Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 3

[493] innocent fellow-creatures in the dark. John Brown did this because there was a place in his Christianity for war, and such conduct is ‘fair in war.’ Both earned the name of fanatic, if only one the name of infidel. So far as fanaticism implies an inability to see things as they are, or to adapt one's means to one's ends, the epithet did not apply to Garrison. Had, moreover, the Liberator not preceded John Brown, the attempt on Harper's Ferry not only would have seemed the height of madness, but would have made hardly a ripple on the surface of American politics–exciting universal horror and reprobation in place of sentiments of pity and esteem. Had John Brown been, in action, a contemporary of Lovejoy, still more would the Austins have said of him, “He died as the fool dieth.” Lib. 7.202. ‘The sympathy and admiration now so widely felt for him,’ said Mr. Garrison, “prove how marvellous has been the change effected in public opinion during thirty years of moral agitation—a change so great, indeed, that whereas, ten years since, there were thousands who could not endure my lightest word of rebuke of the South, they can now easily swallow John Brown whole, and his rifle into the bargain. In firing his gun, he has merely told us what time of day it is. It is high noon, thank God!” Speech at Mass. A. S. S. annual meeting, Jan. 27, 1860; Lib. 30.26.