Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 4

[79] in an impromptu, racy, and eloquent speech, after the olden time.

Our business meetings were interesting, though small. There was a general expression of sentiment, that the Society must not be dissolved until slavery is extinct.

As usual, Mr. Garrison presented a full budget of¹ resolutions at the New York meeting, again urging the war-powers of the President over slavery in the border States, rejoicing in the vast progress already attained, and hoping that the Society might, at its approaching thirtieth anniversary in Philadelphia, be able to ‘celebrate the utter extinction of the rebellion, the liberation of every bondman, the prevalence of universal peace.’

Two weeks later, the opening session of the New² England Convention was adjourned to witness the triumphant march through Boston of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment, the first regiment of colored troops sent from any Northern State. During the spring months, while it was being recruited and drilled at Readville, near Boston, Mr. Garrison and Mr. Phillips had repeatedly visited the camp, and witnessed the transformation which a United States uniform and military discipline wrought, within a few short weeks, in the humble, timid, poorly-clad colored men arriving from all parts of the North in response to the call of Governor Andrew, who enlisted the aid, as recruiting officers, of Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, and Charles Lenox Remond.

Robert G. Shaw, the youthful colonel of the regiment, was the son of Mr. Garrison's warm friends, Mr.Shaw and Mrs. Francis G. Shaw, of Staten Island, and among the subordinate officers were several young men of antislavery birth and training, who frequently visited his house and were intimate with his children.³ His heart