Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 3

Chapter 6: third mission to England.—1846.

That the special thanks of this Society are proffered to our untiring coadjutor, Henry C. Wright, for the fidelity with which he has unmasked the vaunted Free Church of Scotland for conniving at the great iniquity of American slavery, by soliciting and receiving its pecuniary assistance and religious cooperation; for all his labors abroad, to secure in aid of our anti-slavery enterprise the generous sympathies and Christian cooperation of the good and philanthropic in England and Europe; and, in particular, for the revelation which he has made to them as to the guilty compromises of the American Union—thus invoking their moral abhorrence of such an unholy compact, and securing their righteous testimony against it. Lib. 16.22.

The secession of the Free Church of Scotland from the Established Church was consummated in May, 1843. The grounds of separation involved the voluntary abandonment of State support for the ministers of the denomination, and made necessary the raising of a Sustentation Fund. Before the date in question, therefore, Dr. Chalmers had arranged for an ecumenical collection, of¹ which the American contingent was not to be despised. Charleston, the cradle of lovers of freedom—‘in the abstract’—was very prompt to respond to this appeal. Seven different ‘Evangelical’ denominations begged the² Rev. Thomas Smyth, D. D., to preach a sermon on it and pass the contribution box in his Presbyterian church, [151] which he did, with many touching references to ‘tyranny and oppression,’ and many tropes in which Liberty cut a pretty figure. This discourse had the desired effect in raising a sum of money, to which the mayor of the city contributed his mite and his name. And so pleased was the schismatic pastor of Free St. David's, Glasgow, that he reprinted the Rev. Dr. Smyth's unmoral rhetoric, with a prefatory note. To his surprise, however, a well-informed, but irreverent, Glasgow editor exposed “the flashy, high-sounding, unmeaning words” Lib. 14.57. of the Charleston divine; and, hoping that the money had not yet arrived, looked to see the Free Church treasurer send it back by return of steamer, as blood-stained, together with a sermon ‘suited to the circumstances of slaveholders,’ for the special benefit of the Rev. Dr. Smyth.

The poor editor found his excuse, perhaps, in the fact that religious Scotland was just then greatly exercised by the news that a South Carolina judge had passed³ sentence of death on a Northern man, John L. Brown, for aiding the escape of a female slave. The incident, except among abolitionists,⁴ created no excitement in this⁵ country. In England it was pathetically commented on in the House of Lords by Brougham and by the Lord⁶ Chief-Justice Denman, who spoke, as William Ashurst⁷ 87. wrote to the Liberator, “in the name of all the Judges of England on this horrible iniquity.” Lib. 14.87. O'Connell thundered against it before the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery⁸ Society. A memorial to the nonentity known as the Churches of Christ in South Carolina, ‘as representing those of other provinces, confederated in the United States of America,’ was drawn up and signed by more⁹ than 1300 ‘ministers and office-bearers of Christian churches and benevolent societies in Lancashire, London, and elsewhere in England.’ Hardly was this surpassed by the Scotch conscience, which called great meetings— [152] some under the lead of the Glasgow Emancipation Society,¹⁰ but vigorously supported by the clergy; one, a town meeting, at Edinburgh, summoned by the Magistrates and¹¹ Council. What more natural than to couple Brown's¹² case with the action of the Free Church in accepting contributions from American slaveholders—and South Carolinian in particular?

The British protest—O'Connell's above all, the Southern judge bearing an Irish name¹³—was heard and felt in South¹⁴ Carolina; and, whether or not it was heeded, Brown's¹⁵ sentence was commuted to whipping. The Free Church was less sensitive, and its collecting agents, already landed in America, were guided neither by the home feeling nor by¹⁶ the timely admonition of the abolitionists. From the Tappans and their associates of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society they received in silence a long and solemn warning not to prosecute their tour through the¹⁷ South, since it would inevitably commit them to the palliation of slavery. They were also fully advised, in the same communication, of the pro-slavery character of the Presbyterian organization in this country.

This letter, dated April 2, 1844, was followed by one privately addressed on April 27 by Mr. Garrison to the¹⁸ Rev. William Chalmers, one of the Commissioners, inviting him to be one of the speakers at the approaching anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York. Mr. Chalmers, however, was not prone to make entangling alliances. He had happened to be in New Bedford on April 13, 14, when Mr. Garrison was lecturing on Non-Resistance, the Sabbath, the Ministry, and the Church; and though he took good care not to go and listen to him, he prudently preserved the placard announcing the lectures, and carried it to Scotland, that it might serve to explain the difficulties of the American churches with reference to the anti-slavery movement. Not only was he shocked by the subjects presented, and [153] the reported views advanced by the lecturer, but his keen eye detected on the placard a sneer at the Sabbath, which had not been designated by its holy name, but simply as ‘the next day’—to Saturday! So on May 1 he sat down and declined the invitation on the ground of conflicting engagements-not, however, withholding the pointed remark to Mr. Garrison, that, while having his own views as to slavery, he did not itemize Sabbath, Ministry, and Church among the sum of all villanies. Then, on the good advice of a shrewder friend, he pocketed the letter instead of mailing it, and gave it to the light through a¹⁹ Scotch paper a year later—meantime having, with his colleagues, picked up some twenty thousand dollars of²⁰ American money as the reward of discretion on the controverted topic of slavery.

Nevertheless, the cry of the Glasgow Emancipation²¹ Society, ‘Send back the money!’ was not relaxed. Henry C. Wright, who had survived the rigors of the water-cure at Graefenberg and returned to Scotland, gave a²² powerful reinforcement to the movement, to which rallied also, across the border, Clarkson and George Thompson, and²³ the Chartist leader, Henry Vincent. To their aid came²⁴ over ocean, in the autumn of 1845, James N. Buffum of Lynn, and Frederick Douglass, who first took Ireland in²⁵ their way, and then lent a hand in the agitation, till, in January, 1846, the latter could report, “Old Scotland boils like a pot!” Ms. to F. Jackson. The most extraordinary popular demonstrations were made against Free Church edifices—of course without the instigation or sanction of the abolitionists proper. The slaves' blood was realistically²⁶ imistated with splotches of red paint on walls or steps, with or without the corresponding legend; and ‘Send back the money!’ was placarded all over Auld Reekie. Not a newspaper in Scotland could abstain from the melee, at²⁷ the height of which Thompson was presented with the freedom of the city of Edinburgh.

The thoughts of the American group naturally turned to their old leader at home, as if his presence might give [154] the coup de grace. The disunion doctrine—political nonfellowship with American slaveholders—had been vigorously expounded by Henry C. Wright, and coupled with the burning and related doctrine of ecclesiastical non-fellowship; and a tract of his on the former subject was²⁸ circulated by the thousand. The Free Church leaders, bent on retaining the American contributions, passed from general apologies for slaveholding to attacks on²⁹ the Old Organization, and in especial on Wright and Garrison for their Sabbatarian heresies. On April 21, this phase of the controversy was dwelt upon by Mr. Wright at a great meeting of the Emancipation Society at the City Hall in Glasgow; and George Thompson, after paying a most sincere and feeling tribute to his transatlantic³⁰ friend, offered on behalf of the Society a resolution of sympathy with Mr. Garrison and his co-workers, and an invitation to come over and help the cause in Great Britain—with particular reference to an anti-slavery conference to be held in London in August. These proceedings were published in the Liberator of May 29.

