Chapter 2: the hour and the man.—1862.
Garrison defines in a public lecture the relations of the abolitionists to the war; and takes at the Anti-slavery meetings a cheering view of the situation in spite of the halting policy of the Administration, for which he makes due allowances. He draws up an emancipatory appeal to President Lincoln on behalf of the Progressive friends of Pennsylvania. He discusses the duty of abolitionists and non-resistants in face of the draft for troops. He welcomes, but with misgivings, Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, recognizes the need of continuing the American Anti-slavery Society, and strives to keep the Liberator alive by raising its price.Early in the new year Mr. Garrison yielded to the urgent solicitation of friends in New York, and delivered a lecture, at Cooper Institute in that city, on1 ‘The Abolitionists and their Relations to the War,’ which subsequently received a wide circulation in pamphlet form.2 In this he vindicated the motives and3 methods of the Garrisonian abolitionists; replied effectively to the assertions that they were wholly responsible for the war, or had been equally guilty with the secessionists in precipitating it; answered the cry that slavery had nothing to do with the war, and the Government no right or power to touch the institution; and declared emancipation essential for the suppression of the rebellion and for ultimate peace and union. The address, which occupied two hours in delivery, abounded in cogent and forcible passages, but we have room only for two brief quotations. To the charge that the disappearance of the ‘Covenant with Death’ motto from the head of the Liberator indicated a great and sudden change in his views, he replied:
Well, ladies and gentlemen, you remember what Benedick in4 the play says: “ When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.” And when I said I would not sustain the Constitution because it was “ a covenant ”
