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

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“But who are we,” will men ask, “that talk of such things? Are we enough to make a revolution?” No, Sir; but we are enough to begin one, and, once begun, it never can be turned back. I am for revolution, were I utterly alone. I am there because I must be there. I must cleave to the right. I cannot choose but obey the voice of God. Now, there are but few who do not cling to their agreement with hell, and obey the voice of the devil. But soon the number who shall resist will be multitudinous as the stars of heaven.

In the beginning, what a gross absurdity did our fathers exhibit!—trying to do what is not in the power of God—to reconcile the irreconcilable—to make Slavery and Freedom mingle and cohere! It can never be. Look at the lover of freedom and the advocate of slavery, the slaveholder and the abolitionist, at this day. Do they acknowledge the same God? Do they worship at the same shrine? A government composed of both is impossible; and he who would pass for a lover of freedom, should have found it out. Do not tell me of our past union, and for how many years we have been one. We were only one while we were ready to hunt, shoot down, and deliver up the slave, and allow the Slave Power to form an oligarchy on the floor of Congress! The moment we say no to this, the Union ceases—the Government falls.

The question now is, Shall there longer remain any freemen in this country?—for, of course, if we continue with the South, standing with her and by her, in her aggressions upon Mexico; if we see her taking foreign territory to herself, and yet aid her in retaining it; we are as bad as she—betrayers of our sacred trust of freedom, and forgers of our own chains.

I thank God that, as has been stated by you, Sir, we stand on common ground here to-day. I pray God that party and sect may not be remembered. I trust the only question we shall feel like asking each other is, Are we prepared to stand by the cause of God and Liberty, and to have no Union with slaveholders?

The meeting was adjourned to Cambridge, where it¹ attracted a small popular attendance, and again adjourned² till October 21. Mr. Garrison spoke on both occasions,³ and on the latter the following resolution, of his moving, was adopted:

That should the perfidious and illegal act of Texan⁴ annexation be consummated at the next session of Congress, it will