The proposal was very tempting. The opening year had found Mr. Garrison in poor health and much pecuniary embarrassment arising from the financial condition of the Liberator. Generous friends could and did gratefully relieve the one;³¹ and all knew the truth of what Wendell Phillips expressed in writing to Mrs. Garrison of³² her husband: ‘I think his health needs, every few years, that he should throw completely off the burden of the paper.’ On the other hand, the country was now plunged in the Mexican War; never had there been a more signal occasion for impressing upon the popular conscience the [155] national guilt towards slavery; the abolition corps was already weakened by the absence of Wright, Douglass, and Buffum. Could the chief himself be spared? The New England Convention first, and afterwards the Executive³³ Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, unanimously answered yes, and a call for funds was immediately made. There remained the editorial conduct of the Liberator, of which Quincy, Phillips, Charles K. Whipple,³⁴ and Mrs. Chapman offered to assume the not light burden. To part with wife and children was hard,—all the more because, as in 1840, there was a prospective increase of³⁵ the family. Mrs. Garrison, with her customary self-abnegation, interposed no obstacles. In short, Mr. Garrison yielded, and sailed from Boston in the steamship Britan-³⁶ nia on July 16, 1846:

‘I do not go,’ he said in his valedictory to his readers,

to³⁷ flatter England, or to disparage my native land, but to protest against the foul deed of the Free Church of Scotland, in putting into its treasury the price of blood, and giving for it the right hand of Christian fellowship to the American slaveholder;³⁸ to enlist for the overthrow of slavery, by moral instrumentalities, all that is disinterested, humane, and free; to vindicate the American Anti-Slavery Society and its kindred auxiliaries from the aspersions of their betrayers and defamers, and as worthy of the most entire confidence and the most liberal encouragement; to avow principles which lay the axe at the root of all injustice, oppression, and war; and to labor for the overthrow of whatever stands opposed to the kingdom of peace and holiness.

This programme was carried out to the letter; but, as in both his previous visits to England, the main object³⁹ was overruled and became subordinate. [156]

Shipwreck, from striking on a reef while making Halifax⁴⁰ harbor in a fog, was narrowly avoided, and the voyage completed in a leaking vessel. Richard Webb, the last to bid him adieu in 1840, was waiting anxiously at⁴¹ Liverpool to greet his return,⁴² and with him Henry C. Wright.⁴³ Their happy reunion took place on July 31, and, after a few days' rest, the three friends went up to London, where⁴⁴ George Thompson met them and took the two Americans to his own home in Waterloo Place, some three miles from⁴⁵ the heart of the city. Mr. Garrison wrote to his wife:

To be once more with George, is a revival of days gone by.⁴⁶ He is still the same loving, faithful friend—the same playful, mirthful, entertaining companion—the same modest,⁴⁷ unpretending man—the same zealous and eloquent advocate—the same warm and sympathizing friend of suffering humanity— that he was eleven years ago, when he was in our country. I do not perceive that either time, or his immense labors, have made any striking change in his personal appearance. He looks about as young as he did in the U. S.

The first attraction and occupation for Mr. Garrison was the World's Temperance Convention, held on August 4 at the London Literary Institution. Though not a delegate, he had well-nigh the same title, of pioneer, to be the chief transatlantic figure in its proceedings that he had in the World's Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840. [157] But that distinction was reserved for the Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, who was introduced and often referred to as⁴⁸ ‘the father of the temperance movement in America.’

W. L. Garrison to his Wife.

London, August 4, 1846.

⁴⁹ This day the World's [Temperance] Convention began its sessions. The cause which it seeks to promote being the first that I ever publicly espoused, I went to the meeting for the purpose of observing its proceedings. It was held in a comparatively small room, and the public were not allowed to listen to the discussions. Though not a delegate from any temperance society at home, I was politely furnished (with others) with a ticket, which admitted me as a member of the Convention; but I soon perceived that the same spirit which controlled the Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840, had entire mastery over this. In the course of the afternoon session, the Rev. Mr. Kirk⁵⁰ of Boston incidentally defended the American slaveholder, and eulogized the Sabbath as worthy of being maintained by pains and penalties, ‘not in the name of the Lord, but on the ground of expediency.’ As soon as I could, I rose to reply, and was at first received with very great applause; but the moment I began to rebuke Kirk for his conduct, sundry individuals raised the cry of personality, and protested against the discussion of extraneous topics! Great excitement followed, and the result was that Kirk took back his pro-slavery sentiment, not to repudiate it, but to avoid the issue and escape censure. Everything in the Convention is under the most stringent regulations. As for free discussion, its toleration is out of the question. I do not think, after the treatment that I have received, that I shall attend another session. Not that the Convention at all sympathized with Kirk, for they did not; but they were afraid of giving offence, or of getting into a controversy on another topic, aside from the object which had specially brought them together. Still, they behaved quite unfairly, and are under too much ‘management’ to suit me—though Henry Clapp,⁵¹ notwithstanding his horror of an organized meeting on our side [158] of the Atlantic, can act as Secretary, and discover nothing to dislike or censure!

The temperance cause in this kingdom has made very little progress, especially among the ‘respectable’ and ‘good society’ folks. Almost wherever I go to partake of the hospitalities proffered to me, decanters of wine are on the table, and not to take a glass of this poison is an act of singularity which immediately excites notice and observation.

One can imagine how much Mr. Garrison would have disturbed the harmony of the proceedings on the fifth day, had he not been better employed elsewhere. A resolution having been offered that it was essential to the reformation to ‘abstain from giving, as well as taking, intoxicating liquors,’ ‘Dr. Beecher (United States)⁵² recommended the terminating the impolitic suggestion by the previous question. If persevered in, the attempt at dictation would alienate their allies in America.’ The gag was accordingly applied, though the Convention unanimously agreed that it was a very naughty thing to manufacture and sell intoxicating drinks.

Mr. Garrison lost no time in seeking introductions to⁵³ the conductors of the leading press of the metropolis. He had a very gratifying interview with Douglas Jerrold, who promised to aid the anti-slavery cause in his Weekly Newspaper, and presently reprinted several articles from the Liberator. He was well received by Dickens's locum tenens on the Daily News, the chief being at that time on the Continent. He opened relations with John Saunders, of the People's Journal, and renewed his friendship with William and Mary Howitt, now connected with this⁵⁴ periodical.⁵⁵ The Nonconformist, edited by the Rev. [159] Edward Miall, was also approached. Dr. Bowring received him, with his old genuine cordiality, at breakfast⁵⁶ with Thompson and Douglass. Ashurst welcomed him⁵⁷ anew to Muswell Hill, and there made him acquainted⁵⁸ with W. J. Fox, the eminent Unitarian preacher, and⁵⁹ with the exiled Mazzini. He came to know and to esteem⁶⁰ ‘William Lovett and Henry Vincent, the leaders of the⁶¹ moral-suasion Chartists [‘as opposed to the violent course of Feargus O'Connor’]—the friends of temperance, peace,⁶² universal brotherhood. They are true men,’ vouched Mr. Garrison, “who will stand by us to the last—men who have been cast into prison in this country, and confined therein (the former one year, the latter twenty months), for pleading the cause of the starving operatives in this country, and contending for universal suffrage. Such men I honor and revere.” At Newport, Wales, 1839-40.⁶³

On the 10th of August, everything was in readiness for the formation of an Anti-Slavery League, to cooperate with the American Anti-Slavery Society. This took⁶⁴ place at the Crown and Anchor Tavern. The preamble of union expressly indicated its transatlantic affiliation and was followed by these articles:

1. That slaveholding is, under all circumstances, a sin of⁶⁵ the deepest dye, and ought immediately to be abandoned.

2. That the members of this League shall consist of all persons [160] subscribing to the foregoing principles, without respect of country, complexion, or religious or political creeds.

