The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-15
I'll FIELD OF LITERATURE.
William Lloyd Garrison.

and director of the first organized
looking to the speedy extinction of
slavery through the emancipation of the slaves
held in bondage in the Southern States OF the
Union. The work of producing this volumnious
biography was undertaken by the two sons of
Mr.. Garrison, Wendell Phillips Garrison, of
New York. and Francis Jackson Garrison, of
The delicate task has been discharged
with the evident sincerity and fearlessness that
characterized the great Garrison; and as a result
the reading public. the American people and the
world are in possession of an able. accurate, just
history of this remarkable defender of the col
ored race at a time when active service in such
cause meant the peril of ones life. So
far as it is possible for sons to
step out of the flial relation to that of a disinter-
ested observer, these two men have done it. and
have performed their trying task acceptably.
The evident admiration they feel for their father
is shared so generally now that it in no wise de-
tracts from the value of the work, for wherever
it appears it bears the evidence Of dignity and
discrimination, and one cannot but admire the
fearless honesty of the admiration they are not
weak enough to deny.
The two volumes at hand embrace that period
of his life from his birth. in 1905, to his attend
ance upon the Worlds Anti slavery Convention,
held in London in 1910. The circumstance of
his birth and the desertion of his mother and
her three helpless children by his worthless
father, his subsequent struggle into manhood
under the most distressing obstacles, and his
first efforts in the direction of bringing about
emancipation, are faithfully detailed. The text
is supplemented and embellished by numerous
portraits of Garrison and his coadjutors, men
and women.
To peruse these carefully prepared pages is
like reading a tragedy wrought out of the mag
ination of a Hugo. The heroism, the sufferings,
the calm fortitude of this man and his few
friends form one of the brightest pages in the
annals of rican manhood, while the tor
lures, the contumely and the violence heaped
upon them make the background necessary to
bring out their virtues in the strongest possible
light. The very audaeity and apparent hope
lessness of their ever accomplishing anything
favored them at first, and no attention was paid
them. But the vigor of Garrison's intellect, the
rash boldness of his assaults, even upon individu-
ais who came under the bane of his dipleasure
NPO ~
attention. and at the early age of
thirty he found himself in the Baltimore Jail.
without money, friends or hope of release. His
offense was the denunciation OF a certain sea
for contracting to carry slaves from Bal
timore to more Southern markets. A suit for
libel was brought against him, and inevitable
imprisonment followed. 1t is said CT HIM, how
ever, that even the first night he passed in Jail
he slept as soundly and sweetly, to all appear
ances. as though at home in his own bed. He
was finally ransomed by Arthur Tappan, of New
York. who paid the 5000 great sum to him
to secure his release.
While in jail there he renned the following
sonnet, one of many he wrote, and which give
that but for the increasing activity of
his life in other directions he might have be-
come no mean poet:
High walls and huge the body may confne,
And iron gates obstruct the prisoners gaze,
And massive bolts may battle his design,
And vigilant keepers watch ii devious ways:
Yet scorns tn immortal mind this base control!
No chains can bind it, and no cell inclose;
Swifter than light it flies from pole to pole,
And, in a flash. from earth to heaven it goes!
I'll APPS from mount to m~ount-from vale to vale
1t wanders. ~plucking honeyed fruits and flowers;
1t visits home. to hear the freside tale,
Or IN sweet converse pass the joyous hours;
Ills up before the sun. roaming afar.
And IN its watches wearies every start"
Released from Jail. he started for Massachu-
sets, to secure evidence for his defense in an
other suit still pending on account of publica-
tons in his Baltimore paper, denouncing
participation in the slave trade by New England
s~hip-owners. An idea of the literary style of
Garrison at that time may be had from the pas
sage for which the new trial was to be had.
Speaking of the owner of this particular ship, he
said:
This ship, as / mentioned in our last nun her.
sailed a few weeks since from this port with a
cargo of slaves for the New Orleans market. |
do not repeat the fact because it is a rare in
stance OF domestic piracy, or because the case
was attended with extraordinary circumstances;
FOR the horrible traffic is brisklv carried on. and
the transpo ~ .tion was effected in tho ordinary
manner. l merely wish to illustrate New Eng.
land humanity and morality. l am resolved to
cover with thick iufamy all who are concerned
in this infamous business.
II have stated that the ship Francis halls
from my native place. NewHuryport, Mass. is
commanded by a Yankee captain, and owned by
a townsman named Francis Todd.
ut is no worse to fit out ~piraticai cruisers. or
to engage in the foreign slave trade, than to pur-
sue a similar trade along our own coasts; and
the men VINO have the wickedness to participate
therein. for the purpose of heaping up wealth,
should be sentenced to solitary confinement for
life: they are the enemies OF their own species
highway robbers and murderers; and their final
doom will be, unless they speedily repent, to oc-
cupy the lowest depths of perdltion."
Garrison. realizing that defense was useless
because of the prejudice felt against him and his
kind in Baltimore. allowed this snit to go by de-
fault. Judgment was entered against him, but
was never pressed.
The second volume opens with an account of
the Boston mob, whereby Garrison came near
losing his life in the boosted Cradle of Liberty
1t is astounding now to any one not carefully re-
viewing the half century thar lies between the
year 1885 and the present. that in the city of
Boston. that seat of culture and learning. a mob,
composed, as the papers of that time declared,
''of gentlemen of property and standing from all
parts of the city" should endeavor to take the
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