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

Chapter 12: American Anti-slavery Society.—1833.

The flame broke out by reason of an ‘unpremeditated³ coincidence’ for which Mr. Garrison was in no wise responsible. Notices of a public meeting to form that New York City Anti-Slavery Society which he had effectively encouraged on his departure, were read from the⁴ [381] pulpits⁵ on the very day the Hannibal cast anchor in New York harbor, and the Courier and Enquirer at once associated it with his arrival. The notorious Garrison has returned; the ‘friends of immediate emancipation’ are summoned to meet together. ‘What, then, is to be⁶ done? Are we tamely to look on, and see this most dangerous species of fanaticism extending itself through society? . . . Or shall we, by promptly and fearlessly crushing this many-headed Hydra in the bud, expose the weakness as well as the folly, madness, and mischief of these bold and dangerous men?’ Everybody, continued the editor, favors immediate emancipation with compensation, and accordingly he recommended the mob to accept the invitation to attend at Clinton Hall, that same evening (October 2), and to join in the calm and temperate discussion of the different propositions. A communication to the same paper from the ‘Ghost of Peter the Hermit’ predicted slaughter as the result of the antislavery crusade, ‘if you listen to my voice now, and to the solicitations of the pacific Garrison. He will undoubtedly have great weight with you from having abused and maligned your country with such patriotic ardor abroad! He comes in the flush of triumph, and with the flatteries still on his ear of those who wish not well to your country.’ Similar incentives were employed by the Standard of the same date: ‘In this matter we⁷ have a duty to perform, not to ourselves alone, but to our brethren of the South. . . . We are not astonished at the excitement which the acts of Garrison and his friends have produced in this community. . . . Let the people look to it.’ Meantime, placards were posted about the city bearing the following significant

Notice to all persons from the South.⁸

All persons interested in the subject of a meeting called by J. Leavitt, W. Green, Jr., W. Goodell, J. Rankin, Lewis Tappan, [382] at Clinton Hall, this evening at 7 o'clock, are requested to attend at the same hour and place.

Many Southerners. New York, Oct. 2, 1833.

N. B. All Citizens who may feel disposed to manifest the true feeling of the State on this subject, are requested to attend.

How Mr. Garrison spent the interval between Sunday and Wednesday evenings (unless at quarantine) is not known, nor whether he had met with his anti-slavery associates in the city up to the hour of the meeting, towards which, as a simple spectator, he made his way in the midst of a large and threatening crowd. Arrived at Clinton Hall,⁹ it was found closed. The Trustees, Arthur Tappan excepted, had withdrawn their permission to hold the meeting, which accordingly had been quietly adjourned to the Chatham-Street Chapel,¹⁰ where organization was effected and a constitution barely adopted before the mob, which had meantime been passing resolutions in Tammany Hall, burst in on the heels of the retreating members. The story of the riot has been told in the “Life of Arthur Tappan” (pp. 168-175) and in Johnson's Garrison and his Times (p. 145). Mr. Garrison's relations to it are all that can concern us here. Swaggering John Neal,¹¹ who, naturally enough as a ‘notorious Colonizationist,’ took a leading part in it, has left [383] this blundering account in his “Wandering Recollections of a somewhat busy life” :

As I happened to be going through New York, with my¹² wife, on our way to the Western country, and thence to Europe, in 1834, or 1835, I should say, I found myself one day in the Courier and Enquirer office, where, by the way, I first met with Mr. Bennett, who had just been secured for that paper, and¹³ was there introduced to me by Colonel Webb. I was informed¹⁴ that a meeting was called in the Park, by William Lloyd Garrison, for that very evening. After some talk, I consented to take a hand. It was arranged that we should all go to the meeting, and adjourn to Old Tammany, and that there I should offer a resolution, which was to be seconded by Mr. Graham,¹⁵ afterward postmaster. We went, took possession of the meeting, and adjourned to Tammany; and I had the greatest difficulty in crowding my way up to the platform all out of breath, choked with dust, and steaming with perspiration, where I called for Mr. Garrison, or any of his friends, to appear; promising them safe conduct and fair play. But nobody answered. I made a short speech: Graham backed out; and the resolutions were passed with a roar like that you may sometimes hear in the Bay of Fundy.

On my way out, I was completely surrounded, lifted off my feet, and carried by storm into a cellar, and, by the time we were seated at the table, out sprang half a score of bowieknives, and as many pistols; and at least a dozen cards were handed me, with “Alabama,” “Georgia,” and “South Carolina,” under the names. They had proposed, a few minutes before, to go after Garrison, to some church, where they were told he was to be found; and went so far as to say that, when I called for him, if he had appeared on the platform, they would have “rowed him up Salt River.” And then they asked me if I had not seen their handbill. I had not, nor heard it mentioned; but it seems that in the afternoon they had issued a poster, calling upon the “men of the South” to be present at the meeting, which was to take place in the Park. I told them what would have been the consequences, if they had meddled with Garrison where I was; for we were banded together, Colonel Webb, Mr. Graham, and perhaps twenty more, with a determination to see fair play, at the risk of our lives—taking it for granted that free discussion could do the cause of truth no harm. To this my new Southern friends assented, at last, [384] and gave up the idea of tearing down a church because a hunted man had found shelter with the women there; and we parted in peace.¹⁶

The contemporary record of Neal's exploits (in which his potential control of the mob naturally does not appear) reads as follows:

In the course of his remarks, he gave a correct portrait of¹⁷ Garrison, whom he designated as a man who had gone through this country as far as he had dared, to promulgate his doctrines, and had also crossed the Atlantic with the same object. He stated that Garrison and his associates were willing to trample the Constitution under foot, by the influence of anti-slavery societies; and the object of the present call was to appoint an Auxiliary Society to that already established in the Eastern States by himself and a few deluded followers.

An eye-witness of the mob describes it as ‘a genuine,¹⁸ drunken, infuriated mob of blackguards of every species, some with good clothes, and the major part the very sweepings of the city.’ ‘The shouting, screaming, and cursing for Tappan and Garrison defy all belief.’ A merchant in respectable circumstances said: ‘If I had my will, or if I could catch him, Garrison should be packed up in a box with air-holes, marked “this side up,” and so shipped to Georgia.’¹⁹ The Commercial Advertiser²⁰ confirmed this report: ‘In regard to Wm. Lloyd Garrison, the misguided young gentleman who has just returned from England, whither he has recently been for [385] the sole purpose, as it would seem, of traducing the people and institutions of his own country,²¹ and who, it was supposed, was to have taken an active part in this meeting, but one sentiment appeared to prevail. We will not record the expressions of disgust and abhorrence which were coupled with his name.’ Had he been present, many ‘grave and respectable citizens’ would have consented to his being tarred and feathered. ‘We hope, most sincerely, that not a hair of Mr. Garrison's head will ever be injured by personal violence; but he will do well to consider that his course of conduct in England has kindled a spirit of hostility towards him at home which cannot be easily allayed. He will act wisely never to attempt addressing a public meeting in this country again.’

The Evening Post could not credit the stories of ²² threatened violence to Mr. Garrison: ‘The mere feeling of magnanimity towards an antagonist so feebly supported, with so few adherents, with so little sympathy in his favor, should have forbidden the expression of such a design, even uttered as an unmeaning menace. We should be sorry that any invasion of his personal rights should occur to give him consequence, and to increase the number of his associates. Garrison is a man who, whatever may be the state of his mind on other topics, is as mad as the winds on the slavery question.’ It added: ‘We know of no question of public policy on which public opinion is so unanimous’ as that of discountenancing the abolitionists.