3. That the sole object of the League shall be the overthrow, by means exclusively moral and peaceful, of slavery in every land, but with special reference to the system now existing in the United States.

The League's first public demonstration was in its own behalf and in furtherance of Mr. Garrison's mission, a meeting being held on the just-mentioned premises on⁶⁶ the evening of August 17, 1846. The audience was large, ‘most intelligent, respectable, and enthusiastic.’ As Mr. Garrison wrote to his wife—

It was a real old-organized anti-slavery meeting, such as⁶⁷ was never before held in this metropolis. George Thompson was in the chair, and made a brief but earnest speech, in which he referred to me in a very kind and complimentary manner.⁶⁸ Henry C. Wright made the opening speech, and it was “a⁶⁹ scorcher,” and received great applause. I followed him—and, on rising, was received by the assembly with a tempest of applause, they rising from their seats, swinging their hats, and cheering loudly. I made a long speech, which elicited the⁷⁰ strongest marks of approbation. Douglass was received in a⁷¹ similar manner, and made one of his very best efforts. I never⁷² saw an audience more delighted. Henry Vincent made the⁷³ closing speech, which was eloquently uttered and warmly cheered. James Haughton, at the commencement, presented⁷⁴ a resolution, welcoming us all to England, &c., &c. Rev. Mr. Kirk of Boston was in the meeting, but he found the⁷⁵ atmosphere too warm for him at last, and left the room. We began at half-past 6 P. M., and did not adjourn till 12 o'clock, very few having left at that late hour. Everything was encouraging in the highest degree.

A few samples of Mr. Garrison's remarks will show alike his tact and his method in addressing foreign auditors:

He was received with enthusiastic cheering, hundreds rising⁷⁶ from their seats. He wished to know if they were in earnest when they gave him that reception? Were they disposed to⁷⁷ regard him as the friend of universal liberty? Then he begged [161] to tell them, that if they went over to America they would be deemed fit subjects for Lynch law. (Laughter and cheers.) What! were they in earnest? were there no apologists for slavery there? none to applaud those ancient slaveholding patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? none to talk of sending Onesimus back to his master because he was a slave? Were there none to apologize for those pious men who plundered cradles of babes, tortured women by the slave-driver's lash, and sent men to the auction-block? “Why, then,” said Mr. Garrison,

here's my hand for every one of you, and here's a heart that beats in unison with your own. (Great cheering.) . . .

It is no common conflict in which we are engaged, because, whatever forms of political oppression you may have here, or in Europe, or in the world besides, there is no power so dreadful and exterminating as American slavery. It began with the very beginning of the Union (hear), and it has grown with our growth until it now holds complete mastery over the whole country, so that the two great political parties are eager to do its bidding, and religious sects bow before it and do it homage: in one word, it has completely subjected church and state. Above all, we are against church and state because they are on the side of slavery, and they shall go down together. (Great applause.) It is said that the abolitionists are assailing the American church: it is true. It is said they are assailing the American clergy in [as] a body: it is true. It is said that they are assailing the Government under which they live: it is true. It is said that they are seeking the dissolution of the Union: it is true. Why do I say this? Because the church is the stronghold of the system; because the clergy are active defenders of the system; because the Government was originally so constructed that it gives its entire support to slavery, so long as the slaveholder shall desire it.

Now, to come to facts, and to show you that I do not exaggerate in what I state, I will read for you a few extracts, giving you the very words of the abettors of slavery in the church. . . .

Such is slavery in America! And yet the abolitionists are stigmatized as infidels because they would have no such Christianity or republicanism as sanctioned such atrocities. Slavery is a curse wherever it is found. It not only smites with barrenness the most fertile soil in the world, but it makes human life cheap, and, in fact, of no value at all. (Cheers.) A year ago [162] I thought I would collect from the newspapers all the horrible details of killing, maiming, &c., connected with slavery, and put them in my paper. My collection was imperfect, for I had no Southern papers, for they will not send papers to me from the South. I took the Northern papers, and took out of them the most bloody deeds. They are very few indeed, but they show the state of society there, and a state of insecurity for human life such as can nowhere else be found.⁷⁸ The list was begun a year ago, and this paper is full of short paragraphs. [Here Mr. Garrison unrolled a paper, the width of one of our columns, made up of short accounts of murders, etc., and unrolled it from end to end. It was above 12 yards long. There were calls for a few to be read. Mr. Garrison then read two or three, and then continued.] And yet there are those who attempt to excuse this state of things. I am sorry that there are Englishmen disposed to apologize for these American Christians who keep bloodhounds! They say, they are under a great mistake–they are in error, but you must call such Christians no hard or bad names. But I say the American people are excluded from apology. They hold the Declaration in their hand that all men are equal; then they enslave their brother, and whip him, and hunt him with bloodhounds, and profess the gospel of Christ. Now, no man can be excused for enslaving another, whether he be savage or civilized. (Great applause.) God has put a witness in every man's breast which protests against man holding a man in bondage. I never debate the question as to whether man may hold property in man. I never degrade myself by debating the question, ‘Is slavery a sin?’ It is a self-evident truth, which God hath engraven on our very nature. Where I see the holder of a slave, I charge the sin upon him, and I denounce him . . .

Now, what have we American abolitionists a right to ask of you Englishmen? You ought not to receive slaveholders as honest Christian men. You ought not to invite them to your pulpits, to your communion tables. Will you see to it that they never ascend your pulpits? If you will, then the slave will [163] bless you, and thanks from the American abolitionists will come over in thunder tones for your decision, and you will give a blow to slavery from which it will not recover. We ask another thing of you. Send us no more delegates to the States, or, if you do, let there be no divinity about them. Nothing but common humanity can stand in the United States. (Cheers.) Send us no more Baptist clerical delegates, or Methodist, or Presbyterian, or Quaker clerical delegates. They have all played into the hands of slavery against the abolitionists. (Cheers.) From Dr. C——down to the last delegation, they⁷⁹ have all done an evil work, and have strengthened slavery against us. Like the priest and the Levite, they have passed us by and gone on the other side. They found the cause of abolitionism unpopular. The mass of society were pro-slavery, so they went with them, and we have gone to the wall. Send us no more, if you please. (Cheers.) We have had to say, Save us from our English friends, and we will take care of our enemies. There have been those who have gone over to America, and who have nobly stood their ground. They have passed through the fire, and no smell of it has been found on them. That man (pointing to the chairman, Mr. Thompson) has gone through it. (Immense cheering, continued for some time.) Though rising on the topmost wave of popularity at home, he consented to aid us, where he was sure to be mobbed and scouted. But he never blenched. He was not afraid to make himself the friend and companion of the negro; and if he had remained, his life would have been taken. If we had desired it, he would have remained and hazarded his life; but we said, Go. Now, I don't know if he had been divine he could have stood it. While a man remains common humanity, I can trust him; but when he gets up into the air, where there comes something superhuman about him, I am afraid of him. (Cheers.)

