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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

PROCEEDINGS AT THE
PUBLIC BEEAKFAST
HELD IN HONOUK OP
WILLIAM LLOYD GAMISON, Esq.
IN ST. JAMES'S HALL, LONDON,
On Saturday, June SOlli, 1SC7.

REVISED BY THE SPEAKEES;
WITH
AN INTEODUCTION BY T. ¥. CHESSON,
AND OPINIONS OF THE PEESS.

L o ]sr ID o ]sr :
WILLIAM T WE EDIE, 3 3 7, STE AND.
ises.

LONDON :
E. BAEK15TT AND SONS, PKINTEES,
3IAKK LANJS.

INTRODUCTION.

The publication, in a permanent form, of the proceedings
of the social meeting at which Mr. Garrison was entertained
by his friends in this metropolis needs no justification. Even
those who expressed their dissent from the speeches, and
sought to detract from the homage which was paid to the
great anti-slavery leader, acknowledged ' ' the brilliant ''
success of the demonstration. The English friends and
colleagues of Mr. Garrison — those who had laboured with
him, although at a distance, through good report and through
evil report — determined that he should receive at their hands
a mark of their admiration and respect, which he, and his
children after him, would value as one of the crowning
honours of his life. How successfully that design was realized
is known to every reader of the public press. It was realized
both in the number and in the intellectual and moral charac
ter of the audience ; it was equally realized in the admirable
quality of the speeches which were delivered on the occasion.
It sometimes happens that a meeting fails to accomplish the
objects which its promoters have in view, not from any lack
of attention or sympathy on the part of the hearers, but
from the inefficiency of the advocates. No one who took

part in the Garrison breakfast need reproach himself on this
score. On the contrary, the spoken words which are re
corded iu these pages will be read with as much pleasure as
they were listened to by the assembly which gathered in St.
James's Hall. Although the voice, the manner, the pre
sence of the speaker be wanting, these printed words will be
found to contain much that is chaste and eloquent in
language, elevated in thought, and generous in passion.
Eloquence when perverted is a dangerous gift ; and the
more dangerous because, as in the lamentable case of Daniel
Webster, it is impossible to withhold a feeling of admiration
for the genius of the orator, even when he is exalting false
hood and oppression. But that oratory which is inspired by
a desire to promote the good of mankind, to strike at the
roots of tyrannical power, or to set forth the lessons which
are taught in the careers of disinterested and heroic men,
will have a place in history when the great speeches of
unscrupulous orators are forgotten. " Nothing can be last
ing that is counterfeit" is a classic apophthegm; and elo
quence without the inspiration of truth is a counterfeit
which men cease to value as soon as they awake to the decep
tion which has been practised upon them.
The proceedings of the Garrison breakfast did not escape
sharp criticism ; but it was criticism of a kind that always
misses its aim. There always will be differences of opinion,
and so long as an opponent manifests a desire to be fair, he
is entitled to respect. No one, for example, can reasonably-
quarrel with the writer who puts the question, " Shall we
crown our fanatics ?" or, if the interrogator honestly believes
that an answer should be returned in the negative, complain

if he endeavours to convince his readers that he is right.
This is a subject upon which every man can judge for himself;
and, as for the issue, we know that, if the so-called " fanatic "
has really earned the laurel wreath, he is sooner or later sure
to be crowned, in spite of the protests of worldly-wise logicians.
But we have to do with less abstract criticism than this.
The Times objects that the meeting was a " psean of triumph
over a prostrate foe, and over battle-fields covered with
slain." If the war with Abyssinia prove successful we shall
not find the Times employing language of this kind towards
those who will then raise exultant shouts over the downfall
of Theodorus ; and yet the prisoners at Magdala and Debra
Tabor do not number twenty souls, while the American war
transformed four millions of captives into free men. If it
be true that Mr. Garrison and his associates rejoiced in
the defeat of the South, it is not the less true that they are
wholly free from the imputation of having sought to abolish
slavery by the slaughter of armed hosts and the desolation of
their country. It was the South that elected to decide the issue
by the arbitrament of the sword ; and it was not until the
Northern abolitionists saw how terribly she was in earnest
that they, as good and loyal citizens, also took up the sword.
To sympathize with a good cause when it has vanquished its
adversaries on the battle-field, which they themselves have
chosen for the final contest between light and darkness,
certainly does not merit censure, or imply a want of generous
feeling. The Times should have reserved its rebuke for those
who prematurely exulted over the defeat of the Federal
armies, and who encouraged the slaveholders, by material
aid and moral support, to prosecute a war which could only

6

end in their destruction. Another surprising statement is also
made. We are told that Mr. Garrison did not abolish
negro slavery — that, it is said, was the work of General
Grant, and of the northern battalions. Cicero makes a fine
distinction which meets the case, when he remarks that
" Themistocles' victory was only a service to the common
wealth once, but Solon's counsel will be so for ever." Mr.
Garrison not only proclaimed a doctrine, but for thirty-five
years he was engaged in educating a nation. The sentiment
which the New Englanders carried into the war was a senti
ment which originated in his breast, and found earliest utterance
on his lips. It was he who imparted to loyal statesmen and
generals that moral purpose which first armed the blacks ;
then gave freedom to the slaves in the rebel States ; and
ultimately emancipated the whole race. Undoubtedly, if
Mr. Garrison had never been born, somebody else would have
performed the same mission. It is also possible that, if
Milton had never lived, some other person might have
written either" "Paradise Lost" or a poem similar in plan and
equally transcendent in genius. But to Mr. Garrison,
as to John Milton, belongs the credit of his own personal
achievements ; and, while it is probable that the fruits of
General Grant's decisive campaign will be more enduring
than Themistocles' victory, this result will be mainly due to
the fact that Mr. Garrison's " counsel " will for all time to come
animate the policy of the Eepublic towards all the races over
which she wields the sceptre of dominion.
Another class of critics professes to have made a notable
discovery. They allege that the great majority of the ladies
and gentlemen who assembled to pay respect to Mr. Garrison