Deplorably ignorant of what he owed to Neal's friendly protection, but well aware how much restraint magnanimity had imposed on the mob with reference to himself, Mr. Garrison pursued his journey to Boston, where his approach had also stirred the spirit of violence. On Monday, October 7, the following handbill was generally circulated throughout the city: [386]

This base appeal sufficed to surround the Liberator²⁵ office that night with ‘a dense mob, breathing threatenings which foreboded a storm.’ But as yet, even in Boston, Mr. Garrison was so little known to the public that he might, as in New York, have mingled unsuspected with his pursuers. In fact, nothing came of the demonstration except a silly suggestion by the Post, that the inflammatory handbill had ‘been printed²⁶ and distributed by friends of Mr. Garrison’; and the equally silly comment of the incredulous Transcript, that Mr. Garrison was ‘not quite so mad, (lunatic as he is, on the subject of negro slaves and slavery,) as to excite still further the indignation of his fellowcitizens by such or any similar act of indiscretion and folly.’ The madman (by the concurrent judgment of [387] two cities) paid his respects to both the mobs and their promoters at his first opportunity, in the Liberator:

To the charge made against me by the cowardly ruffian²⁷ who conducts the New York Courier and Enquirer,²⁸ and by the miserable liar and murderous hypocrite of the New York Commercial Advertiser,²⁹ of having slandered my country abroad, I reply that it is false. All that I uttered in England in reference to the institutions and practices of the United States shall be given to the public. I did not hesitate there—I have not hesitated here—I shall hesitate nowhere, to brand this country as hypocritical and tyrannical in its treatment of the people of color, whether bond or free. If this be calumny, I dealt freely in it, as I shall deal, as long as slavery exists among us—or, at least, as long as the power of utterance is given to my tongue. Still—slavery aside—I did not fail to eulogize my country, before a British audience, in terms of affection, admiration and respect.

As to the menaces and transactions of the New York mob, I regard them with mingled emotions of pity and contempt. I was an eye-witness of that mob, from the hour of its assembling at Clinton Hall to its final assault upon the Chatham-Street Chapel—standing by it, undisguisedly, as calm in my feelings as if those who were seeking my life were my warmest supporters.³⁰

The frantic annunciation of the worthless Webb—— “The Agitators Defeated! The Constitution Triumphant!” —is extremely ludicrous. It is not possible that even that wretched man can, for a moment, delude himself with the notion that any abolitionist will abandon the holy cause which he has espoused, in consequence of any threats or any acts of personal violence. For myself, I am ready to brave any danger, even unto death. I feel no uneasiness either in regard to my fate or to the success of the cause of abolition. Slavery must speedily be abolished: the blow that shall sever the chains of the slaves may shake the nation to its centre—may momentarily disturb the pillars of the Union—but it shall redeem the character, extend the influence, establish the security, and increase the prosperity of our great republic.

I cannot express the admiration which I feel in view of the moral courage and unshrinking determination of those who assembled at Chatham-Street Chapel, in despite of peril and [388] reproach, for the purpose of organizing an Anti-Slavery Society. The Constitution which they adopted breathes an excellent spirit, and is sound in principle. Such men can never be intimidated by the vile.

The whole of this disgraceful excitement owes its origin and execution to the prominent advocates of the Colonization Society.³¹ The first who had the hardihood to stigmatize me as having gone abroad to calumniate my country, were those wholesale dealers in falsehood and scurrility, Robert S. Finley, Joshua N. Danforth, and Cyril Pearl.

An attempt to create an excitement was made on my arrival in this city, by some anonymous blackguard, which met with partial success. The effect of these proceedings cannot fail to be highly favorable to the cause of emancipation.

Glory to them who die in this great cause!
     Mobs—judges—can inflict no brand of shame,
Or shape of death, to shroud them from applause!
     No! manglers of the martyr's earthly frame,
Your hangmen fingers cannot touch his fame.
     Still in this guilty land there shall be some
Proud hearts—the shrine of Freedom's vestal flame;
     Long trains of ill may pass unheeded—dumb—
But Vengeance is behind, and Justice is to come!

A month later, as promised, Mr. Garrison printed the ground of his offence against his countrymen, accompanying it with this explanation:

The Liberator of this morning embodies all the slanders³² which I uttered in England against the American Colonization Society and the United States. The speeches which were delivered at the great meeting held in Exeter Hall, and which have caused so much excitement among the colonization crusaders and their backers the mobocracy, were all taken down by a skilful and accomplished reporter, expressly for publication in this country. So far from being ashamed of my language on that memorable occasion, I gave eighty dollars for a full report of all that was then uttered by myself and others, in order that I might faithfully present it to the public on my return. I wish neither to modify nor retract a single sentence. The other speeches will follow in due course. To that fearless and eloquent champion of liberty, that first of Irish patriots, Daniel O'Connell, Esq., the colored population of this country [389] and their advocates are under heavy obligations for his masterly vindication of their cause, his terrible castigation of American slavery, and his withering satire upon the colonization “humbug,” at this meeting.

Now let the enemies of freedom foam and rage!—But the secret of their malice lies in the triumphant success of my mission. Had I failed to vanquish the agent of the American Colonization Society, or to open the eyes of British philanthropists to its naked deformity, there would have been no excitement on my return. These sensitive republicans who are so jealous of the reputation of their country, be it remembered, are the most sturdy upholders of the slave system, and the most ardent sticklers for the banishment of our free colored population to the African coast.³³ They esteem it no disgrace to debase, lacerate, plunder and kidnap two millions of slaves, and tread upon the necks of half a million free colored citizens; but it is foul slander, in their impartial judgment, to declare before a British audience that such conduct is in the highest degree hypocritical and tyrannical. But their iniquity is not done in a corner, nor can it be hid under a bushel; and I tell them that I will hold them up to the scorn and indignation of the world— I will stamp the brand of infamy upon their brow, which, like the mark of Cain, shall make them known and detested by the friends of freedom and humanity in every country and in every clime. “Where there is shame, there may in time be virtue.” I have already crimsoned their cheeks with the bitter consciousness of their guilt; and through their shame I will never despair of seeing them brought to repentance. It is idle for them to bluster and threaten—they will find out, by and by, that I am storm-proof.

If I had outraged common sense and common decency, by throwing all the guilt of our oppression upon the British Government; if I had dealt in the wretched cant that slavery was an evil entailed upon us by the mother country; if I had been as dishonest, as hypocritical, and as pusillanimous as the agent [390] of the American Colonization Society; if I had extolled that kind of philanthropy which calls for the banishment of every man, woman and child whose skin is “not colored like my own” ; if I had asserted that the stealers of human beings in the Southern States were kind, liberal and paternal in their treatment of their victims, and anxious to abolish slavery; in short, if I had sacrificed conscience, honesty and truth upon the altar of falsehood and prejudice—why, then the reputation of the United States would have been pure and spotless in the eyes of the English nation, and I should have received the applause, instead of the malediction, of a senseless mob! But I was neither knave nor fool enough to do any such thing. I spoke the truth, in the love of the truth—the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I freely acknowledged the guilt, the awful guilt, of this boasted land of liberty, in holding one sixth part of its immense population in servile chains; and besought the sympathy of the friends of bleeding humanity in England, in behalf of our afflicted slaves. Nor did I fail to tear the mask from the brow of the American Colonization Society, so that it might be feared and loathed as a monster of cruelty, violence and blood. For this cause, “the wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.”

