Chapter IV: The Warning

The task of _such_ an editor, Mr. President, is an arduous and
thankless one. He must shield his friends by movements for which
they will be apt to censure him. He must save the cause by the
very blows from which the apparently judicious will anticipate
its annihilation. He must stand on an eminence from which he can
see what other men cannot see. He must be eyes to the blind,
whose want of eye-sight will lead them to make war upon their
benefactor. He must rouse men from their dangerous sleep, who,
while they begin to see men as trees walking, will murmur because
they are waked, and instead of thanking their deliverer, find
fault with the rudeness that disturbed them, and assume to give
directions when they should be beginning to learn. WILLIAM GOODELL.

Time, which waits for no man, but keeps on, with even foot-fall, whether witness of right or wrong, frankness and openness, or chicanery and intrigue, brought round the year 1839.

Mr. Torrey, who had represented his county as crying out for a new paper, till possibly the echo of his own voice might have led him to think his testimony true, now found a feeling waking up in Old Essex that he had not anticipated. The women there, with whom, in the spirit of a true mussulman, he had, a few months previous, considered it defilement to sit in Convention, had always been most effectual helpers of the financial department of the cause. Some of them had been among the earliest laborers; and, experienced in observing the pertinacity with which the enemy, from the beginning, had striven to possess himself of the fortress, by striking down the warder of the gate, were startled by Mr. Torrey’s great zeal for a new paper. They compared it with his hatred of the Liberator, so manifest during the clerical appeal controversy, and took note, from time to time, of the manner in which he argued this new necessity.

They found that, like the Colonization Society, the necessity had two faces; one for the real and the other for the pretended abolitionist. They saw that this “necessity” was founded on prejudice against the Liberator, as the Colonization Society rests upon prejudice against the free man of color.

“Oh, surer than suspicion’s hundred eyes,
Is that fine sense, which, to the pure in heart,
By mere oppugnancy of their own goodness,
Reveals the approach of evil.”

They decided to strengthen the Liberator for the coming emergency, and raised $500 for its support.

This appropriation operated like an Ithuriel spear upon the craft of the confederated opposers. It had been their policy to represent their proposed periodical as likely to _aid_ the circulation of the Liberator. Now, Mr. Torrey pronounced this appropriation a highly improper one. He put his condemnation of the measure into the shape of a general principle. “An _Anti-Slavery_ Society, aiding the circulation of the _Boston Recorder_, the _Liberator_, or any other such irrelevant periodical! it would meet strong opposition at Lynn.” He mistook, from inability to appreciate, the abolitionists of that neighborhood. That indefinable sensation began to stir through the anti-slavery ranks which betokens a conflict. The “oppugnancy” rose in every true heart near the scene of action; but so craftily had the enemy wrought, that the danger was, lest he should accomplish his ends before he could be unmasked to the general gaze. Men who saw not the causes, observed the whirl and eddy of the current of events. The feeling was like that described by Max. Piccolomini, before the revolt of Friedland.

----“Something,
I can’t but know, is going forward round me.
I see it gathering--crowding--driving on,
In wild uncustomary movements. Well--
In due time, it will doubtless reach even me.”

There was a breathless and impatient looking for.

Indications of the exact course that the miners and sappers were pursuing, now came to light. Mr. St. Clair, still an agent of the Massachusetts Board, left in their office a rough draught of resolutions to effect a fatal change in the basis of the Massachusetts Society, making it exclusive and sectarian, by a rejection of all as consistent members, who did not sustain the government of the country at the polls. The establishment of a new paper was also enjoined, in terms the necessary effect of which was destructive of the Liberator. These resolutions were endorsed by Mr. Torrey, thus:

“Good. I think, now, such resolutions should have been presented
at the Essex County Meeting at Amesbury Mills. CHARLES T. TORREY.”

The plan was, to carry the State by counties and by towns, and then to crowd up to the grand annual meeting in irresistible strength, to give the finishing blow.

The next meeting of consequence was that of the Worcester County Society, (north division,) at Fitchburg. There, Mr. St. Clair introduced the new ideas, by means of the projected resolutions. At the close of the meeting, after most of the friends had retired, and against the wishes of some who remained, he persisted in presenting them. They were adopted, after speeches from himself and the Rev. Mr. Colver, by the raising of five or six hands; probably without a perception of their design and tendency on the part of that few.

FITCHBURG RESOLUTIONS.