did nothing for the cause of emancipation when their co
operation might have been useful. If this statement were
well founded, the cavillers should have remembered that even
a tardy homage to a good man or a just principle is not
dishonourable, while there is no honour at all in maintaining
an ignoble silence after the moral perception has once been
quickened. But the allegation is not true. It is scarcely
too much to affirm that every individual in the assembly had
rendered, each according to his means and opportunities,
a substantial service to the now triumphant cause of the
negro. There were many who had won deserved renown in
the struggle which was fought more than a generation ago
in our own colonies ;' and there was also a far larger repre
sentation of those who, daring the darkest days of the civil
war in America, never faltered in the active expression of
their sympathy with the great Eepublic. But enough has
been said on this subject. The names themselves bear
eloquent testimony to the fact which has been stated.
There is one class of Mr. Garrison's detractors who have
established so peculiar a, claim to be remembered, that, in
Common justice, they cannot be overlooked. To the honour
of the religious portion of the press of this country it has,
with only one exception, either cordially joined in the tribute
to Mr. Garrison or abstained from unfriendly comment.
Nothing in the world is easier than to dub a man " an
infidel," and yet there was a time when this charge, although
made by the authors of the pestilential heresy that slavery is
a Divine institution, inflicted on Mr. Garrison a species of
moral martyrdom. The pro-slavery church in America,
utterly oblivious to its own practical disbelief in the law of

8
Christ, denounced him as a heretic ; and to -prove the truth
of this accusation it became an habitual practice to put
language in his mouth which he never uttered, to invent
speeches for him, to write descriptions of his meetings which
were either absolutely false or grossly caricatured. It was
the discovery of this shameful system of misrepresentation
on the part of those who, as Mr. Wendell Phillips has wittily
observed, " struck out the Christianity from every essay
they stole from an English author," that induced the writer,
during a sojourn in the United States many years ago, to
attach himself to the party which was so cruelly aspersed.
On this side of the Atlantic the same tactics were employed
by a few over-zealous divines, who, let us hope, were misled
by ignorance even more than by intolerance. The attempt
to destroy the influence of the abolitionists by denouncing
them as anti- Christian has gone out of fashion in the
United States. This novel method of carrying on a
controversy owed its origin to slavery, and when slavery
foundered it formed part of the cargo which went down *
with the ship. The Church itself has grown purer and
wiser, and therefore more catholic in the spirit which it
exhibits towards those who are, at present, beyond its pale.
Although no respectable religious journal in America would
now dream of reviving the old cry of infidelity against Mr.
Garrison, there is unfortunately one polemical journalist in
this country who has been bold enough to repeat the experi
ment. An organ of the Low Church party has recently
held up Mr. Garrison to opprobrium as an arch-heretic, and
in support of the charge has appealed to the authority of " An
Englishwoman in America," who, in professing to describe an

anti-slavery convention in Boston, made out that the pro
ceedings were a mixture of violent invective and gross
impiety.* A challenge to the lady to prove her statements
met with no more satisfactory rejoinder than that it was
" ridiculous " to impeach the veracity of " a near relation of
the late Archbishop of Canterbury.'' When ample proof was
afforded of the shameful injustice which had been done to Mr.
Garrison and Mr. Wendell PhiUips ; when passages from their
speeches on the occasion in question were quoted with a view
to show that they were worthy of the orators, and in no respect
offended the canons of good taste ; when it was shown that
"the Englishwoman's" characterization of them bore an extra
ordinary resemblance to certain expressions used at, the time
by a Boston pro-slavery journal, whose misrepresentations in
stantly provoked a stinging rebuke from Mr. Garrison in
the Liberator ; when, in a word, the whole story was de
molished, one would naturally have anticipated, on the part
of the editor who had adopted it, a manly apology and
retractation, and immediate space for the refutation. Instead
of this he had no word of regret to offer ; he did not even call
upon the " niece of a late Archbishop of Canterbury " for an
explanation ; but coolly declined to open his columns to
what he was pleased to regard as a controversy with ' ' the
EngHshwoman ;" conveniently ignoring the fact that the con
troversy was not with that lady, but with a public writer
who had adopted her statements without qualification. An
estimable clergyman of the Church of England once looked
over a few consecutive numbers of the Low Church organ,
¦* Vide Record, 3rd, Sth, and lOth July, 1867.

