“ [302] means contemptible enemies.” Its potency consists in this,— that, discarding every accusation or objection which is urged against that Society by its assailants, it condemns it out of its own mouth; the proofs are in every instance furnished by its managers, by its organ, by its official reports, by its most distinguished supporters, and by the concurrent testimony of auxiliary associations. All that sophistry or misrepresentation could effect, to overthrow its integrity, has been attempted in vain. The work, as a whole, stands irrefutable.1The practical use of the Thoughts was as an arsenal of facts for the public speakers engaged in exposing the pretensions of the Colonization Society. This task had been the immediate concern of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society, both in its regular and special meetings, and through its president, Arnold Buffum, and other2 appointed lecturers, who went from town to town delivering addresses on the subject of slavery. It was now made comparatively easy, and wherever the Colonization agents moved they were liable to be confronted by irrefragable proofs of the duplicity of their employers. These in their turn were made to realize that the individual opposition of a ‘fanatical’ journalist had been converted into organized antagonism, all the more formidable because not denominated an Anti-Colonization, but (the greater including the less) an Anti-Slavery Society.
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1 Both the logical and the moral weight of it for the best minds may be inferred from the following extract from a letter of Gen. Samuel Fessenden to Mr. Garrison, dated Portland, Dec. 14, 1832 (Ms.): ‘Last Monday evening was our Law-Club meeting, and I had the great satisfaction of hearing Judge Mellen, our Chief Justice, say he had read your “Thoughts,” was a thorough convert to your views, and was ready to do all in his power to promote them. Mr. Longfellow was present also, and with equal warmth and clearness expressed himself also in favor of your views. This is getting the two first men in the State for talents and influence in benevolent effort. I have no doubt they will head the list of those who will subscribe to form here an anti-slavery society. Mr. Greenleaf, also, will cordially come in, and I need not say he is one of the first [men] in the State, for his character is known.’ The reference here is to the Hon. Stephen Longfellow, father of the poet, who had been a delegate to the Hartford Convention, and a Representative from Maine in the 18th Congress (1823-25); and to Simon Greenleaf, the eminent jurist, shortly to be law professor at the Harvard School, and eventually the successor of Story.
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