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

[334] machine—in other words, to substitute one mode of action for another; (2) that they expected to do this without subtracting from the existing constitutions of the national and subsidiary societies—in other words, without lowering the standard of anti-slavery aims and demands. Holding firmly to this clew, the reader will not be misled into thinking the case the same as if a body of men, not members of any abolition society, nor ready to become such because not satisfied with purely religious modes of agitation and achievement, but accustomed to vote with either the Whig or the Democratic party, had decided to form a new party having slavery for its main issue. Such an organization would have been judged by Mr. Garrison according to its performances, but would never have been regarded otherwise than as an encouraging sign of the times.

The abundant private correspondence of this year will enable us to present the story largely in the words of the chief actors. Let us begin with an extract from a letter of Mr. Garrison's to G. W. Benson, dated Boston, January 4, 1840:

How sorry I am to say that it will be utterly out of my¹ power to be with you at Hartford on the 8th inst. But what I cannot do, I cannot. I know how great will be the disappointment of the Connecticut friends—your own—and all the household at Brooklyn. And, what is worse, Quincy tells me² that he will not be able to go. He made the attempt before³ —got half-way, or part way—was forced to stay in the cars all night, and then return home, in consequence of the storm. The annual meeting of our State Society takes place on the 22d. With a thousand other things I have to do between that brief space and this, I have the Annual Report to write, reviewing the events of the past year—which must, of necessity, be a very long and elaborate document. 0, I groan to think of it! Not a syllable of it is yet prepared—nor can I get one hour to devote to it; and yet it must be all written