10

and, as the result of his study, filled a pamphlet of many
pages with an exposure of its multitudinous offences against
fairness and truth. It is certainly not surprising that the
detractors of Arnold and Eobertson should be equally wanting
in justice to a man like Mr. Garrison.
It is not always borne in mind that the abolitionists have
rendered other services to their country and to the age
besides those which were directly connected with negro
emancipation. They have rescued the United States from
the thraldom of mob law. The inflexible resolution with
which they confronted those perils, Avhich Mr. Bright so
touchingly described in apostolic language, was a service as
much rendered to the enfranchised white man as to the black
slave. The contest was severe, but it proved decisive ; and
when the mob was finally vanquished, absolute freedom of
opinion— ^that greatest security of public liberty in a free
State — was established on a secure foundation. It is equally
true that Mr. Garrison and his friends were the first to re
cognize the legalized injustice with which women are treated
in the most civilized countries. Now that seventy members
of parliament can be found to follow Mr. Mill into the lobby
of the House of Commons in support of a motion designed to
redress those wrongs, it is only fair to remember that the
Ainerican abolitionists were the founders of what promises
to become one of the greatest social movements of our time,
and that they suffered no small amount of obloquy when they
first enunciated the doctrine that a nation should be governed
by " the collective brain" of the nation.
In conclusion it may be remarked that such meetings as
the one which is reported in these pages are necessary as a

11
wholesome check to the Carlylean reaction. The pseudo-
scientific philosophers, who profess to have discovered "the
negro's true place in nature," may possibly believe that the
latter has a defective organization, and that his cranium is
inferior to their own ; but no white man would be excluded
from membership in the Anthropological Society because he
had a badly-developed brain. Dr. Johnson struck at the
root of the modern prejudice, when he satirically remarked
that "the colour of the negro is considered as a suffi
cient testimony against him." The most stupid member
of the little anthropological coterie regards himself as superior
to the learned Bishop Crowther, although he can give no
better reason for it than that the bishop is a " nigger." A
diseased vanity has quite as much to do with these ethnolo
gical vagaries a.6 a love for scientific truth. In the meanwhile
there is no danger of the English nation becoming infected
with a fanaticism which is as far removed from true science
as it is from Christianity.
F. W. Chkssoh.

^ommxiin ai l^rrangemenls.

His Grace the DUKE of ARGYLL, K.T., Chairman.
The Honourable E. LYULPH STANLEY, Vice-Ghairman.
E. W. Chesson, Esq., ^ Honorary
Richard Moore, Esq.,

Lord Houghton.
Lord Alfred S. Churchill.
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton,
Bart., M.P.
Sii George Young, Bart.
John Bright, Esq., M.P,
John Stuart Mill, Esq., M.P.
W. E. Forster, Esq., M.P.
James Stansfeld, Esq., M.P.
Charles Buxton, Esq., M.P.
The Hon. C. W. Howard, M.P.
P. A. Taylor, Esq., M.P.
Thomas Hughes, Esq., M.P.
J. B. Smith, Esq., M.P.
T. B. Potter, Esq., M.P.
Joseph Cowen, Esq., M.P.
Charles Gilpin, Esq., M.P.
Mr. Serjeant Paert.
W. Vernon HARcouRT,Esq.,Q.C.
The Rev. Professor Maurice.
Professor Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S.
Goldwin Smith, Esq., M.A.
Major Evans Bell.
Herbert Spencer, Esq.
"William Tweedie, Esq.
George Thompson, Esq.

J. M. Ludlow, Esq.
A. H. Dymond, Esq.
Richard H. Hutton, Esq., M.A.
Edward Miall, Esq.
Justin McCarthy, Esq.
Wlliam Shaen, Esq., M.A.
James Beal, Esq.
Edmond Beales, Esq., M. A.
AViLLIAM HowiTT, Esq.
H. J. Slack, Esq., F.G.S.
Professor E. S. Beesly.
W. T. Malleson, Esq.
Henry Crompton, Esq.
Richard Congreve, Esq.
Arthur Albright, Esq.
John Taylor, Esq.
L. A. Chamerovzow, Esq.
C. H. Hopwood, Esq.
Benjamin Scott, Esq., Chamber
lain of London.
Colonel Henry Salwey.
W. M. Neill, Esq.
W. H. AsHURST, Esq.
Frederick Harrison, Esq.
William Black, Esq.
John Gorrie, Esq.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE BREAKFAST.

The public brealrfast in honour of Mr. Garrison was held in
St. James's HaU, on Saturday moming, June 29th, 1867. The
great hall from an early hour presented a striking and animated
appearance. Upwards of three hundred ladies and gentlemen sat
down to breakfast, and the balconies were filled with spectators.
The occasion was in itseK felt to be so interesting as to render
special decorations unnecessary ; but the flags of England and
America occupied a prominent position in one of the gaUeries at
the extremity of the buUding. It is impossible to give a com
plete list of the persons present, but the foUowing may be
enumerated : —
JohnBright, Esq., M.P., chairman ; Mr. WiUiam Lloyd Garrison,
the guest of the day ; his daughter, Mrs. Villard, and his son, Mr.
Frank Garrison ; the Duke and Duchess of ArgyU, and Lady
Edith Campbell ; Earl Russell, K.G., and the Countess and Lady
Georgina Russell; theEarlof AirUe,K.T. ; the Marquis Townshend;
Lord Alfred Spencer ChurchiU ; Mr. and Lady Mary Stanhope ;
Lady Edward Cavendish ; Sir Charles and Lady Trevelyan (sister
of Lord Macaulay) ; Miss Cobden ; Mrs. Edmund Potter and Miss
Potter ; Lady Belper ; Lady Lyell and Miss LyeU ; Sir George
Young, Bart. (Lincoln's Inn) ; the Right Hon. WUUam Cowper,
M.P. ; Mr. John Stuart MUl, M.P. ; the Hon. Charles Wentworth
Howard, M.P. ; the Hon. F. Leveson Gower, M.P. ; Mr. W. E.
Forster, M.P. ; Mr. James Stansfeld, M.P., and Mrs. Stansfeld ;
Mr. G. S. Lefevre, M.P. ; Mr. P. A. Taylor, M.P., Mrs. Taylor, and
Mrs. Taylor, sen. ; Mr. PoUard Urquhart, M.P. ; Mr. Duncan
M'Laren, M.P., and Mrs. M'Laren ; Mr. W. Morrison, M.P. ;
Mr. T. B. Potter, M.P., and Mrs. Potter ; Mr. Joseph Cowen, M.P. ;
Mr. C. J. More, M.P. ; Mr. Charles Gilpin, M.P. ; Mr. Thomas
Barnes, M.P. ; Mr. J. B. Smith, M.P. ; Professor Fawcett, M.P.,
and Mrs. Fawcett ; the Hon. E. Lyulph Stanley ; the Hon.
George Brodrick ; the Hon. F. H. Morse (American Consul) ;