Undeterred by the riotous demonstrations which had attended his return, and in forgetfulness or defiance of his Canterbury enemies who had sought to prevent his departure for England, Mr. Garrison, in the fourth week in October, paid a visit to Miss Crandall, and saw her³⁴ school ‘in the full tide of successful experiment.’ He saw also ‘the stone which was thrown into the window by some unknown republican of Canterbury—the shattered pane of glass—the window-curtain stained by a volley of rotten eggs—and last, not least, a moral nondescript, though physically a human being, named A——³⁵ T——J—–.’ Thence repairing to Brooklyn, the real Mecca of his journey, he was most hospitably received by the venerable George Benson, under whose roof, on the 27th of October, occurred an incident thus reported in the next issue of the Liberator: [391]

Acknowledgment.—Just before midnight, on Sabbath³⁶ evening last, in Brooklyn, Connecticut, the Deputy Sheriff of Windham County, in behalf of those zealous patrons of colored schools, those plain, independent republicans, those highminded patriots, those practical Christians,

Andrew T. Judson,
Rufus Adams,
Solomon Paine,
Capt. Richard Fenner,
Doctor Harris,

presented me with five indictments for a panegyric upon their virtuous and magnanimous actions, in relation to Miss Crandall's nigger school in Canterbury, inserted in the Liberator of March 16, 1833. I shall readily comply with their polite and urgent invitation to appear at the Windham County Court on the second Tuesday of December, to show cause why, &c., &c. As they have generously given me precept upon precept, I shall give them in return line upon line—here (in the Liberator) a little, and there (in the court room) a great deal.

These suits were never brought to trial. They were³⁷ continued, at Mr. Garrison's request, to the March term of the county court (1834), and were again postponed to the fourth Tuesday in January, 1835, previous to which date the following proposal was addressed by the cashier of the Windham County Bank to Mr. Benson:

Dec. 27, 1834.

³⁸ dear sir: I am requested to say to you that the five suits against Mr. Garrison can be withdrawn upon condition that neither party shall receive cost of the other; provided Mr. Garrison answers to the proposition by the 10th of January. I am also requested to ask whether you will communicate this to Mr. Garrison and receive his answer, which may be communicated to the plaintiffs.

Yours respectfully,

Adams white.

The proposition was accepted by the defendant in accordance with the pithy advice of Mr. Benson—‘You [392] know that the result of a lawsuit (however just) is very uncertain, but the expense is certain’—and of his counsel.³⁹

A year so crowded with incidents, so full of dramatic scene-shifting, so devoid of rest (except that which comes from change) for the subject of this biography, had still in reserve a climax of action. The same issue of the Liberator which reported Mr. Garrison's arrival in⁴⁰ New York gave notice that a convention for carrying out his darling project, the formation of an American Anti-Slavery Society, would be held that season in Philadelphia. The call, by concurrent resolution of the friends of immediate emancipation in the cities of Boston, Providence, New York and Philadelphia, was actually issued October 29, 1833, for the fourth day of December, and was signed by Arthur Tappan, President, Joshua Leavitt, one of the Managers, and Elizur Wright, Jr., Secretary, of the New York City Anti-Slavery Society. Delegates were requested to report to Evan Lewis, No. 94 North Fifth St., Philadelphia, and to regard the call as confidential, in order to avoid interruption in the meetings. [393] So the summons went out to every part of the North. To George W. Benson, at Providence, Mr. Garrison wrote:

W. L. Garrison to George W. Benson.

Boston, November 2, 1833.

⁴¹ Here is the warrant for our national meeting. Show it among the genuine friends of our cause as extensively as possible, and urge them to be fully represented in the Convention.

My mind is crowded with pleasing remembrances of my late visit to Canterbury and Brooklyn. How deeply am I indebted to you, to your brother, and all the members of your venerable father's household! And above all, how infinite are my obligations to that Almighty Being who has given me such dear friends, whose shield has protected me from the arrows of my bitter persecutors, and whose arm is made bare for my deliverance! Truly, ‘blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.’

I am more and more impressed with the importance of ‘working whilst the day lasts.’ If ‘we all do fade as a leaf’—if we are ‘as the sparks that fly upwards’—if the billows of time are swiftly removing the sandy foundation of our life— what we intend to do for the captive, and for our country, and for the subjugation of a hostile world, must be done quickly. Happily, ‘our light afflictions are but for a moment.’

Show a bold front at the annual meeting of your Society. I shall be with you in spirit, though not bodily.

Among your numerous friends, remember there is none more attached to you than

Wm. Lloyd Garrison.

In another direction he sped the call to Whittier, on his farm at Haverhill, who answered doubtfully, but eagerly, November 11:

John G. Whittier to W. L. Garrison.

Thy letter of the 5th has been received. . . .⁴²

I long to go to Philadelphia, to urge upon the members of my Religious Society the duty of putting their shoulders to the work—to make their solemn testimony against Slavery visible over the whole land—to urge them, by the holy memories of Woolman and Benezet and Tyson, to come up as of old to the standard of Divine Truth, though even the fires of another persecution [394] should blaze around them. But the expenses of the journey will, I fear, be too much for me: as thee know, our farming business does not put much cash in our pockets. I am, however, greatly obliged to the Boston Y. M. Association for selecting me as one of their delegates. I do not know how it may be,—but whether I go or not, my best wishes and my warmest sympathies are with the friends of Emancipation.

Some of my political friends are opposed to my anti-slavery sentiments, and perhaps it was in some degree owing to this that at the late Convention for the nomination of Senators for Essex, my nomination was lost by one vote. I should have rejoiced to have had an opportunity to cooperate personally with the Abolitionists of Boston. . . .

Can thee not find time for a visit to Haverhill before thee go on to Philadelphia? I wish I was certain of going with thee. At all events, do write immediately on receiving this, and tell me when thee shall start for the Quaker City.

Slenderer purses than Whittier's were those of some of his Essex County neighbors bent on undertaking the same pilgrimage. Mr. Garrison again wrote to Mr. Benson, under date of November 25, 1833:

W. L. Garrison to George W. Benson.

Do you wish to take by the hand as courageous, as devoted,⁴³ as uncompromising an abolitionist (not excepting ourselves) as lives in our despotic land? Then give a hearty welcome to the bearer of this—David T. Kimball of the Andover Theological Seminary, and President of the Anti-Slavery Society in that hot-bed of Colonization. His father is a clergyman residing in Ipswich, and as zealously affected in our cause as himself. He is accompanied by another worthy abolitionist, named Jewett,⁴⁴ also a student at Andover. Now to illustrate their readiness to make sacrifices in our most holy cause, I need only to state that, as their means are very limited, they have resolved to go on foot, say as far as New Haven, in order that they may thus be enabled to get to the Convention in Philadelphia! This [395] morning they start for Providence—from thence they propose going to Canterbury—and from thence to New Haven, where they will take the steamboat for New York. They will probably tarry one day in Providence, and I dare presume that between you and brother Prentice,⁴⁵ and the rest of the dear friends, they will be entertained without much cost to themselves. I think you cannot fail to be pleased with the modesty and worth of these good ‘fanatics.’

Probably you will have scarcely perused this scrawl ere I shall constitute one in your midst. I expect to take the stage to-morrow for P., and arrive there in the evening. Be good⁴⁶ enough, if you can conveniently, to call at the City Hotel, at the hour of 7, and see if the madman G. has come. Perhaps I may not get away from this city till Wednesday.

Many thanks to you and my generous creditor Henry for⁴⁷ your kind letters.

What news from Canterbury? I long to get there once more—but more particularly under the hospitable roof of your father. I confess, in addition to the other delightful attractions which are there found, the soft blue eyes and pleasant countenance of Miss Ellen are by no means impotent⁴⁸ or unattractive. But this is episodical.

The Young Men's Anti-Slavery Association of Boston are driving ahead with even a better spirit than that of ‘76. They have now upwards of 90 members! Their example cannot be lost.

I trust our Boston delegation to the Convention will not be less than eight.⁴⁹ Whether we shall get any from the State of Maine is uncertain. . . .

