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

‘ [259] to call me a madman, a fanatic, a disturber of the peace, a promoter of rebellion,—among other charitable epithets,—for vindicating the rights of the slaves, will naturally be offended if I presume to stand up in behalf of the free people of color, or to address them on a subject appertaining to their welfare. I am determined, nevertheless, to give slaveholders and their apologists as much uneasiness as possible. They shall hear me, and of me, and from me, in a tone and with a frequency that shall make them tremble. There shall be no neutrals: men shall either like me or dislike me.’

The immediate occasion of the Address was a visit to Philadelphia during the month of June, 1831, which gave Mr. Garrison a temporary rest from the exhausting labors of the printing-office. In that city the First Annual Convention of the Colored People of the United States had been called; and at the earnest solicitation of the Rev. Simeon S. Jocelyn, of New Haven, and of Arthur Tappan (who characteristically engaged to pay his travelling expenses), he gladly consented to attend it in company with them, in order to strengthen their contemplated appeal for cooperation in a scheme for establishing a colored college in New Haven—an enterprise which owed its inception to Mr. Jocelyn, and which had¹ been slumbering for nearly two years,² though in the meantime a colored primary school had been opened. The proposed college was to combine the usual literary courses with instruction in the mechanic arts, agriculture and horticulture; and New Haven was selected because of its existing educational advantages, as well as on account of its trade with the West Indies, in the British portion of which emancipation was evidently³ impending. Mr. Tappan had purchased land for the proposed building, and had agreed at the outset to contribute one thousand dollars out of ten which the white friends of the institution should provide; and the Philadelphia Convention was depended upon to raise another ten thousand among the colored people. No