14
Colonel Henry Salwey ; Major Evans BeU and Mrs. BeU ; Cap
tain WaLhouse ; Mr. Serjeant Parry and Mrs. Parry ; Professor
Huxley, F.R.S. ; the Rev. Professor Maurice ; Professor Beesly ;
Dr. Lankester ; Bishop Payne (Philadelphia) ; Rev. Mr. Jamieson
(Boston) ; Rev. R. Spears ; the Rev. Dr. Massie ; the Rev. Thomas
PhUlips ; the Rev. W. H. Channing (Boston) ; Rev. J. C. GaUa-
way, M.A. ; the Rev. Dr. Davis ; the Rev. SeUa Martin and Mrs.
Martin ; Rev. W. K. Rowe ; the Rev. G. W. M'Creo ; Rev. J.
Kennedy ; M. Victor Schcelcher (formerly .Under-Minister of
Marine in the French Provisional Govemment) ; M. and Mdme.
Lougel ; Miss Emma Chapman (Boston) ; Mr. and Mrs. George
Howard; Mrs. S. Lucas; MissRemond; Mrs. Cobb; Mrs.M'CuUum;
Miss Cogan; Miss Sumter; Miss Wotherspoon ; Mr. and Mrs.
Prentice ; Mr. and Mrs. Noa ; Miss M. E. Prentice ; Miss Rosa
Praetorius ; Miss Henrietta Noa ; Messrs. W. Vernon Harcourt,
Q.C, George Thompson, Jacob Bright (now member for Man
chester), Charles S. RoundeU (Secretary of the Jamaica Com
mission), Henry Vincent, C. H. Hopwood (Temple), Lionel
ToRemache, William M'Arthur, Herbert Spencer, William Twee-
die and Mrs. Tweedie, J. M. Ludlow (Lincoln's Inn), WUUam
Craft and Mrs. Craft (formerly of Georgia), Samuel Pope (Temple),
Henry Crompton (Temple), A. H. Dymond.'and Miss Dymond,
Hodgson Pratt, Justin M'Carthy and Mrs. M'Carthy, W. M. NeUl
and Mrs. NeUl, H. E. Buxton, WiUiam Shaen and Miss Shaen,
R. C. Fisher and Mrs. Fisher, John Gorrie, R. D. Webb (Dublin),
H. J. Slack, F.G.S., T. Falvey (Southampton), Edward Dicey,
Albert Venn Dicey (FeUow of Trinity CoUege, Oxford), J. Carvell
WiUiams, WUUam Evans (Chairman of the Emancipation Society),
Chishohtn Anstey (Temple), Frank H. Evans, F. W. Chesson and
Mrs. Chesson, William Redfem, W. T. MaUeson, L. M. Aspland
(Temple) and Mrs. Aspland, E. F. Flower (Stratford-on-Avon),
Mark E. Marsden, Richard Moore, Edmond Beales (President of
the Reform League), Octavius H. Smith, John Dickinson, jun.,
(Chairman of the India Reform Society), W. Moy Thomas
George Dombusch and Miss Ada Dornbusch, T. H. Green (BalUol
CoUege, Oxford), Robert Laing (Wadham College), H. Wedgwood,
Vincent S. Lean, Edward Miall, W. H. Ashurst and Mrs. Ashurst,
Frederick Haxrison (Lincoln's Inn), T. Mason Jones, E. 0. Green-

15
ing (Manchester), T. C. TurbervUle, James Clarke, J. Passmore
Edwards, Arthur Albright (Birmingham), T. Coote (St. Ives),
James Beal, R. S. Wright, A. O. Rutson (Fellow of Magdalen
CoUege, Oxfdrd), W. Tebb, Charies P. Tagart, J. Henderson,
C. Mallet, J. R. Robinson, W. MiUer, F. J. Holcombe,
Richard Godson, E. Harris, J. White, John Clapham (New-
castle-on-Tyne), G. J. Holyoake, WiUiam Black, J. S. GUpin
(Nottingham), E. Chambers, John Batchelor (BagnaU), James
Hall (Leicester), Robert Thallon, James Walton, Sumner
Jones, James Scott, G. B. HUl (Tottenham), R. P. Edwards
(Bath), Vi. Berkley (Brentwood), S. D. Wilhams, John Cun-
nington, F. Lawrence (Temple), W. Robson (Eastbourne),
Frederick Wheeler (Rochester), Edward M. Young (Harrow),
Ridley Prentice, Arthur Prentice, J. J. Lockhart, James
Coombe, M.D. (Bedford), J. Moore, R. D. Catchpool (Reading),
R. S. Dixon, WiUiam Nathan, Edward Grimwade (Ipswich),
J. Epps, M.D., T. Bourne, R. B. Litchfield, T. G. Knox," and
J. Scott (Temple).
Grace was said by Bishop Payne (a gentleman of colour) ; and
after the repast,
Mr. F. W. Chesso-n^ the Hon. Secretary, read the foUowiag
letter from Mr. Adams, the Amerioan Minister : —
" 54, Portland Place, June SSth, 1867.
" Sir, — Permit me to express my great gratification in receiving
the honour of an invitation to be present on the interesting
occasion so complimentary to my countryman, Mr. Garrison. It
cannot but be gratifying to perceive so cordial a disposition
among EngUshmen to recognise his long and arduous services in
the cause of phUanthropy. It is with much regret that I find
myseU unable, from the pressure of my engagements on that day,
to attend ; but I pray you to assure the Committee of the obh
gation I' feel myseU to be under for their courtesy.
" I am, very truly yours,
(Signed) " C. F. Adams."*
* ilie purport of this letter was grossly misrepresented by The New
Tcrk Herald.

