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

1 Arthur Tappan (1786-1865), a native of Northampton, Mass., began his business career in Portland, Me., in 1807, removing thence in 1809 to Montreal, where he prospered until the War of 1812 destroyed his business and compelled him to leave Canada at a great sacrifice. Establishing himself in New York in 1815, he succeeded eventually in building up a large and profitable silk trade, and became one of the best-known merchants in the country, whose name was a synonym for uprightness. A man of the most simple tastes and frugal habits, he gave lavishly of his fortune to aid the religious and philanthropic movements of the day, and contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the support of the Tract and Bible Societies, theological seminaries, and various educational and reformatory efforts. His early espousal of the slave's cause, and the moral and material support which he brought to the anti-slavery movement, were therefore of incalculable value and importance. ‘With a sound understanding,’ wrote Mr. Garrison of him, ‘a great conscience to the dictates of which he was inflexibly true, a genuine humility that did not wish the left hand to know what the right hand performed, a moral courage that could look any reproach or peril serenely in the face in the discharge of what seemed to be an imperative duty, a sense of rectitude commensurate with the golden rule, a spirit of philanthropy as comprehensive and universal as the “one blood” of all nations of men, a liberality rarely paralleled in the consecration of his means to deliver the oppressed and to relieve suffering humanity in all its multifarious aspects, and a piety that proved its depth and genuineness by the fruits it bore, his example is to be held up for imitation to the latest posterity.’ (See “Life of Arthur Tappan,” p. 424.) The founder of the Tappan family in this country settled in Newbury, Mass., so that Mr. Garrison's benefactor, like himself, was of Essex County descent (Hist. and Genealogical Register, 14.327, and for Jan., 1880, pp. 48-55).

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