Whereas, slavery is the creature of legislation, upheld and
supported by law, and is to be abolished by law, and by law only;
and

Whereas, in order to secure its legal overthrow, the legislative
bodies having power over the same must be composed of good men and
true, who will go for its immediate abolition; and

Whereas, it is impossible to obtain such a legislative body,
unless abolitionists carry their principles to the ballot-box, and
vote only for men of this character; and

Whereas, it is impossible to urge this duty on the consideration
of abolitionists without an able paper, which will take this
ground and maintain it _consistently, firmly and constantly_:
Therefore,

Resolved, 1st, That, in the opinion of this Society, every
abolitionist is in duty bound, not to content himself with merely
refusing to vote for any man who is opposed to the emancipation of
the slave, BUT TO GO TO THE POLLS, AND THROW HIS VOTE FOR SOME
MAN KNOWN TO FAVOR IT.

2d. That it is his imperious duty to make inalienable human
rights the first and paramount principles in political action;
and, when any two candidates for Congress or the State
Legislature are put in nomination, one for and the other against
the immediate abolition of slavery, he is in duty bound to
vote for the abolitionist, independent of all other political
considerations;--or, if neither candidate be of this description,
then he is equally bound to go to the polls, and vote for some
true man in opposition to them both, and to do all he can,
lawfully, to defeat their election.

3d. That a weekly and ably-conducted anti-slavery paper, which
shall take right, high, and consistent ground on this subject,
and constantly urge abolitionists, as in duty bound, to use their
political, as well as their moral and religious power and rights
for the immediate overthrow of slavery, is now greatly needed in
Massachusetts, as has been but too plainly proved at the expense
of the cause, by difficulties which have been experienced in
the Fourth Congressional District, in reaching the anti-slavery
electors on the subject of their political duties.

4th. That we therefore earnestly recommend to the Board of
Managers of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, or to the
Society itself at its next annual meeting, to establish a paper of
this description--of about the size and price of the Herald of
Freedom--to be issued every week to subscribers--to be exclusively
confined to slavery and abolition--to urge constantly, political
as well as moral and religious action--to be edited by some able,
efficient man, who can conscientiously and heartily advocate all
these points--and to be under the entire control of the Executive
Committee of the State Society.

5th. That we desire every County and Town Society, which may hold
a meeting previous to the annual meeting of the State Society, to
take up and pass an opinion on this subject.

These resolutions were lithographed and sent to the officers of Societies, by Mr. Phelps, Mr. St. Clair, and Mr. Torrey, accompanied by earnest injunctions to county meetings to send up great delegations to the annual meeting, instructed to carry them through, with assurances to such as they could not fully trust, that “they were opposed to nothing but dough-face-ism.”

In the same number of the Liberator in which the resolutions appeared, an unanticipated obstacle to their design was also announced. The President of the Massachusetts Society, though neither peace man nor perfectionist, but one who, individually, considered it his duty to use his elective franchise, took charge of the financial concerns of the Liberator, in conjunction with two of his colleagues of the Board; and in their individual capacity they gave notice to the public of their reasons for so doing. That paper was, in their view identified with the anti-slavery cause in a manner that could be affirmed of no other print, not only from the circumstance of its having been the first, but more strongly, because of the faithfulness, constancy, and disregard of peril and persecution; the excellence of character editorial talent, and intuitive sagacity, of its conductor. And because they thought those qualities never more needed than at that moment, they called upon all who loved the cause to stand by the Liberator. It was signed by Francis Jackson, William Bassett, and Edmund Quincy.

Here was an unexpected blow:--A contradiction of calumnies, a financial security, a politician’s attestation to the value of the Liberator, combined in one view, before the eyes of the anti-slavery community. It was done, too, without any claim on the part of the doers, that the Liberator should sink from being the organ of all in the cause who chose to use it, into the mere instrument of a few. This was prophetic of stout resistance to the narrow, exclusive, and enslaving spirit which had so long wrought in secret, to undermine the broad foundations of the anti-slavery cause.

The shrewd proverb of the lookers-on during revolutions, says that

“Treason never prospers: what’s the reason?
When it prospers, men don’t _call_ it treason.”

Happily for the slave, at this critical instant, there were not wanting men to _call_ out “Treason!” against this whole procedure, irrespective of its probable success, in that soul-cleaving and victorious voice which carries with it instant conviction.

It is interesting to observe the course of men in peculiar and trying times, and to notice the strong contrasts of character and conduct that such times present.

