Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-08-21


scene never to return, gladly taking
up our abode in the east, where war
and Indians could not intrude.
Another View of Mr.. Garrison.
To say that this stout hearted re-
former, who has Just ceased from his
labors, was "undiscriminating," and
that "he took counsel only with re.
sentiment" is to say what must ef-
fectually neutralize any words of
praise which might be coupled with
this Judgment. 1t is the fortune of
all great reformers to be widely re-
garded in their day as fanatics, and
to be condemned for the violence of
their measures and of their utter
ances. John Knox was most un.
questionably Severe and sdenuncia.
tory even to violence; but his vio-
lence saved Scotland and England
from the blighting rule of Rome.
Luther gloried in being incorporate
of speech, for he says, 81 care not
about being accused of violence; it
shall be my glory henceforth to have
it said how | rage and storm" His
own view was, that to use soft and
gentle words would be "only to ex-
asperate the evil" Perhaps he was
mistaken in this. Perhaps if he had
been more conciliatory, he would
have been more successful. 1t does
not, however, help US to think so,
when we remember Erasmus, who
was greatly the superior of Luther in
gifts of intellect and of culture and
in the amenities of style, but who,
for lack of courage to call things
plainly by their right names, and to
stand firmly by his utterances, failed
utterly as reformer. If Mr.. Gar
rison is to be condemned because he
was denunciatory, it should be re-
membereG as to his credit, that all
great reformers are in the same con-
demnation with him.
Consider the state of opinion upon
the subject Of slavery when-upon
the 4th of July, ls29-he first prop
erly began his agitation by an ad-
dress in Park street church, Boston.
1t was state of universal apathy.
No voices in the Church or in the
world were raised against it. Deep
ly in sympathy with the Church as
he then was, he sought to rouse it to
take position of clear and firm op
position TO slavery. In this effort he
had no success. Lyman Beecher,
under whose leadership he wished to
place himself, distinctly told him
that he was too busy with other mat
tiers, either to lead or follow in cru
SADIE against slavery. From no one,
at the outset, did he obtain any sym
patty for his views-,chich Were the
vle'0S no,o held By the ,chole nation
except from Benjamin Lundy, Bal.
tlmore Quaker. The whole nation
was blind to the evil OF human slave
cry. He, however, then saw its evle
as distinctly as the North came alters
wards to see it when it was set in
the lurid light of civil war. The
apathy of the Church in the presence
OF this great wrong, which either was
not seen to be wrong, or was not
condemned as such, YVES as great as
that OF the Church in Luther's day in
presence OF gross and degrading su
perstition, such as was witnessed to
by carefully treasuring in the church
Of All Saints at Wittenberg (the very
church on whose door Luther nailed
his famous Theses) a fragment of
Noah's Ark. some SCOT from the fur.
mace Of the three children, and
piece of wood from the cradle of Je-
sus Christ.
The work set before both the ear
lier and the later reformer was sure
ly one which justified, if it did not
demand, strong and severe words
2. Consider the treatment which
Mr.. Garrison received ANY est.
mate of what he said and did which
does not take account OF what was
said and done to him, must be radi
cally defective. Almost at the very
beginning of his career as a witness
to the sin of slavery, he was impris-
oned in Baltimore jail The mails
from the South brought him, first
and last, thousands OF letters, some
OF them threatening assassination,
some filled with profanity and coarse
abuse, and all Genouncing him as a
pestilent agitator. The Legislature
OF Georgia passed, and Governor
Lnmpkin signed, an act which Of
fered five thousand dollars for any,
one who would hand him over to the
authorities of that State. Massachu.
sets did not resent this action, and
there was then no outcry about an
Invasion of State rights" Several
Southern States sent official and ear.
nest communications to the Massa.
chusetts Legislature entreating that
body to pass a law making it penal
to utter or print abolition sentiments.
The Governor in his message to the
Legislature recommended that this
be done. 1t was not done. But Mr..
Garrison was beset by a Boston
mob, was led through the streets
with a rope around his body; he had
nearly all his clothing torn from him,
and was treated with every possible
indigaity. He was completely os-
tracised from all the most influential
and cultivated society of the city.
His name was a byword and re.
proach.
And for what? Because he be-
lieved in the very depths of his soul
that slavery was a great crime, and
because he SAID it in the plainest and
most uncompromising language. In
the very first number of the Liberia
tor, issued Jan. l, 1881, he said 81
will be as harsh as truth and as un
compromising as Justice" There is
no evidence that he ever went be.
yond this avowed purpose Ii he de.
nounced the Church, it was because
he believed that the Church, in not
1 .,l. l.