Reading Garrison's Letters

Jan. 13, 1850

Writing to Samuel J. May:  “There must be no union with slaveholders, religiously or politically.  It seems to me impossible to utter a plainer proposition.  On the part of the South, the condition of union has been, and is, that we of the North shall give absolute protection and encouragement to the slave system; to this hour, that condition has been complied with; a refusal to comply with it dissolves the union inevitably and necessarily.  The time has come to preach disunion on the highest moral and religious grounds.  The Constitution of the United States is ‘a covenant with death and an agreement with hell’.  … It remains to be see  how the people of the North will meet this issue… ”   ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

Mar. 16, 1849

“You say that ‘a vast majority of the people of the United States deplore the necessity of the continuance of slavery in the United States’.  This assertion is not true; a ‘vast majority of the people’ really care nothing about it; they are agreed  in nothing so well as in despising and proscribing the colored race, whether bond or free.  Besides, if the immediate abolition of slavery would prove disastrous, then why should its continuance be deplored?  To deplore that which is essential to good order, the public safety, and the welfare of all classes, pro tempore,  is not to talk sensibly.  Sir, slavery is ‘the sum of all villanies’ — it is pollution, concubinage, adultery — it is theft, robbery, kidnapping — it is ignorance, degradation, and woe — it is suffering, cruelty, and horrid injustice — it is the exaltation of master above all that is called God — it smites the most fertile soil with barrenness, and depraves the manners and morals of all who are infected by it!  This you know; and yet you dare to affirm that its continuance is a matter of necessity!  Ah! this is ever ‘the tyrant’s plea’, and  you are a tyrant…”   ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

July 30, 1847

Garrison thanks the Lorings for paying a tax which had been exacted from him at the Custom House, on account of a tea service which had been presented to him in Scotland, and which he brought back into the country.   “Next to a fort, arsenal, naval vessel, and military array, I hate a Custom House — not because of the tax it imposed on the friendly Scottish gift, but as a matter of principle.  I go for free trade and free inter-communication the world over, and deny the right of any body of men to erect geographical or national barriers in opposition to these natural, essential and sacred rights.  Every government must be regarded as a tyranny, and unworthy of approbation, that erects or maintains such barriers.  It also is controlled by a very short-sighted policy. — But this is not the place for a treatise on political economy.”   ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

July 1, 1847

Acknowledging the death of O’Connell, Garrison writes to Richard Webb.   “Well, O’Connell has left his wide field of popular agitation, and removed to a new and mysterious sphere of existence.  Though he had many faults and failings, (Heaven be merciful to us all!) I honor his memory, and regard him with feelings of gratitude and respect.  His death, at such a time, in the awful state into which his suffering country is plunged, is truly affecting.  Of course, the Repeal movement may be regarded a virtually at an end, I suppose.”   ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

June 15, 1847

Writing to Heman Humphrey, retired President of Amherst College, who has been “in Boston and its vicinity, lecturing in various pulpits in behalf of a scheme of expatriation, which, in view of its origin, design, principles, measures, and tendencies, stands without a rival on the score of hypocrisy, villany, and impiety.” …. He warns Humphrey that the  idea is mostly dead, and that his speeches “can do nothing more than to give to the dead carcass spasmodic action…”   Garrison then notes his own much-quoted denunciations of colonization.     ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

March 1, 1847

“We are making decided progress in our Disunion movement.  Our Legislature, now in session, has before it many petitions, numerously signed by legal voters, asking that body to take measures for the peaceable secession of Massachusetts from the Union.  We are surprised to find how many are prepared for this measure.”   ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

March 1, 1847

“The  horrid particulars of the famine in Ireland have made a wide and profound sensation in this country.  Contributions are pouring in from every quarter and the amount of food, money and clothing that will be contributed, will be very considerable; yet not a fiftieth part that ought to be done.  But we must recollect that the idea human brotherhood is as yet but very imperfectly developed in the world, and that, hitherto, each nation has left other nations to take care of themselves, without being specially concerned for their welfare…”   ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

Mar. 14, 1845

“… I shall tell you what I think of your political character, in plain language and with great brevity.  You are one of those political demagogues, who are more injurious to a nation than pestilence or famine; whose selfishness is the only god whom they recognize or adore; whose ambition must be gratified, at whatever sacrifice of moral principle, and though hecatombs of innocent victims perish to effect its object.  You profess to be a democrat — Then is Satan, when disguised as an angel of light, no devil!    ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

Oct 1, 1844

Responding to Gerrit Smith and John Greenleaf Whittier, and  their assertions that the Constitution is an antislavery document:   “Even Gerrit Smith has stultified himself so far as to have written a long letter to John G. Whittier, maintaining the same absurd doctrine.  Nay, he has gone so far as to eulogize those diabolical provisions respecting the prosecution of slave trade for twenty years — the putting down of slave insurrections by the government — the three-fifths representation of the slaves through their masters –as decidedly anti-slavery in their character and tendency! He is now completely absorbed in electioneering in behalf of James G. Birney and the Liberty party…  Still, I mean to let charity and patience have their perfect work in regard to him; for, after all, he seems to be a noble-hearted and benevolent man, but his head is often sadly at fault…   ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI

Jan 8, 1844

To the Liberator,  “Morally speaking, I am more and more convinced, by inquiry and observation, that the Liberty Party, as such, in New England, is utterly unprincipled, and the most insidious, and therefore the most dangerous foe with which genuine anti-slavery has to contend. … its leaders are not trustworthy, and that a large majority of it supporters are making use of it as substitute for moral action, and as  a foil to ward off the blows which are aimed at a pro-slavery church and priesthood… If they must vote, they can testify against all these parties by scattering their votes on those in whom they can confide.  But I think duty requires them, as abolitionists, not to vote at all, but to ‘let the dead bury their dead’, to refuse to sustain the present Constitution of the United States, and to demand, in the name of God and humanity, a dissolution of our blood-cemented, atheistical Union. ”  ¹

¹ Letters of William Lloyd Garrison – Volumes I – VI