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

[396] States, and to the claims which a loving wife and growing family have upon me, especially at this great crisis. Though the spirit of new organization has poisoned many in England, and found other unclean spirits congenial with its own, yet the kind, and, in several instances, the enthusiastic, manner in which I have been received by the people, has made a very deep impression upon my memory, which time can never efface. It has been my privilege to become acquainted with some of the noblest spirits of the age, both men and women; and much do they sympathize with us in the arduous struggle we are making in America against slavery, and its formidable ally, sectarianism. Among the meetings it has been my happiness to attend, was a temperance meeting in Exeter Hall,¹ (the largest and most enthusiastic I ever saw), at which that sturdy champion of Irish liberty, and most wonderful among the statesmen and orators of the age, Daniel O'Connell, made a powerful speech in favor of the doctrine of total abstinence. He was received with a storm of applause that almost shook the building to its foundations. The spectacle was sublime and heart-stirring beyond all power of description on my part. George Thompson, N. P. Rogers, and myself addressed the immense concourse, and were flatteringly received; as were also Rev. Messrs. Grosvenor and Galusha. I shall send a report of some of the speeches to bro. Johnson, which appears in the² Temperance Journal. As I had no opportunity to revise the sketch made by the reporter, you must take it as you find it.

It has also been my privilege to attend a similar meeting in Edinburgh. On arriving in this city on Tuesday afternoon,³ and carelessly walking through the streets, I observed placards conspicuously posted in various directions, stating that Geo. Thompson, C. L. Remond, and W. L. Garrison were in the city, and would be present at the temperance meeting that evening, and address the auditory! Though I had not been consulted by any one on the subject, and was wholly taken by surprise, yet I felt that I could not, as a professed friend of bleeding humanity, as a thorough ‘teetotaller’ of fourteen years standing, as an American citizen, refuse to lift up my voice in favor of the first great moral enterprise which I ever publicly espoused,—especially as I was told that, as yet, in Scotland, it had made comparatively small progress, and was generally treated by ‘gentlemen of property and standing,’ and the priesthood, very much as the anti-slavery cause is by those classes in the United States. Our friends Thompson, Rogers,