Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 2

[65] that no man, however venerable in years, or high in station, or estimable in character, can openly plead the cause of more than two millions of stolen men, women and children, without losing his reputation and subjecting himself to every species of insult, injury and peril; now that lawful and benevolent meetings are systematically broken up, or suppressed by mobs headed by ‘respectable’ and ‘honorable’ men; now that guiltless citizens are seized ruthlessly, and with perfect impunity tarred and feathered, or beaten with stripes, or driven away by force, or suspended upon gibbets, and that a tempting price is put upon the heads of others; and finally, now that there is a loud clamor for the passage of laws that shall deprive us of the liberty of speech and the liberty of the press;—I say, now that this is the state of the controversy, and this the condition of our country, and this the direful alternative that is presented to us, hereafter all ‘good men and true,’ all who fear God and hate covetousness, and all who love their country and their kind, will rally under a common standard, adopt common measures, and cherish common principles. . . .

I join with you in high commendation of the speech of Gerrit Smith before the Convention at Peterboroa. It will be preserved and read when monuments are crumbling into dust. . . .

Most cordially, too, do I agree with you in your views respecting the duty of procuring an amendment to our national Constitution—of that part of it, which is wet with human blood, which requires us to send back into bondage those who escape from the lash and the chain. It makes us as a people, and as a State, the abettors of human degradation and soul-murder; and shall we not, if possible, by a constitutional process, blot out that bloody stain? The course of events during the present session of Congress will undoubtedly indicate what steps we may wisely take upon this subject. . . .

It is quite refreshing to see Friend Lundy and the Genius of Universal Emancipation again in the field together. They are¹ bullet-proof. Thou murderer Lynch, avaunt! . . .

Rev. Dr. Channing has just published a sort of Ishmaelitish work on slavery. He modestly asks us to give up our watchword ‘Immediate Emancipation,’ to disband our societies, and to keep our publications from the slaveholders! His book is an 18mo [full?] of contradictions, and contains some unmerited defamation of abolitionists, although he confesses he