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

The comments of no other paper were awaited with such eager interest by Mr. Garrison as those of the Newburyport Herald, as he naturally wished to know how his old master and his townsmen regarded his course, and felt anxious that they should understand and appreciate the motives which had led him to assail one of their prominent citizens. Mr. Allen could not ignore the appeal made in the pamphlet of his late apprentice, and at length broke the silence which he had hitherto kept about the matter. After briefly mentioning Garrison's trial and imprisonment, he paid a generous tribute to his protege, defending him against the charges of vanity, love of display, and eagerness for notoriety, which had been brought against him, and crediting him with only lofty aspirations and motives; and he bore this testimony:

‘We are the friends of Mr. Garrison. We have known him¹ from his childhood; he has been in our family and eaten at our board. We have watched his progress in life with deep interest. Without early advantages of education, but with a mind exceedingly susceptible to improvement, he seized on every opportunity afforded by intervals from labor to create and add to his stock of information; in a word, he was a diligent student. His peculiar characteristics are an ardent temperament and warm imagination; his undeniable merits, pure purposes and unshaken courage. Resolute in his convictions on subjects of higher importance, he may seem (and no doubt sometimes is) hasty, stubborn, and dogmatic, rash and unyielding, where patience and docility would have varied his views and softened his temper.’