Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 1

At the same date Arnold Buffum wrote, kindly inviting¹ him to make his house his home during the proposed visit to Philadelphia, sympathizing with him for being cramped for money, and relating his endeavors to push collections; but admitting that ‘this is indeed a dull place for abolition principles,’ and that he could not see that any (male) anti-slavery society would be started there.² Three days later a private circular appeal was put forth by Garrison & Knapp, addressed to the friends of the Liberator, and beginning with the startling enquiry, ‘shall the Liberator die?’ Its pecuniary embarrassments had reached a crisis which must speedily determine its fate. ‘Unless they be met and obviated promptly by the combined efforts of its friends, the paper must cease on the first of July.’ Shall the editor ‘be compelled, by imperious necessity, to forsake the cause which is so near to his heart, and turn his attention to other pursuits in order to get his daily bread? Shall he be forced to occupy a station in which he can give instead of a constant and vigorous cooperation, but an incidental and trifling support to a cause which needs a vast accession of strength to secure its final triumph? In one sentence—shall the Liber-Ator die?—not so much in consequence of the opposition of its enemies, as the indifference of its friends?’

Permit us briefly to trace our career. We commenced the Liberator without having obtained previously a single subscriber. In the course of the first volume, about 500 subscribers were added to our list: of course, this number was inadequate to our support. It slowly increased, however, during the second and