mauger- 
 ville and Sheffield, known as the Maugerville Grant, and 
 twelve miles square, extended from the head of Oromocto 
 Island to the foot of Mauger s Island, and had been 
 partially cleared by the Acadians. The twenty-second 
 
ANCESTRY. 
 
 3 
 
 name on the list of grantees, for five hundred acres, was 
 that of Joseph Garrison ; l the twenty-fourth, that of his 
 father-in-law, Daniel Palmer. The latter s portion con 
 sisted of two lots forty rods long upon the river, and 
 some six miles (five hundred and fifty chains) in depth 
 across the intervale towards Grand Lake. The western 
 boundary of its frontage was just opposite the lower end 
 of Middle Island ; the river here being from one-third to 
 half a mile in width. 
 
 Daniel Palmer was great-grandson of Sergeant John 
 Palmer (who, as a youth of seventeen, is reported to have 
 come to Rowley in 1639) by a second wife, Margaret 
 Northend. On the side of his mother, Mary Stickney, he 
 was great-grandson of William Stickney, the founder of 
 that family in this country, and of Captain Samuel 
 Brocklebank, who was slain, with nearly all his com 
 mand, by the Indians at Sudbury, in King Philip s War. 
 Born at Rowley, in 1712, Daniel Palmer married in 1736 
 Elizabeth Wheeler, of Chebacco (a part of Ipswich, called 
 Essex since 1819), with whom, eight years later, he was 
 dismissed from the First Church in Rowley to that of 
 Gloucester ; but of his stay in the latter place, if, indeed, 
 he removed thither, we have no record. He is yet re 
 membered by close tradition as " a powerful man, of great 
 muscular strength. Before he left for the East the 
 Indians were troublesome, and there were three secreted 
 in a house in Old Town, and no one dared pursue them. 
 But he was fearless, and entered the house, where he 
 opened a chamber window, and one by one he threw them 
 out, regardless of life or limb, as though they were so 
 many straws." Six children survived t6 him, and the two 
 oldest girls, Elizabeth and Ruth, were married, when 
 removal to the St. John was determined on. Leaving 
 these behind, he took with him his third daughter, Mary 
 (born January 19, 1741, in Byfield), and his three sons, 
 
 l The twenty-ninth name on a list compiled by Hatheway, in 1846 ( His 
 tory of New Brunswick, p. 8), is " Galishan, ," which clearly stands 
 for Joseph Garrison. (Compare this writer s spelling of Marasheet, " Meli- 
 cete," on p. 5.) 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 1764-1805. 
 
 Hatheway s 
 Hist. Nnv 
 Brunswick, 
 pp. 10, II. 
 
 April 21, 
 1676. 
 
 MS. Lydia 
 
 Silloway, 
 great-grand 
 daughter of 
 D. Palmer. 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 1764-1805. 
 
 Essex Insti 
 tute Hist. 
 Collections, 
 14 : 152- 
 
 i : 464. 
 
 February, 
 
 1783- 
 
 Johnston s 
 Report on 
 Agr. Capabi 
 lities of New 
 Brunswick, 
 p. 41. 
 
 Daniel, Nathan, and Abijah, and joined the company of 
 townsfolk and kinsmen who were to plant a Puritan set 
 tlement on the banks of the St. John. 
 
 There is no evidence that Joseph Garrison was of this 
 number. All that can now be learned about him war 
 rants the belief that he was an Englishman, who was 
 found upon the spot by the second, if not already by the 
 first, immigrants from Rowley. We know positively 
 that on his thirtieth birthday, August 14, 1764, he was 
 married to Daniel Palmer s daughter Mary, perhaps in 
 that church which " Richard Eastick [Estey] and Ruth 
 his wife, Jonathan Smith and Hannah his wife," were 
 dismissed from, the First Church in Rowley, to form 
 " upon or near St. John s River, Nova Scotia," May 20, 
 1764. Sabine, who, with doubtful propriety, includes 
 Joseph Garrison in his Loyalists of the American Revo 
 lution, styles him "of Massachusetts"; but the name 
 has not been met with in that State before the present 
 century by the most diligent searchers of her archives. 
 His comparatively early death will account for the diver 
 sity of traditions in regard to him among his own 
 descendants, the most trustworthy of which is, that he 
 was not a native of the colonies but of the mother 
 country. The location of his grant is unrecorded, but 
 traditionally was higher up the river than his father-in- 
 law s. .Sabine, again, says he was remembered in New 
 Brunswick " as a skilful miner, and as the discoverer of 
 the * Grand Lake Coal Mines, which of late years have 
 been extensively worked." Grand Lake is the lowest 
 part of the broad basin extending from Fredericton to 
 the hills beyond the Jemseg, which at every spring 
 freshet is covered by the swollen waters of the St. 
 John. It is not unlikely that its shores were curiously 
 visited by Joseph Garrison, and that he was the first 
 to notice its very obvious superficial bituminous coal 
 deposits. But the mining there, as late as 1850, was 
 carried on "in a small and rude manner," and as late 
 as 1830 only " by strippings or open diggings " ; so that 
 
ANCESTRY. 5 
 
 skill could hardly be ascribed to him where so little was CHAP. I. 
 required. 1764^805. 
 
 Joseph Garrison s occupation was that of a farmer, 
 which then, as now, must have been one of comparative 
 ease, because of the exceptional facility for growing hay Johnston s 
 and raising stock, and not conducive to progressive AgrCapabi- 
 agriculture. Life was fairly amphibious : fences had li * s u {^ 
 (as they still have) to be taken down and corralled in the / 8. 
 fall, to prevent their being floated off in the spring ; and 
 when at last the gentle flood covered the intervale as far 
 as the eye (even looking from Burton heights) could 
 reach, the farmer turned navigator over his own domain. 
 Lucky if the main river-road emerged, and his house and 
 barn were uninvaded by the tide, he was yet tranquil in 
 the assurance that where he now drew up his herring, he Gesner s 
 should by and by view with satisfaction his crops of Brunswick, 
 grain and potatoes. D.aniel Palmer, we know, had * 82- 
 pitched his log cabin too near the brink, and was made 
 aware of the fact, in an extraordinary rise, by a huge 
 cake of ice sailing through from door to door, and carry 
 ing off not only half the house, but the day s dinner of 
 boiling meat in the pot, and the table gear, happily 
 recovered after drifting against a stump.. 1 
 
 One other incident of these early days of the settle 
 ment has a more immediate interest. Five children 
 had been born to Joseph and Mary Garrison, the young 
 est, Abijah, being an infant in arms say, in the spring 
 of 1774. The mother had started in a boat down the 
 river to pay her father a visit, taking her babe with her, 
 and a lad who lived with the family : 
 
 " The river was clear of ice when she started, and she appre- MS. Eliza 
 
 hended no danger. Long before she got to her journey s end (M^Eben- 
 
 the ice broke further up the river, and came down with such ezer Little), 
 
 force against her boat as to break it badly, and compel her to daughter of 
 
 exchange it for an ice-cake, which was driven ashore by a D. Palmer. 
 larger piece of ice. Like a mother, she wrapped her babe in 
 all the clothes she could spare, and threw him into the snow on 
 
 1 This is thought to have occurred in the spring of 1778. 
 
6 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. 
 
 CHAP. I. the shore. By the aid of a willow limb which overhung the 
 1764.^1805 river, sne an( i the l a( l saved themselves. She took up her babe 
 unharmed. As she was wandering in the woods, without guide 
 or path, she saw the smoke from an Indian hut, and on going 
 to it found there an Indian 1 who knew her father. He enter 
 tained her with his best words and deeds, and the next morning 
 conducted her safely to her father s." 
 
 This babe was the father of William Lloyd Garrison. 
 It was not quite three years old when the progress of 
 revolt in the colonies had infected the New England 
 settlers on the St. John, and impelled them to a mani 
 festo antedating the Declaration of Independence, 
 imbued with the same spirit, " and, considering their 
 insulated locality, and the vicinity to the old and well- 
 Nwa Scotia ^ or ^ ne( i towns in possession of an English army and 
 / 62 - navy, . . . remarkably bold." 
 
 Ibid., p. 62; 
 Mass. Ar 
 chives, 
 144 : 153. 
 158. 
 
 ACTION OF THE PEOPLE ON THE ST. JOHN BfVEE. 
 
 Whereas the inhabitants on the River St. Johns in the County 
 of Sunbury and province of Nova Scotia being regularly 
 assembled at Maugervile in said County on the 14th Day of 
 May 1776 did then and there make Choice of us, Jacob Barker, 
 Phin s Nevers, Israel Perley, Daniel Palmer, Moses Pickard, 
 Edward Coye, Tho s Hartt, Israel Kinney, Asa Kimball, Asa 
 Perley and Hugh Quinton a Committee in behalf of the Inhab 
 itants of said County, to make Immediate application to the 
 Congress or Gen ll Assembly of the Massachusetts Bay for 
 Relief under their present Distressed Circumstances. 
 
 Now Know ye that we the Committee above named have by 
 these presents Constituted and appointed two of said Com 
 mittee (viz) Messrs. Asa Perley and Asa Kimball to act as 
 agents for the body of said Committee to go personally to the 
 said Congress or Gen ll Assembly and there present our Petition, 
 also to act and transact, Determine accomplish and finish all 
 Matters touching the premises as effectually as the body of said 
 Committee might do, and we in behalf of the inhabitants of 
 
 l The St. John tribe was known as the Marasheets. These Indians had 
 proved troublesome neighbors in the early days of the settlement. (Hathe- 
 way s Hist. New Brunswick, p. 11.) 
 
ANCESTKY. < 
 
 said county ratify and confirm whatsoever our said agents shall CHAP. I. 
 cause to be done in this matter. ~ 
 
 Names signed, May 20, 1776. 
 
 All officers, civil or military, in the united provinces, and all 
 others are desired not to molest or hinder the within Asa 
 Perley and Asa Kimball in their progress, on the Contrary to 
 Encourage and Assist them, as they would merit the Esteem of 
 all Lovers of their Country s Liberty and the thanks of this 
 Committee. 
 
 The Inhabitants of the County of Sunbury in the province of 
 Nova Scotia being regularly assembled at the Meeting house 
 in Maugervile in said County on Tuesday the 14 day of May 
 1776 to Consult on some measures necessary to be taken for 
 the safety of the Inhabitants. 
 
 1. Chose Jacob Barker Esq r Chairman. 
 
 2. Chose Jacob Barker, Israel Perley, Phin s Nevers, Esq rs 
 and Messrs. Daniel Palmer, Moses Pickard, Edward Cove, 
 Tho s Hartt, Israel Kenney, Asa Kimball, Asa Perley, Oliver 
 Perley, and Hugh Quinton a Committee to prepare a Draught 
 prope? for the Proceedings of the Assembly. The meeting then 
 adjourned till three of the clock in the afternoon. 
 
 Being again met the Committee Reported the following 
 Resolves, which were read and after a second Reading the 
 Resolves were passed in the affirmative, unanimously. 
 
 1. Resolved. That we can see no shadow of Justice in that 
 Extensive Claim of the British Parliament (viz) the Right of 
 Enacting Laws binding on the Colonies in all Cases whatso 
 ever. This System if once Established (we Conceive) hath a 
 Direct tendency to Sap the foundation, not only of Liberty that 
 Dearest of names, but of property that best of subjects. 
 
 2. Resolved. That as tyranny ought to be Resisted in its first 
 appearance we are Convinced that the united Provinces are 
 just in their proceeding in this Regard. 
 
 3. Resolved. That it is our Minds and Desire to submit our 
 selves to the government of the Massachusetts Bay and that 
 we are Ready with our Lives and fortunes to Share with them 
 the Event of the present Struggle for Liberty, however God in 
 his Providence may order it. 
 
 4. Resolved. That a Committee be Chosen to Consist of twelve 
 Men who shall Immediately make application to the Massa 
 chusetts Congress or general assembly for Relief, and that 
 said Committee or the Major part of them shall Conduct 
 
8 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEEISON. 
 
 CHAP. i. all Matter Civill or Military in this County till further Regu- 
 
 1764^805. lations be made. 
 
 5. Resolved. That we and Each of us will most strictly ad 
 here to all such measures as our said Committee or the Major 
 Part of them shall from time to time prescribe for our Conduct 
 and that we will support and Defend them in this Matter at the 
 Expence of our Lives and fortunes if Called thereto. 
 
 6. Eesolved. That we will Immediately put ourselves in the 
 best posture of Defence in our power, that to this End we will 
 prevent all unnecessary use of gun Powder or other ammunition 
 in our Custody. 
 
 7. Resolved. That if any of us shall hereafter, Know of any 
 person or persons that shall by any ways or means Endeavour 
 to prevent or Counteract this our Design, we will Immediately 
 give notice thereof to the Committee that proper Measures may 
 be taken for our Safety. 
 
 8. Resolved. That we and Each of us will Pay our proportion 
 of all such sums of Money as may be Necessary for Carrying 
 these matters into Execution, and finally, that we will share in 
 and submit to the Event of this undertaking however it may 
 terminate, to the true performance of all which we bind and 
 obligate ourselves firmly each to other on penalty of being 
 Esteemed Enemies and traitors to our Country and Submitting 
 ourselves to popular Resentment. 
 
 The whole assembly subscribed to the foregoing Resolves. 
 
 The Body then Voted. 
 
 1. That the above named Committee shall be a standing 
 Committee to make application to the Massachusetts Con 
 gress. 
 
 Also to Conduct all Matters Civil or Military in the County 
 till further Regulations be made. 
 
 Voted that we will have no Dealings or Connections with any 
 Person or Persons for the future that shall Refuse to Enter 
 into the foregoing or similar Resolutions. 
 
 A true Copy from the Minutes. 
 
 ISRAEL PERLEY Cleric. 
 
 Dated at Maugervile on the River 
 St. Johns May the 21, 1776. 
 
ANCESTKY. 
 
 Memorandum ~by desire of the Committee. CHAP. i. 
 
 1764-1805. 
 
 Represent the Conduct of the Indians that Gen ll Wash 
 ington s Letter l set them on fire, and they are Plundering all 
 People they think are torys and perhaps when that is Done, the 
 others may share the same fate. We think it necessary that 
 some person of Consequence be sent among them. 
 
 If it be asked what Lands are granted on the River, it may-, 
 be answered there is four towns and a half granted to 68 
 gentlemen mostly officers in the armys. The towns are a 
 hundred thousand acres each. 
 
 There is several other Large tracts of Land granted to par 
 ticular gentlemen. 
 
 These townships and other Lands have but few settlers on 
 them. 
 
 If it be asked what proportion of the People signed the Reso 
 lutions it may be answered, There is 125 signed and about 12 
 or 13 that have not, 9 of whom are at the Rivers Mouth. 
 
 The names of the Loyalists " at the River s mouth " are 
 well known, but the record is silent as to the three or 
 four residents of Maugerville who refused to subscribe 
 to the resolves and the appeal for relief. It may be con 
 jectured, however, that Joseph Garrison was one of these, 
 having as his first motive his English birth, and the want 
 of those New England connections which might else have 
 made liberty to him also " that dearest of names " ; and 
 perhaps as his second, his better sense of the hopeless 
 ness of such an unsupported outpost maintaining itself 
 against the authority of the mother country. Mr. Sabine 
 found Joseph s descendants admitting his loyalty, and 
 we may suppose him to have been temporarily ostra 
 cized, according to the terms of the vote, on account of 
 his standing aloof from the almost unanimous action of 
 his neighbors. At all events, it required no little inde 
 pendence of character to incur the " popular resentment "5 
 and this trait may as well have been inherited by his 
 
 1 Of February, 1776. See the reference to it in Washington s subsequent 
 letter, Dec. 24, on p. 59 of Kidder s Maine and Nova Scotia. See, also, for 
 the state of mind of the Indians, ibid., pp. 165-179, seq., 310, etc. 
 
10 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 CHAP. i. grandson as the spirit of the declaration of resistance 
 1764^1805. to tyranny which Daniel Palmer subscribed. 
 
 His isolation, however, except in public sentiment, 
 lasted hardly more than a year. Despite the good- will 
 and assistance of Massachusetts, before a project of for 
 tifying the mouth of the St. John could be carried out, in 
 May, 1777, the British sloop Vulture, fourteen guns, from 
 .Halifax (a vessel afterward famous for having been the 
 refuge of Benedict Arnold on the discovery of his 
 treason), sailed up the river with troops, and, as was 
 reported in Machias on the 29th, compelled the settlers 
 P- 86 - to take the oath of allegiance to his British Majesty. 
 Many were robbed of their all ; some were carried away. 
 A vain attempt to reverse this was made by a Massa 
 chusetts expedition in the following month. Boston was 
 too far away, Halifax was too near. Submission was 
 unavoidable ; but time never reconciled all of the inhab 
 itants to the separation from their kindred in the old 
 Massachusetts home, and their regrets have been handed 
 down to their posterity. Shut off from further increase 
 by immigration from the original hive, they could only 
 perpetuate their numbers by intermarriage; and the 
 tourist on the St. John to-day finds in Sunbury County 
 not only familiar New England names, but perhaps as 
 unmixed a Puritan stock as exists on the continent. 
 
 Of Joseph Garrison, except that he died at Jemseg in 
 February, 1783, we know nothing more that is eventful. 
 He passed for a disappointed man. His physical charac 
 teristics, as determinable from his posterity, may be set 
 down as follows : a long chin and a large bump of firm 
 ness (phrenologically speaking), with a great length 
 between ; black hair, with early baldness. Probably to 
 him, too, rather than to the Palmers is to be attributed an 
 hereditary tendency to congenital lameness, which has 
 shown itself in three generations, though never in a 
 straight line, and always (it is believed) in the male 
 children, and two instances of a prominent facial birth 
 mark in a son and grandson of Joseph and Mary Palmer 
 
ANCESTRY. 11 
 
 Garrison. Mentally, besides the strong-mindedness al- CHAP. i. 
 ready indicated, there is no salient feature to distinguish 17 
 the founder of the line. His children, in a settlement 
 deprived of every literary and social advantage, proved 
 exceptionally intelligent. They educated themselves 
 with the slenderest facilities; learned the art of navi 
 gation $ became teachers. " They did not accumulate 
 much/ says the local tradition, "but they always left 
 friends behind them." A fondness for music, and natu 
 ral aptitude for giving instruction in it, have also been 
 manifested in Joseph s posterity, among whom it has 
 been handed down that he used to play the fiddle. 
 Domestically, it may be inferred that Joseph Garrison 
 was uxorious, since at least five of his children were 
 named for his wife s relatives. 
 
 The Palmer type was also well supplied with firmness 5 
 had high cheek-bones, fair skin and hair ; was of a quiz 
 zical and jocose temperament. 1 Religiously, the Palmers 
 were affiliated with the Baptists, and Mary Palmer Gar 
 rison is said to have been the only person of that de 
 nomination on the Jemseg when she came there. (She 
 joined the church in Byfield before the removal, October 
 10, 1762.) She long survived her husband, dying on 
 February 14, 1822. On the 30th of January, 1787, she 
 was granted eighty acres of land (Lot No. 6, Second 
 Division) on the River St. John, opposite the Jemseg, in 
 Queen s County. Later, her home was on the Jemseg 
 with her son Silas, who cultivated the farm now shown 
 as the Garrison homestead. At the time of her death 
 
 1 Prom this side of the house were probably derived the characteristics of 
 the Garrison-Palmer offspring indicated in the following extract of a 
 letter from William Garrison (the son of Joseph) to his nephew Andrew 
 (Jan. 31, 1831): "I think it a family trait that we are apt to be too 
 sanguine and enthusiastic in many of our pursuits, which may cast a mist 
 prejudicial to our true interests. . . . That would-be witty Devil has 
 more than once proved injurious to our family." It should be further 
 noted that the Palmers were full-lived. Sergeant John lived to be 72; 
 his son Francis to be 76; Ms son John to be 74; his son Daniel to be 
 65 at least. William Lloyd Garrison died in his 74th year, far surpassing 
 his father and paternal grandfather. 
 
12 WILLIAM LLOYD GABKISON. 
 
 CHAP. i. she had been for many years the widow of Robert 
 1764^1805. Angus. 1 She is remembered late in life as a jolly sort of 
 person portly, with round face and fair hair, of a san 
 guine temperament, and a great favorite with children, 
 whom she amused with quaint stories. 2 From her there 
 ran in the veins of her offspring the emigrant Puritan 
 blood of Palmer, Northend, Hunt, Redding, Stickney, 
 Brocklebank, Wheeler, and other (unnamable) stirpes. 
 
 By her, Joseph Garrison became the father of nine 
 children, viz., Hannah (1765-1843), 3 Elizabeth (1767- 
 1815), Joseph (1769-1819), Daniel (1771-1803), Abijah 
 (born 1773), Sarah (born 1776), Nathan (1778-1817), 
 Silas (1780-1849), William (a posthumous child, 1783- 
 1837). The fifth in order, Abijah, must occupy our 
 attention, to the exclusion of his brothers and sisters. 
 The exact date of his birth was June 18, 1773, and the 
 place Jemseg. He was named for his uncle Palmer. 
 Ante, p. 5. Except the romantic incident of his babyhood, already 
 related, his early history is a blank. He alone of the 
 family followed the sea. He became eventually a cap 
 tain, and made many voyages, with his cousin Abijah 
 Palmer as mate. His hour-glass, sole personal souve 
 nir, is still preserved, with his rudely- cut initials. He 
 was tall, but well-proportioned, of fine and even hand 
 some appearance, in spite of an extraordinary birth-mark 
 ("like raw beef," "sometimes as red as blood") extend 
 ing from ear to ear and under the chin, like a muffler. 
 He had the light hair and fair skin of the Palmers. He 
 
 1 He died in the latter half of the year 1805. 
 
 2 As a means of supporting herself and family after Joseph Garrison s 
 death, she appears to have practised the art of a midwife for more than 
 thirty years "by night and by day, for they will have her out " (MS. Sept. 
 16, 1815, Sarah Perley). 
 
 3 In the church records of the parish of Byfleld, Newbury, Mass., this 
 entry is found among the baptisms : " Hannah, Daut r of Joseph Garrison 
 of St. John s River in Nova Scotia but his wife a member of yu Chh here 
 with her Child June 15, 1766." The last sentence, if punctuated thus, as it 
 doubtless should be "but his wife, a member of the church, here with 
 her child " is evidence of a visit of Mary Garrison to her old home at the 
 date mentioned. 
 
ANCESTKY. 13 
 
 is remembered by one of his contemporaries as a " smart CHAP. i. 
 man, bright at most everything," and as an excellent 1764^805. 
 penman. Moreover, he possessed a keen sense of the 
 ludicrous, which often displayed itself with the free 
 dom of the time in his versifying. 1 His son, William 
 Lloyd, who had no personal recollection of him, thus 
 summed up the traditions in regard to Abijah G-arrison : 
 
 "I was probably not more than three years old when he MS. 
 took his final leave of my mother. I remember vaguely to 
 have been told that he had a fine physical development, a san 
 guine temperament, a bald head, and a reddish beard, with a 
 very noticeable scar on his face, a birth-mark ; that he was 
 very genial and social in his manners, kind and affectionate in 
 Iris disposition, and ever ready to assist the suffering and 
 needy j that he had a good theoretical and practical knowledge 
 of navigation, and as a master of a vessel made many voyages 
 coastwise and to the West Indies ; and that he had a strong 
 taste for reading, and evinced some literary talent. There is 
 no doubt that his love for my mother was almost romantic; 
 and it is questionable, when he deserted her, if he meant the 
 separation to be final." 
 
 Romantic love had a romantic beginning. By some 
 chance of coast navigation Abijah found himself on 
 Deer Island, N. B., in Passamaquoddy Bay (waters 
 called Quoddy, for short). Here, at a religious evening 
 meeting, his eye fell upon a strikingly beautiful young 
 woman, dressed in a blue habit ; or, more than likely, 
 the previous sight of her was the cause 1 of that evening s 
 piety. At the close of the services he followed her to the 
 door, and boldly asked leave to accompany her home, 
 accosting her, for want of her real name, as " Miss Blue 
 Jacket." Her reply was a rebuff. Nevertheless, Abijah 
 lost no time in sending her a letter, which, it is safe to 
 say, surpassed in literary graces any she had ever re- 
 
 iMary Howitt, in her "Memoir of William Lloyd Garrison," in the 
 People s Journal of Sept. 12, 1846, sayf the father was a "fine poet," which 
 is certainly going beyond the record, as there are no remains whatever of 
 his muse. See hereafter (p. 24) the last letter before his disappearance, 
 in which the "sentimental piece" he promises to write is doubtless to be 
 interpreted as verse. 
 
14 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. 
 
 CfcAP. I. 
 
 1764-1805. 
 
 Peoples 
 
 Journal, 
 (Eng.) 
 
 Sept. 12, 
 1846, p. 141; 
 Penn. Free 
 man, Mar. 
 
 25, 1847. 
 
 ceived, and her reply confirmed an acquaintance which 
 ended infallibly in matrimony. 
 
 Frances Maria Lloyd was the daughter one of a 
 large family of children of Andrew Lloyd, a native of 
 Kinsale, County Munster, Ireland (about 1752). He 
 came out to the province of Nova Scotia in 1771, as a 
 prentice, bound to the captain (Plato Dana) of the ship 
 which also brought over John Lawless, an Englishman, 
 who had been a sergeant under Wolfe at Quebec ; his wife, 
 Catharine, said to have been a native of Limerick, Ire 
 land; and their only daughter Mary, who was certainly 
 born there. The prentice is believed to have improved 
 his time so well on the voyage that, young as they both 
 were, he married Mary Lawless on March 30, 1771, the 
 day after they had landed on the island of Campobello. 
 Andrew became a so-called branch (i. e., commissioned) 
 pilot, at Quoddy, and died suddenly in the service in the 
 year 1813. His wife, whom he survived, though not long, 
 was reputed the first person buried on Deer Island ; and 
 on this unfertile but picturesque and fascinating spot 
 Fanny Lloyd was born in 1776, and became the belle of 
 the family. 
 
 " She was of a tall, majestic figure, singularly graceful in 
 deportment and carriage ; her features were fine, and expressive 
 of a high intellectual character 5 and her hair so luxuriant and 
 rich that, when she unbound it, like that of Godiva of old, it 
 fell around her like a veil. The outward being, however, was 
 but a faint image of the angelic nature within ; she was one of 
 those who inspire at once love and reverence 5 she took high 
 views of lif e and its duties ; and, consequently, when adversity 
 came upon her as an armed man, she was not overcome. Life 
 had lost its sunshine, but not its worth j and, for her own and 
 her children s sake, she combated nobly with poverty and sor 
 row. Her influence on her children, more especially on her son 
 William, was very great : he venerated her while yet a child ; 
 not a word or a precept of hers was ever lost his young- 
 heart treasured up all, unknowing that these in after life 
 should become his great principles of action. 
 
 "To illustrate the conscious [conscientious ?] and firm 
 character of this admirable woman, we must be permitted to 
 
ANCESTRY. 15 
 
 give an anecdote of her whilst yet young. Her parents were of CHAP. I. 
 the Episcopal Church, and among the most bigoted of that i 6 ~ l8o * 
 body. In those days the Baptists were a despised people, and 
 it was reckoned vulgar to be of their community. One day, 
 however, it was made known through the neighborhood where 
 she lived that one of these despised sectaries l would preach in 
 a barn, and a party of gay young people, one of whom was the 
 lovely and gay Fanny Lloyd, agreed for a frolic to go and hear 
 him. Of those who went to scoff one remained to pray ; this 
 was Fanny Lloyd. Her soul was deeply touched by the meek 
 and holy spirit of the preacher j she wept much during the 
 sermon, and when it was over, the preacher spake kindly to 
 her. From that day a change came over her mind ; she would 
 no longer despise and ridicule the Baptists ; and before long 
 announced to her astonished and indignant parents that she 
 found it necessary for the peace of her soul to become publicly 
 one of that despised body. Nothing could equal the exaspera 
 tion which followed this avowal. They threatened that if she 
 allowed herself to be baptized, they would turn her out of 
 doors. It was not a matter of choice, but of stern duty with 
 her j she meekly expostulated she besought them with tears 
 to hear her reasons, but in vain. She could not, however, 
 resist that which she believed to be her duty to God ; she was 
 baptized, and had no longer a home under her parents roof. 
 She then took refuge with an uncle, with whom she resided 
 several years. This early persecution only strengthened her 
 religious opinions ; and she remained through life a zealous 
 advocate of those peculiar views for which she had suffered so 
 much." 2 
 
 The date of Abijah Garrison s marriage is uncertain, 
 except that it was nearly at the close of the last century, 
 and on the 12th day of December. The place of the 
 ceremony is equally unknown ; neither has it been ascer 
 tained where was the first home of the young couple. 
 Not improbably, from what follows, it may have been 
 
 1 Perhaps " Elder J. Murphy, a licentiate from a Baptist church in Nova 
 Scotia," who in 1794 commenced preaching on the adjacent Moose Island, 
 on which Eastport, Me., is situated. (See Millet s Hist. Baptists in 
 Maine, p. 338.) The church at Eastport, which ultimately grew out of 
 this beginning, had members on Deer Island. 
 
 2 As Mr. Garrison, on his visit to England in 1846, must have furnished 
 Mrs. Howitt with these facts in regard to his mother, they are reproduced 
 here as more authentic than any later recollections could have been. 
 
16 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 CHAP. i. among the husband s relatives on the Jemseg, and here 
 1764^1805. perhaps was born Mary Ann, who died in infancy. In 
 1801 they were settled in Duke Street, St. John, where 
 a son, James Holley, was born to them on July 10, and 
 possibly also a second daughter, Caroline Eliza (1803). 
 Subsequently they removed to Granville, Nova Scotia, in 
 the neighborhood of Fanny s sister Nancy (Mrs. Thomas 
 Delap). To this period belongs the following fragment 
 of a letter from the sailor to his wife : 
 
 Abijali to Fanny Lloyd Garrison. 
 
 MS. NICHOLAS HARBOUR, April 24, 1804. 
 
 DEAR FRANCES : I am now at a Place they Call Nicholas 
 Harbour about 14 Leagues to the Eastward of Hallifax. The 
 April 22, Wind Came ahead on Sunday about 12 o clock and Terminated 
 1804. i n ^ o a mos t Violent Gale : however by Gods Providence we got 
 into a safe and Commodious harbour, and screen d from the 
 inclemency of Weather. I write this as it were at a Venture 
 not knowing Whether it will ever come to hand, but I feel it a 
 Duty incumbent on me to sooth as much as Possible that 
 anxiety of mind you must Consquently [constantly] feel in 
 my Absence : and as writing to a Bosom friend is attended 
 with more Pleasure than Pain I cou d write whole Volumes if 
 I thought it wou d Redound to your happiness, but the Dis 
 tance we are apart and the Uncertainty of Conveyance Confines 
 [me to] very Narrow limits. I know of nothing in this life 
 that wou d [aug]ment my happiness more than to be at Home 
 with my Family and Free d from a Tempestuous Sky and 
 Enraged Ocean, with Just Enough (Good God) to Supply our 
 Real Wants and Necessities and Cou d I once more enjoy a 
 Ray of Divine Light from the Throne of God and Lamb I 
 shou d be the happiest of Sinners. We shall sail for Newfound 
 land the first fair wind and hope we Shall not stay over four 
 Weeks there but it is a difficult Season of the year and if we 
 are gone two months . . . 
 
 A year later, Abijah announces to his mother and step 
 father his intention to return to the old home of the 
 Puritan settlers on the St. John to Essex County, 
 Massachusetts. His wife appends a brief postscript, and 
 the letter, precious for its incidental family history and 
 
ANCESTRY. 17 
 
 character glimpses, and for the union on one page of a CHAP. i. 
 still loving pair, is despatched to Mr. Robert Angus, 1764^805. 
 Waterborough, 1 River St. John, New Brunswick, to the 
 care of Mr. Geo. Harden, City of St. John, Thus it 
 reads : 
 
 Abijah Garrison to Ms Parents. 
 
 GRANVILLE, April 4th, 1805. MS. 
 
 MUCH RESPECTED PARENTS: This perhaps is the last you 
 may Expect from me dated at Granville as I am about to 
 remove to Newbury Port in the united states, Where I Expect 
 to Spend the remainder of my days. I have been following the 
 Rule of false Position, or rather permutation, these Seven Last 
 years, 2 and have never been able to Solve the Question to my 
 Satisfaction till now. Not that I am disaffected towards Gov 
 ernment but the barreness of these Eastern Climates rather 
 Obliges me to seek the welfare of my family in a more hospitable 
 Climate, where I shall be less expos d to the Ravages of war 3 
 and stagnation of business, which is severely felt in Nova 
 Scotia. The Prohibition of the American trade may hi time 
 help this Country 4 but from want of Circulating Cash this 
 Country will long lay bound in Extreme difficulties and Perpetual 
 Lawsuits. [The] last winter was attended with distress among 
 a great number of Poor people in this Place. The scarcity of 
 bread and all kind of vegetables was too well known in this 
 Part of Nova Scotia, the Great Drouth Last summer Cut off all 
 
 1 Jemseg was in the parish of Waterborough. 
 
 2 This gives 1798 as the date of the last sojourn on the Jemseg, or even 
 of the marriage of Abijah and Fanny. 
 
 3 With Napoleon, namely. 
 
 4 This refers to the short-sighted policy adopted by Great Britain after 
 the American Revolution. Inasmuch as the United States had "become 
 the rivals of England in trade and manufactures, it was thought necessary 
 to confine the imports [of the colonies] to Tobacco, Naval Stores, and such 
 articles as the British Colonies did not produce in sufficient quantities for 
 their own use and consumption, and which could not be obtained else 
 where," and likewise to limit the exports, " such articles and goods being 
 imported and exported by British subjects and in British ships " (Halibur- 
 ton s Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia, 2 : 384). The act 
 regulating this trade in force in 1805 was that of 28 George III. ; and even as 
 Abijah Garrison was writing, Sir John Wentworth, Lieutenant-Governor 
 of Nova Scotia, was about to sign a proclamation (April 5, 1805) indicating 
 certain articles which, under the discretion allowed him, might be imported 
 for the space of three months, still in British bottoms only (Nova Scotia 
 Rotfril Gazette, June 13, 1805). 
 
 VOL. I. 2 
 
18 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. 
 
 CHAP. I. the fanners Expectations and People in general Experienc d 
 64^1805 the want of hay Equal to that of Bread j the smiling spring has 
 at last return d but brings nothing with it as yet substantial for 
 the present support of Man. I speak not this of myself, but of 
 many of my Neighbours j I thank God I have a Competency at 
 present, but the times forbode greater distress ahead. I have 
 in the Conclusion settled my Business here and am now about 
 to remove. 
 
 I lately rec d a kind letter from Sally Clark 1 which merits 
 my thanks and well wishes towards her. I shall Endeavour to 
 write to her before I leave this Place if Possible. Silas 2 I m 
 afraid has forgot me. William 3 has wrote very kindly whom 
 I shall answer the first opp ty. It wou d give me infinite 
 Satisfaction when you write if you wou d Cast off the formal 
 method of arranging your letters and write more of the Par 
 ticular Circumstances attending your welfare j how you get 
 along thro this troublesom World, what difficulties you meet 
 with how times and seasons are with you what alterations their 
 is in the neighbourhood since I left Jemsagg the smallest 
 Circumstances will awake my memory and Present to my view 
 the seasons when I left my native home. Fanny and the little 
 ones are well, Little Jemmy says I must tell Granny Angus he 
 has got a little fife and trumpet and a penknife and he Can 
 Sing a Great many tunes. Fanny intended to write by this 
 Conveyance but we are so much hurried to get things in order 
 for moving that she scarcely has time tho Earnestly desires to 
 be remembered to you and all the family. 
 
 I believe now the Enchantment is broke for I find that some 
 of my letters have lately Eeach d you. I once thought that you 
 never meant to write to me again after writing so many and 
 not receiving any answer but without doubt they went thro 
 a firey tryal. The Policy and Craft of Jealous minded People 
 is beyond Description. I have enclos d a letter I had lately 
 (and the only one I ever had) from Rebekah Nathan 4 which 
 you are at liberty to read. I think myself Greatly injur d by 
 that Person : in the first Place when I left St. Johns I was in 
 
 1 That is, his younger sister Sarah, who married Joseph Clark. 
 
 2 His younger brother. " Slow as Uncle Silas " was a proverb at Jemseg, 
 and doubtless applied to correspondence as well as to other things. 
 
 3 His youngest brother, a cripple from birth, but a very intelligent 
 schoolmaster. 
 
 4 Apparently, Nathan s Rebecca is meant. Nathan Garrison, the next 
 younger brother of Abijah, married Rebecca Ansley. There was a " Re 
 bekah Joseph " also in the family. 
 
ANCESTRY. 19 
 
 Nathan s debt according to his accompt 4:5:4. After I CHAP. I. 
 returned from the West Indies I Paid him Eight dollars which I 6 ~ l9ot . 
 left a balance in his favour of 2 : 5 : 4. Some time after this 
 I sent over ^to Nathan for my things which fanny left in his 
 Care and was deny d them on Accompt of what I Owed him. 
 At the same time Got a Great deal of Abuse from Rebecca. 
 The Report Came here and Rung thro all Granville at my 
 Expence. Since that I Consign d to Nathan in behalf of Mr. 
 Delap nine Barrels of Cider which it seem by the letter they 
 are About to make a Grabb at part of that and Leave my 
 things at the mercy of fortune. If things run in this Channel 
 and I shou d send over a bank note for Exchange its Probable 
 the Cider wou d be set aside and a part of the Exchange secured 
 
 as B * it seem is an Excellent hand to take Care of Other 
 
 Peoples money. In all this Job sinned not with his lips ; I 
 dont blame Nathan for wanting his own and had he sent my 
 things when I sent for them I snou d have Paid him long Ago 
 but for want thereof take the Body. 
 
 I shou d be happy to write to all my Relations but have 
 scarcely time. May Kind Providence protect you thro all your 
 difficulties and receive you at Last where the Wicked Cease 
 from troubling Where Sorrow and Sighing shall flee away is 
 the Sincere wish of your affectionate Son 
 
 ABIJAH GARRISON. 
 
 Give my love to Silas and William, Sally and all the Rest of 
 our family. 
 
 DEAR PARENTS: I steal a Moments time to Insert a few 
 Lines at the Bottom of this Letter to bid you a Farewell and 
 once More to thank you for your Care and Attention to me in 
 times Back which shall ever be Gratefully Remembered by her 
 who is now Addressing you. I do not know what to write 
 but my affection is not Lesened towards you. My heart over 
 whelms with Gratitude and Love, and a tenderness awakes in 
 my Breast of filial Joy while writing to you. May God bless 
 you in all things temporal and spiritual. 
 
 FANNY GARRISON. 
 
 The chance which preserved this document could 
 hardly have been improved upon by choice, if it had 
 been designed to exhibit on the one hand Abijah s 
 
 l Perhaps " Becky." 
 
20 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. 
 
 CHAP. i. native gift of literary expression, his liveliness as a 
 1764^1805. correspondent so different from the " formalism " of 
 the period, of which he complains his love of home 
 and kindred, his pleasant and even his grim humor $ on 
 the other, the deeply emotional nature of Fanny Lloyd, 
 thrilling not only with the thought of separation from 
 past benefactors, but also with the new life just then 
 beginning to stir under her bosom. 
 
 The same Providence by which slavers made their 
 impious voyages in safety, attended the ship bearing 
 its passengers, visible and invisible, from Nova Scotia to 
 Newburyport, in the spring-time of 1805 ; whose arrival 
 was the unsuspected event of the year in the third city 
 of Massachusetts 1 for the six or seven thousand in 
 habitants were celebrating rather the building of the 
 new Court House on the Mall, the founding of the Social 
 Library, and the opening of Plum Island turnpike and 
 bridge, or making careful note of the thirty days 
 drought in July and August. On the 10th of December, 2 
 in a little frame house, still standing on School Street, 
 between the First Presbyterian Church, in which White- 
 field s remains are interred, and the house in which the 
 great preacher died, and so in the very bosom of 
 Lib. 4:15. orthodoxy, a man-child was born to Abijah and Fanny 
 Garrison,- and called, after an uncle who subsequently 
 lost his life in Boston harbor, William Lloyd Garrison. 
 
 1 The seal of the province of New Brunswick is a ship nearing port 
 under full sail, with the legend, Spem reduxit. 
 
 2 The town records say the 12th. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 BOYHOOD. 1805 - 1818. 
 
 FEW New England towns preserve so well the aspect CHAP. n. 
 which they wore at the close of the last and the 1805-1818. 
 beginning of the present century, or have been so little 
 affected, externally, by the changes and vicissitudes in 
 their business and social life, as Newburyport ; and the 
 description which President Dwight of Yale College gave 
 of the place in 1796 is, in the main, not inapplicable to-day. 
 
 " The town," he wrote, " is built on a declivity of unrivalled D-wight s 
 beauty. The slope is easy and elegant ; the soil rich; the New Eng- 
 streets, except one near the water, clean and sweet ; and the ? am o_ 
 verdure, wherever it is visible, exquisite. The streets are either 
 parallel, or right angled, to the river ; the southern shore of 
 which bends, here, towards the south-east. None of them are 
 regularly formed. . . . Still, there is so near an approxi 
 mation to regularity as to awaken in the mind of a traveller, 
 with peculiar strength, a wish that the regularity had been 
 perfect. . . . There are few towns of equal beauty in this 
 country. . . . The houses, taken collectively, make a better 
 appearance than those of any other town in New England. 
 Many of them are particularly handsome. Their appendages, 
 also, are unusually neat. Indeed, an air of wealth, taste, and 
 elegance is spread over this beautiful spot with a cheerfulness 
 and brilliancy to which I know no rival." 
 
 During the ten years following the period to which 
 this description refers, the town was at the height of its 
 prosperity. Commercially it was of much importance, 
 excelled only by Boston and Salem, and owned a multi 
 tude of vessels engaged in the foreign and coastwise 
 
 21 
 
22 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 1-13. 
 
 CHAP. ii. trade, and in the fisheries. Not only were its wharves 
 1805^1818. constantly crowded with ships and loaded with merchan 
 dise, but the bank of the Merrimac River, even as far as 
 Deer Island, two miles above the town, was occupied by 
 busy ship-yards ; and ship-building was one of the most 
 important industries of the place. The prosperous mer 
 chants and ship-owners built fine mansions for them 
 selves on State Street, and along the beautiful High 
 Street, from which the town slopes gently down to the 
 water ; while their townsmen of more moderate preten 
 sions occupied comfortable homes on the lower thorough 
 fares between High Street and the river. 
 
 The commercial glory and importance of the place 
 have, thanks to the centralizing effect of the railroad, 
 long since departed. Its wharves no longer wear a 
 busy aspect ; its ship-yards have one by one fallen into 
 disuse until few remain j but its streets and dwellings 
 still preserve the neat, attractive, and well-cared-for ap 
 pearance which distinguished them when Dr. D wight 
 visited the town in 1796. If some houses of more modern 
 construction have here and there arisen in places that 
 were vacant, the old mansions have remained undis 
 turbed, and they still predominate and give character to 
 the place. The Newburyport boy of sixty years ago who 
 revisits his native town to-day, finds many quarters whose 
 general features are unchanged. 
 
 The Embargo of 1807-8 had not yet laid its paralyzing 
 hand upon the busy port when Abijah Garrison came 
 there to establish a new home for himself and family, 
 and to seek employment. He was a stranger in the 
 place, without friend or acquaintance among the mer 
 chants to whom he applied for a position ; but his per 
 sonal presence and bearing were such that he speedily 
 won their attention and confidence, and secured an en 
 gagement as sailing-master, 1 in which capacity he made 
 
 1 Presumably, since the books of the Newburyport and Salem custom 
 houses show no record of him as captain of any of the vessels sailing from 
 those ports in 1805-1808. Yet he always bore that title. 
 
^T. 1-13.] BOYHOOD. 23 
 
 several voyages. The only record that remains of these CHAP. ir. 
 is contained in two letters, written respectively to his 1805^1818. 
 brother Joseph, then residing at Deer Island, and to his 
 wife. The first, which bears date of April 3, 1806 (from 
 Newburyport), mentions that he has " just returned from 
 Virginia with a load of Corn and Flour," that he has 
 declined numerous opportunities to go as pilot to 
 "Quoddy" on good wages, not being aware that his 
 brother was there, and believing that he could make 
 more by going to Virginia; and that he has some 
 thought of going on a fishing trip to Labrador, thirty 
 dollars a month being the inducement. Evidently he 
 was well satisfied with his experience in Massachusetts, 
 for he had already written to his brother William that 
 he liked the country in the main, though giving "some 
 ludicrous descriptions of the customs of the place." And 
 he now wrote to Joseph : 
 
 " I have not much time to write you the Particulars of Busi- MS. 
 ness here, but Earnestly recommend you to Come here if you 
 possibly Can without Injuring yourself, for I am Confident you 
 wou d get a decent living here. There is more than fifty ways 
 you might find Employment, and always have the Cash as 
 soon as the work is done. Money is as Plenty here as goods." 
 
 His closing sentence is characteristic : 
 
 " I shall for the future Put all my letters in the Post Ofiice 
 and wish you to do the Same. The Price of a letter by Post 
 will not amount to more than a meal s victuals, and I am 
 always willing to eat one Meal less for Every letter I receive 
 from any of Our family (rather than fail of getting them)." 
 
 The letter to his wife was written towards the close of 
 the same year, being dated Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, 1 
 November 12, 1806, where, owing to the sickness of him 
 self and the crew, consequent upon bad provisions, he 
 had been detained twenty-four days, instead of five, as 
 he had anticipated. 
 
 " God only knows," he wrote, " when we shall get away : it MS. 
 seems seven years to me since I saw you last. I cou d with 
 l He probably went out in the James, Captain Dole. 
 
24 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 1-13. 
 
 CHAP. II. pleasure this moment give all I shall earn this voyage to be 
 1805^1818 P resent w i tn y u an< i m y children. May God bless you [and] 
 
 preserve you in health is the prayer of your affectionate 
 
 Husband." 
 
 The modest house on School Street in which William, 
 or, as his mother always called him, Lloyd, was born, 
 belonged to Mrs. Martha Farnham and her husband, 
 who was a captain in the coasting trade j and of them 
 Abijah and Fanny Garrison hired a few rooms soon 
 after their arrival in Newburyport. A strong friendship 
 quickly sprang up between the two women, who found a 
 bond of sympathy in the frequent prolonged absence at 
 sea of their husbands, and in the fact that they were 
 both ardent Baptists and members of the First Baptist 
 Church, which had been established in Newburyport in 
 the spring of 1805. This friendship abided during their 
 lifetime, and was transmitted to their children, who grew 
 up together as members of one family. 
 
 Before Lloyd was three years old, his parents lost 
 their second daughter, Caroline, who died in conse 
 quence of eating some poisonous flowers in a neighbor 
 ing garden. A few weeks later, in July, 1808, a third 
 daughter was born to them, to whom the name of Maria 
 Elizabeth was given, and not long after this date Abijah 
 Garrison left Newburyport, never again to return to it 
 or to his family. He went back to New Brunswick, and 
 is known to have been living there in 1814, and to have 
 made several short voyages, and he is also said to have 
 taught school. Of the place and time of his death no 
 knowledge exists, though he is believed to have ended 
 his days in Canada, whither he finally went from New 
 Brunswick. 1 
 
 1 The following, which is the last known letter written by Abijah Gar 
 rison, was addressed to his cousin, Joanna Palmer, of Sheffield, on the 
 St. John : 
 
 WATERBOBOUGH, July the 27th, 1814. 
 
 DEAR COUSIN : According to promise I have broken the Ice : or rather broke 
 silence after so long a time and must apologise for this being the first 
 from me, which I asure you was not from want of Respect, but principally 
 
Mf. 1-13.] BOYHOOD. 25 
 
 The cause of this desertion of wife and children by a CHAP. n. 
 man whose affection for them, as for all related to him, 1805^1818. 
 was so often manifested and cannot be questioned, must 
 ever remain somewhat of a mystery. There is reason to 
 believe that the constant temptation to drink, which the 
 social customs and habits of that day, as well as the 
 usages of the sailor s life, offered, proved at times more 
 than he could withstand, and that he experienced a keen 
 sense of mortification whenever his appetite had over 
 come him. Especially was this temptation strong in a 
 town like Newburyport, itself the seat of numerous dis- 
 tilleries, and having always a considerable transient 
 population of seafaring men, who, accustomed to regular 
 rations of grog at sea, were naturally prone to convivial 
 habits when in port. 
 
 " It was the fashion of the day," writes a venerable woman, MS. 
 a relative of Abijah r who well remembers that period, " to use 
 alcoholic spirit in all places of honor and trust. We had it at 
 our ordinations, weddings, births, and funerals, and the de 
 canter was brought on the table to greet our friends with when 
 they came, and was not forgotten when they left j and if they 
 could stand the test and not reel, they were called sober men." 
 
 There is no evidence that Abijah Garrison ever became 
 an habitually intemperate man; but that his inability 
 always to control an appetite which his wife abhorred 
 with all the intensity of her nature, prevented his ob 
 taining the employment which he had readily secured in 
 previous years, and led him to seek new fields, is not im 
 probable. Certain it is that his wife used entreaty and 
 expostulation to induce him to abandon the habit, and it 
 is related that on one occasion, when some of his fellow- 
 captains came to the house for a carouse, she promptly 
 
 from a barrenness of anything to address you upon, in Consequence of the 
 Whirl I have taken in the World. I shou d be happy to see you often, and 
 hope you will Indulge us with your Company soon, at least this fall. I 
 shou d be happy of your Correspondence by letters & hope you will do me 
 the favour to write as often as you Can: When you answer this I will 
 write you a Sentimental piece. Wishing you the Blessings of Health, 
 
 I remain your affectionate A. GARRISON. 
 
26 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. [^T. 1-13. 
 
 CHAP. ii. ejected and closed the door upon them, and broke the 
 1805^1818. bottles of spirits not a difficult feat for a woman of her 
 physique, when her moral indignation was aroused. She 
 was in the fulness of life and vigor when, at the age of 
 thirty-two, she found herself left with three small chil 
 dren utterly dependent upon her for support, the eldest 
 being but seven years old, and the youngest a babe in 
 arms ; while Lloyd, who was to become in later years her 
 main comfort and hope, was less than three too young, 
 as already stated, to retain any personal recollection of 
 his father. Up to that time she had enjoyed such ex 
 uberant health that she was wont to say that "only a 
 cannon-ball could kill Fanny Garrison " ; but though she 
 resolutely set about the task of maintaining herself 
 and her little ones, the blow of this desertion was one 
 from which she never recovered, and it shadowed the 
 remaining years of her life. 
 
 The struggle for existence became a severe and bitter 
 one. The day of Newburyport s prosperity had passed, 
 and the years of the Embargo and of the war of 1812-15 
 brought disaster and ruin to its business and commerce. 
 It was no easy matter, therefore, to find the remunerative 
 employment which would feed so many mouths. The 
 little house in School Street still afforded them shelter, 
 thanks to the sisterly devotion of Martha Farnham, who 
 assured them that while she had a roof to cover her they 
 should share it. When circumstances permitted, Mrs. 
 Garrison took up the calling of a monthly nurse, and 
 during her necessary occasional absences from home the 
 children were under the motherly care of their "Aunt" 
 Farnham. When Lloyd was older, his mother used to 
 send him out on election and training days to sell the 
 nice sticks of molasses candy which she was an adept in 
 making, and he thus earned a few pennies towa*rds the 
 common support. 1 A harder task for the little fellow was 
 
 1 This fact is recorded in the "common-place book " of Wendell Phillips, 
 as told him by Mr. Garrison in "Nov., 47, once when his boys had a molasses 
 scrape." " So Luther sang at doors f or pence," adds the chronicler. 
 
^T. 1-13.] BOYHOOD. 27 
 
 to go to a certain mansion on State Street for food, which CHAP. n. 
 the friendly inmates would put aside and send to his 1805^1818. 
 mother j and he sensitively tried to conceal the contents 
 of his tin pail from the rude boys who sought to discover 
 them and to taunt him. 
 
 With all her sorrow at heart, his mother maintained 
 her cheerful and courageous demeanor. She had a fine 
 voice " one of the best," her son was wont to say 
 and was ever singing at her work j and in the church 
 meetings at which she and Martha Farnham were con 
 stant and devoted attendants (sometimes opening their 
 own house for an evening gathering), she sang with 
 fervor the soul-stirring hymns which have been the in 
 spiration and delight of the devout for generations. She 
 was mirthful withal, and had a quick sense of the ludi 
 crous. Once, when she strayed into the Methodist meet 
 ing wearing a ruffle about her neck, as was the fashion 
 of the day, she was startled by the minister s singling 
 her out for rebuke, in his prayer, for what he consid 
 ered a frivolous habit. Her gravity was nearly upset 
 when the good man exclaimed, " We pray thee, O Lord, 
 to strip Sister Garrison of her Babylonish frills ! w and 
 she was convulsed with laughter, hours after, at the 
 thought of it. 
 
 In September, 1810, she made her last visit to her old 
 home at Granville, Nova Scotia, taking Lloyd with her ; 
 but he was too young to remember anything but the 
 Indians whom he then saw, and who came to his aunt s 
 house with their pappooses slung upon their backs. 
 During the war of 1812-15, she removed to Lynn to 
 pursue her vocation, taking James, her favorite son, a 
 boy of much beauty and promise, with her, that he might 
 learn the trade of shoemaking. Elizabeth was left in 
 Mrs. Farnham s protecting care, while Lloyd went to 
 live with Deacon Ezekiel Bartlett and wife, and their 
 two daughters, worthy people, who dwelt at the corner 
 of Water and Summer Streets, within sight and stoned- 
 throw of the Merrimac, and who were faithful members 
 
28 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. I>T. 1-13. 
 
 CHAP. ii. of the little Baptist Church. Up to that time, what little 
 1805^1818. instruction the boy had received had probably been ob 
 tained at the primary or " writing school " opposite the 
 Farnhams , in School Street; and he had not shown him 
 self an apt scholar, being slow in mastering the alphabet, 
 and surpassed even by his little sister Elizabeth. He 
 finally learned to spell, read, and write correctly, though 
 the last accomplishment was acquired with no slight 
 pains, for he was left-handed, and his master promptly 
 checked his propensity to write accordingly, by a rap 
 over the knuckles with his ruler. The treatment was 
 radical, and the result a clear, round, handsome chirog- 
 raphy, which was exhibited in the banks and counting- 
 rooms of the town as a model, and which always retained 
 its character and beauty. 
 
 After he became an inmate of the Bartlett household 
 he was sent to the Grammar School on the Mall, for three 
 months, at the end of which he was compelled to leave, 
 and do what he could towards earning his board by help 
 ing Deacon Bartlett. The good Deacon, who was in very 
 humble circumstances, sawed wood, sharpened saws, 
 made lasts, and even sold apples from a little stand at 
 his door, to win a subsistence for his family ; and Lloyd, 
 who was an exemplary and conscientious boy, and 
 warmly attached to his kind friends, dutifully tried to 
 do all he could to lighten their burden of poverty. There 
 were times, however, when he wished that he did not have 
 to follow the Deacon about to help him saw and split wood, 
 and would much rather have gone off to play with other 
 boys ; and once, when aggrieved by the denial of some 
 privilege which he had asked of the Deacon, he ran away 
 with an enterprising comrade, and was met twenty miles 
 from town by the driver of the mail-coach, who picked 
 up the fugitives and brought them back. 
 
 Lloyd was a thorough boy, fond of games and of all 
 boyish sports. Barefooted, he trundled his hoop all over 
 Newburyport ; he swam in the Merrimac in summer, and 
 skated on it in winter j he was good at sculling a boat ; 
 
THE OLD GRAMMAR SCHOOL, NEWBURYPORT. 
 
 GARRISON S BIRTHPLACE. 
 
^ET. 1-13.J BOYHOOD. 29 
 
 he played at bat-and-ball and snowball, and sometimes CHAP. n. 
 
 led the " South-end boys " against the " North-enders " 1805^1818. 
 
 in the numerous conflicts between the youngsters of the 
 
 two sections j he was expert with marbles. Once, with 
 
 a playmate, he swam across the river to " Great Rock," a 
 
 distance of three-fourths of a mile, and effected his 
 
 return against the tide ; and once, in winter, he nearly 
 
 lost his life by breaking through the ice on the river, 
 
 and reached the shore only after a desperate struggle, 
 
 the ice yielding as often as he attempted to climb upon 
 
 its surface. 
 
 It was a favorite pastime of the boys of that day to 
 swim from one wharf to another adjacent, where vessels 
 from the West Indies discharged their freight of mo 
 lasses, and there to indulge in stolen sweetness, extracted 
 by a smooth stick inserted through the bung-hole. When 
 detected and chased, they would plunge into the water and 
 escape to the wharf on which they had left their clothes. 
 In this way they became connoisseurs of the different 
 grades of molasses, and fastidious in their selection of 
 the hogshead to be tested. Like most lads brought up 
 in seaport towns, Lloyd was smitten with a desire to go to 
 sea, but happily this never took full possession of him, 
 as it subsequently did of his ill-fated brother. 
 
 Inheriting his mother s fondness for music, he joined 
 the choir of the Baptist Church while yet a boy, and 
 sometimes acted as chorister. He had a rich voice, which 
 could soar high and follow any flute. It was a delight 
 to him to go to singing-school, and many of the hymns 
 and tunes which he sang all his life were associated in 
 his memory with the circumstances under which he first 
 learned them, or with the fact that they were favorites 
 of his dear mother. The first psalm-tune he ever learned 
 was the 34th Psalm, " Through all the changing scenes 
 of life, in trouble and in joy;" and " Wicklow" he first 
 heard at a singing-school in Belleville (part of Newbury- 
 port), " where there were lots of boys and pretty girls." 
 In later years, and, indeed, to the end of his life, it was 
 
30 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 1-13. 
 
 CHAP. II. his habit, each Sunday morning, to go through these, 
 1805^1818. accompanying himself on the piano with one hand (he 
 could never master the bass) ; and the strains of " Coro 
 nation," "Hebron," "Ward," "Denmark," "Lenox/ 7 
 " Majesty," and other familiar tunes, would waken the 
 sleepers above, who, claiming their Sunday morning 
 privilege, were still lingering in their beds. 
 
 He had a great fondness for pet animals, especially 
 cats, who instinctively recognized him as their friend 
 and would come and jump into his lap at first sight and 
 without invitation. From earliest boyhood he had one 
 or more pussies, and his first great sorrow was being 
 compelled to drown an old favorite whose days of use 
 fulness were considered past. He never forgot the 
 agony of that experience. A pleasanter remembrance 
 was of the demonstrations of delight with which another 
 pet cat greeted him, on his return home after a consider 
 able absence. A little while after the boy had gone to 
 bed he was awakened by the rubbing of soft fur against 
 Ms face, and found that puss had brought her latest 
 litter of kittens, born while he was away, and had de 
 posited them, one by one, about his head. "My eyes 
 moistened when I realized what she had done," he said, 
 " and we all slept in one bed that night." 
 
 During their mother s absence in Lynn, the children 
 heard frequently from her by letter, and Lloyd was able 
 to write to her in reply. Her little notes to him were 
 full of tender affection and earnest hope that he would 
 be a good and dutiful boy. Already her health and 
 strength were beginning to fail, after her arduous 
 struggle to maintain herself and her children ; and her 
 inability now to do continuous work made it all the 
 more imperative that they should learn trades that 
 would enable them to become self-supporting. So Lloyd 
 was brought to Lynn to learn shoemaking, and appren 
 ticed to Gamaliel W. Oliver, an excellent man and a 
 member of the Society of Friends, who lived on Market 
 Street and had a modest workshop in the yard adjoin 
 ing his house. There the little boy, who was only nine 
 
Mf. 1-13.] BOYHOOD. 31 
 
 years old, and so small that his fellow- workmen called CHAP. n. 
 
 him " not much bigger than a last," toiled for several jsos^isis. 
 
 months until he could make a tolerable shoe, to his great 
 
 pride and delight. He was much too young and small 
 
 for his task, however, and it soon became evident that he 
 
 lacked the strength to pursue the work. He always 
 
 retained a vivid recollection of the heavy lapstone, on Lib. 19 : 19. 
 
 which he pounded many a sole until his body ached 
 
 and his knees were sore and tremulous j of the threads he 
 
 waxed, and the sore fingers he experienced from sewing 
 
 shoes j and not less vividly, but much more gratefully, 
 
 did he remember the kindness shown him by his worthy 
 
 master and wife, in whose family he lived during his 
 
 brief apprenticeship. From their house he witnessed 
 
 the great gale of September, 1815, which made as strong 
 
 an impression on his memory as the great Newburyport 
 
 fire of 1811, which, when a boy of five, he had been held 
 
 up to the window to see. 
 
 In October, 1815, Mr. Paul Newhall, a shoe manufac 
 turer of Lynn, decided to remove to Baltimore, Mary 
 land, for the purpose of" establishing a factory there, and 
 he took with him a number of skilled workmen, with 
 their families. Mrs. Garrison, who was known and be 
 loved by them all, accepted an invitation to accompany 
 them, taking her two boys with her, and the whole party 
 embarked at Salem on the ninth of that month in the 
 brig Edward, the journey by land being too formidable 
 and expensive in those days to be thought of. The 
 voyage was a rough one, lasting twelve days j but while 
 Lloyd was so seasick that he lost all desire to lead 
 a seafaring life, his mother proved herself a good 
 sailor, and kept a log of their daily experiences in 
 true nautical phrase. The narrative, which has been 
 preserved, is curiously interspersed with solemn reflec 
 tions on the miseries of this and the glories of the 
 future life, and with humorous allusions to the sick 
 ness of the passengers and the terror of the women 
 when a British sloop-of-war fired two guns to make the 
 Edward haul to. 
 
32 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 1-13. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 1805-1818. 
 
 Wm. New- 
 hall, of 
 Salem. 
 
 MS. 
 
 April 1 8, 
 1816. 
 
 For a while after they reached Baltimore she and her 
 boys lived in Mr. Newhall s family, James being again 
 apprenticed at shoemaking, and Lloyd making himself 
 useful as best he could in doing errands and other light 
 work. She had great influence with the young men em 
 ployed by Mr. Newhall, and they came often to see her, 
 and to listen to the moral and religious views with 
 which she endeavored to impress them. They called her 
 " Mother/ and sixty years afterwards the last survivor 
 of them spoke of her in terms of enthusiastic and grate 
 ful remembrance. 
 
 The shoe-factory proved a failure, and was abandoned 
 after a few months, Mr. Newhall and his men returning 
 to Lynn. Mrs. Garrison remained to take up the work 
 of nursing again, and speedily won friends and patrons 
 among the wealthy residents, of whose elegant summer re 
 treats in the suburbs she wrote glowing descriptions. She 
 attended church three times on Sunday, although she had 
 to walk nearly two miles each time ; and before the end of 
 her first year in Baltimore she had established^ women s 
 prayer-meeting, which met every Saturday afternoon, 
 and had the satisfaction of seeing it well attended. 
 
 Trials, sorrows, and disappointments nevertheless be 
 set her path. Her son James, tired of the awl and last, 
 ran away from his master and took to the sea, and Lloyd 
 became so homesick for Newburyport that his mother 
 had not the heart to keep him, for she, too, longed for 
 the old home. Of Lloyd she wrote to Mrs. Farnham : 
 
 " He is so discontented . . . that he would leave me to 
 morrow and go with strangers to N. P. j he can t mention any 
 of you without tears. He is a fine boy, though he is mine, and 
 every Sunday he goes to the Baptist [church] , although he has 
 so far to walk. I expect lie will be a complete Baptist as to 
 the tenets. Mr. Newhall does not want to part with him, and 
 Lloyd likes very well, but he longs to go back and go to school. 
 I do hope he will always be so steady." 
 
 So Lloyd was sent back to Newburyport, and again 
 made his home with the Bartletts, doing what a boy 
 
Mr. 1-13.J BOYHOOD. 33 
 
 of ten or eleven years could towards earning his board, CHAP. 11. 
 arid obtaining a little more (and what proved to be his 1805^1818. 
 final) schooling, at the Grammar School on the Mall. 1 
 He was very happy in this, and in returning to the only 
 place that had ever seemed like home to him, but his 
 poor mother missed him sorely, and, as no situation 
 could be found for him in Newburyport, she proposed, 
 at the end of a year, that he should return to Baltimore. 
 Her hope of securing a place for him there was, however, 
 disappointed. Under date of August 29, 1817, she wrote 
 to him as follows : 
 
 MY DEAR SON : Your kind letter came safe to hand, and it MS. 
 afforded me comfort. To hear of your welfare adds to my 
 happiness, and receive my tender love and affection for your 
 earnest solicitude in wishing to settle yourself to ease my 
 burden. Your good behavior will more than compensate for 
 all my trouble ; only let me hear that you are steady and go 
 not in the way of bad company, and my heart will be hf ted up 
 to God for you, that you may be kept from the snares and 
 temptation of this evil world. I have no place at present in 
 view, and being disappointed in placing you with Mr. Rich 
 ards, I have concluded to let you remain another year at N. P. 
 If any offer should occur in that place, and Uncle Bartlett should 
 approve of it, I should wish you to accept it until a door should 
 open here. If there is no place you can get, don t think I want 
 to force you to a place to live. I should rather you would 
 remain at your school, as I am much pleased with your improve 
 ment. I am not anxious for you to be here at present [owing 
 to freshets, yellow fever, etc.] .... I have heard nothing 
 from James. I do not know whether he is dead or alive. 
 
 May God protect you in all your undertaking ! I do long to 
 see you, and my heart is ofttimes full when I think of you, my 
 dear Lloyd. Be a good boy and God will bless [you] , and you 
 have a Mother, although distant from you, that loves you with 
 tenderness. I will do everything for you I can ; it will be my 
 greatest happiness to make you happy. Write soon to her 
 who is your tender and affectionate 
 
 FRANCES M. GARRISON. 
 
 It is easy to see what influence such motherly epistles 
 as these must have had upon the lad who was just enter- 
 
 1 The quaint little brick building, erected in 1796, is still standing (1885). 
 
 VOL. I. 3 
 
34 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 1-13. 
 
 CHAP. ii. ing his teens, and to understand the love and reverence 
 1805^1818. in which he ever held the memory of his parent. "I 
 always feel like a little boy when I think of Mother," he 
 used to say in after years ; and he never doubted that he 
 had her strengthening and inspiring influence, and her 
 constant approbation, through all his stormy career. 
 Many years after her death he thus wrote of her to his 
 betrothed : 
 
 MS. June 
 
 Benson. 
 
 " You speak of a mother s love, and ask, What love is 
 comparable to hers ? An allusion like this dissolves my heart, 
 and causes it to grow liquid as water. I had a mother once, 
 who cared for me with such a passionate regard, who loved me 
 so intensely, that no language can describe the yearnings of her 
 soul no instrument measure the circumference of her mater 
 nal spirit. As to her person, I sum up my panegyric of it in 
 the following original verse : . 
 
 She was the masterpiece of womankind 
 
 In shape and height majestically fine; 
 Her cheeks the lily and the rose combined ; 
 
 Her lips more opulently red than wine; 
 Her raven locks hung tastefully entwined; 
 
 Her aspect fair as Nature could design: 
 And then her eyes! so eloquently bright! 
 An eagle would recoil before their light. 
 
 But she was not remarkable for her personal attractions 
 merely. Her mind was of the first order clear, vigorous, 
 creative, and lustrous, and sanctified by an ever-glowing piety. 
 How often did she watch over me weep over me and pray 
 over me ! (I hope, not in vain.) She has been dead almost 
 eleven years ; but my grief at her loss is as fresh and poignant 
 now as it was at that period. that my mother were living ! 
 is often the exclamation of my heart. Alas ! she cannot come 
 to me." 
 
 After a time Lloyd was apprenticed to Moses Short, a 
 cabinet-maker at Haverhill, Mass., who took the boy into 
 his family and treated him with much kindness. The 
 work was not unpleasant, and he soon learned to 
 make a toy bureau and helped at veneering, but his old 
 homesickness seized him, and he became so unhappy that, 
 at the end of six weeks, he resolved to make his escape. 
 Watching his opportunity, one morning when his master 
 had gone to the shop, he tied his shirt and other worldly 
 
JEff. 1-13.J BOYHOOD. 35 
 
 possessions in a handkerchief, threw the bundle down CHAP. n. 
 among the pumpkin- vines from his window, and then, 1805^1818. 
 going down and recovering it, started for Newburyport 
 on foot. He had calculated the time it would take him 
 to cross the loftg bridge ; and when the daily stage-coach 
 overtook him he seized the rack behind, and ran and 
 swung himself by turns to facilitate his progress. When 
 the stage paused at a stopping-place, he trudged on until 
 it again came along, and then repeated the operation, in 
 this way accomplishing several miles. The passengers 
 in the coach, meanwhile, were wondering how so small a 
 lad could keep up with it. But the fugitive was missed 
 at Haverhill, and, as he was wont to tell the story in 
 after years, his master took a short cut by which he 
 saved time and distance over the stage-road, and re 
 captured his apprentice. He bore him no ill-will, how 
 ever, and, when Lloyd confessed his homesickness, 
 promised to release him if he would only return to 
 Haverhill and take his leave in a regular and proper 
 manner, so that neither of them should be compromised. 
 He kept his word, and Lloyd again took up his abode 
 at Deacon Bartlettfs. 
 
 In a letter written to James by his mother, about this 
 time, she said, " I am trying to get Lloyd a place as MS. 
 house Cfarpenter ?], as he does not incline to go into a 
 store. His reason is this : he says unless he has a capital 
 when he is out of his time, he will not be able to com 
 mence business, but if he has a trade, he can go to work 
 and help maintain his M[other] : a very good resolve 
 for a child of fourteen." 
 
 Repeated efforts were made to find a situation for 
 him, but without success until the autumn of 1818, 
 when Mr. Ephraim W. Allen, editor and proprietor of 
 the Newburyport (semi-weekly) Herald, wishing a boy 
 to learn the printer s trade, Lloyd was presented as a 
 candidate for the place and accepted ; and, having been 
 duly apprenticed for the usual term of seven years, 
 entered the printing-office of the Herald on the 18th 
 of October, 1818. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 APPRENTICESHIP. 1818-1825. 
 
 fTlHE boy had not been many days in the printing-office 
 1818-1825. _l_ before he was convinced that he had at last found 
 his right place ; but his first feeling was one of discour 
 agement as he watched the rapidity with which the 
 speech at compositors set and distributed the types. "My little 
 given* ly heart sank like lead within me," he afterwards said. 
 cfBos- " Jt seemed to me that I never should be able to do 
 to %?*8 I4> anv thing f the kind. However, I was put to learn the 
 different boxes and to ascertain where the capitals and 
 small capitals were placed, and, in the lower case, how 
 the types were diversified, and very soon learned the 
 whole." From that time on throughout his life it was a 
 delight, and, as he used to express it, " a positive recrea 
 tion/ 7 to him to manipulate the types ; and the last time 
 that he ever handled the composing-stick was in that 
 same Herald office, just sixty years from the day on 
 which he had first entered it as an apprentice. He was 
 so short at first, that when he undertook to work off 
 proofs he had to stand on a fifty-six-pound weight in 
 order to reach the table. He quickly grew expert and 
 accurate as a compositor, and was much liked and 
 trusted by his master, of whose family he now became 
 a member, according to the custom with apprentices in 
 those days. As Mr. Allen s house was close by Deacon 
 Bartlett s, on Summer Street, the boy was still near his 
 old friend and protector, and he became very happy in 
 
. 13-20.] 
 
 APPRENTICESHIP. 
 
 37 
 
 his new home, caring for the younger children of the CHAP. in. 
 family as if he were an elder brother, and making him- 1818^1825. 
 self always helpful. 
 
 His mother was not yet fully reconciled to his remain 
 ing in Newburyport, and again suggested his joining 
 her in Baltimore during the following spring; but she 1819. 
 left it wholly optional with him. He decided to remain 
 in the printing-office, much to her disappointment, 
 though she approved his choice. On May 5, 1819, she 
 wrote him : 
 
 "All things considered, I think you have acted wisely in MS. 
 staying and learning your trade. Your dear Sister must have 
 felt the loss of your company, and your prospect here was not 
 the best, although you might have had a chance of doing well. 
 You was to have nothing here but your board. I was to have 
 found you all your clothes, mending and washing, &c., and if 
 my life should not be prolonged (perhaps I shall not live) you 
 will be among your dear N. P. [friends] . Was you here, if 
 such a thing should take place, you might be led astray by 
 bad company, which may God grant that you never may. . . . 
 
 " Thank you for your kindness respe^ng the balsam of 
 Quito. There is none of it here, and I wish for nothing more 
 than the balm of Gilead, the great Physician of Souls, to heal 
 the wounds that sin has made. ... I should like to have 
 Mr. Allen specify in writing what he intends to do. He is 
 very partial to you and says he never had a better boy. Once 
 
 more adieu, mav Heaven bless vc-u and mv dear M. E." Maria. 
 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 The allusion to the Balsam of Quito which Lloyd had 
 recommended to her betrays, even at that early day, a 
 faith in advertised remedies which was ever character 
 istic of him. His mother s letter was written under much 
 depression of spirits, after months of illness which had 
 greatly shattered her. Five months later she wrote him Oct. 5, 1819. 
 of the terrible ravages which the yellow fever was then 
 making in Baltimore, and of the happy fortune which 
 had kept him in Newburyport and deterred him from 
 joining her in the spring ; for the youth who had taken 
 his place had fallen a victim to the fever, with seventeen 
 others in the same house or neighborhood. " A fierce 
 
38 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [^T. 13-20. 
 
 MS. terror has entered Baltimore/ she wrote, " and has re 
 moved hundreds in a week with the yellow fever. The 
 countenances of the citizens wear a solemn gloom. 
 (Every one imagines that I may be next. ) Days of 
 fasting and prayer are daily appointed through all the 
 city. The youth, the aged, and the middle-aged are cut 
 down in a few hours, raving like wild creatures, no 
 sense of this world or any other until they appear before 
 the Judgment." 
 
 She herself fled with the multitude into the country, 
 and while there was called to attend Mrs. Dorsey, a 
 daughter of Timothy Pickering, in her last illness. " I 
 lost a dear friend in her," she wrote. 1 Returning to the 
 city in the fall, she again fell sick and was confined to 
 the house for months, and she only rallied from one 
 attack to succumb to another, so that her letters for 
 the next three years are mainly a record of the con 
 stant inroads which disease was making upon her. 
 Much of the time she was dependent upon the charity 
 of friends, of whom she seems never to have known 
 a lack, and all necessary care and attendance were 
 constantly assured to her. A severe hemorrhage of 
 the lungs in the spring of 1820 nearly proved fatal 
 to her, and she experienced much agony of mind at 
 the thought of leaving her children alone and unpro 
 vided for. 
 
 MS., May " Thank God," she wrote to Lloyd in her convalescence, " I 
 am well taken care of, for both Black and White are all atten 
 tion to me, and I have every thing done that is necessary. The 
 ladies are all kind to me, and I have a Coloured woman that 
 waits on me, that is so kind no one can tell how kind she is, 
 and although a Slave to Man, yet a free born soul, by the 
 grace of God. Her name is Henny, and should I never see you 
 again, and you should ever come where she is, remember her 
 for your poor mother s sake." 
 
 l See Life of Timothy Pickering, 4 : 319, for a letter from Mrs. Picker 
 ing to Mrs. Garrison on this event. 
 
^ET. 13-20.] APPRENTICESHIP. 39 
 
 In a pathetic letter to her daughter she contrasts the CHAP. HI. 
 happiness of her early life with the sorrows which later xsis^s. 
 years have brought her: 
 
 " At an early period of life I was surrounded with every com- MS., May 
 fort that was necessary, nurtured with peculiar care and ten 
 derness in the bosom of parental affection, blessed with the 
 friendship of an extensive acquaintance, and beloved by all 
 my relations. I had enough to attach me to this world. Gay 
 and thoughtless, vain and wild, I looked forward for nothing 
 but pleasure and happiness, but alas ! have not my subsequent 
 years taught me that all was visionary ? How has the rude 
 blast of misfortunes burst over my head, and had it not been 
 for an overruling Providence, I must have sunk under their 
 pressure. I was taught to see that all my dreams of happiness 
 in this life were chimerical j the efforts we make here are all of 
 them imbecility in themselves and illusive, but religion is per 
 ennial. It fortifies the mind to support trouble, elevates the 
 affections of the heart, and its perpetuity has no end." 
 
 Anxious to see Elizabeth settled in a good home 
 before she herself should pass away, her mother sent 
 for the little girl, then only twelve years old, and 
 scarcely less reluctant to leave her Newburyport friends 
 than Lloyd had been. She made the voyage to Balti 
 more without any friend accompanying her, and for the 
 next two years was with or near her mother, assisting in 
 the care of the latter during her more severe illnesses, 
 and at one time "going to live in the capacity of a 
 servant with a v&ry worthy woman." She was a remark 
 ably sweet, affectionate, and conscientious child, with a 
 deep spiritual nature, and readily imbibed her mother s 
 strong religious feelings. When, immediately on her 
 arrival in Baltimore, she was prostrated by a severe 
 illness from which recovery seemed impossible, she faced 
 death with remarkable composure, comforted her dis 
 tracted mother, sent cheerful messages to her brother 
 and other friends, " prayed most sweetly, to the admira 
 tion of ministers and people that visited her/ and joined 
 her "feeble voice with theirs in singing a consoling hymn. 
 
40 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. 
 
 . 13-20. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 1818-1825. 
 
 MS., Sept. 
 13, 1880. 
 
 Speech at 
 Dinner 
 given by 
 Franklin 
 Club, Bos 
 ton, Oct. 14, 
 1878. 
 
 Letters passed between Lloyd and his mother and 
 sister much less frequently than the boy wished, and 
 when he playfully chided the latter for not writing 
 oftener, and asked if " the splendour of the city " had 
 not engrossed her attention, she replied, " It is not so. 
 It is the expense that you have to pay, for we are not 
 able to do it "j and certainly postage was a circumstance 
 in those days, every letter costing twenty-five cents, 
 which the apprentice-boy, who was receiving little more 
 than his board and clothes, had to pay. Even his 
 clothes seem to have been partly supplied by his mother, 
 who sent him at one time a trunkful of garments 
 which she had managed to gather and prepare for him 
 in her intervals of convalescence, and begged him to 
 keep them for her sake, as the last token of love she 
 should ever be able to send him. 
 
 Meanwhile, Lloyd was devoting himself with diligence 
 and enthusiasm to his trade, and had become so expert 
 and thorough in all departments of the business that 
 Mr. Allen made him foreman of the office. One of his 
 fellow-apprentices (Joseph B. Morss, of Newburyport) 
 wrote of him thus : 
 
 " He made up the pages of the newspaper and prepared the 
 forms for the press. He also attended to the job-work, and 
 was noted for his good taste in this department. He was the 
 most rapid compositor I ever knew, excepting one, and more 
 correct than this one. With fair copy before him he would 
 easily set a thousand ems an hour for several successive hours, 
 and there would hardly ever be more than two or three slight 
 errors in a column of his matter, when it was proved. He was 
 an excellent pressman on the old Ramage and the then new 
 Wells iron press." 
 
 In recalling his apprenticeship days in after years, 
 Mr. Garrison said : 
 
 " I always endeavored to do my work thoroughly, if I could, 
 without any errors, and therefore my proofs were very clean, 
 as the technical phrase is. I recollect with great pleasure one 
 who was in the office for a considerable portion of my appren 
 ticeship, who has now gone to his reward, who was, I think, a 
 
13-20.] 
 
 APPEENTICESHIP. 
 
 41 
 
 journeyman at that time; but who, by his beautiful spirit and 
 fine example, had a great influence upon my mind j and I feel 
 grateful to him and shall ever cherish his memory with deep 
 feeling. I allude to the late Rev. Tobias H. Miller, a city mis 
 sionary in Portsmouth. 
 
 " My acquaintance with him began when I entered the office 
 of the Newburyport Herald as an apprentice to learn the art 
 and mystery of printing; and great was my indebtedness to 
 him in regard to my initiation and on the score of never- 
 failing kindness. I was drawn to him magnetically from the 
 beginning , and whether working side by side at the case or 
 the press, unbroken friendship subsisted between us to the 
 end. Indeed, so far as he was concerned, it would have been 
 extremely difficult for the most irascible to have picked a quar 
 rel with him. He had wonderful self-command, patience, 
 cheerfulness, urbanity, and philosophic composure, far beyond 
 his years. I never saw him out of temper for a moment under 
 the most trying circumstances, (and a printing-office often 
 presents such,) nor cast down by any disappointment, nor 
 disposed to borrow trouble of the future. He was a very 
 Benjamin Franklin for good sense and axiomatic speech, and 
 in spirit always as fresh and pure as a newly -blown rose. In 
 his daily walk and conversation he was a pattern of upright 
 ness, and from his example I drew moral inspiration, and 
 was signally aided in my endeavors after ideal perfection and 
 practical goodness. His nature was large, generous, sympa 
 thetic, self-denying, reverent. He was as true to his highest 
 convictions of duty as the needle to the pole. No one was 
 ever more yielding in the matter of accommodation where no 
 principle was involved ; none more inflexible in pursuit of the 
 right. . . . 
 
 " Among my pleasant recollections of him in the printing- 
 office, are the following sententious expressions, which fre 
 quently came from his lips, as, for example, in case of a 
 shockingly bad proof to be corrected at midnight, or of a pied 
 form, or of any other trying mishap : Patience and persever 
 ance ! Tisn t as bad as it would be if it were worse ! Never 
 mind ! Twill be all the same a thousand years hence ! How 
 literally and admirably did he enter into the spirit of those say 
 ings, though possessing a most sensitive temperament ! They 
 made a deep impression upon my memory, and through all the 
 subsequent years of my life, in all cases of trial, have been of 
 invaluable service to me." 
 
 CHAP. in. 
 
 I8l8 ~ 82 
 
 Letter to 
 , Apr. 
 
 Portsmouth 
 
 (ff. H-) 
 
 May 31, 
 
42 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 13-20. 
 
 CHAP. in. Lloyd early evinced a taste for poetry, and was fond 
 1818^1825. of works of fiction and romance. He delighted in the 
 Waverley Novels. His favorite poets at that time were 
 Byron, Moore, Pope, Campbell, and Scott, and, over 
 and above all these, Mrs. Hemans, whose writings he 
 knew by heart j and when he subsequently published a 
 paper of his own, there was scarcely an issue which did 
 not contain one of her poems. It was natural that in 
 such a stronghold of the Federalists as Newburyport 
 still was (though the party had ceased to have a national 
 existence), and with party feeling throughout the State 
 running so high at each annual election, he should also 
 take an interest in politics, and, imbibing the prevailing 
 sentiment of his locality, become an ardent Federalist. 
 He studied the writings of Fisher Ames, and was a 
 fervent admirer of Timothy Pickering and Harrison 
 Gray Otis. While yet in his teens he wielded his pen 
 in defence of the two latter when they were under 
 fire and their political fortunes under a cloud 5 but his 
 first attempt at writing for the press was not in a polit 
 ical direction. In May, 1822, he wrote, in a disguised 
 hand, and sent through the post-office his first communi- 
 May 21, cation to the Herald, under the nom de guerre of "An 
 Old Bachelor." It was entitled " Breach of the Marriage 
 Promise," and professed to be the reflections of a bachelor 
 on reading the recent verdict in a breach of promise case 
 in Boston, by which a young man who ha d " kept com 
 pany " with a girl for two years and then refused to 
 marry her, was fined seven hundred and fifty dollars. 
 While freely conceding that any man who had actually 
 broken an express promise should " feel the effects of 
 the law in a heavy degree," he maintained that the mere 
 fact of a man s having " kept company with," or paid 
 attentions to, one of the opposite sex for a year or 
 two, was not conclusive evidence of a promise or en 
 gagement, but rather indicated that he desired to be 
 assured of the wisdom of his choice before taking such 
 a momentous step as matrimony involved j and the 
 
1 
 
 JET. 13-20.] APPKENTICESHIP. 43 
 
 " old bachelor " of sixteen then discoursed in this cynical CHAP. in. 
 fashion : 1818^825. 
 
 " The truth is, however, women in this country are too much N. P. 
 idolized and nattered; therefore they are puffed up and in- jj/2^ 
 flated with pride and self-conceit. They make the men to 1822. 
 crouch, beseech, and supplicate, wait upon and do every menial 
 service for them to gain their favor and approbation ; they are, 
 in fact, completely subservient to every whim and caprice of 
 these changeable mortals. Women generally feel then- impor 
 tance, and they use it without mercy. 
 
 " For my part, notwithstanding, I am determined to lead the 
 t single life and not trouble myself about the ladies." 
 
 Lloyd was at work at the case when his master re 
 ceived and opened this youthful production, and he 
 awaited anxiously the verdict as to its acceptance. It 
 happened to strike Mr. Allen s fancy, and after reading 
 it aloud for the edification of others in the office, he un 
 suspectingly handed it to its author to put in type, and 
 it filled nearly a column of the Herald. Elated by this 
 first success, the boy wrote a second communication in a 
 similar vein, which appeared three days later; and a May 24, 
 week after this he furnished a highly imaginative account 
 of a shipwreck, which was so palpably the work of one 
 innocent of the sea and of ships as to make its acceptance 
 rather surprising ; but the editor was probably equally 
 innocent, if many of his seafaring patrons and readers 
 were not. The signature appended to this article was 
 abbreviated to the initials " A. O. B.," which mark most 
 of his subsequent articles for the Herald. He still, 
 and for nearly the whole of the ensuing year, concealed 
 his authorship, although his master was so well pleased 
 with the communications of his unknown correspondent 
 that he wrote him through the post-office requesting him 
 to continue them, and expressing a desire for an inter 
 view with him. 
 
 To his mother alone did Lloyd confide his secret, and 
 she received it with mingled pride and misgiving, as 
 appears by the following letter, dated July 1, 1822. She 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [^T. 13-20. 
 
 had then been confined to her room for ten months, and, 
 after describing her helpless condition, unable to dress 
 without assistance, "living on the charity of friends/ 
 and " feeling at times all the sensations of mortified 
 pride," telling Lloyd how his kind attention to her and 
 his good behavior cheered her drooping spirits, and ex 
 horting him to learn his trade and be master of his busi 
 ness, she goes on to say : 
 
 MS. " I have had iny mind exercised on your account, and please 
 
 to let me know the particulars in your next. You write me 
 word that you have written some pieces for the Herald. Anon 
 ymous writers generally draw the opinion of the publick on 
 their writing, and frequently are lampoon d by others. If Mr. 
 Allen approves of it, why, you have nothing to fear, but I hope 
 you consulted him on the publication of them. I am pleased, 
 myself, with the idea, provided that nothing wrong should re 
 sult from it. You must write me one of your pieces so that I 
 can read [it] on one side of your letter, and I will give you my 
 opinion whether you are an old bachelor, or whether you are 
 A. 0. B., as A may stand for Ass, and for Oaf, and B for 
 Blockhead. Adieu, my dear. You will think your Mother is 
 quizzing. Your dear Mother until death." 
 
 N. P. In July he contributed two articles respecting South 
 
 Sytffcutd, American affairs, in which he expressed astonishment 
 19, 1822. an( j indignation that the young republics of that coun 
 try, after receiving the sympathies and ardent wishes of 
 the United States for their success, during their long 
 struggle with Spain, should now countenance such out 
 rages as had been committed at Valparaiso and Lima on 
 American vessels and their captains, by enforcing various 
 extortionate demands upon them. He declared that the 
 United States Government should authorize the com 
 manders of its ships of war in South American ports to 
 obtain redress for the wrongs done American citizens. 
 " The only expedient to command respect and protect our 
 citizens will be to finish with cannon what cannot be 
 done in a conciliatory and equitable manner, where justice 
 demands such proceedings." And after hoping that the 
 South Americans would " soon learn to prize the bless- 
 
. 13-20. J 
 
 APPEENTICESHIP. 
 
 45 
 
 ings of freedom and independence in a correct manner," CHAP. m. 
 he advised them to " take the United States as a fair and 1818^825. 
 beautiful model by which to govern the affairs of their 
 country a model which no other nation under heaven 
 can boast its equal, for correctness of sound republican 
 principles and wise and judicious administration : let 
 them take this, we repeat, as an example, and then can 
 we cordially and joyfully hail them as freemen while 
 Liberty s bright and glorious beams would shine with 
 redoubled splendor over their land, and dispel every cloud 
 of tyranny and civil discord." 
 
 It is evident from this sophomoric burst of patriotic 
 eloquence that the boy knew and had thought no more 
 about slavery than about war, at that time, and little 
 suspected how far his country was from being a model 
 republic. Nor did he gain wisdom or inspiration from 
 those about him. Caleb Gushing had then an editorial 
 connection with the Herald, and to him may safely be 
 ascribed the authorship of two editorials which appeared 
 in the paper within this same month. The first, in re 
 cording the recent suppression of a slave insurrection in 
 Charleston, S. C., and expressing a fear that the United 
 States would yet see another San Domingo, looked to 
 the future with despair and dread, because immediate or 
 gradual colonization seemed to the writer hopeless and 
 impossible, and gradual emancipation improbable and 
 impracticable. Three weeks later, the writer maintained 
 that the holding of slaves was not subversive of repub 
 lican habits, as men who see others deprived of the bless 
 ings of freedom must learn more highly to apprize its 
 enjoyments themselves ! And yet he admitted the de 
 moralizing effects of slavery upon the slaveholders, and 
 that " there can never be so much purity, decorum, ex 
 actness and moderation in the morals of a people among 
 whom slaves abound." 
 
 This is a fair specimen of the hopeless, aimless, 
 manner in which slavery was discussed or referred to at 
 the North after the Missouri Compromise of 1820 had 
 
 N. P. 
 Herald, 
 July 12, 
 
 1822. 
 
 N. P. 
 
 Herald, 
 
 August 2, 
 
 1822. 
 
46 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. [^T. 13-20. 
 
 CHAP. HI. practically pledged the free States against any further 
 1818^1825. reopening of the question, and sealed their complicity in 
 the maintenance and protection of the accursed institu 
 tion. While that measure was pending, John Quincy 
 Adams, then Secretary of State, lamented the fatality by 
 which all the most eloquent orators were found on the 
 pro-slavery side. 
 
 J Memoi? of " T ^ ere 1S >" ^ e wrote ? " a great mass of cool judgment and 
 
 J.Q.Adams, of plain sense on the side of freedom and humanity, but 
 
 p. 102. . the ardent spirits and passions are on the side of oppression. 
 
 ! if but one man could arise with a genius capable of com 
 
 prehending, a heart capable of supporting, and an utterance 
 
 capable of communicating those eternal truths which belong 
 
 to the question, to lay bare in all its nakedness that outrage 
 
 upon the goodness of God, human slavery, now is the time, 
 
 and this is the occasion, upon which such a man would perform 
 
 the duties of an angel upon earth." 
 
 The Massachusetts statesman who confided this fervent 
 wish to his diary and then, as Cabinet minister, gave his 
 assent to the Compromise, was clearly not the man for 
 the occasion, and he little dreamed that the one he sighed 
 for was even then, in his own State of Massachusetts, 
 mastering the use of the weapon with which, a decade 
 later, he was to startle and arouse a guilty nation. 
 Neither did he recognize and welcome him when the 
 tocsin of the Liberator convulsed the South with terror, 
 and proclaimed the beginning of the end of slavery. As 
 little did Caleb Cushing suspect that the apprentice-boy 
 who put his editorials in type, and in whom, as a 
 bright and promising lad, he took a friendly interest, was 
 destined to prove his assertion that colonization was im 
 possible, and gradual emancipation impracticable, and to 
 show the only right and safe way to cure a gigantic evil. 
 And no more did the boy himself realize for what work 
 he was marked out. 1 
 
 l"He knew not that his chosen hand, 
 Made strong by God, his native land 
 Would rescue from the shameful yoke 
 Of Slavery the which he broke!" 
 
 (Coleridge, after Stolberg s "Tell s Birthplace.") 
 
. 13-20.] 
 
 APPEENTICESHIP. 
 
 47 
 
 For the next two years current politics chiefly were 
 the theme of his anonymous contributions to the press. 
 In March and April, 1823, under the signature of " One 
 of the People/ he wrote three articles for the Herald 
 under the title of " Our Next Governor/ 7 and warmly 
 advocated the election of Harrison Gray Otis, as one who, 
 in the numerous positions which he had already occupied, 
 had " conferred lasting honor on Massachusetts, being 
 one of the brightest constellations in her political hori 
 zon." His final article was one of glowing panegyric of 
 Otis, and impassioned appeal to his " fellow-electors " to 
 rally to the polls. " Upon you, then, fellow- electors, 
 much is depending the liberties of the people ! And on 
 Monday next arise in the greatness of your might, and 
 cease not from the most strenuous exertions till you 
 repose in the lap of victory ! " 
 
 In spite of this eloquence, Otis was defeated by Eustis, 
 the Democratic candidate, to the intense disgust of his 
 youthful advocate, who next turned his attention to 
 foreign politics. Under the title of "A Glance at Eu 
 rope," and under his old signature of "A. O. B.," he 
 contributed in April and May three articles, remarkably 
 well written for a boy of seventeen, on the " mad project 
 of France, backed by the Holy Alliance, in attempting to 
 restore Ferdinand of Spain to his throne, . . . and 
 subjugating the people into an ill-timed acquiescence." 
 A single passage from the second article shows that even 
 at that early age he had acquired the vigor of charac 
 terization and power of invective which were afterwards 
 to be used against domestic tyranny : 
 
 " The Holy Alliance, from its first formation, has met through 
 out Europe and America with that general burst of indignation 
 which it justly merits. It is the grand engine of destruction by 
 which to extirpate the rights and privileges of nations, and to 
 dig up and destroy the seeds which Liberty has planted. It is 
 a Royal Banditti, leagued together for the unhallowed purpose 
 of robbing the world of its richest treasure, and placing in its 
 stead the sceptre of tyranny. It is a combination of military 
 despots, brought together and cemented with the atrocious in- 
 
 CHAP. in. 
 
 1818-1825. 
 
 March 14, 
 and April i 
 and 4, 1823. 
 
 Wm.Eustis. 
 
 N.P. 
 
 Herald, 
 April 22, 
 May 2 and 
 
 16, 1823. 
 
 N.P. 
 
 Herald, 
 
 May 2, 1823. 
 
48 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 [.Ex. 13-20. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 1818-1825. 
 
 1822. 
 
 N. P. 
 Herald, 
 April 22, 
 
 1823. 
 
 MS. to 
 W. L. G., 
 
 March 24, 
 1823. 
 
 tention of shackling the fairest portions of the globe with man 
 acles that ages cannot decay or sever. Such is this self-styled 
 Holy Alliance, but which has stamped an indelible stigma 
 upon a name so sacred, with such unrighteous views was it 
 formed." 
 
 In the previous month of December, Mr. Allen had 
 gone to Mobile for the winter, leaving Lloyd in charge 
 of the office, while Mr. Gushing attended to the editorial 
 conduct of the Herald, and it was the latter who now 
 first discovered that the author of these and previous 
 articles under the same signature was no other than Mr. 
 Allen s senior apprentice. He instantly commended and 
 encouraged him, lending him books, and calling atten 
 tion editorially to the papers on the Holy Alliance, " in 
 which," he said, " we recognize the hand of a correspond 
 ent who at different times has favored us with a number 
 of esteemed and valuable contributions. 7 It is probable 
 that the boy s interest in European affairs was largely 
 due to Mr. Gushing himself, who had written, at the 
 beginning of the year, a series of articles for the Herald, 
 giving a resume of the political situation and outlook at 
 home and abroad. 
 
 Circumstances now arose to prevent Lloyd s writing 
 further for the press for a considerable period. In 
 September, 1822, his sister Elizabeth had died in Balti 
 more, leaving the mother bereft and desolate, and in 
 March, 1823, the latter wrote and earnestly entreated her 
 son to come and see her before she, too, should pass 
 away. She had then been confined to her bed for 
 several weeks and felt that her end was near : 
 
 " I trust," she wrote, " I have no one in N. P. that would say 
 one word against your coming under existing circumstances ; 
 besides, I want to see you on some business of mine that would 
 ease my mind very much. Should the Lord spare me, and Mr. 
 Allen returns from Mobile, perhaps you can come. You have 
 a Master that claims my warmest wishes. I feel grateful to 
 him for all his kindness to you. May the Lord repay him an 
 hundred fold, spiritual and temporal. Likewise I tender my 
 thanks to all your friends at N. P. for their goodness to you, 
 
MT. 13-20.] APPRENTICESHIP. 49 
 
 and hope you may merit the approbation of them all by your CHAP. ill. 
 good behavior. Lloyd, if I was to hear and have reason to g g ~ 
 think you was unsteady, it would break my heart. God for 
 bid ! You are now at an age when you are forming character 
 for life, a dangerous age. Shun every appearance of evil for 
 the sake of your soul as well as the body. ... I am still 
 keeping house and have a woman to take care of me, and, 
 thank God ! I have accumulated friends that are very kind to 
 me. I have not money, but I do not want for anything to make 
 me comfortable." 
 
 Mr. Allen s prolonged absence at the South made it 
 impossible for Lloyd to go to his mother until his mas 
 ter s return in May, when he wrote a long letter to her, 
 explaining why he could not at once hasten to her, 
 and requesting her, as Mr. Allen was loth to let his 
 valued apprentice go, even for a short time and on 
 such an errand, to write directly to him and state the 
 urgency of the case. This letter, written in his clear 
 hand and punctuated with scrupulous exactness, is es 
 pecially interesting for its allusions to his anonymous 
 contributions to the Herald : 
 
 W. L. Garrison to Ms Mother. 
 
 NEWBURYPORT, May 26th, 1823. MSf 
 
 DEAR MOTHER : . . . Your letter was alike a source of 
 pleasure and of pain. Of pleasure, because it was pleasing to 
 receive a letter couched in such tender language from an 
 affectionate mother, whose prop of comfort and consolation 
 devolves upon her son, who, should he fail, would bring her in 
 sorrow to the grave. Of pain, because it brought the intelli 
 gence of your having experienced another bleeding at the lungs, 
 which had almost laid you at death s door but this was miti 
 gated in some degree with the assurance that you had recovered 
 in some measure from the effects of the same. 
 
 Since I have received your letter, my time has been swallowed 
 up in turning author. I have written in the Herald three long 
 political pieces, under the caption of " Our Next Governor," and 
 the signature of "One of the People" rather a great signature, 
 to be sure, for such a small man as myself. But vain were the 
 efforts of the friends and disciples of Washington, the true 
 VOL. L 4 
 
50 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. 
 
 [JET. 13-20. 
 
 Caleb Gush 
 ing. 
 
 CHAP. in. Federal Republicans of Massachusetts Democracy has finally 
 1818^1825. triumphed over correct principles, and this State may expect 
 to see the scenes of 1811-12 revived in all their blighting in 
 fluence; may they be as short-lived as they were at that 
 period. You will undoubtedly smile at my turning politician 
 at the age of eighteen but, " true tis, and (perhaps) pity tis tis 
 true " and I cannot but help smiling myself at the thought. 
 I have likewise published another political communication 
 under the same signature. Besides these, I have written three 
 other communications under the head of "A Glance at Europe 1 1 
 analyzing the present state of political affairs between Spain 
 and the Holy Alliance and which called forth a very handsome 
 notice of the same from Mr. Gushing, the Editor of the Herald. 
 But I am at last discovered to be the author, notwithstanding 
 my utmost endeavors to let it remain a secret. It is now but 
 partially known, however, and has created no little sensation 
 in town so that I have concluded to write no more at present. 
 Thus you perceive, my dear mother, that my leisure moments 
 have been usefully and wisely employed ; usefully, because it 
 is beneficial in cultivating the seeds of improvement in my 
 breast, and expanding the intellectual powers and faculties of 
 my mind ; wisely, because it has kept me from wasting time in 
 that dull, senseless, insipid manner, which generally charac 
 terizes giddy youths. It is now about one year since I com 
 menced writing for the Herald and in that time I have 
 written about fifteen communications. When I peruse them 
 over, I feel absolutely astonished at the different subjects which 
 I have discussed, and the style in which they are written. Indeed, 
 it is altogether a matter of surprise that I have met with such 
 signal success, seeing I do not understand one single rule of 
 grammar, and having a very inferior education. But enough 
 of my scribblings, in all conscience, for the present, to something 
 that is more important and interesting. . . . 
 
 Write particularly where I shall find you, should I come to 
 Baltimore. B., and how I shall get to your boarding place. I cannot but 
 exclaim" Oh ! had I the wings of a dove, then would I soar 
 away, and be with you." Excuse this hasty scrawl, as it is now 
 midnight. Adieu ! dear mother, and may Heaven grant that 
 I shall clasp you again to my throbbing breast. 
 
 W. L. GARRISON. 
 
 His mother received this letter on June 2, 1823, and 
 promptly wrote an earnest and pathetic appeal to Mr. 
 
Mi. 13-20.] APPKENTICESHIP. 51 
 
 Allen to allow her son to pay her a final visit ; and this CHAP. in. 
 he could no longer refuse. To Lloyd she also wrote at I 8i8^i82s. 
 the same time, giving him directions how to find her, on 
 his arrival in Baltimore, and endeavoring to conceal 
 her pride and interest in his literary efforts by warn 
 ing him of the dangers and difficulties he was liable to 
 encounter; but her exhortation ended with a blessing, 
 and a request that he would bring his productions for 
 her to read. This was probably the last letter she ever 
 wrote to him : 
 
 " Next, your turning Author. You have no doubt read and MS. to 
 heard the fate of such characters, that they generally starve to 
 death in some garret or place that no one inhabits ; so you may 
 see what fortune and luck belong to you if you are of that class 
 of people. Secondly, you think your time was wisely spent 
 while you was writing political pieces. I cannot join with you 
 there, for had you been searching the scriptures for truth, and 
 praying for direction of the holy spirit to lead your mind into 
 the path of holiness, your time would have been more wisely 
 spent, and your advance to the heavenly world more rapid. 
 But instead of that you have taken the Hydra by the head, and 
 now beware of his mouth; but as it is done, I suppose you 
 think you had better go on and seek the applause of mortals. 
 But, my dear L., lose not the favour of God ; have an eye 
 single to his glory, and you will not lose your reward. . 
 Now, my dear, I must draw to a close and say that I love you 
 as dear as ever, especially when you consider your dear mother 
 and are trying by your good behaviour to soothe her path to 
 the grave. May God bless you and be with you all the days 
 of your life, is my ardent prayer. . . . Will you be so 
 kind as to bring on your pieces that you have written for me 
 to see ? . . . 
 
 " Adieu, my dear, for I am tired. 
 
 " Your affectionate Mother, 
 
 " FRANCES M. GARRISON." 
 
 Lloyd embarked from Boston for Baltimore on June 
 21, 1823. He had never been in Boston before, and it is 
 evident from the letter which he wrote to his master 
 from Baltimore that he did not enjoy his day s experi 
 ence there : 
 
52 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. 
 
 . 13-20. 
 
 Hyannis- 
 port. 
 
 MS. to . " You wished me to call at No. 1, Cornhill, and ask Mr. Carter 
 Jfcfr7*]23 * or SOIDe more leads for the paper. This I intended to have 
 done : but, after wandering about 2 or 3 hours, and enquiring 
 of 20 different persons, (none of whom, however, would take 
 the trouble to show me,) I was forced to give up in despair. 
 Being totally unacquainted with Boston, and never there before, 
 I got lost several times in my travels so that all was perplexity. 
 Indeed, I felt truly homesick in being one short day in Bos 
 ton. I was seasick but about 15 minutes on my passage." 
 
 The voyage was a tedious one of fourteen days, the 
 ship encountering " very boisterous weather and consid 
 erable head winds," as the same letter describes. " The 
 evening we sailed from Boston, a very heavy gale of wind 
 tore our foretopsail, maintopsail, and jibs, besides render 
 ing other considerable damage. We were thus obliged to 
 put in at Hyana Heads, for the purpose of repairing our 
 tattered sails, where we remained two days, the winds 
 and the weather conspiring against us." 
 
 Of this storm, however, Lloyd knew nothing at the 
 moment, for, wearied by his day s adventures in Boston, 
 lie went on board the vessel, and, after wondering how 
 she could ever be worked out from among the other 
 shipping at the wharf, stretched himself in his berth and 
 slept so soundly that he was unconscious of everything 
 until Hyannis was reached, the next day. There he went 
 ashore with some of his fellow-passengers, who decided 
 to remain on land overnight rather than go back to the 
 ship in such rough water, and when lie undertook to 
 return alone, he failed to get alongside the vessel, and 
 wind and tide swept him and his boat a mile or more 
 down the shore. He narrowly escaped being swamped, 
 but finally managed to land, and trudged back to the 
 town. In Chesapeake Bay a terrific thunderstorm was 
 encountered, but a landing was finally made in Bal 
 timore on the 5th of July. His meeting with his mother 
 was most affecting. To Mr. Allen lie wrote : 
 
 1823. 
 
 MS., July 7, "You must imagine my sensations on beholding a dearly 
 beloved mother, after an absence of seven years. I found her 
 
Mi. 13-20.] APPRENTICESHIP. 53 
 
 in tears but, God, so altered, so emaciated, that I should CHAP. ill. 
 
 never have recognized her, had I not known that there were 
 
 none else in the room. Instead of the tall, robust woman, 
 
 blooming in health, whom I saw last, she is now bent up by 
 
 fell disease, pined away to almost a skeleton, and unable to 
 
 walk. She is under the necessity of being bolstered up in bed, 
 
 being incompetent to lie down, as it would immediately choke 
 
 her." 
 
 The next two or three weeks, during which Lloyd was 
 able to remain with his mother, were precious to them 
 both, for they had many things to talk of before their 
 final separation, Lloyd s prospects for the future; the 
 mystery attending his father ; the recent death of his 
 sister 5 and the possible fate of his wayward brother 
 James, from whom nothing had been heard for years, 
 and who was destined, poor waif ! to be tossed and 
 driven about the sea, suffering incredible hardships, for 
 nearly a score of years longer, before he was finally dis 
 covered and rescued by his brother. 
 
 Not long after Lloyd had taken farewell of his mother 
 and returned to Newburyport, a cancerous tumor which 
 had formed on her shoulder necessitated an operation, 
 from the effects of which she never rallied, and she 
 steadily sank until the 3rd of September, when death 1823. 
 ensued. Everything was done by the friends about her 
 to make her last days comfortable, and her remains were 
 interred in the private burial lot of a family who had 
 been especially attached and devoted to her. Her son 
 recorded her decease in the Newburyport Herald of Sep 
 tember 9, 1823, as follows : 
 
 DIED. In Baltimore, 3rd inst., after a long and distressing ill 
 ness, which she bore with Christian fortitude and resignation, 
 Mrs. Frances Maria Garrison, relict of the late Capt. Abijah G., 
 formerly of this town, aged 45. [The printers of the Eastport 
 Sentinel and St. John Star are requested to copy this death into their 
 respective papers.] 
 
 With three exceptions, when he contributed some 
 trifling and unimportant verses under his old signature 
 
54 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEEISON. [^T. 13-20. 
 
 CHAP. in. of " A. O. B., w Lloyd wrote nothing for the Herald during 
 
 1818-1825. the next year. In June, 1824, however, he was moved 
 
 by the publication of Timothy Pickering s f Review of 
 
 John Adams s Letters to William Cunningham/ to send 
 
 June, ii and two long communications to the Salem Gazette, under the 
 signature of " Aristides." These were highly eulogistic 
 of Mr. Pickering, whose pamphlet in defence of himself 
 against the attacks of Mr. Adams had caused a wide 
 sensation and led to an acrimonious war of words be 
 tween the partisans of those eminent statesmen. Walsh s 
 National Gazette of Philadelphia was the mouth-piece of 
 the Adams party, while the Salem Gazette was under 
 stood to speak by authority for Mr. Pickering ; and such 
 was the interest in the discussion that raged for a time, 
 that the letters of the Newburyport apprentice attracted 
 much notice, and were believed to have come from a 
 maturer hand. The controversy had an indirect bearing 
 on the impending Presidential election, in which John 
 Quincy Adams was a candidate, and the Pickering party 
 aimed their darts at the son, therefore, quite as much as 
 at the father. The youthful " Aristides," who, four years 
 later, ardently advocated his reelection, now joined in de 
 crying him. His conception of the character of General 
 Andrew Jackson was much more clear and accurate, and 
 July 27, his next contribution to the Gazette was an open letter to 
 that military chieftain, endeavoring to convince him of 
 his utter unfitness for the office of President, and the 
 hopelessness of his efforts to gain that position. This 
 letter was forcible, dignified, and mature in thought 
 and expression. 
 
 Salem His remaining contributions to the Gazette were a 
 
 io, series of six articles entitled " The Crisis," which ap- 
 /.lzafacJ , P eare d at intervals between the beginning of August 
 l82 4- and end of October, and discussed the political situation. 
 The importance of united action on the part of the 
 Federalists, now so largely in the minority, was empha 
 sized, and their support of William H. Crawford for the 
 Presidency in opposition to John Quincy Adams was 
 
Mi. 13-20.] APPEENTICESHIP. 55 
 
 strongly urged; yet while " Aristides " had much to say CHAP. in. 
 in depreciation of the latter, he evidently knew very jSis^iSzs. 
 little of the former, and simply supported him because 
 he was the candidate of the Pickering faction. Quota 
 tions from Shakespeare and Junius prefixed to two or 
 three of the letters indicate that the writer was already 
 familiar with those masters of the language. 
 
 Aside from his great sorrow in the loss of his mother 
 and sister, the last three years of Lloyd s apprenticeship 
 were very happy years to him. Trusted by his master 
 with the entire supervision of the printing-office, and 
 with the editorial charge of the Herald when he was 
 himself absent ; devoting his spare hours to reading and 
 study ; encouraged by the recognition of merit in his vari 
 ous essays at writing for the press, and by the ready accept 
 ance anpl insertion of his articles and communications : 
 fond of social intercourse, and a universal favorite with 
 his friends of both sexes ; full of health, vigor and am 
 bition ; known and respected by all his townspeople as 
 an exemplary and promising young man success in life 
 seemed easily within his grasp. An oil portrait taken 
 about this period by Swain, a local artist, represents him 
 with a smooth face, abundant black hair, a standing 
 collar, and a ruffled shirt bosom. " He was an exceed- MS. 
 ingly genteel young man," writes Mr. Morss, " always 
 neatly, and perhaps I might say elegantly dressed, and 
 in good taste, and was quite popular with the ladies." 
 And the Rev. E. W. Allen, a son of the Herald proprie 
 tor, has a vivid recollection of Lloyd s handsome face, 
 glowing color, quick and active movements, and his 
 ever bright and happy presence in the household. 
 
 His most intimate friend at this time was a young 
 man named William Goss Crocker, who was, like him 
 self, warmly attached to the Baptist church, and who 
 subsequently became a missionary to Liberia, where he 
 died in 1844. He was only a few months older than 
 Lloyd, and they spent many evenings together in a room 
 over the bookstore and printing-office of W. & J. Gilman, 
 
56 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 13-20. 
 
 CHAP. in. engaged in reading and study and literary composition. 
 1818-1825. Crocker had been on the shoemaker s bench for a time, 
 but afterwards went into the office of the Gilmans as an 
 apprentice, probably succeeding, in that capacity, a youth 
 named Isaac Knapp, who, like Crocker, was- warmly 
 attached to Lloyd and greatly influenced by his strong 
 magnetism. Others felt this, also, and a debating society 
 known as the Franklin Club, before which Lloyd one 
 year delivered a Fourth of July oration, was really 
 founded by him. 1 The intimacy between him and 
 Crocker waned after they separated and left Newbury- 
 port, the one to seek a journalistic career, and the other 
 to enter a theological school; 2 but that with Knapp, as 
 will abundantly appear, was more enduring and of the 
 highest importance. 
 
 Though Lloyd was not, like Crocker, a communicant 
 in the church, he was a constant attendant at its meet 
 ings, and had become, as his mother had fondly antici 
 pated, " a complete Baptist as to the tenets." He had 
 
 LH. 19:178. never been baptized, himself, but he was yet zealous for 
 immersion as the only acceptable baptism ; he believed 
 in the clerical order and the organized church as divinely 
 instituted, and was a strict Sabbatarian. He early became 
 familiar with the Bible, and could repeat scores of verses 
 by heart, but he did not realize their full meaning and 
 power until his consecration to the cause of the slave 
 led him to study the book anew. 
 
 It was during the year 1824 that he first discovered his 
 near-sightedness, and when he one day chanced to try 
 the spectacles of Miss Betsey Atkinson, an old friend of 
 his mother, and discerned things that he had never seen 
 
 1 Mr. Charles J. Brockway, who was two years Lloyd s junior, and recalls 
 him as " a handsome and an attractive youth, unusually dignified in his 
 bearing for so young a man," says, in reference to this oration, that Lloyd 
 practised his declamation in the " groves and green fields on the outskirts 
 of his native town." " Old Maid s Hall," now a part of Oak Hill Cemetery, 
 was one of his resorts for this purpose. 
 
 2 An acrostic addressed to William Goss Crocker, on his departure for 
 Liberia, and signed " G.," on page 160 of the fifth volume of the Liberator 
 (1835), gives evidence of their continued friendship, however. 
 
MT. 13-20.] 
 
 APPKENTICESHIP. 
 
 57 
 
 Avg. 31. 
 
 before, he was full of delight, for " a new world seemed CHAP. HI. 
 opened " to his vision, and from that time he wore glasses. 1818^1825. 
 
 About this same period he had a boyish desire to go to 
 Greece and join the forces of the revolutionists against 
 Turkish tyranny, and he also thought of seeking a mili 
 tary education at West Point. He was enthusiastic over 
 Lafayette s visit to Newburyport, at the end of August, 
 1824, and was among the thousands who awaited his 
 arrival late at night, in a drenching rain. He used to 
 narrate how Lafayette, who was deeply moved by the 
 sight, begged the people, with tears in his eyes, no longer 
 to expose themselves so for his sake, but to disperse 
 and come and shake him by the hand the next morning, 
 and Lloyd was one of the multitude who availed them 
 selves of that privilege. 
 
 His most considerable contribution to the Herald dur 
 ing the last year of his apprenticeship was a three- 
 column article on " American Writers," in reply to an 
 attack by John Neal in Blackivood s Edinburgh Magazine; 
 but most of the writers in whose behalf he sharpened 
 his quill are now forgotten and unknown. 
 
 On the 10th of December, 1825, he completed his ap 
 prenticeship of seven years and two months in the Herald 
 office, and under the (as it subsequently appeared, mis 
 taken) impression that the year of his birth was 1804, 
 and that he had now attained his majority, he signalized 
 the event by a fervid poem of eight stanzas, entitled 
 " Twenty-One ! " with this concluding invocation : 
 
 N. P. 
 
 Herald, 
 
 May 17, 
 
 1825. 
 
 Spirit of Independence ! where art thou ? 
 
 I see thy glorious form and eagle eye, 
 
 Beaming beneath thy mild and open brow 
 
 Thy step of majesty, and proud look high: 
 
 Thee I invoke ! to this bosom fly ; 
 
 Nor wealth shall awe my soul, nor might, nor power j 
 
 And should thy whelps assail, lank poverty ! 
 
 Or threatening clouds of dark oppression lower, 
 
 Yet these combined defied ! shall never make thee * cower ! 
 
 Ibid., Dec. 
 16, 1825. 
 
 The sense seems here to call for "me" instead of "thee." 
 
58 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 13-20. 
 
 CHAP. in. He remained a few weeks longer in the Herald office, 
 1818-1825. as a journeyman, and his last contribution to that paper 
 
 N. P. 
 
 Herald, 
 
 January 3, 
 
 1826. 
 
 bore, like his first, his bachelor initials, and was devoted 
 to a similar theme, being an " Essay on Marriage," which 
 he discussed with the same affectation of cynicism as at 
 first, declaring that u of all the conceits that ever entered 
 into the brains of a wise man, that of marriage is the 
 most ridiculous." And with this light and trivial con 
 clusion to his boyish essays, he graduated from the office 
 of the Herald, and went forth to establish a paper of his 
 own, and to see what place in the world he could now 
 show himself able to fill. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EDITORIAL EXPERIMENTS. 1826 - 1828. 
 
 A LTHOUGH his own political sympathies and affilia- CHAP. iv. 
 J_~\_ tions were with the Federalists and their successors, 
 the Federal Republicans, it was Mr. Allen s effort so to con 
 duct the Herald as to secure the good- will and patronage 
 of all parties in the community, and the paper was classed 
 as " independent/ which signified in those days neu 
 trality and a willingness to admit communications from 
 both parties to its columns. So far was this from satis 
 fying the Democrats of Newburyport and vicinity, how 
 ever, that they tried, in 1824, to establish a newspaper 
 of their own, under the title of the Northern Chronicler. 
 The venture was unsuccessful, and the paper was sold, in 
 June, 1825, to Isaac Knapp, 3rd, who changed its name 
 to the Essex C our ant and published it as a " neutral " 
 paper until the following spring, the last issue being 
 dated March 16, 1826. The next week the paper under 
 went another change and appeared, on March 22, under 
 the title of the Free Press, and with the name of Win. 
 L. Garrison as publisher in place of his friend Mr. 
 Knapp, whose retirement on account of ill-health was 
 announced in the final number of the Courant. Thus, 
 within three months from the termination of his long 
 apprenticeship in the Herald office, Garrison found him 
 self the editor and publisher of a newspaper in his 
 native town, and entered upon his new career full of 
 confidence in his own abilities, and of hope that success 
 would reward his effort to establish a bold and inde- 
 
 59 
 
60 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. 
 
 . 21-23. 
 
 Mar. 13, 
 1829. 
 
 CHAP. iv. pendent journal. The venture was not made wholly on 
 1826^1828. his own responsibility, Mr. Allen proving his faith in 
 his favorite apprentice by advancing the money requisite 
 for the purchase of the paper and its equipment; but 
 this was done* quietly .and without the knowledge of 
 others than the parties concerned. Mr. Garrison, who 
 left Mr. Allen s home when his apprenticeship ended, 
 and returned to Mrs. Fariiham s, always gratefully re 
 membered the kind friendship and encouragement of his 
 Journal of old master, and declared that " a better father, a better 
 
 the Times, 
 
 master, a worthier citizen, or a man of more integrity, 
 benevolence, and steadfastness of character" did not, to 
 his belief, exist. 
 
 The Free Press was a four-page sheet, measuring 
 llf x 17J inches to the printed page, and with five col 
 umns on a page j the subscription price was $2.00 a year. 1 
 The very first number showed a marked improvement in 
 typographical taste and arrangement over its predecessor 
 the Courant, and indicated that the new editor had 
 clearly-defined ideas as to the appropriate matter and 
 make-up of a good newspaper. The first page was 
 usually devoted to selected miscellany ; the second to 
 the proceedings of Congress and the State Legislature, 
 foreign and domestic news, and the editorial department j 
 while the third and fourth pages contained sundry items 
 and paragraphs, the ship news, poetry column, advertise 
 ments, etc. The motto displayed under the title of the 
 paper " Our Country, Our Whole Country, and Noth 
 ing but Our Country" was somewhat different from 
 that which the editor adopted for the Liberator, five 
 years later. But he was now full of patriotism in its 
 narrower sense, and the leading article in the initial num 
 ber of the Free Press, occupying nearly two columns of the 
 first page, was an impassioned argument and demand 
 for the settlement by Congress of the " Massachusetts 
 Claim," namely, for indemnification on account of the 
 
 1 The office of the paper, at first at No. 24 State St., was subsequently 
 removed to No. 2 South Row, Market Square. 
 
. 21-23. J 
 
 EDITORIAL EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 61 
 
 sums advanced by that State for the defence of her own 
 coast during the war of 1812. The claims of other 
 (especially Southern) States had been promptly allowed 
 and paid, while Massachusetts was compelled to plead 
 and sue for hers year after year. The indignant young 
 editor pursued the subject through several numbers 
 of his paper, giving much space to the official corre 
 spondence and to the debates in Congress concerning 
 the matter. Plus apud nos vera ratio valeat quam vulgi 
 opinio was the quotation from Cicero which he prefixed 
 to his articles, and the same declaration was embodied 
 in his Salutatory to his patrons, which is here given 
 in full : 
 
 " It would seem uncourteous in the publisher, at this time, 
 not to make a few remarks upon the course which he has 
 marked out for himself. Youthful in years and experience, he 
 has not the vanity to claim what belongs to riper age, or to 
 presume that he is fitly qualified for the present task. But if 
 an earnest desire to improve both the matter and the appear 
 ance of the paper ; if a determination to pursue his favorite 
 avocation with vigor and zeal 5 can claim a share of public 
 indulgence and support, he trusts that his efforts will not be 
 altogether vain. 
 
 "As to the political course of the Free Press, it shall be, in 
 the widest extent of the term, independent. The publisher does 
 not mean, by this, to rank one amongst those who are of every 
 body s and of nobody s opinion ; who forge their own fetters 
 and cannot move beyond the length of their chains ; nor one, 
 of whom the old French proverb says, ( Il ne sait sur quel pied 
 darner." 1 [He knows not on which leg to dance.] Its principles 
 shall be open, magnanimous, and free. It shall be subservient 
 to no party or body of men : and neither the craven fear of 
 loss, nor the threats of the disappointed, nor the influence of 
 power, shall ever awe one single opinion into silence. Honest 
 and fair discussion it will court ; and its columns will be open to 
 all temperate and intelligent communications, emanating from 
 whatever political source. In fine, he will say with Cicero: 
 Reason shall prevail with him more than popular opinion. 
 They who like this avowal may extend their encouragement j 
 and if any feel dissatisfied with it, they must act accordingly. 
 The publisher cannot condescend to solicit their support." 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 1826-1828. 
 
 Free Press, 
 
 Mar. 22, 
 
 1826. 
 
62 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 1826-1828. 
 
 Free Press, 
 
 Mar. 22, 
 
 1826. 
 
 Wm.Eustis, 
 Levi Lin 
 coln. 
 
 The keynote of his whole editorial career, which he 
 struck thus clearly and unfalteringly at the very outset, 
 was followed by a frank confession of the slender 
 patronage which the paper was then receiving, and a 
 hint that even the long-established and eminently respect 
 able Herald had no very generous support : 
 
 "We are free to acknowledge," the next paragraph read, 
 " that our subscription-list is by no means bulky ; and although 
 infinitely better than FalstafE s ragged followers, yet unbe 
 comingly stinted, considering the magnitude of the town. 
 Perhaps in the whole United States an instance cannot be 
 found, where, in a population of 7000, two papers are so feebly 
 supported as in Newburyport. [Our brother of the Herald will 
 perceive that we speak under the rose i. e. 7 BP TWO words for 
 ourselves, and ONE for him.] We will not pretend to unravel 
 the cause, but if every little nourishing village can kindly 
 cherish TWO newspapers, why may not a large commercial town 
 afford the same encouragement ? " 
 
 In the second number, the editor announced that his 
 remarks on the Massachusetts Claim the preceding week 
 had brought him orders from ten indignant subscribers 
 for the discontinuance of their papers, and he assured 
 them that he erased their names from the list with the 
 same pleasure which he felt in inserting more than an 
 equal number in their place. They were doubtless Demo 
 crats (or " Republicans," as they were then called) who 
 had taken offence at his criticisms 011 Governors Eustis 
 and Lincoln for their unsatisfactory conduct of the State s 
 case against the National Government j and more fol 
 lowed their example a week or two later. " Nevertheless, 
 we repeat," said the editor, " our happiness at the loss of 
 such subscribers is not a whit abated. We beg no man s 
 patronage, and shall ever erase with the same cheerful 
 ness that we insert the name of any individual. . . . 
 Personal or political offence we shall studiously try to 
 avoid truth, never. 77 
 
 The year 1826 was noteworthy as completing the first 
 fifty years of the nation s independence j and the remark 
 able coincidence of the death of the two ex-Presidents 
 
En. 21-23. J EDITOKIAL EXPERIMENTS. 63 
 
 and signers of the Declaration, Adams and Jefferson, on CHAP. iv. 
 the anniversary d : ay, made a profound impression upon !8 2 6-i828. 
 the country. The Free Press, like other papers, devoted 
 much space to particulars of the event, biographical 
 sketches, anecdotes and reminiscences of the deceased 
 statesmen, and copious extracts from the eulogies pro 
 nounced by Webster, Gushing, and Peleg Sprague ; but 
 the editor, while paying tribute to the abilities, virtues, 
 and public services of the two men, refrained from indis 
 criminate eulogy, and even took his late master to task 
 for virtually canonizing, in the columns of the Herald, 
 the man (Jefferson) whom he had formerly abhorred and 
 denounced as the " Great Lama of Infidelity," to which 
 charge of inconsistency Mr. Allen felt obliged to make a 
 long reply in self-defence. Gommenting on the labored 
 panegyrics some of them " disgusting, irreverent, and 
 puerile, and all of them inflated and reprehensible," the 
 Free Press said : 
 
 " G-od has not gifted us with eloquence, we therefore 
 cannot eulogize : we have neither flattery, nor falsehood, nor 
 hypocrisy, to bedaub the grave of either of these men. We 
 love honesty too well to sacrifice it lightly, and must candidly 
 confess that merely old age does not with us, as with many 
 others, alter the deeds of manhood, or gild the errors of preju 
 dice. From Mr. Jefferson s political sentiments we have ever 
 differed ; but his proud talents could not but command our 
 admiration. Mr. Adams, perhaps, was the greater statesman 
 Mr. Jefferson, the better philosopher. The former had more 
 caution the latter more stability. The former was fickle to 
 his friends the latter firm and unchanging in his attachment. 
 The former ruined his party by his weakness the latter built 
 up his own by his colossal strength. . . . Both doubtless 
 were friends to their country both erred and both helped 
 to advance the national character. . . . Let us be sparing 
 of our panegyrics, recollecting that indiscriminate praise of the 
 dead is often more injurious than the coarsest obloquy." 
 
 The struggle for independence then going on in Greece 
 excited wide interest and sympathy in the United States, 
 and the reports from Dr. Howe and other Americans who Howe. 
 
64 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 1826-1828. 
 
 Free Press, 
 
 Mar. 20, 
 
 1826. 
 
 Ibid., May 
 18, 1826. 
 
 had gone to Greece either as spectators or participants 
 in the conflict were eagerly printed. The Free Press 
 copied from the New Hampshire Gazette a series of seven 
 teen articles entitled " Views of Greece," by a Mr. Est- 
 wick Evans, who gave, it must be confessed, a rather 
 dull and prosy account of his experiences in that country, 
 with reflections on some of the Americans who had gone 
 thither to proffer their aid, and who were popularly but 
 erroneously supposed to be rendering valiant service in 
 the cause of the struggling Greeks. These naturally 
 elicited rejoinders in their defence, and sharp attacks on 
 Mr. Evans, by the friends of the absent patriots, and in 
 the ensuing discussion the Free Press sustained Evans, 
 though differing from him on questions of home politics. 
 All of Mr. Garrison s editorials in the Free Press were 
 set up by him at the case, without having first been 
 written out on paper; and the ability to think with 
 clearness and precision which he thus acquired was of 
 great value to him then and in subsequent years. Indeed, 
 a large part of the manual work on the paper was done 
 by him, a boy being his only assistant. He discussed a 
 variety of matters editorially, but they were chiefly of a 
 political character, and his attention had not yet been 
 directed to questions of reform. He copied, without 
 editorial comment or reprobation, in his second number, 
 that portion of Edward Everett s speech in Congress 
 wherein the Massachusetts clergyman declared, that 
 there was no cause in which he would sooner buckle a 
 knapsack to his back, and put a musket to his shoulder, 
 than the suppression of a servile insurrection at the 
 South, and quoted the New Testament (" Slaves, obey 
 your Masters ! ") in defence and justification of slavery. 
 A few weeks later, however, he commended to his readers 
 a poem on "Africa," just published and for sale at the 
 local bookstores, and quoted a few passages from it in 
 which the inconsistency and wickedness of tolerating 
 slavery in the American republic were denounced in im 
 passioned phrase. " We have perused [it] with heartfelt 
 
MT. 21-23.] 
 
 EDITORIAL EXPEKIMENTS. 
 
 65 
 
 satisfaction," the editor said, " and would recommend it 
 to all those who wish to cherish female genius, and whose 
 best feelings are enlisted in the cause of the poor 
 oppressed sons of Africa. It is the production of a 
 young lady of fine talents, whose circumstances are far 
 from being affluent, but whose pen should never be idle 
 while it continues to glow with sentiments like the fol 
 lowing. 7 It is interesting to observe that this first indi 
 cation of Mr. Garrison s giving any thought to the 
 slavery question was elicited by the writing of a woman, 
 and a single extract will show how well calculated it 
 was to make an impression on his mind and conscience : 
 
 " Is it a dream ? 
 
 Or do I hear a voice of dreadful import, 
 
 The wild and mingling groans of writhing millions, 
 
 Calling for vengeance on my guilty land? 
 
 " Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes 
 A fount of tears ! Columbia ! in thy bosom 
 Can slavery dwell ? Then is thy fame a lie ! 
 Can Oppression lift his hideous, gorgon head 
 Beneath the eye of FREEDOM ? Oh my country ! 
 This deep anathema this direst evil, 
 Like a foul blot on thy dishonored brow, 
 Mars all thy beauty; and thy, far-famed glory 
 Is but a gilded toy, for fools to play with ! 
 For in the mock ry of thy boasted freedom 
 Thou smil st, with deadly joy, on human woe ! 
 Thy soul is nourished with tears and blood, Columbia ! 
 let the deepest blush of honest shame 
 Crimson thy cheek! for vile Oppression walks 
 Within thy borders ! rears his brazen front 
 Neath thy unchiding eye ! " 
 
 The next editorial reference to the subject is found at 
 the conclusion of an article on the approaching " Fourth 
 of July," in which, after reviewing the wonderful prog 
 ress, material and intellectual, of the nation, during its 
 first fifty years, and rehearsing the causes for gratitude 
 and thanksgiving, Mr. Garrison adds : 
 
 "Thus much for the favorable side of the picture. But are 
 there no dark shades to be seen ? Is there nothing to fear for our 
 VOL. I. 5 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 1826-1828. 
 
 Free Press, 
 
 June 29, 
 
 1826. 
 
66 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 [2ET. 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 1826-1828. 
 
 Free Press, 
 
 June 8, 
 
 1826. 
 
 future safety ? While, on the one hand, imaginary evils may 
 be called up, on the other, we cannot be too Argus-eyed to 
 detect real ones. Upon this point we conceive that our 4th of 
 July Orators generally fail. Their orations should be com 
 posed, not merely of rhapsodies upon the deeds of our fathers 
 of a tame repetition of the wrongs which they suffered, of 
 ceaseless apostrophes to liberty, and fierce denunciations of 
 tyranny but they should also abound with wholesome politi 
 cal axioms and reflections the rock should be pointed out 
 upon which other nations have split the pruning-knif e should 
 lop off every excrescence of vanity and our follies and virtues 
 should be skilfully held up in equal light. There is one theme 
 which should be dwelt upon, till our whole country is free from 
 the curse it is SLAVERY." 
 
 These slight allusions to the theme which afterwards 
 engrossed his life are all that can be detected in the 
 editorial columns of the Free Press during Mr. Garrison s 
 conduct of it. The most important episode of his editorial 
 career in Newburyport remains to be described. 
 
 With the exception of the first number, in which 
 PercivaFs poem on "New England" was given the place 
 of honor, each issue of the Free Press contained one or 
 more of Mrs. Hemans s poems ; and without these it is 
 doubtful if the editor would have attempted to give a 
 column of poetry every week. Very few original poems 
 were sent to him that were worth printing, but in the 
 twelfth number of his paper there appeared some verses 
 entitled " The Exile s Departure," of which the first will 
 suffice to show the measure and quality : 
 
 " Fond scenes, which delighted my youthful existence, 
 
 With feelings of sorrow I bid ye adieu 
 A lasting adieu! for now, dim in the distance, 
 
 The shores of Hibernia recede from my view. 
 Farewell to the cliffs, tempest-beaten and grey, 
 
 Which guard the lov d shores of my own native land ; 
 Farewell to the village and sail-shadow d bay, 
 
 The forest-crown d hill and the water- wash d strand." 
 
 They were signed " W., Haverhill, June 1, 1826," and 
 a note on the preceding page indicated that the editor 
 had received them with unusual satisfaction : 
 
. 21-23.] 
 
 EDITORIAL EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 67 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 1826-1828. 
 
 MS., Lec 
 ture on 
 Whittier. 
 
 " If W., at Haverhill, will continue to favor us with pieces, 
 beautiful as the one inserted in our poetical department of 
 to-day, we shall esteem it a favor." 
 
 The manner in which this came to him, and his im 
 mediate search for the author, are best described in Mr. 
 Garrison s own words : 
 
 " Going upstairs to my office, one day, I observed a letter 
 lying near the door, to my address ; which, on opening, I found 
 to contain an original piece of poetry for my paper, the Free 
 Press. The ink was very pale, the handwriting very small j 
 and, having at that time a horror of newspaper original poe 
 try, which has rather increased than diminished with the 
 lapse of time, my first impulse was to tear it in pieces, with 
 out reading it ; the chances of rejection, after its perusal, being 
 as ninety-nine to one ; . . . but, summoning resolution to 
 read it, I was equally surprised and gratified to find it above 
 mediocrity, and so gave it a place in my journal. ... As 
 I was anxious to find out the writer, my post-rider one day 
 divulged the secret stating that he had dropped the letter in 
 the manner described, and that it was written by a Quaker lad, 
 named Whittier, who was daily at work on the shoemaker s 
 bench, with hammer and lapstone, at East Haverhill. Jumping 
 into a vehicle, I lost no time in driving to see the youthful rustic 
 bard, who came into the room with shrinking diffidence, almost 
 unable to speak, and blushing like a maiden. Giving him 
 some words of encouragement, I addressed myself more par 
 ticularly to his parents, and urged them with great earnestness 
 to grant him every possible facility for the development of his 
 remarkable genius." 
 
 We continue the narrative from an editorial article in 
 the National Philanthropist, still in Mr. Garrison s own April 
 words : 
 
 " Almost as soon as he could write, he [Whittier] gave evi 
 dence of the precocity and strength of his poetical genius, and 
 when unable to procure paper and ink, a piece of chalk or 
 charcoal was substituted. He indulged his propensity for 
 rhyming with so much secrecy, (as his father informed us,) 
 that it was only by removing some rubbish in the garret, where 
 he had concealed his manuscripts, that the discovery was made. 
 This bent of his mind was discouraged by his parents : they 
 were in indigent circumstances, and unable to give him a suit- 
 
 1828. 
 
68 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 [JET. 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. IV. able education, and they did not wish to inspire him with hopes 
 1826-1828 wn ih might never be fulfilled. . . . We endeavored to 
 speak cheeringly of the prospects of their son ; we dwelt upon 
 the impolicy of warring against nature, of striving to quench 
 the first kindlings of a flame which might burn like a star in 
 our literary horizon and we spoke too of fame * Sir, re 
 plied his father, with an emotion which went home to our bosom 
 like an electric shock, poetry will not give him breads What 
 could we say ? The fate of Chatterton, Otway, and the whole 
 catalogue of those who had perished by neglect, rushed upon 
 our memory, and we were silent." 
 
 The mischief was done, however, and the youthful 
 poet (whose eldest sister had sent "The Exile s Depar 
 ture" to the Free Press office without his knowledge), 
 having now seen his own verses in print, and received 
 warm encouragement from the editor, contributed there 
 after to almost every number of the paper so long as 
 Mr. Garrison retained control of it. Two weeks after the 
 publication of Whittier s first poem, a second, in blank 
 
 Under- ^ verse, entitled " The Deity," appeared, with an editorial 
 of Wkittler, paragraph declaring that his poetry bore the stamp of 
 
 * 39 true poetic genius, which, if carefully cultivated, would 
 rank him among the bards of his country. Other pieces 
 followed, on such themes as " The Vale of the Merrimack," 
 " The Death of Alexander/ " The Voice of Time," " The 
 Burial of the Princess Charlotte of Wales," "To the 
 Memory of William Perm," "The Shipwreck," " Paul- 
 owna," " Memory," " Benevolence," etc., but they are so 
 little above mediocrity that it is not easy to see wherein 
 Mr. Garrison so instantly discovered the stamp of genius 
 and the presage of future distinction as a poet ; and 
 Mr. Whittier has never deemed them worth including in 
 his collected poems. 
 
 The copy of the Free Press containing his first poem 
 was flung to the boy Whittier by the carrier or post- 
 rider, one day, while he was helping his uncle Moses 
 repair a stone wall by the roadside ; and, stopping for a 
 moment to open and glance at it, he was so dazed and 
 bewildered by seeing his lines in print, that he stared at 
 
Mi. 21-23. J EDITOKIAL EXPERIMENTS. 69 
 
 them without the ability to read, until his uncle had CHAP. iv. 
 finally to recall him to his senses and his work. Again 1826^1828. 
 and again, however, he would steal a glance at the paper 
 to assure himself that he had not been mistaken. Subse 
 quently, when Mr. Garrison (accompanied by a friend) 
 sought out his new contributor, the boy was again at 
 work in the field, barefooted, and clad only in shirt, 
 pantaloons, and straw hat ; and on being summoned to 
 the house by his sister, he slipped in at the back door in 
 order to put on his shoes and coat before presenting him 
 self shyly and awkwardly to the visitors, whose errand was 
 as yet unknown to him. Before Mr. Garrison had spoken 
 more than a few encouraging words to him, the father 
 appeared on the scene, anxious to learn the motive of 
 this unusual call. " Is this Friend Whittier ? n was the 
 inquiry. u Yes," he responded. " We want to see you 
 about your son." u Why, what has the boy been doing ? " 
 he asked anxiously, and was visibly relieved to learn 
 that the visit was one of friendly interest, merely. 
 
 To the young Quaker lad, then in his nineteenth year, 
 it was a most important event, determining his career, 
 for the encouragement he now received from Mr. Garri 
 son, aided by the latter s impressive appeal to his parents, 
 gave him his first resolution to get a good education. 
 By sewing slippers at the shoemaker s bench, he earned 
 enough to pay for his tuition at the Haverhill Academy 
 the following spring. The next winter he taught school, 
 and was thus enabled to pay for another six months in 
 struction at the Academy. His subsequent introduc 
 tion to an editorial career continuing several years, 
 and giving him valuable experience if not much pecu 
 niary profit, was also brought about by Mr. Garrison, as 
 will be hereafter related, and thus began a life-long and 
 unbroken friendship. 
 
 The Free Press of September 14, 1826, completed the 
 sixth month of the paper s existence, and the editor, in 
 mentioning the fact, stated that the encouragement 
 received had equalled his expectations. " He was well 
 
70 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. 
 
 . 21-23. 
 
 1826-1828. 
 
 CHAP. iv. aware," he added, referring to the inception of the paper, 
 " of the difficulty of satisfactorily conducting a weekly 
 journal of infusing into its columns a lively and con 
 tinued interest and of presenting a full and accurate 
 view of passing events; but he was not discouraged. 
 Independent of political feelings, he has the vanity to 
 believe that his selections have generally given satisfac 
 tion, and that the paper has proved an equivalent for its 
 price." In another column, however, he advertised that, 
 " influenced by considerations of importance only to him 
 self, and wishing to alter his present line of business, 7 
 he offered his establishment, with its attending privileges, 
 at a reasonable price, if purchase be made immediately ; 
 and the following week he announced the sale and 
 transfer of the paper to Mr. John H. Harris. This gen 
 tleman, who was encouraged to come from another town 
 and embark in the enterprise, hoped, by reversing the 
 politics of the paper once more, to recover the support 
 of the Republican subscribers whom Mr. Garrison had 
 lost. An immediate change of front took place, and 
 instead of the Hon. John Varnum, whom Mr. Garrison 
 had urged, in his last number, for election to Congress 
 from that district, the Free Press now ardently advocated 
 the claims of Caleb Gushing, his opponent. But this 
 attempt to galvanize and keep the paper alive utterly 
 failed, and at the end of three months its publication 
 ceased. Mr. Garrison s valedictory, on surrendering the 
 paper, was as follows : 
 
 " The establishment of a free press in Newburyport one 
 open to all parties and bound down to none was an event 
 which could not fail to offend and to surprise. This is a time 
 serving age ; and he who attempts to walk uprightly or speak 
 honestly, cannot rationally calculate upon speedy wealth or 
 preferment. Men had rather be nattered than reproved 
 compliments are palatable, but plain, homely truths cannot be 
 digested. The Editor who lashes public follies and vices, who 
 strips deception of its borrowed garb, and aims his shafts at 
 corruption, may be accused of arrogance and unchastened zeal 
 of hatred, and malice, and envy of an unforgiving, un- 
 
 Free Press 
 
 Sept. 21, 
 
 1826. 
 
^ET. 21-23.] EDITORIAL EXPERIMENTS. 71 
 
 charitable, intemperate spirit but he will hardly be praised CHAP. IV. 
 for his labors. If the tone of the Free Press has sometimes 
 given offence by its frankness, that frankness has also secured 
 it many friends : if the lash has been occasionally misapplied, 
 it has more frequently scourged the intended victims : if many 
 have discontinued, more have filled their places. The present 
 transfer has been made, not because any high expectations 
 have not been realized, but for other inducements. 
 
 11 As the Massachusetts Claim was the first object of the sub 
 scriber s attention, so also shall it be the last. The swift 
 approach of the next session of Congress brings this claim, in all 
 its aggravated neglect, to memory, and demands a solemn consid 
 eration. The insults which have been so repeatedly heaped upon 
 this State, are enough to stir the spirit of every man who scorns 
 to be a slave. It is not the paltry sum of $800,000, nor that the 
 Commonwealth is reduced to beggary, that causes this emotion : 
 but it is the long, deliberate, intentional injustice exercised 
 towards a State whose services are based on the same founda 
 tion as those of sister States. The claims of Georgia, Mary 
 land, Virginia, etc., have been promptly liquidated, while poor 
 Massachusetts, in spite of her confession, recantation, and 
 pardon, in spite of her sacrifices and toils, has her just dues 
 withheld, and gets nothing ! When the rights of a State are 
 disregarded, it is time for the people to lay aside political dis 
 tinctions, and unitedly to demand redress. This is a question 
 of RIGHT and it must be heard. If another session of Con 
 gress prove indifferent to this matter, a note of remonstrance 
 may hereafter be made that i will reach every log-house beyond 
 the mountains. There is a point beyond which forbearance 
 cannot pass, and submission would be criminal. 
 
 " WM. L. GARRISON." 
 
 The retirement of Mr. Garrison from the Free Press 
 elicited an expression of regret from the Boston Courier 
 (then edited by Joseph T. Buckingham) that he had been 
 compelled to relinquish a paper which he had con 
 ducted with so much " talent, judgment and good sense ; " 
 a compliment much appreciated by the recipient, who 
 found it rather trying to his pride to descend from a 
 position which had given him some degree of dignity 
 and influence, and to resume work as journeyman printer. 
 He remained only three months longer in Newburyport ; 
 
72 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAERISON. 
 