At the City Hotel Mr. Benson found not only his ⁵⁰ correspondent but the Quaker poet, for Whittier (thanks to the generosity of S. E. Sewall) had been enabled to join his old friend in Boston. These three, with John Prentice and what others we know not, together made their journey to New York, where they were joined by David Thurston, a Congregational minister from Maine, Samuel⁵¹ J. May, and a considerable number of delegates, who [396] made each other's acquaintance for the first time. Mr. May, who ‘studied anxiously their countenances and bearing, and caught most thirstily every word that dropped from their lips,’ and satisfied himself that ‘most of them were men ready to die, if need be, in the pass of Thermopylae,’ has recorded an episode of the journey (by steamboat from New York to Elizabethtown, and again from Bordentown to Philadelphia):

There was much earnest talking by other parties beside our⁵² own. Presently a gentleman turned from one of them to me and said, “What, sir, are the Abolitionists going to do in Philadelphia?” I informed him that we intended to form a National Anti-Slavery Society. This brought from him an outpouring of the commonplace objections to our enterprise, which I replied to as well as I was able. Mr. Garrison drew near, and I soon shifted my part of the discussion into his hands, and listened with delight to the admirable manner in which he expounded and maintained the doctrines and purposes of those who believed with him that the slaves—the blackest of them— were men, entitled as much as the whitest and most exalted men in the land to their liberty, to a residence here, if they choose, and to acquire as much wisdom, as much property, and as high a position as they may.

‘After a long conversation, which attracted as many as could get within hearing, the gentleman said, courteously: “I have been much interested, sir, in what you have said, and in the exceedingly frank and temperate manner in which you have treated the subject. If all Abolitionists were like you, there would be much less opposition to your enterprise. But, sir, depend upon it, that hair-brained, reckless, violent fanatic, Garrison, will damage, if he does not shipwreck, any cause.” Stepping forward, I replied, “Allow me, sir, to introduce you to Mr. Garrison, of whom you entertain so bad an opinion. The gentleman you have been talking with is he.” ’

The little company reached Philadelphia in the morning of December 3, and found the city sufficiently excited by the cause of their coming to justify all the⁵³ precautions already taken, and (on a hint from the police that they could not protect evening meetings) to make day sessions advisable. They gathered informally, [397] however, some forty of them, that evening in the parlors⁵⁴ of Evan Lewis,⁵⁵ when Lewis Tappan was called to the chair. Their chief concern was for a presiding officer for the Convention—preferably a Philadelphian whose character should propitiate public sentiment and be, says Mr. May, ‘a voucher for our harmlessness.’ Robert⁵⁶ Vaux, a prominent and wealthy Quaker, seemed, apart from his relations with Elliott Cresson, to fulfil these⁵⁷ conditions, and a committee consisting of three Friends (Evan Lewis, John G. Whittier, and Effingham L. Capron, of Uxbridge, Mass.), two clergymen (Beriah Green and S. J. May), and Lewis Tappan, was appointed to wait immediately upon him and upon one other forlorn hope. In both places they were received with mortifying frigidity and politely bowed out, and bedtime found them forced back on Beriah Green's sarcastic conclusion⁵⁸ —‘If there is not timber amongst ourselves big enough to make a president of, let us get along without one, or go home and stay there until we have grown up to be men.’

Between fifty and sixty delegates,⁵⁹ representing ten of the twelve free States, made their way the next morning⁶⁰ to Adelphi Hall, on Fifth Street below Walnut, greeted with abusive language as they went along, and finding the entrance to the building guarded by the police. The doors were locked upon an assembly, as Whittier noticed, ‘mainly composed of comparatively young men, some in middle age, and a few beyond that period.’ Five-sevenths of them were destined to survive President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation.⁶¹ The Quaker element was naturally prominent. Besides those already mentioned, Maine sent Joseph Southwick, and Nathan [398] and Isaac Winslow; Massachusetts, Arnold Buffum and Effingham L. Capron;⁶² Pennsylvania, Thomas Shipley, the intrepid foe of slaveholders and kidnappers, Edwin P. Atlee, whose end, like Shipley's and Evan Lewis's, was lamentably near at hand, Thomas Whitson, James Mott, Bartholomew Fussell, and other less known (Hicksite) Friends. But the variety of character and talent gathered together in that upper story would not be comprehended if allusion were not also made to Joshua Coffin, Orson S. Murray, Ray Potter, Simeon S. Jocelyn, Robert B. Hall, Amos A. Phelps, John Rankin,⁶³ William Green, Jr., Abraham L. Cox, William Goodell, Elizur Wright, Jr., George Bourne, Charles W. Denison, Robert Purvis, and James Miller McKim. On the second day, too, a handful of women, all members of the Society of Friends—Lucretia Mott, Esther Moore, Lydia White, and Sidney Ann Lewis—were, on Thomas Whitson's invitation, in attendance, and, both by their presence and their share in the deliberations, made the occasion still more epochal. A more original, devoted, philanthropic and religious body was never convened, or for a more unselfish purpose, or amid greater public contempt and odium. Its sittings were, while guarded, open to its avowed and bitter enemies. ‘No person was refused⁶⁴ admittance to the Convention: on the contrary, Messrs. Gurley and Finley [General Agent of the Colonization Society], a large number of Southern medical students, several ladies, and, in fact, all who came as spectators, were politely and cordially furnished with seats.’ [399]

On the first day, the meeting was opened with prayer, and ‘timber’ of the right sort for president was found in Beriah Green himself; Lewis Tappan and Whittier being chosen secretaries.⁶⁵ Membership was accorded to all delegates of anti-slavery societies, and to all persons present who favored immediate emancipation and opposed expatriation. Organization, and the reading of letters of sympathy from William Jay, Jeremiah Chaplin, George Duffield, Theodore D. Weld, and others, consumed the time of the session, which, for prudential reasons, was not interrupted for the noonday meal. Foraging for crackers and cheese was conducted by Joshua Coffin, and pitchers of cold water supplied the only beverage. Mr. Garrison was put on the committee to report a constitution (from which he was evidently excused), as well as on the larger committee⁶⁶ to draft a Declaration of Principles for signature by members of the Convention. Adjournment took place at five o'clock in the afternoon, and the latter committee met shortly afterwards at the house of its chairman, Dr. Atlee, where, after a comparison⁶⁷ of views, Mr. Garrison, Mr. Whittier and Mr. May were appointed a sub-committee of three to prepare a draft of the Declaration ‘to be reported next morning, at nine o'clock, to the whole committee, in the room adjoining the hall of the Convention.’ They accordingly withdrew to the house of a fellow-delegate, James McCrummell, the colored host of Mr. Garrison, and there it was finally [400] agreed that the composition of the document should be given to him who had called the Convention into being.

‘We left him,’ says Mr. May,

about ten o'clock, agreeing⁶⁸ to come to him again next morning at eight. On our return at the appointed hour, we found him, with shutters closed and lamps burning, just writing the last paragraph of his admirable draft. We read it over together two or three times very carefully, agreed to a few slight alterations, and at nine went to lay it before the whole committee. By them it was subjected to the severest examination. Nearly three hours of intense application were given to it, notwithstanding repeated and urgent calls from the Convention for our report. All the while, Mr. Garrison evinced the most unruffled patience. Very few alterations were proposed, and only once did he offer any resistance. He had introduced into his draft more than a page in condemnation of the Colonization scheme. It was the concentrated essence of all he had written or thought upon that egregious imposition. It was as finished and powerful in expression as any part of that Magna Charta. We commented upon it as a whole and in all its parts. We writhed somewhat under its severity, but were obliged to acknowledge its exact, its singular justice, and were about to accept it, when I ventured to propose that all of it, excepting only the first comprehensive paragraph, be stricken from the document, giving as my reason for this large erasure that the Colonization Society could not long survive the deadly blows it had received; and it was not worth while for us to perpetuate the memory of it in this Declaration of the Rights of Man, which will live a perpetual, impressive protest against every form of oppression, until it shall have given place to that brotherly kindness which all the children of the common Father owe to one another. At first, Mr. Garrison rose up to save a portion of his work that had doubtless cost him as much mental effort as any other part of it. But so soon as he found that a large majority of the committee concurred in favor of the erasure, he submitted very graciously, saying, “Brethren, it is your report, not mine.”

