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

[416] on October 1, fortified with credentials as an agent of the American Society, an address to the abolitionists of Great Britain prepared reluctantly by Charles Burleigh¹ (who did not approve of the mission), and with letters, among others, from N. P. Rogers, who likewise ² discountenanced the measure. On his part, Mr. Garrison yielded a cordial assent:

W. L. Garrison to Elizabeth Pease.

Boston, Sept. 30, 1840.

³ As many thanks as there are waves in the Atlantic for the epistle received from you by the Britannia. You see what liberty I have taken with it, and some others brought me by our mutual friend George Bradburn, in the last number of the⁴ Liberator.

Thomas Clarkson's letter, repudiating the Colonization⁵ Society, is of great value, and will make a salutary impression upon the public mind. I am overjoyed to think that the dear old man has publicly abandoned that wicked combination, and left it to perish in infamy. It would have been most afflicting to all the genuine friends of bleeding humanity, if he had gone down to the grave even ostensibly as a supporter of that Society. I am surprised, nevertheless, that, in stating his objections to it, he does not say one word about its impious doctrines and pro-slavery principles. He really seems to be wholly ignorant of them!

Little did I think, my dear friend, that you would so soon see among you another of our anti-slavery band in Massachusetts; but I am as happy to introduce to you, as I doubt not you will be to see him, my esteemed friend and coadjutor, John A. Collins, the General Agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and a member of our Board of Managers. He is a free spirit, a lover of universal reform, most zealous and efficient as an advocate of emancipation, one who has made large sacrifices for our cause, is thoroughly conversant with all the schisms that have taken place in our ranks, and is generally successful in whatever he undertakes. The object of his mission he will lay before you and the other choice spirits in England, so that I need not go into any details in this letter. Suffice it to say, that, in consequence of the political excitement now raging like a whirlwind in this country—the embarrassed state of the