[241] far, of course, would I have them discussed together, but not farther unless the majority of real abolitionists wished it so to be. I know that if half the Liberator were devoted to peace and non-resistance, you could, with the most perfect accuracy, assert that you were not connecting the two causes; but a great number of the abolitionists are not candid enough or clear-minded enough to see this, and many others are so opposed to ultra peace views that they are unwilling to do anything that may, even indirectly, tend to their support. I hope that after the elections and their consequent excitements are over,1 we shall be at leisure to renew our moral efforts with greater vigor, and to labor more faithfully for the purification of the New England churches. Our abolitionists have generally been willing to pledge themselves to vote for no man who was not an abolitionist at heart, and I hope that ere long they will be ready to say they will hear no man preach who is not the same. Now, to produce this result, it is absolutely necessary that whatever there is of genuine abolition among us should be concentrated on this work; and we must, if possible, avoid giving those ministers who are recreant to the cause of the slave the opportunity of weakening our hands, and drawing the attention of the public from themselves, by allegations that we are contending for the abolition of government rather than that of slavery. Not less do I think this arrangement expedient on account of its influence on the non-resistance cause. This subject cannot fully be gone into, justice cannot be done it, while the Liberator is the only organ it possesses. The non-resistance people feel as though it were a sort of sufferance, only, by which they have a place in the Liberator, and do not therefore feel perfectly at liberty to bring forward their views there. This, at least, would be the case with myself. I presume, also, that this prevents many fair-minded opposers who are abolitionists from bringing forward their objections.
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1 As an excuse for not attending an anti-slavery convention in Hingham, Mr. Garrison pleaded to Mr. May, in addition to an inflamed and swollen right hand: ‘Another consideration. This number of the Liberator [Nov. 2, 1838] is a very important one, with regard to the approaching election. The replies of the various candidates to the questions propounded to them will be coming in up to the time the paper goes to press, and will need comments. I must try to write something adapted to the crisis, painful as it is for me to hold a pen. To be absent from the office, even an hour, will hardly be allowable under these circumstances’ (Ms. Oct. 30, 1838).
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