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[165] by these cruel demonstrations, he felt assured that they would be overruled for good, and would ‘help to consolidate the loyal sentiment of the country in opposition to any relaxation of the strong arm of the General Government,’ and ‘to the admission of any one of the revolted States into the Union for an indefinite period.’ In common with others, he tried to regard hopefully the course of the new President, and to believe that his1 intentions were right;2 but hope grew fainter from month to month, as Johnson's purpose to restore the entire political control of the returning States to the whites, without any guarantees whatever for the protection of the freedmen, became evident. ‘The aspect of things at the South is somewhat portentous,’ he wrote to Henry C. Wright, in3 October. ‘If the rebel States, “reconstructed” so as to leave the colored people at the mercy of the savage whites, are suddenly admitted into the Union, there will assuredly be a terrible state of affairs, perhaps leading to a war of extermination. I begin to feel more uneasy about the President.’

Late in September he attended the Champlain Valley4 Agricultural Fair, at Vergennes, Vermont, in company5 with the Rev. Edwin H. Chapin, and had ‘an unspeakably pleasant’ time and a cordial reception. Both, in their addresses, dwelt upon the questions of the day and the importance of negro suffrage. A fortnight later Mr.6 Garrison was in Philadelphia, on business connected with the American Freedman's Aid Commission, an organization comprising the principal Freedmen's Educational and Aid Associations in the East and West, which had hitherto been working independently of each other, but were now brought into harmonious operation through the7 efforts of J. M. McKim. Of this new organization Bishop Matthew Simpson was made President, and Mr. Garrison First Vice-President, Mr. McKim being the Corresponding

1 Andrew Johnson.

2 No one was more hopeful than Mr. Phillips. ‘I have never expressed a doubt with regard to President Johnson,’ he said in May; ‘I believe in him. I believe he means suffrage’ (Lib. 35: 86).

3 Ms. Oct. 2.

4 Sept. 28.

5 Lib. 35.163.

6 Oct. 11.

7 Lib. 35.170.

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