‘With this exception, the alterations and amendments which were made, after all our criticisms, were surprisingly few and unessential; and we cordially agreed to report it to the Convention very much as it came from his pen.’

All this time the Convention was speeding the hours as⁶⁹ best it might with speeches and resolves. After an opening [401] prayer by William Green, Jr., Dr. Cox read aloud these lines addressed to Mr. Garrison by Whittier, and first published in the Haverhill Gazette early in 1833,⁷⁰ though composed during the previous year:

To W. L. G.⁷¹

Champion of those who groan beneath
     Oppression's iron hand:
In view of penury, hate, and death
     I see thee fearless stand,
Still bearing up thy lofty brow
     In the steadfast strength of truth,
In manhood sealing well the vow
     And promise of thy youth.

Go on,—for thou hast chosen well;
     On in the strength of God!
Long as one human heart shall swell
     Beneath the tyrant's rod.
Speak in a slumbering nation's ear
     As thou hast ever spoken,
Until the dead in sin shall hear,—
     The fetter's link be broken!

I love thee with a brother's love,
     I feel my pulses thrill
To mark thy spirit soar above
     The cloud of human ill.
My heart hath leaped to answer thine,
     And echo back thy words,
As leaps the warrior's at the shine
     And flash of kindred swords!

They tell me thou art rash and vain—
     A searcher after fame;
That thou art striving but to gain
     A long-enduring name;
That thou hast nerved the Afric's hand,
     And steeled the Afric's heart,
To shake aloft his vengeful brand
     And rend his chain apart.

[402] Have I not known thee well, and read
     Thy mighty purpose long?
And watched the trials which have made
     Thy human spirit strong?
And shall the slanderer's demon breath
     Avail with one like me,
To dim the sunshine of my faith
     And earnest trust in thee?

Go on,—the dagger's point may glare
     Amid thy pathway's gloom,—
The fate which sternly threatens there
     Is glorious martyrdom!
Then onward with a martyr's zeal;
     And wait thy sure reward
When man to man no more shall kneel,
     And God alone be Lord!

John Rankin moved a resolution, seconded by Dr. Cox, thanking editors who had enlisted in behalf of immediate emancipation, and pledging support of the anti-slavery press; upon which the Convention went into Committee of the Whole. Beriah Green expressed his disgust with those who assert that Wm. Lloyd Garrison ‘is so imprudent, and says so many things calculated to weaken his attacks on the system of bondage.’ Dr. Cox followed with some remarks, and then—

Lewis Tappan rose, and asked permission to introduce the⁷² name of William Lloyd Garrison, and proceeded to say:

Some men, Mr. President, are frightened at a name. There is good evidence to believe that many professed friends of abolition would have been here, had they not been afraid that the name of William Lloyd Garrison would be inserted prominently in our proceedings. Sir, I am ashamed of such friends. We ought to place that honored name in the forefront of our ranks. The cause is under obligations to him which such an evidence of respect will but poorly repay.

The first time I ever heard of him was when he was in jail in Baltimore, where he was incarcerated like a felon, for pleading the cause of the oppressed and rebuking iniquity. When I saw him, appearing so mild and meek as he does, shortly after he was liberated by a gentleman in New York, I [403] was astonished. Is this the renegade Garrison? thought I, as I grasped his open hand. Is this the enemy of our country? I shall never forget the impression which his noble countenance made on me at that time, as long as I live.

An ancedote is related of a gentleman—a Colonizationist —which is worth repeating in this Convention. That gentleman had purchased, without knowing whom it represented, a portrait of Mr. Garrison, and, after having it encased in a splendid gilt frame, suspended it in his parlor. A friend calling in observed it, and asked the purchaser if he knew whom he had honored so much? He was answered, ‘No—but it is one of the most godlike-looking countenances I ever beheld.’ ‘That, sir,’ resumed the visitor, ‘is a portrait of the fanatic, the incendiary William Lloyd Garrison!’ ‘Indeed!’ concluded the gentleman, evidently much disconcerted. ‘But, sir, it shall remain in its place. I will never take it down.’⁷³

Who that is familiar with the history of Mr. Garrison does not remember the determination expressed in the first number of his paper—the Liberator—to sustain it as long as he could live on bread and water? And, sir, I am informed that he has really practised what he so nobly resolved on in the beginning.

Look at his course during his recent mission to England. He has been accused of slandering his country. Sir, he has vindicated the American name. He has not slandered it. He has told the whole truth, and put hypocrites and doughfaces to open shame. He has won the confidence of the people of England. They saw him attached to his country by the dearest ties, but loathing her follies and abhorring her crimes. He has put the anti-slavery movement forward a quarter of a century.

A fellow-passenger with Mr. Garrison from Europe—a clergyman of much intelligence—on arriving in this country heard that he was called a fanatic and a madman. ‘What,’ said he, ‘do you call such a man a fanatic? Do you deem such a man insane? For six weeks have I been with him, and a more discreet, humble and faithful Christian I never saw.’

Sir, we should throw the shield of our protection and esteem around Mr. Garrison. His life is exposed at this moment. At the door of this saloon, a young man from the [404] South said to-day that if he had opportunity, he would dip his hand in his heart's blood.⁷⁴ And, sir, there must be martyrs in this cause. We ought to feel this moment that we are liable to be sacrificed. But when I say this, I know that we are not belligerents. We would die in such a cause only as martyrs to the truth. In this, our blessed Saviour has set the example.

I did not contemplate delivering a eulogy on Mr. Garrison when I rose to speak to this resolution. I wish simply to express my heartfelt sympathy with an injured and persecuted man. Be it the honorable object of the members of this Convention to show to our countrymen that they have misunderstood the character, and misconceived the plans, of William Lloyd Garrison. He is said to be imprudent. What is prudence? Is it succumbing to a majority of our frail fellowmortals? Is it holding back a faithful expression of the whole truth, until the people are ready to say amen? Was that the prudence of the Apostle Paul, when he stood before the Roman Governor? Was that the prudence of William Penn, when he poured contempt on the regalia of kings by wearing before the King of England his broad beaver? Imprudence is moral timidity. That man is imprudent who is afraid to speak as God commands him to speak, when the hour of danger is near. If this reasoning be correct, Mr. Garrison is one of the most prudent men in the nation!

He is not perfect. He is frail, like the rest of human flesh. But if God had not endowed him as he has, and smiled propitiously on his imprudences, we should not now be engaged in the deliberations of this most interesting and important Convention. God has raised up just such a man as William Lloyd Garrison to be a pioneer in this cause. Let each member present feel solemnly bound to vindicate the character of Mr. Garrison. Let us not be afraid to go forward with him, even into the ‘imminent breach,’ although there may be professed friends who stand back because of him.

Robert Purvis,⁷⁵ of Pennsylvania, said he was grateful to God for the day. He felt to pour out the speaking gratitude [405] of his soul to the Convention, for the spirit they had manifested during the session, and especially during the pending of this resolution. He most heartily concurred in such a vote, and had no doubt but that it would pass unanimously. The name of William Lloyd Garrison sounded sweet to his ear. It produced a vibration of feeling in his bosom, which words could but too feebly sound forth. It was a feeling of love and hearty confidence, which none but a conscientious abolitionist could know.