Another thing don't do. Send no more men to the South to get money. The Free Church of Scotland is, like democratic America, stained with blood. It has the price of blood in its treasury. Oh! that Free Church of Scotland! I am for freedom everywhere, and rejoice that that church is a free one; but it has received a paltry bribe, and abetted slavery. I have no idea they will send back the money. The laity I believe would send it back, but the divinity prevents it.

Thompson had a speedy opportunity to turn the tables on his friend, without prejudice to the common cause: [164]

‘The chief business we have had to do, recently,’ he wrote⁸⁰ to Quincy, ‘has been to rescue the anti-slavery cause from the⁸¹ hands of your pro-slavery American divines, whose principal occupation for some weeks has been to hoodwink, deceive, and corrupt those with whom they have come in contact. Such men are a moral pestilence. Into whatsoever society they enter, they misrepresent the abolitionists of America; they cover up the most frightful features of slavery; they extenuate the criminality of all slaveholders, and boldly justify the conduct of such as belong to their own churches, and labor to destroy the hitherto sound views of the people of this country respecting the essential sinfulness of manstealing; and yet, they are as much opposed to slavery as any human beings in the world! and yet, they are the friends of the slave, and we are the slaves' worst enemies! Can you not keep such men at home? If you cannot, why then we must try what we can do to unmask them. I do trust we shall soon create a public sentiment here which will be such as will lead them to travel in any direction rather than towards the shores of Great Britain.’

The allusion in this passage was to the great meeting of the newly formed League, in Exeter Hall, to review the proceedings of the Evangelical Alliance. This was another World's Convention, or rather Conference, convoked in October, 1845, on a sectarian basis, in which Methodists⁸² and Free Church men preponderated, and which met 1200 strong in London, in mid-August, full of great expectations,⁸³ yet not without apprehensions of discord. A preliminary British conference had been held at Birmingham, attended by Scotch members who had already given public notice⁸⁴ that slaveholders must be excluded from the London gathering. Dr. Candlish, an eminent Free Church leader,⁸⁵ craftily procured the adoption of a policy of ‘not inviting’ slaveholders, which was thus delicately formulated:⁸⁶

That, while this Committee deem it unnecessary and⁸⁷ inexpedient to enter into any question, at present, on the subject of slaveholding, or on the difficult circumstances in which Christian brethren may be placed in countries where the law of slavery prevails, they are of opinion that invitations ought not to be sent to individuals who, whether by their own fault or otherwise, [165] may be in the unhappy position of holding their fellowmen as slaves.

This resolution neither precluded the discussion of slaveholding at the London Conference, nor propitiated the American brethren; the New School Presbyterian⁸⁸ General Assembly at Philadelphia making it the express ground of a refusal to send delegates. On the 27th of August, the Conference passed from the smooth waters of ‘singing and canting’ to breakers on a lee-shore⁸⁹ threatening instant shipwreck. A motion was made to add to⁹⁰ the declaration of the objects of the Alliance ‘Facts relating to slavery and the condition of our brethren in bonds in every part of the world.’ This proved very obnoxious, especially to the American delegates, the Rev. E. N. Kirk saying, with perfect truth, that it would hazard the very existence of the Alliance. It was accordingly withdrawn; but the next day the Rev. J. Howard Hinton, editor of the Anti-Slavery Reporter, moved the exclusion of slaveholders from the Alliance, and one voice from across the water was heard to second it, that of J. V.⁹¹ Himes, whose sympathizers in the American delegation numbered less than half a dozen. Great was the⁹² excitement produced in this delegation, with all their efforts to be calm. During the recess, the discussion went on⁹³ informally, but with added earnestness. One overheard “an American patriarch (Beecher), whose eyes are moist with tears” Lyman Beecher.—but not for the slave—saying: ‘Brethren, you are too warm. Remember the work you have to do, and be wise.’ Worldly-wise they were in going without⁹⁴ their dinners and retiring to pray, with the reward of seeing the motion temporarily withdrawn. However, the Rev. F. A. Cox, trusting to his transatlantic experience⁹⁵ in trimming, thought to ease matters by proposing that the Hinton resolution and others on the same subject be referred to a committee, on which, of course, America was well represented. On August 29, they reported, through the Rev. Samuel Hanson Cox, who had long since⁹⁶ abandoned the abolition ranks in the time of the sectarian [166] division.⁹⁷ They commended to the consideration of the⁹⁸ several branches of the Alliance social evils like the profanation of the Lord's Day, intemperance, duelling, and the sin of slavery, with the hope that no branch would admit slaveholders ‘who, by their own fault, continue in that position, retaining their fellow-men in slavery from regard to their interests!’ Mr. Hinton, who had made one of the Committee, moved the adoption of its report, and the Conference gladly accepted the seeming settlement of the vexed question.

Two days later, at Freemasons' Hall, protests from the American delegates were presented, a reconsideration⁹⁹ forced, and the action of the Conference rescinded, amid unanimous public condemnation. The Anti-Slavery¹⁰⁰ League at once saw its opportunity, and called a great meeting in Exeter Hall to review the ‘Evangelical’ proceedings.

W. L. Garrison to his Wife.

Muswell Hill, near London, Sept. 17, 1846.

¹⁰¹ On Monday, Thompson and myself busied ourselves in some¹⁰² little preparation for the Exeter Hall meeting which we were to hold that evening, with special reference to the course pursued by the Evangelical Alliance on the subject of American slavery. Frederick joined us in the afternoon, having left¹⁰³ Sheffield in the morning. Our meeting was a very triumphant one. The vast hall was densely crowded, and presented a brilliant spectacle. The interest and feeling manifested by the vast audience were of no ordinary character. Many of the friends, and some of the members, of the Alliance were present, some of them in no very amicable state of mind towards us. None of the American delegation showed their heads.

I spoke first, after some excellent prefatory remarks from the¹⁰⁴ chairman, the Rev. John Burnet, a very able and independent [167] man. My speech was frequently interrupted by a certain portion of the audience, in a rowdyish manner, something after the pattern we occasionally exhibit in Boston and elsewhere. My remarks frequently stung to the quick, and the snakes hissed and twisted as though they felt that the hour of doom had come. Still, the applause overpowered all the opposition—but the interruption was very considerable, and made my speech less consecutive than it otherwise would have been. Knowing that Thompson and Douglass were to follow me, I had more to say about the sectarian character of the Alliance than about its proslavery action; and this it was that called down upon my head the special ‘blessings’ of the priests and their tools in the vast assembly.

Thompson, though quite poorly all day, acquitted himself with more than ordinary ability, and made so powerful an impression that he swept away all symptoms of opposition; so that, when the resolutions were presented for adoption, only three or four hands were raised in opposition to them!¹⁰⁵ Douglass followed in a very effective speech, and was warmly applauded. We regard the result of the meeting as a great triumph, and as giving a staggering blow to the Alliance at the very moment most opportune.

