New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-09-06

to hold on TO their victims until provision
would be made for their colonization in
Africa, The opponents Of slavery We're thus weak
water, while its champions for the time being
had all the advantages of a fortified position. If
the former had been willing 10 have the way
Of God exDounded more perfectly unto them" by
Garrison and Elizabeth Heyrick as the jew Apoos
to learn of Aquila and Priscilla. they might
have demolished the Notifications of the slave
holders and beaten them the open plain; instead
of which they were themselves utterly routed and
silenced and Virginia thenceforth bound hand and
fooc by the Slave Power, and given over 10 work
the iniquity" of slavery and the domestic slave
trade with greediness" The men who had dared
10 assail slavery, and who afterward aspired TO
public station, were compelled to eat their own
words and thus descend to the same level with
those who openly declared. with II. Gholson. that
the right of the Shareholder to his female slaves
and their increase was the that TO his brood
mares and their products"
To this wi gar complexion it came at last. ana
the State of Washington and Jefferson was not
ashamed TO owe her wealth chiefly to the proh's
derived from the sale of slaves, deliberately raised
for the market like so many colts or calves
Garrison's plea for immediate emancipation hau
been taken up and enforced by the Northern churcn
and pu pit the mother of Presidents" might nave
been saved from this degradation, and the freedom
OF the slaves assured without the bloody aroil"
meut of war that filed the land win mouini"e
and woe. Never in all history was there announcer
delusion so preposterOus and absurd as thal WHICH
affirmed that it was dangerous 20 Tree the si"'eS
fem their bonds. Not only was the deluslon con-
trary TO common sense, and libel npon human ia
ture and God. but its foolishness had been demon
strated again and again By actual experiment, as II
v-os three Years LATER by the results of emancipa
lion in she British West Indies. MI
Garrison. like his predecessors IN the cause'
had been gradualist attributng the sin OF slavery
las the Rev DR. Leonard Bacon did 10 those and
those only who bore part IN originating such con
stitutiou of society,"" and assigning the duty OF
emancipation 10 distant generations he would nave
been as pOwerless those hewldered denouncers OF
slavery in the virgnia Legislature, and his move
ment would have come to nought. good general
is careful in selecting the ground upon which
20 fight the enemy above all he avoids plac-
ing his army IN a quagmire where II can have no
sound footing. The same principle is as important
IN moral as in physical warfare aud Garrison was
wiser than his generation in that he saw that grad
ualism was a slough in which many noble army
had been swallowed up, and that 1t would be useless
n assail slavery on any other ground than that OF
it's inter sinfunees aud the duty of every slave
holder Instantly to emancipate his slaves. Goo
law of eternal justice and righteousness must be up
lifted and honored. and men must be made 70 nm
der-tand the folly and wckeduess of the assumption
that obedience To that law was not safe To attempt
10 abolish slavery while ones own mouth was filed
with apologies Tor it a system for which the gen
Grafton then upon the stage was IN no way RESPONSE
ble and from which there was way Of present
eScape would be idle Ought not the Christian
churches of America TO have known as much as
this7 And how did il come about that they were
so deluded Was 1t that they had been so absorbed
in prescribing and regulating their respective theO-
logical systems that they had had no time to be-
STOW upon fundamental questions OF morals !
Whatever may have been the reason, II Is certain
that the light in the American churches, so Tar rs
slavery was concerned, had become utter darkness.
and that they pleading for the oppressor
rather than the oppressed-not calling sinners to
repentance, but furnishing them with excuses
for continuing IL their SIN. And SO deep was their
delusion that they denounced a fanatic and
n fool the man whom God raised up 10 rebuke them
for their delinquency. But wisdom, then as always
before was justified of her children. and though
the prophet was stoned, his message was not sup
pressed but went sounding on amid the din or sec
tartan and party warfare. until at last It gained
hearing.
II was the doctrine of immediate emancipation
that filed Garrison's arm with strength, and that
made all the difference between SUCCESS and failure
Inns standing over his coffin said e He seems to
have understood-this boy without experience-he
seems to have understood by instinct that right
eousness is the only thing which will finally compel
admission that one. with God, Is always major
itv lie seems to have known 1t at the very outset,
taught of God. the herald and champion, God-en-
dowed and God-sent TO arouse nation, that only
bv the most absolute assertion OF the utteTmOst
truth without qualification or compromise can a
nation be walked to conscience OF strengthened for
dutvv plain, robust, well-baanced
common sense Nothing erratic no enthusiasm
which bad lost its hold on firm earth no mistake
of method 10 unmeasured confidence; no mlscal-
cularlon of the enemy's strength. Whoever mis-
took. Garrison seldom mistook Fewer mistakes IN
that long agitation OF fifty years be charged to
his account than TO any other American. Erratic
as men supposed him. incorporate In utterance,
mad in Judgment an enthusiast gone crazy, the mo-
nent YOU sat down at his side, patient IN explana-
ton. clear in statement, sound in judgment study
ing carefully every STEP calculating every assault,
measuring the force to meet 1t, never III haste. al
ways patient. waiting until the time ripened, NJ
for great leader" Here ne the brain
and the heart here lies the statesmanke intellect.
logical as Jonathan Edwards. brave as Luther.
which confronted South Carolina with an assertion
direct and broad enough to make an issue and ne
cessitate a conflict of two civilizations. Calhoun
said Slavery is right. Webster and Clay shrank
from him and evaded his assertion. Garrison.
alone at that time, met him face TO face, proclaim
ing slavery a sin and daring all the differences. II
is true. az New-Orleans complains to-day in her
journals that this man brought upon America
everything they call the disaster Of the last twenty
years and it is equally true that If You seek
through the hidden causes and unheeded events Tor
the hand that wrote Emancipation on the stat