 . 21-23. 
 
 1826-1828. 
 
 C. Gushing. 
 
 CHAP. iv. long enough, however, to become enrolled as a member of 
 the local Artillery Company, 1 and to take part in the politi 
 cal campaign of that fall, the chief feature of which was 
 
 j. Vam-um, the exciting contest between Mr. Varnum and Mr. Gush 
 ing. In addition to writing articles in the Herald and 
 in Salem and Haverhill papers, he ventured to speak in 
 a public meeting of Mr. Gushing s adherents in New- 
 buryport, delivering a scathing rebuke of their candi 
 date which excited great wrath. His opposition to the 
 man whom he had once ardently admired, and to whose 
 friendly encouragement he owned himself indebted, was 
 based partly on the ground that the latter was seeking 
 to defeat the regularly nominated Federal candidate, 
 but more particularly on a certain questionable pro 
 ceeding which he was accused of having resorted to, for 
 the purpose of exalting himself over his competitor, and 
 which led to his own overwhelming defeat. 
 
 Mr. Garrison s first visit to Boston, when on his way 
 to Baltimore, has been described in the preceding chap 
 ter. His second journey to that city was made during 
 the summer of 1826, while he was conducting the Free 
 Press, and was even more unsatisfactory than the first. 
 Unable to afford the expense of the stage fares both 
 ways, he and his friend Isaac Knapp, with two other 
 companions, started on foot, one intensely hot after 
 noon, and reached Salem (twenty-four miles distant) 
 that night. . A pair of tight boots made the walk a 
 most painful one to Garrison, and so fatiguing was it to 
 the others that he and Knapp were left to continue the 
 journey alone, the next day, their friends preferring to 
 take the stage. The pedestrians spent a whole day in 
 walking the remaining fourteen miles to Boston, and 
 the tight boots caused such badly blistered feet that, 
 after a night of torture at the inn where they stayed, a 
 retreat to Newburyport by stage the next day, without 
 
 1 In the records of the Company the year of his enrolment is given as 
 1827 ; an error due, doubtless, to the fact that the original books were lost 
 a year or two later, and the old rolls subsequently made up from the 
 memory of the remaining members. 
 
. 21-23.] 
 
 EDITOKIAL EXPEKIMENTS. 
 
 73 
 
 1826-1828. 
 
 1826. 
 
 Thomas H. 
 Bennett. 
 
 any attempt at sight-seeing, was resolved upon. G-ar- CHAP. iv. 
 rison s feet were lame and sore for months in conse 
 quence of this adventure. 
 
 In the following December, having settled the affairs 
 of the Free Press so far as his connection with it ex 
 tended, Mr. G-arrison left Newburyport and went to 
 Boston to seek employment. Without means, and al 
 most without an acquaintance in the city, he took refuge 
 at first with a printer named Bennett, who had some 
 time previously printed a translation of Cicero s Ora 
 tions in Mr. Allen s office, and who was now printing the 
 Massachusetts Weekly Journal, of which David Lee Child 1 
 was the editor. Bennett kept a boarding-house in Scott 
 Court, leading from Union Street, and kindly allowed his 
 young friend to remain with him until he could obtain 
 work and the means to pay his board, no easy matter 
 at first, for business was dull and many were out of 
 employment. Mr. Garrison went from office to office, 
 day after day, and week after week, seeking a situa 
 tion; but nearly a month passed before he succeeded 
 in obtaining a foothold in the office of Lilley & Waite. 
 During the year 1827 he worked in several offices, among 
 them a stereotype foundery on Salem Street, Deacon 
 Samuel Greele s (or Baker & Greele s) type foundery 
 on Congress Street, John H. Eastburn s book and job 
 office, also on Congress Street, and the office of the Mas 
 sachusetts Weekly Journal, above mentioned. 
 
 Though compelled to work hard for a livelihood, his in 
 terest in politics was unabated, and when a caucus of the 
 Federal party was convened in July, at the Exchange 
 Coffee House, to nominate a Representative to Congress 
 to succeed Mr. Webster, who had just been promoted to 
 the Senate, he attended it. The " slate " had already been 
 
 1 A graduate of Harvard College, in the class of 1817 ; an able lawyer 
 and an active politician, when induced to undertake the publication of the 
 Journal as a Whig paper. After the failure of that enterprise, he did not 
 long continue in practice at the bar. He was a forcible and prolific writer, 
 and a man of undaunted courage. Mr. Child was married in 1828 to Miss 
 Lydia Maria Francis. (See Letters of L. Maria Child, p. viii. Boston, 1883. ) 
 
 1827. 
 
74 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 . 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. iv. arranged by the leaders for the nomination of Benjamin 
 1826^1828. Gorham, a highly respectable lawyer ; but Mr. Garrison, 
 who had lost none of his admiration for Harrison Gray 
 Otis, and none of his chagrin and vexation over the 
 Wm.Eustis. latter s defeat by Governor Eustis, four years before, felt 
 that the time had now come for the vindication of the 
 great Federal leader, and that he should be chosen to 
 the seat vacated by Mr. Webster. He accordingly wrote 
 a carefully studied speech advocating his nomination, 
 which he attempted to commit to memory, and then going 
 to the caucus he seized an early opportunity to mount a 
 bench and speak, as if extemporaneously. His memory or 
 his confidence soon failed him, and he broke down j but the 
 encouraging applause of his hearers evinced the interest 
 and sympathy which his first words had excited, and, pull 
 ing his manuscript from his hat, he proceeded to read his 
 speech to its conclusion. A strong sentiment in favor of 
 Mr. Otis was at once developed, only one speaker under- 
 . taking to oppose him, from dissatisfaction with Mr. Otis s 
 
 position on the question of the Tariff, or, as it was then 
 styled, the " American System." The leaders felt that 
 they could not ignore the manifest disposition to nomi 
 nate him, and the caucus was accordingly adjourned for 
 three days to allow time for consultation and an inter 
 view with Mr. Otis, who absolutely declined the overture, 
 and the original programme was then harmoniously 
 carried out. 
 
 A brief newspaper controversy ensued between Mr. 
 Garrison and his opponent (who signed himself " S.") in 
 the columns of the Courier, the former taking the initia 
 tive in a sharp rebuke of the latter for introducing " local 
 interests and sectional prejudices " to " a political assem 
 bly of high-minded, intelligent Federalists," by threaten 
 ing to withhold his vote from the nominee of the caucus 
 if he should not reflect his views on the Tariff. In 
 this communication, which bore the thinly disguised sig 
 nature of "G n," Mr. Garrison undertook to explain 
 
 his own views on the vexed question which was begin- 
 
 July 12, 
 1827. 
 
JET. 21-23.] EDITORIAL EXPERIMENTS. 75 
 
 ning to divide parties and create lasting dissensions, j CHAP. iv. 
 While captivated by the protection theory and the plausi- j 1826^1828. 
 
 ble arguments in favor of the " American System/ he 
 sympathized also with the fears of the commercial classes j 
 that a high tariff would seriously cripple their interests, ( 
 and so he rather vaguely expressed himself as strongly ( 
 "in favor of commerce and against an exorbitant) 
 tariff " an " equilibrium " which he admitted the diffi 
 culty of maintaining. " The great desideratum, there 
 fore/ he concluded, " is to find that medium in national 
 policy which shall whiten every ocean with our canvas, 
 and erect a manufactory by every favorable stream." 
 
 In a brief rejoinder to this letter, his antagonist " S." 
 showed that he had not yet recovered from the shock 
 caused him by the audacious interference of the young 
 man at the caucus : 
 
 " Under the head of Representative Election/ I observed a Boston 
 communication in your paper of yesterday, to which I will make jufy"^, 
 
 a few brief and final remarks, and then leave it to Mr. G n s 1827. 
 
 own conscience to say whether he can or cannot speak or write 
 himself into notice, as I conceive this to be the young gentle 
 man s object. 
 
 " After the organization of a primary meeting of Federalists, 
 
 on the evening of the 9th inst., Mr. G n first arose and 
 
 addressed the electors with much verbosity, until his ideas 
 became exhausted, when he had recourse to his hat, which ap 
 peared to be well filled with copious notes, from which he drew 
 liberally, to make (for aught I know) his maiden speech. An 
 inquiry went round the room to know who the speaker was; 
 with some difficulty I found out his name 5 but he shortly after 
 discovered himself, by saying he had resided in this metropolis 
 six months six whole months. He proceeded on, and with ex 
 treme modesty took the liberty to designate a candidate for 
 member of Congress, to take the place of Mr. Webster. It is 
 very true that the gentleman he named stands high in the 
 estimation of the public, and were not his opinions on the 
 tariff not made up, I should be very happy to see him in the 
 councils of our nation. I objected to him on that ground alone : 
 was it so extraordinary that I should candidly object, as that 
 
 he (Mr. G n) should, with consummate assurance, take upon 
 
 himself to make the first nomination to the respectable electors 
 
76 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 [JEi. 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 1826-1828. 
 
 Boston 
 
 Courier, 
 
 July 14, 
 
 1827. 
 
 then present, contrary to all usage and custom at primary 
 caucuses ? It has ever been the invariable rule at such meet 
 ings, never to make a nomination till a vote has been passed 
 to that effect, and the nomination called for. If the young 
 gentleman of six months standing had possessed more in 
 formation on the subject, he would have known that poli 
 tics had less weight with a great number of gentlemen who 
 assembled, than the tariff and anti-tariff question, and that 
 there were present gentlemen on both sides, pledged to their 
 own measures. I can assure the gentleman that his enmity or 
 favor, his good or bad opinion of me, is not a matter of the 
 smallest consequence j and permit me to observe further, that it 
 is revolting to my ideas of propriety, to see a stranger, a man 
 who never paid a tax in our city, and perhaps nowhere else, to 
 possess the impudence to take the lead and nominate a candidate 
 for the electors of Boston. 
 
 " S." 
 
 The Courier of the following day contained a prompt 
 answer to this communication, from which the following 
 extracts are worth subjoining, both for the conscious 
 power betrayed in the first paragraph, and for the ex 
 pressions of admiration for Harrison Gray Otis : 
 
 " I sympathize with the gentleman in the difficulty which he 
 found to learn my cognomination. It is true that my acquaint 
 ance in this city is limited I have sought for none. Let me 
 assure him, however, that if my life be spared, my name shall 
 one day be known to the world, at least to such extent that 
 common inquiry shall be unnecessary. This, I know, will be 
 deemed excessive vanity but time shall prove it prophetic. 
 
 " It gives me pain, sir, to accuse your correspondent of wilful 
 misrepresentation ; but his assertion is too broad to pass unre- 
 futed. I did not take upon myself to make the first nomina 
 tion to the respectable electors of Boston. Again and again I 
 disclaimed any intention of biassing their predilections. The 
 eulogy upon Mr. Otis may have been gratuitous, and out of 
 place ; this is not for me to determine, though I am half inclined 
 to coincide with the gentleman j but to the latest hour of my 
 life, I shall rejoice that I was permitted publicly to express my 
 sentiments in favor of a man who has my strongest affections, 
 in unison with those of the whole Federal party. So far from 
 believing, however, (for obvious reasons,) that this distinguished 
 
JET. 21-23. J 
 
 EDITORIAL EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 77 
 
 individual would be put in nomination, I went to the meeting 
 with an expectation of no such result. Yet, sir, this belief did 
 injustice to the wishes of a large majority of the electors present 
 THEY WANTED MR. OTIS, no other man could have been nom 
 inated. Disguise his feelings as he may, it was the strong 
 evidence of this fact it was the emphatic voice of a whole 
 assembly, and not my feeble echo, that alarmed the selfishness 
 and roused the hostility of your querulous correspondent. . . . 
 
 " The little, paltry sneers at my youth, by your correspond 
 ent, have long since become pointless. It is the privileged 
 abuse of old age the hackneyed allegation of a thousand 
 centuries the damning crime to which all men have been sub 
 jected. I leave it to metaphysicians to determine the precise 
 moment when wisdom and experience leap into existence, 
 when, for the first time, the mind distinguishes truth from 
 error, selfishness from patriotism, and passion from reason. It 
 is sufficient for me that I am understood 
 
 " If, sir, the gentleman will call on me in person, I will 
 satisfy him that I have paid taxes elsewhere, if not for a few 
 months residence in this city. I admire his industry in search 
 ing the books of the Treasurer it speaks well for his patriot 
 ism ; and, to relieve him from further inquiries, I promise to 
 become a legal voter with all commendable haste. 
 
 " The hours which should be devoted to labor, Mr. Editor, 
 allow me little time to indulge in newspaper essays. Poverty 
 and misfortune are hard masters, and cannot be bribed by the 
 magic of words. However, I am willing to sacrifice one meal, 
 at least, in order that justice may be done to the tariff and 
 anti-tariff question, which your correspondent has submitted to 
 my consideration. It shall be done some time previous to the 
 election. I do not pretend to much information on this subject ; 
 but, to my perception, there appears but one great interest to 
 be involved, one straightforward liberal policy to be pursued, 
 one cause to be maintained, one generous desire to be gratified. 
 
 " G N." 
 
 The promised article on the tariff followed a few days 
 later, and was a defence of the policy which was expected 
 to make the republic independent of Great Britain and 
 other nations, and able, by the development of its re 
 sources and industries, to supply all its own wants. 
 
 Although at first appalled by the size and apparent in 
 tricacy of the city, and confused by its turmoil, Mr. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 1826-1828. 
 
 Cf. ante, p. 
 
 23- < 
 
 Boston 
 
 Courier, 
 
 July 23, 
 
 1827. 
 
78 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. iv. G-arrison became much attached to Boston, and greatly 
 1826^1828. enjoyed the advantages and opportunities which city life 
 afforded him. While remaining firm in the Baptist faith, 
 he yet delighted to listen to the preaching of Lyman 
 Beecher, in Hanover-Street Church, to William Ellery 
 Channing, in Federal Street, arid to John Pierpont, in Hol- 
 lis Street j and though he grieved that the two last-named 
 divines were so unsound in their theological views, and 
 wandered so far from the true faith, he had unbounded 
 admiration for their intellectual ability, and profound 
 respect for their personal character. Occasionally, too, 
 he would go to Dr. Malcolm s church, for the sake of 
 seeing the lovely face of Miss Emily Marshall, whose 
 fame as the belle of Boston at that day was national, and 
 whose goodness of heart and simple, unaffected ways 
 were universally admitted and praised. Many young 
 men were led to worship at Dr. Malcolm s by the same 
 attraction, and it was a matter of daily occurrence for 
 them to promenade up and down Franklin Street, where 
 her parents lived, in the hope of getting a glimpse of 
 her, even at her window. 1 
 
 The public holidays also presented new scenes of 
 interest and enjoyment to the young printer, and when, 
 a few years later, he was incarcerated in Baltimore jail, 
 he employed some of his leisure hours in recounting in 
 verse his recollections of "training days" on Boston 
 
 l " There are a few old people still living who will justify me in saying 
 that centuries are likely to come and go before society will again gaze, 
 spell-bound, upon a woman so richly endowed with beauty as was Miss 
 Emily Marshall. I well know the peril which lies in superlatives, they 
 were made for the use of very young persons ; but in speaking of this 
 gracious lady, even the cooling influences of more than half a century do 
 not enable me to avoid them. She was simply perfect in face and figure, 
 and perfectly charming in manners. . . . And this perfect personation 
 of loveliness was beloved by women no less than she was admired by men. 
 . . . She stood before us a reversion to that faultless type of structure 
 which artists have imagined in the past, and that ideal loveliness of 
 feminine disposition which poets have placed in the mythical golden age " 
 (Josiah Quincy, of the Class of 1821, Harvard College, in Figures of the 
 Past/ pp. 334-337). Miss Marshall married a son of Harrison Gray Otis 
 (Muzzey s Reminiscences and Memorials, pp. 39-41). 
 
Mi. 21-23.] EDITOKIAL EXPEEIMENTS. 79 
 
 Common. His love for the city itself is betrayed in the CHAP. iv. 
 last of the three verses quoted below : 1826^1828. 
 
 " I always like a Boston carnival Lib. i : 92. 
 
 And nothing better than election week ; 
 It comes to all a happy annual 
 
 ( Tis not too late, in June, its scenes to seek ;) 
 Schools are vacated crowded is the mall 
 
 With roguish boys, who Latin learn and Greek ; 
 Senate and House are there per diem pay 
 Three dollars. Who on such terms would not play 1 ? 
 
 " Light infantry parade, and that artillery 
 
 Whose cognomen is l HONORABLE AND ANCIENT j 
 
 The ladies form a beautiful auxiliary, 
 Fairer than summer flowers, and quite as transient ; 
 
 And so they d flock in crowds around a pillory 
 Most strange to tell ! without a voice dissentient : 
 
 These creatures have a boundless curiosity, 
 
 And are as noted for their fine verbosity. 
 
 " I went to see the show in 27 
 
 To be precise, about four years ago ; 
 (I think if our first parents had been driven 
 
 From Paradise to Boston, their deep woe 
 Had lost its keenness no place under heaven, 
 
 For worth or loveliness, had pleased them so; 
 Particularly if they had resided 
 In that fine house for David Sears 1 provided.)" 
 
 After staying awhile with Bennett, Mr. Garrison 
 changed his abode and went to board with the Rev. 
 William Collier, a Baptist city missionary, who lived 
 at No. 30 Federal Street (on the east side), near Milk. 
 To Mr. Collier belongs the credit of having established 
 the first paper in the world devoted mainly to the tem 
 perance cause, and advocating total abstinence from the 
 use of intoxicating liquors. On the 4th of March, 1826, 
 the same month in which Mr. Garrison began his edi 
 torial career on the Free Press, the first number of the 
 
 l The granite "swell-front" on Beacon Street, now (1885) occupied by 
 the Somerset Club. 
 
80 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [-Ex. 21-23, 
 
 CHAP. iv. National Philanthropist, " devoted to the suppression of 
 1826-1828. intemperance and its kindred vices, and to the promo 
 tion of industry, education, and morality," was issued 
 by Mr. Collier. Its motto was a new and startling one, 
 "Moderate Drinking is the Downhill Road to Intem 
 perance and Drunkenness," and it had, at the outset, 
 the indorsement of the "Massachusetts Society for the 
 Suppression of Intemperance," the first State temperance 
 society formed in America. The temperance movement, 
 however, was then in its infancy, and the paper, like 
 all reformatory journals, had a meagre support. Its 
 printer, Nathaniel H. White, also boarded at Mr. Collier s, 
 and shared Mr. Garrison s room, and after a time the 
 latter went into the office of the Philanthropist to set 
 type. The paper (a four-page sheet, with four columns 
 to the page) was then published at No. 11, Merchants 7 
 Hall, on the northeast corner of Congress and Water 
 Streets. The post-office occupied the lower story of the 
 building. 
 
 On the 4th of January, 1828, the editorship of the 
 paper was intrusted to Mr. Garrison, but his name did 
 not appear in connection with it until three months 
 later, when Mr. Collier sold the paper to White, who 
 formally announced the change and placed the names of 
 himself and Garrison at the head of the paper, as pro 
 prietor and editor respectively. The number of columns 
 was increased from sixteen to twenty in January, and 
 the size of the page was still further enlarged in April, 
 while an immediate improvement in the make-up and 
 appearance of the sheet was perceptible from the day 
 when the new editor assumed control. Still more marked 
 were the new vigor infused into the paper, the bold and 
 aggressive tone of its editorials, and the practical methods 
 suggested and urged for the furtherance of the temper 
 ance cause. Its friends were reminded that they ought 
 to acquaint the public, through the Philanthropist, with 
 the meetings held and the work done in their localities, 
 and an earnest appeal was made for their cooperation in 
 
Mi. 21-23. J EDITOKIAL EXPEKIMENTS. 81 
 
 * 
 
 promptly reporting such in its columns. Voters were CHAP. iv. 
 urged to scrutinize the moral character of candidates for !8 2 <^i828. 
 office, and the necessity for concerted action on the part 
 of temperance men in politics was emphasized. The 
 custom of " company-treating," as the furnishing of 
 liquor to the militia on training days was called, was 
 then universal, and scenes of drunkenness and debauch 
 ery were naturally the result. The Philanthropist vigor 
 ously assailed it, and the editor wrote an "Address to 
 the Privates of Militia and Independent Companies/ to 
 be read aloud to such as were willing to consider the 
 subject. Until that year, licensed vendors of intoxicat 
 ing drinks were permitted to sell them freely at booths 
 and tables on Boston Common, on public holidays ; and 
 the order of the Mayor and Aldermen prohibiting it 
 appeared in the Philanthropist^ as did also a portion of 
 an admirable and courageous address by the Rev. John 
 Pierpont on the evils of the militia system, and the use- 
 lessness and inefficiency of military musters. Mr. Gar.- 
 rison listened with delight to this address, delivered 
 before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, 
 which had incautiously invited Mr. Pierpont to preach 
 the annual sermon for that year. 
 
 The universal use of intoxicating liquors on almost 
 every occasion where men assembled together, sixty years 
 ago, can be faintly indicated now by the statement that, 
 aside from the constantly proffered social glass, a house 
 was hardly ever erected, or a ship built, without rum 
 being furnished to the neighbors who came to help raise 
 the frame or lay the keel; and it was even served to 
 the men who worked on the roads in country towns. So 
 established was this custom, that every departure from 
 it, in consequence of an awakened and reformed public 
 sentiment, was deemed worthy of special note and re 
 joicing by the Philanthropist, which urged employers to 
 dismiss intemperate men from their service and take 
 only those whose sobriety could be relied upon. The 
 editor also pointed out the criminality of professed 
 VOL. I. 6 
 
82 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 21-23. 
 
 1826-1828. 
 
 Nat. Phi 
 lanthropist, 
 April 25, 
 1828. 
 
 CHAP. iv. Christians who participated in the liquor traffic, though 
 he was hardly prepared at first to indorse a suggestion 
 that total abstinence be made " a covenant engagement 
 by the churches." Almost every number recorded the 
 formation of some new temperance society, and in the 
 fourth month of his editorship Mr. Garrison gave, in a 
 prospectus of the third volume, a resume of the progress 
 made and the work accomplished since the establishment 
 of the paper : 
 
 " Two years have elapsed since the Philanthropist was estab 
 lished for the purpose of checking a vice which had become 
 predominant over every other in our country horrible in its 
 nature, alarming in its extent, and threatening the stability 
 of our best institutions. Prior to that period, nothing com 
 paratively was heard on the subject of intemperance it 
 was seldom a theme for the essayist the newspapers scarcely 
 acknowledged its existence, excepting occasionally in connec 
 tion with some catastrophes or crimes the Christian and 
 patriot, while they perceived its ravages, formed no plans for 
 its overthrow and it did not occur to any that a paper, 
 devoted mainly to its suppression, might be made a direct and 
 successful engine in the great work of reform. Private ex 
 postulation and individual confession were indeed sometimes 
 made; but no systematic efforts were adopted to give pre 
 cision to the views or a bias to the sentiments of the people. 
 
 " When this paper was first proposed, it met with a repul 
 sion which would have utterly discouraged a less zealous and 
 persevering man than our predecessor. The moralist looked 
 on doubtfully the whole community esteemed the enterprise 
 desperate. Mountains of prejudice, overtopping the Alps, 
 were to be beaten down to a level strong interests, con 
 nected by a thousand links, severed new habits formed 
 every house, every family, and almost every individual, in a 
 greater or less degree, reclaimed. Division and contumely 
 were busy in crushing this sublime project in its birth 
 coldness and apathy encompassed it on every side but our 
 predecessor nevertheless went boldly forward with a giant s 
 , strength and more than a giant s heart conscious of diffi 
 culties and perils, though not disheartened armed with the 
 weapons of truth full of meekness, yet certain of a splendid 
 victory and relying on the promises of God for the issue. 
 By extraordinary efforts, and under appalling disadvantages, 
 
2ET. 21-23.] EDITORIAL EXPERIMENTS. 83 
 
 the first number was presented to the public j and since CHAP. IV. 
 that time it has gradually expanded in size, and increased in 
 circulation, till doubt, and prejudice, and ridicule, have been 
 swept away. 
 
 " Nor is this all. The change which has taken place in 
 public sentiment is indeed remarkable almost without a 
 parallel in the history of moral exertions incorporated as 
 intemperance ivas, and still is, into our very existence as a 
 people. ... A regenerating spirit is everywhere seen ; a 
 strong impulse to action has been given, which, beginning in 
 the breasts of a few individuals, and then affecting villages, 
 and cities, and finally whole States, has rolled onward trium 
 phantly through the remotest sections of the republic. As 
 union and example are the levers adapted to remove this 
 gigantic vice, Temperance Societies have been rapidly multi 
 plied, many on the principle of entire abstinence, and others 
 making it a duty to abstain from encouraging the distillation 
 and consumption of spirituous liquors. Expressions of the 
 deep abhorrence and sympathy which are felt in regard to the 
 awful prevalence of drunkenness are constantly emanating 
 from legislative bodies down to various religious conventions, 
 medical associations, grand juries, &c., &c. But nothing has 
 more clearly evinced the strength of this excitement than the 
 general interest taken in this subject by the conductors of the 
 press. From Maine to the Mississippi, and as far as printing 
 has penetrated even among the Cherokee Indians but one 
 sentiment seems to pervade the public papers viz.: the ne 
 cessity of strenuous exertion for the suppression of intemper 
 ance. A diversity of opinion may exist as to the best mode 
 of operation, but all agree in the extent and virulence of the 
 disease. This is a mere synopsis of the result of two years 
 exertion and what hopes does it not raise, what pledge not 
 give, of the ultimate triumph of good principles ? " 
 
 Notwithstanding- this record of successful effort, the 
 paper had a hard struggle for existence and was never 
 self-supporting. The repeated enlargements and im 
 provements were made in the hope of securing a larger 
 constituency ; the editor received very small remunera 
 tion ; and to escape one burdensome expense, correspond 
 ents were warned that their communications would not 
 be taken from the post-office unless the postage thereon 
 
84 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 CHAP. iv. was prepaid. Temperance was by no means the only 
 1826-1828. subject to which, the Philanthropist gave consideration, 
 but such questions as lotteries, imprisonment for debt, 
 peace, and the " desecration of the Sabbath" by the 
 transportation of mails and of passengers on that day, 
 were constantly discussed in its columns. The last 
 theme especially engaged the attention of the editor, 
 whose orthodox training led him to regard " Sabbath 
 mails" with severe reprobation. Infidelity also came in 
 for his frequent denunciation, and he commented approv 
 ingly on the communication of a correspondent who 
 thought that " the surest method to suppress intemper 
 ance and its kindred vices" was to " suppress infidelity 
 and irreligion." When a gathering of professed Infidels 
 took place in New York, language almost failed to 
 express his amazement and horror : 
 
 Nat. Phi 
 lanthropist, 
 April 18, 
 1828. 
 
 " It is impossible," he said, " to estimate the depravity and 
 wickedness of those who, at the present day, reject the gospel 
 of Jesus Christ, when the proofs of its divine origin have been 
 accumulating for eighteen centuries till the mass of evidence 
 exceeds computation when its blessed influence is penetrating 
 the lands where thick darkness dwells, conquering the preju 
 dices, and customs, and opinions of the people and when it 
 has acquired a grandeur of aspect, a breadth of expansion, a 
 vividness of glory, and an increase of moral strength, which 
 stamps upon it the impress of Divinity in such legible charac 
 ters that to doubt is impiety to reject, the madness of folly." 
 
 A few weeks later, however, he was compelled, in 
 referring to the Peace question, to admit that a pro 
 fession of Christianity did not make men perfect or 
 consistent, and to lament as astonishing and unac 
 countable the indifference so generally manifested by 
 Christians to the subject of war. " They have been 
 guilty," he declared, " of a neglect which no discourage 
 ment, no excuse, no inadequacy can justify." Why is 
 ibid., June it, he asked, that "by far the larger portion of the pro 
 fessed followers of the Lamb have maintained a careless, 
 passive neutrality? .... There are, in fact, few 
 
JET. 21-23.] EDITORIAL EXPEEIMENTS. 85 
 
 reasoning Christians ; the majority of them are swayed CHAP. iv. 
 more by the usages of the world than by any definite 1826^1828. 
 perception of what constitutes duty so far, we mean, 
 as relates to the subjugation of vices which are incor 
 porated, as it were, into the existence of society ; else 
 why is it that intemperance, and slavery, and war, have 
 not ere this in a measure been driven from our land ? 
 Is there not Christian influence enough here, if properly 
 concentrated, to accomplish these things ? Skepticism 
 itself cannot be at a loss to answer this question." 
 
 It was of course important that the Philanthropist, as 
 a journal of temperance and reform, should keep aloof 
 from party politics, and Mr. Garrison endeavored to bear 
 this constantly in mind j but that it cost him, with his 
 ardent interest in political questions, some effort to do so, 
 was apparent from an occasional paragraph or editorial 
 defending Henry Clay against attacks made upon him, 
 or urging voters to support Governor Lincoln for re 
 election, or commending the new " American System"; 
 and one correspondent even took him to task for pub 
 lishing an extract from Mr. Webster s speech on internal 
 improvements. The Philanthropist, like the Free Press, 
 reported the State and Congressional legislation, and 
 gave a summary of foreign and domestic news. For a 
 time, also, the suicides, fires, crimes, and disasters at 
 tributable to intemperance were effectively grouped each 
 week. 
 
 In the fifth month of his editorship Mr. Garrison pub 
 lished a series of three editorials on " Female Influence," 
 in which he expressed his surprise that more effort had 
 not been made to enlist the active support and coopera 
 tion of women in promoting the temperance cause. The 
 power of their influence and example was pointed out, 
 the extent to which they and their children suffered as 
 the innocent victims of the terrible scourge of intemper 
 ance was eloquently pictured, and their duty to do every 
 thing in their power to banish the intoxicating cup from 
 their tables and homes enforced. Finally, the formation 
 
86 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. iv. of women s temperance societies was urged ; and Mr. 
 
 1826^1828. Garrison, confessing his ignorance whether any were 
 then in existence, promised to send the Philanthropist 
 regularly and gratuitously to each society of not less 
 than twelve members that had already been or might 
 thereafter be formed. This offer developed the fact that 
 such societies already existed in three Massachusetts 
 towns, and led to the formation of others, the suggestion 
 meeting with a speedy response. The incident is worth 
 noting as showing the young reformer s early apprecia 
 tion of the value of women s aid in any moral enterprise, 
 and his quick instinct in enlisting them in the support of 
 whatever cause he espoused. 
 
 In April, 1828, he invited subscriptions to a volume 
 of poems by Whittier, which it was proposed to publish 
 at Haverhill in order to raise money for the education of 
 the Quaker lad, bat the project was subsequently aban 
 doned. The poet was now writing under the name of 
 " Adrian/ 7 and his productions appeared in the Haverhill 
 Gazette, with the editor of which he boarded while at 
 tending the winter term of the Academy. Speaking of 
 his verses and of the youth of the writer, Mr. Garrison 
 said : 
 
 Nat. Phil., u There is nothing feeble or puerile, however, in his num- 
 itoB 1 kers > ke does not deal in ornament, or betray what Junius 
 calls the melancholy madness of poetry ; but his verse com 
 bines purity of sentiment with finish of execution. Notwith 
 standing the numberless difficulties which surround his path, 
 the ardor of his disposition remains undiminished ; and consid 
 ering the slender advantages he has enjoyed, his case is indeed 
 remarkable and full of interest." 
 
 In the second number of the Philanthropist edited by 
 him Mr. Garrison commented on the passage, by the 
 House of Assembly of South Carolina, of a bill to pro 
 hibit the instruction of people of color in reading and 
 writing : 
 
 Ibid., Jan. " There is," he declared, " something unspeakably pitiable 
 and alarming hi the state of that society where it is deemed 
 
^T. 21-23.] EDITOKIAL EXPEKIMENTS. 87 
 
 necessary, for self-preservation, to seal up the mind and debase CHAP. TV. 
 the intellect of man to brutal incapacity. We shall not now l82 6Ti828 
 consider the policy of this resolve, but it illustrates the terrors of 
 slavery in a manner as eloquent and affecting as imagination 
 can conceive. . . . Truly, the alternatives of oppression 
 are terrible. But this state of things cannot always last, nor 
 ignorance alone shield us from destruction." 
 
 The awakening interest in the subject of slavery here 
 manifested was soon to be strengthened and confirmed. 
 Two months later there came to Boston a young man, Mar., 1828. 
 not yet forty, who had already devoted thirteen years to 
 preaching the gospel of liberty, and had solemnly dedi 
 cated his life to the cause of the slave, and whose great 
 and lasting glory it will be that he was the first American 
 so to do. He was a Quaker, and his name was Benja 
 min Lundy. A native of New Jersey, where he was born 
 (at Handwich, Sussex County) on the 4th of January, 
 1789, he went, at the age of nineteen, to reside in Wheel 
 ing, Virginia, and there learned the saddler s trade, serv 
 ing an apprenticeship, and subsequently working for 
 several months as a journeyman. 
 
 Wheeling was then a great thoroughfare for the 
 wretches who were engaged in transporting slaves from 
 Virginia to the Southern markets, and during his four 
 years residence there Lundy was a constant witness of 
 the horrors and cruelties of the traffic, as the " coffles" of 
 chained victims were driven through the streets. " My Life ofLun- 
 heart," he said, " was deeply grieved at the gross abomina- dy f I5 
 tion 5 I heard the wail of the captive ; I felt his pang of 
 distress ; and the iron entered my soul." 
 
 Afterwards marrying and settling at St. Clairsville, 
 Ohio, a few miles west of Wheeling, Lundy prosecuted 
 his trade with much success, and soon accumulated a 
 snug property. He organized an anti-slavery associa 
 tion, called the " Union Humane Society/ which, begin- ibid., p. 16. 
 ning with only five or six members, rapidly grew to 
 nearly five hundred. He also wrote an appeal to the 
 philanthropists of the United States, urging the forma- 
 
88 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 21-23. 
 
 1819. 
 
 CHAP. iv. tion, wherever possible, of anti-slavery societies with a 
 
 1826-1828. uniform title and constitution, which should cooperate 
 with one another through correspondence and a gen 
 eral convention. Gradually the subject took such pos 
 session of him that he resolved to dispose of his business 
 and join Charles Osborn, a Friend who had established 
 at Mount Pleasant, in the same State, a journal entitled 
 the Philanthropist, to which Lundy sent anti-slavery 
 articles, at first selected, and afterwards written by him 
 self. To consummate this arrangement, he made two 
 trips to St. Louis with his stock-in-trade, and was com 
 pelled to dispose of it there at a ruinous sacrifice, owing 
 to the great depression in business throughout the 
 
 Autumn of country. This disturbed him less than the plot, then in 
 process of accomplishment, to force Missouri into the 
 Union as a slave State j and into the discussion of that 
 question^ which was agitating the whole country, he 
 threw himself with ardor, writing articles on the evils of 
 slavery for the Missouri and Illinois papers. When, 
 after an absence of nearly two years, and a pecuniary 
 loss of thousands of dollars, he returned home on foot, 
 in the winter season (a distance, by the route he had to 
 travel, of seven hundred miles), he found that Osborn 
 had disposed of his paper. 
 
 Meanwhile (in 1820) a small octavo monthly newspaper 
 called the Emancipator had been established at Jones- 
 borough, Tennessee, by Elihu Embree, also a Friend, to 
 whom must be accorded the honor of publishing the first 
 periodical in America of which the one avowed object 
 was opposition to slavery, When Lundy heard of it he 
 deemed it unnecessary to attempt anything of the kind 
 himself j but, on his way home from St. Louis, news of 
 Embree s death reached him, and he then resolved to 
 establish a new journal at Mount Pleasant, In July, 
 1821, the first number of the Genius of Universal Eman 
 cipation was issued. It was begun without a dollar of 
 
 LifeofLun- capital, and with only six subscribers, and for a time 
 Lundy walked a distance of twenty miles, each month, 
 
 1820-21. 
 
 dy, p. 20. 
 
MT. 21-23.] EDITOKIAL EXPEKIMENTS. 89 
 
 to Steubenville, to get the paper printed, and returned CHAP. iv. 
 with the edition on his back. 1826^1828. 
 
 Early in the following year the Genius was removed to 1822. 
 Greenville, Tennessee, through the urgency of Elihu 
 Embree s friends, and printed on the press of the late 
 Emancipator. The untiring editor travelled half of the 
 eight hundred miles thither on foot, his family following 
 him a few months later. He remained there till 1824, 
 learning the printer s trade, so as to do his own work, 
 and publishing the only anti-slavery journal in the 
 country. 1 
 
 It was a small monthly of sixteen pages, shabbily 
 printed, but it was full of vigor and earnestness, and it 
 gradually obtained a considerable circulation. A trip to 
 Philadelphia (distant six hundred miles) in the winter of 
 1823-4, for the purpose of attending the biennial meet 
 ing of the " American Convention for the Abolition of 
 Slavery," 2 was made by him on horseback, and at his 
 own expense. 
 
 1 He also published, at the same time, a weekly newspaper, the Green 
 ville Economist and Statesman, and an agricultural monthly. 
 
 2 The first Convention of the Abolition Societies of the United States 
 was held in Philadelphia, in January, 1794, under the immediate auspices 
 of the " Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, the 
 Relief of Free Negroes unlawfully held in Bondage, and Improving the 
 Condition of the African Race," and the New York " Society for Pro 
 moting the Manumission of Slaves," the two parent anti-slavery societies 
 formed in the United States. The former, which was founded in April, 
 1775, five days before the Lexington and Concord fights, counted among 
 its presidents Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Benjamin Rush, both signers of 
 the Declaration of Independence ; and the first president of the New York 
 Society (organized in 1785) was John Jay, subsequently Chief-Justice of 
 the United States Supreme Court. Other State societies were formed in 
 Delaware (1788), Maryland (1789), Rhode Island and Connecticut (1790), 
 Virginia (1791), New Jersey (1792), all of which, with some local societies in 
 Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, were represented in the Conven 
 tion of 1794. Annual sessions of the "American Convention" were held, 
 with more or less regularity, for several years ; afterwards it met bienni 
 ally till 1825, then annually till 1829, when it suspended operations for 
 nine years, holding its final meeting in 1838. The State societies devoted 
 their efforts to gradual emancipation in their own States, the education 
 and moral improvement of the free people of color, and their protection 
 and rescue from kidnapping and reenslavement. The Pennsylvania Society 
 was especially active and vigilant in this last work, but early in the present 
 
90 WILLIAM LLOYD GARBISON. [^T. 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. iv. It led to his deciding to remove the Genius to the At- 
 1826^1828. lantic seaboard, and this was done in October, 1824, when 
 he established himself at Baltimore, after making the 
 journey from Tennessee on foot, with knapsack on back. 
 His course took him through southwestern Virginia into 
 North Carolina ; and at Deep Creek, in the latter State, 
 he delivered his first public address on the subject of 
 slavery, in a grove near the Friends Meeting House, 
 and inspired the formation of an anti-slavery society. 
 Before he left the State he had addressed fifteen or 
 twenty meetings at different places, and formed a dozen 
 or more societies, one of them at Raleigh, the capital. 
 These were chiefly among the Friends, but one embraced 
 some of the members of a militia company who had 
 assembled for a muster, &nd its captain became the 
 president of the society, while a Friend was chosen 
 secretary. Entering Virginia, and traversing the middle 
 section of the State, Lundy continued the good work 
 without molestation, his Quaker brethren giving him 
 their ready sympathy, while the community at large 
 took no alarm. 
 
 Nor did the establishment of the Genius at Baltimore 
 cause any excitement, for, in his initial article, the editor 
 declared " the end and aim " of the paper to be " the 
 gradual, though total, abolition of slavery in the United 
 States," and he devoted the larger portion of several 
 numbers to the advocacy and furtherance of a scheme for 
 colonizing the emancipated slaves in Hayti, using some 
 of the very arguments employed by the American Colo 
 nization Society, which stood in high favor throughout 
 
 century, and especially after the Missouri Compromise of 1820, a paralysis 
 fell on the anti-slavery sentiment of the country, and the societies gradu 
 ally dwindled until most of them disappeared ; the new societies formed 
 during the decade from 1830 to 1840, on the basis of immediate and uncon 
 ditional emancipation, absorbing the ablest and most energetic surviving 
 members of the old organizations. See An Historical Memoir of the 
 Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery/ etc., by 
 Edward Needles (Philadelphia, 1848), and Anti-Slavery Opinions before the 
 year 1800, by William F. Poole (Cincinnati, 1873). 
 
^T. 21-23.] EDITOKIAL EXPEKIMENTS. 91 
 
 the South. 1 In the interests of this scheme he visited CHAP. iv. 
 Hayti in 1825, and returned after several months to find 1826^828. 
 his beloved wife dead, after giving birth to twins, his 
 home desolate, and his surviving children scattered. 
 These he collected and placed in the care of friends, and 
 then renewed his vow to devote his energies to the cause 
 of the slaves until the nation was aroused in their behalf. 
 Resuming his task, he enlarged the Genius, and con 
 verted it into a weekly paper. William Swain, " a very 
 capable, intelligent, and philanthropic young man/ 7 one LifeofLun- 
 of his North Carolina converts, became his assistant, and 
 to him Lundy could intrust the paper while he made 
 occasional journeys to hold meetings, obtain subscribers, 
 and stimulate the formation of anti-slavery societies. It 
 was not until 1828, however (a year after he had been 
 brutally assaulted and almost killed in the streets of ibid., pp. 
 Baltimore by Austin Woolfolk, a notorious slave-trader), 
 that he made his way northward on one of these missions, 
 beginning at Philadelphia, and holding there the first 
 meeting ever held in this country for encouraging the 
 use of free-labor products. In New York he became 
 slightly acquainted with Arthur Tappan, a merchant ibid., p. 25. 
 already distinguished for his munificent philanthropy, 
 and in Providence he met William Goodell, who was then ibid., p. 25. 
 publishing a paper called the Investigator. " I endeavored ibid., p. 25. 
 to arouse him," records Lundy, " but he was at that time 
 slow of speech on my subject" a slowness for which he 
 afterwards amply atoned. 2 
 
 1 And yet, only a few months previous, Lundy had expressed some 
 distrust of the Colonization Society because Clay, Randolph, and other 
 prominent slaveholders were active in its councils. 
 
 2 William Goodell (born in Coventry, N. Y., Oct. 25, 1792, died in Janes- 
 ville, Wisconsin, Feb. 14, 1878) was a lineal descendant of Robert Goodell, 
 one of the earliest settlers of Danvers, Massachusetts (1634). Disap 
 pointed in his hope of a collegiate education, he early entered business life 
 at Providence, R. I., and subsequently, at the age of 24, made a long 
 voyage to the East Indies, China, and Europe, as supercargo. After his 
 return he was merchant and book-keeper successively at Providence, 
 Alexandria, Va., and New York, until, in 1827, he established the Inves 
 tigator at Providence, " devoted to moral and political discussion, and 
 reformation in general, including temperance and anti-slavery." He had 
 
92 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. iv. Arrived in Boston, Lundy went to Mr. Collier s 
 1826^1828. boarding-house, where he became acquainted with Mr. 
 LtfeofLun- Garrison, and found in him a ready and enthusiastic 
 convert, who was willing to give not merely words of 
 sympathy and approval, but energetic and active sup 
 port. Garrison had seen the Genius, and so known of 
 Lundy, whom he had imagined " a Hercules in shape 
 and size 7 ; and his disappointment was great, at first, 
 when he beheld a diminutive and slender person, the 
 last man, by his appearance, that he would have selected 
 as a reformer. 1 
 
 Journal of "Instead of being able to withstand the tide of public 
 ^Dec* 5 opinion," he wrote, a few months later, in describing Lundy, 
 1828. "it would at first seem doubtful whether he could sustain a 
 temporary conflict with the winds of heaven. And yet he has 
 explored nineteen of the twenty-four States from the Green 
 Mountains of Vermont to the banks of the Mississippi multi 
 plied anti-slavery societies in every quarter, put every petition 
 in motion relative to the extinction of slavery in the District of 
 Columbia, everywhere awakened the slumbering sympathies of 
 the people, and begun a work, the completion of which will be 
 the salvation of his country. His heart is of a gigantic size. 
 Every inch of him is alive with power. He combines the 
 meekness of Howard with the boldness of Luther. No re 
 former was ever more devoted, zealous, persevering, or san 
 guine. He has fought single-handed against a host, without 
 missing a blow, or faltering a moment j but his forces are 
 rapidly gathering, and he will yet free our land. 
 
 " It should be mentioned, too, that he has sacrificed several 
 thousand dollars in this holy cause, accumulated by unceasing 
 
 denounced the Missouri Compromise at the time of its adoption, and was 
 earnestly opposed to slavery, but at the period of Lundy s visit the tem 
 perance question was the more absorbing one with him. His subsequent 
 labors in the anti-slavery cause will be frequently alluded to in these pages. 
 He was the author of several works, the most important of which were 
 Views of American Constitutional Law (1844), The Democracy of 
 Christianity (1851), Slavery and Anti-Slavery (1852), and The Amer 
 ican Slave Code (1853). He was an able writer and close reasoner, though 
 diffuse in style. In his religious views he was rigidly Calvinistic. (See 
 Memorial of William Goodell, Chicago, 1879.) 
 
 1 Clarkson, when asked, in his old age, if Wilberforce was not diminutive 
 in person, replied, with kindling eye, "Yes, but think of the magnitude of 
 his theme ! the majesty of his cause ! " (Lib. , 10 : 193. ) 
 
JET. 21-23.] EDITORIAL EXPEEIMENTS. 93 
 
 industry. Yet he makes no public appeals, but goes forward in CHAP. iv. 
 the quietude and resoluteness of his spirit, husbanding his z 825^328 
 little resources from town to town, and from State to State. 
 * I would not, he said to us some months since, I would not 
 exchange circumstances with any person on earth, if I must 
 thereby relinquish the cause in which I am enlisted. 
 Within a few months he has travelled about twenty-four hun 
 dred miles, of which upwards of sixteen hundred were per 
 formed on foot! during which time he has held nearly fifty 
 public meetings. 1 Rivers and mountains vanish in his path ; 
 midnight finds him wending his solitary way over an unfre 
 quented road ; the sun is anticipated in his rising. Never was 
 moral sublimity of character better illustrated." 
 
 Lundy lost no time, after his arrival in Boston, in con 
 vening as many clergymen of different sects as he could 
 persuade to come and listen to him at Mr. Collier s house, 
 but the names of the eight who are said to have attended Life ofLun- 
 the meeting (March 17, 1828), and given their cordial ^J. pll 
 approval, in writing, of his plans and paper, are not ^MarSK\ 
 recorded. " William L. Garrison, who sat in the room, 1828. 
 also expressed his approbation of my doctrines," wrote 
 Lundy. The clerical gentlemen, however, were unwilling 
 to initiate any active movement, or to take part in the 
 formation of an anti-slavery committee or society such 
 as Lundy urged them to organize j and all that he could 
 obtain from them was their signatures to a paper recom 
 mending the Genius to the patronage of the public. In his 
 obituary tribute to Lundy, eleven years later, Mr. Garrison 
 gave his recollections of this meeting, and of the failure 
 of Lundy s arguments and appeals to move his hearers : 
 
 "He might as well have urged the stones in the streets to #.9:151. 
 cry out in behalf of the perishing captives. the moral cow- 
 
 1 "He was not a good public speaker. His voice was too feeble, his 
 utterance too rapid, to interest or inform an audience ; yet he never spoke 
 wholly in vain. In private life, his habits were social and communicative, 
 but his infirmity of deafness rendered it difficult to engage with him in 
 protracted conversation. How, with that infirmity upon him, he could 
 think of travelling all over the country, exploring Canada and Texas, and 
 making voyages to Hayti, in the prosecution of his godlike work, is indeed 
 matter of astonishment. But it shows, in bold relief, what the spirit of 
 philanthropy can dare and conquer" (W. L. G. in Lib., Sept. 20, 1839). 
 
94 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. IV. ardice, the chilling apathy, the criminal unbelief, the cruel 
 1826^1828 skepticism, that were revealed on that memorable occasion ! 
 My soul was on fire then, as it is now, in view of such a devel 
 opment. Every soul in the room was heartily opposed to 
 slavery, but it would terribly alarm and enrage the South to 
 know that an anti- slavery society existed in Boston ! But it 
 would do harm rather than good, openly to agitate the subject! 
 But we had nothing to do with the question, and the less we 
 meddled with it, the better ! But perhaps a select committee 
 might be formed, to be called by some name that would neither 
 give offense, nor excite suspicion as to its real design ! One or 
 two only were for bold and decisive action ; but, as they had 
 neither station nor influence, and did not rank among the wise 
 and prudent, their opinions did not weigh very heavily, and the 
 project was abandoned. Poor Lundy! that meeting was a 
 damper to his feelings j but he was not a man to be utterly cast 
 down, come what might. No one, at the outset, had bid him 
 God-speed in his merciful endeavors to deliver his enslaved 
 countrymen ; and he was inflexible to persevere even unto the 
 end, though unassisted by any of those whose countenance he 
 had a right to expect." 
 
 Mar. 21, The Philanthropist of that week bore ample evidence 
 of the quickening influence of Lundy s visit upon its 
 editor, who heartily commended the Genius of Universal 
 Emancipation and its conductor to the citizens of Boston, 
 and paid a warm tribute to Lundy and to the work which 
 he had already accomplished. A long editorial in the same 
 number, on the "Progress of Public Opinion against 
 Intemperance, Slavery and War," was clearly due to the 
 inspiration of Lundy s visit (so far, at least, as the 
 portion relating to slavery was concerned) ; and as it 
 contains the first indication of Mr. Garrison s growing 
 purpose to devote his life to philanthropy and reform, it 
 possesses an especial interest, and may be said to mark 
 the turning-point in his career. Add to this that he was 
 then but twenty-two years of age, and that he wrote after 
 the disheartening meeting at Mr. Collier s, and one can 
 not but be struck by the vigor, courage, and prophetic 
 confidence of the writer. In this article the number of 
 "anti-intemperance societies" then existing was estimated 
 
JET. 21-23.] EDITOKIAL EXPEKIMENTS. 95 
 
 as rather less than one hundred, and of anti-slavery CHAP. iv. 
 societies as upwards of one hundred and thirty, most 
 of them in slave States and of Lundy s formation, among 
 the Quakers. Allusion was made to the colonization of 
 one thousand colored people in Liberia, and the emigra 
 tion of seven or eight thousand more to Hayti within 
 four years, and to the fact that influential citizens in the 
 District of Columbia, and in many other places, were then 
 signing petitions to Congress for the abolition of slavery 
 in the District. " If this important principle be recog 
 nized by that body," said the editor, " it will be a bright 
 omen of the future emancipation of the whole country." 
 The formation of peace societies was also noted with 
 satisfaction by him. 
 
 " The brightest traits in the American character," he declared, 
 " will derive their lustre, not from the laurels picked from the 
 field of blood, not from the magnitude of our navy and the suc 
 cess of our arms, but from our exertions to banish war from the 
 earth, to stay the ravages of intemperance among all that is 
 beautiful and fair, to unfetter those who have been enthralled 
 by chains which we have forged, and to spread the light of 
 knowledge and religious liberty wherever darkness and super 
 stition reign. Upon this foundation we may build a temple 
 which time cannot crumble, and whose fame shall fill the earth. 
 Obstacles may rise up in our path like mountains, but they will 
 disappear before the unconquerable spirit of reform like the 
 shadows of night in the morning blaze. . . . We ought to 
 exult that the signs of the times are so auspicious. Let the 
 desponding take courage the fainting gather strength the 
 listless be inspirited ; for though the victory be not won, we 
 shall not lose it if we persevere. The struggle is full of sub 
 limity the conquest embraces the world." 
 
 Lundy was sufficiently encouraged by this visit to the 
 North to undertake another pilgrimage thither soon 
 after his return to Baltimore, and, beginning on the 
 first of May, 1828, he devoted six months to visiting New 
 England and New York State. He met with varying 
 success, and that his patience was sorely tested at times 
 is evident from the declaration in his journal (on reach- 
 
96 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 21-23. 
 
 LifeofLun- ing Albany), that "philanthropists are the slowest crea- 
 y, p. 28. j- ures Breathing. They think forty times before they 
 act." It was not until the end of July that he again 
 reached ^Boston, after holding meetings in Newburyport, 
 Andover, Salem, and Lynn. Meanwhile Mr. Garrison 
 had resigned the editorship of the Philanthropist, and 
 the number for July 4 contained his brief valedictory. 
 The same day found him in Newburyport once more, 
 where he read the Declaration of Independence at a 
 celebration of the national anniversary, held under the 
 auspices of the Artillery Company, and also contributed 
 a spirited ode for the occasion : 
 
 Nat. Phi- Ode for the Celebration of the Fourth of July, at 
 
 Newburyport, Mass., 1828. 
 
 Once more, in the face of the wondering world, 
 We come to re-echo our proud declaration, 
 That the standard of freedom our fathers unfurled 
 Shall ever in triumph wave over our nation ; 
 That tyranny s chain 
 Ne er shall bind us again, 
 
 But our rights we ll assert, and as boldly maintain : 
 Twere as easy to quench the full blaze of the sun 
 As shackle a people whose hearts are but one ! 
 
 Though the heat of collision may sometimes inflame, 
 And a threat of disunion be held in terrorem; 
 Though the South may revile, and the East loud declaim, 
 The North and the West talk of conflicts before em ; 
 
 Yet the FOURTH OF JULY 
 
 Will forever supply 
 
 A seven-fold cord to our national tie : 
 The plots of division, though artfully done, 
 Will fail on a people ichose hearts are but one! 
 
 Our march must keep pace with the march of the mind, 
 Progressing in grandeur for ever and ever; 
 Our deeds and example are laws to mankind, 
 And Onward to Glory ! 1 shall be our endeavor : 
 
 i The motto of the Artillery Company. 
 
,ET. 21-23.J EDITORIAL EXPERIMENTS. 97 
 
 A voice shall go forth CHAP. IV. 
 
 O er the empires of earth, 1826^1828 
 
 Like a trumpet, redeeming the world at a birth! 
 For the reign of free thoughts and free acts has begun, 
 And joy to that people ivhose hearts are but one! 
 
 A prayer and a tear for the suffering brave, 
 For Greece in this day of her terrible anguish! 
 May the Turkish oppressor be hurled in the grave, 
 And Freedom for aid cease in sorrow to languish! 
 
 May the arm of our God 
 
 Interpose with its rod, 
 
 And punish the shedders of innocent blood; 
 Then peace, hope, and love, like a river shall run, 
 And dwell with a people whose hearts are but one! 
 
 And now, while our cannon ring out to the skies 
 Their eloquent peals in the accents of thunder, 
 In clouds let the incense of gratitude rise 
 To Him who alone burst our shackles asunder j 
 
 Let our loftiest lays 
 
 Be filled with his praise, 
 The fire of devotion burst forth in a blaze: 
 For oh ! it becomes, when our trials are done, 
 A people ivhose hands, hearts, and feelings are one ! 
 
 Lundy held his first public meeting in Boston on the 
 evening of August 7, 1828, in the vestry of the Federal- 
 Street Baptist Church, and a report of the meeting, with 
 a synopsis of his address, was given by Mr. Garrison 
 in a letter to the Courier, under the familiar initials Aug. n; 
 "A. O. B." From this we learn that Lundy described Lnthropist, 
 to his hearers the work already accomplished in the 
 formation of anti-slavery societies, and pointed out the 
 impossibility of ever abolishing slavery through the 
 agency of the Colonization Society, since the increase of 
 the slave population in a single year was greater than 
 the diminution which that society could effect in half a 
 century. While the Society was warmly commended, 
 emphasis was laid on the fact that the anti-slavery 
 societies did not propose to buy slaves for the sake of 
 VOL. L 7 
 
98 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 . 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 1826-1828. 
 
 A. O. B. in 
 
 Boston 
 
 Courier, 
 
 Aug. 12, 
 
 1828; 
 Lib. 4 : 43. 
 
 Jour, of the 
 
 Times, Oct. 
 
 10, 1828. 
 
 emancipating and transporting them to other countries, 
 and so to open a new market to slave-dealers, but to 
 generate a moral agitation which should never rest until 
 the shackles of the oppressed were broken " by the will, 
 not by the wealth, of the people." Finally, the speaker 
 urged the circulation of petitions to Congress for the 
 abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
 
 The meeting was brought to an abrupt and unex 
 pected termination by the pastor of the church (Rev. 
 Howard Malcolm), who arose at the conclusion of 
 Lundy s remarks and passionately denounced the agita 
 tion of the question of slavery in New England, de 
 claring that it was too delicate to be meddled with by 
 the people of the Northern States ; that they had noth 
 ing whatever to do with it 5 that slavery was coming to 
 an end, perhaps quite as fast as was desirable, namely, 
 by one slave State selling its slaves to another further 
 South, and thus gradually relieving itself ; and after 
 discoursing in this vein, he summarily dismissed the 
 meeting without affording any opportunity for reply. 
 His conduct excited much indignation, and it was only 
 by holding a subsequent meeting that an anti-slavery 
 committee was formed, consisting of twenty members, of 
 whom Mr. Garrison was one. With characteristic ardor 
 he at once proposed to circulate petitions for the aboli 
 tion of slavery in the District of Columbia in every town 
 in the Commonwealth, but before he could personally set 
 them in motion, he was called to another field of action ; 
 and although his fellow-members of the committee were 
 " high-minded, spirited and philanthropic men," they do 
 not seem to have pushed the matter with much vigor 
 after the stimulus of his personal presence and effort 
 was withdrawn. A single petition from Boston, cau 
 tiously and almost apologetically worded, appears to 
 have been the sole result of their labors. Garrison 
 communicated the progress made before he left Boston 
 to Lundy, who wrote in reply : 
 
MT. 21-23.] EDITOKIAL EXPEKIMENTS. 99 
 
 " I am now strengthened in the hope, that I shall not only jour, of the 
 find a valuable coadjutor in the person of my friend Garrison, T ^ es ^f 
 but that the ice is broken in the hitherto frozen no, no, not 
 frozen COOL regions of the North. (Ask pardon for the, 
 metaphor but, really, you have all been cool, on the subject 
 of slavery, too long.) I should have been pleased to learn that 
 you had fairly and formally organized a society j but you have 
 the substance, and I heartily rejoice. Your committee will 
 form a nucleus, around which the elements of a society will 
 congregate j and in process of time you will, if you remain 
 active MARK THAT imperceptibly, as it were, fall into as 
 regular a plan of organization as can be desired. When you 
 have the substance, it is useless to contend for, or even too 
 earnestly desire, the shadow. But, I repeat for it is im 
 portant that it be indelibly impressed on the memory that 
 everything depends on activity and steady perseverance. And 
 you will also find, that the burthen will mostly fall on the 
 shoulders of a few. A few will have the labor to perform, and 
 the honor to share. . . . 
 
 " I hope you will persevere in your work, steadily, but not 
 make too large calculations on what may be accomplished in a 
 particularly stated time. You have now girded on a holy war 
 fare. Lay not down your weapons until honorable terms are 
 obtained. The God of hosts is on your side. Steadiness and faith 
 fulness will, most assuredly, overcome every obstacle." 
 
 During the month of August, 1828, Mr. Garrison had 
 had a controversy with John Neal of Portland, then 
 editing a newspaper called the Yankee, in that city. He 
 had frequently, in the Philanthropist, ridiculed NeaFs 
 egotistical and bombastic style of writing, and an asser 
 tion of NeaFs that his retirement from that journal 
 was compulsory, because of his attacks on himself, 
 aroused all the hot blood in the young man s veins, and 
 caused him to send a wrathful epistle of denial, which 
 was printed in the Yankee. After refuting the assertion, August 13, 
 he demanded a retraction, " that the public mind may 
 be disabused of the untruth, that I was ejected from 
 office. It is important to me that this correction be made. 
 My reputation, trifling as it is, is worth something ; if I 
 
100 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. [^T. 21-23. 
 
 CHAP. iv. lose it, I lose the means whereby I obtain my daily 
 
 1826^828. bread." 
 
 Nat. Phi- The proprietor of the Philanthropist promptly corrob- 
 
 lat Aug.^ ^orated his statement that his retirement from it was 
 1828. wholly voluntary, and expressed surprise that he should 
 have deemed " the unfounded and dastardly charge " 
 worth noticing, when made by such a man as Neal. The 
 latter s comments on his letter, however, so exasperated 
 Mr. Garrison that he wrote a second, of which this is the 
 concluding paragraph : 
 
 Portland " You declare that you never heard of my name before 
 
 Au^sfzo ^ a t we are en ti re strangers to each other. But you knew, it 
 
 1828 ; appears, my age and origin long ago. ( Vide the Yankee of Feby. 
 
 Wandering ^ an( ^ March 12.) I have only to repeat without vanity, what 
 
 Recollections I declared publicly to another opponent a political one 
 
 Ufep 401 (and I think he will never forget me,) that, if my life be spared, 
 
 cf. ante, m y name shall one day be known so extensively as to render 
 
 private enquiry unnecessary ; and known, too, in a praise 
 
 worthy manner. I speak in the spirit of prophecy, not of vain 
 
 glory, with a strong pulse, a flashing eye, and a glow of the 
 
 heart. The task may ~be yours to write my biography." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 BENNINGTON AND THE JOURNAL OF THE TIMES. 
 
 1828-29. 
 
 1828-29. 
 
 THE exciting Presidential campaign of 1828 had CHAP. v. 
 already begun, when Mr. Garrison received an in 
 vitation from a committee of prominent citizens of Ben- 
 nington, Vermont, who visited Boston for the purpose 
 of seeing him, to edit a paper which they proposed to 
 establish in that town in advocacy of the reelection of 
 John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson ; the Gazette, 
 the existing local paper, having practically gone over to 
 the Jackson party. As Vermont was strongly for Adams, 
 and as Bennington, though in an extreme corner of the 
 State, was politically a very important town, the need 
 of an Administration paper there was felt to be impera 
 tive. Mr. Garrison, while no very warm admirer of Mr. 
 Adams personally, had ^still a well-founded dread of the 
 election of Jackson and its consequent effect upon Ame 
 rican politics, and he readily consented to a six months 
 engagement on condition that he should have the liberty 
 of advocating in the columns of the paper not only 
 the reelection of Adams, but Anti-Slavery, Temperance, 
 Peace v and Moral Reform as well. a It was a very singu 
 lar kind of political paper," he said, u but they gave me 
 carte blanche, and I agreed to undertake the enterprise." 
 Arrangements were made with Mr. Henry S. Hull, an 
 acquaintance of his, to print it, and on Friday, the 3d of 
 October, 1828, the first number of the Journal of the 
 Times was issued, a well-printed sheet of four pages, with 
 
 Proceedings 
 
 Am. A. S. 
 
 Soc y, Third 
 
 Decade, p. 
 
 121. 
 
 101 
 
102 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. v. six columns to the page. 1 The editor recurred to his 
 1828-29. favorite quotation from Cicero ; and " Reason shall pre 
 vail with us more than Popular Opinion " was placed as 
 the permanent motto of the paper, below the heading. 
 The contents were attractively arranged, the first page 
 being devoted to selections under the general heads 
 " Moral," " Education," " Temperance," " Slavery/ 7 " Po 
 litical," etc. Foreign and domestic news occupied the 
 second page ; editorials, communications, and a general 
 summary of news the third, and poetry, miscellany, and 
 advertisements the fourth. Contrary to the usual habit 
 of giving editorials larger type and better display than 
 other matter, Mr. Garrison set his articles in smaller type 
 than the average, and still found himself cramped for 
 space. His first bow to the Vermont public was made 
 in the following Salutatory, in which the prime motive for 
 establishing the paper seems to have been the last in the 
 editor s thoughts. 
 
 TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 Oct ^ e t ^ S ^^ Present the first number of the Journal of 
 3, 1828. the Times, for public approval and patronage. It is proper, 
 therefore, at the commencement of our enterprise, that we 
 should explain the motives by which we are actuated, the 
 objects which we shall pursue, and the principles upon which 
 we base our faith. 
 
 This shall be done briefly for one article in our creed is, 
 that practice is better than profession, and the fulfilment of 
 a promise worth more than the contract itself; hence we have 
 issued no prospectus, nor solicited a single subscription, nor 
 made any provision for an extensive support. Our paper shall 
 be sustained by its merits, or it shall perish, even though the 
 sympathy of friendship should open its coffers for our relief ; 
 and therefore we choose, in looking to the people of this county 
 for encouragement, to place this sheet in their hands before we 
 ask them to subscribe. Our terms and our pretensions are be 
 fore them. 
 
 1 The printed page measured 13x18^ inches, and the subscription price 
 was two dollars a year. 
 
^T. 23-24.] BENNINGTON. 103 
 
 In the first place, the Journal shall be INDEPENDENT, in the CHAP. V. 
 broadest and stoutest signification of the term ; it shall be tram- 
 melled by no interest, biassed by no sect, awed by no power. 
 Of all diminutive objects that creep on the face of the earth, 
 that bask in God s sunshine, or inhale the rich atmosphere of 
 life of all despicable and degraded beings, a time-serving, 
 shuffling, truckling editor has no parallel; and he who has 
 not courage enough to hunt down popular vices, to combat 
 popular prejudices, to encounter the madness of party, to tell 
 the truth and maintain the truth, cost what it may, to attack 
 villainy in its higher walks, and strip presumption of its 
 vulgar garb, to meet the frowns of the enemy with the smiles 
 of a friend, and the hazard of independence with the hope 
 of reward, should be crushed at a blow if he dared to tam 
 per with the interests, or speculate upon the whims of the 
 public. Look at our motto watch us narrowly in our future 
 course and if we depart one tittle from the lofty sentiment 
 which we have adopted as our guide, leave us to a speedy 
 annihilation. 
 
 Secondly. We have three objects in view, which we shall 
 pursue through life, whether in this place or elsewhere 
 namely, the suppression of intemperance and its associate vices, 
 the gradual emancipation of every slave in the republic, and 
 the perpetuity of national peace. In discussing these topics, 
 what is wanting in vigor shall be made up in zeal. 
 
 Thirdly. Education will be another prominent object of our 
 attention ; not that kind, however, which is found in our col 
 leges alone not the tinsel, the frippery, and the incumbrance 
 of classical learning, so called but a* popular, practical edu 
 cation, which will make science familiar to the mechanic, and 
 the arts of easy attainment, and which will best promote public 
 virtue by the extension of general knowledge. 
 
 Fourthly. The encouragement of national industry will form ^ 
 another of our purposes. We are friends, even to enthusiasm, 
 to what is significantly styled the " American System." We 
 wish to see a manufactory by the side of every suitable stream, 
 and, if possible, the entire amount of cotton that may be grown 
 in the country made into good, substantial fabrics for home 
 consumption and exportation. Every day s experience teaches 
 this whole people that their interests are best promoted by the 
 erection of national houses of industry ; that Providence has 
 made them necessarily dependent on no other country for the 
 comforts of life ; and that the great secret of national aggran- 
 
104 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. V. dizement consists in improving their natural advantages, and 
 g ~ exploring their own resources. 
 
 Finally. We have started the Journal with the conviction 
 that, to be well and permanently supported, it need only merit 
 support. We are satisfied, moreover, that the public voice is 
 nearly unanimous in favor of this establishment. This county 
 has probably a population of twenty thousand, nineteen- twen 
 tieths of whom are friendly to the reelection of JOHN QUINCY 
 ADAMS j but their confidence has been abused, their views mis 
 represented, their feelings insulted j they have had no organ 
 through which to express their desires, or hold communications 
 with other sections of the country ; they have been upbraided 
 with apostasy, with treachery, with insincerity ; and they have 
 in their meekness borne till endurance has passed its bounds, 
 and the pen of the slanderer become intolerable. 
 
 We come, then, in the name, and to supply the wants, of the 
 people. Be ours the task, not to rake open the smouldering 
 embers of party, but to extinguish them j not to nourish ani 
 mosities, but to encourage the growth of liberal principles j not 
 to fight with the shadows of things which are dead, but with 
 existing evils of national magnitude j not to give sound for 
 sense, or roaring for argument ; not to inflame, but to heal; 
 not to swagger and brag about our exclusive patriotism, but to 
 enlarge the number of patriots ; not to divide the community, 
 
 but to unite all hearts. 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON, Editor. 
 
 HENRY S. HULL, Proprietor. 
 
 In another column, on the editorial page, an indignant 
 denial was given to a report, said to have been industri 
 ously circulated in Bennington and the neighboring 
 villages, that the Journal was to be influenced by a sect 
 and controlled by a party. " The blockheads who have 
 had the desperate temerity to propagate this falsehood/ 
 declared the editor, " have yet to learn our character. 
 We should like to see the man, or body of men, the 
 single sect or particular party, that would dare to chalk 
 out our limits, or dictate our words, or hold us account 
 able for the soundness of our faith, or the spirit of our 
 doctrines. The bare insinuation of such an attempt, 
 where we are known, would be met with derision. We 
 conduct a hireling press ! we shall see." 
 
^ET. 23-24.] BENNINGTON. 105 
 
 Four weeks later, under the head of " Advice to Ad- CHAP. v. 
 visers," he made this further announcement : 1828^29. 
 
 " The Editor of the Journal will receive advice gratuitously Jour, of the 
 upon subjects relating to law, physic, and divinity upon the T "za8? 
 best mode of fattening swine, and raising good crops of pota 
 toes and turnips ; but he begs leave most respectfully to decline 
 any instruction as to the manner in which this paper should be 
 conducted. If he were to gratify the different tastes, and 
 adopt the different views of those few censors who presume to 
 think that they best understand the duties of an editor, it is 
 not probable that the public would be better satisfied with the 
 result; and it is certain that every scrutator must have his 
 separate sheet, embodying his separate notions. It is desirable 
 that the motto of this paper should receive more attention, as 
 it has not been hastily adopted, and will not be abandoned." 
 
 He could not repress, at the outset, an expression of 
 his regret that for the first six weeks the exigencies of 
 the Presidential campaign would reqiiire him to devote 
 so much space to politics, to the exclusion of other themes 
 that were becoming dear to his heart ; and it took the 
 form of an apology, as if his readers must also regret 
 the necessity : 
 
 " We have dipped rather deeply into politics, this week," he ibid., Oct. 3, 
 wrote, " and must continue to do so a few weeks longer. The 
 crisis which determines an event of greater magnitude and 
 solemnity than has agitated this country since the formation of 
 the Constitution, is rapidly approximating to a close , and it is 
 proper that the people should read, reflect and inquire, before 
 they give their FINAL GREAT DECISION. When the election is 
 over, our literary and moral departments will exhibit a fulness 
 and excellence commensurate to their importance." 
 
 His promise with reference to the political course of 
 the paper was faithfully kept, and the gentlemen who 
 had invited him to come and vindicate Bennington and 
 the State from the imputation of Jacksonism had no 
 reason to complain of the heartiness with which he 
 advocated the claims of Mr. Adams, or the vigor with 
 which he denounced General Jackson and his followers. 
 Jackson s high-handed and arbitrary acts in Louisiana 
 
106 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [^ET. 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. v. and Florida, his brutal murder of Indian prisoners in 
 1828^29. the latter Territory, his warlike tastes, his duelling pro 
 pensities, and especially his sinfulness as a slaveholder 
 and slave-trader, were all dwelt upon, and the demoral 
 ization sure to follow upon his accession to the Presi 
 dency and his introduction of the spoils system in our 
 politics was predicted. Warning was also given of his 
 certain hostility to any plan for the prohibition of 
 slavery in the District of Columbia, rendering unavail 
 ing for four or eight years any efforts in that direction, 
 and his defeat was urged, if only for that consideration. 
 Mr, Adams s reelection was always assumed and pre 
 dicted, and his able and successful administration warmly 
 eulogized ; but that the result was, after all, deemed 
 doubtful, is evident from a brief editorial paragraph, 
 entitled " Some Cause for Thankfulness/ 7 which appeared 
 a few days before the election : 
 
 Jour, of the " Whatever may be the result of the present tremendous 
 ^i^iSaS* conflict, we shall thank God on our bended knees that we have 
 been permitted to denounce, as unworthy of the suffrages of a 
 moral and religious people, a man whose hands are crimsoned 
 with innocent blood, whose lips are full of profanity, who 
 looks on blood and carnage with philosophic composure a 
 slaveholder, and, what is more iniquitous, a buyer and seller of 
 human flesh a military despot, who has broken the laws of 
 his country and one whose only recommendations are that 
 he has fought many duels filled many offices, and failed in 
 all achieved the battle of New Orleans, at the expense of 
 constitutional rights and that he possesses the fighting pro 
 pensities and courage of a tiger. We care not how numerous 
 may be his supporters : to be in the minority against him 
 would be better than to receive the commendations of a large 
 and deluded majority." 
 
 After the election returns had indicated the over 
 whelming success of the Democrats and the election of 
 Jackson, Mr. Garrison reviewed the result and its prob 
 able consequences, in three dignified articles, under the 
 ibut.jvov. title of " The Politician " ; the key to his treatment of the 
 j 2 5 8. matter being given in the extract from Junius prefixed 
 
MT. 23-24.] 
 
 BENNINGTON. 
 
 107 
 
 to them. " I believe there is no man, however indifferent 
 about the interests of this country, who will not readily 
 confess that the situation to which we are now reduced, 
 whether it has arisen from the violence of faction, or 
 from an aberration of government, justifies the most 
 melancholy apprehensions, and calls for the exertion of 
 whatever wisdom or vigor is left among us." Some lines 
 in blank verse, " To the American People," signed " A. 
 O. B.," expressed in more impassioned phrase the editor s 
 grief at the national disgrace. Beginning, 
 
 "Where is your wisdom fled or sense of shame 
 Or boasted virtue, strong in every siege ? 
 Doth valor teach the head or mend the heart ? 
 Is ignorance to legislate and rule, 
 And crime but lead the way to high renown f 
 
 he concluded with, 
 
 " My country ! oh my country ! I could weep, 
 In agony of soul, hot, bloody tears 
 To wipe away the blemish on your name, 
 Fix d foully by one FATAL PRECEDENT." 
 
 The slavery question engaged his attention from the 
 outset, and the flame kindled by Lundy now burned with 
 out cessation, and with ever-increasing intensity. In the 
 very first number of the Journal, Mr. Garrison proposed 
 the formation of anti-slavery societies in Vermont, and 
 spoke of the " importance of petitioning Congress this 
 session, in conjunction with our Southern brethren, for 
 the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia." A 
 few weeks later he recommended " the immediate forma 
 tion of an anti- slavery society in every considerable town 
 in the twelve free States, for the purpose (among other 
 things) of providing means for the transportation of such 
 liberated slaves and free colored people as are desirous 
 of emigrating to a more genial clime" ; arguing that "if 
 the Southern slaveholders will consent to part with their 
 property J without recompense, every other section of 
 the Union is bound, by the principles of equity and in 
 terest, to sacrifice some money for the removal of the 
 
 CHAP. v. 
 
 1828-29. 
 
 Jour, of the 
 
 Times, Dec. 
 
 19, 1828. 
 
 Ibid., Dec. 
 5, 1828. 
 
108 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. 
 
 . 23-24. 
 
 10^828* 
 
 CHAP. v. curse." The scales of Colonization had not yet fallen 
 1828^29. from his eyes, but he went no further in support of the 
 scheme than to make the above recommendation. His 
 practical work, to petition Congress for the abolition of 
 slavery in the nation s capital, was at once vigorously 
 undertaken. In his second number he referred to the 
 petition presented to Congress at its last session, signed 
 by more than a thousand residents of the District (in 
 cluding all the District Judges), praying for abolition 
 " at such time and in such manner as Congress might 
 deem expedient," and suggested that a meeting of the 
 citizens of Bennington should be immediately convened, 
 to consider the subject. Acknowledging the receipt of a 
 
 Jour, of the communication on slavery, he said : " It is time that a 
 voice of remonstrance went forth from the North, that 
 should peal in the ears of every slaveholder like a roar 
 of thunder. . . . For ourselves, we are resolved to 
 agitate this subject to the utmost; nothing but death 
 shall prevent us from denouncing a crime which has no 
 parallel in human depravity ; we shall take high ground. 
 The alarm must be perpetual." 
 
 Four weeks later (November 7), and four days before the 
 Presidential election, he succeeded in convening a meet 
 ing of citizens at the Academy, at which the following 
 petition, written by himself, was read and adopted, and 
 copies were ordered to be sent to the several towns in the 
 State for signature, and to the newspapers for insertion. 
 The Chairman of the meeting was Daniel Church, Esq., 
 and the Secretary, James Ballard, the Principal of the 
 Seminary, between whom and Mr. Garrison a warm 
 friendship had sprung up. 
 
 ibid., NOV. To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of 
 the United States of America, in Congress assembled: 
 
 The petition of the subscribers, inhabitants of the State of 
 Vermont, humbly suggests to your honorable bodies the pro 
 priety of adopting some measures for the abolition of slavery 
 in the District of Columbia. 
 
Mi. 23-24.] BENNINGTON. 109 
 
 Your petitioners deem it unnecessary to attempt to maintain, CHAP. v. 
 by elaborate arguments, that the existence of slavery is highly 
 detrimental to the happiness, peace and prosperity of that 
 nation in whose bosom and under whose auspices it is nour 
 ished ; and especially, that it is inconsistent with the spirit of 
 our government and laws. All this is readily admitted by 
 every patriot and Christian. But the time has come when the 
 sincerity of our professions should be evinced not by words 
 merely. 
 
 The toleration of slavery in the District of Columbia, it is 
 conceived, can be justified on no tenable grounds. On the 
 contrary, so long as it continues, just so long will it be a 
 reproach to our national character. This District is the prop 
 erty of the nation; its internal government, therefore, is a 
 matter that concerns every individual. We are ashamed, when 
 we know that the manacled slave is driven to market by the 
 doors of our Capitol, and sold like a beast in the very place 
 where are assembled the representatives of a free and Christian 
 people. 
 
 On this subject, it is conceived, there can be no collision of 
 sentiment. The proposed abolition will interfere with no State 
 rights. Beyond this District, Congress has no power to legis 
 late so far, at least, as slavery is concerned ; but it can, by 
 one act, efface this foul stain from our national reputation. It 
 is gratifying to believe, that a large majority of the inhabitants 
 residing in the District, and also of our more Southern brethren, 
 are earnest for the abolition. 
 
 Your petitioners ask of your honorable bodies to liberate the 
 slave as soon as his interest and welfare shall demand it. Your 
 own wisdom and humanity will best suggest the manner in 
 which his bonds may be safely broken. 
 
 Your petitioners deem it preposterous, that, while there is 
 one half of the States in which slavery does not exist, and while 
 a large majority of our white population are desirous of seeing 
 it extirpated, this evil is suffered to canker in the vitals of the 
 republic. We humbly pray your honorable bodies, therefore, 
 not to let the present session of Congress pass, without giving 
 this subject a serious and deliberate consideration. 
 
 And, as in duty bound, we will ever pray. 
 
 As all postmasters at that time enjoyed the frank 
 ing privilege, and mail-matter could be sent to or by 
 them free of postage, it involved no pecuniary burden 
 
110 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 . 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 1828-29. 
 
 Jour, of the 
 
 Times, Jan. 
 
 23, 1829. 
 
 Ibid., Feb. 
 6, 1829. 
 
 Ibid., Nov. 
 
 21, 1828. 
 
 beyond the cost of paper to supply every postmaster in 
 the State with a copy of this petition, with the request 
 that he would obtain as many signatures in his town as 
 convenient, or request the minister of the parish to do 
 so, and return the same to the Editor of the Journal of 
 the Times by or before the middle of December. That 
 Mr. Garrison did not wait for the Bennington citizens to 
 meet and endorse the petition before he sent it to the 
 postmasters seems probable from the date appended to 
 this request October 20, 1828, more than a fortnight 
 before the meeting at the Academy. The postmasters in 
 most of the towns responded nobly, and although some 
 of the larger places, like Burlington, Montpelier, and 
 Brattleboro, sent no returns, Mr. Garrison had the satis 
 faction of transmitting to the Representative of his dis 
 trict in Congress a petition bearing 2352 names as the 
 voice of Vermont in favor of freedom, probably the 
 most numerously -signed petition on the subject offered 
 during that session. It was promptly presented on the 
 day of its receipt (January 26, 1829), and referred to the 
 Committee on the District of Columbia. 
 
 While hopeful that Congress would give the subject 
 favorable consideration (and the passage by the Penn 
 sylvania House of Representatives, by a nearly unani 
 mous vote, of a resolution requesting their Senators 
 and Representatives in Congress to vote for abolition 
 indicated Northern sympathy with the measure), Mr. 
 Garrison foresaw the wrathful denunciations which the 
 proposition would receive from the Southern members. 
 
 " It requires no spirit of prophecy," he said, " to predict that 
 it will create great opposition. An attempt will be made to 
 frighten Northern dough-faces, as in the case of the Missouri 
 question. There will be an abundance of furious declamation, 
 menace and taunt. Are we therefore to approach the subject 
 timidly with half a heart as if we were treading on forbid 
 den ground ? No, indeed but earnestly, fearlessly, as be 
 comes men who are determined to clear their country and 
 themselves from the guilt of oppressing God s free and lawful 
 creatures." 
 
. 23-24.] 
 
 BENNINGTON. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The debate in Congress occurred on the 6th of Janu 
 ary, 1829, when the Hon. Charles Miner, of Pennsyl 
 vania, introduced in the House of Representatives a 
 preamble setting forth the iniquities and horrors of the 
 slave-trade as carried on in the District, and the power 
 and duty of Congress to legislate concerning it; and 
 proposed resolutions that the Committee on the District 
 be instructed to inquire into the subject, to provide such 
 amendments to existing laws as should seem to them 
 just, and furthermore to consider the expediency of pro 
 viding by law for the gradual abolition of slavery itself 
 therein. Mr. Miner supported his motion in an elo 
 quent speech, and both resolutions were subsequently 
 adopted by heavy majorities, that on the slave-trade 
 receiving two-thirds of the votes cast; and the other, 
 concerning gradual emancipation, 114 votes against 66 
 in opposition. The friends of emancipation derived 
 great encouragement from this, and felt mortified that 
 any Northern members should have voted against the 
 resolutions. Mr. Garrison was prompt to denounce and 
 pillory the three New England representatives who 
 were recreant to their duty, namely, Mr. Ripley of 
 Maine and Mr. Harvey of New Hampshire, who voted 
 against the consideration of the question, and Mr. Mal- 
 lary of Vermont, who alone among the New England 
 members opposed by his vote the resolution in favor of 
 gradual emancipation in the District. The caustic com 
 ments of the Bennington editor on their action so stung 
 Messrs. Ripley and Mallary that they addressed per 
 sonal letters to him in explanation and defence of it; 
 but he declined to accept their excuses as valid, and 
 branded Ripley and Harvey as Northern " dough-faces." 
 Other New England newspapers echoed his indignant 
 protest. 
 
 The report of the Committee to whom the resolutions 
 were referred was presented on the 29th of January, 
 and betrayed at once the determination of the South to 
 allow no interference whatsoever with slavery in the Dis- 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 1828-29. 
 
 James IV. 
 
 Ripley. 
 Jonathan 
 
 Harvey. 
 Rollin C. 
 Mallary. 
 
 Jour, of the 
 
 Times, Feb. 
 
 20, Mar. 6, 
 
 1829. 
 
 Ibid., Mar. 
 6, 1829. 
 
112 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 23-24. 
 
 CHAP v. trict. All agitation of the subject was deprecated as 
 1828-29. mischievous and tending to insubordination and rest 
 lessness on the part of the slaves, " who would otherwise 
 remain comparatively happy and contented"; emancipa 
 tion in the District would disturb the stability of affairs 
 not only in the adjoining slave States, but throughout 
 the South ; the inhabitants of the District ought not to be 
 deprived of the rights of property which had been theirs 
 under the laws of Virginia and Maryland. Moreover, 
 the traffic in slaves constantly going on in the District 
 was actually beneficial, in that the transportation of 
 slaves to the South was one way of gradually diminish 
 ing the evil complained of ; " and although violence 
 might sometimes be done to their feelings in the separa 
 tion of families, yet it should be some consolation to 
 those whose feelings were interested in their behalf, to 
 know that their condition was more frequently bettered, 
 and their minds [made] happier by the exchange " ! "It 
 jour, of the is precisely such a paper," declared Mr. Garrison in his 
 
 Times, Afar. . . i_. ITT 
 
 20, 1829. review ot it, " as one might naturally suppose would be 
 presented to a club of slaveholders assembled together 
 to quiet their consciences by arguing that the existence 
 of the evil would be less hazardous and demoralizing 
 than its removal " ; and he pronounced it " the most 
 refined cruelty, the worst apology for the most relentless 
 tyranny." It was a crushing blow to all further effort at 
 that session. One month later, Andrew Jackson and the 
 Democratic party came into power, and Congress passed 
 no further resolutions in favor of freedom in the District 
 until the secession of the South made it possible for a 
 Northern Congress to remove the blot of slavery from 
 the nation s capital. 
 
 Slave-hunting on Northern soil was so common an 
 
 occurrence in 1828 that the frequent recapture and return 
 
 to bondage of the poor fugitives excited scarcely any 
 
 ibid., Oct. notice, and even such tragedies as the attempted suicide, 
 
 3I i?2s . I2 a t Rochester, N. Y., of one who preferred death to 
 
 slavery, and the execution, in southern Pennsylvania, of 
 
. 23-24.] 
 
 BENNINGTON. 
 
 113 
 
 another for having killed the wretch who had captured 
 and was carrying him back to the South, were men 
 tioned in the briefest manner and without comment. 
 The North submitted without protest to the obligations 
 imposed upon it by the slave-catching clause of the Con 
 stitution and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. In alluding 
 to the anti-Masonic excitement then agitating the coun 
 try, in consequence of the disappearance of Morgan, Mr. 
 Garrison exclaimed : " All this fearful commotion has 
 arisen from the abduction of one man. More than two 
 millions of unhappy beings are groaning out their lives 
 in bondage, and scarcely a pulse quickens, or a heart 
 leaps, or a tongue pleads in their behalf. Tis a trifling 
 affair, which concerns nobody. Oh for the spirit that 
 now rages, to break every fetter of oppression ! " 
 
 There was not a dull or unattractive number of the 
 Journal of the Times, and a perusal of its file inclines one 
 to believe the assertion of Horace Greeley that it was 
 " about the ablest and most interesting newspaper ever 
 issued in Vermont." One column was always devoted to 
 the subject of Temperance, and in his second number 
 Mr. Garrison urged the claims to support of the Na 
 tional Philanthropist, which had now reverted to Mr. 
 Collier s hands, and was in danger of sinking. His in 
 terest in the local temperance society was also manifested. 
 The subject of war and the exertions of William Ladd 1 
 in behalf of peace were frequently alluded to in the 
 Journal, as they had been in the Philanthropist and Free 
 Press; Mr. Ladd having visited and spoken in New- 
 buryport while Mr. Garrison was editing the latter 
 paper, and found in him a ready listener. Much space 
 
 1 William Ladd, a native of Exeter, N. H. (1778), graduate of Harvard 
 College (1797), and for a number of years a sea-captain, devoted himself 
 during the last eighteen years of his life (1823-1841) to the advocacy of 
 the Peace cause, and was largely instrumental in establishing the Ame 
 rican Peace Society in 1828. See his Memoir by John Hemmenway, 
 Boston, 1872, and Mrs. Child s Letters from New York, 1st series, p. 212. 
 Mr. Garrison addressed a sonnet to this "great advocate " (Lib. 1: 39), but 
 more intimate acquaintance led to the judgment, "He is a good-natured 
 man, but somewhat superficial" (MS., spring of 1833, to Henry E. Benson). 
 
 VOL. I. 8 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 1828-29. 
 
 Jour, of the 
 
 Times, Feb. 
 
 6, 1829. 
 
 American 
 Conflict, 
 1:115- 
 
114 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKBISON. 
 
 23-24. 
 
 Jour, of the 
 
 Times, Oct. 
 
 31, 1828. 
 
 CHAP. v. was devoted also to the movement with which, as has 
 1828^29. been already stated, he heartily sympathized, against 
 Ante, p. 84. carrying the mails on the Sabbath. His orthodoxy be 
 trayed itself in this and in other ways, and an incidental 
 reference to the " novel, illogical, subtle, and inconclu 
 sive arguments " of a discourse of Rev. John Pierpont s, 
 to which he had listened some months before, elicited a 
 letter from that gentleman, who felt that injustice had 
 been done him. Mr. Garrison not only printed the letter, 
 but gave copious extracts from the discourse, with com 
 ments, at the same time declaring that he enthusiasti 
 cally admired everything in Mr. Pierpont but his theology. 
 " As a beautiful, finished, and elegant writer, I know not 
 his superior in the twenty-four States ; and his taste in 
 poetry and literature is before any other man s." Mr. 
 Pierpont having thanked him for his manliness in send 
 ing him a copy of the Journal containing the strictures 
 in question, the editor replied : " I have never said aught 
 in print against any individual without transmitting to 
 him a copy of my remarks and I never shall." 
 
 That he went regularly to church each Sunday is to be 
 inferred from this paragraph in the Journal: 
 
 " We have suffered for two or three Sabbaths excessively 
 from the cold and so have many others. Two stoves, and no 
 fire, led us to conclude that the Irishman s plan had been 
 adopted, who, on learning one stove saved half the wood, said 
 he would buy two and save the whole. Provision, we are glad 
 to learn, has been made for warming the meeting-house, and 
 people may now attend worship without suffering from the 
 cold." 
 
 Mr. Garrison s muse was active during these fall and 
 winter months, and no less than fifteen pieces of verse 
 by "A. O. B." sonnets, blank verse, etc. appeared 
 in the poetry column between October and March, be 
 sides a longer poem on his birthday (supposed to be 
 his twenty-fourth, but really his twenty-third), which 
 followed an editorial on the same theme. One of the 
 sonnets was inscribed to his spectacles, and celebrated 
 
 Ibid., Dec. 
 5, 1828. 
 
. 23-24.] 
 
 BENNINGTON. 
 
 115 
 
 1828-29. 
 
 Jour, of the 
 
 Times, Dec. 
 
 5, 1828. 
 
 their praise, and most of the other pieces were amatory, CHAP. v. 
 descriptive, sentimental, or patriotic. Mrs. Hemans con 
 tinued to be a never-failing source of poetic supply, but 
 only four poems by Whittier appeared, the poet being 
 now engaged in editing the American Manufacturer at 
 Boston, a paper which had been recently established by 
 Mr. Collier in the interest of manufactures and the 
 " American System." He had accepted the position by 
 the advice of Mr. Garrison, and though he received 
 scarcely any other compensation than his board at " Par 
 son Collier s," he did not regret the experience, as it 
 opened the way to other and more congenial editorial 
 engagements. " Our friend Whittier," wrote Mr. Gar 
 rison, in introducing a poem of his, " seems determined 
 to elicit our best panegyrics, and not ours only, but also 
 those of the public. His genius and situation no more 
 correspond with each other than heaven and earth. But 
 let him not despair. Fortune will come, ere long, with 
 both hands full. 7 " Another young editor who was no 
 ticed and commended in the Journal was George D. 
 Prentice, then conducting the New England Weekly Re 
 view at Hartford, in which he was, a year later, to be 
 succeeded by Whittier ; but while praising his vigor and 
 independence, Mr. Garrison also criticized the tendency 
 to coarseness which even then betrayed itself in his 
 writings. 
 
 The winter which he spent in Bennington was a very 
 happy one to Mr. Garrison. He was relieved, from the 
 outset, of all pecuniary responsibility and anxiety, the 
 gentlemen who had invited him there assuming the 
 financial risks of the enterprise, while they gave him 
 absolute discretion and independence in the editorial 
 management of the Journal. The literary merit of the 
 paper, and the fearless and aggressive tone of its leading 
 articles, attracted instant attention, and it was speedily 
 recognized by the editorial fraternity as one of the ablest 
 and best of the country newspapers. Beginning without 
 a subscriber, it counted six hundred on its list at the end 
 
116 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 [>ET. 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 1828-29. 
 
 of the first week, which indicated the dissatisfaction felt 
 towards the recreant Gazette. The latter paper sought 
 to ridicule the " Boston man " who had been imported to 
 start an opposition paper, and made the most of the 
 prejudice which some of the Vermont ers felt towards 
 the city upstart who had presumed to come and en 
 lighten them as to their duties, and who was thought to 
 be over-nice in matters of dress ; l but the editor of the 
 Journal rarely deigned to notice the attacks on his paper, 
 and never those on himself. He quickly won friends 
 whose admiration and love he never lost, and who 
 attached themselves to him with the loyal devotion 
 which characterized those who followed his leadership 
 in after years. Chief among these, as already men 
 tioned, was James Ballard, the Principal of the "Ben- 
 nington English and Classical Seminary for Young 
 Gentlemen and Ladies," an institution which was the 
 pride of the town, and which attracted pupils from a 
 considerable distance. He was " a man born to impress 
 Ellis s Life and inspire," and a most successful teacher, combining 
 firmness with gentleness, physical with moral courage, 
 enthusiasm and energy with a tender, affectionate, and 
 deeply religious nature. The two men were irresistibly 
 attracted to one another, and spent much time together, 
 discussing projects for the advancement of the race; 
 and when Mr. Ballard had a controversy with the Acad 
 emy Committee, which led to his retiring and setting up 
 a rival establishment, the Journal warmly sustained his 
 cause. 2 
 
 Mr. Garrison s home in Bennington was at the boarding- 
 house of Deacon Erwin Safford, which was patronized 
 
 1 " I remember Mr. Garrison at the time he was in Bennington. He was 
 then in the beauty and strength of early manhood. He dressed in a black 
 dress coat, black trousers, white vest, and walked as erect as an Indian " 
 ( James A. Briggs, in N. Y. Evening Post, August 5, 1879). 
 
 2 Mr. Ballard was one of the first subscribers to the lAberator, a Vice- 
 President of the Vermont Anti-Slavery Society, and one of the Secre 
 taries of the New England Anti-Slavery Convention held in Boston May 
 24, 1836. He subsequently became a Congregational minister, and died 
 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Jan. 7, 1881. 
 
 ofE. H. 
 
 Chapin, 
 
 pp. 26-30. 
 
. 23-24.] 
 
 BENNINGTON. 
 
 117 
 
 1828-29. 
 
 chiefly by pupils of the Seminary from abroad, and was CHAP. v. 
 near his office, on the stage road to Troy. The printing- 
 office of the Journal faced the village green, and its front 
 windows looked eastward, across the valley in which lies 
 the village of East Bennington, to the great wall of the 
 Green Mountains, while the rear windows commanded 
 a view of the beautiful Mount Anthony. Ever a pas 
 sionate lover of nature, Mr. Garrison s enthusiasm over 
 the scenery around Bennington could scarcely find ex 
 pression in words. His spirits were exuberant, and he 
 seemed each week to be more in love with his adopted 
 State, and to regard his removal to Vermont as a wise 
 and fortunate step. " For moral worth, virtue and dili 
 gence," he exclaimed, " we would not exchange it for any 
 State out of New England"; and he praised the Ver 
 mont people as possessed of " large, sound, roundabout 
 sense," and declared that "a more hardy, independent, 
 frank, generous race do not exist." To a correspondent 
 who had expressed fears about the climate, he declaimed 
 in a manner which would have done credit to a native : 
 
 Jour, of the 
 
 Times, Nov. 
 
 14, 1828. 
 
 ** Our Vermont climate against the world for a better ! . . . 
 0, there s nothing comparable to our clear blue sky, arching 
 the high and eternal ramparts of nature which tower up on 
 every side : talk as you may of the dreamy, unsubstantial 
 atmosphere of Italy, and the more vigorous one of Switzer 
 land. And, moreover, such stars ! so large, and gorgeous, and 
 soul-overpowering painting the heavens with such glorious and 
 never-fading colors ! We have been so long habituated to look 
 up through the congregated smokes of a city, and to see such 
 dirty and discolored clouds, with here and there a fainting star 
 just visible over the top of some tall spire or elongated chimney, 
 that here we inhabit another clime, and behold another crea 
 tion. The competition of a few moments with one of our moun 
 tain gales, as it comes sweeping down to the plain, rough and 
 kind as the heart of a Yankee, will put every drop of blood 
 in motion, and strengthen every limb." 
 
 And he apostrophized the Green Mountains in the 
 following sonnet : 
 
 Ibid., Nov. 
 28, 1828. 
 
118 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 23-24. 
 
 Jour, of the Stupendous monuments of God s right hand! 
 
 ^i^i sS* Lifting your summits upwards to the skies, 
 And holding converse with their mysteries, 
 There dress d in living garniture ye stand, 
 The pride and wonder of our native land. 
 My soul is welling to my very eyes 
 My every pulse leaps with a strange surprise, 
 As now your huge dimensions I command. 
 ! ye do shame the proudest works of Art, 
 Tower, temple, pyramid and chiselled pile ; 
 For these are but the pigmy feats of Toil, 
 The playthings of Decay But ye impart 
 Lessons of infinite wisdom to the heart, 
 And stand in nature s strength, which Time cannot despoil. 
 
 So inspiring was the free mountain air that all worthy 
 and noble objects seemed easy and possible of accom 
 plishment, and when, at the beginning of 1829, Mr. Gar 
 rison indulged in a retrospect of the past year, and 
 looked forward to the work of the new one, the election 
 of Jackson was the only shadow upon the picture, and 
 all else was bright and cheering to his vision. 
 
 Meanwhile, Benjamin Lundy at Baltimore was anx 
 iously watching the course of his young disciple, whose 
 heart he had seemed to touch, and whose soul he had 
 kindled, beyond that of any other man whom he had en 
 countered in all his pilgrimages, north, south, east, or 
 west. There is a pathetic picture of his past disappoint 
 ments and his present anxious hope in the greeting 
 which he gave the Journal of the Times in the Genius : 
 
 G. U. ., u The editor of this paper has shewn a laudable disposition 
 ec - *3- to advocate the claims of the poor distressed African upon our 
 sympathy and justice ; and if he continue to do so, his talents 
 will render him a most valuable coadjutor in this holy under 
 taking. Greatly, indeed, shall we rejoice, if even one, faithful, 
 like Abdiel, can be among the faithless found, who, after 
 having professed loudly, have generally abandoned their post, 
 and left the unfortunate negro to his fate. There are many 
 who are ready to acknowledge yes, they will acknowledge 
 (good honest souls!) with due frankness and alacrity that 
 something should be done for the abolition of slavery. They will, 
 
. 23-24.] 
 
 BENNINGTON. 
 
 119 
 
 also, pen a paragraph perhaps an article, or so and then 
 the subject is EXHAUSTED ! ! They cannot, for the lives of them, 
 discover how the condition of the colored race can be meliorated 
 by their exertions (neither can any one else, unless they make 
 themselves acquainted with the subject, and muster up virtue and 
 courage to act, as other reformers have done) and they retire from 
 the field of labor, many of them, ere one drop of sweat has earned 
 the trifling reward of a cent. We will not, however, pursue this 
 part of the subject, lest our friend Garrison may think that we 
 are about to insinuate a vote of censure against him, in antici 
 pation! In truth, we do hope that he will remain true to the 
 cause. Though he may not adopt the language which the im 
 mortal Cowper puts in the mouth of his perfect patriot, viz. : 
 
 In Freedom s field advancing his firm foot, 
 He plants it on the line that Justice draws, 
 And will prevail, or perish in her cause ; 
 
 still, we trust he will always be found on the side of humanity, 
 and actively engaged in the holy contest of virtue against vice 
 philanthropy against cruelty liberty against oppression. We 
 also hope and trust that, unlike many others, he will be enabled 
 to see that argument and useful exertion, on the subject of 
 African Emancipation, can never be exhausted until the system 
 of slavery itself be totally annihilated. As well might a luke 
 warm reformer have queried the Apostle Paul, in his days, 
 relative to the exhausting of his argument, as for a short-sighted 
 philanthropist to propound a similar question respecting the 
 abolition of slavery now." 
 
 " We make the foregoing extract," rejoined Mr. Garri 
 son, in copying it in the Journal, " for the purpose of 
 assuring the editor that our zeal in the cause of emanci 
 pation suffers no diminution. Before God and our coun 
 try, we give our pledge that the liberation of the enslaved 
 Africans shall always be uppermost in our pursuits. 
 The people of New England are interested in this matter, 
 and they must be aroused from their lethargy as by a 
 trumpet-call. They shall not quietly slumber while we 
 have the management of a press, or strength to hold a 
 pen." 
 
 Lundy was soon convinced by the frequency and 
 fervor of Mr. Garrison s articles on slavery, and by his 
 
 CHAP. v. 
 
 1828-29. 
 
 Table-Talk, 
 lines 16-18, 
 freely al 
 tered. 
 
 Jour, of the 
 
 Times, Jan 
 
 16, 1829. 
 
120 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. |>ET. 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. v. energy in circulating the petitions to Congress, that his 
 1828^29. baptism in the faith was complete, and he resolved to 
 invite him to come to Baltimore and assist him in the 
 publication of the Oenius. So, taking his staff in hand, 
 he walked all the way from Baltimore to Bennington, to 
 lay his plans before Mr. Garrison. 1 He proposed that 
 the Oenius should be enlarged and changed from a 
 monthly to a weekly paper, and that the younger part 
 ner should be the resident editor, and conduct the paper 
 while he (Lundy) travelled through the country to obtain 
 subscribers for it. The appeal was successful, and Gar 
 rison, accepting the call with all the solemnity with 
 which Lundy urged it upon him, agreed to leave Ben 
 nington at the expiration of his engagement and prepare 
 himself for the new enterprise. 
 
 Among his last editorials in the Journal were two 
 vigorous articles in review of the correspondence which 
 
 Morses Life had just taken place between President Adams and cer- 
 Adams, tain prominent Federalists of Boston, relative to the 
 
 //. 217-220. imputed disposition of their party leaders to favor the 
 separation of New England from the rest of the Union 
 during the years 1808-1814; the correspondence being 
 copied in full in the Journal. The articles are note 
 worthy only as showing that his interest in the old feuds 
 of the Federal party had by no means died out, for he 
 now warmly sustained the cause of the Boston gentlemen 
 against the more or less well-founded accusations of the 
 retiring President. 
 
 The number for March 27, 1829, completed the sixth 
 month of the Journal, and the editor s " Valediction " 
 appeared in it without previous note or intimation of any 
 kind as to his intended retirement. We give it in full : 
 
 1 The precise date* of Lundy s visit to Bennington cannot be deter 
 mined, nor is it of consequence ; but that given in Lundy s Life (Novem 
 ber, 1828) is clearly wrong, and the volume is generally untrustworthy as to 
 dates. So far as can be judged from Lundy s letters in the Journal of the 
 Times, and from other evidence, the visit was probably made early in 1829. 
 The publication of the Genius was suspended, with the issue of January 3, 
 1829, for eight months. 
 
2ET. 23-24.] BENNINGTON. 121 
 
 " Hereafter the editorial charge of this paper will devolve on CHAP. V. 
 another -person. I am invited to occupy a broader field, and 
 to engage in a higher enterprise : that field embraces the whole 
 country that enterprise is in behalf of the slave population. 
 
 " To my apprehension, the subject of slavery involves inter 
 ests of greater moment to our welfare as a republic, and 
 demands a more prudent and minute investigation, than any 
 other which has come before the American people since the 
 Revolutionary struggle than all others which now occupy 
 their attention. No body of men, on the face of the earth, 
 deserve their charities, and prayers, and united assistance, so 
 much as the slaves of this country ; and yet they are almost 
 entirely neglected. It is true, many a cheek burns with shame 
 in view of our national inconsistency, and many a heart bleeds 
 for the miserable African ; it is true, examples of disinterested 
 benevolence and individual sacrifices are numerous, particu 
 larly in the Southern States ; but no systematic, vigorous and 
 successful measures have been made to overthrow this fabric of 
 oppression. I trust in God that I may be the humble instru 
 ment of breaking at least one chain, and restoring one captive 
 to liberty : it will amply repay a life of severe toil. 
 
 " It has been my aim to make the Journal of the Times 
 actively philanthropic and uniformly virtuous; neither to 
 lessen its dignity by vain trifling and coarse witticism, nor to 
 impair its interest by a needless austerity of tone and blind 
 inaptitude of matter ; but rather to judiciously blend innocent 
 amusement with excellent instruction. I have endeavored to 
 maintain a motto which is superior to the prevailing errors 
 and mischievous maxims of the age. REASON HAS PREVAILED 
 WITH ME MORE THAN POPULAR OPINION. In portraying the 
 criminality and disastrous tendency of War in exposing the 
 complicated evils of Intemperance, and advocating the prin 
 ciple of entire abstinence in denying the justice and lawful 
 ness of Slavery in defending the Sabbath from a violation by 
 law the weight of public sentiment has been against me. 
 This nation is not eminently pacific in its principles the 
 recent triumph of the sword over the pen gives clear demon- Gen. Jack- 
 stration of this fact. It is not sober in its habits and proofs 
 are multiplied all over the land, in every city, town and village, 
 in every accidental gathering of large bodies of men together, 
 and in almost every family. It is not willing to abandon its 
 traffic in human flesh or the foul blemish upon its reputation 
 would no longer remain, an immense shadow covering the 
 
122 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. |>T. 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. V. sunlight of our fame. It is not virtuous in its practices or 
 1828-2 ^ Qe Sabbath would be respected by its officers and represen 
 tatives. 
 
 " I look upon the station of an editor as a proud and respon 
 sible one. It should never be filled by a political adventurer 
 or a loose moralist. It is not beneath the dignity of the high 
 est and most gifted man among us. For many years, indeed, 
 its reputation has been sullied by the conduct, character, and 
 principles of many who have aspired to fill it ; but a new race 
 of editors, with better qualifications and nobler views, are 
 entering the ranks. The rapid growth of public intelligence 
 demands a corresponding improvement of the press. An idle 
 or lethargic conductor of a newspaper is a dead weight upon 
 community. Men of industry are wanted, who will sustain 
 every moral enterprise, and diffuse a healthful influence far 
 and wide, and fearlessly maintain the truth. 
 
 " The first number of this paper was issued without a sub 
 scriber or the previous circulation of any prospectus. It has 
 now completed six months of its existence. Its patronage is 
 very respectable, and accessions to the subscription list are 
 made weekly. Whatever may have been its faults or merits, 
 no pains will hereafter be spared to make it worthy of a wide 
 circulation. I recommend its industrious and enterprising pro 
 prietor to the substantial encouragement of a generous people. 1 
 
 " My task is done. In all my efforts, I have sought the 
 approbation of the wise and good. Whether it has been won 
 or lost, my conscience is satisfied. 
 
 LLOYD GARRISON." 
 
 The last act of the retiring editor was to commend to 
 his readers the speech made by Henry Clay at a dinner 
 given him in Washington on the termination of his 
 service as Secretary of State, in which he had reflected 
 severely on the incoming President. " Henry Clay/ 7 he 
 declared, " at this moment stands on a higher eminence 
 than he ever before occupied. His attitude is sublime 
 his front undaunted his spirit unsubdued. It is im 
 possible to read his noble speech without mingled emo 
 tions of pride, indignation, reverence, and delight." And 
 he thereupon proceeded to nominate him as a candidate 
 
 l The Journal of tine Times survived Mr. Garrison s departure only three 
 months, No. 38 being the last one issued. 
 
JET. 23-24.] BENNINGTON. 123 
 
 for the next Presidential term, saying, " We believe CHAP. v. 
 nothing but death can prevent his election." 1828^29. 
 
 The Gazette was of course exultant over the departure 
 of the rival editor, and the labors of " My Lloyd Garri 
 son " were reviewed in a satirical communication signed 
 " A Yankee." l " Lest unworthy motives should be at 
 tributed to us," said the writer, " we think proper to de 
 clare beforehand our high admiration of his talents, and 
 entire confidence in his integrity and patriotism." And 
 then followed this bit of description : 
 
 " My Lloyd is a young man, and an immigrant from the Vt. Gazette, 
 1 Bay State. A pair of silver-mounted spectacles ride elegantly Sa^* 
 across his nose, and his figure and appearance are not unlike 
 that of a dandy. He is, withal, a great egotist, and, when talk 
 ing of himself, displays the pert loquacity of a blue-jay. . . . 
 In regard to the affairs of the world, My Lloyd labors under a 
 strange delusion, insomuch that he has taken upon himself to 
 abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, reform the judi 
 ciary and militia of the State, and last, though not least, to im 
 part the graces of a Boston dandy to the unpolished natives of 
 our happy State." 
 
 These parting gibes elicited no more attention from 
 their subject than had others which appeared earlier, 
 accusing him of coming to breed strife in Bennington, 
 and styling him "Lloyd Garrulous"; and as soon as he 
 could close up his affairs he started for Boston. 2 
 
 Arrived there (in April, 1829), he again went to Mr. 
 Collier s boarding-house to remain awhile, Lundy having 
 meanwhile gone to Hayti with twelve emancipated slaves 
 from Maryland, who had been entrusted to him for trans 
 portation to and settlement in that country. 
 
 1 It was written by John S. Robinson, who became Governor of Vermont 
 in 1853, the only Democratic Governor the State ever had. 
 
 2 The route in those days was by stage to Brattleboro , thence down the 
 Connecticut valley to Greenfield, and thence by way of Worcester to 
 Boston; and the journey on this occasion was an unusually severe and 
 difficult one, owing to the deep drifts which still remained from a tremen 
 dous snow-storm that had covered all New England and the Middle States 
 several feet deep the previous month. The stage ride to Brattleboro occu 
 pied the first day, and the horses broke through the snow and fell so many 
 times that they became terrified and exhausted. 
 
124 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 2S-24. 
 
 CHAP. v. The Philanthropist was now edited, and ably edited, by 
 1828^29. William Goodell (who had removed from Providence to 
 Boston in order to merge his Investigator with it), and was 
 printed by James Brown Yerrinton. 1 Mr. Goodell had 
 become thoroughly aroused on the slavery question, and 
 he and Mr. Garrison took many a walk together on 
 Boston Common, discussing anti-slavery projects. They 
 also called upon a number of prominent ministers to 
 secure their cooperation in the cause, and were sanguine 
 in their expectations of important assistance from them. 2 
 In June, Mr. Garrison accepted an invitation from the 
 Congregational societies of the city to deliver a Fourth 
 of July address at Park- Street Church, in the interests of 
 the Colonization Society, and announced as his theme, 
 " Dangers to the Nation. 7 Ten days before the Fourth a 
 malicious attempt to annoy and embarrass him was made, 
 which he described in the following letter to a friend in 
 Newburyport : 
 
 W. L. Garrison to Jacob fforton. 3 
 
 BOSTON, Saturday, June 27, 1829. 
 
 MS., now 
 
 (1885) infos- MY DEAR JACOB: I am very reluctantly obliged to solicit a 
 Tho S sMa f ck t favor of y u > which, if granted, shall be cancelled in a few 
 Boston. weeks. 
 
 On Wednesday, the clerk of a militia company, (a poor, 
 worthless scamp,) presented a bill of $4, for failure of appear 
 ance on May muster, and at the choice of officers. The fact 
 is, I had been in the city but a fortnight, from my Vermont 
 residence, when the notification came ; and, as I expected to 
 leave in a very short time, I neglected to get a certificate of my 
 incapacity to train on account of short-sightedness. Moreover, 
 
 1 Afterwards (1841-1865) the printer of the Liberate. 
 
 2 See Fourth Annual Report Mass. A. S. Society, 1836, p. 57, and GoodelPs 
 Slavery and Anti-Slavery, p. 401. The Philanthropist and Investigator 
 was temporarily suspended at the end of August, 1829, for want of funds. 
 Two months later its publication was resumed, the Genius of Temperance 
 having been united with it, and in July of the following year it was re 
 moved to New York ; but after a time Mr. Goodell was compelled to relin 
 quish the publication, owing to inadequate support. 
 
 3 Mr. Horton had married Mr. Garrison s old friend and playmate, Har 
 riet Farnham. 
 
MT. 23-24.J BENNINGTON. 125 
 
 though I have been repeatedly warned since I first came to the CHAP. v. 
 city in 1826, yet never, until now, have I been called upon to 
 pay a fine, or to give any reasons for my non-appearance j and 
 I therefore concluded that I should again be let alone. 
 
 I told the fellow the circumstances of the case that I had 
 never trained that my sight had always excused me and 
 that, in fine, I should not pay his bill. He wished me a " good 
 morning," and in the course of the day sent a writ by the hands 
 of a constable, charging me to appear at the Police Court 
 on the 4th of July, and shew cause why I refused to pay the 
 fine ! Of course, there is no alternative but to " shell out," or 
 to fee a lawyer to get me clear, which would be no saving in 
 expense. 
 
 The writ and fine will be $5 or $6. I have not a farthing by 
 me, and I shall need a trifle for the 4th. Can you make it 
 convenient to loan me $8, for two or three weeks ? I am 
 pained to make this request, but my present dilemma is 
 unpleasant. 1 
 
 My address, for the Fourth, is almost completed ; and, on the 
 whole, I am tolerably well satisfied with the composition. The 
 delivery will occupy me, probably, a little over an hour too 
 long, to be sure, for the patience of the audience, but not for 
 the subject. I cannot condense it. Its complexion is sombre, 
 and its animadversions severe. I think it will offend some, 
 though not reasonably. The assembly bids fair to be over 
 whelming. My very knees knock together at the thought of 
 speaking before so large a concourse. What, then, will be my 
 feelings in the pulpit 1 
 
 The public expectation, I find, is great. I am certain it 
 will be disappointed ; but I shall do my best. You shall know 
 the result. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Pierpont honored me with a visit a few days since. 
 He is an accomplished man, and his friendship worth cultivat 
 ing. He has promised to give [me] an original ode for that 
 day ; and says he shall take a seat in some corner of Park- 
 
 IMr. Garrison also gave an account of this experience in the Genius of 
 Universal Emancipation of Sept. 16, 1829 (p. 14), with the following declara 
 tion of principles : "I am not professedly a Quaker ; but I heartily, entirely 
 and practically embrace the doctrine of non-resistance, and am conscien 
 tiously opposed to all military exhibitions. I now solemnly declare that I 
 will never obey any order to bear arms, but rather cheerfully suffer im 
 prisonment and persecution. What is the design of militia musters ? To 
 make men skilful murderers. I cannot consent to become a pupil in this 
 sanguinary school." 
 
126 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 1828-29. 
 
 No. 798 in 
 Adams and 
 
 Chapiris 
 Hymns for 
 
 Christian 
 Devotion, 
 
 street Church to hear the address a thing that he has not done 
 for many years. 
 
 I expect to get a journeyman s berth immediately after the 
 4th ; but, if I do not, I shall take the stage for Newburyport, 
 and dig on at the case for Mr. Allen. I am somewhat in a 
 hobble, in a pecuniary point of view, and must work like a 
 tiger. My fingers have not lost their nimbleness, and my pride 
 I have sent on a pilgrimage to Mecca. 
 
 By answering this on Tuesday, by the driver, you will confer 
 another obligation on 
 
 Yours, with much affection, 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 EF" Direct to me at No. 30, Federal-st., Boston. 
 
 It is to be presumed that the desired loan was promptly 
 made, for at four o clock on the afternoon of July 4, Mr. 
 Garrison rose to address an audience which filled Park- 
 Street Church and included Whittier, Goodell, and John 
 Pierpont, whose spirited hymn ("With thy pure dews 
 and rains") was ready for the occasion. It was sung now 
 under the direction of Lowell Mason ; and was heard 
 afterwards at many an anti-slavery meeting during the 
 thirty years conflict, besides being included in some 
 church hymnals, in which the following stinging verses 
 must have made it especially serviceable and effective : 
 
 " Hearest thou, God, those chains, 
 Clanking on Freedom s plains, 
 
 By Christians wrought! 
 Them who those chains have worn, 
 Christians from home have torn, 
 Christians have hither borne, 
 Christians have bought ! 
 
 " Cast down, great God, the fanes 
 That, to unhallowed gains, 
 
 Round us have risen 
 Temples whose priesthood pore 
 Moses and Jesus o er, 
 Then bolt the black man s door, 
 
 The poor man s prison ! " 
 
. 23-24.] 
 
 BENNINGTON. 
 
 127 
 
 182829. 
 
 Nat. Phi- 
 
 ^Selections 
 from the 
 
 w^L^G 
 PP 
 
 Mr. Garrison s Address, which must have occupied CHAP. v. 
 considerably more than an hour in delivery, was sub- 
 sequently printed in the National Philanthropist and 
 Investigator of July 22 and 29, and has thus been pre 
 served to show the fulness and maturity of the orator s 
 powers in this, his twenty-fourth year, and his thorough 
 moral and intellectual equipment for the warfare upon 
 which he now deliberately entered. Its importance in 
 this view must justify the considerable extracts from it 
 which are here given, beginning with his opening sen 
 tences : 
 
 " It is natural that the return of a day which established the 
 liberties of a brave people should be hailed by them with more 
 than ordinary joy j and it is their duty as Christians and pa- gator, July 
 triots to celebrate it with signal tokens of thanksgiving. 
 
 " Fifty-three years ago, the Fourth of July was a proud day 
 for our country. It clearly and accurately denned the rights of 
 man ; it made no vulgar alterations in the established usages of 
 society ; it presented a revelation adapted to the common sense 
 of mankind ; it vindicated the omnipotence of public opinion 
 over the machinery of kingly government ; it shook, as with 
 the voice of a great earthquake, thrones which were seemingly 
 propped up with Atlantean pillars ; it gave an impulse to the 
 heart of the world, which yet thrills to its extremities." 
 
 The orator then proceeded to speak of the degeneracy 
 of the national jubilee, from an occasion distinguished 
 for rationality of feeling and purity of purpose to a day 
 marked by reckless and profligate behavior, vain boast 
 ing, and the foolish assumption that no dangers could 
 ever assail or threaten the republic. To him the preva 
 lence of infidelity , the compulsory desecration of the 
 " holy Sabbath," the ravages of intemperance, the profli 
 gacy of the press, the corruptness of party politics, were 
 all sources of danger and causes for alarm ; and he 
 briefly considered them before he took up slavery, the 
 main theme of his discourse. His words relating to 
 political corruption are neither trite nor inapt now : 
 
 " 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. 
 
128 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. V. We boast of our freedom, who go shackled to the polls, year 
 1828^2 after year, by tens, and hundreds, and thousands ! We talk of 
 free agency, who are the veriest machines the merest autom 
 ata in the hands of unprincipled jugglers! We prate of 
 integrity, and 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 some 
 times shamefully abuse their high trust ? Then I am an aristo 
 crat. It is not the appreciation, but the abuse of liberty, to 
 withdraw altogether from the polls, or to visit them merely as 
 a matter of form, without carefully investigating the merits of 
 candidates. The republic does not bear a charmed life : our 
 prescriptions administered through the medium of the ballot- 
 box the mouth of the political body may kill or cure, 
 according to the nature of the disease and our wisdom in 
 applying the remedy. It is possible that a people may bear 
 the title of freemen who execute the work of slaves. To the 
 dullest observers of the signs of the times, it must be apparent 
 that we are rapidly approximating to this condition. . . . 
 
 " But there is another evil, which, if we had to contend 
 against nothing else, should make us quake for the issue. It is 
 a gangrene preying upon our vitals an earthquake rumbling 
 under our feet a mine accumulating materials for a national 
 catastrophe. It should make this a day of fasting and prayer, 
 not of boisterous merriment and idle pageantry a day of 
 great lamentation, not of congratulatory joy. It should spike 
 every cannon, and haul down every banner. Our garb should 
 be sackcloth our heads bo wed in the dust our supplications, 
 for the pardon and assistance of Heaven. 
 
 " Last week this city was made breathless by a trial of con 
 siderable magnitude. The court chamber was inundated for 
 hours, day after day, with a dense and living tide which swept 
 along like the rush of a mountain torrent. Tiers of human 
 bodies were piled up to the walls, with almost miraculous con 
 densation and ingenuity. It seemed as if men abhorred a 
 vacuum equally with Nature : they would suspend themselves, 
 as it were, by a nail, and stand upon air with the aid of a peg. 
 Although it was a barren, ineloquent subject, and the crowd 
 immense, there was no perceptible want of interest no evi 
 dence of impatience. The cause was important, involving the 
 reputation of a distinguished citizen. There was a struggle for 
 
^ET. 23-24.] BENNINGTON. 129 
 
 mastery between two giants a test of strength in tossing CHAP. V. 
 mountains of law. The excitement was natural. 1 1828^29 
 
 " I stand up here in a more solemn court, to assist in a far 
 greater cause 5 not to impeach the character of one man, but of 
 a whole people ; not to recover the sum of a hundred thousand 
 dollars, but to obtain the liberation of two millions of wretched, 
 degraded beings, who are pining in hopeless bondage over 
 whose sufferings scarcely an eye weeps, or a heart melts, or a 
 tongue pleads either to God or man. I regret that a better ad 
 vocate had not been found, to enchain your attention and to 
 warm your blood. Whatever fallacy, however, may appear in 
 the argument, there is no flaw in the indictment; what the 
 speaker lacks, the cause will supply. 
 
 " Sirs, I am not come to tell you that slavery is a curse, de 
 basing in its effect, cruel in its operation, fatal in its continu 
 ance. The day and the occasion require no such revelation. I 
 do not claim the discovery as my own, that * all men are born 
 equal, and that among their inalienable rights are life, liberty, 
 and the pursuit of happiness. Were I addressing any other 
 than a free and Christian assembly, the enforcement of this 
 truth might be pertinent. Neither do I intend to analyze the 
 horrors of slavery for your inspection, nor to freeze your blood 
 with authentic recitals of savage cruelty. Nor will time allow 
 me to explore even a furlong of that immense wilderness of 
 suffering which remains unsubdued in oar land. I take it for 
 granted that the existence of these evils is acknowledged, if not 
 rightly understood. My object is to define and enforce our duty, 
 as Christians and Philanthropists. 
 
 " On a subject so exhaustless, it will be impossible, in the 
 moiety of an address, to unfold all the facts which are necessary 
 to its full development. In view of it, my heart swells up like 
 a living fountain, which time cannot exhaust, for it is perpetual. 
 Let this be considered as the preface of a noble work, which 
 your inventive sympathies must elaborate and complete. 
 
 " I assume as distinct and defensible propositions, 
 
 " I. That the slaves of this country, whether we consider 
 their moral,* intellectual or social condition, are preeminently 
 entitled to the prayers, and sympathies, and charities, of the 
 
 l The case was that of Farnum, Executor of Tuttle Hubbard, vs. Brooks, 
 and was heard in the Mass. Supreme Court. The " two giants" in opposi 
 tion were William Wirt, ex-Attorney-General of the United States, and 
 Daniel Webster. Wirt s eloquence made a great impression. (Boston 
 Traveller, June 23, 30, 1829 ; Columbian Centinel, June 27. ) 
 
 VOL. I. 9 
 
130 ; WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. V. American people j and their claims for redress are as strong as 
 1828^2 those of any Americans could be in a similar condition. 
 
 " II. That, as the free States by which I mean non-slave- 
 holding States are constitutionally involved in the guilt of 
 slavery, by adhering to a national compact that sanctions it , 
 and hi the danger, by liability to be called upon for aid in case 
 of insurrection ; they have the right to remonstrate against its 
 continuance, and it is their duty to assist in its overthrow. 
 
 " III. That no justificative plea for the perpetuity of slavery 
 can be found in the condition of its victims ; and no barrier 
 against our righteous interference, in the laws which authorize 
 the buying, selling and possessing of slaves, nor in the hazard 
 of a collision with slaveholders. 
 
 "IV. That education and freedom will elevate our colored 
 population to a rank with the white making them useful, 
 intelligent and peaceable citizens. 
 
 " In the first place, it will be readily admitted, that it is the 
 duty of every nation primarily to administer relief to its own 
 necessities, to cure its own maladies, to instruct its own chil 
 dren, and to watch over its own interests. He is worse than 
 an infidel who neglects his own household, and squanders his 
 earnings upon strangers ; and the policy of that nation is un 
 wise which seeks to proselyte other portions of the globe at the 
 expense of its safety and happiness. Let me not be misunder 
 stood. My benevolence is neither contracted nor selfish. I 
 pity that man whose heart is not larger than a whole continent. 
 I despise the littleness of that patriotism which blusters only 
 for its own rights, and, stretched to its utmost dimensions, 
 scarcely covers its native territory ; which adopts as its creed 
 the right to act independently, even to the verge of licentious 
 ness, without restraint, and to tyrannize wherever it can with 
 impunity. This sort of patriotism is common. I suspect the 
 reality, and deny the productiveness, of that piety which con 
 fines its operations to a particular spot if that spot be less 
 than the whole earth ; nor scoops out, in every direction, new 
 channels for the waters of life. Christian charity, while it 
 1 begins at home, goes abroad in search of misery. It is as 
 copious as the sun in heaven. It does not, like the Nile, make 
 a partial inundation, and then withdraw; but it perpetually 
 overflows, and fertilizes every barren spot. It is restricted only 
 by the exact number of God s suffering creatures. But I mean 
 to say, that, while we are aiding and instructing foreigners, we 
 ought not to forget our own degraded countrymen ; that neither 
 
^Sx. 23-24. J BENNINGTON. 131 
 
 duty nor honesty requires us to defraud ourselves that we may CHAP. V. 
 enrich others. 1828^29. 
 
 " The condition of the slaves, in a religious point of view, is 
 deplorable, entitling them to a higher consideration, on our 
 part, than any other race j higher than the Turks or Chinese, 
 for they have the privileges of instruction ; higher than the 
 Pagans, for they are not dwellers in a gospel land ; higher than 
 our red men of the forest, for we do not bind them with gyves, 
 nor treat them as chattels. 
 
 " And here let me ask, What has Christianity done, by direct 
 effort, for our slave population ? Comparatively nothing. She 
 has^xplored the isles of the ocean for objects of commiseration; 
 but, amazing stupidity! she can gaze without emotion on a 
 multitude of miserable beings at home, large enough to consti 
 tute a nation of freemen, whom tyranny has heathenized by 
 law. In her public services they are seldom remembered, and 
 in her private donations they are forgotten. From one end of 
 the country to the other, her charitable societies form golden 
 links of benevolence, and scatter their contributions like rain 
 drops over a parched heath j but they bring no sustenance to 
 the perishing slave. The blood of souls is upon her garments, 
 yet she heeds not the stain. The clankings of the prisoner s 
 chains strike upon her ear, but they cannot penetrate her heart. 
 
 " I have said that the claims of the slaves for redress are as 
 strong as those of any Americans could be, in a similar condi 
 tion. Does any man deny the position ? The proof, then, is 
 found in the fact, that a very large proportion of our colored 
 population were born 011 our soil, and are therefore entitled to 
 all the privileges of American citizens. This is their country 
 by birth, not by adoption. Their children possess the same in 
 herent and unalienable rights as ours, and it is a crime of the 
 blackest dye to load them with fetters. 
 
 " Every Fourth of July, our Declaration of Independence is 
 produced, with a sublime indignation, to set forth the tyranny 
 of the mother country, and to challenge the admiration of the 
 world. But what a pitiful detail of grievances does this docu 
 ment present, in comparison with the wrongs which our slaves 
 endure ! In the one case, it is hardly the plucking of a hair 
 from the head ; in the other, it is the crushing of a live body on 
 the wheel the stings of the wasp contrasted with the tortures 
 of the Inquisition. Before God, I must say, that such a glaring 
 contradiction as exists between our creed and practice the 
 annals of six thousand years cannot parallel. In view of it, I 
 
132 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 1828-29. 
 
 Nat.Philan. 
 
 andlnvesti- 
 
 gator, July 
 
 29, 1829." 
 
 am ashamed of my country. I am sick of our unmeaning decla 
 mation in praise of liberty and equality ; of our hypocritical cant 
 about the unalienable rights of man. I could not, for my right 
 hand, stand up before 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 des 
 potism would blister my lips, and cover my cheeks with burning 
 blushes of shame. 
 
 " Will this be termed a rhetorical nourish ? Will any man 
 coldly accuse me of intemperate zeal 1 I will borrow, then, a 
 ray of humanity from one of the brightest stars in our Ame 
 rican galaxy, whose light will gather new effulgence to the end 
 of time. This, sirs, is a cause that would be dishonored and 
 betrayed if I contented myself with appealing only to the un 
 derstanding. It is too cold, and its processes are too slow for 
 the occasion. I desire to thank God that, since he has given me 
 an intellect so fallible, he has impressed upon me an instinct 
 that is sure. On a question of shame and honor liberty and 
 oppression reasoning is sometimes useless, and worse. I feel 
 the decision in my pulse : if it throws no light upon the brain, 
 it kindles a fire at the heart. . . . 
 
 " I come to my second proposition : the right of the free 
 States to remonstrate against the continuance, and to assist in 
 the overthrow of slavery. 
 
 " This, I am aware, is a delicate subject, surrounded with 
 many formidable difficulties. But if delay only adds to its in 
 tricacy, wherefore shun an immediate investigation 1 I know 
 that we, of the North, affectedly believe that we have no local 
 interest in the removal of this great evil ; that the slave States 
 can take care of themselves, and that any proffered assistance, 
 on our part, would be rejected as impertinent, dictatorial or 
 meddlesome ; and that we have no right to lift up even a note 
 of remonstrance. But I believe that these opinions are crude, 
 preposterous, dishonorable, unjust. Sirs, this is a business in 
 which, as members of one great family, we have a common in 
 terest j but we take no responsibility, either individually or 
 collectively. Our hearts are cold our blood stagnates in our 
 veins. We act, in relation to the slaves, as if they were some 
 thing lower than the brutes that perish. 
 
 " On this question, I ask no support from the injunction of 
 Holy Writ, which says : * therefore all things whatsoever ye 
 would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them : for 
 this is the law and the prophets. I throw aside the common 
 
^T. 23-24.] BENNINGTON. 133 
 
 dictates of humanity. I assert the right of the free States to CHAP. v. 
 demand a gradual abolition of slavery, because, by its continu- 
 ance, they participate in the guilt thereof, and are threatened 
 with ultimate destruction ; because they are bound to watch 
 over the interests of the whole country, without reference to 
 territorial divisions; because their white population is nearly 
 double that of the slave States, and the voice of this overwhelm 
 ing majority should be potential j because they are now deprived 
 of their just influence in the councils of the nation ; because it 
 is absurd and anti-republican to suffer property to be repre 
 sented as men, and vice versa. 1 Because it gives the South an 
 unjust ascendancy over other portions of territory, and a power 
 which may be perverted on every occasion. . . . 
 
 " Now I say that, on the broad system of equal rights, this 
 monstrous inequality should no longer be tolerated. If it 
 cannot be speedily put down not by force, but by fair per 
 suasion ; if we are always to remain shackled by unjust Con 
 stitutional provisions, when the emergency that imposed them 
 has long since passed away; if we must share in the guilt and 
 danger of destroying the bodies and souls of men, as the price of 
 our Union ; if the slave States will haughtily spurn our assist 
 ance, and refuse to consult the general welfare ; then the fault 
 is not ours if a separation eventually take place. 
 
 " It may be objected, that the laws of the slave States form 
 insurmountable barriers to any interference on our part. 
 
 " Answer. I grant that we have not the right, and I trust 
 not the disposition, to use coercive measures. But do these 
 laws hinder our prayers, or obstruct the flow of our sympathies ? 
 Cannot our charities alleviate the condition of the slave, and 
 perhaps break his fetters ? Can we hot operate upon public 
 sentiment, (the lever that can move the moral world,) by way 
 of remonstrance, advice, or entreaty ? Is Christianity so pow 
 erful that she can tame the red men of our forests, and abolish 
 the Burman caste, and overthrow the gods of Paganism, and 
 liberate lands over which the darkness of Superstition has lain 
 for ages j and yet so weak, in her own dwelling-place, that she 
 can make no impression upon her civil code ? Can she contend 
 successfully with cannibals, and yet be conquered by her own 
 children ? 
 
 " Suppose that, by a miracle, the slaves should suddenly 
 become white. Would you shut your eyes upon their suffer 
 ings, and calmly talk of Constitutional limitations "? No j your 
 
 1 By the three-fifths representation clause of the Federal Constitution, 
 Art. L, Sec. ii., 3. 
 
134 WILLIAM LLOYD GABEISON. [>ET. 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. V. voice would peal in the ears of the taskmasters like deep 
 1828^29 thunder ; you would carry the Constitution by force, if it could 
 not be taken by treaty ; patriotic assemblies would congregate 
 at the corners of every street ; the old Cradle of Liberty would 
 rock to a deeper tone than ever echoed therein at British 
 aggression ; the pulpit would acquire new and unusual elo 
 quence from our holy religion. The argument, that these white 
 slaves are degraded, would not then obtain. You would say, 
 it is enough that they are white, and in bondage, and they 
 ought immediately to be set free. You would multiply your 
 schools of instruction, and your temples of worship, and rely 
 on them for security. . . . 
 
 " But the plea is prevalent, that any interference by the free 
 States, however benevolent or cautious it might be, would only 
 irritate and inflame the jealousies of the South, and retard the 
 cause of emancipation. If any man believes that slavery can 
 be abolished without a struggle with the worst passions of 
 human nature, quietly, harmoniously, he cherishes a delusion. 
 It can never be done, unless the age of miracles return. No j 
 we must expect a collision, full of sharp asperities and bitter 
 ness. We shall have to contend with the insolence, and pride, 
 and selfishness, of many a heartless being. But these can be 
 easily conquered by meekness, and perseverance, and prayer. 
 
 " Sirs, the prejudices of the North are stronger than those 
 of the South; they bristle, like so many bayonets, around the 
 slaves; they forge and rivet the chains of the nation. Con 
 quer them, and the victory is won. The enemies of emancipa 
 tion take courage from our criminal timidity. They have 
 justly stigmatized us, even on the floor of Congress, with the 
 most contemptuous epithets. We are (they say) their white 
 slaves, x afraid of our own shadows, who have been driven back 
 to the wall again and again ; who stand trembling under their 
 whips ; who turn pale, retreat, and surrender, at a talismanic 
 threat to dissolve the Union. . . . 
 
 " It is often despondingly said, that the evil of slavery is be 
 yond our control. Dreadful conclusion, that puts the seal of 
 death upon our country s existence ! If we cannot conquer the 
 monster in his infancy, while his cartilages are tender and his 
 limbs powerless, how shall we escape his wrath when he goes 
 
 l In Henry Adams s Life of John Randolph we read (p. 281): "On 
 another occasion, he [Randolph] is reported as saying of the people of the 
 North, We do not govern them by our black slaves, but by their own white 
 slaves. " 
 
Mf. 23-24.] BENNINGTON. 135 
 
 forth a gigantic cannibal, seeking whom he may devour ? If CHAP. V. 
 we cannot safely unloose two millions of slaves now, how shall 
 we bind upwards of TWENTY MILLIONS at the close of the pres 
 ent century? But there is no cause for despair. We have 
 seen how readily, and with what ease, that horrid gorgon, In 
 temperance, has been checked in his ravages. Let us take 
 courage. Moral influence, when in vigorous exercise, is irresist 
 ible. It has an immortal essence. It can no more be trod out 
 of existence by the iron foot of time, or by the ponderous march 
 of iniquity, than matter can be annihilated. It may disappear 
 for a time ; but it lives in some shape or other, in some place 
 or other, and will rise with renovated strength. Let us, then, 
 be up and doing. In the simple and stirring language of the 
 stout-hearted Lundy, t all the friends of the cause must go to 
 work, keep to work, hold on, and never give up. 
 
 " If it be still objected, that it would be dangerous to liberate 
 the present race of blacks ; 
 
 " I answer the emancipation of all the slaves of this gen 
 eration is most assuredly out of the question. The fabric, 
 which now towers above the Alps, must be taken away brick 
 by brick, and foot by foot, till it is reduced so low that it may 
 be overturned without burying the nation in its ruins. Years 
 may elapse before the completion of the achievement ; genera 
 tions of blacks may go down to the grave, manacled and lacer 
 ated, without a hope for their children 5 the philanthropists 
 who are now pleading in behalf of the oppressed, may not live 
 to witness the dawn which will precede the glorious day of 
 universal emancipation ; but the work will go on laborers in 
 the cause will multiply new resources will be discovered 
 the victory will be obtained, worth the desperate struggle of a 
 thousand years. Or, if defeat follow, woe to the safety of this 
 people ! The nation will be shaken as if by a mighty earth 
 quake. A cry of horror, a cry of revenge, will go up to heaven 
 in the darkness of midnight, and re-echo from every cloud. 
 Blood will flow like water the blood of guilty men, and of 
 innocent women and children. Then will be heard lamenta 
 tions and weeping, such as will blot out the remembrance of 
 the horrors of St. Domingo. The terrible judgments of an 
 incensed God will complete the catastrophe of republican 
 America. 
 
 " And since so much is to be done for our country ; since so 
 many prejudices are to be dispelled, obstacles vanquished, in 
 terests secured, blessings obtained j since the cause of emanci- 
 
136 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. V. pation must progress heavily, and meet with much unhallowed 
 opposition, why delay the work? There must be a begin 
 ning, and now is a propitious time perhaps the last oppor 
 tunity that will be granted us by a long-suffering God. No 
 temporizing, lukewarm measures will avail aught. We must 
 put our shoulders to the wheel, and heave with our united 
 strength. Let us not look coldly on and see our Southern 
 brethren 1 contending single-handed against an all-powerful 
 foe faint, weary, borne down to the earth. We are all alike 
 guilty. Slavery is strictly a national sin. New- England money 
 has been expended in buying human flesh j New- England 
 ships have been freighted with sable victims j New-England 
 men have assisted in forging the fetters of those who groan in 
 bondage. 
 
 " I call upon the ambassadors of Christ everywhere to make 
 known this proclamation : t Thus saith the Lord God of the 
 Africans, Let this people go, that they may serve me. I ask 
 them to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of 
 the prison to them that are bound to light up a flame of 
 philanthropy that shall burn till all Africa be redeemed from 
 the night of moral death, and the song of deliverance be heard 
 throughout her borders. 
 
 " I call upon the churches of the living God to lead in this 
 great enterprise. 2 If the soul be immortal, priceless, save it 
 from remediless woe. Let them combine their energies, and 
 systematize their plans, for the rescue of suffering humanity. 
 Let them pour out their supplications to heaven in behalf of 
 the slave. Prayer is omnipotent : its breath can melt adaman 
 tine rocks its touch can break the stoutest chains. Let 
 anti-slavery charity-boxes stand uppermost among those for 
 missionary, tract and educational purposes. On this subject, 
 Christians have been asleep ; let them shake off their slumbers, 
 and arm for the holy contest. 
 
 " I call upon our New-England women to form charitable 
 associations to relieve the degraded of their sex. As yet, an 
 
 1 An allusion to the few anti-slavery societies among the Friends in 
 some of the Southern States. 
 
 2 So Daniel Webster, in his Plymouth oration, Dec. 22, 1820, of the 
 African slave-trade and of New-England complicity with it: "I invoke the 
 ministers of our religion, that they proclaim its denunciation of these crimes, 
 and add its solemn sanctions to the authority of human laws. If the pul 
 pit be silent whenever or wherever there may be a sinner bloody with this 
 guilt within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust" (Works, 
 1:46). 
 
.T. 23-24.] BENNINGTON. 137 
 
 appeal to their sympathies was never made in vain. They CHAP. v. 
 outstrip us in every benevolent race. Females are doing much 
 for the cause at the South ; let their example be imitated, and 
 their exertions surpassed, at the North. 
 
 " I call upon our citizens to assist in establishing- auxiliary 
 colonization societies in every State, county and town. I im 
 plore their direct and liberal patronage to the parent society. 
 
 " I call upon the great body of newspaper editors to keep 
 this subject constantly before their readers j to sound the 
 trumpet of alarm, and to plead eloquently for the rights of 
 man. They must give the tone to public sentiment. One press 
 may ignite twenty ; a city may warm a State ; a State may 
 impart a generous heat to a whole country. 
 
 " I call upon the American people to enfranchise a spot over 
 which they hold complete sovereignty j to cleanse that worse 
 than Augean stable, the District of Columbia, from its foul 
 impurities. I ask them to sustain Congress in any future 
 efforts to colonize the c.olored population of the States. I 
 conjure them to select those as Representatives who are not too 
 ignorant to know, too blind to see, nor too timid to perform 
 their duty. 
 
 " I will say, finally, that I despair of the republic while 
 slavery exists therein. If I look up to God for success, no smile 
 of mercy or forgiveness dispels the gloom of futurity ; if to our 
 own resources, they are daily diminishing ; if to all history, our 
 destruction is not only possible, but almost certain. Why 
 should we slumber at this momentous crisis? If our hearts 
 were dead to every throb of humanity j if it were lawful to 
 oppress, where power is ample j still, if we had any regard for 
 our safety and happiness, we should strive to crush the Vam 
 pire which is feeding upon our life-blood. All the selfishness 
 of our nature cries aloud for a better security. Our own vices 
 are too strong for us, and keep us in perpetual alarm ; how, 
 in addition to these, shall we be able to contend successfully 
 with millions of armed and desperate men, as we must eventu 
 ally, if slavery do not cease ? " 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Garrison s address Mr. Plurnly, 
 an agent of the American Colonization Society, briefly 
 urged its claims to support, and a collection in aid of it 
 was taken up j but, beyond what is quoted above, the 
 orator of the day said nothing in favor of the Society, 
 except to commend the infant colony of Liberia. 
 
138 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. C^T. 23-24. 
 
 CHAP. v. The Boston American Traveller of three days later con- 
 1828-29. tained a notice of the discourse, in which the orator was 
 described as " of quite a youthful appearance, and habited 
 in a suit of black, with his neck bare, and a broad linen 
 collar spread over that of his coat. His prefatory re 
 marks were rendered inaudible by the feebleness of his 
 utterance j but, as he advanced, his voice was raised, his 
 confidence was regained, and his earnestness became per 
 ceptible." The Traveller s abstract of his remarks was 
 so meagre and imperfect, that Mr. Garrison felt it neces 
 sary to correct and extend it in a letter to the Courier, 
 and this evoked a scurrilous and abusive attack from an 
 anonymous correspondent of the Traveller, who accused 
 him of slandering his country and libelling the Declara 
 tion of Independence. The editorial columns joined in the 
 abuse, of which, however, Mr. Grarrison took no further 
 notice, and within a few days he left the city, probably 
 going to Newburyport for a brief visit, before his de 
 parture for Baltimore to join Lundy. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 "THE GENIUS OF UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION." 
 1829-30. 
 
