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

So distinguished a convert, bringing a New Year's¹ gift of a thousand dollars, might, it seemed to many of the abolitionists, have been spared this inhospitable welcome to their ranks. Lewis Tappan wrote from New York to Mr. Garrison, February 25, 1836: ‘Your ² remarks on Mr. G. Smith have given uneasiness, I learn, to some abolitionists, but they were well-timed. We ought to deal kindly with such a man as Mr. Smith, but until he confesses his faults he ought to be rebuked publicly.’ The sequel showed that a magnanimous mind like Gerrit Smith's could well endure his critic's inflexible application of principles. The wounds made left no scar, as should ever be the effect of friendly shafts that ‘only pierce for healing.’ In a letter to Liberator, dated June 24, urging Mr. Garrison, as³ against Judge Jay, to make abstinence from slaveproducts a personal practice and a part of the antislavery creed, Mr. Smith said: ‘I acknowledge with pleasure that I am more indebted to your writings than to those of any other man for my abhorrence of slavery. Nor is the pupil in this case any the less grateful because the master has occasionally boxed his ears.’ They had meantime met, for the first time, in May, at the anniversary meeting in New York, and Mr. Garrison writes: ‘On personal acquaintance, I am delighted with⁴ him as a man and a Christian.’ In December, there was fresh evidence of Mr. Smith's personal regard:

‘I have received,’ writes Mr. Garrison to Henry Benson, ‘a⁵ letter from Gerrit Smith, enclosing a check of $50 upon the Utica Bank, as a donation to help sustain the Liberator, “which paper,” he says, “is, and ever should be, dearer to the heart of the thorough American abolitionist than any other anti-slavery periodical. It broke ground in our great and holy cause. It has been, and still is, a most able and eloquent defender of that cause; and whatever may have been its errors, they have not sprung from dishonesty or timidity. The discontinuance of the Liberator would be deeply reproachful to our abolitionists, and would furnish the enemy with an occasion for the wildest exultation. It would be also exceedingly cruel to yourself, to ”’