Year: 1879

uC MhOoO NOctIh 10
announced held no public office. He did
not labor in any professional capacity.
He did not devote himself in any re-
markable degree to literary pursuits.
Almost from the beginning of a long
career, he had but single purpose, and
that was the abolition of Americal Sla-
very. Almost all else that he uttered
OF accomplished was subsidiary to this,
and whatever he might propose, this
great business of his life was never for
gotten. There was singular simplici-
ty about all that he said or did. He
had but two or three premises, but these
he found sufficient for the establishment
of very broad and general system. The
sum total of his moral philosophy was
the Golden Rule. He insisted upon
literal acceptance of the teachings of
Christ, and in that acceptance was all
his Christianity. He would have moth
ing to do with commentary, and he was
always suspicious of explanatory para
phrase. Having determined that slave
ry was inconsistent with the commands
of the Deity, he was not in the least to
be moved from his position by the sci
ence of the ethnOlogists, or by the differ
ing deductions of theOlogians On the
contrary, he retOrted in the fiery Ian
guage of the Hebrew Prophets, or the
milder words of the Apostles. Others
might qualify the Beatitudes, but Mr..
Garrison believed that they meant just
what they appeared to mean-nO more,
no less. This literal and unqualified ac-
ceptance gave him wonderful power.
To remonstrance, to vituperatlon, to the
most ingenious dialects, he had but one
answer-"Thus saith the Lord" He de-
MED the possibility of compromise. He
refused to find two meanings in plain
and ineligible language. He knew
that he was right, and did not believe
that anybody honestly thought him
wrong. Let those who did so have IA
care-they were in a very perilous con-
ditionl 1t is quite wonderful to consid-
er how the strength of his convictions
sustained him through all vicissitudes
and kept him firm to his purpose through
every phase of public affairs. Whether
parties rose or fell, whether ecclesiasti-
cal bodies remained united or were rent
asunder, whether statements were true
or false, there was nothing for him but
reiteration of his old warning and
reaffirmation of the principles of liberty.
He was bigot.. full as his nature was of
love and tenderness and divine pity. He
believed as only few Ilen have believ-
ed, and he possessed persistence which
has rarely been exhibited even by the
leaders of mankind.


Whether Mr. Garrison was right or
wrong in the demand for immediate
emancipation, which his untlinching log
ic led him to make, is now matter of
little consequence. 1t was well for the
country to have its duty reduced to a
single formula with no comfortable linn
itations, and the result was the creation
of public opinion which has carried us
safely through the most periliOus period
of our history. If Emancipation be-
came military, it was not less moral
necessity; and Mr.. Garrison had taught
us to consider it as thing ardently to
be desired. For years men of more than
ordinary ability had proclaimed it to be
an impossibility, or at least as unspeak-
ably dangerous. He had always regard
ed it as feasible, and he had never ceas-
ed to say what he thought. Certainly,
the great liberation did not come by de-
grees at last.
The fulflment of his hopes, and, we
may say, of his prophecies, must have
lent charming serenity to the last years
of this remarkable life. If the poor
printers boy had become Gas so many
printers boys have) one of the most dis
tinguished men Of his country, he had
achieved the distinction in no easy and
pleasant way. 1t is hardly possible for
those of the present generation to I'M
derstand how this gentle-hearted, how
ever plain-speaking man, was hated and
denounced. His name was held to be
synonymous with "irebrands, arrows
and DEATH" The mob of Boston hunted
him to the Jail in which ne found safety,
and the walls of which possibly alone
saved his life. One Legislature at least
of Southern State formally offered a
reward for his arrest and conviction.
But he made thousand enemies who
were quite as hostile. The press, almost
without exception, denounced him. The
pulpit was loud in its anathemas. With
political parties it was, in the nature of
things, impossible for him to be upon
good terms. He was a zealot, fanatic,
an infdel, traitor and maker of mis-
chief. Only little band of friends
gathered around him, while, among his
most earnest and least favorable critics,
were many who started with him in the
crusade of liberty, and who had left him
to work in their own way and their own
places, or not to work in such behalf at
all.


1t is not always that great refOrmer
lives to have the dearest wishes of his
heart gratifed. Such reward was
vouchsafed to Mr.. Garrison. 1t must
have been proud moment when, stand
ing within the walls of Fort Sumter sur
rounded by aany of the most distin-
guished men of the country, he saw the
flag of restored and regenerated Union
once more floating over the soil of South
Carolina. In several ways his country
men showed him in what. high estima-
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