‘ [22] yet, of course, without any compromise of principle on our part. We need great circumspection and consummate wisdom in regard to what we say and do, under these unparalleled circumstances. We are rather, for the time being, to note the events transpiring, than seek to control them. There must be no needless turning of popular violence upon ourselves, by any false step of our own.’1
The omission of the annual meeting called forth private protests and expressions of regret from a few anti-slavery friends, who deemed it a sacrifice of principle and dereliction from duty, and thought the outlook for the slave never more depressing than then. It was with these in mind, no less than the New Haven correspondent to whom he was more directly replying, that Mr. Garrison wrote:
There seems to be some diversity of feeling and sentiment2 among abolitionists, in regard to the bearing of the present civil war in our land upon the anti-slavery cause. This arises from no wish or purpose, in any direction, to retreat a hair'sbreadth from the line of duty originally marked out by them, and adhered to, through countless temptations and trials, with unsurpassed fidelity; but solely, we think, from a difference in the standpoint of judgment and observation occupied by the parties. By some, this tremendous conflict of hostile forces is regarded as without any cheering significance, or sign of promise, to those who have so long struggled for the utter abolition of slavery; by others, it is deemed to have a mighty bearing towards hastening the day of universal emancipation, if not intentionally on the part of the Government (and they attribute no such design to it primarily), at least by the necessities of the case,— being essentially the South against the North,—and is therefore to be viewed hopefully. It would be absurd to deny that the war presents some very paradoxical and complex features, so as to render it extremely difficult to speak of it without being misunderstood, either on one side or on the other. Nevertheless, we shall venture to express our opinions of it in a spirit of
