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

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Would it not be well to remember Miss Martineau honorably in a resolution — applaud her moral courage, and rebuke her foul calumniators? . . .

P. S. Would not Prof. Follen consent to occupy the place of E. M. P. Wells as Vice President?

At this meeting, as at divers local anti-slavery meetings,—the first of their respective organizations since the mob of October 21,—Mr. Garrison's hands were naturally upheld by resolutions of praise and confidence. To the censorious comments of the religious press on such tributes he replied: ‘I have not solicited the applause of¹ any man, or body of men; nor have I spared any man or body of men—not even my generous benefactor, Arthur Tappan, or Samuel H. Cox, or Gerrit Smith, or William Ellery Channing—for the sake of preserving or enlarging my reputation.’ With no one of these had he dealt more faithfully or severely than with Gerrit Smith, as to no other had he more liberally granted space in the Liberator for counter criticism of himself and of the antislavery movement. George Benson writes to his son Henry, at Providence, February 13, 1836: ‘Your brother² Garrison had a letter yesterday with a check from Gerrit Smith (for thirty dollars), who may read in the Liberator.³ of this day some severe animadversions on his palpable inconsistency. But Garrison intends to write to him a friendly letter, which I much approve.’ These animadversions had been called out by Mr. Smith's formal leavetak-ing of the Colonization Society, as printed in the Liberator⁴ of February 6. Mr. Garrison defended that Society against the pretence that it had changed for the worse so that an abolitionist could no longer remain in it; and the anti-slavery organization against the implication that it had abandoned the aims and methods which up to the time of the Utica mob had been reprobated by Mr. Smith. The letter of withdrawal was pronounced ‘not ingenuous,’ and full of error, the proof and product of confusion of mind.