My manner of expressing my thoughts and feelings is somewhat novel, and not always palatable, in this country, on account of its plainness and directness; but it will do more good, in the end, than a smoother mode. At least, I think so, and will ‘bide my time.’ I am led to be more plain-spoken because almost every one here deals in circumlocution, and to offend nobody seems to be the aim of the speaker. If I chose, I could be as smooth and politic as any one; but I do not so choose, and much prefer nature to art.

The Alliance died by its own hand, though Mr. Garrison could rightly claim its demise as one of the results of¹⁰⁶ [168] his English mission. The public sentiment aroused by the Exeter Hall meeting, and by similar demonstrations all over the United Kingdom up to his sailing for home on November 4, admittedly constrained the British branch, when organizing at Manchester on that very date, to¹⁰⁷ exclude slaveholders from membership—albeit leaving their personal Christianity an open question.¹⁰⁸ Meantime, more than fifty withdrawals had been reported to the Provisional Committee. In short, the effort to rehabilitate in Great Britain the spurious Christianity of the American Churches, by a guilty confederacy in silence or apology on the subject of slavery, was signally and finally defeated. Moreover, so little did the Free Church leaders prevail in their own section that, early in the summer, the Synod of the United Secession Church (one of the largest religious bodies in Scotland) committed to James N. Buffum, on his return to America, a “Memorial and Remonstrance respecting Slavery, to the Churches of the United States of America,” Lib. 16.167, 199, 201. and renounced fellowship with any church that sanctioned slavery.

In the interval between the two meetings of the League, Mr. Garrison had begun the whirl of journeying, lecturing, and visiting, which was not to cease while he remained in the United Kingdom. On August 20, in company with Thompson and Douglass, he was most affectionately¹⁰⁹ received by the aged Clarkson at Ipswich, whom he found weak in body but active in mind, and who gave him, on parting, a paper, ‘Hints for the American People in the Event of a Dissolution of the Union’—a consummation which he welcomed as a means to the abrogation of the legal sanction of slavery. ‘I consider, then,’ he wrote, ‘the dissolution of the Union, by affording the [169] opportunity of making such a change, among the greatest blessings; and, in all probability, nothing but a dissolution of the Union could produce such a glorious opportunity.’ The paper was incomplete, and he reserved the privilege of perfecting it. On August 25 he wrote to say that he was very ill, was probably inditing his last note, and that the paper must be considered concluded. On September 26 the great abolitionist passed away, affording the singular parallel with Wilberforce that¹¹⁰ each died while Mr. Garrison was in England, after recent interviews with him, and after publicly assenting to his most advanced strategy for the destruction of slavery.¹¹¹ ‘It is a fact for a poet to celebrate,’ wrote S. J. May to his friend on his return, “that you should have been in England to attend the burial of Clarkson, as you were of his co-worker Wilberforce.” Lib. 16.194. But in this particular only the parallel fails, as Mr. Garrison was denied the privilege of following Clarkson's remains to the grave. On October 1, in ‘beautiful and affecting’¹¹² terms, at a public meeting in Glasgow, he took notice of his venerated predecessor's

Repose at length, firm Friend of human kind.

A few days after their last meeting at Playford Hall, Mr. Garrison, with Douglass for his companion, betook¹¹³ himself to Bristol and Exeter. At the former place he was the guest of John Bishop Estlin, an eminent¹¹⁴ surgeon and oculist.

W. L. Garrison to H. C. Wright.

Bristol, August 26, 1846.

¹¹⁵ Yesterday afternoon, we had a public meeting at the Victoria Rooms (a splendid building), which was attended by a most [170] select assemblage, the Mayor of the city presiding on the occasion, who introduced us in a very handsome manner. The hall was filled—a considerable part of the assembly being members of the Society of Friends, of the affluent class. Very marked attention was paid to our remarks, and all seemed to be highly gratified; but, to me, it was anything but an animated time. So much formality and selectness takes all the warmth out of me; and I felt as dull and flat as though I had neither perception nor instinct. Frederick seemed to labor under¹¹⁶ embarrassment, but he did much better than myself. I thought he would greatly disturb the Mayor and our cautious and considerate friend Mr. Estlin—the former, by his severe remarks upon slaveholders as ‘vagabonds’ and ‘villains’ (for you will recollect that Bristol is the headquarters of the West India planters in this kingdom, and it was bringing up old reminiscences not the most pleasant to them and their friends)—and the latter by his ‘indiscriminate’ assault on the American church and clergy. How the Mayor really felt at such plain talk, I cannot say; but he concluded the meeting with some commendatory remarks, and, to my surprise, Mr. Estlin took exception at nothing that was said, but seemed to be very much pleased, and declared that he believed a very salutary impression had been made. The more I see of him, the more I am satisfied that he means to be a true friend of the cause, and that he is the main spoke in the anti-slavery wheel in all this region.

Last evening, we had a large circle of persons, of various religious denominations, convened at friend Estlin's, and a most animating conversation followed, on a variety of topics, but chiefly on non-resistance —when I gave them all my heresies on that point. I wish you could have seen us—yes, and been one of the group. I had half a dozen opponents, ministers, lawyers, merchants, etc.; but they were so effectually answered that they knew not which way to turn. The discussion, however, was very amicably conducted.

Some would say, that it was very poor policy to be talking about such subjects, if I wished to secure aid to the anti-slavery cause, and to make my mission a successful one. Thank God! it is not policy, but principle, by which I mean to be governed in my intercourse with my fellow-men; and while I desire at all times to be governed by a sound judgment, and not to be guilty of rashness, I will not desist from declaring ‘the whole counsel of God,’ as opportunity may offer, whether men will [171] hear or forbear. As Wendell Phillips once finely remarked— ‘God has not sent me into the world to abolish slavery, but to do my duty.’ It seems to me that our intercourse with our fellow-men will be to little benefit if we confine ourselves to the consideration of topics about which we are already agreed, or which are of a trivial character. Phrenologically speaking, my caution is large, and my combativeness not very active; and as I pay no regard whatever to the question of numbers, but everything to the question of right, I am not very forward in the work of proselytism.

I have received a very kind note from Francis Bishop, of¹¹⁷ Exeter, in which he says, in relation to the coming of Douglass and myself to that place—I have spoken to several friends on the subject, and they all agree that a public meeting is most desirable. We have accordingly decided on having such a meeting on Friday evening, in the largest and best public room in Exeter. The people only want to know the facts of American slavery, to be heart and soul with you. I trust we shall form an auxiliary to the League in Exeter. Aug. 28, 1846. We are to meet with a select number of friends at Bishop's residence, tomorrow (Thursday) evening. Thus, you see, our way is fully¹¹⁸ prepared before us.

Mr. Estlin thinks there ought to be an auxiliary to the League in Bristol. This will probably be agreed upon at the close of our meeting this evening. Thus far, everything here looks auspiciously.

