Reading Garrison's Letters

Dec. 14, 1839

Garrison writes to the Secretary of the Navy, asking for his brother’s discharge, because of illness.  James is living with the Garrisons.  “His disease is a difficult one to eradicate from the system, if it be not immedicable; and must, for an indefinite period, render him of little or no value to the navy.  It is a fistulous abscess, of a cancerous nature, situated at the base of the back bone, and badly affecting the spine, and shattering the constitution.”  ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

Jan. 30, 1838

The second child, a son, has been born.  “What name shall be given to our baby?  Ichabod, Abijah, Jonah, Aminidab, are all good scriptural names, but they are not “popular” — and as these are the days of expediency, we ought to be very “judicious”, “prudent”, “moderate”, and “careful”, you know, in bestowing a name, so as not to offend.  Now, so reckless of consequences is my wife, — so anxious to show her contempt of public opinion, — so determined that he shall bear an odious name, – that she says it is her wish to call him — William Lloyd Garrison.”   ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI
 
 

Juy 1, 1837

“I have often thought that a man must feel queerly, who has had a leg amputated; but what is the subtraction of a leg, compared to the loss of his ‘better half’?  If we twain are one, (as I have been imagining ever since S. J. May bound us together,)  how is it that you are in Providence, and I am in Brooklyn, at the same instant?  … Ah! the solution of the enigma is easy — our hearts are one, not our bodies, so that we can be in full communion with each other at a distance of thirty miles.”  ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI
 

July 16, 1836

Writing to Knapp:  “I am really in miserable health. Mine is a bilious and liver complaint. For three or four weeks past, I have had a slow fever hanging upon me, and am now taking medicine in good earnest.  I am losing flesh gradually, but constantly …”  ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI
 

May 25, 1836

Garrison, writing to Helen, tells of a letter from George Thompson.  “T. says…that our dear babe, with such a name as he has got, must really be a double dipped fanatic — George Thompson GARRISON !!”  ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI
 

April 18, 1836

Garrison has had to delay leaving Boston to be with Helen in Connecticut.  “Do you begin to distrust me?  Do I begin to slight you?  Nay — you think all the better of me –I love you the more dearly: — you, because I am intent upon discharging the duties which I owe to God and man — I, because your acquiescence is so cheerfully and sweetly given, painful though a separation is to us both.  ”  ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI
 

May 1, 1834

“Gentle One:  Do I love you too much?  Do I think of you too often?   Do I devote too much time in writing to you? This I know — that our separation is truly painful to my heart; that you occupy my thoughts more than any other human being; that in addressing myself to you so often, I am not only permitted to cherish the pleasing assurance that I am contributing to your happiness, but enabled to pour out the tender emotions of my breast; and that I might as well attempt to forget my own unworthiness, as one so dear and meritorious as my own sweet Helen…”   ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

April 25, 1834

Writing to Helen:  “It is truly delightful to know that we possess each other’s affections, in all their purity and strength  — but, oh! how incomparably more precious is that assurance, which I trust we both cherish, leading us to believe that we are loved by our heavenly Father, and that we love Him supremely!  — Dear Helen, in our morning and evening devotions, when bowing in our hearts at the mercy-seat, let us pray that we may be kept from all sin — from the temptations and snares of an evil world — from idolatry — from slothfulness and folly — and that we may be continually replenished with heavenly wisdom… ”  ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

April  24 1834

About five months before their wedding, here is a flavor of Garrison’s feelings.  Writing to Helen he says, “I am no longer William Lloyd Garrison, but Helen Eliza Benson. There is such a fine and perfect affinity of souls between us, that I have lost my identity, and now completely engrossed in your person.”  ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

July 7, 1823

Garrison visits his Mother, in Baltimore, seeing her for the first time in seven years. A letter to a friend describes her condition. “… so emaciated, that I should never have recognized her … bolstered up in bed, being incompetent to lie down….” Then he comments on the operation she is to undergo… “and from the known skill of the physician in surgery, it is believed it will result happily.” ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI