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

[414] Harrison's trimming on the subject of slavery, and the¹ evidence of his consistent hostility to the abolition movement in his maturer years, his candidacy had carried off their feet an alarming number of Whig abolitionists, while the Third Party had captivated another class, of whom the most shining example was Samuel E. Sewall. The operations of the old organization were thus doubly embarrassed and almost paralyzed; and to make such head against the current as was possible, a series of State conventions were appointed, and Mr. Garrison's attendance assured by combining with their other objects a report from the delegates to the World's Convention. Such was the one at Worcester alluded to in the above² letter to Elizabeth Pease, and thus emphasized in a letter of the same date from Collins:

John A. Collins to W. L. Garrison.

New Bedford, Sept. 1, 1840.

³ Pardon me for again calling your attention to the Worcester Convention, and Springfield also. In my estimation, it is of great importance to the present interest of our cause, that you bring this convention prominently before the readers of the Liberator. You have the power of making the convention a large one, and it is a power, too, which no one possesses but yourself.

I really wish you understood perfectly the exact position the friends of the old organization hold to the two great political parties, and how generally they have been caught up in the whirlwind of political enthusiasm. Could you but go where I have been, and have seen and heard what I have seen and heard; could you see men—aye, and women, too—who have been and still are your warmest advocates, who have eschewed sectarianism, and lost their caste in the circle in which they moved, for their strong adherence to your views and measures, declare that they would sooner forego their abolitionism than their party, and, to justify themselves in part, would dodge behind the most time-serving views of ‘A Plain Man’⁴ which