W. L. Garrison to Mary Benson, at Providence.
Boston, December 23, 1838.2 The annual meeting of our State Anti-Slavery Society will be held on the 23d of January, and will be well worth your attendance, on the score of interest. I anticipate an animated, almost a stormy scene. Facts are daily coming to my ears which show that the spirit of sectarianism is busy at its old game of division—working in darkness, and secretly endeavoring to transfer our sacred cause to other hands. The leaders in this work of mischief are clerical abolitionists. The plot is extensively laid, and the wires are pulled skilfully. It will be managed much more ingeniously than was the ‘Clerical Appeal’ affair. Torrey, of Salem, (formerly of Providence), is3 one of the most active of the plotters. I understand the plan is, to rally at our annual meeting, elect a different board of managers, start a new anti-slavery paper, to be the organ of the Society, etc., etc. The ‘woman question’ is also to be met and settled so as to suit the priesthood, or the probability is, there will be a division. Here, then, are materials for an excited anniversary. I do not mean that my annual report shall be a quiet document. . . . What will be the result of this matter is now problematical. I think, however, that the counsels of the froward will be carried headlong. Perhaps, after all, the plotters will be afraid to divulge their purposes, and will conclude that discretion is the better part of valor. I hope so; for every such outbreak but encourages the common enemy, and breeds mutual distrust and jealousy. . . . Bro. H. C. Wright was with us last week, but has returned to Newburyport to rest a short time in the bosom of his family. He has prepared a tract on human governments which, when published, will doubtless stir up the feelings of community. It shows, in a simple and lucid manner, that national organizations, as now constructed, are essentially anti-Christian, and utterly at war with the gospel of Christ. . . .
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seed of discord had been planted, and was growing out of sight.
At the close of the year it was ready to spring up and blossom.
The first outward sign was the resignation, on the 20th of December, of Amos A. Phelps1 as General Agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.
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