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

[337] He has been accused of unduly exciting their hopes, but the Colonization Society is already smitten and tottering. He describes the nature of his mission to England, ‘at the unanimous request of the Managers of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society, and satisfied in my own mind, after great consideration, that the finger of Providence points out the way.’ His principal object is to assist in raising $50,000 for the National Manual Labor School, by invoking the cooperation of wealthy philanthropists. Another is to head off Elliott Cresson, ‘who has been long in the country, and has succeeded in duping the British people out of large sums of money to promote the objects of the brazen handmaid of slavery.’

Another important object I have in view is, to establish a¹ regular correspondence between the abolitionists of England and those of this country, and to secure a union of sentiment and action. Much useful information may be obtained, and many valuable anti-slavery tracts and publications collected for distribution among us. We deem it important to learn, precisely, the methods adopted by the friends of abolition in England, in operating upon public sentiment; upon what principles, and by what regulations, their anti-slavery societies are conducted; in what manner female influence has been so widely secured, and so powerfully exerted against slavery; and, in short, to gather up all those facts, and obtain all those instructions, in relation to this great cause which can in any degree assist us in destroying the monster oppression, and placing your whole race upon a footing of equality with the rest of the world.

The Address, whose opening was figurative and florid, well suited to a colored audience, closed with exhortations to moral behavior during his absence, and to faith in the God of Israel in Egypt.

On Friday, April 5, Mr. Garrison set out from Boston. His progress up to his embarkation will be best described in extracts from his private correspondence, as the Lib-