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

‘ [159] single anti-slavery position but what Garrison holds the right of discovery and preoccupancy.’ The colored ¹ citizens of Boston and Philadelphia rallied to uphold the arm of their Moses. ‘We feel fully persuaded,’ said they of² the latter city, with singular felicity of diction, ‘that the day cannot be far distant when you will be acknowledged —by the very lips of those who now denounce, revile, and persecute you as the vilest and basest of men, the uprooter of all order, the destroyer of our country's peace, prosperity and happiness—to be its firm reliance, its deliverer, the very pillar of its future grandeur.’ In New York alone the Appeal found an echo or excited apprehension.

Upon his removal from Brooklyn (Conn.) to Boston, Mr. Garrison wrote to his brother-in-law:

I have seen a good many of our best abolition friends since³ my return, and have received a very cordial greeting from them all. The Fitch party would be “less than nothing,” were it not for the co-operation of our enemies with it. Bro. Fuller⁴ assures me that there are not more than three members in the Free Church who can swallow the Appeal. Mr. Fitch will not probably remain here long. Bro. Whittier arrived here yesterday from New York. I learn from him that our friends in New York will not be disposed to make themselves a party in this controversy—though I do not see how they can fairly stand aloof from it. It behooves them to remember that “silence gives consent” —and if they refuse to answer the Appeal, the enemy will construe their silence into a virtual approval of it. Bro. Stanton is also here, but expects to leave for New York on Monday or Tuesday. He is somewhat cautious about committing himself, though he is disposed to stand by us. Father Bourne left to-day noon for New York. I have just read a letter from our friend Lewis Tappan, addressed to bro. Phelps, in reference to the “clerical” disaffection. He says H. C. Wright will be recalled by the Executive Committee unless he ceases interweaving his “no government” views with abolitionism.⁵ He thinks it is unfortunate that the Massachusetts