It was barely a week after the appearance of the editorial review in the Liberator that Dr. Channing and Mr. Garrison[94] What say you, my dear friend? Were my late strictures1 upon Gerrit Smith merited or not? His letter to Gurley was not, I think, magnanimous. He seems to be wholly unwilling to allow that he himself has erred in his views or principles at any time, but is liberal in rebuking both the Anti-Slavery and the Colonization Societies. My copy of Wayland's Elements, (first edition), I have left in2 Boston. I meant to have noticed the work ere this. The part to which you allude I had marked for review. Another edition of the work has been published, ‘abridged and adapted to the use of schools and academies,’ a copy of which is before me. The work is almost entirely rewritten, and, as a whole, is of some value. On the subject of slavery, he is corrupt and oppressive. ‘If,’ he says, ‘the slave be able to take care of himself, [the master is to be judge and jury, you will observe], the master will either immediately manumit him,—or,—by allowing him such wages as are just, enable him, in process of time, to liberate himself’!! that is, will make him pay roundly for an inalienable right! In his chapter on Benevolence, he is equally inconsistent. Speaking of injuries received, he says—‘Our blessed Saviour spent his life in doing good to his bitterest enemies, unmoved by the most atrocious and most malignant injustice. So we are commanded to bless them that curse us, &c. God has made it the condition of the pardon of our offences.’ ‘On our obedience to this command is suspended our only hope of salvation.’ Yet he immediately adds—‘If a man break into my house, it does not follow that I should not take proper means to have him put in prison’!! Go to Utica, by all means. True, you are wanted very much in Connecticut, at this crisis, and perhaps you can so arrange matters as to labor here till the May meeting. At all events, go to Utica. I would rather see you in charge of an abolition paper, or any other moral reform paper, than any other man in the range of my acquaintance. You may do much, I know, as a correspondent of the Emancipator, but you ought never to vacate the editorial chair as long as you have strength to fill it. Write me again soon. Yours affectionately,
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It was barely a week after the appearance of the editorial review in the Liberator that Dr. Channing and Mr. Garrison
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