This text is part of:
“
[65]
set this evidence aside, and equally so to resist the conclusions drawn therefrom.
The work could not be, and therefore was not answered.”
The book made a tremendous sensation and became the arsenal of the Abolitionists in this country and of their exponents abroad.
“It was early in 1852, I think,” says Elizur Wright, “that Mr. Garrison struck the greatest blow of his life-or any man's life-by publishing in a thick pamphlet, with all the emphasis that a printer knows how to give to types, his Thoughts on Colonization.”
The Colonization Society was an embodiment of the public consciousness.
It was prevalent, it was a part of the people's daily life.
All the great divines belonged to it, all the academic bigwigs, social figure-heads and moneyed men. And yet, in fact, Colonization was a sort of obscene dragon that lay before the Palace of Slavery to devour or corrupt all assailants.
Garrison attacked it like Perseus, with a ferocity which to this day is thrilling.
His eyes, his words, and his sword flash and glitter.
And he slew it. He cut off its supplies, he destroyed its reputation in Europe; and he thereby opened the path between the Abolition movement and the conscience
Boston, the. Atlantic Monthly. Press, 1921.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.