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

[173] Should its management get out of the hands of the people into theirs, its integrity will be constantly perilled.

Again, the Deacon had asked: ‘Does he not claim to be a Christian while as yet he has never confessed Christ before men, and is living in the habitual neglect of Christian ordinances?’ To this Mr. Garrison replied:¹ ‘This sectarian taunt is alike impudent and malignant. No genuine abolitionist could possibly make it in such a connection and under such circumstances. It is evidently the offspring of cant and hypocrisy. What has the observance or neglect of ‘the ordinances’ to do with the anti-slavery cause?’

The Spectator had meantime come out openly in favor² of a new anti-slavery organization, to include men who kept aloof from the existing one on sectarian grounds— ‘a great proportion of the Orthodox community,’ declared a correspondent of that paper; adding: ‘Orthodox men cannot be active in that society without having their feelings wounded.’ These tactics did not disconcert Mr. Garrison. He wrote on October 20 to George W. Benson:

Truly, there is but one step from the sublime to the ³ ridiculous—from pathos to bathos—from what is true to what is false. Hence I descend to the Clerical Appeal. Was ever treachery so signally punished as in the case of the signers of that unfortunate document! What an avalanche of condemnation has fallen upon their heads, grinding them to powder! What expressions of regard for the liberator and its editor have been extorted by their conduct! But the conspiracy is not wholly quelled, as you will perceive by the attempt of Dea. Gulliver to get up a separate organization. The clergy (meaning the Colonization and Union portion of them, together with⁴ such deserters as Fitch, Towne and Woodbury) are very busily engaged in holding caucuses, corresponding with each other, and laying plots to carry their point against us. There is a tremendous accumulation of power in their hands, and they are able to wield it with great effect; but, happily, the charm of their infallibility is dispelled, and the people are beginning to see that they may refuse to kiss their feet and yet obtain salvation.