Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/96

Rh 86 }LblbltSON liminarics, Mr Arthur Tappan, a philanthropic merchant of New F foremost nations of the world, the South would speedily give York, contributed the necessary sum and set the prisoner free after au incarceration of seven weeks. The partnership between Mr Garrison and Mr Lundy was then dissolved by mutual consent, and the former resolved to establish a paper of his own, in which, upon his sole responsibility, he could advocate the doctrine of innnediate emancipation and oppose the scheme of Africa-m colonization. He was sure, after his experiences at Baltimore, that a movement against slavery resting upon any loss radical foundation than this would be inetlicacious. He first proposed to establish his paper at 'as-hington, in the midst of slavery, but on returning to New England and observing the state of public opinion there. he came to the conclusion that little could be done at the South while the non- slaveholding North was lending her influence, through political, commercial, religious, and social channels, for the sustenance of slavery. lle determined, therefore, to publish his paper in Boston, and, having issued his prospectus, set himself to the task of awak- ening an interest in the subject by means of lectures in some ot' the principal cities and towns of the North. It was an up-hill work. Contempt for the negro and indifference to his wrongs were almost universal. In Boston, then a great cotton mart, he tried in vain to procure a church or vestry _for the delivery of his lectures, and thereupon announced in one of the daily journals that if some suitable place was not promptly otfcred he would speak on the common. A body of intidels proffered him the use of their small hall; and, no other place being accessible, he accepted it gratefully, and delivered therein three lectures, in which he unfolded his prin- ciples and plans. He visited privately many of the leading citizens of the city, statesmen, divincs, and merchants, a11d besonght them to take the lead in a national movement against slavery ; but they all with one consent made excuse, some of them listening to his plea with manifest impatience. He was disappointed, but not dis- heartened. His conviction of the righteousness of his cause, of the evils and dangers of slavery, and of the absolute necessity of the contemplated movement, was intensiﬁed by opposition, and he re- s)lved to go forward, trusting in God for success. On the 1st of January 1831, without a dollar of capital save in hand and brain, and without a single subscriber, he and his partner issued the first number of the Liberator, avowing their “ determi- nation to print it as long as they could subsist on bread and water, or their hands obtain employment.” Its motto was, “ Our country is the world—-our countrymen are mankind ;” and the editor, in his address to the public, uttered the words which have become memor- able as embodying the whole purpose and spirit of his life :—“ I am in earnest——I will not equivocate—I will not c_'cusc—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard.” Help came but slowly. For many months Mr Garrison and his brave partner, Mr Isaac Knapp, who died long before the end of the conflict, made their bed on the floor of the room, “dark, unfurnitured, and mean,” in which they printed their paper, and where the mayor of Boston, in compliance with the request of a distinguished magistrate of the South, “ferrcted them out,” in “an obscure hole,” “their only visible auxiliary a negro boy.” But the paper founded under such inauspi- cious circumstances exerted a mighty inﬂuence, and lived to record not only President Linco1n’s proclamation of emancipation, but the adoption of an amendment to the constitution of the United States ‘for ever prohibiting slavery. It was the beginning and the nucleus of an agitation that eventually pervaded and filled every part of the country, and that battled alike the wiles of politicians and parties and the devices of those pulpits and ecclesiastical bodies which for- got that Jesus came to preach deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Other news mapcrs were afterwards established upon the same principles; anti-slavery societies, founded upon the doctrine of immediate emancipation, sprang up on every hand; the agitation was carried into political parties, into the press, and into legislative and ecclesiastical assem- blies; until in 1860 the Southern States, taking alarm from the election of a president known to be at heart opposed to slavery though pledged to enforce all the constitutional safeguards of the system, secedcd from the Union and set up a separate government. In the struggle that ensued slavery was abolished by an exercise of the powers of war, as a necessary means of restoring the Union. Mr Garrison sought the abolition of slavery by moral means alone. He knew that the national Government had no power over the system in any State, though it could abolish it at the national capital, and prohibit it in the inchoate States, called Territories. He thought it should, by the exercise of such limited powers as it possessed, bring its moral influence to bear in favour of abolition ; but neither he nor his associates ever asked Congress to exercise any unconstitutional ower. His idea was to combine the moral inﬂuence of the Nort i, and pour it through every open channel upon the South. To this end he made his appeal to the Northern churches and pulpits, beseeching them to bring the power of Christianity to bear against the slave system, and to advocate the right of the slaves to immediate and unconditional freedom. Ilc thought that, under the moral pressure thus created, and which would be re-enforced by the civilization and Christianity of the way and proclaim freedom to her bondmcn. IIe was a man of peace, hating war not less than he did slavery; but he warned his countrymen that if they refused to abolish slavery by moral power a retributive war must sooner or later ensue. The contliet was irrepressible. Slavery must be overthrown, if not by peaceful nicans, then in blood. The first society organized under Mr (‘-arrison’s auspices, and in accordance with his principlt-.-, was the “ New England Anti-Slavery Society,” which adopted its con- stitution in January 1832. In the spring of this year Mr Garrison issued his work entitled Thoughts on .«I_frz'«-mt C'oIonz';ut[on, in which he showed by aniple citations from otlicial documents that the American Colonization Society was organized in the interest of slavery, and that in offering itself to the people of the North as a. practical remedy for that system it was guilty of deception. lli-. book smote the society with a paralysis from which it has never recovered. Agents of the American Colonization Society in England having succeeded in deceiving leading abolitionist; there as to the character and tendency of that Society, Mr Gar- rison was deputcd by the New England Anti-Slavery Society to visit tl1at_ country for the purpose of counteracting their in- fluence. Ile went in the spring of 1833, when he was but twcnty—scvcn years of age, and was received with great cordiality by British abolitionists, some of whom had heard of his bold assaults upon American slavery, and seen a few numbers of the Liberator. The struggle for emancipation in the 'est Indies was- then at the point of culmination _: the leaders of the cause, from all parts of tlic kingdom, were assembled in London, and Mr Garrison was at once admitted to their councils and treated with distin- guished consideration. I Ic formed the acquaintance of 'ilbcrforcc, Clarksou, Buxton, O‘Connell, George Thompson, and many 0tll(.'l‘-:’ and was greatly cheered by what he saw and heard. Ile w:;.~: thoroughly successful in his efforts to undeccive the people of England in respect to the character and designs of the American Colonization Society, and took home withhim a “Protest” against it, signed by Vilbcrforcc, Zachary Macaulay, Samuel Gurney, 'illiam Evans, S. Lushington, T. Fowell lluxton, James ('roppcr, Daniel O’Connell, and others, in which they declared their dclil.".'- rate judgment that “ its p1'ccepts were dclusive,” and “its real effects of the most dangerous nature.” lIc also received assurances of the cordial sympathy of British abolitionists with him in his efforts to abolish American slavery. He gained a hearing before a large popular assembly in London, and won the confidence of those whom he addressed by his evident earnestness, sincerity, and ability. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, before he had an opportunity of meeting him, invited him to breakfast at his house. Mr Garrison presented himself at the appointed time ; but Mr lluxtcn, instead of coming forward promptly to take his hand, scrutinized him from head to foot, and then inquired, somewhat dubiously, “Ilavc l the pleasure of addressing Mr Garrison, of Boston, in the I.’ nit:-.1 States ?" icing answered in the atlirmative, he lifted up his hands and exclaimed, “'hy, my dear sir, I thought you were a black man, and I have consequently invited this company of ladies a1:d gentlemen to be present to welcome Mr Garrison, the black advo- cate of emancipation, from the United States of .»mcrica.” Mr Garrisou often said that, of all the compliments he ever received, this was the only one that he cared to remember or repeat ; for M r Buxton had somehow or other supposed that no white Amcric ill could plead for those in bondage as he had done, and that lllt'I‘L'fu!':' he must be black. Mr G-arrison’s visit to lingland enraged thu- pro-slavery people and press of the United States at the outset, and when he returned home in September with the “ Protest” against the Colonization Society, and announced that he had engaged the services ot' George Thompson as a lecturer against American slavery, there were fresh outbursts of rage on every hand. The .-tmcrican Anti-Slavery Society was organized in l)cccmbcr of that year, put- ting forth a masterly declaration of its principles and purposes from the pen of Mr Garrison. This added fresh fuel to the public excitement, and when Mr Thompson came over in the next :~p1'lllg‘, the hostility to the cause began to manifcstitself in mobs organized to suppress the discussion of the slavery question. Now began what llarrict Martincau called “the martyr age in America.” Mr Thompson gained a favourable hearing in a few places, but his appearance in any town or city became at length the signal of a mob, and in the fall of 1835 he was compelled, in order to save his life, to embark secretly for England. Just before his departure, the announcement. that he would address the Voman's Anti- Slavcry Society of Boston created “ a mob of gentlemen of propcrt y and standing," from which, if he had been present, he could hardly have escaped with his life. The whole. city was in an up- roar. Mr Garrison, almost denuded of his clothing, was dragged through the streets by infuriated men with a rope around his body, by which they doubtless intended to hang him. He was rescued with great dilliculty, and consigned to the jail for safety, until he could be secretly removed from the city. For two or three years these attempts to suppress the anti-slavery movement by violence