Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-06-06
WV LLOID GARRISON.


Mr. Garrison was born at NCwburyuort
Mass, Dec -, 1904. His parents were ma
tivcs Of the province of New Brunswick. His
father, Abiah Garrison, was master of YES
sci engaged in the West India trade, and a
man of some literary ability and taste but
he became incorporate, and abandoned his
family while they were yet young. The moth
er, left in utter poverty, became profession
al nurse, and in 1914 went to Lynn. Will
liam was Mt first apprenticed to II shoemaker
but afterward sent to school at Newburyport
partly supporting himself by aiding wood
sawyer In 1918 he went with his mother to
Baltimore, where he remained Il year in the
capacity of an eTnnd boy, and then returned
to Newburyport. In 1918 he was indenturcd
to Ephraim W. Allen, editor of the Newbury-
port Herald, to learn the art of printing, and
when only sixteen years of age began to
write upon political and other topics for the
Herald, carefully preserving his incognito,
and once received through the post office Il
letter of thanks from his master, with u re-
quest that he would continue to write He
soon commenced writing also for other jour
mails, and series of articles which he wrote
for the Salem Gazette, under the signature of
"Aristides," attracted much attention in po-
litical circles In 1926 he became the pro-
prietor and editor of n journal in his native
town, called the Free Press, which proved
uubutNtbblul. llt llltu MOlktu lOt u lllllt rs
n journeyman in Boston. In 1927 he became
the editor of the National PhilantLropist at
Boston, the first journal ever established to
advocate the cause of total abstinence" and
in 1928 he joined friend in the publication
of the journal Of the Times Mt bennington,
VT. This journal supported John Quincy
Adams for the presidency, and was in part de
voted to peace, Temperance, anti-slavery, and
other reforms but it failed to receive an ade-
quato support. During his residence in Ben
nington he produced considerable excitement
upon the subject of slavery. not only in that
place but throughout the State, in conse-
quencc of which there was transmitted to
Congress an anti ti-slavery memorial more nu-
merously signed than any similar paper pre-
yiously submitted to that body. Benjamin
Lundy, au advocate Of the gradual abolition of
slavery, was then engaged in publishing the
"Genius of Universal Emancipation" ut Balti-
more. He had met Mr.. Garrison during the pre-
yious year in Boston, and received from him
timely assistance in bringing his cause to the
notice of the people of this city. Wishing for
a coadiutor, he went to Bennington and en-
gagged Mr.. Garrison to join him in the editor
ship Of his journal.
On July I, 1S29, Mr.. Garrison delivered in
Park street Church an address which excited
general attention by the boldness and vgor
of his assault upon slavery. In the autumn
he began his labors in Baltimore as Joint edi-
tor with Mr. Lundy, of the Genius of Univer-
sal Emancipation, and in the first number is
sued under his supervision he made a distinct
avowal of the doctrine Of immediate emanci-
patton as the right of the slave and the duty
of the master. Mr.. Lundy did not concur
with him in this doctrine, but as each of them
appended his initials to his articles, the differ
ence interposed no barrier to hearty co0pera-
ton. The journal, by its bold and uncom-
promising tone, produced considerable ex-
citement among the supporters of slavery,
while Mr. GarrisOn's denunciatiOns of the col
ouization society aroused the hostility of
some who, upon other grounds were iucln.
ed to symIathize with him. An event soon
occurred which resulted in dissolution of his
connection with the paper The ship Francis,
owned by Francis Todd of Newburyport hav-
ing taken II cargo of slaves from Baltimore to
Louisiana, Mr.. Garrison denounced the act as
domestic piracy" and declared his pur-
pose to cover with thick infamy" all those
implicated therein. Baltimore being then the
seat of nm extensive domestic traffic in slaves
his denunciation produced q great deal of feel
ing and he was in consequence indicted and
convicted in the city court, May term 1880,
for "a gross and malicious libel" against the
owner and master Of the Francis, and SEN
fenced to pay fine of 500 and costs Of court
Being unable TO discharge the Judgment, he
was committed to Jail. Mr.. Todd, in civil
suit for damages, subsequently obtained a
verdict against him for $1,000; but the iudg-
ment, probably on account of his well known
poverty, was never enforced. His friend
Lundy and few other Quakcrs were the on
ly persons who visited him in Jail to express
their sympathy. The press Mt the North gen
orally condemned his imprisonment as unjust
and his letters to different newspapers excit-
ed a deep interest. The mauumission society
of North Carolina protested against his i'm
prisonment as ali infHctiOn Of the liberty of
the press. He remained in jail forty-nine
days, when Arthur Tappan, a merchant of
New York. paid the fine aud costs, and he was
set at liberty. 1t subsequently appeared that
Mr.. Tuppan had in this act anticipated by a
few days the generous purpose of Henry Clay,
whose interpOsition had been invoked by a
mutual friend.
His next step was to issue prospectus for
an anti-slavery journal to be published in
Washington and, with a view to excite a
deeper interest in his enterprise, he prepared
a course of lectures on slavery which he sub
sequently delivered in Philadelphia, New
York New Haven, Hartford and Boston. In
Baltimore his attempts to obtain a hearing
We're unsuccessful Private efforts to procure
a suitable place for the delivery of his lectures
yertised in one of the daily journals that, if a
meeting house or hall were not offered before
a certain day, he would address the people on
the Common. An association of persons call
ing themselves infdels thereupon proGered
him the gratuitous use Of "A hall under their
control, and no other offer being made he
delivered his lectures in the place thus open
ed taking care, at the same time, to ayow
his faith in Christianity as the power which
alone could break the bonds of the slaves.
His lectures were attended by large audiences,
and awakened in some minds permanent in
torest in the anti-slayGry cause. His expe-
riences as a lecturer, however, convinced him
that Boston rather than Washington was the
best location for an auti-slayery journal, and
that n revolution of public sentiment Mt the
North must precede emancipation at the
South. He accordingly issued the first num-
Der of the Liberator in Boston, Jan /, 1881,
taking for his motto MY country is the
world my countrymen are all mankind :" and
declaring in the face of the almost universal
apathy upon the subject Of slavery, Il am in
earnest. | will not equivoCate, l will not ex-
cuse, l will not retreat n single inch, and
will be heard" Mr.. Isaac Knapp was his
partner in the printing and publishing de-
partment As they We're without capital or
promise of support from any quarter, they
were unable to open an Office ON their own
account. The foreman in the Office of the
Christian Examiner, being warm personal
friend of Mr.. Garrison, generously employed
him and his partner as journeymen, taking
their labor as compensation in part for the
use of his types Mr.. Garrison, after work
ing mechanically in the day time, spent
large portion of the night in editorial labor
Having issued one number, they waited anx-
iously to see whether they would find encour-
agement to proceed The receipt of $50
from James Forten a wealthy colored citizen