Among other friendships cemented in Bristol on this¹¹⁹ visit was that with Mary Carpenter, the philanthropic daughter of the Rev. Lant Carpenter, famous in English Unitarian annals. To mingle much with this denomination abroad was a novel experience for Mr. Garrison. On September 10, 1846, he wrote to his wife: “Unitarianism is as odious in this country as ‘infidelity’ is in ours; but, thus far, those who have most zealously espoused my mission have been the Unitarians.” Ms.¹²⁰ [172]

At Exeter, Mr. Garrison was received, at a meeting in the Subscription Rooms, “with enthusiastic shouts of welcome.” Lib. 16.166. His personal appearance was thus described in a local paper:

He is an extraordinary man—no one could even casually¹²¹ look at his grave and thoughtful countenance, beaming with love, and tinctured with a shade of profound melancholy, without feelings of the deepest interest. Although under 40, his¹²² head is quite bald, and he bears strong traces on his countenance of the severe intellectual labor he has gone through. . . . His voice is clear, calm, and moderate, in the most harmonious tone, and inspired a feeling in his hearers of veneration and awe. It may be said of him that he has the courage of a hero, the fortitude of a martyr, the piety of a saint, and the zeal of an apostle.

Returning to London, Mr. Garrison was plunged into fresh activity.

W. L. Garrison to his Wife.

London, Sept. 3, 1846.

¹²³ Procrastinating, as usual, here I am at the desk of George Thompson, at the last moment before the closing of the mail for Boston, with pen in hand to send you a few words of greeting, with assurances of my health, which never fails to be excellent in this climate.¹²⁴ My cheeks are quite ruddy, and I have little [173] doubt that, on my return home, you will find me in a much better bodily condition than when I left you. That word home excites a yearning sensation within me; but I must not think too much about it, or I shall be quite unfitted to discharge the duties of my mission. . . .

In addition to addressing a large meeting at the Crown and Anchor, I have spoken at a public meeting in regard to the atrocious case of the afflicted Rajah of Sattara (of which comparatively little is known in America).¹²⁵ I was cheered to the echo, not so much in consequence of what I said, though that was warmly responded to, but because Thompson told them a few particulars of my labors in the anti-slavery cause in America. Last evening I addressed a large meeting of the Moral Suasion¹²⁶ Chartists, for the space of two hours, in the National Hall, George Thompson in the chair, and, of course, warmly commending me to the affection and cooperation of the workingmen of England. I wish you could have been present to see the enthusiasm that was excited. When I rose to address them, the applause was long protracted and overpowering. Peal after peal, like a thunder-storm, made the building quake; and, at the conclusion of my remarks, they gave me nine hearty cheers, and adopted by acclamation a highly flattering resolution. I did not appear before them in my official capacity, or as an abolitionist, technically speaking, but on my own responsibility, uttering such heresies in regard to Church and State as occurred to me, and fully identifying myself with all the unpopular reformatory movements in this country. This will probably alienate some ‘good society folks’ from me, but no matter. I know that the cause of my enslaved countrymen cannot possibly be injured by my advocacy of the rights of all men, or by my opposition to all tyranny.

I have done a good deal in private as well as in public to advance the great object I have in view; and though with me day is turned into night, and night into day, I continue to keep in good health—which fact will give you as much comfort as any that I could possibly send you.

The next excursion was to Birmingham, with Thompson¹²⁷ and Douglass, where, besides a good public meeting, there [174] was a memorable breakfast with Joseph Sturge, on his invitation. ‘In the presence of a considerable number of his relatives,’ wrote Mr. Garrison to his wife, ‘for¹²⁸ more than an hour, I had a very plain and faithful conversation with him, in regard to his treatment of me personally as an abolitionist, and to the unfair and dishonorable course of the London Committee towards the American Anti-Slavery Society. I have not time to give you the particulars of the interview; but it was one of confusion to himself, and it deepened my conviction that he is anything but a candid, straightforward man. My facts he did not attempt to invalidate, but he shuffled in a manner truly pitiable.’ At Sheffield, on September 10, the three orators again met in public at the Friends' Meeting-house—“the first one that has yet been offered to us in this country, and I presume [it] will be the last; for the opposition to us, in this country, runs almost exclusively in the channels of Quakerism, in consequence of the poisonous influence exerted by the Broad-Street Committee in London, of which Joseph Sturge is a member.” Ms. Sept. 10, 1846, W. L. G. to H. E. G. The poet Montgomery was present, and was deeply¹²⁹ affected by the proceedings. Another auditor was the ex-Methodist Rev. Joseph Barker, whom Mr. Garrison had just visited expressly at Leeds, at the instance of his Unitarian friends—Mr. Barker having recently gone¹³⁰ over to that body, to the great scandal of his former cosectaries. This able but shifting character was well calculated to impress Mr. Garrison as one of the most remarkable men he had yet met. With eager sympathy the American surveyed his host's printing-office, and “set some types, just to see how natural it seemed,” Ms. Sept. 12, 1846, W. L. G. to R. D. Webb. and listened to Barker's glowing exposition of the wonders he was about to accomplish in the direction of cheap¹³¹ literature, by means of his new power press. Who more naturally than this pioneer should be chosen printer of¹³² the Anti-Slavery League's contemplated organ?

A few days after the Exeter Hall meeting, Mr. Garrison¹³³ bade good-bye to London, and began his North British¹³⁴ [175] tour, reaching Glasgow on September 19, by way of Newcastle and Berwick. His perfervid Scotch friends gave him even less rest than he had snatched in England. On October 3, he wrote from Belfast of the past fortnight: “I have been hurried from place to place, and held meeting after meeting, and turned day into night and night into day, and spoken in public, and talked almost incessantly in private, and come into contact with all sorts of minds, so that it is a marvel to me that, mentally, I am not in a fever, and, physically, entirely prostrated.” Lib. 16.174. Add to this the heavy correspondence which his mission entailed. In Glasgow he was the guest of Andrew Paton,¹³⁵ and at a social tea renewed his friendship with the members of the Emancipation Society. A visit to John Murray at Bowling Bay and meeting at Greenock were followed¹³⁶ at Paisley by the most crowded and enthusiastic meeting¹³⁷ he had yet seen on that side of the water; but even for¹³⁸ this there were climaxes in store. Thence he passed to¹³⁹ Edinburgh, making numerous addresses; to Dundee, a¹⁴⁰ stronghold of the Free Church, where, nevertheless, a large impromptu audience gave him hearty applause. Again in Edinburgh, where he especially enjoyed the¹⁴¹ warm hospitality of the Rev. James Robertson, Secretary¹⁴² of the Scottish Anti-Slavery Society, a farewell tea-party sped him on his way to Glasgow. Here fresh labors, under the most cheering auspices, won him a public breakfast at the Eagle Hotel, overpowering to his feelings as a¹⁴³ testimonial of affectionate regard.

Mr. Garrison's next destination was Belfast, where he landed on October 3, to find that sectarianism had, through a portion of the press of that city, been raising against him the cry of Infidel, with the customary misrepresentations and fictions. This cost him, however, neither an audience nor its approbation. ‘In fact,’ he recorded,¹⁴⁴ ‘I have never had any difficulty, either in America or in this country, in commending the cause which I plead, and the doctrines which I enunciate, to any audience that will give me a candid hearing.’ The journey by stage from¹⁴⁵ [176] Belfast to Drogheda was through a district already showing the effects of the incipient famine, and Mr. Garrison was melted to tears by the frequent sight of human wretchedness and suffering along the road. Arrived in Dublin on October 5, he rejoined Henry C. Wright at the home of the Webbs, who could ill reconcile themselves to his limited stay in Ireland. Only one public meeting could be arranged, but his review of the Evangelical¹⁴⁶ Alliance raised a salutary storm in the Pharisaism of Dublin.¹⁴⁷

Thompson and Douglass greeted him on October 10 in Liverpool, and took him directly to Wrexham, in Wales,¹⁴⁸ to meet an engagement at the Town Hall, which was packed till midnight. At the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, on October 12, a glorious gathering of four thousand people next awaited him. A short respite permitted him to visit Elizabeth Pease in Darlington,¹⁴⁹ and gratified him with the personal assurance of her improving health. At Newcastle, on October 16, the¹⁵⁰ Mayor presided at a meeting which effaced the impression made at Paisley, and this was succeeded by a public¹⁵¹ breakfast. Liverpool was again reached (by way of Darlington), and, with no thanks to the philanthropists¹⁵² of the great port, a meeting at Concert Hall went off famously, with Thompson in the chair as President of the League.

Scotland was again royally scoured, in parts already gone over (with a superlative occasion at Glasgow in the¹⁵³ City Hall, lasting five hours on October 28), and also at Kirkcaldy, Perth, and Aberdeen. But the most¹⁵⁴ interesting incident of all was the presentation to Mr. Garrison, on October 21 (the anniversary of the Boston mob), of¹⁵⁵ [177] a silver tea-service, elaborately chased and properly inscribed, together with a silk purse containing ten sovereigns, by the anti-slavery ladies of Edinburgh, in the Brighton-Street Church. ‘Such tokens,’ wrote the recipient to Richard Webb, ‘while they are cheering to¹⁵⁶ me at the present crisis, when such malignant efforts are making to cover me with popular odium,¹⁵⁷ make me feel as though I had yet to perform much, fully to deserve them.’¹⁵⁸

On November 4, Mr. Garrison sailed from Liverpool on the Acadia. A large party of friends—representatives¹⁵⁹ of the three kingdoms—who had gathered the night before expressly to bid him farewell at the house of Richard Rathbone, waved him their long adieus. The voices of Thompson and Webb and H. C. Wright swelled the cheering led by Frederick Douglass. More than twenty years would elapse before the voyager's eye should again behold the pleasant English shores now vanishing behind him. From Halifax on the eleventh¹⁶⁰ day he pencilled a line to Elizabeth Pease, informing her of the smooth and safe passage, attended, nevertheless, with more than the ordinary discomforts for his overtaxed system.¹⁶¹ On November 17, he landed in [178] Boston, having just rounded the fourth month of his Absence.

We pass over the receptions given to him by the¹⁶² colored people at Belknap-Street Church; in Salem; in Faneuil Hall. Rather let us look in, with a poet's eye, on the reunited abolitionists at the Anti-Slavery Bazaar, opened in the same hall on December 22. Never was more humor combined with a finer discernment of character and more exquisite portraiture than in these lines, written as a ‘Letter from Boston’ to the editor of the¹⁶³ Pennsylvania Freeman, by James Russell Lowell:

Dear M.,¹⁶⁴
By way of saving time,¹⁶⁵
I'll do this letter up in rhyme,
Whose slim stream through four pages flows
Ere one is packed with tight-screwed prose,
Threading the tube of an epistle
Smooth as a child's breath through a whistle.

The great attraction now of all
Is the ‘Bazaar’ at Faneuil Hall,
Where swarm the Anti-Slavery folks
As thick, dear Miller, as your jokes.
There's Garrison, his features very
Benign for an incendiary,
Beaming forth sunshine through his glasses
On the surrounding lads and lasses,
(No bee could blither be or brisker,)—
A Pickwick somehow turned John Ziska,
His bump of firmness swelling up
Like a rye cupcake from its cup.
And there, too, was his English tea-set,
Which in his ear a kind of flea set,
His Uncle Samuel for its beauty
Demanding sixty dollars duty,
('T was natural Sam should serve his trunk ill,
For G., you know, has cut his uncle,) [179]
Whereas, had he but once made tea in it,
His uncle's ear had had the flea in it,
There being not a cent of duty
On any pot that ever drew tea.¹⁶⁶

There was Maria Chapman, too,
With her swift eyes of clear steel-blue,
The coiled — up mainspring of the Fair,
Originating everywhere
The expansive force without a sound
That whirled a hundred wheels around,
Herself meanwhile as calm and still
As the bare crown of Prospect Hill;¹⁶⁷
A noble woman, brave and apt,
Cumaea's sybil not more rapt,
Who might, with those fair tresses shorn,
The Maid of Orleans' casque have worn,
Herself the Joan of our Ark,
For every shaft a shining mark.

And there, too, was Eliza Follen,
Who scatters fruit-creating pollen
Where'er a blossom she can find
Hardy enough for Truth's north wind,
Each several point of all her face
Tremblingly bright with the inward grace,
As if all motion gave it light
Like phosphorescent seas at night.

There jokes our Edmund, plainly son¹⁶⁸
Of him who bearded Jefferson,— [180]
A non-resistant by conviction,
But with a bump in contradiction,
So that whene'er it gets a chance
His pen delights to play the lance,
And—you may doubt it or believe it—
Full at the head of Joshua Leavitt
The very calumet he'd launch,
And scourge him with the olive-branch.
A master with the foils of wit,
'T is natural he should love a hit;
A gentleman, withal, and scholar,
Only base things excite his choler,
And then his satire's keen and thin
As the lithe blade of Saladin.
Good letters are a gift apart,
And his are gems of Flemish art,
True offspring of the fireside Muse,
Not a chip-gathering of news
Like a new hopfield which is all poles,
But of one blood with Horace Walpole's.

There, with one hand behind his back,
Stands Phillips buttoned in a sack,¹⁶⁹
Our Attic orator, our Chatham;
Old fogies, when he lightens at 'em,
Shrivel like leaves; to him 't is granted
Always to say the word that's wanted,
So that he seems but speaking clearer
The tiptoe thought of every hearer;
Each flash his brooding heart lets fall
Fires what's combustible in all,
And sends the applauses bursting in
Like an exploded magazine.
His eloquence no frothy show,
The gutter's street-polluted flow,
No Mississippi's yellow flood
Whose shoalness can't be seen for mud;—
So simply clear, serenely deep,
So silent-strong its graceful sweep,
None measures its unrippling force
Who has not striven to stem its course;
How fare their barques who think to play
With smooth Niagara's mane of spray, [181]
Let Austin's total shipwreck say.¹⁷⁰
He never spoke a word too much—
Except of Story, or some such,¹⁷¹
Whom, though condemned by ethics strict,¹⁷²
The heart refuses to convict.

Beyond, a crater in each eye,
Sways brown, broad-shouldered Pillsbury,¹⁷³
Who tears up words like trees by the roots,
A Theseus in stout cowhide boots,
The wager of eternal war
Against that loathsome Minotaur
To whom we sacrifice each year
The best blood of our Athens here—
(Dear M., pray brush up your Lempriere.)
A terrible denouncer he,
Old Sinai burns unquenchably
Upon his lips; he well might be a
Hot-blazing soul from fierce Judaea,
Habakkuk, Ezra, or Hosea.
His words burn as with iron searers,
And nightmare-like he mounts his hearers,
Spurring them like avenging Fate, or
As Waterton his alligator.