 
 A MERICAN slavery, according to John Wesley, was 
 /% " the vilest that ever saw the sun." In an eloquent 
 passage of his Park-Street address, Mr. Garrison had 
 briefly pictured the awful features of the system, and 
 had recounted the list of wrongs and outrages which the 
 slaves, if they were to imitate the example of the Revo 
 lutionary fathers and rise in revolt, might present to the 
 world as their justification, after the manner of the Decla 
 ration of Independence. The invasion of African soil, 
 the kidnapping of the natives, the indescribable horrors 
 of the middle passage, the brutal treatment of the slaves, 
 the abrogation of the marriage institution, the cruel sep 
 aration of families, the miseries of the domestic slave- 
 trade, and the absolute power over the life, property 
 and person of his slaves accorded and insured to the 
 master by the laws of the slave States, were all touched 
 upon : but it was not to these alone that Garrison was 
 
 * 
 
 keenly alive. We have already seen, in his address at 
 
 Park Street, that he fully appreciated the political ad- Ante, p. 133. 
 
 vantage given to the South by the clause of the Constitu 
 
 tion which permitted her to add three-fifths of her slave 
 
 population to the number of her free inhabitants, in fixing 
 
 the basis of representation in the lower house of Con 
 
 gress. He showed that the free States, with a free popu 
 
 lation more numerous by nearly one hundred per cent. 
 
 than that of the slave States, had only 121 representa- 
 
 139 
 
 stroud s 
 ing to 
 
 American 
 
 Slave Code 
 
 (1853). 
 
140 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. [^T. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. vi. tives in Congress, while the slave States had 90 (I. e., 
 1829^30. about 25 more than they were fairly entitled to) ; and 
 a similar advantage was of course gained in the Elec 
 toral College, insuring, with the votes easily obtained 
 from three or four Northern States, the election of Presi 
 dents subservient to the Slave Power. Recognizing the 
 force of these Constitutional provisions while they re 
 mained unrepealed, he declared a dissolution of the 
 Union, if that should prove the only way of escape from 
 such sinful obligations, infinitely preferable to continued 
 complicity. 
 
 Nat.Phiian. u I acknowledge that immediate and complete emanci- 
 
 tigator^My pation is not desirable," he went on to say. " No rational 
 
 29, 1829. man cherishes so wild a vision." But when he came to 
 
 reflect upon the matter, he saw that his feet were on the 
 
 sand, and not on the solid rock, so long as he granted 
 
 slavery the right to exist for a single moment ; that if 
 
 W. L. G. at human beings could be justly held in bondage one hour, 
 ci-ub Din- they could be for days and weeks and years, and so on, 
 i4?i878. indefinitely, from generation to generation ; and that the 
 only way to deal with the system was to lay the axe at the 
 root of the tree and demand IMMEDIATE AND UNCONDI 
 TIONAL EMANCIPATION. This conviction forced itself upon 
 his mind during the five or six weeks which elapsed be 
 tween the delivery of his address and his departure for 
 Baltimore, and when, after a fifteen days voyage by sea, 
 he reached the latter city, some time in August, 1829, 
 and presented himself to Lundy, he lost no time in 
 acquainting his partner with the change in his views, and 
 the necessity he should be under, if he joined him, of 
 preaching the gospel accordingly. " Well," said Lundy, 
 who was not prepared to accept the new doctrine himself, 
 " thee may put thy initials to thy articles, and I will put 
 my initials to mine, and each will bear his own burden." 
 " Very good," responded Garrison, " that will answer, and 
 I shall be able to free my soul." And thus the partners, 
 little known, with few friends, and without money, began 
 their joint warfare upon American slavery. 
 
,ET, 24-25.] "THE GENIUS." 141 
 
 The first number of the Genius of Universal Umaneipa- CHAP. vi. 
 tion under these new auspices was dated Wednesday, 182^30. 
 September 2, 1829, and was the 227th issued since its 
 foundation by Lundy eight years before. 1 It now ap 
 peared after an interval of eight months (during which 
 Lundy had made his trip to Hayti with the twelve Ante, p. 123, 
 emancipated slaves), in a much enlarged and improved 
 sheet of eight pages, the printed page of four columns 
 measuring about 9x13 inches. A vignette of the Ame 
 rican eagle surmounted the title of the paper, and the 
 motto below the title was the immortal assertion from 
 the Declaration of Independence (the " glittering gene 
 rality " which the Abolitionists were to make as Emer 
 son, in his retort to Ruf us Choate s sneer, declared it 
 a " blazing ubiquity"), " We hold these truths to be self- 
 evident : that all men are created equal, and endowed by 
 their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among 
 these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." At 
 the head of the first column stood Curran s eloquent 
 idealization of the spirit of liberty, from which the paper 
 derived its name, with editorial applications interpo 
 lated. 2 
 
 For the first and only time during his editorial career 
 Mr. Garrison was not obliged to labor at the case, or to 
 
 1 From 1821 to 1825, inclusive, Lundy published the paper monthly, and 
 occasionally fortnightly, as means permitted. The weekly issue began in 
 September, 1825. 
 
 2 "I speak in the spirit of the British [American?] law, which makes 
 liberty commensurate with, and inseparable from, the British [American ?~\ 
 soil which proclaims, even to the stranger and the sojourner, the moment 
 he sets his foot upon British [American ?~\ earth, that the ground on which 
 he treads is holy, and consecrated by the Genius of Universal Emancipa 
 tion, No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced; 
 no matter what complexion, incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an 
 African sun may have burnt upon him; no matter in what disastrous 
 battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what 
 solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery : the first 
 moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain [America?], the altar and the 
 god sink together in the dust ; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty ; 
 his body swells beyond the measure of his chains, that burst from around 
 him, and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled, by the irre 
 sistible Genius of Universal Emancipation." 
 
142 WILLIAM LLOYD GAREISON. [^T. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. vi. perform any part of the manual labor of the office, as 
 1829-30. the Genius was printed by contract, 1 and it was agreed 
 that he should be the resident and managing editor, 
 while Lundy took the field and went forth to canvass 
 for subscribers ; the list of patrons being far too meagre 
 to support the large and handsome sheet which they had 
 essayed to issue. In the two salutatory addresses which 
 they wrote, each under his own signature, Lundy con 
 fined himself to a simple announcement of the arrange 
 ment, while Garrison gave a brief exposition of his views 
 on slavery and colonization : 
 
 TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 Ten months ago, as editor of the Bennington Journal of the 
 Times, I publickly declared that, on whatever spot I might 
 afterward be located, the energies of my life should be directed 
 to the overthrow of three of the greatest evils which curse our 
 race namely: SLAVERY, INTEMPERANCE, and WAR. My 
 resolution is unchanged. 
 
 In devoting my services to the extinction of slavery, I do not 
 mean to lose sight of the other specified abominations ; but 
 they must necessarily receive less of my attention and aid. . . . 
 
 It may be proper, at this time, as assistant editor of this 
 paper, to state my views relative to the removal of slavery 
 from our land. This exposition must be made briefly. 
 
 First, in regard to the plan of the American Colonization 
 Society. No man contemplates with more intense interest and 
 unmingled satisfaction the colony at Liberia than the sub 
 scriber. I have elsewhere termed it the lungs and heart of 
 Africa, full of generous respiration and warm blood. But the 
 work of colonization is exceedingly dilatory and uncertain. It 
 can never entirely relieve the country. It may pluck a few 
 leaves from the Bohon Upas, but can neither extract its roots 
 nor destroy its withering properties. Viewed as an auxiliary, it 
 deserves encouragement ; but as a remedy, it is altogether in 
 adequate. I wish to see its funds as exhaustless as the number 
 of applicants for removal, and the fruits of its enterprise yet 
 more abundant. 
 
 I fear, however, that a majority of the people place too much 
 reliance upon the ability of this Society. Many are lulling 
 
 1 By Lucas & Deaver. The publication office was at 19 South Calvert 
 Street. The subscription price of the Genius was $3.00 a year. 
 
Mr. 24-25.] "THE GENIUS." 143 
 
 themselves into a belief that the monster has received his CHAP. vi. 
 mortal wound, and they scarcely feel any interest to be in at l8 ~ 
 the death. The crafty advocates of slavery rejoice at this 
 delusion, for they can now repose in comparative security. 
 For my own part, I do not believe that the removal of the great 1 
 body of the blacks can be effected by voluntary contributions 
 or individual sacrifices ; and if we depend alone upon the efforts 
 of colonization societies, slavery will never be exterminated. 
 
 As a home for emancipated slaves, I view the republic of 
 Hayti with a favourable eye. In many points it is superior to 
 Liberia. Its climate is more salubrious, its government is 
 stable, its locality is near, and transportation can be effected 
 more cheaply. Emigrants are received with cordial affection, 
 and allowed extraordinary privileges. Our free coloured people, 
 moreover, generally cherish less repugnance to Hayti than to 
 Liberia. 
 
 But while I would encourage every feasible plan for the 
 reduction of this part of our population, I shall rely on nothing 
 but the eternal principles of justice for the speedy overthrow 
 of slavery. Since the delivery of my address in Boston, relative 
 to this subject, I am convinced, on mature reflection, that no 
 valid excuse can be given for the continuance of the evil a 
 single hour. These, therefore, are my positions : 
 
 1. That the slaves are entitled to immediate and complete 
 emancipation : consequently, to hold them longer in bondage is 
 both tyrannical and unnecessary. 
 
 2. That the question of expediency has nothing to do with 
 that of right, and it is not for those who tyrannise to say when 
 they may safely break the chains of their subjects. As well 
 may a thief determine on what particular day or month he 
 shall leave off stealing, with safety to his own interest. 
 
 3. That, on the ground of expediency, it would be wiser to 
 set all the slaves free to-day than to-morrow or next week 
 than next year. To think of removing them all out of the land 
 is visionary : not two-fiftieths of the annual increase are taken 
 away during the same period. Hence the sooner they receive 
 the benefits of instruction, the better for them and us. We can 
 educate two millions of slaves, now, with more facility and suc 
 cess than four millions at the expiration of twenty-five years. 
 Give them liberation, and every inducement to revolt is re 
 moved ; give them employment as free labourers, and their 
 industry will be more productive and beneficial than mines of 
 gold ; give them religious and secular instruction, restrict them 
 
144 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. [^T. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. VI. with suitable regulations, and they will make peaceable 
 i82~ o citizens. One million of degraded slaves are more dangerous 
 to the welfare of the country than would be two millions 
 of degraded freemen. 
 
 4. That, as a very large proportion of our colored population 
 were born on American soil, they are at liberty to choose their 
 own dwelling-place, and we possess no right to use coercive 
 measures in their removal. 
 
 Cherishing these views, therefore, I shall give no quarter to 
 the open advocates of slavery, nor easily excuse those pseudo- 
 philanthropists who find an apology for its continuance in the 
 condition of the slaves. 
 
 It would give me pleasure, in concluding these remarks, to 
 pass an elaborate eulogium upon the zealous and amiable 
 philanthropist with whom I am associated ; but, for obvious 
 reasons, I forbear. Elsewhere I have not ^hesitated to bear 
 testimony to his worth, and witnesses thereto are multiplying 
 in every quarter. Two republics will assist in building his 
 monument, which no time shall crumble. 
 
 For myself, whatever else I may lack, I bring to this great 
 cause a warm heart and a willing hand ; nor shall I spare any 
 efforts, in conjunction with the senior editor, to make the 
 Genius of Universal Emancipation worthy of extensive patronage. 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON.! 
 
 l The only direct appeal for immediate, as opposed to gradual, emancipa 
 tion which appears to have been made in the United States prior to the 
 above declaration of Garrison s, was in A Treatise on Slavery, in which is 
 shown forth the Evil of Slaveholding, both from the Light of Nature and 
 Divine Revelation, by [Rev.] James Duncan. This was a small volume 
 printed at the Indiana Register office, in Vevay, Indiana, in the year 1824, 
 in which the author showed the fallacy of gradualism, at the very outset, 
 in his preface. The work is a remarkable one, and indicates that Mr. 
 Duncan possessed great powers of reasoning, and rare clearness of vision, 
 for that day, on the subject of slavery. He devoted much space to proving 
 slavery to be a violation of all the Commandments, and of the Divine Law, 
 opposed to republicanism, and hurtful to masters as well as slaves. Slave 
 holders were warned that they could not escape perdition for their sins, if 
 they failed to repent and release their captives. The book, written from 
 the extreme orthodox standpoint, bore evidence on every page of the vigor 
 and earnestness of the writer, though he weakened it by an Appendix, in 
 which he assented that the blacks should be kept under a certain tutelage 
 for a time after emancipation, subject to patrols, obliged to bear passes, 
 etc. It seems strange that so masterly an argument should have fallen 
 dead, making no stir or impression, and being consigned to a speedy 
 oblivion, in which it remained until discovered and reprinted in 1840 by the 
 American Anti-Slavery Society ; but the writer had the disadvantage of 
 
JET. 24-25.] U THE GENIUS." 145 
 
 Lundy and his partner boarded with two Quaker CHAP. vr. 
 ladies, Beulah Harris and sister, who lived at 135 Mar- 182^30. 
 ket Street, and their circle of acquaintances was limited 
 to a few Quaker friends and some of the more intelligent 
 colored people of the city. 1 Associated with them in the 
 conduct of the Genius was a young Quaker woman, 
 Elizabeth Margaret Chandler, a resident of Philadelphia, 
 who possessed considerable literary taste and skill and 
 decided poetic talent. Early attracted by Lundy s efforts 
 in behalf of the slaves, she had become a contributor to 
 the \}enius in 1826, when in her nineteenth year, and 
 some of her productions were widely copied. She now 
 consented to take charge of a department of the paper 
 styled the " Ladies Repository," which occupied a page 
 and a half of each number. Her industry was unceas 
 ing, and her brother editors greatly valued her aid. 2 
 
 The last page of the Genius was printed in French, for 
 the benefit of Haytian subscribers, and also contained a 
 list of agents for the paper in different cities. This 
 included the names of James Mott, of Philadelphia, 
 Dr. Bartholomew Fussell, of Kennett Square, Pa., and 
 Samuel PhiLbrick, of Boston, none of whom were then 
 personally known to Mr. Garrison, but who subsequently 
 
 publishing his work in an obscure town and a remote State, where he had 
 no facilities for forcing it upon the attention of the country at large. Nor 
 did he follow it up by dedicating hte life to the cause. 
 
 1 Among the former, John Needles, who subsequently attained a ripe age 
 and lived to see slavery abolished, was one of the truest and most devoted ; 
 while among the latter were William Watkins (probably the "Colored 
 Baltimorean" subsequently referred to), Jacob Greener, and his sons 
 Richard W. and Jacob C. Greener. Jacob Greener was earnestly opposed 
 to the Colonization Society. His sons were afterwards the Baltimore 
 agents of the Liberator. A grandson, Prof. Richard T. Greener, was the 
 first colored graduate of Harvard University (Class of 1870). 
 
 2 She died Nov. 2, 1834, in her twenty-seventh year, while residing with 
 her brother in Michigan. Her literary productions were subsequently 
 published in a volume for which Mr. Lundy wrote the introductory 
 memoir (Philadelphia, 1836). Mr. Garrison s tribute to her memory, after 
 visiting her grave in 1853, will be found in Lib. 23:190. He declared her 
 "worthy to be associated with Elizabeth Heyrick of England," and she 
 certainly deserves to be known and honored as the first American woman 
 who devoted her time and talents to the cause of the slave. 
 
 VOL. L 10 
 
146 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. 
 
 [JET. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. vi. became his life-long friends and co-workers ; and also 
 1829^30. James Cropper, of Liverpool. It was doubtless to the 
 last-named gentleman, an active supporter of Wilber- 
 force and Buxton in the English anti-slavery movement, 
 that Lundy and Garrison were indebted for a frequent 
 supply of reports and other publications showing the 
 progress of the agitation for West-India emancipation. 
 They published considerable extracts from these in the 
 Genius, contrasting the activity of the British with the 
 apathy of the American abolitionists, and trying to 
 incite the latter to similar effort. Special attention was 
 called to the English Ladies Anti- Slavery Societies, in 
 the " Ladies Repository/ which also gave many extracts 
 from Elizabeth Heyrick s Letters on the Prompt Extinc 
 tion of British Colonial Slavery, as clear and cogent 
 productions as the same author s pamphlet, Immediate, 
 not Gradual Emancipation. 7 1 
 
 Colonization was a theme of constant discussion in 
 the pages of the Genius. Lundy, fresh from his visit to 
 Hayti, began in the very first number a series of nine 
 articles on that country, describing its climate, soil, and 
 products, and giving the fullest information he could 
 concerning the Haytian government and people. He 
 evidently took little interest in Liberia, and, as has been 
 
 Ante, p. 91. already mentioned, had early expressed his distrust of 
 the Colonization Society, because it did not make eman 
 cipation a primary object, but was actively supported by 
 prominent slaveholders like Clay, Randolph, and Bushrod 
 Washington. Hayti was near our own shores, and its 
 Government was ready to give land to all immigrants 
 who would settle upon it, while a few large land-owners 
 offered to pay the cost of transportation of such as 
 
 i To Elizabeth Heyrick, of Leicester, England, a member of the Society 
 of Friends, belongs the high distinction of having been the first to enun 
 ciate the doctrine of Immediate Emancipation. Her pamphlet on that sub 
 ject, published in 1825, was so able and convincing that the abolitionists of 
 Great Britain, then struggling for the overthrow of slavery in the West 
 Indies, quickly adopted the principle thus proclaimed by her, and con 
 quered under that sign. 
 
 G. U. E., 
 Mar., 1824. 
 
^ET. 24-25.] "THE GENIUS." 147 
 
 would come from the United States. Few were tempted CHAP. vi. 
 even by these inducements, and the fruitless insertion of 1829^30. 
 the following advertisement in the Genius for several 
 successive weeks indicated that the eagerness on the 
 part of many slaveholders to liberate their slaves, if free 
 transportation from the country could be secured for 
 them, did not exist to the extent to which the Coloniza 
 tion Society would have had it believed : 
 
 EMIGRATION TO HAYTI. G. U. E., 
 
 Nov. 13 to 
 
 JSP To humane, conscientious Slaveholders. <j$^ Dec - l8 - 
 
 1829. 
 
 Wanted, immediately, from twenty to fifty SLAVES, to re 
 move and settle in the Republic of Hayti, where they will be 
 forthwith invested with the rights of free men, and receive con 
 stant employment and liberal wages, in a healthy and pleasant 
 section of the country. 
 
 CF 1 THE PRICE OF PASSAGE WILL BE ADVANCED, and every 
 thing furnished of which they may stand in need, until they 
 shall have time to prepare their houses and set in to work. 
 None will be taken, however, but such as reside in country 
 places, and (those who are of sufficient age) accustomed to 
 agricultural or mechanical labor. 
 
 Application may be made to the undersigned, at No. 135 
 Market Street, Baltimore. 
 
 LUNDY & GARRISON. 
 November 10th, 1829. 
 
 N. B. Editors of Newspapers, friendly to the colonization 
 of the colored race, are respectfully requested to notice the 
 above. L. & G. 
 
 Lundy was anxious to establish colonies of free colored 
 people in Hayti, Canada, Texas, or any place fairly ac 
 cessible from the Southern States, so that no master dis 
 posed to emancipate his slaves, if an asylum could be 
 found for them, and their removal assured, could have 
 excuse for not doing so. He apparently did not stop to 
 analyze the motives of the Colonization Society, and 
 Garrison was slow to discover its real animus. The 
 latter came, ere long, to regard it as "a doubtful auxili- ibid., 
 ary," and to view it with growing distrust and hostility. 1830, /. 147. 
 Some of his colored friends in Baltimore were the first to 
 
148 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. [&? 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. vi. point out to him its dangerous character and tendency, 
 1829^30. and its purpose to strengthen slavery by expelling the 
 free people of color, whom the slaveholders instinctively 
 deemed a constant source of danger on account of their 
 intelligence and their ability (if so disposed) to disaffect 
 the slaves. One of these, under the signature of " A 
 Colored Baltimorean," contributed two remarkably able 
 and vigorous articles in reply to another colored corre 
 spondent, a eulogist of the Society, and exposed with great 
 keenness its fraudulent pretences. 1 
 
 So eager were the Southern Colonizationists to get rid 
 of the free colored people that they even invoked special 
 appropriations for the purpose from their State Legisla 
 tures and from Congress, and the proposition was favored 
 by Henry Clay, who was the foremost supporter of the 
 Colonization Society in Kentucky ; but these schemes 
 failed. 2 A long address by Clay before the Kentucky 
 society was elaborately reviewed and criticized in the 
 Genius by Garrison, who began his series of articles with 
 G. u. E., a fresh avowal of his admiration for Clay, and of the sat- 
 1830, p^vjg. isfaction with which he looked forward to his ultimate 
 elevation to the Presidency, " the champion who is des 
 tined to save this country from anarchy, corruption and 
 ruin." This did not prevent his dealing faithfully with 
 the errors, sophistries and shortcomings of the address, 
 and he hastened to assert, at the outset, the equality of 
 the human race : 
 
 " I deny the postulate that God has made, by an irreversible 
 decree, or any inherent qualities, one portion of the human 
 race superior to another. No matter how many breeds are 
 amalgamated no matter how many shades of color intervene 
 between tribes or nations give them the same chances to im 
 prove, and a fair start at the same time, and the result will be 
 equally brilliant, equally productive, equally grand." 
 
 1 An admirable letter from the same writer, on the proposition of the 
 Colonization Society to civilize and evangelize Africa with a population which 
 it declared to be the " most vicious of all classes in this country," had ap 
 peared in the Genius of June 28, 1828, more than a year before. 
 
 2 A committee of the Maryland Legislature reported favorably, but in 
 Georgia and Missouri the proposal met with decided disapproval. 
 
^E T . 24-25.] "THE GENIUS." 149 
 
 Pointing to the fact that the Colonization Society had CHAP. vi. 
 transported only thirteen hundred emigrants to Liberia 1829-30. 
 in thirteen years, while the slave population had increased 
 half a million during the same period, he added : 
 
 " And yet, such is the colonization mania, such the implicit G. U. E., 
 confidence reposed in the operations of the Society, that no 1830, /. 202. 
 demonstration of its inefficiency, however palpable, can shake 
 the faith of its advocates. . . . My complaint is, that its 
 ability is overrated to a disastrous extent ; that this delusion is 
 perpetuated by the conduct and assurances of those who ought 
 to act better the members of the Society. I complain, more 
 over, that the lips of these members are sealed up on the sub 
 ject of slavery, who, from their high standing and extensive 
 influence, ought to expose its flagrant enormities, and actively 
 assist in its overthrow." 
 
 In the condition of the free colored people, who were 
 despised and persecuted in the Northern cities no less 
 than in the Southern, 1 the editors of the Genius naturally 
 took a deep interest, urging the establishment of schools 
 and the formation of temperance societies among them ; 2 
 and Mr. Garrison wrote thus in their vindication : 
 
 " There is a prevalent disposition among all classes to traduce /bid. 
 the habits and morals of our free blacks. The most scandalous 
 exaggerations in regard to their condition are circulated by a 
 thousand mischievous tongues, and no reproach seems to them 
 too deep or unmerited. Vile and malignant indeed is this prac 
 tice, and culpable are they who follow it. We do not pretend 
 to say that crime, intemperance and suffering, to a considerable 
 
 1 So bitter was the feeling against them in Cincinnati, in 1829, that the 
 local authorities enacted certain oppressive regulations with the avowed 
 purpose of driving them from the city. The result was a furious riot last 
 ing three days during which the persons, homes and property of the 
 blacks were at the mercy of the mob and the final flight of more than a 
 thousand of them to Canada. (See Wilson s Rise and Fall of the Slave Power 
 in America, 1: 365.) 
 
 2 The labors of the Rev. Simeon S. Jocelyn among the colored people of 
 New Haven were deservedly praised and commended as an example of 
 what should be done in other places. Jacob C. Greener established a school 
 for orphan and indigent children in Baltimore, and a colored temperance 
 society was also formed there. The erection of a college, on the manual- 
 labor system, was proposed privately, though no reference to it appears in 
 the Genius (Lib. 1 : 111). 
 
150 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. VI. extent, cannot be found among ths free blacks ; but we do 
 
 l8 ~, assert that they are as moral, peaceable and industrious as that 
 
 class of the whites who are, like them, in indigent circum 
 
 stances and far less intemperate than the great body of f or- 
 
 eign emigrants who infest and corrupt our shores." 
 
 Although slavery in the cities was considered to be of 
 a milder type than on the plantations, Lundy and Garri 
 son were frequent witnesses of some of its iniquities 
 and horrors. Slave auctions were of course of common 
 occurrence in Baltimore, and the shipment of slaves 
 to the New Orleans market was constantly going on. 
 During the first month of their partnership, they received 
 a call, one Sunday, from a slave who had just been 
 G. u. ., severely whipped with a cowskin, and on. whose bleeding 
 l32 g^ 2 2 7 . back, from his neck to his hips, they could count thirty- 
 seven terrible gashes. His head also was much bruised. 
 And this man, whose offence was that he had not loaded 
 a wagon to suit his overseer y had lately been emancipated 
 by the will of his master, and was to receive his freedom 
 a few weeks afterwards. The partners sheltered and 
 nursed him for two days, and sought the heirs of the 
 estate to expostulate against this cruelty, but they were 
 received with abuse and contempt for their pains. A few 
 days later, while passing along the street on which their 
 office was situated, Garrison heard, from the upper story 
 ibid., oa. of a house, " the distinct application of a whip, and the 
 ^ I 4 8 3 29 shrieks of anguish" from the victim which succeeded 
 every blow. "This is nothing uncommon/ he added, in 
 recording the circumstance. 
 
 But though in the midst of the Philistines, the courage 
 
 of the two editors was undaunted. The brutal slave- 
 
 Ante.p.gi. trader, Woolfolk, who had assaulted and nearly killed 
 
 Lundy, in the street, three years before, still had his den 
 
 G. U.E., in Baltimore; and when Garrison commented on the in- 
 
 1829, /62. consistency of the American and Gazette, which refused 
 
 his advertisements (because his cruelty was so notorious) 
 
 while inserting those of slave auctions generally, "Woolfolk 
 
 ascribed the authorship of the paragraph to Lundy, and 
 
^T. 24-25.] "THE GENIUS." 151 
 
 threatened dire vengeance. Garrison thereupon retorted CHAP. vi. 
 
 in this wise : 1829-30. 
 
 AN INQUIKY. C. <7. E _ t 
 
 I would inquire of Mr. Austin Woolfolk if it was decent or 1829, p. 70. 
 manly in him, last week, to multiply his curses and his threats 
 to the senior editor of this paper, for the insertion of a para 
 graph which was written by another by me ? Has he for 
 gotten his alphabet ? The letters " L." and " G." attached to the 
 bottom of our separate articles no more resemble each other 
 than the persons of Lundy and Garrison and certainly the 
 antithesis between them is remarkable. If he wishes to discuss 
 the subject of slavery, or to complain of any slander of his 
 character, I shall be happy to see him at my boarding-house, 
 No. 135 Market Street, where I will endeavor to convince him 
 that he is pursuing a wicked traffic ; or if I fail in the argu 
 ment, I will make a public apology for my strictures upon his 
 conduct. Let me assure him, however, that I am not to be in 
 timidated by the utterance of any threats, or the perpetration 
 of any acts of violence. Dieu defend le droit. w. L. G. 
 
 Garrison early declared against paying any money 
 compensation to slaveholders for emancipating their 
 slaves ; and in reply to the inquiry of a colonizationist, 
 " Who can doubt that it might be the soundest policy 
 to extinguish the master s claim throughout our terri 
 tory at the price of six hundred millions of dollars f " he 
 said : 
 
 " We unhesitatingly doubt it, in a moral point of view. It ibid., Oct. 2, 
 would be paying a thief for giving up stolen property, and l829> ^ 2 5- 
 acknowledging that his crime was not a crime. Once hold out 
 the prospect of payment by the General Government, and there 
 will soon be an end to all voluntary emancipation. Moreover, 
 to rely upon private charities and public donations for the 
 extinction of slavery is madness. If the moral sense of the peo 
 ple will not induce them to let the oppressed go free without 
 money and without price, depend upon it their benevolent 
 sympathies will be most unproductive. No ; let us not talk of 
 buying the slaves justice demands their liberation." 
 
 To the same writer, who had spoken of the " delicate 
 subject" of slavery, he replied: "In correcting public 
 vices and aggravated crimes, delicacy is not to be con- 
 
152 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 24-25, 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 1829-30. 
 
 Hist. 
 Slave 
 p. 496. 
 
 of the 
 
 Trade, 
 
 G. U. E., 
 
 Oct. 30, 
 
 1829, p. 58. 
 
 suited. Slavery is a monster, and he must be treated 
 as such hunted down bravely, and despatched at a 
 blow." * 
 
 Considerable space was devoted in the Genius to ac 
 counts of a "Free Produce Society" established by 
 Friends in Philadelphia, for the purpose of discouraging 
 the purchase and use of products of slave labor, and 
 thus restricting the growth of slavery by destroying the 
 market for them. Two or three stores were opened for 
 the sale of cotton and cotton goods, sugar, molasses, and 
 other articles, the cultivation and manufacture of which 
 were free from any taint of slave labor, and they re 
 ceived a moderate patronage and support ; but the 
 movement never assumed such proportions as in Eng 
 land, where, it was computed by Clarkson, no less than 
 three hundred thousand persons voluntarily abandoned 
 the use of sugar during the struggle for the abolition of 
 the slave trade. Garrison was at this time disposed to re 
 gard it with favor, and welcomed it as " perhaps the most 
 comprehensive mode that can be adopted to destroy the 
 growth of slavery, by rendering slave labor valueless." 
 
 1 The laissez-faire method of dealing with slavery which was commonly 
 recommended by those who discussed the subject whether ministers, 
 journalists, or politicians has already been illustrated by an abstract of 
 Caleb Cushing s article in the Newburyport Herald (ante, p. 45), and is still 
 more strikingly shown in the reply of Hezekiah Niles to an Eastern friend 
 who had sent him an essay for his Register, in favor of emancipation with 
 out compensation: "But the great question then presents itself, Would 
 the public good be promoted by an emancipation of the slaves without 
 some efficient and costly provisions for essential changes in their location 
 or condition ? Our own experience woiild give a resolute negative to this 
 question much as we are, and always have been, opposed to the principle 
 and practice of slavery. . . . We cannot entertain the idea that negro 
 slavery is to go on, and on, and on, in the United States without limit 
 but how to arrest it, we have not yet been able to discover, with benefit to 
 the slaves or safety to ourselves. The subject is beset with difficulties on 
 every side and when not knowing what to do, the most prudent way, 
 generally, is to stand still. But on the other hand, if discussions and in 
 vestigations are avoided, then what should be done, or might be done, to 
 relieve an alarming and rapidly increasing evil, will never be ascertained" 
 (Niles 1 Register, 47:4, Sept. 6, 1834). Mr. Niles had apparently failed to 
 discover that standing still necessitated keeping still, and stifling all inves 
 tigation and discussion. 
 
MI. 24-25. j "THE GENIUS." 153 
 
 In the second number of this volume of the Genius, CHAP. vi. 
 Lundy sounded a vigorous alarm against the plot just 1829^30. 
 being developed to wrest Texas from Mexico, "for the G. u. E., 
 avowed purpose of adding five or six more slaveholding l8 ^ ^[ 
 States to this Union " ; and called upon the people of the I3 I4< 
 United States who were opposed to slavery " to arouse 
 from their lethargy and nip the monstrous attempt in 
 the bud." He pointed to the fact that slavery had 
 already been abolished in Texas by the Mexican Gov 
 ernment, and that Senator Benton and his Southern T/WS.H. 
 associates, who were pushing the scheme, were resolved 
 to re-introduce slavery, with all its barbarities, into a 
 State now free. " Should the territory be added to the 
 Union/ he continued, " upon the condition that slavery 
 should still be interdicted, a great portion of the colored 
 population in the other States, at least on this side of the 
 Mississippi, might be induced to remove thither. It 
 would be the most suitable place for them in the world. 1 
 But a greater curse could scarcely befall our country 
 than the annexation of that immense territory to this 
 republic, if the system of slavery should likewise be re 
 established there." Other papers took up and echoed the 
 alarm, and joined in the vigorous protest, but the plot 
 against Texas was not yet ripe for accomplishment. 
 
 The Genius urged the renewed circulation of petitions 
 against slavery in the District of Columbia, though 
 
 1 It was a favorite idea of Lundy s to establish a colony for the free 
 blacks and emancipated slaves in Southern territory. So firm was his 
 belief that Texas was the most appropriate region for it, that he subse 
 quently (between 1831 and 1835) made three journeys thither, traversing 
 the country, living there for months at a time, falling back on his saddler s 
 trade for support when his funds gave out, incurring constant peril from 
 disease or violence, yet laboring year after year, in season and out of 
 season, to obtain a grant of land from the Mexican Government for his 
 colony. In 1835 he succeeded in securing a grant of 138,000 acres, on con 
 dition that he should bring to it two hundred and fifty settlers with their 
 families, and he returned to the United States to secure these ; but the dis 
 turbances arising from the lawless Southern invasion of Mexico put an end 
 to his scheme. His journeys had no other result than to make him the 
 best informed man in the country in regard to the Mexican province, and 
 of great assistance subsequently to John Quincy Adams and the other 
 opponents of annexation in Congress. 
 
154 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. vi. acknowledging that nothing was to be hoped for from 
 1829^30. an Administration in which six out of eight members 
 the President, Vice-President, Secretary of War, Secre 
 tary of the Navy, Attorney-General, and Postmaster- 
 Greneral were from slaveholding States. It also sup 
 ported, as a candidate for the Legislature from Baltimore, 
 Daniel Raymond, who was regarded as anti-slavery, but 
 he polled less than 200 of the more than 7000 votes cast. 
 Further, it gave much attention to the proceedings of 
 
 Oct., 1829, to the Virginia Convention for the revision of the State 
 constitution, a body remarkable for the number of able 
 and distinguished men it contained 5 ex- Presidents Mad 
 ison and Monroe, and John Randolph, being among them. 
 As it has always been a favorite assertion and pretence 
 
 G. T. Cur- of some Northern apologists for slavery that Virginia and 
 
 * Buchanan, Kentucky were on the verge of instituting schemes for 
 2 : 27 3- emancipation when the anti-slavery agitation broke out, 
 but were alarmed and deterred from attempting it by 
 the violent and abusive spirit in which that was con 
 ducted, it is worthy of note that no proposition to this 
 end was even broached in the Convention. The most ex 
 citing topic under discussion during its sessions was the 
 demand of the western portion of the State that repre 
 sentation in the Legislature should be apportioned to the 
 several counties on the basis of the white population, 
 instead of on the Federal basis, as the latter, by add 
 ing three-fifths of all the slaves, gave an undue prepon 
 derance to the eastern counties, where the slaves were 
 far more numerous than in the mountainous western 
 district. This was hotly debated for many days, but 
 Madison and Monroe threw their influence against it, 
 and it was finally defeated by a close vote, leaving 
 the control of the State in the hands of the slavehold 
 ing section. It is easy to see what fate any scheme of 
 emancipation, however remote and gradual, would have 
 met with in such a body ; and this was more than 
 two years before the organized anti-slavery movement 
 began. 
 
^ T . 24-25.] "THE GENIUS." 155 
 
 Less germane to the purpose of the Genius was the CHAP. vi. 
 nullification debate between Hayne and Webster in the 1829^30. 
 Senate; but Garrison could not resist printing those 
 portions of Webster s famous reply which have become 
 classic in American political and patriotic oratory. To 
 the various moral and philanthropic questions in which 
 he felt deep interest, temperance, peace, the treatment 
 of the Indians, imprisonment for debt, and the discoun 
 tenancing of lotteries, he made frequent reference. He 
 found two temperance addresses which had been sent 
 him for notice " too cold, too didactic, too speculative, to 
 create a stirring sensation in the reader, or to rouse a 
 slumbering community to a just apprehension of its 
 danger, 7 and he defined his own method of dealing with 
 the subject : 
 
 " We, who are somewhat impetuous in our disposition, and 
 singular in our notions of reform, who are so uncharitable as 
 to make no distinction between men engaged in one common 
 traffic, which shall excuse the destroyer of thousands, and heap 
 contumely on the murderer of a dozen we demand that the 
 whole truth be told, on all occasions, whether it impeaches this 
 man s reputation or injures that man s pursuit; whether it 
 induces persecution, or occasions a breach of private friend 
 ship. If the atmosphere around us is thick and contagious, 
 must it not be purified by thunder, and lightning, and storms ? 
 If we would destroy the withering influences of the poisonous 
 Upas, must we not tear it up by the roots ? We are not con 
 tent with seeing proofs multiplied that temperance is better 
 than ebriation, that a drunkard is a wretch without hope and 
 beyond rescue, that rum costs money, that i moderate drinking 
 is the downhill road to intemperance. No we go to the 
 fountain-head of the evil. If it be injurious, or criminal, or 
 dangerous, or disreputable to drink ardent spirits, it is far 
 more so to vend, or distil, or import this liquid fire. Woe 
 unto him who putteth the cup to his neighbor s lips who 
 increases his wealth at the expense of the bodies and souls of 
 men who takes away the bread of the poor, and devours 
 the earnings of industry who scatters his poison through 
 the veins and arteries of community, till even the grave is 
 burdened with his victims ! Against him must the artillery 
 of public indignation be brought to bear; and the decree 
 
156 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. VI. must go forth, as from the lips of Jehovah, that he who will 
 g deal in the accursed article can lay no claims to honesty of 
 
 purpose or holiness of life, but is a shameless enemy to the 
 happiness and prosperity of his fellow-creatures." 
 
 A week after he wrote the above, Mr. Garrison at 
 tended and spoke at the formation of a Baltimore Tem 
 perance Society ; the presiding officer of the. evening 
 being Judge Nicholas Brice, whom he was destined to 
 meet, a few months later, in somewhat, different rela 
 tions, growing out of his "intemperate" use of language 
 on the subject of slavery. 
 
 The phase of the Indian question at that time before 
 the public was the conscienceless attempt of Georgia to 
 dispossess the Cherokees of the lands which they held by 
 solemn treaty with the United States, and to expel them 
 from the State ; or, if they remained after being robbed 
 of their homes, to tax them and use their numbers (on 
 the three-fifths basis) to swell the Federal representative 
 population. President Jackson betrayed his sympathy 
 with this scheme of spoliation, and was willing to see the 
 State of Georgia set at naught the treaty obligations of 
 the National Government; and in this, as in all pre 
 vious and subsequent invasions of their sacred rights, 
 the Indians had to submit to be plundered. There were 
 many and loud protests from the benevolent and philan 
 thropic portions of the community, and Mr. Garrison 
 G. u. ., joined in them, insisting that the nation should keep its 
 1829, /. 125. plighted faith. "Expediency and policy, 77 he declared, 
 " are convertible terms, full of dishonesty and oppres 
 sion. Justice is eternal, and its demands cannot safely 
 be evaded." Nevertheless, although he was invoking the 
 aid of women in the temperance and anti-slavery move 
 ments, he was shocked when seven hundred women of 
 Pittsburgh, Pa., petitioned Congress in behalf of Indian 
 Ibid., Feb. rights. He declared it "out of place," and said, "This 
 ". 182 is? i n our opinion, an uncalled-for interference, though 
 made with holiest intentions. We should be sorry to 
 have this practice become general. There would then be 
 
^ET. 24-25.] " THE GENIUS." 157 
 
 110 question agitated in Congress without eliciting the CHAP. vi. 
 informal and contrarient opinions of the softer sex." 1 182^30. 
 
 He had not yet outgrown sectarian narrowness, and 
 he still denounced Paine and Jefferson for their " infi 
 delity," and lamented because a fete was given to La 
 fayette in France on the Sabbath. He could not even 
 express his enthusiastic admiration of Mrs. Lydia Maria 
 Child s genius without saying that he did not like her c. u. E., 
 "religious notions." And yet he protested against the 1829, /feo. 
 
 current religion in these terms : 
 
 il With reverence, and in the name of God. we ask, what sort Ibid., 
 of religion is now extant among us? Certainly not such as iB^l/^ 
 cheered the prophets through the gloom of the old dispensation, 
 and constrained them to denounce the abominations of the 
 Jews $ not such as Jesus Christ laid down his life to vindi 
 cate ] not such as was preached by the Apostles and Martyrs, 
 to their own destruction; no, not a whit! It is a religion 
 which complacently tolerates open adultery, oppression, rob 
 bery, and murder ! seldom or never lifting up a warning voice, 
 or note of remonstrance, or propitiatory sacrifice ! a religion 
 which is graduated by the corrupt, defective laws of the State, 
 and not by the pure, perfect laws of God ! a religion which 
 quadrates with the natural depravity of the heart, giving 
 license to sin, restraining no lust, mortifying not the body, 
 engendering selfishness and cruelty ! a religion which walks 
 in silver slippers, on a carpeted floor, having thrown off the 
 burden of the cross and changed the garments of humiliation 
 for the splendid vestments of pride ! a religion which has no 
 courage, no faithfulness, no self-denial, deeming it better to 
 give heed unto men than unto God ! " 
 
 Early in October, Lundy went forth to canvass for 
 subscribers, leaving Garrison in full charge of the Genius. 
 The latter s articles in favor of immediate, instead of 
 gradual emancipation, had speedily evoked letters of ex 
 postulation and remonstrance from subscribers, though 
 a few approved and endorsed the doctrine ; but, as Gar- 
 
 l Forty years later, his friend Mrs. Abby Kelley Foster, at a Woman 
 Suffrage meeting in Boston, laughingly confronted him with these long- 
 forgotten words of his ; to which he rejoined, "Whereas I was blind, now 
 I see." 
 
158 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 [JET. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 1829-30. 
 Speech to 
 Franklin 
 Club, Oct. 
 14, 1878. 
 
 G. U. ., 
 Oct. 30, 
 
 1829, /. 59. 
 
 rison afterwards described it, " Where Friend Lundy 
 could get one new subscriber, I could knock a dozen off, 
 and I did so. It was the old experiment of the frog in 
 the well, that went two feet up, and fell three feet back, 
 at every jump." The diminishing subscription-list had 
 no deterrent effect upon the editors. Garrison steadily 
 urged immediatism, and replied vigorously to his critics. 
 He was strengthened by Elizabeth Heyrick s admirable 
 letters on Colonial Slavery, and cheered by the act of 
 President Guerrero of Mexico in proclaiming immediate 
 emancipation to the ten thousand slaves in that country. 
 Of those critics who declared that the slaves, if freed and 
 turned loose, would cut the throats of their late oppress 
 ors, he exclaimed : 
 
 " Is it worth our while to reason with such men ? Need they 
 be told, that if fire be quenched, it cannot burn if the fangs 
 of the rattlesnake be drawn, he cannot be dangerous if seed 
 be annihilated, it cannot germinate ? Will they continue to 
 multiply their bugbears, and exaggerate their idle fears, and 
 prophesy evil things, and weary our ears with their ridiculous 
 cant ? If we liberate the slaves, and treat them as brothers 
 and as men, shall we not take away all motive for rebellion ? 
 And if we persist in crushing them down to the earth, and 
 lacerating their bodies with our whips, will they not rise up, 
 sooner or later, like an army of unbound giants, and carry 
 rapine and slaughter in their path *? No respond our sapient 
 advisers and far-sighted philanthropists there will be a 
 reversal of the case ! " 
 
 The twenty-first biennial session of the " American 
 Convention for the Abolition of Slavery and Improve 
 ment of the African Race in the United States " was held 
 in "Washington early in December, 1829, a room in the 
 City Hall being offered for its sessions by the Mayor and 
 Aldermen. The number of delegates present was small, 
 and their proceedings were of little value, consisting 
 largely of a discussion of various colonization schemes 
 as a means of abolishing slavery. Lundy was a delegate, 
 Garrison remaining in Baltimore. Prior to the assem 
 bling of the Convention, the Genius had announced the 
 
^ET. 24-25.] " THE GENIUS." 159 
 
 appointment of delegates to it by various anti-slavery CHAP. vi. 
 organizations in Baltimore, a "National Anti-Slavery 1829-30. 
 Tract Society, 7 the " First Baltimore Branch of the Anti- 
 Slavery Society of Maryland," and a " Convention of the 
 Anti-Slavery Societies of Maryland," but these seem to 
 have possessed no vitality, and to have had little more 
 than " a local habitation and a name." The Convention 
 adopted an Address to the Public, 1 and adjourned to 
 meet two years later. 
 
 An extraordinary sensation was caused at the South 
 during the winter of 1829-30 by the appearance of 
 i Walker s Appeal, a pamphlet written by an obscure 
 and unknown colored man in Boston, 2 who printed and 
 circulated it among people of his color as widely as his 
 means would permit. It seems singular that a produc- 
 
 1 In this Address the Convention recapitulated its objects and methods, 
 which were substantially those of all the State Societies of the close of the 
 eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. The anti-slavery 
 sentiment of that period was organized, (1) with a view to getting rid of 
 slavery, whose abolition was regarded as a foregone conclusion ; (2) to pro 
 tect the free blacks against kidnapping and reenslavement ; (3) to establish 
 schools for, and otherwise improve the condition of, the colored people. 
 It was satisfied with gradual emancipation (as in Pennsylvania), and with 
 the prohibition of slave importations. Its sense of responsibility for 
 slavery was chiefly for that under its own eyes and in its own State. Its 
 mode of action was confined to memorials to legislative bodies and gover 
 nors, and to the courts. It did not feel that responsibility for slavery 
 everywhere which Garrison was i^ao w seeking to enforce, nor did it, while 
 attacking slavery on grounds adopted by him, personally arraign the slave 
 holder, hold him criminal for not immediately emancipating his slaves, and 
 seek to make him odious and put him beyond the pale of intercourse. 
 Hence its failure to awaken any interest in the public mind, or to disturb 
 the consciences and peace of the slaveholders. 
 
 2 David Walker was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, Sept. 28, 1785, 
 of a free mother and a slave father, following, by slave law, the condition 
 of the former. He travelled extensively through the South, regarding the 
 degradation and sufferings of his race with a bitter sympathy, acquired a 
 sufficient education, and read and pondered such general historical works 
 as were procurable. At the age of forty-two, being then a resident of 
 Boston, he opened a store on Brattle Street for the sale of second-hand 
 clothes. From this unpromising laboratory there issued, two years later, 
 an octavo pamphlet of 76 pp., now very rare, entitled Walker s Appeal, in 
 four articles, together with a Preamble to the Colored Citizens of the 
 World, but in particular, and very expressly, to those of the United States 
 of America. Written in Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, Sept. 28th, 
 
160 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^ET. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. vi. tion so original, able, and important,. coming from such 
 1829^30. a source, should not have been promptly noticed in the 
 Genius, even if critically and with exceptions ; but it was 
 not until the Richmond Whig had reported, with ridicule, 
 the secret session of the Virginia Legislature to consider 
 a message from Governor Giles on the subject, and the 
 Savannah Georgian had announced similar action on the 
 part of Governor Gilmer and the Georgia Legislature, 
 that Garrison alluded to it in any way. After copying 
 the two articles above referred to, he said : 
 
 G. U. E., " We have had this pamphlet on our table for some time past, 
 1830*0 J i47 an( ^ are n t surprised at its effect upon our sensitive Southern 
 
 1829. Boston: Published by David Walker. 1829. The author had already 
 delivered an address before the General Colored Association of Boston, 
 which was printed in Freedom s Journal, Dec. 20, 1828. He now iirged the 
 free colored people to make the slave s cause their concern, as inseparably 
 connected with their own condition, and to aspire to be something more 
 than barbers and bootblacks. His first article set forth " Our wretched 
 ness in consequence of slavery"; his second, " Our wretchedness in conse 
 quence of ignorance" ; his third, " Our wretchedness in consequence of the 
 preachers of the religion of Jesus Christ"; his fourth, "Our wretchedness 
 in consequence of the colonizing plan." This last was so full and thorough 
 an exposure of the animus of the Colonization Society that it might almost 
 seem to have been the leading motive of the pamphlet. But Jefferson s 
 disparaging estimate of the capacity of the negro is also examined and 
 confuted at such length as to entitle his Notes on Virginia to be con 
 sidered at least equally the occasion of the Appeal. Its tone was dis 
 tinctly religious and prophetic. "For although the destruction of the 
 oppressors God may not effect by the oppressed, yet the Lord our God 
 will bring other destructions upon them for not unfrequently will he 
 cause them to rise up one against another, to be split, divided, and to 
 oppress each other, and sometimes to open hostilities with sword in hand " 
 (p. 5). The meek and unresisting character of the blacks was sternly cen 
 sured ; but while contending for the right of self-defence, Walker coun 
 selled entire forgiveness of the past if the slaveholders would let their 
 victims go in peace. The pamphlet ended with quotations from the 
 Declaration of Independence and some Methodistical hymns. 
 
 It had at once so great a vogue that a second edition was called for, and, 
 reaching the South, it produced much consternation among the whites, 
 especially in the seaboard slave States, where incoming vessels were 
 searched for it. On Dec. 12, 1829, the Mayor of Savannah addressed the 
 Mayor of Boston (Harrison Gray Otis) with reference, as would appear, to 
 the possible punishment of the author. Mayor Otis replied that, "not 
 withstanding the extremely bad and inflammatory tendency of the pub 
 lication," the author had not made himself amenable to the laws of 
 Massachusetts ; that he was an old-clothes dealer, and openly avowed to an 
 emissary from the Mayor s office the sentiments of his book, declaring that 
 
MT. 24-25.] " THE GENIUS." 161 
 
 brethren. It is written by a colored Bostonian, and breathes CHAP. VI. 
 the most impassioned and determined spirit. We deprecate its 
 circulation, though we cannot but wonder at the bravery and 
 intelligence of its author. The editor of the Whig must not 
 laugh at Governor Giles : his alarm was natural." 
 
 In a subsequent number of the Genius lie again spoke G. u. ., 
 of it as " a most injudicious publication, yet warranted i8 30 % 2 i95 
 by the creed of an independent people." 
 
 The law passed by the Georgia Legislature prohibited 
 the admission of free colored persons into the ports of 
 the State, declared " the circulation of pamphlets of evil 
 tendency among our domestics 7? a capital offence, and 
 
 he meant to circulate it by mail at his own expense, if need be. Mayor 
 Otis expressed his determination to warn sea-captains and others of the 
 consequences of transporting incendiary writings into the Southern States. 
 He sent (February 10, 1830) a copy of this letter to Governor Giles of Vir 
 ginia, at the same time belittling the weight of the Appeal, from "the 
 insignificance of the writer, tfie extravagance of his sanguinary fanati 
 cism," and " the very partial circulation" of the book, which had caused 
 no excitement in Boston. The Governor submitted these documents to 
 the House of Delegates on February 16, and the communication was laid 
 on the table. (See Richmond Enquirer, Feb. 18, 1830, and Boston Courier, 
 Feb. 26; the Abolitionist, monthly, 1:98 ; Williams s History of the Negro 
 Eace in America/ 2:553.) 
 
 From internal evidence it appears that the third edition of the Appeal 
 was published shortly after March 6, 1830. It was wholly reset, and con 
 tained many corrections and important additions, both to the body of the 
 text and in the shape of notes. The additions were for the most part 
 explicitly indicated, and were designedly of a character to justify the 
 epithet " sanguinary" applied by Mayor Otis. They favored a servile 
 insurrection as soon as the way was clear ; the superiority of the blacks in 
 numbers and their greater (historic) bravery in battle being dwelt upon, 
 Walker also insisted more plainly on his having had a divine commission 
 to write, and in truth he may be regarded as a sort of John the Baptist to 
 the new an ti- slavery dispensation. It is curious that no allusion is made 
 in the Appeal to Lundy s labors on behalf of the slave. Walker did not 
 long survive the third edition of his pamphlet, dying on June 28, 1830 
 some thought by foul play, as a price was set upon his head at the South ; 
 but this surmise was incorrect. His noble intensity, pride, disgust, fierce 
 ness, his eloquence and his general intellectual abOity, have not been 
 commemorated as they deserve. (See May s Recollections, p. 133, and 
 Lib., 1:17.) He is a unique figure in the anti-slavery movement. The 
 late Rev. Henry Highland Garnet reprinted the Appeal in 1858, but this 
 edition has become as scarce as the original. A copy of the third edition is 
 in the May Collection at Cornell University, inscribed "Rev. Samuel J. 
 May, from his friend and admirer, Wm. Lloyd Garrison." Mr. Garrison 
 was never acquainted with Walker. 
 
 VOL. L 11 
 
162 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. vi. made penal the teaching of free colored persons or slaves 
 1829-30. to read or write j and it was rushed through in a single 
 day on the discovery of Walker s incendiary pamphlet. 
 The Virginia House of Delegates passed a similar bill a 
 few weeks later, but it was defeated in the Senate. " The 
 circulation of this i seditious ? pamphlet/ 7 said Garrison, 
 
 G. u. ., in the last number (for him) of the Genius, u has proven 
 
 1830^.202. ne thing conclusively that the boasted security of 
 the slave States, by their orators and writers, is mere 
 affectation, or something worse." 
 
 With a diminishing subscription-list and trivial re 
 mittances from those subscribers who still consented to 
 receive the Genius, it was evident that some change would 
 be necessary at the end of the first half-year. Lundy 
 lbid ^ remarked in one issue that good wishes were so abundant 
 
 iSao 2 / 2 ^ ^at they were " not worth picking up in the street," and 
 informed those who were so prodigal of them that they 
 must give them a substantial form to prove their sin 
 cerity. Garrison, in a later number, betrayed the inevi- 
 ibid., table result of their experiment when he stated that, 
 
 1830^.^58. though their terms required payment in advance, the 
 voluntary remittances of their subscribers for more than 
 four months had not exceeded fifty dollars, while their 
 weekly expenses were at least that amount ; and, in the 
 personal meditations in which he indulged on the com- 
 ibid., pletion of his twenty-fourth year, he mentioned that he 
 
 JaH i> ^33 3 was so se ldom troubled with bits of silver, he had not 
 deemed it a piece of economy to buy so useless an article 
 as a purse. 
 
 Hitherto the partners had struggled constantly against 
 poverty and the indifference of the public to their cause. 
 Conducting their labors in a slave State, they had natu 
 rally experienced various forms of persecution, but it 
 remained for a Northern man to institute an attack on 
 the Genius and its editors which the community was 
 ready and eager to make effective. This, if it did not 
 hasten, at least insured, the discontinuance of the paper 
 as conducted by them. 
 
JET. 24-25.] 
 
 "THE GENIUS." 
 
 163 
 
 In a department of the Genius which he styled the 
 " Black List," and which bore at its head the figure of a 
 chained and kneeling negro, 1 with the motto, " Am I not 
 a Man and a Brother?" Mr. Garrison recorded each week 
 some of the terrible incidents of slavery, instances of 
 cruelty and torture, cases of kidnapping, advertisements 
 of slave auctions, and descriptions of the horrors of the 
 foreign and domestic slave trade. By common consent 
 of the principal maritime nations, the foreign slave trade 
 was now adjudged felony, and their navies united in 
 efforts for its suppression. When the additional term of 
 twenty years allowed it by the iniquitous compromise 
 clause in the United States Constitution had expired, the 
 bill forbidding its continuance, which Congress promptly 
 passed, received general support, even the Southern mem 
 bers voting for it, after securing certain modifications. 
 The traffic went on, nevertheless, and it was estimated 
 that as many as twelve or fifteen thousand kidnapped 
 Africans were annually smuggled into this country in 
 defiance of law. 2 The willing consent of some of the 
 Southern States to the legal prohibition of the foreign 
 slave trade was notoriously owing less to conscientious 
 scruples against the traffic, than to the fact that they 
 saw an opportunity of making greater gains through a 
 domestic slave trade, based on the deliberate and syste 
 matic breeding of slaves in Virginia and the Northern 
 tier of slave States, for the Southern market. The 
 deadly influences of the climate in the Gulf States, the 
 terrible hardships of plantation labor in the cotton fields, 
 
 1 This figure, originally designed for the seal of the Committee for the 
 Abolition of the Slave Trade, in October, 1787, had a powerful influence in 
 kindling anti-slavery sentiment in Great Britain, and was, with its direct 
 and pathetic appeal, no less an inspiration and incentive to the American 
 abolitionists. (See Clarkson s History of the Slave Trade, Chapter XX.) 
 
 2 How thoroughly the prohibition was disregarded can be judged from 
 the fact, that although the law required the forfeiture to the Government 
 of all slaves illegally imported after 1807, the Register of the Treasury was 
 obliged to confess, in 1819, that of more than a hundred thousand thus in 
 troduced up to that time, not one had been forfeited. Frequent record of 
 the capture of slavers by English vessels was made in the Genius. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 1829-30. 
 
 Wilson s 
 Rise and 
 Fa II of the 
 Slave Pow 
 er, i : 102, 
 103. 
 
164 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. vi. the cane-brakes, and the rice swamps, caused a high rate 
 1829^30. of mortality, retarded the increase of population, and 
 created a constant demand for fresh victims ; and these 
 it was found more safe and profitable to import from 
 Virginia than from Africa, the mortality of the inland or 
 coastwise transportation being far less than that of the 
 ocean passage. Likewise the risks of a traffic sanctioned 
 and protected by the State and National Governments 
 were trivial compared with those of a trade outlawed by 
 the civilized world. 
 
 And yet the difference between the domestic and for 
 eign slave trade was only one of degree, 1 and in many 
 respects the former equalled and even exceeded the latter 
 in its dreadful features. Comes of slaves, chained to 
 gether and driven under the lash, were constantly wend 
 ing their way on foot, under the scorching sun, along the 
 Southern highways to the distant States of Tennessee, 
 Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, or were conveyed 
 in steamers down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, or in 
 sailing vessels along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to 
 New Orleans, the great slave mart of the South. The 
 arrivals of these cargoes of living freight were reported 
 in the newspapers as unblushingly as if they had been 
 cattle, or bales of cotton, or other merchandise. 2 
 
 Ub i Fully fifty thousand slaves a year, it was estimated, 
 were sold and transported from one State to another, in 
 this infernal traffic, whose victims, torn from their kindred 
 and friends, and the homes in which they had been liter 
 ally "bred" and born (often having the blood of their 
 masters in their veins), went forth with hearts full of 
 despair to what they believed to be a certain, slow and 
 torturous death. Not infrequently they chose instant 
 
 1 Any coast slave-trader, indeed, which came within British jurisdiction, 
 was as liable to forfeit its human freight as a foreign cruiser, and this 
 happened to one such, the Enterprise, driven into Bermuda by stress of 
 weather (Lib. 5 : 47, 51, 85). 
 
 2 In a single week that ending Oct. 16, 1831 371 slaves were landed in 
 New Orleans, chiefly from Alexandria, Norfolk, and Charleston (Niles 
 Register, Nov. 26, 1831). 
 
^T. 24-25.] " THE GENIUS." 165 
 
 death by suicide in preference. Alexandria, Baltimore, CHAP. vi. 
 and Norfolk were the ports from which the Maryland i3 2 ^ 3 o. 
 and Virginia slaves were chiefly shipped ; and as Lundy s 
 soul had been stirred within him by the sight of the 
 daily processions of manacled slaves before his door at 
 Wheeling, so now was Garrison s indignation aroused 
 by this constant exportation of hapless victims to the 
 Southern markets. The discovery that a Massachusetts 
 man, and one of his own townsmen, was implicated in it 
 elicited his prompt and stinging rebuke. In the Genius 
 of November 13 he wrote, under the " Black List," as 
 follows : 
 
 DOMESTIC SLAVE TRADE. G. U. ., 
 
 Nov. 13, 
 This horrible traffic continues to be pursued with unabated 1829, p. 75. 
 
 alacrity. Scarcely a vessel, perhaps, leaves this port for New 
 Orleans without carrying off in chains large numbers of the 
 unfortunate blacks. The ship Francis, Brown, which sailed 
 hence a few weeks since, transported seventy-five. This vessel 
 hails from my native place (Newburyport, Mass.), and belongs 
 to Francis Todd. So much for New England principle! 
 Next week I shall allude more particularly to this damning 
 affair. 
 
 Following this was an account of another ship, not 
 Todd s, which had just sailed for New Orleans with 115 
 slaves. The next week, true to his promise, he returned 
 to the subject of 
 
 THE SHIP FKANCIS. Ibid., 
 
 Nov. 20, 
 This ship, as I mentioned in our last number, sailed a few 1829, p. 83. 
 
 weeks since from this port with a cargo of slaves for the New 
 Orleans market. I do not repeat the fact because it is a rare 
 instance of domestic piracy, or because the case was attended 
 with extraordinary circumstances ; for the horrible traffic is 
 briskly carried on, and the transportation was effected in the 
 ordinary manner. I merely wish to illustrate New England 
 humanity and morality. I am resolved to cover with thick 
 infamy all who were concerned in this nefarious business. 
 
 I have stated that the ship Francis hails from my native 
 place, Newburyport, (Massachusetts,) is commanded by a Yan 
 kee captain, and owned by a townsman named 
 FRANCIS TODD. 
 
166 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. VI. Of Captain Nicholas Brown I should have expected better 
 1829^30 conduct. It is no worse to fit out piratical cruisers, or to en 
 gage in the foreign slave trade, than to pursue a similar trade 
 along our own coasts ; and the men who have the wickedness 
 to participate therein, for the purpose of heaping up wealth, 
 should be ISP SENTENCED TO SOLITARY CONFINEMENT FOR 
 LIFE ; ,^11 they are the enemies of their own species highway 
 robbers and murderers; and their final doom will be, unless they 
 speedily repent, to occupy the lowest depths of perdition. I know 
 that our laws make a distinction in this matter. I know that 
 the man who is allowed to freight his vessel with slaves at 
 home, for a distant market, would be thought worthy of death 
 if he should take a similar freight on the coast of Africa 5 but 
 I know, too, that this distinction is absurd, and at war with 
 the common sense of mankind, and that God and good men 
 regard it with abhorrence. 
 
 I recollect that it was always a mystery in Newburyport how 
 Mr. Todd contrived to make profitable voyages to New Orleans 
 and other places, when other merchants, with as fair an oppor 
 tunity to make money, and sending to the same ports at the 
 same time, invariably made fewer successful speculations. The 
 mystery seems to be unravelled. Any man can gather up riches 
 if he does not care by what means they are obtained. 
 
 The Francis carried off seventy-five slaves, chained in a narrow 
 place between decks. Capt. Brown originally intended to take 
 one hundred and fifty of these unfortunate creatures j but another 
 hard-hearted shipmaster underbid him in the price of passage 
 for the remaining moiety. Capt. B., we believe, is a mason. 
 Where was his charity or brotherly kindness *? 
 
 I respectfully request the editor of the Newburyport Herald 
 
 to copy this article, or publish a statement of the facts con 
 
 tained herein not for the purpose of giving information to 
 
 Cf. ante, Mr. Todd, for I shall send him a copy of this number, but in 
 
 />. 114. order to enlighten the public mind in that quarter. G. 
 
 The editor of the Newburyport Herald did not comply 
 with this request, not deeming it prudent to offend so 
 respectable and influential a citizen as Mr. Todd by in 
 forming his townsmen what manner of freight he author 
 ized his vessel to carry ; and it is probable that the fact 
 would have been little known and soon forgotten if Mr. 
 Todd himself had been able to restrain his wrath and 
 
^T. 24-25.] "THE GENIUS." 167 
 
 keep silence. Unhappily for him, he could not. This CHAP. vi. 
 first direct, ad-hominem blow at Northern complicity 1829^30. 
 with slavery stung him to the quick, 1 and he soon took 
 measures to bring his accuser to punishment. 
 
 The Genius of January 8, 1830, contained this brief 
 announcement : 
 
 "A suit has been commenced against the Editors of this 
 paper, by Mr. Francis Todd, of Newburyport, (Mass.,) for an 
 alleged libel published in our Black List Department of Nov. 
 20, 1829. Damages laid at $5000. Our strictures were predi 
 cated upon the sound proverb Qui non vetat peccare cum possit, 
 
 Mr. Todd was not left to conduct his attack single- 
 handed. A few weeks after notice of his suit had been 
 served, there came the following presentment from the 
 Grand Jury : 
 
 BALTIMORE CITY COURT, February Term, 1830. 
 The Grand Jurors of the State of Maryland, for the body of 
 the City of Baltimore, on their oaths do present, that Benja 
 min Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison did, in a certain 
 newspaper printed and published in the City of Baltimore, on 
 the 20th day of November last, called the Genius of Universal 
 Emancipation, publish a gross and malicious libel against 
 Francis Todd and Nicholas Brown. 
 
 Witnesses, H. W. EVANS, Foreman. 
 
 Henry Thompson, 
 John W. Thompson. 
 
 True Copy from the original Presentment. 
 Teste, 
 
 Wm. Medcalf, Clerk Baltimore City Court. 
 
 1 A similar sensitiveness was betrayed by some Northern members of 
 Congress on the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson, 
 in his autobiographical Memoir of the Convention (p. 15, ed. 1830), makes 
 this record: "The clause, too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants 
 of Africa was struck out in compliance to South Carolina and Georgia, who 
 had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who, on the 
 contrary, still wished to continue it. Our Northern brethren also, I be 
 lieve, felt a little tender under these censures ; for though their people had 
 very few slaves, themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers 
 of them to others." 
 
168 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. vi. This was filed on the 19th of February, and an .action 
 1829^30. in accordance therewith was promptly entered by the 
 State of Maryland against the editors of the Genius, 
 charging them with u contriving and unlawfully, wick 
 edly, and maliciously intending, to hurt, injure and 
 vilify " Todd, " and to deprive him of his good name, 
 fame and reputation, and to bring him into great con 
 tempt, scandal, infamy, and disgrace, to the evil example 
 of all others in like manner offending, and against the 
 peace, government and dignity of the State." The case 
 was pressed to an early trial, on the first day of March, the 
 counsel for the prosecution being Jonathan Meredith and 
 R. W. Gill, while the defence was conducted by Charles 
 Mitchell, one of the most brilliant and able members of 
 the Baltimore bar. Although a stranger to Garrison (on 
 whom, as the author of the obnoxious article, the brunt 
 of the trial fell), he generously volunteered his services 
 as counsel, refusing all compensation, and defended him 
 in a brave and masterly manner. 1 
 
 The counsel for the prosecution, finding that the extracts 
 from the libellous article which they had incorporated in 
 their indictment were too weak to rest their case upon, 
 sought to have the entire article read to the jury, to 
 prove the malicious intent of the writer, which was done, 
 the court (Judge Nicholas Brice) overruling the objec 
 tions of the defendant s counsel that according such 
 liberty to a plaintiff was utterly without precedent. 
 The witnesses were Mr. Henry Thompson (Mr. Todd s 
 agent), the Pilot of the Francis, the Customs officers, and 
 the printers of the Genius, the latter being called to 
 acknowledge that they had printed the paper containing 
 the alleged libel ; but no evidence was offered to show 
 that the defendant had printed or published, or written 
 
 l " Of his attainments as a lawyer," wrote Mr. Garrison, in noticing his 
 death, a year later, " the fertility and amplitude of his mind, and the sweet 
 ness and energy of his eloquence, it is difficult to speak in sober terms. 
 The benevolence of his heart was as expansive as the ocean." Mr. Mitchell 
 was a native of Connecticut, and a son of Judge Stephen Mitchell of that 
 State (Ub. 1:111). 
 
Mi. 24-25.] " THE GENIUS." 169 
 
 or caused to be written, the obnoxious article. The CHAP. vi. 
 Pilot testified that eighty-eight slaves (thirteen more than 182^30. 
 had been stated in the Genius) men, women and chil 
 dren were received on board the Francis at Annapolis ; 
 and Mr. Thompson, who had acted as Todd s agent for 
 many years, acknowledged that, while he had contracted 
 for the transportation of slaves before consulting Mr. 
 Todd, he had immediately written to the latter, stating 
 the conditions on which the contract was made. "Mr. 
 Todd, in reply, said he should have preferred another kind 
 of freight, but as freights were dull, times hard, and money 
 scarce, he was satisfied ivith the bargain." The slaves were 
 purchased by a planter of New Orleans, named Miliighan, 
 of whom Thompson (and also Judge Brice) spoke in 
 warm terms. He likewise testified that Captain Brown 
 was a humane man, by whom the slaves were doubtless 
 kindly treated on the passage. 1 
 
 The defence deemed it unnecessary to offer further 
 evidence, having proved the shipment of slaves on the 
 Francis, and Mr. Todd s ownership of the vessel being 
 
 l That Captain Brown was personally a kind and humane man was un 
 doubtedly true, and that Mr. Garrison had esteemed him up to this time is 
 apparent from his expression of surprise and regret, in the " libellous" 
 article, that one of whom he " should have expected better conduct " should 
 be in any way implicated in the involuntary transportation, from their 
 homes and kindred, of those whose right to liberty was as clear and sacred 
 as his own. It is a fact, which did not come out at the trial, and of which 
 Mr. Garrison himself was probably never aware, that these helpless victims 
 whom Mr. Todd consented, in view of the "hard times, dull freights, and 
 scarce money," to receive as freight and cargo, had the utmost horror of 
 being carried South, and secreted themselves in the woods to escape going. 
 They were hunted, captured, and driven aboard in a half -naked condition, 
 as Captain Brown himself narrated, and so utterly destitute were they that 
 the agent of Miliighan, their new master, sent bales of clothing aboard for 
 them. Needles and thread were provided for the women, the Captain 
 further stated, the entire space between decks was given to the slaves, and 
 a prayer-meeting was held by them every day. When they reached their 
 destination (on the Mississippi river, below New Orleans), they expressed 
 their gratitude to Captain Brown for his kindness to them, and when, later, 
 on his return down the river from New Orleans, he anchored off the plan 
 tation, they again thanked him and professed themselves satisfied with 
 their new home. "It was one of the happiest hours of my father s long 
 life," writes a daughter of Captain Brown, in the Southern Workman, May, 
 1883, "as I have often heard him say, and further, that there was no act 
 
170 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. [&? 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. vi. admitted. Mr. Mitchell made an eloquent plea in behalf 
 1829^30. of his client, addressing the jury for nearly two hours. 
 " Indignation and shame for the continuance of the 
 accursed traffic in human flesh," wrote Mr. Garrison in 
 describing it, " sympathy for the poor victims of oppres 
 sion, love for the cause of universal liberty, kindled his 
 feelings into a blaze. His eloquence f was a torrent that 
 carried everything before it. He thundered he light 
 ened. " He declared that the law of libel was " the last 
 and most successful engine of tyranny, and had done 
 more to perpetuate public abuses, and to check the 
 march of reform, than any other agent"; dwelt upon 
 the inconsistency of the Government which tolerated 
 the domestic slave trade while treating the foreign traffic 
 as piracy ; and pointed out the fatal defect in the indict 
 ment, which showed no libel upon Mr. Todd, quoted 
 nothing from the article to implicate or charge him with 
 being privy or consenting to the transportation of 
 slaves, and merely stated the fact of his ownership of 
 the vessel. The postulate assumed by the writer of the 
 article, that the domestic slave trade was as heinous as 
 the foreign, that it was a war upon the human species, 
 murderous and piratical, was certainly not punishable 
 by law, but was a general view of the traffic, expressed 
 in general terms j and " the extraordinary license which 
 
 of his life that he could look back upon with more satisfaction." He was 
 not so well satisfied with the philanthropy of the undertaking, however, 
 that he cared to repeat the experiment, and that was the first and last 
 voyage on which he ever carried slaves from one taskmaster to another ; 
 and the last, also, it is believed, on which Francis Todd allowed a vessel 
 of his to be chartered for such a purpose. 
 
 Mr. Garrison derived the information on which he based his article, 
 "indirectly, from Captain Brown and the mate of the Francis, the latter a 
 son of Mr. Todd ; and directly," as he has recorded, "from a young gentle 
 man who went as passenger in the vessel to New Orleans, and who ex 
 pressed some fears of an insurrection on board, but whose testimony I 
 could not obtain in season to produce at my trial. I sent a copy of the 
 paper to Mr. Todd, according to my promise. Instead of vindicating his 
 conduct in the columns of the Genius, and endeavoring to show that my 
 statement was materially false, he entered a civil action against me, . . . 
 estimating damages at five thousand dollars " ( Brief Sketch of the Trial 
 of William Lloyd Garrison, p. 3). 
 
^T. 24-25.] " THE GENIUS." 171 
 
 had been given to the prosecution to read other parts of CHAP. vi. 
 the publication not contained in the indictment, in order 1829^30. 
 to obtain a verdict of guilty, was neither jure Jiumano nor 
 jure divino. It was taking the defendant by surprise, by 
 giving him no notice to prepare his evidence of the 
 truth of those parts omitted." In concluding, Mr. 
 Mitchell paid a warm tribute to the editors of the 
 Genius, and expressed the hope that they would be sus 
 tained by the jury and by their country. 
 
 The prosecuting attorney, Mr. Gill, made a brief re 
 joinder, defending the domestic slave trade, and denoun 
 cing Lundy and Garrison for their " fanaticism and 
 virulence." Judge Brice said that the jury would acquit 
 or convict upon the matter contained in the indictment, 
 but that they might also derive "auxiliary aid" from 
 the remainder of the article, in making up their verdict ! 
 It took the jury only fifteen minutes to return a verdict 
 in favor of the prosecution, and to declare Garrison 
 guilty of libel. Mr. Mitchell at once moved for arrest of 
 judgment, and for judgment of acquittal ; but these 
 motions, as well as one for a new trial, made by the 
 advice of the Court itself, were all overruled on the 3d 
 of April, and judgment was given on the verdict. Two 
 weeks later, the Court imposed a fine of fifty dollars and 
 costs on the offending editor, the whole amounting to 
 upwards of one hundred dollars. This was a large sum 
 at that period more, probably, than the young printer 
 had ever possessed at one time, and far more than any 
 friend to whom he might apply could afford to lend him. 
 He had no alternative, therefore, but to submit to im 
 prisonment ; and on the 17th of April, 1830, he entered 
 Baltimore Jail, amid shouts of " Fresh fish ! fresh fish ! 
 from the prisoners who peered at him from behind their 
 grated doors, and received him with the playful saluta 
 tion which they impartially extended to all new-comers. 
 
 The publication of the weekly Genius had ceased six 
 weeks previous to this event, the final number being 
 dated March 5, 1830, and completing the sixth month of 
 
172 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 24-25. 
 
 CHAP. vi. the partnership, the dissolution of which was therein 
 1829^30. announced. Lundy s valedictory was a frank statement 
 of their inability longer to continue the Genius on the 
 scale which they had essayed, and the necessity he 
 should again be under of issuing it as a monthly, in a 
 reduced form. 
 
 G. U. E., " Instead of a patronage that would enable us to pursue our 
 1830,^ 205. course with vigor, we are not afforded the means of continuing 
 our labors upon the present plan, even with the greatest exer 
 tions of body and mind. Instead of being placed in circum 
 stances that would enable us to act independently which is 
 all we have asked, and which a proper advocacy of our cause 
 requires we are compelled to struggle (harder than nature 
 will long endure) for existence itself. 
 
 " In addition to the ordinary difficulties arising from a scanty 
 patronage, as above mentioned, others of the most aggravated 
 character have presented themselves. Persecution, in some of 
 its worst forms, has been meted out with unsparing hand. 
 Threats and slanders, without number or qualification, as well 
 as libel suits and personal assaults, have been resorted to, with 
 the view of breaking down our spirits and destroying the 
 establishment. . . . 
 
 " It would be useless to say much now as to the manner in 
 which the work has been conducted the last six months. 
 Having been nearly the whole of the time (as I now am) from 
 home, with the exception of the first few weeks, the manage 
 ment of it devolved, principally, upon the junior editor. In 
 some few instances, as might have been expected, articles 
 were admitted that did not fully meet my approbation ; but I 
 fully acquit him of intentionally inserting anything knowing 
 that it would be thus disapproved ] and we have ever cherished 
 for each other the kindliest feelings and mutual personal regard. 
 Wherever his lot may in future be cast, or whatever station he 
 may occupy, he has my best wishes for happiness and pros 
 perity, both temporal and eternal. It would be superfluous in 
 me to say that he has proven himself a faithful and able coad 
 jutor in the great and holy cause in which we are engaged. 
 Even his enemies will admit it. But I cheerfully take this 
 opportunity to bear testimony to his strict integrity, amiable 
 deportment, and virtuous conduct, during the period of our 
 acquaintance. 
 
^ET. 24-25.] "THE GENIUS." 173 
 
 " On many accounts I extremely regret the necessity of taking CHAP. VI. 
 the steps above mentioned. It will not be encouraging to our ig2 ~ o 
 friends j and our opponents will chuckle at this failure of the 
 attempt to sustain a weekly publication for the promotion of 
 our cause. BUT THAT CAUSE is NOT YET TO BE ABANDONED. 
 Every energy of my mind shall still be devoted to it." 
 
 To this, Garrison added these farewell words : 
 
 " A separation from my philanthropic friend is painful, yet, G. U. ., 
 owing to adverse circumstances, unavoidable. Although our I 8oo^ 2o< 
 partnership is at an end, I trust we shall ever remain one in 
 spirit and purpose, and that the cause of emancipation will 
 suffer no detriment. 
 
 " My views on the subject of slavery have been very imper 
 fectly developed in the Genius, the cares and perplexities of 
 the establishment having occupied a large share of my time and 
 attention. Every pledge, however, that I have made to the 
 public, shall be fulfilled. My pen cannot remain idle, nor my 
 voice be suppressed, nor my heart cease to bleed, while two 
 millions of my fellow-beings wear the shackles of slavery in my 
 own guilty country. 
 
 u In all my writings I have used strong, indignant, vehement 
 language, and direct, pointed, scorching reproof. I have noth 
 ing to recall. Many have censured me for my severity but, 
 thank God ! none have stigmatized me with lukewarmness. 
 1 Passion is reason transport, temper here. " 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BALTIMORE JAIL, AND AFTER. 1830. 
 
 CHAP. vii. ~JV7~O man ever went to prison with a lighter heart or 
 8o. -L 1 cleaner conscience than Garrison j and his slumbers, 
 the first night, were as sweet and peaceful as if he had 
 been in his old home by the Merrimac. His seven weeks 
 in jail were neither idle nor unhappy weeks to him. He 
 was courteously and kindly treated by the Warden (David 
 W. Hudson), at whose family table he often took his 
 meals. He was allowed considerable freedom within the 
 walls, and made use of it to acquaint himself with some 
 of his fellow-prisoners, visiting them in their cells, and 
 being locked in with them, often, while he questioned 
 them and showed a sympathetic interest in their cases. 
 Sometimes they were permitted to come to his cell, and 
 for certain men whom he thought especially deserving 
 of consideration he drew up petitions and letters to the 
 Governor, in their name, with the result of getting the 
 sentences of several commuted. 1 
 
 The high round window of Garrison s cell commanded 
 a view of the street below, which he could see by stand 
 ing on his bed ; and on a certain Sunday afternoon, when 
 a sudden shower fell and drenched the people just coming 
 from church, he congratulated himself that he was in 
 
 l One of those who were pardoned and released was a gigantic fellow, 
 with double sets of teeth, who had been sentenced for life, for highway 
 robbery, and had served many years in a most exemplary manner. He 
 was so grateful to Mr. Garrison for the latter s efforts in his behalf, that he 
 presented him with a specimen of his handiwork a reel skilfully carved 
 within a bottle which the recipient retained for many years. 
 
 174 
 
^T. 25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 175 
 
 such dry and snug quarters, a similar sensation, he used CHAP. vn. 
 to say with a laugh, to that of the criminal on the scaf- ^o. 
 fold, with rope about his neck, who forgot his impending 
 doom in a temporary sense of delight over his secure and 
 elevated position, while a mad bull was causing the spec 
 tators below to flee for their lives. 
 
 Lundy, who had returned to Baltimore, and was again 
 issuing the Genius in a monthly pamphlet of sixteen 
 octavo pages, came frequently to the jail to see him, as 
 did his old comrade Isaac Knapp, who had come to Balti 
 more a few weeks before, to work in the Genius office. 
 Many slave-traders also visited the jail to buy slaves, the 
 poor creatures being constantly brought in, bound and 
 gagged in a frightful manner, for attempting to escape, 1 
 and Garrison did not hesitate to rebuke these dealers in 
 human flesh for their sinful occupation. His encounter 
 with a master who came to reclaim his fugitive was thus 
 related by him : 
 
 " During my late incarceration in Baltimore prison, four men Lib. i : 21. 
 came to obtain a runaway slave. He was brought out of his 
 cell to confront his master, but pretended not to know him 
 did not know that he had ever seen him before could not 
 recollect his name. Of course the master was exceedingly 
 irritated. Don t you remember, said he, when I gave you, 
 not long since, thirty-nine lashes under the apple-tree ? An 
 other time, when I gave you a sound flogging in the barn ? 
 Another time, when you were scourged for giving me the lie, 
 by saying that the horse was in a good condition ? 
 
 " i Yes, replied the slave, whose memory was thus quickened, 
 I do recollect. You have beaten me cruelly without a cause ; 
 you have not given me enough to eat and drink ; and I don t 
 want to go back again. I wish you to sell me to another 
 master I had rather even go to Georgia than to return home/ 
 
 " i I ll let you know, you villain, said the master, i that my 
 wishes, and not yours, are to be consulted. I ll learn you how 
 to run away again. 
 
 " The other men advised him to take the black home, and cut 
 him up in inch pieces for his impudence, obstinacy, and deser- 
 
 1 Maryland slaveholders seldom kept a slave who had once run away, but 
 sold him immediately for the Southern market. 
 
176 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 25. 
 
 CHAP. VII. tion swearing tremendously all the while. The slave was 
 jjj" ordered back to his cell. 
 
 " I had stood speechless during this singular dialogue, my 
 blood boiling in my veins, and my limbs trembling with emo 
 tion. I now walked up to the gang, and, addressing the master 
 as calmly as possible, said 
 
 " Sir, what right have you to that poor creature ? 
 
 " He looked up in my face very innocently, and replied 
 
 " My father left him to me. 
 
 " l Suppose, said I, your father had broken into a bank and 
 stolen ten thousand dollars, and safely bequeathed the sum as 
 a legacy : could you conscientiously keep the money "? For 
 myself, I had rather rob any bank to an indefinite amount 
 than kidnap a fellow-being, or hold him in bondage : the crime 
 would be less injurious to society, and less sinful in the sight of 
 God. 
 
 " The man and his crew were confounded. What ! to hear 
 such sentiments in Maryland, and in jail, too ! Looking them 
 full in the face, and getting no reply, I walked a few steps to 
 the door. After a brief consultation, the master came up to 
 me and said 
 
 " Perhaps you would like to buy the slave, and give him his 
 liberty? 
 
 " * Sir, I am a poor man ; and were I ever so opulent, it 
 would be necessary, on your part, to make out a clear title to 
 the services of the slave before I could conscientiously make a 
 bargain. 
 
 u After a pause, he said 
 
 " Well, sir, I can prove from the Bible that slavery is right. 
 
 " t Ah ! replied I, that is a precious book the rule of con 
 duct. I have always supposed that its spirit was directly 
 opposed to everything in the shape of fraud and oppression. 
 However, sir, I should be glad to hear your text. 
 
 " He somewhat hesitatingly muttered out 
 
 " Ham Noah s curse, you know. 
 
 " 0, sir, you build on a very slender foundation. Granting, 
 even what remains to be proved that the Africans are the 
 descendants of Ham, Noah s curse was a prediction of future 
 servitude, and not an injunction to oppress. Pray, sir, is it a 
 careful desire to fulfil the Scriptures, or to make money, that 
 induces you to hold your fellow-men in bondage ? 
 
 " l Why, sir, exclaimed the slavite, with uniningled astonish 
 ment, l do you really think that the slaves are beings like our- 
 
Mi. 25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 177 
 
 selves ? that is, I mean do you believe that they possess the CHAP. VII. 
 same faculties and capacities as the whites ? ^ Q 
 
 " Certainly, sir, I responded ; 1 1 do not know that there is 
 any moral or intellectual quality in the curl of the hair or the 
 color of the skin. I cannot conceive why a black man may not 
 as reasonably object to my color, as I to his. Sir, it is not a 
 black face that I detest, but a black heart and I find it very 
 often under a white skin. 
 
 " Well, sir, said my querist, l how should you like to see a 
 black man President of the United States ? 
 
 " As to that, sir, I am a true republican, and bow to the will 
 of the majority. If the people prefer a black President, I shall 
 cheerfully submit ; and if he be qualified for the station, may 
 peradventure give him my vote. 
 
 " i How should you like to have a black man marry your 
 daughter ? 
 
 " I am not married I have no daughter. Sir, I am not 
 familiar with your practices ; but allow me to say, that slave 
 holders generally should be the last persons to affect fastidious 
 ness on that point ; for they seem to be enamoured with 
 amalgamation. 1 
 
 " Thus ended the dialogue. . . . 
 
 Austin Woolfolk had usually visited the jail almost 
 daily, to pick up bargains for his Southern shipments ; 
 but during Garrison s incarceration he absented himself. 
 
 The first task to which the imprisoned editor addressed 
 himself was to prepare and have printed, in a pamphlet 
 of eight pages, " A Brief Sketch of the Trial of William 
 Lloyd Garrison, for an alleged libel on Francis Todd, of 
 Massachusetts." To this he invited " the attention of the 
 public, and of editors generally, as containing much in 
 struction and interest, as highly illustrative of Maryland 
 justice (as administered by Nicholas Brice), and as show 
 ing to what extent the liberty of the press is enjoyed in 
 this State," and these were his concluding comments : 
 
 " The facts are before the public. The case, I believe, is 
 important. As for the law (if it be law) which has convicted 
 me, I regard it as a burlesque upon the constitution as pitiful 
 as it is abhorrent and atrocious. It affords a fresh illustration 
 of the sentiment of an able writer, that l of all injustice, that is 
 VOL. I. 12 
 
178 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [JET. 23. 
 
 CHAP. VII. the greatest ichich goes under the name of Law ; and of all sorts of 
 tyranny, the forcing of the letter of the Laiv against the equity is 
 the most insupportable." 1 Is it supposed by Judge Brice that his 
 frowns can intimidate me, or his sentence stifle my voice, on 
 the subject of African oppression ? He does not know ine. So 
 long as a good Providence gives me strength and intellect, I 
 will not cease to declare that the existence of slavery in this 
 country is a foul reproach to the American name ; nor will I 
 hesitate to proclaim the guilt of kidnappers, slave abettors, or 
 slave owners, wheresoever they may reside, or however high 
 they may be exalted. I am only in the alphabet of my task ; 
 time shall perfect a useful work. It is my shame that I have 
 done so little for the people of color ; yea, before God, I feel 
 humbled that my feelings are so cold, and my language so 
 weak. A few white victims must be sacrificed to open the eyes 
 of this nation, and to show the tyranny of our laws. I expect, 
 and am willing, to be persecuted, imprisoned and bound, for 
 advocating African rights ; and I should deserve to be a slave 
 myself if I shrunk from that duty or danger. 
 
 " To show the vindictiveness of the prosecutor, in the present 
 instance, I would state that, not content with punishing the 
 author^ the libellous article in the Genius, he has also brought 
 a suit against my philanthropic friend Lundy, on the same 
 ground. This is a grief to me not so, however, to him. The 
 court was aware that he was out of the State when I published 
 my strictures upon Mr. Todd, and that he never saw them until 
 they appeared in print and yet another prosecution ! 1 
 
 u Deeply as I am indebted to my editorial brethren through 
 out the country, for their kind expressions toward me, I solicit 
 them to publish the facts growing out of this trial, and to make 
 such comments as may seem expedient. I think it will appear 
 that the freedom of the press has been invaded, and that power, 
 and not justice, has convicted me ; and I appeal to the people 
 for a change of the verdict. Certainly the fact would astonish 
 all Europe, if it were trumpeted in that quarter, that an Ame 
 rican citizen lies incarcerated in prison, for having denounced slavery, 
 and its abettors, in his own country ! 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 "Baltimore Jail, May 1, 1830." 
 
 The following sonnet, which he had written on the 
 wall of his cell, also appeared in the pamphlet, and is 
 
 l This suit was never pressed to trial. 
 
^T. 25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 179 
 
 unquestionably the most perfect specimen he ever pro- CHAP. vn. 
 duced of his favorite style of versification : I 8^ . 
 
 FKEEDOM OF THE MIND. 
 High walls and huge the BODY may confine, Selections 
 
 And iron grates obstruct the prisoner s gaze, fo&sof* 
 
 And massive bolts may baffle his design, W. L. G., 
 
 And vigilant keepers watch his devious ways : 
 Yet scorns th immortal MIND this base control ! 
 
 No chains can bind it, and no cell enclose : 
 Swifter than light, it flies from pole to pole, 
 
 And, in a flash, from earth to heaven it goes ! 
 It leaps from mount to mount from vale to vale 
 
 It wanders, plucking honeyed fruits and flowers ; 
 It visits home, to hear the fireside tale, 
 
 Or in sweet converse pass the joyous hours : 
 Tis up before the sun, roaming afar, 
 
 And, in its watches, wearies every star ! 
 
 Mr. Garrison next addressed brief and caustic "Cards" May 13, 
 to Judge Brice, Richard W. Gill, the prosecuting attorney 
 for the State, and Henry Thompson, Todd s agent, which 
 would have appeared in the May number of the Genius 
 but for the timidity of the printers. Two months later. G. u. E., 
 Lundy had his own office and printed them, with his " p $^ 
 usual fearlessness. Still another " Card," to Francis 
 Todd, he sent to Mr. Buckingham, who promptly pub 
 lished it in the Boston Courier, and again spoke in com 
 plimentary terms of the young editor, whose career he 
 had carefully watched from the outset. " We take the 
 liberty/ he added, " of prefixing two paragraphs from 
 his private letter, which show, even more happily than 
 the other, the complacency and^ serenity of his mind, and 
 will teach his opponents a good lesson in the art of 
 enduring misfortune " : 
 
 TT. L. Garrison to Joseph T. Buckingham. 
 
 BALTIMORE, May 12, 1830. Boston 
 
 DEAR SIR : I salute you from the walls of my prison ! So May 24, 
 weak is poor human nature, that commonly, the larger the 1830. 
 building it occupies, the more it is puffed up with inordinate 
 
180 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. [^ET. 25. 
 
 CHAP. VII. pride. I assure you, that, notwithstanding the massive dimen 
 sions of this superstructure its imperishable strength, its 
 redundant passages, its multicapsular apartments I am as 
 humble as any occupant of a ten-foot building in our great 
 Babel j which frame of mind, my friends must acknowledge, 
 is very commendable. It is true, I am not the owner of this 
 huge pile, nor the grave lord-keeper of it ; but then, I pay no 
 rent am bound to make no repairs and enjoy the luxury of 
 independence divested of its cares. . . . 
 
 Now, don t look amazed because I am in confinement. I 
 have neither broken any man s head nor picked any man s 
 pocket, neither committed highway robbery nor fired any 
 part of the city. Yet, true it is, I am in prison, as snug as a 
 robin in his cage j but I sing as often, and quite as well, as I 
 did before my wings were clipped. To change the figure : here 
 I strut, the lion of the day j and, of course, attract a great 
 number of visitors, as the exhibition is gratuitous so that 
 between the conversation of my friends, the labors of my brain, 
 and the ever-changing curiosities of this huge menagerie, time 
 flies astonishingly swift. Moreover, this is a capital place to 
 sketch the lights and shadows of human nature. Every day,, 
 in the gallery of my imagination, I hang up a fresh picture. I 
 shall have a rare collection at the expiration of my visit. . . . 
 
 A CAKD. 
 To Mr. Francis Todd, Merchant, of Newburyport, (Mass.) 
 
 SIR : As a New-England man, and a fellow-townsman, I am 
 ashamed of your conduct. How could you suffer your noble 
 ship to be freighted with the wretched victims of slavery ? Is 
 not this horrible traffic offensive to God, and revolting to 
 humanity ? You have a wife Do you love her ? You have 
 children If one merchant should kidnap, another sell, and a 
 third transport them to a foreign market, how would you bear 
 this bereavement *? What language would be strong enough to 
 denounce the abettor ? You would rend the heavens with your 
 lamentations! There is no sacrifice so painful to parents as 
 the loss of their offspring. So cries the voice of nature ! 
 
 Take another case. Suppose you and your family were 
 seized on execution, and sold at public auction : a New Orleans 
 planter buys your children a Georgian, your wife a South 
 Carolinian, yourself : would one of your townsmen (believing the 
 job to be a profitable one) be blameless for transporting you ah 1 
 thither, though familiar with all these afflicting circumstances ? 
 
^ET. 25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 181 
 
 Sir, I owe you no ill-will. My soul weeps over your error. I CHAP. VII. 
 denounced your conduct in strong language but did not you I jj~ ) 
 deserve it ? Consult your Bible and your heart. I am in prison 
 for denouncing slavery in a free country ! You, who have 
 assisted in oppressing your fellow-creatures, are permitted to 
 go at large, and to enjoy the fruits of your crime ! Cui prodest 
 sceluSj is fecit. 
 
 You shall hear from me again. In the meantime, with 
 mingled emotions, &c., &c. 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAERISON. 
 
 Baltimore Jail, May 13, 1830. 
 
 [For the Courier.] 
 
 MR. EDITOR : At the request of the State of Maryland, (through 
 the medium of Judge Nicholas Brice,) I have removed from my 
 residence in Baltimore Street to a less central but more impos 
 ing tenement. My windows are grated probably to exclude 
 nocturnal visitants, and to show the singular estimation in 
 which my person is held. The cause of this preferment arises 
 from my opposition to slavery. 
 
 I send you a Sonnet which I pencilled on the wall of my room 
 the morning after my incarceration. It is a little bulletin show 
 ing in what manner I rested during the preceding night. 
 
 SONNET TO SLEEP. 
 
 Thou art no fawning sycophant, sweet Sleep ! 
 
 That turn st away when fortune gins to frown, 
 Leaving the stricken wretch alone to weep, 
 
 And curse his former opulent renown : 
 no! but here even to this desolate place 
 
 Thou com st as twere a palace trimm d with gold, 
 Its architecture of Corinthian grace, 
 
 Its gorgeous pageants dazzling to behold : 
 No prison walls nor bolts can thee affright 
 
 Where dwelleth innocence, there thou art found ! 
 How pleasant, how sincere wast thou last night ! 
 
 What blissful dreams my morning slumber crowned ! 
 Health- giving Sleep ! than mine a nobler verse 
 
 Must to the world thy matchless worth rehearse. 
 
 W. L. G. 
 
 While editing the Genius, Garrison found no time to 
 indulge his fondness for writing verses, and some lines 
 
182 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 [Mi. 25. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 1830. 
 
 of his on the Slave Trade, in the first number, were his 
 only poetical contribution to the paper ; but during his 
 imprisonment his muse seems to have been especially 
 active, and besides the sonnets already given he wrote a 
 third, entitled 
 
 THE GUILTLESS PRISONER. 
 
 Prisoner ! within these gloomy walls close pent 
 
 Guiltless of horrid crime or venial wrong 
 Bear nobly up against thy punishment, 
 
 And in thy innocence be great and strong ! 
 Perchance thy fault was love to all mankind ; 
 
 Thou didst oppose some vile, oppressive law; 
 Or strive all human fetters to unbind; 
 
 Or wouldst not bear the implements of war : 
 What then ? Dost thou so soon repent the deed ? 
 
 A martyr s crown is richer than a king s ! 
 Think it an honor with thy Lord to bleed, 
 
 And glory midst intensest sufferings ! 
 Though beat imprisoned put to open shame 
 
 Time shall embalm and magnify thy name. 
 
 Lib .1:92. 
 
 He furthermore wrote a series of twenty stanzas in fair 
 Byronic metre, chiefly addressed to a young lady whom 
 he had met but once, some three years before, but whose 
 personal attractions had touched his susceptibilities. 
 His incidental description of a Boston " election week " 
 Ante, p. 79. or "June training" has been quoted in a previous chap 
 ter. Noticeable, also, is another poem of half a dozen 
 stanzas, inspired by a speech of Senator Frelinghuysen, 
 of New Jersey, in the United States Senate, in denuncia 
 tion of the plots in Georgia to dispossess the Cherokee 
 Indians of their lands. " If the dominant party in the 
 Senate/ wrote Mr. Garrison, in sending his poem 1 to 
 the Genius, u had not been more insensate than marble 
 statues, or their hearts more impenetrable than polar ice, 
 his speech would have effectually checked the rapacity of 
 Georgia, and rescued the American name from eternal 
 infamy. Their positive refusal to observe the faith of 
 
 1 First printed in the National Journal, Washington. It bore date " Balti 
 more Jail, May 22, 1830," and was " the hasty effusion of a moment." 
 
 G. U. ., 
 July, 1830, 
 #54. 55- 
 
. 25.] 
 
 BALTIMOKE JAIL. 
 
 183 
 
 treaties caps the climax of party depravity, which, in this 
 instance, is one degree beloiv total depravity." 
 
 The pamphlet account of the libel suit and trial soon 
 evoked wide comment and criticism from the newspapers 
 on this transparent attempt to stifle a free press. " More 
 than an hundred voices have been raised," said Lundy, 
 in the Genius, " more than an hundred periodical works 
 have denounced (many of them in no very measured 
 terms) this attack upon what we have ever considered 
 our proper editorial privileges." 1 
 
 " Up to that period," wrote Garrison subsequently, " no 
 single incident connected with the subject of slavery had ever 
 excited so much attention, or elicited such a spontaneous burst 
 of general indignation. As the news of my imprisonment be 
 came extensively known, and the merits of the case understood, 
 not a mail rolled into the city but it brought me consolatory- 
 letters from individuals hitherto unknown to me, and period 
 icals of all kinds, from every section of the Union, (not even 
 excepting the South,) all uniting to give me a triumphant 
 acquittal all severely reprehending the conduct of Mr. Todd 
 and all regarding my trial as a mockery of justice. Indeed, 
 I was in danger of being lifted up beyond measure, even in 
 prison, by excessive panegyric and extraordinary sympathy." 2 
 
 1 It is doubtful if any Northern editor expressed himself with more vigor 
 and fearlessness on the subject than George D. Prentice, then conducting 
 the New England Weekly Review at Hartford. He was at that time a warm 
 admirer of Garrison, though he had never seen him, and, after a careful 
 examination of the facts relating to the trial, he flung down the gauntlet to 
 Todd in this spirited fashion : 
 
 " The remarks in Mr. Garrison s alleged libel were strict truths truths, 
 too, which it concerns the public to know. The slave-trade is murder it 
 is piracy and if F. Todd is guilty of it, murder and piracy are among the 
 crimes for which he is answerable. Perhaps his vindictive feelings are not 
 propitiated by the sufferings of a single victim. If so, he is at perfect 
 liberty to consider us as repeating, sentence for sentence and word for 
 word, everything which Mr. Garrison has said touching him and his abom 
 inable traffick. Thank Heaven, we are not in Maryland, nor within the 
 jurisdiction of the Court from which our friend received his sentence " 
 (N. E. W. Review, May 31, 1830). 
 
 Prentice soon after resigned his position to Whittier and removed to 
 Louisville, Kentucky, where, as editor of the Journal, he became wholly 
 subservient to the Slave Power and recreant to his early professions. 
 
 2 Prentice was certainly unstinting in his praise. "Mr. Garrison is too 
 well known to the public," he said, "to need from us any testimonial either 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 1830. 
 
 G. U. E,, 
 
 June, 1830, 
 
 A 35- 
 
 Preface to 
 
 zd ed. Trial 
 
 Pamphlet, 
 
 Boston, 
 
 1834. 
 
184 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAERISON. 
 
 . 25. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 1830. 
 
 N. P. Her 
 ald, May2$, 
 1830. 
 
 The comments of no other paper were awaited with 
 such eager interest by Mr. Garrison as those of the New- 
 buryport Herald, as he naturally wished to know how 
 his old master and his townsmen regarded his course, 
 and felt anxious that they should understand and appre 
 ciate the motives which had led him to assail one of their 
 prominent citizens. Mr. Allen could not ignore the 
 appeal made in the pamphlet of his late apprentice, and 
 at length broke the silence which he had hitherto kept 
 about the matter. After briefly mentioning Garrison s 
 trial and imprisonment, he paid a generous tribute to his 
 protege, defending him against the charges of vanity, 
 love of display, and eagerness for notoriety, which had 
 been brought against him, and crediting him with only 
 lofty aspirations and motives ; and he bore this testi 
 mony : 
 
 " We are the friends of Mr. Garrison. We have known him 
 from his childhood ; he has been in our family and eaten at our 
 board. We have watched his progress in lif e with deep interest. 
 Without early advantages of education, but with a mind ex 
 ceedingly susceptible to improvement, he seized on every 
 opportunity afforded by intervals from labor to create and add 
 to his stock of information ; in a word, he was a diligent student. 
 His peculiar characteristics are an ardent temperament and 
 warm imagination ; his undeniable merits, pure purposes and 
 unshaken courage. Resolute in his convictions on subjects of 
 higher importance, he may seem (and no doubt sometimes is) 
 hasty, stubborn, and dogmatic, rash and unyielding, where 
 patience and docility would have varied his views and softened 
 his temper." 
 
 of his talents or his virtues. Among the young men of our country, he has 
 few equals and not one superior. His greatest praise, and the greatest 
 which any man can covet, is that he has devoted himself, body and soul to 
 the amelioration of our race. Without the hope, and almost without the 
 possibility, of pecuniary remuneration, he has gone out, a moral apostle, 
 among the votaries of crime and oppression, and lifted up a voice among 
 them that already makes them tremble for their ancient prerogatives. By 
 the blessing of God, he will triumph. His triumphs have already begun. 
 We would rather be W. L. Garrison, confined as he now is in a dungeon-cell, 
 than his tyrannical judge upon the bench which he has disgraced, or 
 Francis Todd in the midst of the guilty splendors of ill-gotten gold " (Ibid. ) 
 
^T. 25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 185 
 
 But while condemning the domestic slave trade, and CHAP. vn. 
 applauding Garrison s reprobation of it, Mr. Allen thought l8 ^o. 
 that in assailing Todd he had stepped aside to wound 
 those who were not and never would be guilty of joining 
 in the traffic ; and that his charge had been based on 
 " vague rumor, hasty conversation, and scattered facts," 
 and not fully sustained. That Todd considered such a 
 charge a libel on his reputation, was a circumstance 
 highly in his favor, and showed that he himself thought, 
 with the just and benevolent, that the traffic ought not 
 to be supported, a very amusing theory, in view of the 
 facts proved at the trial. 
 
 To this article Mr. Garrison promptly replied in a 
 letter which filled nearly three columns of the Herald : 
 
 W. L. Garrison to EpJiraim W. Allen. 
 
 To THE EDITOR OF THE NEWBURYPORT " HERALD." N. p. Her 
 
 ald, June \\, 
 DEAR SIR : I thank you for a copy of the Herald containing 1830. 
 
 a notice of my late trial for an alleged libel on Mr. Francis 
 Todd. Your encomiums I receive with pleasure and humility. 
 The esteem of a good man is always worth possessing ; but to 
 him who stands comparatively alone in the world fatherless, 
 motherless, without wealth, and unassisted by the influence of 
 relatives and who has just passed the vestibule of manhood, it 
 is invaluable. I have received too many kindnesses at your 
 hands to doubt your friendship ; and too many ever to forget 
 the obligations under which I labor. 
 
 Yet there are some passages in your review which seem to 
 require a brief interrogation : 
 
 You say : 
 
 " When carried on by system, for purposes of traffic, the domestic 
 slave trade deserves the reprobation of every man who dares 
 call himself free, or just, or humane." 
 
 Surely, sir, you do not mean to justify or palliate the occa 
 sional transportation of slaves ? If the whole system be abhor 
 rent to humanity, can any part of it be venial? If Austin 
 Woolfolk (a slave-exporter of devilish notoriety in Maryland) 
 deserves the withering indignation of a virtuous community 
 for carrying on the trade regularly, does not Francis Todd (or 
 any other merchant) merit reprobation in a less degree, cer- 
 
186 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 25. 
 
 CHAP. VII. tainly for dipping into it irregularly f In a case of theft, is 
 it not an orthodox maxim, that " the receiver (i. e. he who knows 
 that the goods are stolen) is as bad as the thief ? " Even if a 
 man connives at crime, though he is not the immediate perpe 
 trator thereof, the law does not hold him guiltless ; and common 
 sense tells us that it should not. 
 
 The above quotation carries a pernicious inference contrary, 
 I am sure, to your intention. But why not have explicitly 
 declared, that no device should protect the man from public 
 indignation who assists in any way, or however rarely, in ex 
 tending and perpetuating the horrible traffic ? For myself, 
 neither the terrors of the law, nor the fires of martyrdom,* 
 shall deter me from invoking confiscation and imprisonment 
 upon every such abettor. Pope illustrates the distinction with 
 admirable conciseness : 
 
 " Friend, spare the person, and expose the vice." 
 " How ! not condemn the sharper, but the dice ! " 
 
 Moreover, you remark : "If, in assailing the traffic, Mr. Gar 
 rison steps aside to wound those ivlio are not, and would never 
 be, guilty of joining in it, he is neither to be justified nor com 
 mended," &c., &c. [Certainly not.] " And he who is made 
 the object of the odious charge, if innocent, is not to be brow 
 beaten for taking lawful steps to vindicate his character." 
 [Ditto.] 
 
 There is a gratuitous insinuation in these truisms, which is 
 calculated to injure my character with those who are ignorant 
 of the merits of the present case. Have I gone out of my way 
 to attack an innocent man ? If not, where is the pertinency of 
 your remarks ? Now, I substantially proved the truth of my 
 allegations at my trial namely, that the Francis carried slaves 
 to New Orleans, and that she was owned by Mr. Todd : nay, 
 that thirteen more were taken than I had represented. Yet you 
 do not apprise your readers of these facts, but leave them to 
 infer that I have slandered the character of this gentleman in 
 the most wilful and unpardonable manner ! ! Is this suppres 
 sion commendable ? . . . 
 
 If Mr. Todd had been innocent, he would not have instan 
 taneously kindled into a passion, and presented me as a libeller 
 to a jury whom he suspected of cherishing hostile feelings to- 
 
 * A few days since, Judge Brice observed to the Warden of the Jail, that 
 " Mr. Garrison was ambitious of becoming a martyr." " Tell his Honor," 
 I responded, "that if his assertion be true, he is equally ambitious of 
 gathering the faggots and applying the torch." 
 
J3T. 25.] BALTIMORE JAIL. 187 
 
 wards the Genius of Universal Emancipation. Charitably be- CHAP. VII. 
 lieving that I had been unwittingly led into error, he would I ^ 
 have corresponded with me on the subject, and demanded a 
 public apology for the injury inflicted upon his character j and 
 I would have promptly made that apology yea, upon my 
 bended knees. For I confidently assert, that no individual who 
 knows me personally not even the accused himself believes 
 that I was instigated by malice in the publication of my strict 
 ures. I make no other charge against him. If I have enemies, I 
 forgive them I am the enemy of no man. My memory can no 
 more retain the impression of anger, hatred or revenge, than 
 the ocean the track of its monsters. 
 
 The admonition of Ganganelli, that libels and satires make an 
 impression only upon weak and badly organized heads, ought not 
 to have been lost upon Mr. Todd especially if his hands were 
 clean and his heart white. Moreover, what if the times were 
 hard, freights dull, and money scarce was he in danger of 
 starvation ? And, if so, how much nobler would have been 
 his conduct, if he had adopted the language of the martyred 
 patriot of England the great Algernon Sidney ! 
 
 " I have ever had in my mind, that when God should cast me into such a 
 condition as that I cannot save my life but by doing an indecent thing, he 
 shows me the time has come wherein I should resign it ; and when I cannot 
 live in my own country but by such means as are worse than dying in it, I 
 think he shows me I ought to keep myself out of it." 
 
 Finally, you observe : " We cannot, in such comment as Mr. 
 Garrison desires editors generally to make on his prosecution j 
 and we cannot, in our real friendship to him, praise him for any 
 act of rashness and indiscretion." 
 
 I ask, deserve, and expect the praise of no individuals for my 
 labors j because I am merely endeavoring to perform my duty 
 and, as I fall far short of that duty, therefore I cannot be 
 meritorious. You misapprehend the nature of the comments 
 that I requested editors to make upon my trial. It is my solemn 
 belief, that a more flagrant infringement upon the liberty of the 
 press than is presented in the decision of the Court, is hardly to 
 be found in the record of libellous prosecutions in France or 
 Great Britain. I was convicted upon an indictment which was 
 utterly defective, and as innocent as blank paper evidence 
 failing to prove that I had printed or published, or had any 
 agency in printing or publishing, or had written or caused to 
 be written, or had even seen or known anything of, the obnoxious 
 
188 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 1830. 
 
 CHAP. VII. article ! ! Here, then, seemed to be an extraordinary procedure, 
 unparalleled for its complexion in this country at least, and 
 dangerous to the freedom of public discussion deserving, in a 
 special manner, the animadversion of every watchful patriot : 
 An editor convicted of writing and publishing a " false, wicked 
 and malicious libel," without any authentic evidence of his guilt, 
 and upon the most whimsical pretenses ! ! I solicited no sym 
 pathy for myself : I only requested editors to look at the law 
 and the facts, and to vindicate their prerogative. " Let it be 
 impressed upon your minds," says Junius, il let it be instilled 
 into your children, that the liberty of the press is the palladium 
 of all your civil, political and religious rights." . . . 
 
 If I am prompted by " vanity " in pleading for the poor, de 
 graded, miserable Africans, it is at least a harmless, and, I 
 hope, will prove a useful vanity. Would to God it were epi 
 demical ! It is a vanity calculated to draw down the curses of 
 the guilty, to elicit the sneers of the malevolent, to excite the 
 suspicion of the cold-hearted, to offend the timidity of the waver 
 ing, to disturb the repose of the lethargic j a vanity that 
 promises to its possessor nothing but neglect, poverty, sorrow, 
 reproach, persecution and imprisonment with the approbation 
 of a good conscience, and the smiles of a merciful God. I think it 
 will last me to the grave. 
 
 But why so vehement ? so unyielding ? so severe ? Because 
 the times and the cause demand vehemence. An immense ice 
 berg, larger and more impenetrable than any which floats in the 
 arctic ocean, is to be dissolved, and a little extra heat is not only 
 pardonable, but absolutely necessary. Because truth can never 
 be sacrificed, and justice is eternal. Because great crimes and 
 destructive evils ought not to be palliated, nor great sinners 
 applauded. With reasonable men, I will reason ; with humane 
 men, I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor 
 waste arguments where they will certainly be lost. 
 
 The hearts of some individuals are like ice, congealed by the 
 frigidity of a wintry atmosphere that surrounds, envelopes and 
 obdurates. These may be melted by the rays of humanity, the 
 warmth of expostulation, and the breath of prayer. Others are 
 like adamantine rocks ; they require a ponderous sledge and a 
 powerful arm to break them in pieces, or a cask of powder to 
 blow them up. Truth may blaze upon them with midday in- 
 tenseness, but they cannot dissolve. 
 
 Everyone who comes into the world should do something to 
 repair its moral desolation, and to restore its pristine loveliness ; 
 
 Cf. Lib. i : 
 n,andS.J. 
 May s Rec 
 ollections, 
 P- 37- 
 
MT. 25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 189 
 
 and he who does not assist, but slumbers away his life in idle- CHAP. VII. 
 ness, defeats one great purpose of his creation. But he who, ^JT 
 not only refusing to labor himself, endeavors to enlarge and 
 perpetuate the ruin, by discouraging the hearts of the more in 
 dustrious, and destroying their beautiful works, is a monster 
 and a barbarian, in despite of his human nature and of civili 
 zation. 
 
 With sentiments of high esteem and ardent affection, I sub 
 
 scribe myself, 
 
 Yours, to the grave, 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 NOTE. . . . No doubt many merchants in New England 
 will condemn me, for the significant reason urged by the editors 
 [of the Boston Commercial Gazette] , namely, " a proper regard 
 for their own characters." Why ? Because they are guilty, 
 and dread exposure. It is a shameful fact, and in private 
 conversation it is thrown at me repeatedly, that the transpor 
 tation of slaves is almost entirely effected in New England 
 bottoms ! ! ! The case of Mr. Todd is not a rare one. I was 
 very warmly conversing, the other day, with a slave-owner on 
 the criminality of oppressing the blacks, when he retorted 
 "Your preaching is fine, but it is more especially needed at 
 home. I detest the slave trade it is cruel and unpardonable : 
 yet your Eastern merchants do not scruple to embark in it." 
 " Sir," I replied, " I do not endorse their conduct. The fact 
 that you state is humiliating. Am I not confined in prison for 
 exposing one of their number ? Let them beware ! Every one 
 whom. I detect in this nefarious business merchant or master 
 shall be advertised to the world." 
 
 My punishment does not dishearten me. Whether liberated 
 or not, my pen shall not remain idle. My thoughts flow as 
 copiously, my spirit towers as loftily, my soul flames as in 
 tensely, in prison, as out of it. The court may shackle the 
 body, but it cannot pinion the mind. 
 
 W. L. G. 
 
 Baltimore Jail, June 1, 1830. 
 
 Among the friends to whom Garrison had written, 
 from his prison cell, a bright and cheerful letter, similar 
 to that printed in the Boston Courier, was the poet 
 Whittier, who felt deeply troubled about his confinement 
 
190 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [^-r. 25. 
 
 CHAP. vii. and tried to devise some means of effecting his release. 
 I j^ . He could think of nothing better than to write to Henry 
 
 Lib. 34 : 49. Clay, asking him to use his influence with his personal 
 and political friends in Baltimore to that end, and he 
 took pains to remind the Kentucky statesman that the 
 imprisoned editor had nominated him for the Presidency 
 two years before, and was his warm admirer. Clay soon 
 afterwards replied that he had communicated with a 
 friend (Hezekiah Niles) in Baltimore, in compliance with 
 Whittier s request, and had just learned from his corre 
 spondent that he had been anticipated, and that the 
 liberation had been effected without the aid he would 
 otherwise have given. Clay was probably disposed to 
 unite with his friend Niles in paying the fine, if the latter 
 considered the case a worthy one, and to testify thus his 
 appreciation of the support which both Garrison and 
 Whittier had given him in the Journal of the Times and 
 the Boston Manufacturer.^ 
 
 Garrison had nearly completed his seventh week in 
 jail when Lundy received the following letter from a 
 New York merchant, well known for his philanthropy 
 and generosity : 
 
 Arthur Tappan to Benjamin Lundy. 
 
 MS. NEW YORK, May 29, 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR : I have read the sketch of the trial of Mr. Garrison 
 with that deep feeling of abhorrence of slavery and its abettors 
 which every one must feel who is capable of appreciating the 
 blessings of liberty. If one hundred dollars will give him his 
 liberty, you are hereby authorized to draw on me for that sum, 
 and I will gladly make a further donation of the same amount 
 to aid you and Mr. GL in re-establishing the Genius of Universal 
 Emancipation as published by you previous to its assuming the 
 pamphlet form. Such a paper is much needed to hold up to 
 American freemen, in all its naked deformity, the subject of 
 
 l He had never seen either of them. Years afterwards he met Whittier 
 in Washington, and asked the poet why he no longer supported him. 
 Whittier frankly replied that he could not support a slaveholder. Clay 
 was "pleasant, cordial, and magnetic in manner." 
 
JET. 25.] BALTIMORE JAIL. 191 
 
 slavery as it now exists in our country; and I earnestly hope CHAP. VI I. 
 you will find encouragement to resume it and to give it a wide I Z 
 circulation. I am with esteem 
 
 Yr. obt. servant, 
 
 ARTHUR TAPPAN. * 
 
 The Warden s receipt for $5.34 in payment of jail fees 
 shows that Mr. Garrison was released on the 5th of June, 
 1830, after an imprisonment of forty-nine days. Two 
 days later he started for Massachusetts, to obtain certain 
 evidence which his counsel deemed important for the 
 trial yet pending on Todd s suit. He took with him a 
 written circular, " To the Friends of the Anti-Slavery J/5. 
 Cause," signed by Lundy and dated Baltimore, June 7, 
 which proposed the renewal of the weekly Genius and 
 continuation of the monthly issue, provided a sufficient 
 patronage could be obtained. " My friend W. L. G. will 
 show the foregoing to such persons as he may think 
 
 l Arthur Tappan (1786-1865), a native of Northampton, Mass., began his 
 business career in Portland, Me., in 1807, removing thence in 1809 to Mon 
 treal, where he prospered until the War of 1812 destroyed his business and 
 compelled him to leave Canada at a great sacrifice. Establishing himself 
 in New York in 1815, he succeeded eventually in building up a large and 
 profitable silk trade, and became one of the best-known merchants in the 
 country, whose name was a synonym for uprightness. A man of the most 
 simple tastes and frugal habits, he gave lavishly of his fortune to aid the 
 religious and philanthropic movements of the day, and contributed tens of 
 thousands of dollars to the support of the Tract and Bible Societies, theo 
 logical seminaries, and various educational and reformatory efforts. His 
 early espousal of the slave s cause, and the moral and material support 
 which he brought to the anti-slavery movement, were therefore of incalcu 
 lable value and importance. "With a sound understanding," wrote Mr. 
 Garz ison of him, "a great conscience to the dictates of which he was in 
 flexibly true, a genuine humility that did not wish the left hand to know 
 what the right hand performed, a moral courage that could look any 
 reproach or peril serenely in the face in the discharge of what seemed to 
 be an imperative duty, a sense of rectitude commensurate with the golden 
 rule, a spirit of philanthropy as comprehensive and universal as the one 
 blood of all nations of men, a liberality rarely paralleled in the consecra 
 tion of his means to deliver the oppressed and to relieve suffering humanity 
 in all its multifarious aspects, and a piety that proved its depth and gen 
 uineness by the fruits it bore, his example is to be held up for imitation to 
 the latest posterity." (See Life of Arthur Tappan, p. 424.) The founder 
 of the Tappan family in this country settled in Newbury, Mass., so that 
 Mr. Garrison s benefactor, like himself, was of Essex County descent (Hist, 
 and Genealogical Register, 14:327, and for Jan., 1880, pp. 48-55). 
 
192 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. 
 
 . 25. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 1830. 
 
 Life of A. 
 
 Tappan, p. 
 
 163- 
 
 Boston 
 
 Courier, 
 
 June ii, 
 
 1830. 
 
 MS. 
 
 proper," added Lundy in a postscript, " and give any 
 further explanations of our intentions that he may think 
 necessary." 
 
 On his arrival in New York, he at once called on his 
 benefactor, Arthur Tappan, to express his gratitude for 
 the unexpected service rendered him. " His appearance 
 and deportment at that time," wrote Lewis Tappan, 
 "were not likely to be forgotten. His manly form, 
 buoyant spirit, and countenance beaming with conscious 
 rectitude, attracted the attention of all who witnessed 
 his introduction to Mr. Tappan." He proceeded without 
 delay to Newburyport, passing through Boston on the 
 10th of June, and paying his respects to friendly Mr. 
 Buckingham of the Courier. 
 
 W. L. Garrison to Jflbenezer Dole, 1 at Hallowell, Maine. 
 
 BALTIMORE, July 14, 1830. 
 
 EESPECTED AND BENEVOLENT SIR : At the request of my 
 Counsel, and at the desire of my friend Lundy, I visited 
 Boston and Newburyport a few weeks since, in order to get 
 some essential evidence to be used in the civil action which is 
 now pending against me in this city ; and also to see whether 
 anything could be done towards renewing, and permanently 
 establishing, the weekly publication of the Genius. I left Balti 
 more without adequate means to carry me home, relying upon 
 Providence to open a door of relief. On my arrival in New 
 York, I was accidentally introduced to a gentleman named 
 Samuel Leggett, who generously offered me a passage to 
 Ehode Island, in the splendid steamboat President, he being a 
 stockholder therein. Thus I was most unexpectedly relieved 
 of my embarrassment, and enabled to reach my place of desti 
 nation. Mr. L. said that he had read with indignation the 
 proceedings of the court at my late trial, and was glad to have 
 an opportunity of serving me. I gave him many thanks for 
 his kindness. 
 
 I found the minds of the people strangely indifferent to the 
 subject of slavery. Their prejudices were invincible, stronger, 
 
 l Ebenezer Dole was born in Newburyport, Mass., in 1776. He was a 
 descendant in the fifth generation of Richard Dole, of Newbury, by his 
 first wife. The second wife, Hannah Brocklebank, widow of Capt. Samuel 
 Brocklebank (ante, p. 3), was an ancestor of Mr. Garrison s. 
 
^ET. 25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 193 
 
 if possible, than those of slaveholders. Objections were started CHAP. VI I. 
 on every hand ; apologies for the abominable system constantly J jj~ o 
 saluted my ears ; obstacles were industriously piled up in my 
 path. The cause of this callous state of feeling was owing to 
 their exceeding ignorance of the horrors of slavery. What was 
 yet more discouraging, my best friends without an exception 
 besought me to give up the enterprise, and never to return 
 to Baltimore ! It was not my duty (they argued) to spend my 
 time, and talents, and services, where persecution, reproach 
 and poverty were the only certain reward. My scheme was 
 visionary fanatical unattainable. Why should I make my 
 self an exile from home and all that I held dear on earth, and 
 sojourn in a strange land, among enemies whose hearts were 
 dead to every noble sentiment 1 ? &c., &c., &c. I repeat all 
 were against my return. But I desire to thank God, that he gave 
 me strength to overcome this selfish and pernicious advice. 
 Opposition served only to increase my ardor, and confirm iny 
 purpose. 
 
 But how was I to return ? I had not a dollar in my pocket, 
 and my time was expired. No one understood my circum 
 stances. I was too proud to beg, and ashamed to borrow. My 
 friends were prodigal of pity, but of nothing else. In the ex 
 tremity of my uneasiness, I went to the Boston Post-office, and 
 found a letter from my friend Lundy, enclosing a draft for 
 $100, from a stranger yourself, as a remuneration for my 
 poor, inefficient services in behalf of the slaves ! Here Provi 
 dence had again signally interfered in my behalf. After de 
 ducting the expenses of travelling, the remainder of the above- 
 named sum was applied in discharging a few of the debts 
 incurred by the unproductiveness of the Genius. 
 
 As I lay on my couch one night, in jail, I was led to contrast 
 my situation with that of the poor slave. Ah ! my dear Sir, 
 how wide the difference ! In one particular only, (I said,) our 
 conditions are similar. : He is confined to the narrow limits of 
 a plantation I to the narrow limits of a prison-yard. Further 
 all parallels fail. My food is better and more abundant, as I 
 get a pound of bread and a pound of meat, with a plentiful 
 supply of pure water, per diem. I can lie down or rise up, sit or 
 walk, sing or declaim, read or write, as fancy, pleasure or profit 
 dictates. Moreover, I am daily cheered with the presence and 
 conversation of friends ; I am constantly supplied with fresh 
 periodicals from every section of the country, and, conse 
 quently, am advertised of every new and interesting occurrence. 
 VOL. L 13 
 
194 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 25. 
 
 CHAP. VII. Occasionally a letter greets me from a distant place, filled with 
 i8~> consolatory expressions, tender remembrances, or fine compli 
 ments. If it rain, my room is a shelter j if the sun flame too 
 intensely, I can choose a shady retreat ; if I am sick, medical 
 aid is at hand. Besides, I have been charged with a specific 
 offence have had the privilege of a trial by jury, and the aid 
 of eminent counsel and am here ostensibly to satisfy the de 
 mands of justice. A few months, at the longest, will release me 
 from my captivity. 
 
 Now, how is it with the slave ? He gets a peck of corn 
 (occasionally a little more) each week, but rarely meat or fish. 
 He must anticipate the sun in rising, or be whipped severely 
 for his somnolency. Eain or shine, he must toil early and late 
 for the benefit of another. If he be weary, he cannot rest for 
 the lash of the driver is flourished over his drooping head, or 
 applied to his naked frame ; if sick, he is suspected of laziness, 
 and treated accordingly. For the most trifling or innocent 
 offence, he is felled to the earth, or scourged on his back till it 
 streams with blood. Has he a wife and children, he sees them 
 as cruelly treated as himself. He may be torn from tjiem, or 
 they from him, at any moment, never again to meet on earth. 
 Friends do not visit and console him : lie has no friends. He 
 knows not what is going on beyond his own narrow boundaries. 
 He can neither read nor write. The letters of the alphabet are 
 cabalistical to his eyes. A thick darkness broods over his soul. 
 Even the " glorious gospel of the blessed God," which brings 
 life and immortality to perishing man, is a sealed book to his 
 understanding. Nor has his wretched condition been imposed 
 upon him for any criminal offence. He has not been tried by 
 the laws of his country. No one has stepped forth to vindicate 
 his rights. He is made an abject slave, simply because God has 
 given him a skin not colored like his master s ; and Death, the 
 great Liberator, alone can break his fetters. 
 
 Reflections like the foregoing turned my prison into a palace. 
 Can you wonder, benevolent Sir, that I was enabled to sing, 
 after such an amazing contrast, with a heart overflowing with 
 gratitude, 
 
 " When all thy mercies, O my God, 
 
 My rising soul surveys, 
 Transported with the view I m lost 
 In wonder, love and praise!" 
 
 If the public sympathy is so strongly excited in my be 
 half, because justice has been denied me in a single instance, 
 
JEf. 25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 195 
 
 how ought it to flame for TWO MILLIONS of as valuable CHAP. vn. 
 and immortal souls, who are crushed beneath the iron car ~ o 
 of despotism ? that my countrymen would look at things in 
 their true light ! that they might feel as keenly for a black 
 skin as for a white one ! forgetting me entirely, and thinking 
 only of the poor slave ! 
 
 Your generosity deeply affects my heart ; but as I have done 
 nothing, and can do nothing, in the cause of African emanci 
 pation, to merit such a gift, I must receive your donation only 
 as a loan on interest to be repaid as soon as Providence may 
 enable me to do so. At present, I am opulent in nothing but 
 gratitude, though my language is cold and penurious. Be good 
 enough to make my acknowledgments to Mr. J. C. Lovejoy, 
 for his friendly sympathies. Friend Lundy desires to be affec 
 tionately remembered. May God bless and prosper you and 
 yours, is the prayer of 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.! 
 
 Mr. Garrison lingered in Baltimore for several weeks 
 after the above letter was written, but, finding that his 
 second trial, on Todd s personal suit, would not occur 
 till the fall, unable to wait there so long, and satisfied 
 that he could expect no justice from a Maryland jury or 
 court, he determined to make no contest, and to let the 
 case go by default. When it came to trial, therefore, 
 the evidence was entirely one-sided and substantially 
 the same as that given in the previous trial, though 
 Captain Brown now appeared by deposition, testifying 
 that the slaves were kindly treated on the voyage, and 
 claiming credit for having " actually relieved their con- Lib. i . 2. 
 dition in some degree," since he had carried them to " a 
 climate much more congenial to their nature." He also 
 expressed his belief that this was the only case in which 
 Mr. Todd had allowed slaves to be carried in any of his 
 
 1 Appended to this letter was the following note, which Mr. Dole carefully 
 cancelled by drawing his pen emphatically across it several times : 
 
 $100. BALTIMORE, July 14, 1830. 
 
 For value received, I promise to payEbenezer Dole, or his order, the sum 
 of One Hundred Dollars, with interest, on demand. 
 
 Witness, Isaac Knapp. WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 The original letter is in possession of the Union League Club of New York. 
 
196 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [^T. 25. 
 
 CHAP. vii. vessels, and his certain knowledge that Todd had never 
 1830. owned a slave in his life. 
 
 The defendant failing to appear, 1 the case was sub 
 mitted to the jury, who returned a verdict for Todd, 
 with damages of one thousand dollars ; but payment of 
 this was never enforced, the defendant being safely 
 beyond the reach of Maryland law. The proceedings of 
 this trial were printed in the first number of the Libera 
 tor by Mr. Garrison, who subsequently published a 
 candid commentary on them, disclaiming any personal 
 hostility to Mr. Todd and Captain Brown, and asserting 
 that in the publication of his strictures he was governed 
 by the following very practical motives : 
 
 Lib. 1:9. " 1. A sense of duty, as an advocate of freedom, and a hater 
 of tyranny and of all its abettors. 2. A desire to evince to the 
 Southern people, that, in opposing slavery, I disregarded all 
 sectional feelings, and that a New-England assistant was as 
 liable to reprehension as a Maryland slaveholder. 3. A belief 
 that the publication would ever afterward deter Mr. Todd from 
 venturing into the domestic slave trade ; and that it would be 
 a rod over the backs of New -England merchants generally. 
 
 tt Having proved, on my first trial, my main charges viz., 
 that the Francis carried away the slaves, and even thirteen 
 more than I had stated that the ship was owned by Mr. 
 Todd and that he was privy to the transaction I deter 
 mined to incur no expense, and to give myself no trouble, in 
 relation to the second suit. I knew that my judges must be 
 men tainted with the leprosy of oppression, with whom it 
 would be useless to contend men morally incapable of giving 
 an impartial verdict, from the very nature of their pursuit. 
 And here let me observe, en passant, that, though I do not say 
 that a packed jury has convicted me, yet, knowing as I do how 
 juries are selected in Baltimore, and recognizing also some of 
 my condemners, I consider my trial as having had all the for 
 mality, but none of the substance, of justice. . . . 
 
 " Mr. Todd, as a high-minded man, should have been satis 
 fied with the result of the former trial. The second suit betrays 
 the meanness of avarice and the littleness of revenge. It was 
 
 l " I am willing that the Court should have all the sport to itself," wrote 
 Garrison to Lundy; "I give Mr. Todd every advantage" (Genius, Nov., 
 1830, p. 114). Todd s attorney accused him of having " absconded." 
 
J3T.25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 197 
 
 not so much a desire to clear his reputation, as to gain a few CHAP. vn. 
 dollars or gratify a vindictive spirit, that induced the prosecu- i jj~ 
 tion. 
 
 " It is averred, that, after his [Garrison s] conviction in the 
 City Court, he was distinctly informed through his Counsel, 
 that as Mr. Todd had no vindictive feelings to gratify, the suit 
 would be withdrawn, if a proper apology and recantation of 
 the calumny were put upon record. This is true ; and it is also 
 true that I refused to comply with the demand, because I never 
 will apologize for telling the truth. 
 
 " With regard to the truth of my allegation, that chains were 
 used on board the Francis, it could not be substantiated except 
 by summoning the crew. Generally speaking, irons are insep 
 arable from the slave trade ; nor is this usage a grievance in 
 the eye of the law, but a preservative right on the part of 
 owners and masters of vessels engaged in the perilous traffic. 
 Whether the slaves, in this instance, were confined or not, was 
 immaterial to the formation of a verdict. I am now disposed 
 to believe, however, that no chains were used on board of the 
 Francis. 
 
 u It is certainly true, as stated in my libellous article, that 
 Mr. Todd has been remarkably successful in his commercial 
 speculations ; but I do not know that he has ever been guilty 
 of carrying slaves in his vessels, excepting in this particular 
 instance. He says that this was his first cargo of souls, and 
 Capt. Brown corroborates his assertion ; and I am almost as 
 sure that it will be his last. 
 
 " Leaving Mr. Todd, (to his relief and my own,) my business 
 is next with Capt. Brown and his fanciful affidavit. He says 
 he received on board of the Francis eighty-eight black passen 
 gers a very delicate substitute for slaves. These passengers, 
 he concedes, belonged to a new master, named Milligan, who 
 was present at the time of their embarkation, and assured them 
 that they were not to be sold again at New Orleans but that 
 he intended them all for his own estate. No doubt this trader 
 in souls was fruitful in promises ; but what security had the 
 slaves for their fulfilment ? Nothing but the mere say-so of 
 their unprincipled buyer ; or, to borrow the courtly language 
 of Capt. Brown, nothing but the honor and integrity of Mr. 
 Milligan. 
 
 " I do not care whether the slaves were bought expressly for 
 the New Orleans market, or for Milligan s own use ; it does 
 not, in my estimation, alter the aspect of the affair. If they 
 
198 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. [^T. 25. 
 
 CHAP. vii. were to be sold, they might get a better they might get a 
 i8~o worse master than Milligan. They are disposable property ; 
 and he who bought them to make money, would assuredly sell 
 them for the same reason, whenever an opportunity presented 
 itself. To say that they were not intended for public sale, is a 
 contemptible quibble. Of this I was aware : that they were 
 slaves the creatures of an absolute despotism j that they 
 were human beings, entitled to all the privileges and enjoy 
 ments of liberty j and that no man could assist in their oppres 
 sion without participating in the guilt of the purchase. I must 
 ever regret that New England men were engaged in the 
 inhuman traffic, but not that I promptly exposed them to 
 public censure. . . . 
 
 " The decision of the Court upon my trial forms the paradox 
 of paradoxes. The law says that the domestic slave trade is a 
 legal business, and no more criminal than the most innocent 
 mechanical or commercial pursuit ; and, therefore, that any man 
 may honestly engage in it. Yet, if I charge an individual with 
 following it, either occasionally or regularly, I am guilty of a 
 gross and malicious libel of defaming his good name, fame 
 and reputation of foul calumny and base innuendo with 
 sundry other law phrases, as set forth in an indictment ! So 
 much for the consistency of the law ! So much for the equity 
 of the Court ! The trial, in fact, was not to ascertain whether 
 my charges were true, but whether they contained anything dis 
 reputable to the character of the accused ; and the verdict does 
 not implicate or condemn me, but the law. 
 
 " The hat-making business, for instance, is an authorized 
 trade. Suppose I were to accuse a man of making hats, and 
 should believe, and publicly declare as my opinion, that every 
 hat-maker ought be imprisoned for life : would this be libel 
 lous "? It is my belief, that every distiller or vender of ardent 
 spirits is a poisoner of the health and morals of community ; 
 but have I not a right to express this belief without subjection 
 to fine and imprisonment ? I believe, moreover, that every man 
 who kills another, either in a duel or battle, is, in the eye 
 of God, guilty of his blood ; but is it criminal or punishable to 
 cherish or avow such an opinion ? What is freedom of thought, 
 or freedom of expression ? It is my right and no body of men 
 can legally deprive me of it to interrogate the moral aspect 
 and public utility of every pursuit or traffic. True, my views 
 may be ridiculous or fanatical ; but they may also be just and 
 benevolent. Free inquiry is the essence, the life-blood of liberty ; 
 
Mt. 25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 199 
 
 and they who deny men the right to use it, are the enemies of CHAP. VI I. 
 the republic. ^ 
 
 " In conclusion, I would remark that, on my first trial, his 
 honor Judge Brice informed my counsel that if the case had 
 been submitted to the Court, instead of the jury, it would have 
 been thrown out as containing nothing actionable. 
 
 11 The facts are now before the public. It is for them to judge 
 whether imprisonment and a fine of one thousand dollars (giving 
 the worst construction to my motives and language) are not ex 
 cessive punishment j and whether, in the publication of my 
 strictures, I exceeded the freedom of the press, or the legitimate 
 province of an independent editor." l 
 
 As his trip to Massachusetts had failed to afford any 
 encouragement for the renewal of his partnership with 
 Lundy, and the revival of the weekly Genius, Mr. Garri 
 son resolved to establish a journal of his own; and in 
 August, 1830, he issued the following prospectus, of 
 which the original draft, in his clear handwriting, is 
 probably the only complete copy now in existence : 
 
 PROPOSALS MS. 
 
 FOR 
 
 Publishing a weekly periodical in Washington City, to be entitled 
 
 * THE 
 
 PUBLIC LIBERATOR, 
 
 AND 
 
 JOURNAL OF THE TIMES. 
 
 The primary object of this publication will be the abolition 
 of slavery, and the moral and intellectual elevation of our 
 colored population. The Capital of our Union is obviously the 
 most eligible spot whereon to build this mighty enterprise: 
 first, because (through Congress and the Supreme Court) it is 
 the head of the body politic, and the soul of the national 
 system ; and secondly, because the District of Columbia is the 
 first citadel to be carried. 
 
 1 The Manumission Society of North Carolina appointed a committee to 
 investigate the subject, and their report, which was adopted, was a vindica 
 tion of Garrison, with a recommendation that the Society should protest 
 against the illegal and unconstitutional decision in his case (Genius of 
 Universal Emancipation, Oct., 1830, p. 98). 
 
200 WILLIAM LLOYD GARBISON. E^ T - 25 - 
 
 CHAP. VII. On this subject, I imagine my views and feelings are too well 
 ~ known to render an elaborate exposition necessary. In its 
 investigation, I shall use great plainness of speech believing 
 that truth can never conduce to mischief, and is best discovered by 
 plain ivords. I shall assume, as self-evident truths, that the 
 liberty of a people is the gift of God and nature: That 
 liberty consists in an independency upon the will of another : 
 That by the name of slave, we understand a man who can 
 neither dispose of his person or goods, but enjoys all at the 
 will of his master: That no man can have a right over 
 others, unless it be by them granted to him : That virtue 
 only gives a natural preference of one man above another, or 
 why one should be chosen rather than another: That the 
 creature having nothing, and being nothing but what the 
 Creator makes him, must owe all to him, and nothing to any 
 one from whom he has received nothing : That that which 
 is not just, is not law ; and that which is not law, ought 
 not to be in force: That he who oppugns the public 
 liberty, overthrows his own, and is guilty of the most 
 brutish of all follies whilst he arrogates to himself that 
 which he denies to all men: That whosoever grounds his 
 pretensions of right upon usurpation and tyranny, declares 
 himself to be an usurper and a tyrant that is, an enemy to 
 God and man and to have no right at all : That that which 
 was unjust in its beginning, can of itself xjever change its 
 nature : That he who persists in doing injustice, aggravates 
 it, and takes upon himself all the guilt of his predecessors : 
 That there is no safety where there is no strength, no strength 
 without union, no union without justice, no justice where faith 
 and truth are wanting : That the right to be free is a truth 
 planted in the hearts of men, and acknowledged so to be by all 
 that have hearkened to the voice of nature, and disproved by 
 none but such as through wickedness, stupidity, or baseness 
 of spirit, seem to have degenerated into the worst of beasts, 
 and to have retained nothing of men but the outward shape, or 
 the ability of doing those mischiefs which they have learnt from 
 their master the devil. Vide Algernon Sidney s Discourses on 
 Government the Declaration of American Independence the 
 Constitutions and Sills of Eights of the several States, &c., &c. 
 
 I shall spare no efforts to delineate the withering influence of 
 slavery upon our national prosperity and happiness, its awful 
 impiety, its rapid extension, and its inevitable consequences if 
 it be suffered to exist without hindrance. It will also be my 
 
MT. 25.] BALTIMORE JAIL. 201 
 
 purpose to point out the path of safety, and a remedy for the CHAP. vil. 
 disease. ^ 
 
 The cause of Peace and the promotion of Temperance, being 
 equally dear to my heart, will obtain my zealous and unequivo 
 cal support. My creed, as already published to the world, is as 
 follows: That war is fruitful in crime, misery, revenge, 
 murder, and everything abominable and bloody and, whether 
 offensive or defensive, contrary to the precepts and example of 
 Jesus Christ, and to the heavenly spirit of the gospel ; conse 
 quently, that no professor of Christianity should march to the 
 battle-field, or murder any of his brethren for the glory of his 
 country : That intemperance is a filthy habit and an awful 
 scourge, wholly produced by the moderate, occasional and 
 fashionable use of alcoholic liquors; consequently, that it is 
 sinful to distil, to import, to sell, to drink, or to offer such 
 liquors to our friends or laborers, and that entire abstinence is 
 the duty of every individual. 
 
 I shall exercise a strict supervision over the proceedings of 
 Congress, and the characters of its members. The representa 
 tives of a moral and religious people should walk circumspectly, 
 not as fools but as wise men, lest they be brought to public 
 shame. The Public Liberator shall be a terror to evil-doers, but 
 a praise to them that do well. 
 
 In politics, no man can doubt my republicanism. I go 
 for the people the whole people whatever be their bodily 
 dimensions, temporal conditions, or shades of color. As a 
 man of peace, I am not an admirer of military men; as a 
 friend of good government, I deprecate their elevation to 
 offices of civil trust. The prescriptive measures of the present 
 Administration have been such as no people, who do not pos 
 sess the abject servility of slaves, can sanction or tolerate. I 
 shall give a dignified support to Henry Clay and the American 
 System. 
 
 The Public Liberator will contain a fair proportion of literary 
 and miscellaneous matter all important foreign and domestic 
 news and a copious summary of Congressional transactions. 
 
 I now appeal to the American people to philanthropists 
 and patriots, to moralists and Christians for adequate patron 
 age. I believe that a paper of the foregoing character is 
 specially needed at this momentous crisis : I am equally con 
 fident that it will receive the approbation of all sober, reflect- 
 ing, honest, humane men. Its columns shall be open to all 
 temperate and intelligent communications on the subject of 
 
202 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 1830. 
 
 MS. 
 
 (slightly 
 mutilated). 
 
 slavery, politics or morals. Whatever savors of bigotry or pro 
 scription shall gain no admittance. I am opposed to bondage, 
 under its every aspect whether spiritual, civil, political, 
 mental or physical. " Implicit faith belongs to fools ; and 
 truth is comprehended by examining principles." My country 
 is the world j my countrymen are mankind. 
 
 The first number of the Public Liberator will be issued as 
 soon as subscriptions thereto may authorize the attempt. Post 
 masters are authorized to act as Agents, until further arrange 
 ments can be made. 
 
 Editors of newspapers who will give this Prospectus two or 
 three gratuitous insertions in their columns, shall receive my 
 thanks, and a reciprocation of the favor if it be in my power 
 
 hereafter. 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 A copy of this prospectus was evidently sent to Arthur 
 Tappan, who replied with characteristic promptness and 
 generosity : 
 
 Arthur Tappan to W. L. Garrison at Baltimore. 
 
 NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 1830. 
 
 DEAR SIR : I have your letter of the 5th, and am glad to find 
 that you*are sufiiciently relieved from persecution to be able to 
 turn your attention to the project you have in view. It is a 
 noble enterprise and worthy of having consecrated to it the 
 best talents in our [land]. I am not sufficiently acquainted 
 with you [to judge] whether you possess the various qualifica 
 tions that must be concentrated in the editorial and publishing 
 departments to insure success to a paper. With [regard to] 
 your talent at writing and your zeal in the cause, I have 
 information that is highly satisfactory ; and though I do not 
 feel sufficiently informed to venture to advise you, I will cheer 
 fully aid you to the extent you ask. Annexed is my check 
 for$l[ ]. 
 
 It will give me pleasure to see you [ ] in this city. 
 I am, very respectfully, yours, 
 
 ARTHUR TAPPAN. 
 
