[281] he feels toward me, the articles from his pen in the Liberator painfully manifest. As for Stanton, he appears to be completely alienated. We merely interchange civilities as we meet. Jealousy, envy, and ambition, I fear, have taken possession of his breast. He told friend Knapp, the other day, that if I had declared at the annual meeting that there was no God, by merely lifting my finger I could have carried multitudes with me! What a state of heart does this evince! How false, how foolish, how cruel, is such an assertion! St. Clair and Wise1 have resigned their agencies, and are laboring with great zeal in behalf of the Abolitionist.2 I suppose they will be appointed agents of the American A. S. Society. You will see by the last Liberator that a collision has taken3 place between the New York Executive Committee and our Board. How it will terminate, I know not. This is a sad spectacle to present to the enemies of our holy cause; but be the responsibility upon the heads of those who are attempting to lord it over the consciences of non-resisting abolitionists. Our friends abroad, who, not being on the ground, are ignorant of what is said and done here in private, naturally feel distressed to see brethren fall out by the way; and, truly, I am filled with as much grief as any of them. They seem to think that I am opposed to the new paper partly on selfish grounds (some of them, I mean)—as if my whole life does not prove that I have trodden under foot, with holy scorn, all considerations of self-interest! They also suppose that the originators of the new-paper movement are very friendly to the Liberator, and would do nothing, designedly, to injure its circulation. How great is their error! I cannot be mistaken. I know
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2 It was high time for St. Clair to change sides. He had been endeavoring to win over the colored people of Fall River by false representations as to the declining circulation of the Liberator, and as to Mr. Garrison's own desire for a new paper—based, of course, on the latter's proposal of a monthly organ to head off the Abolitionist (Lib. 9.22, and ante, p. 262). Wise's coat-turning was ludicrously sudden, after having ‘resolved,’ through the Norfolk County A. S. Society, that the Liberator had not departed from its old principles (Lib. 9: 34). He was now recommending the Abolitionist because, as he said, in his dainty way, he preferred having the hairs served up in one plate, the butter in another. These worthies were assisted by the Rev. J. T. Woodbury, who charged Mr. Garrison, among other dreadful things, with being a ‘Thomsonian’—--‘a very good reason,’ thought the latter, ‘why a new anti-slavery paper should be started in this commonwealth’ (Lib. 9: 27).
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