erator," and it is not easy now to see what it was, except the restraining interposition of Providence, that prevented the people in their madness from doing all that the slaveholders desired. Few newspapers of that day exerted an influence so powerful as that of "The National Intelligencer," in which the respectability, learning, statesmanship and conservatism of the time were incarnated. To the people of New England this paper dared to appeal in these terms:

"No one knows better than we do the sincerity with which the intelligent population of New England abhor and reprobate the incendiary publications which are intended by their authors to lead to precisely such results (as concerns the whites) as the Southampton tragedy. But we appeal to the people of New England, if not in behalf of the innocent women and children of the whites, then in behalf of the blacks, whose utter extermination will be the result of any general commotion, whether they will continue to permit their humanity to be under the reproach of approving or even tolerating the atrocities among them which have already caused the plains of the South to be manured with human flesh and blood. To be more specific in our object, we now appeal to the worthy Mayor of the City of Boston, whether no law can be found to prevent the publication, in the city over which he presides, of such diabolical papers [copies of 'The Liberator'] as we have seen a sample of here in the hands of slaves, and of which there are many in circulation to the south of us. We have no doubt whatever of the feelings of Mr. Otis on this subject, or those of his respectable constituents. We know they would prompt him and them to arrest the instigator of human butchery in his mad career. We know the difficulty which surrounds the subject, because the nuisance is not a nuisance, technically speaking, within the limits of Massachusetts. But, surely, if the courts of law have no power, public opinion has, to interfere, until the intelligent Legislature of Massachusetts can provide a durable remedy for this most appalling grievance. The crime is as great as that of poisoning a well. We know nothing of the man [Garrison]; we desire not to have him unlawfully dealt with; we can even conceive of his motive

being good in his own opinion; but it is the motive of the man who cuts the throats of your wife and children."

Having thus deliberately accused Mr. Garrison of the most atrocious crimes, and sought to crush him by an inflamed public opinion under the forms of law, "The National Intelligencer" was true to itself and to the cause it served in refusing to publish his triumphant defence. It thus illustrated the spirit of American slavery, which could not endure the light of a free press, but was instinctively impelled to hide itself in perpetual darkness. In his reply, Mr Garrison said:

"I appeal to God, whom I fear and serve, and to its patrons, in proof that the real and only purpose of 'The Liberator' is to prevent rebellion, by the application of those preservative principles which breathe peace on earth, goodwill to men. I advance nothing more. I stand on no other foundation than this: Whatsoever ye would that others should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.' I urge the immediate abolition of slavery, not only because the slaves possess an inalienable right to liberty, but because the system, to borrow the words of Mr. Randolph, is a volcano in full operation'; and by its continuance we must expect a National explosion. The present generation cannot appreciate the purity of my motives or the value of my exertions. I look to posterity for a good reputation. The unborn offspring of those who are now living will reverse the condemnatory decision of my contemporaries. Without presuming to rank myself among them, I do not forget that those reformers who were formerly treated as the 'offscouring of the earth' are now lauded beyond measure; I do not forget that Christ and His apostles - harmless, undefiled and prudent as they were were buffeted, calumniated and crucified; and therefore my soul is steady to its pursuit as the needle to the pole. If we would not see our land deluged in blood, we must instantly burst asunder the shackles of the slaves -treat them as rational and injured beings give them lands to cultivate and the means of employment, and multiply schools for themselves and their children. We shall then have little to fear. The wildest beasts may be

subdued and rendered gentle by kind treatment. Make the slaves free, and every inducement to revolt is taken away. I see the design of the clamor raised against 'The Liberator.' It is to prevent public indignation from resting upon the system of slavery, and to concentrate it upon my own head. That system contains the materials of selfdestruction."

"The National Intelligencer" spoke for the statesmanship of that time; but how wild, incoherent, unjust and illogical were its utterances! Mr. Garrison was deemed a fanatic; but mark the wisdom and truth of his words, the reasonableness of his appeals, the justice of his denunciations and the calmness of his reliance upon the judgment of posterity! The extracts I have given above are of the body and spirit of the times. They reveal, as nothing else would, the delusion that rested upon the people at that day, and show. those of this generation what courage, what faith in God, what love for humanity, and what a spirit of selfsacrifice it required to begin the fight with American slavery. If Garrison had faltered and retreated, what calamities might not have befallen the Nation! The fate of the Republic, according to our limited vision, depended upon the fidelity of a single man; for, if the Nation had gone on sinning against light for another generation, where would have been the hope of its rescue from the ruthless clutch of the Slave Power? Already it had sunk into a stupor from which the most powerful and startling blasts of truth were barely sufficient to rouse it to life and some degree of moral sensibility. A little more drugging of conscience, and perchance the call for reform would have been too late, and the Republic founded by Washington, Adams and Jefferson might have perished in the foul embrace of slavery!

Is there not in this a lesson for the present hour? On every side we hear the voices of men claiming to

be statesmen, who brand as enmity to the South every earnest plea for the equal rights of the negro; who ask us to stop our ears to the cry of men driven from the ballot-box and defrauded of their wages by violence, and to close our eyes to the frauds by which the South has been made "solid" in order to gain by political power the substance of what she failed to achieve by the sword. We are told on the one hand that it is perfectly patriotic and reasonable for the semi-civilized South to be a unit in her opposition to the vast majority of the intelligent people of the North; and on the other that it is unpatriotic, unreasonable and cruel, a revival of all the worst passions and enmities of the war, for the latter to resist the efforts of the former to rule the Nation by an alliance with the men of the Northern slums! The sirens who are filling our ears with this song, disguised under smooth and seductive. phrases, are the natural descendants of the men of a previous generation who were forever seeking to lull the North into indifference to the negro's wrongs, and always ready with some new compromise in the interest of the slaveholding class. If the enfranchised men of the South were white, the North would be all on fire with indignation over their wrongs, and ready to exert the last iota of constitutional power for their protection. Above all would they take care that the oppressors should not, by any political combination whatever, gain an ascendancy over the Republic. Let us have the principle and the courage to do for the negro what we should not hesitate to do for the white man. The voice of Garrison cries to us out of his freshly-made grave, bidding us not to waste the heritage won for us by his indomitable courage, and by the blood and bravery of our soldiers.

IV.

Mr. Garrison's Early Orthodoxy - No Odor of Heresy about him until long after the Churches and the Clergy had Rejected his Message A Christian at the Last no less than at the FirstReluctance of Ministers to Pray in Anti-Slavery Meetings Rev. Amos A. Phelps and his Book-The A. B. C. F. M. — The Methodist Church - Dr. Whedon's Denial - Testimony of Judge Jay The Freewill Baptists.

So persistent have been the efforts made in certain quarters to excuse the hostility of the ministers and churches to the anti-slavery movement on the ground of Mr. Garrison's alleged infidelity, that it becomes important to set forth the truth on this subject with great clearness. In turning over the leaves of the first volume of "The Liberator," we find the evidences of Mr. Garrison's thorough-going Orthodoxy in great abundance. There was not about him the least odor of heresy of any kind, save in his belief in the perfect humanity of the negro, and in his denunciations of slavery as a sin. We find him pleading for the universal diffusion of the Bible as the chief instrumentality for promoting the cause. "Take away the Bible," he exclaims, "and our warfare with oppression, and infidelity, and intemperance, and impurity, and crime is at an end; our weapons are wrested away, our foundation is removed; we have no authority to speak, and no courage to act." That in later years he held the views of the Bible common among Quakers and Unitarians is not denied; but this was long after the American clergy and churches had repudiated the antislavery movement. Indeed, it was this repudiation on their part that led him to the investigations which resulted in the modification of his inherited views on