 During his imprisonment, Mr. Garrison had prepared 
 three addresses on slavery and colonization, for delivery 
 at the North ; and, after trying in vain to obtain a hall 
 or meeting-house in Baltimore in which to give them, he 
 
Mr. 25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 203 
 
 left that city in the fourth week of August, and did not CHAP. vn. 
 revisit it for thirty-four years. Philadelphia was the ^c,. 
 first city in which he paused, on his northward journey, 
 and he was there a week before he could obtain the free 
 use of a hall in which to hold his meetings. He was 
 about giving up in despair and leaving the city, when 
 the hall of the Franklin Institute was offered to him, 
 and on Tuesday evening, August 31, 1830, he gave his 
 first lecture there to an audience composed almost exclu 
 sively of members of the Society of Friends and of 
 colored people. They listened to this and to the lectures 
 of the two succeeding evenings with marked attention 
 and interest, though his " hard language " troubled some. 
 The Inquirer, while professing friendship and sympathy 
 for Mr. Garrison, reproved him for his excess of zeal 
 and intemperance in advocating his views ; yet it spoke 
 warmly of his first lecture, which it declared to be 
 " elevated and impassioned, bespeaking the thorough Phiia. in- 
 acquaintance of the author with his subject, and evin- qm r ^f >L 
 cing the deep and philanthropic interest which animated 
 him in behalf of the poor Africans. The declamation of 
 Mr. Garrison," it furthermore said, " is in some respects 
 uninviting and defective ; but it is impossible for an 
 intelligent auditor to be unimpressed with the strength 
 and beauty of his composition. Indeed, we thought the 
 former quality too predominant, though its attractive 
 ness is a sufficient excuse for its display ." 
 
 The friends who welcomed him to Philadelphia were 
 those who had long been actively interested in the anti- 
 slavery cause, and who, as personal friends of Lundy and 
 subscribers to the Genius, were not unfamiliar with Gar 
 rison. Among them were Thomas Shipley, Dr. Edwin 
 P. Atlee, and James and Lucretia Mott, all of whom 
 proffered the hospitality of their homes and gave him 
 words of encouragement. 1 
 
 l Of the Motts lie afterwards wrote : "Though I was strongly sectarian 
 in my religious sentiments (Calvinistic) at that time, and hence uncharita 
 ble in judgment touching theological differences of opinion, ... yet 
 
204 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 25. 
 
 CHAP. vii. In New York he repeated his lectures in Broadway 
 ^ Hall to small but respectable audiences, Arthur and 
 Lewis Tappan honoring him with their presence. Thence 
 he went to New Haven, and was welcomed by his friend 
 Simeon S. Jocelyn to the pulpit of the colored church in 
 that city, of which, although a white man, he was the 
 
 MS., Feb. 5, pastor. "I spoke to mixed audiences," records Mr. 
 
 ^fjohnson. Garrison, " and naturally to the hearty approval of my 
 colored hearers. I had a prolonged interview with Rev. 
 Leonard Bacon, D. D., and an earnest discussion respect 
 ing the merits of the American Colonization Society, he 
 being its special champion. I was greatly impressed 
 with his ability, and equally so with the Jesuitism of his 
 reasoning. At Hartford I lectured in a colored church, 
 and roused up a good deal of interest in the breasts of 
 the colored inhabitants. In all these places converts and 
 friends were made among the whites." 
 
 From Hartford he addressed this letter to Rev. George 
 Shepard, of Hallowell, Maine, of whose church his recent 
 benefactor, Ebenezer Dole, was a member, and who had 
 consulted him with reference to an offer which Mr. Dole 
 proposed to make, anonymously, of $50 premium for the 
 best tract on slavery : 
 
 W. L. Garrison to Rev. George Shepard. 
 
 MS. HARTFORD, CT., Sept. 13, 1830. 
 
 Your very interesting and important letter of the 18th ult. 
 was duly received ; but circumstances have prevented my giv 
 ing it a suitable reply till the present moment. 
 
 E. Dole. Towards the unknown individual who generously offers a 
 premium of $50 for the best tract on the subject of slavery, I 
 
 they manifested a most kind, tolerant, catholic spirit, and allowed none of 
 these considerations to deter them from giving me their cordial approba 
 tion and cheering countenance as an advocate of the slave. If my mind 
 has since become liberalized in any degree, (and I think it has burst every 
 sectarian trammel,) if theological dogmas which I once regarded as 
 essential to Christianity, I now repudiate as absurd and pernicious, I am 
 largely indebted to them for the change " (Lib. 19 ; 178 ; Life of James 
 and Lucretia Mott/pp. 29G, 297). 
 
JET. 25.] BALTIMORE JAIL. 205 
 
 feel an attachment of soul which words cannot express; and CHAP. VII. 
 for yourself, sir, I beg you to accept my thanks for the sym- ~ Q 
 pathy which you express in behalf of the poor slave. Alas ! 
 that so few in our land feel an interest in the great cause of 
 emancipation ! But let us not despair. The time must come 
 for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken it when all 
 oppression shall cease, and every man shall sit under his own 
 vine and fig- tree there being none to molest or make him 
 afraid. We may not live to see that glorious day, but may 
 hasten it by our prayers, our toils, and our sacrifices ; nor shall 
 we lose our reward for the King of Heaven may peradventure 
 bestow that noblest of panegyrics upon us, " Well done, good 
 and faithful servants ! " 
 
 At the present day, American slavery is unequalled for 
 cruelty : antiquity cannot produce its parallel. And yet it is 
 boastingly proclaimed to the world, that this is the land of the 
 free, and the asylum of the oppressed ! Was liberty ever so 
 degraded in the eyes of mankind, or justice mocked with such 
 impunity ? 
 
 For myself I hold no fellowship with slave-owners. I will 
 not make a truce with them even for a single hour. I blush 
 for them as countrymen I knoiv that they are not Christians ; 
 and the higher they raise their professions of patriotism or 
 piety, the stronger is my detestation of their hypocrisy. They 
 are dishonest and cruel and God, and the angels, and devils, 
 and the universe know that they are without excuse. 
 
 " They hear not see not know not; for their eyes 
 Are covered with thick mists they will not see; 
 The sick earth groans with man s impieties, 
 And heaven is tired with man s perversity. 1 " 
 
 With regard to the outlines of the contemplated tract which 
 you have given, I think they are highly important but so 
 broad, that their discussion could not be easily or efficiently 
 embraced within twelve duodecimo pages. I would therefore 
 suggest, with deference, the expediency of confining the object 
 of the tract to one of these two points namely, " The Duty of 
 Ministers and Churches, of all denominations, to clear their 
 skirts from the blood of the slaves, and to make the holding of 
 slaves a barrier to communion and church-membership " or, 
 secondly, in your own language, " Suggestions as to the best 
 ways and means to restore the slaves to their unalienable 
 rights, and elevate them to that standing in society to which, 
 
206 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [^T. 25. 
 
 CHAP. VII. as brethren of the human family, and fellow-heirs to immortal - 
 ~ ity, they are entitled." 
 
 Both of the above points are eminently weighty, and would 
 require separate treatises in their elucidation. I am decidedly 
 in favor of the one first mentioned ; because all plans will be 
 likely to prove nugatory as long [as] the church refuses to act 
 on the subject it must be purified, as by fire. It must not 
 support, it must not palliate, the horrid system. It seems 
 morally impossible that a man can be a slaveholder and a 
 follower of the Lamb at the same time. A Christian slaveholder 
 is as great a solecism as a religious atheist, a sober drunkard, 
 or an honest thief. In 1826, the Synod of Ohio held an ani 
 mated discussion on a question which had been before referred 
 to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, viz. : 
 11 Is the holding of slaves man-stealing?" in the affirmative of 
 which a large majority concurred. This is a rational view of 
 the subject j consequently no slaveholder ought to be em 
 braced within the pale of a Christian church. 
 
 Is not the fact enough to make one hang his head, that 
 Christian men and Christian ministers (for so they dare to call 
 themselves) are slave-owners ? Are there not Balaams in our 
 land who prophesy in the name of the Lord, but covet the 
 presents of Balak ? What ! shall he who styles himself an am 
 bassador of Christ who preaches what angels sung, " Peace 
 on earth, good-will to man" who tells me, Sabbath after Sab 
 bath, that with God there is no respect of persons that my 
 Creator commands me to do unto others as I would that they 
 should do unto me to love my neighbor as myself to call no 
 man master to be meek and merciful, and blameless to let 
 my light so shine before men that they may see my good works, 
 and glorify my Father who is in heaven to shun every ap 
 pearance of evil to rather suffer myself to be defrauded than 
 defraud j nay, who tells me, as the injunction of my Judge, 
 to love even my enemies, to bless them that curse me, to do 
 good to them that hate me, and to pray for them that despite- 
 fully uso and persecute me (alas! how has he needed the 
 prayers and forgiveness of his poor degraded, persecuted 
 slaves ! ) I say, shall such a teacher presume to call the 
 creatures of God his property to deal in bones and sinews, 
 and souls to whip and manacle and brand merely because 
 his victims differ in complexion from himself, and because the 
 tyrannous laws of a State and the corrupt usages of Society 
 justify his conduct ? Yet so it is. By his example, he sanctifies, 
 
^ET. 25.] BALTIMORE JAIL. 207 
 
 in the eyes of ungodly men, a system of blood, and violates CHAP. vii. 
 every commandment of Jehovah. Horrible state of things ! ~ Q 
 
 " For this thing which it cannot bear, the earth is disquieted. 
 The Gospel of Peace and Mercy preached by him who steals, 
 buys or sells the purchase of Messiah s blood ! Rulers of the 
 Church making merchandise of their brethren s souls ! and 
 Christians trading the persons of men ! These are they who 
 are lovers of their own selves Covetous Proud Fierce 
 Men of corrupt minds, who resist the truth Having the form 
 of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such turn 
 away." 
 
 I think that an able and faithful tract upon this [subject] is 
 greatly needed, and would be the means of incalculable good. 
 I submit the choice of topics to yourself, and to the benevolent 
 individual who offers the premium. 
 
 There is no Society in existence bearing the title of the 
 "American Abolition Society." I think the tract had better 
 come out to the public under the auspices of the "Pennsylvania 
 Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, the relief of 
 free negroes unlawfully held in bondage, and for improving the 
 Condition of the African Race." Agreeably to your request, 
 I select three members of that Society to decide upon the 
 merits of the various tracts that may be presented namely, 
 the venerable William Rawle, LL. D., President, and Jonas 
 Preston, M. D., and Thomas Shipley, Vice- Presidents of said 
 Society all thorough-going reformers and highly intelligent 
 and respectable men, residents of Philadelphia. The premium- 
 money may be deposited in the hands of the President, Wm. 
 Rawle. 
 
 I am now on an Eastern tour for the purpose of delivering 
 public addresses on the subject of slavery, of obtaining sub 
 scriptions to my proposed new paper at Washington City, of 
 establishing a National Anti-Slavery Tract Society, &c., &c. I 
 shall leave Hartford for Boston this morning, where I shall 
 probably reside some time, and to which place please to address 
 your next letter as soon as convenient. 
 
 Your friend and well-wisher till death, 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 Mr. Garrison now proceeded to Newburyport, resolved 
 that his native town should be the first place in Massa 
 chusetts to hear his lectures on slavery. Dr. Daniel 
 Dana, pastor of the Presbyterian church on Harris Street, 
 
208 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 25. 
 
 CHAP. vii. readily agreed to give him the meeting-house for that 
 1830. purpose, but when the audience gathered for the first 
 lecture, the doors of the sanctuary were closed, and it 
 appeared that the Trustees had held a meeting and over 
 ruled their pastor, who could only express his regret and 
 chagrin that they had refused to sustain him. The Todd 
 influence was still all-powerful, and endeavored to crush 
 the offending editor, who left Newburyport in disgust 
 for Amesbury. As he was driving up the hill beyond 
 the Chain Bridge, he met his friend Dr. Luther F. Dim- 
 mick, pastor of the Second Congregational church. 
 " William," said the Doctor, " I thought you were going 
 to lecture last night 7 ; and on William s explaining why 
 he had not done so, the Doctor declared that he should 
 have his church for as many lectures as he wanted. It 
 was agreed that he should return to Newburyport as soon 
 as he had delivered his lectures in Amesbury, and these he 
 
 Sept. 24-26, gave, probably on three consecutive evenings, before the 
 Amesbury and Salisbury Lyceum. The Lyceum room 
 was so crowded during the first lecture that Eev. Mr. 
 Damon s rneeting-house was secured for the second and 
 third addresses, and filled. 
 
 Sept. 28, " The first lecture," wrote a correspondent of the Newbury- 
 1830. p Or ^. [ e rald, " endeavored to refute the strongest and most 
 popular objections to the immediate abolition of slavery, and 
 to show that expediency, as well as justice, urged the necessity 
 of the measure. The second pointed out slavery as it exists in 
 law, and in fact, in our country, the speaker illustrating 
 his remarks by several anecdotes of the extreme cruelty exer 
 cised towards the slaves of our Southern States, some of which 
 instances he told us he himself had witnessed. These cruelties 
 he described with so much feeling, and in language so forcible, 
 that one might almost fancy he heard the groans, and viewed 
 the lacerated bodies, of the poor sufferers. While in this part 
 of his discourse, all his feelings and power of soul appeared to 
 be brought into action, and so vividly did he describe the suffer 
 ings of the slaves that the audience seemed to be completely 
 carried along with him, and to partake, in some degree at least, 
 of the enthusiasm of the speaker. ... In the third and 
 last discourse we were told that the crime, the infamy, and the 
 
*>-25.J BALTIMORE JAIL. 209 
 
 curse of slavery are national, and that we New Englanders are CHAP. VII. 
 equally culpable with the slave-dealers and slave-owners. He ^ 
 also spoke of the Colonization Society. It is, he says, lulling 
 the American people to sleep." 
 
 These meetings in Amesbury sowed good seed, and 
 ripened public sentiment for the early formation of two 
 anti-slavery societies there, one of men and the other of wo 
 men. Returning without delay to Newburyport, Mr. Gar 
 rison delivered his first lecture in Dr. Dimmick s church, 
 on the evening of September 28, to a large audience ; 
 but the next evening the doors were closed against him, 
 and Dr. Dimmick found himself as helpless in the hands 
 of his Trustees as Dr. Dana had been. Indignant at this 
 insulting treatment, Mr. Garrison addressed the following 
 communication to the editor of the Herald, and, shaking 
 the dust of the town from his feet, went back .to Boston : 
 
 SIR : Twice have the inhabitants of this town been deceived N. P. 
 in relation to the delivery of my Addresses on Slavery. Per- 
 mit me to exonerate myself from blame in this matter. Circum 
 stances beyond my control have prevented the fulfilment of my 
 pledges. Toward those who have exerted their influence, with 
 a malignity and success which are discreditable to themselves 
 and the place, in order to seal my lips on a subject which in 
 volves the temporal and eternal condition of millions of our 
 countrymen, I entertain no ill-will, but kindness and compas 
 sion. Let them answer to God and posterity for their conduct ; 
 for even this communication shah 1 be read by future generations, 
 and shall identify the ashes of these enemies of their species. 
 
 If I had visited Newburyport to plead the cause of twenty 
 white men in chains, every hall and every meeting-house would 
 have been thrown open, and the fervor of my discourses an 
 ticipated and exceeded by my fellow-townsmen. The fact that 
 two millions of colored beings are groaning in bondage, in this 
 land of liberty, excites no interest nor pity ! 
 
 I leave this morning for Boston. A circumstantial account 
 of my treatment in this my native place will probably be given, 
 in a few days, in one of the city papers. 
 
 Your grateful servant, and undaunted friend to the cause of 
 universal liberty, WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 Thursday morning, Sept. 30, 1830. 
 VOL. I. 14 
 
210 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 25. 
 
 Two days later, a brief editorial appeared in the 
 Oct. 2, 1830. columns of the Boston Evening Transcript, announcing 
 Mr. Garrison s arrival in Boston, and describing the 
 shabby treatment to which he had been subjected in 
 Newburyport. The article 1 concluded with some com 
 plimentary words about the young reformer in a cause 
 " which he could never hope to see perfected, but of 
 which he would long be remembered as an early and 
 laborious pionefer." 
 
 Encouraged by this kindly reception, Mr. Garrison sent 
 three short communications to the Transcript during the 
 Oct. 13, ensuing month. In one of these he called attention to the 
 recent rendition of two fugitive slaves (man and wife) who 
 had escaped by secreting themselves on a brig from New 
 Orleans to Boston, but who, being discovered before the 
 vessel reached port, were arrested and carried before a 
 magistrate on its arrival, and sent back into slavery with 
 out producing the least ripple of excitement in the com- 
 Oct. 12, munity. In another article he commented on the incon 
 sistency and hypocrisy of the whites of Charleston, 
 Richmond and Baltimore, in noisily celebrating the 
 overthrow of Charles the Tenth, of France, while hold 
 ing their fellow-beings in a state of servitude which, for 
 cruelty and debasement, found no parallel in European 
 despotism. This stirred the wrath of the Charleston 
 (S. C.) City Gazette, which declared it " impertinence" in 
 a man who had " lately been punished for similar imper 
 tinences," to meddle with the concerns of other people, 
 and expressed the wish that he might be furnished with 
 some " decent, honest employment," to keep him out of 
 NOV. i, 1830. mischief. The Transcript copied this paragraph as "a 
 fair offset "to the article which had elicited it; where 
 upon Mr. Garrison replied in a letter of such vigor that 
 the timid editor printed it with confessed reluctance, and 
 a preliminary sermon to his correspondent on the rash- 
 
 1 Doubtless written by the editor, Lynde M. Walter, who had established 
 the Transcript only a few weeks previously. He was a graduate of Har 
 vard College in the famous class of 1817. 
 
JET. 25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 211 
 
 ness and unwisdom of using harsh or intemperate Ian- CHAP. vu. 
 guage in discussing so delicate a subject as slavery. It ^o. 
 was evident that the latter s communications would no 
 longer be welcomed to the Transcript s columns, and this 
 letter in which, as "a New-England mechanic who is 
 not ashamed of his trade," he asked the Charleston 
 " scribbler " whether it was a " decent, honest employ 
 ment " to " reduce the creatures of God to a level with 
 brutes, to lacerate and brand their bodies with more than 
 savage cruelty, and to keep their souls in thick, impene 
 trable darkness" was his last word. " "When," he fer 
 vently declared, 
 
 " When I shall become so mean and dastardly, so lost to every Transcript, 
 feeling of humanity, every principle of justice, every conviction "^ 8 
 of conscience, as to fetter and sell my own countrymen or 
 others, may I receive (as I ought to receive, if capital punish 
 ment be lawful,) a just reward for my conduct at the gallows, 
 like any other pirate ; may my memory be accursed to the end 
 of time j and may the lightnings of heaven consume my body 
 to ashes. I join with the eloquent and in dignant Brougham 
 Tell me not of rights talk not of the property of the planter 
 in his slaves. I deny the right I acknowledge not the property. 
 The principles, the feelings of our common nature rise in re 
 bellion against it. Be the appeal made to the understanding 
 or to the heart, the sentence is the same that rejects it. While 
 men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and abhor blood, they 
 shall reject with indignation the wild and guilty fantasy that 
 man can hold property in man. " 
 
 During the first fortnight after his arrival in Boston, 
 Mr. Garrison vainly endeavored to procure, without 
 cost, a place in which to deliver his lectures j and he 
 
 finally sent this advertisement to the Courier : Oct. 12, 
 
 1830. 
 
 WANTED. For three evenings, a Hall or Meeting-house (the 
 latter would be preferred), in which to vindicate the rights of 
 TWO MILLIONS of American citizens who are now groaning 
 in servile chains in this boasted land of liberty j and also to 
 propose just, benevolent, and constitutional measures for their 
 relief. As the addresses will be gratuitous, and as the cause is 
 of public benefit, I cannot consent to remunerate any society 
 
212 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 25. 
 
 CHAP. VII. for the use of its building. If this application fails, I pro- 
 i8~o P ose ^ a ^dress * ne citizens of Boston in the open air, on the 
 Common - WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 No. 30, Federal Street, Oct. 11, 1830. 
 
 This appeal was quickly answered, but not by any of 
 the Christian ministers or churches of Boston. It was 
 left for a society of avowed "infidels" 1 to save the city 
 from the shame of sealing all its doors against the 
 slave s advocate, and to offer him their hall for his three 
 lectures, although, as a body and individually, they had 
 no personal acquaintance or sympathy with him, and no 
 especial interest in his cause. Two days later, the papers 
 announced that Mr. Garrison would deliver his first lec 
 ture on Friday evening, October 15, in Julien Hall, at the 
 northwest corner of Milk and Congress Streets. 2 
 
 It was not without reluctance that the young Baptist 
 accepted this courteous offer from a sect whom he had 
 so recently denounced and held up for reprobation, and 
 who now taught him, and the Christian brotherhood to 
 whom he had vainly appealed, a lesson of charity and 
 toleration that might well cause them to blush. Accord 
 ingly, in acknowledging, at the beginning of his first lec 
 ture, his indebtedness to them and his shame that the 
 churches had allowed themselves to be thus surpassed, 
 he felt it incumbent upon him to explain that he was 
 very far from sympathizing with their views on reli 
 gious questions, and that he believed slavery could be 
 abolished only through the power of the Gospel and of 
 the Christian religion. 
 
 The hall was pretty well filled when he began his 
 address, and the audience included Dr. Lyman Beecher, 
 Rev. Ezra S. Gannett, Deacon Moses Grant, and John 
 Tappan (a brother of Arthur) the last two, well-known 
 and respected merchants ; Rev. Samuel J. May, then 
 
 1 Under the leadership of Abner Kneeland. 
 
 2 The building, a brick structure, was demolished and replaced by another 
 building shortly before the great fire of 1872, and the site is now (1885) 
 covered by the Post-office. 
 
JET. 25.] 
 
 BALTIMOKE JAIL. 
 
 213 
 
 settled as a Unitarian minister at Brooklyn, Connecti- CHAP. vn. 
 cut, and the only one of the denomination in that State ; I ^ 
 his cousin, Samuel E. Sewall, a young Boston lawyer; 
 and his brother-in-law, A. Bronson Alcott. 1 Mr. May has 
 thus described the occasion : 
 
 " Presently the young man arose, modestly, but with an air 
 of calm determination, and delivered such a lecture 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 unstopped 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 manifested in the Colonization cause. It 
 was, he confessed, a zeal without knowledge. He had been de 
 ceived by the misrepresentations so diligently given through 
 out the free States, by Southern agents, of the design and 
 tendency of the Colonization scheme. During his few months 
 residence in Maryland he had been completely undeceived. 
 He had there found out that the design of those who originated, 
 and the especial intentions of those in the Southern States that 
 engaged in the plan, were to remove from the country, as a 
 
 l It was natural that Mr. Sewall should find himself in sympathy with 
 Mr. Gai-rison. His distinguished ancestor, Judge Samuel Sewall, was one 
 of the earliest opponents of slavery in America, and published an anti- 
 slavery pamphlet, The Selling of Joseph ; a Memorial, in 1700 (reprinted 
 in Williams s History of the Negro Race in America, 1 : 210). (For his 
 descent from Judge Sewall, see Titcomb s Early New England People, 
 pp. 217-223.) Mr. May (who was born in 1797, and hence was eight years 
 Mr. Garrison s senior) was a son of Col. Joseph May, of Boston, a highly 
 respected merchant, and both he and his cousin Mr. Sewall graduated from 
 Harvard College in 1817, in the same class with David Lee Child, George 
 Bancroft, George B. Emerson, Caleb Gushing, Samuel A. Eliot, Stephen 
 Salisbury, Stephen H. Tyng, and Robert F. Wallcut. It is worthy of note 
 that Mr. May preached his first sermon in December, 1820, on the Sunday 
 following the delivery of Daniel Webster s Plymouth Rock oration, and 
 was so impressed by the latter s fervid appeal to the ministry to denounce 
 the slave-trade that he read the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah in his morn 
 ing service. Five years later he was interested in the Rev. John Rankin s 
 Letters on Slavery, and when Lundy made his second visit to New Eng 
 land, in June, 1828, he was welcomed to Brooklyn, Conn., by Mr. May, and 
 held a large meeting in the latter s church. (See Memoir of Samuel 
 Joseph May, pp. 139, 140.) 
 
 May s Rec 
 ollections of 
 our A. S. 
 Conflict, pp. 
 18-20. 
 
214 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 25. 
 
 1830. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 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 devised 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 speaking I said to those around me : That 
 is a providential man ; he is a prophet ; he will shake our nation 
 to its centre, but he will 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 : 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 em 
 brace you. I am sure you are called to a great work, and I 
 mean to help you. Mr. Sewall cordially assured him of his 
 readiness also to cooperate with him. Mr. Alcott invited him 
 to his home. He went, and we sat with him until twelve that 
 night, listening to his discourse, in which he showed plainly 
 that immediate, unconditional emancipation, without expatriation, 
 was the right of every slave, and could not be withheld by his master 
 an hour without sin. That night my soul was baptized in his 
 spirit, and ever since I have been a disciple and fellow-laborer 
 of William Lloyd Garrison. 
 
 " The next morning, immediately after breakfast, I went to 
 his boarding-house and stayed until two P. M. I learned that 
 he was poor, dependent upon his daily labor for his daily bread, 
 and intending to return to the printing business. But, before 
 he could devote himself to his own support, he felt that he 
 must deliver his message, must communicate to persons of 
 prominent influence what he had learned of the sad condition 
 of the enslaved, and the institutions and spirit of the slave 
 holders 5 trusting that all true and good men would discharge 
 the obligation pressing upon them to espouse the cause of the 
 poor, the oppressed, the down-trodden. He read to me letters 
 he had addressed to Dr. Channing, Dr. Beecher, Dr. Edwards, 
 the Hon. Jeremiah Mason, and Hon. Daniel Webster, holding 
 up to their view the tremendous iniquity of the land, and beg 
 ging them, ere it should be too late, to interpose their great 
 power in the Church and State to save our country from the 
 
 W.E.Chan- 
 ning, Lyman 
 Beecher, Jus 
 tin Edwards. 
 
, li tifliijJihiCSil 
 
. 25.] 
 
 BALTIMORE JAIL. 
 
 215 
 
 terrible calamities which the sin of slavery was bringing upon CHAP. VI I. 
 us. These letters were eloquent, solemn, impressive. I wonder I ~ Q 
 they did not produce a greater effect. It was because none to 
 whom he appealed, in public or private, would espouse the 
 cause, that Mr. Garrison found himself left and impelled to 
 become the leader of the great anti-slavery reform. . . . 
 
 " The hearing of Mr. Garrison s lectures was a great epoch in 
 my own life. The impression which they made upon my soul has 
 never been effaced } indeed, they moulded it anew. They gave 
 a new direction to my thoughts, a new purpose to my ministry." 
 
 The second and third lectures were delivered on Satur 
 day and Monday evenings, October 16 and 18, 1830, and 
 on the 28th Mr. Garrison repeated the first lecture in 
 Athenaeum Hall, on Pearl Street, which Mr. Sewall and 
 Mr. May had engaged for him, doubtless at their own 
 expense. A few colored persons who attended it sat 
 apart in one corner, in accordance with their habit in 
 those days, feeling that even at such a meeting their 
 presence might be unwelcome and distasteful to the 
 white auditors. 
 
 Dr. Beecher, as has been mentioned, was present at 
 the first lecture, but no word of sympathy or approval 
 came from him. He was the man to whom Mr. Garrison 
 had first turned with confidence for help in this new 
 crusade against sin and iniquity, but the Doctor was in 
 different to his appeal, and excused himself on the ground 
 that he had too many irons in the fire already. " Then," Johnsons 
 said Garrison, solemnly, " you had better let all your 
 irons burn than neglect your duty to the slave." The 
 demand for immediate and unconditional emancipation 
 was alarming to the Doctor, however. " Your zeal," he 
 said to Garrison, " is commendable, but you are mis 
 guided. If you will give up your fanatical notions and 
 be guided by us (the clergy), we will make you the 
 Wilberforce of America." 
 
 Of a very different mould from Dr. Beecher was the 
 young Unitarian minister who now allied himself with 
 Mr. Garrison. One of the sweetest and gentlest of men, 
 
 and his 
 Times, 
 p. 44. 
 
216 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. 
 
 [JET. 25. 
 
 CHAP. VTI. 
 
 1830. 
 
 May s Rec 
 ollections, 
 
 pp. 20-22. 
 
 May s Rec 
 ollections, 
 
 P. 22. 
 
 disliking controversy with all his soul, he did not for a 
 moment shrink from the path of trial which now opened 
 before him. On the Sunday following the delivery of 
 Mr. Garrison s lectures, Mr. May occupied the pulpit of 
 Rev. Mr. Young at Church Green, in Summer Street. 
 " Of course," he said, " I could not again speak to a con 
 gregation, as a Christian minister, and be silent respect 
 ing the great iniquity of our nation. The only sermon I 
 had brought from my home in Connecticut that could be 
 made to bear on the subject, was one on Prejudice the 
 sermon about to be published as one of the Tracts of the 
 American Unitarian Association. So I touched it up as 
 well as I could, interlining here and there words and 
 sentences which pointed in the new direction to which 
 my thoughts and feelings so strongly tended, and writing 
 at its close what used to be called an improvement" This 
 was a fervid appeal in behalf of the two millions of 
 his fellow-beings in bondage. His concluding declaration, 
 that the iniquity must be put an end to, even if the very 
 foundations of the Republic itself were thereby broken up, 
 created much excitement in the congregation. When he 
 rose to pronounce the benediction, Mr. May said : 
 
 " Every one present must be conscious that the closing re 
 marks of my sermon have caused an unusual emotion through 
 out the church. I am glad. Would to God that a deeper 
 emotion could be sent throughout our land, until all the people 
 thereof shall be roused from their wicked insensibility to the 
 most tremendous sin of which any nation was ever guilty, and 
 be impelled to do that righteousness which alone can avert the 
 just displeasure of God. I have been prompted to speak thus 
 by the words I have heard during the past week from a young 
 man hitherto unknown, but who is, I believe, called of God to 
 do a greater work for the good of our country than has been 
 done by any one since the Revolution. I mean William Lloyd 
 Garrison. He is going to repeat his lectures the coming week. 
 I advise, I exhort, I entreat would that I could compel ! 
 you to go and hear him." 
 
 This fearless profession brought the immediate re 
 proof and condemnation of Mr. Young, and the reproba- 
 
^T. 25.] BALTIMOKE JAIL. 217 
 
 tion of most of his auditors, upon Mr. May ; and his CHAP. vn. 
 father was beset next day by friends and business ac- jsjo. 
 quaintances who begged him to stop his son in this 
 " mad career." The young man was immovable, how 
 ever, and neither halted nor retreated in his course save on 
 one point. When he handed his sermon to Rev. Henry 
 Ware, Jr., then purveyor of the American Unitarian 
 Association, for publication, the latter insisted that the 
 interlineations and additions respecting slavery should 
 be omitted, and Mr. May consented, to his lasting regret. 
 " Unconsciously to ourselves," he said, " the hand of the May s Rec- 
 slaveholding power lay heavily upon the mind and heart %. 24. * 
 of the people in our Northern as well as Southern 
 States. 7 This fact was becoming more and more im 
 pressed on Mr. Garrison, and when he learned, during 
 this month of October, that Lundy had removed the 
 Genius to Washington, he abandoned his intention of 
 publishing the Liberator at the national capital, and 
 resolved to establish it in Boston. 
 
 It is difficult to overrate the value of Mr. May s and 
 Mr. Sewall s friendship to him at that period. The 
 former s hearty and enthusiastic response to his appeal 
 at Julien Hall had been as unexpected and delightful as 
 his own self-consecration to the cause had been to Lundy, 
 two years previous; while Mr. SewalPs excellent judg 
 ment and advice were of frequent service to him when 
 launching his paper and movement in Boston. In one 
 respect Mr. G-arrison declined to follow his suggestions. 
 Desirous of conciliafing and winning as large a number 
 of the community as possible, and fearful that the name 
 Liberator would alarm and repel them, Mr. Sewall sug 
 gested several of a milder type, of which one was the 
 Safety Lamp. On this point, however, the editor was 
 tenacious and adhered to his self-explanatory title. But, 
 as through all their subsequent long association with one 
 another, difference of judgment on subordinate questions 
 failed to weaken or impair in the slightest degree the 
 friendship begun at JuKen Hall. 
 
218 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [2Ex. 25. 
 
 CHAP. vii. And now it remained for Mr. Garrison to establish, at 
 X 8^o. the beginning of the new year, the paper which he had 
 publicly announced. He had neither types, press, nor 
 office, nor had he any money, and he had secured no sub 
 scribers beyond the few personal friends whom he could 
 count on his fingers. It was clearly impossible for him to 
 edit, print and publish the paper alone and unaided, and 
 he could not afford to hire an assistant. At this juncture 
 his friend Isaac Knapp, as poor and destitute as himself, 
 but like him a practical printer, agreed to go into part 
 nership with him and share the toils and privations of 
 his seemingly desperate enterprise ; and they proceeded 
 to devise ways and means by which the paper could be 
 issued. Even if they should succeed in publishing the 
 first number, it was a problem how they could afford to 
 bring out a second. If a desire for glory or reputation 
 had been their controlling motive, any other method of 
 obtaining it would have seemed more promising than 
 the course they had chosen ; but Mr. Garrison, in a sonnet 
 Oct. 12, which appeared in the same number of the Courier in 
 which he advertised for a hall, had already avowed his 
 indifference to 
 
 Writingsof EAKTHLY FAME. 
 
 How fall Fame s pillars at the touch of Time ! 
 
 How fade, like flowers, the memories of the dead ! 
 How vast the grave that swallows up a clime ! 
 
 How dim the light by ancient glory shed ! 
 One generation s clay enwraps the next, 
 
 And dead men are the aliment of earth ; 
 " Passing away ! " is Nature s funeral text, 
 
 Uttered coeval with Creation s birth. 
 I mourn not, care not, if my humble name, 
 
 With my frail body, perish in the tomb ; 
 It courts a heavenly, not an earthly fame, 
 
 That through eternity shall brightly bloom ; 
 Write it within thy Book of Life, Lord, 
 And, in "the last great day," a golden crown award! 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 "THE LIBERATOR." 1831. 
 
 PUNCTUALLY on Saturday, January 1, 1831, the first CHAP.VIII. 
 number of the weekly Liberator appeared, bearing ^, 
 on its front a plain black-letter heading, the names of 
 William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp as publishers, 
 of Mr. Garrison as editor, of Stephen Foster as printer, 
 and the motto: Our Country is the World Our Coun 
 trymen are Mankind. 1 It was a modest folio, of which 
 the printed page of four columns measured fourteen 
 inches by nine and a quarter, and the running titles of the 
 second, third, and fourth pages were respectively " The 
 Liberator," " Journal of the Times/ 7 and " Literary, Mis 
 cellaneous, and Moral," making so many departments of 
 the paper. As a mother recalls a lost darling by giving 
 its name to a later born, so, apparently, Mr. Garrison 
 commemorated his Journal of the Times in the title which 
 covered the news of the day. Once more his own master, 
 alone responsible for his utterances, there was something 
 pleasant in this suggestion of an unbroken continuity of 
 editorial independence. Typographically, the number 
 
 iThis sentiment, which was fully foreshadowed in the Park-Street 
 Church address, was, as we have already seen (ante, p. 202), wrought out 
 in the prospectus of the Public Liberator. As will appear later on, Mr. 
 Garrison claimed originality for the formula. There is no evidence, and 
 small probability, that at this time he had read Thomas Paine s Rights of 
 Man, in the fifth chapter of which occurs this passage, so eminently appli 
 cable to the editor of the Liberator : "In stating these matters, I speak an 
 open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion but that of human 
 ity. . . . Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, 
 without regard to place or person ; my country is the world, and my religion 
 is to do good." 
 
 219 
 
220 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. 
 
 [JET. 26. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 1831. 
 
 MS. Mar. i. 
 
 1874, 
 
 W. L. G. to 
 O. Johnson. 
 
 Lib. 1 : 179. 
 
 Ante, p. 80. 
 
 Garrison 
 
 and his 
 
 Times, p. 
 
 Si- 
 
 was a model of neatness and accuracy, and worthily in 
 troduced a series possessing to the end the same charac 
 teristics. 1 
 
 On their return from Baltimore, the two friends, Garri 
 son and Knapp, had taken lodgings on Federal Street, 
 with the Rev. William Collier, and there made the ac 
 quaintance of Stephen Foster, an intelligent and warm 
 hearted youth of their own age, from Portland, then 
 foreman of the printing-office of the Christian Examiner 
 at Merchants Hall. A zeal for the cause, added to per 
 sonal friendship, induced Foster to allow them the use of 
 his type for their new paper in return for their services 
 by day as journeymen at the case. For three numbers 
 this arrangement continued, when a change became neces 
 sary, and Foster s name was withdrawn from the paper ; 
 but his good-will and anti-slavery endeavor knew no 
 abatement till his untimely death before the close of the 
 year. A lot of well-worn, second-hand type was rescued 
 from the foundry, and with this the fourth number was 
 put to press. 
 
 The publication office, originally at No. 6 Merchants 7 
 Hall, 2 was shifted to No. 8, No. 9, and No. 11 with each 
 succeeding issue ; but at No. 11, in the third story, " un 
 der the eaves" the old home of the National Philanthro 
 pist with a temporary flitting to No. 10, it rested for 
 some years. " The dingy walls ; the small windows, be 
 spattered with printer s ink ; the press 3 standing in one 
 corner ; the composing-stands opposite ; the long editorial 
 and mailing table, covered with newspapers ; the bed of 
 the editor and publisher on the floor all these/ 7 says 
 Oliver Johnson, "make a picture never to be forgotten." 4 
 
 1 The first and several succeeding numbers were " dry-pressed." 
 
 2 This building, like so many other historic landmarks, was consumed in 
 the great fire of November 9 and 10, 1872. 
 
 3 In the interval of acquiring a hand-press of their own (procured, 
 together with the second-hand type referred to, on credit, of Greele & 
 Willis), the partners had used one belonging in the office of the Boston 
 Daily Advocate, by permission of the foreman, James B. Yerrinton. 
 
 4 " It was a pretty large room," says Josiah Copley (in the Pittsburgh 
 United Presbyterian of June 5, 1879), who visited it in the winter of 1832-33. 
 
^ET. 26.] " THE LIBERATOR." 221 
 
 Here were workshop and home in one. 1 "The Pub 
 lishers of the Liberator," as they announced in their first Lib. 1:3. 
 issue, a have formed their copartnership with a determina 
 tion to print the paper as long as they can subsist upon 
 bread and water, or their hands obtain employment. 
 The friends of the cause may therefore take courage ; 
 its enemies may surrender at discretion." The part- MS. Afar, i, 
 ners lived, in fact, {l chiefly upon bread and milk, a few 
 cakes, and a little fruit, obtained from a baker s shop 
 opposite and a petty cake and fruit shop in the base 
 ment," and " were sometimes on short commons/ even 
 at that." 2 But they had meat to eat the world knew not 
 of. " Many a time in visiting their office, 7 Mr. Johnson 
 again bears witness, " did I find them partaking of their 
 humble repast, which they seasoned with laughter, song 
 and cheerful talk. A friendly cat cheered their loneliness 
 and protected them from the depredations of mice. Mr. c/. ante, p. 
 Garrison was fond of his feline companion, and I re 
 member seeing her more than once mounted upon his 
 writing-table, and caressing his bald forehead in a most 
 affectionate way, while he was spinning editorial yarn." 
 How little time there was for such spinning, and why 
 in this first volume editorial promises went so often 
 unfulfilled, appears in Mr. Garrison s letter to his " be 
 loved friend," Samuel J. May, under date of February 
 14, 1831 : 
 
 "but there was nothing in it to relieve its dreariness but two or three very 
 common chairs and a pine desk in the far corner, at which a pale, delicate, 
 and apparently 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, gentle, and I might say handsome 
 man a gentleman indeed, in every sense of the word." 
 
 1 Another witness, the Rev. James C. White, of Cincinnati, under date of 
 Nov. 4, 1879, writes : "I was often at the office of the Liberator. ... I 
 knew of his [Mr. Garrison s] self-denials. I knew he slept in the office with 
 a table for abed, 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." 
 
 2 " I believe we thus lived for at least a year and a half" (MS. Mar. 1, 
 1874, W. L. G. to O. Johnson). 
 
222 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 26. 
 
 MS. " If the most unremitted labor had not occupied my time 
 
 since your departure, I should feel very culpable for my long 
 silence. Without means, and determined to ask the assistance 
 of no individual, and, indeed, not knowing where to look for it, 
 so unpopular was the cause, you may suppose that I have been 
 obliged to make severe personal exertions for the establishment 
 of the Liberator. I am ashamed of the meagre aspect which the 
 paper presents in its editorial department, because the public 
 imagine that I have six days each week to cater for it, when, in 
 fact, scarcely six hours are allotted to me, and these at midnight. 
 My worthy partner and I complete the mechanical part ; that 
 is to say, we compose and distribute, on every number, one 
 hundred thousand types, besides performing the press-work, 
 mailing the papers to subscribers, 1 &c., &c. In addition to 
 this, a variety of letters, relative to the paper, are constantly 
 accumulating, which require prompt answers. We have just 
 taken a colored apprentice, 2 however, who will shortly be able 
 to alleviate our toil. 
 
 " I cannot give you a better apprehension of the arduousness 
 
 of my labors than by stating that it is more than six weeks 
 
 since I visited Mr. Coffin 3 perhaps more properly the Misses 
 
 . Coffin j for, certainly, there is no place in Boston I am disposed 
 
 to visit so often as in Atkinson Street." 
 
 7^.5,1831, Already, in replying publicly to a correspondent, he 
 had said : " It cannot be supposed that we, who perform 
 every day but the Sabbath fourteen hours of manual 
 labor on our paper, independent of mental toil, . . . are 
 inimical to the prosperity or improvement of the work- 
 
 1 Many numbers in the bound Volume I. now (1885) in possession of 
 Mr. Oliver Johnson bear in Mr. Garrison s own hand the name of the 
 Protestant, an exchange newspaper edited by the Rev. George Bourne in 
 New York City. 
 
 2 Thomas Paul, son of the highly respected pastor (of the same name) of 
 the African Baptist Church in Belknap Street, who died in April, 1831 
 (Lib. 1:63). From the printing-office the lad went to the Noyes Academy 
 in Canaan, N. H. (Lib. 5:71), and thence to Dartmouth College (Lib. 
 7:203), where he graduated in 1841 (Lib. 11:151). Afterwards he became 
 a teacher. 
 
 3 Peter Coffin, father-in-law of Mr. May. Atkinson Street was that part 
 of Congress now lying between Milk and Purchase Streets ; the family 
 lived, therefore, at no great distance from the Liberator office. They were 
 remotely related to Joshua Coffin, the historian of Newbury, Mass., of whom 
 more anon. 
 
. 26.] 
 
 THE LIBERATOR." 
 
 223 
 
 ing fraternity." And towards the close of the year he 
 writes thus to a friend in Providence : 
 
 " I am sorry that I can give you in return only a few lines 
 which are destitute of thought and distinguished for bad pen 
 manship, (for I write in haste,) but so it is. A week s hard 
 labor has just closed, and my mind is too much exhausted for 
 mental effort, and my body too jaded to be serviceable. My 
 correspondence is necessarily extensive and onerous ; pen, ink 
 and paper throw me into a kind of intellectual hydrophobia, 
 and so I avoid them as much as possible." 
 
 But we have not done with the mechanical obstacles 
 to the birth of the new journal. The ream or two of 
 paper needed to produce a specimen number was sought 
 to be obtained on credit of Deacon Moses Grant, of the 
 firm of Grant & Daiiiell, an acquaintance in the tempe 
 rance cause, who had entire respect for the partners ajid 
 had previously been consulted by them about starting 
 the Liberator. His refusal to let them have the modest 
 amount asked for was, therefore, not from distrust of 
 ultimate repayment, but from scruples about countenan 
 cing a paper having the anti-slavery character proposed. 
 At last, a house to which the young men were both 
 strangers was found to take the business risk, and the 
 first number was launched. Simultaneously was re 
 ceived from James Forten, u the greatly esteemed and 
 venerated sailmaker of Philadelphia," the sum of fifty- 
 four dollars in advance for twenty-seven subscribers 
 aid so timely as (like that shortly before received from 
 Ebenezer Dole) perhaps to be called Providential, seeing 
 that Mr. Garrison s orthodoxy was at that date irre 
 proachable. Still, neither a slender credit nor fifty -four 
 dollars in hand could go a great way towards supporting 
 a paper which began without a subscriber. But for the 
 " cheering countenance and pecuniary assistance early 
 extended to the Liberator " by Mr. Sewall 1 and Mr. Ellis 
 
 l " Had it not been for Samuel E. Sewall, I never should have been able to 
 continue the paper. He was the man who gave money again and again, 
 never expecting and never asking for the return of it" (Stenographic 
 report of Mr. Garrison s speech at the 20th anniversary of the Liberator, 
 omitted in print ; see Lib. 21 : 18). 
 
 Nov. 12, 
 1831. 
 
 MS. Mar. i, 
 1874, 
 
 W. L. G. to 
 
 O. Johnson ; 
 
 Mays Rec 
 ollections, 
 
 p. 30 ; Lib. 
 21 : 18, 19. 
 
 MS.Dec.yi, 
 
 1830, <- 
 to W. L. G. 
 
 Ante, p. 193. 
 
224 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^ET. 26. 
 
 CHAP. vin. Gray Loring in particular, it "must have again and 
 1831. again been suspended, and ultimately discontinued." 
 
 The mission of the Liberator was thus set forth on the 
 first page in a salutatory address : 
 
 TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 In the month of August, I issued proposals 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 Universal Emancipation to the Seat of Government 
 has rendered less imperious the establishment of a similar 
 periodical in that quarter. 
 
 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 evidence of the fact, that 
 a greater revolution in public sentiment was to be effected in 
 the free States and particularly in New-England than at the 
 South. I found contempt more bitter, opposition more active, 
 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 emanci 
 pation 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 spoliations of time or the mis 
 siles of a desperate foe yea, till every chain be broken, and 
 every bondman set free ! Let Southern oppressors tremble 
 let their secret abettors tremble let their Northern apologists 
 tremble let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble. 
 
 I deem the publication of my original Prospectus unneces 
 sary, as it has obtained a wide circulation. The principles 
 therein inculcated will be steadily pursued in this paper, ex 
 cepting that I shall not array myself as the political partisan of 
 any man. In defending the great cause of human rights, I 
 wish to derive the assistance of all religions and of all parties. 
 
 Assenting to the " self-evident truth " maintained in the 
 American Declaration of Independence, li that all men are 
 created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain 
 inalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pur- 
 
^ET. 26.] " THE LIBEKATOK." 225 
 
 suit of happiness," I shall strenuously contend for the imme- CHAP.VIII. 
 diate enfranchisement of our slave population. In Park- Street x ~ 
 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 of timidity, injustice, and 
 absurdity. A similar recantation, from my pen, was published 
 in the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore, in Sep 
 tember, 1829. My conscience is now satisfied. 
 
 I am aware that many object to the severity 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 moderate 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 emancipa 
 tion 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, is felt at this moment to a 
 considerable extent, and shall be felt in coming years not 
 perniciously, but beneficially not as a curse, but as a bless 
 ing ; and posterity will bear testimony that I was right. 
 I desire to thank God, that he enables me to disregard " the 
 fear of man which bringeth a snare," and to speak his truth 
 in its simplicity 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! Scorning 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 throbbing veins, 
 
 VOL. I. 15 
 
226 WILLIAM LLOYD GAREISON. [Mi. 26. 
 
 CHAP. VII I. Still to oppose and thwart, with heart and hand, 
 
 Thy brutalising sway till Afric s chains 
 
 I ^3 I - Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land, 
 
 Trampling Oppression and his iron rod: 
 Such is the vow I take so HELP ME GOD!"! 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 BOSTON, January 1, 1831. 
 
 From this manifesto, in which, as was Mr. Garrison s 
 wont,, every word was weighed with a more than rhetori 
 cal exactitude, one misses any allusion to the American 
 Colonization Society, unless the passage on gradual 
 abolition, with its reference to the Park-Street Church 
 discourse, be such ; nor does the Society s name occur in 
 the first number. In the very next, however, in opposi- 
 Lib. i : 7. tion to Lundy, the editor reiterates his belief that " the 
 American Colonization Society is wrong in principle and 
 impotent in design," and promises to " thoroughly sift its 
 pretensions in subsequent numbers of the Liberator." 
 No bodily nor mental fatigue prevented this pledge from 
 being amply redeemed. 
 
 The resolution to guard his agitation from political 
 and sectarian entanglements was frankly based on prac- 
 Lib. i : 35. tical considerations of expediency. " We are out of the 
 arena of politics, and we mean to keep out of it," he says 
 subsequently. And again, announcing his intention to 
 address by request the Society of Free Enquirers, at the 
 Lower Julien Hall, on the cruelties and impieties of 
 slavery and the anti-republican and anti-Christian ten 
 dency of the Colonization Society : 
 
 Lib. i : 39. "It is immaterial to me what party or sect I am invited to 
 . address on this subject. Universal emancipation from despot 
 ism is, and ought to be, common ground. He is neither a free 
 man, nor a friend to freedom, who makes this a sectarian or 
 political cause. If the religious portion of the community are 
 indifferent to the cries of suffering humanity, it is no reason 
 
 i The author of this sonnet was Thomas Pringle, the Scottish poet, 1789- 
 1834, one of the founders of Slackwood s Magazine, and Secretary of the 
 London Society for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British 
 Dominions (Lib. 1:43; 6:188; May s Recollections, p. 112). 
 
MT. 26.] " THE LIBEKATOR." 227 
 
 why I should reject the co-operation of those who are more CHAP.VIII. 
 deeply interested, though they make no pretension to evan- ~ 
 gelical piety." 
 
 Those who have sought to belittle Mr. Garrison s part 
 in the abolition of slavery, have found nothing novel in 
 the " severity of his language." But whether a real, and 
 whether a good or a bad title to distinction from his pre 
 decessors, for this he had gone to jail, and for it he was 
 now obliged to listen to the remonstrances of those who May s Rec- 
 most nearly sympathized with his objects, and whose %. 37. 
 profound faith in the purity of his motives furnished 
 him the means to shock them weekly in print. Towards 
 them he could be patient, but not so to an anonymous 
 correspondent who had been pestering him with some 
 crude advice : 
 
 " Everybody is opposed to slavery. ... yes ! there is Lib. 1 149. 
 an abundance of philanthropy among us : the difficulty is, we 
 have too much, instead of too little of it. ... There is nobody 
 to reform (except the reformers) here lies the difficulty. Fur 
 ther : I conceive it no part of my duty, as editor, to prove that 
 the holding of slaves is criminal. I take it for granted that 
 slavery is a crime a damning crime : therefore my efforts shall 
 be directed to the exposure of those who practise it. 
 
 " The public shall not be imposed upon, and men and things 
 shall be called by their right names. I retract nothing I blot 
 out nothing. My language is exactly such as suits me j it will 
 displease many, I know to displease them is my intention. 
 
 " Here I must advertise, that further advice will be con 
 sidered intrusive. I do not want it. I want more leisure from 
 manual labor, in order to do justice to the cause I want a 
 larger periodical that will enable me and my correspondents to 
 appear before the public without crowding each other." 
 
 There is an apparent inconsistency between the terms in 
 which gradual abolition is condemned in the Salutatory, 
 and the phraseology of a petition to Congress entreating 
 emancipation in the District of Columbia, printed beside 
 the former on the first page of the Liberator. This 
 petition, which is introduced by editorial surprise at 
 "many of the professed enemies of slavery . . . 
 
228 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [^T. 26. 
 
 CHAP. vni. heaping all their reproaches upon the South, and assert- 
 1831. ing that the crime of oppression is not national," whereas 
 the power of Congress over the District is indisputable, 
 this petition prays that " Congress will, without delay, 
 take such measures for the immediate or gradual abo 
 lition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and for 
 preventing the bringing of slaves into that District for 
 purposes of traffic, in such mode as may be advisable," 
 etc. This is an advance on the petition which Mr. Gar- 
 
 Ante,p. 108. rison had circulated in Vermont, in so far as it assumes 
 the practicability of immediate emancipation ; and it may 
 be said for the author of it (not the editor himself) that 
 the appeal is not here to individuals guilty of the sin of 
 slaveholding, but to a legislature which must consider 
 ways and means, and which is accordingly also asked to 
 make " suitable provision . . . for the education of 
 all free blacks and colored children in the District, thus, 
 to preserve them from continuing, even as free men, an 
 unenlightened and degraded caste." 1 Moreover, as a 
 test of the disposition of Congress to exercise its Consti 
 tutional authority over the District, a demand for gradual 
 abolition was as good as for immediate. For the moment, 
 the publication and recommendation of such a petition, 
 even in its least strenuous aspect, were evidence, in 
 Southern eyes, of the business-like character of Mr. Gar 
 rison s undertaking, and gave unmistakable significance 
 to the bold and defiant language of his Salutatory. 
 
 Nor did turning the leaf of the first number of the 
 Liberator bring much comfort to slaveholders. On the 
 second page they might read the indomitable spirit of 
 their adversary in his preface to a report of his second 
 Baltimore trial a report taken from the Baltimore 
 Gazette, and containing in full the original libel. His 
 persecutors are challenged to do their worst: he can 
 
 l"Urge immediate abolition as earnestly as we may, it will, alas! be 
 gradual abolition in the end. We have never said that slavery would be 
 overthrown by a single blow ; that it ought to be, we shall always contend " 
 (W. L. G. in Lib. 1:129). 
 
MT. 26.] " THE LIBERATOR." 229 
 
 neither be frightened nor humbled, nor made to forget CHAP.VIII. 
 that he is an American citizen and a freeman, or, as a ^^ 
 being accountable to God, to hold his peace on the sub 
 ject of African oppression. " Is the inquiry made, how 
 do I bear up under my adversities 1 I answer like the 
 oak like the Alps unshaken, storm-proof." To the 
 narrative of his conviction he is able to append a 
 Southern and a Northern protest against it ; the former 
 from a convention of the Manumission Society of North 
 Carolina, the latter from the Massachusetts Journal and 
 Tribune, whose opinion was reinforced by the fact that 
 the editor and writer of the article in question, David 
 Lee Child, 1 was a lawyer. His own comments follow in Lib. 1:9; 
 a later number. 
 
 Still a little space remains on the second page, and this 
 
 shall be filled by verses signed " G- n," but written 
 
 who knows when or where amid all the distractions of 
 the past six months ? 
 
 UNIVEESAL EMANCIPATION. 
 
 Though distant be the hour, yet come it must 
 
 Oh ! hasten it, in mercy, righteous Heaven ! 
 When Afric s sons, uprising from the dust, 
 
 Shall stand erect their galling fetters riven j 
 
 When from his throne Oppression shall be driven, 
 An exiled monster, powerless through all time ; 
 
 When freedom glorious freedom, shall be given 
 To every race, complexion, caste, and clime, 
 And nature s sable hue shall cease to be a crime! 
 
 Wo if it come with storm, and blood, and fire, 
 When midnight darkness veils the earth and sky ! 
 
 Wo to the innocent babe the guilty sire 
 Mother and daughter friends of kindred tie ! 
 Stranger and citizen alike shall die! 
 
 l "My husband was anti-slavery," wrote Mrs. Child in 1867, "and it 
 [slavery] was the theme of many of our conversations while Garrison was 
 in prison " ( Letters of L. M. Child, p. 195). 
 
230 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 26. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. Red-handed Slaughter his revenge shall feed, 
 
 I ^~ I And Havoc yell his ominous death-cry, 
 
 And wild Despair in vain for mercy plead 
 While Hell itself shall shrink, and sicken at the deed ! 
 
 Thou who avengest blood ! long-suffering Lord ! 
 
 My guilty country from destruction save ! 
 Let Justice sheathe her sharp and terrible sword, 
 
 And Mercy rescue, e en as from the grave ! 
 
 Oh ! for the sake of those who firmly brave 
 The lust of Power the tyranny of Law 
 
 To bring redemption to the perishing slave 
 Fearless, though few Thy presence ne er withdraw, 
 But quench the kindling flames of hot, rebellious war ! 
 
 And ye sad victims of base Avarice ! 
 
 Hunted like beasts, and trodden like the earth ; 
 Bought and sold daily, at a paltry price 
 
 The scorn of tyrants, and of fools the mirth 
 
 Your souls debased from their immortal birth! 
 Bear meekly as ye ve borne your cruel woes j 
 
 Ease follows pain light, darkness plenty, dearth : 
 So time shall give you freedom and repose, 
 And high exalt your heads above your bitter foes ! 
 
 Not by the sword shall your deliverance be ; 
 
 Not by the shedding of your masters blood, 
 Not by rebellion or foul treachery, 
 
 Upspringing suddenly, like swelling flood: 
 
 Revenge and rapine ne er did bring forth good. 
 GOD S time is best ! nor will it long delay : 
 
 Even now your barren cause begins to bud, 
 And glorious shall the fruit be ! Watch and pray, 
 For, lo ! the kindling dawn, that ushers in the day ! 
 
 On the literary quality of these verses the Southern 
 mind, we may be sure, did not dwell long. As confi 
 dently we may affirm that it saw in them only a blood 
 thirsty purpose, and that when in September of this 
 Lib. i : 143. memorable year the editor recalled the second stanza as 
 prophecy, it seemed rather to the panic-stricken objects 
 of real and imaginary insurrections a diabolic cause of 
 
^ET. 26.] " THE LIBEKATOK." 231 
 
 their impending destruction. The heat, therefore, with CHAP.VIII. 
 which they passed from reading this warning to the X 8^i. 
 oppressor, this injunction of non-resistance to the 
 oppressed, this absolutely just prediction that their re 
 demption would come from without, was not likely to 
 be allayed by the editorial notice, on the third page, 
 of an interesting piece of current intelligence : the 
 Legislature of North Carolina was sitting with closed Cf.ante, 
 doors to consider a message from the Governor about p ] 
 4 Walker s Appeal. They had good reason to be 
 alarmed, observed Mr. Garrison, "for a better pro 
 moter of insurrection was never sent forth to an 
 oppressed people." As " one of the most remarkable 
 productions of the age/ 7 he proposed to examine it in a 
 future number, together with the opinions of the press 
 about it; adding, "We have already publicly deprecated Ante,p.i6i. 
 its spirit." He himself did not get beyond a first and 
 very brief article, in which he again deprecated the Lib. i : 6. 
 " spirit and tendency" of the Appeal/ but declared that 
 it was not for his guilty countrymen as a nation " to 
 denounce it as bloody or monstrous. . . . Every 
 Fourth of July celebration must embitter and inflame the 
 minds of the slaves. And the late dinners, and illumina 
 tions, and ovations, and shoutings, at the South, over the 
 downfall of the French tyrant, Charles the Tenth, furnish 
 so many reasons to the slaves why they should obtain their 
 rights by violence." Subsequently, an able analysis of the 
 Appeal, 7 with extracts, by an anonymous contributor, 
 filled the place of honor in several numbers of the paper, Llb _ I 8 ^ 6 9- 
 at no great interval before the Nat Turner rising in 
 Virginia. 1 
 
 The " incendiary 77 character of the Liberator was not 
 fully developed till its seventeenth number, when the 
 plain heading gave way to an ornamental one, sur 
 mounted by a rude but effective cut, representing a slave- 
 
 l The Virginia House of Delegates took notice of Walker s Appeal in a 
 bill " To prevent the circulation of seditious writings" (ante, p. 162, James 
 Stuart s Three Years in America, and the monthly Abolitionist, p. 98). 
 
232 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [-ET. 26. 
 
 Lib. i : 67. auction, " appropriately located at the seat of the National 
 Government," indicated on the left side by the Capitol in 
 the distance, " with the American flag (on which is con 
 spicuous the word LIBERTY) floating on the breeze," and 
 a whipping-post in front at which a bound slave is being 
 flogged. On the right and in the immediate foreground 
 is a group in which a single beast answers to the sign 
 " Horse Market," and to the placard on the auctioneer s 
 pulpit, u Slaves, horses and other cattle to be sold at 
 12 o c.," while a sorrowing family of slaves about to be 
 separated, " a purchaser examining a negro as a butcher 
 would an ox/ and sundry bidders, complete the picture 
 or all but complete it, for "down in the dust our 
 Indian Treaties are seen." This design has every appear 
 ance of having originated with the editor, whose sense of 
 pictorial effect was ever very keen. 1 Re-drawn and elab 
 orated in after years to meet the expansion of the paper, 
 it remained at the head, as Mr. Garrison remained at the 
 helm, until slavery and the Liberator were no more. " I 
 
 Lib. i : 178. have heard," wrote a resident of Georgia, " many com 
 ments upon your paper by the slaveholders who have 
 seen it. Your engraving in the title is galling to them, 
 and often elicits a deep and bitter curse." They saw in 
 it not what it was meant to be, an appeal to the North 
 ern conscience, but an instigation to servile insurrec- 
 
 30 Years tion. " For what purpose," asked Senator Benton in 1835 
 t,i. 577. o a s i m ji ar issue " f rom the abolition mint," "could 
 such a picture be intended unless to inflame the passions 
 of slaves?" as if it could sink deeper into their con 
 sciousness than the lash itself ! 2 And in this latter year 
 Mr. Calhoun s unsuccessful bill to guard the South from 
 anti-slavery propagandism made it a penal offence for 
 
 1 The newspapers of the day were full of deprecation of it. His more 
 cautious friends counselled him to suppress it. Mr. Sewall "very kindly 
 offered to pay for the whole of it if I would have plain type instead of 
 it" (MS. stenographic report of speech at the 20th anniversary of the 
 Liberator). 
 
 2 Compare J. G. Birney s letter to the Alabama Vigilance Committee 
 (Lib. 6:12). 
 
VOL. 1.1 
 
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ZET. 26J " THE LIBERATOR." 233 
 
 postmasters in any State, District, or Territory " know- 30 Years 
 ingly to deliver, to any person whatever, any pamphlet, 
 newspaper, handbill, or other printed paper or pictorial 
 representation, touching the subject of slavery, where, by 
 the laws of the said State, District, or Territory, their 
 circulation was prohibited." 
 
 " Editorial courtesy " stood for much more in the first 
 third of the century than it does in our day. The gra 
 tuitous publication of Mr. Garrison s prospectus may 
 therefore have had little personal significance j but it is 
 probable that the service was in his case something more 
 than perfunctory. In the first place, he was already a 
 "veteran journalist/ judged by the number of newspa 
 pers which he had conducted before founding the Lib 
 erator, and his name must have been familiar to a large 
 fraction of his fellow-journalists through the medium of 
 the exchange-table. It was quite in fashion, as the first 
 volume of the Liberator shows, to give a personal turn to 
 newspaper discussion, whether friendly or otherwise. In 
 the next place, Mr. Garrison s imprisonment had given 
 him a fresh notoriety, and should have drawn to him 
 those who hated slavery, however silently, or saw in him 
 the victim of an attempt on the freedom of the press. 
 Finally, South Carolina, by its nullification doctrine and 
 attitude, and Georgia, by its violation of national treaties 
 in its insolent invasion of the Cherokee State, had roused 
 to an extraordinary degree both the constitutional and 
 philanthropic sentiment of the North, and made it possi 
 ble to welcome one manly protest against the prevailing 
 subserviency to " Southern rights." 
 
 "By the editorial fraternity throughout the country, with MS. Feb. 
 hardly an exception," writes Mr. Garrison in a letter already ^s j^May 
 quoted, "the Liberator has been received with acclamation ; 
 by the public the white portion of it with suspicion or 
 apathy. Upon the colored population in the free States it has 
 operated like a trumpet-call. They have risen in their hopes 
 and feelings to the perfect stature of men : in this city, every 
 one of them is as tall as a giant. About ninety have subscribed 
 
234 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^ET. 26. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. for the paper in Philadelphia, and upwards of thirty in New 
 jj~ York ; which number, I am assured, will swell to at least one 
 hundred in a few weeks. This, then, is my consolation : if I 
 cannot do much, in this quarter, towards abolishing slavery, I 
 may be able to elevate our free colored population in the scale 
 of society." 
 
 Exceptions to this " acclamation " were not wanting in 
 
 Lib. i : 18. the writer s native New England, whose " time-serving, 
 unprincipled and heartless n editors were prompt to de 
 nounce his " violent and intemperate attacks on slave 
 holders," and his "mawkish sentimentality." That 
 transplanted New Englander, George D. Prentice, newly 
 put in charge of the Louisville (Ky.) Journal, wrote in 
 
 Lib. 1:27. his issue of January 25 : " Mr. Garrison knows that we 
 are his personal friend, and that we regard him as one of 
 the ablest writers and warmest philanthropists of the 
 age; but, after all, some of his opinions with regard to 
 slavery in the United States are no better than lunacy." 
 
 Lib. i : 39. The American (Washington) Spectator regretted " to 
 observe the late talented and persecuted Junior Editor 
 of the Genius of Universal Emancipation in the dying 
 ranks of this opposition [to African colonization] . We 
 hoped that his good sense would ere long withdraw him 
 even from the side of abolitionists." Journals further 
 south were sparing of compliments. The Camden (S. C.) 
 
 Lib. 1:35, Journal, edited by an " apostate Yankee," threatened to 
 hand his " scandalous and incendiary budget of sedition 
 . . . to the proper authorities, as the ground of a 
 prosecution," in case he should venture within the State. 
 Mr. Garrison bids him do so, " and tell them that as soon as 
 we can make our arrangements, we intend removing the 
 office of the Liberator to South Carolina, or one of the 
 slave States, where we can meet the enemy on his own 
 ground. This is too great a distance to fire our cannon : 
 the South gets merely its echoes, when she ought to 
 receive its contents." 
 
 As time went on, the abuse thickened. In reply to a 
 colored committee who had sent him a donation in 
 
.fflT.26.] U THE LIBEEATOE." 235 
 
 money, together with their still more precious approval, CHAP.VIII. 
 he wrote : 1831. 
 
 " Foes are on my right hand and on my left. The tongue of Lib. i : 139. 
 detraction is busy against me. I have no communion with 
 the world the world none with me. The timid, the luke 
 warm, the base, affect to believe that my brains are disordered, 
 and my words the ravings of a maniac. Even many of my 
 friends they who have grown up with me from my child 
 hood are transformed into scoffers and enemies." 
 
 Worse things were in store. To his readers he says 
 presently : 
 
 " In attacking the system of slavery, I clearly foresaw all that Lib. i : 145. 
 has happened to me. I knew at the commencement that my 
 motives would be impeached, my warnings ridiculed, my per 
 son persecuted, my sanity doubted, my life jeoparded j but the 
 clank of the prisoner s chains broke upon my ear it entered 
 deeply into my soul I looked up to Heaven for strength to 
 sustain me in the perilous work of emancipation, and my reso 
 lution was taken. Thanks be to God, that resolution grows 
 loftier with time, and sinks its base deeper and broader as 
 danger approximates. The following letters infuse new blood 
 into my veins." 
 
 Two of these letters were anonymous, and fairly illite- Lib. \ . 145. 
 rate ; the first, from Princeton, N. J., perhaps written by 
 a Southern student, being an incoherent stream of vulgar 
 
 profanity, introduced by "You d d scoundrel," and 
 
 containing rather predictions than threats, as, " Hell is 
 gaping for you ! the devil is feasting in anticipation ! " 
 The second was signed " A Freeman," and purported to 
 be written by a Washington slaveholder. " Your paper, 
 sir," it began, " cannot be much longer tolerated. . . . 
 Shame on the Freemen of Boston for permitting such a 
 vehicle of outrage and rebellion to spring into existence 
 among them. . . . Don t understand me," he adds, 
 with a superfluous reminder of the prevailing estimate, 
 North as well as South, of the free people of color, " to 
 mean by the term l freemen ? yellow-skins or knotty 
 heads these I do not recognize as such, nor are they 
 
236 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^ET. 26. 
 
 CHAP. viii. looked upon by men of high honor and noble feeling as 
 1 sJ I . in any degree elevated above a level with slaves." If 
 Boston did not suppress the Liberator, the Southerners 
 would. The third letter was from a friendly clergyman, 1 
 who reported to Mr. Garrison a conversation in a stage 
 coach on the way to Boston, of which the subject was 
 " the recent insurrection of the blacks in Virginia. 7 One 
 said. 
 
 Lib. i : 145. " It was his opinion, and the opinion of many others, that 
 Win. L. Garrison had contributed in no small degree to the 
 excitement among the blacks which had eventuated in that sad 
 catastrophe ; that he was inclined to think that Mr. Garrison 
 would not be permitted to live long that he would be taken 
 away, and no one be the wiser for it. He also stated that this 
 was the opinion of many persons at the South, where he had 
 been living the season past ; and he added, that he had not 
 the least doubt if Mr. Garrison were to go to the South, he 
 would be dispatched immediately ; and that he had heard this 
 opinion expressed by persons at the South repeatedly. 1 1 
 
 Lib. i : 145. To the clergyman Mr. Garrison says : " I thank him 
 for his friendly disclosures : they confirm the threats in 
 the preceding epistles, but only add to my strength and 
 stature." He is willing his life should be sacrificed, if 
 required ; it would undoubtedly " accomplish more for 
 the anti-slavery cause than even the violent death of 
 Morgan has done for the anti-masonic cause. This con 
 sideration is in the highest degree consolatory." As for 
 the planters: "I would not, wittingly, harm a hair of 
 their heads, nor injure them in their lawful property. I 
 am not their enemy, but their friend. It is true, I abhor 
 their oppressive acts ; nor will I cease to denounce them 
 
 i Rev. La Roy Sunderland, of the Methodist denomination, then settled 
 at Andover, Mass. (Lib. 3 : [94], and p. viii. of Phelps s Lectures on Slavery 
 and its Remedy, 1834). In 1836 he founded in New York Ziorfs Watchman, 
 a staunch anti-slavery paper (Lib. 6: 11, and Johnson s Garrison, pp. 187, 
 239), and published The Testimony of God against Slavery. Mr. Gar 
 rison thanked him privately for his warning, in a letter dated Sept. 8, 1831, 
 first printed in Lib. Sept. 18, 1857. 
 
JET. 26.] " THE LIBEKATOK." 237 
 
 in terms of indignation. They will surely be destroyed CHAP.VIII. 
 if they do not repent. MEN MUST BE FREE." 1 I8 7i. 
 
 As usual in this fervent time, Mr. Garrison s feelings 
 sought expression in verse, producing the sonnet after 
 wards entitled 
 
 TRUE COUKAGE. Ztf.i:i6o; 
 
 Writings of 
 
 I boast no courage on the battle-field, W p L if 
 
 Where hostile troops immix in horrid fray; 
 For love or fame I can no weapon wield, 
 
 With burning lust an enemy to slay: 
 But test my spirit at the blazing stake, 
 
 For advocacy of the RIGHTS OF MAN, 
 And TRUTH or on the wheel my body break; 
 
 Let persecution place me neath its ban ; 
 Insult, defame, proscribe my humble name; 
 
 Yea, put the dagger at my naked breast; 
 If I recoil in terror from the flame, 
 
 Or recreant prove when peril rears its crest, 
 To save a limb, or shun the public scorn 
 Then write me down for aye, Weakest of woman born. 2 
 
 After the Virginia insurrection, which infected the 
 whole South with panic, the menaces through the mails 
 grew more frequent and violent : 
 
 " The Editor of the Liberator," we read in the issue for Lib. i : 167. 
 October 15, 1831, u is constantly receiving from the slave 
 States letters filled with the most diabolical threats and in 
 decent language fair specimens of Southern courage and 
 morality on which is charged double or treble postage. He 
 
 1 As soon as this copy of the Liberator reached Arthur Tappan, he sat 
 down and wrote as follows (MS.) : 
 
 "NEW YORK, Sept. 12, 1831. 
 
 " FRIEND GARRISON : As I see your life is threatened, I feel anxious to 
 have all the advantage of it while you live, and therefore enclose you one 
 hundred dollars, to be applied to the distribution of jour paper to the lead 
 ing men in our country. I could wish to see more argument in your columns 
 to show THE IMPOSSIBILITY of the Colonization Society s ever effecting the entire 
 removal of our colored slave population, supposing the slave-owners to be will 
 ing to emancipate their slaves. This idea has got such hold of the minds 
 of many good people that it shuts out every feeling of doing good to the 
 colored people in any other way." 
 
 2 See, also, the sonnet "Persecution," in Lib. 1:55, though in both cases 
 the sentiment is more remarkable than the verse. 
 
238 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 26. 
 
 1831. 
 
 Lib. i : 171. 
 
 Niles Regis 
 ter, 41 : 66. 
 
 Lib. i : 161. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. wishes these filthy wretches to understand that the tax is 
 promptly refunded at the Post-office, and that their maledic 
 tions only confirm him in his purpose." 
 
 Nor was the Northern spirit less murderous. A letter 
 from Lowell, signed " Revenge, 7 promised assassination 
 by poison or the dagger if the "infamous Liberator" 
 should be published one month longer. 1 This informa 
 tion, commented Mr. Garrison, " afflicts us less than the 
 postage six cents." 
 
 Meantime, editors of respectable papers began to 
 invoke mob violence, euphemistically called " an exer 
 tion of public opinion," in Boston. The "Washington Na 
 tional Intelligencer copied from the Tarboro (N. C.) Free 
 Press (!) a letter addressed to the postmaster of that 
 town, charging Mr. Garrison with publishing an "in 
 cendiary paper," " with the avowed purpose of inciting 
 rebellion in the South," and circulating it through " secret 
 agents " disguised as peddlers, for whom " barbecuing " 
 that is, roasting alive was recommended if caught. 
 The Intelligencer, with no word of disapproval, repeated 
 the allegation that the Liberator was designed to lead to 
 "precisely such results as the Southampton Tragedy," 
 and called upon the Mayor of Boston 2 to find some law 
 to stop the publication of such " diabolical papers." 
 " The crime is as great as that of poisoning the waters 
 of life to a whole community." " We know nothing of 
 the man: we desire not to have him unlawfully dealt 
 with : we can even conceive of his motive being good in 
 his own opinion," but the citizens of Boston are urged 
 to step forward and " vindicate the cause of humanity, as 
 it is outraged by the publication to which we refer." Mr. 
 Garrison in vain sought a hearing in self-defence in the 
 Lib. i : 165. columns of Messrs. Gales and Seaton : 3 " You have (I 
 
 1 This letter has by chance been preserved. 
 
 2 Harrison Gray Otis, the third incumbent of the office (succeeding Josiah 
 Quincy), 1829-31. 
 
 3 " The one an English cockney, with little to recommend him but his 
 inflated vanity, and the other a sprig of the negro aristocracy of North 
 Carolina" (Lundy, Genius, October, 1831). 
 
^T. 26.] "THE LIBERATOR." 239 
 
 hope unintentionally) calumniated my character and put CHAP.VIII. 
 my life in jeopardy." There were several reasons why ^Jj. 
 the editors of the Intelligencer should refuse to print a 
 letter from "this madman/ telling them that their 
 remarks on the Tarboro extract " breathe the spirit of 
 murder and exhibit the incoherency of madness." Yet, 
 as he reminded them, they had " unhesitatingly pub 
 lished " his prospectus, in which his peace doctrine was 
 set forth. Moreover, he had not a single subscriber, 
 black or white, south of the Potomac. 
 
 They could, nevertheless, be hospitable to a Virginian Lib. i : 166. 
 who suggested that the Liberator might be " treated as a 
 seditious libel, published in the District, or any other 
 place to which it may be sent by its author : that the 
 fact of publication being procured by the author, he is a 
 principal offender in the place where the publication is 
 made, although he may never have been personally 
 present there in his life. 7 After citing cases, the writer 
 proceeded : 
 
 " Let the offender, then, in this ease, be demanded by the 
 President or the Governor of Virginia, and prosecuted in the 
 place where he has procured his incendiary paper to be dis 
 tributed ; and I think law may be found to punish him. I will 
 answer for the event if we lay hands upon him in Virginia. If 
 the Governor of Massachusetts should refuse, then let the 
 People of the South offer an adequate reward to any person 
 who will deliver him, dead or alive, into the hands of the 
 authorities of any State south of the Potomac." 
 
 This temper seemed to the Intelligencer " very natural 
 under the circumstances," if inexpedient to act upon ; 
 the legal view it would not dispute. The " desperate 
 proposal," exclaims Mr. Garrison, " caps the climax of 
 Southern mendacity and folly. My contempt of it is 
 unutterable. Nothing but my own death, or a want of 
 patronage, shall stop the Liberator." When the Southern 
 papers call him hostis Jmmani generis, a "fiendish editor," 
 the " apologist of the blacks in the recent Virginia insur 
 rection," he replies : " Although I preach submission to Lib. i : 166. 
 
240 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. |>ET. 26. 
 
 CHAP. viii. the slaves, still I am denounced as a monster. Do the 
 1831. planters wish me to inculcate a revengeful doctrine ? " 
 
 Lib. i : 171. In October the corporation of Georgetown, D. C., passed 
 a law prohibiting any free person of color from taking 
 the Liberator from the post-office, under pain of twenty 
 dollars fine or thirty days imprisonment ; and if fine 
 and jail fees were not paid, directing such person to be 
 sold as a slave for four months. It was one of the func 
 tions of the Liberator to remind them that this law was 
 unconstitutional, and that they " must be prepared to 
 answer for their conduct before the Supreme Court of the 
 United States." The Charleston (S. C.) Mercury of Octo 
 ber 4 reported that a Vigilance Association of Columbia, 
 " composed of gentlemen of the first respectability," had 
 offered a reward of fifteen hundred dollars for the appre 
 hension and prosecution to conviction of any white 
 person circulating the Liberator or Walker s Pamphlet/ 
 " or any other publication of seditious tendency." Similar 
 
 Lib. i : 174- action was taken at a public meeting in Bethesda (Rich 
 mond Co.), Georgia. In the first week of the same month 
 there reached the post-office at Raleigh, N. C., a copy of 
 
 Lib. 1:171. the Liberator " containing the most illiberal and cold 
 blooded allusions to the late supposed insurrection among 
 our slaves " (one of the baseless frights engendered every 
 where by Turner s outbreak) ; and, the Grand Jury being 
 then in session, the Attorney-General submitted an in 
 dictment against William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac 
 Knapp, for the " circulation and publication w of the 
 Liberator " in this county, in contravention to the act of 
 the last General Assembly." A true bill was found 
 accordingly; and " so, we suppose," adds the news- writer, 
 " the accused will be demanded by the Governor of this 
 State. . . . The act makes the offence Felony 
 whipping and imprisonment for the first offence, and 
 death, without benefit of clergy, for the second." 1 
 
 lAs usual, Arthur Tappan was promptly on hand with material and 
 moral support. Under date of Oct. 18, 1831, he writes from New York (MS.) : 
 " Mr. Lundy this morning [read] me an extract from a N. C. paper, stating 
 
Mi. 26.] " THE LIBERATOR." 241 
 
 That there was no law in Massachusetts for suppress- CHAP.VIII. 
 ing the Liberator, or that any was needed, was a cause ^i. 
 of the greatest surprise to the South. In December, 
 Governor Hamilton, of South Carolina, sent a special 
 message to the Legislature, accompanied by copies of the Lib. i : 207. 
 Liberator and of Mr. Garrison s Address to the Free 
 People of Color delivered in June in various cities of 
 the North. In this message he referred to a letter of the 
 Governor of Virginia which " leaves no doubt that the 
 spirit of insubordination in that State was excited by 
 incendiary newspapers and other publications r put forth 
 in the non-slaveholding States and freely circulated 
 within the limits of Virginia " ; also, to a complaint made 
 by the Savannah authorities respecting the publication 
 and distribution of the above-mentioned incendiary docu 
 ments " as inconsistent with a just regard to the obliga 
 tions of the Union," and calling for their suppression 
 with suitable punishments a complaint which was 
 answered by the constituted authorities of Boston " that 
 they had no power to interfere, however justly they 
 might reprehend the mischievous tendency of these 
 publications." Governor Hamilton was confident that 
 the same agencies were at work in South Carolina and 
 throughout the South, and thought it an extraordinary 
 fact that, "in a peaceful and united confederacy of 
 States," it was necessary to submit without remedy to 
 acts of hostility and annoyance from citizens of one of 
 its members, whereas, if the States were separate, these 
 
 that the Grand Jury had found a bill of indictment against you and your 
 partner for distributing incendiary papers in that State ; and that you 
 would be demanded from the Governor of Mass. I do not know how much 
 importance to attach to this, but I wish to say that if money is needed to 
 save you from the fangs of these wretches, I will supply it. I annex a 
 letter of credit for $1000, and authorize you to use it without hesitation, if 
 there should be occasion, in any way your personal safety may require, 
 [and] you may depend on as much more if it should be [needed], of which 
 I hope you will not fail to advise me." In the same letter Mr. Tappan 
 related that his house at New Haven had been stoned a few nights before 
 by some obscene fellows, shouting " Magdalen " (see Life of Arthur Tap- 
 pan, p. 112) and " Immediate Emancipation." See, also, Lib. 1:171. 
 
 VOL. I. 16 
 
242 WILLIAM LLOYD GABEISON. [-T. 26. 
 
 CHAP. viii. acts would justify a suspension of pacific relations. He 
 1831. therefore asked for authority to communicate with the 
 Governor of Massachusetts and call the Legislature s 
 attention to this wrong. His view was more tersely ex 
 pressed by the Columbia Telescope when it said : " They 
 
 Lib. i : 195. [the Bostonians] permit a battery to be erected upon 
 their territory, which fires in upon us, and we should be 
 justified in invading that territory to silence the guns." 
 
 Ante, p. 2^. The Intelligencer s appeal to " the worthy Mayor of the 
 City of Boston ?? for some action towards legal suppres- 
 
 NUes Regis- sion or public disavowal of the Liberator, was the first 
 intimation he had had of that paper s existence. A 
 fortnight later (October 15) he received from " an emi 
 nent counsellor of the State of South Carolina" (no 
 doubt, Senator Hayne) a private communication to the 
 same end, to which Mr. Otis made a long reply. 1 He 
 had by that time procured a copy of the Liberator, but 
 had not ascertained the name of any person taking it, 
 and concluded that "its patronage must be extremely 
 limited " : 
 
 " I am told that it is supported chiefly by the free colored 
 people j that the number of subscribers in Baltimore 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 feelings have been exasperated by some 
 occurrences consequent to his publications there, 2 on topics 
 
 1 First given to the public in the fall of 1833, through the Boston Adver 
 tiser. See, also, Niles* Register, 45 : 42, Sept. 14. 
 
 2 This notion, that Mr. Garrison s heat against slavery must be the pas 
 sionate resentment of an injured man, was not peculiar to Mayor Otis. It 
 is apologetically put forth in the following (MS.) letter from President 
 Wayland of Brown University, which is also noteworthy for its perverse 
 assumption that the editor of the Liberator was promoting a slave insur 
 rection, as well as for the sophistry of the future author of the Elements 
 of Moral Science. Its date (after the Southampton rising) should not be 
 overlooked : 
 
 PROVIDENCE, Nov. 1, 1831. 
 
 "DEAR SIR: Having directed the paper which you have very politely 
 sent me to be discontinued, various considerations render it proper that I 
 should frankly state to you my reasons for having done so. 
 
Mi. 26.] " THE LIBERATOR." 243 
 
 connected with the condition of slaves in this country. On CHAP. VIII. 
 these particulars I mean to seek for more exact information, I ^7 I 
 which I am told will be attainable, as the editor makes no 
 secret of his purpose, or his list of subscribers. Meanwhile, 
 the statement must be sumcient to convince you and your 
 friends of the insignificant countenance and support which the 
 paper itself derives from this city. The paper which I read 
 contained, among speculations which I consider atrocious and 
 detestable, others compiled from essays, foreign and domestic, 
 
 I believe as strongly as any other man that slavery is very wicked, and 
 very destructive to the best interests both of master and slave. But this 
 does not seem to me to decide that immediate emancipation of all the 
 slaves in the U. S. would be either wise or just. Very much may be 
 required to be done before liberty would be a blessing to the slave. I may 
 have embezzled the property of a minor, and may have brought him up in 
 misery and vice. It is wrong for me to hold this property for my own 
 benefit, but it would be neither wise nor right to put it at once into the 
 possession of my ward, and by so doing to expose him to temptations 
 which his previous education had not prepared him to resist. I should 
 first teach him how to use it, and then put him in possession of it. 
 
 " But even granting the propriety of Immediate Emancipation, there are 
 other important questions to be settled. Shall we seek to bring about this 
 event by enlightening, convincing, and persuading the masters, or by 
 exciting to rebellion the slaves ? 
 
 "If this desirable event can be accomplished by the first of these 
 methods, it will prevent bloodshed ; it will improve the moral character of 
 both parties ; it will bind them together by the feeling of benevolence on 
 the one hand, and gratitude on the other ; it will be permanent in its 
 effects, and will be a glorious triumph to the cause of philanthropy by 
 inducing man voluntarily to perform a great and noble action. Such 
 seems to me the mode which Christianity would approve. 
 
 " If we, on the contrary, attempt to accomplish this result by exciting 
 the slaves to rebellion, success can only be looked for after a most bloody 
 servile war, destructive to all the better feelings of both parties, leaving 
 them in interminable hatred, and utterly unfit for any permanently 
 amicable adjustment ; and after all, the event will be left to the mere 
 accident of physical superiority. Whichever might succeed, neither party 
 would be substantially better off than at present, and an ocean of blood 
 would have been needlessly shed. Men are not often made better or hap 
 pier by war, specially by servile war, the most destructive and demoral 
 izing of all the forms of human massacre. 
 
 "Now I regret to say, my dear sir, that so far as I can judge, the ten 
 dency of your paper is to produce the latter of these results. Its attitude 
 to the slave-owners is menacing and vindictive. The tendency of your re 
 marks is to prejudice their minds against a cool discussion of the subject. 
 On the contrary, the miseries of the slaves are set forth in a manner cal 
 culated to arouse their most destructive passions [and urge] them on to 
 resistance at all hazards. Should such a catastrophe ever occur, I am sure 
 
244 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. [^T. 26. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. upon the subject of slavery in the abstract ; l and I am per- 
 
 jZj suaded that if upon investigation it should be found that any 
 
 of our citizens are among the subscribers, they are those who 
 
 would sincerely disavow the horrid doctrines which openly 
 
 encourage insurrection and its consequences," etc. 
 
 What came of further inquiry is related in the letter 
 Lib. 18 : 162. of ex-Mayor Otis published in October, 1848. 2 in defence 
 of the candidacy of Zachary Taylor against the senti 
 mental objection that the Whig nominee for President 
 was a slaveholder. In an historical digression slightly 
 at variance with the foregoing account, he says : 
 
 " No symptom of the abolition mania, or a desire to interfere 
 with the domestic concerns of the South, was manifested in any 
 quarter till within a few years. The rise and progress of this 
 fever is curious. The first information received by me of a 
 disposition to agitate this subject in our State was from the 
 Governors of Virginia and Georgia, severally remonstrating 
 against an incendiary newspaper published in Boston, and, as 
 they alleged, thrown broadcast among their plantations, inciting 
 to insurrection and its horrid results. It appeared on enquiry 
 that no member of the city government, nor any person of my 
 acquaintance, had ever heard of the publication. Some time 
 afterward, it was reported to me by the city officers that they 
 had ferreted out the paper and its editor; 3 that his office was 
 an obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary a negro boy, and his 
 
 that you or I would rather have lost our right hand than have written a 
 word which should have contributed in the least degree to hasten it. 
 
 "I believe that you, my dear sir, have suffered injustice in consequence 
 of your efforts in this cause. But let us remember the Gospel teaches us 
 forgiveness. Let us strive to do good to all men masters as well as slaves. 
 In this course we shall be more useful, and, I think, follow more closely 
 our Master in Heaven. 
 
 " With every sentiment of respect, I am, dear sir, 
 Yours truly, 
 
 " F. WAYLAND. 
 
 "Mr. W. LLOYD GARRISON, Boston." 
 
 1 And therefore presumably harmless. "The great mass of slaveholders," 
 wrote Mr. Garrison, "while they profess to be opposed to slavery in the 
 abstract (would to Heaven there was no slavery but slavery in the abstract ! ), 
 are incurably attached to practical slavery" (Lib. 2: 194). 
 
 2 His last political utterance. He died on October 28. 
 
 3 Mayor Otis might have saved the " ferreting " by handing the city 
 officers his copy of the Liberator, with the publication office declared upon 
 the first page. He had had practice in this sort of inquisition (ante, p. 160). 
 
^T. 26. J " THE LIBEKATOR." 245 
 
 supporters a very few insignificant persons of all colors. 1 This CHAP. VIII. 
 information, with the consent of the aldermen, I communicated JT~ 
 to the above-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." 
 
 Although Mayor Otis was lawyer enough to write his 
 brother lawyer in South Carolina : " You must perceive 
 the intrinsic, if not insuperable, obstacles to legislative 
 enactments made to prevent crimes from being consum 
 mated beyond the local jurisdiction," he did not refuse 
 to help lay a possible " foundation " for some kind of 
 Federal or inter-State action. The prying visit of his 
 officers needed a pretext, and under the head of " Infor 
 mation Wanted " we read in the Liberator of October 29 : Lib. i : 175. 
 
 l This passage inspired Lowell s elevated poem to W. L. Garrison : 
 
 "In a small chamber, friendless and unseen, 
 Toiled o er his types one poor, unlearned young man ; 
 
 The place was dark, unfurnitured, and mean; 
 Yet there the freedom of a race began. 
 
 "Help came but slowly; surely no man yet 
 
 Put lever to the heavy world with less: 
 What need of help? He knew how types were set, 
 
 He had a dauntless spirit, and a press. 
 
 "Such earnest natures are the fiery pith, 
 
 The compact nucleus, round which systems grow! 
 Mass after mass becomes inspired therewith, 
 
 And whirls impregnate with the central glow. 
 
 "O Truth! O Freedom! how are ye still born 
 
 In the rude stable, in the manger nursed ! 
 What humble hands unbar those gates of morn 
 
 Through which the splendors of the New Day burst! 
 
 "What! shall one monk, scarce known beyond his cell, 
 
 Front Rome s far-reaching bolts, and scorn her frown ? 
 Brave Luther answered YES! that thunder s swell 
 
 Rocked Europe, and discharmed the triple crown. 
 
 
 " Whatever can be known of earth, we know, 
 
 Sneered Europe s > wise men, in their snail-shells curled ; 
 No! said one man in Genoa, and that No 
 
 Out of the dark created Jhis New World. 
 
246 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. [^T. 26. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. The Hon. Robert Y. Hayne, of Columbia, S. C. (through 
 jgTj 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 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 ? " 
 
 The South was mistaken in supposing the Bostonians 
 indifferent to the defects of their legislation. Even 
 Hosea Biglow s " Mister Buckinum," l whose liberal con 
 duct of the Courier had won Mr. Garrison s admiration 
 and gratitude, could humble himself in this fashion : 
 
 Lib. i: 183. " It is unquestionably true, as they [the editors of abolition 
 papers seldom seen here and seldom mentioned but with 
 
 "Who is it will not dare himself to trust? 
 
 Who is it hath not strength to stand alone? 
 Who is it thwarts and bilks the inward MUST ? 
 
 He and his works, like sand, from earth are blown. 
 
 "Men of a thousand shifts and wiles, look here! 
 
 See one straightforward conscience put in pawn 
 To win a world! See the obedient sphere 
 
 By bravery s simple gravitation drawn! 
 
 "Shall we not heed the lesson taught of old, 
 
 And by the Present s lips repeated still, 
 In our own single manhood to be bold, 
 
 Fortressed in conscience and impregnable will ? 
 
 "We stride the river daily at its spring, 
 Nor, in our childish thoughtlessness, foresee 
 
 What myriad vassal streams shall tribute bring, 
 How like an equal it shall greet the sea. 
 
 "O small beginnings, ye are great and strong, 
 
 Based on a faithful heart and weariless brain ! 
 Ye build the future fair, ye conquer wrong, 
 Ye earn the crown, and wear it not in vain ! " 
 
 1 The Hon. Joseph T. Buckingham. " Send it to mister Buckinurn, ses 
 he, i don t oilers agree with him, ses he, but by Time, ses he, I du like a 
 feller that ain t a Feared * ( Biglow Papers, p. 15). But this was in 1846. 
 
. 26.] 
 
 "THE LIBEKATOE." 
 
 247 
 
 abhorrence ] will contend, that every man has a right to advo- CHAP.VIII. 
 cate abolition, or conspiracy, or murder; for he may do all l ^ I 
 these without breaking our laws, although in any Southern 
 State public justice and public safety would require his punish 
 ment. But if we have no laws upon the subject, it is because 
 the exigency was not anticipated. . . . Penal statutes against 
 treasonable and seditious publications are necessary in all com 
 munities. We have them for our own protection ; if they 
 should include provisions for the protection of our neighbors 
 it would be no additional encroachment upon the liberty of the 
 press." 
 
 But all such protestations went for nothing : the South 
 had no patience to wait for their translation into censor 
 ship, or even into mobs. At Milledgeville, Georgia, in 
 the State Senate, the practical Mr. Nesbit introduced, on 
 the 29th of November, 1831, a resolution offering a 
 
 reward of dollars for the apprehension of Mr. 
 
 Garrison, which finally took the following shape : 
 
 " IN SENATE, November 30, 1831. 
 
 u Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
 State of Georgia, in General Assembly met. That the sum of five 
 thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated to 
 be paid to any person or persons who shall arrest, bring to 
 trial and prosecute to conviction, under the laws of this State, 
 the editor or publisher of a certain paper called the Liberator, 
 published in the town of Boston and State of Massachusetts ; 
 or who shall arrest, bring to trial and prosecute to conviction, 
 under the laws of this State, any other person or persons who 
 shall utter, publish or circulate within the limits of this State 
 said paper called the Liberator, or any other paper, circular, 
 pamphlet, letter or address of a seditious character. 
 
 " And that his Excellency the Governor is hereby authorized 
 and requested to issue his warrant upon the Treasurer, for said 
 sum of five thousand dollars, in favor of any person or persons 
 who shall have arrested and brought to trial and prosecuted to 
 conviction, under the laws of this State, the editor or publisher 
 of the Liberator ; or who shall have arrested and brought to 
 trial or prosecuted to conviction, under the laws of this State, 
 any other person or persons who shall utter, publish or circu 
 late within the limits of this State said paper called the Liberator, 
 
 Laws of 
 Georgia for 
 1831,^.255; 
 Lib. 3 : 123. 
 
248 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [2BT. 26. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. or any other paper, circular, pamphlet, letter or address of a 
 lg ~ seditious character. 
 
 " And that these resolutions be inserted in the appropriation 
 act. 
 
 " And resolved further, That his Excellency the Governor 
 cause the foregoing resolutions to be published in the public 
 journals of this State, and such other papers as he may think 
 proper, and pay for the publication thereof, out of the con 
 tingent fund. 
 
 " Read and agreed to. 
 
 " THOMAS STOCKS, President. 
 " Attest, I. L. HARRIS, Secretary. 
 
 u In the House of Representatives. 
 " Concurred in, Dec. 24, 1831. 
 
 " ASBURY HULL, Speaker. 
 " Attest, W. C. DAWSON, Clerk. 
 
 " Approved, Dec. 26, 1831. 
 
 " WILSON LUMPKIN, Governor." 
 
 Lib. i : 203. These resolutions were justly described by Mr. Gar 
 rison as a " bribe to kidnappers," a " reward for the 
 abduction of our persons " : 
 
 " Scarcely," he continued, " has a proposition of so monstrous 
 a nature ever been submitted to any public body in any country. 
 Yet, we presume, so indifferent or servile are nineteen-twentieths 
 of the newspapers that it will elicit scarcely a single editorial 
 rebuke. Of one thing we are sure : all Southern threats and 
 rewards will be insufficient to deter us from pursuing the work 
 of emancipation. As citizens of the United States, we know 
 our rights and dare maintain them. We have committed no 
 crime, but are expending our health, comfort and means for 
 the salvation of our country, and for the interest and security 
 of infatuated slaveholders, as well as for the relief of the poor 
 slaves. We are not the enemies of the South because we tell 
 her the truth." 
 
 The proposition was, in fact, so monstrous that in our 
 day an ill-informed chief magistrate of Georgia, Gov 
 ernor Colquitt, has publicly hazarded the belief that the 
 N. Y. Sun, tradition of it was " an utterly unfounded slander on the 
 i879. 4 State." Happily for him he was able to express this 
 
. 26.] 
 
 THE LIBEKATOK. 7 
 
 249 
 
 " incendiary " sentiment at a time when the abolition of CHAP.VIII. 
 slavery had made it perfectly safe to do so on the soil of I sJ I . 
 Georgia thanks to the editor who wrote further, on the 
 news of the passage of the resolution : 
 
 * A price set upon the head of a citizen of Massachusetts Lib. i : 207. 
 for what ? For daring 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 f 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 emanci 
 pation ! " 
 
 The Northern, and especially the New-England, press, 
 which had resented the North Carolina indictment and 
 proposed demand for the extradition of Garrison and 
 Knapp, seasoned its indignation at the Georgia offer with 
 a humor still more fatal to Southern pretensions. Mr. 
 Garrison wanted no better vindication than he found in 
 the events succeeding the 22d of August, 1831, the bloody 
 Monday on which Nat Turner and his fellow- slaves 
 attacked some dozen white families in the neighborhood 
 of Southampton, shot or otherwise murdered them out 
 right but without plunder or outrage and threw not 
 only Virginia but every slaveholding State into the 
 wildest excitement. Of the whites fifty-five thus per 
 ished ; the blacks, quickly dispersed and hunted, yielded 
 at least a hundred victims, of whom many were doubt 
 less innocent. The deluded " prophet, 7 more fortunate 
 than some of his followers, was hung : their flesh was Lib. i : 159. 
 burnt with red-hot irons, their faces mutilated, their " jaws 
 broken asunder and then set up as a mark to shoot at, 7 
 their hamstrings cut, their bodies stuck like hogs, their 
 
 Lib. i : 175, 
 191. 
 
 Lib. 2 : 3, 7. 
 
 Niles Regis 
 ter, Aug. 27, 
 1831 ,p. 455- 
 
 Ibid., Sept. 
 24, 1831, p. 
 67; Oct. 15, 
 p. 130, 131, 
 Lib. i : 155, 
 162,170,174 
 190; 2:6. 
 
250 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 26. 
 
 CHAP. viii. heads spiked to the whipping-post. When the first news 
 1831. f the outbreak reached the North, Mr. Garrison wrote : 
 
 #.1:143. "What we have so long predicted at the peril of 
 being stigmatized as an alarmist and declaimer has 
 commenced its fulfilment." Was it not his warning, only 
 eight months ago 
 
 " Wo if it come with storm, and blood, and fire " ? 
 
 As for those who were joining in the outcry against the 
 revolt : 
 
 " Ye patriotic hypocrites ! ye panegyrists of Frenchmen, 
 Greeks, and Poles ! . . . Cast no reproach upon the con 
 duct of the slaves, but let your lips and cheeks wear the blisters 
 of condemnation ! Ye accuse the pacific friends of emancipa 
 tion of instigating the slaves to revolt. Take back the charge 
 as a foul slander. The slaves need no incentives at our hands. 
 They will find them in their stripes, ... in your speeches, 
 your conversations, your celebrations. 1 . . . 
 
 " For ourselves, we are horror-struck at the late tidings. We 
 have exerted our utmost efforts to avert the calamity. We 
 have warned our countrymen of the danger of persisting in 
 their unrighteous conduct. We have preached to the slaves the 
 pacific precepts of Jesus Christ. We have appealed to Chris 
 tians, philanthropists and patriots for their assistance to 
 accomplish the great work of national redemption through the 
 agency of moral power of public opinion of individual 
 duty. How have we been received ? We have been threatened, 
 proscribed, vilified and imprisoned a laughing-stock and a 
 reproach. . . . IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION ! . . . " 
 
 In December the prison confessions of Nat Turner were 
 
 printed in Baltimore in an edition of fifty thousand 
 
 Lib. i : 202. copies, whereupon Mr. Garrison advises " the Grand 
 
 Juries in the several slave States to indict Mr. Gray [the 
 
 recipient of the confessions] and the printers of the 
 
 l Just a fortnight after the Southampton rising there was a "consecra 
 tion " of Polish standards in Faneuil Hall, the Eev. Dr. Beecher making 
 the "consecrating" prayer "a successfully ridiculous farce," as it ap 
 peared to the editor of the Liberator, who "observed in the immense 
 multitude a considerable number of persons of color, . . . apt learners 
 of the art of war and the glory of dying in defence of liberty" (Lib.l: 151). 
 
^T. 26.] "THE LIBERATOR." 251 
 
 pamphlet forthwith ; and the legislative bodies to offer a CHAP.VIII. 
 large reward for their apprehension." He also points 1831. 
 out that it does not appear that Turner, who could both 
 read and write, " ever saw a copy of the i infernal Lib 
 erator or of Walker s Pamphlet." 7 A great marvel 
 remained to be noticed : a Quaker petition, " praying for Lib. i : 207. 
 some attention to the evils of slavery ," was received and 
 respectfully referred in the Virginia Legislature; and 
 the Richmond Whig, using a liberty of speech only 
 too short-lived, announced in December that " The 
 question of remote and gradual abolition is under 
 the consideration of the General Assembly. Circum 
 stances have subdued the morbid sensitiveness which 
 disallowed even a public allusion to the topic. Public 
 opinion can now act out its wishes " in regard to u an evil 
 which all men confess to be the sorest which ever a 
 nation groaned under." In its ardor, the Whig could 
 even imagine the day when this subject was taken up 
 for discussion being celebrated by posterity like another 
 Fourth of July. 
 
 The Virginia debates of 1831-2, which, unlike those at 
 the close of the year 1800 concerning Gabriel s con 
 spiracy, were public, had, indeed, all the marvellousness 
 of a sudden utterance by a dumb man who never lisps NUes Regis- 
 again ! Copious extracts from them occur in the second J^ ^ 373! 
 volume of the Liberator. The fair promise of the resolu 
 tion reported by Mr. Faulkner to the House of Delegates, 
 favoring a scheme of gradual emancipation with compen- Lib. 2 : 7. 
 sation which Mr. Garrison ironically held up as an 
 " incendiary procedure " was unfulfilled. In vain Mr. 
 Moore spoke of slavery as a " curse " " the heaviest Lib. 2. -. 17. 
 calamity which has ever befallen any portion of the 
 human race " ; of its " irresistible tendency ... to 
 undermine and destroy everything like virtue and mo 
 rality in the community " ; of its disastrous effects on 
 the general prosperity by making agriculture degrading 
 for the whites ; of its check upon population, its danger 
 in case of invasion. In vain did the Richmond Enquirer 
 
252 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 26. 
 
 Lib. 2 : 19. 
 
 Niles Regis 
 ter, Jan. 14, 
 
 1832, 
 pp. 368-9. 
 
 Lib. 2 : 18. endorse the speech, and the Whig ask : " What is the 
 question of who shall be President of Banks, of Roads 
 and Canals, of Tariffs l to this ? " The Select Committee 
 reported it inexpedient to make any legislative enact 
 ments at present, but declared the removal of the free 
 blacks the first step to be taken. The debates have 
 ended, said Mr. Garrison, "precisely as we have ex 
 pected in a refusal to act upon any proposition for. the 
 gradual emancipation of the slaves, and in a recom 
 mendation to expel the free colored population from the 
 South." The gain lay in those admissions on the part of 
 slaveholders which could never be obliterated. Many of 
 the speeches were " as inflammatory and dangerous as 
 any remarks ever published in the Liberator. Query 1 
 Where is the Columbia Vigilance Association ? where 
 the Legislature of Georgia ? where the Grand Jury of 
 North Carolina? Incendiaries are multiplying rapidly 
 why do they pause ? Let them magnify their rewards 
 and multiply their indictments ! If our humble persons 
 be worth kidnapping, surely the Legislature of Virginia 
 is a more valuable prey." 
 
 The same Mr. Broadnax who boldly asked : " Is there 
 one man in Virginia who does not lament that there was 
 ever a slave in the State ? " reported a measure to effect 
 the compulsory removal of the free and freed blacks by 
 means of annual appropriations. 2 He was reputed one 
 of the pillars of the Colonization Society, and nothing 
 could have been more gratifying to thattbody than the 
 impulse in the border free as well as in t^e slave States, 
 
 Register, after the Virginia rising, to get rid of the free colored 
 
 Lib. 2:18, 
 23- 
 
 Lib. i : 167, 
 
 197, 199; 
 2 : 19, 26, 34, 
 
 35- 59- 6o - 
 
 1 So the Whig : " But for its [slavery s] existence, we should never have 
 heard a murmur against the tariff. ... It is not a political, but a moral, 
 cause, which is at the bottom of Southern decline " (Quoted, and heartily 
 endorsed, by Niles in his Register, Feb. 18, 1832, p. 445, and reaffirmed in 
 Register, 42:61). 
 
 2 This bill passed the House (Niles Register, 41 : 472), but failed to pass in 
 the Senate (ibid., 42: 78), on the ground of its interfering with the arrange 
 ment for slave representation between the eastern and western sections of 
 the State (cf. ante, p. 154). 
 
 \ 
 
26.] 
 
 "THE LIBEEATOK." 
 
 253 
 
 population. In their fifteenth annual report (1832) they 
 speak of the " great movements " then going on in Mary 
 land and Virginia, and continue : " Indeed, the whole 
 American community appears to be awakened, as by one 
 powerful spirit, to the consideration and adoption of 
 measures for the more complete accomplishment of the 
 great objects of the American Colonization Society." 
 The spirit was worth more to them than the stringent 
 and persecuting legislation, which was nugatory when 
 passed. It was the spirit which everywhere at the 
 North, either by statute or by custom, denied to a dark 
 skin civil, social and educational equality which in 
 Boston forbade any merchant or respectable mechanic 
 to take a colored apprentice ; kept the colored people out 
 of most public conveyances, and permitted any common 
 carrier by land or sea, on the objections of a white pas 
 senger, to violate his contract with a " nigger," however 
 cultivated or refined ; in Park-Street Church (March, 
 1830) forbade the black owner (the accidental black 
 owner) of a pew on the lower floor to occupy it, and 
 actually took possession of it and let it (the deacons 
 being reenforced by a constable), and in all the churches 
 provided negro pews in remote corners of the building. 1 
 "I never," says Mr. Garrison, "can look up to these 
 wretched retreats for my colored brethren without feel 
 ing my soul overwhelmed with emotions of shame, indig 
 nation, and sorrow " ; and almost he believes " that in 
 Boston we have merely the form of religious worship, 
 without the substance." Even in towns, like the Quaker 
 New Bedford, where pupils of both colors were admitted 
 to the public schools, " the black boys were seated by 
 themselves, and the white offenders were punished by 
 being obliged to sit with them." In a word, the free 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 1831. 
 Lib. 2 : 63. 
 
 Lib. i : 69. 
 
 Lib. i : ii, 
 
 199 ; 2 : 109, 
 
 127 ; 3 : 123, 
 
 172, 207. 
 
 Lib. i : 65 ; 
 AbdysJour- 
 
 nal of a 
 
 Residence in 
 
 U. S., 
 
 i : 133- 
 
 Lib. i : 81. 
 
 Congdpris 
 Reminiscen 
 ces of a Jour 
 nalist, p. 38. 
 
 lln the old Baptist meeting-house at Hartford, Conn., the negro pews 
 were boarded up in front, so that only peep-holes gave an outlook (Lib. 
 1:129); truly a " human menagerie" (Lib. 1:87). In Stoughton, Mass., 
 the floor was cut from under a colored member s pew by the church 
 authorities (Mrs. Child s Oasis, p. 54). 
 
254 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 . 26. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 1831. 
 
 Lib. i : 10, 5. 
 
 Lib. i : 26. 
 
 Lib. i : 7. 
 
 Act of June 
 
 22, 1786. 
 
 Lib. i : 35 ; 
 
 Niles Regis 
 ter, 41 : 448. 
 
 colored people were looked upon as an inferior caste, to 
 whom their liberty was a curse, and their lot worse than 
 that of the slaves, with this difference that while the 
 latter were kept in bondage " for their own good/ 7 it 
 would have been very wicked to enslave the former for 
 their good. 1 
 
 To aggravate their wretched condition by fostering 
 white prejudice was the manifest policy of the Coloniza 
 tion Society; to protest against and relieve it was the 
 logical beginning of Mr. Garrison s agitation against 
 slavery. No white American before him had convened 
 this despised population to listen to appeals to their 
 manhood and citizenship like those which he deliv 
 ered on his way North from Baltimore jail ; or like 
 that address in Boston (December 10, 1830) for which 
 his grateful hearers pathetically assured him : " We 
 cannot sufficiently express our feelings ; for nothing was 
 ever uttered more important and beneficial to our color. 
 Your remarks were full of virtue and consolation, perfect 
 in explanation, and furnished a rule to live by and to die 
 by." He had the courage, in the second number of the 
 Liberator, to hold up for repeal an old Massachusetts 
 statute imposing a penalty of fifty pounds for marrying 
 a white person and a negro, Indian or mulatto, and 
 declaring all such marriages u absolutely null and void. 7 
 Against insinuations that he was seeking the repeal for 
 his own benefit, he persisted in the demand from week to 
 week ; and, before the close of the session of the Legisla- 
 
 1 The inhuman treatment of this class acted, even more than slavery 
 itself, as a deterrent on Heinrich Heine, when tempted to seek a home in 
 America. His poetic imagination gave him, on this subject, a truer moral 
 insight than was to be found in pulpit or pew in the Northern United States. 
 In his letters from Heligoland, under date of July 1, 1830, he writes : " Die 
 eigentliche Sklaverei, die in den meisten nordamerikanischen Provinzen 
 abgeschafft, empb rt mich nicht so sehr wie die Brutalitat womit die freien 
 Schwarzen und die Mulatten behandelt werden. Wer auch nur im ent- 
 ferntesten Grade von einem Neger stammt, und wenn auch nicht mehr in 
 der Farbe, sondern nur in der Gesichtsbildung eine solche Abstaminung 
 verrath, muss die grb ssten Krankungen erdulden, Krankungen die uns in 
 Europa fabelhaft diinken." 
 
^T. 26.] "THE LIBEKATOK." 255 
 
 ture, saw the prohibition of intermarriage readily aban- CHAP.VIII. 
 doned by the House, although the bill was finally re- ^ It 
 jected on other grounds, and without reference to the #.1:43, 
 preposterous objection raised in the press that " we 47> 
 have no right [by sanctioning intermarriage in Massa 
 chusetts] to interfere with the internal regulations of 
 other States " ! 
 
 The Liberator speedily became the mouthpiece of the 
 more intelligent colored people. They contributed to its 
 columns praise of the editor s opposition to colonization, 
 comments upon passing events, reports of their meetings, 
 literary essays. 1 They received in return from Mr. 
 Garrison courteous consideration without patronage, 
 reiterated asseverations of the encouragement which their 
 approval gave him (" outweighing mountains of abuse Lib. i : 43. 
 from other sources "), and the most practical advice. To 
 obtain the peaceful recognition of their rights they should 
 respect themselves, for their good example must break 
 many fetters : their temperance, industry, peaceableness 
 and piety would prove the safety of emancipation. They 
 should be better than white men a not difficult task. 
 They should put their children to school and get as 
 much education as possible themselves. They should 
 form societies for moral improvement, and "let the 
 women have theirs no cause can get along without the 
 powerful aid of women s influence." They should put 
 aside jealousies, support each other in trade-dealings, 
 and maintain an organization manifested by an annual 
 national convention in some great city. Superior to 
 revenge, they should maintain their rights in all cases 
 and at whatever expense, raising a fund to carry to the 
 Supreme Court cases of unconstitutional oppression, 
 such as disfranchisement without exemption from taxa- 
 
 l "I am much pleased," writes James Forten (MS., March 21, 1831) from 
 Philadelphia, "to see how all the people of color, subscribers to the Lib 
 erator, speak in praise of it. It has roused up a spirit in our young people 
 that had been slumbering for years, and we shall produce writers able to 
 vindicate our cause." Mr. Forten s own children, as well as himself, wrote 
 frequently for the paper. 
 
256 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. 
 
 [JEr. 26. 
 
 CHAP.VIII. 
 
 1831. 
 
 Address 
 before Free 
 
 People of 
 Color, June, 
 1831, p. 15. 
 
 Ibid. , p. 16. 
 
 tion, 1 liability to imprisonment as runaways while travel 
 ling in the South and to be sold as slaves for jail fees, 
 disability as witnesses against white criminals at the 
 South, restrictions upon their right of residence and 
 removal and of instruction. 
 
 " There is, my countrymen and friends, a remedy for such 
 injustice. The Constitution of the United States knows noth 
 ing of white or black men ; it makes no invidious distinction 
 with regard to the color or condition of free inhabitants ; it is 
 broad enough to cover your persons ; it has power enough to 
 vindicate your rights. Thanks be to God that we have such a 
 Constitution ! Without it, the liberty of every man, white as 
 well as colored, would be in jeopardy. There it stands, firm 
 as the rock of Gibraltar, a high refuge from oppression." 
 
 The State Laws which disfranchise are unconstitu 
 tional : 
 
 " I say that if they fall upon the Constitution they will be 
 dashed in pieces. I say that it is your duty to carry this ques 
 tion up to the Supreme Court of the United States and have it 
 settled forever. You have everything to gain, and nothing to 
 lose, by the trial. . . . Once get yourselves acknowledged 
 by that august tribunal as citizens of the United States, and 
 you may walk abroad in majesty and strength, free as the air 
 of heaven, sacred as the persons of kings." 
 
 He exhorted them, further, wherever they were allowed 
 to vote, to have their names put on the poll-list and to 
 go to the polls, voting for those friendly to their cause, 
 and, if possible, for intelligent and respectable men of 
 their own color. They should, besides, exercise con 
 stantly their right of petition "if your prayer is re 
 fused seven times, send it seventy times seven." All 
 thought of colonizing themselves as a people, whether 
 in Africa, Hayti, Upper Canada, or elsewhere, should be 
 abandoned, and every intelligent man won over by the 
 
 1 When, in consonance with this advice, the colored citizens of Provi 
 dence, R. I., petitioned to be exempted from the tax on real estate, or 
 allowed the suffrage and the privilege of free schools, their prayer was 
 refused, on the ground of the difficulty of telling who was and who was not 
 colored, which might lead some whites to swear falsely ! (Lib. 1:18, 38.) 
 
. 26.] 
 
 "THE LIBEKATOR." 
 
 257 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 1831. 
 
 Address 
 before Free 
 
 People of 
 Color, June, 
 1831, >. 23. 
 
 Ibid., p. g. 
 
 Ibid., p. 7. 
 
 Colonization Society be regarded as a traitor to their 
 cause not losing sight, however, of a just discrimination 
 among the supporters of that Society : " Of the benevo 
 lent and disinterested intentions of many individuals, 
 especially in the free States, we ought not to doubt." 
 They should sustain according to their means the peri 
 odicals devoted to their cause, and multiply those con 
 ducted by colored men. "I speak on this subject 
 pointedly, not with any selfish feelings, but because I 
 know that without the powerful energies of the press 
 every cause must languish." Finally, " Make the Lord 
 Jesus Christ your refuge and exemplar. ... If ever 
 there were a people who needed the consolations of re 
 ligion to sustain them in their grievous afflictions, you 
 are that people." Acting upon the recommendation of 
 the General Convention of Colored Delegates in Phila 
 delphia, they should observe the Fourth of July as a day 
 of fasting and prayer in all their churches. " Prayer will 
 forward the work faster than all the pens in the land : 
 we can do nothing without it." 
 
 He cheered them with the assertion that the progress 
 of their cause was a part of the "signs of the times," 
 in harmony with the French and Belgian revolutions of 
 the previous year, the actual Polish uprising, the agita 
 tion over the Reform Bill in England, the " rise in 
 elevation " of their brethren "in the Danish, Portuguese, 
 French and British Colonies." " The whole firmament is 
 tremulous with an excess of light." 
 
 " I believe, as firmly as I do my own existence, that the time Ibid., p. 4. 
 is not far distant when you and the trampled slaves will all be 
 free free in the spirit as well as in the letter and enjoy the 
 same rights in this country as other citizens. Every one of you 
 shall sit under your own vine and fig-tree, and none shall mo 
 lest or make you afraid." 
 
 " I lose sight of your present situation, and look at it only in ibid., p. 13. 
 futurity. I imagine myself surrounded by educated men of 
 color, the Websters, and Clays, and Hamiltons, and Dwights, 
 and Edwardses of the day. I listen to their voice as Judges, and 
 Representatives, and Rulers of the people the whole people." 
 VOL. I. 17 
 
 Ibid., pp. 4, 
 9, 18. 
 
258 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 [.E-r. 26. 
 
 Address " I do not despair of seeing the time when our State and Na- 
 be p e op f of t i nal Assemblies will contain a fair proportion of colored 
 Color, June, representatives." * 
 
 1831, p. 16. 
 
 Behind this prophecy was Mr. Garrison s dedication of 
 himself to the redemption of the blacks : 
 
 Ibid., p. 3. " I never," he says, in the beginning of the Address to the 
 Free People of Color, from which we have been chiefly quot 
 ing, " I never rise to address a colored audience without feeling 
 ashamed of my own color ; ashamed of being identified with a 
 race of men who have done you so much injustice, and who yet 
 retain so large a portion of your brethren in servile chains. To 
 make atonement, in part, for this conduct, I have solemnly 
 dedicated my health, and strength, and life, to your service. 
 I love to plan and to work for your social, intellectual, political, 
 and spiritual advancement. My happiness is augmented with 
 yours : in your sufferings I participate. 
 
 " Henceforth I am ready on all days, on all convenient occa 
 sions, in all suitable places, before any sect or party, at whatever 
 perils to my person, character, or interest, to plead the cause of 
 my colored countrymen in particular, and of human rights in 
 general. For this purpose, there is no day too holy, no place 
 improper, no body of men too inconsiderable to address. For 
 this purpose I ask no church to grant me authority to speak 
 I require no ordination I am not careful to consult Martin 
 Luther, or John Calvin, or His Holiness the Pope. It is a duty 
 which, as a lover of justice, I am bound to execute ; as a lover 
 of my fellow-men, I ought not to shun ; as a lover of Jesus Christ, 
 and of his equalizing, republican and benevolent precepts, I re 
 joice to meet." 
 
 Lib. i : 191. Small wonder that there were some who took Mr. Gar 
 rison for a black man. For those who knew the con- 
 trarjr, he had these words in the Introduction to the 
 pamphlet edition of the Address : 
 
 "It is not probable that I shall be able to satisfy the great 
 body of the people of my own color otherwise than by entirely 
 abandoning the cause of emancipation. They who do not hesi- 
 
 1 In fact, Mr. Garrison lived to see Edwin G. Walker, son of the author 
 of Walker s Appeal, not only admitted to the Suffolk Bar (March Term, 
 1864), but a member of the Massachusetts Legislature (January Session, 
 1867). Later, in October, 1883, Mr. Walker was nominated judge of the 
 Charlestown District Coiirt by Gov. Benjamin F. Butler. 
 
^T. 26.] " THE LIBEKATOR." 259 
 
 tate to call me a madman, a fanatic, a disturber of the peace, a CHAP.VIII. 
 
 promoter of rebellion, among other charitable epithets, for j^T.,. 
 
 vindicating the rights of the slaves, will naturally be offended 
 
 if I presume to stand up in behalf of the free people of color, 
 
 or to address them on a subject appertaining to their welfare. 
 
 I am determined, nevertheless, to give slaveholders and their 
 
 apologists as much uneasiness as possible. They shall hear me, 
 
 and of me, and from me, in a tone and with a frequency that 
 
 shall make them tremble. There shall be no neutrals : men 
 
 shall either like me or dislike me." 
 
 The immediate occasion of the Address was a visit to 
 Philadelphia during the month of June, 1831, which 
 gave Mr. Garrison a temporary rest from the exhausting 
 labors of the printing-office. In that city the First 
 Annual Convention of the Colored People of the United 
 States had been called ; and at the earnest solicitation of 
 the Rev. Simeon S. Jocelyn, of New Haven, and of 
 Arthur Tappan (who characteristically engaged to pay 
 his travelling expenses), he gladly consented to attend it 
 in company with them, in order to strengthen their con 
 templated appeal for cooperation in a scheme for estab 
 lishing a colored college in New Haven an enterprise 
 which owed its inception to Mr. Jocelyn, and which had c f- lte > 
 been slumbering for nearly two years, 1 though in the 
 meantime a colored primary school had been opened. 
 The proposed college was to combine the usual literary 
 courses with instruction in the mechanic arts, agricul 
 ture and horticulture; and New Haven was selected 
 because of its existing educational advantages, as well 
 as on account of its trade with the West Indies, in the 
 British portion of which emancipation was evidently Lib. i : 169. 
 impending. Mr. Tappan had purchased land for the 
 proposed building, and had agreed at the outset to 
 contribute one thousand dollars out of ten which the 
 white friends of the institution should provide ; and the 
 Philadelphia Convention was depended upon to raise 
 another ten thousand among the colored people. No 
 
 l "More than eighteen months ago," as Mr. Jocelyn wrote in the letter 
 of May 28, 1831, in which he conveyed his invitation to Mr. Garrison. 
 
260 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. 
 
 [JET. 26. 
 
 Lib. i : 98. 
 
 Lib. i : 169. 
 
 Lib. i : 151, 
 154- 
 
 Niles Regis 
 ter, 41 : 88 ; 
 
 Life of 
 Arthur Tap- 
 pan, pp. 
 146-152. 
 
 Thoughts on 
 
 Colonization, 
 
 p. 149. 
 
 Lib. i : 109. 
 
 opposition was dreamed of. Indeed, Mr. Garrison wrote 
 from New Haven that, thanks to Mr. Jocelyn s unselfish 
 ministry for six years, in no place in the Union were the 
 prejudices of the community against the blacks weaker ; 
 and it was recommended to the Convention by himself, 
 together with Messrs. Jocelyn and Tappan, on the ground 
 that its inhabitants were " friendly, pious, generous and 
 humane," and its laws " salutary and protecting to all, 
 without regard to complexion." 
 
 How much Nat Turner, and how much the mere name 
 of " college," was responsible for the popular explosion 
 in September, can perhaps not now be determined. 1 On 
 the 10th of that month, at a city meeting expressly called 
 by the mayor and aldermen, notice was given that the 
 manual-labor college would not be tolerated in New 
 Haven; the pretext being that it was auxiliary to the 
 agitation against the municipal institution of slavery, 
 and " incompatible with the prosperity if not the exist 
 ence " of Yale College, then largely frequented by South 
 ern students. It was accordingly resolved, with only the 
 dissenting votes of Mr. Jocelyn and three other citizens 
 (one a Virginian), " by the Mayor, Aldermen, Common 
 Council, and Freemen of the City of New Haven," " that 
 we will resist the establishment of the proposed College 
 in this place by every lawful means." Before this 
 "respectable" opposition the flattering estimate of the 
 humanity of the inhabitants fell, together with all hope 
 of making their city the seat of the college. 
 
 On his way back to Boston Mr. Garrison delivered in 
 New Haven (" the hot-bed of African Colonization" ) an 
 address " inimical to the Colonization Society," which was 
 officially replied to immediately after his departure. At 
 this time (July 11) he writes to his friend Ebenezer Dole, 
 who had called upon him in his absence : 
 
 l"We have touched the very quick of oppression simply by calling 
 the institution a College. Our enemies all over the country start at the 
 name. Why ? Because it carries the assurance of equality with it. We 
 would not lose the name on any account " (MS. Sept. 20, 1831, S. S. Jocelyn 
 to W. L. G.) 
 
^ET. 26.] " THE LIBERATOR." 261 
 
 " I am truly rejoiced to learn that you are no colonizationist. MS. 
 I say rejoiced because, after the most candid and prayerful 
 investigation, I am persuaded the Colonization Society is based 
 upon wrong principles; and, as for its leading doctrines, my 
 judgment tells me they are abhorrent. Like many other good 
 people, I was myself, for a time, deceived with regard to its 
 character and tendency. I took the scheme upon trust ; but my 
 eyes are now open. I find, wherever I go, that thorough-going 
 abolitionists do not support the Society. Great changes are 
 taking place on this subject. The Society is fast losing many 
 of its most worthy supporters ; and by and by, I trust, none but 
 slave-owners will be found in its support. Among those who 
 .have left it is Arthur Tappan, who is a host in himself." 
 
 In February, 1831, Mr. Garrison attended a meeting, in 
 the Boston State-house, whose object was to form a State 
 Colonization Society, but he was denied permission to Lib. \ . 27. 
 speak ; nor did he meet with much success in inviting 
 the friends of colonization to defend it in the columns of Lib. i . 43. 
 the Liberator. Meantime, the Massachusetts Legislature 
 was induced to pass resolutions approving the Society, Lib. i : 67. 
 and favoring the annual appropriation by Congress of 
 $240,000 to effect the removal of the entire free black 
 population in twenty-eight years. Lyman Beecher, pastor 
 of the Bowdoin-Street Church (and Mr. Garrison s pastor 
 if he had any), was taking up Fourth of July collections Lib. i : m. 
 for the Society (whose opponents, he said, were only " a 
 few foolish whites "), and advocating colonization on the 
 curious ground that " The blacks are justly entitled to 
 the whole Southern territory; and how shall we liqui 
 date their claim? By sending them to Africa" " un 
 questionably," as Mr. Garrison remarked, " a New Way 
 to pay Old Debts." Even his warm and admiring friend 
 S. J. May took alarm at the Liberator s tone towards a 
 movement which seemed at least " introductory to more 
 efficient measures," and entreated with him at length, 
 saying : 1 "I cannot go along with you in your opposition 
 
 l MS. March 26. 1831, and again, July 18. Mr. May was then and for 
 some time afterwards a member of the Colonization Society. To him wrote 
 Henry E. Benson, Aug. 4, 1831: "I should think that he [Mr. Garrison] 
 
262 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [>T. 26. 
 
 CHAP. viii. to the Colonization Society. You have gone too far. 
 
 1831. Your language has been too severe your censures too 
 
 indiscriminate. I fear you have already injured greatly 
 
 the cause." It was high time that a decisive attack should 
 
 Lib. i : 65. be made on this " conspiracy against human rights." On 
 the 30th of July the Liberator contained a formal an 
 nouncement that the editor intended to prepare shortly 
 for the press a pamphlet entitled * Thoughts on Coloni 
 zation ? : 
 
 Lib. i : 123. " Upon this pamphlet I shall be willing," he said, " to stake 
 my reputation for honesty, prudence, benevolence, truth, and 
 sagaciousness. If I do not prove the Colonization spirit to* 
 be a creature without heart, without brains, eyeless, unnatural, 
 hypocritical, relentless, unjust, then nothing is capable of 
 demonstration." 
 
 Lib. i : 126. " It can be demonstrated," he wrote subsequently, " that the 
 Society has inflicted a great injury upon the free and slave 
 population j first, by strengthening the prejudices of the people 
 secondly, by discouraging the education of those who are 
 free thirdly, by inducing the passage of severe legislative 
 enactments and, finally, by lulling the whole country into a 
 deep sleep." 
 
 This demonstration, amid daily cares, could not be 
 MS. NOV. hastened. In November, Mr. Garrison succeeded in ob 
 taining from Washington complete files of the Society s 
 organ, the African, Repository, to the study of which he 
 diligently applied himself. He was also stimulated by 
 the receipt from England of Captain Charles Stuart s 1 
 LAt>. i : 158. exposure of the Colonization Society, which he reprinted 
 in full. But his own publication was delayed till the 
 following year. In the interval his denunciations in 
 
 paid little regard to the seven pages you wrote him in regard to African 
 colonization, by the perusal of three or four of his last numbers ; for his 
 opposition grows stronger, he says, the more he reflects upon it." And 
 again, Sept. 2, after a visit to Boston: "Mr. Garrison says he shall write 
 you soon, and has no doubt that, as you are such an unprejudiced man, he 
 shall soon make you a convert to his views of the Colonization Society." 
 
 i A retired officer, on half -pay, formerly in the East India service, styled 
 by James Cropper " one of the most devoted Christians I have ever known" 
 (monthly Abolitionist, p. 40). 
 
JET. 26.] "THE LIBEKATOK." 263 
 
 the Liberator observed their usual frequency and meas 
 ure. " In attacking the principles, and exposing the evil Lib. i : 65. 
 tendency, of the Society, we wish no one to understand 
 us as saying that all its friends are equally guilty, or 
 actuated by the same motives. Nor let him suppose that 
 we exonerate any of them from reprehension." When 
 it was reported that certain persons, in a distant part of 
 the State, scrupled to subscribe for the liberator because 
 they favored gradual emancipation with transportation 
 to Liberia, " We are glad to learn/ he said, "that some Lib. 1:117. 
 have even a perverted conscience in that place ; for on 
 the subject of slavery we feared they had none at all." 
 
 The Quaker mode of extinguishing slavery by abstain 
 ing from its products still commended itself to Mr. 
 Garrison. " The free States," he says, in the second Lib. i : 5. 
 number of the Liberator, " receive and consume the pro 
 ductions of slave labor! The District of Columbia is 
 national property ; slavery exists in that District ! Yet 
 the free States are not involved in the guilt of slavery ! " 
 In subsequent discussions of the subject he urged that 
 the receiver was as bad as the thief ; that " a merchant Lib. i : 66. 
 who loads his vessel with the proceeds of slavery, does 
 nearly as much at helping forward the slave trade as he 
 that loads his vessel in Africa with slaves." Slaves are 
 held in bondage " because they are profitable to their 
 owners," and the reasons for giving up the use of what 
 they produce " affect the very existence of slavery none Lib. i -. 29. 
 can possibly be more solemn and conclusive. The people 
 of New England are daily fastening new and heavier 
 fetters upon the slaves, and putting an immense bribe 
 into the hands of the planters, by consuming those arti 
 cles which have been raised at the expense of the bodies 
 and souls of two millions of their fellow-beings." "En 
 tire abstinence from the products of slavery is the duty of Lib. i : 121. 
 every individual." He desired the multiplication of free- 
 produce societies to " strike at the root of slavery," and Lib. i : 49. 
 one of the objects of an American Anti-Slavery Society 
 should be "to encourage planters to cultivate their lands Lib. i : 121. 
 
264 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEEISON. 
 
 . 26. 
 
 Lib. i : 173. 
 
 Lib. i : 
 
 CHAP. viii. by freemen, offering large premiums. 7 He commended 
 1831. to the patronage of abolitionists the free groceries of 
 Charles Collins, in New York, and of Lydia White, 1 in 
 Philadelphia, and allowed C. Peirce, of the latter city, 
 to advertise that orders on his grocery would be gladly 
 received at the office of the Liberator, and the goods 
 procured without extra charge. Logically there seemed 
 no flaw in the argument based on the half-truth that 
 slaves are kept because they are profitable ; practically, 
 Mr. Garrison regarded the free-produce movement as 
 only a subordinate instrumentality. All appeals to the 
 Northern conscience were blows at " the root of slavery/ 7 
 and he welcomed this among others. He never proposed 
 to make it his sole weapon, and in time it came to seem 
 to him one of the least effective. 
 
 A dim prefiguring of the axe whose strokes were to 
 make the tree tremble to its crown, is to be found in the 
 first volume of the Liberator. Mr. Garrison had a per 
 fectly just understanding of the pro-slavery guarantees 
 of the United States Constitution, and of the powers of 
 the Federal Government over the institution of slavery. 
 His incessant demand for emancipation in the District 
 
 Lib. i . 207. of Columbia, which he was amazed that John Quincy 
 Adams, then a member of the House of Representatives, 
 
 Lib.i-.-L2.-L. should refuse to countenance; his proposal to agitate 
 for the abrogation of the slave-representation clause of 
 the Constitution ; his conviction that the Constitution 
 had only to be invoked through the Supreme Court to 
 secure the free people of color against the oppressive 
 enactments of the Southern States ; his mention, with 
 only moral censure, of the employment of Federal 
 troops to suppress slave insurrections at the South all 
 show his strict construction of rights and obligations 
 under the law of the land, for reformers as well as for 
 
 l Prom a letter of Lydia White s of May 9, 1831 (partly printed in Lib. 
 1 : 87), it would appear that Mr. Garrison was desirous to clothe himself 
 with free-labor fabrics. See, also, Lib. 1 : 93. Part of the severe plainness 
 of fare of the partners while living in Merchants Hall was due to a con 
 scientious abstinence from coffee and sugar at least, as slave-labor products. 
 
 Lib. i : 66, 
 
 and passim. 
 
 Lib. i : 34. 
 
^T. 26.] " THE LIBEEATOK." 265 
 
 the oppressed. From time to time, nevertheless, his CHAP.VIII. 
 vision embraced a larger view partly philosophic, 1831. 
 partly revolutionary, but not unpatriotic. In his second Lib. \ \ 7. 
 issue he notices with pleasure the failure to call a seces 
 sion convention in South Carolina, but points out the 
 fatal result, to any or all of the slave States, of separa 
 tion, and adds : " In process of time, one thing is cer 
 tain : they must either give up their slaves or the Union. 
 . . . The people of the free States . . . are weary 
 of the load of guilt which is imposed upon them by the 
 compact." Months afterwards, as it appeared to him : Lib. i : 123. 
 "The bond of our Union is becoming more and more 
 brittle, not by any attempts to enfranchise the slaves, 
 but by the rapid, deadly, unobstructed growth of slavery. 
 It may be safely affirmed that unless there be a speedy 
 abolition of the system, a separation between the free 
 and slave States will be unavoidable. He who would see 
 our country united, must use his utmost efforts to hasten 
 the progress of emancipation." And finally: "If the Lib. 1:165. 
 bodies and souls of millions of rational beings must be 
 sacrificed as the price of the Union, better, far better, 
 that a separation should take place." 
 
 Upon the religious sentiment of the country and the 
 sacred books which inspired it, Mr. Garrison hopefully 
 relied for the most powerful assistance in his crusade 
 against slavery. " Religious professors, of all denomina- Lib. i : 121. 
 tions," he declared, " must bear unqualified testimony 
 against slavery. . . . Consequently, no slaveholder 
 ought to be embraced within the pale of a Christian 
 church." Yet he was well aware that " to doubt the Lib. i : 5. 
 religious vitality of a church which is composed of 
 slaveholders, is the worst species of infidelity," and that 
 he must begin by censuring those whose support he 
 should ultimately win. "-Considering their influence 
 and the force of their example, undoubtedly the worst 
 enemies of the people of color are professors of religion." 
 Let them be slave-owners, and u undoubtedly the most Lib. i : 1x5. 
 abominable and surprising spectacle which the wicked- 
 
266 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^ET. 26. 
 
 CHAP. vin. ness of man presents, in the sight of Heaven, is a 
 1831. reverend slavite preying npon the lambs of God, and 
 trafficking in the souls of men." Their delinquency 
 could not, however, shake his faith in the anti-slavery 
 potency of the Bible. " The Bible Society is doing more 
 to break the fetters of oppression and scatter the mists 
 of delusion than all the patriotic associations and mili 
 tary orders in the world." Still another incendiary ally 
 he found in the New York General Tract Depository, 
 
 Lib. 1 154. which, as he learned " with lively sensations of joy," had 
 issued in October, 1830, no less than thirty thousand 
 copies of the Scriptures, most of which were intended as 
 donations for the Mississippi Vallej^ : 
 
 " The cause of emancipation will receive an immense benefit 
 from this liberal distribution of the Word of Life. THE 
 BIBLE THE BIBLE ! how shall we subdue the obdurate heart, 
 and awaken the seared conscience, and successfully impeach 
 the criminal conduct of slave-owners ; how shall we operate 
 upon public opinion, and call into vigorous exercise the moral 
 energies of the nation, and establish justice throughout our 
 borders, and break down the middle walls of partition which 
 separate man from his fellow-man ; how shall we preach 
 deliverance to the captive, and the opening of the prison-doors 
 to them that are bound, and transform the benighted and 
 suffering slave into an enlightened and happy freeman, and the 
 haughty master into a familiar friend how shall we accomplish 
 this, and more, without THE BIBLE ? Human legislation 
 what is it ? It is incoherent and contrarious ; it justifies in one 
 state or country what it punishes in another $ it holds no juris 
 diction over the hearts of men ; it is capable of disastrous 
 perversion ; it is governed by worldly policy 5 it alters with 
 the fluctuations of society. Take away THE BIBLE, and our 
 warfare with oppression, and infidelity, and intemperance, 
 and impurity, and crime, is at an end: our weapons are 
 wrested away our foundation is removed we have no 
 authority to speak, and no courage to act." 
 
 Not less orthodox were Mr. Garrison s views of fasting 
 
 and prayer, to which he frequently exhorted the colored 
 
 Lib. i : 73. people ; and of the Sabbath and Sabbath-schools. He 
 
 Lib. i : 115. urges colored parents, " as they value the temporal and 
 
^T. 26.] "THE LIBERATOR." 267 
 
 eternal welfare of their children, to send them where they CHAP.VIII. 
 can obtain instruction on the Sabbath." " If thou wert j^. 
 blotted out, our moral sun," he says in a sonnet to the Lib. i : 6 4 . 
 day, 1 earth would " resemble hell." With the Puritan 
 respect for Sabbath eve he notices what he believes to be 
 the first instance of opening a ball in Boston on Saturday 
 evening, hopes it will be the last, and calls it an " out- Lib. \ -. 47. 
 rage . . . upon the moral sense of this community." 
 In April, he Remarks with gratification on the prevailing 
 " extraordinary excitement on the subject of religion," Lib. i : 57. 
 and the unusual solemnity and increased attendance 
 in Boston ; defends revivals against the charge of being 
 " the wildness of fanaticism," but holds religious conver 
 sions to be rational occurrences, not requiring " special 
 grace or a miraculous interposition of the spirit " ; looks 
 to " extensive revivals of pure religion " to save the 
 country from great plagues and sudden destruction ; 
 asserts that emancipation of the slaves must be the 
 work of Christianity and of the churches ; hopes the 
 present revival may prove to be animated by the Holy 
 Spirit, and bids the mourning slaves take courage, " for 
 your redemption is at hand" ! 2 The May anniversaries 
 
 1 " What a most conscientious and devout legalist I was when I wrote 
 it," he writes to Oliver Johnson, May 25, 1874. "In my blindness I adopted 
 Dr. Beecher s preposterous figure of speech, as applied to the first day of 
 the week, that the Sabbath is the moral sun of the universe, and so logi 
 cally predicted that chaos would come again if it were blotted out i. e., 
 not observed in an orthodox fashion a fashion, however, not according to 
 Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, or any of the great lights of the Reformation, 
 of which fact I was then ignorant." Dr. Beecher s use of this figure, how 
 ever, at Pittsburgh, in the summer of 1836, called forth a protest from Mr. 
 Garrison against such "extravagant and preposterous language" (Lib. 
 6:118). 
 
 2 To a multitude, indeed, both before and behind the scenes, who con 
 nected this deep excitement with the revolutionary upheavals of the Old 
 World, the millennial day of judgment seemed very near. An extract 
 from the Rev. Lyman Beecher s discourse on the preservation of the Sab 
 bath, copied into the Liberator (1:172) for its characteristic "glowing 
 eloquence and startling solemnity," reads like a fragment of Millerite 
 oratory, and shows how the way was paved for the Second-Adventist delu 
 sion of the next decade. (Compare Goodell s Slavery and Anti-Slavery, 
 p. 387, and the prospectus of the Liberator printed on the cover of the 
 Thoughts on Colonization, June, 1832.) 
 
268 WILLIAM LLOYD GABBISON. [^T. 26. 
 
 of this memorable revival year were peculiarly refreshing 
 
 Lib. i : 87. to Mr. Garrison. " It has been," he writes, " the happiest 
 week of our existence. We cannot discriminate between 
 the excellence and importance of the different societies : 
 every one of them was the best. Only one thing was want 
 ing the anniversary of a National Anti-Slavery Society. 
 Such a society must be organized forthwith." Worthy 
 of special praise seemed the Rev. Leonard Wellington s 
 election sermon, " an apology for the clergy, and a de 
 fence of their character." On the Fourth of July he 
 
 Lib. i:m. attended the celebration at Park-Street Church, his feel 
 ings outraged by the sight of colored boys restricted to 
 pews one-quarter way up the side-aisle, while the girls 
 were kept near the door as usual ; and his reason offended 
 by the Rev. Dr. Wisner s specious attempt to prove that 
 infant sprinkling was baptism. 
 
 u You are," wrote a gentleman from the District of 
 
 Lib. 1:33. Columbia to Mr. Garrison, "not only breaking the chains 
 of the black slave, but also of the white slave." As 
 this latter effect was incidental to the former, so the 
 Liberators warfare upon slavery was an incident, if the 
 main one, in the universal philanthropy of its editor. 
 " Human rights in general," to use his own phrase, com 
 manded his services at all seasons; and all his earlier 
 testimonies were renewed in the Liberator. His feelings 
 on the subject of intemperance were scarcely surpassed 
 
 Lib. 1:9. in intensity by those in regard to slavery. He looked 
 upon " every distiller or vender of ardent spirits " as 
 " a poisoner of the health and morals of community " ; 
 and could even say, in his address in 1832 before the 
 second annual Convention of the People of Color in 
 Lib. 2 : 101. Philadelphia : " God is my witness that, great as is my 
 detestation of slavery and the foreign slave trade, I had 
 rather be a slaveholder yea, a kidnapper on the African 
 coast than sell this poison to my fellow-creatures for 
 common consumption. Since the creation of the world 
 there has been no tyrant like INTEMPERANCE, and no 
 

 ^T. 26.] " THE LIBEKATOK." 269 
 
 slaves so cruelly treated as his." 1 Abhorring war, he CHAP.VIII. 
 declared his belief that " every man who kills another, I ^ I . 
 either in a duel or battle, is, in the eye of God, guilty 
 of his blood." He had scruples, over and above the prior 
 claims of the slaves, against publishing an appeal to 
 raise money in aid of the revolted Poles : " Ours is Lib. i : 75. 
 the patriotism of Jesus Christ, not of this world. We 
 justify no war. The victories of liberty should be blood 
 less, and effected solely by spiritual weapons. If we 
 deemed it pleasing in the sight of God to kill tyrants, we 
 would immediately put ourselves at the head of a black 
 army at the South, and scatter devastation and death on 
 every side." For, " surely if a man can be justified in LM. 1:113. 
 fighting for a foreign people the Greeks and Poles, for 
 example how much more can he be justified in fighting 
 for his own brethren ! Yet I am for leaving vengeance 
 to God." Nevertheless, when, as in Hayti, "the battle Lib. 1:127. 
 for liberty is begun, we pray that the injured party 
 may in all cases be victorious." Not yet had Mr. Gar 
 rison carried his peace doctrine so far as to disfranchise Lib. 1:55, 
 himself rather than, by voting, to sustain a govern 
 ment resting on force. Capital punishment he naturally Lib. i : 63. 
 held to be "unauthorized." The penitentiary "should Lib. 1:7. 
 become a place of just yet merciful correction, and gf 
 the means of moral reform." We see him attending 
 a public meeting in Faneuil Hall, presided over by 
 Mayor Otis, and addressed by the Rev. John Pierpont, 
 for the abolishment of imprisonment for debt ; and Lib. i : 23. 
 leaving it with a poem 2 running in his head "to illus- Lib. 1:28. 
 trate the barbarity of a system which, as far as it goes, 
 is scarcely surpassed by African slavery" the differ 
 ence being that the people had the remedy in their Lib. i : 6. 
 own hands. 
 