16
Mr. Chesson also read a letter from the Comte de Paris : —
" York House, Twickenham, S.W., June S6th.
"Sir, — Engagements of long standing wiU prevent me from
being present at the breakfast which wiU be given on Saturday to
Mr. Garrison. I regret it extremely, and I hasten to beg you to
thank the Committee in the Comtesse de Paris's name, as well as
my own, for the amiable invitation which you have transmitted
to us.
"I wish at least to avaU myself of that opportunity to teU you
how much I sympathise with the mark of esteem and respect
which you are about to give to the courageous and indefatigable
champion of emancipation. The abohtion of slavery is indeed a
cause deal to every liberal heart, whatever may be its country ;
and as we aU belong to an epoch which besides its faults has also
its greatness, we may be proud to see it wipe off this shameful
stain on our civiUzation.
" The cause of humanity has definitively triumphed, thanks to
the energy of a free people. Slavery is henceforth condemned by
public opinion, even in the countries where the law aUows it stUl
an ephemeral existence. But those who have served this cause
can never forget that, at a time when its success appeared only as
an impracticable utopia, it had enhsted already a handful of elo
quent defenders, and that prominent amongst them was WiUiam
Lloyd Garrison.
" After consecrating his life to a task so difficult at the outset,
he has had the happiness to see the accomplishment of the salutary
revolution for which he laboured. He has at last been conspicuous,
even for his moderation, in the midst of that American people,
which, formed in the manly school of Uberty, has shown itself as
great in victory as in adversity. WhUe we pay deserved homage
to those .who receive during this Ufe the recompense of their
devotion to their principles, it is impossible not to associate with
them the memory of those who have been the martyrs of their
cause, from the name, abeady historical, of Lincoln, to the last of
those who are inscribed on the long and precious Usts pubUshed
in America, and so justly caUed ' The Roll of Honour.'
" In receiving a man whose character honours America, I thank

17
you, sir, for having thought of me, and for having counted on my
sympathy for aU that is great and noble in that country, which I
have seen in the midst of such a terrible crisis.
" I remain. Sir, yours truly,
(Signed) " Louis Phillippb d'Orleans, Comte de Paris."
The most strikmg passages in this letter were loudly applauded.
The foUowing letter was received from Sir Charles LyeU : —
" 73, Harley Street, June SSnd, 1867.
'* Dear Sir, — I regret that my engagements are such as to
prevent me from assisting in the arrangements for a pubUc break
fast to Mr. Garrison, who has done so much for a cause in which
I warmly sympathise.
" I will do what I can in making the intended meeting known
among those who I know will be glad to contribute to its success.
" BeUeve me, dear Sir,
" Very truly yours,
(Signed) " Charles Lyell."
Letters expressing sympathy wdth the objects of the meeting
were also received from the Eail of Shaftesbury, Lord Houghton,
Sir T. F. Buxton, Mr. Goldwin Smith, Mr. Charles Buxton, M.P.,
Professor Cairns, Mr. Thomas Hughes, M.P., the Hon. Arthur
Kinnaird, M.P., the Hon. Auberon Herbert, the Bev. Newman
HaU, the Rev. Dr. Brook, the Hon. and Bev. Baptist W. Noel, and
many other gentlemen who were unable to attend,
SPEECH OF MR. BRIGHT, M.P.
The Chairman, who was received with great enthusiasm, spoke
as foUows : The position in which I am placed this moming is
one very unusual for me, and one that I find somewhat difficult ;
but I consider it a signal distinction to be permitted to take a |
prominent part in the proceedings of this day, which are intended j
to commemorate one of the greatest of the great triumphs of
freedom, and to do honour to a most eminent instrument in the '
achievement of that freedom. (Hear, hear.) There may be,
perhaps, those who ask what is this triumph of which I speak.

