The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-01 00:00:00

MR. JOHN LLOYD GARRISON.

A public breakfast was given at St. James's Hall,
on Saturday, to Mr. John Lloyd Garrison, the well
known American abolitionist. The body of the
hall was filled by 400 hundred ladies and gentle-
men who had taken tickets for the breakfast, and
the galleries by spectators. Among those present
were the following :—Mr. John Bright, M.P., the
chairman ; Mr. W. L. Garrison, his daughter, Mrs.
Villard, and his son, Mr. F. Garrison ; the Duke
and Duchess of Argyll, Earl Russell, K.G., and the
Countess and Lady G. Russell, Lady M. Stanhope,
Mr. T. Hughes, M.P., Mr. V. Harcourt, Q.C., the
Right Hon. W. Cowper, M.P., Mr. G. Thompson,
the Hon. E. L. Stanley, Mr. J. Stansfeld, M.P.,
the Earl of Airlie, Lord A. S. Churchill, Bishop
Payne, Mr. J. S. Mill, M.P., &c.
Letters of apology were read from the Comte de
Paris and Mr. Adams, the American Minister, both
expressing sympathy with the purpose of the

meeting.
Mr. BRIGHT was greeted withloud and prolonged
eheeis. He said his position was unusual and dif-
ficult ; but he esteemed it a signal distinction to be
permitted to take a prominent part in proceedings
intended to commemorate one of the greatest of the
great triumphs of freedom, and do honour to the
most eminent instrument in its achievement. It is a

triumph which has raised four millions of human
beings from the very lowest depths of social and
political degradation to the lofty height which men
attain when they possess equality of rights in the
freest country on the globe; and more than this, it
is a triumph which has pronounced the irreversible
doom of slavery in all countries, and for all
time. (Cheers.) How has this great matter been
accomplished ? 119 w is it that any great and
important matter is ever accomplished? By
a love of justice, a constant devotion to a great
cause, and by an unfaltering faith that that which
is right will in the end succeed. (Cheers.) When
he looked at that assembly, and partook of the sym-
pathy which prevails, as we welcome our guest of
to-day, he could not but contrast Mr. Gatrison's
present position with that which he had, not so far
back but that many can remember it, occupied in his
own country. In 1829 he was in prison in Balti-
more, but his ardour in the cause was not repressed ;
far within two years of that timehe hadethe courage
to publish in Boston a paper devoted to the question
of abolition. He (Mr. Bright) had often read an
address in the first number with great interest, and
it is the key to the future life of Mr. Garrison. It
had been complained that he used hard language—
which is a very common complaint indeed—klaugh-
ter, and loud cheers)—and he said in the address
" I am aware that many object to the severity of
my language, but is there no cause for severity ? I
will be as harsh, as true, and as uncompromising as
justice. lam in earnest. I will not equivocate, I
will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and
I will be heard." (Great cheering.) What at that
time was the temper of the people who are now
glorying in the abolition of slavery in their country?
It was very little better in the North than in the
South. About the year 1835 riots of the most ter-
rific character took place in some of the Northern
States, and during that time in Boston Mr. Garri-
son's life was in the most imminent peril, and it has
never been quite ascertained how he was left alive
to carry out his great work. Turning to the South,
the State of Georgia in its legislature passed a bill
offering $5,000 for the capture of Mr. Garrison, or
adequate proof of his death. These were menaces
and perils such as we have not in our time been ac-
customed to in this country, in any of our political
movements ; and we shall take a very poor
measure indeed of the conduct of the leaders
of the emancipation party in the United States if
we measure them by any of those who have been
concerned in political movements amongst us.
But the caus'3 gathered strength, and by-and-bye
Mr. Garrison found himself surrounded by a small
but increasing band of men and women as devoted
as he was to the cause. We have in this country a
very noble woman who taught the English people
much on this subject about thirty years ago—Har-
riet Martineau. (Loud cheers.) lie recollected
reading an eloquent awl touching paper by her,
published in the December number, 1838, of the
Westminster Review, entitled " The Martyr Age of
the United States." That paper introduced to the
English public the great names appearing on the
scene of action in this cause in America. There
was, of course, a distinguished character, our
eminent guest of to-day ; there were Arthur and
Lewis Cappon; and Burney of Alabama, the
planter and slave-owner who liberated his slaves ;
Dr. Channing, and John Quincy Adams, states-
man and President of the United States, and father
of the eminent Minister from that country now in
England ; and Wendell Phillips, who is admitted
by all who know him to be the most powerful and
distinguished orator who speaks the English tongue.
He might refer to others—Charles Sumner, Horace
Greeley, the first of journalists in the United States,
if not in the world. But besides these there were
of noble women not a few. There were Mrs. Child,
the two sisters. Angelina and Sarah Blinkie, of
South Carolina, who liberated their slaves and de-
voted all they had to the cause; and there was Mrs.
Chapman, whom Miss Martineau described as noble
and beautiful and good. But there is a man whose
name must live for ever, Mr. Lovejoy, who in Illi-
nois laid down his life for this cause. (Cheers.)
When he read that article of Harriet Martineau's,
he was reminded of that striking passage in the
Epistle to the Hebrews, where the writer, after de-
scribing the great men and fathers of the nation,
said, " Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of
Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephtha, of David,
also of Samuel and the prophets, who through faith
subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched
the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword,
out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant
infight, turning to flight the armies of the aliens."
May not that passage now be applied to the heroic
band who have made America the perpetual home
of right ? (Great cheering.) In spite of all that
persecution could do, in the North opinion pro-
gressed in favour of freedom, and in the South,
alas, in favour of the most devilish delusion that
slavery was a Divine institution. The moment
that idea took possession of the South war was
inevitable ; nor fact, nor argument, nor counsel, nor
philosophy, nor religion could affect the discussion
of the question, when once the church teachers of
the South had fallen into the snare, and had taught
their people that slavery was a Divine institution.
Because then they began to cling to it on other and
different grounds, and they said, " Evil be thou our
good." And thus they had light and darkness,
freedom and bondage, good and evil, and, if you
like, heaven and hell, in one great confusion. (Loud
cheers.) And unless there could have been some
•
miracle performed greater than any recorded in
the inspired writings, it was impossible that war
should not spring out of it. Then the slaveholders,
that dreadful brotherhood in whom turbulent pas-
sions were let loose the moment they found the
Presidential election in 1860 going adversely to the
slave power—took up arms and sustained their
hated system. Then came the earthquake so often
foretold, so often menaced, and so often postponed,
and the ground reeled under the whole nation
during four years of agony; and at last, when the
smoke of the battle-field had passed away,the horrid
2tate of things which had cast its shadow over the
whole continent was banished and had gone for ever.
(Loud cheers.) An ancient and renowned poet
says, "Unholy is the voice of loud thanksgiving
over slaughtered men." It becomes us not to rejoice
but to be humble that a chastisement so terrible
should be needful for any of our race, but we
may he thankful that the clet3tisement at least
was not spent in vain. But this greater triumph
in
the field was not all. There came after that
another greater triumph, a triumph over passion,
and there came to the front not armies and military
commanders, but the magnanimity and mercy of a
great triumphant nation.
were treated as the vanquished (Cheers.)
in the history oi
world have never before been treated. (Cheers.)
fth thede
There was a universal feeling in the North that every
care should be taken of those who had been so
recently enfranchised. Immediately after that event
industry became 1.11. dependent, and •
was paid for ;