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

[438] finishing-stroke to slavery, Mr. Garrison's opposition to the former has been pronounced both unworthy of him, and a striking evidence of his want of prevision. Those who have read the present narrative of its origin must conclude that he had no choice but to oppose the alter ego of New Organization. Those who read beyond, whether in this biography or in general histories of the ante-bellum period, will find the same men who in 1840 nominated Birney against Van Buren and against Harrison, nominating Van Buren as the Free-Soil candidate of 1848. They will find the anti-slavery policy of the¹ Free-Soil Convention of 1852 summed up in resistance to the extension of slavery and to Federal fugitive-slave laws. But not till they consult the proceedings of the Peace Conference at Washington in February, 1861; the² contemporaneous propositions of the Senate Committee of Thirteen and House Committee of Thirty-three; and the subsequent vote of both Houses for an amendment to the Constitution forbidding Congress ever to interfere with slavery in the States (a majority of the Republicans assenting)—will they realize how utterly spurious was the claim of the founders of the Liberty Party to be the true channel of succession for the principles first formulated by William Lloyd Garrison.