and showed that it perfectly understood itself and what was going on. I never felt more relieved and satisfied at the adjournment of any meeting since that of 1839, when the real battle of New and Old Organization was fought, the question being the3 accepting of Garrison's Report. We instituted a series of a Hundred Conventions in Massachusetts,4 which will suffice to5 open the eyes of any who need enlightenment as to the true character of the Liberty Party. If it cannot control and use them, it will do all in its power to thwart them and destroy their effect. John Quincy Adams occupied a good deal of time,6 and D. L. Child made an unfortunate show of zeal in defending his A.7 S. character—a character which Mr. A. has always, and very emphatically in his last speech, disclaimed. Thomas Earle of8 Philadelphia (who is about as rabid a Democrat as Child is a9 Whig, though with more command of his prejudices) and Garrison brought up a mass of facts respecting him which surprised10 me by their amount.11 One of the most remarkable proofs of the profligacy of the Third Party is the adopting of Mr. A. as their candidate, virtually, by not setting up one of their own in
This text is part of:
[97]
to the compact and, ‘by a moral and peaceful revolution,’ effecting its overthrow.
No action was taken upon any of these, owing to the diminished attendance at the close of the meetings, but1 the Society was unmistakably in accord with the policy of the future.
It followed Mr. Garrison in renewing the testimony against the Liberty Party, and specifically (in this Presidential year) against its candidate, J. G. Birney,2 as well as against Henry Clay, the predestined nominee of the Whig Party, and Calhoun and Van Buren, possible candidates of the Democratic Party.
“The behavior of the Society in all these circumstances was admirable,” Ms.
Jan. 30, 1844. wrote Edmund Quincy to R. D. Webb,
3 Ante, 2.272-275.
4 In imitation of the grand double series of a Hundred Conventions engineered by the American Society the year before in the Middle and Western States—Collins's farewell impulse to the anti-slavery movement (Lib. 13: 95, 139, 143, 155, and see Sydney Howard Gay's review in Lib. 14: 11, 15). These Massachusetts Conventions became the natural vehicle of the disunion propaganda.
6 Videlicet, as a topic, not in person.
9 Ante, 2.343.
11 Mr. Child himself, in a letter to the Standard, confessed the weight of Mr. Garrison's arraignment of Adams (Lib. 14: 26).
The Century Company. , 1885-1889.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.