Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 4

To the Congress of the United States:

¹

The undersigned, citizens of . . ., respectfully submit—

That, as the present formidable rebellion against the General Government manifestly finds its root and nourishment in the system of chattel slavery at the South; as the leading conspirators are slaveholders, who constitute an oligarchy avowedly hostile to all free institutions; and as, in the nature of things, no solid peace can be maintained while the cause of this treasonable revolt is permitted to exist; your honorable body is urgently implored to lose no time in enacting, under the war-power, the total abolition of slavery throughout the country— liberating unconditionally the slaves of all who are rebels, and, while not recognizing the right of property in man, allowing for the emancipated slaves of such as are loyal to the Government a fair pecuniary award, as a conciliatory measure, and to facilitate an amicable adjustment of difficulties; and thus to bring the war to a speedy and beneficent termination, and indissolubly to unite all sections and all interests of the country upon the enduring basis of universal freedom.

In an editorial on ‘The Time for National Deliverance,’² he said, with all the emphasis of italics, to President Lincoln and his Cabinet advisers: ‘To refuse to deliver those captive millions who are now legally in your power, is tantamount to the crime of their original enslavement; and their blood shall a righteous God require at your hands. Put the trump of jubilee to your lips!’

In October Mr. Garrison visited Pennsylvania to attend the annual meeting of the State Anti-Slavery Society at³ West Chester, and wrote the ‘Statement of Principles’⁴ there adopted—a succinct exposition of the position held by the Society and by the abolitionists at large, with a final word for Mr. Lincoln again. On his way to West Chester, he tarried for a day or two in New York, where a brilliant evening reception was given him at a friend's⁵ house, and he “appeared in greatly improved health, full of a fine animation, exhibiting (as everywhere) his characteristic mirthfulness and seriousness,” A. S. Standard, Oct. 26, Lib. 31.174. and made ‘a happy ’