¹⁷⁴ Hard by, as calm as summer even,
Smiles the reviled and pelted Stephen,¹⁷⁵
The unappeasable Boanerges
To all the Churches and the Clergies,
The grim savant who, to complete
His own peculiar cabinet,
Contrived to label with his kicks
One from the followers of Hicks;¹⁷⁶ [182]
Who studied mineralogy
Not with soft book upon the knee,
But learned the properties of stones
By contact sharp of flesh and bones,
And made the experimentum crucis
With his own body's vital juices:
A man with caoutchouc endurance,
A perfect gem for life insurance,
A kind of maddened John the Baptist,
To whom the harshest word comes aptest,
Who, struck by stone or brick ill-starred,
Hurls back an epithet as hard,
Which, deadlier than stone or brick,
Has a propensity to stick.
His oratory is like the scream
Of the iron horse's phrenzied steam
Which warns the world to leave wide space
For the black engine's swerveless race.
Ye men with neckcloths white, I warn you—¹⁷⁷
Habet a whole haymow in cornu.

A Judith, there, turned Quakeress,
Sits Abby in her modest dress,¹⁷⁸
Serving a table quietly,
As if that mild and downcast eye
Flashed never, with its scorn intense,
More than Medea's eloquence.
So the same force which shakes its dread
Far-blazing locks o'er Aetna's head,
Along the wires in silence fares
And messages of commerce bears.
No nobler gift of heart and brain,
No life more white from spot or stain,
Was e'er on Freedom's altar laid
Than hers—the simple Quaker maid.

These last three (leaving in the lurch
Some other themes) assault the Church,
Who therefore writes them in her lists
As Satan's limbs and atheists;
For each sect has one argument
Whereby the rest to hell are sent,
Which serves them like the Graiae's tooth, [183]
Passed round in turn from mouth to mouth;—
If any ism should arise,
They look on it with constable's eyes,
Tie round its neck a heavy athe-,
And give it kittens' hydropathy.
This trick with other (useful very) tricks
Is laid to the Babylonian meretrix,
But 't was in vogue before her day
Wherever priesthoods had their way,
And Buddha's Popes with this struck dumb
The followers of Fi and Fum.

Well, if the world with prudent fear
Pays God a seventh of the year,
And as a Farmer, who would pack
All his religion in one stack,
For this world works six days in seven
And on the seventh works for Heaven,
Expecting, for his Sunday's sowing,
In the next world to go a-mowing
The crop of all his meeting-going;—
If the poor Church, by power enticed,
Finds none so infidel as Christ,
Quite backward reads his Gospel meek,
(As 't were in Hebrew writ, not Greek,)
Fencing the gallows and the sword
With conscripts drafted from his word,
And makes one gate of Heaven so wide
That the rich orthodox might ride
Through on their camels, while the poor
Squirm through the scant, unyielding door,
Which, of the Gospel's straitest size,
Is narrower than beadneedles' eyes,—
What wonder World and Church should call
The true faith atheistical?

Yet, after all, 'twixt you and me,
Dear Miller, I could never see
That Sin's and Error's ugly smirch
Stained the walls only of the Church;—
There are good priests, and men who take
Freedom's torn cloak for lucre's sake,—
I can't believe the Church so strong, [184]
As some men do, for Right or Wrong.
But for this subject (long and vext)
I must refer you to my next,
As also for a list exact
Of goods with which the Hall was packed.¹⁷⁹

The author of the ‘Biglow Papers’ had already begun that inimitable satire of the national crime against Mexico, marked, so far, by Taylor's military successes at¹⁸⁰ Matamoras and Monterey. The demoralization which war immediately produces as a mere status, was lamentably shown by the compliance of the Whig governors Briggs¹⁸¹ and Slade (of Massachusetts and Vermont respectively) with the President's request for a State call for volunteers.¹⁸² This action did not prevent the party from renominating Briggs, nor did Robert C. Winthrop's acceptance of the¹⁸³ war afford a sufficient handle to the Conscience Whigs (as¹⁸⁴ Charles Francis Adams denominated those who were not Cotton Whigs) to deprive him of a renomination. The Cotton Whigs swept the State. One heard Daniel Webster proclaim in Faneuil Hall: “I am for the Constitution as our fathers left it to us, and standing by it and dying by it.” Lib. 16.182. But also one heard John Quincy Adams, from his home in Quincy, deny that there was anything left to¹⁸⁵ stand by: ‘The Constitution of the United States—stat magni nominis umbra.’ This quotation, said the editor of the Liberator, ‘indicates pretty clearly the position and¹⁸⁶ feelings of this venerable statesman in regard to the American Union. . . . Then if it be only a shadow that is left to us, it is at best but a mockery, and ought not to be treated as a reality. . . . Let Daniel Webster, the greatest and meanest of his countrymen, exhaust his powers of eulogy upon it, if he will: the effort will but [185] render his character base and contemptible with posterity. What the people need is a new government—a free government—no slavery—no guaranties to men-stealers— “no Union with slaveholders!” ’

We might end here, if it were not instructive to remark on Liberty Party endorsement of the Mexican War, even¹⁸⁷ Gamaliel Bailey, in his Philanthropist, praying for the safety of the ‘noble’ Taylor and his ‘brave army.’ There were other proofs that the party was in a bad way. In the spring of 1846 one of its thirty organs affirmed that ‘its present position is inaction—a perfect standstill.’¹⁸⁸ Almost ‘at a dead stand’ was William Goodells report of progress, speaking both for New York and for Massachusetts. In Maine the State Convention admitted that the party there merely held its own, and looked forward to ‘certain death’ for the party at large if the stationary stage were not quickly escaped—Joshua Leavitt himself¹⁸⁹ being present, and discounting the impending catastrophe by denying that the party and the ballot-box were the sole¹⁹⁰ means of abolishing slavery. Bailey gave a discouraging account of the Ohio section, and predicted that all would be over with it if it manifested no strength in the coming gubernatorial election. Gerrit Smith lamented in New¹⁹¹ York a falling away on all sides, and W. L. Chaplin and J. C. Jackson confirmed his statements. Only one dollar was raised to ten formerly. Edmund Quincy judged it at¹⁹² this time to be on its last legs; and the fall elections showed that it could send only five Representatives out of¹⁹³ 232 to the Massachusetts lower House, polling a total vote of about 10,000. In New York it cast but 12,000 votes,¹⁹⁴ against 16,000 in 1844. Quincy was quite right in¹⁹⁵ assuring Webb that—

There are many more A. S. Whigs and Democrats than¹⁹⁶ Third Party men, and many more Whig papers, especially, which are more thoroughly anti-slavery than any of the Third¹⁹⁷ Party ones. There is not a Third Party paper that compares in thoroughness and usefulness with the Boston Whig, or even the N. Y. Tribune. And they have not a man who comes near Charles [186] F. Adams (son of J. Q. A.), editor of the Whig, Charles Sumner, J. G. Palfrey, S. G. Howe, Stephen C. Phillips, and others of the A. S. Whigs, in point of character, talent, or social standing. These gentlemen are high-minded, honorable, well-educated men, who would compare favorably with any public men you have in Parliament. And they have actually sacrificed political prospects and caste by their A. S. course, which is more than can be said of a single Third Party man—because I know of none who had anything of the sort to lose. Yet we cannot admit these men—though so much better abolitionists, and so many more of them—to be the real thing, any more than the Third Party men, as long as, like them, they are ready to swear to support the U. S. Constitution and to perform its pro-slavery provisions.