 1 At the Rev. Moses Thacher s lectures on Intemperance in Park-Street 
 Church, in August, Mr. Garrison "joined most heartily in the anathema" 
 pronounced on "the use of tobacco, either in chewing, smoking, or snuff 
 ing" (Lib. 1: 135). 
 
 2 " The Poor Debtor" ; poetically estimated, not above the mediocrity of 
 occasional verse. 
 
270 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 It was both as an abolitionist and as a Christian that 
 Niies Regis- Mr. Garrison reported with indignation the successive 
 1 831,^460! details of the brutal treatment of the white missionaries 
 Lib. i : 112, among the Cherokees, who had been ordered by the State 
 127, i 7- Q G eor gi a t leave a Territory over which it had no juris 
 diction arrested chained like runaway slaves to the 
 horses of their guards and imprisoned at hard labor for 
 four years. But he could ask, on reading the comments 
 of the religious press, North and South, " Has the mad 
 man Garrison ever committed himself in the use of 
 stronger invective against the oppressors of the slaves 
 than appears in the following language? His insanity is 
 really growing contagious, and fanatics are multiplying 
 on every side ! " With the Cherokees themselves, of 
 course, in their hopeless struggle with a rapacious oligar 
 chy, he was no less in sympathy than with the mission 
 aries. 1 Charity for the Indians was then and has ever 
 since been a conspicuous element of Boston philanthropy. 
 When John Ridge, the Cherokee chief, came to that city 
 in March, 1832, to present the grievances of his people, 
 the Old South was thrown open to him, Leverett Sal- 
 tonstall spoke from the same pulpit, and Mr. Picker 
 ing 2 announced the latest intelligence, that the Supreme 
 NUes* Regis- Court had decided the law under which the mission- 
 r> 4o. 2 aries had been imprisoned to be unconstitutional 
 news which Mr. Garrison, as an eye-witness, says was 
 Lib. 2 : 39. " received with the most enthusiastic applause. Indeed, 
 it may safely be affirmed that no event since the organ 
 ization of the government, except perhaps the treaty 
 1815- of peace, has created a livelier sensation of joy in 
 Boston and its vicinity than this decision of the Su 
 preme Court." But joy was soon drowned by Georgia s 
 
 1 See, again, the trampled Indian treaties in the pictorial heading of the 
 Liberator. 
 
 2 John, son of Colonel Timothy Pickering, and an eminent lawyer and 
 scholar, then the city solicitor. In 1836 he published Remarks on the In 
 dian Languages of North America. 
 
^ET. 26.] "THE LIBEKATOK." 271 
 
 nullification of the decision, with President Jackson s CHAP.VIII. 
 tacit approval. 1 I 8j I . 
 
 Mr. Garrison s anti-masonic views had undergone no 
 change : he was still " utterly and irreconcilably opposed Lib. i : 83. 
 to the institution of masonry." But he had a ready 
 touchstone for pro-slavery anti-masons who prated of 
 the anti-republican tendencies of secret orders. For him 
 self he needed neither signs nor grips to recognize the 
 claims of a fellow-being in distress : his countrymen 
 were mankind, his philanthropy could not be less broad. 
 His patriotism was yet real and intense ; his love of his 
 native New England ingrained. "Tyrants and slaves Lib. 1:165. 
 may exist at the South, but they are unknown in New 
 England. i Doughfaces 7 we have among us, 
 
 and men lost to every honorable feeling time-servers, 
 apologists, traitors, and cowards ; but think not," he 
 warns the editors of the National Intelligencer, " that the 
 great body of the descendants of the Pilgrims sanction 
 Southern oppression." The abuse of a South Carolina 
 journal he meets by holding up the editor as " a renegade Lib. 1:9. 
 from New England, who also advocates the rebellious 
 doctrine of nullification." When informed that "the 
 late Judge Lowell, 2 who was born in Newburyport, was 
 the first individual in Massachusetts who freed a slave," 
 " this fact," he says, speaking both for himself and for 
 his partner, "is peculiarly gratifying to us, being our- Lib.\-.z\. 
 selves natives of the same place." 
 
 l"One Indian hanged, some missionaries imprisoned, the writ of the 
 Supreme Court disregarded, the Indians removed : and the political and 
 pseudo-philanthropic intermeddlers left to the reflection of having done 
 much mischief, in assuming to become the defenders and guardians of a 
 race which the humanity of our laws and people were treating with parental 
 kindness " (Ben ton, Thirty Years View, 1 : 166). 
 
 2 John Lowell, the grandfather of the poet. This humane jurist, a mem 
 ber of the Constitutional Convention of 1780, is the reputed author of the 
 clause in the Massachusetts Bill of Rights "All men are born free and 
 equal," etc. which was designed to abolish slavery, and did in fact; and 
 he offered his services gratuitously to any slave wishing to claim his free 
 dom under it. 
 
272 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GABKISON. 
 
 CHAP.VHI. 
 
 1831. 
 Lib. i : 95. 
 
 Lib. i : 146. 
 
 Lib. i : 43 ; 
 
 Writings of 
 
 W. L.G., 
 
 p. 283. 
 
 Lib. i : 139. 
 
 Of jealousy or a selfish love of notoriety in the anti- 
 slavery cause the first volume of the Liberator shows no 
 trace. Mr. Garrison publishes the prospectus of the 
 Genius after its removal to Washington ; likewise, with 
 special approval, the prospectus of the African Sentinel, 
 to be published at Albany by John G. Stewart, a colored 
 man, for which he subsequently offers to act as agent. 1 
 " To Benjamin Lundy, the veteran advocate of negro 
 emancipation," he dedicates this sonnet : 
 
 Self-taught, unaided, poor, reviled, contemned 
 
 Beset with enemies, by friends betrayed; 
 As madman and fanatic oft condemned, 
 
 Yet in thy noble cause still undismayed ! 
 Leonidas thy courage could not boast j 
 
 Less numerous were his foes, his band more strong 5 
 Alone, unto a more than Persian host, 
 
 Thou hast undauntedly given battle long. 
 Nor shalt thou singly wage th unequal strife ; 
 
 Unto thy aid, with spear and shield, I rush, 
 And freely do I offer up my life, 
 
 And bid my heart s blood find a wound to gush! 
 New volunteers are trooping to the field 
 To die we are prepared but not an inch to yield! 
 
 Of Isaac Knapp he speaks in these terms : 
 
 11 1 am pleased to have an opportunity of bestowing a well- 
 deserved eulogy upon my partner in business. He is willing, 
 for the love of the cause, to go through evil as well as good re 
 port j to endure privation, and abuse, and the loss of friends, so 
 that he can put tyrants to shame and break the fetters of the 
 slaves. He has been of essential service to me ; and his loss 
 would not be easily made up." 2 
 
 1 Lundy and Stewart in turn acted as agents for the Liberator (Lib. 1 : 73, 
 145, etc.) 
 
 2 This testimony is repeated in a letter of March 1, 1874, to Oliver John 
 son : " From the beginning to the close of our partnership he [Knapp] had 
 the management of the finances, making all contracts with the paper- 
 makers, and seeing all liabilities discharged. ... In this respect, par 
 ticularly, he was essential to the success of our undertaking, and deserves 
 honorable remembrance. He never flinched, and never once grew dis 
 heartened." 
 
. 26.] 
 
 "THE LIBERATOR." 
 
 273 
 
 In reviewing at its close the busy, eventful year, Mr. CHAP.VIII. 
 Garrison could look back on a flattering increase in the I 8j I . 
 subscription list of the Liberator, with a prospect of en 
 larging the paper with the new volume j on the sale of 
 three editions of his l Address to the People of Color > in 
 two months ; and on a thousand evidences of the effect 
 of his writings, his public discourse and his daily conver 
 sation on the friends and the foes of human freedom. His 
 office was a rendezvous to which came men of all grades 
 and professions fellow-editors like David Lee Child, 1 
 John G. Whittier, 2 William J. Snelling, 3 Moses Thacher, 4 
 and Oliver Johnson ; 5 lawyers like Samuel E. Sewall 
 ("a man full of estimable qualities") and Ellis Gray 
 Loring; schoolmasters like "the Lynn bard" Alonzo 
 Lewis, and Joshua Coffin; the Quaker hatter, Arnold 
 Buffum ; " the distinguished advocate of peace," William 
 Ladd 5 from Maine, the generous merchant, Ebenezer 
 Dole 5 from Rhode Island, the young wool-dealer, George 
 William Benson ; from Connecticut, the Kev. Samuel J. 
 May, whose genial sympathy and bold support had won 
 Mr. Garrison s instant affection, so that in the second 
 number of the Liberator appeared this tribute to one 
 then unnamed : 
 
 AfS. Feb. 
 14, 1831. 
 
 Lib. i : 39. 
 
 Friend of mankind! for thee I fondly cherish 
 Th exuberance of a brother s glowing love ; 
 
 And never in my memory shall perish 
 
 Thy name or worth so time shall truly prove! 
 
 l Massachusetts Journal and Tribune, Boston ; 2 New-England Weekly Re 
 view, Hartford, as George D. Prentice s successor ; 3 The Amateur, Boston ; 
 4 The Boston Telegraph ; 5 The Christian Soldier, Boston, printed on the 
 Liberator press. These editors, again, were lawyers, ministers, and littera 
 teurs. Oliver Johnson, who was four years younger than Mr. Garrison, 
 was a native of Peacham, Vt., of Massachusetts parentage. He became an 
 apprentice in the office of the Vermont Watchman, at Montpelier, where he 
 read the Journal of the Times. Already, July 4, 1828, he had delivered in that 
 town an address against slavery, from the colonization point of view. Like 
 Mr. Garrison, he strove as early as possible to edit a paper of his own, and 
 the first number of his Christian Soldier was issued in Boston within a week 
 of the first number of the Liberator. It opposed the rising " heresy " of Uni- 
 versalism. 
 
 VOL. L 18 
 
 Lib. 1:6; 
 Writings of 
 W. L. G., 
 
 p. 200. 
 
274 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 26. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. Thy spirit is more gentle than a dove, 
 
 I ~ i Yet hath an angel s energy and scope } 
 
 Its flight is towering as the heaven above, 
 And with the outstretched earth doth bravely cope. 
 Thou standest on an eminence so high 
 
 All nations congregate around its base; 
 There, with a kindling soul and piercing eye, 
 
 The wrongs and sufferings of thy kind dost trace : 
 Thy country is the world thou know st no other 
 And every man, in every clime, thy brother ! 
 
 No friendship, indeed, was to prove more pure or more 
 lasting ; and none had a greater influence on Mr. Garri 
 son s life. In the twenty-eighth number of the Libera 
 tor appeared among the list of agents the name of Henry 
 Egbert Benson, of Providence, R. I. He was the younger 
 brother of the Mr. Benson mentioned above, and it was 
 MS. July at the suggestion of Mr. May, then the Unitarian pastor of 
 the Connecticut village of Brooklyn, in which their father 
 resided, that Mr. Garrison inserted Henry Egbert s name, 
 MS. July and immediately wrote to beg his acceptance of the com- 
 3. 1831. m i ss i OIL Mr. Benson needed no urging, for he had 
 already interested himself in the success of the paper. 
 The time was coming when that interest would be some 
 thing more than philanthropic, and more than friendly 
 even brotherly. To him Mr. Garrison writes, under 
 date of Boston, August 29, 1831 : 
 
 MS. " I have had the pleasure of taking your brother by the hand, 
 
 and of holding an interesting tete-d-tete with him on the subject 
 of slavery. My only regret is, on account of his short tarry, 
 which has prevented me from paying him that attention which 
 would be desirable. He is, I am glad to find, sound in the faith, 
 not having in the least degenerated from his parent stock. 
 Would to Heaven there were a host of such men enlisted in the 
 glorious cause of universal emancipation ! But we shall muster 
 an army, by and by. The cause of freedom is onward ; and the 
 day is not far distant, I trust, when a black skin will not be 
 merely endurable, but popular. For, be assured, favors are to be 
 heaped, in due time, upon our colored countrymen, as thickly 
 as have been sorrow and abuse. I have no despondency no 
 doubt : the triumph of truth is as sure as the light of heaven. 
 
. 26. J 
 
 THE LIBEKATOR." 
 
 2.75 
 
 1831. 
 
 Henry E. 
 
 Benson. 
 
 MS. 
 
 " I wish that the colored people of Providence, if they feel on CHAP.VIII. 
 the subject as their brethren do elsewhere and I presume 
 they do would immediately call a public meeting, and ex 
 press their disapprobation of the colonization scheme. Safety 
 and self-respect require this measure at their hands. Now is 
 the time for the people of color to act fearlessly, firmly, 
 understandingly." l 
 
 Again, to the same, October 19 : 
 
 " Permit me to introduce to you my worthy friend, Mr. 
 Joshua Coffin, whom you will find an agreeable and intelligent 
 person. He is a warm friend of the anti-slavery cause, and has 
 correct views relative to the Colonization Society. He is about 
 opening a school in this city for the instruction of free colored 
 persons, and I have no doubt will be very successful. . . . 
 
 " The disturbances at the South still continue. The Liberator 
 is causing the most extraordinary movements in the slave States 
 among the whites, as you are doubtless already aware. I am 
 constantly receiving anonymous letters, filled with abominable 
 and bloody sentiments. These trouble me less than the wind. 
 I never was so happy and confident in my mind as at the present 
 time. The slaveholders are evidently given over to destruction. 
 They are determined to shut out the light to hear none of 
 the appeals of justice and humanity. I shudder when I con 
 template their fate." 
 
 To the same, November 12 : 
 
 " You may soon expect to hear of the formation of an anti- 
 slavery society in this city, on principles steadfast as the pillars of 
 truth. There are some stanch abolitionists here who are ready for 
 action, and whom no dangers or scoffs can frighten. We can do 
 comparatively little without a concentration of moral strength. 
 With physical force we have, you know, nothing to do." 
 
 We close this chapter, whose expansion will not appear 
 excessive to those who pursue this narrative to the end, 
 with an episode which belongs here, so far as its date 
 caii now be defined. In an editorial notice of Parton s 
 1 Life of Aaron Burr, 7 in the Liberator of January 8, 
 1858, occurs the following passage : 
 
 " It is certainly to his [Burr s] credit that, while he was a 
 member of the New York Legislature in 1784, a bill having 
 
 1 The meeting was held on Oct. 31. (See " A Voice from Providence " in 
 Lib. 1:178.) 
 
 Henry E. 
 
 Benson. 
 
 MS. 
 
 Lib. 28 : 6. 
 
276 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 26. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. been introduced for the gradual abolition of slavery in that 
 
 I ^~ l State, he was in favor of a speedier extinction of the anomaly, 
 
 and moved to amend the bill so as to totally abolish slavery 
 
 after a certain day. His amendment having been rejected, he 
 
 voted for the original bill, which was lost. 
 
 " Probably," continues Mr. Garrison, " it was his last effort 
 in that direction ; for, in 1831-2, I cannot now determine the 
 precise date, but not long after the publication of the Liberator 
 was commenced, Aaron Burr visited Boston, and sent me a 
 special request to have an interview with him at the Marlboro 
 Hotel. Curious to see so noted a man, and especially to know 
 what could be his object in soliciting an acquaintance, I at 
 once complied with his request, and had a free conversation 
 with him on the subject of slavery. He received me with the 
 suavity and politeness for which he was so remarkable, and 
 with great adroitness undertook to dissuade me from prosecut 
 ing the anti-slavery cause, and continuing to publish the Liber 
 ator skilfully setting forth the hopelessness of my object, the 
 perils to which I should be subjected, the dangers of a general 
 emancipation of the slaves, the power and spirit of the slave 
 oligarchy, etc., etc. His manner was patronizing, and, with his 
 strong and plausible representations of the dangers and diffi 
 culties in the case, well calculated to make a deep impression 
 on my then youthful mind. He had a remarkable eye, more 
 penetrating, more fascinating than any I had ever seen, while 
 his appearance was truly venerable. But he was baffled in his 
 purpose, and soon found that he was dealing with one who 
 occupied a very different plane from his own ; whose trust was 
 not in man, but in the living God j who was not to be intimi 
 dated or discouraged by any portrayal of consequences, whether 
 real or imaginary ; who was animated by a love of impartial 
 liberty, and could not stoop to any considerations of worldly 
 policy. As he revealed himself to my moral sense, I saw that 
 he was destitute of any fixed principles, and that unyielding 
 obedience to the higher law was regarded by him as credulity 
 or fanaticism. Yet I do not remember that he undertook to 
 argue the rightfulness of slavery his aim being, rather, to 
 convince me both of the folly and danger of attempting to 
 struggle with the Slave Power for its overthrow. 
 
 " We parted he courteous and plausible to the last, and I 
 firm and uncompromising and we never met again. What 
 other object brought him to Boston, I could not learn : the next 
 day, he returned to New York." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ORGANIZATION: NEW-ENGLAND ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 
 THOUGHTS ON COLONIZATION. 1832. 
 
 r 1 1HE first step towards the formation of an anti- CHAP. ix. 
 
 -L slavery society in accordance with the doctrines 
 advocated by the Liberator was taken in Boston on 
 Sunday, November 13, 1831, when fifteen persons assem 
 bled in Mr. SewalPs office on State Street, on the under 
 standing " that if the apostolic number of twelve should 
 be found ready to unite upon the principles that should be 
 thought vital, and in a plan of operations deemed wise 
 and expedient," an association should then and there be 
 organized. Among them were Mr. May and Mr. Oliver 
 Johnson, who have both given an account of the pro 
 ceedings. Mr. Garrison took the initiative, by describing 
 " what the Abolitionists of Great Britain had done, 
 since, under the inspiration of Elizabeth Heyrick, they 
 had put their movement on the ground of immediate, in 
 distinction from gradual, emancipation. He wanted 
 societies formed in America upon the same principle, 
 and could not be satisfied with any scheme of gradual 
 ism." For two hours the question was discussed, not 
 whether immediate emancipation was right and safe, 
 but whether on the one hand popular prejudice would 
 not be unduly excited, and on the other the friends of 
 gradual emancipation be repelled from the new society, 
 by its positive committal to immediatism. u Mr. Gar 
 rison was firm in the conviction that the vitality of the 
 movement depended upon a frank avowal of funda 
 mental principles, however unpopular they might be; 
 
 277 
 
 1832. 
 
 Johnson s 
 Garrison, 
 
 pp. 82-89; 
 
 May s Rec 
 ollections, 
 
 PP- 30-32- 
 
278 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEEISON. [^T. 27. 
 
 CHAP. ix. and the vote upon the question showed that nine were in 
 1832. favor of organizing upon his plan, while six were op 
 posed." Mr. May was consequently obliged to return home 
 without witnessing the completion of the organization. 
 
 Nevertheless the attempt was not abandoned. On 
 Friday, December 16, another meeting was held at the 
 same place, with ten present, 1 and, " after considerable 
 discussion, David Lee Child, Samuel E. Sewall, William 
 Lloyd Garrison, Ellis Gray Loring, and Oliver Johnson 
 were appointed a committee to draft a constitution for an 
 Anti-Slavery Society, to be reported January 1, 1832." 
 Then for the first time Mr, Garrison gave public intima- 
 
 Lib. i : 201. tion of the movement, and, in the Liberator of the follow 
 ing day, called for the names of those who were ready to 
 join it. On Sunday evening, the first of January, 1832, 
 the draft of the constitution was reported to a meeting 
 containing some new faces ; among them, Alonzo Lewis, 
 William Joseph Snelling, Dr. Gamaliel Bradford, 2 Dr. 
 Abner Phelps, and the Rev. Abijah Blanchard, editor 
 of an anti-masonic religious paper, who opened the 
 meeting with prayer. The body of the constitution was 
 adopted, " with a few unimportant alterations and addi 
 tions," as the records read, but also with one highly sig 
 nificant of the conservative influences against which Mr. 
 Garrison, had had to contend in committee : " Voted, 
 that Philo-Af rican be struck out [of the first article, 
 denoting the Society s title], and New-England Anti- 
 Slavery 7 be substituted." The choice marked the domi 
 nance of the same positive and aggressive spirit that put 
 the Liberator and not the Safety-Lamp at the head of the 
 movement for immediate emancipation. The preamble 
 was referred for revision to another committee, 3 to be 
 
 1 Namely, according to the records, David Lee Child, Ellis Gray Loring, 
 Isaac Child, W. L. Garrison, Robert Bernard Hall, John Cutts Smith, 
 Oliver Johnson, Isaac Knapp, Joshua Coffin, and Samuel E. Sewall. 
 
 2 Dr. Bradford was a graduate of Harvard College (1814), and from 1833 
 to the close of his life in 1839 was Superintendent of the Massachusetts 
 General Hospital. 
 
 3 Consisting of Messrs. Sewall, Garrison, Blanchard, and Snelling. 
 
^ET. 27.] OKGANIZATION. 279 
 
 reported to an adjourned meeting appointed for the CHAP. ix. 
 evening of Friday, January 6, in the school-room under ^3. 
 the African Baptist Church, in Belknap Street. 
 
 " Of that adjourned meeting, 7 says Mr. Johnson, " my 
 recollections are very vivid. A fierce northeast storm, 
 combining snow, rain and hail in about equal propor 
 tions, was raging, and the streets were full of slush. 
 They were dark, too, for the city of Boston in those days 
 was very economical of light on i Nigger Hill. 7 1 It almost 
 seemed as if Nature was frowning upon the new effort to 
 abolish slavery. But the spirits of the little company 
 rose superior to all external circumstances. 77 
 
 Mr. Child presided, and the preamble, as drawn by 
 Mr. Snelling, was read as follows : 
 
 "We, the undersigned, hold that every person, of full age Lib. 2:25. 
 and sane mind, has a right to immediate freedom from personal 
 bondage of whatsoever kind, unless imposed by the sentence of 
 the law, for the commission of some crime. We hold that man 
 cannot, consistently with reason, religion, and the eternal and 
 immutable principles of justice, be the property of man. We 
 hold that whoever retains his fellow -man in bondage is guilty 
 of a grievous wrong. We hold that a mere difference of com 
 plexion is no reason why any man should be deprived of any 
 of his natural rights, or subjected to any political disability. 
 While we advance these opinions as the principles on which 
 we intend to act, we declare that we will not operate on the 
 existing relations of society by other than peaceful and lawful 
 a means, and that we will give no countenance to violence or 
 insurrection. 77 
 
 This declaration manifestly disregarded the point of 
 expediency raised at the first meeting, which was again 
 the cause of much earnest discussion without unanimity Lib. 5 : 3. 
 being reached ; Messrs. Child, Loring and Sewall with 
 holding their signatures from the perfected instrument. 2 
 
 1 The north side of Beacon Hill, and the colored settlement of Boston 
 par excellence. 
 
 2 Their scruples could not long keep them aloof from a work in which 
 their hearts were enlisted. At the monthly meeting in July, Mr. Sewall 
 was appointed one of the Board of Managers to take the place of Mr. John 
 Stimson, in August to succeed Mr. John S. Williams as Treasurer ; and at 
 
280 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. 
 
 CHAP. IX, 
 1832. 
 
 Johnson s 
 
 Garrison, 
 
 p. 88. 
 
 The twelve persons, all white, who accepted the preamble 
 and affixed their names, were William Lloyd Garrison, 
 Oliver Johnson, Robert B. Hall, Arnold Buffum, William 
 J. Snelling, John E. Fuller, Moses Thacher, Joshua 
 Coffin, Stillman B. Newcomb, Benjamin C. Bacon, Isaac 
 Knapp, and Henry K. Stockton 1 not more than one or 
 two of whom, says Mr. Johnson, " could have put a hun 
 dred dollars into the treasury without bankrupting 
 themselves," whereas two at least of those not in perfect 
 accord with them had hitherto been the pecuniary main 
 stay of the Liberator. What, however, must have seemed 
 most discouraging to Mr. Garrison was his failure, after 
 a year of argument in public and in private, to convince 
 his truest and most necessary friends of the high expe 
 diency of immediatism. Nevertheless, " as the little 
 company . . . were stepping out into the storm and 
 darkness from the African school-house where their work 
 was accomplished, Mr. Garrison impressively remarked : 
 4 We have met to-night in this obscure school-house $ our 
 numbers are few and our influence limited ; but, mark 
 my prediction, Faneuil Hall shall ere long echo with the 
 principles we have set forth. We shall shake the Nation 
 by their mighty power. " 
 
 the annual meeting in January, 1833, to succeed Mr. Garrison as Corre 
 sponding Secretary, while Messrs. Child and Loring were elected Coun 
 sellors. Mr. Sewall, however, only became a life member (by the payment 
 of $15) in November, 1833 (Lib. 3:187). 
 
 l Of these only three were natives of Boston (Lib. 7: 53). Five at least 
 were still living in 1874, namely, Messrs. Garrison, Johnson, Fuller, 
 Thacher, and Bacon (MS. Feb. 1, 1874, W. L. G. to O. Johnson, remark 
 ing on the longevity of the " apostles"). All but Mr. Johnson had died 
 when Mr. Garrison passed away. From a later letter, Feb. 24, 1874, the 
 following tributes are extracted. Of Benjamin C. Bacon : "You remember 
 how early, faithfully, yet unobtrusively, he espoused the anti-slavery 
 movement in Boston, and what excellent service he rendered as office- 
 agent and secretary of the Anti-Slavery Depository. Ever of a meek and 
 quiet spirit, not all the pro-slavery tumult of those times could disturb his 
 serenity for a moment. He was equally serviceable to our cause after his 
 removal to Philadelphia, and well appreciated by our friends and co-workers 
 in that city." Of Moses Thacher: "He rendered important service and 
 deserves honorable mention." Every one of the twelve was strongly Ortho 
 dox, while the three dissenters were Unitarians by conviction or affiliation. 
 They were also the only lawyers. 
 
^ET. 27.] ORGANIZATION. 281 
 
 The first publication of the Constitution of the New- 
 England Anti-Slavery Society was made in the Liberator Lib. 2 . 25. 
 of February 18, 1832, together with a list of officers (in 
 cluding Arnold Buffum, 1 President, Joshua Coffin, Secre 
 tary, and W. L. Garrison, Corresponding Secretary), and 
 an expository Address from the pen of the Rev. Moses Lib. 2:43. 
 Thacher, one of the Counsellors. The second article of 
 the Constitution was as follows : 
 
 " The objects of the Society shall be to endeavor, by all means 
 sanctioned by law, humanity and religion, to effect the aboli 
 tion of slavery in the United States, to improve the character 
 and condition of the free people of color, to inform and correct 
 public opinion in relation to their situation and rights, and 
 obtain for them equal civil and political rights and privileges 
 with the whites." 
 
 Regular meetings were provided for on the last Monday 
 of every month, 2 and an annual meeting on the second 
 Wednesday in January; and the Board of Managers were 
 authorized to appoint agents to be employed in any part 
 of the United States, " in obtaining or communicating 
 intelligence, in the publication or distribution of tracts, 
 books or papers, or in the execution of any measure which 
 may be adopted to promote the objects of the Society." 
 Auxiliary societies contributing to its funds, and sending 
 delegates to its meetings, would be recognized in any part 
 of New England. The Address was occupied with a de- . 
 
 1 Arnold Buffum, a member of the Society of Friends, and son of a 
 member of the Providence Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery 
 (Lib. 3: 138), was a native of Smithfield, R. L, where he was born in 1782. 
 In 1824 he visited England, and there made the acquaintance of Clarkson 
 and the leading abolitionists of his own sect. He made a second anti-slavery 
 visit to England in April, 1843, when a clerical fellow-passenger described 
 him as " an Old Hickory Quaker Abolitionist," a " tall, gray-headed, gold- 
 spectacled patriarch" ( Life of Dr. Wm. A. Muhlenberg, p. 163). He died 
 March 13, 1859, See p. 94 of Proceedings of the American Anti-Slavery 
 Society at its Third Decade, 1863. Mr. Buffum possessed much mechanical 
 ingenuity, which he applied in the line of his business the manufacture < 
 
 of hats and otherwise, and had dreams of liberally endowing the caiise 
 from his profits (MS. Mar. 27, 1835, Henry E. to Geo. W. Benson). 
 
 2 May 28, 1832, "Voted, that hereafter meetings of the Society shall be 
 opened by prayer." 
 
282 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 CHAP. ix. fence of the doctrine of immediate emancipation, and, as 
 1832. a corollary, with a denunciation of the aims and methods 
 of the Colonization Society ; and concluded with a warn 
 ing to those who would temporize with slavery, of the 
 danger of slave insurrections. 
 
 Of the seventy-two names appended, mostly in auto 
 graph, to the Constitution in the Society s records, 
 perhaps a quarter were those of colored men, some of 
 whom were barely able to write^ The local membership 
 was at the outset considerably smaller than the total just 
 given. Such was the body pitted against the American 
 Colonization Society, against (as events proved) the 
 American Church, against the American Union. Its first 
 action, at a meeting held in the Liberator office, was to 
 instruct the Board of Managers to memorialize Congress 
 for the abolition of slavery " in the District of Columbia 
 and in the Territories of the United States under their 
 jurisdiction," and to begin the work of popular agitation 
 by preparing the Address above cited and procuring the 
 delivery of another by its president, Arnold Buffum. In 
 due course it had standing committees to assist in plac 
 ing colored lads at trades, and to endeavor to get colored 
 children into the public schools ; to improve the existing 
 schools for colored children and to build up others ; and 
 to inquire into all cases of inhabitants of New England 
 who might be kidnapped, and take the necessary steps 
 to procure their liberation at the Society s expense. 1 It 
 
 Ante, p. 254. considered a memorial for the repeal of 7 of the Act of 
 1786, prohibiting the intermarriage of blacks and whites ; 
 sought to find support for a free-produce grocery in 
 Boston ; and resolved to undertake to raise $50,000 
 toward establishing a manual-labor school for colored 
 youth, through solicitations " both in England and 
 
 Lib. -2 . 155. America." Mr. Garrison s motions, as preserved in the 
 
 l See, for an account of the Society s suit for the freedom of Francisco 
 before Judge Shaw, Lib. 2 : 194. Mr. Sewall acted as the Society s counsel ; 
 and the anti-kidnapping committee, of which he was a member, was doubt 
 less formed on his motion. 
 
JEi. 27.] 
 
 OKGANIZATION. 
 
 283 
 
 1832. 
 
 records, looked to the preparation for the annual meet- CHAP. ix. 
 ing in 1833 of reports on the foreign and domestic slave 
 trade, on colonization, on the condition of t^e free people 
 of color at large, on slavery in the United States and in 
 the District ; and to the despatch of an agent through the 
 New England towns to deliver addresses and make col 
 lections on behalf of the Society. By his motion, too, 
 Wilberf orce and Clarkson were elected honorary members 
 of the Society. On several of the important committees 
 already enumerated, and on others pertaining to practical 
 management and efficient propagandism, his name is to 
 be found ; and when the Society, which had begun by 
 declaring the Liberator its official organ, towards the 
 close of the year concluded that a monthly publication 
 would better serve that purpose, he was one of three 
 nominated by the Board to superintend the publication 
 of it. In these and in other ways to be considered pres 
 ently, he helped justify the Society s declaration in the 
 first number of the Abolitionist, that, " probably, through 
 its instrumentality, more public addresses on the subject 
 of slavery, and appeals in behalf of the contemned free 
 people of color, have been made in New England, during 
 the past year [1832], than were elicited for forty years 
 prior to its organization." 
 
 At the monthly meeting in May, Mr. Garrison was ap 
 pointed a delegate to represent the Society at the second 
 annual Convention of the People of Color, to be held in 
 Philadelphia during the next fortnight; and having 
 accepted an invitation to be the guest of Eobert Purvis l 
 during his stay in that city, he set out on the first of 
 June, leaving his paper in the friendly charge of Messrs. 
 Lewis and Coffin. His part in the Convention consisted 
 chiefly in opposition to colonization; Mr. Gurley, the 
 Secretary of the Colonization Society, having made a 
 speech on the second day, to which Mr. Garrison made Lib. -2 \ 150. 
 an immediate and effective rejoinder. Fragments of an 
 address which the latter delivered at the close of the Con- 
 
 P. 2. 
 
 MS. May 
 30, 1832 . 
 
 Alonzo 
 Lewis, 
 Joshua 
 Coffin. 
 
 l A son-in-law of James Forteu. 
 
284 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. [Mr. 27. 
 
 Lib. 2 -. 101. vention were published by request in the Liberator. The 
 strain was singularly solemn, fervent, and hopeful. 
 His social experience was memorable : 
 
 MS. June " I have had," he writes to Ebenezer Dole, il a most delight- 
 2 9 , 1832. ful ^ft to Philadelphia. . . . The delegates were generally 
 men of large, sound sense and quick discernment some of 
 them able debaters, and all animated by a kindling, towering 
 spirit of improvement. The people of color now begin to hope 
 for a better state of things: this hope is filling their breasts 
 with motives to exertion, and the consequence is, they are 
 rising fast in moral and literary improvement. I sincerely 
 wish you had been at the Convention. I wish you had been 
 with me in Philadelphia, to see what I saw, to hear what I 
 heard, and to experience what I felt, in associating with many 
 colored families. There are colored men and women, young 
 men and young ladies, in that city, who have few superiors in 
 refinement, in moral worth, and in all that makes the human 
 character worthy of admiration and praise." 
 
 And to Mr. Purvis himself he writes, immediately 
 upon his return home : 
 
 MS. June " The very generous and unremitted exertions made by 
 22, i 32. vourse if an( j your accomplished lady, to promote my happiness 
 and comfort during my residence in Philadelphia, have left an 
 indelible impression upon my memory, and opened in my 
 breast a fountain of gratitude which only death can close. I 
 know you do not need a profusion of thanks, but when the 
 heart is full, the tongue must speak. . . . Never could I 
 have anticipated such a change as has taken place in my feel 
 ings. I have constantly said of Boston, until now, with regard 
 to my affection for it, that every stone in its streets was a mag 
 net of attraction. And now will you credit the confession "? 
 I am yes, sighing to return to the city of brotherly love. " 
 
 In the letter to his friend Dole he continues : 
 
 MS. June u The mockery of mockeries is at hand the Fourth of 
 July ! By many, the day will be spent in rioting and in 
 temperate drinking by others, in political defamation and 
 partisan heat by others, in boasting of the freedom of the 
 American people and unhazardous denunciations of the mother 
 country. The waste of money, and health, and morals, will be 
 immense. Another party will seize the occasion (many of 
 
^T. 27. J ORGANIZATION. 285 
 
 them with the best motives) to extol the merits of the Coloniza- CHAP. IX. 
 tion Society, and increase its funds. Mistaken men ! A very T ^I 2 
 small number will spend the day in sadness and supplication, 
 on account of the horrible oppression which is exercised over 
 the bodies and souls of two millions of the rational creatures of 
 God, in this boasted land of liberty. 
 
 u I have been appointed, by the New-England Anti-Slavery 
 Society, to deliver an address in this city on the 4th of July, on 
 the subject of slavery. Although the most strenuous exertions 
 have been made by a committee to procure a meeting-house in 
 which to have the address delivered, up to this hour they have not 
 been able to succeed, and probably we must resort to a hall. Tell 
 it not at the South ! Publish it not in the capital of Georgia ! " 
 
 The address was in fact delivered in Boylston Hall, 
 and afterwards on the same day at Lynn. It was re- Lib. 2. -. 107. 
 marked that, contrary to the usage of the time, the Eev. 
 Joshua N. Danforth, an agent of the Colonization So 
 ciety, who officiated 011 the previous Sunday at the Essex- 
 Street Church, refused to read the printed notice of the 
 address. Twelve days later, in the one church sure to 
 open its doors to him, the Baptist Church in Belknap 
 Street, Mr. Garrison delivered another address, on the 
 "Progress of the Abolition Cause, 7 before the African 
 Abolition Freehold Society, in commemoration of the 
 Act of Parliament, in 1807, making the slave trade 
 piracy. In this discourse, afterwards printed by request, 
 occurs a striking apostrophe to Clarkson and Wilber- p. 8. 
 force, and the following personal passages : 
 
 u Last year, I felt as if I were fighting single-handed against p. 21. 
 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 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 
 thousands with hope and courage." 
 
 " As for myself, whatever may be my fate whether I fall P. 24. 
 in the spring-time of manhood by the hand of the assassin, or 
 be immured in a Georgia cell, or be permitted to live to a ripe 
 old age I know that the success of your cause depends 
 
286 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [^T. 27. 
 
 CHAP IX. nothing upon my existence. I am but as a drop in the ocean, 
 I ^~ a which, if it be separated, cannot be missed. My own faith is 
 strong my vision, clear my consolation, great. l Who art 
 thou, great mountain ? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt be 
 come a plain : and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof 
 with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. " 
 
 Towards the latter part of August the Board of Man 
 agers of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society appointed 
 Mr. Garrison an agent " to deliver addresses, etc., for a 
 period not exceeding three months/ with compensation 
 at the rate of one hundred dollars for that period, 
 and his expenses. In accordance with this commission 
 he began a tour which embraced the central and eastern 
 parts of Massachusetts, the northern part of Rhode 
 Island, and Maine from Portland to Bangor the last a 
 region wholly new to him. In a series of letters to the 
 
 #.2:158, Liberator he described his experiences from week to 
 162,165,166, ___,.. . . 
 
 170. 175. week. Explaining at the outset his motives in going 
 
 about, he placed first justice to himself : 
 
 Lib. 2. : 158. " My enemies have had a long indulgence, until they begin 
 to think they are safe from retribution. What libels have they 
 not put forth, what caricatures have they not drawn, what 
 calumnies have they not industriously propagated, from Maine 
 to Missouri, respecting my motives and principles ! . . . 
 Such phrases as these l the madman Garrison , the fanatic Gar 
 rison, "* the incendiary Garrison^ have extensively become as 
 familiar as household words. Nothing amuses me more than 
 to witness the unaffected and agreeable surprise which many 
 strangers manifest in their countenances on a personal intro 
 duction to myself. They had almost imagined me to be in figure 
 a monster of huge and horrid proportions ; but now finding me 
 decently made, without a single horn, they take me cordially by 
 the hand, and acknowledge me l a marvellous proper man. " 
 
 An instance in point occurred at the house of the ven 
 erable Moses Brown, in Providence, 1 on Mr. Garrison s 
 return from the Philadelphia Convention : 
 
 l About June 21. " We had," writes H. E. Benson to S. J. May, June 26, " a 
 short though delightful visit from Mr. Garrison last week. If I had formed 
 a very high opinion of him from what I had heard about him, that opinion 
 was certainly not lessened when I became personally acquainted with him." 
 
^ET. 27.] ORGANIZATION. 287 
 
 " During my visit at his dwelling, an individual from New Lib. 2 -. 162. 
 
 York was introduced, named , (a relative of the patriarch, 
 
 and a member of the Society of Friends,) whose deportment 
 was somewhat pedantic and lofty acquired, no doubt, in the 
 school-room, as he was a teacher. 1 The subjects of slavery and 
 colonization being introduced, he instantly avowed himself 
 hostile to immediate abolition, and (of course) friendly to the 
 Colonization Society. He then began, (ignorant all the while 
 of my name,) in unmeasured terms to denounce { one Garrigus, 
 or Garrison, or some such name a madman, a fanatic, and a 
 radical, who was calling for the immediate liberation of all the 
 slaves in this country, etc., etc. This personal assault was ex 
 ceedingly diverting to all the company, nor could I refrain 
 from laughter. Assuming as much gravity as possible, I asked 
 him whether he knew Mr. Garrison personally ? He replied, 
 No. Are you familiar with his sentiments ? I again inquired. 
 Yes he had seen two or three numbers of a paper which 
 he published, called the Liberator. Did you ever see any 
 principles advocated in it by him which are not held in common 
 by the Society of Friends? Oh, his memory was not suffi 
 ciently tenacious to enable him to cite particular passages. I 
 then inquired whether he understood the doctrines and prin 
 ciples of the Colonization Society ? Yes, he did. Taking up a 
 copy of my t Thoughts, which happened to lie on the table, I 
 read a few passages from the Reports of the Society, for his 
 edification. These seemed to stagger him, till, taking the book 
 from my hands, he discovered on the title-page that I was its 
 author, on which he sneeringly remarked, Oh, this is by that 
 radical Garrison ! I don t believe his statements ! and he 
 was again commencing a tirade against me when he was checked 
 by Friend Brown (who could no longer suppress his pleasant 
 humor) in the following quaint and pithy manner : l Thee does 
 not know to whom thee has been talking this is William 
 Lloyd Garrison ! 
 
 " The effect of this annunciation upon the gentleman was 
 ludicrous in the extreme : he apologized for his plainness of 
 speech, confessed that he had read very few of my writings, 
 and that he had heard many allegations against me which he 
 supposed were true, etc., etc. I told him that I hoped he would 
 continue to speak as frankly as he had spoken before the dis 
 closure of my name ; that I had taken offence at nothing which 
 he had advanced except his impeachment of my veracity ; and 
 l This was none other than Goold Brown, the grammarian. 
 
288 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. [^ET. 27. 
 
 CHAP. IX. I could easily forgive that, on the supposition that it was hastily 
 lg ^ made to avoid a defeat. A long and spirited conversation ensued, 
 in which nearly all the company participated ; and on parting, 
 I gave him a copy of my Thoughts, for his harmless traduce- 
 ment, persuaded that our interview had not been altogether 
 unprofitable, and that henceforth the madman Garrigus, or 
 Garrison, or some such name, l would not rank quite so low in 
 his estimation." 
 
 Worcester was the first place visited by Mr. Garrison, 
 his choice being influenced by the fact that an Anti- 
 Masonic Convention was to be held there, on September 
 
 Lib. 2 : 158. 5, to which he had been appointed delegate for Suffolk 
 County. 2 Though heartily in sympathy with its objects, 3 
 he appears to have taken no active part in its proceed 
 ings j and having spoken on slavery in the Town Hall, 
 after a church had been refused him, he drove through 
 the beautiful scenery of the Blackstone Valley to Provi 
 dence. The sight of the numerous factory villages on 
 
 Ante, p. 75- the way confirmed his traditional views on the tariff : 
 
 Lib. 2 : 162. " Although I have long since withdrawn from the field of 
 politics, I feel a strong interest in the perpetuity of that 
 system which fosters and protects the industry of the 
 American people. 77 So, later, at Hallowell, Maine, he 
 found "an intelligent, clear-headed, and industrious 
 population, whom it is not easy to mislead by any politi 
 cal impostures, and who are fully aware that the pro 
 tection of American industry is the life-blood of the 
 
 Lib. 2:162. nation." In Providence he renewed his visit to Moses 
 Brown, enjoyed the companionship of Henry Benson, 
 and made several addresses to the colored people, whom 
 he helped form a temperance society. 
 
 1 Goold Brown s blundering was not so far out of the way. In the south 
 of France (Tarn-et-Garonne) Garrigues and Garrison (or Garrisson) are 
 regarded as variations of the same name. The latter signifies " little oak." 
 
 2 A pamphlet report of the "Proceedings of the Third Anti-Masonic Con 
 vention at Worcester," in the Mass. Historical Society s Library, contains 
 an address to the people of Massachusetts, signed by the delegates. Mr. 
 Garrison s name figures among the sixty-one from Suffolk Co. 
 
 3"! go for the immediate, unconditional, and total abolition of Free 
 masonry" (Lib. 2:158). 
 
JET. 27.] OKGANIZATION. 289 
 
 In Portland, which he reached by boat from Boston, 
 he was the guest of Nathan Winslow, " one of the most Lib. 2:166. 
 thoroughgoing friends of the abolition cause in our 
 land/ 1 and was also the object of marked attentions 
 from the colored citizens. His public addresses were 
 well attended and respectfully listened to. Among his 
 converts was General Samuel Fessenden, a man of fine 
 presence, a lawyer of the highest standing, and one of 
 the pillars of the Colonization Society in Maine. He had 
 been induced to listen to Mr. Garrison s discourse on the 
 subject from the Rev. Dr. Nichols s 2 pulpit, and was so 
 much affected as to be moved to tears by it. With eyes 
 still suffused, he awaited the speaker on his exit from 
 the church, and accompanied him to Mr. Winslow s, 
 where conversation lasted till past midnight. 3 In Hal- 
 lowell, writes Mr. Garrison, " the first individual upon Lib. z . 166. 
 whom, as in duty bound, I called, was Mr. Ebenezer 
 Dole, a philanthropist whose name is familiar to the 
 readers of the Liberator the first life-member of the 
 New-England Anti-Slavery Society the friend of the 
 poor and needy, and supporter of the various benevolent 
 operations of the times whose interest in the abolition 
 cause is unsurpassed and to whom I labor under very 
 onerous obligations. Our meeting was a cordial one." 
 On his return from Bangor, he stopped at Waterville, 
 where he was entertained by the President of the College, 
 
 IThe same might have been said of his brother Isaac Winslow, who 
 shortly afterwards lent timely and generous assistance to the struggling 
 firm of Garrison & Knapp. Nathan had subscribed to the Liberator from 
 its first number, and took it to the day of his death in 1861 " more than 
 once preventing its suspension by his liberal assistance, and authorizing us 
 to draw upon him at any time, in case of emergency, for the means to con 
 tinue it" (Lib. 31: 151). Both of these excellent men, who were members 
 of the Society of Friends, took part in the formation of the American Anti- 
 Slavery Society (Lib. 3:202). Nathan Winslow subsequently made his 
 home in Massachusetts, and became the father-in-law of Samuel E. Sewall. 
 
 2 Ichabod Nichols, a prominent member of the Unitarian denomination. 
 
 3 Related by Mr. Garrison to his son F. J. G. General Fessenden pre 
 sided at the formation of a State anti-slavery society in the spring of the 
 following year (Lib. 3: 75, 79). He was father of the distinguished Senator, 
 Wm. Pitt Fessenden. 
 
 VOL. I. 19 
 
290 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 27. 
 
 CHAP. ix. the Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin, 1 and spoke to the students on 
 
 1832. colonization. At Augusta he attended a meeting caDed 
 
 by the Rev. Cyril Pearl, in aid of the Colonization So- 
 
 Lib. 2 : 167. ciety, and so embarrassed the agent by his questions and 
 impressed the audience by his appeal in opposition, that 
 the vote was emphatically in the negative. 2 
 
 Lib. 2 : 87. In the Liberator announcing the editor s departure 
 for Philadelphia appeared the first advertisement of an 
 octavo pamphlet of 240 pages, of which the full title read : 
 Thoughts on African Colonization : or an impartial 
 exhibition of the doctrines, principles and purposes of 
 the American Colonization Society. Together with the 
 resolutions, addresses and remonstrances of the free 
 people of color. By Wm. Lloyd Garrison. For a motto 
 it bore these two texts : " Out of thine own mouth will 
 I condemn thee." " Prove all things : hold fast that which 
 is good." The preface opened with these words : 
 
 P. iii- " I dedicate this wo rk to iny countrymen, in whose intelli 
 
 gence, magnanimity and humanity I place the utmost reliance. 
 Although they have long suffered themselves to be swayed by a 
 prejudice as unmanly as it is wicked, and have departed widely 
 from the golden rule of the gospel, in their treatment of the 
 people of color, to"suppose that they will always be the despisers 
 and persecutors of this unfortunate class is, in my opinion, to 
 libel their character. A change in their feelings and senti 
 ments is already visible a change which promises, ere long, 
 to redeem their character from the bloody stains which slavery 
 has cast upon it, and to release the prisoner from his chains. . . . 
 " To impair the force of this exposition, the ardent advocates 
 of the Colonization Society will undoubtedly attempt to evade 
 the ground of controversy, and lead incautious minds astray in a 
 labyrinth of sophistry. But the question is not, whether the 
 
 1 Formerly of Danvers, Mass. (See vol. viii. Coll. Maine Hist. Soc., p. 
 178.) Mr. Chaplin s wife, Eunice Stickney, was a distant relative of Mr. 
 Garrison s, though neither host nor guest was aware of the fact. (See the 
 Stickney Genealogy, pp. 87, 146, 458.) 
 
 2 The refutation was effectual, for a second attempt the next year in the 
 same place by Pearl, during Mr. Garrison s absence in England, proved an 
 even worse failure. The latter s tour at this time also embraced the towns 
 of Newburyport, Lowell, and Salem (Lib. 2:167, 183, and MS. letters of 
 Arnold Buff urn, Oct. 23, 24, 1832). 
 
THOUGHTS 
 
 ON 
 
 AFRICAN COLONIZATION 
 
 OR 
 
 AN IMPARTIAL EXHIBITION 
 
 OF_THE 
 
 DOCTRINES, PRINCIPLES AND PURPOSES 
 
 American <oioui?atCon 
 
 TOGETHER WITH THE 
 
 RESOLUTIONS, ADDRESSES AND REMONSTRANCES 
 
 FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR. 
 
 Out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee. 
 Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good. 
 
 BY WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY GARRISON AND KNAP*. 
 KO. 11, MERCHANTS* HALL. 
 
 1832. 
 
Mr. 27.1 
 
 ANTI-COLONIZATION. 
 
 291 
 
 climate of Africa is salubrious, nor whether the mortality among 
 the emigrants has been excessive, nor whether the colony is in 
 a prosperous condition, nor whether the transportation of our 
 whole colored population can be effected in thirty years or three 
 centuries, nor whether any slaves have been emancipated on 
 condition of banishment j but whether the doctrines and prin 
 ciples of the Society accord with the doctrines and principles of 
 the gospel, whether slaveholders are the just proprietors of 
 their slaves, whether it is not the sacred duty of the nation to 
 abolish the system of slavery now, and to recognize the people 
 of color as brethren and countrymen who have been unjustly 
 treated and covered with unmerited shame. This is the ques 
 tion and the only question. 1 1 
 
 There follow thirty-eight pages of " Introductory Re 
 marks," in which Mr. Garrison defends the sincerity of 
 his opposition to the Society ; tells how he was converted 
 from a favorable opinion of it by examining its reports 
 for himself 5 cites all the specifications he has brought 
 against it in the Liberator and in his i Address to the 
 Free People of Color 7 in 1831; declares his friendliness 
 to voluntary colonization, whether in Liberia or else 
 where, but shows, by a review of the history of Liberia, 
 that the boasted evangelization of Africa has been neg 
 lected that forts and murderous wars, on the one hand, 
 and rum and tobacco, on the other, have formed the basis 
 of propagandism among the natives, while the colony 
 itself is left in intellectual darkness, so that there are 
 " two ignorant and depraved nations to be regenerated 
 instead of one " : , 
 
 " One of these nations is so incorrigibly stupid, or unfathoma- 
 bly deep in pollution, (for such is the argument,) that although 
 surrounded by ten millions of people living under the full blaze 
 of gospel light, and having every desirable facility to elevate 
 a,nd save it, it never can rise until it be removed at least three 
 thousand miles from their vicinage ! and yet it is first to be 
 evangelized in a barbarous land, by a feeble, inadequate pro 
 cess, before it can be qualified to evangelize the other nation ! " l 
 
 l Fifty years later (1881) a friend of colonization and Liberia, after re 
 viewing the deplorable condition of the republic, concludes: " We shall be 
 wise if we accept the condition imposed upon us, and do not persist in 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 1832. 
 
 Thoughts, 
 P. 33- 
 
292 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. 
 
 . 27. 
 
 CHAP. ix. Further extracts will convey the general tenor of the 
 
 !8^ 2 . " Introductory Remarks." After alluding to his deliberate 
 
 espousal of the anti-slavery cause, Mr. Garrison continues : 
 
 Thoughts, " In opposing the American Colonization Society, I have also 
 counted the cost, and as clearly foreseen the formidable oppo 
 sition which will be arrayed against me. Many of the clergy 
 are enlisted in its support : their influence is powerful. Men of 
 wealth and elevated station are among its contributors : wealth 
 and station are almost omnipotent. The press has been 
 seduced into its support : the press is a potent engine. More 
 over, the Society is artfully based upon and defended by popular 
 prejudice: it takes advantage of wicked and preposterous 
 opinions, and hence its success. These things grieve, they can 
 not deter me. Truth is mighty and will prevail. It is able 
 to make falsehood blush, and tear from hypocrisy its mask, 
 and annihilate prejudice, and overthrow persecution, and break 
 every fetter. . . . 
 
 Ibid, p. 2. "In the progress of this discussion I shall have occasion to 
 use very plain and sometimes very severe language. This 
 would be an unpleasant task, did not duty imperiously demand 
 its application. To give offence I am loath, but more to 
 hide or modify the truth. I shall deal with the Society in its 
 collective form as one body and not with individuals. 
 While I shall be necessitated to marshal individual opinions in 
 review, I protest, ab origine, against the supposition that indis 
 criminate censure is intended, or that every friend of the So 
 ciety cherishes similar views. He to whom my reprehension 
 does not apply, will not receive it. It is obviously impossible, 
 in attacking a numerous and multiform combination, to exhibit 
 private dissimilarities, or in every instance to discriminate 
 between the various shades of opinion. It is sufficient that 
 exceptions are made. My warfare is against the AMERICAN 
 COLONIZATION SOCIETY. If I shall identify its general, pre 
 ponderating and clearly developed traits, it must stand or fall 
 as they shall prove benevolent or selfish. . . . 
 
 " The denunciations which I am now hurling against slavery 
 and its abettors, which seem to many so violent and un 
 merited, will be considered moderate, pertinent and just, 
 
 crowding upon the shores of Liberia ship-loads of poor, ignorant, and 
 improvident negro laborers, to die or to degenerate to a state very nearly 
 approaching their original barbarism, in the vain hope that we shall thus 
 evangelize Africa" ( The Liberian Republic as It Is, by George R. 
 Stetson, p. 26. Boston : A. Williams & Co.) 
 
. 27.] 
 
 ANTI- COLONIZATION. 
 
 293 
 
 1832. 
 
 Thoughts, 
 P- 15- 
 
 when this murderous, soul-destroying system shall have been CHAP. IX. 
 overthrown. . . . 
 
 " To measure the propriety of language, we must first examine 
 the character of the system, or the nature of the object, against 
 which it is directed. If we see a person wilfully abusing the 
 goods of an individual, we may reprehend him, but with com 
 parative mildness. If we see him maiming, or in any way 
 maltreating another man s cattle, we may increase the severity 
 of our rebuke. But if we see him violating all the social and 
 sacred relations of life, daily defrauding a number of his 
 fellow-creatures of the fruits of their toil, calling them his 
 property, selling them for money, lacerating their bodies, and 
 ruining their souls, we may use the strongest terms of moral 
 indignation. Nor is plain and vehement denunciation of crime 
 inconsistent with the most benevolent feelings towards the 
 perpetrators of it. We are sustained in these positions by the 
 example of Christ, and the apostles, and the prophets, and the 
 reformers. 
 
 " I should oppose this Society even were its doctrines harm- Ibid., p. 19. 
 less. It imperatively and effectually seals up the lips of a vast 
 number of influential and pious men, who, for fear of giving 
 offence to those slaveholders with whom they associate, and 
 thereby leading to a dissolution of the compact, dare not ex 
 pose the flagrant enormities of the system of slavery, nor 
 denounce the crime of holding human beings in bondage. They 
 dare not lead to the onset against the forces of tyranny ; and if 
 they shrink from the conflict, how shall the victory be won ? I 
 do not mean to aver, that, in their sermons, or addresses, or 
 private conversations, they never allude to the subject of 
 slavery ; for they do so frequently, or at least every Fourth of 
 July. But my complaint is, that they content themselves with 
 representing slavery as an evil, a misfortune, a calamity 
 which has been entailed upon us by former generations, 1 
 and not as an individual CRIME, embracing in its folds robbery, 
 cruelty, oppression and piracy. They do not identify the crimi 
 nals ; they make no direct, pungent, earnest appeal to the con 
 sciences of men-stealers. . . . 
 
 " Singular enough, I have been almost as cruelly aspersed 
 by ministers of the gospel and church-members as by any 
 
 1 " The present generation [at the South] are no more responsible for the 
 existence of slavery than for swamps, pine barrens, or any other physical 
 blemish of soil or local insalubrity" (Harrison Gray Otis, in letter of Oct. 
 17, 1831, cited above, p. 242). 
 
 i. e., the 
 Union. 
 
 Thoughts, 
 p. 9. 
 
294 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 1832. 
 
 P. 40. 
 
 Thoughts, 
 p. 78.- 
 
 Ibid., p. 80. 
 Cf. First 
 Annual Re 
 port N. E. 
 A. S. Society, 
 p. 17. 
 
 other class of men. Unacquainted with me, and ignorant of 
 my sentiments, they have readily believed the accusations of 
 my enemies. The introduction of my name into conversation 
 has elicited from them contemptuous sneers or strong denunci 
 ations. I have a right to complain of this treatment, and I do 
 strongly protest against it as unchristian, hurtful, and ungen 
 erous. To prejudge and condemn an individual, on vague and 
 apocryphal rumors, without listening to his defence or examin 
 ing evidence, is tyranny. Perhaps I am in error perhaps I 
 deserve unqualified condemnation ; but I am at least entitled 
 to a privilege which is granted to the vilest criminals, namely, 
 the privilege of a fair trial. I ask nothing more. To accuse 
 me of heresy, madness, and sedition, is one thing ; to substan 
 tiate the accusation, another." 
 
 The formal arraignment of the Colonization Society is 
 divided in the * Thoughts into ten sections. The first 
 aims " to show, first, the original design of the Society ; 
 secondly, that it is still strictly adhered to ; and lastly, 
 that the Society is solemnly pledged not to interfere with 
 the system of slavery, or in any manner to disturb the 
 repose of the planters." The second section convicts the 
 Society of being the apologist of slavery and slave 
 holders. The third proves that it recognizes slaves as 
 property ; and the fourth, that it actually increases the 
 value of slaves, and adds strength and security to the 
 system. The fifth section denounces it as the enemy of 
 immediate abolition : 
 
 " This, I am aware, in the present corrupt state of public 
 sentiment, will not generally be deemed an objectionable 
 feature ; but I regard it with inexpressible abhorrence and 
 dismay. . . . 
 
 " Immediate abolition does not mean that the slaves shall 
 immediately exercise the right of suffrage, or be eligible to 
 any office, or be emancipated from law, or be free from the 
 benevolent restraints of guardianship. We contend for the 
 immediate personal freedom of the slaves, for their exemption 
 from punishment except where law has been violated, for their 
 employment and reward as free laborers, for their exclusive 
 right to their own bodies and those of their own children, for 
 their instruction and subsequent admission to all the trusts, 
 offices, honors and emoluments of intelligent freemen. . * . . 
 
-ET. 27. J ANTI- COLONIZATION. 295 
 
 "Nor does immediate abolition mean that any compulsory CHAP. IX. 
 power, other than moral, should be used in breaking the fetters l8 ~ 
 of slavery." 
 
 The sixth section contends that the Colonization Society 
 is nourished by fear and selfishness " an irrepressible Thoughts, 
 and agonizing fear of the influence of the free people of * 95 
 color over the slave population," in breeding discontent 
 and insubordination and the instinct of self-preserva 
 tion against " the corroding evil of this numerous caste," ibid., pp. 98, 
 these " alien enemies," "by necessity anything rather 
 than loyal citizens." In section seven the utter expulsion 
 of the blacks, on the pretence of sending the "exiles" 
 back to " their own country," " their native land," is shown 
 to be the aim of the Society, which, nevertheless, has for 
 gotten to make provision for the mulattoes. As " white /&&,/. n 9 . 
 blood in Africa would be as repugnant to Nature as 
 black blood is in this country," their case can only be 
 settled by a resort to phlebotomy. In section eight Mr. ibid., p. 121. 
 Garrison vindicates the character of the free colored 
 population of the North against the disparagement of 
 the Society, declaring it superior to that of equally in 
 digent whites or foreign immigrants. In section nine 
 the Society is accused of denying the possibility of ele 
 vating the blacks in this country. Hereupon, says Mr. 
 Garrison, "The detestation of feeling, the fire of moral /&#.,/. 134, 
 indignation, and the agony of soul which I have felt 
 kindling and swelling within me, in the progress of this 
 review, under this section reach the acme of intensity " ; 
 and he cries out against such unrepublican and un 
 christian sentiments. He concludes his arraignment 
 with the proposition that the Society deceives and mis 
 leads the nation as to its actual achievements in removing 
 the blacks, and the cost thereof, and as to its ability to 
 transport them all in less than thirty years ; while its 
 pretence that only through Liberia, Sierra Leone, and 
 similar colonies can the slave trade be abolished, con 
 ceals the truth that the only way is to break up the 
 market. The number of slaves annually smuggled into 
 
296 WILLIAM LLOYD GABKISON. [^T. 27. 
 
 the South is seven times that actually transported to 
 Thoughts, Africa by the Society in fifteen years. " By letting the 
 system of slavery alone, then, and striving to protect it, 
 the Society is encouraging and perpetuating the foreign 
 slave trade. 7 
 
 All these positions were overwhelmingly sustained by 
 extracts from the Society s organ (the African Reposi 
 tory), its annual reports, and the speeches and writings 
 of its well-known supporters, including, of course, Henry 
 Clay, the open apologist of slavery, but also such men as 
 
 ibid., p. 44. Grerrit Smith, who bore witness that " Our Society has 
 nothing to do directly with the question of slavery 7 ; 
 
 ibid., p. 49. John A. Dix, who equally disclaimed for it any abolition 
 purpose ; W. B. O. Peabody, the Unitarian divine, who 
 
 ibid., p. 62. did not doubt that "the slaves are happier than they 
 could be if set free in this country"; Eliphalet Nott, 
 the Presbyterian President of Union College, who held 
 that the free people of color, having been degraded by 
 
 ibid., p. 143. slavery, were " still further degraded by the mockery of 
 nominal freedom " ; Mathew Carey, 1 whose dictum was : 
 " We may, therefore, fairly conclude the object of imme- 
 
 l Author of Letters on the Colonization Society, and of its Probable 
 Result/ etc. (Philadelphia, 4th ed., June 19, 1832), in which he designates 
 Mr. Garrison as the Society s most formidable antagonist. The two oppo 
 nents had met (Lib. 2: 143) : " We have had a personal interview with Mr. 
 C., and we know that his prejudices against the people of color are active 
 and inveterate. His notions of justice and pleas of expediency are utterly 
 abhorrent to our moral sense. He persisted in saying that the condition of 
 the slaves was better than that of the laboring classes in Great Britain !! 
 an assertion which makes his own countrymen a servile and brutish race, 
 and which any man who knows the difference between black and white 
 should blush to advance." Carey, it will be remembered, was a native of 
 Ireland. Compare Dr. Channing s letter to Miss Aikin of Dec. 29, 1831 (p. 
 113 of Correspondence ) : " But do you know how slaveholders reconcile 
 themselves to their guilt ? . . . Our slaves subsist more comfortably 
 than the populace and peasantry of Europe. ... I acknowledge the 
 sophistry, but mourn that it should have so much foundation." Notice 
 also that Mathew Carey had published in 1796 St. George Tucker s Dis 
 sertation on Slavery ; with a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it in 
 the State of Virginia, bearing this epigraph from Montesquieu : " Slavery 
 not only violates the Laws of Nature and of Civil Society, it also wounds 
 the best forms of government : in a Democracy, where all men are equal, 
 slavery is contrary to the spirit of the Constitution." 
 
JET. 27.] ANTI- COLONIZATION. 297 
 
 diate, universal emancipation wholly unattainable, or, if CHAP. ix. 
 attainable, at too high a price " j and even the " apostle I 8 32 . 
 of peace, 7 William Ladd, who " knew " that immediate Thoughts, 
 emancipation u would be a curse to all parties." These p 
 names manifest the Society s strength among the intel 
 lectual and moral as well as political leaders of public 
 opinion. Moreover : 
 
 " Of the whole number of individuals constituting the officers ibid., Part 
 of the Society, nearly three-fourths, I believe, are the owners of " ? ?6 
 slaves, or interested in slave property ; not one of whom, to my 
 knowledge, has emancipated any of his slaves to be sent to 
 Liberia ! ! The President of the Society (Charles Carroll) owns, 
 I have understood, nearly one thousand slaves ! And yet he is 
 lauded, beyond measure, as a patriot, a philanthropist, and a 
 Christian ! The former President (Judge Bushrod Washington), 
 so far from breaking the fetters of his slaves, actually while 
 holding his office offered a large reward for a runaway female 
 slave, to any person who would secure her by putting her into 
 any jail within the United States ! " 
 
 To complete the effectiveness of his assault, Mr. Gar 
 rison gathered in a second part of his volume the pro 
 testations of the people of color against colonization, 
 proving them to be " as unanimously opposed to a removal ibid. , p. 5. 
 to Africa as the Cherokees from the council-fires and 
 graves of their fathers." Some of these, like the Rich- ibid., p. 9. 
 moiid (Va.) resolutions of January, and the Philadelphia 
 resolutions of January and August, 1817 (with James 
 Forten in the chair), were the earliest possible remon 
 strances against the professed objects of the Society; 
 the rest, from all parts of the country, had been printed 
 in the Liberator, which was naturally charged with creat 
 ing the adverse sentiments for which in fact it merely 
 served as a mouthpiece. " It is my solemn conviction," 
 wrote Mr. Garrison, " that I have not proselyted a dozen 
 individuals ; for the very conclusive reason that no 
 conversions were necessary." 
 
 Such was the scheme of the Thoughts on Colonization/ 
 of which, at the present day, no abstract, however sum 
 mary, could escape being dull. The Society still lives, 
 
298 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 [JET. 27. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 1832. 
 
 Thoughts, 
 P- 38. 
 
 but its existence is hardly known to one in ten thousand 
 of our population, and the pamphlet which unmasked it, 
 paralyzed it, and reduced it to insignificance, has, by its 
 very success, lost a larger measure of its readableness 
 than commonly happens to polemic literature. Its his 
 toric importance, however, can never diminish. If we 
 could imagine in our time a l Thoughts on the Bible 
 Society/ which should, with the same eloquence and 
 cogency, maintain that this organization was the greatest 
 obstacle to science, and one which must be removed at all 
 hazards, we should have some idea of the consternation 
 produced by the Thoughts on Colonization. 7 " This 
 book," its author correctly anticipated, "will doubtless 
 increase the rage of my enemies ; 1 but no torrent of in 
 vective shall successfully whelm it, no sophistry impair its 
 force, no activity destroy its influence, no misrepresen 
 tation defeat its usefulness. I commend it particularly to 
 the candid attention of the two most powerful classes in 
 this country editors of newspapers and the clergy. It 
 is not a light matter for either of them to propagate 
 false doctrines and excite delusive hopes on the sub 
 ject of politics or religion." One 2 to whom the book 
 came as a revelation has described its effect in the follow 
 ing graphic passage : 
 
 " Fifty years ago, it is no exaggeration to say, this nation, in 
 church and state, from President to bootblack I mean the 
 white bootblack was thoroughly pro-slavery. In the Sodom 
 there might have been a Lot or two here and there some pro 
 found thinker who wished justice to be done though the 
 heavens should fall, but he was despondent. It seemed as 
 though nearly the whole business of the press, the pulpit, and 
 
 1 At a meeting of the Massachusetts Colonization Society in Boston, the 
 Rev. William Hague was present "when the great pamphlet of Mr. Gar 
 rison, fresh from the press, was brought in and placed upon the table. . . . 
 The Hon. Alexander H. Everett was thoroughly incensed, and said that 
 the author should be indicted for libel " (Boston Watchman, June 7, 1883). 
 
 2 Elizur Wright, Jr., the first Corresponding Secretary of the American 
 Anti-Slavery Society (Lib. 3:1). The extract is taken from remarks made 
 at a memorial service in honor of Mr. Garrison, held, just after his death, 
 in the church of the Rev. Wm. C. Gannett, at St. Paul, Minn., June 1, 1879. 
 They were afterwards published in the Chicago Unity. 
 
^T. 27.] ANTI-COLONIZATION. 299 
 
 the theological seminary, was to reconcile the people to the CHAP. IX. 
 permanent degradation and slavery of the negro race. The J ^~ 
 church had its negro pew, and caste was as strictly enforced 
 between the African and European complexions as it ever was 
 between Pariah and Brahmin. Biblical scholars justified the 
 slavery of Ham s descendants from the Bible. And, what was 
 worst of all, the humanity and philanthropy which could not 
 otherwise be disposed of, was ingeniously seduced into an Afri 
 can Colonization Society, whereby all slaves who had grown 
 seditious and troublesome to their masters could be trans 
 planted on the pestiferous African Coast. That this wretched 
 and seemingly transparent humbug could have deluded any 
 body, must now seem past belief : but I must with shame con 
 fess the fact that I for one was deluded by it. And that fact 
 would put me in doubt of my own sanity at the time if I did 
 not know that high statesmen, presidents of colleges, able 
 editors, and that most undoubted of firm philanthropists, 
 Gerrit Smith, shared the same delusion. Bible and missionary 
 societies fellowshipped that mean and scurvy device of the 
 kidnapper, in their holy work. It was spoken of as the most 
 glorious of Christian enterprises, had a monthly magazine 
 devoted to itself, and taxed about every pulpit in the land for 
 an annual sermon in its favor. 
 
 " It was early in 1832, I think, 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 with types, his Thoughts on Colonization. His 
 Liberator editorials and this tremendous pamphlet at once 
 struck the thinking minds of the country with wonderment and 
 awe. Old politicians of both parties bit their lips, if they did 
 not gnash their teeth, and, in the absence of any other defence, 
 invoked the mob. It was in vain. The fire was kindled. When 
 such men as the Tappans, Alvan Stewart, Gerrit Smith, Gen 
 eral Fessenden, Theodore D. Weld, N. P. Rogers, President 
 Storrs, Beriah Green, William Goodell, Joshua Leavitt, Amos 
 A. Phelps, dropped the Colonization Society, 1 a moral victory 
 
 l Not all those mentioned by Mr. Wright waited for the publication of 
 the Thoughts to discontinue their support of the Society. See, for 
 Arthur Tappan, ante, p. 261, and particularly Lib. 3 : 55, where Mr. Tappan, 
 after stating that the first thing which shook his " confidence in the 
 Society was the fact that ardent spirits were allowed to be sold at the 
 colony" (compare Niles 1 Register, 47:73), goes on to acknowledge the influ 
 ence of " the arguments of that most distinguished and fearless philanthro 
 pist, W. L. Garrison, in the Liberator," in convincing him of the single 
 
300 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. O^T. 27. 
 
 CHAP. IX. was certain. Hundreds and thousands of men who might never 
 
 jjjTj agree with Mr. Garrison in their mode of action in behalf of 
 
 the slave, were thoroughly aroused to act, each in his own way, 
 
 and they never ceased and never will cease to honor and revere 
 
 the man whose brave words dispelled their day-dreams." 
 
 If Mr. Garrison was right in his belief that the Colo 
 nization Society had lulled the public conscience into a 
 fatal slumber on the subject of slavery, to expose and 
 discredit it was clearly the first step towards emancipa 
 tion. 1 The iniquitous system had concealed itself behind 
 a hypocritic bulwark of charity and piety, to carry which 
 by assault was the instinct of true generalship ; and this 
 assault, conducted for a year and a half in the Liberator, 
 reached in the l Thoughts 7 the climax of weight and de- 
 structiveness. So that, although the debate still raged 
 for years, and though the i Thoughts 7 was promptly 
 u riddled 7 by the reviewers 2 and by the agents and sup- 
 motive of the Society "to get rid of the free colored people." Immedi 
 ately on receiving the Thoughts he wrote to the author (MS. June 30, 
 1832) : "I have read your pamphlet with much satisfaction. ... I wish it 
 could be extensively read, but it will take a long time to get into circulation 
 through the book-stores. If you will circulate 90 copies and send me 
 10, I will pay for the 100, and you may draw on me for the amount. 
 You will send the 90 to whomsoever you think best. A part of them will 
 be [well] placed in the hands of presidents and professors of colleges and 
 seminaries, and in the reading-rooms of those institutions." On the other 
 hand, Gerrit Smith s change was sudden, and not till 1835. (See, in Froth- 
 ingham s Life/ pp. 162-170, and Lib. 6 : 23, 26. ) The list, too, would bear ex 
 tension. For example, the Thoughts determined the life-work of the 
 Rev. James Miller McKim, of Pennsylvania, and secured in him one of the 
 most efficient and judicious advocates of the anti-slavery cause. (See p. 
 656 of Still s Underground Railroad, and pp. 32, 33 of Proceedings of the 
 American Anti-Slavery Society, Third Decade.) Its effect on George 
 Thompson, of England, will be related hereafter. At the time of the 
 appearance of the Thoughts, Mr. Wright was Professor of Mathematics 
 and Natural Philosophy in the Western Reserve College at Hudson, O., 
 and so a colleague of President Storrs and Professor Green (Lib. 3:2). It 
 should be mentioned here that it was owing exclusively to the liberality of 
 Isaac Winslow, of Portland, that Mr. Garrison was enabled to publish his 
 Thoughts (MS. Aug. 20, 1867, to Samuel May, Jr. ) 
 
 1 See, in Lib. 4:29. James Cropper s "The Extinction of the American 
 Colonization Society the First Step to the Abolition of Slavery." 
 
 2 For example, in the African Repository for November, 1832, the Metho 
 dist Magazine and Quarterly Review for January, 1833, and the Quarterly 
 Christian Spectator for March, 1833. The two latter articles were also pub- 
 
JEt. 27.] ANTI-COLONIZATION. 301 
 
 porters of the Society in their addresses, this pamphlet CHAP. ix. 
 marks the first success in the agitation which ended in ^^ 
 the abolition of slavery by civil war. 1 Viewed in this 
 light, and not merely as literature, it might not extrava 
 gantly be ranked as the most important work ever 
 produced in America ; to which Paine s * Common Sense 
 affords the nearest parallel, without (in the nature of the 
 case) approaching it in disinterestedness and moral 
 fervor. The author himself said of it on the eve of a 
 second edition, a year and a half after its appearance : 
 
 u This work has excited extraordinary interest, both in this Lib. 3:207. 
 country and in England. It has probably created more sen 
 sation^ 1 says an able reviewer, than any other pamphlet, except 
 one, ponderous or light, which has issued from the modern 
 press. To say nothing of its secret influence, it has brought 
 many of the best friends of the Colonization Society to avow a 
 suspense of judgment in regard to the merits of the scheme which 
 they had patronized without misgiving for fifteen years ; and 
 it has raised up against it some uncompromising and by no 
 
 lishecl separately ; the last written by the Rev. Leonard Bacon by A. H. 
 Maltby, New Haven. (See Lib. 3 : 27, 39, 43, 201.) "Your Thoughts on 
 Colonization have arrived," writes S. S. Jocelyn to Mr. Garrison, July 12. 
 " Bacon is reading one. Prof. Silliman had read Mr. Tappan s previous to 
 his delivering his colonization address on the 4th. I handed him everything 
 which I thought would moderate his zeal in that cause " (MS.) 
 
 1 " I look upon the overthrow of the Colonization Society as the overthrow 
 of slavery itself they both stand or fall together." So wrote Mr. Gar 
 rison to Henry Benson, July 21, 1832, adding: "Thus far my Thoughts 
 on African Colonization have been noticed by various newspapers and lit 
 erary magazines in terms of high approbation ; and I am gratified to find 
 that they make a powerful impression wherever they are perused." The 
 impression and the favorable comment were not confined to this country. 
 Extracts from the Thoughts were freely made " in the most respectable 
 periodical publications " of England (Lib. 3 : 99). A formal review of it ap 
 peared in the British Eclectic Review, the organ of the Nonconformists, for 
 Feb., 1833, p. 138. The work was eagerly greeted by the English philan 
 thropists who had already begun to unmask and to thwart the Colonization 
 agent, Elliott Cresson. It furnished the basis of Charles Stuart s Preju 
 dice Vincible (Liverpool : printed by Egerton Smith & Co., 1832), reprinted 
 with other matter in a pamphlet published by Garrison & Knapp in 1833, 
 called British Opinions of the American Colonization Society. The pre 
 face to this pamphlet states that some 2750 copies of the Thoughts had 
 been disposed of in nine months. For a British reply, see Dr. Thomas 
 Hodgkin s An Inquiry into the Merits of the American Colonization 
 Society, etc. (London : J. & A. Arch, 1833). 
 
302 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 27. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 l8 ~7 2 
 
 Johnson s 
 
 
 means contemptible enemies. Its potency consists in this, 
 that, discarding every accusation or objection which is urged 
 against that Society by its assailants, it condemns it out of its 
 own mouth; the proofs are in every instance furnished by its 
 managers, by its organ, by its official reports, by its most dis 
 tinguished supporters, and by the concurrent testimony of 
 auxiliary associations. All that sophistry or misrepresentation 
 could effect, to overthrow its integrity, has been attempted in 
 vain. The work, as a whole, stands irrefutable." l 
 
 The practical use of the Thoughts was as an arsenal 
 of facts for the public speakers engaged in exposing the 
 pretensions of the Colonization Society. This task had 
 been the immediate concern of the New-England Anti- 
 Slavery Society, both in its regular and special meetings, 
 and through its president, Arnold Buffum, and other 
 appointed lecturers, who went from town to town deliv 
 ering addresses on the subject of slavery. It was now 
 made comparatively easy, and wherever the Colonization 
 agents moved they were liable to be confronted by irre 
 fragable proofs of the duplicity of their employers. These 
 in their turn were made to realize that the individual 
 opposition of a "fanatical" journalist had been con 
 verted into organized antagonism, all the more formi 
 dable because not denominated an Anti-Colonization, but 
 (the greater including the less) an Anti-Slavery Society. 
 
 l Both the logical and the moral weight of it for the best minds may be 
 inferred from the following extract from a letter of Gen. Samuel Fessenden 
 to Mr. Garrison, dated Portland, Dec. 14, 1832 (MS.) : " Last Monday even 
 ing was our Law-Club meeting, and I had the great satisfaction of hearing 
 Judge Mellen, our Chief Justice, say he had read your Thoughts, was a 
 thorough convert to your views, and was ready to do all in his power to 
 promote them. Mr. Longfellow was present also, and with equal warmth 
 and clearness expressed himself also in favor of your views. This is getting 
 the two first men in the State for talents and influence in benevolent effort. 
 I have no doubt they will head the list of those who will subscribe to form 
 here an anti-slavery society. Mr. Greenleaf, also, will cordially come in, 
 and I need not say he is one of the first [inenj in the State, for his char 
 acter is known." The reference here is to the Hon. Stephen Longfellow, 
 father of the poet, who had been a delegate to the Hartford Convention, and 
 a Representative from Maine in the 18th Congress (1823-25) ; and to Simon 
 Greenleaf, the eminent jurist, shortly to be law professor at the Harvard 
 School, and eventually the successor of Story. 
 
^T. 27.] ANTI- COLONIZATION. 303 
 
 This was all the harder to bear because the Southamp- CHAP. ix. 
 ton insurrection had not produced for the Colonization -^^ 
 Society precisely the fruits which it anticipated. The 
 year opened (amid the gratifying enactment of panic 
 legislation in both sections concerning the colored 
 population, bond and free) with its annual meeting in 
 Washington, at which letters were read from Marshall 
 and Madison, and speeches made by Edward Everett 
 " the same benevolent gentleman who, a few years since, Lib. 2:15; 
 declared on the floor of Congress that, in the event of a ant e^^. 
 negro rebellion at the South, he would promptly put on 
 his knapsack and shoulder his musket to put the slaves 
 down " ; and by the Eev. Leonard Bacon, of New Haven, 
 whose theme was " the strictly ^benevolent character of the 
 Society," and who had already elsewhere publicly pledged 
 the Vermont and Connecticut militia to the same noble 
 mission which Mr. Everett assumed for himself. 1 Clark- 
 son, now almost blind, was reported to have listened with Lib. 2: 23. 
 enthusiastic delight to the details of the Society s opera 
 tions as related by Elliott Cresson, its Quaker travelling 
 agent in England. In April, a memorial purporting to 
 come from its British membership, and supported and 
 forwarded by the same Cresson, asking national aid for 
 the Society, was presented in the House of Representa- Lib. 2:59; 
 tives ; but in this the Society overreached itself. Polk, ter, 42 :1#~ 
 of Tennessee, denounced it as the first foreign effort to z.u?l :6i. 
 intermeddle with the subject of slavery in Congress, and 
 as an act of impertinence ; and its reading was opposed 
 by all the Southern members except General Blair, of 
 South Carolina, who professed entire indifference. " A 
 disposition to tamper with the slave question had been 
 
 iMr. Bacon alluded pointedly to Mr. Garrison as one of those "men 
 whom nature has endowed with such talents as equip a demagogue, and 
 with whom it seems an object worth ambition to lead the free people of 
 color, and to receive the homage of their applause." Mr. Garrison had 
 also his word for Mr. Bacon (Lib. 3 : 201) : "No writer in the United States, 
 no slaveholder in the South, has uttered or published more excusatory, 
 corrupt, and blasphemous sentiments as regards slavery than this indi 
 vidual." Citations follow. 
 
304 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. 
 
 27. 
 
 CHAP. ix. manifested, and he cared not how soon gentlemen played 
 1832. the game out. . . . He could tell gentlemen that 
 when they moved that question seriously, they from the 
 South would meet it elsewhere. It would not be disputed 
 in that House but in the open field, where powder and 
 cannon would be their orators, and their arguments lead 
 and steel." The memorial was withdrawn, and the So 
 ciety found itself willy-nilly in the category of danger 
 ous agitators of what its friends were accustomed to 
 
 Thoughts on style an " important and delicate question," an " interest- 
 
 %3, 45. * ing and fearful subject." On the heels of this unex 
 pected discomfiture, Mr. Garrison flung down his gage, 
 
 #.2:193. which the Society dared not pick up for the space of 
 six months. 
 
 The Liberator, on the other hand, gave every outward 
 sign of prosperity. The last number of the first volume 
 had gathered up, for a parting broadside, all the se 
 lected testimonials, domestic and foreign, against slavery 
 which had been published in weekly instalments during 
 the year. The new volume exhibited an enlargement by 
 nearly two-thirds, with five columns to the page instead 
 of four, and these both broader and longer, but with no 
 change in the subscription price. 1 The pictorial heading 
 remained unaltered, and, probably derived from an Eng 
 lish source, a series of woodcuts illustrating the iniquities 
 of slavery began to be interspersed with the text. One 
 of these represented a kneeling female slave, surmounted 
 by the familiar legend, " Am I not a Woman and a Sis 
 ter ? " and was made the occasion, in the first number, of 
 opening a " Ladies Department" (after the example of 
 the Genius), as likely to enhance the interest of the 
 Liberator, " and give a new impetus to the cause of 
 emancipation." The editor could not believe his coun 
 trywomen to be less philanthropic or less influential 
 than their British sisters, who were heartily engaged in 
 
 l "I think the Liberator one of the handsomest papers I have seen," 
 wrote S. J. May, March 16, 1832, who accordingly closely followed it as a 
 model in founding at that date his Christian Monitor. 
 
 Lib. 2 : 2. 
 
^ET. 27.] ANTI- COLONIZATION. 305 
 
 the effort to abolish slavery in the colonies. To this sub- CHAP. ix. 
 ject he returned later in the following language : !8^>. 
 
 "Two capital errors have extensively prevailed, greatly to Lib. 2:110. 
 the detriment of the cause of abolition. The first is, a prone- 
 ness on the part of the advocates of immediate and universal 
 emancipation to overlook or depreciate the influence of woman 
 in the promotion of this cause ; and the other is, a similar dis 
 position on the part of the females in our land to undervalue 
 their own power, or, through a misconception of duty, to 
 excuse themselves from engaging in the enterprise. These 
 errors, we repeat, are capital, and should no longer be suffered 
 to prevail. The cause of bleeding humanity is always, legiti 
 mately, the cause of WOMAN. Without her powerful assistance, 
 its progress must be slow, difficult, imperfect. 
 
 " A million females, in this country, are recognized and held 
 as property liable to be sold or used for the gratification of 
 the lust or avarice or convenience of unprincipled speculators 
 without the least protection for their chastity cruelly scourged 
 for the most trifling offences and subjected to unseemly and 
 merciless tasks, to severe privations, and to brutish ignorance ! 
 Have these no claims upon the sympathies prayers chari 
 ties exertions of our white countrywomen ? . . . 
 
 " WJwn woman 1 s heart is Needing, 
 
 Shall ivomari s voice be hushed ? " 1 
 
 The most important extraneous feature of the second 
 volume of the Liberator was the republication of Letters Lib. 2: 133- 
 on American Slavery, addressed to Mr. Thomas Rankin, 
 merchant at Middlebrook, Augusta Co., Va., by John 
 Rankin, Pastor of the Presbyterian Churches of Ripley 
 and Strait Creek, Brown County, Ohio/ of which the 
 first edition was published at Ripley, in the latter State, 
 in 1826. 2 Mr. Garrison pronounced them " among the 
 most faithful and thrilling productions we have read on 
 
 1 Not long after this, Oct. 14, 1832, the Boston Female Anti-Slavery 
 Society was founded by twelve ladies ( Right and Wrong in Boston, 1 
 (1836): 4, 9). 
 
 2 The letters themselves appear to have been written in 1824, when their 
 author was about 31 years of age. Following the reprint in the Liberator, 
 an edition in book form was put forth by Garrison & Kiiapp in 1833, and a 
 fifth edition was published by Isaac Knapp as late as 1838. Still another 
 edition bears the imprint of Charles Whipple, Newburyport, 1836. 
 
 VOL. I. 20 
 
306 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 27. 
 
 CHAP. ix. the subject of slavery." They were privately addressed 
 1832. by the writer to his brother, and are full of fraternal 
 concern and tenderness, while unsparing in their exhibi 
 tion of the essentially sinful, unchristian and cruel 
 nature of slavery. Long residence in Tennessee and 
 Kentucky 1 had made him familiar with the system 
 against which his heart revolted. No more forcible 
 argument resting upon common morality, the Scrip 
 tures, and political economy, could have been framed 
 for the time, or perhaps for all time, while some of 
 the well-authenticated instances of slaveholding atrocity 
 could be surpassed only in the dreams of a Nero. 2 
 The l Letters became at once a powerful addition 
 to the weapons of the abolitionists, and never ceased 
 to be cited. Mr. Garrison s knowledge of Mr. Eankin 
 appears to have begun at the time of their repub- 
 lication in the Liberator. It was also the beginning 
 of personal acquaintance and friendship, as witnessed 
 by the following inscription in a copy of his works 
 presented by the former to Mr. Rankin in Cincinnati 
 in 1853 "With the profound regards and loving vene 
 ration of his anti-slavery disciple and humble co-worker 
 in the cause of emancipation." 3 
 
 Lib.i\\,and The i Letters had that " Scriptural pungency" which 
 13 i&to Mr. Garrison found lacking in Evan Lewis s 4 prize 
 July ii, tract on i The Duties of Ministers and Churches of all 
 
 1031, to 
 
 E. Dole. Denominations to avoid the Stain of Slavery, etc., but 
 which so abounded in the Rev. George Bourne s t The 
 Book and Slavery Irreconcilable (1815), to which, next 
 after the Bible itself, Mr. Garrison confessed his indebt 
 edness for his views of the institution. 5 Perhaps no 
 
 1 Rankin was born in Tennessee (Lib. 5 : 69). 
 
 2 Yet one of these, and the most shocking, involved a nephew of Thomas 
 Jefferson. See Letter viii. 
 
 3 See, also, p. 14 of Proceedings of the Am. A.-S. Society at its Third 
 Decade. 
 
 4 Editor of a Quaker anti-slavery journal called the Advocate of Truth. 
 
 5 Like Rankin, Osborn, and other early emancipationists, Bourne had 
 seen slavery face to face (in Virginia). For tributes to his zeal and courage 
 from Garrison and Lundy, see Lib. 2:35, 43, 133 ; 3: 182. 
 
MT. 27.] ANTI- COLONIZATION. 307 
 
 sight was more gratifying to him than that of a minister CHAP. ix. 
 of the gospel appealing to " the Book " against African ^2. 
 bondage. For this he could overlook theological differ 
 ences as great as those which separated him from his 
 Unitarian friend Mr. May, and which are measured by Lib. 2 : 67. 
 his eulogy of a Dissertation on the Subject of Future 
 Punishment, by Oliver Johnson, Editor of the Christian Lib. 2:40. 
 Soldier "a logical, persuasive and solemn treatise, 
 clearly establishing the desperate folly and absurd 
 philosophy of the doctrine of universal salvation." 
 
 Besides his formal discourses to the free people of 
 color, Mr. Garrison addressed to them, on the eve of 
 their Philadelphia National Convention, an editorial 
 article counselling them to continue firm in their resist 
 ance to the Colonization Society, and cheering them with 
 the assurance "I tell you fearlessly and truly that you Lib. 2. . 83. 
 ought rather to rejoice than despond. Your cause is on 
 the advance notwithstanding the sombre aspect of the 
 times, it is, I say, ON THE ADVANCE ! ... It is the 
 purpose of God, I am firmly persuaded, to humble the 
 pride of the American people by rendering your expul 
 sion impracticable, and the necessity for your admission 
 to equal rights imperative." "Be your rallying cry 
 UNION AND OUR COUNTRY ! " By " Union " he, of course, 
 meant harmonious action among the colored people 
 themselves ; not that Union, and less and less every day 
 that Constitution, for which Webster went as they 
 were 1 slave representation and all saying: "It is 
 the original bargain, the compact ; let it stand." At the 
 close of the year his sentiments in regard to the unholy 
 alliance between freedom and slavery were unmistakably 
 expressed in these terms : 
 
 " There is much declamation about the sacredness of the Lib. 2 : 207. 
 compact which was formed between the free and slave States, 
 on the adoption of the Constitution. A sacred compact, for 
 sooth ! We pronounce it the most bloody and heaven-daring 
 
 l " I go for the Constitution as it is, and for the Union as it is " (Second 
 speech on Foot s Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830). 
 
308 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. [M-r. 27. 
 
 CHAP. IX. arrangement ever made by men for the continuance and pro- 
 T jjT 2 tection of a system of the most atrocious villany ever exhibited 
 on earth. Yes we recognize the compact, but with feelings 
 of shame and indignation ; and it will be held in everlasting 
 infamy by 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 unblushing 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 beings in bondage. 
 
 "Who or what were the framers of our Government that 
 they should dare confirm and authorize such high-handed 
 villany such a flagrant robbery of the inalienable rights of 
 man such a glaring violation of all the precepts and injunc 
 tions of the gospel such a savage war upon a sixth part of 
 our whole population 1 ? They were men, like ourselves as 
 fallible, as sinful, as weak, as ourselves. By the infamous 
 bargain which they made between themselves, they virtually 
 dethroned the Most High God, and trampled beneath their 
 feet their own solemn and heaven-attested Declaration, that all 
 men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with 
 certain inalienable rights among which are life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness. They had no lawful power to bind 
 themselves or their posterity for one hour for one moment 
 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 Massachusetts, of New England, 
 and of the twelve free States, persist in maintaining it. A 
 sacred compact ! a sacred compact ! What, then, is wicked 
 and ignominious *? " 
 
 "It is said that if you agitate this question you will divide 
 the Union. Believe it not; but should disunion follow, the 
 fault will not be yours. You must perform your duty, faith 
 fully, fearlessly and promptly, and leave the consequences to 
 God: that duty clearly is, to cease from giving countenance 
 and protection to Southern kidnappers. Let them separate, if 
 they can muster 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 
 
^T. 27.] ANTI- COLONIZATION. 309 
 
 not worth a price like this, and that it is in the highest degree CHAP. IX. 
 criminal for you to continue the present compact. Let the ^ 2 
 pillars thereof fall let the superstructure crumble into dust 
 if it must be upheld by robbery and oppression." 
 
 " The domestic slavery of the Southern States," Mr. 
 Webster had said in the speech already cited, " I leave 
 where I find it, in the hands of their own governments. 
 It is their affair, not mine." Quite otherwise Mr. Gar 
 rison, in the first number of the volume, reaffirming the 
 guilt of slaveholders over and above their inheritance, 
 and the guilt of New Englanders with reference (1) to the 
 maintenance of slavery in the District of Columbia, and 
 (2) to their obligation to suppress slave insurrections, 
 declared : 
 
 "So long as we continue one body a union a nation Lib. 2:1. 
 the compact involves us in the guilt and danger of slavery. 
 . . . What protects the South from instant destruction f 
 OUR PHYSICAL FORCE. Break the chain which binds her to the 
 Union, and the scenes of St. Domingo would be witnessed 
 throughout her borders. She may affect to laugh at this 
 prophecy; but she knows that her security lies in Northern 
 bayonets. 1 Nay, she has repeatedly taunted the free. States 
 with being pledged to protect her. . . . How, then, do we 
 make the inquiry, with affected astonishment, i What have we 
 to do with the guilt of slavery ? " 
 
 This inquiry rested much less heavily with Mr. Garri 
 son s townsmen, especially the respectable and then 
 ruling portion, than this other : " How shall we justify 
 ourselves to our Southern brethren for tolerating the 
 Liberator f " Accordingly, at the opening of the March 
 term of the Municipal Court in Boston, Judge Thacher 
 charged the Grand Jury that it "is an offence against Lib. 2:55. 
 the peace of the Commonwealth, and that it may be 
 prosecuted as a misdemeanor at common law, ... to 
 publish books, pamphlets, or newspapers, designed to be 
 
 l "What madness in the South to look for greater safety in disunion ! It 
 would be worse than jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire. It would 
 be jumping into the fire from a fear of the frying-pan [L e., Northern med 
 dling with slavery] " (Ex-President Madison to Henry Clay, June, 1833, 
 in Colton s Private Correspondence of Clay/ p. 365). 
 
310 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 CHAP. ix. circulated here and in other States of the Union, and 
 jsja. having a direct and necessary tendency to excite in the 
 minds of our own citizens deadly hatred and hostility 
 against their brethren of other States, and to stimulate the 
 slave population there to rise against their masters, and 
 to effect by fire and sword their emancipation." If allowed 
 to be published and circulated freely here, " may not the 
 citizens of those States well imagine that such publica 
 tions are authorized by our laws?" Judge Thacher 
 found the law of libel elastic enough to suit his purpose : 
 
 Lib. 2 : 118. " In that country from which we drew our principles of juris 
 prudence, it is laid down by the highest judicial authority, that 
 every publication which has a tendency to promote public mis 
 chief, whether by causing irritation in the minds of the people 
 that may induce them to commit a breach of the public peace, 
 or whether it be more public and specific, extending to the 
 morals, the religion, or magistracy of the country, is a libel. 
 Any publication which tends to degrade, revile and defame 
 persons in considerable situations of power and dignity in for 
 eign countries, is taken to be and treated as a libel ; and par 
 ticularly where it has a tendency to interrupt the pacific relations 
 between the two countries. If the publication contains a plain 
 and manifest incitement and persuasion addressed to others, to 
 assassinate and destroy the persons of such magistrates, as the 
 tendency is to interrupt the harmony of the two countries, the 
 libel assumes a still more criminal character." 
 
 An extract from this charge was copied into the Lib 
 erator without comment from Mr. Garrison, who some 
 * time afterwards makes a single allusion to it as " absurd 
 
 Lib. 2 : 119 and dangerous," and notices that it " has been hailed with 
 joy by the whole tribe of Southern men-stealers and their 
 insane apologists at the North." " Such doctrines," ex 
 claimed the Milledgeville (Ga.) Journal, " will stand the 
 test of all time." But Mr. Garrison did not underrate 
 their value : they were obsolete as soon as uttered. Pro- 
 
 Lib. 2 : 69. tests were raised against the charge in the Boston Com 
 mercial Gazette, and, after its appearance in full in the 
 quarterly American Jurist, in the newly-founded Boston 
 Atlas; the former writer pointing out that if a mere 
 
^T. 27.] ANTI- COLONIZATION. 311 
 
 tendency, apart from intent, was sufficient to make a CHAP. ix. 
 misdemeanor, the same doctrine was applicable to the ^ 2i 
 tariff discussion and even to the Massachusetts Bill of 
 Rights. The writer in the Atlas, who signed himself 
 " Z. Z.," and was, we are told, a " highly estimable and Lib. 2:118. 
 intelligent member of the bar/ 7 dissected the charge in 
 five well-considered articles, which were successively Li6.s-.n8, 
 reproduced in the Liberator. In conclusion it was shown ^ i^!* 3 
 why the North might lawfully examine the subject of 
 slavery, by which it was affected in so many ways as, in 
 its liability to help put down revolt, its exposure to kid 
 napping, its share in the regulation of the District of 
 Columbia, its right to oppose the admission of slave 
 States, etc. 
 
 Little did Governor Floyd of Virginia, recommending 
 the Legislature in December to protect the sovereignty of 
 the State against publications in Boston, New York and 
 other places " calculated and tending [Judge Thacher s Lib. 2 : 199. 
 word] to inflame the slave population of the United 
 States, and incite them to insurrection"; little did the 
 Colonization Society, dream that the thunderbolts forged 
 against itself had nearly cost the Liberator its life : 
 
 " It was with much delicacy of feeling," writes Mr. Garrison MS. 
 to Robert Purvis, Dec. 10, 1832, " and a strong reluctance, that 
 we addressed our Circular to some of our Philadelphia friends, 
 conscious how much they had done to give stability to the 
 Liberator. But we had but this hard alternative either to 
 suffer the paper to die, or make known the embarrassments 
 into which the publication of our * Thoughts had unavoidably 
 plunged us. The idea of the suppression of the Liberator was 
 to us as dreadful almost as the cutting off a right hand, or 
 plucking out a right eye. How would Southern kidnappers 
 and their apologists shout ! What a prodigious shock would 
 be given to the lively sensibilities of the friends of humanity in 
 every part of the nation! What extensive injury would be 
 done to the abolition cause ! With what exultations would its 
 overthrow be hailed by the Colonization leaders ! 
 
 " I am happy to inform you that the appeal we put forth to 
 our friends will not be in vain. Already we are enabled to 
 assure you that there is no cause for apprehension in regard to 
 
312 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 27. 
 
 CHAP. IX. the continuance of the Liberator. The extraordinary purchase 
 l8 "T 2 of so large a number of copies of our Thoughts in Philadelphia 
 
 Joseph 
 Cassey. 
 
 James 
 Forten. 
 
 MS., Dec. 
 10, 1832. 
 
 as has been ordered by our friends Cassey, Forten, and your 
 self, has given us material assistance; and the response in 
 other places is beginning to come back in a very encouraging 
 manner. The entire edition will probably soon be taken up, 
 the distribution of which, I am confident, will, more than any 
 thing else, put an end to the Colonization mania. You will 
 please to convey to your noble father-in-law, for me and my 
 partner, all that hearts filled with gratitude, and keenly 
 susceptible, may be supposed to utter." l 
 
 Similar details are contained in a letter of the same 
 date addressed to George "W. Benson, of Providence, who, 
 together with his brother and other friends, had in 
 response to the Circular ordered two hundred copies of 
 the < Thoughts : 
 
 " I am sure it will give you true satisfaction to be informed 
 that the prospects of the Liberator, which, three weeks ago, 
 were dark and discouraging, are now bright and cheering ! 
 The appeal which we put forth to our friends, in various places, 
 has been answered in a manner that shows a deep attachment 
 
 for the Liberator. 2 
 
 The distribution of these [remaining] 
 
 1 Two days later, Dec. 12, 1832, Arthur Tappan writes : " What progress 
 is made in the sale of your Remarks ? The free colored people should be 
 urged to effort to relieve you. If you can find purchasers for 900 of those 
 now on hand, I will pay for the remaining 100 of a thousand, but the 900 
 must first be disposed of, as I cannot do this in addition to those I have 
 previously paid for unless the relief is effectual. I shall want a part of the 
 100 for my own distribution, and shall expect that the balance will be dis 
 tributed soon." At the same time he orders two copies of the Liberator to 
 be sent to Lane Seminary and Western Reserve College respectively, at 
 his expense. 
 
 2 This was nowhere more strongly manifested than in Portland. Nathan 
 Winslow writes, Nov. 24, 1832: "I am authorized by thy friends here to 
 say the amount needful shall be forthcoming when wanted. ... I have 
 shown thy circular to several of thy friends, all of whom are zealous in the 
 cause. Thou mayst rank Gen. Fessenden among the first. . . . Thy 
 female friends would forego many of their comforts, rather than the Lib 
 erator should go down." Isaac Winslow s response was equally character 
 istic (Dec. 6) : "Enclosed you have an order on the Bank of the U. S. at 
 one day s sight for $500, dated Dec. 5th, 1832, No. 904, for which amount 
 you may forward me your note when convenient." This note has been 
 preserved, and is endorsed: "4 mo. 11, 1840. Received payment in full 
 of W. L, G. I. Winslow." 
 
.ET. 27.] ANTI-COLONIZATION. 313 
 
 copies [of the Thoughts ] cannot fail to open the eyes of many CHAP. IX. 
 good people, who through ignorance are giving their influence i ~ 
 and money to aid the Colonization Society. The deathlike 
 silence which has reigned among the leaders of the crusade 
 since the appearance of the work, very plainly shows that they 
 are unable to disprove its allegations. Surely six months 
 furnish a space amply sufficient to make a reply ; and I know 
 if they could, by any possibility, put me down, they would do 
 so. The book, then, being a just exposition of Colonization 
 principles, it behooves every lover of truth, every friend of 
 humanity, every disciple of Jesus Christ, to read it carefully, 
 and understand the nature and design of the Colonization 
 Society. You will have seen, by the last Liberator, the weak Lib. 2 : 193. 
 and beggarly manner in which R. R. Gurley attempts to invali 
 date the work. I will not leave him till I have shown that 
 every position he has assumed is utterly untenable." 
 
 A few more extracts from Mr. Garrison s private cor 
 respondence will fitly close the present chapter. In Ms 
 June letter to Mr. Purvis, reference is made to a project 
 partly fulfilled by the subsequent tour along the New 
 England seaboard : 
 
 " It is possible that I may succeed in making arrangements MS. June 
 by and bye to travel through the free States, for the purpose 
 of vindicating the rights of the free people of color, and form 
 ing anti-slavery societies. I am persuaded that I can do more 
 to advance the cause by this method in a few months than by 
 any other for a series of years. I suggested the enterprise to 
 Arthur Tappan and the Rev. Peter Williams, of New York 
 City, and they highly approved of it. The only difficulty is, 
 the procurement of means wherewith to pay my travelling 
 expenses. Mr. Williams said he could be responsible for $100, 
 and I presume Mr. Tappan will be disposed to contribute for 
 the same purpose. Mr. Tappan thought I might do a great 
 deal to promote education among colored children and youth, 
 by addressing the people of color, giving them advice and 
 encouragement, examining their schools, and endeavoring to 
 establish others, &c., &c. Should I go on such a mission, (and 
 I earnestly desire to prosecute it,) I shall aim first at the great 
 cities, and thus have the pleasure of seeing my Philadelphia 
 friends in the course of a few months. I can leave the 
 Liberator in excellent hands." 
 
314 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. lyE-r. 27. 
 
 To Henry Egbert Benson, July 21, 1832 : 
 
 MS. " Start, if you can, an auxiliary Anti- Slavery Society in 
 
 Providence. And why may you not? There are at least 
 friends Brewer, Chace, your brother and yourself, all seeing, 
 thinking, acting alike. You need no more to begin with. Four 
 men may revolutionize the world. Besides, the mere fact that 
 such a society has been formed will help us here in Boston 
 hugely." 
 
 To Samuel J. May, December 4, 1832 : 
 
 MS. " Our cause goes on prosperously. Indeed, when I consider 
 
 the brevity of the period in which we have been engaged, and 
 the nature and number of the obstacles which towered in 
 our path, I am surprised to observe the impression we have 
 made upon the nation. 
 
 " Our coadjutors in England are fighting most manfully, 
 with spiritual weapons, against sin and cruelty. I have just 
 received from them a large bundle of anti-slavery pamphlets, 
 tracts, circulars, &c., the perusal of which is almost too much 
 for my poor nerves. The British abolitionists waste no ammu 
 nition every shot tells they write in earnest they call, as did 
 old John Knox, a fig a fig, and a spade a spade. When I see 
 what they are doing, and read what they write, I blush to 
 think of my own past apathy, and mourn in view of my poverty 
 of thought and language." 
 
 To Robert Purvis, December 10, 1832 : 
 
 MS. u This is my twenty-eighth birthday I 1 I am startled at the 
 
 hurricane speed of time. My life seems to me to have been a 
 blank. The older I grow, the less do I seem to accomplish. 
 Days and weeks vanish like flashes of light upon a sombre sky, 
 and seem to diminish to the duration of moments. I am 
 twenty-eight ! Infancy passed away unheedingly passively j 
 childhood in frolic and sports, in smiles and tears ; boyhood in 
 the school-room, and abroad in the fields, and in venturesome 
 but forbidden excursions upon the river j youth in mechanical 
 toil, assisted by dreams of future happiness and cheered by the 
 phantom Hope; and now what! has it come to this? Yes, 
 now I have struck deep into manhood ! Well, then, manhood 
 shall be my most serviceable stage j and, being so, the happiest 
 of the whole ! " 
 
 l See ante, p. 57. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 PRUDENCE CRANDALL. 1833. 
 
 IN the third week of January, 1833, Mr. Garrison re- CHAP. x. 
 ceived the following letter from a country village 1833. 
 in Windham County, Connecticut : 
 
 Prudence Crandall to W. L. Garrison. 
 
 CANTERBURY, Jan. 18th, 1833. MS. 
 
 MR. GARRISON: I am to you, sir, I presume, an entire 
 stranger, and you are indeed so to me save through the medium 
 of the public print. I am by no means fond of egotism, but the 
 circumstances under which I labor forbid my asking a friend 
 to write for me ; therefore I will tell you who I am, and for 
 what purpose I write. I am, sir, through the blessing of 
 divine Providence, permitted to be the Principal of the Can 
 terbury (Conn.) Female Boarding School. I received a con 
 siderable part of my education at the Friends Boarding School, 
 Providence, R. I. In 1831 I purchased a large dwelling-house l 
 in the centre of this village, and opened the school above 
 mentioned. Since I commenced I have met with all the en 
 couragement I ever anticipated, and now have a nourishing 
 school. 
 
 Now I will tell you why I write you, and the object is this : 
 I wish to know your opinion respecting changing white scholars 
 for colored ones. I have been for some months past determined 
 
 l Sold in consequence of the recent death of its owner, Luther Paine. It 
 stood on the southwest corner of the Norwich and Worcester turnpike, at 
 the crossing of the Hartford and Providence turnpike, and overlooked 
 Canterbury Green. On the opposite (northwest) corner stood the hand 
 some new house of Andrew T. Judson. See p. 1 of the Providence Even 
 ing Bulletin, Dec. 30, 1880, and Vol. 2, p. 490, of Larned s History of 
 Windham County. 
 
 315 
 
316 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [&T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. X. if possible during the remaining part of my life to benefit the 
 1833 people of color. I do not dare tell any one of my neighbors 
 anything about the contemplated change in my school, and I 
 beg of you, sir, that you will not expose it to any one ; for if it 
 was known, I have no reason to expect but it would ruin my 
 present school. Will you be so kind as to write by the next 
 mail and give me your opinion on the subject ; and if you con 
 sider it possible to obtain 20 or 25 young ladies of color to enter 
 this school for the term of one year at the rate of $25 per quar 
 ter, including board, washing, and tuition, I will come to Boston 
 in a few days and make some arrangements about it. I do not 
 suppose that number can be obtained in Boston alone j but 
 from all the large cities in the several States I thought perhaps 
 they might be gathered. 
 
 I must once more beg you not to expose this matter until we 
 see how the case will be determined. 
 
 Yours, with the greatest respect, 
 
 PRUDENCE CRANDALL. 
 
 The response must have been favorable, for ten days 
 later a note was placed in Mr. Garrison s hands, which 
 ran thus : 
 
 Prudence Crandall to W. L. Garrison. 
 MS. BOSTON, January 29th, 1833. 
 
 MR. GARRISON : The lady that wrote you a short time since 
 would inform you that she is now in town, and should be very 
 thankful if you would call at Mr. Barker s Hotel l and see her 
 a few moments this evening at 6 o clock. 
 
 Yours, with the greatest respect, 
 
 P. CRANDALL. 
 
 The nature of this interview may be inferred from a 
 third letter : 
 
 Prudence Crandall to W. L. Garrison. 
 
 MS. . CANTERBURY, February 12th, 1833. 
 
 MR. GARRISON : I can inform you that I had a very pleasant 
 Feb. 2. passage home. Arrived here Saturday evening about 8 o clock j 
 
 l The Marlboro Hotel, 229 Washington Street, kept by Mr. James Barker, 
 from which the Providence stages took their departure. 
 
son. 
 
 ^ET. 28.] PKUDENCE CKANDALL. 317 
 
 saw Mr. Packer 1 on Monday ; told him the object of my visit to CHAP. X. 
 Boston. He said he thought the object to be praiseworthy, j^T 
 but he was very much troubled about the result. He is fearful 
 that I cannot be supplied with scholars at the close of one 
 year, and therefore he thinks I shall injure myself in the 
 undertaking. 
 
 If you have not yet sent on to New York the information you 
 intend, I would thank you if you would do it immediately, for 
 I am expecting to take the next boat for New York 2 and 
 shall be in the city early on Friday morning. I have not the 
 least acquaintance there, but a friend of mine will give me an 
 introductory letter to Mr. Miller, one of the colored ministers 
 in the city. 
 
 The evening after I left Boston I called on Mrs. Hammond, 3 
 who soon collected- some of her friends, among whom were Mr. 
 George [W.] Benson and a brother of his, who appeared to H. E. Ben- 
 possess hearts warmed with fellow-feeling and awake to the 
 cause of humanity. They engaged to do all for me in their 
 power, and I have no doubt they will. 4 Saturday morning, 
 called on Mrs. H. again, and she walked with me to the resi 
 dence of three families of color, with whom I was much pleased. 
 They seemed to feel much for the education of their children, 
 and I think I shall be able to obtain six scholars from Provi 
 dence. When I return from N. Y., I think I shall be able to 
 lay the subject before the public. 
 
 Yours, &c., P. CRANDALL. 
 
 1 Capt. Daniel Packer, one of the board of visitors of Miss Crandall s 
 white school, and a man of great prominence as a manufacturer, a tem 
 perance advocate, and the founder of a Baptist church at Packerville, in 
 which "Miss Crandall was received with her troop of colored girls when the 
 First Church was closed against them"; "they being to occupy the back 
 pews in the gallery near the door " (MS. July 9, 1833, Almira Crandall to 
 G. W. Benson. And see Vol. 2, pp. 488-506, Larned s History of Windham 
 County ). 
 
 2 The service was semi- weekly Tuesdays and Thursdays from Provi 
 dence, Wednesdays and Fridays from New York. 
 
 3 1. e., in Providence. Mrs. H. was the mother of Ann Eliza Hammond, 
 "a fine girl, aged seventeen years," who became one of Miss Crandall s 
 colored pupils, and was made the object of the revival of an obsolete 
 vagrant law, of which the final penalty was to be " whipped on the naked 
 body not exceeding ten stripes" (May s Recollections, p. 51; Lib. 3:78). 
 
 4 "The lady who was at your office last week to see about a school for 
 colored females, passed through here Friday. We had a pleasant interview 
 with her on that evening. She is, I should think, exactly the one for that 
 purpose, and I hope she may meet with perfect success " (MS. Providence, 
 Feb. 8, 1833, Henry E. Benson to W. L. G.) 
 
318 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. OT. 28. 
 
 CHAP. x. Why did Miss Crandall contemplate so revolutionary 
 jsjs. a step, and why did she seek counsel, before all others, 
 of William Lloyd Garrison ? Her own account, given 
 in 1869, is as follows : 
 
 Larned s " The reason for changing my school of white pupils for a 
 County, *Voi. school for colored pupils is as follows : I had a nice colored 
 2, /. 491. gi r l 7 now Mrs. Charles Harris, as help in my family, and her 
 Fruits of intended husband regularly received the Liberator. The girl 
 Colonization- took the paper from the office and loaned it to me. In that the 
 condition of the colored people, both slaves and free, was 
 truthfully portrayed, the double-dealing and manifest decep 
 tion of the Colonization Society were faithfully exposed, and 
 the question of Immediate Emancipation of the millions of 
 slaves in the United States boldly advocated. Having been 
 taught from early childhood the sin of slavery, my sympathies 
 were greatly aroused. Sarah Harris, a respectable young 
 woman and a member of the church (now Mrs. Fairweather, 
 and sister to the before-named intended husband), called often 
 to see her friend Marcia, my family assistant. In some of her 
 calls I ascertained that she wished to attend my school, 1 and 
 board at her own father s house at some little distance from 
 the village. I allowed her to enter as one of my pupils. By 
 this act I gave great offence. The wife of an Episcopal clergy 
 man who lived in the village told me that if I continued that 
 colored girl in my school, it could not be sustained. I replied 
 to her, That it might sink, then, for I should not turn her out ! I 
 very soon ftfund that some of my school would leave not to 
 return if the colored girl was retained. Under these circum 
 stances I made up my mind that if it were possible I would 
 teach colored girls exclusively." 
 
 The first publication of the intended change was made 
 
 #.3:35. in the Liberator of March 2, 1833, when the editor 
 
 announced, " with a rush of pleasurable emotions," the 
 
 insertion of " the advertisement of Miss P. Crandall (a 
 
 l In order to teach her own color (Lib. 3 : 82 ; Fruits of Colonizationism, 
 p. 9). This was as early as September, 1832. Another pupil, Mary Harris, 
 who afterwards became Mrs. Williams, was in 1881 engaged with her hus 
 band in " teaching colored persons, old and young, in Greensburg, La.," 
 their home being in New Orleans, "where their oldest son is teaching, 
 with six teachers under him" (Mrs. Philleo [Miss Crandall], MS. May 5, 
 1881). 
 
-Efc. 28 -l PRUDENCE CBANDALL. 319 
 
 white lady), of Canterbury, Conn., for a High School for CHAP. x. 
 young colored Ladies and Misses. This is, v he con- l8 ~^ 3 . 
 tinued, " a seasonable auxiliary to the contemplated 
 Manual Labor School for Colored Youth. An interview 
 with Miss C. has satisfied us that she richly deserves the 
 patronage and confidence of the people of color; and we 
 doubt not they will give her both. 77 
 
 Already, however, the town of Canterbury had been 
 thrown into an uproar by the news not only that Miss 
 Grand all would not dismiss Sarah Harris, but would 
 practically dismiss her white pupils instead, and make 
 Canterbury the seat of the higher education of "nig 
 gers." " The good people of Canterbury," writes Arnold MS. to 
 Buffum from Providence, on March 4, "I learn, have W L (l 
 had three town meetings last week to devise ways and 
 means to suppress P. CrandalFs school, and I am in 
 formed that the excitement is so great that it would not 
 be safe for me to appear there. George [W.] Benson, how 
 ever, has ventured and gone there on Saturday afternoon 
 last, to see what can be done in the case." Mr. Benson 
 found that Miss Crandall had already been visited by a 
 committee of gentlemen, who represented " that by put- Lib. 3:39. 
 ting her design into execution she would bring disgrace- 
 and ruin upon them all." They " professed to feel a 
 real regard for the colored people, and were perfectly 
 willing they should be educated, provided it could be 
 effected in some other place ! a sentiment," adds Mr. 
 Benson, " you will say, worthy of a true colonizationist." 
 He also learned of the calling of another town meeting 
 for the 9th instant, at which S. J. May, of the adjacent 
 village of Brooklyn, had promised to be present as Miss 
 CrandalTs attorney, 1 and his own services in the same 
 capacity were gladly accepted. They were subsequently 
 reinforced by Arnold Buffum. On the eve of the meet 
 ing, Mr. Garrison wrote from Boston to Mr. Benson : 
 
 iMr. May had first heard of the trouble on Feb. 27 ( Recollections, 
 p. 42). In his autobiographic narrative of the subsequent events he 
 properly figures much more prominently than is possible here. 
 
320 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 W. L. Garrison to George W. Benson. 
 
 MS. BOSTON, March 8, 1833. 
 
 Although distracted with cares, I must seize my pen to 
 express my admiration of your generous and prompt defence 
 of Miss Crandall from her pitiful assailants. In view of their 
 outrageous conduct, my indignation kindles intensely. What 
 will be the result ? If possible, Miss C. must be sustained at all 
 hazards. If we suffer the school to be put down in Canterbury, 
 other places will partake of the panic, and also prevent its in 
 troduction in their vicinity. We may as well, " first as last," 
 meet this prescriptive spirit, and conquer it. We i. e., all true 
 friends of the cause must make this a common concern. The 
 New Haven excitement has furnished a bad precedent a 
 second must not be given, or I know not what we can do to 
 raise up the colored population in a manner which their intel 
 lectual and moral necessities demand. In Boston, we are all 
 excited at the Canterbury affair. Colonizationists are rejoicing, 
 and abolitionists looking sternly. 
 
 The result of the meeting to be held in C. to-morrow will be 
 waited for by us with great anxiety. Our brother May deserves 
 much credit for venturing to expostulate with the conspirators. 
 If any one can make them ashamed of their conduct, he is the 
 man. May the Lord give him courage, wisdom, and success ! 
 
 Lib. 3:42. The result of the meeting was reported to the lib 
 erator of March 16, by Henry E. Benson, in a letter to 
 which Mr. Garrison gave the caption, " Heathenism Out 
 done/ 7 and prefixed a brief comment, saying : " We put 
 the names of the principal disturbers in black letter 
 black as the infamy which will attach to them as long 
 as there exists any recollection of the wrongs of the 
 colored race. To colonize these shameless enemies of 
 their species in some desert country would be a relief and 
 blessing to society. This scandalous excitement is one 
 of the genuine flowers of the colonization garden." The 
 meeting, refusing to allow Messrs. May and Buffum to 
 be heard on Miss Crandall s behalf, on the ground of 
 
 Lib. 3 : 54. their being foreigners and interlopers, voted unanimously 
 their disapprobation of the school, and pledged the town 
 to oppose it at all hazards. 
 
* 
 
 ^T. 28.] PRUDENCE CRANDALL. 321 
 
 The story of this remarkable case cannot be pursued 
 here except in brief. It has been fully related in easily May s Rec- 
 accessible works, and from this point Mr. Garrison s con- pp. 39-72 ; 
 nection with the progress of events ceased from force of Lifeo/A*. 
 circumstances. It will be enough to say that the struggle 
 
 between the modest and heroic young Quaker woman 1 Lamed s 
 
 Windham 
 
 and the town lasted for nearly two years ; that the school County, 
 was opened in April; that attempts were immediately 
 made under the law to frighten the pupils away and to 
 
 fine Miss Crandall for harboring; them : that in May an etc.; 
 
 J ofColoniza- 
 
 act prohibiting private schools for non-resident colored 
 persons, and providing for the expulsion of the latter, 
 
 was procured from the Legislature, amid the greatest ^o^jan. 
 
 rejoicing in Canterbury (even to the ringing of church ** * 8Sl ; 
 
 bells) ; 2 that, under this act, Miss Crandall was in June ncdofa 
 
 arrested and temporarily imprisoned in the county jail, u. s., 
 
 twice tried (August and October), and convicted ; that : jjjj?/ 3 
 
 her case was carried up to the Supreme Court of Errors, 
 
 and her persecutors defeated on a technicality (July, 
 
 1834), and that pending this litigation the most vindictive 
 
 and inhuman measures were taken to isolate the school 
 
 from the countenance and even the physical support of Lib. 3 : 99 , 
 
 the townspeople. The shops and the meeting-house were ^i, 1 }^ " 
 
 closed against teacher and pupils ; 3 carriage in the public 
 
 conveyances was denied them ; physicians would not wait 
 
 upon them ; Miss Crandall s own family and friends were 
 
 forbidden under penalty of heavy fines to visit her ; the 
 
 well was filled with manure, and water from other sources 
 
 refused ; the house itself was smeared with filth, assailed 
 
 with rotten eggs and stones, and finally set on fire. 
 
 1 " Unequalled woman in this servile age," Mr. Garrison calls her, in an 
 acrostic "addressed to her who is the ornament of her sex (Lib.-A7). 
 Miss Crandall was his senior by two years. August 12, 1834, she married 
 the Rev. Calvin Philleo, a Baptist clergyman of Ithaca, N. Y., and removed 
 to Illinois. After his death in 1874 she removed with her brother HezeMah 
 to Southern Kansas. She retains (1885) her vigor of mind and interest in 
 the colored race to a remarkable degree. 
 
 a This act was repealed in May, 1838 (Lib. 8:91). 
 
 3 " Not a shop in the village will sell her a morsel of food " (MS. Aug. 30, 
 1833, Henry Benson to W. L. G.) 
 
 VOL. I. 21 
 
322 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. x.~ Such conduct on the part of a civilized and Christian 
 jsjg. community the most respectable cooperating with the 
 vilest citizens was, after all, faintly described by Mr. 
 Garrison s phrase, "heathenism outdone/ applied, and 
 justly applied, only to the initial proceedings. It was 
 his last comment upon the affair, and very short, but the 
 severity of it touched the Canterbury persecutors to the 
 quick, particularly the five men whose names were 
 printed in black letters the magnates of the little 
 
 MS. Mar. village. "Your remarks in the last Liberator were awfully 
 cutting," writes Henry Benson ; and Miss Crandall her 
 self interposed with a prudential consideration : 
 
 MS. Mar. "Permit me to entreat you to handle the prejudices of the 
 19. l8 33- people of Canterbury with all the mildness possible, as every 
 thing severe tends merely to heighten the flame of malignity 
 amongst them. Soft words turn away wrath, but grievous 
 words stir up anger. 7 Mr. May and many others of your warm 
 hearted friends feel very much on this subject, and it is our 
 opinion that you and the cause will gain many friends in this 
 town and vicinity if you treat the matter with perfect mildness." 
 
 Mr. Garrison was, however, making war on the com 
 mon enemy, and his " harsh language " was still in order. 
 He had also put his finger on the right spot when he 
 declared the Canterbury mania to be " one of the genuine 
 flowers of the colonization garden. 7 1 " Be it so," cried 
 Andrew T. Judson, one of the five, and then or shortly 
 afterwards a life-member of the American Colonization 
 Society, as was also Dr. Andrew Harris, of the same 
 Lib. 3: 107, black-list. 2 " Be it so," said Squire Judson, in an address 
 to the Colonization Society signed by the civil authority 
 and selectmen under date of March 22, 1833. " We 
 appeal to the American Colonization Society, to which 
 our statement is addressed we appeal to every philan 
 thropist, to every Christian we appeal to the enlight- 
 
 1 The phrase was Arnold Buff urn s, in the letter of Mai*ch 4, already 
 cited. 
 
 2 Judson was in July made a local agent of the Windham Co. Colonization 
 Society, and orator for the next meeting. Like him, Harris lived on a 
 corner opposite Miss CrandalTs school. 
 
JET. 28.] PKUDENCE GRAND ALL. 323 
 
 ened citizens of our native State and the friends of our CHAP. x. 
 country ; and in making that appeal we assure them all Z 8^ 3 . 
 that they may rely upon the facts here stated, and we 
 ask them to apply to these facts those wholesome princi 
 ples which we believe are universally cherished in New 
 England, and the issue we will abide." He declared that 
 the " school was to become an auxiliary in the work of 
 immediate abolition," with the Liberator for its mouth 
 piece ; that Miss Crandall had denounced colonization as 
 a fraud ; and that " once open this door, and New Eng 
 land will become the Liberia of America. 7 As town 
 clerk he recorded the vote of the town meeting on April Lib. 3 : 78. 
 1, to petition for a law against the bringing of colored 
 people from other towns and States for any purpose, 
 " and more especially for the purpose of disseminating 
 the principles and doctrines opposed to the benevolent 
 colonization scheme " ; and as one of the committee he 
 drew up the petition. He was, in fact, the soul of the 
 persecution, for which he boldly invoked and secured the 
 complicity of a Society whose hostility to any attempt to 
 raise the condition of the colored people in the land of 
 their nativity was once more shiningly demonstrated. It 
 was his mission, also, in the pursuit of professional and 
 political advancement, to illustrate the malevolence 
 towards Mr. Garrison which now began, on the part of 
 the Colonization managers, to assume a murderous 
 intensity. 1 
 
 In February, the Colonization agent, Danforth, in the 
 midst of a public debate with Arnold Buffum at Lyceum 
 Hall, Salem, taunted Mr. Garrison with not going South 
 to preach to the slaveholders, and, recalling the hand 
 some rewards offered for him, pointed him out in the 
 audience, "with a significant gesture," as "this same #.3:42. 
 William Lloyd Garrison " for whom he himself had been 
 offered $10,000 by an individual. This incentive to kid 
 napping was not a harmless device to throw odium on an 
 adversary. Mr. Amasa Walker reported, at the annual 
 
 l See Mr. Garrison s striking review of this persecution in Lib. 4 : 31. 
 
324 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. I>ET. 28. 
 
 meeting of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society in 
 #.3:54- Boston, that "he had lately heard all abolitionists 
 denounced in State Street as mischievous men, and one 
 had lately said to him that he wished he had the Editor 
 of the Liberator in an iron cage he would send him to 
 the Governor of Georgia, who would know what to do 
 with him." Nor did Danforth s malice end there. In a 
 letter written from Boston under date of March 28, 1833, 
 to Col. William L. Stone, editor of the New York Com 
 mercial Advertiser and chairman of the executive com 
 mittee of the Colonization Society in that city, he used 
 the following still more " significant" language : 
 
 #.3:69. "In the midst of all these successful endeavors [to found 
 Liberia and people it] , there appears a young man within the 
 last two years, of the name of Garrison, whose pen is so ven 
 omous that the laws enacted for the peace of the community 
 and the protection of private character have, in one instance, 
 actually confined him in jail, as they would a lunatic. This 
 man, who, according to his own account, has only since 1830 
 turned against the Colonization cause, in favor of which he 
 delivered his sentiments in public twelve years after the 
 Society was formed ; this man, who is considered such a dis 
 turber of the tranquillity of Southern society 1 that $10,000 
 reward have been offered me for his person, and the 
 most touching appeals as well as ofiicial demands made 
 to us in this region that he should be publicly discounte 
 nanced, and even given up to justice ; who is in fact this 
 moment in danger of being surrendered to the civil authori 
 ties of some one of the Southern States ; this man, in connection 
 with a few like-minded spirits, has been engaged in forming 
 what they call The New-England Anti-Slavery Society, one 
 object of which is, to effect the abolition of slavery in the 
 United States. . . . 
 
 LeviLincoln, " I have conversed freely with the Governor of this Common- 
 1825-33. wealth, and other leading men, on this subject, and they ex 
 press a decided disapprobation of Garrison s course. For a 
 while he tried the effect of his Liberator upon the Governor by 
 
 1 Videlicet, by the publication of the Liberator. Yet another coloniza- 
 tionist, Robert S. Finley, son of the reputed founder of the Society, pre 
 tended at this very time to have circulated the Liberator industriously at 
 the South as the best means of advancing the Society (Lib. 3 : 54). 
 
^ET. 28.] PRUDENCE CKANDALL. 325 
 
 sending it to him. His Excellency, however, did not think it CHAP. X. 
 worth the postage, and ordered it stopped. Garrison is now z ^7 
 preparing to go to England, doubtless to repeat viva voce the 
 defamation of the South and the Colonization Society which 
 has been already sent over in print, and re-echoed in this 
 country as authentic British opinions." 
 
 The sequel will show that this clerical instigation to a 
 forcible detention of Mr. Garrison, if nothing worse, was 
 kept in mind by the colonizationists. The mission to 
 England had been talked of during his tour in Maine the 
 previous year, and hastily concluded upon, but the Lib 
 erator of November 10, 1832, reported its postponement. Lib. 2 : 177. 
 The following correspondence shows the prime conception 
 of it: 
 
 Joseph Cassey 1 to Isaac Knapp, Boston. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, October 16, 1832. MS. 
 
 ESTEEMED FRIEND : It affords me much satisfaction to 
 assure you, in reply to your favors of the 12th inst. and of the 
 26th ult., that your draft for one hundred dollars will be 
 accepted with pleasure. . . . 
 
 As regards your fears that the resolution on the part of the 
 New-England Anti- Slavery Society to establish a manual- "^ 
 labor school might be the means of retarding the progress of 
 the one in contemplation here, the provisional committee, to 
 whom your letter was submitted, agree in the belief that noth 
 ing efficient will be done here for the present, and rejoice in 
 the belief and hope that your efforts will be more immediately 
 successful. We think it a good plan to make an appeal to the 
 benevolent in Europe, but doubt whether it would be advisable 
 to dispatch an agent having the same object in view, so soon 
 after, or perhaps at the same time, the N. E. Anti-Slavery 
 Society s agent might be making collections. 
 
 As we felt unauthorized to move first in this matter, we con 
 cluded it would be best to suggest to the New York committee, Sic. 
 who, having the advantage of consulting with our good and 
 generous patron, Mr. Tappan, would feel more confidence in 
 pursuing any measure that might have his sanction. We have 
 in contemplation to write them and suggest Mr. G. as a suitable W. L. G. 
 
 1 Mr. Cassey, a colored gentleman, was one of the Liberator s most active 
 agents in Philadelphia. 
 
326 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. X. person, without, however, intimating the suggestion as having 
 
 1833 originated with you. Should this step result in furtherance of 
 
 your wishes, I shall sincerely rejoice, for I also feel persuaded 
 
 that our friend could visit that country to great advantage to 
 
 our cause. 
 
 Arnold Buffum to W. L. Garrison, at Portland. 
 MS. BOSTON, 10th mo. 10, 1832. 
 
 MY DEAR GARRISON : We have had considerable conversa 
 tion here relative to sending an Agent to England to collect 
 subscriptions for our proposed School for colored youth, and as 
 far as I can learn there seems to be but one opinion on the 
 subject, and that is that if the means of defraying the expenses 
 can be obtained, it will be best that thou should go immediately 
 to England for that purpose. It really appears to me that it is 
 a most important measure to be immediately adopted. I can 
 entertain no doubt but thou would there meet the most cordial 
 reception, and receive liberal contributions towards this most 
 desirable object. I have consulted several of the most wealthy 
 ^ men in Providence on the subject. They highly approve the 
 measure and will contribute toward its accomplishment. Please 
 get, on thy way to Boston, a few hundred if possible toward 
 the expenses of a voyage to Europe, and come up and sail from 
 New York the first of next month that is my most decided 
 opinion. If the money for the expenses cannot be got else 
 where, I will go to New Bedford and beg hard, and I believe I 
 can get it there. At any rate, I will try as soon as I know thou 
 hast decided to go. 
 
 A colored man now here from Petersburg, Virginia, states 
 that they have there had a missionary society, and that they 
 have been obliged to give it up in consequence of the new 
 laws which prohibit them from meeting, and that they have 
 a fund of $200 which they want to give where it will be used 
 for the benefit of the colored people. He thinks they will give 
 it to us. 
 
 Please to write me immediately in reply. Address to me at 
 Lowell, and oblige thy assured friend, 
 
 Garrison in England will do the cause more good in three 
 months than in twelve in America, by the reception he will 
 there meet, and by his communications through the columns of 
 the Liberator, &c., &c. Excuse the great haste, which almost 
 precludes thought. 
 
^T. 28.] PKUDENCE CKANDALL. 327 
 
 Arnold Buffum to W. L. Garrison, at Neivburyport. CHAP. x. 
 
 ANDOVER, 10th. mo. 23, 1832. l8 33- 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND : Thine of 20th was received last even- MS. 
 ing. . . . 
 
 Here I am now in the hot-bed of Colonizationism ; have 
 been trying all day to get a house to lecture in, this and to 
 morrow evening. The Orthodox minister refuses his house in 
 toto. ... I am now, 4 o clock P. M., treating for the Metho 
 dist meeting-house. . . . 
 
 I intend to go to Newburyport on Thursday of this week, 
 and meet thee there, and we will go to Boston together to 
 make arrangements for thy voyage to England and France, 
 for thou shalt see the good Lafayette. 
 
 I think all the difficulties thou mentions in regard to the 
 School may be easily obviated. I am sure the idea of a farm 
 school is much more acceptable to the public than that of a 
 college. At the same time, when it is established we can make 
 what we please of it that is, we can have a branch located 
 either at the same or another place, where honors may be dis 
 pensed to woolly heads. At all events the plan must go 
 forward. . . . 
 
 Let us do something at Newburyport : do thou give one 
 lecture there and I will give one, and let us see what impression 
 we can make. 
 
 Arnold Buffum to Garrison & Knapp, Boston. 
 
 ANDOVER, 10th mo. 24, 1832. MS. 
 
 I am to deliver a lecture here this evening, and to-morrow 
 morning I go to Newburyport and hope to meet Friend Gar 
 rison there and proceed with him to Boston. ... I got a 
 letter from him at Lowell, saying he proposed to return to 
 Boston this week to prepare for a voyage to Europe, should the 
 means be provided and his friends unitedly think it desirable. 
 I hope and presume there will be but one opinion on the sub 
 ject. It was to consult on that matter that I wished to have had 
 a meeting of the Board of Managers when in Boston, but I 
 consulted all I saw, and heard one uniform favorable opinion. 
 
 The liberator had reached England early in the sum 
 mer of 1831, where it met with a warm welcome, and at 
 once induced a friendly interchange of documents and 
 private correspondence between the abolitionists of the 
 
328 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEEISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. x. mother country and their unexpected allies. The subse- 
 1833. quent formation of a society in the United States for 
 immediate emancipation was still more cheering : " I 
 
 Lib. 3 : 7. did indeed feel it as a cordial to my heart," wrote James 
 Cropper to Arnold Buffum in August, 1832. Meantime 
 Elliott Cresson s activity among the wealthy and philan 
 thropic denomination of which Cropper was so admirable 
 a representative, was practically unchecked, though his 
 
 ciarksons unscru pulousness had been discovered. He lost no time 
 strictures on after his arrival out 1 in visiting Wilberforce. whom he 
 
 Life of Wil- 
 
 berforce, failed to convince of the practicability of transporting 
 forces letter the blacks to Liberia; and the blind Clarkson, whom he 
 
 deceived by the most outrageous fictions in regard to 
 the emancipatory intentions and influence of the Society, 
 Lib. 3 : 189. and committed to a guarded approval of it in terms 
 which nevertheless betrayed the misrepresentations to 
 which the writer had been subjected. Transmitted by 
 Cresson to the home organ, the endorsement was seen to 
 be fatal to the Society s standing at the South, so that 
 to publish it honestly would have been suicidal. It was 
 therefore suppressed, and a garbled version ultimately sub 
 stituted, 2 which compares as follows with the original : 
 
 Clarhson to E. Cresson, African Repository, 
 
 December 1, 1831. November, 1832. 
 
 Lib. 3:178. This Society seems to me to He [Clarkson] considers the 
 
 have two objects in view object of the Society two -fold: 
 
 first, TO ASSIST IN THE first, TO PROMOTE THE 
 
 EMANCIPATION OF ALL VOLUNTARY EMIGRA- 
 
 THE SLAVES NOW IN TION TO AFRICA OF THE 
 
 THE UNITED STATES; COLORED POPULATION 
 
 and, secondly, by sending these OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 
 to Africa, to do away the slave- and second, the suppression of 
 
 trade, and promote civilization the slave-trade, and the civili- 
 
 among the natives there. zation of the African tribes. 
 
 1 In the summer of 1831. (See African Repository for November ; also, 
 Harriet Martineau s Autobiography, 1:149.) 
 
 2 Gurley s explanation of this baseness may be found in Lib. 3 : 119, and 
 should be consulted. 
 
MT. 28.] PRUDENCE GRAND ALL. 329 
 
 The l Thoughts had greatly assisted Cropper and 
 Stuart in baffling the " fit agent of a Society which can Arnold 
 succeed only by stratagem and deception " ; but the rep- ciarksm, 
 resentations of these and other English friends had * tl lsi > 
 doubtless induced the managers of the New-England 
 Anti-Slavery Society to consider their duty in the prem 
 ises. In carrying out, therefore, the resolution of Sep 
 tember 24, already cited, to solicit means abroad for the ^f ^ 2 2 82 
 Manual Labor School, it would clearly be a gain to send 
 some one capable also of confronting Cresson ; and who 
 should be preferred to the author of the Thoughts ? 
 Accordingly, in the first week in March, 1833 
 
 " The Board of Managers of the New-England Anti-Slavery Lib. 3 : 39. 
 Society hereby give notice to the public, that they have ap 
 pointed William Lloyd Garrison as their Agent, and that he 
 will proceed to England as soon as the necessary arrangements 
 can be made, for the purpose of procuring funds to aid in the 
 establishment of the proposed MANUAL LABOR SCHOOL 
 FOR COLORED YOUTH, and of disseminating in that country 
 the truth in relation to American Slavery, and to its ally, the 
 American Colonization Society. 
 
 " The Board are confident that the friends of emancipation 
 will require no apology for this step, and that little need be 
 said to secure their efficient aid in the accomplishment of an 
 object so highly important. The fact is generally known that 
 Elliott Cresson is now in England as an agent for the Coloni 
 zation Society, and that he has procured funds to a considerable 
 amount, by representing that the object of the Society is, to 
 assist in the emancipation of all the slaves now in the United 
 States. It is important that the Philanthropists of that country 
 should be undeceived, and that the real principles and designs 
 of the Colonization Society should be there made known. 
 
 " The Board have the most entire confidence in the success 
 of this Agency. The people of England have long since taken 
 the ground of IMMEDIATE ABOLITION, and their philanthropy 
 and benevolence are too well known to admit a doubt of their 
 readiness to cooperate with us, in the establishment of an insti 
 tution which shall afford to colored youth the means of acquir 
 ing that knowledge of which they have so long been deprived. 
 
 " As the Society has but a small amount of funds, the Board 
 are compelled to call upon the friends of emancipation through- 
 
330 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. X. out the country for aid in effecting this object. And they 
 JJT" hereby invite all those who are disposed to contribute for this 
 object, to do so without delay. . . ." 
 
 To this Mr. Garrison editorially added an announce 
 ment of his purpose to sail in the course pf a few weeks, 
 leaving the Liberator "in the hands of a gentleman [Oliver 
 Johnson] in all respects qualified to make it an interest 
 ing and efficient publication." He returned "his grateful 
 acknowledgments to the Colored Female Religious and 
 Moral Society of Salem, for some valuable presents to 
 him in anticipation of Ms voyage." 1 His preparations 
 for departure were now earnestly begun ; and with mind 
 elated at the prospect of visiting kindred spirits in the 
 Old World, we find him composing his formal farewells, 
 yielding once more (after a whole year s preoccupation) 
 to the inspiration of the poetic muse, 2 and reviving an 
 old friendship in the pursuit of a new. Some Haver- 
 hill young ladies schoolmates at Derry, N. H. styling 
 themselves " Inquirers after Truth," 3 had by their sym 
 pathetic letters caused a lively emotion in an always 
 susceptible bosom ; so much so that, dates considered, an 
 
 1 This was but the beginning of testimonials and contributions from the 
 colored people. Meetings expressive of their esteem and confidence were 
 held, and contributions to the mission fund made in Boston, Philadelphia, 
 New York, Newark, and Brooklyn (Lib. 3 : 47, 59, 74, 83, [95J). The speeches 
 and resolutions testify to the affection felt for Mr. Garrison, and are no 
 ticeably apt in expression. About one-half the sum acknowledged in Lib. 
 3 : 86 ($624.50) was derived from this source. Besides these manifestations 
 of personal interest, the Juvenile Garrison Independent Society presented 
 him with a large and handsomely executed heart-shaped silver medal, 
 suitably inscribed, on the eve of his departure ; and colored gentlemen of 
 Boston and Salem, among whose inscribed names we find that of C. L. 
 Remond, gave him a beautiful silver cup in commemoration of our farewell 
 interview at the hospitable home of Mr. George Putnam." 
 
 2 See the hopeful lyric, "Ye who in bondage pine," bearing date March 
 20, 1833, first printed in the April number of the monthly A bolitionist (p. 64, 
 afterwards in Lib. 3:*56), and sung at the anti-slavery meeting held on the 
 4th of July, 1833, in Boylston Hall, Boston (Lib. 3 : 107). 
 
 3 These were Miss Harriet Minot, afterwards Mrs. Isaac Pitman, of Som- 
 erville, Mass., and a lifelong friend of Mr. Garrison ; Miss Harriott Plum- 
 mer, afterwards Mrs. Charles Bartlett, and mother of the distinguished 
 Gen. William F. Bartlett, of the civil war; and Miss Elizabeth E. Parrott, 
 
 . afterwards Mrs. George Hughes, of Boston. 
 
gsiPW 
 
 
 *>* 
 
^T. 28.] PKUDENCE GRAND ALL. 331 
 
 incidental avowal in the Liberator of March 16 " We Lib. 3 : 43. 
 declare that our heart is neither affected by, nor pledged 
 to, any lady, black or white, bond or free " l was perhaps 
 intended to be read as an advertisement, between the 
 lines. A trip to Haverhill and an address there were the 
 result of the correspondence which ensued : 
 
 W. L. Garrison to "Inquirers after Truth." 
 
 BOSTON, March 4, 1833. MS. 
 
 You excite my curiosity and interest still more by informing 
 me that my dearly beloved Whittier is a friend and townsman 
 of yours. Can we not induce him to devote his brilliant genius 
 more to the advancement of our cause, and kindred enterprises, 
 and less to the creations of romance and fancy, and the dis 
 turbing incidents of political strife ? 
 
 BOSTON, March 18, 1833. MS. 
 
 You think my influence will prevail with my dear Whittier 
 more than yours. I think otherwise. If he has not already 
 blotted my name from the tablet of his memory, it is because 
 his magnanimity is superior to neglect. We have had no cor 
 respondence whatever, for more than a year, with each other ! 
 Does this look like friendship between us 1 And yet I take the 
 blame all to myself. He is not a debtor to me I owe him 
 many letters. My only excuse is an almost unconquerable 
 aversion to pen, ink and paper (as well he knows), and the 
 numerous obligations which rest upon me, growing out of my 
 connection with the cause of emancipation. Pray, secure his 
 forgiveness, and tell him that my love to him is as strong as 
 was that of David to Jonathan. Soon I hope to send him a 
 contrite epistle j and I know he will return a generous pardon. 
 
 W. L. Garrison to Miss Harriet Minot. 
 
 BOSTON, March 19, 1833. MS. 
 
 A thought has just occurred to me. Suppose I should visit 
 Haverhill, previous to my departure for England : is it proba 
 ble that I could obtain a meeting-house in which to address the 
 
 1 His opponents bad charged him with seeking the repeal of the Massachu 
 setts law against intermarriage in order to profit by it in taking a black 
 wife. 
 
WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. 
 
 28. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 1833- 
 
 MS. 
 
 March 30. 
 
 MS. 
 
 inhabitants on the subject of slavery? (probably I should deem 
 it expedient to say nothing derogatory to the Colonization 
 Society.) If I can be sure of a house, I will try to come Sab 
 bath after next. I will consult my friend Whittier, and see 
 what can be done. 
 
 BOSTON, March 26, 1833. 
 
 I have written to Whittier respecting my visit to Haverhill, 
 but have heard nothing from him. Nevertheless, I shall visit 
 your beautiful village on Saturday next, even should no 
 arrangements be made for the delivery of an address. 
 