Three years ago he had watched the progress of Mr. Garrison with extreme solicitude. The nation was then sound asleep on this subject. The colonization scheme—that scheme of darkness and delusion—was then making its wide havoc among the persecuted people of color. It was the cholera to our ranks. But Garrison arose. His voice went up with a trumpet tone. The walls of Baltimore prison could not confine its thunders. The dampness of his cell did not repress the energy of his spirit. Free and unfettered as the air, his denunciations of tyranny rolled over the land. The Liberator speedily followed. Its pages flashed light and truth far and wide. Darkness and gloom fled before it. The deep, unbroken, tomblike silence of the church gave way. The tocsin of righteous alarm was sounded. The voice of godlike Liberty was heard above the clamor of the oppressors. The effect of these efforts is seen and felt this moment in this interesting Convention. It is indeed a good thing to be here. My heart, Mr. President, is too full for my tongue. But whether I speak to them—my feelings as they exist in my inmost soul—or not, the friends of the colored American will be remembered. Yes, sir, their exertions and memories will be cherished when pyramids and monuments shall crumble. The flood of time, which is rapidly sweeping to destruction that refuge of lies, the American Colonization Society, is bearing on the advocates of our cause to a glorious and blessed immortality.⁷⁶

Lewis Tappan had also his eulogy for Lundy; and a special resolution of gratitude to the editor of the Genius for his early, disinterested and persevering labors in the [406] cause was passed on motion of Wm. Goodell and Thomas Shipley. R. B. Hall, C. W. Denison, and S. J. May were appointed a committee to communicate the sentiments of the Convention to both Lundy and Garrison.

The hour had now arrived,—it was past noon of Thursday, December 5,—when the Committee on the Declaration was ready to report. Dr. Atlee, the chairman, read the result of their labors to the Convention. ‘Never in my life,’ says Mr. May, ‘have I seen a deeper⁷⁷ impression made by words than was made by that admirable document upon all who were there present. After the voice of the reader had ceased, there was a profound silence for several minutes. Our hearts were in perfect unison. There was but one thought with us all. Either of the members could have told what the whole Convention felt. We felt that the word had just been uttered which would be mighty, through God, to the pulling down of the strongholds of slavery.’

An impulse to proceed at once to the adoption of the Declaration came from one of the weightiest Friends, who feared that much tampering with it would impair its forcibleness. But it seemed to the Convention more becoming to deliberate, and haply to amend and improve its fundamental utterance. The criticisms were mostly verbal.

Thomas Shipley, that good man and faithful friend of the⁷⁸ slave, objected to the word “man-stealer” as applied indiscriminately to the slaveholders. To this it was replied that the term was an eminently proper one; that it described the exact relation between the master and the slave. It was urged that things should be called by their right names; that Luther had said he would “call a hoe a hoe, and a spade a spade.” Besides, it was added, it was a Scriptural phrase, and the chapter and verse were quoted in which it was used. This mollified Friend Shipley, though it did not set his mind entirely at rest. At length, some one suggested that the term should be retained, but that it should be preceded by the words, “according to Scripture.” This met the difficulty, and the paper was amended so as to read: “Every American citizen who holds [retains] a human [407] being in involuntary bondage as his property, is, according to Scripture (Exodus, 21.16), a man-stealer.” ⁷⁹

Lucretia Mott—like the clever school-teacher she had been—suggested one or two rhetorical amendments which were obvious improvements. ‘When our friends⁸⁰ felt,’ she said years afterwards, with her quaint humor, ‘that they were planting themselves on the truths of Divine Revelation, and on the Declaration of Independence, as an Everlasting Rock, it seemed to me, as I heard it read, that the climax would be better to transpose the sentence, and place the Declaration of Independence first, and the truths of Divine Revelation last, as the Everlasting Rock; and I proposed it. I remember one of the younger members, Daniel E. Jewett, turning to see what⁸¹ woman there was there who knew what the word “transpose” meant.’

The formal act of signing the Declaration must, the shortening daylight admonished, be put off till the morrow. On Friday morning, ‘Samuel J. May rose to read it for the last time.⁸² His sweet, persuasive voice faltered with the intensity of his emotions as he repeated the [408] solemn pledges of the concluding paragraphs. After a season of silence, David Thurston, of Maine, rose as his name was called by one of the secretaries, and affixed his name to the document. One after another passed up to the platform, signed, and retired in silence. All felt the deep responsibility of the occasion:—the shadow and forecast of a life-long struggle rested upon every countenance.’

The instrument thus conceived and elaborated, and adopted as the justification of a national crusade against slavery, was couched in these terms:

Declaration of sentiments.

⁸³ The Convention assembled in the city of Philadelphia, to organize a National Anti-Slavery Society, promptly seize the opportunity to promulgate the following Declaration of Sentiments, as cherished by them in relation to the enslavement of one-sixth portion of the American people.

More than fifty-seven years have elapsed since a band of patriots convened in this place to devise measures for the deliverance of this country from a foreign yoke. The cornerstone upon which they founded the Temple of Freedom was broadly this—‘that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ At the sound of their trumpet-call, three millions of people rose up as from the sleep of death, and rushed to the strife of blood; deeming it more glorious to die instantly as freemen, than desirable to live one hour as slaves. They were few in number—poor in resources; but the honest conviction that Truth, Justice, and Right were on their side, made them invincible.

We have met together for the achievement of an enterprise without which that of our fathers is incomplete; and which, for its magnitude, solemnity, and probable results upon the destiny of the world, as far transcends theirs as moral truth does physical force.

In purity of motive, in earnestness of zeal, in decision of purpose, in intrepidity of action, in steadfastness of faith, in sincerity of spirit, we would not be inferior to them. [409]

Their principles led them to wage war against their oppressors, and to spill human blood like water, in order to be free. Ours forbid the doing of evil that good may come, and lead us to reject, and to entreat the oppressed to reject, the use of all carnal weapons for deliverance from bondage; relying solely upon those which are spiritual, and mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

Their measures were physical resistance—the marshalling in arms—the hostile array—the mortal encounter. Ours shall be such only as the opposition of moral purity to moral corruption —the destruction of error by the potency of truth—the overthrow of prejudice by the power of love—and the abolition of slavery by the spirit of repentance.

Their grievances, great as they were, were trifling in comparison with the wrongs and sufferings of those for whom we plead. Our fathers were never slaves—never bought and sold like cattle—never shut out from the light of knowledge and religion—never subjected to the lash of brutal taskmasters.

But those for whose emancipation we are striving—constituting at the present time at least one-sixth part of our countrymen—are recognized by law, and treated by their fellow-beings, as marketable commodities, as goods and chattels, as brute beasts; are plundered daily of the fruits of their toil without redress; really enjoy no constitutional nor legal protection from licentious and murderous outrages upon their persons; and are ruthlessly torn asunder—the tender babe from the arms of its frantic mother—the heart-broken wife from her weeping husband—at the caprice or pleasure of irresponsible tyrants. For the crime of having a dark complexion, they suffer the pangs of hunger, the infliction of stripes, the ignominy of brutal servitude. They are kept in heathenish darkness by laws expressly enacted to make their instruction a criminal offence.

These are the prominent circumstances in the condition of more than two millions of our people, the proof of which may be found in thousands of indisputable facts and in the laws of the slaveholding States.

Hence we maintain—that, in view of the civil and religious privileges of this nation, the guilt of its oppression is unequalled by any other on the face of the earth; and, therefore, that it is bound to repent instantly, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free. [410]

We further maintain—that no man has a right to enslave or imbrute his brother—to hold or acknowledge him, for one moment, as a piece of merchandise—to keep back his hire by fraud—or to brutalize his mind, by denying him the means of intellectual, social and moral improvement.