Mr. Phelps, Mr. Stanton, Mr. Torrey, and Mr. St. Clair were hurrying from meeting to meeting with the Fitchburg resolutions, or driving the quill over quires of paper, urging the instant convocation of the societies for the introduction of the new paper, saying that it was not intended to be in opposition to the old, but only introduced because nine out of ten of the abolitionists in the State _would not_ take the Liberator,--that it would probably be adopted with great unanimity as the organ of the State Society, at the Annual Meeting--and dwelling strongly on the importance of sending up large delegations, instructed to vote in its favor.

Mr. Garrison stood calmly watching the aspect of the times, and when the signs were full, he raised the note of warning--

“WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?”

The annual meeting of the State Anti-Slavery Society will be held
in this city on the 23d inst. There are many indications which
lead us to regard it as pregnant with momentous consequences to
the abolition cause in this section of the country. Perhaps at
no period has there been so much cause for just alarm as at the
present. Strong foes are without, insidious plotters are within
the camp. A conflict is at hand,--if the signs of the times do not
deceive us,--which is to be more hotly contested, and which will
require more firmness of nerve and greater singleness of purpose,
(combined with sleepless vigilance and unswerving integrity,) than
any through which we have passed to victory. Once more, therefore,
we would speak trumpet-tongued--sound an alarm-bell--light up a
beacon-fire--give out a new watch-word--so that there may be a
general rallying of our early, intrepid, storm-proof, scarred and
veteran coadjutors, at the coming anniversary,--all panoplied as
of yore, and prepared to give battle to internal contrivers of
mischief, as readily as to external and avowed enemies.

The danger which now threatens all that is pure and vital in our
cause, is two-fold and complex. From the commencement of our
sacred struggle, we have been resisted by every religious sect,
and made by turns the foot-ball of every political party. As
among all sects and all parties, there are some who will never
bow the knee to Baal, but are resolved to follow RIGHT and TRUTH
through flood and fire, come what may--these, by the irresistible
affinity of principle, have come into our ranks, repudiating every
sectarian distinction, every party badge, and refusing to march
under any other banner than that of HUMANITY. Bravely have they
contended, cheerfully have they suffered, in the cause of their
enslaved countrymen; and nobly have they withstood a thousand wily
artifices to seduce them from their post. And they will persevere
unto the end.

“Tempt them with bribes, ’twill be in vain;
Try them with fire, you’ll find them true.”

But all external opposition, in whatever form it may appear,
is harmless, compared to internal sedition.--And with pain we
avow it, there is a deep scheme laid by individuals, at present
somewhat conspicuous, as zealous and active abolitionists, to put
the control of the anti-slavery movements in this Commonwealth
into other hands. This scheme, of course, is of clerical origin,
and the prominent ringleaders fill the clerical office. One of the
most restless was a participant in the famous “Clerical Appeal”
conspiracy,--though not one of the immortal FIVE. The design is,
by previous management and drilling, to effect such a change in
the present faithful and liberal-minded Board of Managers of the
State Society, at the annual meeting, as will throw the balance
of power into the hands of a far different body of men, for the
accomplishment of ulterior measures which are now in embryo.--The
next object is, to effect the establishment of a new weekly
anti-slavery journal, to be the organ of the State Society, for
the purpose, if not avowedly, yet designedly to subvert the
Liberator, and thus relieve the abolition cause in this State of
the odium of counteracting such a paper. Then----make way for the
clergy! For, by “hanging Garrison,” and repudiating the Liberator,
they will surely condescend to take the reins of anti-slavery
management into their own hands!

The plot, thus far, has been warily managed,--so as, if possible,
to “deceive the very elect.” Many, we know, are already ensnared,
and some, at least, who neither intend nor suspect mischief.
The guise in which it is presented, is one of deep solicitude
for the success of our cause. No attempt is made to lower down
the standard--O no!--but simply to change the men to whom has
been so long entrusted the management of the enterprize, and
put in their place younger men, better men, who will accomplish
wonders, and perform their duties more faithfully--that’s all!
While, privately, by conversation, letters, circulars, &c. &c.
every effort is making to disparage the Liberator, (the paper
is too tame for these rampant plotters!) and to calumniate its
editor, no hostility to either is to be openly avowed! Far from
it; for honesty in this case might not, peradventure, prove to
be the best policy.--The shape in which this new project is to
be urged, is developed in the resolutions which were adopted at
the recent meeting of the Worcester County North Division A.
S. Society, at Fitchburgh. Those resolutions were concocted in
Essex County, by the joint labors of two clergymen, and passed as
above stated,--only four or five hands, we learn, being raised in
their favor. The plan is, it seems, to get as many anti-slavery
societies committed in favor of these resolutions, before the
annual meeting, as possible. The _political_ necessity which is
urged for another paper is ridiculous; and we know it is nothing
but a hollow pretence.

The trusty friends of our good cause, and all who desire to
baffle the machinations of a clerical combination, will need no
other notice than this, to induce them to rally at the annual
meeting, and watch with jealousy and meet with firmness every
attempt, however plausibly made, to effect any material change
in the management of the concerns of the State Society. The
spirit that would discard such men as Francis Jackson, Ellis Gray
Loring, Samuel E. Sewall, Edmund Quincy, and Wendell Phillips, is
treacherous to humanity.

As a specimen of the billing and cooing which is going on
between gentlemen of the sacerdotal robe, in order to bring
about a radical alteration in anti-slavery control, read the
following extract from a recent letter of the Rev. Dr. Osgood,
of Springfield, to Prof. Emerson, of the Theological Seminary at
Andover:

“I do not say these things to palliate the conduct of these
writers in the anti-slavery papers who have poured such _torrents
of abuse_ upon the non-conformists among the clergy. I have ever
spoken freely about many of these communications, both to friends
and opposers. I think there has been _a bad spirit_ manifested
on the side of the abolitionists toward the opposing clergy; or,
if you please, those who stand aloof and do nothing. I do most
sincerely hope that my brethren who _like you_ (!) hate slavery,
but still remain neuter, (!) will calmly review the whole ground,
and sacrifice all minor considerations, and work with us in
this cause. I see no insuperable objections. I desire this the
more ardently, because the character of the ministry suffers,
in the estimation of many good men, by the course they pursue,
while the enemies of all righteousness take occasion to thrust
a sword into the vitals of religion itself, through the clergy.
Mr. Garrison, sir, is not the principal offender in this matter;
[very gentle!]--he is made answerable, as a public editor, for the
conduct of others. But ☞ _our brethren_ [such men as Moses Stuart
and Ralph Emerson!] _can easily take the sword out of the hand of
these_ VIOLENT AND PREJUDICED MEN. ☜ ☞ And I trust they will soon
do it EFFECTUALLY, by some course of ACTION. _The cause would be
greatly promoted by their co-operation”!!_ ☜

Wendell Phillips, the same who took the brunt of the battle at Faneuil Hall, upon the day when men met there to wash their hands of Lovejoy’s murder, was among the foremost to detect the subtler form of danger. His letter to the financial committee of the Liberator, which appeared in the next column to the call of the watchman, stripped the opposition of their disguises, with a firm and dexterous hand. It exhibits, in a condensed form, the mind of one who had knowledge of the cause throughout the State, as a lecturer and a manager of the Society, and throughout the land, as an acute and philosophical observer. In politics, a voter,--in theology, a Calvinist,--in church government, a congregationalist,--looking on these things from the same point of view with those who were laboring for the destruction of Freedom, toleration and fraternal confidence in the cause, he came to diametrically opposite conclusions.--

“The _heart’s_ aye the part aye,
That makes us right or wrong.”

LETTER OF WENDELL PHILLIPS.

_Messrs. Jackson, Quincy, and Bassett_:

DEAR SIRS--I wish to express to you the satisfaction which the
new arrangements for the Liberator have given me. They will gain
for it a wider circulation and more permanent usefulness. I feel
not merely for the paper itself--though it would give me pain, I
confess, to see the first banner which was unfurled in our cause,
which has braved for so many years the battle and the breeze,
having lived down its enemies, sink at last from the coldness
of its friends. But, apart from this, I regard the success of
the Liberator as identical with that of the abolition cause
itself. Though so bitterly opposed, it does more to disseminate,
develope and confirm our principles, than any other publication
whatever. The spirit which produced, still animates it, and with
magnetic influence draws from all parts of society every thing
like around it. Other measures may suit different circumstances,
and other parts of the country; but here, and now, the spirit of
the Liberator is the touchstone of true hearts. Almost all the
opposition it has met with, various as it seems, springs from one
cause. At starting, some who agreed with its principles denounced
it as “foul-mouthed and abusive;” next, the occasional expression
of some individual opinions of its editor, gained it the name
of “irreligious and Jacobin;”--and now some point to its peace
views as infidel in their tendency, and a stumbling-block in our
way. Under all these disguises have men concealed their motives,
sometimes even from themselves.

The real cause of this opposition, in my opinion, is the
fundamental principle upon which the Liberator has been
conducted:--that rights are more valuable than forms; that
truth is a better guide than prescription; that no matter how
much truth a sect embodies, no matter how useful a profession
may be, no matter how much benefit any form of government may
confer--still they are all but dust in the balance when weighed
against the protection of human rights, the discussion and
publication of great truths; that all forms of human device are
worse than useless, when they stand in Truth’s way. These are
its principles;--frank, fearless single-heartedness, the utmost
freedom of thought and speech, its characteristics. If we fail to
impress these on each abolition heart, our efforts are paralyzed,
and our cause is lost. Pride of settled opinion, love of lifeless
forms, undue attachments to sect, are its foes.

With the fullest charity for all conscientious scruples, and
dissenting, as I do, from the peace-views of the Liberator, I
cannot see how their discussion, conducted in a Christian spirit,
and with sincere love of truth, can offend the conscience of any
man. Limited to a brief space, as it is, it can have no effect
on the general character of the paper. I mean to give all my
influence, (and, in this crisis, when the paper so much needs
its friends, I wish that influence were greater,) to gain it the
confidence, and pour its spirit into the mind of every one I can
reach. I shall esteem it a privilege to second your efforts. The
danger I most dread is, to have our cause fall under the control
of any party, sect, or profession. That way ruin lies. The
chiefest bulwark against it, I know of, is the Liberator. Success
to it. May it have the cordial support of every abolition heart.

Yours, truly,
WENDELL PHILLIPS.

Boston, Jan. 7th, 1839.

Troubles, however different in their nature, always seem to have fellowship with each other. At this juncture, while the Anti-Slavery community in Massachusetts were laboring under the pain and astonishment of the recent development, came a Sub-Committee, consisting of Mr. Leavitt and Mr. Stanton, from New York, to say that, as the stated payments due to the National Treasury were unpaid, the contract became null and void.[4]

The Massachusetts Board could not, as lawyers, or as men of business, admit this to be the case; but, anxious to discharge the obligation, they came to the following resolution, in the presence of the New York Committee.

“Resolved, That the Executive Committee be invited to send their
agents into the State, and take any other measures they may
deem best, to collect the amount due on the pledge made by this
society, and to become due on the first of February, and to remit
the whole to the treasury of the Massachusetts Society, under the
promise that the same shall be _immediately_ and _wholly_ remitted
to New York; and that in the collection of the same, they be
authorised to receive the amount of pledges hitherto made to the
Massachusetts Society.”

They hoped, by this, to open a way for the instant redemption of the pledge, through the means of the friendly co-operation of the New York Committee, and trusted that the rash, unbusiness-like and unbrotherly nullification of so necessary an arrangement, would be avoided.

To the surprise of the Massachusetts men, who _then_ could perceive no sufficient motive for such a course, the New York Committee declined to accept these terms. Were they suffering for the money? Why then did they not take the readiest and the best way to get it?--_through_ the Massachusetts Society,--not _over_ it? Did they love peace and unity? Why then for one moment hesitate? They were invited to send in their agents, and take any other means they might deem best, under the arrangement of the preceding June. What more ought brethren and honest men to desire? What more could be accomplished by _their_ plan, of going on as if the Massachusetts Society were not in existence? _One_ thing more it could not _fail_ to accomplish,--the destruction of the Massachusetts Society. Was it possible that the New York brethren had _aimed_ at that? _Were_ it so, they could not better have hit the mark than by coming at that painful moment, to envenom a financial embarrassment which, singly, could have been so easily met, by mingling it with the poisoned sources of difficulty that had just been laid bare. They came for money, at a moment when the state treasury was found empty--the state agents proved treacherous, the state energies bent upon working out a political demonstration in the eyes of the whole country. And because, under all these difficulties, a part of the money had not been paid when it became due, they refused to collect it, _with_ permission, for the mere pleasure, it seemed, of collecting it _without_ permission. If they were unwilling to acknowledge, even in form, the existence of the Massachusetts Society, what was the legitimate inference? Did the Committee really agree with the slaveholder, and his soul-guard from the truth,--the associations of the ministry, that the Massachusetts Society _ought_ to be destroyed?

Massachusetts men deemed it a virtue to repel these thoughts, which the conduct of the New York Committee could not fail to suggest. They shrunk from the pain of beholding and weighing the evidence of a want of fraternal confidence, and devotion to the cause. They were doomed for this weakness, to feel soon, in their own persons, how much better it is to judge our fellows by _their_ deeds, than by our _own_ hopes or _fears_.

FOOTNOTE:

[4] For the terms of this contract and the occasion of its necessity, see pages 10 and 47.