Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 1

‘ [435] chivalrous Lafayette's embarkation for this country, to¹ assist in redeeming it from a foreign yoke, has far less of sublimity in it than the high moral heroism and noble benevolence’ of George Thompson. He comes, ‘not as a foreigner, but as “a man and a brother,” feeling for those in bonds as bound with them.’ A young man of thirty years,² ‘his person is tall, graceful, and agile, his countenance fine and attractive, his voice mellifluent, and his action all that Demosthenes could desire. As an orator,³ he surpasses every speaker that I have ever heard,’ O'Connell not excepted. ‘His appeals are absolutely electrifying.’

The similarity in age between Mr. Garrison and the English orator favored a friendly attachment, but there⁴ were other circumstances—such as their having sprung from the middle class and been denied the higher education; above all, however, their deeply religious training and temperament—which drew them irresistibly together. Mr. Thompson's connection, too, with the⁵ anti-slavery cause began in the very year in which the Liberator was founded, and as agent of the London Anti-Slavery Society he preached the doctrine of immediate and unconditional emancipation throughout the kingdom, with an effectiveness which, in the judgment of such men as Brougham and John Bright, determined⁶ the success of the agitation two years afterwards, and entitled him to the name of ‘Liberator.’⁷ Mr. Garrison's natural prepossessions for such a character were confirmed on meeting Mr. Thompson, who on his part received him with a warmth proportioned to his changed opinion of him. The first time the English abolitionist had heard of the American, Elliott Cresson was his informant. ‘There is,’ said this unscrupulous person,