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

[283] division, is the term to apply to that transition state in which the discordant elements were seeking grounds of affinity one with another. The peremptoriness of the New York Executive Committee's money dealings with the Massachusetts Board did not involve any censure of the Liberator as an anti-slavery organ, or any taking of sides on the newly raised political issue. The sectarian purposes of the Torrey group had no necessary relation to the pecuniary affairs of the Parent and State societies. Nevertheless, by instinct, the Committee tolerated its agent, Stanton, in fostering a new organization in Massachusetts and editing its mouthpiece; and Phelps rushed to the defence of the Committee's view of the¹ pledge contract, though none knew better than he, as the late General Agent, how faithful had been the endeavor to collect the money. Again, neither the Abolitionist nor the Emancipator would print the address of the Massachusetts Board on this subject. On the other hand, the conspirators did not withdraw from the State or local societies so long as there was any hope of capturing and converting them: to build anew was their final resort. No greater proof of the forbearance of the majority could be given than that they did not expel or suppress the open and avowed enemies of the existing organizations—that they gave them the freest hearings at their meetings, and did not, to the last, deny them places on their committees. This curious spectacle of ‘no-government’ patience and clerical effrontery was to be witnessed throughout the year 1839.

The local issue having been decided at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Society, the conflict with the Executive Committee remained to be met, and the call of the Board for the Quarterly Meeting on March 26, 1839, printed in the Liberator of March 15, made this² topic the principal motive for assembling, and urged the fullest possible representation of the State. The following letter bears date of March 19, 1839: