The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-05-26
William Lloyd Garrison.


whose name heads this article, died at the
home of his daughter, Saturday evening, at
the age of 70 years. Mr.. Garrison's youth was
struggle against poverty, as his mature age
was a struggle to overthrow the oppression OF
the African race. His father was native of
the province of New Brunswick, but removed
to Newburyport, Mass, where William was
born. He was a shipmaster and man of con-
siderable literary taste; he fell victim to in
temperance, however, and abandoned his fam
lily, leaving his wife alone to rear and support
his children, which she did as well as she could
on scanty income which she derived from
hiring out as a professional nurse. William
was first apprenticed to a shoemaker, but af
forwards went to school little while, helping
to support himself meanwhile by assisting a
wood saver. In 1915 he was an errand bow in
Baltimore. Three years later he began to
learn the printers trade in Newburyport, and
though but fifteen or sixteen years of age he
occasionally wrote political articles for the
Herald of that city which attracted consider
able attention. Soon after he wrote for the
Salem Gazette under the name of Aristides.
In 1926 he established The Free Press in New :
buryport, but its existence was brief He then
went to work as journeyman in Boston. In
1927 he became editor of the National Philan-
thropist in Boston, the first journal ever estab-
lished to advocate total abstinence principles
The next year he began the publication of the
Journal of the Times at Bennington, VT,
paper which was devoted to peace, temperance,
anti-slavery and other reforms. 1t failed,
however, for want of support. In its short ex-
istence, however, it had sown the seeds of the
anti-slavery agitation and the first fruit of them
was an anti-slavery memorial presented to
Congress, signed largely by citizens of the
state of Vermont. Mr.. Garrison next joined
Benjamin Lundy in the editorship of the
Genius of Universal Emancipation at Bal
timore, in which he avowed the doctrine of
immediate emancipation as the right of the
slave and the duty of the master. The bold
ness Of his utterances caused a good deal of ex-
citement and he soon got into a difficulty which
ended his connection with the paper. Balti-
more being the seat of an extensive domestic
traffic in slaves, his denunciation of the bust
ness as domestic piracy resulted in his indict
ment and conviction of libel He was fined
$50, and being unable to raise the
amount was sent to Jail where he remained
forty-nine days. when Arthur Tappan of New
York paid the fine and Mr.. Garrison was lib
Grated.
He next undertook to start an anti-slavery
paper at Washington. To arouse interest in
the enterprise he prepared series of lectures
on slavery and delivered them in some of the
principal cities of the North. In Boston he
had great difficulty in obtaining hall and it
was not until he threatened to speak on the
Common that he secured one. Then an asso-
citation of infidels gave him permission to use
use their hall and his lecture was delivered
therein. AS "a result of his experience as a
lecturer he concluded to start his paper in Bos-
ton instead of Washington, and there The
Liberator was published, the first number ap-
pearing on the first day of January 1881. Mr..
Isaac Knapp was his partner and both were ut
terly destitute of capital and for the first three
weeks Mr.. Garrison set up the paper in the
Christian Examiner Office, working at the case
all day and editing the paper in the night.
Such was the encouragement the paper re-
ceived that at the end of this time a separate
office was opened, but for nearly two years
their means were so limited that they made
the office their domicile. The Liberator at
tracted great attention, not only in the North
but also in the South. The mayor of Boston
was appealed to by Southern magistrate to
suppress it, and wrote in reply that his officers
chad ferreted out the paper and its editor,
whose office was an obscure hole, his only Wis
ible assistant negro boy, his supporters few
Insignificant persons of all colors." Mr.. Garri-
son was constantly threatened with assassna-
tion if he did not stop the publication of his
paper and in 1881 the state of Georgia offered
$1,000 reward for his arrest and conviction.
In 1888 he organized the New England Anti
Slavery Society and the same year published a
work entitled Thoughts on African Colonial
tion'' in which he set forth the grounds of his
opposition to that seeheme. He soon after
went to England to secure the cooperation of
English anti-slavery leaders in measures de-
signed to promote emancipation in this country
and to oppose the colonization scheme. He
was warmly received by Wilberforce and
Brougham and other champions of the anti
slavery cause. On his return to this country
he organized the American Anti-Slavery So
ciety. The Declaration of Sentiments" is
sued by this society caused great excitement
The arrival of Mr.. George Thompson, one of
the English anti-slavery agitators, still more
infiamed the public mind, and by advice of his
friends Mr.. Thompson desisted from his in
tention of delivering lectures ON the subject of
slavery. This was in 1884, In October of the
nextyear meeting of the Female Anti-Sla-
very Society of Boston was broken up by a
mob, and Mr.. Garrison who was present to
speak, was seized by the mob, let down by a
rope from the window to the ground, partly
denuded of his clothing and dragged through
the streets to the city hall whence as the only
means of saving his life he was taken to Jail by
order of the Mayor. The next day he was lib
Grated and taken to place of safety in the
country. In 1888 he established the New Eng
land on-Resistance Society. AT the time of
the division of the Anti-Temperance Society in
1910 on the question of the rights of women of
the society, Mr.. Garrison upheld their right to
vote and take part in discussions in equality
with men. In 1910 Mr.. Garrison was chosen
President of the Worlds Anti-Slavery Society
and remained so until 1866, when, slavery hav-
ing been abolished he resigned, deeming the
time had come for the dissolution of the So
ciety.
The first number of the Lberator issued in
1881, found the whole nation asleep over the
wrongs and dangers of slavery; the last num-
ber, issued ON the last of December, 1865, after
35 years of conflict with the slave power,
recorded the ratification of an amendment to
the constitution of the United States, forever
prohibiting the existence of slavery The paper
was thus discontinued at the very moment
when the object for which it was established
was fully consummated. Soon after the close
of the war, a large lumber of persons, includ.
ing some of the most eminent in the land unit
ed in presenting Mr.. Garrison with the sum Of
about $4,000, in token of their appreciation OF
his unremitting labors for the abolition of sla-
very. In 1867 he once more visited Great
Britain, where the most distinguished citizens
and statesmen united in honoring him for his
devotion to the cause of the oppressed.
fire in Bartlett & Green's dry goods store
house in New York, Saturday, caused dam