mil
18
To put it briefly, and, indeed, only to put one part of it, I may
say tlfat it is a triumph which has had the efiect of raising
4,000,000 of human beings from the very lowest depth of social
and pohtical degradation to that lofty height which men have
attained when they possess equality of rights in the first country
on the globe. (Cheers.) More than this, it is a triumph which
has pronounced the irreversible doom of slavery in aU countries
and for all time. (Renewed cheers.) Another question suggests
itself — how has this great matter been accomphshed? The
answer suggests itself in another question — How is it that any
great matter is accomphshed ? By love of justice, by constant
devotion to a great cause, and by an unfaltering faith that that
which is right wUl in the end succeed. (Hear, hear.)
When I look at this hall, fiUed with such an assembly —
when I partake of the sympathy which runs from heart to heart
at this moment in welcome to our guest of to-day — I cannot but
contrast his present position with that which, not so far back but
that many of us can remember, he occupied in his own country.
It is not forty years ago, I beUeve about the year 1829, when the
guest whom we honour this moming was spending his soUtary
days in a prison in the slave-owning city of Baltimore. I wiU
not say that he was languishing in prison, for that I do not
beUeve ; he was sustained by a hope that did not yield to the
persecution of those who thus maltreated him ; and to show that
the effect of that imprisonment was of no avaU to suppress or
extinguish his ardour, within two years after that he had the
courage, the audacity — I dare say many of his countrymen used
even a stronger phrase than that — ^he had the courage to com
mence the pubUcation, in the city of Boston, of a newspaper
devoted mainly to the question of the aboUtion of slavery. The
first number of that paper, issued on the 1st January, 1831, con
tained an address to the pubUc, one passage of which I have often
read with the greatest interest, and it is a key to the future life of
Mr. Garrison. He had been complained of for having used hard
language — which is a very common complaint indeed — and he said
in his first number : — " I am aware that many object to the
severity of my language, but is there not cause for such severity?
I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. I

19
am in eamest, I wiU not equivocate, I wiU not excuse, I wiU not
retract a single inch, and I wiU be heard." (Cheers.) And that,
after aU, expresses to a great extent the future course of his life.
But what was at that time the temper of the people amongst whom
he Uved — of the people who are glorying now, as they weU may
glory, in the abolition of slavery throughout their country ? At
that time it was very little better in the North than it was in the
South. I think it was in the year 1835 that riots of the most
serious character took place in some of the northern cities : during
that time Mr. Garrison's Ufe was in the most imminent peril ; and
he has never ascertained to this day how it was that he was left
aUve on the earth to carry out his great work. Turning to
the South, a State that has lately suffered from the ravages
of armies, the State of Georgia, by its legislature of House,
Senate, and Govemor, if my memory does not deceive me,
passed a bill, offering 10,000 dollars reward — (Mr. Garrison
here said 5,000) — weU, they seemed to think there were people
who would do it cheap — (laughter) — offered 5,000 dollars, and
zeal, doubtless, would make up the difference, for the capture of
Mr. Garrison, or for adequate proof of his death. Now, these
were menaces and perils such as we have not in bur time been
accustomed to in this country in any of our poUtical movements
— (hear, hear) — and we shall take a very poor measure indeed of
the conduct of the leaders of the emancipation party in the United
States if we estimate them by any of those who have been con
cerned in poUtical movements amongst us. But, notwithstanding
all drawbacks, the cause was gathering strength, and Mr. Garrison
found himself by and by surrounded by a smaU but increasing
band of men and women who were devoted to this cause, as he
himseU was. We have in this country a very noble woman, who
taught the EngUsh people much upon this question about thirty
years ago ; I aUude to Harriet Martineau. (Cheers.) I recollect
well the impression with which I read a most powerful and
touching paper which she had written, and which was published
in the number of the TFestminster Review for December 1838. It
was entitled " The Martyr Age of the United States." The paper
introduced to the English pubUc the great names which were
appearing on the scene in connection with this cause in America.

20
There was, of course I need not mention, our eminent guest of
to-day ; there was Arthur Tappan, and Lewis Tappan, and James G.
Birney of Alabama, a planter and slave-owner, who Uberated his
slaves and came north, and became, as I think, the first Presiden
tial candidate upon abolition principles in the United States. (Hear,
hear.) There were besides them, Dr. Channing, John Quincy
Adams, a statesman and President of the United States, and father
of the eminent man who is now Minister from that people amongst
us. (Cheers.) Then there was WendeU PhUUps, admitted to be
by all who know him perhaps the most powerful orator who speaks
the EngUsh language. (Hear, hear.) I might refer to others, to
Charles Sumner, the weU-known statesman, and Horace Greeley,
I think the first of joumaUsts in the United States, if not the first
of journaUsts in the world. (Hear, hear.) But, besides these, there
were of noble women not a few. There was Lydia Maria ChUd ; there
were the two sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, ladies who came
from South Carolina, who Uberated their slaves, and devoted aU
they had to the service of this just cause ; and Maria Weston Chap
man, of whom Miss Martineau speaks in terms which, though I do
not exactly recoUect them, yet I know describe her as noble-minded,
beautiful, and good. It may be that there are some of her famUy
who are now within the sound of my voice. If it be so, aU I have
to say is, that I hope they wUl feel, in addition to aU they have
f^lt heretofore as to the character of their mother, that we who
Me here can appreciate her services, and the services of all who
were united with her as co-operators in this great and worthy cause.
But there was another whose name must not be forgotten, a man
whose name must live for ever in history, EUjah P. Lovejoy, who
in the free State of lUinois laid down his Ufe for the cause. (Hear
hear.) When I read that article by Harriet Martineau, and the
description of those men and women there given, I was led, I
know not how, to think of a very striking passage which I am
sure must be familiar to most here, because it is to be found in
the Epistle to the Hebrews. After the writer of that epistle has
described the great men and fathers of the nation, he says : —
" Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of
Jephtha, of David, of Samuel, and the Prophets, who throu"h
faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises.

