[98]W. L. Garrison to his wife, at Brooklyn.
Boston, March 7, 1836.1 Since my return to the city, my numerous anti-slavery friends have vied with each other in proffering their kindnesses to me. It strengthens me exceedingly to know that their confidence and esteem have suffered no abatement, nay, that absence has but greatly augmented them. Saturday night2 I slept with Knapp and Henry in the office, and had as 3 comfortable a time as such a berth could possibly give, be it more or less. Sabbath forenoon, Mr. May, Henry and myself went4 to hear Dr. Channing preach,5 and were happily not disappointed. The sermon was full of beauty and power, worthy to be written in starry letters upon the sky. The text was, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.’ . . . I have had two long and very satisfactory interviews with Miss Martineau. She is plain and frank in her manners, and not less so in her conversation. I can assure you that we abolitionists need not fear that she will ever print anything, either in this country or in England, inimical to us, or in favor of the Colonization Society. She is now abiding under the roof of Dr. Channing, and no doubt will do him much good.6 Last evening, there was a circle gathered by special invitation at7 Mr. Loring's house, among the number being Miss Martineau, Miss Jeffery, Mr.Chapman and Mrs. Chapman, Mr. May, Messrs. Rantoul
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2 March 5.
4 March 6.
5 This may have been the occasion of which Mrs. Chapman speaks (Ms. November, 1882): ‘It was about this time [the mob time] that Mr. Garrison expressed to us a wish to hear Dr. Channing preach, and we invited him to take a seat in the pew kindly placed at our disposal by one of Dr. Channing's friends, Mr. Stephen Higginson, and which we then occupied. Mr. Garrison accepted the invitation. Next day came a notice to us from Mr. Higginson that he could not allow us seats in his pew any longer.’
6 During Miss Martineau's stay at Dr. Channing's, relates Mrs. Chapman (Ms. November, 1882): ‘I invited her with Dr.Channing and Mrs. Channing to tea, “to meet Mr. Garrison.” She came to me next day, with much satisfaction on her face, saying, “ I think he'll come” ; and afterwards she told me, “He would have come if you had not said to meet Mr. Garrison.” ’ Evidence of this avoidance might be multiplied. Mr. Garrison was clearly an exception to Dr. Channing's profession, in a letter to J. G. Birney, following the destruction of the Philanthropist (ante, p. 77): ‘I feel myself attracted to the friends of humanity and freedom, however distant; and when such are exposed by their principles to peril and loss, and stand firm in the evil day, I take pleasure in expressing to them my sympathy and admiration’ (Lib. 7.1). But neither after the Boston mob, nor at any other time, so far as is known, did Dr. Channing so much as address a line to Mr. Garrison. ‘Abolition is still the exciting topic,’ he wrote from Newport on Oct. 27, 1835—the editor of the Liberator having gone to jail on Oct. 21. ‘The mobs still interfere with the anti-slavery meetings, and the South alarms many at the North by threatening us with separation. Happily, the great prosperity of the country and the pressure of business do not allow people to think much on the subject’! ( “Memoir,” 3.170). No wonder this letter was suppressed in the Centenary edition of the “Memoir.”
7 Sunday, March 6.
The Century Company. , 1885-1889.
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