Ernest Crosby, Garrison the non-resistant

[34] them the just indignation of Garrison and many of his followers. They retorted that he was an “infidel” and that his harsh language was unchristian. Five Abolitionist clergymen led a revolt against him and insisted upon the formation of a new organization with a new journal of its own. It would be tedious to trace the history of these dissensions. They continued for many years, but Garrison stood to his guns without flinching, and in the end his course was fully justified. He also aroused opposition by refusing to countenance political action and by preaching non-resistance in the Liberator. His opponents urged that any Abolitionist who failed to vote was a traitor to the cause. Garrison, however, had conscientious scruples against voting, and in the whole course of his life only voted once for a political officer, and that was when he was a very young man. The seceders nominated candidates for president and vice-president in the national election of 1840, a course which only revealed their weakness, as party spirit ran so high that most of the anti-slavery voters followed their old party leaders to the polls. The “third party” Abolitionists, who supported their own candidates in 1840, eventually drifted into the Free Soil Party, and in 1852 were contented with a declaration against the extension of slavery and the enforcement