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

[290] clarify the atmosphere by a brief exposition of the antislavery organization, from which he and many other founders of it were now sought to be extruded, as being non-voters, and ipso facto disqualified to belong to it. ‘To sustain an assumption so monstrous, great reliance is placed upon certain expressions contained in the Declaration of Sentiments, the Constitutions of the Parent and State Societies, and the Liberator. How it has happened that this discovery was never made until quite recently, it is not for the uninitiated to know. The principles of non-resistance have been advocated for years in the Liberator; and these are now declared to be hostile to the abolition of slavery.’ The following considerations, therefore, are in order:

1. Abolition is not “the fulfilling of the law” —it is not ¹ Christianity, in its comprehensive signification, but only an adjunct of it. It may exist where there is no spiritual life, finding nourishment in the soil of human sympathy and natural humanity. Hence, it sits in judgment upon nothing but the guilt of the nation in reducing one-sixth portion of the people to brutal servitude. It arraigns no man for his religious creed or governmental opinions. It takes no cognizance of any dispute respecting the holiness of one day in seven, or the divine authority of the priesthood, or the validity of any religious rites and ordinances. It is not a theological controversy, nor a political crusade. In its official, organized form, it appeals to all sects and parties for support, while it expresses no opinion as to their distinctive character, or their lawful existence. It takes men in masses just as it finds them:—talks of cleansing every church in the land from the abominations of slavery, just as earnestly as if it approved of every such organization, though it has no authority to determine which is orthodox or which heterodox:—discourses largely upon the duty and necessity of reforming the Government, so that there may be an abrogation of all laws upholding slavery—just as freely as though there was a perfect agreement among its members as to the rightful supremacy of government.

In this aspect, it is not inconsistent, but tolerant; it recognizes only the fact, that slavery is protected both by Church