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

[239] arena, to sever the abolition champions. The destruction of slavery is a magnificent design, and part of its sublimest elements consists in the indescribable obstacles which must be surmounted. But the very magnitude of the contention demands proportionate energy and co-operation, “the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace to fight the good fight of faith.” The individual opinions which we hold upon any abstract and disconnected subjects, however absurd or proper, extrinsic or collateral, are not correlative to the grand topic, and ought not to be introduced in any prominent form so as to produce revulsion.

You will find, my friend, that so many adjuncts are perplexing to the grand cause, and, unless I am greatly deceived, that it will diminish your own energies and weaken your own influence. I have not deliberately examined the proceedings of the Non-Resistance meeting yet, and therefore only remark in general that, even were it a scheme in my own estimation unexceptionable, yet I should object to it, originating and sustained in its present form.

I am aware that there is no necessary and inseparable connection between the anti-slavery cause and any other, and that every individual has the right to engage in as many moral warfares as he pleases; but I candidly confess that I see you the standard-bearer of the Non-Resistance Society with regret. I should equally regret to witness you occupying a prominent position in any other cause which is not a portion of the emancipation warfare. I can refer back to many Liberators in succession, in times bygone, when I could have said amen to every syllable which they enounced. Everything directly or indirectly aided to promote the sacred cause. It is but candid to say that, during the whole of this summer, I scarcely have met a number in which there is not something which repels. Either it is irrelevant, or so ill-adapted to carry out our own principles and designs, that I would rather have seen a blank spot than many paragraphs which I have read. This is not your fault, but I seriously believe that every square of the Liberator which is devoted to subjects which have not the smallest reference to the anti-slavery controversy is mischievous to the cause, and injurious to your own influence in the momentous conflict. To talk of Non-Resistance with the constant extraneous pugnacity which has been recently displayed upon disconnected topics, like old Billy's negro, chokes me! Excuse this expression of my solicitude and affection.