The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1913-01-25
TRUE MEANING OF
GARR|S0N'SW WORK
FIftIeth Year Of Freedom OCca-
sion For Comparison.
REfORMER AND BENEFACTOR.

Plea For Supreme Recognition Of Serv-
Ices Rendered by William Lloyd Gar
rison In Great Fight to Overthrow
Moral Sin Of sIavery-Fred Douglass
Also Played Fine Part.
BY ANTHONY r. MAYO.
Jan. 1, 1913, was the fiftieth an
liversary Of the proclamation Of
emancipation. The event was celebrat-
ed throughout the nation, largely by
the colored people. 1t was celebrated
as boon conferred upon the Negro by
Abraham Lincoln and, If we are to
Judge by similar celebrations in the
past, with little or no reference to the
real factors which wrought the over
throw Of slavery. r..
This the writer believes to be an IN
fortunate defect in all such celebra-
tons. 1t shows a sad lack Of historical
perspective, fatal ignorance Of the es-
sential factors in the making Of his
tory. For that reason, and in a meas
ure to cause the race to atone for its
neglect Of its real nberators, this ar
ticle is written. 49,.
Few pause to reflect on the hercu-
for and to render effective proclanaa-
ton Of emancipation. Our Hercules,
however, was. not Abraham Lincoln,
great and good that he was, but VII
liam Lloyd Garrison. When Garrison
began his moral agitation against slav-
cry, denouncing the nation for having
made "a covenant with death and an
agreement with hell" 1t was intrench-
ed In every section Of the nation.
Not that the northern states were
slaveholding states, but public senti-
ment at the north approved slavery
and strongly disapproved the agitation
Of Mr.. Garrison and others to bring
about its abolition. Mr.. Lincoln, sad to
relate, was among the millions of
northern men who bowed in submis-
sion to 1t and saw in this new Lernaean
hydra q beast too formidable to con-
quer.
1t was to be endured, to be coddled,
never aroused, for fear of the evils
which would befall the union of the
states. Fortunate for the Negro and
most fortunate indeed for civilization
and freedom in the new world, the
opinion Of Abraham Lincoln, the states
man, was not the opinion Of William
Lloyd Garrison, the reformer. He saw
in the situation the duty to call ma
ton to repentance, to arouse its slum-
bering conscience, deadened by the
poisons of perfidous wrong.
For more than thirty years his voice
and pen Numbered his Jovean denunci-
ations Of the moral sin Of slavery. He
raised the banner of immediate and un-
conditional emancipation, upon which
was inscribed the motto, my country
Is the world, my countrymen all man.
kind" and host of kindred spirits
came to his support, slowly at first, but
in great numbers later, as the cause
became more popular. No single force
of public life did so much for human
freedom.
No human being has placed the Ne
gro upon such obligations to him and
to that great host which followed his
lead, many Of whose names are house
hold words In the literature Of our
country. 1t was he who first discov-
cred the poetic talent Of John Green
leaf Whittier, the poet Of freedom"
whose songs awakened sympathy In
the hearts Of millions for the outraged
slave; it was he who took the untutored
Douglass from the shipyards Of New
Bedford and focused the eyes Of the
world upon him as one in whom man.
kind might behold the infamies Of slav-
cry and the latent possibilities of the
slave.
Garrison began the publication Of the
Liberator, the organ Of the Abolition
lists, Jan. I, 1881. He stopped its pub
lication Jan. 1, 1866, Just thirty-fivs
years later, after he had accomplished
his purpose, the overthrow Of chattel
slavery. He founded the American
Anti-slavery society Jan. 1, 1882. Jan. 1
Is, therefore, a day Of more than ordi-
nary significance to the Negro.
We shall not, however, demonstrate
our appreciation Of the significance Of
the events we celebrate on these recur-
ring anniversaries until as race we
become deeply conscious Of the moral
courage, steadfastness of purpose and
sacrifices Of our real liberators, white
and black, who gave to the cause their
devotion, their means, their talents and
in many instances their lives.
Their examples should be an inspira-
tion to the Negro everywhere to battle
on bravely and hopefully against every
circumstance which blocks his path to
the attainment Of that fuller, freer life