Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 4, Chapter 2: the hour and the man.

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Slavery is a thunderbolt in the hands of the traitors to smite³ the Government to the dust. That thunderbolt might be seized and turned against the rebellion with fatal effect, and at the same time without injury to the South. My heart glows when I think of the good thus to be done to the oppressors as well as to the oppressed; for I could not stand here, I could not stand anywhere, and advocate vindictive and destructive measures to bring the rebels to terms. I do not believe in killing or doing injury even to enemies—God forbid! That is not my Christian philosophy. But I do say, that never before in the history of the world has God vouchsafed to a Government the power to do such a work of philanthropy and justice, in the

1 The humor of this retort was keenly relished by the audience, and by the wider public to whom the newspapers all over the North quoted it.

2 ‘The “New South” rejoices in the Union and its wide domain, and, most of all, it is proud that the blot of slavery has been removed from its escutcheon. It says, in all heartiness and sincerity, “ God be praised for this crowning glory of a wonderful century” ’ (James Phelan of Tennessee, in a speech prior to his election as member of Congress from the Memphis district, November, 1886).

‘Bitter to my taste as were the results of the civil war, day after day has reconciled me to them, and convinced me of the wisdom of cheerful submission to the will of Him who brought them about. The union of these States has been preserved and declared indissoluble. A great and disturbing constitutional question has been finally and forever settled, and slavery has been forever abolished; it no longer tarnishes the fair fame of a great and free republic. Because it was involved in the question of constitutional right, I fought four years in its defence. I tell you now, upon the honor of my manhood, that I would fight eight years, though my hairs are white, against any attempt to reinstate it in any portion of this continent’ (Z. B. Vance, Governor of North Carolina during the war, and U. S. Senator from that State since 1879, in a lecture delivered in Boston, Dec. 8, 1886; in Boston Daily Advertiser, Dec. 9).

3 Lib. 32.15.

The Century Company. , 1885-1889.

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Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 4

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