 BOSTON, April 3, 1833. 
 Although it is midnight, and in a few hours I expect to bid 
 adieu to Boston, yet I cannot consent to woo 
 
 " Tired Nature s sweet restorer, balmy sleep," 
 
 until I express to you very imperfectly, indeed the pleasure 
 which I received from my recent visit to Haverhill. Beautiful 
 village ! it has almost stolen my heart. . . . 
 
 During my brief sojourn in H., my spirit was as elastic as the 
 breeze, and, like the lark, soared steadily upward to the gates 
 of heaven, carolling its notes of joy. How invigorating was 
 the atmosphere ! how bright the sun ! how cheerful each field 
 and hill ! how magnificent the landscape ! What have I not 
 lost by a residence in this " populous solitude" this city of 
 bustle, dust and bricks ! 
 
 But, pleasant as it is to behold the face of Nature, it has no 
 beauty like the countenance of a beloved friend. Sweet is the 
 song of birds, but sweeter the voices of those we love. To see 
 my dear Whittier once more, full of health and manly beauty, 
 was pleasurable indeed. 
 
 It would, perhaps, be difficult to find equally rapturous 
 praise of a New England landscape in March from a 
 Ante, p. 34. runaway apprentice revisiting the scene of his mis 
 directed training. Mr. Whittier, it should be said, had 
 abated nothing of his friendship, having already in his 
 portfolio a poetical tribute to Mr. Garrison which he 
 withheld from print till after their interview. He secured 
 the church for the Sunday discourse, and though 
 
 "Too quiet seemed the man to ride the winged Hippogriff 
 Reform," 
 
JET. 28.] PRUDENCE CKANDALL. 333 
 
 his anti-slavery earnestness was soon after publicly testi 
 fied by a pamphlet issued in June, entitled, Justice and Lib. 3 : 99. 
 Expediency; or, Slavery considered with a view to its 
 rightful Remedy, Abolition. 7 The news of this weighty 
 accession to the cause Mr. Garrison heard with rejoicing 
 while in England. 
 
 Leave-taking began at the quarterly meeting of the 
 New-England Anti-Slavery Society held March 25 in the 
 Hall of the House of Representatives, at which Mr. Gar 
 rison offered a resolution declaring the Colonization 
 Society a hindrance to the progress of emancipation, and 
 made a speech in support of this view. No better state 
 ment of the contrary aims of the two organizations could 
 be desired than that involved in his valedictory : 
 
 " Brethren Whether I shall ever again have an opportunity Lib. 3:51. 
 to address you, He who holds the winds in his fists and the seas 
 in the hollow of his hands, alone can tell. Whatever may be 
 the event with me, see to it that you grow not weary in well 
 doing. The command rests upon you to i plead the cause of the 
 poor and needy fulfil it in the letter and the spirit. Suffer no 
 discouragement to depress, no obstacle to hinder, no persecu 
 tion to deter, no power to awe, no opposition to defeat you 
 in your great and glorious enterprise. Your principles, if 
 cherished and vindicated, cannot fail to procure for you a 
 splendid triumph. Remember that He who is for you is 
 greater than they who are against you and that this is a 
 cause in which one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten 
 thousand to flight. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do 
 right ? Shall not his soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? 
 1 The needy shall not always be forgotten the expectation of 
 the poor shall not perish forever. 
 
 " While the Colonization Society is striving hard to suppress 
 inquiry and discussion on the subject of slavery, be sure your 
 selves to agitate it on all suitable occasions. While that Society 
 is endeavoring to cover up the bloody abominations of the foul 
 system, fail not to hold up those abominations to the gaze of 
 the people until their hearts shall sicken, and rivers of re 
 pentant tears wash away the pollutions of the land. While that 
 Society is constantly alleviating the pressure of guilt upon the 
 consciences of the planters, pile upon those consciences moun 
 tains, and cut away the props. 1 While that Society is consulting 
 
334 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. X. the convenience, selfishness, prejudice and cruelty of the op- 
 I ~ pressor, do you consult nothing but truth and duty. While that 
 Society is demanding the banishment of the slaves as the price 
 of freedom, do you contend for their freedom and education at 
 home. While that Society is urging a slow, imperceptible, in 
 definite emancipation, do you insist upon immediate restitution. 
 While that Society is persuading the people of the free States 
 that they have no right to meddle with the slave system, do you 
 show the people that they are constitutionally involved in the 
 guilt and danger of slavery that, consequently, they are bound 
 to revise and alter that Cpnstitution, and release themselves from 
 their present bloody responsibility. While that Society is main 
 taining that here the colored population must be forever use 
 less, degraded and miserable, do you rebuke the spirit of pride 
 and prejudice, and encourage that population to aspire after 
 knowledge and to hope for better days. While that Society is 
 aiming to cast upon the shores of Africa large masses of igno 
 rance and depravity for the relief of this country and the 
 Christianization of that continent, do you pray that none but en 
 lightened and Christian missionaries may be sent thither on 
 errands of mercy. And while you feel and express the strongest 
 moral indignation, in view of the conduct of Southern oppres 
 sors, be angry, and sin not cherish nothing but the most 
 ardent love for their temporal and eternal interests, for their 
 bodies and souls. Be actuated by a holy zeal and boldness, but 
 repudiate animal passion and all malignity." 
 
 In conclusion, the speaker pointed out the wonderful 
 progress of the anti-slavery movement, just culminating 
 across the water in the impending freedom of the 800,000 
 slaves in the British West Indies, within six years after 
 the doctrine of immediate emancipation had been em 
 braced by British philanthropists. 
 
 On the 2d of April a farewell meeting was held at the 
 Belknap-Street Church, when Mr. Garrison read an ad 
 dress prepared for his colored friends, and subsequently 
 repeated to them in many cities. 1 He is sad at parting, 
 
 l It was finally printed as a pamphlet in New York. It had other than 
 black readers. Frederick A. Hinton, of Philadelphia, wrote to Isaac 
 Knapp, July 12, 1833 (MS.) : " I met to-day in the street Charles J. Inger- 
 soll, Esq., a gentleman of great distinction, who stopped me and told me 
 that he had just read Garrison s Address, and that he (Mr. I.) is entirely 
 with G. in every respect, and his brother, J. E. Ingersoll, Esq., President 
 
JET. 28.] 
 
 PKUDENCE GRAND ALL. 
 
 335 
 
 perhaps for the last time, from those to whom he owes so 
 much. Yet both abroad and at home there are clearing 
 skies and signs of great promise the repentance of 
 Great Britain, the heroism of the abolitionists. " If ever 
 there was a cause which established the disinterested 
 ness and integrity of its supporters, yours is that cause." 
 The national attention has been fixed on slavery. " What 
 has created the mighty discussion which has taken, or is 
 taking, place in almost every debating society or lyceum 
 throughout the Union, and which cannot cease till the 
 cause of it, SLAVERY, is overthrown? 7 The truth has 
 found a prominent medium in the Liberator, which shall 
 not go down while body and mind endure. Admit its 
 incendiary character : it is a rising sun. 
 
 " But the Liberator is said to be destructive in its character 
 and tendency. That charge, also, I admit is true. It is put- 
 ting whole magazines of truth under the slave system, and I 
 trust in God will blow it into countless fragments, so that not 
 the remnant of a whip or chain can be found in all the South, 
 and so that upon its ruins may be erected the beautiful temple 
 of freedom. I will not waste my strength in foolishly endeavor 
 ing to beat down this great Bastile with a feather. I will not 
 commence at the roof, and throw off its tiles by piecemeal. I 
 am for adopting a more summary method of demolishing it. I 
 am for digging under its foundations, and springing a mine 
 that shall not leave one stone upon another. I leave coloniza- 
 tionists to pick up the leaves which are annually shed by the 
 Bohon Upas of our land, with the vain hope of exterminating 
 it j but as for myself, I choose rather to assail its trunk with the 
 axe of justice, and strike with all my nerve such blows as shall 
 cause this great poison-tree of lust and blood, and of all 
 abominable and heartless iniquity, to fall before it; and law 
 and love, and (jrod and man, to shout victory over its ruin. 
 
 " But the Liberator uses very hard language, and calls a 
 great many bad names, and is very harsh and abusive. Pre 
 cious cant, indeed ! And what has been so efficacious as this 
 
 of the Select Council, is also. This is not to be mentioned out of confi 
 dence." Both these gentlemen, sons of Jared Ingersoll, were eminent 
 lawyers, and afterwards represented their State in Congress ; the former 
 as a Democrat, the latter as a Whig. Joseph Reed Ingersoll was appointed 
 Minister to England by President Fillmore. 
 
 CHAP. x. 
 
 Address 
 
 pfee People 
 of Color, 
 
 33 
 
336 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 28. 
 
 1833- 
 
 Address 
 
 Free People 
 of Color, 
 
 CHAP. x. hard language ? Now, I am satisfied that its strength of 
 denunciation bears no proportion to the enormous guilt of the 
 slave system. The English language is lamentably weak and 
 deficient in regard to this matter. I wish its epithets were 
 heavier I wish it would not break so easily I wish I could 
 denounce slavery, and all its abettors, in terms equal to then- 
 infamy. But, shame to tell ! I can apply to him who steals the 
 liberties of hundreds of his fellow-creatures, and lacerates 
 their bodies, and plunders them of all their hard earnings, only 
 the same epithet that is applied by all to a man who steals a 
 shilling in this community. I call the slaveholder a thief 
 because he steals human beings, and reduces them to the 
 condition of brutes ; and I am thought to be very abusive ! I 
 call the man a thief who takes my handkerchief from my 
 pocket ; and all the people shout, * Right ! right ! so he is ! and 
 the court seizes him and throws him into prison. Wonderful 
 consistency! . . . 
 
 " How, then, ought I to feel, and speak, and write, in view 
 of a system which is red with innocent blood, drawn from the 
 . . bodies of millions of my countrymen by the scourge of brutal 
 
 p. 12. 3 " drivers ; which is full of all uncleanness and licentiousness ; 
 which destroys the life of the soul ; and which is too hor 
 rible for the mind to imagine, or the pen to declare ? How 
 ought I to feel and speak ? As a man ! as a patriot ! as a 
 philanthropist ! as a Christian ! My soul should be, as it is, on 
 fire. I should thunder I should lighten. I should blow the 
 trumpet of alarm, long and loud. I should use just such lan 
 guage as is most descriptive of the crime. I should imitate 
 the example of Christ^who, when he had to do with people of 
 like manners, called them sharply by their proper names 
 such as, an adulterous and perverse generation, a brood of 
 vipers, hypocrites, children of the devil who could not escape 
 the damnation of hell. . . . No ! no ! I never will dilute or 
 modify my language against slavery against the plunderers 
 of my fellow-men against American kidnappers. They shall 
 have my honest opinions of their conduct." 
 
 He appeals to them against the charge that he is 
 inciting them to revenge against the whites, whereas he 
 urges their mutual improvement through association. 1 
 
 l In a note to the Address at this point, Mr. Garrison records the gratify 
 ing fact that immediately at the close of its delivery in Boston, on his 
 recommendation that his hearers should form a temperance society, 114 
 
-ET. 28.] PRUDENCE CRANDALL. 337 
 
 He has been accused of unduly exciting their hopes, but CHAP. x. 
 the Colonization Society is already smitten and totter- ^33. 
 ing. He describes the nature of his mission to England, 
 " at the unanimous request of the Managers of the New- 
 England Anti-Slavery Society, and satisfied in my own 
 mind, after great consideration, that the finger of Provi 
 dence points out the way." His principal object is to 
 assist in raising $50,000 for the National Manual Labor 
 School, by invoking the cooperation of wealthy philan 
 thropists. Another is to head off Elliott Cresson, u who 
 has been long in the country, and has succeeded in 
 duping the British people out of large sums of money to 
 promote the objects of the brazen handmaid of slavery." 
 
 "Another important object I have in view is, to establish a Address 
 regular correspondence between the abolitionists of England pf&People 
 and those of this country, and to secure a union of sentiment of Color, 
 and action. Much useful information may be obtained, and ^. 2 i. 33 
 many valuable anti-slavery tracts and publications collected 
 for distribution among us. We deem it important to learn, 
 precisely, the methods adopted by the friends of abolition in 
 England, in operating upon public sentiment 5 upon what prin 
 ciples, and by what regulations, their anti-slavery societies are 
 conducted; in what manner female influence has been so 
 widely secured, and so powerfully exerted against slavery ; 
 and, in short, to gather up all those facts, and obtain all those 
 instructions, in relation to this great cause which can in any 
 degree assist us in destroying the monster OPPRESSION, and 
 placing your whole race upon a footing of equality with the 
 rest of the world." 
 
 The Address, whose opening was figurative and florid, 
 well suited to a colored audience, closed with exhorta 
 tions to moral behavior during his absence, and to faith 
 in the God of Israel in Egypt. 
 
 On Friday, April 5, Mr. Garrison set out from Boston. 
 His progress up to his embarkation will be best described 
 in extracts from his private correspondence, as the Lib- 
 males and females subscribed, and when he left the city 150 had agreed to 
 abstain from liquor. " Such acts as these, brethren, give me strength and 
 boldness in your cause." 
 
 VOL. I. 22 
 
338 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 28. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 1833- 
 
 erator contained but few particulars. It was announced 
 that he could be addressed in care of William Goodell at 
 New York : 
 
 Henry E. Benson to Isaac Knapp. 
 
 MS. PROVIDENCE, April 9, 1833. 
 
 We had a very short but delightful visit from Mr. Garrison 
 last week, though for the life of me I could not help feeling 
 sorrowful on reflecting he was about to leave us for so long a 
 Aprils- period. On Friday evening he delivered a most excellent 
 address before a large and highly respectable audience of our 
 colored inhabitants, in which he took an affecting leave of them 
 all. After the meeting, the poor creatures wept and sobbed 
 like children they gathered round him anxious to express 
 then* gratitude for what he had done for them, and tell him 
 how well they loved him. . . . 
 
 On Saturday morning your partner and my brother started 
 for Brooklyn, from whence he probably departed on Monday 
 for Hartford. . . . 
 
 P. S. My brother has returned ; says our friend delivered a 
 highly satisfactory address in Mr. May s meeting-house on Sun 
 day evening, and has removed a mountain of prejudice. After 
 April 8. he left Brooklyn Monday noon, a sheriff came up from Canter 
 bury with a writ. Do not know whether they proceeded to 
 Hartford after him, or not ; brother said he could not ascertain. 
 Believe they are going to take him up for the heading put to 
 the letter of March 12th, respecting the town meeting, on the 
 ground that it is libellous. My father says he will see that he 
 has bonds (if necessary) to any amount required. 1 Miss Cran- 
 dall was at Brooklyn, and is in excellent spirits. 
 
 W. L. Garrison to Miss Harriet Minot. 
 
 MS. HARTFORD, April 9, 1833. 
 
 April 2. On Tuesday evening last I bade farewell to my colored friends 
 
 of Boston, in a public address, and on Friday evening to the 
 
 people of color in Providence. On both occasions the highest 
 
 interest and most intense feeling were felt and exhibited by the 
 
 1 George Benson wrote to his son George, April 11: "I cannot conceive 
 what was their object unless to embarrass and retard his [Garrison s] 
 journey." 
 
28.] 
 
 PRUDENCE CRANDALL. 
 
 339 
 
 audience. They wept freely they clustered around me in 
 throngs, each one eager to receive the pressure of my hand and 
 implore Heaven s choicest blessings upon my head. You can 
 not imagine the scene, and my pen is wholly inadequate to 
 describe it. As I stood before them, and reflected it might be 
 the last time I should behold them on earth, ... I could 
 not but feel a strong depression of mind. . . . It is the 
 lowness of their estate, in the estimation of the world, which 
 exalts them in my eyes. It is the distance which separates 
 them from the blessings and privileges of society, which brings 
 them so closely to my affections. 1 It is the unmerited scorn, 
 reproach and persecution of their persons, by those whose com 
 plexion is colored like my own, that command for them my 
 sympathy and respect. It is the fewness of their friends, and 
 the great number of their enemies, that induce me to stand 
 forth in their defence, and enable me, I trust, to exhibit to the 
 world the purity of my motives. . . 
 
 On Sabbath evening, I delivered an address to a large and 
 attentive audience of white people in Brooklyn, where I have 
 long been regarded as a terrible monster. I am happy to learn 
 that the effects of the address are most salutary. 
 
 This evening, I bid farewell to the colored inhabitants of 
 Hartford, in their meeting-house. 
 
 To-morrow I start for New Haven, in which place I shall 
 stay two or three days, in order to have my portrait taken and 
 engraved upon steel. This I do reluctantly ; but my friends 
 are imperious, and I must gratify them. This sticking up one s 
 face in print-shops, to be the " observed of all observers," is 
 hardly consistent with genuine modesty, but I can in no other 
 way get rid of the importunities of those who would pluck out 
 their eyes to give me. 
 
 Rev. Simeon 8. Jocelyn to W. L. Garrison, in Boston. 
 
 NEW HAVEN, March 29, 1833. 
 
 I am desirous to have you sit to my brother for a portrait 
 before you leave for England. I suppose you will have but 
 little time for such a purpose, but if you can be here but one or 
 two days he can get the likeness and finish the painting after 
 wards. He is now painting a portrait of Ashmun 2 for the 
 
 1 " Aux plus de she rite s le plus d amour." 
 
 2 Jehudi Ashmun, the militant agent of the American Colonization 
 Society, who went out to Liberia in 1822. He died, after his return, Aug. 
 25, 1828. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 1833- 
 
 April 7- 
 
 April 9. 
 
 April 10. 
 
 MS. 
 
340 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 28. 
 
 CHAP. X. Colonization Society, which is to be engraved. It is my design 
 Z Z" 3 to engrave yours whilst you are in England, and publish the 
 print. I have long thought that your friends and foes would 
 view your portrait with interest; and as the Lord has been 
 pleased to give you a head bearing none of the destructive dis 
 position which opposers ascribe to you, it may not be amiss to 
 lead them by a view of the outward man to a more favorable 
 examination of your principles. I am confident that this is the 
 effect where your face is seen, and why not where its imitation 
 should be viewed ? I hope, for the pleasure of your friends, at 
 all events, that you will consent to spend a day or two here in 
 the way proposed. Besides, as my brother is acquainted in 
 London, and with one of the principal an ti- slavery men, 
 William Allen, you may perhaps spend your time with him to 
 advantage. I am anxious to see you on various accounts. . . . 
 I hope you will get back as soon as is consistent. We shall 
 have a rough time, probably, before the year is out. The 
 struggle will be great, no doubt, bat God will redeem the cap 
 tives. . . . We are all determined to sustain Miss Crandall 
 if there is law in the land enough to protect her. She is a 
 noble soul. . . . Miss C. has no doubt more praying friends 
 in the United States drawn to her by her persecutions than the 
 whole number of the population of Canterbury. . . . Should 
 not some course be taken for publishing another edition of 
 your Thoughts previous to your return ? 
 
 at the close. 
 
 W. L. Garrison to Isaac Knapp. 
 
 MS. The NEW HAVEN, April 11, 1833. 
 
 According to appointment, I addressed our colored friends in 
 Providence on Friday evening last ; and although they had but 
 a short notice, they gave me a large audience. At the close of 
 the address, they voluntarily made a collection in aid of my 
 mission, which, with the contributions of some white friends, 
 amounted to the handsome sum of thirty dollars. In addition 
 to this, the colored " Mutual Relief Society " gave $15.00, at the 
 hands of their Treasurer, Ichabod Northup. The colored " Fe 
 male Literary Society " also presented me $6.00, and the colored 
 " Female Tract Society " $4.00 making, in all, $55.00 ! All 
 this was given, too, without any application being made to them. 
 April 6. On Saturday, friend G. W. Benson took me to Brooklyn in a 
 chaise, where I tarried until Monday, under the hospitable roof 
 of his parents. My excellent brother May was delighted to see 
 
. 28.] 
 
 PRUDENCE CRANDALL. 
 
 341 
 
 me, and my pleasure was equally great in taking him by the 
 hand. I did not expect to deliver an address in B., but could 
 not easily avoid a compliance with the wishes of my friends. 
 Accordingly, I occupied Mr. May s pulpit on Sabbath evening 
 last. . . . 
 
 Miss Crandall, having obtained information that I was to hold 
 forth, came up from Canterbury with her sister (a beautiful 
 girl, by the way). She is a wonderful woman, as undaunted 
 as if she had the whole world on her side. She has opened her 
 school, and is resolved to persevere. I wish brother Johnson 
 to state this fact, particularly, in the next Liberator, and urge 
 all those who intend to send their children thither, to do so 
 without delay. 
 
 The stage for Hartford on Monday morning neglected to call 
 for me ; and half an hour had elapsed, after its departure, be 
 fore I was aware of the fact. As time was precious, I took a 
 common wagon, and followed on in pursuit, and at the end of 
 the seventh mile overtook the stage. I was in a wretched plight, 
 covered over with mud, and wet for it rained heavily. I ar 
 rived in Hartford late that evening, and the next morning 
 thought of starting for New Haven ; but, at the urgent solicita 
 tions of the colored friends, I gave them an address in the 
 evening in their church. They collected four dollars. On 
 Wednesday morning, I took the stage for New Haven. On 
 passing through Middletown, I saw the Rev. J. C. Beman and 
 a few other colored friends, and it was with as much difficulty 
 as reluctance I tore myself from their company. I was disap 
 pointed in not seeing friend Jocelyn in New Haven, as he had 
 gone to New York ; but his brother gave me a welcome, and 
 commenced upon my portrait. To-day noon (Friday) I start 
 for New York, but shall pass on to Philadelphia without delay. 
 I must return to New Haven again to address the colored peo 
 ple, and have my portrait completed. Friend Robert B. Hall 
 has been very attentive. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, April 17, 1833. 
 
 This letter was begun in New Haven, and must now be com 
 pleted in this city. No doubt you are all scolding about me 
 heartily. I arrived here on Saturday, and found friend Sharp - 
 less and his family in good health. Last evening, I gave an 
 address to the colored people. The audience was pretty large, 
 but the colored Philadelphians, as a body, do not evince that 
 interest and warmth of attachment which characterize my 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 1833- 
 
 April 7. 
 
 Almira 
 Crandall. 
 
 Oliver John 
 son. 
 
 April 8. 
 
 April 9. 
 
 April 10. 
 
 S. S. Joce- 
 lyn. 
 
 April 12. 
 
 April 13. 
 
342 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 . 28. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 1833- 
 
 April ig. 
 April 22. 
 
 Geo. Bourne. 
 
 S. S. Joce- 
 lyn. 
 
 Boston friends nor is it to be expected, as I have associated 
 with scarcely a dozen of their number. I have not, as yet, 
 made any call upon them for pecuniary assistance in aid of 
 my mission, but shall consult to-day or to-morrow with friends 
 Forten, Cassey, Hinton, Purvis, etc. I am glad to find that the 
 mission meets with a general approval. At the request of Mr. 
 Purvis, I have been sitting for my portrait, and the artist 
 (Brewster) * has succeeded pretty well. On Friday morning, I 
 start for New York, where I shall tarry until Monday morning, 
 and then go to New Haven, in company with the Rev. Mr. 
 Bourne. I shall sail in the packet for Liverpool for May 1st, 
 provided the necessary funds be raised and my enemies do not 
 throw any hindrances in my path. 
 
 I saw brother Jocelyn in New York. He showed me a letter 
 which he had just received from Miss Crandall, in which she 
 stated that I had not left Brooklyn more than half an hour be 
 fore a sheriff from Canterbury drove up to the door of Mr. 
 Benson at full speed, having five writs against me from Andrew 
 T. Judson and company; and finding that I had gone, he 
 pursued after me for several miles, but had to give up the chase. 
 No doubt the Colonization party will resort to some base meas 
 ures to prevent, if possible, my departure for England. . . . 
 
 I wish the Board of Managers to give me a letter of intro 
 duction to James Cropper. 
 
 W. L. Garrison to Miss Harriet Minot. 
 
 MS. PHILADELPHIA, April 22, 1833. 
 
 April 19. On Friday afternoon I arrived in New York from this city, 
 and had the pleasure of receiving your favor of the 9th inst. I 
 was immediately told that the enemies of the abolition cause 
 had formed a conspiracy to seize my body by legal writs on 
 some false pretences, with the sole intention to convey me 
 South and deliver me up to the authorities of Georgia, or, in 
 other words, to abduct and destroy me. The agent who was to 
 carry this murderous design into operation, had been in New 
 York several days, waiting my appearance. As a packet was 
 to sail the next day for Liverpool from Philadelphia, my 
 
 1 Edmund Brewster, uncle of the eminent lawyer (President Arthur s 
 Attorney-General) Benjamin H. Brewster. The painting, less than life- 
 size, has been lost sight of, but copies of a lithograph made from it by the 
 artist himself are still preserved. This print is by no means flattering to 
 the subject of it, and was regarded at the time as a failure. 
 
. 28.] 
 
 PKUDENCE CKANDALL. 
 
 343 
 
 friends advised me to start early the next morning for this 
 city, in the steamboat, hoping I might arrive in season to take 
 passage therein, and thus baffle the vigilance of the enemy 
 but the ship sailed in the morning, and I did not get here till 
 the afternoon ; consequently, I failed to accomplish my pur 
 pose. My only alternative, therefore, is, to return again to 
 New York to-morrow evening, and stealthily get away, if 
 possible, in the Liverpool packet 1 that sails the next morning. 
 Probably I shall not start in the ship, but go down the river in 
 a pilot-boat and overtake her. 
 
 My friends are full of apprehension and disquietude ; but I 
 cannot know fear. I feel that it is impossible for danger to awe 
 me. I tremble at nothing but my own delinquencies, as one 
 who is bound to be perfect, even as my heavenly Father is 
 perfect. 
 
 The second trip from New York to Philadelphia was, 
 perhaps, made by the usual route, namely, by steamboat 
 to Amboy, cars to Bordentown, N. J., and steamboat 
 again to Philadelphia. The return was by another, with 
 a view to eluding possible pursuit. Robert Purvis, act 
 ing on the suggestion of Lewis Tappan, drove Mr. Gar 
 rison with a fast horse to Trenton, some thirty miles, in 
 three hours. Before reaching this place an incident 
 occurred more full of peril than the machinations of kid 
 nappers and colonizationists. A passing steamboat on 
 the Delaware excited Mr. Garrison s curiosity to witness 
 the pretty spectacle from a nearer point than the river 
 road. Mr. Purvis accordingly turned his horse to the 
 bank, where the view was unobstructed, but when driven 
 away the jaded animal refused to go forward and began 
 to back. Realizing the danger, Mr. Purvis jumped from 
 the carriage, but Mr. Garrison sat in apparent indiffer 
 ence (probably the helplessness he always felt when 
 behind an unruly horse) until roused by the sharp ap 
 peal of his friend " Sir, if you do not get out instantly 
 you will be killed" when he, too, made a timely escape, 
 the horse being stopped just on the brink. 2 
 
 1 Probably the Canada (see Abdy s Journal of a Residence in the U. S., 
 London, 1835, 1:1-14). 
 
 2 Related by Mr. Purvis in 1881. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 1833- 
 
 April 20. 
 April 23. 
 
344 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [Mi. 28. 
 
 CHAP. x. From New York Mr. Garrison proceeded once more to 
 X 8j 3> New Haven, to renew his sittings to Nathaniel Jocelyn, 1 
 which lasted three days. During this time he was kept 
 shut up by the artist in a room adjoining the studio, so 
 arranged that in case of an attempt to seize him he 
 could make a safe exit. Without such precautions, in a 
 city swarming with colonizationists and where his per 
 son was known to many, it would have been foolhardy 
 to venture within reach of the truculent Judson, whom 
 he may well have passed on the way thither. " I hope," 
 wrote Almira Crandall to Henry Benson, from Canter- 
 MS. bury, on April 30, a that our friend Garrison will be 
 enabled to escape the fury of his pursuers. Our anxieties 
 for him were very great at the time Judson went to New 
 York, as we expected his business was to take Mr. G." 
 Despite this and all other dangers, the time was con 
 sumed without molestation until the packet was ready 
 to be boarded. 
 
 W. L. Garrison to Miss Harriet Minot. 
 
 MS. BELOW THE HARBOR OF NEW YORK, 
 
 May 1, 1833. 
 
 I am now fairly embarked for Liverpool, on board the ship 
 Hibernia, Captain Maxwell. We lie about ten miles below 
 the city, at anchor; and here we must remain twenty-four 
 hours. . . . 
 
 1 Originally an engraver, and one of the founders of the National Bank 
 Note Co. Afterwards he devoted himself to painting, and quickly achieved 
 distinction by his portraiture. He died Jan. 13, 1881, not long surviving 
 his brother, who died August 17, 1879, and with whose anti-slavery senti 
 ments and endeavors he was in the fullest sympathy. The circumstance 
 of Mr. Garrison s concealment was related by him in August, 1879. The 
 steel engraving was published in the spring of 1834. On April 23, Mr. 
 Garrison expressed himself in regard to it as follows to G. W. Benson : "I 
 have just received my portrait as engraved by my dear friend Jocelyn, and 
 am sorry to say that all who have seen it agree with me in the opinion that 
 it is a total failure. I am truly surprised that, familiar as he is with my 
 features, he has erred so widely in his attempt to delineate them. On his 
 account, too, I am sorry, for he will fail to make such a sale of the picture 
 as will remunerate him for his labor at least, I presume this will be the 
 fact " (MS. ) The plate was afterwards retouched, but still left too much to 
 be desired. 
 
JET. 28.] 
 
 PRUDENCE CBANDALL. 
 
 345 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 1833- 
 
 April 30. 
 
 Since the transmission of my last letter, I have been journey 
 ing from place to place, rather for the purpose of defeating the 
 designs of my enemies, than from choice. I expected to have 
 sailed in the packet of the 24th ult., but applied too late, as 
 every berth had been previously engaged. I do not now 
 regret the detention, as it enabled the artist at New Haven to 
 complete my portrait j and I think he has succeeded in making 
 a very tolerable likeness. To be sure, those who imagine that 
 I am a monster, on seeing it will doubt or deny its accuracy, 
 seeing no horns about the head j but my friends, I think, will 
 recognize it easily. . . . 
 
 Last evening I had a large audience of colored persons in 
 the Methodist African Church in New York, who came to hear 
 my farewell address. Alas, that the value of my labors in 
 their behalf bears so small a proportion to their unbounded 
 gratitude and love ! Mr. Finley, the General Agent of the 
 Colonization Society, was present, and witnessed a tremendous 
 assault upon his darling scheme. 
 
 The pursuit was not given over till the last moment. 
 " About two and a half hours after friend Garrison 
 went on board the ship," reports Arnold Buffum, who Lib. 3:75. 
 had gone to New York to see him off, " inquiry was 
 made for him by a lad from a lawyer s office, from 
 which we conclude that the distinguished gentlemen of 
 Canterbury were in pursuit of him ; but they happened 
 to be a little too late." 1 Before the winds themselves 
 abandoned their opposition, Mr. Garrison addressed a 
 farewell letter to William Goodell, for publication in his 
 Moral Daily Advertiser, embracing " a few poetical lines Lib. 3 : 75. 
 which have been composed in great haste," a sonnet, 
 namely, beginning 
 
 " Unto the winds and waves I now commit 
 My body, subject to the will of Heaven," 
 
 and the testamentary injunction : " The grand object 
 
 l " Prior to sailing from New York, I was watched and hunted, day after 
 day, in that city, in order that the writ might be served xipon me ; but my 
 old friend, Arthur Tappan, took me into an upper chamber in the house of 
 a friend, where I was safely kept, under lock and key, until the vessel 
 sailed which conveyed me to England" (Speech of W. L. G., at the 20th 
 anniversary of the Boston Mob, p. 11 ; also, Lib. 25: 173). 
 
346 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^ET. 28. 
 
 CHAP. x. now to be aimed at is the formation of a National Anti- 
 I sJ 3 . Slavery Society, after which auxiliary associations may 
 be multiplied without difficulty." One such association 
 he found hesitating to form itself in New York City, on 
 account of a hostile and lawless public sentiment. It 
 must be organized, he said, and his words gave the 
 needed resolution. 1 For the national organization, not 
 only his inspiration but his presence was deemed indis 
 pensable. 
 
 So, all adieus uttered, every duty discharged, and every 
 care removed, 2 the special agent of the New-England 
 Anti-Slavery Society sailed out of the harbor of New 
 York on the second day of May, 1833. 3 A young man, not 
 yet twenty-eight ; without means or social standing or a 
 numerous following; despised, hated, hunted with a 
 price upon his head ; armed only with the blessings of 
 an outcast race and the credentials of an insignificant 
 body of "fanatics," was to present himself before the 
 honorable, powerful, and world-famous advocates of 
 British emancipation before Clarkson and Wilberf orce 
 and Macaulay and Buxton in the midst of their par 
 liamentary triumph, and before the British public, 
 in opposition to* a society which, with all its lying 
 pretences, could truthfully say of itself through its 
 emissary, Cresson, that it had the support of the wealth, 
 the respectability and the piety of the American people. 
 If ever a sense of personal littleness and deficiency was 
 natural, it was here. But on the other hand the task was 
 less formidable than that which the youth was leaving 
 behind him ; the potency of the truth was the same on 
 both sides of the Atlantic j already acquaintances and 
 
 1 Belated by William Green in 1880. 
 
 2 The accommodation of a letter of credit was effected through Arthur 
 Tappan (MS. March 22, 1833). 
 
 3 "As soon as he had sailed, a cross-fire of abuse was opened by the 
 morning and evening papers upon him and all connected with him, 
 the fanatic Garrison and his crazy coadjutors ree choed through the 
 columns of the journals, which were thus, by exciting discussion, giving 
 activity to the cause they were trying to smother " (Abdy s Journal of a 
 Residence, 1:15). 
 
^BT. 28.] PRUDENCE CBANDALL. 347 
 
 introductions had been prepared for him ; and the expec- CHAP. x. 
 tation of meeting the abolition apostles whose names he ^^ 
 spoke only with reverence, and whose example he strove 
 to imitate, with their coadjutors of all ranks and 
 degrees, could only have had an exhilarating effect on 
 his imagination. All difference of station, fortune, and 
 training vanished in the equality which the anti-slavery 
 cause gave to its promoters everywhere, and left no room 
 for anything but a manly self-confidence and a manly 
 ambition for recognition in the cause. To these reasons 
 for buoyancy of feeling at starting, must be added Mr. 
 Garrison s discovery that his affections were at last cap 
 tivated. A new image haunted and consoled him amid 
 the physical discomforts of the voyage. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 FIRST MISSION TO ENGLAND. 1833. 
 
 CHAP. XL fT^HE passage was a reasonably short one, of twenty 
 1833. J_ days, but " inexpressibly wearisome both to flesh 
 
 Lib. 3 : 107. and spirit," for Mr. Garrison was seasick within sight of 
 Sandy Hook, leading all his fellow-passengers, and for 
 the first week was unable to take food. He arrived out 
 at Liverpool on May 22, and found the daily press filled 
 
 ^.3:110, with the absorbing topic of the hour abolition in the 
 colonies. It was universally conceded that slavery had 
 received its death-blow since Lord Stanley s introduction 
 of the ministerial measure in the House of Commons on 
 May 14. Petitions were crowding in upon Parliament 
 from all parts, including some monster ones signed by the 
 women of Great Britain. Debate had been adjourned 
 to May 30, and the friends of the bill, in their anxiety to 
 insure its passage, accepted the*features of apprenticeship 
 and compensation, which made it seem to Mr. Garrison 
 a go-between plan, worthy rather to be denounced than 
 seconded. However, it was clear that he was unexpect 
 edly to witness the closing scenes of the greatest moral 
 struggle of modern times, and he hastened to present 
 himself at the home of James Cropper. But Cropper, 
 like a true soldier, was on the battle-field, having charged 
 his sons to receive his American guest, which they did 
 
 zd Annual with great cordiality, introducing him " to several worthy 
 s F r friends, of both sexes," all of whom hailed his visit " as 
 / 3 2 - singularly providential. 7 Some four days were spent in 
 the city, of which Mr. Garrison gives his impressions in 
 a manuscript fragment dated May 27, 1833 : 
 
28.] 
 
 FIKST ENGLISH MISSION. 
 
 349 
 
 The population of Liverpool, including its suburbs, is CHAP. XI. 
 
 about as large as that of New York. I have had but a cursory 
 view of the place, and shall therefore avoid entering into the 
 minute in my descriptions. Let this suffice : it is bustling, 
 prosperous, and great. I would not, however, choose it as a 
 place of residence. It wears strictly a commercial aspect ; and 
 you well know there is nothing of trade or barter in my dis 
 position. Indeed, nothing surprises me so much on approach 
 ing Boston, after a short exile from it, (and I am always in 
 exile when absent,) as a glimpse at its shipping j for I gene 
 rally feel as little inclined to visit its wharves as to make a 
 pilgrimage to Mecca. My instinct and taste prefer hills and 
 valleys, and trees and flowers, to bales and boxes of merchan 
 dize j and tiny cataracts and gentle streams, to sublime water 
 spouts and the great ocean. Hence, another place for me than 
 Liverpool ; and such a place I could easily find, in almost any 
 direction, within a few miles of it that is to say, if I were 
 friendly to colonization. My excellent friend James Cropper 
 has a delightful retreat, called Dingle Bank, which nature and 
 art have embellished in the most attractive manner. This 
 great and good man is now in London, but there has been no 
 lack of hospitality toward me on the part of those whom he has 
 left behind. I have also been very kindly entertained by 
 James Riley, a worthy and much respected member of the So 
 ciety of Friends. My obligations to Thomas Thorneley, Esq., 
 and Dr. Hancock, (the former, late the Parliamentary candi 
 date of the friends of emancipation, and the latter, a consistent 
 advocate of the cause of Peace,) likewise deserve a public 
 acknowledgment." 
 
 Proceeding to London, to lay his credentials before 
 the Anti-Slavery Society, and to secure its advice and 
 cooperation, Mr. Garrison " took a seat in one of the 
 railroad cars 77 his first experience " and was almost 
 too impetuously conveyed to Manchester, 77 where he tar 
 ried only for a few hours, going thence by coach to the 
 11 august abode of the congregated humanity of the 
 world. 77 The Report proceeds : 
 
 " As in duty bound, both by my instructions and my obliga 
 tions of gratitude, I immediately called upon James Cropper, 
 in Finsbury Circus, at whose hands I experienced the utmost 
 hospitality and kindness, and from whose lips I received con- 
 
 1833- 
 
 zd Annual 
 
 Report N.E. 
 
 A. S. S., 
 
 P-3S- 
 
 Ibid. 
 
350 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. [^Ex. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XI. gratulations upon my arrival at the very crisis of the anti- 
 !{jJ 3 _ slavery cause in England. He informed me that a large 
 number of delegates, from various anti-slavery societies in the 
 kingdom, were then in London, vigilantly watching the prog 
 ress of the Abolition Bill through Parliament ; that they took 
 breakfast together every morning at the Guildhall Coffee 
 House, and from thence adjourned to the anti-slavery rooms 
 at No. 18, Aldermanbury, for the purpose of devising plans 
 and discussing propositions for the accomplishment of their 
 grand design ; and that if I would attend, he would give me a 
 general introduction. 
 
 " My heart was full of gratitude to him for his kindness, and 
 to God for ordering events in a manner so highly auspicious. 
 Accordingly, I was prompt in my attendance at the Coffee 
 House the next morning. About sixty delegates were present, 
 most of whom were members of the Society of Friends.* After 
 the reading of a portion of the Scriptures, breakfast was served 
 up, at the close of which Mr. Cropper rose and begged leave to 
 introduce to the company William Lloyd Garrison, the Agent 
 of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society, from America. He 
 then briefly stated the object of my mission, and expressed a 
 hope that I would be permitted, at a suitable opportunity, to 
 lay my purposes more fully before them. This request was 
 afterwards readily granted. They individually gave me a 
 generous welcome, and evinced a deep interest to learn the 
 state of public opinion in the United States in relation to the 
 subject of slavery and the merits of the American Colonization 
 Society." 
 
 A further glimpse of the conferences at Aldermanbury 
 is given in a letter to the Board of Managers, dated Lon 
 don, June 20, 1833 : 
 
 "*It is remarkable that while the Friends in England have been the 
 courageous pioneers, the undaunted standard-bearers, in the anti-slavery 
 conflict, and have liberally expended their wealth, and given their time and 
 talents, to achieve a victory more splendid than any yet recorded in the 
 pages of history, those in this country [United States], as a body, seem to 
 have degenerated from their parent-stock, to have measurably lost their 
 primitive spirit on the subject of slavery, and to have become ensnared by 
 wicked prejudices, and by a cruel scheme to banish our colored population 
 from their native to a foreign and barbarous land. There are many noble 
 exceptions to this remark ; and I am confident that ere long the example of 
 the Friends in England will stimulate the great mass of those who reside 
 in this country to go and do likewise. " 
 
JET. 28.] FIRST ENGLISH MISSION. 351 
 
 " Some of the debates have been highly piquant, talented and Lib. 3 : 139. 
 eloquent all of them pregnant with interest. Among the 
 speakers are Lord Sumeld, Buxton, Macaulay, 1 Cropper, Ste 
 phen, Gurney and Thompson. Perfect unanimity of sentiment 
 as to the wisest course to be pursued is not to be expected in 
 so large a body ; but whatever differences exist in regard to 
 the Government plan, all are agreed upon these two funda 
 mental points namely, that the right of property in the slaves 
 shall instantly cease, and that, whatever relief or compensa 
 tion may be granted to the planters, no part of it shall be paid 
 by the slaves. " 
 
 With Buxton Mr. Garrison had had a curious experi 
 ence : 
 
 " On arriving in London I received a polite invitation by letter London 
 from Mr. Buxton to take breakfast with him. Presenting myself ^ / Q tt 
 at the appointed time, when my name was announced, instead P- 3 8 - 
 of coming forward promptly to take me by the hand, he scru 
 tinized me from head to foot, and then inquired, somewhat 
 dubiously, Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Garrison, of 
 Boston, in the United States "? Yes, sir, I replied, I am he ; 
 and I am here in accordance with your invitation. Lifting up 
 his hands he exclaimed, l Why, my dear sir, I thought you were 
 a black man ! And I have consequently invited this company of 
 ladies and gentlemen to be present to welcome Mr. Garrison, 
 the black advocate of emancipation from the United States of 
 America ! I have often said that that is the only compliment 
 I have ever had paid to me that I care to remember, or to tell 
 of ! For Mr. Buxton had somehow or other supposed that no 
 white American could plead for those in bondage as I had 
 done, and therefore I must be black ! " 
 
 u The worthy successor of Wilberforce, our esteemed 
 friend and coadjutor, Thomas Fowell Buxton," had this 
 picture drawn of Mm by his guest on his return to 
 America : 
 
 "Buxton has sufficient fleshly timber to make two or three Lib. 6:7. 
 Wilberforces. He is six feet and a half in height, though rather 
 slender than robust. What a formidable leader of the anti- 
 slavery cause in appearance ! We always felt delighted to see 
 him rise in his seat in Parliament to address the House, for his 
 
 l Zachary Macaulay, father of the historian. 
 
352 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 28. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 1833- 
 
 Lib 3 : 139, 
 
 and zd Ann. 
 
 ReportN.E. 
 
 A. S. S., 
 
 p. 48. 
 
 2d Ann. Re 
 port N. E, 
 A. S. S., 
 p. 36. 
 
 towering form literally caused his pro-slavery opponents to 
 * hide their diminished heads. He is a very good speaker, but 
 not an orator : his manner is dignified, sincere, and conciliat 
 ing, and his language without pretence. But he has hardly 
 decision, energy, and boldness enough for a leader. His be 
 nevolent desires for the emancipation of the colonial slaves led 
 him to accede to a sordid compromise with the planters, and he 
 advocated the proposition to remunerate these enemies of the 
 human race, and to buy up wholesale robbery and oppression, 
 not on the ground of justice but o expediency. This was done 
 in opposition to the remonstrances of the great body of English 
 abolitionists, and it furnishes a dangerous precedent in the 
 overthrow of established iniquity and crime throughout the 
 world. The results of the bargain do not [January, 1836] reach 
 Mr. Buxton s anticipations. . . . Still, aside from this false 
 step, Mr. Buxton deserves universal admiration and gratitude 
 for his long-continued, able and disinterested efforts, amidst 
 severe ridicule and malignant opposition, to break every yoke 
 and set the oppressed free." 
 
 The prevailing excitement over West India emancipa 
 tion was unfavorable to the project of obtaining aid for 
 the Manual Labor School ; and by the advice of his English 
 friends, Mr. Garrison practically put aside the leading 
 object of his mission. There remained the exposure of 
 Cresson, who, chancing to be in London, was disagree 
 ably surprised by the tender of the following challenge : 
 
 To Mr. Elliott Cresson, Agent of the American 
 Colonization Society : 
 
 SIR I affirm that the American Colonization Society, of 
 which you are an Agent, is utterly corrupt and prescriptive in 
 its principles j that its tendency is to embarrass the freedom and 
 diminish the happiness of the colored population of the United 
 States ; and, consequently, that you are abusing the confidence 
 and generosity of the philanthropists of Great Britain. As an 
 American citizen, and the accredited Agent of the New-Eng 
 land Anti- Slavery Society, I invite you to meet me in public 
 debate in this city, to discuss the following Propositions : 
 
 1. The American Colonization Society was conceived, per 
 fected, and is principally managed, by those who retain a 
 portion of their own countrymen as slaves and property. 
 
. 28.] 
 
 FIKST ENGLISH MISSION. 
 
 353 
 
 2. Its avowed and exclusive object is the colonization of the CHAP. XI. 
 free people of color, in Africa, or some other place. t jjT 
 
 3. It is the active, inveterate, uncompromising enemy of 
 immediate abolition, and deprecates the liberation of the slaves 
 except on condition of their being simultaneously transported 
 to Africa. 
 
 4. It maintains that possessors of slaves, in the Southern 
 States, are not such from choice but necessity ; and that, of 
 course, they are not, under present circumstances, blameworthy 
 for holding millions of human beings in servile bondage. 
 
 5. Its tendency is, to increase the value of the slaves, to con 
 firm the power of the oppressors, and to injure the free colored 
 population, by whom it is held in abhorrence, wherever they 
 possess liberty of speech and the means of intelligence. 
 
 6. It is influenced by fear, selfishness and prejudice, and 
 neither calls for any change of conduct on the part of the 
 nation, nor has in itself any principle of reform. 
 
 7. Its mode of civilizing and Christianizing Africa is pre 
 posterous and cruel, and calculated rather to retard than 
 promote the moral and spiritual improvement of her benighted 
 children. 
 
 These charges, Sir, are grave and vital. I dare you to attempt 
 their refutation. Let them be taken up in their present order, 
 and each discussed and decided upon separately. And may 
 God prosper the right ! 
 
 Yours, &c., WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 18, Addle-Street, Aldermaribury, June 4, 1833. 
 
 This letter had been entrusted by the writer to his 
 esteemed friend Joseph Phillips, and was duly "presented 
 to Mr. Cresson, who, in the most offensive manner, 
 refused to receive it from Mr. Phillips. It was then 
 tendered him by Mr. William Horsenail, of Dover, but he 
 declined taking it, stating that arrangements had been 
 made with Dr. Hodgkin and Joseph T. Price for an in 
 terview with me. Afterwards it was presented a third 
 time by Mr. Jeremiah Barrett, and again rejected. Mr. 
 Cresson was finally induced to receive it from the hands 
 of Mr. Phillips, in the presence of Messrs. J. T. Price and 
 Emanuel Cooper." His answer simply repeated the alle- 
 YOL. L 23 
 
 zd Ann. Re 
 
 *"A. s. s., 
 * 37 
 
354 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. xi. gation that lie was in the hands of his friends, above 
 !8^ 3 . named, to whom Mr. Garrison promptly addressed an 
 enquiry as to their determination. They replied that 
 a private interview "in the presence of a few friends 
 impartially chosen" would be "desirable in the first 
 instance j " but Mr. Garrison rightly looked upon this as 
 a mere ruse to avoid a public meeting, and to obscure 
 
 zd Ann. Re- the fact that his business was " exclusively with the 
 A.s. s.l British people, and with Mr. Cresson in his public 
 capacity as the Agent of the American Colonization So 
 ciety." He followed up his advantage by an open letter 
 in the London Times, repeating the challenge, which 
 equally failed of effect. The sole course left was an ex- 
 parte arraignment of the Colonization Society, which was 
 appointed at the Wesleyan Chapel of the Rev. Thomas 
 Price, 1 in Devonshire Square, for Monday evening, June 
 10, 1833. 
 
 Lib. 3 : 126. At this meeting, presided over by James Cropper, Mr. 
 Cresson was present, no doubt reluctantly, and certainly 
 ill-advisedly. For when the lecturer, after depicting the 
 Colonization Society in the vein of his Thoughts/ told 
 how Clarkson had been deceived by its agent assuring 
 him that its first object was to emancipate all the slaves, 
 the chairman interrupted him, saying that this was a 
 grave charge ; Mr. Cresson was present would he ad 
 mit or deny having made such a statement ? Cresson 
 answered that he had done so, a confession dictated 
 not more by candor than by necessity, for Mr. Garrison 
 Report of was able to hand Mr. Cropper a pamphlet to which 
 *Soc./or Cresson had furnished an introduction, declaring that 
 " the great object of the Colonization Society is the final 
 and entire abolition of slavery" ; and Mr. George Thomp 
 son cited a placard of one of Cresson s meetings, headed, 
 "American Colonization Society and the Abolition of 
 Slavery." Mr. Garrison then described with what feel- 
 
 Lib. 3 : 126, ings he heard Sir Robert Peel in the House of Commons 
 
 167. 
 
 1 One of the editors of the Eclectic Review, and " a notable literary critic 
 in his day." 
 
^ET. 28.] FIKST ENGLISH MISSION. 355 
 
 a few days before 1 oppose the Emancipation Bill by CHAP. xi. 
 referring to the operations of the Society as proof that I 8^ 3 . 
 emancipation was a curse to the blacks, rendering them 
 a nuisance to be got rid of by deportation. He concluded 
 by saying that " the abolitionists of Great Britain should 
 indignantly order him [Cresson] back to his slaveholding 
 employers, and bid him be thankful that he had not been 
 detained on a charge of obtaining money under false 
 pretences." 
 
 Mr. Thompson next testified from his own experience Lib. 3 : 126. 
 to Cresson s false assurances as to the anti- slavery objects 
 of the Society. "He also calumniated Mr. Garrison to 
 me, and gave me such an account of him that he made 
 me regard him as a pest of society." 2 And whereas 
 Cresson never came near the abolition meetings in the 
 British Islands, the platform at his own meeting was 
 crowded with slaveholders. Mr. Thompson reiterated 
 the charge of deception practised on the British sup 
 porters of the Society. 
 
 At this point Mr. Cropper announced that he had Lib. 3 : 127. 
 hoped for a debate in order that the audience might 
 form its judgment between the parties, but that an 
 opportunity for rejoinder would be furnished Mr. Cres 
 son on the following evening after Mr. Garrison s 
 lecture had been finished. Cresson thereupon declined 
 to demean himself by entering into a discussion " under 
 existing circumstances, and with such a chairman, such 
 a lecturer, and such a meeting"; but, having the 
 
 1 June 3. " Look at the consequences of emancipation in some of the 
 Eastern States of America, where slavery had been abolished for some 
 time. In these the price of labor was high ; the emancipated slaves had 
 every encouragement to labor ; no prejudices existed against them as in 
 other parts of the United States ; wages were kept high ; yet in these very 
 States, such was the degradation and misery to which the emancipated 
 slaves were introduced that philanthropy had no other remedy for the evil 
 but sending them to a colony on the coast of Africa" (Hansard s Parl. 
 Debates, 18:339-357). 
 
 2 In a debate at Scarborough, Cresson "denied Mr. Garrison s competency 
 as a witness, referring to some judicial proceedings against him " in Ame 
 rica, " and to his falsifications of the African Repository " (Repository, July, 
 1833; Lib. 3:127). 
 
356 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. I>ET. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XL floor, enlarged his abuse of Mr. Cropper, by whom, he 
 I s^ 3 . asserted, he had been treated like a dog and so left 
 the chapel. 
 
 /,/. 3:165. From the second meeting he carefully absented him 
 self, sending, however, to the Rev. Mr. Price a note 
 thanking him for the offer of his chapel, and appointing 
 a night j but when his messenger was asked whether a 
 debate or a lecture was contemplated, he replied a lec 
 ture a cool proposal, indeed, which met with a very 
 proper refusal. Mr. Price s views with regard to the 
 Colonization Society had, he publicly confessed, under 
 gone a total change, and he was unwilling to open the 
 chapel to it for unchecked propagandism. He moved 
 resolutions to the effect that Mr. Garrison had fully 
 established the truth of his charges against it, by evi 
 dence drawn from itself, and that all friends of civil and 
 religious liberty should refuse it their sanction. To 
 
 Lib. 3 : 166. these there was but one dissenting vote. Resolutions of 
 thanks to Mr. Garrison for his luminous and fearless ex 
 posure, and of unequivocal confidence and zealous sup 
 port, of heartfelt sympathy for the colored people of the 
 United States, and of cordial approbation for the New- 
 England Anti-Slavery Society, were passed with "equal 
 unanimity, on motion of Mr. Thompson. But the crown 
 ing feature of the evening was James Cropper s an 
 nouncement: " It is with very great pleasure that I can 
 add the name of William Wilberforce as having changed 
 his opinion. He now deeply regrets that he was ever 
 led to say anything in approbation of the Colonization 
 Society." 
 
 An opportunity for confirming the great philanthropist 
 in his altered views was speedily afforded Mr. Garrison. 
 A few days after his lecture, 1 in company with his already 
 close friend, George Thompson, he took the night stage 
 
 Lectures of for Bath, where the latter was to reply to the West-India 
 
 Geo. Thomp- 
 
 son, p. viii. planters advocate, Peter Borthwick, a familiar antago- 
 
 1 Probably Monday, June 17, but possibly "Wednesday, Thursday, or 
 Friday of the previous week. 
 
MT. 28.J FIEST ENGLISH MISSION. 357 
 
 nist. During their subsequent stay in the city occurred Lib. 6 . 7. 
 the interview with Wilberforce (at his residence) the bare 
 prospect of which might well have decided the accept 
 ance of the English mission. 
 
 " It was in June, 1833," writes Mr. Garrison, years afterwards, Lib. 6 : 7. 
 with incidental comparisons of no little interest, " that we 1 
 visited Mr. Wilberforce at his residence in Bath, accompanied 
 by Mr. Thompson. It is seldom that men of renown meet the 
 liigh expectations of the curious and enthusiastic as to their 
 bodily proportions ; for imagination is ever busy, in advance, 
 in fashioning each distinguished object so as outwardly, as well 
 as inwardly, to give the world the assurance of a man. Of 
 all the truly great men whom we have seen, we think the 
 physical conformation of Daniel Webster best agrees with the 
 fame of his colossal mind. His body is compact, and of 
 Atlantean massiveness, without being gross : his head is of 
 magnificent proportions the perfection of vast capaciousness: 
 his glance is a mingling of the sunshine and the lightning of 
 heaven: his features are full of intellectual greatness. De 
 Witt Clinton was another rare specimen of the noble adapta 
 tion of the outward to the inward man. Washington, perhaps, 
 was a third. When we were introduced to Mr. Wilberforce, 
 his pygmean dimensions would have excited feelings almost 
 bordering on the ludicrous, if we had not instantly been struck 
 with admiration to think that so small a body could contain so 
 large a mind! We realized the truth of Watts s spiritual 
 phrenology, if we may so term it, (and Watts, like the apostle 
 Paul, was weak and contemptible in his bodily appearance,) as 
 set forth in the following verse : 
 
 Were I so tall to reach the pole, 
 
 Or grasp the ocean with my span, 
 I must be measured by my soul: 
 The mind s the standard of the man. 
 
 Wilberforce was as frail and slender in his figure as is Dr. 
 Channing, and lower in stature than even Benjamin Lundy, 
 the Clarkson of our country. His head hung droopingly upon 
 his breast, so as to require an effort of the body to raise it 
 when he spoke, and his back had an appearance of crooked- 
 
 1 The editorial "we." 
 
358 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XL ness : hence, in walking, he looked exceedingly diminutive. 
 In his ear]ier years he was probably erect and agile ; but feeble 
 health, long continued, had thus marred his person in the vale 
 of time. 
 
 " At his kind invitation we took breakfast with him and his 
 interesting family, and afterwards spent four or five hours in 
 interchanging sentiments respecting American slavery and the 
 American Colonization Society. His mind seemed to be wholly 
 unaffected by his bodily depression : it was a transparent firma 
 ment, studded with starry thoughts, in beautiful and opulent 
 profusion. His voice had a silvery cadence, his face a benevo 
 lently pleasing smile, and his eye a fine intellectual expression. 
 In his conversation he was fluent, yet modest ; remarkably 
 exact and elegant in his diction ; cautious in forming conclu 
 sions ; searching in his interrogations ; and skilful in weighing 
 testimony. In his manners he combined dignity with simpli 
 city, and childlike affability with becoming gracefulness. 
 How perfectly do those great elements of character harmonize 
 in the same person, to wit dovelike gentleness and amazing 
 energy deep humility and adventurous daring ! How incom 
 parably bland, yet mighty humble, yet bold, was the won 
 drous Immanuel ! These were traits that also eminently 
 characterized the apostles Paul and John. These were mingled 
 in the soul of Wilberforce. 
 
 " We were particularly struck with the strong and deferential 
 affection which he seemed to cherish for Mrs. Wilberforce, a 
 woman worthy of such a man, of singular dignity of carriage, 
 approaching to the majestic in size, and all-absorbed in her 
 kind attentions to him and he not less attentive to her. She 
 could not drop her thimble or her cotton on the carpet but he 
 would stoop down to find it, in spite of her entreaties. What 
 greatness of amiability ! Another thing which we remarked 
 with surprise and delight was, the youthful freshness and almost 
 romantic admiration which he cherished for natural scenery. 
 During our interview with him, he took a recumbent position 
 upon the sofa ; but as we were about bidding him farewell, he 
 called for his shoes, and, infirm as he was, proposed walking 
 up and down the South Parade with us, in order to point out 
 some of the beauties of the landscape in view of his residence j 
 but we begged him not to make the effort, and satisfied him 
 by going to a front window, from which he showed us with 
 considerable pleasure the house which Pope the poet occasion 
 ally occupied, and other interesting and beautiful objects. 
 
JST.28.] FIRST ENGLISH MISSION. 359 
 
 " In the Keepsake 1 he is represented sitting in his favorite CHAP. XI. 
 position, cross-legged, his head pendent and lateral, and his ^JJ 3 _ 
 hands retaining the eye-glass with which he was accustomed 
 to read." 
 
 There were in reality two interviews, which are thus 
 described in Mr. Garrison s official report on his mission : 
 
 " On the 19th of June, it was my privilege to be introduced ^d Ann. Re- 
 to the venerable Wilberforce in Bath. He gave me a very A. S. s., 
 gracious reception, as did also his excellent lady and son. I P- 44- 
 spent about three hours in his company, during which time his 
 cautious and active mind was very inquisitive on the subject of 
 slavery in the United States, and particularly in reference to 
 the American Colonization Society. I endeavored to commu 
 nicate, as briefly and clearly as possible, all the prominent 
 facts relating to our great controversy. In expressing to him 
 the grief which was felt by American abolitionists, and par 
 ticularly by our free colored population, in seeing the name of 
 Wilberforce enrolled among the friends of the Colonization 
 Society, he said that his commendation of the enterprise had 
 been restricted to the colony at Liberia j that, relying upon 
 the information which Mr. Cresson had given him respecting 
 the flourishing condition of that colony, he had been induced 
 to believe that it was aiding essentially in the civilization of 
 benighted Africa ; that he never regarded the Society as pro 
 viding a remedy for slavery ; that he viewed with abhorrence 
 the doctrine of the Society denying the practicability of ele 
 vating the colored race in the United States to an equality with 
 the whites ; and that he had repeatedly contested that wicked 
 position with Mr. Cresson, and told him that he considered it 
 fundamentally false and unchristian. He expressed much 
 anxiety to learn how far Mr. Cresson had made use of his 
 name to give currency to the Society, and desired his son to 
 write down the following queries as he dictated them : 
 
 " i 1. How far has Mr. Elliott Cresson made use of Mr. Wil- 
 berforce s name ? Has he merely stated that Mr. Wilberforce 
 approved of the colony as calculated to benefit Africa ; or has 
 
 l The (British) Christian Keepsake for 1836, the occasion of the remi 
 niscences. It contained also the portraits of the China missionary, Robert 
 Morrison, T. F. Buxton, and Elizabeth Fry. Wilberforce s portrait Mr. 
 Garrison declared " worth the price of the book: every other that we have 
 seen is a failure." And again, of it and Buxton s : " They are true to life 
 so accurate that none need wish better." 
 
360 WILLIAM LLOYD GAREISON. [JET. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XI. he said that Mr. Wilberforce approves of the principle of the 
 x ^~ SOCIETY namely, that the blacks ought to be removed for the 
 advantage of America, as well as for their own ? 
 
 " 2. Did Mr. Cresson (aware that it must be considered as the 
 fundamental principle of the American Colonization Society, 
 that there is a difficulty, amounting to a moral impossibility, in 
 the blacks and whites living together in prosperity and harmony, 
 as members of the same free community) make it clear to those 
 to whom he professed to state Mr. Wilberforce s sentiments, 
 that the two classes MIGHT AND OUGHT TO LIVE TOGETHER, as 
 one mutually connected and happy society ? 
 
 " 3. Has Mr. Elliott Cresson made it publicly known in 
 England, that the American Colonization Society has declared 
 that it considers that colonization ought to be a sine qua non of 
 emancipation ? 
 
 " These queries were given to me to make such use of them 
 as I might think proper. 
 
 " At his urgent solicitation, I visited him the next morning, 
 and sat down with him and his family to breakfast, which was 
 served up in patriarchal simplicity. After an interview of 
 about five hours, too delightful and too important ever to be 
 forgotten by me, I bade him farewell, expressing my fervent 
 wishes for a long continuance of his valuable life, and my hope 
 to meet him in that world of glory where change, and decay, 
 and separation are unknown. I impressed upon his mind, 
 tenderly and solemnly, the importance of his bearing public 
 testimony against the American Colonization Society, if he was 
 satisfied that its claims to the confidence and patronage of the 
 British nation were preposterous and illusory j especially as 
 he was constantly quoted as the friend and advocate of the 
 Society. I offer you, I said, i no documents or pamphlets in 
 opposition to the Society, upon which to form an opinion of its 
 true character. Here are its Fifteenth and Sixteenth Reports : 
 the former contains an elaborate defence of the Society by its 
 managers, which, in my opinion, is alone sufficient to seal its 
 destiny. Read it at your leisure, and, judging the Society out 
 of its own mouth, let your verdict be given to the world ! " 
 
 Lib. 3 : 162, The result of these interviews was that Mr. Garrison 
 brought back with him to this country the original of a 
 Protest against British support of the American Coloni^ 
 zation Society, already made public in England, and 
 
.ET. 28.] FIRST ENGLISH MISSION. 361 
 
 signed by Wilberforce, William Smith, Zachary Macau- CHAP. xi. 
 lay, William Evans, M. P., Samuel Gurney, George xs^. 
 Stephen, Suffield, S. Lushington, M. P., Buxton, Crop 
 per, William Allen, and Daniel O Connell, M. P. 1 They 
 expressly rejected the claims of the Society to anti- 
 slavery support as " wholly groundless," and its profes 
 sion of promoting the abolition of slavery as " altogether 
 delusive." The influence of Liberia on the slave trade 
 would be limited to its petty territory. " The only 
 effectual deathblow to that accursed traffic will be the 
 destruction of slavery throughout the world," to which 
 they were compelled to say they believed the Coloniza 
 tion Society " to be an obstruction" Englishmen ought 
 not to be called upon "to contribute to the expenses 
 of a colony which, though no doubt comprising some 
 advantages, was formed chiefly to indulge the preju 
 dices of American slaveholders, and which is regarded 
 with aversion by the colored population of the United 
 States." 
 
 " Our objections to it are, therefore, briefly these : While Lid. 3: 162. 
 we believe its pretexts to be delusive, we are convinced that its 
 real effects are of the most dangerous nature. It takes its root 
 from a cruel prejudice and alienation in the whites of America 
 against the colored people, slave or free. This being its source, 
 the effects are what might ba expected : that it fosters and in 
 creases the spirit of caste, already so unhappily predominant ; 
 that it widens the breach between the two races exposes the 
 colored people to great practical persecution, in order to force 
 them to emigrate j and finally, is calculated to swallow up and 
 divert that feeling which America, as a Christian and a free 
 country, cannot but entertain, that slavery is alike incompatible 
 with the law of God and with the well-being of man, whether 
 the enslaver or the enslaved. 
 
 " On these grounds, therefore, and while we acknowledge the 
 Colony of Liberia, or any other colony on the coast of Africa, 
 to be in itself a good thing, we must be understood utterly to 
 repudiate the principles of the American Colonization Society. 
 
 i The fate of this precious document is unknown. A facsimile of the 
 signatures is given in Mrs. Child s Oasis, p. 64. 
 
362 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 28. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 1833- 
 
 2,d Ann. Re 
 port N. E. 
 A. S. S., 
 p. 46. 
 
 That Society is, in our estimation, not deserving of the coun 
 tenance of the British public." 
 
 One name was conspicuous by its absence from among 
 the signers to this tremendous Protest that of Clark- 
 son. To him, too, Mr. Garrison had paid a memorable 
 visit : 
 
 " Immediately after the meeting at Exeter Hall, 1 I rode to 
 Ipswich to see Thomas Clarkson, accompanied by my esteemed 
 friend, the Rev. Nathaniel Paul. Here it is proper to state in 
 what manner the mind of this venerable philanthropist became 
 so strongly impressed in favor of the Colonization Society and 
 of Liberia. It happens that the individual who, of all others in 
 England, exerts the most influence over Clarkson s mind, is the 
 main pillar of Mr. Cresson s support namely, Richard Dykes 
 Alexander, a wealthy and respectable member of the Society of 
 Friends. As Clarkson has entirely lost his sight, this gentle 
 man reads and answers many of his letters, and is emphatically 
 his mouthpiece. He has therefore acquired a powerful control 
 over the judgment, and secured the entire confidence of Clark - 
 son. Mr. Cresson succeeded most effectually in duping Alex 
 ander, and Alexander in misleading Clarkson. Care was taken, 
 both by Mr. Alexander and Mrs. Clarkson, to read chiefly to 
 the sightless philanthropist those statements which served to 
 represent the Colonization Society and Liberia in glowing 
 colors, and to place their opposers in a disgraceful attitude. 
 Under these circumstances, little authority or value ought to be 
 attached to his opinions in favor of the Society and its colony. 
 
 " On arriving at Ipswich, we found that we could easily gain 
 access to Clarkson only through the medium of Alexander 
 of him whose mind we knew was strongly prejudiced against 
 us both, in consequence of the flagrant misrepresentations of 
 Mr. Cresson. But we did not hesitate to call upon him, and 
 state the object of our visit to Ipswich. He treated us politely ; 
 and as Clarkson resided at Playford Hall, a distance of two or 
 three miles from the town, he offered to postpone another 
 engagement which he had made, and accompany us hi his 
 carriage. 
 
 " The retreat chosen by the aged friend of the colored race 
 in which to spend his few remaining years on earth, 2 we found 
 
 1 July 13, 1833. 
 
 2 Clarkson was at that time seventy-three years of age. He still had a 
 long lease of life before him, surviving till 1846. 
 
^T. 28.] FIRST ENGLISH MISSION. 363 
 
 to be very beautiful. On alighting at his door, Mr. Paul and CHAP. XI. 
 myself, at the request of Mr. Alexander, strolled about the ser- jZ" 
 pentine paths of the Park, while he went in to ascertain whether 
 Clarkson s health would permit an interview at that time as, 
 a few days before, he had injured one of his legs severely 
 against the shaft of his carriage. In about twenty minutes we 
 were called into the house, and were met by Clarkson totter- 
 ingly supported by Mr. Alexander. His mind was evidently 
 full of distress: my own was deeply affected, almost beyond 
 the utterance of words. In taking me by the hand, he observed 
 
 *I cannot see your face I have now wholly lost my sight 
 
 but and here his emotion overpowered his feelings 
 
 ; I believe I have lost it in a good cause. My introductory 
 remarks were few and simple. A burden of gratitude for his 
 noble services in the cause of bleeding humanity, and of sym 
 pathy for his present affecting condition, pressed mightily upon 
 my soul, which I earnestly desired to throw off by the power of 
 speech ; but, lest it might seem like premeditated flattery and 
 artful condolence, I was awed into silence. 
 
 "He immediately began on the subject of colonization ; and, 
 with a vividness of memory which surprised me, minutely stated 
 the substance of all his conversations with Mr. Cresson from 
 their first interview, and the circumstances which had led him 
 to give his sanction to the Colonization Society. He had never 
 regarded that Society as capable, in itself, of effecting the 
 abolition of slavery in the United States, but only as an auxili 
 ary to its abolition. Did he suppose that compulsion, either 
 directly or indirectly, was used to effect the removal of the free 
 people of color and such as were liberated from bondage, he 
 should deprecate the measure as unspeakably cruel and wicked. 
 Finding that his approval of the Society was regarded with 
 grief by many of his dearest friends, in whose opinions he 
 could not unite as to its evil character, 1 and in order to obtain 
 that repose of mind which his bodily infirmities imperiously 
 demanded, he had resolved to occupy neutral ground, and 
 did not wish to be ranked on either side of the controversy. 
 He saw no reason to change his decision. 
 
 1 See the letters of James Cropper and Arnold Buffum to Clarkson, 
 Abolitionist, pp. 8, 39. Clarkson wrote to John Fenwick, of Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne, Dec. 22, 1832 (MS.) : "E. Cresson is a man of estimable character in 
 Philadelphia ; the bosom friend of Robert Vaux. There is nothing against 
 the Association but rumor. It will probably be balanced by the formation 
 of anti-slavery societies in the United States." 
 
364 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 Lib. 3: 189. [" He said to me, with great emphasis, Tell the people of 
 the United States, Mr. Garrison, that Thomas Clarkson is now 
 resolved not to give any countenance to the American Coloni 
 zation Society. Tell them that he refused to comply with the 
 solicitation of Mr. Cresson to become an honorary member of 
 it ; and also refused to give his sanction to the British Coloni 
 zation Society. I occupy neutral ground. My letter to Mr. 
 Cresson in favor of the American Colonization Society was 
 extorted by his statement [what a statement !] that one hundred 
 thousand slaves had been offered to the Society gratuitously, to 
 be sent to Liberia. This unparalleled liberality seemed to me 
 to be indeed the work of G-od. "] 
 
 2d Ann. Re- " Having listened to him with becoming deference, I spared 
 A. S. S., no pains to correct the erroneous views which he had formed 
 P- 47- beginning with the origin of the Society, and tracing it through 
 all its ramifications ; explaining its direful tendencies to corrupt 
 the public mind, obscure the moral vision of the people, inflame 
 their prejudices, deceive their hopes, and sear their consciences 
 and to perpetuate, by pruning, an overgrown system of op 
 pression. I showed him that it was cruel mockery to say that 
 the persecuted and oppressed exiles to Liberia had gone with 
 their own consent, cheerfully and voluntarily ; that the doctrines 
 of the Society were abhorrent and impious; that it was the 
 enemy not merely of the colored race, but of all genuine 
 abolitionists j that good men who had taken it upon trust, on 
 ascertaining its real purposes, were abandoning it in crowds, 
 and using mighty exertions to overthrow it ; and that all its 
 doctrines, measures and designs were evil, and only evil con 
 tinually. I also endeavored to convince him that he did not 
 occupy neutral ground, but that he was everywhere, both in 
 England and in the United States, regarded as the unfalter 
 ing friend of the Society j and that until he publicly requested 
 to be considered as neither approving nor opposing the Society, 
 he could not possibly be neutral in this great controversy. 
 
 " The Rev. Mr. Paul also appealed to him in the most solemn 
 and pathetic manner, and stated in what light the Society was 
 universally regarded by his colored brethren, and in what 
 manner it was operating to their injury. His disclosures 
 seemed powerfully to agonize the mind of the venerable man, 
 and sincerely did we pity him. 
 
 " After an interview of about four hours, we took our leave 
 of him, lamenting that he should still feel it to be his duty to 
 occupy what he considered neutral ground. 
 
. 28.] 
 
 FIKST ENGLISH MISSION. 
 
 365 
 
 
 ^d Ann Re- 
 
 port N. E, 
 
 A. s. s., 
 ^ 
 
 " A short time after this visit, I unexpectedly received, to my CHAP. XI. 
 exceeding joy, from a distinguished member of Parliament, 
 duplicate copies of the Protest against the American Coloniza 
 tion Society, signed by Wilberforce and eleven of the most 
 distinguished abolitionists in Great Britain, which has fallen 
 like a thunderbolt upon the Society, and riven it in twain. In 
 getting up this Protest I had no agency whatever. It was 
 altogether unexpected by me j but to obtain it was alone worth 
 a trip across the Atlantic." l 
 
 Mr. Garrison was recalled from Bath, directly after his 
 last interview with Wilberforce, by a note from Captain 
 Stuart informing him that Cresson had called a public 
 meeting at Freemason Tavern, at which the Duke of 
 Sussex was to preside, for the purpose of forming a 
 British Colonization Society in open or secret affiliation 
 with the American. " Punctual to the hour," says his Re- 
 port, "I went to the meeting, 2 accompanied by my friends 
 Capt. Stuart, Joseph Phillips, William Hume, Esq., of 
 Dublin, and other gentlemen, expecting to find a large 
 audience. Mr. Cresson and six or eight of his friends 
 constituted the whole company in attendance, excepting 
 those who went with me ! The Duke of Sussex was 
 absent, and Mr. Cresson therefore moved that the meet 
 ing be adjourned ! " Another -meeting was shortly 
 appointed for July 3 at the Hanover-Square Rooms, 
 under the same auspices, whereupon Mr. Garrison 
 addressed a letter to " His Grace the Duke of Sussex," 
 desiring a private interview as the accredited agent of 
 the New-England Anti-Slavery Society, ready to prove 
 Mr. Elliott Cresson a deceiver, and the Colonization 
 Society " corrupt in its principles, prescriptive in its 
 measures, and the worst enemy of the free colored and 
 
 1 The Protest bore the general date of July, 1833. "Mr. Wilberforce 
 signed it about a week or ten days before his death [July 29]. His auto 
 graph is remarkably firm and plain. His testimony is almost like a voice 
 from the grave, and, in giving it, he has made the last act of his life as 
 useful and important in the destruction of prejudice and slavery as any 
 other single act in his noble career of philanthropy " ( W. L. G. to the editor 
 of the London Patriot, Lib. 3: 201). 
 
 2 Probably on June 20. 
 
366 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [JET. 28. 
 
 CHAP. xi. slave population of the United States." He hoped that 
 I 8^ 3 . in consequence the Duke would refuse to give his coun 
 tenance to the proposed meeting. In spite of his refer 
 ences for his official character to Buxton, Macaulay and 
 Cropper, no answer was returned to this letter. 
 
 In the meantime, July 1, Mr. Garrison wrote home to 
 the Board of Managers : 
 
 Lib. 3 : 143 " I think the results of my mission, (brief as it will prove,) 
 may be summed up in the following items : 1st, Awakening 
 a general interest among the friends of emancipation in this 
 country, and securing their efficient cooperation with us, in the 
 abolition of slavery in the United States. 2d, Dispelling the 
 mists with which the Agent of the American Colonization 
 Society has blinded the eyes of benevolent men in relation to 
 the design and tendency of that Society. 3d, Enlisting able 
 and eloquent advocates to plead our cause. 4th, Inducing 
 editors of periodicals and able writers to give us the weight of 
 their influence. 5th, Exciting a spirit of emulation, in the 
 redemption of our slave population, among the numerous 
 female anti-slavery societies. 6th, Procuring a large collection 
 of anti-slavery documents, tracts, pamphlets and volumes, 
 which will furnish us with an inexhaustible supply of ammu 
 nition. 
 
 " There is now great certainty that Parliament will complete 
 the scheme of emancipation this session, as the House of Lords 
 has adopted, without any amendment, the resolutions of the 
 House of Commons. To-night, the Bill, containing the details 
 of the measure, will be read a first time in the latter House. It 
 is now highly probable that the term of apprenticeship will be 
 reduced from twelve years to one or two, and perhaps swept 
 entirely away. Remonstrances are pouring into Parliament, 
 from various parts of the kingdom, against the grant of 
 20,000,000 to the planters, but I fear they will prove in 
 effectual. 
 
 " Mr. Elliott Cresson continues to skulk from a public con 
 troversy. In the leading city paper, the Times, of the 28th 
 ultimo, I inserted a challenge to him, in which I stated ten 
 Propositions, which I offered to maintain against the American 
 Colonization Society. I also promised that if he would prove, 
 to the satisfaction of a majority of the audience, the following 
 charge against me in a letter which he published in the Baptist 
 
^T. 28.] FIRST ENGLISH MISSION. 367 
 
 Magazine for June namely, a violent pamphleteer, who often CHAP. XI. 
 sacrifices truth to the support of his mistaken views, and whose x jj~ 
 very quotations are so garbled as entirely to pervert the real meaning 
 of the speaker, I would pay twenty guineas into the hands of the 
 Mayor of New York, in aid of the education of the colored 
 children of that city. The insertion of this article in the Times, 
 although making less than three squares, 1 cost me 6 6s., that 
 is, about thirty dollars ! ! This is the usual advertising rate in 
 that paper. Cresson s effrontery is truly surprising ; for, not 
 withstanding these repeated challenges, he has advertised a 
 meeting of his own, to be held on Wednesday next, at the 
 Hanover Booms, at which the Duke of Sussex is expected to 
 preside ! I have no hesitation in prophesying that it will be 
 a complete failure. Of course, I shall endeavor to be present, 
 as I anticipate some amusing collisions on the occasion, if not 
 between me and the speaker, at least between him and some 
 sturdy abolitionists. As an offset to this meeting, I propose to 
 hold one next week, which many of the noblest friends of 
 liberty in England will probably attend. The arrangements, 
 however, have not yet been made ; and perhaps another, and 
 even more effectual, course may be adopted." 2 
 
 The Hanover-Square meeting proved, indeed, a com- zdAnn.Re- 
 plete failure. The attendance did not exceed 120 per- ^ s. &, 
 sons, " one-third of whom were on the platform by * 43< 
 special invitation, and another third were abolitionists, 
 opposed to the object of the meeting." Sussex was in 
 the chair. Cresson made the leading speech, declaring 
 that the proposed society u had no connection whatever 
 with the American Colonization Society ," as did every 
 other speaker on his side, including Lord Bexley and the 
 
 iln printers parlance, a "square" of reading matter equals in length 
 the width of the column ; in advertisements, the square equals one inch. 
 
 2 " Garrison is here," writes Charles Stuart from London, on June 29, 
 1833, to Arnold Buff um, zealous, uncompromising, untiring. You must 
 not be surprised should his correspondence be interrupted. He is laboring 
 like himself the people, as they become acquainted with him, love and 
 admire him. Cresson skulks from all collision with him, in a manner at 
 once insolent and dastardly. Garrison s party in London consists of the 
 great body of the practically religious people, of every order, as far as they 
 are informed, especially the Friends, and of all the staunch anti-slavery 
 spirits ; Cresson s, of a few titled, wealthy, high-pretending individuals " 
 (Lib. 3:139). 
 
368 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 1. noble Duke himself, who, according to Cresson, pre 
 sided with dignity, but " found it hard work to stem the 
 torrent" of opposition, represented by Macaulay, Stuart, 
 and George Thompson, as well as by Mr. Garrison. The 
 last endeavored to show the folly of suppressing the 
 slave trade by coast colonies while the market for slaves 
 still existed in any part of the world. " The tone of the 
 discussion was vehement and even boisterous, but only a 
 partial hearing was given to the abolitionists." Never 
 theless, on a motion to form a British African Coloniza 
 tion Society, Mr. Thompson s amendment that there was 
 no necessity for one was lost only by 26 to 33. Ridicu 
 lous as this was, the projected counter demonstration at 
 Exeter Hall was not abandoned ; and as the Duke of 
 Sussex had declared Cresson s character to be above 
 attack, Mr. Garrison sought once more to gain his ear 
 by inviting his attendance. A formal propitiation was 
 even necessary : 
 
 e- " In my note of the 29th ultimo, I addressed your Royal 
 P A.s. ll Highness by the title of l Your Grace. As the error, though 
 / 44- trivial in itself, might seem to imply intentional disrespect, I 
 must here apologize for the same. An American citizen, in 
 Europe, is ever liable to err, through ignorance, in the applica 
 tion of hereditary titles, as they do not obtain in his own 
 country. I am confident that your Royal Highness will most 
 cheerfully pardon the blunder." 
 
 To this letter, also, no answer was returned ; " and 
 therefore," says the writer, " I am under no special 
 obligations to the courtesy of royalty." 
 
 ibid. " Never was a more highly respectable assembly con 
 
 vened in London" than that which filled Exeter Hall, 
 Strand, on the morning of Saturday, July 13, 1833. James 
 Cropper presided, and in his opening remarks stated 
 the object of the meeting to be an exposure of the 
 American Colonization Society s anti-slavery pretences, 
 and a demonstration of the real British feeling in 
 regard to it. He read the following letter of regret 
 from Mr. Buxton : 
 
Mf. 28.] FIKST ENGLISH MISSION. 369 
 
 Thomas Fowell Buxton to W. L. Garrison. 
 
 54, DEVONSHIRE STREET, July 12, 1833. Lib. 3:178. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR : I must trouble you with a line to excuse my 
 non-appearance at the meeting to-morrow. The fact is, critical 
 as has been the state of our great question often bef ore, per 
 haps never was it so critical as now. My mind is intensely 
 occupied, and every moment of my time so full, that I should 
 be sacrificing my duty to this paramount object if I allowed 
 anything else, however pressing and interesting, to divert me 
 from it at this, the crisis of its fate. But you know my com 
 plete unity in the objects of your meeting, to which I most 
 cordially wish all success. My views of the Colonization So 
 ciety you are aware of. They do not fall far short of those 
 expressed by my friend Mr. Cropper, when he termed its 
 objects diabolical. Nor will you doubt my concurrence in the 
 efforts of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society, or any Anti- 
 Slavery Society in the world. 
 
 Wishing you, therefore, all success, and entreating you to 
 tell your countrymen, on your return, that we in England are 
 all for the Anti- Slavery, not for the Colonization people, I am, 
 my dear sir, with real esteem, 
 
 Yours respectfully, T. F. BUXTON. 
 
 Mr. Garrison was then introduced by George Thomp 
 son, and began a long address in the following terms : 1 
 
 " MR. CHAIRMAN It is long since I sacrificed all my national, Lib. 3 : 178. 
 complexional and local prejudices upon the altai*of Christian 
 love, and, breaking down the narrow boundaries of a selfish 
 patriotism, inscribed upon my banner this motto : My country 
 is the world ; my countrymen are all mankind. It is true, in a 
 geographical sense, I am now in a foreign territory ; but still it 
 is a part of my country. I am in the midst of strangers ; but 
 still surrounded by my countrymen. There must be limits to 
 civil governments and national domains. There must be names 
 to distinguish the natural divisions of the earth, and the dwel 
 lers thereon. There must be varieties in the form, color, 
 
 1 " I have, my dear Garrison," writes J. G. Whittier from Haverhill, 
 Nov. 10, 1833 (MS.), "just finished reading thy speech at the Exeter HaU 
 meeting. It is full of high and manly truth terrible in its rebuke, but 
 full of justice. The opening, as a specimen of beautiful composition, I 
 have rarely seen excelled." 
 
 VOL. L 24 
 
370 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. C^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XI. stature, and condition of mankind. All these may exist, not 
 j^7 only without injury, but with the highest possible advantage. 
 But wherever they are made the boundaries of human disinter 
 estedness, friendship, sympathy, honor, patriotism and love, 
 they are as execrable and destructive as, otherwise, they are 
 beautiful and preservative. 
 
 " Nowhere, I am certain, will a more united response be given 
 to these sentiments than in this Hall, and by those who are 
 assembled on the present occasion. What exclamation have 
 you put into the mouth of the African captive, kneeling in his 
 chains with his face turned imploringly heavenward? It is 
 this the most touching, the most irresistible : AM I NOT A 
 MAN AND A BROTHER ? Yes ! though black as murky night 
 though born on a distant shore though degraded, miserable, 
 and enslaved though ranked among the beasts of the field 
 still, A MAN AND A BROTHER ! Noblest device of humanity ! 
 Wherever, in all time, a human being pines in personal thral 
 dom, the tones of that talismanic appeal uttered by him shall 
 be swiftly borne by the winds of heaven over the whole earth, 
 and stir up the humane, the brave, the honorable, the good, for 
 his rescue ; for the strife of freedom is no longer local, but 
 blows are now struck for the redemption of the world. And 
 glorious is the prospect before us. Wherever we turn our eyes, 
 we see the earth quaking, and hear thunders uttering their 
 voices. The GENIUS OF EMANCIPATION is visible in every 
 clime, and at its trumpet-call the dead slaves of all nations 
 are starting into life, shaking off the dust of the tomb, and 
 presenting an immortal beauty through the power of a mighty 
 resurrection.* 
 
 tl Sir, I have crossed the Atlantic on an errand of mercy, to 
 plead for perishing millions, and to discharge, in behalf of the 
 abolitionists of the United States, a high moral obligation which 
 is due to the British public. It would neither be modest nor 
 proper for me, on this occasion, to make a parade of the sacri 
 fices of time, of money, of health, or of labor, I have made, 
 nor of the perils I have risked, or the persecution encountered, 
 or the sufferings endured, since I first stood forth as the advo 
 cate of my enslaved countrymen, not to banish them from 
 their native land, nor to contend for their emancipation by a 
 slow, imperceptible process, * half-way between now and never, "* 
 but to demand their instant emancipation, and their recognition 
 as brethren and countrymen. I shall make no such lachrymal 
 display of my losses and crosses in this holy cause ; although, 
 
^T. 28.] FIRST ENGLISH MISSION. 371 
 
 perhaps, I could give as long a list, and summon as many wit- CHAP. XI. 
 nesses, and present as strong claims upon your sympathy and T ^ 
 regard, as the agent of the American negro shippers in this 
 country ; for I know that in all things I come short, and I pour 
 contempt upon all that I have endured for righteousness sake. 
 Whatever may have been the trials and dangers experienced 
 by that agent, they are such only as attend a popular cause. 
 His friends and supporters in the United States are as numer 
 ous as the oppressors and despisers of the colored population 
 constituting the great, the wealthy, the powerful, as well as the 
 inferior classes. When he shall have stood forth, almost single- 
 handed, for a series of years, against and in the midst of a 
 nation of oppressors, and been branded with every epithet that 
 malice could invent or ingenuity apply, and incarcerated in the 
 cell of a prison, and had large rewards offered for his destruc 
 tion by private combinations and legislative bodies, for his 
 advocacy of the cause of negro emancipation ; he may then, I - 
 think you will all agree, with far greater propriety urge his 
 claims upon your sympathy, than while he is receiving the 
 puff s and compliments of a great and popular party in his own 
 country. 
 
 " I cherish not the least personal animosity towards that gen 
 tleman. I am sure that I can heartily forgive him as often as 
 he wrongs me. Sorry am I for his own sake sorry for the 
 sake of the cause of truth that the health of Mr. Cresson, 
 according to his own statement, disqualifies him from meeting 
 me in a public discussion of the principles and operations of his 
 darling scheme, although it enables him to hold ex-parte meet 
 ings in favor of that scheme, ad libitum; nay, more he can 
 even take the lead publicly in the formation of a British Colo 
 nization Society, and make a long speech, (although it is 
 declared that it has no connection with the American Coloniza 
 tion Society,) at the very moment he assigns his utter physical 
 inability as a reason why he cannot hold a discussion with me, 
 or with my gifted and eloquent friend, George Thompson, Esq. 
 He has my best wishes for the complete restoration of his 
 health." * 
 
 Recurring to Cresson s complaint of persecution at the 
 hands of Cropper, Macaulay, and Buxton, Mr. Garrison 
 paid a passing tribute to each of these tormentors, and 
 announced that Wilberforce must soon be added to the 
 list in view of their recent conversation at Bath, and the 
 
372 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XL questions to Cresson which Wilberforce had dictated and 
 
 1833. which the speaker now read. Nor, in spite of his blind 
 
 ness, which compelled him to take things on trust, was 
 
 it unlikely that Thomas Clarkson would soon be found 
 
 among the enemies of the Colonization agent. 
 
 Mr. Garrison s proper theme, however, was " a delinea 
 tion of American slavery and the American Colonization 
 Society," and to this the remainder of his speech was 
 devoted. It is only needful here to record some of its 
 incidental features, beginning with this arraignment of 
 his guilty country : 
 
 Lib. 3:178. " I cherish as strong a love for the land of my nativity as 
 any man living. I am proud of her civil, political and religious 
 institutions of her high advancement in science, literature 
 and the arts of her general prosperity and grandeur. But I 
 have some solemn accusations to bring against her. 
 
 "I accuse her of insulting the majesty of Heaven with the 
 grossest mockery that was ever exhibited to man inasmuch 
 as, professing to be the land of the free and the asylum of the 
 oppressed, she falsifies every profession, and shamelessly plays 
 the tyrant. 
 
 " I accuse her, before all nations, of giving an open, deliber 
 ate and base denial to her boasted Declaration, that all men 
 are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator 
 with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, 
 liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 
 
 " I accuse her of disfranchising and proscribing nearly half a 
 million, free people of color, acknowledging them not as coun 
 trymen, and scarcely as rational beings, and seeking to drag 
 them thousands of miles across the ocean on a plea of benevo 
 lence, when they ought to enjoy all the rights, privileges and 
 immunities of American citizens. 
 
 " I accuse her of suffering a large portion of her population 
 to be lacerated, starved and plundered, without law and without 
 justification, at the will of petty tyrants. v 
 
 lt I accuse her of trafficking in the bodies and souls of men, 
 in a domestic way, to an extent nearly equal to the foreign 
 slave trade ; which traffic is equally atrocious with the foreign, 
 and almost as cruel in its operations. 
 
 " I accuse her of legalizing, on an enormous scale, licentious 
 ness, fraud, cruelty and murder. 
 
^ET. 28.] EIRST ENGLISH MISSION. 373 
 
 " I accuse her of the horrid crime of kidnapping one hundred CHAP. XI. 
 thousand infants annually, the offspring of slave parents. l8 ~T 
 
 " I accuse her of stealing the liberties of two millions of the 
 creatures of God, and withholding the just recompense of their 
 labor ; of ruthlessly invading the holiest relations of life, and 
 cruelly separating the dearest ties of nature ; of denying these 
 miserable victims necessary food and clothing for their perish 
 able bodies, and light and knowledge for their immortal souls ; 
 of tearing the husband from his wife, the mother from her 
 babe, and children from their parents, and of perpetrating upon 
 the poor and needy every species of outrage and oppression. 
 
 11 And, finally, I accuse her of being callously indifferent to 
 the accumulated wrongs and sufferings of her black popula 
 tion, assiduous in extenuating her oppressive acts, and de 
 termined to slumber upon the brink of a volcano which is in 
 full operation, and which threatens to roll its lava tide over the 
 whole land." 
 
 He cited O ConnelFs reply to the excuse that England 
 had established and encouraged American slavery, with 
 its tingling conclusion "The friends of humanity and 
 liberty in Europe should join in the universal cry of 
 Shame on the American slaveholders! Base wretches, 
 should we shout in chorus base wretches, how dare 
 you profane the temple of national freedom, the sacred 
 fane of republican rites, with the presence and the 
 sufferings of human beings in chains and slavery!" 
 " Sir," continued Mr. Garrison, " never was a more just 
 and fearless rebuke given to a guilty nation. . . . 
 Whatever responsibility may attach to Great Britain for 
 the introduction of slavery into the United States (and 
 to talk of robbery and kidnapping as things that may 
 be entailed is precious absurdity), the first moment the 
 people of the United States published their Declaration 
 of Independence to the world, from that moment they 
 became exclusively accountable for the existence and 
 continuance of negro slavery." 
 
 The last of the long array of charges next brought 
 against the Colonization Society was its denial that the 
 free blacks could ever be elevated ; which opened the 
 
374 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^ET. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XL way for the following vindication from their champion 
 !83~ 3 . in Exeter Hall : 
 
 Lib. 3:179. "Mr. Chairman, niy soul sickens in turning over these 
 masses of moral corruption, and I hasten to a close. I cannot 
 boast, like Mr. Cresson, of defraying my own expenses ; for he 
 is opulent, and I am poor. All that I have is dedicated to this 
 cause. But I am proud to say that the funds for my mission to 
 this country were principally made up by the voluntary con 
 tributions of my free colored brethren, at a very short notice. 
 I stand before you as their mouthpiece, and with their bless 
 ings resting upon my head. Persecuted, derided, yet noble 
 people ! never can I repay generosity and love like theirs. 
 Sir, I am sorry to trespass a moment longer upon this meet 
 ing, but I beg a brief indulgence that I may discharge an act 
 of justice toward that persecuted class. You have heard them 
 described this day, by the American Colonization Society, as 
 the most abandoned wretches on the face of the earth as 
 constituting all that is vile, loathsome and dangerous ; as 
 being more degraded and miserable than the slaves. Sir, it is 
 not possible for the mind to coin, or the tongue to utter, baser 
 libels against an injured people. Their condition is as much 
 superior to that of the slaves as the light of heaven is more 
 cheering than the darkness of the pit. Many of their number 
 are in the most affluent circumstances, and distinguished for 
 their refinement, enterprise and talents. They have nourish 
 ing churches, supplied by pastors of their own color, in various 
 parts of the land, embracing a large body of the truly excellent 
 of the earth. They have public and private libraries. They 
 have their temperance societies, their debating societies, their 
 moral societies, their literary societies, their benevolent societies, 
 their savings societies, and a multitude of kindred associations. 
 They have their infant schools, their primary and high schools, 
 their Sabbath schools, and their Bible classes. They contribute 
 to the support of foreign and domestic missions, to Bible and 
 tract societies, &c. In the city of Philadelphia alone, they have 
 more than fifty different associations for their moral and intel 
 lectual improvement. In fact, they are rising up, even with 
 mountains of prejudice piled upon them, with more than 
 Titanic strength, and trampling beneath their feet the slanders 
 of their enemies. A spirit of virtuous emulation is pervading 
 their ranks, from the young child to the gray head. Among 
 them is taken a large number of daily and weekly newspapers, 
 
^T. 28.] FIRST ENGLISH MISSION. 375 
 
 and of literary and scientific periodicals, from the popular CHAP. XI. 
 monthlies up to the grave and erudite North American and 
 American Quarterly Reviews. I have at this moment, to my own 
 paper, the Liberator, one thousand subscribers among this 
 people ; and, from an occupancy of the editorial chair for 
 more than seven years, I can testify that they are more punctual 
 in their payments than any five hundred white subscribers 
 whose names I ever placed indiscriminately in my subscrip 
 tion book." 
 
 Mr. Garrison pointed to the Rev. Nathaniel Paul, who 
 sat upon the platform, as a specimen of the calumniated 
 race "a gentleman with whom the proudest or best 
 man on earth need not blush to associate" ; and after quot 
 ing from the Thoughts the anti-colonization resolutions 
 of the free people of color,, and describing the practical 
 effects of the Society, he closed with an appeal for 
 British support of the American anti-slavery movement : 
 
 " Sure I am that my appeal in behalf of my oppressed coun- Lib. 3 : 179. 
 trymen will be felt here, and in every part of this land. It is 
 impossible that the British people, proudly standing, as they 
 now are, upon the neck of colonial slavery it is impossible for 
 them to consider their work at an end whilst there remains a 
 human being held as a chattel under the whole heavens. And 
 let me assure them, for their encouragement, that all is not 
 dark or hopeless in the United States. Thousands have caught 
 a portion of their zeal 5 the abolition spirit is abroad in our 
 land, with great power, and is traversing its length and breadth, 
 conquering and to conquer ; abolition societies are formed and 
 multiplying, in every free section of our territory, on the prin 
 ciple of immediate and unconditional emancipation j four 
 periodicals l have been established expressly to maintain the 
 cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor, and a multitude 
 of our political and religious periodicals are now freely discuss 
 ing the question of negro slavery j strong exertions are making 
 for the repeal of all those laws which now disfranchise our free 
 colored population, and schools are multiplying for their mental 
 cultivation. The American Colonization Society is falling like 
 Lucifer, never to rise again ; and ere the termination of this 
 year, I trust your hearts will be cheered with the intelligence 
 
 i That is, Lundy s Genius, the Liberator, the Abolitionist, and the Eman 
 cipator. 
 
376 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XI. that a National Abolition Society has been formed in the 
 jZ" United States of America." 
 
 Lib. 3 : 178. In the midst of Mr. Garrison s address he was inter 
 rupted by " deafening and long-continued thunders of 
 applause," which greeted the entrance of Daniel O Con- 
 nell. The Irish Liberator, in a private interview with Mr. 
 Garrison upon the subject of the Colonization Society, 
 had asked, "Why don t you hold a public meeting in 
 Exeter Hall ? " Upon which Mr. Garrison expressed his 
 doubt whether the popular interest iii the subject would 
 ensure an audience. "Well," said O Connell, " I 11 come 
 and make a speech for you." " Agreed," said Mr. Gar 
 rison, and the arrangements were begun. But when the 
 meeting had assembled, O Connell was wanting. Scouts 
 were sent out for him, and he was found at a breakfast, 
 just rising to his feet to make a speech : he had entirely 
 forgotten the appointment. A note of reminder was 
 slipt into his hands, and he at once excused himself. 
 Driven rapidly to the Hall he came upon the platform, 
 and at the proper moment "threw off his magnificent 
 speech as he threw off his coat," as Mr. Garrison was 
 fond of saying in after years. 
 
 This speech, humorous, disjointed, occasionally blun 
 dering (as where O Connell expressed sympathy with the 
 " oppressed State " of South Carolina in the nullification 
 controversy), was also characteristically eloquent, and 
 calculated to probe American susceptibilities to the quick. 
 
 Lib. 3: 186. " I will now go to America," said he, after a reference to 
 the anti-slavery crisis in England and the pending issue 
 of compensation and apprenticeship. "I have often 
 longed to go there in reality 5 but so long as it is tar 
 nished by slavery, I will never pollute my foot by tread 
 ing on its shores." Of the American slave-owners he 
 declared, amid cheering : " They are the basest of the 
 base the most execrable of the execrable. I thank God 
 that upon the wings of the press the voice of so humble 
 an individual as myself will pass against the western 
 breeze that it will reach the rivers, the lakes, the 
 mountains, and the glens of America and that the 
 
MT. 28.] FIKST ENGLISH MISSION. 377 
 
 friends of liberty there will sympathize with me, and re- CHAP. XL 
 joice that I here tear down the image of liberty from the T 8j 3 . 
 recreant land of America, and condemn her as the vilest 
 of hypocrites, the greatest of liars." With slight rhetori 
 cal variation he repeated his message : " Why, I tell the 
 American slaveholder that he shall not have silence j 
 for, humble as I am, and feeble as my voice may be, yet, 
 deafening the sound of the westerly wave, and riding 
 against the blast as thunder goes, it shall reach America, 
 and tell the black man that the time of his emancipation 
 is come, and the oppressor that the period of his injustice 
 is terminated." Applying his sarcasm to the Colonization 
 Society, he called it a humbug, and " the most ludicrous 
 Society that ever yet was dreamed of." He moved a 
 resolution that its fundamental principle was ever the 
 colonization of the free people of color, " and abolition 
 never the object, but on the contrary the security of slave 
 property " j which was seconded by Captain Stuart and 
 carried unanimously. 
 
 Cresson was as usual not on hand, but the Society had 
 as defenders two members of Parliament and a converted 
 Jew from Andover, Mass., to the former of whom Thomp 
 son made an admirable rejoinder. Resolutions in further 
 denunciation of the fraudulent and oppressive character 
 of the Society, and in cordial approbation of the princi- Lib. 3 : 193, 
 pies of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society, were also 
 passed without dissent, and the meeting came to an end. 
 A few days afterward Mr. Garrison received the follow 
 ing emphatic letter from Zachary Macaulay, by whose MS. July 5, 
 prudent advice the object of the meeting had been made, j 
 not an attack on American slavery, but on the Coloniza 
 tion Society : 
 
 Zachary Macaulay to W. L. Garrison. 
 
 CONWAY, NORTH WALES, July 14, 1833. Lib. 3: 169. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR : Our friend, Mr. Cropper, will Lave informed 
 
 you of the impossibility of my complying with your request, of 
 
 sending you an explanation of the causes of my absence from 
 
 your meeting yesterday. I certainly would not willingly have 
 
378 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [-T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XI. been absent, for it was my desire to take every fair opportunity 
 of testifying my utter and increasing disapprobation of the prin 
 ciples professed, on the subject of negro slavery, by the Ameri 
 can Colonization Society. I can have no objection, indeed, to 
 the plan of colonizing in Africa, with a view to its civilization, 
 and to the extension of Christianity in that de eply injured quarter 
 of the globe. On the contrary, I desire above all things to see 
 such plans, conceived in the true spirit of philanthropy, multi 
 plying on that coast. But the Colonization Society appears to 
 me to adopt, as the basis of its schemes, not the love, but the 
 hatred and contempt of the negro race, and to regard every one 
 tinged with their blood as an object, not of kindness and brother 
 hood, but of abhorrence, and of exclusion from the common 
 sympathies and affinities of our nature, and from that union 
 and fellowship in that Saviour in whom there is neither Jew nor 
 Gentile, Barbarian nor Scythian, American nor African, black 
 nor white, bond nor free, but we are all one in Christ Jesus. 
 
 The unchristian prejudice of color, (which alone has given 
 birth to the Colonization Society, though varnished over with 
 other more plausible pretences, and veiled under a profession 
 of a Christian regard for the temporal and spiritual interests of 
 the negro which is belied by the whole course of its reason 
 ings and the spirit of its measures,) is so detestable in itself that 
 I think it ought not to be tolerated, but, on the contrary, ought 
 to be denounced and opposed by all humane, and especially 
 by all pious, persons in this country. And it especially becomes 
 those who have taken any active part on behalf of the negro 
 race, whether in this country or in the United States, to keep 
 aloof from all cooperation with a body whose evident purpose 
 is adverse, not only to the liberty of the enslaved negro, but 
 to the moral and political elevation of the free negro. 
 
 I beg to express my sense of the eminent services you have 
 rendered to the cause of humanity, by your able and persever 
 ing exposure of the evil tendency of the principles on which 
 the Colonization Society acts, and trust that your exertions will 
 be crowned with success. I remain, my dear sir, 
 
 Yours very faithfully, ZACHARY MACAULAY. 
 
 Clarkson visited, and a few parting shots sent after 
 the " impostor " Cresson l (who was discovered to be on 
 
 l See two letters to the London Patriot, dated July 22 and Aug. 6, 1833 
 (Lib. 3:169, 201). In the last, Mr. Garrison says, "I maintain that the 
 guilt of slavery is national, its danger is national, and the obligation to re 
 move it is national." 
 
Mi. 28.J FIRST ENGLISH MISSION. 379 
 
 his way to Ireland, " in company with an Irish female CHAP. XL 
 partisan/ but would find that O ConnelPs speech had ^ 3 , 
 reached Dublin before him), Mr. Garrison s mission 
 seemed ended. The Providence, however, which had 
 brought him to England in season to witness the passage Lib. 3 : 163. 
 by Parliament of the bill emancipating 800,000 slaves in 
 the British West Indies, had in store for him an even 
 more precious privilege. Three days after the reading 
 of the bill for the second time in the House of Commons 
 (July 26) l Wilberforce breathed his last in London, and 
 a week later still (August 5) his remains were interred in 
 Westminster Abbey by the side of Fox and Pitt. In the 
 unexampled train of mourners, behind "princes of the 
 blood-royal, prelates of the church, members of both London 
 Houses of Parliament, many of England s proudest w. L. G., 
 nobility, and representatives of the intellect, virtue, phi- 47 
 
 lanthropy, and industry of the land" behind Welling 
 ton, Peel, Graham, Morpeth, Fowell Buxton, Lushington, 
 Stanley, the Grattans walked with his friend George 
 Thompson the editor of the Liberator, the least observed 
 and the least known of the funeral procession, yet the 
 one upon whom, if upon any one, Wilberforce s mantle 
 had fallen, and whose prominence in this historic scene 
 must grow with the shifting perspective of time. 
 
 On Saturday, the 18th of August, Mr. Garrison em 
 barked from London in the packet-ship Hannibal, Capt. 
 Hebard, for the United States. At the end of a week 
 Portsmouth was reached, and farewell letters despatched MS. Aug. 
 to his English friends, who had generously supplemented from 
 the deficiency of his travelling credit. Five weeks more 
 must elapse 2 before he could set foot on his native soil, 
 where a reception awaited him as opposite as possible to 
 that which he had met with in England. 
 
 1 It received the royal assent Aug. 28, 1833. 
 
 2 The Hannibal left Portsmouth on Aug. 26, and reached New York on 
 Sunday evening, Sept. 29, 1833. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 1833. 
 
 CHAP. xii. j I ^IME would vindicate the essentially patriotic service 
 1833. JL which Mr. Garrison had rendered by cementing the 
 alliance between British philanthropy and American abo 
 litionism ; but, for the moment, his faithful exposure of 
 the national guilt of slaveholding his "washing dirty 
 linen abroad " caused him to be looked upon at home 
 as the detractor and enemy of his country. Not only 
 what he had himself said in Exeter Hall, but O Conn ell s 
 contemptuous treatment of the colonization " humbug/ 
 and tremendous denunciation of American slave-owners, 
 were treasured up against his return. The colonization 
 organs sedulously fanned the public heat caused by the 
 wounding of the national amour propre, and the mind 
 of the respectable classes was prepared for any form of 
 popular resentment against Mr. Garrison by the publica 
 tion, in the Boston Daily Advertiser and in Niletf Register, 
 while he was still afloat, of Harrison Gray Otis s letter to 
 
 Ante, p. 242. a South Carolinian, already referred to. Cresson, too, 
 
 Lib. 3 : 151. had written to the N. Y. Commercial Advertiser : " I have 
 only time by this packet to tell thee that Garrison and 
 the Anti-SlaVery Society are fully employed in endeavor 
 ing to crush me, hunt the Colonization Society out of 
 the country, and vilify our national character." 
 
 Lib. 3 : 163. The flame broke out by reason of an " unpremeditated 
 coincidence" for which Mr. Garrison was in no wise 
 responsible. Notices of a public meeting to form that 
 New York City Anti-Slavery Society which he had effect- 
 
 Lib. 3:161. ively encouraged on his departure, were read from the 
 
-ET. 28.] AMEEICAN ANTI-SLAVEKY SOCIETY. 381 
 
 pulpits l on the very day the Hannibal cast anchor in CHAP. XH. 
 New York harbor, and the Courier and Enquirer at once I ^ > 
 associated it with his arrival. The notorious Garrison 
 has returned ; the " friends of immediate emancipation " 
 are summoned to meet together. " What, then, is to be Lib. 3 : 161. 
 done! Are we tamely to look on, and see this most 
 dangerous species of fanaticism extending itself through 
 society ? ... Or shall we, by promptly and fearlessly 
 crushing this many-headed Hydra in the bud, expose the 
 weakness as well as the folly, madness, and mischief of 
 these bold and dangerous men ? " Everybody, continued 
 the editor, favors immediate emancipation with compen 
 sation, and accordingly he recommended the mob to 
 accept the invitation to attend at Clinton Hall, that same 
 evening (October 2), and to join in the calm and temperate 
 discussion of the different propositions. A communica 
 tion to the same paper from the " Ghost of Peter the 
 Hermit" predicted slaughter as the result of the anti- 
 slavery crusade, " if you listen to my voice now, and to 
 the solicitations of the pacific Garrison. He will un 
 doubtedly have great weight with you from having 
 abused and maligned your country with such patriotic 
 ardor abroad ! He comes in the flush of triumph, and 
 with the flatteries still on his ear of those who wish not 
 well to your country." Similar incentives were employed 
 by the Standard of the same date : " In this matter we Lib. 3 : 161. 
 have a duty to perform, not to ourselves alone, but to our 
 brethren of the South. . . . We are not astonished 
 at the excitement which the acts of Garrison and his 
 friends have produced in this community. . . . Let 
 the people look to it." Meantime, placards were posted 
 about the city bearing the following significant 
 
 NOTICE. #.3:161. 
 
 TO ALL PERSONS FROM THE SOUTH. 
 
 All persons interested in the subject of a meeting called by 
 J. Leavitt, W. Green, Jr., W. Goodell, J. Rankin, Lewis Tap- 
 
 1 Not from all : some refused (Lib. 3 : 162). 
 
382 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEEISON. |>ET. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XII. pan, at Clinton Hall, this evening at 7 o clock, are requested 
 jjjT to attend at the same hour and place. 
 
 MANY SOUTHERNERS. 
 New York, Oct. 2, 1833. 
 
 N. B. All Citizens who may feel disposed to manifest the 
 true feeling of the State on this subject, are requested to attend. 
 
 How Mr. Garrison spent the interval between Sunday 
 and Wednesday evenings (unless at quarantine) is not- 
 known, nor whether he had met with his anti-slavery 
 associates in the city up to the hour of the meeting, 
 towards which, as a simple spectator, he made his way in 
 the midst of a large and threatening crowd. Arrived at 
 Clinton Hall, 1 it was found closed. The Trustees, Ar 
 thur Tappan excepted, had withdrawn their permission 
 to hold the meeting, which accordingly had been quietly 
 adjourned to the Chatham-Street Chapel, 2 where organi 
 zation was effected and a constitution barely adopted 
 before the mob, which had meantime been passing reso 
 lutions in Tammany Hall, burst in on the heels of the 
 retreating members. The story of the riot has been told 
 in the i Life of Arthur Tappan (pp. 168-175) and in John 
 son s l Garrison and his Times (p. 145). Mr. Garrison s 
 relations to it are all that can concern us here. Swag 
 gering John Neal, 3 who, naturally enough as a " noto 
 rious Colonizationist," took a leading part in it, has left 
 
 1 This building, situated on the corner of Beekman Street and Theatre 
 Alley, with a wing on Nassau Street, was demolished in May, 1881. or a 
 view of it, see p. 52 of A Picture of New York in 1846 (New York : Ho- 
 mans & Ellis) or p. 19 of the N. Y. Phrenological Journal for January, 
 1885. In 1861-62, the office of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, the 
 organ of the American Anti-Slavery Society, was in the second story of 
 Clinton Hall. 
 
 2 The Rev. Charles G. Finney s. The site was just east of the terminus 
 of the Brooklyn bridge. 
 
 3 " There swaggers John Neal, who has wasted in Maine 
 The sinews and chords of his pugilist brain. 
 
 A man who s made less than he might have, because 
 He always has thought himself more than he was." 
 
 Lowell s Fable for Critics. 
 
. 28.] 
 
 AMERICAN ANTI- SLAVERY SOCIETY. 
 
 383 
 
 this blundering account in his l Wandering Recollections CHAP. xn. 
 of a Somewhat Bus Life : 
 
 u As I happened to be going through New York, with my 
 wife, on our way to the Western country, and thence to Europe, 
 in 1834, or 1835, I should say, I found myself one day in the 
 Courier and Enquirer office, where, by the way, I first met with 
 Mr. Bennett, who had just been secured for that paper, and 
 was there introduced to me by Colonel Webb. I was informed 
 that a meeting was called in the Park, by William Lloyd Gar 
 rison, for that very evening. After some talk, I consented to 
 take a hand. It was arranged that we should all go to the 
 meeting, and adjourn to Old Tammany, and that there I should 
 offer a resolution, which was to be seconded by Mr. Graham, 
 afterward postmaster. We went, took possession of the meet 
 ing, and adjourned to Tammany ; and I had the greatest diffi 
 culty in crowding my way up to the platform all out of breath, 
 choked with dust, and steaming with perspiration, where I 
 called for Mr. Garrison, or any of his friends, to appear ; prom 
 ising them safe conduct and fair play. But nobody answered. 
 I made a short speech : Graham backed out ; and the resolutions 
 were passed with a roar like that you may sometimes hear in 
 the Bay of Fundy. 
 
 " On my way out, I was completely surrounded, lifted off my 
 feet, and carried by storm into a cellar, and, by the time we 
 were seated at the table, out sprang half a score of bowie- 
 knives, and as many pistols j and at least a dozen cards were 
 handed me, with Alabama, Georgia, and l South Carolina, 
 under the names. They had proposed, a few minutes before, 
 to go after Garrison, to some church, where they were told he 
 was to be found j and went so far as to say that, when I called 
 for him, if he had appeared on the platform, they would have 
 * rowed him up Salt River. And then they asked me if I had 
 not seen their handbill. I had not, nor heard it mentioned j 
 but it seems that in the afternoon they had issued a poster, 
 calling upon the men of the South to be present at the meet 
 ing, which was to take place in the Park. I told them what 
 would have been the consequences, if they had meddled with 
 Garrison where I was ; for we were banded together, Colonel 
 Webb, Mr. Graham, and perhaps twenty more, with a deter 
 mination to see fair play, at the risk of our lives taking 
 it for granted that free discussion could do the cause of truth 
 no harm. To this my new Southern friends assented, at last, 
 
 P. 401. 
 
 Jas. Gordon 
 
 Bennett. 
 
 Jas. Watson 
 
 Webb. 
 
 Jas. Lorimei 
 Graham. 
 
384 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XII. and gave up the idea of tearing down a church because a 
 jjJT hunted man had found shelter with the women there j and we 
 parted in peace." 1 
 
 The contemporary record of NeaPs exploits (in which 
 his potential control of the mob naturally does not 
 appear) reads as follows : 
 
 N. Y. "In the course of his remarks, he gave a correct portrait of 
 
 ? i833 \ Garrison, whom he designated as a man who had gone through 
 
 Lib. 3 : 162. this country as far as he had dared, to promulgate his doctrines, 
 
 and had also crossed the Atlantic with the same object. He 
 
 stated that Garrison and his associates were willing to trample 
 
 the Constitution under foot, by the influence of anti-slavery 
 
 societies ; and the object of the present call was to appoint an 
 
 Auxiliary Society to that already established in the Eastern 
 
 States by himself and a few deluded followers." 
 
 Lib. 3:167. An eye-witness of the mob describes it as "a genuine, 
 drunken, infuriated mob of blackguards of every species, 
 some with good clothes, and the major part the very 
 sweepings of the city." " The shouting, screaming, and 
 mgf cursing for Tappan and Garrison defy all belief." A 
 merchant in respectable circumstances said : " If I had 
 my will, or if I could catch him, Garrison should be 
 packed up in a box with air-holes, marked this side up/ 
 
 Oct. 3, 1833; and so shipped to Georgia." 2 The Commercial Advertiser 
 confirmed this report : "In regard to "Win. Lloyd Garri 
 son, the misguided young gentleman who has just 
 returned from England, whither he has recently been for 
 
 1 There was a comic side to all this. " I suppose our citizen, J. Neal," 
 writes Nathan Winslow from Portland to Mr. Garrison, Oct. 17, 1833 (MS.), 
 "feels quite happy in haranguing a mob where he can disgorge his froth 
 without having his arguments criticised. We thought his opposition to 
 our cause rather aided us, he is so well known in this place ; but I fear it 
 maybe different in New York. It is singular indeed that he should arraign 
 thee as a slanderer of thy country when he was, on his return from Europe 
 [1827], near being mobbed on the same account. Portland was filled with 
 handbills circulated by those whose characters he had traduced, and a 
 colored man employed to follow him from house to house. Perhaps this may 
 be one reason of his aversion to that race." See, also, Lib. 4: 27. 
 
 2 This device was afterwards found useful by fugitives coming the other 
 way. 
 
Mi. 28.] AMERICAN ANTI- SLAVERY SOCIETY. 385 
 
 the sole purpose, as it would seem, of traducing the CHAP. xu. 
 people and institutions of his own country, 1 and who, it I s 3 " 3 . 
 was supposed, was to have taken an active part in this 
 meeting, but one sentiment appeared to prevail. "We 
 will not record the expressions of disgust and abhorrence 
 which were coupled with his name." Had he been 
 present, many " grave and respectable citizens " would 
 have consented to his being tarred and feathered. " We 
 hope, most sincerely, that not a hair of Mr. Garrison s 
 head will ever be injured by personal violence j but he 
 will do well to consider that his course of conduct in 
 England has kindled a spirit of hostility towards him at 
 home which cannot be easily allayed. He will act wisely 
 never to attempt addressing a public meeting in this 
 country again." 
 
 The Evening Post could not credit the stories of threat- Oct. 3, 1833 ; 
 ened violence to Mr. Garrison : " The mere feeling of 
 magnanimity towards an antagonist so feebly supported, 
 with so few adherents, with so little sympathy in his 
 favor, should have forbidden the expression of such a 
 design, even uttered as an unmeaning menace. We should 
 be sorry that any invasion of his personal rights should 
 occur to give him consequence, and to increase the 
 number of his associates. Garrison is a man who, what 
 ever may be the state of his mind on other topics, is as 
 mad as the winds on the slavery question." It added : 
 " We know of no question of public policy on which pub 
 lic opinion is so unanimous " as that of discountenancing 
 the abolitionists. * 
 
 Deplorably ignorant of what he owed to NeaFs friendly 
 protection, but well aware how much restraint magna 
 nimity had imposed on the mob with reference to himself, 
 Mr. Garrison pursued his journey to Boston, where his 
 approach had also stirred the spirit of violence. On 
 Monday, October 7, the following handbill was generally 
 circulated throughout the city : 
 
 l Mr. Garrison had not yet become, in the mouths of his enemies, a 
 British subject. 
 
 VOL. I. 25 
 
386 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [-&T. 28. 
 
 /./*. 3: 163. BOSTONIANS AWAKE!! 
 
 The true American has returned, alias "William Lloyd Gar 
 rison, the " Negro Champion," from his disgraceful mission to 
 the British metropolis, whither he went to obtain pecuniary 
 aid, and the countenance of Englishmen to wrest the American 
 citizen s property which he has fought and labored for, from 
 out of their hands, and thereby deprive the southern section of 
 Sic. our happy union the only means of obtaining a livelihood. He 
 has held meetings in the city of London, and slandered the 
 Americans to the utmost of his power, calling them a set of 
 infernal Renegadoes, Turks, Arabs, &c., and also countenancing 
 the outrageous conduct of Daniel O Connell, who at one of his 
 (Garrison s) meetings, called us " a set of sheep- stealers, man- 
 murderers, and that the blackest corner in Hell s bottomless pit 
 ought to be, and would be, the future destination of the Americans!" 
 And this said Garrison stood by his side and assisted him in his 
 infamous harangue. Americans ! will you brook this conduct ? 
 I think not. He is now in your power do not let him escape 
 you, but go this evening, armed with plenty of tar and feathers, 
 and administer him justice at his abode at No. 9, Merchants 
 Hall, Congress-st. 
 
 A NORTH ENDER. 
 
 Boston, October 7, 1833. 
 
 #.3:163. This base appeal sufficed to surround the Liberator 
 office that night with " a dense mob, breathing threaten- 
 ings which foreboded a storm." But as yet, even in 
 Boston, Mr. Garrison was so little known to the public 
 that he might, as in New York, have mingled unsus 
 pected with his pursuers. .In fact, nothing came of 
 the demonstration except a silly suggestion by the 
 
 Lib. 3 -. 163. Post, that the inflammatory handbill had " been printed 
 and distributed by friends of Mr. Garrison"; and the 
 equally silly comment of the incredulous Transcript, 
 that Mr. Garrison was " not quite so mad, (lunatic as 
 he is, on the subject of negro slaves and slavery,) as 
 to excite still further the indignation of his fellow- 
 citizens by such or any similar act of indiscretion and 
 folly." The madman (by the concurrent judgment of 
 
JET. 28.] AMEKICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 387 
 
 two cities) paid his respects to both the mobs and their CHAP. xn. 
 promoters at his first opportunity, in the Liberator : 1833. 
 
 " To the charge made against me by the cowardly ruffian #.3:163. 
 who conducts the New York Courier and Enquirer, 1 and by the 
 miserable liar and murderous hypocrite of the New York Com 
 mercial Advertiser, 2 of having slandered my country abroad, I 
 reply that it is false. All that I uttered in England in refer 
 ence to the institutions and practices of the United States shall 
 be given to the public. I did not hesitate there I have not 
 hesitated here I shall hesitate nowhere, to brand this country 
 as hypocritical and tyrannical in its treatment of the people of 
 color, whether bond or free. If this be calumny, I dealt freely 
 in it, as I shall deal, as long as slavery exists among us or, at 
 least, as long as the power of utterance is given to my tongue. 
 Still slavery aside I did not fail to eulogize my country, before 
 a British audience, in terms of affection, admiration and respect. 
 
 " As to the menaces and transactions of the New York mob, I 
 regard them with mingled emotions of pity and contempt. I was 
 an eye-witness of that mob, from the hour of its assembling 
 at Clinton Hall to its final assault upon the Chatham- Street 
 Chapel standing by it ; undisguisedly, as calm in my feelings as 
 if those who were seeking my life were my warmest supporters. 3 
 
 " The frantic annunciation of the worthless Webb The 
 Agitators Defeated! The Constitution Triumphant." is ex 
 tremely ludicrous. It is not possible that even that wretched 
 man can, for a moment, delude himself with the notion that 
 any abolitionist will abandon the holy cause which he has 
 espoused, in consequence of any threats or any acts of per 
 sonal violence. For myself, I am ready to brave any danger, 
 even unto death. I feel no uneasiness either in regard to my 
 fate or to the success of the cause of abolition. Slavery must 
 speedily be abolished : the blow that shall sever the chains of 
 the slaves may shake the nation to its centre may momen 
 tarily disturb the pillars of the Union but it shall redeem the 
 character, extend the influence, establish the security, and 
 increase the prosperity of our great republic. 
 
 " I cannot express the admiration which I feel in view of the 
 moral courage and unshrinking determination of those who 
 assembled at Chatham- Street Chapel, in despite of peril and 
 
 l James Watson Webb. 2 Col. William L. Stone. 
 
 3 "There are men who rise refreshed on hearing a threat" (R. W. 
 Emerson, Divinity School Address, July 15, 1838). 
 
388 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. 
 
 [JET. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 1833- 
 
 Lib. 3 : 179, 
 
 and Preface 
 
 to pamphlet, 
 
 Speeches in 
 
 Exeter Hall, 
 
 July 13, 
 
 1833- 
 
 reproach, for the purpose of organizing an Anti- Slavery Society. 
 The Constitution which they adopted breathes an excellent 
 spirit, and is sound in principle. Such men can never be intimi 
 dated by the vile. 
 
 " The whole of this disgraceful excitement owes its origin 
 and execution to the prominent advocates of the Colonization 
 Society. 1 The first who had the hardihood to stigmatize me as 
 having gone abroad to calumniate my country, were those 
 wholesale dealers in falsehood and scurrility, Robert S. Finley, 
 Joshua N. Danforth, and Cyril Pearl. 
 
 "An attempt to create an excitement was made on my 
 arrival in this city, by some anonymous blackguard, which 
 met with partial success. The effect of these proceedings can 
 not fail to be highly favorable to the cause of emancipation. 
 
 Glory to them who die in this great cause ! 
 
 Mobs judges can inflict no brand of shame, 
 Or shape of death, to shroud them from applause ! 
 
 No ! manglers of the martyr s earthly frame, 
 
 Your hangmen fingers cannot touch his fame. 
 Still in this guilty land there shall be some 
 
 Proud hearts the shrine of Freedom s vestal flame; 
 Long trains of ill may pass unheeded dumb 
 But Vengeance is behind, and Justice is to come! " 
 
 A month later, as promised, Mr. Garrison printed the 
 ground of his offence against his countrymen, accom 
 panying it with this explanation : 
 
 " The Liberator of this morning embodies all the slanders 
 which I uttered in England against the American Colonization 
 Society and the United States. The speeches which were 
 delivered at the great meeting held in Exeter Hall, and which 
 have caused so much excitement among the colonization crusa 
 ders and their backers the mobocracy, were all taken down by 
 a skilful and accomplished reporter, expressly for publication 
 in this country. So far from being ashamed of my language 
 on that memorable occasion, I gave eighty dollars for a full 
 report of all that was then uttered by myself and others, in 
 order that I might faithfully present it to the public on my 
 return. I wish neither to modify nor retract a single sentence. 
 The other speeches will follow in due course. To that fearless 
 and eloquent champion of liberty, that first of Irish patriots, 
 Daniel O Connell, Esq., the colored population of this coun- 
 
 l See, more specifically, Lib. 4 : 27. 
 
^ET. 28.] AMERICAN ANTI- SLAVERY SOCIETY. 389 
 
 try and their advocates are under heavy obligations for his CHAP. XII. 
 masterly vindication of their cause, his terrible castigation of x ~ 
 American slavery, and his withering satire upon the coloniza 
 tion l humbug, at this meeting. 
 
 " Now let the enemies of freedom foam and rage ! But the 
 secret of their malice lies in the triumphant success of my mis 
 sion. Had I failed to vanquish the agent of the American Coloni 
 zation Society, or to open the eyes of British philanthropists to 
 its naked deformity, there would have been no excitement on 
 my return. These sensitive republicans who are so jealous of 
 the reputation of their country, be it remembered, are the most 
 sturdy upholders of the slave system, and the most ardent 
 sticklers for the banishment of our free colored population to 
 the African coast. 1 They esteem it no disgrace to debase, 
 lacerate, plunder and kidnap two millions of slaves, and tread 
 upon the necks of half a million free colored citizens ; but it is 
 foul slander, in their impartial judgment, to declare before a 
 British audience that such conduct is in the highest degree 
 hypocritical and tyrannical. But their iniquity is not done in 
 a corner, nor can it be hid under a bushel; and I tell them that 
 I will hold them up to the scorn and indignation of the world 
 I will stamp the brand of infamy upon their brow, which, like 
 the mark of Cain, shall make them known and detested by the 
 friends of freedom and humanity in every country and in every 
 clime. t Where there is shame, there may in time be virtue. 
 I have already crimsoned their cheeks with the bitter con 
 sciousness of their guilt j and through their shame I will never 
 despair of seeing them brought to repentance. It is idle for 
 them to bluster and threaten they will find out, by and by, 
 that I am storm-proof. 
 
 " If I had outraged common sense and common decency, by 
 throwing all the guilt of our oppression upon the British Gov 
 ernment ; if I had dealt in the wretched cant that slavery was 
 an evil entailed upon us by the mother country ; if I had been 
 as dishonest, as hypocritical, and as pusillanimous as the agent 
 
 1 The same phenomenon has been observed in Brazil. " O trabalho todo 
 dos esclavagistas consistiu sempre em identiflcar o Brazil com a escravidao. 
 Quern a ataca 6 logo suspeito de connivencia com o estrangeiro, de inimigo 
 das instituicoes do seu proprio paiz. . . . Atacar a Monarchia, sendo o 
 paiz monarchico, a religiao, sendo o paiz Catholico, e" licito a todos ; atacar, 
 porem, a escravidao, 6 traicao nacional e felonia " ( Joaquim Nabuco, O 
 Abolicionismo, p. 192 ; and see pp. 248, 249). Such an identification of 
 slavery with the whole people was, in the mouths of Northerners, to stultify 
 their inquiry, What have we to do with slavery ? 
 
390 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XII. of the American Colonization Society ; if I had extolled that 
 ~ kind of philanthropy which calls for the banishment of every 
 man, woman and child whose skin is * not colored like my own ; 
 if I had asserted that the stealers of human beings in the South 
 ern States were kind, liberal and paternal in their treatment of 
 their victims, and anxious to abolish slavery j in short, if I had 
 sacrificed conscience, honesty and truth upon the altar of 
 falsehood and prejudice why, then the reputation of the 
 United States would have been pure and spotless in the eyes of 
 the English nation, and I should have received the applause, 
 instead of the malediction, of a senseless mob ! But I was 
 neither knave nor fool enough to do any such thing. I spoke 
 the truth, in the love of the truth the whole truth and nothing 
 but the truth. I freely acknowledged the guilt, the awful guilt, 
 of this boasted land of liberty, in holding one sixth part of its 
 immense population in servile chains; and besought the sym 
 pathy of the friends of bleeding humanity in England, in behalf 
 of our afflicted slaves. Nor did I fail to tear the mask from the 
 brow of the American Colonization Society, so that it might be 
 feared and loathed as a monster of cruelty, violence and blood. 
 For this cause, the wicked have drawn out the sword, and 
 have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to 
 slay such as be of upright conversation. Their sword shall 
 enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. " 
 
 Undeterred by the riotous demonstrations which had 
 attended his return, and in forgetfulness or defiance of 
 his Canterbury enemies who had sought to prevent his 
 departure for England, Mr. Garrison, in the fourth week 
 
 #.3:171, in October, paid a visit to Miss Crandall, and saw her 
 school " in the full tide of successful experiment." He 
 saw also " the stone which was thrown into the window 
 by some unknown republican of Canterbury the shat 
 tered pane of glass the window-curtain stained by a 
 volley of rotten eggs and last, not least, a moral non- 
 
 Andrew T. descript, though physically a human being, named A 
 
 T j T nence repa i r i n g to Brooklyn, the real 
 
 Mecca of his journey, he was most hospitably received 
 by the venerable George Benson, under whose roof, on 
 the 27th of October, occurred an incident thus reported 
 in the next issue of the Liberator . 
 
JET. 28.] AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 391 
 
 " ACKNOWLEDGMENT. Just before midnight, on Sabbath Lib. 3:175- 
 evening last, in Brooklyn, Connecticut, the Deputy Sheriff of 
 Windham County, in behalf of those zealous patrons of col 
 ored schools, those plain, independent republicans, those high- 
 minded patriots, those practical Christians, 
 
 ANDREW T. JUDSON, 
 
 RUFUS ADAMS, 
 
 SOLOMON PAINE, 
 
 CAPT. RICHARD FENNER, 
 
 DOCTOR HARRIS, 
 
 presented me with five indictments for a panegyric upon their 
 virtuous and magnanimous actions, in relation to Miss Cran- 
 dall s nigger school in Canterbury, inserted in the Liberator of 
 March 16, 1833. I shall readily comply with their polite and 
 urgent invitation to appear at the Windham County Court on 
 the second Tuesday of December, to show cause why, &c., &c. 
 As they have generously given me precept upon precept, I 
 shall give them in return line upon line here (in the Liberator) 
 a little, and there (in the court room) a great deal." 
 
 These suits were never brought to trial. They were Lib. 3:203; 
 continued, at Mr. Garrison s request, to the March term 
 of the county court (1834), and were again postponed to 
 the fourth Tuesday in January, 1835, previous to which 
 date the following proposal was addressed Ipy the cashier 
 of the Windham County Bank to Mr. Benson : 
 
 DEC. 27, 1834. MS. Geo. 
 
 Benson to 
 
 DEAR SIR : I am requested to say to you that the five w. L, G. 
 suits against Mr. Garrison can be withdrawn upon condition 
 that neither party shall receive cost of the other ; provided Mr. 
 Garrison answers to the proposition by the 10th of January. I 
 am also requested to ask whether you will communicate this to 
 Mr. Garrison and receive his answer, which may be communi 
 cated to the plaintiffs. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 ADAMS WHITE. 
 
 The proposition was accepted by the defendant in 
 accordance with the pithy advice of Mr. Benson " You 
 
392 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. xii. know that the result of a lawsuit (however just) is 
 1833. verv uncertain, but the expense is certain " and of his 
 counsel. 1 
 
 A year so crowded with incidents, so full of dra 
 matic scene-shifting, so devoid of rest (except that which 
 comes from change) for the subject of this biography, 
 had still in reserve a climax of action. The same issue 
 
 Lib. 3 : 159. of the Liberator which reported Mr. Garrison s arrival in 
 New York gave notice that a convention for carrying 
 out his darling project, the formation of an American 
 Anti-Slavery Society, would be held that season in Phila 
 delphia. The call, by concurrent resolution of the friends 
 of immediate emancipation in the cities of Boston, Provi 
 dence, New York and Philadelphia, was actually issued 
 October 29, 1833, for the fourth day of December, and 
 was signed by Arthur Tappan, President, Joshua Leavitt, 
 one of the Managers, and Elizur Wright, Jr., Secretary, 
 of the New York City Anti-Slavery Society. Delegates 
 were requested to report to Evan Lewis, No. 94 North 
 Fifth St., Philadelphia, and to regard the call as confi 
 dential, in order to avoid interruption in the meetings. 
 
 l John Parish, Esq. A special interest attaches to the following extract 
 from a letter addressed by William Goodell to Mr. Garrison under date of 
 New York, Nov. 14, 1833 : "I have this moment received a letter from my 
 brother-in-law, Eoswell C. Smith, of Hampton, Conn, (the well-known 
 author of an Arithmetic, a Grammar, etc., published by booksellers in 
 Boston), who is a warm friend of Miss Crandall s School and of the Anti- 
 Slavery Cause. He writes to suggest that it would be, in his opinion, of 
 service to you and the Cause to employ a lawyer well acquainted in the 
 neighborhood and zealously attached to the Cause. Such a person he con 
 siders Lafayette Foster, Esq., a young attorney, just settled in Hampton, 
 and well known in all that region. (Hampton, you know, adjoins Brooklyn 
 on the West. ) Mr. Foster, he says, has already distinguished himself by 
 the acumen and logic with which he has, on several occasions, in conversa 
 tion, etc., exposed the fallacy of Judge Daggett s reasoning in the late 
 decision, to the conviction and conversion of some intelligent men who liad 
 been satisfied with the logic of the Judge. I have myself known something 
 of Foster as a young man of an uncommon promise, and a staunch advocate 
 of Temperance. Mr. Smith says that, whoever else you may have employed, 
 he thinks it would be well to employ Foster in addition, and he is so ardent 
 in the Cause that he would be glad to do all in his power, if he never received 
 a cent in compensation." Mr. Foster, a descendant of Miles Standish, was 
 the future Senator and Acting Vice-President of the United States. 
 
^ET. 28.] AMEKICAN ANTI-SLAVEKY SOCIETY. 393 
 
 So the summons went out to every part of the North. To CHAP. xn. 
 George W. Benson, at Providence, Mr. Garrison wrote : l8 ~J 3 
 
 W. L. Garrison to George W. Benson. 
 
 BOSTON, November 2, 1833. MS. 
 
 Here is the warrant for our national meeting. Show it 
 among the genuine friends of our cause as extensively as possi 
 ble, and urge them to be fully represented in the Convention. 
 
 My mind is crowded with pleasing remembrances of my late 
 visit to Canterbury and Brooklyn. How deeply am I indebted 
 to you, to your brother, and all the members of your venerable 
 father s household ! And above all, how infinite are my obli 
 gations to that Almighty Being who has given me such dear 
 friends, whose shield has protected me from the arrows of my 
 bitter persecutors, and whose arm is made bare for my deliver 
 ance ! Truly, " blessed is he that considereth the poor : the 
 Lord will deliver him in time of trouble." 
 
 I am more and more impressed with the importance of " work 
 ing whilst the day lasts." If "we all do fade as a leaf" if 
 we are "as the sparks that fly upwards" if the billows of 
 time are swiftly removing the sandy foundation of our life 
 what we intend to do for the captive, and for our country, and 
 for the subjugation of a hostile world, must be done quickly. 
 Happily, " our light afflictions are but for a moment." 
 
 Show a bold front at the annual meeting of your Society. I 
 shall be with you in spirit, though not bodily. 
 
 Among your numerous friends, remember there is none more 
 attached to you than 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 In another direction he sped the call to Whittier, on 
 his farm at Haverhill, who answered doubtfully, but 
 eagerly, November 11 : 
 
 John G. Whittier to W. L. Garrison. 
 
 Thy letter of the 5th has been received. . . . MS. 
 
 I long to go to Philadelphia, to urge upon the members of 
 my Religious Society the duty of putting their shoulders to the 
 work to make their solemn testimony against Slavery visible 
 over the whole land to urge them, by the holy memories of 
 Woolman and Benezet and Tyson, to come up as of old to the 
 standard of Divine Truth, though even the fires of another per- 
 
394 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XII. seeution should blaze around them. But the expenses of the 
 journey will, I fear, be too much for me : as thee know, our 
 farming business does not put much cash in our pockets. I 
 am, however, greatly obliged to the Boston Y. M. Association 
 for selecting me as one of their delegates. I do not know how 
 it may be, but whether I go or not, my best wishes and my 
 warmest sympathies are with the friends of Emancipation. 
 
 Some of my political friends are opposed to my anti-slavery 
 sentiments, and perhaps it was in some degree owing to this 
 that at the late Convention for the nomination of Senators for 
 Essex, my nomination was lost by one vote. I should have 
 rejoiced to have had an opportunity to cooperate personally 
 with the Abolitionists of Boston. . . . 
 
 Can thee not find time for a visit to Haverhill before thee go 
 on to Philadelphia ? I wish I was certain of going with thee. 
 At all events, do write immediately on receiving this, and tell 
 me when thee shall start for the Quaker City. 
 
 Slenderer purses than Whittier s were those of some of 
 his Essex County neighbors bent on undertaking the same 
 pilgrimage. Mr. Garrison again wrote to Mr. Benson, 
 under date of November 25, 1833 : 
 
 W. L. Garrison to George W. Benson. 
 
 MS. Do you wish to take by the hand as courageous, as devoted, 
 
 as uncompromising an abolitionist (not excepting ourselves) as 
 lives in our despotic land ? Then give a hearty welcome to the 
 bearer of this David T. Kimball of the Andover Theological 
 Seminary, and President of the Anti- Slavery Society in that 
 hot-bed of Colonization. His father is a clergyman residing in 
 Ipswich, and as zealously affected in our cause as himself. He 
 is accompanied by another worthy abolitionist, named Jewett, 1 
 also a student at Andover. Now to illustrate their readiness 
 to make sacrifices in our most holy cause, I need only to state 
 that, as their means are very limited, they have resolved to go 
 on foot, say as far as New Haven, in order that they may thus 
 be enabled to get to the Convention in Philadelphia! This 
 
 l Daniel E. Jewett. He had been a fellow-student of James Miller 
 McKim, at this time residing at his home in Carlisle, Pa. ; and on his 
 entreaty, the latter attended the Convention, where he proved to be the 
 youngest member (see pp. 32, 33, Proceedings at Third Decade American 
 Anti-Slavery Society). 
 
. 28.] 
 
 AMERICAN ANTI- SLA VERY SOCIETY. 
 
 395 
 
 morning they start for Providence from thence they propose CHAP. XII. 
 
 going to Canterbury and from thence to New Haven, where 
 they will take the steamboat for New York. They will proba 
 bly tarry one day in Providence, and I dare presume that 
 between you and brother Prentice, 1 and the rest of the dear 
 friends, they will be entertained without much cost to themselves. 
 I think you cannot fail to be pleased with the modesty and 
 worth of these good " fanatics." 
 
 Probably you will have scarcely perused this scrawl ere I 
 shall constitute one in your midst. I expect to take the stage 
 to-morrow for P., and arrive there in the evening. Be good 
 enough, if you can conveniently, to call at the City Hotel, at the 
 hour of 7, and see if the madman G. has come. Perhaps I may 
 not get away from this city till Wednesday. 
 
 Many thanks to you and my generous creditor Henry for 
 your kind letters. 
 
 What news from Canterbury ? I long to get there once 
 more but more particularly under the hospitable roof of 
 your father. I confess, in addition to the other delightful 
 attractions which are there found, the soft blue eyes and 
 pleasant countenance of Miss Ellen are by no means impotent 
 or unattractive. But this is episodical. 
 
 The Young Men s Anti- Slavery Association of Boston are 
 driving ahead with even a better spirit than that of 76. They 
 have now upwards of 90 members! Their example cannot 
 be lost. 
 
 I trust our Boston delegation to the Convention will not be 
 less than eight. 2 Whether we shall get any from the State of 
 Maine is uncertain. . . . 
 
 At the City Hotel Mr. Benson found not only his cor 
 respondent but the Quaker poet, for Whittier (thanks to 
 the generosity of S. E. Sewall) had been enabled to join 
 his old friend in Boston. These three, with John Pren 
 tice and what others we know not, together made their 
 journey to New York, where they were joined by David 
 Thurston, a Congregational minister from Maine, Samuel 
 J. May, and a considerable number of delegates, who 
 
 1 John Prentice. He, with Mr. Benson and Ray Potter (of Pawtucket), 
 constituted the Rhode Island delegation at the Convention. 
 
 2 It was in fact six, viz. : Mr. Garrison, Joshua Coffin, Amos A. Phelps, 
 Jaines G. Barbadoes, Nathaniel Southard, and Arnold Buffuni. 
 
 1833- 
 
 Providence, 
 R. I. 
 
 H. E. Ben 
 son. 
 
 Helen Eli: 
 Benson. 
 
 Atlantic 
 
 Monthly, 
 
 Feb., 1874, 
 
 p. 166. 
 
 May s Rec 
 ollections, 
 p. 81. 
 
396 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. (yE-r. 28. 
 
 CHAP. xii. made each other s acquaintance for the first time. Mr. 
 1833. May, who " studied anxiously their countenances and 
 bearing, and caught most thirstily every word that 
 dropped from their lips/ and satisfied himself that 
 " most of them were men ready to die, if need be, in the 
 pass of Thermopylae," has recorded an episode of the 
 journey (by steamboat from New York to Elizabeth- 
 town, and again from Bordentown to Philadelphia) : 
 
 Mays Rec- " There was much earnest talking by other parties beside our 
 ^ l Second own Presently a gentleman turned from one of them to me and 
 Decade Pro- said, What, sir, are the Abolitionists going to do in Philadel- 
 CeC p. 2P phia ? 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 re 
 plied 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 
 choose, and to acquire as much wisdom, as much property, and 
 as high a position as they may. 
 