21
Stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped
the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed
vaUant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aUens." I ask
if this grand passage of the inspired writer may not be applied to
that heroic band who have made America the perpetual home of
freedom ? (Enthusiastic cheering.)
Thus, in spite of all that persecutions could do, opinion grew in
the North in favour of freedom ; but in the South, alas ! in favour
of that most deviUsh delusion that slavery was a Divine institution.
The moment that idea took possession of the South war was
inevitable. Neither fact, nor argument, nor counsel, nor philo
sophy, nor religion, could by any possibUity affect the discussion of
the question when once the Church leaders of the South had taught
their people that slavery was a Divine institution ; for then they
took their stand on other and different, and what they in their
bUndness thought higher grounds, and they said, " Evil ! be thou
my good ;" and so they exchanged light for darkness, and freedom
for bondage, and good for evil, and, if you like, heaven for hell.
Of course, unless there was some stupendous miracle, greater than
any that is on record even in the inspired writings, it was impos
sible that war should not spring out of that state of things ; ami
the poUtical slaveholders, that " dreadful brotherhood in whom
all turbulent passions were let loose," the moment they found tbat
the presidential election of 1860 was adverse to the cause of
slavery, took up arms to sustaui their cherished and endangered
system. Then came the outbreak which had been so often fore
told, so often menaced ; and the ground reeled under the nation
during four years of agony, until at last, after the smoke of the
battle-field had cleared away, the horrid shape which had cast its
shadow over a whole continent had vanished, and was gone for
ever. (Loud cheers.) An ancient and renowTied poet has said —
" Unlioly is the voice
Of loud thanksgiving over slaughtered men."
It becomes us not to rejoice, but to be humbled, that a chastise^
ment so terrible should have faUen upon any of our race ; but we
may be thanlrful for this,^tliat that chastisement was at least not

23
sent in vain. (Hear, hear.) This great triumph in the field was
not all ; there came after it another great triumph — a triumph
over passion, and there came up before the world the spectacle,
not of armies and military commanders, but of the magnanimity
and mercy of a powerful and victorious nation. (Cheers.) The
vanquished were treated as vanquished, in the history of the
world, have never before been treated. There was an universal
feeling in the North that every care should be taken of those who
had so recently and marvellously been enfranchised. Immediately
we found that the privileges of independent labour were open to
them, schools were established in which their sons might obtain
an education that would raise them to an intellectual position
never reached by their fathers ; and at length full political rights
were conferred upon those who a few short years, or rather months,
before, had been caUed chattels, and things to be bought and sold
in any market. (Hear, hear.) And we may feel assured, that
those persons in the Northern States who befriended the negro in
his bondage will not now fail to assist his struggles for a higher
position. May we not say, reviewing what has taken place^— and I
have only glanced in the briefest possible way at the chief aspects
of this great question — that probably history has no sadder, and
yet, if we take a different view, I may say also probably no brighter
page. (Cheers.) To Mr. Garrison more than to any other man
this is due ; his is the creation of that opinion which has made
slavery hateful, and which has made freedom possible in America.
(Hear, hear.) His name is venerated in his own country — ^vene
rated where not long ago it was a name of obloquy and reproach.
His name is venerated in this country and in Europe wheresoever
Christianity softens the hearts and lessens the sorrows of men ;
and I venture to say that in time to come, near or remote I know
not, his name will become the herald and the synonym of good
to millions of men who will dweU on the now almost unknown
continent of Africa. (Loud cheers.)
But we must not allow our own land to be forgotten or depre
ciated, even wliUst we are saying what our feelings bid us say of
our friend beside me and of our other friends across the water.
We, too, can share in the triumph I have described, and in the

as
honours which the world is willing to shower upon our guest,
and upon those who, like him, are unwearied in doing good.
We have had slaves in the colonial territories that owned the
sway of this country. Our position was different from that
in which the Americans stood towards theirs ; the negroes were
far from being so numerous, and they were not in our midst,
but 4,000 miles away. We had no prejudices of colour to
overcome, we had a Parliament that was omnipotent in those
colonies, and public opinion acting upon that ParUament was
too powerful for the Englishmen who were interested in the
continuance of slavery. We Uberated our slaves ; for the English
soil did not reject the bondsmen, but the moment he touched it
made him free. We have now in our memory Clarkson, and
Wilberforce, and Buxton, and Sturge ; and even now we have
wdth-in this hall the most eloquent living English champion of the
freedom of the slave in my friend and our friend, George Thompson.
(Great cheering.) WeU, then, I may presume to say that we are
sharers in that good work which has raised our guest to eminence ;
and we may divide it with the country from which he comes.
(Hear, hear.) Our country is stUl his ; for did not his fathers bear
aUegiance to our ancient monarchy, and were they not at one time
citizens of this commonwealth ; and may we not add that the
freedom which now overspreads his noble nation first sprang into
life amongst our own ancestors? (Enthusiastic cheering.) To
Mr. Garrison, as is stated in one of the letters which has just been
read, to WiUiam Lloyd Garrison it has been given, in a manner
not often permitted to those who do great things of this kind, to
see the ripe fruit of his vast labours. Over a territory large
enough to make many realms, he has seen hopeless toU supplanted
by compensated industry ; and where the bondman dragged his
chain, there freedom is established for ever. (Loud cheers.) We
now welcome him amongst us as a friend whom some of us have
known long ; for I have watched his career with no common
interest, even when I was too young to take much part in public
affairs ; and I have kept vrithin my heart his name, and the names
of those who have been associated with him in every step which
he has taken ; and in pubUc debate in the halls of peace, and

