St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-05-30


r sheet called "The Genius of Universe
) Emancipation Its editors differed Of
[ the subject of colonization, and CARR
: son was tried and convicted of libe
because he spoke of a coasting skip
per's slave trade from Baltimore to New
Orleans as domestic piracy" Bein.
unable to discharge the judgment, h'
was committed to Jail. His friend Lun
dy and few other Quakers were tn
only persons who visited him in Jail t.
express their sympathy. The press a
the North generally condemned his i'm
prisOnment as unjust, and his letters tt
different newspapers excited a deep in
terest. The manumission society o
North Carolina, protested against hi
imprisonment as an infractiOn of the
liberty of the press. He remained il
jail forty-nine days, when Arthur Tap
pan, a merchant of New York, paid the
fine and costs, and he was set at liber.
ty. 1t subsequently appeared that Mr.
Tappan had in this act anticipated by
a few days the generous purpose OF
Henry Clay, whose interposition had
been invoked by mutual friend. On
July a, 1929, Mr.. Garrison delivered in
Park Street Church, Boston, an address
which excited general attention by the
boldness and vigor of his assault upon
slavery.
After some time spent in lecturing,
and in vain endeavor to start jour
nal in Washington, Mr.. Garrison began
in 1881, in Boston, the publication of
his .'Liberator,n which he kept up until
slavery was exterminated from the land.
Mr.. Isaac Knapp was his partner in the
printing and publishing department.
As they were 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 a warm
personal friend of Mr.. Garrison, gener-
ously employed him and his partner as
iourneymen, taking their labor as COM
pensation in part for the use of his
types. Mr.. Garrison, after working
mechanically in the daytime, spent a
large portion of the night in editorial
labor. The Liberator soon began to
attract general attention, both in the
North and South. Almost every mail
at this period, brought letters threaten
ing Mr.. Garrison with assassination if
he did not discontinue his journal and
in December, 1881, the legislature of
Georgia passed an act, offering a re-
ward of s., 900 to any person who should
arrest, bring to trial, and prosecute to
conviction, under the laws of that state,
the editor or the publisher. On Jan. !,
1882, he secured the cooperation of
eleven other persons in organizing the
New England (afterward Massachusetts,
Anti-Slavery Society upon the princi-
pie of immediate emancipation.
In the spring of 1882, Mr.. Garrison
published work entitled "Thoughts
on African Colonization" in which he
opposed the scheme. He soon went to
England to advance his anti-slavary
views, and succeeded in inducing Geo.
Thompson, a prominent champion of
the cause, to come to this country as an
antislavery lectscer. The public mind
was, however, inflamed to such a de-
gree by the aggressive spirit of the abo-
litionists, and Mr.. Thompson was soon
obliged to return to England. In Octo-
Der, 1885, Garrison was mobbed by
Boston doughfaces while attempting to
auurcSs a u4ooGTnS or the nOInafo sf1IUf-
slavery society. He was dragged
through the streets to the city hall
whence, as a means of saving his life,
he was taken to Jail 10y order of Mayor
Lyman. He was released on the fol-
lowing day, and under protection of the
city authorities, escorted to place of
safety in the country. These scenes of
violence were followed by a discussion
of the peace question, in which he took
an earnest part as a champion of non
resistance; and in 1888, he led the way
in the organization of the New England
non-resistance society.
About this time the question of the
rights of women as members of the
anti-slavery society began to be moot
ed, Mr.. Garrison cOntending that, so far
as they wished to do so, they should be
permitted to vote, serve on committees.
and take part in discussion, on equal
terms with men. Upon this question
there was division of the American
Anti-Slavery Society in 1910; and in
the Worlds Anti-Slavery Convention,
held that year in London, Mr.. Garrison
being delegate from that society, re-
fused to take a seat because the female
delegates from the United States were
excluded. In IS43 he was chosen pres
Ident of the Society, and continued to
hold the office till 1865, when, slavery
having been abolished, he resigned.
deeming the time had come for the dis
solution of the society. In 1876 he
made his third visit for anti-slaverv
purposes to Great Britain.
The history of Mr.. Garrison from this
time onward, is mainly the history of
this party, which forms part of the
country's history for the last twenty
hve years. The most notable event in
which MIR. Garrison figures in the his
tory of the rebellion was in connection
with the political convention held at
Cleveland, Ohio, May 81, 1864. The
call for the convention was directed
TO the Radical Men of the Nation"
and it was intended to form union of
that portion of the republican party
which was dissatisfied with President
LincOln's administration and his So
called hesitating attitude on the matter
of slavery. 1t was at this time that
Wendell Phillips wrote long and Sc
we're letter, in which he charged that
Mr. LincOln's administration had been
a ''civil and military failure" and Sc
verely impugning the Presidents mo-
tIves. Later in the canvass, as MANY |
well remember, he returned to the |
charge, and in notable speech in Bos-
ton, gave, with even more than his
usual felicity and force of language, his
reasons why he "dare not trust him
with our future" 1t is important to
in this connection that Mr..
Garrison, in the very paper in which
Mr.. Phillips speech was first printed.
came out with vigorous protest
against its leading sentiment and point.
With the purposes of the Cleveland
which nominated Gen. Ere
mont and Gen. Cochrane for President
and Vice President, Mr. Garrison had
no sympathy, and in this protest he