Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 3

[219] soft impeachment, he said that he should like to see how the parsons would answer it; that it was impregnable on Protestant grounds; that Scripture was clear against the Puritanico-Judaic Sabbath; that the observation of the First Day rested on the Canons of the Church, like that of other holidays, etc. He liked the movement, evidently, very much. He knew all about me and the rest of us, clearly. He said that the absurdities of Calvinism had driven us into infidelity, but that he thought we should finally take refuge in the arms of Mother Church.

I told him that there was no tenable ground between the Come-outers (the genuine Pope's) and the Catholics, and that as soon as I doubted my own infallibility, I should go straight to Rome and kiss the Pope's Great Toe. To all of which he assented, and was good enough to recommend to me a course of Theology in Latin for my light reading. We abused the Protestants with great unanimity, and only differed on the trifling matter of Slavery, for all the evils of which (not the thing itself, which he seemed to consider rather an agreeable circumstance) Catholicism was the true remedy. And so we parted. . . .

Garrison seems quite well, considering how terribly he was pulled down by his dreadful fever. But such draughts upon the capital of life must seriously impair the amount. It was during the time of his convalescence that he and H. C. Wright got up this Anti-Sabbath Convention.

It really seems as if the Devil always would put his foot in it, whenever the anti-slavery cause has got into a tolerable position, so as to keep it in hot water. The Clique generally¹ showed the project no great favor; not that they did not agree with the doctrines of the Call, and wish the Sabbath Superstition utterly demolished, but they thought they were doing as much incidentally, by their own example and their insisting upon using Sunday as a suitable time for holding A. S. meetings, etc., as they well could do, consistently with their A. S. work. And especially as we looked upon it as a Theological rather than Moral Reform—a question whether an Institution not a malum in se, like Slavery or Drinking, was Divinely Ordained. At the same time, we had no objection to their doing what they thought best about it. Phillips declined signing the Call, and I allowed my name to go upon it on the strict condition that no service of any sort was to be expected of me. I was content to ring the bell, but not to do any part of the preaching or evangelizing.