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

[268] proved, at the expense of the cause, by the difficulties which have been experienced in the Fourth Congressional District, in reaching the anti-slavery electors on the subject of their political duties.

4th. That we therefore earnestly recommend to the Board of Managers of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, or to the Society itself at its next annual meeting, to establish a paper of this description, of about the size and price of the Herald of Freedom—to be issued every week to subscribers— to be exclusively confined to slavery and abolition—to urge, constantly, political as well as moral and religious action—to be edited by some able, efficient man, who can conscientiously and heartily advocate all these points—and to be under the entire control of the Executive Committee of the State Society.

These resolutions, having been adopted at Fitchburg,¹ were expedited by Phelps and Torrey to every society whose meeting was to occur before that of the State Society, while St. Clair attended in person to ensure their being carried. In general, this short campaign was a failure except at Fall River, where the same adroitness manifested at Fitchburg persuaded the Bristol County Anti-Slavery Society to vote that there was² great need of a weekly organ of the State Society, and to recommend the Liberator if it could be made such— if not, a new one, after the Fitchburg pattern. Further, to resolve, ‘That we have undiminished confidence in William Lloyd Garrison as an abolitionist, and consider the Liberator, edited by him, so far as it is devoted to the subject of slavery, an efficient and able paper, and entitled to the patronage of its friends.’ Thanks for nothing, replied the editor: I give twenty columns a week to³ abolition, and a little corner to peace, besides the usual miscellany.

Meantime, the watchman's outcry had thrown the enemy's camp into confusion. On January 14, 1839, the day before the Fall River meeting, Mr. Garrison wrote to G. W. Benson, at Brooklyn:

Your letter to friend Johnson was duly received to-day.⁴ The action of the anti-slavery society of Windham County at-