Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 2

[320] on similar grounds of expediency, but also because ‘the anti-slavery reformation is emphatically a religious enterprise, and the prominent measures for its accomplishment ought to be of a consistent character.’

‘Now,’ he continued, ‘if we make political action so promi-¹ nent, will there not be some ground for those who have continually an evil eye upon us, to charge that we have lost our first confidence in strict moral means, and that we are now compelled to resort to means which we at first overlooked, if not repudiated? I fear that some, who have labored earnestly and zealously with the first weapons of our warfare, are becoming somewhat impatient of the delay which seems to attend their use; and believe, very sincerely, no doubt, that the great desideratum would be sooner attained by carrying the issue of the cause directly to the polls. If so, we ought to possess ourselves in patience, recollecting that national reformations from national sins are not the work of a day, or of a year. Men are readily tempted to the use of what appear direct means, through political action, to obtain moral reformation, from witnessing the rapid revolutions of feeling and action among large masses of men in relation to mere questions of human expediency. If we are liable to err from such influences, will it not, at least, be safe to wait still longer for an answer to our prayers, and for the promised fruits of the seed of truth, which we have sown in the hearts and consciences of this people, resting assured that we shall reap in due season if we faint not?’

The nomination came to Mr. Birney, and had to be refused, at a time when his official position in the American Society had become far from pleasant. On November 7, 1839, the Executive Committee resolved to recall their agents in the field unless they could earn their own salaries by their collections; and this decision was communicated in a circular letter sent out the next day² by Mr. Birney, as Corresponding Secretary. The low treasury, he explained, was partly owing to the general financial embarrassment of the country, partly to the working of the Society's prohibition against sending³ agents into any State without the permission of the State Society. Ten thousand dollars had been received during