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

It is precisely like the attempt made, by certain individuals,¹ to prove that there were no pro-slavery clauses or provisions to be found in the United States Constitution, sticking to the letter thereof, and disregarding all the historical facts pertaining to its adoption, the clear understanding of it by the people, and the uniform concurrence of all legislative and judicial proceedings under it pertaining to slavery and the slave trade. Such criticism is neither fair nor sensible, and totally at variance with the truth. In the name of common sense, with nineteen-twentieths of the male voters of the land hostile to woman suffrage, how has it been possible for them to consent to any amendment of the Constitution granting what they stoutly resist?²

Miscellaneous topics.—Never before had Mr. Garrison been able to address so large a clerical audience as the Independent afforded him—a fact of which he did not lose sight, for he dwelt much upon the duty and the unrivalled opportunity of the pulpits to deal with living³ issues and condemn present wrong and injustice. He criticised the pulpit method of preaching; inquired, in a⁴ clever catechism, what really constitutes a ‘Christian,’ and maintained the rights of conscience against all assumptions of infallibility, whether Papal or Protestant. When the decision of the Cincinnati Board of Education to discontinue Bible-reading in the schools was agitating that city, and exciting much discussion throughout the country, he warmly commended the action of the Board, deeming it as reasonable to insist ‘that only the⁵ Protestant religion shall be tolerated in the land as that our Protestant Bible shall be read in the public schools.’

‘If,’ he continued,

this root of bitterness extracted, the⁶ Catholics, or any other sect, shall refuse to accept of the common schools for the instruction of their children, and proceed to