The right to enjoy liberty is inalienable. To invade it is to usurp the prerogative of Jehovah. Every man has a right to his own body—to the products of his own labor—to the protection of law—and to the common advantages of society. It is piracy to buy or steal a native African, and subject him to servitude. Surely, the sin is as great to enslave an American as an African.

Therefore we believe and affirm—that there is no difference, in principle, between the African slave trade and American slavery:

That every American citizen who retains a human being in involuntary bondage as his property, is, according to Scripture (Ex. XXI. 16), a man-stealer:

That the slaves ought instantly to be set free, and brought under the protection of law:

That if they had lived from the time of Pharaoh down to the present period, and had been entailed through successive generations, their right to be free could never have been alienated, but their claims would have constantly risen in solemnity:

That all those laws which are now in force, admitting the right of slavery, are therefore, before God, utterly null and void; being an audacious usurpation of the Divine prerogative, a daring infringement on the law of nature, a base overthrow of the very foundations of the social compact, a complete extinction of all the relations, endearments and obligations of mankind, and a presumptuous transgression of all the holy commandments; and that therefore they ought instantly to be abrogated.

We further believe and affirm—that all persons of color who possess the qualifications which are demanded of others, ought to be admitted forthwith to the enjoyment of the same privileges, and the exercise of the same prerogatives, as others; and that the paths of preferment, of wealth, and of intelligence, should be opened as widely to them as to persons of a white complexion.

We maintain that no compensation should be given to the planters emancipating their slaves:

Because it would be a surrender of the great fundamental principle, that man cannot hold property in man; [411]

Because slavery is a crime, and therefore is not an article to be sold;

Because the holders of slaves are not the just proprietors of what they claim; freeing the slave is not depriving them of property, but restoring it to its rightful owner; it is not wronging the master, but righting the slave—restoring him to himself;

Because immediate and general emancipation would only destroy nominal, not real, property; it would not amputate a limb or break a bone of the slaves, but, by infusing motives into their breasts, would make them doubly valuable to the masters as free laborers; and

Because, if compensation is to be given at all, it should be given to the outraged and guiltless slaves, and not to those who have plundered and abused them.

We regard as delusive, cruel and dangerous any scheme of expatriation which pretends to aid, either directly or indirectly, in the emancipation of the slaves, or to be a substitute for the immediate and total abolition of slavery.

We fully and unanimously recognize the sovereignty of each State, to legislate exclusively on the subject of the slavery which is tolerated within its limits; we concede that Congress, under the present national compact, has no right to interfere with any of the slave States in relation to this momentous subject:

But we maintain that Congress has a right, and is solemnly bound, to suppress the domestic slave trade between the several States, and to abolish slavery in those portions of our territory which the Constitution has placed under its exclusive jurisdiction.

We also maintain that there are, at the present time, the highest obligations resting upon the people of the free States to remove slavery by moral and political action, as prescribed in the Constitution of the United States. They are now living under a pledge of their tremendous physical force, to fasten the galling fetters of tyranny upon the limbs of millions in the Southern States; they are liable to be called at any moment to suppress a general insurrection of the slaves; they authorize the slaveowner to vote for three-fifths of his slaves as property, and thus enable him to perpetuate his oppression; they support a standing army at the South for its protection; and they seize the slave who has escaped into their territories, and send him back to be tortured by an enraged master or a brutal driver. [412] This relation to slavery is criminal, and full of danger: it must be broken up.

These are our views and principles—these our designs and measures. With entire confidence in the overruling justice of God, we plant ourselves upon the Declaration of our Independence and the truths of Divine Revelation, as upon the Everlasting Rock.

We shall organize Anti-Slavery Societies, if possible, in every city, town and village in our land.

We shall send forth agents to lift up the voice of remonstrance, of warning, of entreaty, and of rebuke.

We shall circulate, unsparingly and extensively, anti-slavery tracts and periodicals.

We shall enlist the pulpit and the press in the cause of the suffering and the dumb.

We shall aim at a purification of the churches from all participation in the guilt of slavery.

We shall encourage the labor of freemen rather than that of slaves, by giving a preference to their productions: and

We shall spare no exertions nor means to bring the whole nation to speedy repentance.

Our trust for victory is solely in God. We may be personally defeated, but our principles never! Truth, Justice, Reason, Humanity, must and will gloriously triumph. Already a host is coming up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and the prospect before us is full of encouragement. Submitting this Declaration to the candid examination of the people of this country, and of the friends of liberty throughout the world, we hereby affix our signatures to it; pledging ourselves that, under the guidance and by the help of Almighty God, we will do all that in us lies, consistently with this Declaration of our principles, to overthrow the most execrable system of slavery that has ever been witnessed upon earth; to deliver our land from its deadliest curse; to wipe out the foulest stain which rests upon our national escutcheon; and to secure to the colored population of the United States all the rights and privileges which belong to them as men and as Americans—come what may to our persons, our interests, or our reputations—whether we live to witness the triumph of Liberty, Justice, and Humanity, or perish untimely as martyrs in this great, benevolent and holy cause.

Done at Philadelphia, the 6th day of December, A. D. 1833.

Of the three-score signers of the Declaration not one was a woman. Such was the custom of the times, in regard to the public relation of the sexes, that Lucretia Mott and her Quaker sisters did not ask or expect to sign; the male delegates—even the members of their own sect—did not think to invite them. It was a significant mark of liberality that they had been permitted to participate in the proceedings of the Convention on an equal footing in other respects. Moreover, on Mr. Garrison's motion, seconded by Dr. Cox, it was resolved on this third day ‘that the cause of Abolition eminently deserves the countenance and support of American women,’ after the British example. By other resolutions, ‘the ladies' anti-slavery societies’ already in existence were hailed ‘as the harbinger of a brighter day,’ and more were called for. In still another, moved by Dr. Cox and seconded by William Goodell, the Convention presented ‘their thanks to their female friends for the deep interest they have manifested in the Anti-slavery cause’ during the long and fatiguing sessions. And finally, Miss Crandall was assured of approval, sympathy and aid. Resolutions relating to free produce; the recreancy of a pro-slavery clergy; the guilt of withholding the Bible from slaves; colored conventions and societies for mutual improvement, and the like—concluded the business of the Convention. Beriah Green dismissed the assembly in words of thrilling solemnity, never to be forgotten by those who heard him, and ending ‘in a prayer to Almighty God, full of fervor and feeling, imploring his blessing and sanctification upon the Convention and its labors.’ So ended the successful attempt to give a national basis to the movement begun only three years before by the publication of the Liberator.⁸⁴ [414]

The significant articles of the Constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society, adopted at Philadelphia, read as follows:

Article II:

The objects of this Society are the entire abolition of slavery⁸⁵ in the United States. While it admits that each State in which slavery exists has, by the Constitution of the United States, the exclusive right to legislate in regard to its abolition in said State, it shall aim to convince all our fellow-citizens, by arguments addressed to their understandings and consciences, that slaveholding is a heinous crime in the sight of God, and that the duty, safety, and best interests of all concerned require its immediate abandonment, without expatriation. The Society will also endeavor, in a constitutional way, to influence Congress to put an end to the domestic slave trade, and to abolish slavery in all those portions of our common country which come under its control, especially in the District of Columbia—and likewise to prevent the extension of it to any State that may be hereafter admitted to the Union.⁸⁶

Article III:

This Society shall aim to elevate the character and condition of the people of color, by encouraging their intellectual, moral and religious improvement, and by removing public prejudice, that thus they may, according to their intellectual and moral worth, share an equality with the whites of civil and religious privileges; but this Society will never, in any way, countenance the oppressed in vindicating their rights by resorting to physical force.