 "After a long conversation, which attracted as many as 
 could get within hearing, the gentleman said, courteously : 1 1 
 have been much interested, sir, in what you have said, and in 
 the exceedingly frank and temperate 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, 
 Garrison, will damage, if he does not shipwreck, any cause. 
 Stepping forward, I replied, Allow me, sir, to introduce you 
 to Mr. Garrison, of whom you entertain so bad an opinion. 
 The gentleman you have been talking with is he. " 
 
 The little company reached Philadelphia in the morn 
 ing of December 3, and found the city sufficiently ex- 
 Mav sRec- c ^ e <l by the cause of their coming to justify all the 
 Elections, p. precautions already taken, and (on a hint from the 
 
 82; Second 
 
 Decade Pro- police that they could not protect evening meetings) to 
 "p. aSf make day sessions advisable. They gathered informally, 
 
-ET. 28.] AMEKICAN ANTI-SLAVEKY SOCIETY. 397 
 
 however, some forty of them, that evening in the parlors Atlantic 
 
 of Evan Lewis, 1 when Lewis Tappan was called to the p e l., 1874, 
 
 chair. Their chief concern was for a presiding officer * l6? - 
 
 for the Convention preferably a Philadelphian whose 
 
 character should propitiate public sentiment and be, 
 
 says Mr. May, " a voucher for our harmlessness." Robert Recoiiec- 
 
 Vaux, a prominent and wealthy Quaker, seemed, apart 
 
 from his relations with Elliott Cresson, to fulfil these Ante, p. 363. 
 
 conditions, and a committee consisting of three Friends 
 
 (Evan Lewis, John G. Whittier, and Effingham L. Capron, 
 
 of Uxbridge, Mass.), two clergymen (Beriah Green and 
 
 S. J. May), and Lewis Tappan, was appointed to wait 
 
 immediately upon him and upon one other forlorn hope. 
 
 In both places they were received with mortifying 
 
 frigidity and politely bowed out, and bedtime found 
 
 them forced back on Beriah Green s sarcastic conclusion May s Rec- 
 
 " If there is not timber amongst ourselves big enough ^3- Second 
 
 to make a president of, let us get along without one, or 
 
 go home and stay there until we have grown up to be P- 2 9- 
 
 men." 
 
 Between fifty and sixty delegates, 2 representing ten of 
 the twelve free States, made their way the next morning December 4, 
 to Adelphi Hall, on Fifth Street below Walnut, greeted 
 with abusive language as they went along, and finding 
 the entrance to the building guarded by the police. The 
 doors were locked upon an assembly, as Whittier no 
 ticed, "mainly composed of comparatively young men, 
 some in middle age, and a few beyond that period." 
 Five-sevenths of them were destined to survive Presi 
 dent Lincoln s emancipation proclamation. 3 The Quaker 
 element was naturally prominent. Besides those already 
 mentioned, Maine sent Joseph Southwick, and Nathan 
 
 1 " A man who was afraid of nothing but doing or being wrong" (May s 
 Recollections, p. 82). 
 
 2 May says 56 (p. 84) ; Whittier, 62 (p. 167, Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 1874). 
 The signers of the Declaration of Sentiments were 63. There were but 
 two or three colored members. 
 
 3 At this writing (May, 1885), Elizur Wright, Jr., J. G. Whittier, and 
 Robert Purvis alone survive. 
 
398 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKBISON. [JET. 28. 
 
 CHAP. xii. and Isaac Winslow ; Massachusetts, Arnold Buffum and 
 18^3. Effingham L. Capron; 1 Pennsylvania, Thomas Shipley, 
 the intrepid foe of slaveholders and kidnappers, Edwin 
 P. Atlee, whose end, like Shipley s and Evan Lewis s, 
 was lamentably near at hand, Thomas Whitson, James 
 Mott, Bartholomew Fussell, and other less known 
 (Hicksite) Friends. But the variety of character and 
 talent gathered together in that upper story would not 
 be comprehended if allusion were not also made to 
 Joshua Coffin, Orson S. Murray, Ray Potter, Simeon S. 
 Jocelyn, Robert B. Hall, Amos A. Phelps, John Rankin, 2 
 William Green, Jr., Abraham L. Cox, William Goodell, 
 Elizur Wright, Jr., George Bourne, Charles W. Denison, 
 Robert Purvis, and James Miller McKim. On the second 
 day, too, a handful of women, all members of the Society 
 of Friends Lucre tia Mott, Esther Moore, Lydia White, 
 and Sidney Ann Lewis were, on Thomas Whitson s 
 invitation, in attendance, and, both by their presence 
 and their share in the deliberations, made the occasion 
 still more epochal. A more original, devoted, philan 
 thropic and religious body was never convened, or for a 
 more unselfish purpose, or amid greater public contempt 
 and odium. Its sittings were, while guarded, open to its 
 
 Lib. 3: 203. avowed and bitter enemies. "No person was refused 
 admittance to the Convention : on the contrary, Messrs. 
 Gurley and Finley [General Agent of the Colonization 
 Society], a large number of Southern medical students, 
 several ladies, and, in fact, all who came as spectators, 
 were politely and cordially furnished with seats." 
 
 1 " Effingham L. Capron was a Friend, of the straitest kind. At first lie 
 u was no abolitionist, and was very much prejudiced against William Lloyd 
 
 Garrison. Persuaded by my father [Arnold Buffum], he took the Liberator, 
 and concluded that slavery was wrong. He went to the Liberator office, and 
 talked with thy father without knowing him ; and when he learned that 
 the man so gentle and peaceful was the man he had supposed a monster, he 
 wept" (Mrs. Elizabeth Buffum Chace to F. J. G., MS. August, 1881). This 
 story is told, anonymously, in the fifth of Angelina Grimk^ s Letters to 
 Catherine Beecher (Lib. 7 : 123). 
 
 2 A wealthy and liberal New York merchant, subsequently Treasurer of 
 the American Anti-Slavery Society. Not to be confounded with the author 
 of Rankin s Letters (see Life of Arthur Tappan, p. 244). 
 
JET. 28.] AMEKICAN ANTI- SLA VERY SOCIETY. 399 
 
 On the first day, the meeting was opened with prayer, CHAP. xn. 
 and "timber" of the right sort for president was found ^ 3 , 
 in Beriah Green himself ; Lewis Tappan and Whittier 
 being chosen secretaries. 1 Membership was accorded to 
 all delegates of anti-slavery societies, and to all persons 
 present who favored immediate emancipation and opposed 
 expatriation. Organization, and the reading of letters of 
 sympathy from William Jay, Jeremiah Chaplin, George 
 Duffield, Theodore D. Weld, and others, consumed the 
 time of the session, which, for prudential reasons, was 
 not interrupted for the noonday meal. Foraging for 
 crackers and cheese was conducted by Joshua Coffin, 
 and pitchers of cold water supplied the only beverage. 
 Mr. Garrison was put on the committee to report a con 
 stitution (from which he was evidently excused), as well 
 as on the larger committee 2 to draft a Declaration of 
 Principles for signature by members of the Convention. 
 Adjournment took place at five o clock in the afternoon, 
 and the latter committee met shortly afterwards at the 
 house of its chairman, Dr. Atlee, where, after a comparison May s Rec- 
 of views, Mr. Garrison, Mr. Whittier and Mr. May were 
 appointed a sub-committee of three to prepare a draft of 
 the Declaration " to be reported next morning, at nine 
 o clock, to the whole committee, in the room adjoining 
 the hall of the Convention." They accordingly withdrew 
 to the house of a fellow-delegate, James McCrummell, 
 the colored host of Mr. Garrison, and there it was finally 
 
 1 "The choice fell upon Beriah Green. A better man could not have 
 been selected. Though of plain exterior and unimposing presence, Mr. 
 Green was a man of learning and superior ability ; in every way above the 
 average of so-called men of eminence. Mr. Tappan, who sat at his right, 
 was a jaunty, man-of-the-world-looking person, well-dressed and handsome, 
 with a fine voice and taking appearance. Whittier, who sat at his left, was 
 quite as fine-looking, though in a different way. He wore a dark frock coat 
 with standing collar, which, with his thin hair, dark and sometimes flash 
 ing eyes, and black whiskers, not large, but noticeable in those unhirsute 
 days, gave him, to my then unpractised eye, quite as much of a military 
 as a Quaker aspect " (J. M. McKim, Proceedings at Third Decade, p. 37). 
 
 2 Consisting of Messrs. Atlee, Wright, Garrison, Jocelyn, Thurston, Ster 
 ling (of Cleveland, O.), Wm. Green, Jr. (of N. Y.), Whittier, Goodell, and 
 May. 
 
400 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. 
 
 . 28. 
 
 CHAP. xii. agreed that the composition of the document should be 
 1833. given to him who had called the Convention into being. 
 
 Rfcollec- " We left him," says Mr. May, " about ten o clock, agreeing 
 to come to him again next morning at eight. On our return at 
 the appointed hour, we found him, with shutters closed and 
 lamps burning, just writing the last paragraph of his admirable 
 draft. We read it over together two or three times very carefully, 
 agreed to a few slight alterations, and at nine went to lay it 
 before the whole committee. By them it was subjected to the 
 severest examination. Nearly three hours of intense applica 
 tion were given to it, notwithstanding repeated and urgent 
 calls from the Convention for our report. All the while, Mr. 
 Garrison evinced the most unruffled patience. Very few alter 
 ations were proposed, and only once did he offer any resistance. 
 He had introduced into his draft more than a page in condem 
 nation of the Colonization scheme. It was the concentrated 
 essence of all he had written or thought upon that egregious 
 imposition. It was as finished and powerful in expression as 
 any part of that Magna Charta. We commented upon it as a 
 whole and in all its parts. We writhed somewhat under its 
 severity, but were obliged to acknowledge its exact, its singular 
 justice, and were about to accept it, when I ventured to pro 
 pose that all of it, excepting only the first comprehensive para 
 graph, be stricken from the document, giving as my reason for 
 this large erasure that the Colonization Society could not long 
 survive the deadly blows it had received ; and it was not worth 
 while for us to perpetuate the memory of it in this Declaration 
 of the Rights of Man, which will live a perpetual, impressive 
 protest against every form of oppression, until it shall have 
 given place to that brotherly kindness which all the children of 
 the common Father owe to one another. At first, Mr. Garrison 
 rose up to save a portion of his work that had doubtless cost 
 him as much mental effort as any other part of it. But so soon 
 as he found that a large majority of the committee concurred 
 in favor of the erasure, he submitted very graciously, saying, 
 Brethren, it is your report, not mine. 
 
 " With this exception, the alterations and amendments which 
 were made, after all our criticisms, were surprisingly few and 
 unessential ; and we cordially agreed to report it to the Con 
 vention very much as it came from his pen." 
 
 Lib. 3 : 202. All this time the Convention was speeding the hours as 
 best it might with speeches and resolves. After an open- 
 
J3T. 28.] AMEKICAN ANTI-SLAVEKY SOCIETY. 401 
 
 ing prayer by William Green, Jr., Dr. Cox read aloud CHAP. XH. 
 these lines addressed to Mr. Garrison by Whittier, and ^ 3 , 
 first published in the Haverhill Gazette early in 1833, 
 though composed during the previous year: 
 
 TO W. L. G. Writings of 
 
 W. L.G., 
 
 p. x. 
 Champion of those who groan beneath 
 
 Oppression s iron hand : 
 In view of penury, hate, and death 
 
 I see thee fearless stand, 
 Still bearing up thy lofty brow 
 
 In the steadfast strength of truth, 
 In manhood sealing well the vow 
 And promise of thy youth. 
 
 Go on, for thou hast chosen well; 
 
 On in the strength of God! 
 Long as one human heart shall swell 
 
 Beneath the tyrant s rod. 
 Speak in a slumbering nation s ear 
 
 As thou hast ever spoken, 
 Until the dead in sin shall hear, 
 
 The fetter s link be broken! 
 
 I love thee with a brother s love, 
 
 I feel my pulses thrill 
 To mark thy spirit soar above 
 
 The cloud of human ill. 
 My heart hath leaped to answer thine, 
 
 And echo back thy words, 
 As leaps the warrior s at the shine 
 
 And flash of kindred swords! 
 
 They tell me thou art rash and vain 
 
 A searcher after fame; 
 That thou art striving but to gain 
 , A long-enduring name; 
 
 That thou hast nerved the Afric s hand, 
 
 And steeled the Afric s heart, 
 To shake aloft his vengeful brand 
 
 And rend his chain apart. 
 VOL. L 26 
 
402 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^ET. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XII. Have I not known thee well, and read 
 
 ~ Thy mighty purpose long 1 ? 
 
 And watched the trials which have made 
 
 Thy human spirit strong? 
 And shall the slanderer s demon breath 
 
 Avail with one like me, 
 To dim the sunshine of my faith 
 And earnest trust in thee ? 
 
 Go on, the dagger s point may glare 
 
 Amid thy pathway s gloom, 
 The fate which sternly threatens there 
 
 Is glorious martyrdom! 
 Then onward with a martyr s zeal j 
 
 And wait thy sure reward 
 When man to man no more shall kneel, 
 
 And God alone be Lord ! 
 
 John Bankin moved a resolution, seconded by Dr. 
 Cox, thanking editors who had enlisted in behalf of 
 immediate emancipation, and pledging support of the 
 anti-slavery press; upon which the Convention went 
 into Committee of the Whole. Beriah Green expressed 
 his disgust with those who assert that Wm. Lloyd Gar 
 rison " is so imprudent, and says so many things calcu 
 lated to weaken his attacks on the system of bondage. 77 
 Dr. Cox followed with some remarks, and then 
 
 Abolitionist, " Lewis Tappan rose, and asked permission to introduce the 
 monody, name o f William Lloyd Garrison, and proceeded to say : 
 
 " Some men, Mr. President, are frightened at a name. 
 There is good evidence to believe that many professed friends 
 of abolition would have been here, had they not been afraid 
 that the name of William Lloyd Garrison would be inserted 
 prominently in our proceedings. Sir, I am ashamed of such 
 friends. We ought to place that honored name in the fore 
 front of our ranks. The cause is under obligations to him 
 which such an evidence of respect will but poorly repay. 
 
 " The first time I ever heard of him was when fre was in 
 jail in Baltimore, where he was incarcerated like a felon, for 
 pleading the cause of the oppressed and rebuking iniquity. 
 When I saw him, appearing so mild and meek as he does, 
 shortly after he was liberated by a gentleman in New York, I 
 
^T. 28.] AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 403 
 
 was astonished. Is this the renegade Garrison? thought I, as CHAP. XII. 
 I grasped his open hand. Is this the enemy of our country f I{ JT 
 I shall never forget the impression which his noble countenance 
 made on me at that time, as long as I live. 
 
 " t An anecdote is related of a gentleman a Colonizationist 
 which is worth repeating in this Convention. That gentle 
 man had purchased, without knowing whom it represented, a 
 portrait of Mr. Garrison, and, after having it encased in a 
 splendid gilt frame, suspended it in his parlor. A friend call 
 ing in observed it, and asked the purchaser if he knew whom 
 he had honored so much ? He was answered, " No but it is 
 one of the most godlike-looking countenances I ever beheld." 
 " That, sir," resumed the visitor, " is a portrait of the fanatic, 
 the incendiary William Lloyd Garrison ! " " Indeed ! " con 
 cluded the gentleman, evidently much disconcerted. " But, 
 sir, it shall remain in its place. I will never take it down." l 
 
 " * Who that is familiar with the history of Mr. Garrison does 
 not remember the determination expressed in the first number 
 of his paper the Liberator to sustain it as long as he could live 
 on bread and ivater? And, sir, I am informed that he has 
 really practised what he so nobly resolved on in the beginning. 
 
 " Look at his course during his recent mission to England. 
 He has been accused of slandering his country. Sir, he has 
 vindicated the American name. He has not slandered it. He 
 has told the whole truth, and put hypocrites and doughfaces to 
 open shame. He has won the confidence of the people of Eng 
 land. They saw him attached to his country by the dearest 
 ties, but loathing her follies and abhorring her crimes. He 
 has put the anti- slavery movement forward a quarter of a 
 century. 
 
 " A fellow-passenger with Mr. Garrison from Europe a 
 clergyman of much intelligence on arriving in this country 
 heard that he was called a fanatic and a madman. " What," 
 said he, " do you call such a man a fanatic ? Do you deem 
 such a man insane ? For six weeks have I been with him, and 
 a more discreet, humble and faithful Christian I never saw." 
 
 " Sir, we should throw the shield of our protection and 
 esteem around Mr. Garrison. His life is exposed at this 
 moment. At the door of this saloon, a young man from the 
 
 l It is uncertain what portrait is here alluded to, but it was probably 
 unpublished. The prints from the Jocelyn and Brewster paintings (ante, 
 pp. 342, 344) both bore Mr. Garrison s autograph and an unmistakable 
 legend, and the former engraving was not completed till the spring of 1834. 
 
404 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [.Ex. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XII. South said to-day that if he had opportunity, he would dip his 
 hand in his heart s blood. 1 And, sir, there must be martyrs in 
 this cause. We ought to feel this moment that we are liable to 
 be sacrificed. But when I say this, I know that we are not 
 belligerents. We would die in such a cause only as martyrs 
 to the truth. In this, our blessed Saviour has set the example. 
 
 " I did not contemplate delivering a eulogy on Mr. Garrison 
 when I rose to speak to this resolution. I wish simply to ex 
 press my heartfelt sympathy with an injured and persecuted 
 man. Be it the honorable object of the members of this Con 
 vention to show to our countrymen that they have misunder 
 stood the character, and misconceived the plans, of William 
 Lloyd Garrison. He is said to be imprudent. What is pru 
 dence ? Is it succumbing to a majority of our frail fellow- 
 mortals ? Is it holding back a faithful expression of the whole 
 truth, until the people are ready to say amen f Was that the 
 prudence of the Apostle Paul, when he stood before the Roman 
 Governor ? Was that the prudence of William Penn, when he 
 poured contempt on the regalia of kings by wearing before the 
 King of England his broad beaver? Imprudence is moral 
 timidity. That man is imprudent who is afraid to speak as 
 God commands him to speak, when the hour of danger is near. 
 If this reasoning be correct, Mr. Garrison is one of the most 
 prudent men in the nation ! 
 
 " He is not perfect. He is frail, like the rest of human 
 flesh. But if God had not endowed him as he has, and smiled 
 propitiously on his imprudences, we should not now be engaged 
 in the deliberations of this most interesting and important Con 
 vention. God has raised up just such a man as William Lloyd 
 Garrison to be a pioneer in this cause. Let each member 
 present feel solemnly bound to vindicate the character of Mr. 
 Garrison. Let us not be afraid to go forward with him, even 
 into the " imminent breach," although there may be professed 
 friends who stand back because of him. " 
 
 " Robert Purvis,* of Pennsylvania, said he was grateful to 
 God for the day. He felt to pour out the speaking gratitude 
 
 l A demoniac son of a slaveholder, at the entrance of the Adelphi 
 Hall, threatened to wash his hands " in Garrison s blood. A bystander, of 
 the abolitionists, said : "I will bare my breast to receive any indignity you 
 may please to offer to William Lloyd Garrison" (Lib. 5:7). 
 
 " * A colored gentleman of Philadelphia, whose talents and gentlemanly 
 deportment have won the esteem of all who know him. We wish that 
 many who we know have unwittingly circulated colonization slanders 
 against the free people of color, could become acquainted with Mr. P." 
 
MT. 28.] AMEKICAN ANTI-SLAVEKY SOCIETY. 405 
 
 of his soul to the Convention, for the spirit they had mani- CHAP. XII. 
 fested during the session, and especially during the pending of x ^ 3 
 this resolution. He most heartily concurred in such a vote, 
 and had no doubt but that it would pass unanimously. The 
 name of William Lloyd Garrison sounded sweet to his ear. It 
 produced a vibration of feeling in his bosom, which words 
 could but too feebly sound forth. It was a feeling of love 
 and hearty confidence, which none but a conscientious aboli 
 tionist could know. 
 
 " Three years ago he had watched the progress of Mr. Gar 
 rison with extreme solicitude. The nation was then sound 
 asleep on this subject. The colonization scheme that scheme 
 of darkness and delusion was then making its wide havoc 
 among the persecuted people of color. It was the cholera to 
 our ranks. But Garrison arose. His voice went up with a 
 trumpet tone. The walls of Baltimore prison could not confine 
 its thunders. The dampness of his cell did not repress the 
 energy of his spirit. Free and unfettered as the air, his denun 
 ciations of tyranny rolled over the land. The Liberator speedily 
 followed. Its pages flashed light and truth far and wide. 
 Darkness and gloom fled before it. The deep, unbroken, 
 tomblike silence of the church gave way. The tocsin of 
 righteous alarm was sounded. The voice of godlike Liberty 
 was heard above the clamor of the oppressors. The effect of 
 these efforts is seen and felt this moment in this interesting 
 Convention. It is indeed a good thing to be here. My heart, 
 Mr. President, is too full for my tongue. But whether I speak 
 to them my feelings as they exist in my inmost soul or not, 
 the friends of the colored American will be remembered. Yes, 
 sir, their exertions and memories will be cherished when pyra 
 mids and monuments shall crumble. The flood of time, which 
 is rapidly sweeping to destruction that refuge of lies, the Ame 
 rican Colonization Society, is bearing on the advocates of our 
 cause to a glorious and blessed immortality." 1 
 
 Lewis Tappan had also his eulogy for Lundy j and a 
 special resolution of gratitude to the editor of the Genius 
 for his early, disinterested and persevering labors in the 
 
 1 These "defensory and encomiastical speeches" were omitted by the 
 subject of them in copying into the Liberator the Emancipator s report of 
 the Proceedings, as "the panegyric of our friends is incomparably more 
 afflicting to us than the measureless defamation of our enemies" (Lib. 
 3:202). 
 
406 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 28. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 1833- 
 
 Recollec 
 tions, p. 88. 
 
 J. M. 
 
 McKim, 
 
 Proceedings 
 
 at $d Decade, 
 
 /35- 
 
 cause was passed on motion of Wm. Goodell and Thomas 
 Shipley. R. B. Hall, C. W. Denison, and S. J. May were 
 appointed a committee to communicate the sentiments of 
 the Convention to both Lundy and Garrison. 
 
 The hour had now arrived, it was past noon of 
 Thursday, December 5, when the Committee on the 
 Declaration was ready to report. Dr. Atlee, the chair 
 man, read the result of their labors to the Convention. 
 " Never in my life," says Mr. May, " have I seen a deeper 
 impression made by words than was made by that admi 
 rable document upon all who were there present. After 
 the voice of the reader had ceased, there was a profound 
 silence for several minutes. Our hearts were in perfect 
 unison. There was but one thought with us all. Either 
 of the members could have told what the whole Conven 
 tion felt. We felt that the word had just been uttered 
 which would be mighty, through God, to the pulling 
 down of the strongholds of slavery." 
 
 An impulse to proceed at once to the adoption of the 
 Declaration came from one of the weightiest Friends, 
 who feared that much tampering with it would impair 
 its forcibleness. But it seemed to the Convention more 
 becoming to deliberate, and haply to amend and improve 
 its fundamental utterance. The criticisms were mostly 
 verbal. 
 
 " Thomas Shipley, that good man and faithful friend of the 
 slave, objected to the word f man-stealer as applied indiscrimi 
 nately to the slaveholders. To this it was replied that the term 
 was an eminently proper one ; that it described the exact relation 
 between the master and the slave. It was urged that things 
 should be called by their right names ; that Luther had said he 
 would call a hoe a hoe, and a spade a spade. Besides, it was 
 addled, it was a Scriptural phrase, and the chapter and verse 
 were quoted in which it was used. This mollified Friend Ship 
 ley, though it did not set his mind entirely at rest. At length, 
 some one suggested that the term should be retained, but that 
 it should be preceded by the words, according to Scripture. 7 
 This met the difficulty, and the paper was amended so as to 
 read : Every American citizen who holds [retains] a human 
 
^T. 28.] AMERICAN ANTI- SLAVERY SOCIETY. 407 
 
 being in involuntary bondage as his property, is, according to CHAP. XII. 
 Scripture (Exodus, 21 : 16), a man-stealer. " 1 ^ 
 
 Lucretia Mott like the clever school-teacher she had 
 been suggested one or two rhetorical amendments 
 which were obvious improvements. " When our friends Proceedings 
 felt," she said years afterwards, with her quaint humor, p. 42 a e 
 "that they were planting themselves on the truths of 
 Divine Revelation, and on the Declaration of Independ 
 ence, as an Everlasting Rock, it seemed to me, as I heard 
 it read, that the climax would be better to transpose the 
 sentence, and place the Declaration of Independence first, 
 and the truths of Divine Revelation last, as the Everlast 
 ing Rock; and I proposed it. I remember one of the 
 younger members, Daniel E. Jewett, turning to see what Ante, p. 394. 
 woman there was there who knew what the word ( trans 
 pose 7 meant." 
 
 The formal act of signing the Declaration must, the 
 shortening daylight admonished, be put off till the mor 
 row. On Friday morning, " Samuel J. May rose to read 
 it for the last time. 2 His sweet, persuasive voice faltered 
 with the intensity of his emotions as he repeated the 
 
 1 This interpolation was distasteful to Mr. Garrison at the time and ever 
 afterwards. It was " taking off the edge" of the allegation. "That 
 weakens instead of strengthening it. It raises a Biblical question. It 
 makes the rights of man depend upon a text. Now, it matters not what 
 the Bible may say, so far as these rights are concerned. They never origin 
 ated in any parchment, are not dependent upon any parchment, but are in 
 the nature of man himself, written upon the human faculties and powers 
 by the finger of God " (Speech at 3d Decade [1863] Proceedings, p. 23). John 
 Quincy Adams denied that the allegation was either true or just, in spite of 
 the attempted sanction from Scripture perhaps because of it ( Memoirs, 
 July 14, 1839). So, the next year, in a letter to a gentleman in Brooklyn: 
 " The American Anti-Slavery Society, composed of men not holding a 
 single slave, undertaking to coax and reason five millions of their fellow- 
 citizens into the voluntary surrender of twelve hundred millions of their 
 property, and commencing their discoxirse to the heart by proclaiming 
 every holder of a man in bondage a man-stealer, doomed by the Mosaic law 
 to be stoned to death, is also, to the eye of a rational observer, a very 
 curious show " (Lib. 10 : 56). 
 
 2 Whittier, Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 1874, p. 171. It had just before been 
 read by Dr. Cox, who had meanwhile engrossed the Declaration (Second 
 Decade Proceedings, pp. 9, 10). The original document is now in the pos 
 session of the New York Historical Society. 
 
408 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKBISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. xii. solemn pledges of the concluding paragraphs. After a 
 season of silence, David Thurston, of Maine, rose as his 
 name was called by one of the secretaries, and affixed 
 his name to the document. One after another passed up 
 to the platform, signed, and retired in silence. All felt 
 the deep responsibility of the occasion : the shadow 
 and forecast of a life-long struggle rested upon every 
 countenance." 
 
 The instrument thus conceived and elaborated, and 
 adopted as the justification of a national crusade against 
 slavery, was couched in these terms : 
 
 . DECLAKATION OF SENTIMENTS. 
 
 The Convention assembled in the city of Philadelphia, to 
 organize a National Anti-Slavery Society, promptly seize the 
 opportunity to promulgate the following Declaration of Senti 
 ments, as cherished by them in relation to the enslavement of 
 one-sixth portion of the American people. 
 
 More than fifty-seven years have elapsed since a band of 
 patriots convened in this place to devise measures for the 
 deliverance of this country from a foreign yoke. The corner 
 stone upon which they founded the Temple of Freedom was 
 broadly this "that all men are created equal; that they are 
 endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; 
 that among these are life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happi 
 ness." At the sound of their trumpet-call, three millions of 
 people rose up as from the sleep of death, and rushed to the 
 strife of blood ; deeming it more glorious to die instantly as 
 freemen, than desirable to live one hour as slaves. They were 
 few in number poor in resources ; but the honest conviction 
 that Truth, Justice, and Right were on their side, made them 
 invincible. 
 
 We have met together for the achievement of an enterprise 
 without which that of our fathers is incomplete ; and which, 
 for its magnitude, solemnity, and probable results upon the 
 destiny of the world, as far transcends theirs as moral truth 
 does physical force. 
 
 In purity of motive, in earnestness of zeal, in decision of 
 purpose, in intrepidity of action, in steadfastness of faith, in 
 sincerity of spirit, we would not be inferior to them. 
 
^BT. 28. J AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVEKY SOCIETY. 409 
 
 Their principles led them to wage war against their op- CHAP. XII. 
 pressors, and to spill human blood like water, in order to be l8 ~ 
 free. Ours forbid the doing of evil that good may come, and 
 lead us to reject, and to entreat the oppressed to reject, the use 
 of all carnal weapons for deliverance from bondage j reiving 
 solely upon those which are spiritual, and mighty through God 
 to the pulling down of strongholds. 
 
 Their measures were physical resistance the marshalling in 
 arms the hostile array the mortal encounter. Ours shall be 
 such only as the opposition of moral purity to moral corruption 
 the destruction of error by the potency of truth the over 
 throw of prejudice by the power of love and the abolition of 
 slavery by the spirit of repentance. 
 
 Their grievances, great as they were, were trifling in com 
 parison with the wrongs and sufferings of those for whom 
 we plead. Our fathers were never slaves never bought 
 and sold like cattle never shut out from the light of knowl 
 edge and religion never subjected to the lash of brutal task 
 masters. 
 
 But those for whose emancipation we are striving con 
 stituting at the present time at least one-sixth part of our 
 countrymen are recognized by law, and treated by their 
 fellow -beings, as marketable commodities, as goods and chat 
 tels, as brute beasts ; are plundered daily of the fruits of their 
 toil without redress j really enjoy no constitutional nor legal 
 protection from licentious and murderous outrages upon their 
 persons; and are ruthlessly torn asunder the tender babe 
 from the arms of its frantic mother the heart-broken wife 
 from her weeping husband at the caprice or pleasure of irre 
 sponsible tyrants. For the crime of having a dark complexion, 
 they suffer the pangs of hunger, the infliction of stripes, the 
 ignominy of brutal servitude. They are kept in heathenish 
 darkness by laws expressly enacted to make their instruction a 
 criminal offence. 
 
 These are the prominent circumstances in the condition of 
 more than two millions of our people, the proof of which may 
 be found in thousands of indisputable facts and in the laws of 
 the slaveholding States. 
 
 Hence we maintain that, in view of the civil and religious 
 privileges of this nation, the guilt of its oppression is unequalled 
 by any other on the face of the earth j and, therefore, that it is 
 bound to repent instantly, to undo the heavy burdens, and to 
 let the oppressed go free. 
 
410 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. [MT.28. 
 
 CHAP. XII. We further maintain that no man has a right to enslave 
 
 jZ" or imbrute his brother to hold or acknowledge him, for one 
 
 moment, as a piece of merchandise to keep back his hire by 
 
 fraud or to brutalize his mind, by denying him the means of 
 
 intellectual, social and moral improvement. 
 
 The right to enjoy liberty is inalienable. To invade it is to 
 usurp the prerogative of Jehovah. Every man has a right to his 
 own body to the products of his own labor to the protec 
 tion of law and to the common advantages of society. It is 
 piracy to buy or steal a native African, and subject him to 
 servitude. Surely, the sin is as great to enslave an American 
 as an African. 
 
 Therefore we believe and affirm that there is no difference, in 
 principle, between the African slave trade and American slavery: 
 
 That every American citizen who retains a human being in 
 involuntary bondage as his property, is, according to Scripture 
 (Ex. xxi. 16), a man-stealer : 
 
 That the slaves ought instantly to be set free, and brought 
 under the protection of law : 
 
 That if they had lived from the time of Pharaoh down to the 
 present period, and had been entailed through successive gen 
 erations, their right to be free could never have been alienated, 
 but their claims would have constantly risen in solemnity : 
 
 That all those laws which are now in force, admitting the 
 right of slavery, are therefore, before God, utterly null and 
 void } being an audacious usurpation of the Divine prerogative, 
 a daring infringement on the law of nature, a base overthrow 
 of the very foundations of the social compact, a complete ex 
 tinction of all the relations, endearments and obligations of 
 mankind, and a presumptuous transgression of all the holy 
 commandments ; and that therefore they ought instantly to be 
 abrogated. 
 
 We further believe and affirm that all persons of color 
 who possess the qualifications which are demanded of others, 
 ought to be admitted forthwith to the enjoyment of the same 
 privileges, and the exercise of the same prerogatives, as 
 others j and that the paths of preferment, of wealth, and of 
 intelligence, should be opened as widely to them as to persons 
 of a white complexion. 
 
 We maintain that no compensation should be given to the 
 planters emancipating their slaves : 
 
 Because it would be a surrender of the great fundamental 
 principle, that man cannot hold property in man j 
 
Mi. 28.] AMEKICAN ANTI-SLAYEKY SOCIETY. 411 
 
 Because slavery is a crime, and therefore is not an article to CHAP. XII. 
 be sold ; l833 . 
 
 Because the holders of slaves are not the just proprietors of 
 what they claim ; freeing the slave is not depriving them of 
 property, but restoring it to its rightful owner ; it is not 
 wronging the master, but righting the slave restoring him 
 to himself ; 
 
 Because immediate and general emancipation would only 
 destroy nominal, not real, property j it would not amputate a 
 limb or break a bone of the slaves, but, by infusing motives 
 into their breasts, would make them doubly valuable to the 
 masters as free laborers ; and 
 
 Because, if compensation is to be given at all, it should be 
 given to the outraged and guiltless slaves, and not to those 
 who have plundered and abused them. 
 
 We regard as delusive, cruel and dangerous any scheme of 
 expatriation which pretends to aid, either directly or indirectly, 
 in the emancipation of the slaves, or to be a substitute for the 
 immediate and total abolition of slavery. 
 
 We fully and unanimously recognize the sovereignty of each 
 State, to legislate exclusively on the subject of the slavery 
 which is tolerated within its limits j we concede that Congress, 
 under the present national compact, has no right to interfere 
 with any of the slave States in relation to this momentous 
 subject : 
 
 But we maintain that Congress has a right, and is solemnly 
 bound, to suppress the domestic slave trade between the sev 
 eral States, and to abolish slavery in those portions of our 
 territory which the Constitution has placed under its exclusive 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 We also maintain that there are, at the present time, the high 
 est obligations resting upon the people of the free States to re 
 move slavery by moral and political action, as prescribed in the 
 Constitution of the United States. They are now living under a 
 pledge of their tremendous physical force, to fasten the galling 
 fetters of tyranny upon the limbs of millions in the Southern 
 States ; they are liable to be called at any moment to suppress 
 a general insurrection of the slaves ; they authorize the slave 
 owner to vote for three-fifths of his slaves as property, and 
 thus enable him to perpetuate his oppression j they support a 
 standing army at the South for its protection ; and they seize 
 the slave who has escaped into their territories, and send him 
 back to be tortured by an enraged master or a brutal driver. 
 
412 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. XII. This relation to slavery is criminal, and full of danger : IT MUST 
 
 jJ 3 BE BROKEN UP. 
 
 These are our views and principles these our designs and 
 measures. With entire confidence in the overruling justice of 
 God, we plant ourselves upon the Declaration of our Independ 
 ence and the truths of Divine Revelation, as upon the Ever 
 lasting Bock. 
 
 We shall organize Anti- Slavery Societies, if possible, in 
 every city, town and village in our land. 
 
 We shall send forth agents to lift up the voice of remon 
 strance, of warning, of entreaty, and of rebuke. 
 
 We shall circulate, unsparingly and extensively, anti-slavery 
 tracts and periodicals. 
 
 We shall enlist the pulpit and the press in the cause of the 
 suffering and the dumb. 
 
 We shall aim at a purification of the churches from all par 
 ticipation in the guilt of slavery. 
 
 We shall encourage the labor of freemen rather than that of 
 slaves, by giving a preference to their productions : and 
 
 We shall spare no exertions nor means to bring the whole 
 nation to speedy repentance. 
 
 Our trust for victory is solely in God. We may be personally 
 defeated, but our principles never ! Truth, Justice, Reason, 
 Humanity, must and will gloriously triumph. Already a host 
 is coming up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and 
 the prospect before us is full of encouragement. 
 
 Submitting this Declaration to the candid examination of the 
 people of this country, and of the friends of liberty throughout 
 the world, we hereby affix our signatures to it ; pledging our 
 selves that, under the guidance and by the help of Almighty 
 God, we will do all that in us lies, consistently with this 
 Declaration of our principles, to overthrow the most execrable 
 system of slavery that has ever been witnessed upon earth 5 to 
 deliver our land from its deadliest curse ; to wipe out the foul 
 est stain which rests upon our national escutcheon ; and to 
 secure to the colored population of the United States all the 
 rights and privileges which belong to them as men and as 
 Americans come what may to our persons, our interests, or 
 our reputations whether we live to witness the triumph of 
 Liberty, Justice, and Humanity, or perish untimely as martyrs 
 in this great, benevolent and holy cause. 
 
 Done at Philadelphia, the 6th day of December, A. D. 1833. 
 
^ET. 28.] AMEKICAN ANTI-SLAVEKY SOCIETY. 413 
 
 Of the three-score signers of the Declaration not one CHAP. xn. 
 was a woman. Such was the custom of the times, in I 8 33 . 
 regard to the public relation of the sexes, that Lucretia 
 Mott and her Quaker sisters did not ask or expect to 
 sign 5 the male delegates even the members of their 
 own sect did not think to invite them. It was a signifi 
 cant mark of liberality that they had been permitted to 
 participate in the proceedings of the Convention on an 
 equal footing in other respects. Moreover, on Mr. Gar 
 rison s motion, seconded by Dr. Cox, it was resolved on 
 this third day "that the cause of Abolition eminently 
 deserves the countenance and support of American wo 
 men," after the British example. By other resolutions, 
 "the ladies anti-slavery societies" already in existence 
 were hailed "as the harbinger of a brighter day," and 
 more were called for. In still another, moved by Dr. 
 Cox and seconded by William Goodell, the Convention 
 presented " their thanks to their female friends for the 
 deep interest they have manifested in the Anti-slavery 
 cause" during the long and fatiguing sessions. And 
 finally, Miss Crandall was assured of approval, sympathy 
 and aid. Resolutions relating to free produce ; the recre 
 ancy of a pro-slavery clergy ; the guilt of withholding the 
 Bible from slaves ; colored conventions and societies for 
 mutual improvement, and the like concluded the busi 
 ness of the Convention. Beriah Green dismissed the 
 assembly in words of thrilling solemnity, never to be 
 forgotten by those who heard him, and ending "in a 
 prayer to Almighty God, full of fervor and feeling, 
 imploring his blessing and sanctification upon the Con 
 vention and its labors." So ended the successful attempt 
 to give a national basis to the movement begun only three 
 years before by the publication of the Liberator. 1 
 
 1A public debate between R. S. Finley and Prof. Elizur Wright had 
 taken place on the evenings of Dec. 5 and 6, and it was the design of the 
 Colonizationists to follow the Convention closely with a great meeting of 
 their own, but they broke down. " David Paul Brown, Esq., was to have 
 made a speech, but failed them, in consequence of a letter from Purvis" 
 (MS. Dec. 12, 1833, Dr. Cox to W. L. G.). 
 
414 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 . 28. 
 
 CHAP. xii. The significant articles of the Constitution of the 
 American Anti-Slavery Society, adopted at Philadelphia, 
 read as follows: 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 1833- 
 
 Pamphlet, 
 Proceedings 
 Nat. A. S. 
 Convention, 
 
 pp. 6, 7. 
 
 The objects of this Society are the entire abolition of slavery 
 in the United States. While it admits that each State in which 
 slavery exists has, by the Constitution of the United States, the 
 exclusive right to legislate in regard to its abolition in said State, 
 it shall aim to convince all our fellow-citizens, by arguments 
 addressed to their understandings and consciences, that slave- 
 holding is a heinous crime in the sight of God, and that the 
 duty, safety, and best interests of all concerned require its im 
 mediate abandonment , without expatriation. The Society will also 
 endeavor, in a constitutional way, to influence Congress to put 
 an end to the domestic slave trade, and to abolish slavery in all 
 those portions of our common country which come under its 
 control, especially in the District of Columbia and likewise to 
 prevent the extension of it to any State that may be hereafter 
 admitted to the Union. 1 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 This Society shall aim to elevate the character and condition 
 of the people of color, by encouraging their intellectual, rrforal 
 and religious improvement, and by removing public prejudice, 
 that thus they may, according to their intellectual and moral 
 worth, share an equality with the whites of civil and religious 
 privileges ; but this Society will never, in any way, countenance 
 the oppressed in vindicating their rights by resorting to physical 
 force. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 Any person who consents to the principles of this Constitution, 
 who contributes to the funds of this Society, and is not a slave 
 holder, 2 may be a member of this Society, and shall be entitled 
 to vote at the meetings. 
 
 In choosing the officers of the new Society, Arthur 
 Tappan was fitly made President. Though compelled to 
 be absent from the Convention, he was not and could not 
 
 1 The ultimate purpose of the Free Soil and Republican parties. 
 
 2 A condition not exacted by the Colonization Society, for the best of 
 reasons. 
 
^ET. 28.] AMEEICAN ANTI-SLAVEBY SOCIETY. 415 
 
 be forgotten. Three secretaries were appointed, Elizur CHAP. xn. 
 Wright, Jr., of Domestic Correspondence, Win. Lloyd ^^ 
 Garrison, of Foreign Correspondence, and Abraham L. 
 Cox, Recording Secretary. William Green, Jr., was made 
 Treasurer. Mr. Garrison did not long retain his office. 
 The managers seem to have expected of him services in 
 the field inconsistent with his editorial career they 
 even talked of merging the Liberator in the Emancipator .1 
 The foreign correspondence itself may have appeared to 
 him unduly burdensome, to say nothing of the vexatious 
 restriction that all his letters must first be submitted to 
 the Executive Committee. He did not covet that (or any 
 other) office, and he seems to have owed it to the well- 
 meant exertions of his impulsive friend R. B. Hall, who 
 wrote to him from New Haven, under date of January 
 21, 1834, upon hearing of his resignation : 
 
 " I will give you succinctly the history of that office. When MS. 
 the committee to form a constitution at Mr. Sharpless s were 
 about to retire, I had reason to suppose that the form of con 
 stitution which they had in their hands provided but one 
 secretary to the Society. I knew, too, what was to be the 
 management about that office that Mr. Wright was to fill it, E. Wright, 
 and thus be the mouth [piece] of all anti-slavery men in the 
 U. S. This did not exactly suit me. I knew your claims, 2 I 
 knew, too, that you would be placed on the Board of Managers 
 or as a Vice-President in other words, would be second 
 fiddle and this did not suit me. I laid hold on the committee, 
 and urged and entreated them to create the office to which you 
 were subsequently appointed. I used all the little influence 
 which I had with them to procure the insertion in the draft of 
 the Constitution of that office, and have reason to suppose that 
 they were influenced by my exertions. I remember distinctly 
 telling them, or some of them, that if there was no office for 
 you to fill, or for which you were calculated, one ought to be 
 and must be made. I regarded the office of Foreign Secretary as 
 one of great importance to our cause." 
 
 1 A measure advocated if not instigated by the editor, C. W. Denison, 
 who had already, in the coolest manner, proposed an amalgamation of 
 the Liberator with his World, then published in Philadelphia (MS. Oct. 16, 
 1832). 
 
 2 Videlicet, desert. 
 
41() WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [^T. 28. 
 
 CHAP. xii. Looking back over the year 1832, Mr. Garrison had, 
 !8j 3 . in the first annual report of the New England Anti- 
 Slavery Society, rejoiced in the progress of the cause. 
 
 P. 42. " With feeble means, the Society has produced great re 
 
 sults. ... It has effected the conversion of a multitude of 
 minds to the doctrine of immediate abolition, and given a wide 
 and salutary check to the progress of the Colonization Society. 
 It has done more to make slavery a subject of national investi 
 gation, to excite discussion, and to maintain the freedom of 
 speech on a hitherto prohibited theme, than all other societies 
 now in operation. It has been eminently serviceable in encour 
 aging the free colored population, in various places, to go 
 forward in paths of improvement, and organize themselves 
 into moral and benevolent associations. . . . 
 
 p. 43 . " An Auxiliary Society has been formed in the Theological 
 
 Seminary at Andover. A society, based upon the same prin 
 ciples, has also been formed in Hudson College, Ohio, under 
 the auspices of the President and Professors ; and also a kindred 
 association in Lynn, Massachusetts. Other societies, it is ex 
 pected, will be speedily organized in Portland, Providence, 
 Bath, Hallo well, New Haven, and other places. The light 
 which has burst forth so auspiciously in the West, is the har 
 binger of a mighty victory." 1 
 
 Much greater reason had Mr. Garrison to be elated and 
 strengthened by the extraordinary events of the year 
 now drawing to a close. The persecution and spirited 
 defence of Miss Crandall, in which the princely liberality 
 of Arthur Tappan, the rare moral courage of Mr. May, 
 and the vigorous articles of Charles C. Burleigh, editor 
 of the extemporized Unionist, combined to strike the 
 imagination and stir the moral sense of the public ; the 
 cordial and high social reception in England of the 
 agent of the New England Anti-Slavery Society; his 
 conspicuous success in defeating abroad the " humbug" 
 Society which still retained at home the odor of respecta 
 bility and sanctity, 2 and in bearing back the Wilberf orce 
 protest against it; his bitter truths about his sinful 
 
 1 At this very time, according to Benton ( Thirty Years View, 1 : 341), 
 there was " no sign of a slavery agitation " ! 
 
 2 Cresson s retreat to America began on Oct. 10, 1833 (Lib. 4:35). 
 
JET. 28.] AMEKICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 417 
 
 country spoken in Exeter Hall ; the abolition of slavery CHAP. xn. 
 in the British colonies ; the mobs awaiting him on his j^ 3 
 return ; his prosecution for libel j finally, the formation 
 of that National Anti-Slavery Society which he had pro 
 jected from the beginning of his agitation all these 
 occurrences had fixed public attention on the subject of 
 slavery in a manner never to be diverted for an instant 
 thereafter, had still further awakened the sleeping 
 conscience of the nation, spread the new zeal, and 
 multiplied the advocates and agencies of immediate 
 emancipation, and at the same time developed an active 
 spirit of violent hostility which also would go on widen 
 ing and intensifying, to cease only on the very eve of 
 the war of emancipation. Statistical signs of the mighty 
 progress are to be found in Mr. SewalPs list, in the 
 second annual report of the New England Anti-Slavery P. u. 
 Society, of upwards of forty auxiliary organizations 
 formed in the twelvemonth in nearly every Northern 
 State, noticeably at several collegiate institutions and 
 among the gentler sex the most important of the latter 
 being the Philadelphia Female An ti- Slavery Society. 1 
 Take also the subscribed declaration of 124 clergymen 
 of all denominations against colonization and in favor of 
 
 immediate emancipation, obtained in 1833 to be prefixed 
 to the forthcoming edition of the Rev. Amos A. Phelps s Lib. 4 : 15. 
 1 Lectures on Slavery and its Remedy. 72 The delivery 
 of those lectures was itself an important event, and their 
 publication a powerful contribution to the growing body 
 of anti-slavery literature. 
 
 The Rev. J. D. Paxton s Letters on Slavery 7 ; the Rev. 
 S. J. May s letters to Andrew T. Judson < The Right of 
 
 1 " There was not a woman capable of taking the chair and organizing 
 that meeting in due order; and we had to call on James McCrummell, a 
 colored man, to give us aid in the work. You know that at that time, and 
 even to the present day, negroes, idiots and women were in legal documents 
 classed together ; so that we were very glad to get one of our own class 
 [laughter] to come and aid us in forming that Society " (Speech of Xiucretia 
 Mott, Third Decade Proceedings, p. 43). 
 
 2 Published by the New England Anti-Slavery Society, Boston, 1834. Mr. 
 Phelps was the pastor of the Pine-Street (Trinitarian) Church in that city. 
 
 VOL. I. 27 
 
418 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. OET. 28. 
 
 CHAP. xii. Colored People to Education Vindicated ; Prof. Elizur 
 1833- Wright, Jr. s, l Sin of Slavery and its Remedy 5 Whittier s 
 1 Justice and Expediency j l and, above all, Mrs. Lydia 
 Maria Child s startling i Appeal in favor of that class of 
 Americans called Africans were the more potent of 
 the new crop of writings betokening the vigor of Mr. 
 Garrison s propagandism. If Whittier forfeited his 
 political career by his adherence to " Justice," Mrs. Child 
 sacrificed without regret in the same cause her popularity 
 as a writer, and invited social indignities that now 
 appear incredible. 2 To be sure, she thought it honorable 
 
 Appeal, ed. to Mr. Garrison to mention that he was "the first person 
 who dared to edit a newspaper in which slavery was 
 spoken of as altogether wicked and inexcusable " the 
 first person, she explains, by way of drawing a distinc 
 tion between him and Lundy, " that boldly attacked 
 slavery as a sin, and colonization as its twin sister." To 
 this double offence she added that of apologizing for Mr. 
 Garrison s want of moderation, and his " tendency to use 
 wholesale and unqualified expressions," and declaring 
 him to be " a disinterested, intelligent, and remarkably 
 pure-minded man." 3 
 
 The losses of the year were personal. Greatly deplored 
 was the untimely death of the Rev. Charles B. Storrs, Pres 
 ident of Western Reserve College, the focus of the anti- 
 slavery revival at the West, his last act being an attempt 
 to sign the declaration for Phelps s * Lectures. Lamented, 
 
 1 Arthur Tappan paid for an edition of 5000 copies of this convincing 
 work ( Life, p. 165). 
 
 2 For example, the privileges of the Boston Athenaeum library were with 
 drawn from her, the first use she had made of them being to take out books 
 for the purpose of composing her Appeal ( Letters of L. M. Child, 
 p. 195;. 
 
 3 " I remember very distinctly the first time I ever saw Garrison," wrote 
 Mrs. Child in 1879. I little thought then that the whole pattern of m y 
 life-web would be changed by that introduction. I was then all absorbed 
 in poetry and painting, soaring aloft on Psyche-wings into the ethereal 
 regions of mysticism. He got hold of the strings of my conscience and 
 pulled me into reforms. It is of no use to imagine what might have been 
 if I had never met him. Old dreams vanished, old associates departed, 
 and all things became new " ( Letters of L. M. Child, p. 255). 
 
^T. 28.] AMEKICAN ANTI- SLAVERY SOCIETY. 419 
 
 also, was the venerable John Kenrick, of Newton, Mass., CHAP. xn. 
 the newly elected president of the New England Anti- ^3. 
 Slavery Society, and one of its most liberal benefactors, 
 as well as of the Manual Labor School. He was "a 
 forerunner of Abolition," to quote his epitaph an early 
 and independent opponent of slavery ; publishing in 1816 
 at his own expense a small volume on its horrors, and 
 circulating it in Congress and among State Legislatures. 
 A last word of this strong and benevolent character may 
 fitly close the present chapter : 
 
 John Kenrick to W. L. Garrison. 
 
 NEWTON, Dec. 24, 183 [2]. MS. 
 
 DEAR SIR : I perceive you are an agent for Mr. B. Lundy. 
 I have supported that work from the beginning, and believe I 
 have honestly paid up to the present time ; but as he expects 
 pay in advance, I send you $1.00 for him. Also, $2.00 for the 
 Liberator for the coming year, and $1.00 for the Abolitionist 
 you are about to publish. You may send me receipt. 
 
 I hope Mr. Buffum received a hue I sent Tiim soon after your Arnold 
 address at Watertown. Buffum. 
 
 That the Lord may bless, sanctify, and guide you into all 
 truth, and give you an extra share of fortitude in answering 
 gainsayers, is the desire of, dear Sir, your old worn-out 
 friend, 
 
 J. KENRICK. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MARRIAGE. " SHALL THE LIBERATOR DIE ? " GEORGE 
 THOMPSON. 1834. 
 
 CHAP.XIII. "TTIREEDOM S COTTAGE, Roxbury," is the super- 
 1834. X? scription of a letter addressed on September 12, 
 
 1834, by Mr. Garrison to George W. Benson, of Provi 
 dence, and which began as follows : 
 
 MS. "A year ago, I was just about half-way across the Atlantic, 
 
 between England and the United States, as little dreaming that 
 I should be a married man within twelve months as that I should 
 occupy the chair of his holiness the Pope. At that time I knew 
 nothing of Freedom s Cottage, and iny acquaintance with Helen 
 was too slight to authorize me to hope that a union for life 
 might take place between us. 
 
 "It has been the most eventful year in my history. I have 
 been the occasion of many uproars, and a continual disturber 
 of the public peace. As soon as I landed, I turned the city of 
 New York upside down. Five thousand people turned out to 
 see me tarred and feathered, but were disappointed. There 
 was also a small hubbub in Boston on my arrival. The excite 
 ment passed away, but invective and calumny still followed 
 me. By dint of some industry and much persuasion, I suc 
 ceeded in inducing the abolitionists in New York to join our 
 little band in Boston, in calling a National Convention at Phila 
 delphia. We met and such a body of men, for zeal, firmness, 
 integrity, benevolence and moral greatness, the world has rarely 
 seen in a single assembly. Inscribed upon a Declaration which 
 it was my exalted privilege to write, their names can perish 
 only with the knowledge of the history of our times. A National 
 Anti-Slavery Society was formed, which astonished the country 
 by its novelty, and awed it by its boldness. In five months its 
 May, 1834. first annual meeting was held in the identical city in which, 
 
 420 
 
-ET. 29.] MAEKIAGE. 421 
 
 only seven antecedent months, abolitionists were in peril of CHAP.XIII. 
 their lives ! In ability, interest, and solemnity it took pre- 
 cedence of all the great religious celebrations which took place 
 at the same time. During the same month, a New England 
 Anti-Slavery Convention was held in Boston, and so judicious 
 were its measures, so eloquent its appeals, so unequivocal its 
 resolutions, that it at once gave shape and character to the anti- 
 slavery cause in this section of the Union. In the midst of all 
 these mighty movements, I have wooed a fair ladye, and won 
 her have thrown aside celibacy, and jumped, body and soul, 
 into matrimony have sunk the character of bachelor in that 
 of husband have settled down into domestic quietude, and 
 repudiated all my roving desires and have found that which I 
 have long been yearning to find, a home, a wife, and a beauti 
 ful retreat from a turbulent city. 
 
 " Here, then, conveniently remote and protectingly obscure 
 from the great capital of our State, I am located in a cottage 
 which I have long since ventured to designate by Freedom s 
 appellation j for within its walls I have written much in 
 defence of human liberty, and hope to write more. If my 
 health should be mercifully preserved, and no unforeseen ob 
 stacles prevent, I hope to make the ensuing winter memorable 
 for the aid I shall give to the anti-slavery cause ; so that it 
 shall be seen that matrimony, instead of hindering, rather 
 advances my labors." 
 
 What, indeed, strikes the reader of the fourth volume 
 of the Liberator, from the very beginning, is the frequency, 
 fulness and animation of the editorial articles. It is not 
 merely the Colonization Society s deficit of $46,000, nor Lib. 4 : 19, 
 the ardor of renewed conflict with the old " humbug n ; 22> 27> IC 
 nor the abortive movements looking towards gradual #.4:5,14, 
 emancipation in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Maryland; 
 nor the equally abortive attempt of the last-named State Lib. 4 : 125, 
 to effect forcible colonization, which led to an exposure 
 from Mr. Garrison s pen 1 scarcely less elaborate than the 
 Thoughts j nor the suppression of free debate in Lane Lib. 4 : 50, 
 Theological Seminary and the withdrawal of the students ; ^ 174,178; 
 nor the accession of James Gillespie Birney to the anti- L ^ I29 
 
 131.157.158. 
 
 i Afterwards published by Garrison & Knapp in pamphlet form : The 
 Maryland Scheme of Expatriation Examined. Boston, 1834. 
 
422 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 29. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 1834. 
 
 Lib. 4 : 63. 
 Lib. 4 : 59, 
 
 Lib. 4 : 27, 
 38. 
 
 #.4:59. 
 
 63, Garri 
 son s Poems, 
 PP. 42, 43- 
 
 Ante, p. 338. 
 
 colonization ranks ; l nor the several anniversaries above 
 referred to, and the attendant and subsequent mobs; 
 nor the daily multiplication of anti-slavery societies ; 
 nor Judson s retributive defeat as candidate for the 
 Connecticut Legislature ; nor Charles Stuart s arrival in 
 America 5 nor Gerrit Smith s founding a manual-labor 
 school at Peterboro , for colored males. All these cheer 
 ing signs of the times, following close upon the organi 
 zation of the American Anti-Slavery Society, were well 
 calculated to elate the editor of the Liberator. But one 
 is made aware of a special exaltation seeking a vent 
 in verse mainly in sonnets of which the last two, 
 " Helen, if thus we tenderly deplore," and " Thou mis 
 tress of my heart ! my chosen one ! " reveal the cause. 
 Of that touching farewell scene at the African Church 
 in Providence in April, 1833, Miss Helen Benson was a 
 witness, and for the first time looked on the speaker 
 whose name was household in her father s family. They 
 met again the next day at her brother s store Mr. Gar 
 rison deeply impressed by her " sweet countenance and 
 pleasant conversation " ; she, who had found him to sur 
 pass even her imagination of him, " riveted to the spot," 
 lingering long to hear him converse, and bidding him 
 farewell, perhaps forever, with a dull weight upon her 
 mind. In his fancy she accompanied him on his outward 
 voyage and during his sojourn in England, and lightened 
 the tedium of his return. On his subsequent journeys 
 to and from Boston he never omitted an opportunity to 
 visit the Bensons at Brooklyn, and every interview con 
 firmed him in his admiration of her. She was a plump 
 and rosy creature, with blue eyes and fair brown hair, just 
 entering, when first seen by him, her twenty-third year. 2 
 
 1 First signified by a letter to the corresponding secretary of the Kentucky 
 Colonization Society, dated July 15, 1834. Printed in pamphlet form by 
 Garrison & Knapp in the same year. See, for Birney s general account of 
 his change of mind, p. 76 of the 2d Annual Report of the American A. S. 
 Society, 1835. 
 
 2 Helen Eliza Benson was born in Providence, R. L, February 23, 1811. 
 The family removed to Brooklyn, Conn., in 1824. 
 
Mf. 29.] 
 
 MAKRIAGE. 
 
 423 
 
 1834. 
 
 Rev. Samuel 
 May, p. 17, 
 Memorial to 
 Helen Eliza 
 Garrison. 
 
 " Peace and Plenty/ 7 they sometimes called her, not more CHAP. xin. 
 in allusion to her uniformly placid disposition than to 
 her easily aroused and irrepressible mirthfulness. By 
 nature abstemious in her living, "a famous patron of 
 cold water," simple in her tastes, and modest in her 
 attire, " so generous and disinterested, so susceptible 
 and obliging, so kind and attentive," the youngest 
 daughter was a universal favorite. 
 
 " She was the picture of health, and the sound mind and 
 sound body were evidently united in her. The natural result 
 of good spirits followed, and these were invariably present. 
 But they were not the mere result of good health. Courtesy, 
 thoughtfulness for others, gentle manners and kindly words 
 were the rule of the household, and they found a ready dis 
 ciple and their best soil in her, and united to form even at 
 that early period a very attractive character. To a certain 
 degree self -distrustful and sensitive, she would yet join as 
 readily and easily in the mirth of her companions, when her 
 self the subject of it, as any of them. She evidently knew the 
 value of self-control ; and if ever the hasty word or sharp 
 reflection rose to her lips, it was repressed, and with evident 
 good- will. In a quite long and intimate association with that 
 circle of friends, old and young joining easily, I never saw in 
 her an exception to this gentle spirit, this sweet and kindly 
 disposition. It made sunshine whenever she came among us, 
 and, with the accompaniment of a voice in unison with her 
 temperament, never failed to insure her a joyful welcome." l 
 
 Helen Benson had, withal, both a thoughtful and a 
 deeply religious mind, which had been early brought 
 
 l On the first anniversary of his marriage Mr. Garrison thus wrote of his 
 wife to her brother George: "I did not marry her expecting that she 
 would assume a prominent station in the anti-slavery cause, but for 
 domestic quietude and happiness. So completely absorbed am I in that 
 cause, that it was undoubtedly wise in me to select as a partner one who, 
 while her benevolent feelings were in unison with mine, was less imme 
 diately and entirely connected with it. I knew she was naturally diffident, 
 and distrustful of her own ability to do all that her heart might prompt. 
 She is one of those who prefer to toil unseen to give by stealth and to 
 sacrifice in seclusion. By her unwearied attentions to my wants, her 
 sympathetic regards, her perfect equanimity of mind, and her sweet and 
 endearing manners, she is no trifling support to abolitionism, inasmuch as 
 she lightens my labors, and enables me to find exquisite delight in the 
 family circle, as an offset to public adversity." 
 
424 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. (Mi. 29. 
 
 CHAP. xni. under the happy influence of Samuel J. May, her neigh- 
 
 1834. bor, pastor, and warmest of warm friends. Although 
 
 she frequently visited her brothers and married sister in 
 
 Providence, she preferred the quiet and repose of the 
 
 country as more favorable to serious reflection. 
 
 MS. May " Your grandfather s family/ writes Mrs. Philleo of 
 the Bensons, " was an honor to humanity, and your dear 
 mother was their darling." Brooklyn was then the shire 
 town of Wiiidham County, and there were held the 
 several trials which arose out of the persecution of Miss 
 Crandall In a letter to his future father-in-law, Mr. 
 Garrison wrote, May 31, 1834 : 
 
 MS. " Never shall I forget the emotions which arose in my 
 
 bosom, on bidding you farewell at the close of my visit in 
 March last. Your house was then thronged with colored 
 pupils from Miss Crandall s school, who were summoned as 
 witnesses at Mr. Olney s l trial, and who had no other place in 
 Brooklyn l where to lay their heads than your hospitable 
 dwelling. They were kindly received by you all ; and although 
 in number sufficient to overwhelm a quiet family like yours, 
 yet your dear wife and daughters were as composed as if not 
 one of them had been present. Some families, under such 
 circumstances, would have been thrown into utter confusion 
 and bustle, bustle, nothing but bustle, and running to and fro, 
 wtfuld have been the consequence. I was forcibly struck by the 
 quietude of spirit manifested by you all, and by that domestic 
 order which reigned paramount ; but more especially by that 
 benevolent condescension which is as rare as it is godlike, and 
 that disinterested philanthropy which led you cheerfully to en 
 tertain and accommodate so many of those who are generally 
 treated in society as the offscouring of the earth. In riding to 
 Providence, my thoughts constantly reverted back to the scene 
 which I had just left, and my heart grew liquid as water. 
 Heavenly Father, I inwardly ejaculated, let thy choicest 
 blessings fall upon the head of that very dear and venerable 
 philanthropist, and upon his dear wife, and all their children, 
 for thus compassionating the condition of an injured and help 
 less race. " 
 
 l A colored man, falsely accused of setting Miss Crandall s school on fire, 
 and acquitted on trial. 
 
MARRIAGE. 
 
 425 
 
 In truth, if any seal was needed on the match between 
 Miss Benson and Mr. Garrison, it was to be found in the 
 character and history of her father. 1 A retired merchant, 
 whose moderate fortune had been earned in Providence, 
 George Benson could look back on more than half a 
 century of personal and associated opposition to slavery. 
 He had a hand in founding and incorporating (1790) the 
 third of those interesting abolition societies of the first 
 years of the Republic, of which the Pennsylvania So 
 ciety, with Franklin at its head, was the earliest and 
 the longest-lived. 2 Of the Providence Society he was 
 latterly made the Secretary; of the Pennsylvania So 
 ciety promptly an honorary member (October, 1792). 
 The fugitive slave had in him a friend at all hazards ; 
 and "it deserves to be recorded that while so many 
 worthy persons were beguiled by the cunningly devised 
 scheme of the American Colonization Society, Mr. Ben 
 son clearly comprehended its spirit and tendency, and 
 wrote a long and an elaborate document in opposition to it 
 even before the Liberator made its appearance." Lundy 
 had been his guest on his lecturing tour in New England 
 in 1828. 3 In May, 1833, against his gentle protest, Mr. 
 Benson was chosen President of the New England Anti- 
 Slavery Society, to fill the vacancy caused by the death 
 of John Kenrick, and in February, 1834, was unani 
 mously reflected to the same office. His health was 
 now very feeble, but his sympathy with the cause was 
 undiminished, as with that other cause of which Aboli 
 tion was but a part the cause of Peace. He was one 
 
 1 See, for details, the Benson Family of Newport, R. I., pp. 31-47; 
 Memoir of S. J. May, pp. 113-115, and his Brief Account of his 
 Ministry, p. 47; Helen Eliza Garrison : In Memoriam, pp. 7-15 ; Larned s 
 History of Windham County, 2:473, 475, 484. 
 
 2 According to a letter dated April 10, 1835, from Thomas Fowell Buxton 
 to Prof. Elizur Wright, the former had then in his possession "the original 
 document by which yo\ir first anti-slavery society was formed, and signed 
 by Benjamin Franklin" (Lib. 5:87). 
 
 3 "June 9th. Had a large meeting at Brooklyn, Ct., where I tarried at 
 the house of George Benson, a zealous friend of Emancipation as well as of 
 the Peace Society" ( Life of B. Lundy, p. 26). 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 1834. 
 
 Ante, p. ty. 
 Constitution 
 of a Society 
 for Abolish 
 ing the Slave 
 Trade (Pro 
 vidence, 
 1789). 
 
426 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. 
 
 Lamed s of the first vice-presidents of the Windham County 
 
 County Peace Society established in 1826 through the efforts of 
 
 S. J. May, and died its president ; and was likewise an 
 
 7^,2:484. officer of the Windham County Temperance Society, at 
 its organization in 1829. Reared in the Baptist faith, 
 his views had gravitated towards those of the Society of 
 Friends, to whose principles respecting war, slavery, 
 and oaths he became a convert. 1 He "cherished their 
 spirit, dressed very much in their style, and generally 
 [while in Providence] attended their religious meetings." 
 Two of his daughters became Friends " through con- 
 vincement." 
 
 Religion, philanthropy and hospitality moulded the 
 family life at "Friendship s Valley," as Prudence Crandall 
 had gratefully denominated the Benson place, which lay 
 on both sides of the Norwich and Worcester road, in an 
 intervale at the foot of the long hill separating Brooklyn 
 from Pomfret. Nowhere could Mr. Garrison have found 
 an atmosphere more congenial to his moral sense, or 
 more inimical to the solitary and unsettled life he had 
 
 Ante, p. 390. hitherto led. Almost in the ride to Canterbury he had 
 offered himself to Miss Helen, his companion, but lacked 
 the courage. In January, 1834, he began a correspond 
 ence which speedily culminated in a proposal of mar 
 riage on his part, and in a joyful yet self -distrustful 
 acceptance on hers. In April, on his way to Philadelphia, 
 he visited her for the first time as an acknowledged suitor, 
 and, to his great satisfaction, was received by her in her 
 
 MS. April customary simplicity of dress. " Truly," he writes, " not 
 
 24. 1834- one young lady out of ten thousand, in a first interview 
 
 with her lover, but would have endeavored falsely to 
 
 1 This was rather a case of reversion than of conversion, for the affinity 
 between the early Friends and the Baptists was very strong (see Tallack s 
 George Fox, the Friends, and the Early Baptists ). One of Mr. Benson s 
 ancestors, on the maternal side, was that Rev. Obadiah Holmes who was 
 publicly whipt in Boston, in 1651, for holding service at the bedside of an 
 invalid brother Baptist, and whose account of his behavior under this 
 persecution (in Clarke s 111 Newes from New England ) shows how little 
 he differed in spirit and in manner from the equally outraged Quakers. 
 
MT. 29.] MAKRIAGE. 427 
 
 heighten her charms and allure by outward attractions." 1 CHAP.XIII. 
 Deep and genuine affection, modesty and self-respect jg^. 
 determined her behavior on this and on every other 
 occasion. The short hours spent together in rambles up 
 the romantic Gray Mare hill which overhangs the little 
 valley, or in the privacy of evening, or in the common 
 intercourse of the amiable household, confirmed them in 
 the wisdom and sacredness of their new relation. Other 
 interviews, on Mr. Garrison s return to Boston (in May) 
 and again in July, pleasantly interrupted and stimulated 
 their ardent correspondence. 
 
 At last the wedding was fixed for Thursday, Septem 
 ber 4, when the ceremony was feelingly performed by 
 Mr. May. All the appointments were plain and unosten 
 tatious. Wine of course was absent from the feast, and 
 even cake was not provided, both bride and groom feel 
 ing the importance of their example to the colored popu 
 lation, whose interest in the event would naturally be 
 keen. 2 As for the enemies of that race, accustomed to 
 denounce Mr. Garrison as an amalgamationist, they were 
 playfully informed in advance that they would soon " be Lib. 4: 131. 
 enabled to decide whether the editor of the Liberator is 
 to espouse a white or a black woman." 
 
 On the nuptial day, the journey for Boston was begun 
 in carriages by way of Worcester, the couple being 
 accompanied by Mr. Garrison s aunt Newell, his mother s 
 youngest sister, the only one of his relatives present at 
 the wedding. On the 5th, housekeeping began in " Free 
 dom s Cottage," on Bower St., near Walnut St., Roxbury, 
 in which Mr. Garrison had boarded during the first part 
 
 1 " Premierement ta parure, car tu n en avals point, et tn sais bien que 
 jamais tu n es si dangereuse " (Rousseau, Nouvelle Helo ise ). 
 
 2 Speaking generally, Helen Benson wrote on May 22, 1834 " I am aware 
 of the responsibility that will devolve upon me, and how much my ex 
 ample will be copied among that class you have so long labored to elevate 
 and enlighten. I have been considering how much the colored people think 
 of dress, and how much of their profits are expended for useless ornaments 
 that foolishly tend to make a show and parade. As much stress will of 
 course be laid on Garrison s wife by that class, it behooves me to be very 
 circumspect in all things, when called upon to fill so important a station." 
 
428 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [Mi. 29. 
 
 CHAP. xiii. of his courtship, and which he had now been enabled to 
 1834. secure for the honeymoon. The situation was of great 
 seclusion, embracing a grove, and of great natural beauty; 
 distant a little more than three miles from the heart of 
 Boston, and a good half mile from the nearest omnibus. 1 
 Here for seven months the young wife and her husband 
 rejoiced in their new existence, with Isaac Knapp as a 
 pleasant and helpful inmate, contributing generously to 
 the common expenses, the occasional companionship 
 of his excellent sister Abigail from Newburyport, and 
 visits of friends and relatives from Brooklyn and Provi 
 dence in short, with " open house," the beginning of a 
 life-long hospitality. As the welcome ran out to the 
 Mays : 
 
 MS. " If they are Grahamites, we have a fine spring of water in 
 
 oui cellar, and plenty of Graham flour upstairs. If they have 
 an affection for coffee or tea, we have both. If they love re 
 tirement, we are in the midst of it. If they have an eye for 
 natural scenery, we will show them as pretty a prospect as one 
 could desire to see. Do they wish to be contiguous to the city, 
 yet not implicated in its follies and fashions ? Then they will 
 assuredly come to Freedom s Cottage." 
 
 And yet, with all his imputed rashness, had the editor 
 of the Liberator ever done a rasher thing than to get 
 married and go to housekeeping ? Hardly had he 
 returned home from the Philadelphia Convention in 
 
 Lit. 3 : 206. December, 1833, before he set off again for the same city, 
 to represent the precarious condition of his paper. The 
 first number of the new volume, meantime, showed a 
 fresh enlargement, in the teeth of a distinct announce- 
 
 Lib 4:2. ment in the same issue that "more patronage must be 
 given to the Liberator, or it cannot long survive," especi 
 ally with the increased expenses consequent upon en 
 largement. Both in Philadelphia and in New York the 
 
 1 The midnight walk home from his office in Boston after the last 
 " hourly" had left, exposed Mr. Garrison to the risk of being waylaid by 
 murderous enemies. On these occasions his solicitous colored friends 
 sometimes followed him, keeping him in sight, often without his knowl 
 edge. 
 
^ET. 29.] SHALL THE LIBEKATOR DIE ? 429 
 
 colored people responded with gifts of money, and with MS. Jan. 5, 
 promises of more extensive subscriptions to the paper, y$*Be*sm. 
 which in the former city were vigorously followed up by 
 Arnold Buffum, with Joshua Coffin as an active can 
 vasser. For a time things went swimmingly, Buffum MS. Jan. 
 found that the fraudulent non-delivery of the former <2< w\^G 
 carriers had disgusted the local subscribers, but upon 
 his assurance that this should not happen again they 
 gave in their renewals in large numbers. His depend 
 ence on Coffin, however, was fatal. That voluble and 
 "huge personification of good humor " was the last 
 person to import business strictness into any enter 
 prise, and especially into one so loosely conducted at 
 headquarters. 1 He lacked neither industry nor devo 
 tion, but the more subscribers he obtained in his fashion, MS. Feb. 4, 
 the worse the confusion grew, and the louder the com- Buffum to 
 plaints directed against his host and backer, Arnold w - L - G 
 Buffum. Mr. Garrison s anxiety deepened as his suit 
 prospered with Miss Benson. On April 12, he wrote her 
 as -follows : 
 
 " Hitherto, having had none to care or provide for but myself, MS. 
 I have felt contented in getting merely my daily bread. But 
 duty to myself and to you requires that I should make such 
 arrangements with the Liberator as shall afford me, if a mode 
 rate, at least a sure income. I am therefore resolved no longer 
 to be shackled by the pecuniary responsibilities of the paper, 
 but to have a stipulated salary for my services. This salary ought 
 to be not less than one thousand dollars a year, for my editorial 
 abilities will readily command more than that sum, if devoted 
 to politics or literature : still, I shall be satisfied with $800 for 
 the present. In order to make this new arrangement, I shall 
 be induced to visit New York and Philadelphia in the course of 
 a fortnight. ... I shall endeavor to have my income fixed 
 at $1000. Indeed, I can now get that sum by abandoning the 
 Liberator, and acting as a general agent for the National So 
 ciety ; but how can I give up my paper ? " 
 
 1 Neither of the partners had any aptitude for bookkeeping. " Brother 
 Knapp, you know," writes Mr. Garrison to G. W. Benson, Nov. 30, 1835, 
 "resembles me very closely in his habits of procrastination. Indeed, I 
 think he is rather worse than I am in this respect." 
 
430 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 29. 
 
 MS. April At the same date Arnold Buffum wrote, kindly inviting 
 hi m to make his house his home during the proposed 
 visit to Philadelphia, sympathizing with him for being 
 cramped for money, and relating his endeavors to push 
 collections ; but admitting that " this is indeed a dull 
 place for abolition principles," and that he could not see 
 that any (male) anti-slavery society would be started 
 there. 1 Three days later a private circular appeal was 
 put forth by Garrison & Knapp, addressed to the friends 
 of the Liberator, and beginning with the startling en 
 quiry, "SHALL THE LIBERATOR DIE?" Its pecu 
 niary embarrassments had reached a crisis which must 
 speedily determine its fate. "Unless they be met and 
 obviated promptly by the combined efforts of its friends, 
 .the paper must cease on the first of July." Shall the 
 editor " be compelled, by imperious necessity, to forsake 
 the cause which is so near to his heart, and turn his 
 attention to other pursuits in order to get his daily 
 bread ? Shall he be forced to occupy a station in which 
 he can give instead of a constant and vigorous coopera 
 tion, but an incidental and trifling support to a cause 
 which needs a vast accession of strength to secure its 
 final triumph? In one sentence SHALL THE LIBER 
 ATOR DIE? not so much in consequence of the oppo 
 sition of its enemies, as the indifference of its friends ? " 
 
 " Permit us briefly to trace our career. We commenced the 
 Liberator without having obtained previously a single subscriber. 
 In the course of the first volume, about 500 subscribers were 
 added to our list : of course, this number was inadequate to our 
 support. It slowly increased, however, during the second and 
 
 l May 8, 1834, Lucretia Mott writes to J. M. McKim : " Last week we had 
 the renewed pleasure of a visit from Win. L. Garrison. He passed several 
 days in the city, addressed the colored people at the Wesleyan and Bethel 
 churches, and would have delivered a public address had he met with more 
 encouragement from our timid Philadelphia friends. He was even dis 
 couraged in the desire he felt to say a few words to our young men <5n the 
 evening of their founding themselves into a society. He was present, but, 
 at the request of one or two, took no part, they thinking the feeling here 
 of opposition to his zeal and ardent measures in the cause was such that it 
 would be rather a disadvantage." 
 
JET. 29.] SHALL THE LIBEKATOK DIE ? 431 
 
 third volumes, up to 1000, and then to about 1400 ; and so did CHAP. xill. 
 its expenses increase, owing to its enlargement without enhanc- T ^ 
 ing the terms of subscription. All this time, we lived in the 
 most frugal and humble manner, in order by the utmost self- 
 denial to sustain the paper, and disappoint the hopes and 
 predictions of its enemies. Still we struggled under many 
 embarrassments, and were in bondage to penury. We grate 
 fully acknowledge that several generous donations were made 
 to us for the support of the paper, from various persons and 
 societies ; and had it not been for these, it would have long 
 since ceased to exist. These were not sufficient to remove the 
 burden, although they alleviated its pressure. 
 
 " In commencing our present volume (the fourth) we again 
 enlarged the Liberator, still affording it at its original price. 
 At first, the prospect looked very encouraging. In less than 
 three months, six hundred new subscribers were added to our 
 subscription list principally obtained in the cities of New 
 York and Philadelphia, but under such circumstances as to 
 afford us no substantial aid : in fact, so remiss have they been 
 up to this hour, in complying with the terms of the paper, that 
 they have only increased our difficulties. 
 
 " We have been continually harassed and fettered in our 
 pecuniary resources, then 1st. Because at no one time since 
 its commencement, anterior to the present volume, have there 
 been subscribers enough to defray its expenses. 2d. Because 
 there are over $2000 due us for the three volumes, a very large 
 proportion of which sum we never expect to realize. 3d. Be 
 cause the expense of postage, the discount on foreign bills, the 
 payment for the transportation of bundles and distribution of 
 papers by carriers, the allowance to agents, &c., &c., have 
 reduced the sum of $2.00 on each subscriber who has punctually 
 paid, to less than $1.50. 4th. Because, in our anxiety to ad 
 vance the sacred cause of freedom, we have liberally distributed 
 copies of the paper where we deemed they were specially needed, 
 and also gratuitously printed and circulated addresses, tracts, 
 pamphlets, &c., on the subject of slavery and colonization, to a 
 large amount. 1 
 
 l Thus, in a subsequent letter to S. J. May, July 28, 1834, Mr. Garrison 
 says (MS.) : " In reply to your favor of the 24th, my partner joins with me 
 in consenting to print an edition of Miss CrandalPs [defense], as large as 
 the one proposed by you, at our own risk. As to the profits that may arise 
 from the sale of the pamphlet, we do not expect to make any : on the con 
 trary, we shall probably suffer some loss, in consequence of the difficulty 
 
432 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [JET. 29. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. " Besides all this, the editor has been put to great expense 
 j^T in travelling unrenmnerated from place to place, delivering 
 
 addresses, attending public meetings, conventions, &c., &c. 
 Moreover, the low price at which the paper is afforded to sub 
 scribers allows scarcely any profit, even when they are punctual 
 in their payments. 
 
 " It is a remarkable fact, that, of the whole number of sub 
 scribers to the Liberator, only about one -fourth are white. The 
 paper, then, belongs emphatically to the people of color it is 
 their organ and to them its appeals will come with peculiar 
 force. Let them remember that so strong are the prejudices of 
 the whites against it, we cannot at present expect much support 
 from them. And surely, by a very trifling combination of effort 
 and means, the colored population might easily give vigor and 
 stability to the paper. In Philadelphia, they number 25,000 ; 
 in New York, 20,000 ; in Baltimore, 10,000 ; and they are nu 
 merous in other places. True, they are poor and trodden down ; 
 but how can they arise without having a press to lift up its voice 
 in their behalf ? They are poor but taking the paper will not 
 make them any poorer it will add to their respectability, their 
 intelligence, and their means. It is for them, therefore, to 
 decide this question 
 
 " SHALL THE LIBERATOR DIE 1 
 
 " We now print and circulate 2300 copies of the Liberator, 
 weekly. Of this number, 400 are taken in Philadelphia ; 300 
 in New York ; 200 in Boston ; and the rest are scattered through 
 the free States ; making a total of about 2000 actual subscribers. 
 Of the remaining 300 we send 40 to Hayti, and the same number 
 to England. Our exchange with other papers has been about 
 150 other copies are distributed gratuitously." 
 
 The partners next make an estimate of the cost of 
 printing the Liberator, and, allowing $700 for the editor s 
 support, show an annual deficit of $1700. They propose 
 the raising of a fund of one thousand dollars, in shares 
 of ten dollars each, to be paid over to the Treasurer of 
 the New England Anti-Slavery Society on or before the 
 
 of disposing of any publication, however interesting or valuable in itself. 
 But a trial so important as Miss C. s involving such momentous conse 
 quences to a large portion of our countrymen implicating so deeply the 
 character of this great nation ought not to go unpublished, and shall not 
 while we have the necessary materials for printing it." See, in fact, the 
 pamphlet Report of the Arguments of Counsel, etc., published by Garrison 
 & Knapp, 1834. 
 
. 29.] 
 
 SHALL THE LIBERATOK DIE? 
 
 433 
 
 middle of June, subject to the order of Garrison & Knapp ; 
 and a periodic examination of their accounts by the 
 Managers of the Society, with an annual report from 
 them to the several contributors. This rather vague 
 scheme, coupled with anticipated voluntary efforts to 
 extend the circulation of the paper, and a threatened 
 rigid enforcement of the rule exacting payment in 
 advance, apparently failed of approval, for on June 6 
 Mr. Garrison wrote to Miss Benson (who had promptly 
 met the situation with " Bread-and- water agrees with me 
 perfectly") : " I am happy to say that it is probable the 
 Managers of the New England Anti-Slavery Society will 
 determine, to-morrow afternoon, to take all the pecuniary 
 liabilities of the Liberator hereafter, and give me a regu 
 lar salary for editing it, and friend Knapp a fair price 
 for printing it. My salary will not be less than $800 per 
 annum, and perhaps it will be fixed at $1000. . . . 
 The new arrangement will go into effect on the 1st of 
 July." 
 
 In November, however, 1 the continuance of the Liber 
 ator was still a question. It was the same old story 
 the paper could not pay its expenses j the arrears were 
 excessive. The editor was again seriously contem 
 plating giving it up, and again negotiating with the 
 New England Anti-Slavery Society "to get rid of the 
 bookkeeping, money-getting part of the business." He 
 also approached the American Anti-Slavery Society, with 
 the result of an offer on its part to purchase a certain 
 number of the anti-slavery publications undertaken by 
 Garrison & Knapp, if sufficient means were furnished 
 them from other sources to relieve them from their 
 present embarrassment. 2 Arnold Buffum had his plan 
 of making Mr. Garrison the corresponding secretary of 
 the New England Anti-Slavery Society, and the salaried 
 editor of the Liberator, adopted as its organ. Elizur 
 
 1 Between the issues of the 4th and llth of October the Liberator office 
 was removed from Merchants Hall to 31 CornhiH. 
 
 2 Apparently a significant part of the indebtedness was carried by James 
 Forten. 
 
 VOL. L 28 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 1834. 
 
 MS. April 
 14, 1834. 
 
 MS. Nov. 
 10, 1834, 
 Geo. Thomp 
 son to R. 
 Purvis. 
 MS. Dec. 
 20, 1834, 
 from A. L. 
 Cox. 
 
 MS. Nov. 
 
 iB, Dec. 13, 
 
 1834. 
 
434 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. [2E-r. 29. 
 
 ** S rt Nov j Wright, Jr., with much warm-heartedness and practical 
 
 w. L. G. sympathy, urged Mr. Garrison to put delicacy aside, and 
 
 quit his post for a few months and make a lecturing tour. 
 
 for the avowed purpose of gaining support for his Lib- 
 
 Afs. NOV. erator. Finally, George Thompson, now Mr. Garrison s 
 
 R. Purvis neighbor in Roxbury, and the confidant of his despair 
 concerning his pecuniary prospects, exerted all his elo 
 quence to arouse the abolitionists to a sense of their duty 
 to the Liberator a sense which had been weakened by 
 the very success of the paper in multiplying anti-slavery 
 societies and periodicals, as well as by the general finan 
 cial distress of the country in the months following 
 President Jackson s interference with the deposits in the 
 United States Bank. 
 
 Thompson had indeed arrived on these shores, having 
 
 Lib. 4:155. embarked with his family on the ship Champlain, and, 
 after a five weeks voyage, landed in New York, Septem 
 ber 20, 1834. He had been preceded in April by Charles 
 
 Lib. 4 : 59, Stuart, who brought with him a thousand dollars which 
 had been collected for the colored Manual Labor School, 
 while to Mr. Thompson had been entrusted a splendid 
 silver salver, " elegant books," and other gifts for Miss 
 Crandall from the ladies of Glasgow and Edinburgh, by 
 whom chiefly his own expenses were borne. Mr. Gar 
 rison had procured for both Englishmen the official 
 invitation of the New England and American Anti- 
 Slavery Societies, and had in the opening number of the 
 fourth volume of the Liberator already heralded their 
 approach. He paved the way for them by printing their 
 
 Lib. 4:51, private letters to himself, together with Stuart s circular 
 appeal to his countrymen on behalf of the School, and 
 his review of the Colonization Society ; and reports of 
 various meetings in Scotland complimentary to Mr. 
 Thompson, and pledging him support while absent on 
 his anti-slavery mission to America. " The name of 
 
 Lib. 4 : 47 George Thompson," said the editor, " is as sweet as the 
 tones of a flute to my ears. . . . He is coming among 
 us as an angel of mercy. . . . The spectacle of the 
 
. 29.] 
 
 GEOKGE THOMPSON. 
 
 435 
 
 chivalrous Lafayette s embarkation for this country, to 
 assist in redeeming it from a foreign yoke, has far less 
 of sublimity in it than the high moral heroism and noble 
 benevolence " of George Thompson. He comes, " not as 
 a foreigner, but as i a man and a brother/ feeling for those 
 in bonds as bound with them." A young man of thirty 
 years, 1 " his person is tall, graceful, and agile, his coun 
 tenance fine and attractive, his voice mellifluent, and his 
 action all that Demosthenes could desire. As an orator, 
 he surpasses every speaker that I have ever heard," 
 O Connell not excepted. " His appeals are absolutely 
 electrifying." 
 
 The similarity in age between Mr. Garrison and the 
 English orator favored a friendly attachment, but there 
 were other circumstances such as their having sprung 
 from the middle class and been denied the higher educa 
 tion ; above all, however, their deeply religious training 
 and temperament which drew them irresistibly to 
 gether. Mr. Thompson s connection, too, with the 
 anti-slavery cause began in the very year in which the 
 Liberator was founded, and as agent of the London 
 Anti-Slavery Society he preached the doctrine of imme 
 diate and unconditional emancipation throughout the 
 kingdom, with an effectiveness which, in the judgment 
 of such men as Brougham and John Bright, determined 
 the success of the agitation two years afterwards, and 
 entitled him to the name of " Liberator." 2 Mr. Gar 
 rison s natural prepossessions for such a character were 
 confirmed on meeting Mr. Thompson, who on his part 
 received him with a warmth proportioned to his changed 
 opinion of him. The first time the English abolitionist 
 had heard of the American, Elliott Cresson was his 
 informant. " There is," said this unscrupulous person, 
 
 1 George Thompson was born in Liverpool, June 18, 1804. ^ 
 
 2 4i I have always considered Mr. Thompson as the real liberator of the 
 slaves in the English colonies ; for, without his commanding eloquence, 
 made irresistible by the blessedness of his cause, I do not think all the 
 other agencies then at work would have procured their freedom " (John 
 Bright, London Farewell Soire"e to George Thompson, 1864). 
 
 Cf. Lib. 
 5 139. 195- 
 
 Cf. Lib. 
 6:75. 
 
 Mays Rec 
 ollections, p. 
 108, seq. 
 
 W. L. G. in 
 
 Boston 
 
 Transcript, 
 
 Oct. 14, 
 
 1878. 
 
 May s Rec 
 ollections, 
 p. 113. 
 
436 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 29. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 1834. 
 
 Lib. 3 : 50. 
 
 London 
 
 Breakfast to 
 
 W. L. G., 
 
 P-47- 
 
 W. L. G. in 
 Lectures of 
 
 Geo. Thomp 
 son, p. xi. 
 
 " an incendiary paper, published in Boston by a madman 
 who is in league with a man of the name of Walker, 
 who has recommended the slaves to cut their masters 
 throats." A little later, encountering Captain Stuart, 
 who had just returned from the United States, Thompson 
 was presented with copies of the Liberator and the 
 1 Thoughts on Colonization/ the perusal of which "more 
 than prepared him to extend a brother s welcome to the 
 founded and representative of the New England Anti- 
 Slavery Society " on his reaching England in 1833. A 
 shake of the hand by this " madman " turned the current 
 of his life, and decided the character of his future occu 
 pations. 
 
 The talents of George Thompson were such as would 
 have insured him brilliant success at the bar, and he was 
 strongly urged to enter the legal profession by such 
 eminent members of it as Lord Brougham, 1 the Bight 
 Hon. Stephen Lushington and Mr. Serjeant Stephen, who 
 were ready to direct his education and to guarantee the 
 support of his family in the meantime. At this critical 
 moment Mr. Garrison appeared upon the scene : 
 
 " As the bill for the abolition of Colonial Slavery had passed 
 both houses of Parliament, previous to my embarkation for the 
 United States, and as the long-protracted contest in England 
 was about drawing to a close, it occurred to me, that if I could 
 succeed in inducing Mr. Thompson to visit America, and co 
 operate with the little band of abolitionists who were there 
 struggling against wind and tide, my mission would be crowned 
 with the highest success. 
 
 " One day as I was dining at the house of Thomas Fowell 
 Buxton,* in London, our conversation naturally turned upon 
 the state of the abolition question in the United States. In the 
 
 l Edmund Quincy writes to Mr. Garrison from Boston, Aug. 10, 1838 : 
 " I have just heard part of a letter from Charles Sumner, in which he says 
 that he heard Lord Brougham s anti-slavery speech in the House of Lords, 
 in which he paid the highest compliments to George Thompson, saying 
 that he was one of the most eloquent men he had ever heard either in or 
 out of Parliament, etc. This was suppressed, for some reason or other, in 
 the Reports." Brougham s speech was made July 16 (Lib. 8 151). 
 
 " * The successor of Wilberforce in Parliament." 
 
. 29.] 
 
 GEORGE THOMPSON. 
 
 437 
 
 course of many inquiries, he kindly remarked, that, as the CHAP.XIII. 
 
 friends of negro emancipation in England had nearly accom 
 plished their work in the Colonies, they would soon be enabled 
 to give their sympathies and aid to their brethren in America, 
 in a more direct and efficient manner than they had hitherto 
 done ; and he was sure they would readily do what they could, 
 consistently with duty, the relations that subsisted between the 
 two countries, &c. * In what way, then, Mr. Garrison, he in 
 quired, can we best assist your cause ? t By giving us George 
 Thompson? I replied. But, he asked, would there not be 
 strong prejudices excited against him, on account of his being 
 an Englishman ? Do you think he could obtain a fair hearing 
 before the American people? Would not the slaveholders, 
 especially, and their violent adherents, endeavor to inflame the 
 jealousy of the nation, and misrepresent the real object of his 
 mission ? 
 
 " To these questions I replied, that the coming of Mr. 
 Thompson among us would undoubtedly stir up the bile of all 
 those who were opposed to the abolition of slavery ; that he 
 might expect to encounter severe ridicule and bitter denuncia 
 tion ; that it would not be safe for him (as it was not safe for 
 any New-Englander who was an abolitionist) to travel and 
 lecture in the slave States ; and that he would have to take his 
 chance probably an unequal chance with the rest of us who 
 were proscribed for our abhorrence of the slave system. Still, 
 I believed he would find opportunities to speak in public, especi 
 ally in New England, as often as he could desire ; and I felt 
 confident, that whenever and wherever he should succeed in 
 making himself heard, he would disarm prejudice, extort 
 admiration, and multiply converts to our cause ; and that he 
 would finally remove every obstacle in his path, arising from 
 his transatlantic origin. As to his personal safety in New 
 England, I did not think there would be any hazard. . . . 
 
 "Mr/Buxton pleasantly remarked, that, if I thought they 
 could obtain a hearing at the North, we might have not only 
 Mr. Thompson, but all their abolition lecturers, if desirable. 
 He also said, that it was his intention to address a letter to the 
 people of the United States upon the subject of slavery, which 
 I urged him to write without delay. 
 
 " At my next interview with Mr. Thompson, I frankly stated 
 to him my views and feelings. Novel and startling as was my 
 proposition, it made at once a deep impression upon his benevo 
 lent mind, and he promised to give it all that consideration 
 
 1834. 
 
 Lectures of 
 Geo. Thomp 
 son, p. xiv. 
 
438 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKBISON. 
 
 [.Ex. 29. 
 
 1834. 
 
 Lectures of 
 Geo. Thomp 
 son, p. xvi. 
 
 Ibid., p. xvii. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. which its importance merited. It was an extraordinary sacri 
 fice which he was invited to make, . . . and what but the 
 love of Christ constraining him could have induced him finally to 
 take up so heavy a cross as this ? How many plausible objec 
 tions might have been started to the mission, if he had been 
 disposed to shrink from its perils, or evade its mortifications ! 
 He was a foreigner ; the experiment was a novel one j it might 
 needlessly jeopard the happiness and safety of his family; his 
 advocacy might do more harm than good ; there were many 
 important moral enterprises in England which needed his 
 efforts ; there was no lack of talent or zeal enlisted in the anti- 
 slavery cause in the United States, &c., &c. Minds of little 
 faith and of great timorousness might start such difficulties in 
 favor of themselves or of others ; but George Thompson never 
 once thought of sheltering himself behind such coverts. . . . 
 Was the cause which he was invited to espouse of greater 
 moment than any other which presented itself? Could he 
 hope to be more useful in it than in a subordinate enterprise ? 
 Would such a mission be in accordance with the spirit of the 
 gospel of Christ ? Was he qualified to sustain it ? These were 
 the great questions which occupied the thoughts of Mr. Thomp 
 son, and which, in his view, included all other considerations." 
 
 The first of them he answered for himself ; as to the 
 last, taking counsel of his anti-slavery friends and 
 colleagues, with the result of accepting the personal and 
 official invitation to " come over and help " the American 
 abolitionists. In the interval before starting out he set 
 himself to reorganize British anti-slavery sentiment on 
 a world- wide basis. 
 
 At last Mr. Garrison s English mission was full- 
 flowered. He had met on the spot and crushed the 
 attempt of the Colonizationists to enlist British sym 
 pathy and anti-slavery authority in behalf of their So 
 ciety and to recruit their funds abroad ; he had secured 
 that sympathy and authority and pecuniary assistance 
 for his own movement ; and he was now to bring Eng 
 lish opinion to bear directly on the United States by 
 introducing a champion of the victorious cause of Wil- 
 berforce and Clarkson. The last step was undoubtedly 
 the most venturesome of the three, but the candid his- 
 
JET. 29.] GEORGE THOMPSON. 439 
 
 torian must hesitate to pronounce it ill-advised, whether CHAP.XIII. 
 Mr. Garrison s object was to cement the philanthropic ^ 
 English alliance, to shame his country anew, 1 to prick 
 the guilty or arouse the sleeping consciences of his coun 
 trymen. For one thing, Mr. Thompson s tour united 
 and inspired afresh the existing anti-slavery organiza 
 tions, and gave a great impulse to their multiplication 
 a service which the cares of the Liberator prevented its 
 editor from performing. That it thus prodigiously in 
 tensified the agitation of the slavery question, invested 
 the abolitionists with greater formidableness in the eyes 
 of the South, arrested the attention of Congress as 
 never before, and forced the issue of toleration and 
 freedom of speech, nobody will ever be able to disprove. 
 It precipitated the " irrepressible conflict," but Mr. Gar 
 rison s peculiar policy was to precipitate it. In his rapid 
 series of assaults upon the slave system the doctrine 
 of immediate emancipation ; the organization of anti- 
 slavery societies, local and national ; the discrediting of 
 the Colonization Societ}^, at home and abroad ; the an 
 nexation, so to speak, before it had cooled off, of the 
 profound anti-slavery sentiment of Great Britain to his 
 struggling enterprise the invitation to George Thomp 
 son to accept a lecturing agency in this country ranks as 
 the last but, strategically, by no means the least. 
 
 A friendly critic, however, himself a foreigner, 2 has 
 declared that " the national spirit (Nationalsinnj of no 
 
 1 George Ticknor writes to William H. Prescott from Dresden, Feb. 8, 
 1836 : " Your remarks about Dr. Channing s book on Slavery bring up the 
 whole subject afresh before me. You cannot think how difficult and often 
 how disagreeable a matter it is to an American travelling in Europe, to 
 answer all the questions that are put to him about it, and hear all the 
 remarks that are made in consequence. . . . One good, and only one 
 that I know of, can come from this state of opinion in Europe : the South 
 ern States must be rebuked by it, and it is better the reproach should come 
 from abroad than from New England and the North" ( Life of George 
 Ticknor, 1:480). 
 
 2 Von Hoist, Constitutional History of the United States, from the Ad 
 ministration of Jackson, pp. 104, 105 (pp. 107, 108, of the German original). 
 The present translation is our own ; that of the American edition being a 
 betrayal. 
 
440 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. 
 
 . 29. 
 
 CHAP. xiii. great people could or should have borne with equanim- 
 1834. ity " this practical exemplification of the " cosmopolitan 
 vagueness and extravagance " embodied in the Liberator 
 motto, " Our country is the world, our countrymen are all 
 mankind." Further, that while it would now be foolish 
 and unjust to throw stones at the abolitionists for seek 
 ing foreign coadjutors, " it would be at least as foolish 
 and unjust to make it a reproach to the rest of the Ame 
 rican people, that they felt the dragging of foreigners 
 into the most difficult and important question of their 
 politics to be an insult (ScMmpfJ, and that they did not 
 regard this question simply from the point of view of 
 human beings (Mensclien), or citizens of the world, but, 
 before all, approached it as Americans." 1 
 
 This dictum is open to the comment that the " cosmo 
 politan vagueness and extravagance" of the Declaration 
 of Independence on which the abolitionists relied for 
 their own justification, was designed to command univer 
 sal assent, and has, in fact, as a seminal principle, never 
 ceased to work changes and upheavals in foreign coun 
 tries from the first French Revolution downwards. Fur 
 ther, that mouths which were repeating and applauding, 
 every Fourth of July, the self-evident truth that " all 
 men are created equal " were, morally speaking, choked 
 against crying down a foreigner who joined them in 
 offering homage to it. 2 It must also be clear that a 
 
 Ante, p. 250. people which had blessed Polish banners in Faneuil Hall 
 had nothing to complain of in an agitation conducted by 
 non-partisan non-resistants, and kept strictly within the 
 
 1 See in Lib. 4 : 201 the Boston Courier s approval of the Salem Gazette, 
 which called Thompson an "itinerant stirrer up of strife," and declared. 
 "The pride of our countrymen will not long submit to foreign inter 
 ference." 
 
 2 "Meanwhile, every true citizen of that country must necessarily be 
 content to have his self-government tried by the test of these principles 
 [the truths of the Declaration], to which, by his citizenship, he has become 
 a subscriber, . . . and he will quarrel with no results fairly brought oiit 
 by such a test, whether they inspire him with shame or with complacency. 
 In either case, he will be animated by them " (Harriet Martineau s Society 
 in America, Part 1, Politics). 
 
-ET. 29.] GEORGE THOMPSON. 441 
 
 Constitution in its methods and scope, even if among CHAP.XIII. 
 them there happened to be some of foreign birth. !8 34 . 
 Finally, though a blind and wicked Americanism doubt 
 less heightened the fury of the mobs to which both 
 Stuart and Thompson were exposed, their treatment was 
 not different in kind from that of the native abolitionists, Lib. 5 : 205. 
 and the want of " equanimity " was as much an evidence 
 of " national spirit " in the case of the latter as of the 
 former. 
 
 But let us see how a great people should have regarded 
 the case of another foreigner, the Rev. Charles Follen, a 
 fugitive from the tyranny of the Old World, at this time 
 Professor of the German Language and Literature at 
 Harvard College. 1 Dr. Follen had first openly allied 
 himself with the abolitionists at the second annual meet 
 ing of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in March, Lib. 4:42. 
 1834, where he made a speech in fullest sympathy with 
 their aims, while deprecating the use of "harsh lan 
 guage." In May following, he participated in the impor 
 tant convention of delegates from all the anti-slavery 
 organizations in New England held at Boston, being one Lib. 4 : 86. 
 of the committee of arrangements, and also chairman of 
 a committee to prepare an address to the people of New 
 England. In the latter capacity he composed a long, Lib. 4: Ar 
 able and temperate document, towards the close of which 
 occurs the oft-quoted passage : 
 
 "Europe, which had rekindled the extinguished lamp of ^.4:143. 
 liberty at the altar of our Revolution, still nourishes the holy 
 fire ; England goes before us as a torch-bearer, leading the way 
 to the liberation of mankind. The despotism which our fore 
 fathers could not bear in their native country is expiring, and 
 the sword of justice, in her reformed hands, has applied its 
 exterminating edge to slavery. Shall the United States, the 
 free United States, which could not bear the bonds of a King, 
 
 1 It is not irrelevant to notice here that the same ship which brought 
 over Lafayette on his last visit to this country, also bore Follen hither 
 shortly afterwards, and that Lafayette was the first person to whom Follen 
 wrote on his arrival, as being the only person he knew in this country 
 ( Life of Follen/ p. 139). 
 
442 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. cradle the bondage which a King is abolishing ? Shall a repub- 
 j^7 lie be less free than a monarchy ? Shall we, in the vigor and 
 
 buoyancy of our manhood, be less energetic in righteousness 
 than a kingdom in its age ? " 
 
 The descendants of those respectable citizens of Boston 
 and Cambridge who afterwards persecuted Dr. Follen for 
 sentiments like "these, may be trusted not to pride them 
 selves on the circumstance. What is more to our pur 
 pose is to ask whether those who resented his foreign 
 intermeddling were the true Americans, 1 or were Garri- 
 Lib. 4 : 143. son, who wrote, " We can only say that we wish we had 
 many more such foreigners among us," and Whittier, 
 who caught up the passage we have just cited, and poet 
 ized it in his glowing " Stanzas " f 
 
 " Our fellow-countrymen in chains ! 
 
 "Speak! shall their agony of prayer 
 Come thrilling to our hearts in vain ? 
 
 To us whose fathers scorned to bear 
 The paltry menace of a chain? 
 
 "What! shall we send, with lavish breath, 
 
 Our sympathies across the wave, 
 Where Manhood, on the field of death, 
 
 Strikes for his freedom or a grave? 
 Shall prayers go up, and hymns be sung 
 
 For Greece, the Moslem fetters spurning, 
 And millions hail with pen and tongue 
 
 Our light on all her altars burning ? 
 
 " Shall Belgium feel, and gallant France, 
 
 By Vendome s pile and Schoenbrun s wall, 
 And Poland, gasping on her lance, 
 
 The impulse of our cheering call? 
 And shall the SLAVE, beneath our eye, 
 
 Clank o er our fields his hateful chain? 
 And toss his fettered arms on high, 
 
 And groan for Freedom s gift, in vain? 
 
 l The fact that Dr. Follen had been newly naturalized he became a citi 
 zen in March, 1830 ( Life, p. 267) may even have furnished a new ground 
 of resentment, viz., "ingratitude." 
 
JET. 29. J GEOKGE THOMPSON. 443 
 
 u Just God! and shall we calmly rest, CHAP. XIII. 
 
 The Christian s scorn, the heathen s mirth, l8 7. 
 
 Content to live the lingering jest 
 
 And byword of a mocking Earth? 
 Shall our own glorious land retain 
 
 That curse which Europe scorns to bear? 
 Shall our own brethren drag the chain 
 
 Which not even Russia s menials wear*?" 
 
 The truth is, that had Thompson and Stuart had a 
 pro-slavery message to deliver, their nativity would 
 have been forgotten, or made to emphasize their support 
 of the " peculiar institution." They would have been 
 cheered and feted instead of mobbed. It was the humani 
 nil a me alienum 1 which made them " foreigners," as it 
 had already, in the eyes of slaveholders and their apolo 
 gists, denationalized the abolitionists of the North. Now Ante, p. 389. 
 let each show, in a few words, his care to avoid the special 
 opposition aroused against him, and both the American 
 and the Christian scope of his mission. Thus Charles 
 Stuart, in the circular appeal, already mentioned, to the Ante, p. 434. 
 English friends of humanity and religion " on behalf of 
 the colored Manual Labor School" (London, November 
 1, 1833) : 
 
 " The sympathy and the aid of Great Britain are not invited Lib. 4: 58. 
 with even the remotest view of interfering with the political 
 establishments of the United States ; for with these we have 
 nothing and ought to have nothing to do. But for the 
 purpose of giving our cordial countenance and encouragement 
 to all which is truly honorable amongst them. to all that con 
 firms and purifies their power and their happiness; for the 
 purpose of uniting in the glorious effort which the real patriots 
 amongst themselves are making to extirpate the prejudice 
 and the slavery which tarnish their honor and blight their 
 prosperity." 
 
 1 " He knew it might be asked, how he could presume to make foreign 
 matters the subject of his criticism and condemnation. He would answer 
 in the words of Terence Homo sum : nil humani a me alienum puto. . . . 
 The apostolic precept, Remember them that are in bonds, was restricted 
 in its application by no territorial limitations " (George Thompson at Edin 
 burgh, November, 1833 (Lib. 4 : 58). See also his speech at the second 
 annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society (Lib. 5: 82). 
 
444 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [MT. 29. 
 
 CHAP. XIIL And thus George Thompson, in a lecture on " Slavery 
 I8 7 4 . in the United States " at Edinburgh (October 25, 1833) : 
 
 Lib. 4 : 65. " Leave it to the Government, said some, and slavery will 
 soon be abolished. Why, in the Government, the slaveholders 
 were omnipotent, and would not. Leave it to the other indi 
 vidual free States, said others. Why, they had no power. How 
 then were they to propose to attack slavery ? what lever were 
 they to use to overthrow it, and where would they take their 
 stand ? They should attack it with the same weapons by which 
 the victory had been gained in this country, by the weapons of 
 mercy, justice, truth, and love; they should overthrow it by 
 the lever of public opinion ; and they should take their stand 
 upon the Declaration of Independence upon the Constitution 
 of the United States liberty and equality, and that every man 
 is equal in the sight of God." l 
 
 This purely moral agitation was, of course, calculated 
 to work a political revolution in a country where the 
 ruling power reposed on the " sum of all villanies " a 
 fact which made it appear to some of the English aboli 
 tionists a delicate matter to send over missionaries. " I 
 MS. May hope our good friend Stuart, 77 writes James Cropper to 
 Mr. Garrison, " will be safely arrived in America before 
 this time. I have taken no part in promoting missions 
 to America. I did, however, contribute to the fund 
 which is placed at Stuart 7 s disposal. I am a little afraid 
 of our stepping out of our proper place in paying agents 
 to travel in the United States, but I am satisfied there is 
 a degree of apathy from which it is needful the people in 
 your country should by some means be aroused." To 
 Cropper s correspondent the employment of such agents 
 was as patriotic as his own propagandism in England. 
 Thompson and Stuart in America were merely Exeter 
 Hall transported and made visible English opinion 
 personified and brought home a judgment and a cen 
 sure no longer felt as afar off, but present and hourly 
 delivered with burning eloquence. To invoke and en 
 force this censure without striving to remove the cause, 
 
 l This report is not verbatim. 
 
^T. 29.] GEOKGE THOMPSON. 445 
 
 would justly have exposed the abolitionists to the charge CHAP.XIII. 
 of want of patriotism. On this score Mr. Garrison s con- 
 science was easy; witness part of his speech at the 
 annual meeting of the New England Anti-Slavery Society 
 in March : 
 
 " Sir, our professions of republicanism and Christianity are Lib. 4:42. 
 lofty ; but neither God nor the world will judge us by our pro 
 fessions, but by our practices. If the picture I have drawn be 
 a correct one, are we not practically a false, hypocritical and 
 tyrannical nation ? 
 
 " I speak the truth, painful, humiliating and terrible as it is ; 
 and because I am bold and faithful to do so, am I to be branded 
 as the calumniator and enemy of my country ? If to suffer sin 
 upon my brother be to hate him in my heart, then to suffer sin 
 upon my country would be an evidence not of my love but 
 hatred of her. Sir, it is because my affection for her is intense, 
 and paramount to all selfish considerations, that I do not parley 
 with her crimes. I know that she can neither be truly happy 
 nor prosperous while she continues to manacle and brutalize 
 every sixth child born on her soil. Lying lips are speaking 
 peace, peace, to her ; but she shall not see peace until the 
 tears of her repentance shall have washed away every stain of 
 blood from her escutcheon. 
 
 " They who are defiling her purity, and by their tyrannous 
 acts disgracing her character, have the brazen audacity to 
 pretend that they are jealous of her good name and fame in 
 Europe, and throughout the world ! Yes, sir, they who are 
 constantly trading in the bodies and souls of men ay, the 
 bodies and souls of their own children who are cracking 
 their bloody whips over the heads and upon the bodies of their 
 lacerated bondmen who are for banishing the Bible and ex 
 tinguishing the light of divine revelation who make it a crime 
 to teach a human being to read these are the men, and their 
 apologists and abettors, who are full of solicitude for the honor 
 of the nation, that it may appear spotless in the eyes of the 
 world ! The hypocrites ! they shall at least respect my under 
 standing they shall know that I am not to be dismayed by 
 their cries of slander, and by their threats of assassination. I 
 tell them, once for all, that I am not their enemy that it is 
 not in their power, by any exhibition of their malice or revenge, 
 to make me their enemy. It is true, my detestation of their 
 robberies and outrages is unutterable ; but I desire nothing so 
 
446 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. 
 
 29. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 1834. 
 
 H. Marti- 
 neaus Auto 
 biography, 
 1-335. and 
 Retrospect 
 of Western 
 Travel, 
 Chap, i. 
 
 #.4:155. 
 Lib. 4 : 78. 
 
 Ante, p. 382. 
 
 Lib. 4 : 79. 
 
 much as to promote their temporal and eternal welfare, and to 
 exalt the character of the United States. * This is my own, 
 my native land and I shall ever be ready ay, a thousand 
 times more ready to vindicate its reputation from the asper 
 sions of its enemies, than to defend my own. I acknowledge 
 no boundaries to my patriotism or love, but still I have my 
 local attachment, and prefer the land of my birth to every 
 other." 
 
 Thompson, as we say, had arrived. His coming had 
 been well advertised in the Liberator, and the New 
 York colonization dailies prepared to incite the rabble 
 to do violence on him. The uncertainty and postpone 
 ment of his departure happily saved him from such a 
 reception as had been contrived for Mr. Garrison a year 
 before. He was to have taken passage in the United 
 States, which brought over Harriet Martineau a little in 
 advance of him, and of which the captain was admon 
 ished by the pilot to hide Mr. Thompson for his life if 
 he had him on board. This precaution might have been 
 justified. Toward the close of September, however, there 
 was a temporary lull in the mob energy which for two 
 months had displayed itself in every part of the North, 
 beginning with New York ; and the efforts of the Courier 
 and Enquirer to revive it for Mr. Thompson s benefit 
 failed of success. 
 
 On the 6th of May the American Anti-Slavery Society 
 had held unmolested its first anniversary in the same 
 Chatham-Street Chapel in which, the year before, the 
 New York City Anti-Slavery Society had been forced to 
 organize by stealth, and to adjourn precipitately in 
 advance of the mob at the gates. Arthur Tappan pre 
 sided. Mr. Garrison was present, and spoke, though but 
 little, on account of a severe cold. Charles Stuart like 
 wise addressed the Society, and pointed the contrast 
 between October, 1833, and May, 1834, by defending his 
 friend against the charge of having slandered his country 
 abroad. Still another church was found in which to pro 
 tract the meeting, which in all occupied four days. The 
 
. 29.] 
 
 GEORGE THOMPSON. 
 
 447 
 
 Colonizationists, who had held a counter meeting in 
 palliation of slavery, kept aloof till a pretext for inter 
 fering was furnished by the unfavorable testimony of a 
 returned colonist as to the condition of Liberia. The 
 last two days, at the Chapel, were marked by interrup 
 tions, and at the close on Saturday afternoon the hall 
 was seized by Gurley, the Rev. G. W. Bethune, a Metho 
 dist bishop from Virginia and others, for a coloniza- 
 tionist demonstration. " Some of the ruffians bawled 
 out for Garrison," but he " was out of their murderous 
 reach." This was far from satisfying the Courier and 
 Enquirer, which warned the abolitionists never to meet 
 again in New York. 
 
 Disregarding this prohibition, the abolitionists of 
 that city reassembled on the 4th of July at the Chapel, 
 with David Paul Brown, of Philadelphia, as the orator 
 of the day. " Hundreds of young men, who sat near 
 the doors," drowned his voice with derisive cheers and 
 completely prevented a hearing. Their triumph was 
 the beginning of an era of lawlessness which, fanned 
 by the Courier and Enquirer, and first directed against 
 the black population, was speedily turned against their 
 friends. Lewis Tappan s house was gutted (July 9), 
 Arthur Tappan s store attacked (July 10), and only saved 
 by armed defence from within, various private residences 
 and several churches and schools more or less damaged, 
 the colored people barbarously assaulted on the streets 
 and in their homes ; and not until the third day of mob 
 rule did the civil and military authorities succeed in 
 restoring security not only to the victims of the out 
 break, but to all the " respectable " and moneyed classes, 
 whose indifference to " nigger " persecution was changed 
 into the liveliest alarm concerning their own safety. 
 After this, through July and August, we read of pro- 
 slavery riots or attempts in New Jersey, Pennsylvania (a 
 terrific three days raid on the colored quarter in Phila 
 delphia, among smaller disturbances), Ohio, Connecticut 
 (the coup de grace to Miss Crandall s school), yes, in 
 
 CHAP. XIIL 
 1834- 
 
 Lib. 4 : 79. 
 Lib. 4 : 85. 
 
 Life of 
 Arthur Tap- 
 pan, p. 204. 
 
 Ibid. , //. 
 
 209-224 ; 
 Lib. 4: in, 
 114; Niles 
 
 Register, 
 46 : 357-36o- 
 
 Lib. 
 
 : 115, 
 
 156 ; Niles 
 
 Register, 
 
 46 : 413, 435. 
 
448 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 . 29. 
 
 NUes Regis- 
 
 ter, 46 : 413, 
 
 436; 47:15, 
 z,^. 4 : n 9 . 
 
 MS. Aug 
 18,1834. 
 
 MS. 
 
 Rev. A. A. 
 Phelps. 
 
 Theodore 
 Lyman. 
 
 July 25, 
 1834- 
 
 Michigan ; and even the sacking of the Ursuline Con 
 vent (August 11) at Charlestown, Mass., seemed part of 
 the mania for violence which had its origin in the news 
 paper offices of Stone and Webb and the councils of the 
 New York colonizationists. 
 
 Mr. Garrison, to whom "these things give hope and 
 courage," as he writes to Miss Benson, assuredly was not 
 disheartened because the general condemnation of them 
 by the press of the country was usually accompanied by 
 abuse of the abolitionists. Rather he had the satisfac 
 tion of seeing poetic justice meted out in Boston, where 
 the feeling in sympathy with New York ruffianism was 
 strong enough to react even upon the instigators of the 
 latter. On July 28, he writes to Mr. May : 
 
 "Messrs. Robert J. Breckinridg-e, John Breckinridge, and 
 Leonard Bacon, and Rev. Mr. M Kenney, Agent of the Mary- 
 laud Colonization Society, are now in tliis city, with two 
 African Princes. They have come en masse, to make a grand 
 attack upon us, but will be defeated, according to present 
 appearances. On Saturday, our city papers contained a bold 
 and showy advertisement, stating that a meeting would be 
 held by these gentlemen at the Bromfield- Street (Methodist) 
 Church on Sabbath evening, to urge the claims of the Mary 
 land Colonization Society; and that other meetings for the 
 same object would be held successively during the same week. 
 Of course, this created much animation in our ranks. Brother 
 Phelps was just on the eve of embarking for Portland, but 
 concluded to tarry and encounter the shock of these potent 
 antagonists. However, the evening papers of Saturday con 
 tained a notice, that the contemplated meetings would be post 
 poned until further notice, which you may read, postponed 
 indefinitely. It is said that they received a visit from the 
 Mayor, who urged them not to hold their meetings at this 
 juncture stating, among- other things, that the mob would 
 not be likely to discriminate between colonizationists and 
 abolitionists, but would readily seize any pretext to create a 
 disturbance. It is said, moreover, that the trustees of the 
 church reconsidered their vote granting these gentlemen the 
 use of their house. Thus matters stand at present. . . . 
 
 " On Friday evening, I called upon the Rev. John Breckin 
 ridge, in company with brother Phelps. The interview lasted 
 
^T. 29.J GEORGE THOMPSON. 449 
 
 till between 11 and 12 o clock. The first half hour was spent CHAP. XIII. 
 in an amicable and argumentative discussion, respecting the j^T 
 duty of immediate emancipation. Brother Phelps left me to 
 manage the case, only now and then thrusting in a keen, pithy 
 and pertinent remark. Mr. B., I am sorry to say, soon lost his 
 temper, and overwhelmed us poor abolitionists with a tempest 
 of epithets. His nervous system is extremely sensitive, and 
 when it is excited he almost becomes frantic. His language 
 towards me was really abusive, and unworthy of a Christian 
 minister. Notwithstanding the provocations which he gave 
 me, I endeavored and I trust not without success to pre 
 serve my equanimity. I said to him * Mr. Breckinridge, we 
 are both aware that the best men in our land are divided on 
 the question of African colonization, and they need and are 
 calling for more light. They wish to hear both sides of the 
 question. Will you discuss it with^me before the citizens of 
 Boston u ? No, said he, 1 1 do not consider you my equal. 
 You are too debased and degraded in community for me, 
 occupying the station that I do, to hold a controversy with 
 you. This, I replied, * is a convenient mode of escape. Will 
 you encounter my brother Phelps ? No. *Will you discuss 
 the question with any abolitionist ? * No. He was much ex 
 cited when we separated, and intimated that he did not desire 
 to have me call upon him again. I went home lamenting that 
 our interview had not been more placid, but feeling no unkind- 
 iiess, but rather much pity, toward him. I fell down on my 
 knees, and besought the Lord to forgive him for all his accusa 
 tions against me, to open his eyes if he were in error, and to 
 grant that no ill-will should be left to rankle in our hearts. I 
 also earnestly besought forgiveness for myself, if I had said or 
 done aught amiss. My mind was very tranquil." 
 
 The meeting was finally held in the lower hall of the #.4:123. 
 Masonic Temple, in spite of direct incitement to violence 
 by the press and by means of placards. 1 Mr. Garrison 
 was present, and, during the slight interruptions which 
 ensued, besought the chairman, Horace Mann, to do Lib. 4 : 127. 
 his duty by the disturbers ; though for his own part he 
 regarded the Rev. John Breckinridge s speech as " fero- 
 
 l In his debate with George Thompson in Glasgow, in June, 1836, Mr. 
 Breckinridge accused Mr. Garrison of having concocted and printed a 
 mobbing placard (Lib. 6 : 135). 
 
 VOL. I. 29 
 
450 WILLIAM LLOYD GABKISON. [^T. 29. 
 
 CHAP. xiii. cious and diabolical." On August 11 he wrote to G. 
 1834. W. Benson : 
 
 MS. " You will have seen by the Liberator, that a grand attack by 
 
 all the combined forces of colonization and slavery has lately 
 been made upon Boston, in relation to the Maryland scheme of 
 expatriation. They have met with a Waterloo defeat, and yet 
 they fought pugnis et calcibus with tooth and nails, and even 
 horns. The Messrs. Breckinridge complained piteously of their 
 treatment in Providence. Not a meeting-house could they 
 obtain in that city ! Alas ! t there s none so poor would do 
 them reverence. Even in this city it was with the utmost 
 difficulty they could find a place in which to exhibit those 
 young humbugs, the two African princes, and their emancipa 
 tion scheme, which is the greatest humbug of all ! They could 
 get into no churches but the Methodist not even into Park 
 Street ! Now let them ask, with a sneer, What have abolition 
 ists done "? " l 
 
 This unfriendly reception of the colonizationists, how 
 ever, was a sacrifice of real to outward logic. 2 The 
 abolitionists had equally been obliged to give up a 
 public celebration in Boston on the date of emancipation 
 in the British West Indies. 3 The Commercial Gazette 
 was meantime recommending the indictment by the 
 Lib. 4:118, grand jury of Garrison and his associates as public 
 nuisances, or, in default of this, " provision at the public 
 expense with a wholesome and salutary coat of tar and 
 feathers." Such was the Boston to which Mr. Garrison 
 was about to bring his young bride, and to welcome 
 George Thompson. 
 
 MS. " My dear friend and brother," wrote the latter from the 
 
 130 Nassau Anti-Slavery Office in New York, on Wednesday, September 24, 
 
 1 The Rev. Orson S. Murray writes to Mr. Garrison (MS. Oct. 11, 1834) 
 of Congregational clergymen in Vermont who would no longer take up 
 collections for the Colonization Society. 
 
 2 " The people of Boston should know no difference between IMMEDIATE 
 ABOLITION and COLONIZATION, if they are calculated to destroy the harmony 
 which should subsist between the North and the South" (Commercial Ga 
 zette, in Lib. 4: 123. Of. ante, pp. 303, 304.) 
 
 3 MS. July 23, 1834, W. L. G. to S. J. May. This celebration on the 1st 
 of August, which was continued throughout the anti-slavery struggle, was 
 first proposed by Mr. Garrison (Lib. 4:87). 
 
. 29.] 
 
 GEOKGE THOMPSON. 
 
 451 
 
 1834, " I arrived upon your shores on Saturday last, bringing Sept. 20. 
 with me Mrs. Thompson, our dear children, and our servant. 
 I was warmly greeted by the abolitionists of this city, but some 
 what curiously received by the other dwellers in this the commer 
 cial metropolis of the freest empire under the sun. The particulars 
 you shall have when we meet. They will bring another blush 
 for your country upon your cheek. ... I have been 
 delighted with all I have yet witnessed in this country, save 
 the conduct and dispositions of its rational and accountable 
 inhabitants. I feel that I could love this land and its people 
 with all my heart, were but oppression banished, and the 
 language of all hearts this 
 
 " The liberty we love we will bestow. " 
 
 The curious reception here referred to was nothing 
 less than the turning Mr. Thompson and his family out 
 of the Atlantic Hotel, to gratify an indignant Southern 
 guest. Prudence dictated that the object of this bru 
 tality should not begin his public addresses on the spot 
 where he landed, and where the embers of the July riots 
 were hardly cold. In the Courier and Enquirer of Sep 
 tember 23, Mr. Thompson could read of himself as 
 "another apostle of fanaticism [like Stuart], hired by 
 the immediate abolitionists to come among us and dis 
 seminate those precious doctrines of social equality and 
 physical amalgamation." The same paper warned him 
 " not to venture upon a lecture in favor of immediate 
 abolition," and thus court mob violence ; called upon the 
 police to stop him ; and added : " If our people will not 
 suffer our own citizens to tamper with the question of 
 slavery, it is not to be supposed that they will tolerate 
 the officious intermeddling of a Foreign Fanatic." 
 
 The town of Groton, Massachusetts, was destined to 
 be the scene of the first public utterance of George 
 Thompson in America. He had reached Freedom s 
 Cottage the day before (September 30), where he was 
 presently joined by S. J. May, in whose company and 
 Mr. Garrison s he set out, on the morning of October 1, 
 for the meeting of the Middlesex County Anti- Slavery 
 Society. His two companions were the only reporters of Lib. 4 : 163 ; 
 
 Lib. 4 : 155, 
 194 ; 5 : 195 ; 
 
 London 
 Abolitionist, 
 
 1:98. 
 
 MS. Oct. 7, 
 1834, Lewis 
 Tappan to 
 W. L. G. 
 
 Lib. 4 :i6i. 
 
 London 
 
 Abolitionist, 
 
 i : 149. 
 
452 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKBISON. 
 
 May s Rec 
 ollections, 
 p. 117. 
 
 Lib. 4 : 163, 
 166,167,174, 
 
 I75,i9i; 
 
 London 
 
 Abolitionist, 
 
 I : 150-157. 
 
 Lib. 4 : 193. 
 
 London 
 Abolitionist, 
 
 i : 152 ; 
 Lib. 4:174. 
 
 Lib. 4 : 175. 
 
 Lib. 5:4. 
 
 Lib. 4 : 194 ; 
 Cow ley s 
 History of 
 Lowell, p. 
 82, and Re 
 miniscences 
 ofj. C. 
 
 his speech. Mr. May s graphic account of it leaves no 
 doubt of the impression it must have made on all who 
 heard it. Mr. Garrison had not overrated his friend s 
 eloquence. Invitations began to pour in on him from all 
 quarters, and a New England tour was the immediate 
 result. His course through Eastern Massachusetts, 
 Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island may be traced 
 in the pages of the Liberator. Churches were as readily 
 thrown open to him as were anti-slavery conventions, 
 and a large part of the thirty addresses or more he had 
 made before the end of the year were delivered in them. 
 Occasionally he would give a common pulpit discourse, 
 in the clergyman s place, for which his religious spirit 
 fitted him so well that the Richmond (Va.) Enquirer was 
 quite right in designating him as an incendiary British 
 " missionary " rather than emissary. 1 
 
 Nevertheless, he did not entirely escape that species of 
 " warm reception " with which the Enquirer menaced him 
 in case he should cross the Potomac. His windows were 
 broken in Augusta, Maine, where a State Anti-Slavery" 
 Convention was in progress ; and a committee of citizens 
 requested him to leave town immediately under pain of 
 being mobbed if he reentered the Convention. Dis 
 turbers followed him from Augusta to Hallowell, but 
 were overawed. At Concord, New Hampshire, he was 
 interrupted with missiles while addressing a ladies meet 
 ing. At Lowell, Mass., on his second visit, in the Town 
 Hall, a brickbat thrown from without through the win 
 dow narrowly escaped his head, and, in spite of the 
 manliness of the selectmen, a meeting the next evening 
 was abandoned in the certainty of fresh and deadly 
 
 l Some of the Philadelphia Quakers objected to Thompson because he 
 made such long prayers (MS. Mar. 27, 1835, Henry Benson to G. W. Benson). 
 In his youth he was employed as one of the under-secretaries in the London 
 Methodist Mission House, and used to hold evening meetings in some of the 
 poor districts of the metropolis, and go about on Sundays distrttmting Bibles 
 and tracts (May s Recollections/ p. 109). He is often styled " Rev." in the 
 reports of his meetings in America (Lib. 5:1; 6:8; and 2d Annual Report 
 of the American A. S. Society, p. 47). 
 
^T. 29.] GEOKGE THOMPSON. 453 
 
 assaults. Before this conclusion was known, a placard CHAP.XIII. 
 in the streets (December 2), declaring that agitation of I ^J 4 . 
 the slavery question would " endanger the safety of the #.4:195. 
 Union," asked : " Do you wish instruction from an Eng 
 lishman ? " and invited a rally at the hall that evening, 
 to convince Southerners that their rights would not be 
 interfered with by their Northern brethren. The mob 
 found the premises empty, but took possession, and 
 adopted resolutions, framed by three of the foremost 
 citizens of Lowell, 1 embodying the sense of the placard, 
 though condescending to " deplore the existence of 
 slavery " as a " blot on the reputation of our otherwise 
 free country." 
 
 In Boston, after this, no other hall could be found for 
 Mr. Thompson but that of the New England Anti-Slavery Lib. 4 : 199. 
 Society, though some churches, particularly the Methodist, 
 were yet open to him. Meantime, after having enjoyed 
 the hospitality of Freedom s Cottage 2 for several weeks, 
 he took permanent lodgings in Roxbury not far away, 
 where the premature confinement of his wife gave him 
 time to reflect on the superior patriotism of Lowell, Au 
 gusta, and Concord, as contrasted with the un-American 
 cordiality manifested towards him at Portland, Bruns 
 wick, Providence, and elsewhere. Kindred thoughts were 
 also suggested by the press abuse of himself as repro 
 duced in the Liberators new department, " The Refuge 
 of Oppression," 3 and by the consequent notoriety which 
 for the moment eclipsed that of his friend and host. 
 
 1 Including John P. Robinson and Thomas (afterwards Judge) Hopkinson, 
 leading lawyers. From the latter s office Wendell Phillips had lately gone 
 to be admitted to the bar at Concord, Mass. (Crowley s Lowell, p. 119). 
 
 2 " The cottage in the wood, where, on a bleak winter s night, we huddled 
 round a log fire and talked over our plans for the future " (MS. fragment, 
 185, Geo. Thompson to W. L. G.) 
 
 3 A natural development of the original " Slavery Record " of the first 
 volume; "into which we propose to copy some of the choicest specimens 
 of anti-abolition morality, decency, logic and humanity generally without 
 note or comment" (Lib. 4:3). A year later: "It has already opened the 
 eyes of many to see how cruelly abolitionists are calumniated by their ene 
 mies ; and it proves that we are ready to let both sides of the controversy 
 be seen in our columns " (Lib. 5 : 3). 
 
454 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 29. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 1834. 
 
 May s Rec 
 ollections, 
 p. 102 ; 
 Life of 
 Arthur Tap- 
 pan, Chap. 
 
 Mays Rec 
 ollections, 
 p. 203 ; 
 Mass. Aboli 
 tionist, 
 2 : 133. 
 
 Lib. 4 : 206, 
 207. 
 
 Lib. 4:38. 
 
 Lib. 4 1175. 
 
 This is not the place, looking backward, to dwell at 
 length on the great incidents of the year already alluded 
 to the anti-slavery uprising and secession at Lane Semi 
 nary, under the leadership of Theodore D. Weld, against 
 the suppression of free debate by the Trustees, with Dr. 
 Lyman Beecher s assent : a revolt in which the names of 
 James A. Thome, of Kentucky, Marius R. Robinson, of 
 Tennessee, and Henry B. Stan ton were also prominent ; 
 and the formal abandonment of the Colonization Society 
 by an ex- slaveholder, J. G. Birney, 1 on grounds apparently 
 worked out independently of the * Thoughts, and there 
 fore all the more confirmatory of that arraignment (with 
 which, however, he was pretty certainly acquainted). 
 Gerrit Smith, too, was getting ready to break off from the 
 same connection, and exhibiting in the process his char 
 acteristic singleness of moral purpose and cloudiness of 
 logic. We remark, further, the first appearance in the 
 anti-slavery ranks of Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, of Ply 
 mouth, N. H., already seeming a warm personal friend of 
 Mr. Garrison, and vouched for by the latter as " an able 
 lawyer and an enlightened Christian " ; 2 of Rogers s 
 neighbor, John Farmer, the antiquarian; of Farmer s 
 constant correspondent in Boston, Francis Jackson ; 3 of 
 the Rev. George B. Cheever, and others. 
 
 l "The emancipated and emancipator" (MS. May 11, 1835, W. L. G. to 
 his wife). 
 
 2 Rogers was corresponding secretary of the local anti-slavery society, 
 and, together with D. L. Child and S. E. Sewall, one of the trustees of the 
 Noyes Academy at Canaan, N. H., which was opened in the fall of 1834 to 
 colored youth on equal terms with white (Lib. 4 : 38, 169). 
 
 3 Francis Jackson was born in Newton, Mass., in 1789, and became the 
 historian of that town. His father, Timothy Jackson, was a minute-man 
 who joined in the pursuit of the retreating British on April 19, 1775. 
 He himself was a soldier at Fort Warren in Boston harbor in the War of 
 1812. He early took an active part in the municipal affairs of Boston, and 
 directed some of its chief territorial improvements, but did not seek office. 
 He was a very tower of strong will, solid judgment, ..shrewd forecast, 
 sturdy common sense ; sparing of words, yet a master of terse, homely 
 English ; simple and frugal in his habits, but charitable and hospitable in 
 an unusual degree. He was one of John Pierpont s parishioners, at Hollis- 
 Street Church, vigorously taking his part in the bitter conflict with the 
 rum-selling and pro-slavery element of the congregation. Afterwards he 
 rendered similar services to Theodore Parker. 
 
;ET. 29. J GEORGE THOMPSON. 455 
 
 We return to Mr. Garrison, who had still one powerful CHAP.XIII. 
 shaft in his quiver the direct application of anti-slavery I g^ 4 . 
 sentiment to the making and unmaking of political for 
 tunes. At the annual meeting of the American Coloni 
 zation Society in Washington in January, 1834, the Rev. 
 Leonard Bacon charged the leaders of the anti-slavery 
 movement with " a design to make it a political party. I Lib. 4 : 22 . 
 have," he continued, " reason to believe they mean to 
 make adhesion to their sentiments a test of office. And 
 there will not be wanting political desperadoes who are 
 willing to be arrayed under that banner." He was more 
 correct in his prediction than in his choice of terms. On 
 the 28th of October following, Mr. Abbott Lawrence, the Lib. 4: 178. 
 Whig candidate for Congress in the First District of 
 Massachusetts, was honored with a letter from sundry 
 citizens and voters of that district (among whom we 
 remark, together with Sewall, Loring, Child, and other 
 officers of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, Francis 
 Jackson), asking his attention to slavery and the slave 
 trade in the District of Columbia, and calling for an 
 expression of his sentiments on this subject. No pledge 
 was exacted of Mr. Lawrence, but he was urged to aid in 
 the early suppression of this national iniquity, and a 
 plain intimation was given that upon his sentiments 
 about it would depend the political support of the sub 
 scribers. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence, in reply, admitted slavery to be (as NiUs Regis- 
 in the language of his interrogators) the " greatest 
 moral question that has ever been presented to the peo 
 ple of this country," and, in his own opinion, " not less 
 important in a political point of view." He promised to 
 make a careful examination of his duty, but must go to 
 Congress unpledged and untrammelled. This response 
 did not satisfy Mr. Garrison, who, on printing the cor 
 respondence in the I/iberator, said he preferred to give 
 his influence in favor of Amasa Walker (an outspoken Lib. 4 : 179. 
 abolitionist). He did more, he gave him his vote the Lib. 4:203. 
 one political vote of his lifetime ; and after the election 
 
456 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. 
 
 CHAP. xiii. had gone as it could only go at that anti- Republican 
 1834 epoch in Massachusetts, he took the colored voters of 
 the district to task for having supported Abbott Law 
 rence. He had, he said, never attempted to bias their 
 minds on any points, religious or political. He had 
 avoided their special meetings in order to leave them 
 independent. He had no political bias in his present 
 reprimand. He belonged to no party in particular, but 
 to all in general ; he was not deceived or influenced by 
 names, but governed by principles. National politics 
 were now corrupt, prescriptive, and ferocious. He cor 
 dially detested Jacksonism in principle and practice, 
 " nor," added Mr. Garrison, " do I think much better of 
 its antagonist, Whiggism. The organs of each are marked 
 for their slander, vituperation, and baseness." The Whig 
 party the colored voters " should dread and oppose more 
 than any other." It was in close alliance with the South, 
 and had incited all the pro-slavery mobs of the past 
 summer through its presses, the New York Courier and 
 Enquirer and Commercial Advertiser, the Philadelphia 
 Inquirer, the Washington Intelligencer, the Boston Com 
 mercial Gazette. Whigs, with Henry Clay at their head, 
 were the leaders in the colonization crusade. They had 
 made a cat s-paw of the colored voters, who thus only 
 incurred Democratic hatred for nothing. 
 
 Lib. 4:207. Later, Mr. Garrison, on being remonstrated with for 
 these admonitions, gave warning that slavery was going 
 to be made a political question : " The IMMEDIATE EMAN 
 CIPATION of the slaves in the District of Columbia and 
 the Territories is to be made A TEST AT THE BALLOT- 
 BOXES, in the choice of representatives in Congress n ; 
 and " no man who is a slaveholder will receive the votes 
 of conscientious and consistent abolitionists for any 
 station in the gift of the people especially for the 
 Presidency of the United States." * 
 
 1 This was in full accord with the official views of the New England 
 Anti-Slavery Society, witness the following extract from the third annual 
 report, Jan. 21, 1835 (by S. E. Sewall) : "But while, in voting for candi- 
 
^ET. 29.] GEORGE THOMPSON. 457 
 
 Towards the close of the year, fresh expostulations CHAP.XIII. 
 with Mr. Garrison for his so-called harsh and sweeping ^ 
 language began to be heard. It afflicted not only the Lib. 4:207. 
 recognized apologists for slavery "much more grievously Lib. 4: u. 
 than the daring transgression of the Southern kidnap 
 pers, or the wrongs and sufferings of our immense slave 
 population/ but also natures like Follen, whose first 
 speech on the anti-slavery platform especially deprecated 
 intemperate language and personal abuse (videlicet Mr. #.4:42. 
 Garrison s) 5 or like Stuart, who, on learning of Miss 
 Benson s betrothal, bade her write her lover that "the MS.^me 
 only jangle of words we ever had together was when I H^E.^.to 
 cautioned him on the severity of his language ; remind w - L - - 
 him of my advice, and tell him not to forget it." Simi 
 larly, Lewis Tappan wrote from New York to George MS. 
 Thompson, on January 2, 1835 : " The fact need not be 
 concealed from you that several of our emancipationists 
 so disapprove of the harsh and, as they think, the un 
 christian language of the Liberator, that they do not feel 
 justified in upholding it. For one, I have abstained from 
 mentioning this to our friend Garrison, and have vindi 
 cated him so far as I could. Mr. G. s error, they say, is in 
 applying severe epithets to individuals rather than to 
 bodies of men and principles" Short memories, that had 
 forgotten the cause of Mr. Garrison s imprisonment in 
 Baltimore, and the " severe epithets " applied to Francis 
 Todd, and the covering of " thick infamy " which the 
 junior editor of the Genius held ready for any Northerner 
 guilty of complicity with slaveholding and all that had 
 come of it ! No wonder if Mr. Garrison s patience was 
 tried, and that he once more defended himself in his 
 
 dates to offices in which the persons elected are likely to be called on to act 
 on important questions in regard to slavery, it is earnestly recommended 
 to abolitionists to support those only in whose principles they can confide; 
 the Managers would caution their friends against making anti-slavery 
 opinions the test of qualification for other offices, where similar questions 
 cannot .arise. Thus, though no representative to Congress should be sup 
 ported who is not in favor of abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, 
 it would be most unjust and absurd to refuse to support a person for a 
 municipal office unless he held the same opinions" (p. 16). 
 
458 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 29. 
 
 CHAP. xiii. fourth article vindicating James G. Birney against the 
 
 !834. African Repository. Recalling his words on this subject 
 
 in the very first number of the Liberator, he continued : 
 
 Lib. 4 : 207. " The above was written four years ago. At that time, there 
 was scarcely a man in all the land who dared to peep or mutter 
 on the subject of slavery ; the pulpit and the press were dumb ; 
 no anti-slavery organizations were made ; no public addresses 
 were delivered ; no reproofs, no warnings, no entreaties were 
 uttered in the ears of the people; silence, almost unbroken 
 silence, prevailed universally. Even the doctrine of gradual 
 emancipation was rarely enforced ; and an indignant essay, in 
 view of the horrid condition of two millions of slaves, was an 
 anomaly. Well, without a single friend to stand by me, without 
 encouragement, and without a subscriber, and admonished 
 on all hands how much injury I was doing, I commenced the 
 Liberator. My readers will bear witness that, from the first 
 number to the present, its tone, and temper, and principles, 
 have been unchangingly the same. Now then, I ask, has 
 the cause of emancipation been injured or benefited by my 
 advocacy ? 
 
 " What has transpired since the Liberator was established ? In 
 referring to this subject by way of self-defence, (and I am rarely 
 induced to say one word defensively,) they who accuse me of 
 dealing in scandalous accusations, will also accuse me of ego 
 tism. With nc pride of heart, however, but with much confi 
 dence of right action, with much virtuous accusation, and with 
 real gratitude to God, I survey the past, and challenge mankind 
 to produce an instance in which the cause of moral reform, sur 
 rounded by equal difficulties and dangers, has advanced more 
 rapidly than the present. In seizing the trump of God, I had 
 indeed to blow a jarring blast but it was necessary to wake 
 up a nation then slumbering in the lap of moral death. Thanks 
 be to God, that blast was effectual : it pierced the ears of the 
 deaf, it startled the lethargic from their criminal sleep, and it 
 shook the land as a leaf is shaken by the wind. Within four 
 years, I have seen my principles embraced, cordially and un 
 alterably, by thousands of the best men in the nation. I have 
 seen hundreds of anti -slavery societies organized on the princi 
 ple of immediate emancipation. I have seen prejudices which 
 were deemed incurable, utterly eradicated from the breasts of a 
 great multitude. I have seen national and State anti-slavery 
 conventions assembled in solemn deliberation, and a national 
 
^ET. 29.] GEOKGE THOMPSON. 459 
 
 anti-slavery society established, with a host of auxiliaries. I have CHAP. XIII. 
 seen the press teeming with books, pamphlets, tracts, and peri- ^ 
 odicals, all in favor of the bondman and against his oppressor. 
 I have seen crowds rushing to hear the tale of wo and of 
 blood, and to learn how they might assist in saving their country 
 from impending ruin. I have seen the Christian sympathies 
 and generous assistance of a foreign nation secured in behalf of 
 universal emancipation. I have seen discussions of slavery 
 going on in public and private, in popular gatherings and in 
 domestic circles, among all classes, and in all parts of the land ; 
 and more spoken, and written, and printed, and circulated, in 
 one month, than there formerly was in many years. I have 
 seen many beneficent schemes devised for the protection and 
 improvement of the colored population of the free States. I 
 have seen that population rising rapidly in the scale of civiliza 
 tion, and manifesting in the midst of terrible persecutions a 
 spirit of forgiveness and patience, and a steadfastness of trust 
 in God, worthy of angels. I have seen a mighty combination, 
 formed for the expatriation of a guiltless people, shorn of its 
 strength, and brought down to the earth. I have seen Christian 
 believers everywhere assembling in monthly convocations, to 
 pray for the deliverance of the poor and needy, the helpless 
 and oppressed, from the rod and the chains of slavery. In 
 short, I have seen persons of all political parties, of all religious 
 sects, of all ages and conditions, uniting in one vast phalanx, 
 with the cry of LIBERTY upon their lips, and the banner of IM 
 MEDIATE EMANCIPATION waving over their heads, and moving 
 onward to the conflict in unbroken array deterred by no 
 peril, weakened by no attack, diverted by no stratagem 
 courageous, invincible, victorious ! 
 
 " If God has made me a signal instrument in the accomplish 
 ment of this astonishing change, it is not for me to glory, but 
 to be thankful. What else but the Liberator primarily, (and of 
 course instrumental^, ) has effected this change 1 ? Greater * 
 success than I have had, no man could reasonably desire, or 
 humbly expect. Greater success no man could obtain, perad- 
 venture, without endangering his reliance upon an almighty 
 arm. 
 
