[131]“The remembrance of my recent visit to Newburyport,” Ms. Mar. 17, 1865. wrote Mr. Garrison to Jacob Horton, ‘and the generous and handsome reception which was accorded to me by the citizens, for dear Liberty's sake, will carry with it a delightful aroma while memory lasts.’ The demonstration, tardy atonement as it was on the part of the old town, was typical of the utter revolution in public sentiment towards the editor of the Liberator, and of the general respect and confidence which he now enjoyed. His opinions were sought and his influence solicited by men prominent in public or political life, and in a way at times quite amusing to him, as when one of the Republican leaders of Massachusetts begged him to urge Mr. Lincoln to summon Governor Andrew to his Cabinet. ‘The President recognizes you as one of “the Powers”—1 a Radical with a substratum of common sense and practical wisdom. He will heed your suggestions,’ wrote this gentleman. But Mr. Garrison disclaimed any such influence, and did not now attempt to dabble in political wire-pulling or Cabinet-making. His only intercourse with the President was the social hour he spent with him2 in June, 1864, and the only favors he ever asked of him were the careful consideration of charges against an officer under arrest, whom he believed to be innocent, but who must nevertheless stand or fall by the evidence that might be adduced; and the acknowledgment of a painting3 presented to Mr. Lincoln by citizens of Boston several months before, no word from its recipient having
A darker cloud moves on in light,
A fiercer fire is guide by night!
The praise, O Lord! is Thine alone,
In Thy own way Thy work is done!
Our poor gifts at Thy feet we cast,
To whom be glory, first and last!
This text is part of:
1 Ms. Jan. 18, 1865, J. M. Forbes to W. L. G.
2 Ante, p. 117.
3 ‘Waiting for the Hour,’ an oil painting by W. T. Carleton of Boston, representing a Watch Meeting of Slaves on the night before the Emancipation Proclamation, Dec. 31, 1862.
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