Chapter 4: the reelection of Lincoln.—1864.
Thompson lands in February, and is made the object of marked public attention, lecturing in the National Capitol before the President and the leaders of Congress. A division arises in the abolition ranks over the reelection of Lincoln, Wendell Phillips opposing it with much vehemence, and Garrison favoring it with equal earnestness, as does Thompson also. Garrison attends as a spectator the National Convention of the Republican party at Philadelphia, which unani-mously renominates Lincoln, while demanding the utter extinction of slavery. He proceeds to Baltimore, and finds the jail in which he was confined in 1830 demolished; visits Washington for the first time, and is heartily received by the President, and very courteously in the Senate chamber. In a controversy with Professor F. W. Newman of London, he defends the renomination of Lincoln, whose reelection presently crowns the repeal by Congress of the Fugitive Slave Law, and the abolition of slavery by Maryland.The new year opened with the shadow of a great sorrow resting upon the household in Dix Place. On the night of December 29, 1863, Mrs. Garrison was prostrated by a severe stroke of paralysis, which entirely crippled her left side, and for several days made her recovery doubtful. The blow was utterly unexpected, for she had ever enjoyed the best of health, and her energetic exertions, not only in the management of her domestic affairs, but in outside works of kindness and benevolence, were unceasing. Early in the month she had accompanied her husband and two of their sons to the Decade Meeting at Philadelphia, to her great enjoyment and the gratification of her friends in that city, for her devotion to home and children had seldom allowed her to indulge in such excursions. She returned happy in the memory of her delightful experience, and in the thought that she might attempt such visits oftener in future, now that her children no longer needed her constant maternal care, and that the approaching downfall of slavery promised more opportunities of relaxation for her husband. She had seldom looked more fresh and blooming than on the day which proved to be her last of active, vigorous health, and the friends on whom she called, on an errand in behalf of the freedmen, were impressed by her fine appearance. In the evening she attended a lecture with her husband and children, and an hour or two after she had retired for the
