Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 2

[128] son listened in the lower house of the Massachusetts Legislature to the reading and almost unanimous ¹ adoption of a report emphatically upholding the right of petition (which had been virtually denied), especially ‘for the removal of a great social, moral and political evil’; denouncing the assumption of power in the obnoxious resolution as doing violence to the Constitution and to the inherent, absolute and inalienable rights of man; cordially approving the conduct of the State's representatives, and reaffirming the authority of Congress to abolish slavery in the District. The Massachusetts Senate followed with even stronger resolutions.²

‘We have had,’ writes Mr. Garrison to George W. Benson,³ ‘and are yet having, lively times in our Legislature on the subject of slavery. You will see, by the last Liberator, how the question has been carried—in one branch by a vote of 378 to 16,⁴ in the other by a vote of 33 to none!⁵ in our favor, too! It is the most extraordinary change in political action, on a moral subject, in the annals of legislation. However, a strong effort is now making, by our enemies, to suppress all the resolutions upon the final vote for concurrence. It is not probable that they will succeed, but our majority will be reduced. No⁶ matter: the old Commonwealth of Massachusetts will do her duty in grand style, and pioneer the way for her sister States in the cause of emancipation. We shall secure this session, undoubtedly, the right of trial by jury to runaway slaves.’⁷

After the middle of June, Mr. Garrison, for the better health of his family, removed again to Brooklyn, leaving his friend Oliver Johnson as sub-editor in charge of the⁸ Liberator, but aiming to write regularly for the paper. Since the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society he had attended four others, to each of which a word must be given. One was the quarterly