It was shortly after the Rynders mob, and during a protracted assault on Mr. Garrison for his ‘blasphemous’1 utterances on that occasion by a scribbling fellow-citizen of Boston, that the Liberator came out with a new head.2 Substantially the previous design was retained, but redrawn by Hammatt Billings, as a labor of love. The two scenes of slave-auction and emancipation jubilee, however, were separated by a circular vignette exhibiting the Saviour, cross in hand, parting the slave-driver and his victim, while in a halo about him shone the legend—‘I come to break the bonds of the oppressor.’ A flowing scroll, unifying the design, bore the injunction, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ So far had blasphemy corrupted the editor.
Miss Martineau, who had illustrated in the most signal manner both the intellectual and the political capacity of her sex, penned the letter just quoted on the day of the opening at Worcester of the first Woman's Rights3 Convention in Massachusetts. Mr. Garrison had attended in June a preliminary meeting, in Boston, at which he4 spoke in hearty approval of the movement:
‘I rise,’ he said,
to give my support, however feeble it may5 be, to the object which is sought to be accomplished by this meeting. I do so all the more cheerfully, not only because this movement is in its infancy, but because it will be sure to encounter popular odium at first, and to subject its advocates to ridicule. It is under just such circumstances that I wish to be identified with every reformatory struggle; not that reproach is desirable in itself, but because the last place for me to be seen taking a conspicuous part is that where popularity and applause are sure to follow the effort put forth.
