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