publish or circulate said paper in Georgia." This was nothing less than a bribe to any ruflian who might choose on any dark night to go to the office of Mr. Garrison and seize and convey him to a Southern vessel lying at the wharf not far distant. In response to this threat, Mr. Garrison said: "Know this, ye patrons of kidnappers, that we despise your threats as much as we deplore your infatuation; nay, more— know that a hundred men stand ready to fill our place as soon as it is made vacant by violence. The Liberator' shall yet live live to warn you of your danger and guilt-live to plead for the perishing slaves live to hail the day of universal emancipation. For every hair of our head which you touch, there shall spring up an asserter of the rights of your bondsmen, and an upbraider of your crimes." And how were these menaces and threats received at the North? Not by any means with the indignation. they were fitted to excite in the breasts of freemen jealous for the liberty of the press; but generally with cool indifference, if not with positive sympathy. The Northern press made constant obeisance to "King Cotton," and dared do no more than to suggest, with whispered humbleness, that perhaps it might be carrying things a little too far to kidnap the miserable fanatic who was disturbing the peace of the South! The newspapers that dared to speak in terms of honest indignation of these attempts to destroy the freedom of the press were those of smallest circulation, and might be counted on one's fingers. The moral stupor that rested upon the press and the people of the North at that time seems utterly incredible now. The Southampton (Va.) insurrection of slaves, led by Nat Turner, occurred in the summer of 1831, when "The Liberator" was only a few months old. Turner was himself a slave, and he persuaded his deluded followers that he was a prophet sent by God to lead them out of the house of bondage. There was never the slightest reason to suppose that he had ever seen so much as a single copy of "The Liberator," and if he had he would have found in it nothing to encourage his murderous project, but, on the contrary, much to dissuade him therefrom. For Mr. Garrison from the very start avowed his opposition to war and violence. under all circumstances. In the very first number of his paper he apostrophized the slaves in these memorable words : - "Not by the sword shall your deliverance be; Upspringing suddenly, like swelling flood: E'en now your barren cause begins to bud, And glorious shall the fruit be! Watch and pray, But, in spite of all such protestations, and notwithstanding the notorious fact that Mr. Garrison was a non-resistant, the press at the North, as well as at the South, insisted that he was responsible for the Nat Turner insurrection, with all its cruelties and horrors. Governor Floyd, in his message to the Virginia Legislature, said there was too much cause to suspect that the plans of the insurrection had been "designed and matured by unrestrained fanatics in some of the neighboring States." That this was an allusion to Mr. Garrison and his associates was universally understood at the time. Northern newspapers found it hard to believe that a body of "contented laborers" like the Virginia slaves could revolt against the authority of their kind masters unless they were invited to do so by mischievous fanatics; and who but Garrison could be the guilty cause of such madness? There were moments when it seemed as if the misguided public opinion of the hour would demand the suppression of "The Lib 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 beingsgive 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 Make the subdued and rendered gentle by kind treatment. 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 |