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of the first week, which indicated the dissatisfaction felt towards the recreant Gazette. The latter paper sought to ridicule the ‘Boston man’ who had been imported to start an opposition paper, and made the most of the prejudice which some of the Vermonters felt towards the city upstart who had presumed to come and enlighten them as to their duties, and who was thought to be over-nice in matters of dress;1 but the editor of the Journal rarely deigned to notice the attacks on his paper, and never those on himself.
He quickly won friends whose admiration and love he never lost, and who attached themselves to him with the loyal devotion which characterized those who followed his leadership in after years.
Chief among these, as already mentioned, was James Ballard, the Principal of the ‘Bennington English and Classical Seminary for Young Gentlemen and Ladies,’ an institution which was the pride of the town, and which attracted pupils from a considerable distance.
He was ‘a man born to impress and inspire,’ and a most successful teacher, combining2 firmness with gentleness, physical with moral courage, enthusiasm and energy with a tender, affectionate, and deeply religious nature.
The two men were irresistibly attracted to one another, and spent much time together, discussing projects for the advancement of the race; and when Mr. Ballard had a controversy with the Academy Committee, which led to his retiring and setting up a rival establishment, the Journal warmly sustained his cause.3
Mr. Garrison's home in Bennington was at the boardinghouse of Deacon Erwin Safford, which was patronized
1 ‘I remember Mr. Garrison at the time he was in Bennington. He was then in the beauty and strength of early manhood. He dressed in a black dress coat, black trousers, white vest, and walked as erect as an Indian’ (James A. Briggs, in N. Y. Evening Post, August 5, 1879).
2 Ellis's Life of E. H. Chapin, pp. 26-30.
3 Mr. Ballard was one of the first subscribers to the Liberator, a Vice-President of the Vermont Anti-Slavery Society, and one of the Secretaries of the New England Anti-Slavery Convention held in Boston May 24, 1836. He subsequently became a Congregational minister, and died in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Jan. 7, 1881.
The Century Company. , 1885-1889.
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