With regard to the present state of the anti-slavery 4 question in this country, you will be pleased to learn that the friends of the slave are daily multiplying in all parts of the non-slaveholding States; that there are now not less than twelve hundred anti-slavery societies in existence; that the spirit of lawless violence is in a great measure subdued, not by the arm of law, but by the power of truth and the victorious endurance of suffering innocence; that, in New England, all organized opposition to our cause has vanished; that our efforts are unceasing to gain a complete mastery over the public sentiment of the nation; and that in Massachusetts, where, only two years since, abolition was a mere football among all political parties to show their contempt and dexterity in kicking it, these same parties are now “bowing and scraping” to us, with cap in hand, at every new election, knowing as they do that we hold the balance of power in our hands, and can award victory or defeat according to their espousal of the cause of liberty. Upon the slaveholding States, we make no perceptible impression. No opponent of slavery can tread upon their soil, as an abolitionist, without the risk of martyrdom. I have relinquished
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in shop windows bowie-knives for sale, marked ‘Death to Abolition.’
From time to time, through the summer and1 fall, from the extreme border of Northwestern civilization and settlement came news of popular disturbances at Alton directed against Lovejoy and his press, especially after he had published a call for the formation of a State Anti-Slavery Society.
His life was, even to observers at2 a distance, clearly in great peril.
Still, his situation could not be fully realized by those who did not know the elements of the community in which he was endeavoring to maintain himself; and, his case excepted, there seemed a lull in violence over the whole field when Mr. Garrison wrote thus, on November 6, to Miss Elizabeth Pease,3 of Darlington, England:
3 The daughter of a wealthy and philanthropic Quaker, Joseph Pease; a lady whom he had never met, and who had just introduced herself by a gift of five guineas sent through Angelina Grimke. An intimate and lifelong friendship ensued.
4 Ms.
The Century Company. , 1885-1889.
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