Joshua R. Giddings to W. L. Garrison.
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1 Stephen S. Foster, for instance, held Mr. Lincoln responsible for the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law in the District of Columbia, whither scores of Maryland slaves flocked after the passage of the Emancipation Act, only to be seized, imprisoned, and returned to their masters. The resolutions introduced by Mr. Garrison very properly called upon Congress to end this ‘frightful paradox’ (Lib. 32: 92).
3 May 6.
4 In a letter urging the preparation of this Statement, Gerrit Smith wrote (April 16) to Mr. Garrison: ‘There is one point at which the meeting should, in my judgment, put forth a clear defence of the “Garrisonian abolitionist.” His influence, especially in the case of such a man as yourself or Wendell Phillips, is too important to the cause of freedom that injustice should be allowed to impair it. The “Garrisonian abolitionist” was formerly a Disunionist, and is now a Unionist; and hence he is charged with being inconsistent, or at least with being a convert. . . . There is a conversion. It is, however, to him, and not of him. There is a change; but it is around him, and not in him’ (Ms. and Lib. 32: 74).
5 Ms.
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