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

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2. Resolved, That the American Union is, and ever has been since the adoption of the Constitution, a rope of sand (so far as the North is concerned), and a concentration of the physical force of the nation to destroy liberty and to uphold slavery.

3. Resolved, That the safety, prosperity, and perpetuity of the non-slaveholding States require that their connexion be immediately dissolved with the slave States in form, as it is now in fact.

Bradburn was the chief opponent of Mr. Garrison, who¹ was again satisfied to have the question freely considered in all its bearings without forcing it to a formal vote. This policy of forbearance was everywhere observed at anti-slavery meetings throughout the year. According to the disposition of each society or assembly, the disunion resolutions were either adopted, or (as commonly)² laid upon the table. Disunion was in the air. The first petition to Congress had been followed by others—from Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts again (this last,³ most elaborate, as David Lee Child's compositions were wont to be, and able). But meantime the conspiracy for the annexation of Texas began to rear its head anew. Southern State legislatures adopted resolves in favor of⁴ it which met with a willing reception in Congress, while those in opposition fell under the ban of anti-slavery⁵ petitions until the inconsistency became too glaring.⁶ Recruiting for the Texan army (even under clerical⁷ auspices) went on openly, at the North as at the South, after the invasion of Texas by Mexico in March. When,⁸ on April 13, a Representative from New York moved in Congress to suppress the Mexican mission, as being an instrumentality of annexation, Slade of Vermont⁹ seconded him, declaring that he would not give a snap of his¹⁰ finger for the Union after the annexation of Texas. To Botts of Virginia, offering a preposterous pledge on the¹¹ part of the South, not to annex Texas if the abolitionists would disband, Mr. Garrison replied: ‘The annexation of¹² Texas will be the termination of the American Union, and ’