Article IV:

Any person who consents to the principles of this Constitution, who contributes to the funds of this Society, and is not a slaveholder,⁸⁷ may be a member of this Society, and shall be entitled to vote at the meetings.

In choosing the officers of the new Society, Arthur Tappan was fitly made President. Though compelled to be absent from the Convention, he was not and could not [415] be forgotten. Three secretaries were appointed, Elizur Wright, Jr., of Domestic Correspondence, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, of Foreign Correspondence, and Abraham L. Cox, Recording Secretary. William Green, Jr., was made Treasurer. Mr. Garrison did not long retain his office. The managers seem to have expected of him services in the field inconsistent with his editorial career—they even talked of merging the Liberator in the Emancipator.⁸⁸ The foreign correspondence itself may have appeared to him unduly burdensome, to say nothing of the vexatious restriction that all his letters must first be submitted to the Executive Committee. He did not covet that (or any other) office, and he seems to have owed it to the wellmeant exertions of his impulsive friend R. B. Hall, who wrote to him from New Haven, under date of January 21, 1834, upon hearing of his resignation:

I will give you succinctly the history of that office. When⁸⁹ the committee to form a constitution at Mr. Sharpless's were about to retire, I had reason to suppose that the form of constitution which they had in their hands provided but one secretary to the Society. I knew, too, what was to be the management about that office—that Mr. Wright was to fill it,⁹⁰ and thus be the mouth [piece] of all anti-slavery men in the U. S. This did not exactly suit me. I knew your claims,⁹¹ I knew, too, that you would be placed on the Board of Managers or as a Vice-President—in other words, would be second fiddle—and this did not suit me. I laid hold on the committee, and urged and entreated them to create the office to which you were subsequently appointed. I used all the little influence which I had with them to procure the insertion in the draft of the Constitution of that office, and have reason to suppose that they were influenced by my exertions. I remember distinctly telling them, or some of them, that if there was no office for you to fill, or for which you were calculated, one ought to be and must be made. I regarded the office of Foreign Secretary as one of great importance to our cause.

Looking back over the year 1832, Mr. Garrison had, in the first annual report of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, rejoiced in the progress of the cause.

With feeble means, the Society has produced great ⁹² results. . . . It has effected the conversion of a multitude of minds to the doctrine of immediate abolition, and given a wide and salutary check to the progress of the Colonization Society. It has done more to make slavery a subject of national investigation, to excite discussion, and to maintain the freedom of speech on a hitherto prohibited theme, than all other societies now in operation. It has been eminently serviceable in encouraging the free colored population, in various places, to go forward in paths of improvement, and organize themselves into moral and benevolent associations. . . .

An Auxiliary Society has been formed in the Theological⁹³ Seminary at Andover. A society, based upon the same principles, has also been formed in Hudson College, Ohio, under the auspices of the President and Professors; and also a kindred association in Lynn, Massachusetts. Other societies, it is expected, will be speedily organized in Portland, Providence, Bath, Hallowell, New Haven, and other places. The light which has burst forth so auspiciously in the West, is the harbinger of a mighty victory.⁹⁴

Much greater reason had Mr. Garrison to be elated and strengthened by the extraordinary events of the year now drawing to a close. The persecution and spirited defence of Miss Crandall, in which the princely liberality of Arthur Tappan, the rare moral courage of Mr. May, and the vigorous articles of Charles C. Burleigh, editor of the extemporized Unionist, combined to strike the imagination and stir the moral sense of the public; the cordial and high social reception in England of the agent of the New England Anti-Slavery Society; his conspicuous success in defeating abroad the ‘humbug’ Society which still retained at home the odor of respectability and sanctity,⁹⁵ and in bearing back the Wilberforce protest against it; his bitter truths about his sinful [417] country spoken in Exeter Hall; the abolition of slavery in the British colonies; the mobs awaiting him on his return; his prosecution for libel; finally, the formation of that National Anti-Slavery Society which he had projected from the beginning of his agitation—all these occurrences had fixed public attention on the subject of slavery in a manner never to be diverted for an instant thereafter, had still further awakened the sleeping conscience of the nation, spread the new zeal, and multiplied the advocates and agencies of immediate emancipation, and at the same time developed an active spirit of violent hostility which also would go on widening and intensifying, to cease only on the very eve of the war of emancipation. Statistical signs of the mighty progress are to be found in Mr. Sewall's list, in the second annual report of the New England Anti-Slavery⁹⁶ Society, of upwards of forty auxiliary organizations formed in the twelvemonth in nearly every Northern State, noticeably at several collegiate institutions and among the gentler sex—the most important of the latter being the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.⁹⁷ Take also the subscribed declaration of 124 clergymen of all denominations against colonization and in favor of immediate emancipation, obtained in 1833 to be prefixed to the forthcoming edition of the Rev. Amos A. Phelps's⁹⁸ “Lectures on slavery and its remedy.” ⁹⁹ The delivery of those lectures was itself an important event, and their publication a powerful contribution to the growing body of anti-slavery literature.

The Rev. J. D. Paxton's “Letters on slavery” ; the Rev. S. J. May's letters to Andrew T. Judson— “The Right of [418] Colored People to Education Vindicated” ; Prof. Elizur Wright, Jr.'s, “Sin of slavery and its remedy” ; Whittier's “Justice and expediency” ;¹⁰⁰ and, above all, Mrs. Lydia Maria Child's startling Appeal in favor of that class of Americans called Africans—were the more potent of the new crop of writings betokening the vigor of Mr. Garrison's propagandism. If Whittier forfeited his political career by his adherence to ‘Justice,’ Mrs. Child sacrificed without regret in the same cause her popularity as a writer, and invited social indignities that now appear incredible.¹⁰¹ To be sure, she thought it honorable to Mr. Garrison to mention that he was ‘the first person¹⁰² who dared to edit a newspaper in which slavery was spoken of as altogether wicked and inexcusable’—the first person, she explains, by way of drawing a distinction between him and Lundy, ‘that boldly attacked. slavery as a sin, and colonization as its twin sister.’ To this double offence she added that of apologizing for Mr. Garrison's want of moderation, and his ‘tendency to use wholesale and unqualified expressions,’ and declaring him to be ‘a disinterested, intelligent, and remarkably pure-minded man.’¹⁰³

The losses of the year were personal. Greatly deplored was the untimely death of the Rev. Charles B. Storrs, President of Western Reserve College, the focus of the antislavery revival at the West, his last act being an attempt to sign the declaration for Phelps's “Lectures.” Lamented, [419] also, was the venerable John Kenrick, of Newton, Mass., the newly elected president of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, and one of its most liberal benefactors, as well as of the Manual Labor School. He was ‘a forerunner of Abolition,’ to quote his epitaph—an early and independent opponent of slavery; publishing in 1816 at his own expense a small volume on its horrors, and circulating it in Congress and among State Legislatures. A last word of this strong and benevolent character may fitly close the present chapter:

John Kenrick to W. L. Garrison.

Newton, Dec. 24, 1832.

¹⁰⁴ dear sir: I perceive you are an agent for Mr. B. Lundy. I have supported that work from the beginning, and believe I have honestly paid up to the present time; but as he expects pay in advance, I send you $1.00 for him. Also, $2.00 for the Liberator for the coming year, and $1.00 for the Abolitionist you are about to publish. You may send me receipt.

I hope Mr. Buffum received a line I sent him soon after your¹⁰⁵ address at Watertown.

That the Lord may bless, sanctify, and guide you into all truth, and give you an extra share of fortitude in answering gainsayers, is the desire of, dear Sir, your old worn-out friend,

J. Kenrick.