The game, thus far, has been so adroitly played that not3 a few well-meaning abolitionists have been drawn into it. Phelps and Torrey are foremost in the matter, backed up by Stanton, St. Clair, and others. They expect, by drilling, to be able at the annual meeting to so change the present Board of Managers as to be able to do as they please. There is no mistake in all this,—and it is a sad revelation. Our Board fully understand the movement, and, in order to counteract it as far as possible, have this day resolved to publish a monthly sheet, (rather larger than the Human Rights), to be called the Abolitionist, and to be edited by a committee, consisting of Wendell Phillips, Edmund Quincy and myself,4 for gratuitous
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anti-slavery organization in the plenitude of its strength, and prudence demanded a distribution of power.
That the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society was to be the battle-ground between the opposing forces, was known a full month in advance.1 The strategy of the clerical schismatics had been revealed to the Board by the Rev. Philo C. Pettibone, of Andover, and steps were instantly taken to baffle it. Mr. Pettibone had received in December, 1838, a letter from2 Torrey, which ‘dwelt on the great influence of Mr. Garrison in Massachusetts, and thence argued that it would not be safe to attack him or the Liberator openly; on the great need of a new paper—which he (Mr. Torrey) had ascertained by sounding the clergymen throughout the State, and they were for it to a man.’
‘Now, Brother P.,’ in substance continued the writer, ‘have on a full delegation at the Annual Meeting at 10 o'clock in the morning, prepared to stay two days. Have them pledged to go for the new paper, and to spar the annual report, and we will show them how it is done.’
On January 4, 1839, Mr. Garrison wrote to Mr. May, urging him to be present at the meeting, and apprising him of the ‘deplorable and alarming conspiracy’:
1 Ante, p. 253.
2 Right and Wrong in Mass., 1839, p. 66; Lib. 9.191.
3 Ms.
4 More particularly, of what preceded, Mr. Garrison wrote to G. W. Benson on Jan. 5, 1839: ‘I made a proposition at our Board meeting to raise a committee, to report upon the expediency of publishing a monthly periodical, as the organ of the Society, for the use of auxiliaries, etc. Phelps was not present, but he was nominated by one of his friends [Joseph H. Eayrs], and Edmund Quincy and myself. It happened that he did not return in season from Haverhill to consult with us, and we accordingly made our report to the Board on Friday [Dec. 28, 1838]—to wit, that such a monthly ought to be printed, officially, to be called the Abolitionist, and to be edited by a committee of three, to be elected by ballot. This report was strenuously opposed by Mr. P.'s friend (Ayres), on the ground that a weekly paper was called for, and would doubtless be established—that it would be better to defer the whole matter to the annual meeting—that the probability was, there would be a change in the Board, etc. Thus we had “the cat let out of the bag.” The report was, however, accepted, and Wendell Phillips, Edmund Quincy and myself were elected editors. We shall have the specimen number issued forthwith, in season for the annual meeting’ (Ms.) On learning what had taken place in his absence, ‘Mr. Phelps said, with much agitation, that such a paper would by no means answer the demand. His words and his manner were a sufficient assurance that the plot had gone too far to be arrested by any possible effort of the Massachusetts Board’ ( “Right and Wrong in Mass.,” 1839, p. 71).
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