[161] outlawed. To-day, it is popular to be President of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Hence, my connection with it terminates here and now, both as a member and as its presiding officer. I bid you an affectionate adieu.The final vote was taken after another appeal from Mr. Phillips, and resulted in the rejection of Mr. Garrison's resolutions by a vote of 118 to 48, and so the continuance of the Society was decided. Tumultuous applause greeted the announcement of the result, which was renewed when the Nominating Committee reported Mr. Garrison's name for reflection as President for the ensuing year; but he of course declined to serve, and Mr. Phillips, who was then chosen as his successor, offered a resolution of fervid tribute to the retiring President, which was adopted by a rising vote, and acknowledged in a few grateful words by the recipient.1 Thus did Mr. Garrison dissolve his connection with the Society which, more than any other man, he had founded, and over which he had presided for twenty-two years. Doubtless he would have been willing to continue
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1 The tribute was certainly sincere and heartfelt on the part of the majority of the Society who voted it, and was accepted in that sense by Mr. Garrison; but the Nominating Committee did not deem it necessary to pay a similar compliment to the retiring members of the Executive Committee, only one of whom was renominated. Edmund Quincy, Anne Warren Weston, Sydney Howard Gay, Samuel May, Jr., and Henry C. Wright, all shared Mr. Garrison's views essentially, and with him withdrew from the Society. A resolution of thanks to the retiring editors of the Standard (Oliver Johnson and Edmund Quincy), with especial commendation of their conduct of the paper during the war, was introduced by S. May, Jr., but was adroitly referred to the new and hostile Executive Committee, who finally passed it in an emasculated form which the subjects of it refused to accept and returned with trenchant letters (Lib. 35: 98). Mr. Quincy could not resist the opportunity to poke a little fun at the Society and its Executive Committee. ‘Regarding, as I do,’ said he, ‘the existence of an Anti-Slavery Society at this time as not merely an anachronism and an absurdity, but as an impossibility, I must regard the ladies and gentlemen in question, officially, as Non-existent, and the Society they profess to represent as a Nonentity. Holding these views, I cannot consent, by accepting this Resolution, at once to deny them and to stultify myself.’ See, also, Oliver Johnson's farewell to the readers of the Standard (Lib. 35: 88), and pp. 387-390 of his “ Garrison and his Times,” for a full and accurate statement of the causes which led to the division in the anti-slavery ranks.
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