 " Yet, in view of these instructive events, the same cuckoo 
 cry is raised against me now as I heard when I stood forth 
 alone j and the same sagacious predictions and grave admoni 
 tions are uttered now as were then spoken with the infallibility 
 of ignorance, the disinterestedness of cowardice, and the pru- 
 
460 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 29. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. dence of imbecility. There are many calling themselves anti- 
 j^T slavery men who, because they are only f half -fledged 
 
 themselves, and have neither the strength nor the courage to 
 soar, must needs flutter and scream because my spirit will not 
 stoop in its flight heavenward, and come down to their filthy 
 nest. It has gone, it is going upward, with a strong and steady 
 wing, and it shall neither sink nor rest until it reach an eternal 
 dwelling-place. 
 
 " To those who, with more labor than profit, and more cap- 
 tiousness than courage, in secret prepare, and anonymously 
 send, grave indictments of my language, I will once for all 
 remark, that they cannot possibly write their pieces with more 
 complacency than I read them j that I am ever ready to pub 
 lish any of their strictures j that I do not aim at the graces of 
 composition ; and that, so long as they only impeach my words, 
 and acknowledge the soundness of my principles, I shall not be 
 specially troubled in spirit, nor be induced to engage in a con 
 test which must be confessedly a wordy one. To quarrel with 
 my style is only to dispute my taste and where is the 
 standard of taste ? but to accuse me of holding corrupt and 
 dangerous principles is a question of morality. My language 
 may not be, and I am sure is not, always happily chosen ; but 
 let it be remembered that I usually and necessarily, as an editor, 
 write in great haste, and cannot remodel and criticise ad 
 libitum. Such errors, however, are trivial, to which every 
 writer is liable. To carp at my composition, and yet confess 
 the justness of my principles, as many do, is very much like 
 sneering at the black man on account of his complexion, and 
 yet conceding that he has all the marks and attributes of man 
 hood. Fine and delicate phraseology may please the ear ; but 
 masculine truths are utterly divorced from effeminate words, 
 and cannot be united without begetting a dwarfish progeny. 
 
 " This long episode, in the present review, is not without a 
 pertinent application. It can easily be determined whether 
 there is any sincerity or justness in the charge, so confidently 
 and so incessantly made, that I am retarding the cause (i. e., the 
 principles) of emancipation by my hard language? Of those who 
 say that they like my principles, but object to my language, I 
 would inquire, How do you know my principles but by my 
 language? Now, every writer s style is his own it maybe 
 smooth or rough, plain or obscure, simple or grand, feeble or 
 strong but principles are immutable. There are many able 
 writers and advocates in the ranks of abolitionists, and they all 
 
. 29.] 
 
 GEORGE THOMPSON. 
 
 461 
 
 agree in principle, but differ essentially in their manner of 
 writing. WHITTIER, for instance, is highly poetical, exuber 
 ant and beautiful. STUART is solemn, pungent and severe. 
 WRIGHT is a thorough logician, dextrous, transparent, straight 
 forward. BERIAH GREEN is manly, eloquent, vigorous, devo 
 tional. MAY is persuasive, zealous, overflowing with the milk 
 of human kindness. Cox is diffusive, sanguine, magnificent, 
 grand. BOURNE thunders and lightens. PHELPS is one great, 
 clear, infallible argument demonstration itself. JOCELYN is 
 full of heavenly-mindedness, and feels and speaks and acts 
 with l a zeal according to knowledge. FOLLEN is chaste, 
 profound, and elaborately polished. GOODELL is perceptive, 
 analytical, expert and solid. CHILD (David L.) is generously 
 indignant, courageous, and demonstrative. His lady combines 
 strength with beauty, argumentation with persuasiveness, 
 greatness with humility. BIRNEY is collected, courteous, dis 
 passionate his fearlessness excites admiration, his conscien 
 tiousness commands respect. 
 
 " Of the foregoing list, who is viewed with complacency, or 
 preferred over another, by slaveholders or their apologists ? 
 Are not all their names cast out as evil? Are they not all 
 branded as fanatics, disorganizes and madmen ? Has not one 
 of them (Dr. Cox) had his dwelling and meeting-house rudely 
 and riotously assaulted, and even been hunted in the streets of 
 New York ? Has not another (Beriah Green) been burnt in 
 effigy in the city of Utica ? (To say nothing of the sufferings 
 and persecutions of ARTHUR and LEWIS TAPPAN, and other 
 individuals.) Why are they thus maltreated and calumniated a ? 
 Certainly, not for the phraseology which they use, but for the 
 principles which they adopt. Are they not all tauntingly 
 stigmatized as f Garrison-men ? As soon as any man becomes 
 hostile to colonization, and friendly to abolition, is he not at 
 once recognized and stamped by the enemy as a Garrisonite ? 
 Then how can it be averred that it is my language that gives 
 offence, seeing that it is only my principles that offend f . . . 
 
 " In concluding this number I will venture to remind those 
 liberal advisers who are so anxious to keep a censorship over 
 the Liberator, that reproaches, falsehoods, misrepresentations 
 and injuries are heaped upon my head in every quarter I 
 am at the mercy of despiteful, wicked and cruel men; but 
 which of these advisers cares for the treatment I receive, or 
 stands forth to vindicate me on the score of principle J ? Will 
 they soberly and honestly inquire of themselves whether they 
 
 J. G. Whit- 
 tier. 
 C. Stuart. 
 
 Elizur 
 Wright, Jr. 
 
 Rev. S. J. 
 
 May. 
 Rev. S. H. 
 
 Cox. 
 
 Rev. G. 
 
 Bourne. 
 
 Rev. A. A. 
 
 Phelps. 
 Rev. S. S. 
 
 Jocelyn. 
 Rev. C. Fal 
 len. 
 Wm. 
 Goodell. 
 L. M. Child. 
 
 J. G.Birney. 
 
 Lib. 4 : 114. 
 Lib. 4 : 23. 
 
462 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 1834. 
 
 Lib. 4:71, 
 86 ; ante, 
 p. 441. 
 
 Lib. 4 : 97, 
 103. 
 
 Memoir of 
 
 H. Ware, Jr., 
 
 P- 365. 
 
 think, or speak, or write, half as much against a bloody, 
 polluted and soul-destroying system as against my hard 
 language ? whether they feel indignant when they see false 
 accusations brought against me, and take up the pen in my 
 defence ? As for myself, I deem it, with the apostle, a small 
 thing to be judged of man s judgment. I solicit no man s 
 praise I fear no man s censure." 
 
 The allusion to a censorship over the Liberator leads 
 us to a new phase of opposition to its editor. We find 
 the Rev. Henry Ware, Jr. s, name subscribed with Pro 
 fessor Follen s to the call for the New England Conven 
 tion of Anti-Slavery Societies, and presently among the 
 committee on the address to the people of New England. 
 Later still, lie addressed the newly formed Cambridge 
 Anti-Slavery Society, and joined in the general prudent 
 assertion of that body s independence of the New Eng 
 land Society, and in general reprobation of intemperate 
 language. A few months afterwards (Cambridge, Octo 
 ber 15, 1834), in a letter to his fellow Unitarian, S. J. 
 May, a man with a large gift of humor, Mr. Ware made 
 the following highly amusing proposition : 
 
 " One point on which I wished to talk with you when here 
 was, the character of the Iterator. If you sympathize with it, 
 and approve wholly of its spirit, it would be in vain to say to 
 you what I wish. But if not, if you feel how objectionable is its 
 tone, how frequently unchristian its spirit, and how seriously it 
 prejudices a great cause in the minds of many good men ; then 
 you will be ready to hear my question a question which has 
 been agitated amongst a few of us here, viz.: Would it be 
 possible to induce six or seven gentlemen, of calm and trust 
 worthy judgment, to form themselves into a committee, each 
 of whom should, a week at a time, examine all articles intended 
 for the Liberator, and induce Mr. Garrison to promise to publish 
 nothing there which should not have been approved by them ? 
 Is this possible ? Would it not secure an unexceptionable paper, 
 without injuring Mr. Garrison s interest? Would you be willing 
 to aid in promoting such a scheme or can you suggest a bet 
 ter ? Pray answer these questions at your first convenience." 
 
 The real object of the Cambridge Anti-Slavery Society 
 and the natural fate of this robust organization are set 
 
JET. 29.] 
 
 GEOEGE THOMPSON. 
 
 463 
 
 forth in a letter from Mr. Ware to a friend who still CHAP.XIII. 
 thought he had not sufficiently demonstrated his want of 1? JJ 4 . 
 connection with the Boston abolitionists. It is dated 
 Cambridge, October 23, 1835 a year later than the 
 foregoing : 
 
 Memoir, pp. 
 366, 367. 
 
 " When I saw how outrageously Garrison and some others 
 were abusing this great cause, mismanaging it by their unrea 
 sonable violence, and by what I thought unchristian language, 
 and a convention was proposed in Massachusetts, I joined a few 
 gentlemen in Cambridge l in an association for the purpose of 
 inquiring whether something might not be done to moderate 
 the tone they were using, and prevent the mischief which we 
 thought likely to ensue. We were foolish enough to imagine 
 that we might possibly exert some favorable influence. We 
 attempted it, and of course we failed ; for all who know Mr. 
 Garrison know that he is not a man to be controlled or advised. 
 Our Society lived about a year, and has now virtually expired. 
 I never belonged to any other. I have attended but four anti- 
 slavery meetings, three in Boston and one in Cambridge. I 
 have never had any acquaintance with Thompson, who, I 
 thought, had no business in the country; 2 only a speaking 
 acquaintance with Garrison j and I was never in the Anti- 
 Slavery rooms but once." 
 
 Fresh from the inspiration of the Philadelphia Conven 
 tion of December, 1833, Mr. May appears to have made an Memoir of 
 
 7 Henry Ware, 
 
 earnest effort to win over to the cause the leading clergy Jr., p. 365. 
 of his own denomination. The adhesion of Follen, if so 
 
 1 Twenty-three in number, most if not all Unitarians. The first four 
 names on the list were Henry Ware, Sidney Willard, Charles Follen, H. 
 Ware, Jr. Further on came W. H. Channing, Charles T. Brooks, Fred 
 erick H. Hedge, etc. (see the preamble and Constitution in A. B. Muzzey s 
 Reminiscences and Memorials, p. 294). 
 
 2 So thought the Unitarian Christian Register, which spoke of Thompson 
 as "an itinerate foreigner," and doubted the wisdom of enlisting him (Lib. 
 4:179). Mr. Ware s letter was written two days after the Boston mob 
 intended for Thompson, and is perhaps the mildest commentary on that 
 outrage to be found in print. " You are correct," writes Mr. Garrison to 
 G. W. Benson, Sept. 4, 1835; "those religious persons and papers that 
 denounce our brother George Thompson as a foreigner, are virtually 
 rebuking every foreign missionary who has been sent from our shores to 
 evangelize a rebellious world ; and they will find, ere long, that infidelity 
 will meet and vanquish them with their own weapons." 
 
464 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 [JET. 29. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 1834. 
 
 Lib. 4 : 165, 
 47- 
 
 MS. in pos 
 session of 
 Dr. W. F. 
 Channing, 
 Providence, 
 R. I. 
 
 brought about, was a sufficient return for his labor ; but 
 elsewhere he encountered timidity, as in the case of Pro 
 fessor Ware, or antipathy, as in the case of Professor 
 Palfrey, or virulence, as in the case of Dr. Gannett. It 
 was perhaps at his instigation that Mr. Garrison ad 
 dressed the following stirring appeal to the greatest 
 light of the Unitarian world, the Rev. Dr. Channing : 
 
 W. L. Garrison to William Ellery Channing. 
 
 BOSTON, January 20, 1834. 
 
 REV. AND DEAR SIR : I have taken the liberty to send you a 
 few anti-slavery publications, the perusal of which, by you, I 
 shall esteem a noble recompense. Let me invite your atten 
 tion particularly to the Lectures of the Rev. Mr. Phelps, which 
 cover the whole ground of controversy, and which I deem 
 unanswerable. 
 
 Guilty as it is, there is yet hope for this nation. There are 
 more than seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee 
 to Baal. The slumber of half a century has been broken up, 
 and henceforth there is to be no repose until the monster 
 SLAVERY be slain. The deaf begin to hear, and the blind to 
 see. The weak are made valiant, and the timid strengthened 
 through faith in the promises of Him who is pledged to " main 
 tain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor." The 
 noise of the conflict is already like the voice of many waters. 
 Truth is going on from conquering to conquer. The mystery 
 of iniquity, alias the American Colonization Society, is now 
 stripped of its disguise, and seen in its naked deformity. There 
 is hope for the nation. 
 
 It is true, not many, mighty have as yet been called to this 
 sacred strife. Like every other great reform, it has been 
 CQmmenced by obscure and ignorant men. It is God s mode, 
 commonly, to choose the foolish things of the world to con 
 found the wise ; because his foolishness is wiser than men, and 
 his weakness stronger than men. In having entered early into 
 this great cause, I arrogate not to myself any superior wisdom 
 or goodness. Some providential circumstances turned my 
 attention to it; and humble as I was, I feared my God too 
 much, and hated the base plunderers of my species too cor 
 dially, and pitied the poor bleeding slaves too sincerely, to 
 shrink even single-handed from a conflict with the enemies of 
 
JEi. 29.] GEOEGE THOMPSON. 465 
 
 justice and humanity. I then told the American slaveholders CHAP. XII I. 
 that they should hear me, of me, and from me, in a tone and l ^ 4 
 with a frequency that should make them tremble not that I 
 was the enemy of their happiness or safety, but that I detested 
 their crimes. How faithful I have been in the performance of 
 my pledge, a quickened, an astonished, and a repenting nation 
 may testify. Ridiculed, reviled, threatened, persecuted and 
 imprisoned, still God has wonderfully blessed my humble 
 labors. I give him all the glory I sink myself into nothing 
 ness. 
 
 In a cause like this, there are two things to be remembered 
 1st, that a tremendous responsibility rests upon him who per 
 verts his influence ; and 2nd, that an equally fearful respon 
 sibility rests upon him ivho withholds his influence. Why should a 
 Christian, however distinguished, wait for the movements of a 
 concurrent populace before he espouse the side of the outraged 
 and guiltless slaves? That which claims the sympathy and 
 attention of Jehovah of hosts, is not beneath the dignity of his 
 creatures. That which has elicited the best efforts of a Wilber- 
 force, a Clarkson, a Pitt, a Fox, a Brougham, and a Buxton, is 
 neither trivial nor despicable. 
 
 I thought of beseeching you, in this letter, to exert your 
 victorious influence for the deliverance of this country from 
 impending ruin. But if the slaughter of two millions of victims 
 who have gone down to their graves with their chains around 
 them ; if the cries of more than that number of tortured slaves 
 now living ; if a soil red with innocent blood ; if a desecrated 
 Sabbath ; if a vast system of adultery, and pollution, and rob 
 bery ; if perpetuated ignorance and legalized barbarity j if the 
 invasion of the dearest rights of man, and a disruption of the 
 holiest ties of life ; and, above all, if the clear and imperious 
 injunctions of the most high God, fail to stimulate you to plead 
 for the suffering and the dumb, it is scarcely possible that any 
 appeal can succeed from 
 
 Yours, most affectionately and respectfully, 
 
 WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
 Rev. Dr. Channing. 
 
 It is not known that any answer was ever returned 
 to this letter by its recipient. Professor Ware, in the 
 letter to Mr. May already cited, remarks: "Dr. Chan- Ante.p.efa. 
 ning is said to have given on Sunday [October 12, 1834] 
 a most powerful sermon on the late public commotions 
 VOL. I. 30 
 
466 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 29. 
 
 CHAP. xiii. at Charlestown, 1 New York, and Harvard College. . . . 
 !8^ 4 . Dr. Follen calls it an abolition sermon." One who heard 
 
 Lib. 4:188. it wrote that Channing had come out an abolitionist. 
 " i Property in man ! property in man ! he [the preacher] 
 exclaimed, you may claim matter as property to any 
 extent you please the earth, the ocean, and the planets ; 
 but you cannot touch a soul. I can as readily conceive 
 of the angels in Heaven being property, as man. " Mr. 
 
 MS. Nov. May was not so credulous. " What am I to believe 
 respecting Dr. Channing 1 Has he indeed taken the 
 position of a real abolitionist? Or has he only denounced 
 slavery in the abstract ? I wish he could have an oppor 
 tunity to converse with Thompson." 
 
 Dr. Channing s wish would have been anything but 
 that anything, except to meet Mr. Garrison himself. 
 His failure to acknowledge the latter s appeal was per 
 haps owing to sickness. 2 There was, however, nothing 
 in Dr. Channing s physical or mental constitution to 
 make him anxious to exchange views with the arch- 
 agitator. He had lived in the midst of slavery (in Vir 
 ginia) at an age when his humanity should have been 
 tender and sensitive to cruelty ; mature and a clergyman 
 he witnessed it in the West Indies ; it was still two years 
 after Mr. Garrison had in vain besought him to cast in 
 the weight of his mighty influence with the despised 
 abolitionists, before he put forth his little work on 
 Slavery/ which finished his reputation at the South as 
 completely as if he had accepted the presidency of an 
 
 1 The burning of the Ursuline Convent. (See above, p. 448.) Rumors of 
 a retaliatory attack on Harvard College caused a defensive organization 
 there. 
 
 2 March 13, 1834, Mr. Garrison wrote to G. W. Benson: "Sickness pre 
 vented the Rev. Dr. Channing from being present at our meeting [of the 
 New England A. S. Society in the Tremont Temple, March 10] ; otherwise we 
 should in all probability have had a speech from him. I understand he 
 fully agrees with us on the great question of immediate emancipation. 
 In July, Dr. Channing was accounting for the New York riots by the " fatal 
 mistake" of the abolition watchword "immediate." (See p. 531 of the 
 centenary edition of his Life.) In the fall, Mr. May was still laboring with 
 him to reconcile him to the word and the idea. (See pp. 170-185 of his 
 Recollections, and pp. 528-536 of the Life just cited.) 
 
^T. 29. J GEOKGE THOMPSON. 467 
 
 anti-slavery society. Meantime, his sermon had made 
 
 the Norfolk (Va.) Beacon (a colonization organ) explicitly Lib. 4: 193. 
 
 give him up as ranged under the banners of Garrison. 
 
 In this year 1834 now passing from view, the Ameri 
 can nativity of the editor of the Liberator was first 
 doubted and denied. His deep feeling for Newburyport, 
 not smothered by a later attachment (also of the deepest) 
 for his adopted city, Boston, found expression in the fol 
 lowing sonnet : 
 
 Whether a persecuted child of thine Lib. 4 : 15 ; 
 
 Thou deign to own, my lovely native place! Writings^/ 
 
 In characters that time can not efface, p. 173. 
 
 Thy worth is graved upon this heart of mine. 
 Forsake me not in anger, nor repine 
 
 That with this nation I am in disgrace: 
 
 From ruthless bondage to redeem my race, 
 And save my country, is my great design. 
 How much soe er my conduct thou dost blame, 
 
 (For Hate and Calumny belie my course,) 
 My labors shall not sully thy fair fame; 
 
 But they shall be to thee a fountain- source 
 Of joyfulness hereafter when my name 
 
 Shall e en from tyrants a high tribute force. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE BOSTON MOB (FIRST STAGE). 1835. 
 
 CHAP^XIV. 
 1835. 
 
 MS. Dec. 3, 
 1834, Arnold 
 
 Buffum to 
 B. C. Bacon. 
 
 A LWAYS the opening year brought fresh anxiety 
 _x\_ to the editor of the Liberator. January, 1835, 
 found him hampered with the expenses of the withdrawn 
 Canterbury suits, and staggering under the load of the 
 paper, which had latterly been issued quite irregularly, 
 though without a lapse in the series : 
 
 MS. to Geo. 
 Benson. 
 
 " The truth is," he wrote to his father-in-law on January 12, 
 1835, " we have been hesitating whether to stop or proceed 
 with it, in consequence of the non-payment of our numerous 
 subscribers, and the faithlessness of a majority of our agents; 
 Jan. 9, 1835. and on Friday last I went home to write my valedictory, and 
 to advertise the world of the downfall of the Liberator ! It was 
 truly an afflicting period, and I felt as if I was about cutting 
 off my right arm, or plucking out my right eye. Ascertaining 
 my purpose, several of my anti-slavery brethren rallied 
 together, and have resolved to sustain me and the paper if I 
 will proceed ; so, hereafter, I trust, you will get it regularly." 
 
 But now a new danger loomed up to the cause, to 
 its pioneer, and to his organ. The disaffection in the 
 anti-slavery ranks towards Mr. Garrison on account of 
 his " harsh " and " unchristian " language, as described 
 in the last chapter, had not escaped the clerical sup 
 porters of the Colonization Society. They saw in it the 
 means, and the only means, to check the advance of 
 abolitionism, by breaking down the editor of the Liber 
 ator. To this end they craftily devised a new organiza 
 tion, with a title and with aims vague enough to include 
 everybody who felt any concern for the blacks, and hence 
 
 468 
 
MT. 30. J THE BOSTON MOB. I. 469 
 
 calculated to draw off from the bold and specific agita- Lib. 7 : 150. 
 tion of the abolitionists such of their number as deplored 
 the separation from colonization philanthropy. After 
 several months of incubation and many announcements 
 in the Boston Recorder, on Christmas Day, 1834, a call was Lib. 5 : 3. 
 issued through that journal for a convention to form an 
 American Union for the Relief and Improvement of the 
 Colored Race, to be held in Boston on January 14, 1835. 
 Among the eight signers were Joseph Tracy and two 
 other editors of the Recorder. Its postulate was: " The Lib. 5:3. 
 system of slavery is wrong, and ought to be abandoned 
 with the least possible delay." Since not only " aboli 
 tionists" but " Garrisonites " could subscribe to this, the Lib. 5: 7,11. 
 invitation was modified in season so as expressly to 
 except from it those who did not believe a new organiza 
 tion needed to exert "a kind moral influence upon the Lib. 3:7. 
 community." 
 
 The Congregational clergymen who were managing 
 the convention were certainly displeased and embarrassed, 
 but could hardly have been surprised, by the appearance Lib. 5 : 16. 
 of the Garrisonites asking to be enrolled as members 
 under the original call. However, they promptly voted 
 that organization should proceed under the second call ; 
 rebuked Mr. Thompson for his impertinence in obtrud 
 ing himself upon the meeting ; refused to allow any 
 opponent of the proposed organization to be heard ; 1 
 and dodged the question formally presented by Amos A. 
 Phelps, Cyrus P. Grosvenor, George Thompson, Joshua 
 V. Himes, Ellis Gray Loring, and Mr. Garrison, whether 
 the organization differed in principle from the existing 
 anti-slavery organizations, or was merely additional and 
 cooperative. They ended by adopting a cut-and-dried 
 constitution, after a debate in which motions to substi 
 tute " sin " for " wrong" in describing slavery, and tl uni 
 versally and immediately " for " with the least possible 
 delay" in urging that slavery be "abandoned," were 
 
 i The Rev. J. S. C. Abbott had the fairness to propose that this courtesy 
 should be granted. 
 
470 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 30. 
 
 CHAP. xiv. rejected by large majorities. The Rev. Leonard Bacon 
 1835. was a spectator of the closing scenes, but was not among 
 the officers chosen, who all belonged to some one of the 
 four Northern New England States. 
 
 Mr. Garrison was cautioned by estimable abolition 
 brethren " not to be too precipitate, or too uncharitable, 
 or too harsh in passing judgment on the new Society." 
 Lib. s : ii. Accordingly, he let it off by branding it " as cold and 
 proud in its spirit, defective in its organization, corrupt 
 in its origin, deceitful in its object, and delusive in its 
 action " ; "a wretched imposition," doomed to come to 
 naught ; " a soulless organization with a sounding title." 
 Its chief promoters were Joseph Tracy, formerly of Ver 
 mont, and Leonard Bacon, colonizationists like the 
 majority of their associates, and therefore incapacitated 
 from winning the confidence of the colored population 
 whom they proposed to "relieve." Their constitution 
 would not prevent cooperation with the Colonization 
 Society in " relieving " that population off the face of 
 the land. Their organization was narrowly sectarian, 
 being almost wholly within the Orthodox-Congregational 
 body; 1 and their membership was by election an odd 
 feature in a philanthropic society. 
 
 Arthur Tappan, to Mr. Garrison s sorrow, was the first 
 and the only prominent abolitionist who fell into a trap 
 set, doubtless, for him more than for any other man. 
 His elder brothers, John and Charles, had had a consid 
 erable share in the preparation and direction of the con 
 vention, and their private representations to him could 
 hardly have failed of effect. What ensued is thus de 
 scribed in a letter from G. "W. Benson to S. J. May : 
 
 i Profs. Sidney Willard and Henry Ware, Jr., and the Rev. E. S. Gan 
 nett, all Unitarians, were among the vice-presidents chosen ; but all were 
 removed at the first meeting of the Union, except Prof. Willard, whose 
 presence made it awkward to get rid of him too (Lib. 5:11, 17, 19). This 
 was baseness itself, considering the Union s virtual appropriation subse 
 quently of the constitution of the Cambridge A. S. Society (which see in 
 Muzzey s Reminiscences, pp. 294, 295). Channing s name, proposed as 
 "friendly" to the nominating committee, was not reported back (Lib. 
 5 : 19). 
 
MT. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 471 
 
 " The news from Boston respecting the abolition movements MS. Provi- 
 of last week is not very agreeable. You have seen, I suppose, ^7^1835* 
 the doings of the convention that formed a society called the 
 American Union, and the course pursued toward them by Gar 
 rison. Well, at the close of the convention, Arthur Tappan 
 appeared in Boston, and spent nearly a day or more. The 
 evening before his departure, he met with a large number of 
 the anti-slavery men of that city, and put to them several 
 queries : first, if it was the intention of the Anti-Slavery Society 
 to carry on a war of extermination against the Colonization 
 Society j to which they all answered in the affirmative. Sec 
 ondly, Does the An ti- Slavery Society mean to endorse and 
 approve of all the sentiments put forth by Garrison ? They all 
 assented to the reply of Mr. Sewall, that they did approve 
 of the principles advanced by Mr. Garrison heretofore ; that 
 Garrison acted on his own responsibility; that by that they 
 did not feel bound to sustain him in anything he might 
 hereafter do, without they approved of it. He then wished to 
 know what they meant by political action. They explained in 
 reply what they meant in substance, the same as the Liberator. 
 
 " At this stage of the interview, Mr. Garrison, who had till 
 then sat in profound silence, rose, and said he felt very much 
 embarrassed. There, said he, is the man who relieved me 
 from a prison, and who has heaped upon me innumerable 
 favors. He then went on to state his view of duty in relation 
 to the above queries, and what he thought of the American 
 Union ; and asked, with considerable emotion, whether he 
 should compromise principle and sacrifice what he believed to 
 be his duty to his colored brethren, to gratify that man to whom 
 he felt under so many and great obligations. He said, after a 
 pause, l No, I cannot, and immediately left the room. 
 
 " The conference continued till near midnight, and then broke 
 up, without Mr. Tappan s fully explaining himself, except that 
 he said he did not mean to lower the standard of his principles 
 on this subject, but that he thought we might unite with the 
 Union men so far as they felt disposed. He left Boston the 
 next morning for New Haven, where he penned the letter to the 
 Boston Recorder which you can see by referring to that paper of Also, 
 the 23d inst. I give you these facts as I received them from Mr. Llb - 5 : T 9- 
 Prentice, who spent several days in Boston last week. I believe 
 I have got the substance correct. A breach is confidently anti 
 cipated by the Boston abolitionists. Several persons have writ 
 ten Mr. Tappan from different places, I understand, enquiring 
 
472 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. [Mr. 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. if he meant the sentiments contained in that letter should be 
 j^" s received as coming from an individual, or the President of the 
 American A. S. Society. ... I sincerely hope the diffi 
 culty will be healed, if it can be, without yielding principle." 
 
 Mr. Tappan s letter to the Recorder, which was eagerly 
 Lib. 5 : 27. copied by pro-slavery papers, expressed the hope that the 
 Union and the anti-slavery societies could work in har 
 mony, as he believed there already existed a substantial 
 agreement in principle. He defended Mr. Garrison against 
 the charge of atheism ; 1 said his friends were not insen 
 sible of his faults, of which " the most prominent is the 
 severe and denunciatory language with which he often 
 assails his opponents and repels their attacks," but hoped 
 " to see this corrected, and that argument will take the 
 place of invective " ; and declared that much was due him 
 for his noble and disinterested efforts. 
 
 Lib. 5 : 19. Mr. Garrison replied by denying that the leading 
 anti-slavery men were in sympathy or connection with 
 the new organization : it was the laughing-stock of abo 
 litionists. He took the liberty of appending a private 
 letter from Lewis Tappan, in reference to " the late con 
 vention in Boston to form what I should call AN ANTI- 
 GARRISON SOCIETY." 2 To the Liberator s editorial com 
 ments on its proceedings this writer gave his approval : 
 "They will meet a hearty response from every true- 
 hearted emancipationist in the land. The times require 
 decision and courage, and I feel thankful to God for your 
 steadfastness at the post which His providence has 
 assigned you. Go on and prosper, thou friend of the 
 oppressed ! The Lord will be thy shield and buckler." 3 
 
 1 Preferred by the Recorder, which absurdly ranked Mr. Garrison with 
 Paine, Rousseau, and the French Jacobins (Lib. 5: 3). 
 
 2 Amasa Walker called this hitting the nail on the head (Lib. 5 : 27). The 
 promoters of the American Union, said a writer in the N. E. Spectator, " hate 
 Garrisonism more than they detest slavery" (Lib. 5:26). And a corre 
 spondent of the Liberator described the proceedings of the convention as 
 "thoroughly imbued with the Hang Garrison spirit" (Lib. 5:22). 
 
 3 Even more plainly spoke Lewis Tappan in a letter pardoning Mr. Gar 
 rison for having placed him before the public as antagonistic to his brother 
 (MS. Feb. 5, 1835): "When I first heard of the American Union, I looked 
 upon it as a device of Satan, using many good men to effect his nefarious 
 purposes." 
 
^T. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 473 
 
 Arthur Tappan s aberration, however, was but mo 
 mentary. Within a fortnight after his return from MS. Feb. 5, 
 Boston he subscribed five thousand dollars for the year *Tappanto 
 to the funds of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and 
 waited for developments as to the course of the American 
 Union, which lost no time in making itself ridiculous. 1 
 It held one meeting, at which Leonard Bacon proposed Lit. 5 : 19. 
 getting statistics of the colored population, and informa 
 tion about the results of emancipation in other countries; 
 and at which the constitution adopted the same day was 
 amended by leaving the " abandonment " of slavery abso 
 lutely indeterminate. On the following day it would not Lit. 5 : 19. 
 listen to the statistics offered to be read, and eliminated 
 the Unitarians from the board of officers. Some weeks 
 later it brought out its " plans/ which included the Lit. 5 : 49. 
 incidental abolition of slavery, and much of Mr. Gar 
 rison s thunder, such as the improvement of the col 
 ored people in the large cities and towns by religious 
 aiyl secular instruction, furthering their employment, 
 and inculcating saving habits j and the higher education 
 of the more promising young men, to fit them to civilize 
 the West Indies ; but above all, statistics, statistics, as the 
 basis of action by the Union ! It professed no hostility to 
 slaveholders, nor any opposition to the American Anti- 
 Slavery or American Colonization Society. It sought to 
 gather-in the clergy and churches and individuals who 
 could cooperate with neither organization. With much 
 difficulty it formed one or two microscopic auxiliary Lib. 5 : 55, 
 societies j in July despatched Prof. E. A. Andrews 2 on a 
 
 1 " Arthur Tappan is still firmly with us. He keeps very still respecting 
 the American Union, but the impression is that he regrets the course he 
 pursued in regard to it. He has given the American A. S. Society $1000 
 this month" (MS. New York, Feb. 25, 1835, Henry E. Benson to his brother 
 George). On March 16, Mr. Garrison wrote from New York to his wife, of 
 an Executive-Committee meeting on March 14 : " Arthur Tappan was in the 
 chair, and manifested a truly noble spirit. When the American Union 
 caught him, it caught a Tartar, and it will be. glad to get rid of him." 
 
 2 Author of the well-known Latin Grammar and Lexicon. See his apolo 
 getic Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United States : In a 
 series of letters addressed to the Executive Committee of the American 
 Union for the Relief and Improvement of the Colored Race (Boston, 
 1836) ; and Lib. 6:38, where, under the caption, "A Pernicious Publica- 
 
474 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 30. 
 
 tour of observation as far as Richmond ; in May of the 
 
 Lib. 6:87, following year held a public meeting to counsel patience 
 
 with wrongdoing, and calmness towards the oppressor, 
 
 and then followed the Cambridge Anti-Slavery Society 
 
 and the Massachusetts Colonization Society to their long 
 
 Lib. 5:103. resting-place. Some thought it was only the spook of 
 
 #.5:23. the latter body. Mr. Garrison, in an address to his 
 
 colored brethren, called it " a new society of old [coloni 
 
 zation] materials." They would naturally ask what its 
 
 object was. " The same question was propounded by an 
 
 influential gentleman of this city (not an abolitionist) to 
 
 Charles one of the originators of this scheme. What was his 
 
 z^o^io. reply? It was this: < Our object is, TO PUT DOWN 
 
 GARRISON AND HIS FRIENDS. 7 Now, who are my 
 
 friends if you are not? You are all my friends my 
 
 most grateful, attached, devoted friends. The object, 
 
 then, of the American Union is to put you down, along 
 
 with myself ! I suspected as much, long ago." But they 
 
 need only stand by him as heretofore, " and we will soon 
 
 scatter to the winds this lofty but fragile fabric of per 
 
 secution, pride and cowardice." 
 
 Lib. 5 : 35. In f act, the colored citizens of Boston refused emphati 
 cally to be " relieved " by the new saviour of society. The 
 soulless diversion met the early doom predicted for it by 
 its intended victim. His friends refused to be seduced 
 or panic-stricken, or to assist in putting him down. Its 
 most distinct achievement during its brief career was to 
 paralyze the attempt to revive a lapsed anti-slavery 
 Lib. 5:27, society among the Andover students, with whom, in the 
 first weeks of January, George Thompson was power 
 fully laboring. It encouraged the pro-slavery portion of 
 the Faculty to warn the students against any connection 
 with the American A. S. Society, on the ground that this 
 would repel men who " are prejudiced against the name 
 
 tion," Mr. Garrison banteringly reviews the book. Andrews s account of 
 his interview with Arthur Tappan in New York shows how completely the 
 American Union had lost its hold on the latter. Another unobjectionable 
 publication was Letters from the West Indies, by Prof. Sylvester Hovey 
 (Lib. 8:87). 
 
^T. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 475 
 
 Anti-slavery/ because they do not wish to identify CHAP. xiv. 
 themselves with Garrison and his imprudences." 7 So X ^J 5> 
 the renascent organization took the harmless name of 
 the "African s Friend Society/ calculated, like that of 
 the American Union, to exert " a kind, moral influence 
 on the community." Then Prof. Moses Stuart advised 
 that the Colonization committee be dissolved, and cau 
 tioned the students against excitement on the subject of 
 slavery, and above all not to " pray about it publicly." 
 Thus the peace of the graveyard was secured in the 
 Theological Seminary at Andover. 1 
 
 The American Union had both miscalculated the ex 
 tent of the dissension among the abolitionists, and failed 
 from sheer dishonesty to take advantage of that which 
 actually existed. For, however unconsciously to Mr. 
 Garrison, Northern sentiment, whether abolitionist or 
 not, was gradually dividing itself into Garrisonite and 
 anti-Garrisonite j and towards the latter class were surely 
 gravitating the pietistic, theological and sectarian ele 
 ments of society. Circumstances about to be described 
 made the condition of the American churches the next 
 great concern of the abolitionists, and consequently the 
 subject of the Liberator s most uncompromising censure. 
 All denominations were on the eve of throwing off the 
 mask as apologists for the slave system, and of covering 
 their guilt by exciting anew against Mr. Garrison the 
 odium theologicum already incurred by his exposure of 
 the colonization hypocrisy. The result could but con 
 firm the fears of those genuine abolitionists who had 
 been disturbed by his " unchristian n mode of denuncia 
 tion, and effectuate the breach for which the American 
 Union had not sufficed. The unscrupulous and malig 
 nant misrepresentations of his enemies were practically 
 
 1 The neighboring institution of Phillips Academy underwent a similar 
 experience ; but fifty students, though nearly all professors of religion and 
 studying for the ministry, were less subservient than those of the divinity 
 school. Forbidden to organize among themselves, they joined a village 
 A. S. society, and, disobeying an ex-post-facto regulation of the Faculty, 
 were virtually expelled (Lib. 5:122, 130). 
 
476 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. [^ST. 30. 
 
 CHAP. xiv. unchecked (for the public at large) either by personal 
 1835. acquaintance or by candid perusal of his writings. A 
 single contemporary instance will show the force of this 
 ignorance and prejudice even in the most enlightened 
 and unUigoted and humanitarian circles. At Concord, 
 Mass., on his Middlesex County lecturing tour, Charles 
 C. Burleigh 1 had a friendly conversation with Miss Emer 
 son, the maiden aunt of the poet : 2 
 
 MS. April " l Why do you have that Garrison engaged in your cause ? 
 ? l ?^Ma sa ^ s ^ e an ^ proceeded to express her strong dislike of him 
 and his paper. You might as well ask me, I replied, why 
 we permit the rivers to flow on in their channels, for the one 
 could be prevented as easily as the other, while life remains, 
 and the physical power to labor, in Garrison. We thereupon 
 discussed Mr. G. s conduct and character, and I soon found she 
 knew very little about either. I related some facts showing his 
 self-denial, his sacrifice, his heart-and-soul devotion to the 
 cause. Her countenance brightened as I proceeded, and before 
 I could complete my narrative she exclaimed, He ought to be 
 canonized? " 
 
 Nothing marks more peculiarly Mr. Garrison s anti- 
 slavery warfare than the maturity of it the judicial 
 measure which is visible in his earliest as in his latest 
 utterances. There had been, since his programme was 
 
 1 A native of Plainfield, Conn., born in 1810, and one of a highly-gifted 
 family of brothers. His father, Rinaldo Burleigh, was a graduate of Yale 
 (1803), acquired a high reputation as teacher of the academy in Plainfleld, 
 and became president of the first anti-slavery society in Windham Co. 
 His mother, Lydia Bradford, a native of Canterbury, was a lineal descendant 
 of Governor "Wm. Bradford, of the Mayfloiver. Charles Burleigh was 
 admitted to the bar in January, 1835, his examination showing remarkable 
 proficiency. Already, however, his editorial defence of Miss Crandall 
 (ante, p. 416) had committed him to the cause of abolition, and he soon 
 exchanged his brilliant professional prospects for the hardships, odium, 
 and perils of an anti-slavery lecturer. As an orator he was unsurpassed 
 in fluency, logical strictness, and fervor, lacking only the measure of time 
 and space. His tall figure, noble countenance, and unconventional dress, 
 with sandy flowing beard and long ringlets, made his personal appearance 
 as unique as his talent. 
 
 2 Mary Moody Emerson, a very quaint personage. She was born in 
 1773 and died in 1863. Her home was in Waterford, Me. (See Worthy 
 Women of our First Century, pp. 114, 120, 138, 152, 175 ; Atlantic Monthly, 
 December, 1883.) 
 
&T. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 477 
 
 announced in 1831, no deviation from it, no change in CHAP. xiv. 
 his spirit or his language. No shade had yet come over jgjj^ 
 his orthodoxy. He had not ceased to quote the Bible 
 against slaveholding, nor to depend upon the instrumen 
 tality of the churches in converting the Nortn to his 
 views. It was the conductors of a depraved religious 
 press, rebuked without ceremony for its libels on the 
 blacks and on the abolitionists j the trustees of theologi 
 cal schools invaded, or likely to be invaded, by the 
 strife between colonization and immediate emancipa 
 tion ; the officers of denominations whose New England 
 pulpits were, if usually closed, sometimes freely opened, 
 to George Thompson and other anti-slavery lecturers, 
 it was these classes who were changed, but only into 
 more bitter and more open opponents of the moral 
 revolution they had failed to initiate, and could neither 
 direct nor resist. The American Church, with its 
 Northern and Southern brotherhood, had always ac 
 quiesced in slavery. Now first, in the year 1835, the 
 progress of the agitation compelled the Northern wing 
 to take sides deliberately for or against the old con 
 nection. 
 
 One sees how the anti-slavery leaven had begun to 
 work in it. On the one hand was the Boston meeting of April?., 
 members and pastors of various city churches, to form a / 5^.59. 
 union among professing Christians to determine the 
 action of churches as such against slavery ; the formation 
 of an anti-slavery society among the preachers of the Lib. 5 : 99. 
 New England Methodist Conference at Lynn, under the 
 influence of George Thompson, and at the New Hamp 
 shire Conference ; anti-slavery declarations by the Maine Lib. 5 . 109, 
 General Conference, the Detroit Presbytery, the Utica J^; ]%. l 5 3 
 Synod, the Michigan Synod, the Maine Baptist Conven 
 tion. On the other hand, in Boston, churches and 
 vestries were shut against abolition meetings even for 
 prayer, and the notices of them were systematically sup- Lib. 5 -. 59. 
 pressed. In New Hampshire, Methodist bishops issued 
 a pastoral letter against cooperation with the aboli- Lib. 5:173- 
 
478 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 30. 
 
 CHAP. xiv. tionists, and especially against allowing them pulpit 
 
 !8j 5 . hospitality. In New York, the American Bible Society 
 
 publicly disclaimed any connection with them, and 
 
 Lib. 5 : 189. sought credit for its refusal to accept the offer of funds 
 to place" Bibles in the hands of the Southern slaves, or 
 to recommend local societies to do so. 1 In Philadelphia, 
 
 Lib. s : 189. the Baptist General Tract Society exacted a pledge of 
 its agents not to intermeddle in any way with the 
 slavery question. At Pittsburg, the Presbyterian Gen- 
 
 Ltt. 5 : 93, eral Assembly referred numerous petitions on slavery to 
 a committee four-fifths of whom were Southerners ; and, 
 after an animated debate over their report, assigned the 
 whole matter to a select committee to report at the next 
 Assembly. In a bold speech against delay, frequently 
 interrupted by calls to order, Elder Stewart, from Illinois, 
 declared the church the patron of slavery and responsible 
 for its cruelties, and added : " Slavery cannot be sus 
 tained by the Bible, and if it could, the Bible could not 
 be sustained." So thought not the Synod of Virginia, 
 
 #.5:181. whose report on abolition pronounced the dogma that 
 slavery was sinful, " contrary ... to the clearest 
 authority of the word of God. 7 2 
 Looking over the whole field, Mr. Garrison found the 
 
 Lib. 5 : 154. religious press, without regard to denomination, " filled 
 with apologies for sin and sinners of the worst class," 
 though all of " the preeminently corrupt and servile " at 
 
 1 The offer of $5000 to that end, made by the American A. S. Society in 
 1834 (Lib. 6 : 27), was renewed at the annual meeting in 1835, on motion of 
 Elizur Wright, Jr. (2d Ann. Report Am. A. S. Society, p. 29). 
 
 2 A Northern Orthodox clergyman, the Rev. Hubbard Winslow, of 
 Boston, a colonizationist, went a step further, preaching that the laws of 
 the land must be obeyed even if God s commandments were violated (Lib. 
 5:103). So the Massachusetts Attorney-General Austin, prosecuting at 
 the time the Rev. Geo. B. Cheever to conviction, asked the jury : " Can 
 there be a safer mode of determining what is right or wrong than, Is it 
 lawful?" On this Mr. Garrison commented (Lib. 5:107): "Now, I care 
 not what the law allows me to do, or what it forbids my doing. If I violate 
 it, I will submit to the penalty, unresistingly, in imitation of Christ, and 
 his apostles, and the holy martyrs. But to learn my duty, I will not con 
 sult any other statute-book than THE BIBLE ; and whatsoever require 
 ment of man I believe is opposed to the spirit of the gospel, I will at all 
 hazards disobey." 
 
MT. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 479 
 
 the North were Orthodox save one 1 j and drew from the CHAP. xiv. 
 developments of the day as to the demoralization of the 1^5. 
 churches proof that "American (not Bible) Christianity /.*<$. 5: 163. 
 is the main pillar of American slavery." 2 He had been 
 painfully affected by the coincidence that the first de 
 nomination to succumb to the test which he had pre 
 pared for all the number, was that in which he had been 
 reared, and which from early childhood he had been Lib. 5:51. 
 taught to regard " as most truly apostolical in its doc 
 trines." The Baptist General (Eighth Triennial) Con 
 vention having been appointed to meet, in the spring of 
 1835, at Richmond, Va., it appeared opportune to the 
 Baptist Board of Foreign Missions to make public their 
 answer, dated September 1, 1834, to an address from the 
 Board of Baptist Ministers in and near London, Eng 
 land, dated December 31, 1833, to the Baptist churches in 
 America, urging them to promote emancipation. The 
 address itself was carefully withheld, and first appeared 
 in the Liberator, which copied it, together with the reply, Lib. 5:41. 
 from a London organ of the Baptists. The American 
 Board declined compliance, on the ground that slavery 
 was not originated by the American colonies, and that 
 hence both the nation and the free States were guiltless 
 in regard to it ; that Maryland, Kentucky, and Virginia 
 were endeavoring to get rid of the system ; that slave 
 holders knew best the true interests of the negro ; that 
 emancipation was hazardous and must be gradual ; that 
 what was needed was calm and affectionate argument ; 
 that agitation would divide the Northern and Southern 
 Baptists. " Our slaveholding brethren " were vouched 
 for as "Christians, sincere followers of the Lord Jesus." 3 
 
 1 "All the religious papers at the South," said the Evangelist, "now 
 take the ground that slavery is no sin" (Lib. 5 : 196). 
 
 2 So Birney s short-lived Kentucky A. S. Society resolved that slave- 
 holding by professors of religion was the greatest barrier to emancipation 
 (Lib. 5:77). 
 
 3 The Society of Friends had received a similar epistle from a meeting of 
 Friends in London, but remained discreetly mum (Lib. 5 : 67 ; see, also, Mr. 
 Garrison s resolution concerning the abatement of their zeal in 2d Ann. Re 
 port Am. A. S. Society, p. 32, and S. J. May s experience with the Newport 
 Quakers, Recollections, p. 147). 
 
480 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 30. 
 
 Lib. 5 : 67. This " shallow attempt to evade/ as the London Aboli 
 tionist justly termed it, was duly dissected by Mr. Gar- 
 
 Lib. 5 : 43, rison in the Liberator, but we can find room here only 
 for these general prefatory remarks : 
 
 Lib. 5:43. "It is a fact, alike indisputable and shameful, that the 
 Christianity of the 19th century, in this country, is preached 
 and professed by those who hold their brethren in bondage as 
 brute beasts ! and so entirely polluted has the church become, 
 that it has not moral power enough to excommunicate a mem 
 ber who is guilty of MAN-STEALING ! Whether it be Unitarian 
 or Orthodox, Baptist or Methodist, Universalist or Episcopal, 
 Roman Catholic or Christian, 1 it is full of innocent blood it is 
 the stronghold of slavery it recognizes as members those who 
 grind the faces of the poor, and usurp over the helpless the 
 prerogatives of the Almighty ! At the South, slaves and slave 
 holders, the masters and their victims, the spoilers and the 
 spoiled, make up the Christian church ! The churches at the 
 North partake of the guilt of oppression, inasmuch as they are 
 in full communion with those at the South. To each of them 
 
 Psalms, 1. 18. it may be said When tbou sawest a thief, then thou con- 
 sentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. 
 
 2 Cor. vi. 17. And the plain command to each of them is, Wherefore, come 
 out from among them, and be ye separate, 2 saith the Lord, 
 and touch not the unclean thing j and I will receive you, and 
 will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daugh 
 ters, saith the Lord Almighty. " 
 
 As if to heighten the evil example of the Baptist 
 Board, two English delegates to the Richmond Conven 
 tion, the Rev. Dr. F. A. Cox and the Rev. Dr. J. Hoby, 
 returned thence to New York in season to attend the 
 annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society, to 
 which, indeed, they were formally invited. But they 
 declined to take part in it. Dr. Cox, a member of the 
 Lib. 5:109. British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and, though 
 passive, one of the committee who sped George Thomp 
 son on his mission to America, was privately exhorted 
 
 1 Pronounced with the first i long. "A name assumed by a sect which 
 arose from the great revival in 1801 " (Bartlett s Dictionary of American 
 isms ). 
 
 2 The full political application of this text occurred later to Mr. Garrison. 
 
JEi. 30.1 THE BOSTON MOB. I. 481 
 
 by the latter, but carefully avoided the gathering of the CHAP. xiv. 
 abolitionists. Dr. Hoby, it is true, protested from the jjj^. 
 gallery, in answer to Thompson s indignant rebuke of 
 them, that they did not wish to compromise the " spirit 
 ual and sacred 7 objects of their journey 5 and Dr. Cox 
 by letter urged political objections to foreigners sharing 
 in the anti-slavery agitation. In short, they remained 
 silent in New York, as they had been eloquently dumb 
 in Richmond, where their Southern brethren received 
 them with perfect cordiality and the Convention auda 
 ciously resolved, that slave-owners ought to awake to the 
 importance of giving religious instruction (not Bibles) to 
 their slaves. 1 
 
 The hostility of the churches and the timidity of public- 
 hall owners now began to be a most serious embar 
 rassment to the abolitionists in their oral propaganda. 
 In Philadelphia the resolve was formed to build an Anti- Lib, 5 . 70. 
 Slavery Hall, and in Boston the need was even greater. 
 The New England Convention, at its May session, was Lib. 5 : 87, 
 shut out of seven churches, of the Masonic Temple, and of B9t ^^ n 
 every hall in the city but two including Faneuil Hall M S - A -^j- 
 itself, by the questionably legal action of the city authori 
 ties. Thereupon, on June 22, a meeting was held at Julien Lib. $ -. 99, 
 Hall to take measures for the erection of a Free Church 2 
 building "in which all the great moral questions of 
 the day may be discussed without let or hindrance." 
 Francis Jackson presided, and Mr. Garrison was among 
 
 1 See the apology of Drs. Cox and Hoby in The Baptists in America : A 
 Narrative of the Deputation from the Baptist Union in England, etc., 
 N. Y., 1836, Chap. 5; and Mr. Thompson s public review of the whole 
 matter in London (Lib. 6:133, 137, and also 146, 194, 198). Dr. Cox was 
 afterwards present at the Faneuil Hall meeting in Boston (Chap. 11; Lib. 
 6 : 138 ; and below, p. 497), where Mr. Thompson was no longer the accuser, 
 but the murderously accused. 
 
 2 A congregation had already been formed with this designation, and had 
 with difficulty obtained recognition from an Orthodox council, owing to the 
 following rule of covenant: "All persons who use or traffic in ardent 
 spirits as a drink, all adhering masons, and all slaveholders, or those who 
 are concerned in the buying and selling of slaves, shall be excluded from 
 the communion-table and the pulpit." See the whole story and its sequel 
 in Right and Wrong in Boston for 1837. 
 
 VOL. I. 31 
 
482 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. [^T. 30. 
 
 CHAP. xiv. the speakers, as was also Benjamin F. Hallett, editor of 
 I 87 5 . the Daily A dvocate, who, in reporting the proceedings in 
 his paper, said they meant to build " a new Cradle of 
 Liberty," " where free discussion, and not the caprices 
 of deacons, and committees, and aldermen, shall be the 
 presiding genius ; where the Constitution, and not the 
 constable, shall be consulted whether it will do to discuss 
 such and such principles for fear of a mob. Mobs are 
 the fruits of checking free discussion. . . . You can 
 never get up a mob in Boston to repress free discussion, 
 even of heresy and error." His brother-editor of the Com 
 mercial Gazette, however, knew Boston better when, with 
 reference to this very movement on the part of the aboli- 
 
 Lib. 5 : 105. tionists, he called on " all good citizens to combine for 
 the purpose of putting down their nefarious transac 
 tions " 5 and again, on the 4th of July, when, the editor 
 of the Liberator delivering an address at Julien Hall, the 
 
 #.5:109. Gazette proposed throwing "the mischievous Garrison" 
 and his hearers overboard like the tea spilt in Boston 
 Harbor during the Revolution. " A cold bath would do 
 them good." 
 
 Two influences Boston could not escape : one, the ex 
 ample of Congress in repressing free speech ; the other, 
 the example of sister cities carried away by Southern 
 
 Lib. 5:26, panic. On February 2, Mr. Dickson, of New York, 
 presented in the House of Representatives the petition 
 of eight hundred ladies for the abolition of slavery in 
 the District of Columbia, and, in a favorable speech, 
 asserting the power of Congress in the premises, moved 
 its reference to a select committee ; but the House, by 
 a three-fifths vote, chose to lay it on the ta]?le. On 
 
 Lib. 5 : 30. February 11, like petitions were presented in the Senate 
 from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maine, and referred to 
 the Committee on the District. More petitions reached 
 
 Lib. 5 : 31. the House on the 16th, this time from Massachusetts also, 
 and now the resentment of the South, feeling the censure 
 involved in the proposed action in the District, could no 
 longer be contained. Clay, of Alabama, said the anti- 
 
MT. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 483 
 
 slavery agitation " was confined to a few fanatics, urged CHAP. xiv. 
 and guided by the Garrisons, the Tappans, and others, ^ 
 their wire- workers." Wise, of Virginia, declared the South 
 would fight to the hilt against emancipation in the Dis 
 trict unless upon a petition from slave-owners. The 
 House, which had adopted Mr. Dickson s motion (sec 
 onded by his colleague, Mr. Fillmore) to print a memorial 
 from Rochester, N. Y., bearing the mayor s signature, 
 was persuaded by Wise to reconsider and lay it, like the 
 several petitions, upon the table. The same fate attended 
 petitions afterwards introduced by John Quincy Adams ; 
 but the slavery question had come to stay in Congress. 
 
 The Southern panic was especially caused by the 
 activity of the admirably directed American Anti- Slavery 
 Society. A circular from the management 1 to its auxili- Lib. 5:98. 
 aries, in June, urged the raising of $30,000 for the current 
 year, to multiply agents, societies, and periodicals, and 
 provide for the gratuitous distribution of anti-slavery 
 publications. In the first week of each month a small 
 folio paper called Human Rights would be issued ; in the 
 second week, the Anti-Slavery Record, " a small magazine 
 with cuts " ; in the third, an enlarged sheet of the Eman 
 cipator ; in the fourth, the Slave s Friend, a juvenile 
 magazine all struck off by the thousand. Of the sum 
 required, $14,500 had been raised at the annual meeting 
 in May; $4,000 by the New England Convention, where <^ 
 Isaac Winslow handed in a thousand-dollar bill. Such a 
 practical programme, backed by such energy and such 
 ready funds, was well calculated to startle the South. 
 
 On July 10, a group of Southerners, chiefly Mississip- Lib. 5:115. 
 pian and all Gulf-State, laiet at the American Hotel in New 
 York, and appointed a committee to prepare an address 
 summoning a public meeting in that city ten days later, 
 "to take into consideration the alarming subject now 
 
 1 The Executive Committee consisted of Arthur Tappan, John Rankin, 
 Lewis Tappan, Joshua Leavitt, Samuel E. Cornish, William Goodell, Abra 
 ham L. Cox, Theodore S. Wright, Simeon S. Jocelyn, and Elizur Wright, 
 Jr. Messrs. Cornish and T. S. Wright being colored clergymen. 
 
484 WILLIAM LLOYD GAEKISON. f^ET. 30. 
 
 CHAP. xiv. being agitated the doctrines disseminated and the 
 ^5. measures adopted by some of their fellow-citizens of the 
 non-slaveholding States, avowing a solemn determination 
 to effect an immediate and unconditional emancipation 
 of the slaves at the South " ; and to avert the disastrous 
 consequences of such interference. 
 
 Lib. s 8 7- Before the day fixed for the meeting, Mr. Garrison. 
 whose health was not good, yielding to the solicitations 
 July 18, of his aunt Newell, sailed with her 1 to the British Prov 
 inces, to visit their relatives and look after certain 
 inheritances. On his return, in the first week of August, 
 he found the whole country ablaze with an excitement 
 that threatened the safety of every abolitionist. 
 
 Lib. 5:118. What had happened, meantime, was this. The South 
 ern meeting in New York had come off (July 20). 
 Moderate resolutions were presented, admitting slavery 
 to be an evil, but apologizing for it as entailed (in the 
 manner of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions), and 
 on the ground (already used to justify the persecution 
 of Prudence Crandall) that " amalgamation " of the two 
 races would be revolting ; protesting that agitation would 
 compel the slaveholders in self-defence to tighten the 
 bonds of the slave 5 and calling for a convention of dele 
 gates from the slaveholding States to consider the present 
 crisis. To these the " fire-eaters " objected as conceding 
 too much, and to the convention as giving undue impor 
 tance to a set of fanatics powerless for mischief. It was 
 thereupon resolved rather that, " whether slavery in our 
 country ~be an evil or not, it is a question belonging solely 
 to the States in which it is tolerated " j that the South 
 could not believe the abolitionists would seriously affect 
 public opinion at the North, and confidently relied upon 
 the North to put them down ; but that if the issue were 
 forced, the rights of property were sacred and would be 
 maintained. 
 
 l In the Boundary, Capt. Shackf ord. On this trip Mr. Garrison learned 
 his true birth-year, 1805 almost the only compensation he got for his 
 outlay and discomfort. 
 
^Ex. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 485 
 
 The Northern mind was prepared to give full weight CHAP. xiv. 
 to this manifesto in consequence of a ferocious anti- 1835. 
 negro riot in Philadelphia the week previous (July 13, Lib - 5 : "9. 
 14), growing out of a colored servant s having struck his 
 employer with an axe. Nor was it allowed to recover its 
 equilibrium, if prejudice would have allowed it, for 
 directly (July 24) a mass meeting was held at the Capitol Lib. 5 : 122. 
 in Richmond to stem the progress of abolition, and 
 adjourned for greater deliberation to August 4. Simul 
 taneously came the news of an alleged slave insurrection Lib.$-. 123, 
 in Mississippi, with the hanging of two of its white ^Nik?Regis- 
 promoters l on the Fourth of July ! And then, to crown ter ^ ^ 3 1 
 all, the leading citizens of Charleston, on the night of Lib. 5 : 129. 
 July 29, broke into the post-office and took possession of 
 "incendiary" matter brought from New York by the 
 U. S. mail packet Columbia, among which were discovered 
 the Emancipator, the Anti-Slavery Record, the Slave s 
 Friend, Human Rights unmistakably issued from the 
 office of the American Anti- Slavery Society and (to 
 Southern eyes) intended for circulation among the slaves. 
 On the next night three thousand persons gathered to 
 assist in burning them in front of the main guard-house, 
 and to hang and afterwards burn effigies of Arthur 
 Tappan, Garrison, and the Rev. Dr. Samuel H. Cox. 
 Two days later, with appropriately lurid metaphor, the 
 City Council called a mass meeting for August 3, to 
 defeat " the incendiary acts of those base and unprin 
 cipled fanatics who are improperly interfering with our 
 domestic policy." 
 
 On August 4, the Richmond meeting was held, and its Lib. 5 -. 133. 
 appeal, strengthened by the outrage on the mails in 
 South Carolina, made a profound impression at the 
 
 l Described as " steam-doctors," i. e., Thomsonians (see Bartlett s Dic 
 tionary of Americanisms , s. v.) The plot was said to have embraced the 
 extermination of the whites from Maryland to Louisiana. The abolitionists 
 were not accused (as an association) of having any hand in it, but were 
 of course vaguely connected with it (see Memoirs of S. S. Prentiss. 
 1:162). The local excitement was greatly intensified by the barbarous 
 lynching of white gamblers at Vicksburg and Natchez (Lib. 5 : 126). 
 
486 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [2ET. 30. 
 
 CHAP. xiv. North. Virginia, said the committee making the skil- 
 js^. fully worded report which formed the business of the 
 meeting, had taken no notice of the abolition associa 
 tions so long as they seemed feeble and ineffectual. 
 Now, they had grown strong, with a more perfect organ 
 ization, and, having presses of their own, were sowing 
 their doctrines broadcast, and sending their inflammatory 
 publications to the Southern States " for the undisguised 
 purpose of producing by fraud or by force the immediate 
 emancipation of our slaves. 7 The meeting conjured the 
 North to repress them " by strong yet lawful, by mild 
 yet constitutional means " ; by new laws if those exist 
 ing were insufficient. The South had a constitutional 
 right to its slave property in the States, the Territories, 
 and the District of Columbia. And since the abolition 
 of slavery anywhere, or the regulation of the inter- State 
 slave trade, would be in violation of the Compact and 
 destructive of the Government, the only way to preserve 
 the Union was by the suppression of the abolitionists. The 
 Postmaster-General was invoked to prevent transmission, 
 through mail-delivery, of " all printed papers suspected of 
 a tendency to produce or encourage an insubordinate and 
 insurrectionary spirit among the slaves of the South." 
 The resolutions closed with an affirmation of belief that 
 the North shared the Southern indignation against " de 
 luded fanatics." Will it show its sympathy, asked the 
 Richmond Whig, by works as well as by words ? l 
 Nowhere .was this question more seriously pondered 
 
 Lib. 5:130. than in Boston, where the Atlas at once called for a 
 
 i At a meeting held on August 22, 1835, at Gloucester Court-house, Va., 
 John Tyler, then a Senator of the United States, held up a copy of the 
 A. S. Record, which had been sent him through the mail. " Here," said he, 
 " is a picture upon the external covering designed to represent each of you, 
 gentlemen. A scourge is in your hand, and three victims bound and kneel 
 ing at your feet. You are represented as demons in the shape of men ; and 
 by way of contrast here stands Arthur Tappan, Mr. Somebody Garrison, or 
 Mr. Foreigner Thompson, patting the greasy little fellows on their cheeks, 
 and giving them most lovely kisses. They are the exclusive philanthropists 
 the only lovers of the human race the only legitimate defenders of the 
 religion of Christ " ( Letters and Times of the Tylers, 1 : 576). 
 
JET. 30.] 
 
 THE BOSTON MOB. I. 
 
 487 
 
 meeting in the same Faneuil Hall that had been denied 
 the abolitionists, and urged that Webster, Otis, Adams, 
 Story, Sprague, Austin, Choate, and Everett should 
 " vindicate the fair fame of our city." One thus invited 
 to declare his sentiments against men accused of prepar 
 ing a civil and servile war in the name of philanthropy, 
 John Quincy Adams, wrote as follows in his diary : 
 
 August 11, 1835. " The theory of the rights of man has taken 
 deep root in the soil of civil society. . . . Anti- slavery 
 associations are formed in this country and in England, and they 
 are already co-operating in concerted agency together. They 
 have raised funds to support and circulate inflammatory news 
 papers and pamphlets gratuitously, and they send multitudes 
 of them into the Southern country, into the midst of swarms of 
 slaves. There is an Englishman, by the name of Thompson, 
 lately come over from England, who is travelling about the 
 country, holding meetings and making eloquent inflammatory 
 harangues, preaching the immediate abolition of slavery. The 
 general disposition of the people here is averse to these move 
 ments, and Thompson has several times been routed by 
 popular tumults. But in some places he meets favorable 
 reception, and makes converts. . . . There are now calls 
 in the Atlas (the Webster paper) and the Morning Post (the 
 Jackson and Van Buren paper) for a town-meeting to put down 
 the abolitionists j but the disease is deeper than can be healed 
 by town-meeting resolutions." 
 
 August 12. " Mr. Abbott Lawrence told me that they were 
 going to have a very great meeting at Boston to put down 
 the anti-slavery abolitionists; but, he said, there was no 
 diversity of opinion upon that subject here. That, I think, 
 will depend upon the measures to be proposed. If the measures 
 are vaporing resolutions, they will pass unanimously and be 
 inefficient. If the measures are efficient, there will be diversity 
 of opinion." 
 
 August 18. " There is something extraordinary in the present 
 condition of parties throughout the Union. Slavery and 
 democracy especially the democracy founded, as ours is, 
 upon the rights of man would seem to be incompatible with 
 each other. And yet at this time the democracy of the country 
 is supported chiefly if not entirely by slavery. There is a small, 
 shallow, and enthusiastic party preaching the abolition of 
 slavery upon the principles of extreme democracy j but the 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 1835- 
 
 Memoirs, 
 9:251. 
 
488 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKEISON. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 1835- 
 
 August 21, 
 
 1835. 
 
 Lib. 5 : 131 
 
 (August 15, 
 
 1835)- 
 
 Cf. Niks 
 
 Register, 
 
 49:1. 
 
 democratic spirit and the popular feeling is everywhere against 
 them. There have been riots at Washington, not much inferior 
 in activity to those at Baltimore. ... In Charleston, S. C., 
 the principal men of the State, with the late Governor Hayne 
 at their head, seize upon the mail, with the co-operation of 
 the Postmaster himself, and purify it of the abolition pam 
 phlets ; l and the Postmaster-General, Amos Kendall, neither 
 approves nor disapproves of this proceeding. ... In Bos 
 ton there is a call for a town-meeting, with H. G. Otis and P. 
 C. Brooks at their head. This meeting is to be held next 
 Friday, and is to pass resolutions against the abolitionists, to 
 soothe and conciliate the temper of the Southern slaveholders. 
 All this is democracy and the rights of man." 
 
 Mr. Garrison, in what he called the " hurricane excite 
 ment of the times," with its special draught towards his 
 own person, might well be excused for not taking Mr. 
 Adams s passionless view of the situation. His first 
 editorial article after his return from the Provinces was 
 entitled " The Reign of Terror." 
 
 "All Pandemonium," it begins, " is let loose that insanity 
 which precedes self-murder has seized upon the mind of the 
 nation, for whom God purposes to destroy he first makes 
 mad the American Constitution, nay, Government itself, 
 whether local or general, has ceased to extend the arm of pro 
 tection over the lives and property of American citizens 
 Rapine and Murder have overcome Liberty and Law, and are 
 rioting in violent and bloody excess all is consternation and 
 perplexity, for perilous times have come. 
 
 " It is scarcely practicable, and it would certainly be prema 
 ture, to make any extended comments upon the direful trans 
 actions which are going on in various sections of our land. 
 Appeals to reason and justice and liberty, while the tempest of 
 human passion is raging, will be in vain. When it shall have 
 spent its fury, and given place to the ominous silence of utter 
 desolation, the voice of man and the voice of God may again 
 be heard, to the terror and condemnation of the guilty. 
 
 "And what has brought our country to the verge of ruin, 
 and substituted anarchy for order, rebellion for obedience, 
 
 1 After the burning, the Charleston Committee of Twenty-one arranged 
 with the postmaster to suppress anti-slavery documents in the office. The 
 mail-packets were boarded on crossing the bar, and kept anchored till 
 morning, or until the Committee could make their inspection. 
 
^T. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 489 
 
 jacobinism for religion, and blood-guiltiness for innocence ? CHAP. XIV. 
 THE ACCURSED SYSTEM OF SLAVERY! To sustain ^ 
 that system, there is a general willingness to destroy the 
 LIBERTY OF SPEECH and of the PRESS, and to mob 
 or murder all who oppose it. In the popular fury against 
 the advocates of bleeding humanity, every principle of justice, 
 every axiom of liberty, every feeling of humanity all the 
 fundamental doctrines of a republican government, are de 
 rided and violated without remorse and with fatal success. . . . 
 
 " The newspapers are crowded with allegations against the 
 abolitionists. These allegations are diabolically false they are 
 LIES of the hugest dimensions, of the most malicious aspect, 
 and of the most murderous tendency. We have never sent any 
 pamphlet or paper to any slave ; we have never, in any docu 
 ment, advocated the right of physical resistance on the part of 
 the oppressed j we have never maintained that Congress is em 
 powered to legislate upon the subject of slavery in slaveholding 
 States ; we have never asked that the slaves may be turned 
 loose ; we have never returned evil for evil. The head and 
 front of our offending is, that we hold slavery to be a blot upon 
 our national escutcheon, a libel upon the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence, A SIN AGAINST GOD which exposes us to his 
 tremendous judgments, and which ought to be immediately 
 repented of and forsaken. We use precisely the same meas 
 ures, and wield exclusively the same weapons, that have been 
 used in the cause of Temperance and of Peace. It is simply by 
 1 the foolishness of preaching that we expect to triumph. . . . 
 
 " Finally, ... we tell the South that we regard its threats 
 and warnings with supreme contempt and utter scorn; that 
 our course is still onward, right onward 5 that we shall never 
 desist from our practice of publishing * the truth, the whole 
 truth, and nothing but the truth, respecting its thievish and 
 murderous acts, while life remains, or a slave pines in bond 
 age ; for truth is against the South HUMANITY is against it 
 and GOD is against it." 
 
 In the same number of the Liberator Mr. Garrison 
 had this flying word for the approaching Faneuil Hall 
 meeting : 
 
 " THE OLD CRADLE OP LIBERTY, it seems, is to be dese- #.5:131 
 crated by a meeting of the friends of slavery and slaveholders ! ^3|J|f I5 
 Better that the lightning of heaven should smite and devour 
 the building better that the winds should scatter it in frag- 
 
490 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 [JET. 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. inents over the whole earth better that an earthquake should 
 
 1835- 
 
 MS. to 
 W. L. G. 
 
 Letters of 
 
 L. M. Child, 
 
 /IS- 
 
 engulph it than that it should be used for so unhallowed and 
 detestable a purpose ! Is the SPIRIT OF SEVENTY-SIX cowering 
 beneath the whip of the slave-driver ? Has BUNKER HILL no 
 voice for a crisis like this ? What ! is Faneuil Hall to ring 
 with curses upon the heads of those who plead for liberty and 
 equal rights for the emancipation of millions of enslaved 
 AMERICAN citizens ! 0, horrible prostitution ! 0, base sub 
 serviency to tyrants! 0, damnable stain upon its fair fame, 
 throughout all time ! Let those who contemplate addressing 
 that meeting in opposition to the inalienable rights of their 
 colored countrymen, pause before it is too late their names 
 and their memories will be covered with eternal infamy. No 
 fiction, no sophistry, can hide the fact from the intelligence of 
 an impartial posterity, that the contemplated meeting is a meet 
 ing to take sides with the slaveholder, and against his victim to 
 palliate and countenance a bloody despotism, and to plant a 
 dagger in the bosom of Liberty ! " 
 
 Perilous times had surely come. Simeon Jocelyn, just 
 arrived on August 17 at New Haven from New York, 
 reported a horrible state of things in the latter city. 
 There would be no safety there for Thompson no, nor 
 even in New Haven, thronged with Southerners attend 
 ing the Yale Commencement ; that very day Thompson 
 had taken the stage from New Haven for Boston via 
 Hartford, where (it was rumored) a mob had burnt the 
 colored people s church the day before ; Thompson, Gar 
 rison, the Tappans, were all marked for assassination. 
 Still, the good man found comfort in the thought that 
 " the bonfire at Charleston is exciting a great curiosity 
 to read our papers." 
 
 Mrs. Child wrote to Mrs. Ellis Gray Loring from New 
 York, on August 15 : 
 
 " I am at Brooklyn, at the house of a very hospitable English 
 man, a friend of Mr. Thompson s. 1 I have not ventured into the 
 city, nor does one of us dare to go to church to-day, so great is 
 the excitement here. You can form no conception of it. Tis like 
 
 i Henry Ibbotson, a merchant of Sheffield, England. Mr. Garrison had 
 stayed with him in March, in Mr. Thompson s company. See R. R. 
 Gurley s letter to him in the African Repository, April, 1833 (9: 51). 
 
JET. 30.] 
 
 THE BOSTON MOB. I. 
 
 491 
 
 the times of the French Revolution, when no man dared trust CHAP. xiv. 
 his neighbors. Private assassins from New Orleans are lurking ^ 
 at the corners of the streets to stab Arthur Tappan ; and 
 very large sums are offered for any one who will convey Mr. 
 Thompson into the slave States. I tremble for him, and love 
 him in proportion to my fears. He is almost a close prisoner 
 in his chamber, his friends deeming him in imminent peril the 
 moment it is ascertained where he is. . . . Your husband could 
 hardly be made to realize the terrible state of fermentation now 
 existing here. There are seven thousand Southerners now in 
 the city j and I am afraid there are not seven hundred among 
 them who have the slightest fear of God before their eyes." 
 
 Henry Benson, now clerk of the Anti-Slavery Office in 
 Boston, wrote to his brother George, on August 19, of 
 Thompson s arrival unmolested on the 18th, and imme 
 diate departure for Lynn with Mr. Garrison ; but that he 
 was not safe there nor in Boston or vicinity : 
 
 " I believe there are those in Boston who would assassinate 
 him in broad daylight. Did you know the state of feeling here 
 you would not have suggested that Brother May should speak 
 at the Faneuil Hall meeting. Even if permission were granted, 
 the rabble would not allow him a hearing. It has been a ques 
 tion with our friends whether they should attend at all. Gar 
 rison nor May would not be safe there on an evening, and I 
 doubt whether they would not meet with trouble in the daytime. 
 The least attempt to interfere on our part would be highly dis 
 advantageous, as the meeting is called by an expressed class of 
 people, viz., those opposed to immediate abolition, for an 
 express purpose. A petition is being signed to procure the Hall 
 for the abolitionists, but it will unquestionably be denied. After 
 the meeting we may expect a mob. The Liberator office has been 
 threatened in consequence of the article on Saturday. We are 
 putting out an address to the public which will be ready to-day. 
 Ten thousand are to be circulated here in the city. Garrison 
 drew up an admirable one, but they could not swallow it. 
 Thought it most too fiery for the present time. You will see 
 it in the next Liberator. It is equal to the Declaration of Sen 
 timents. We have received a great quantity of the publications 
 which were sent to the South, for gratuitous distribution in this 
 city, and have inserted a notice to that effect in the daily 
 papers. . . . 
 
 MS. Aug. 
 19. 1835. 
 
 Aug. 15, 
 ante, p. 489. 
 
 Boston 
 
 Advertiser, 
 
 Aug. 20, 
 
 1835- 
 
 Lib. 5 : 134. 
 
492 WILLIAM LLOYD GABEISON. [^T. 30. 
 
 Aug. 14, " Five thousand dollars were offered on the Exchange in New 
 
 York for the head of Arthur Tappan on Friday last. Elizur 
 Letters of Wright is barricading his house with shutters, bars and bolts. 
 
 " !& Judge Jay has been with us two or three days. He is 
 as firm as the everlasting hills." 
 
 Lib. 5 : 134. rpj^ protests of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society 1 
 and of the editor of the Liberator against the Southern 
 and pro-slavery charge of sending their publications to 
 the slaves ("Not one of the Southern editors/ 7 said 
 Mr. Garrison, " ventures to quote a single paragraph or 
 sentence from the incendiary 7 publications which, as 
 they declare, have been sent to the South " ) could have 
 no effect amid the thick-gathering storm of public and 
 official fury. During the week before the Faneuil Hall 
 
 Lib. 5:133, meeting assembled, committees of vigilance were being 
 formed at the South to look out for abolition emissaries 
 and documents; steamboats and railroad trains were put 
 under surveillance ; the mails were violated with impu 
 nity. At a public meeting in the Charleston City Hall, 
 the free States were urged to manifest their disapproba 
 tion of the disseminators of a " moral pestilence," not 
 merely by word of mouth, but " by the most active, zeal 
 ous, and persevering efforts" to put them and their 
 organizations down; and it was firmly declared that the 
 
 Lib . 5:I35> post-office could not constitutionally be made an instru 
 ment for disseminating publications prohibited from 
 circulation by the laws of any State. Worse than all, 
 Jackson s Postmaster-General, Amos Kendall, despite 
 
 Lib. 5 : 135. his Massachusetts birth, responded to the postmaster at 
 Charleston that while he could not exclude papers from 
 the mails for their tendency, he would not instruct his 
 subordinates to forward them. He took the postmaster s 
 word for it that the papers in question were " the most 
 inflammatory and incendiary and insurrectionary in 
 
 1 An address to the public, in the same sense, written by William Jay, was 
 put forth on Sept. 3, by the American A. S. Society, of which Judge Jay was 
 the Secretary for Foreign Correspondence ( Life of Arthur Tappan, p. 246; 
 Lib. 5 : 146 ; Niks Register, 49 : 28). 
 
^ET. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 493 
 
 the highest degree." " We owe," he said, " an obligation CHAP. xiv. 
 to the laws, but a higher one to the communities in which ^ 5f 
 we live ; if the former be perverted to destroy the latter, 
 it is patriotism to disregard them." l "I cannot," he 
 continued, " sanction, and will not condemn, the step you 
 have taken. Your justification must be looked for in the 
 character of the papers detained, and the circumstances 
 by which you are surrounded." 
 
 Even more frankly, when the postmaster in New York, 2 
 Jackson-like, "took the responsibility" of refusing to #.5:135. 
 despatch the papers of the American Anti-Slavery So 
 ciety, Kendall wrote him that he could not sanction his 
 action, but would do the same thing if he were in his place. 
 Postmasters had a right to inspect all news matter, and 
 if this tended to beget the commission of the most aggra 
 vated crimes, it was their duty to retain it, or even hand 
 it over to the civil authorities, with the risk, to be sure, 
 of suffering for improper detention. Anti-slavery publi 
 cations tended directly to produce the horrors of slave 
 insurrection at the South, being calculated to fill every 
 family with assassins. Southern demonstrations against 
 them, as " power which is exerted in palpable self- 
 defence," were not lawless. Abolitionists might have a 
 right to circulate their documents in New York, where 
 it was lawful, but not in Louisiana or Georgia. The 
 State laws against such circulation were not voidable 
 in the case of Federal officials, nor could postmasters 
 and mail-carriers be protected against the penalties of 
 State laws. "Was it to give impunity to crime that 
 
 1 This pro-slavery " higher-law " doctrine was identical with that on which 
 the right of secession and the falsity of Federal officers to their oaths were 
 afterwards based. 
 
 2 Samuel L. Gouverneur, son-in-law of ex-President Monroe. The New 
 York Evening Post, edited by the intrepid William Leggett, alone of the 
 party press of that city, protested against the postmaster s action (Lib. 5 : 
 152 ; Evening Post, Aug. 29, 1835). On August 19, Henry Benson wrote to 
 his brother that the Liberators for Philadelphia had apparently been de 
 tained by postmasters and boat captains (MS. ) All delays or failures of 
 the mail naturally came to be attributed to the same cause by the aboli 
 tionists (Lib. 5 : 137). 
 
494 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. 
 
 . 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 1835- 
 
 Lib. 5 : 135, 
 137; 6:71, 
 75: Life of 
 A. Tappan, 
 p. 165 ; and 
 pamphlet re 
 port of the 
 trial. 
 
 Ante, p. 454. 
 
 Lib. 5 : 135, 
 141,159,162. 
 
 the several States came into the Union, and conferred 
 upon the General Government the power to establish 
 post-offices and post-roads?" If Congress should up 
 hold the right of transmission, the South would have to 
 regard that body as a common enemy. 1 
 
 As if to symbolize the Federal impotence to maintain 
 the freedom of the mails and the freedom of speech 
 in its special Territory, Dr. Reuben Crandall, younger 
 brother of Prudence Crandall, was thrown (August 17) 
 into a noisome jail in Georgetown, in the District of 
 Columbia, on a charge of " circulating Tappan, Gar 
 rison & Co. s papers, encouraging the negroes to in 
 surrection," for which a mob would fain have lynched 
 him. 2 Finally (that there might be no lack of topics 
 for the Boston " town-meeting"), on August 10, at 
 Canaan, N. H., the building of the Noyes Academy, 
 opened to pupils of both colors, 3 was, in pursuance 
 of a formal town-meeting vote that it be " removed," 
 dragged by one hundred yoke of oxen from the land 
 belonging to the corporation and left on the common ; 
 three hundred yeomen of the county participating, 
 and consummating their outrage with " resolutions " 
 against the " combination of disorganizers, led on by an 
 Englishman sent to this country to sow seeds of discord 
 and contention between the North and the South." The 
 teacher and colored pupils were given a month in which 
 to quit the town. 
 
 With all these astonishing evidences of the far-reach 
 ing pretensions and authority of the Slave Power, with 
 the disclaimers of the abolitionists spread broadcast 
 before them, and with copies of the papers suppressed at 
 
 1 With a lack of humor surprising in a Northern man, Kendall approved 
 Gouverneur s course on this ground, among others, that it would save the 
 South the trouble of destroying obnoxious mail matter ! 
 
 2 It was nearly a year before he was brought to trial, and meantime his 
 health had been ruined (Goodell s Slavery and Freedom, p. 437 ; Lib. 
 8:31, 43). 
 
 3 A little while before, the Managers of the Massachusetts A. S. Society 
 had recommended that the funds raised for the Manual Labor School be 
 turned over to this Academy (Lib. 5: 105). 
 
.fflT. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 495 
 
 Charleston 1 obtainable gratuitously at the Anti-Slavery ^.5:135. 
 Rooms ; above all, with full knowledge of the spirit of 
 violence anxious to be loosed against the abolitionists 
 in the midst of them, the social, political, religious and 
 intellectual elite of Boston 2 filled Faneuil Hall on the 
 afternoon of Friday, August 21 Mayor Theodore 
 Lyman, Jr., 3 being in the chair, and Abbott Lawrence a 
 vice-president to draw up an indictment against their 
 fellow-citizens. The preliminary resolutions confessed ^.5:139. 
 Boston s eagerness to lead in bowing to the Southern 
 demand for a general Northern manifesto against the 
 abolitionists ; belittled the number of the agitators ; ac 
 cused them of wishing to " scatter among our Southern 
 brethren firebrands, arrows, and death," and of attempt 
 ing to force abolition by appeals to the terror of the 
 masters and the passions of the slaves j and denounced 
 with " indignation and disgust the intrusion upon our 
 domestic relations of alien emissaries sustained by the 
 funds of a foreign people." They pledged the meeting to 
 support with all its might constitutional laws applicable 
 to overt acts growing out of measures " the natural and 
 direct tendency of which is to excite the slaves of the 
 South to revolt, or of spreading [sic] among them a spirit 
 of insubordination." At the same time, they deprecated 
 all riotous or violent proceedings. For the rest, the pro- 
 slavery compromises of 1789, the solemn obligation of 
 the Constitutional compact, and the necessity of depriv- 
 
 1 They had been addressed only to respectable free citizens at. the South 
 (Lib. 5:135). 
 
 2 The call for the meeting had 1500 signatures, filling one and a half solid 
 columns of fine print in the Daily Advertiser. Among the signers were 
 some who were abolitionists by nature, and presently became so in name 
 and generous deed. We need only mention Samuel May, uncle of S. J. 
 May, and Charles F. Hovey. 
 
 3 Mr. Lyman was born Feb. 22, 1792, and graduated at Harvard College 
 in 1810. His interest in the State militia secured him the rank of Briga 
 dier-General, and the customary title of General. He was mayor of Boston 
 for the years 1834-35, and died in 1849. His relation to the abolitionists, 
 as about to be described, was typical of that of the best citizens, among 
 whom for humanity and public spirit Mr. Lyman was justly held in the 
 highest esteem. 
 
496 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 30. 
 
 CHAP. xiv. ing the South of a pretext for disunion, furnished the 
 jSgs. staple of the bill of fare upon which Richard Fletcher, 1 
 Peleg Sprague, and Harrison Gray Otis were presently 
 to enlarge. 
 
 1812. Peleg Sprague, a native of Massachusetts, a graduate 
 
 of Harvard College, a distinguished lawyer, a member of 
 
 1825-29. the lower House of Congress for four years, just retired 
 
 1829-35. from a six years term in the Senate, where he repre 
 
 sented the State of Maine, and now come to Boston to 
 
 resume the practice of his profession, was an ideal 
 
 mouthpiece of Northern respectability. If his discourse 
 
 was heated and malevolent towards the abolitionists, the 
 
 feelings of the populace could safely be inferred by the 
 
 #.5:141. South. He did, in fact, assert that their language and 
 measures clearly tended to insurrection and violence; 
 that if their sentiments prevailed, it would be all over 
 with the Union, which would give place to two hostile 
 confederacies, with forts and standing armies. As to 
 their doctrine that there was a higher law than the 
 Constitution, and something above the Union, that no 
 law sanctioning slavery could have any moral obliga 
 tion, and that slaveholders were detestable and abhor 
 rent and the North should have no communion with 
 them "Time was/ 7 he exclaimed, " when such senti 
 ments and such language would not have been tfreathed 
 in this community; and here, on this hallowed spot, 
 of all the places on earth, should they be met and 
 rebuked. 7 
 
 Lib. 5 : 141. " Time was, when . . . the generous and gallant South 
 rons came to our aid, and our fathers refused not to hold 
 communion with slaveholders. 2 . . . When HE, that slave- 
 
 1 An eminent lawyer, a native of Vermont, who came to Boston in 1825. 
 He did not long remain in the ranks of repression. In 1838 he was ready 
 to have Congress abolish slavery in the District and the inter-State 
 slave trade, and to exclude new slave States from the Union (Lib. 8 : 179). 
 As a member of the House of Representatives in the 25th Congress 
 (1837-39), he supported Mr. Giddings in agitating for the first-named end 
 (Buell s Joshua E. Giddings, 1 p. 91). 
 
 2 Very naturally, as they were slaveholders themselves. 
 
^T. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 497 
 
 holder [pointing to the full-length portrait of Washington], 1 CHAP. XIV. 
 who from this canvas smiles upon you his children with I{ JT S 
 paternal benignity, came with other slaveholders to drive the 
 British myrmidons from this city and this hall, our fathers 
 did not refuse to hold communion with him or them. With 
 slaveholders they formed the Confederation, neither asking 
 nor receiving any right to interfere in their domestic relations ; 
 with them they made the Declaration of Independence, coming 
 from the pen of that other slaveholder, Thomas Jefferson, a name 
 dear to every friend of human rights. 2 And in the original 
 draft of that Declaration was contained a most eloquent pas 
 sage upon this very topic of negro slavery, which was stricken 
 out in deference to the wishes of members from the South." 
 
 Mr. Sprague taunted the abolitionists with their pru 
 dence in not going South, albeit they professed that one 
 ought to do right regardless of consequences. Then, 
 still further to incite at home the violence they would 
 have been sure to encounter there, he singled out George 
 Thompson, by saying : the anti-slavery doctrines 
 
 " have attained their greatest prevalence and intensity within Lib. 5 : 141. 
 the past year, since a certain notorious foreign agent first 
 landed upon our shores ; ... an avowed emissary, sustained by 
 foreign funds, a professed agitator upon questions deeply, pro 
 foundly political, which lay at the very foundation of our 
 Union. . . . He comes here from the dark and corrupt 
 institutions of Europe to enlighten us upon the rights of man 
 and the moral duties of our own condition. Received by our 
 hospitality, 3 he stands here upon our soil, protected by our 
 laws, and hurls l firebrands, arrows and death into the habita 
 tions of our neighbors, and friends, and brothers ; and when 
 
 1 So far was the sense of shame for the national guilt of slavery, or for the 
 only blot on the character of Washington, from having seized upon the 
 most cultivated and respectable classes at the North, that this allusion 
 produced "an effect perfectly electrical" ( Baptists in America, p. 387) ; 
 and so far were they from suspecting the nearness of the overthrow of 
 slavery, that Peleg Sprague retained this speech and this passage in the 
 volume of his collected Speeches and Addresses published in Boston in 
 1858 (p. 449). 
 
 2 Nothing could more strikingly illustrate the cant begotten by a demo 
 cratic constitution based on compromises with slavery than such a sentence 
 in such a connection. And what shall be said of the artifice of concealing 
 the public testimonies of both Washington and Jefferson against slavery ! 
 
 3 See Thompson s first taste of it on landing, ante, p. 451. 
 
 VOL. L 32 
 
498 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [JET. 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. he shall have kindled a conflagration which is sweeping in 
 lg ~ desolation over the land, he has only to embark for his own 
 
 country, and there look serenely back with indifference or 
 exultation upon the wide-spread ruin by which our cities are 
 wrapt in flames, and our garments rolled in blood. ... If 
 the storm comes, we must abide its pelting; if convulsions 
 come, we must be in the midst of them. To us, then, it belongs 
 to judge of the exigencies of our own condition, to provide for 
 our own safety, and perform our own duties without the auda 
 cious interference of foreign emissaries." 
 
 Such incendiary language, whatever its motive, could 
 have but one logical effect in a community so over 
 wrought as that of Boston. When the orator, in con 
 clusion, bade the philanthropist go back to England, 
 and see if he would be safe in denouncing the wrongs of 
 Ireland and of India ; 1 and declared that Christ did not 
 denounce Roman slavery in his native country, and was 
 no immediate abolitionist (" No, his precept was, Ser 
 vants [slaves], obey your masters/")? but allowed his 
 religion to work changes in the condition of mankind by 
 degrees, he had enumerated nearly all of the stock argu 
 ments against emancipation which were available in the 
 next twenty-five years of moral conflict. 
 
 Harrison Gray Otis, who followed Peleg Sprague, was, 
 1817-22. like him, an eminent lawyer and ex-Senator of the United 
 States, and more recently mayor of Boston, where few 
 names, personal or family, 2 were held in greater honor. 
 He was a consummate orator, and his speech on this 
 occasion was more measured and less violent than his 
 colleague s, but even better calculated to make " society " 
 tolerate mob violence against the abolitionists. He began 
 Lib. 5 : 144. by affirming that to debate the expediency of abolishing 
 slavery was the same as to debate that of abolishing the 
 Union a truism which in time Mr. Garrison acknowl 
 edged by making disunion a policy. Fresh from his first 
 
 1 It will appear hereafter how much Mr. Thompson s Indian labors in the 
 meantime reconciled the Spragues to him on his second visit to America, in 
 1851. 
 
 2 He was a nephew of James Otis, of Revolutionary fame. 
 
^T. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 499 
 
 reading of the anti-slavery constitutions and proceedings, CHAP. xiv. 
 with their frank avowal of an intention " to propagate a x ^ 
 general sentiment favorable to the immediate abolition 
 of slavery," the speaker was prepared to denounce the 
 Society as a "dangerous association. 77 If "not yet an 
 unlawful association (which some sound jurists think it 
 is), it is in a fair way to become so, by its design to trench 
 upon the provisions of the Constitution by overt acts, and 
 its tendency to break down the sacred Palladium. 77 Its 
 immediatism makes it a revolutionary society ; and " I 
 deny, 77 said Mr. Otis, " that any body of men can lawfully 
 associate for the purpose of undermining, more than for 
 overthrowing, the government of our sister States. There 
 may be no statute to make such combinations penal, be 
 cause the offence is of a new complexion. 77 He endorsed 
 the Southern view, that the case was analogous to inter 
 national interference. " To all this they [the abolitionists] 
 have the temerity to answer that their construction of the 
 Constitution is the same with that of Mr. Webster l and 
 other jurists : that they aim at abolition only with the 
 consent of the slaveholding States. 77 Then, why don 7 t 
 they go South to present their appeals ? To send them 
 through the mails and otherwise was shocking. Their 
 printed documents, for which " the Scriptures have been 
 eviscerated from Genesis to Revelations, to supply their 
 armory of wrath, 77 and some of which are " illuminated 
 with graphic insignia of terror and oppression with 
 pictorial chains, and handcuffs, and whips, 77 "they gravely 
 say are for the master and not for the slave 77 ; but "such 
 a pretext is an insult to common sense. 77 If slaves are 
 taught to read the Bible, as " a great champion of aboli 
 tion 77 recently proposed, they can read these tracts. 
 
 Mr. Otis found an even stronger objection to the 
 Society in "its evident direction towards becoming a 
 political association, whose object it will be, and whose 
 tendency now is, to bear directly upon the ballot-boxes 
 
 l Webster, Choate and Everett were conspicuously absent from the Faneuil 
 Hall meeting (Lib. 5 : 142). 
 
500 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 30. 
 
 Ante, p. 455. and to influence the elections/ as in the recent case of 
 Abbott Lawrence. " How soon might you see a majority 
 in Congress returned under the influence of [anti-slavery] 
 associations V He exhorted the abolitionists to consider 
 the consequences of their agitation already in riots 
 and lynch law ; denounced the " higher law " 5 denied 
 that the Scriptures were anywhere opposed to slavery ; 
 repeated that Christ "was not an immediatist " ; said 
 that charity began at home ; and closed by depicting the 
 horrors of a servile insurrection, of which the result 
 would be extermination on one side or the other. 
 
 Such was, in brief, the nature of the Whig Faneuil 
 Hall demonstration, whose local weightiness, and im- 
 pressiveness for the country at large, can now hardly be 
 appreciated to the full. It exposed the abolitionists to 
 public odium as disorganizers, seeking unconstitutional 
 ends by unconstitutional means, aiming to excite a 
 servile insurrection under pretext of enlightening the 
 masters, and calling to their aid the hereditary foreign 
 enemies of the republic ; who were responsible for popu 
 lar tumults directed against themselves, and whose further 
 tolerance meant a speedy end of the Union between the 
 States. Not a syllable was uttered in protest against the 
 Charleston bonfire, or against the unconstitutional de 
 cision of the Postmaster-General, by which every post 
 master was authorized to judge what publications had a 
 " tendency " to produce certain evil results, and to refuse 
 them circulation in the mails a censorship never sur 
 passed in the most despotic country on earth, and, if 
 never possible of enforcement at the North, never re 
 laxed at the South till slavery went under in blood and 
 fire. Not even the jealousy of party spirit warned 
 against such Democratic autocracy. 1 Neither the future 
 
 l " Suppose the friends of Judge White [Hugh Lawson White, of Ten 
 nessee, a Presidential candidate of the time], at the South, should appoint 
 committees to plunder the mail of all letters and newspapers which espoused 
 the cause of Mr. Van Buren ; how long would the partizans of the latter 
 gentleman submit to the robbery ? " (W. L. G. in Lib. 5: 139). Both Judge 
 White and John C. Calhoun suspected that their private correspondence 
 
^ET. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 501 
 
 Judge Sprague nor his brother lawyer, neither Mayor CHAP. xiv. 
 Otis declaiming nor Mayor Lyman presiding, and all T ^ 
 paving the way for riot in the streets of Boston, be 
 thought them of Judge Thacher s law of libel (as appli- Ante, p. 310. 
 cable to their printed speeches and resolutions as to the 
 Liberator) " Every publication which has a tendency to 
 promote public mischief, whether by causing irritation * 
 
 in the minds of the people that may induce them to com 
 mit a breach of the public peace, ... is a libel." 
 Not one of them had, either then or to his dying day, 
 the smallest scruple for having committed the genuine 
 libel which consists in falsifying the character and pur 
 poses of others, and holding them up to general execra 
 tion and abuse. 
 
 But this sort of libel was the natural utterance of 
 every "respectable" Whig Bostonian when alluding to 
 the abolitionists. Take, for example, that future orna 
 ment of the. Supreme Court, Benjamin Bobbins Curtis, 
 who wrote to Mr. George Ticknor, then abroad, under 
 date of August 23, 1835 : 
 
 "The topic which engrosses the public attention, to the Memoir of 
 exclusion of almost every other, is the Anti- Slavery Society. I . ^ * 
 You will see by the newspapers, which I suppose you receive, 
 that a great meeting has been held at Faneuil Hall on this sub 
 ject. It was caused by the excitement which exists through all 
 the slaveholding States, in consequence of the efforts of that 
 Society to excite the slaves to insurrection. Dreadful scenes 
 have already occurred in Mississippi. The mob have hung 
 numerous persons, suspected of being emissaries of the Society, 
 without legal trial ; and so great have been the commotions 
 excited in many parts of the South, and so excited is the public 
 mind there, that there are strong fears felt here by the friends 
 of the Union that, unless something is done here to check the 
 abolitionists, and convince the South that the great body of 
 the people of the Northern States are unfavorable to the 
 Society, the Union will not continue for a single year. All 
 
 was tampered with by their political opponents in the post-office (Lib. 6 : 64) ; 
 and as early as 1830, Henry Clay, "to guard against the treachery of the 
 post-office," advised Webster to address him under cover, and proposed to 
 do the same in return (Webster s Private Correspondence, 1:505). 
 
502 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. O&T. 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. those persons in the Southern States who are enemies to the 
 Union have seized the present occasion, and are endeavoring 
 to do their utmost to increase the excitement. Some idea may 
 be formed of the interest felt in the subject, from the fact that 
 numerous Southern gentlemen came from all parts of the 
 country to be present at the meeting. You will see the result 
 of the meeting in the newspapers, and we are all glad it is so 
 * well over. Would that the whole subject could be as easily 
 
 disposed of ! " 
 
 The presence of Southern gentlemen in Boston in 
 great numbers, naturally expecting to see pro- Southern 
 words confirmed by pro-Southern deeds, and to lend a 
 hand if need be, rendered the city for the time being no 
 place for the leader of the abolitionists. 1 On the day 
 following the meeting, Mr. Garrison and his wife left 
 their home at 23 Brighton Street 2 for "Friendship s 
 Valley." The Liberator, appearing on the same day, 
 
 Lib. 5 : 135. gave this preliminary notice of the occasion which Mr. 
 Curtis rejoiced was "so well over": " Yesterday after 
 noon this building [Faneuil Hall] was turned into a 
 worse than Augean stable, by the pollutions of a pro- 
 slavery meeting held for the first time within its vener 
 able walls. . . . Call it no longer the CRADLE OF 
 LIBERTY, but the REFUGE OF SLAVERY." This meet- 
 
 #.5:139. ing, it said later, proves the guilt of New England 
 to be equal to that of the South, and answers conclu 
 sively the senseless inquiry, " Why don t you go to the 
 South ?" Abolitionists would not be disturbed or intimi 
 dated by it. " Having now our own liberties to gain, in 
 addition to those of the slaves, (for tyranny has become 
 universal, and our own rights as men and as citizens 
 are trampled in the dust,) we have new motives to urge 
 us forward in the great cause of universal emancipation." 
 
 1 Anonymous menaces through the post-office had already recommenced 
 (Lib. 5:135). 
 
 2 In May, they had removed from " Freedom s Cottage " to a boarding- 
 house on Guild Row (now Washington Street), near Dudley Street. In 
 the course of a few weeks, to oblige Mr. Thompson, they had taken off his 
 hands the lease of the house on Brighton Street in convenient proximity 
 to the city jail. See the map in the first chapter of the next volume. 
 
-fflT.30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 503 
 
 "This meeting will not satisfy the South it will not CHAP. xiv. 
 even mitigate their anger. Nothing will suit them but isJ 5 . 
 an open advocacy of perpetual slavery, and the suppres 
 sion of anti-slavery publications by penal enactments. 1 
 So, Bostonians, you have disgraced yourselves in vain, 
 and will receive in exchange for your servility an abun 
 dance of kicks, cuffs, and curses from your chivalrous 
 brethren at the South." " As to the Mayor of Boston, 
 in presiding at this liberty-hating meeting, we shall 
 have something to say about his consistency and im 
 partiality." 
 
 In the same number, Mr. Garrison defended George 
 Thompson by an extended parallel between his mission 
 and methods and Lafayette s ; and again, in an article 
 headed " Forbearance of the Abolitionists," considered 
 the causes which would justify their rising in defence of 
 their rights : 
 
 " Utterly deprived of that protection and of those immunities Lib. 5 : 139. 
 which belong to them as citizens, and given up to be the prey 
 of ruffians and assassins, the popular theory of self-defence and 
 the example of worldly patriotism in all ages authorize them to 
 resist unto blood to proclaim a war of extermination to 
 light up the fires of a new revolution and to rally together 
 upon the i tented field, armed and equipped for mortal combat. 
 As a body, moreover, they are numerous. In physical strength 
 and courage, as well as moral, they are powerful. The causes 
 which induced our revolutionary fathers to rush to the strife of bloody 
 were as dust in the balance, compared with the anguish, outrage and 
 peril to which abolitionists are subjected. 
 
 11 Now, then, in view of this epitome of facts, let the inquiry 
 be made, How have the abolitionists behaved under all these 
 provocations, and exposed to all imaginable suffering ? Have 
 they, in a single instance, returned evil for evil ? Who, 
 
 l Instantly confirmed by the comments of the Richmond papers on the 
 meeting (Lib. 5:146). Thus, the Whig, of Aug. 27: "The people of the 
 North must go to hanging these fanatical wretches if they would not lose 
 the benefit of Southern trade ; and they will do it." The Enquirer declared 
 that the failure of Northern legislatures to restrain abolitionists from acts 
 of aggression would be regarded as acquiescence, and the South would 
 take decisive measures of defence, beginning with no fellowship, social or 
 political. 
 
504 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKBISON. [^T. 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. among them all, has given blow for blow ? or who has 
 j^ 5 girded on his sword? or who has recommended an appeal 
 to force ? Would not such conduct, on their part, astonish 
 even their enemies ? When rotten eggs and brickbats have 
 been hurled at their heads, what have they sent in return ? 
 Forgiveness. When tar-and-feathers have been prepared for 
 their persons, what recompense have they bestowed ? Forgive 
 ness. When their private and public meetings have been ruth 
 lessly invaded, what course have they adopted to prevent a 
 repetition of the outrage ? Forgiveness. When their property 
 has been burnt in the streets, and their lives hunted like par 
 tridges upon the mountains, what have they manifested by way 
 of retaliation ? Still forgiveness ! Why ? Are they pusillan 
 imous ? Do they lack nerve ? No. But they fear Him who 
 says l Vengeance is MINE I will repay ; and they can 
 love their enemies, bless them that curse, do good to them that 
 hate, and pray for them which despitefully use and persecute 
 them. 
 
 " We appeal to the world. The Society of Friends aside, 
 what other body of men, whether political or religious, besides 
 abolitionists, would suffer themselves to be insulted and out 
 raged, and their meetings forcibly suppressed or systematically 
 interrupted by their opponents, without making a prompt and 
 violent appeal to the lex talionis f . . . 
 
 " Thanks be to God that the abolitionists are generally men 
 of peace. The spirit of non-resistance and of forgiveness is 
 omnipotent." 
 
 From his tranquil retreat at Friendship s Valley, Mr. 
 Garrison sent to the Liberator his unstinted comments 
 upon the principal speeches at the Faneuil Hall meeting, 
 Lib. 5 : 142. beginning with a letter to the Hon. Peleg Sprague. 
 Whatever respect he had hitherto cherished for this 
 person s character as a patriot and statesman, had fled 
 on perusing his late speech. " In my opinion, there is 
 not more of crime, or of moral turpitude, in firing a 
 whole city in committing highway robbery or murder 
 than in the delivery of such a speech, in such a place, 
 on such an occasion, and under such circumstances." 
 Human barbarity towards one s fellow-creatures, or 
 impiety towards heaven, could go no further. At the 
 judgment day, Mr. Sprague would be answerable, as 
 
^ET. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 505 
 
 far as one man could be, for all the horrors of American CHAP xiv. 
 slavery. l8 ^ 5 
 
 " Where are you, sir ? In amicable companionship and pop- Lib. 5 : 142. 
 ular repute with thieves and adulterers j with slaveholders, 
 slave-dealers, and slave -destroyers j with those who call the 
 beings whom God created but a little lower than the angels, 
 things and chattels; with the proscribers of the great chart 
 of eternal life ; with the rancorous enemies of the friends 
 of universal emancipation 5 with the disturbers of the public 
 peace j with the robbers of the public mail j with ruffians who 
 insult, pollute and lacerate helpless women ; and with conspir 
 ators against the lives and liberties of New England citizens. 
 These facts are undeniable. Talk not of more honorable asso 
 ciates, for no men deserve that epithet who throw the weight of 
 their influence into the scale of oppression. Peradventure, you 
 will ask, in due time, for the suffrages of Bostonians. Sir, we 
 will remember you at the polls ! . . . 
 
 " Sir, the Faneuil Hall meeting, though intended to strengthen 
 the feeble hands and comfort the desponding hearts of South 
 ern taskmasters, will in the sequel prove of more benefit to out- 
 cause than forty anti-slavery lectures and twice that number of 
 tracts, prodigious as is their moral effect. It has already mul 
 tiplied our converts, animated our zeal, and emboldened our 
 spirit. . . . 
 
 " I mean to make your harangue, and the speeches of your 
 associates, of signal use in the anti-slavery struggle. They are 
 crowded with evidence of our national guilt, and clearly prove 
 every allegation that has fallen from the lips of abolitionists 
 as shall be shown in the progress of this review. Upon your 
 authority, henceforth, will I arraign the people of the free 
 States of New England of Massachusetts as the abettors, 
 upholders and guardians of as tyrannous a system as the sun 
 has looked down upon since his creation. Upon your authority 
 I will prove that there is not a drop of blood extracted from 
 the bodies, nor a tear which falls from the eyes, nor a groan 
 which bursts from the bosoms of the heart-broken slaves, for 
 which the North is not directly responsible. Sir, the more 
 searchingly I investigate this great subject, the stronger is my 
 conviction that hitherto I have erred nay, that I have been 
 alike unwise and partial in declaiming so much against 
 Southern, and so little against Northern criminality. I am not 
 sure especially since reading the speeches above alluded to 
 
506 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. that, in the sight of God, (and it is of very little consequence 
 jj~ how we stand in the sight of men), there is not more guilt 
 
 attaching to the people of the free States from the continuance 
 of slavery, than in those of the slave States. At least, I am 
 ready to affirm, upon your authority, that New England is as 
 really a slaveholding section of the republic as Georgia or 
 South Carolina ! " 
 
 To Peleg Sprague s taunt that the abolitionists affirmed 
 "we must do right, regardless of consequences," but 
 carefully avoided going to the South where they should 
 most desire to make converts, Mr. Garrison rejoined : 
 
 Lib. 5 -. 142. " Si r? there may be wit, but there is little truth, in the above 
 extract. To do right is always to regard consequences, both to 
 ourselves and to others. Since you are pleased to banter us for 
 prosecuting our labors at the North, I will take for my text the 
 interrogation that is so constantly, either by ignorance or im 
 pudence, propounded to us. It is this : 
 
 " Why don t you go to the South ? 
 
 " I proudly answer Not because we are afraid to go there. 
 Not because we are not prepared for danger, persecution, out 
 rage, and death. Not because the dungeon, or the halter, the- 
 rack or the stake, appals us. Yet the question is sneeringly 
 put, and sometimes with murder evidently in the heart, as if 
 we were deficient in fortitude and courage, with all our seem 
 ing boldness. * 0, forsooth, it is very safe and convenient for 
 Mr. Garrison to denounce the holders of slaves a thousand 
 miles off, in Boston. A great deal of heroism is required to do 
 this ! But he is very careful to keep out of the slave States. 
 Why don t he go to the South ? Let him go there and denounce 
 slavery, and we will then believe that he is sincere. 
 
 " This is the language which is constantly uttered by men, 
 too, permit me to say, who have never peculiarly signalized 
 themselves in any hazardous enterprise, whether moral or 
 physical. I am vain enough to believe that those who bring 
 this charge of cowardice against me, do not doubt my readiness 
 to go wherever duty requires. Will they give me no credit for 
 having published an anti- slavery publication in Maryland, as 
 long as it could be sustained by meagre patronage ? a publi 
 cation in which my denunciations of slavery and slaveholders 
 were as severe as any to be found in the Liberator. Did my 
 spirit quail under my imprisonment in a Southern cell, for 
 
J3T.30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 507 
 
 denouncing the domestic slave trade I And is it indeed true CHAP. XIV. 
 that I am hazarding neither my safety nor my life in my advo- ^ 
 cacy of freedom in Boston *? Has no endurance, no unusual 
 courage, been required to oppose all classes of society, and to 
 sustain the odium, derision and hatred of a slaveholding 
 nation ? Is it nothing to have large rewards offered by a 
 Southern legislature, and by private combinations, for my 
 seizure and destruction ? Sir, slaveholders and their apologists 
 may call me a fanatic they may call me a madman, or an in 
 cendiary, or an agitator, and believe me to be such ; but to call 
 me a coward that is an epithet which they have too much 
 good sense to believe is applicable to me, although they have 
 so small a modicum of conscience as to resort to it. The 
 Southern oppressors themselves regard me in any other light 
 than that of a craven : all the trembling, and shrinking, and 
 alarm is felt and manifested on their part not on mine. I 
 may be rash I may be obstinate but I fear no man or body 
 of men. In this vindication of myself, I am simply vindicating 
 every other abolitionist who is publicly engaged in this cause. 
 
 " Why don t you go to the South f 
 
 " Why, sir, when we denounce the tyranny exercised over 
 the miserable Poles, do we not go into the dominions of the 
 Russian autocrat, and beard him to his face "? Why not go to 
 Constantinople, and protest against the oppression of the 
 Greeks ? Why assail the despotic governments of Europe here 
 in the United States? Why, then, should we go into the 
 slaveholding States, to assail their towering wickedness, at a 
 time when we are sure that we should be gagged, or imprisoned, 
 or put to death, if we went thither ? Why rashly throw our 
 selves into the ocean, or commit ourselves to the flames, or 
 cast ourselves into the jaws of the lion ? Understand me, sir, 
 I do not mean to say that even the certainty of destruction is, 
 in itself, a valid reason for our refusing to go to the South ; 
 for we are bound to take up any cross, or incur any peril, in 
 the discharge of our duty to God and our suffering brother. 
 Prove to me that it is imperatively my duty, in view of all the 
 circumstances of the case, to locate myself among slaveholders, 
 and I will not hesitate to do so, even (to borrow the strong 
 language of Martin Luther) though every tile upon their 
 houses were a devil. Moral courage duty self -consecration 
 all have their proper limits. When He who knew no fear 
 the immaculate Redeemer saw that his enemies intended to 
 cast him down from the brow of a hill, he prudently withdrew 
 
508 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. from their midst. When he sent forth his apostles, he said 
 jjj""- unto them, When they persecute you in one city, flee ye into 
 another. Was there any cowardice in this conduct, or in this 
 advice ? 
 
 " i Why don t you go to the South f 
 
 " If we slwuld go there, and fall as fall we certainly should 
 martyrs to our zeal, our enemies would still call us, what we 
 then should deserve to be called, fanatics and madmen. Point 
 ing at our mangled bodies, they would commence their derisions 
 afresh. t Poor fools ! they would exclaim * insane enthusiasts ! 
 thus to rush into the cage of the tiger, with the certain knowl 
 edge that he would tear them in pieces ! And this, sir, would 
 be the eulogy which they would pronounce over us ! 
 
 " Why don t you go to the South f 
 
 " Because it is essential that the beam should first be cast out 
 of the eyes of the people of the free States, before they attempt 
 to cast out the mote in the eyes of the people of the slave States. 
 Because they who denounce fraud, and cruelty, and oppression, 
 should first become honest, and merciful, and free, themselves. 
 * Thou that sayest, a man should not steal dost thou steal? 7 
 Thou that preachest, a man should not be a slaveholder art 
 thou a slaveholder ? Physician, heal thyself ! 
 
 " i Why don t you go to the South f 
 
 "Have I answered the question satisfactorily? If not, sir, 
 you will help me to additional reasons for our staying here at 
 the North, in my answer to another question which is iterated 
 on all occasions viz. 
 
 " t What have we to do with Southern slavery ? 
 
 " This question is put, sometimes with reference to legislation 
 
 at others, it refers to moral obligation. I answer, then, that 
 WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, have legislated on 
 the subject of slavery, and we have a right to legislate upon it, 
 within certain limits. As to our moral obligation, it belongs to 
 our nature, and is a part of our accountability, of which neither 
 time nor distance, neither climate nor location, neither repub 
 lican nor monarchical government, can divest us. Let there be 
 but one slave on the face of the globe let him stand on one 
 extremity of the globe, and place me on the other let every 
 people, and tribe, and clime, and nation, stand as barriers be 
 tween him and myself : still, I am bound to sympathize with him 
 
 to pray, and toil, and plead for his deliverance to make 
 known his wrongs, and vindicate his rights. It may not be in 
 my power, it may not be my duty, directly to emancipate him j 
 
^ET. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 509 
 
 for the power rests in the hands of the tyrant who keeps him CHAP. XIV. 
 in chains, and it is his duty to break them asunder. But it ^ 
 matters not, except to demand an increase of zeal and activity, 
 if every interposing tribe or nation, if the whole world, is to be 
 changed, before that solitary slave can go free. Then I will 
 begin with him who stands next by my side, and with my asso 
 ciates, and with my country j and if the impulse must be sent 
 by proxy, if every man, woman and child must be abolitionized 
 by detail, before the captive can be disenthralled, I am never 
 theless bound to commence the work, if no others will, and to 
 cooperate with them if they have begun it. Why ? Because 
 he is my neighbor, though occupying the remotest point of the 
 earth ; and I am charged by the Lamb of God, the judge of 
 quick and dead, to love my neighbor as myself. . . . Because 
 by it an example is set which, if passively submitted to, may lead 
 to the enslavement of others of a community of a people 
 of myself. Enslave but a single human being, and the liberty of the 
 world is put in peril. . . . Hence it is, that whether I con 
 template slavery singly or in the aggregate, my soul kindles 
 within me the entire man is moved with indignation and ab 
 horrence I cannot pause, I cannot slumber I am ready for 
 attack, and will admit of no truce and of no compromise. The 
 war is a war of extermination j and I will perish before an inch 
 shall be surrendered, seeing that the liberties of mankind, the 
 happiness and harmony of the universe, and the authority and 
 majesty of Almighty God, are involved in the issue. 
 
 "What have we to do with Southern slavery 1 ! What has 
 England to do with it ? And yet, a few years since, the Ameri 
 can Colonization Society (of which, Mr. Sprague, you are a 
 champion) sent out an agent to that country to procure the 
 charities of her philanthropists, in order to undermine and 
 abolish American slavery this being the great object of the 
 Society, as stated to the British public by that Agent. Now, if 
 Old England may meddle with this delicate subject, surely 
 New England may venture to do so likewise. If that which is 
 remote is or ought to be interested in the abolition of American 
 slavery, how much more that which is near ! 
 
 u I rejoice join with me in this exultation, friends of free 
 dom ! friends of humanity! I rejoice that Old England did 
 not meanly wrap herself up in the garb of indifference or 
 selfishness, but acted in a manner worthy of her Christian 
 renown. I am glad, and grateful, that she promptly responded 
 to the call of the Agent of the American Colonization Society, 
 
510 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. OE-r. 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. for assistance to put down American slavery ; and I honor her 
 j^T- wisdom and discernment in refusing to trust that Agent and his 
 Society, and in sending out to our aid one whom she could trust 
 one who was signally instrumental in bringing herself to repent 
 ance one who has the confidence, and love, and admiration of 
 her wisest and greatest and best of men and philanthropists 
 the self-sacrificing, the indefatigable, the courageous, the elo 
 quent, the patriotic, the fearless THOMPSON ! Sir, I shall 
 come, in due course, to your scurrilous and ferocious attack 
 upon the motives and designs of this devoted friend of God 
 and man an attack which is, upon the face of it, as malig 
 nant as the spirit of murder. GEORGE THOMPSON is the stead 
 fast and sincere friend of this country, and will hereafter be 
 ranked among her greatest benefactors. In respectability, sir, 
 he is your equal ; and in eloquence and intellectual strength, 
 (and I extol your abilities), incomparably your superior." 
 
 Lib. 5 : 146. With the second letter to Sprague we need not detain 
 ourselves. It was no less pungent and forcible than the 
 foregoing, nor less irresistible in its logic ; but the hand 
 ling was lighter. The orator s opening professions with 
 regard to slavery, that he had always regarded it as a 
 great moral and political evil, and earnestly desired its 
 entire abolition by the South, were retorted upon him 
 as those of the abolitionists, and as warranting the Rich 
 mond Enquirer, say, in offering a reward for his abduc 
 tion, but for his blowing hot and cold in the same 
 breath. And why so much uproar over a few abolition 
 ists with their, to be sure, six State and three hundred 
 auxiliary associations, all formed since 1831 and in 
 despite of persecution ; and their four hundred meetings 
 appointed for the next three months, as an offset to the 
 series of Northern town meetings now in progress for 
 their suppression ? " So, then, we derive from our op 
 ponents these instructive but paradoxical facts that 
 without numbers, we are multitudinous ; that without 
 power, we are sapping the foundations of the confed 
 eracy ; that without a plan, we are hastening the aboli 
 tion of slavery; and that without reason or talent, we 
 are rapidly converting the nation!" But, "the success 
 
JET. 30.] 
 
 THE BOSTON MOB. I. 
 
 511 
 
 of any great moral enterprise does not depend upon CHAP. xiv. 
 
 numbers. Slavery will be overthrown before a majority 
 of all the people shall have called voluntarily, and on the 
 score of principle, for its abolition" a striking pro 
 phecy, fulfilled to the very letter. 
 
 Mr. Garrison s first letter to the Hon. Harrison Gray 
 Otis was in a different tone, being tempered by a still 
 lingering respect and personal attachment : 
 
 1835- 
 
 Lib. 5 : 142. 
 
 Lib. 5 : 142. 
 
 Ante, pp. 47, 
 74. 120. 
 
 " In proceeding to review your speech, I am filled with sor 
 rowful emotions. I remember how intimately associated is the 
 name of OTIS with the revolutionary struggle that emanci 
 pated this nation from the thraldom of the mother country. 
 You have dishonored that name you have cast a stain of 
 blood upon your reputation. You have presumed to lift up 
 your voice, even in the very Cradle of Liberty, in panegyric of 
 the vilest brokers in the trade of blood, in denunciation of 
 the best friends of insulted freedom, and in support of A 
 BARGAIN which, according to your own showing, is a 
 loathsome compound of selfishness, oppression and villany. 
 Well, therefore, in respect to yourself particularly, may I feel 
 sad and indignant. Some of the earliest effusions of my 
 pen were in earnest and generous defence of your character 
 against the calumnies of your political adversaries ; for in 
 one. particular, at least, there is a coincidence of suffering 
 between us, all manner of evil having been uttered against 
 us FALSELY. It is my lot to be branded throughout this 
 country as an agitator, a fanatic, an incendiary, and a mad 
 man. There is one epithet, I fervently desire to thank God, 
 that has never been applied to me : I have never been stig 
 matized as a slaveholder, or as an apologist of slavery. No- 
 no ! Bad as my traducers conceive me to be, they have never 
 reduced me so low in the scale of humanity, nor so cruelly 
 impeached my honesty, nor so aspersed my patriotism, as to 
 bring so scandalous and degrading an accusation against me. 
 As they have been too conscientious to throw that calumny upon 
 my character, I cheerfully forgive them all the rest, and thank 
 them for their magnanimity. 
 
 " On other occasions, sir, I have been your advocate. With 
 youthful ardor I supported your nomination for the office of Ante, p. 47. 
 Governor of this Commonwealth. My maiden speech before a Ante, p. 74. 
 Boston audience was in your behalf, successfully urging the 
 
512 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^T. 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. propriety of nominating you to represent this District on the 
 j^" 5 floor of Congress. I never doubted your attachment to the 
 Union of these States I never believed you to be inimical to 
 the rights of man. These disclosures I make, not that I am 
 any longer a politician, for I now view the politics of this 
 country to be essentially corrupt and unholy, but to show 
 you that in my strictures I am not actuated by any political 
 grudge, and that my regard for principle is stronger than my 
 partiality for persons. That you still love liberty, I do not 
 deny. Liberty for whom ? For the black as well as the white 
 man ? no ! For yourself, your children, and your white 
 countrymen for tyrants, but not for slaves for the strong 
 and powerful, but not for the weak and needy for the rapa 
 cious and violent, but not for the guiltless and submissive ! 
 That you are still a patriot, I care not to dispute ; but your 
 patriotism excludes one-sixth portion of your countrymen from 
 its embrace, and talks approvingly of making two millions and 
 a half of your species nonentities 1 ! That you hate oppression, 
 I cannot doubt ; but it is not the oppression of the black man, 
 but only of the white ! 
 
 " Sir, this great transgression of your life has been committed 
 under circumstances of peculiar criminality. The frost of 
 nearly three-score years and ten is upon your head j the 
 hand of l time and affliction presses heavily upon you your 
 days are nearly numbered ; and you will be soon called to 
 stand at the tribunal of Him who died to redeem as well the 
 blackest as the whitest of our race ! Yet, at this solemn period, 
 you have not scrupled, nay, you have been ambitious, to lead 
 and address an excited multitude, in vindication of all imagin 
 able wickedness, embodied in one great system of crime and 
 blood to pander to the lusts and desires of the robbers of 
 God and his poor to consign over to the l tender mercies of 
 cruel taskmasters multitudes of guiltless men, women and 
 children and to denounce as * an unlawful and dangerous 
 association a society whose only object is to bring this nation 
 to repentance, through the truth as it is in Jesus ! You have 
 made a speech in public, (in your opinion, * probably for the 
 last time, ) to prove the innocence of the people of tho free 
 States, because they have agreed to acquiesce in the claim of 
 the South to consider their slaves [the rational, accountable 
 creatures of God] as CYPHERS or NONENTITIES > to 
 seize and restore runaway slaves to allow the master to 
 exercise all the political rights of the slave, and that he 
 
.T. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 513 
 
 should be NOTHING and because, on framing the Federal CHAP. xiv. 
 Constitution, the whole nation was licensed to pursue, for jZ" 5 
 twenty years longer, the foreign slave trade, which even you 
 are compelled to designate as * the abominable traffic ! Such, 
 you declare, is the bargain which we, THE PEOPLE OF THE 
 UNITED STATES, have made with each other, with our eyes 
 open l with a full knowledge of all the circumstances of the 
 case, of all the inducements to make it, of all the objections 
 that could be made against it !! And then you have the 
 infatuation or temerity to ask, In what age of the world, and 
 among what people and states, was a compact ever made more 
 solemn and SACRED ?!! . . . 
 
 " Sir, do you wish to put it within the power of impartial 
 truth, after your death, to place upon your tombstone this 
 awful inscription 1 ? If not, humble yourself before God, confess 
 your sin, and lift up your voice in behalf of the perishing slave, 
 as loudly as you have spoken in defense of his lordly master ! 
 
 "Here lies the body of 
 H G O 
 
 Reader, weep at human inconsistency and frailty ! 
 
 The last public act of his life, 
 A life conspicuous for many honorable traits, 
 
 Was an earnest defense of 
 THE RIGHTS OF TYRANTS AND SLAVE-MONGERS 
 
 To hold in bondage, as their property, 
 The bodies and souls of millions of his own countrymen ! 
 
 This was made in 
 
 THE OLD CRADLE OF LIBERTY, 
 
 In the year of our Lord, 1835, and the fifty-ninth of the 
 
 Declaration of American Independence ! 
 
 Pause, terrible Truth ! 
 He has gone to the judgment-seat of Christ ! 
 
 Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of tlie least of these 
 my brethren, ye did it not to me. " 
 
 Mr. Otis s failure to find in the Scriptures any prohibi 
 tion of slavery, and challenge to produce any, were met 
 VOL. I. 33 
 
514 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. 
 
 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 1835- 
 
 Boston Atlas, 
 
 0^.22,1835; 
 
 Right and 
 
 Wrong in 
 
 Boston, 1836, 
 
 (i)/. 57- 
 
 by an array of pertinent extracts from the Old and New 
 Testaments. Then, after detailing the circumstances of 
 the refusal of Faneuil Hall, three months before, by the 
 city authorities, in response to the customary petition of 
 citizens, for the needs of the New England Anti-Slavery 
 Convention as if the request were an " incendiary " one, 
 and the proposed use of the hall would pollute it Mr. 
 Garrison declared : " The cause of the Needing slaves shall 
 yet be pleaded in Faneuil Hall, in tones as thrilling, in 
 language as stirring, in eloquence as irresistible, as were 
 ever heard within its walls." 1 And his letter closed 
 with lofty assurances of the ultimate and speedy triumph 
 of the cause of freedom. 
 
 We need not try to imagine the effect of these letters 
 (we pass over the second to Mr. Otis) on the eminent men 
 to whom they were addressed, and who assuredly had 
 never been publicly impeached before in such a manner. 
 It is possible that the same ignorance of the Liberator s 
 contents which had permitted Messrs. Sprague and Otis 
 to libel the abolitionists, saved their dignity from being 
 deeply wounded. To the editors of the city press, and to 
 the public at large so far as the letters could reach them 
 at first or second hand, there was something almost sac 
 rilegious in Mr. Garrison s censure, particularly of Otis. 2 
 An obscure young man, not yet thirty, whose name was 
 
 1 This prediction was recalled by its maker in Faneuil Hall itself when first 
 opened by the city authorities to the abolitionists on Jan. 24, 1839 ; on which 
 occasion "it was an affecting and thrilling sight to see the venerable SETH 
 SPRAGUE, of Duxbury, (father of Peleg Sprague of this city,) stand up in 
 the very place where his son stood in 1835, advocating with all his soul a 
 cause which that son had so strongly reprobated as detrimental to the Union, 
 and repugnant to the spirit of the U. S. Constitution " (Lib. 9 : 19, 25). 
 
 2 At the impeachment trial of Judge Prescott, April 26, 1821, Josiah Quincy, 
 Jr., of the then graduating class at Harvard College, had on either side 
 of him "personages of no less importance than President Kirkland and 
 Harrison Gray Otis. This was much," he remarks, sixty years afterwards, 
 "as if a student of Columbia College should find himself sitting between 
 Secretary Evarts and Cardinal McCloskey on an occasion of great public 
 interest. No, it would not be the same thing, after all; for none of the 
 conspicuous men of to-day tower so majestically above the rest of the world 
 as their predecessors seemed to rise above the smaller communities which 
 were subject unto them " ( Figures of the Past/ p. 47). 
 
^)T. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 515 
 
 unknown to Puritan or later annals, who had no college CHAP. xiv. 
 training to recommend him to an aristocracy based partly ^ 5m 
 upon wealth and partly upon training, who was beyond 
 the usual social restraints, and professed no church con 
 nection while manifesting the fervor of a revivalist, was 
 attacking (so it must have seemed, instead of simply 
 repelling) the sum and flower and very type of " respec 
 tability." Such audacity could but scandalize the class 
 to which Messrs. Otis and ,Sprague belonged, and whose 
 pent-up violence was now shortly to be visited upon Mr. 
 Garrison. 
 
 Meantime, let us see how the editor of the Liberator 
 was passing his temporary exile in Brooklyn. Two days 
 after his arrival he writes to Henry Benson in Boston : 
 
 " We are all on the tiptoe of expectation, and wait with great MS. Aug. 
 impatience for the arrival of the mail this forenoon. It may 
 be, after all, that the Faneuil Hall meeting will prove anything 
 but satisfactory to the fiery spirits of the South, for they have 
 already declared that to rebuke the fanatics will effect nothing, 
 and that they will be satisfied with nothing short of the sup 
 pression of anti-slavery presses by legal enactments or mobo- 
 cratic violence. As for ourselves, you know, we care not what 
 course the enemy pursues : whether he threatens or rebukes, 
 whether he is placable or furious, our cause is sure, and will go 
 ahead. 
 
 " The quietude of Brooklyn is refreshing to my spirit. It 
 seems as if the moral elements had suddenly become hushed, 
 and that violence, oppression and sin no longer abounded in 
 our land. Would it were so indeed ! . . . 
 
 " Unless you and friend K. supply me pretty freely and very isaacKnapp. 
 regularly with letters and papers, I shall not be able to content 
 myself here long, away from the field of strife. I trust Mr. K. 
 will examine all the papers carefully, and cut out of them every 
 paragraph that meets his eyes relative to our subject." 
 
 To the same and Knapp jointly he writes, August 29, 
 that he has received the Atlas containing the Faneuil 
 Hall speeches. "They are all bad, but Sprague s is truly MS. 
 diabolical. I have sent you a letter to him for the next 
 paper, and do not mean to spare him. Another letter 
 
516 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 . 30. 
 
 CHAP. xiv. to Otis I shall send by the next conveyance. That 
 
 18^5. meeting, with its speeches, will do our cause immense 
 
 good there can be no doubt of it . ... I wish brother 
 
 Geo. Thomp- Thompson would prepare a reply to Sprague s murderous 
 attack." They must advise him [Garrison] when to re 
 turn. Though enjoying himself in Brooklyn, he is ready 
 to start at any moment. On September 1, to Geo. W. 
 Benson in Providence, he writes that he shall probably 
 remain a week or ten days longer. " Our enemies are 
 working bravely to put down slavery God grant they 
 may succeed ! Give my choicest affections to all my dear 
 brethren in P. ; I trust none of us will prove recreant to 
 our God, our country, the cause of the slave, and the 
 interests of mankind. The arm of the Almighty will be 
 made bare in our defence." 
 
 To Henry Benson, September 3, acknowledging a mis 
 sive " addressed to George Benson/ alias Wm. Lloyd 
 Garrison " : 
 
 MS. 
 
 J. H. Garri 
 son. 
 
 " Every line from you, assuring me of the continued safety 
 and repose of dear Thompson, awakens thankfulness to God 
 in my heart. I am rather sorry that he has concluded to visit 
 Plymouth [N. H.] at present j for, though his personal risk 
 may not be great, yet it is more than probable that if he attempts 
 to speak, the meeting will be disturbed. There is yet too much 
 fever, and too little rationality, in the public mind, either for 
 him or any of us to make addresses to the patient without hav 
 ing him attempt to knock us down. Write print distrib 
 ute this we may do with profit to our cause. I am glad to 
 learn from you that the public curiosity still continues to thirst 
 after our publications. Let it have a full supply for, though 
 we have not sown to the wind, hitherto, yet we are able to 
 reap in the whirlwind. The resolutions and speeches of our 
 enemies will furnish us with an inexhaustible supply of arms 
 and ammunition to carry on the war. I would not take a 
 thousand dollars for those that were adopted and delivered in 
 what was once the old Cradle of Liberty. . . . Let our 
 step be firm our demeanor dignified our speech just and 
 fearless. . . . 
 
 " You write nothing about brother James. Has he yet sailed 
 from Boston ? and if so, under what circumstances did he leave ? 
 
. 30.] 
 
 THE BOSTON MOB. I. 
 
 517 
 
 My heart bleeds over him. God is merciful and long-suffering CHAP. XIV. 
 and there lies all my hope of his complete restoration." 
 
 To George W. Benson, at Providence, September 4 : 
 
 ft How imminent is the danger that hovers about the persons 
 of our friends George Thompson and Arthur Tappan ! Rewards 
 for the seizure of the latter are multiplying in one place they 
 offer three thousand dollars for his ears a purse has been made 
 up,*publidy, 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 Missis- 
 sippians. He says Beware of the assassin ! May God pro 
 tect you ! and signs himself A Marylander, and a resident of 
 Philadelphia. "! 
 
 To the same, September 12 : 
 
 " Rumor is very busy in disposing of the persons of aboli 
 tionists. One day, she sends Arthur and Lewis Tappan across 
 the Atlantic as fast as the winds and waves can carry them. 
 On the next, she puts you into Providence jail, at the sugges 
 tion of your friends, for safe keeping from your enemies. 
 Thompson she transports to Pittsburgh ; and she says I am 
 here because I dare not go back to Boston. It is thus we 
 relieve the tediousness and monotony of those who have 
 nothing to do but to scandalize and gossip. 
 
 u I have just received a letter from Brother May, written 
 immediately after his meeting was broken up by a shower of 
 brickbats, &c., in Haverhill. By the tone of it you would sup 
 pose he had done something better than making a fortune. 
 He manifests a lofty spirit and indomitable courage. 
 
 lf Our brother Thompson had a narrow escape from the mob 
 at Concord, and Whittier was pelted with mud and stones, but 
 
 l About the same time must have reached Mr. Garrison a precious MS. 
 document, postage ($1.50) wilfully unpaid, mailed in his care from Poco- 
 taligo, S. C., by W. Ferguson Hutson, Secretary of the Vigilance Committee 
 of Prince William s Parish, and addressed to Levi Woodbury, of New Hamp 
 shire, as the supposed author of " a certain incendiary publication called 
 Human Rights." The writer hints at offering rewards for the abduction of 
 "the leading men who are thirsting for our blood" "your Tappans, 
 Garrisons, and Woodburys " and thinks the Yankees would readily turn 
 to "vending more profitable notions than wooden nutmegs." 
 
 MS. 
 
 Lib. 5 : 153, 
 157- 
 
 MS. to G. 
 
 W. Benson. 
 
 September 2, 
 
 T -, I83S - 
 
 Ltb. 5 : 143 ; 
 May s Rec 
 ollections, 
 p. 152- 
 
 Lib. 5:157; 
 Kennedy s 
 
 J. G. Whit- 
 tier, p. 112. 
 
518 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKRISON. 
 
 . 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. he escaped bodily damage. His soul, being intangible, laughed 
 l{ JT 5 at the salutation. 
 
 " That some of us will be assassinated or abducted, seems 
 more than probable but there is much apparent, without any 
 real danger. There is a whole eternity of consolation in this 
 assurance he who loses his lif e for Christ s sake shall find it. 
 * To die is to gain. 
 
 " The soul, secured in her existence, smiles 
 At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. 
 
 Tfiomas S. 
 Grimke. 
 
 MS. Sept. 
 12, 1835. 
 
 "Angelina E. Grimke, sister of the lamented Grimke, has 
 sent me a soul-thrilling epistle, in which, with a spirit worthy 
 of the best days of martyrdom, she says A hope gleams 
 across my mind, that our blood will be spilt, instead of the 
 slaveholders ; our lives will be taken, and theirs spared. l Is 
 not this Christ-like ? 
 
 " The Southern clergy are openly abandoning their God, 
 and bowing down to Satan, the prince of men-stealers. They 
 are indeed * greedy dogs, and dumb dogs that cannot bark, 
 except at abolitionists. They will not frighten you, nor 
 
 " Your brother, W. L. G." 
 
 On the same day he wrote to Henry Benson, with 
 reference to the mobbing of Thompson at Concord : 
 " These things cannot last long, but while they do last, 
 we had better not attempt to lecture. I think our first 
 public meeting in Boston ought to be with reference, 
 exclusively, to the abolition of slavery in the District of 
 Columbia." He should not return to Boston till the 
 week after next, as George W. Benson was coming to 
 Mrs. Garri- Brooklyn on a visit. " Helen is filled with anxiety and 
 alarm on my account. She trembles when she thinks of 
 
 1 The full sentence reads : "At one time I thought this system would be 
 overthrown in blood, with the confused noise of the warrior ; but a hope, 
 etc." (see Lib. 5:150, and the pamphlet published by Isaac Knapp in 1836, 
 in which Miss Grimke s letter stands third in the table of contents). "It 
 comes to us," said the editor in the Liberator, " as the voice of an angel. . . . 
 Yes, we respond to her cheering declaration, This is a cause worth dying for 
 dying, not in the midst of carnage, upon the battlefield, but upon the 
 scaffold, in the dungeon, or at the stake, unresistingly, bearing testimony 
 to the truth as it is in Jesus, and in imitation of his illustrious example. 
 If by the shedding of our blood the lives of our enemies may be saved, let 
 it be shed. Father, thy will be done !" (Lib. Sept. 19, 1835). 
 
^T. 30.] THE BOSTON MOB. I. 519 
 
 our returning to Boston : probably there is less danger CHAP. xiv. 
 than she imagines." 1835. 
 
 To George W. Benson, Thursday A. M., September 17 : 
 
 " Jail or no jail, we are expecting to see you in Brooklyn to- MS. 
 morrow noon, or on Saturday at farthest. 
 
 " I suppose you have heard of the presentation of a stout 
 gallows to me, at 23 Brighton Street, Boston, by order of 
 Judge Lynch. It was destroyed by the city authorities. 1 I 
 regret that it was not preserved for our Anti- Slavery Museum. 
 Thompson has presented a brickbat to it, but this would have 
 been a more substantial curiosity. 
 
 " The slave States continue to be excessively agitated. They 
 appear to have organized Vigilance Committees and Lynch 
 Clubs in various places. The most daring propositions are 
 made in the open face of heaven for the abduction of Arthur 
 Tappan, George Thompson, and myself. Public and private 
 appropriations of money, to a large amount, are made for our 
 seizure. Our preservation is remarkable. I presume that our 
 principal cities will be visited by assassins, legalized by the 
 1 State Rights Government to destroy us. It matters not. To 
 the obedient, death is no calamity. If we perish, our loss will 
 but hasten the destruction of slavery more certainly. My mind 
 is full of peace I know what it is to rejoice in tribulation. 
 
 " The two rival political parties, Whigs and Jacksonians or 
 Van Buren men, are striving to see who will show the most 
 
 iThis incident is thus referred to in the Liberator of Sept. 19 (5: 151) : 
 "A HEAVY PRESENT. On Thursday night [Sept. 17], some persons (who 
 evidently belong to that thriftless crew who are spoken of in holy writ as 
 laboring in vain, and spending their strength for nought, ) at considerable 
 cost and trouble, but with the utmost quietude, erected a substantial gal 
 lows in front of our domicil, by order of their master, Beelzebub. It was 
 made in real workmanship style, of maple joist, five inches through 8 or 
 9 feet high for the accommodation of two persons. Two ropes were 
 suspended at equal distances, with knots in hanging order signifying, 
 perhaps, that JUSTICE is about speedily to execute those twin-monsters, 
 SLAVERY and COLONIZATION. By 9 o clock in the morning the 
 street was thronged with curious spectators, and soon after the city 
 authorities ordered it to be sawed up and removed : no disturbance 
 ensued. . . . So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had pre 
 pared for Mordecai. " An eye-witness remembers that it was decorated 
 with sea-weed gathered from the conveniently near tide-water. It also 
 bore the superscription, " By order of Judge Lynch." " If the Judge has 
 arrived here," said the Post, " we advise him to take private lodgings 
 while he stays, and clear out as soon as possible he has got into the 
 wrong box. Garrison has taken off his door-plate." 
 
520 WILLIAM LLOYD GAKKISON. [^ET. 30. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. hatred towards us, and do us the most injury, in order to win 
 jZ- Southern votes. They are all ferocious and unprincipled, 
 caring not for God truth honesty or justice." 
 
 Mr. Garrison s fellow-tenant of the gallows (in the 
 makers intention) was meantime writing him as follows : 
 
 George Thompson to W. L. Garrison. 
 
 MS. MARBLEHEAD BEACH, Tuesday night, 
 
 September 15, 1835. 
 
 MY DEAR BROTHER GARRISON: Your letter of the 3d, 
 obtained on my return from the Granite State, was truly 
 refreshing. Its advice with reference to my visit to Plymouth 
 [N. H.] -was received too late. I am not sorry, as I had the 
 privilege of giving three lectures to quiet, respectable, and 
 very intelligent audiences, including many of the delegates to 
 the General Association, then in session. We had a delightful 
 sojourn under the roof of our truly excellent friend, N. P. 
 Rogers. He is a charming man as a companion I hardly 
 know a man with superior endowments. A full mind ; ready, 
 polished wit, and a comprehensive and glowing heart : the 
 whole adorned and sanctified by the influences of religion, 
 which I believe he humbly but deeply enjoys. 
 
 You would have been delighted to have shared our adven 
 tures in Concord (??) on the memorable night of the 4th inst. 
 The mirthful and the melancholy were so strangely and equally 
 blended throughout, that I scarcely know which had the 
 advantage, and certainly could not tell the story of our " hair 
 breadth scapes" without exciting your risibility. However, 
 my escape from the ignorant and murderous rabble that 
 clamored and thirsted for my blood was very providential, and 
 I desire to feel grateful to Him who I believe watches over our 
 persons and our cause, and will restrain the malice of our foes, 
 or cause our sufferings to advance his glory. 
 
 Lib. 5:157; Poor Whittier was compelled to receive a tithe of the ven- 
 J ^Whit- g ean ce accumulated for me. I had really little expectation and 
 tier, p. 112. less desire to be stoned by proxy, but such is the fruit of keep 
 ing bad company. My friends must be cautious lest perchance 
 they be made the vicarious victims of that wrath which has 
 been kindled by the " foreign emissary." 
 
 The signs of the times are encouraging. I do not think the 
 Boston Gazette is quite right in saying, " The public press, with 
 
JET. 30.] 
 
 THE BOSTON MOB. I. 
 
 521 
 
 scarcely an exception, is now out in opposition to the anti- CHAP. XIV. 
 
 slavery party." There are, Mr. Gazette, many noble and very 
 cheering exceptions : instance the New York Evening Post, New 
 York Sun, Salem Gazette, &c., &c. And even the Boston 
 Courier appears to be looking out afar elevating his nose like 
 a pig in the wind and carefully oiling the pivot of the 
 vane that it may easily tack about when the right breeze shall 
 spring up. I have this day s Courier before me. It contains 
 the first of a series of letters to Messrs. Otis, Sprague and 
 Fletcher, taking anti-slavery ground, and having many shrewd 
 and just remarks. If the others are as good, good will follow 
 from their publication. Buckingham evidently cares little for 
 the South. He commends the resolutions offered at New 
 Haven as substitutes for those brought forward by the pro- 
 slavery party, and adds : " In most of the resolutions passed 
 on this subject [abolition] in the Northern States there is a 
 lamentable want of self-respect, and manifestations of an overflow 
 ing spirit of cowardly truckling to Southern arrogance and presump 
 tion. 
 
 May, who was with me to-day, informed me that a recent 
 Southern paper has stated that if the prominent fanatics were 
 not put down by the strong arm of the Law in the North, 
 ASSASSINATION would cease to be reprehensible or dishonorable. 
 Such writing must do good. Let the South go the whole length 
 of the rope, and let there henceforth be no mistake about the 
 meaning of the words " Southern chivalry," " highmindedness," 
 " nobility," " bravery," " generosity," &c., &c. 
 
 I have greatly admired all the articles you have written since 
 the recent tornado commenced. Go on, go on. One word of 
 counsel no, suffer the expression of a thought. There is now 
 enough excitement. An appetite to read has been created, and 
 this is the time for a full, dignified and explicit development 
 of our principles, and a calm retrospect of the course we have 
 pursued. Might not these be woven into the replies to the 
 Faneuil Hall Triumvirate 9 Hundreds are now just awake on 
 the subject. I want their first food to be simple, pure and 
 nourishing. . . . 
 
 The final editorial directions to Henry Benson from 
 his brother-in-law were as follows, under date of Satur 
 day, September 19 : 
 
 "Your letter of the 16th, with a bundle of papers, was 
 brought here yesterday by brother George. I have gone over 
 
 1835- 
 
 Joseph T. 
 Bucking 
 ham. 
 
 S. J. May. 
 
 MS. 
 G. W. Ben- 
 
522 WILLIAM LLOYD GARKISON. [>T. 30. 
 
 their contents minutely, and now send the fruits of my scissors. 
 Isaac Knapp. Friend K. will be puzzled to know how to meet such a rush of 
 matter in the best way but in another week I will relieve him. 
 Let all these, with the other selections, be most carefully pre 
 served. Let the last page except poetry column be filled up 
 with the pieces fa vorable to our side, especially those which come 
 from papers not abolition, as they will have more weight than 
 others. Of course, the first page may be filled with the 
 * Refuge. As it is difficult to dispose of long articles, let the 
 shortest have the precedence as a general rule. We will not 
 insert the whole proceedings of any other public meetings than 
 those already published I will make a synopsis of them all. 
 Those pieces which tell of new outrages at the South, and of 
 the designs of the Southerners, should be promptly inserted." 
 
 END OF VOLUME ONE. 
 
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