24
even on the blood-soiled fields of war, my heart has always been
with those who were the friends of freedom. (Renewed cheering.)
We welcome him, then, with a cordiaUty which knows no stint
and no Umit for liim and for his noble associates, both men and
women ; and we venture to speak a verdict which, I believe, wiU
be sanctioned by aU mankind, not only those who Uve now, but
those who shaU come after, to whom their perseverance and their
success shaU be a lesson and a help in the future struggles which
remain for men to make. One of our oldest and greatest poets
has furnished me with a line that weU expresses that verdict.
Are not WiUiam Lloyd Garrison and his feUow-labourers in that
world's work — are they not
" On Fame's eternal bead-roll worthy to be filed ?"
(Loud cheering, which was continued for some time.)
I shaU now ask the Duke of ArgyU to be kind enough to
propose an address, which it is hoped and felt that this meeting
wiU be very pleased to consent to.
SPEECH OF THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.
The Duke of Argyll was loudly applauded on presenting him
self to the meeting, and spoke as foUows : Mr. Chairman, Ladies,
and Gentlemen, — It is hard to foUow an address of such extraordi
nary beauty; simphcity, and power ; but it now becomes my duty
at your command. Sir, to move an address of hearty congratula
tion to our distinguished guest, WUUam Lloyd Garrison. (Cheers.)
Sir, this country is from time to time honoured by the presence
of many distinguished and of a few illustrious men ; but for the
most part we are contented to receive them with that private
cordiaUty and hospitahty wdth which, I trust, we shaU always
receive strangers who visit our shores. The people of this country
are not pre-eminently an emotional people ; they are not naturaUy
fond of pubUc demonstrations ; and it is only upon rare occasions
that we give, or can give, such a reception as that we see here
this day. There must be something pecuUar in the Cause which
a man has served, in the service which he has rendered, and in
our own relations with the People whom he represents, to justify

25
or to account for such a reception. (Hear, hear.) As regards
the cause, it is not too much to say that the Cause of negro eman
cipation in the United States of America has been the greatest
cause which, in ancient or in modem times, has been pleaded at
the bar of the moral judgment of mankind. (Cheers.) I know
that to some this will sound as the language of exaggerated feeUng ;
but I can only say that I have expressed myself in language
which I believe conveys the Uteral truth. (Hear, hear.)
I have, indeed, often heard it said in deprecation of the
amount of interest which was bestowed in this country on the
cause of negro emancipation in America, that we are apt to forget
the forms of suffering which are immediately at our own doors,
over which we have some control, and to express exaggerated
feeUng as to the forms of suffering with which we have nothing to
do, and for which we are not responsible. I have never objected
to that language in so far as it might tend to recall us to the
duties which lie immediately around us, and in so far as it might
tend to make us feel the forgetfulness of which we are some
times guilty, of the misery and poverty in our own country ; but,
on the other hand, I wUl never admit — for I think it would be
confounding great moral distinctions — that the miseries which
arise by way of natural consequence out of the poverty and the
vices of mankind, are to be compared with those miseries which
are the direct result of positive law and of a positive institution,
giving to man property in man. (Loud cheers.) It is true, also,
that there have been forms of servitude — meaning thereby com
pulsory labour — against which we do not entertain the sahie feel
ings of hostihty and horror with which we have regarded slavery
in America. (Hear, hear.) Although we rejoiced at the cessation
of serfdom in Russia, what person felt in regard to that condition
of things as we aU felt in regard to negro slavery in America 1
(Hear, hear.) Undoubtedly the condition of compulsory soi'vitude
has been a stage in the progress of mankind, and we rejoice that
that stage has been passed ; but with regard to negro slavery in
America, it was not one, but many circumstances, which consti
tuted its peculiar aggravation and horror. (Hear, hear.) It was
a system of which it may he truly said, that it was twice cuisedi

26
It cursed him who served, and it cursed him that owned the slave.
(Hear, hear.) When we recoUect the insuperable temptations
which that system held out to maintain in a state of degradation
and ignorance a whole race of mankind ; the horrors of the in
ternal slave-trade, more widely demoralizing, in my opinion, than
the foreign slave-trade itseK ; the violence which was done to the
sanctities of domestic life ; the corrupting effect which it was
having upon the very churches of Christianity, — when we recoUect
all these things, we can fuUy estimate the evil from which my
distinguished friend and his coadjutors have at last redeemed
their country. (Cheers.) It was not only the Slaves States which
were concemed in the guUt of slavery; it had struck its roots
deep in the Free States of North America. And what are the
Free States of North America ? I think we may say with truth
that America is a country which seems destined by Almighty God
to test the question, what man can do best for himself — (cheers)
— under the most favourable conditions of external circum
stances ; possessing a vast territory of the greatest wealth with the
greatest natural capabiUties of improvement, peopled by the most
energetic races of Europe, free to take with them aU that is best,
or at least much that is best, of the more ancient civiUzations of
the world, and free to leave behind them as much as they may
think evU of the traditions of the past, who is there with a heart
in his breast, or for that matter with a head on his shoulders, who
does not look with intense interest to the conduct of that great
experiment, and who does not rejoice with a joy unspeakable in
events which have freed their young and noble Ufe from the taint
and the curse of slavery? (Loud cheers.)
If such be the Cause, what are we to say of the Man and of
the services which he has rendered to that cause ? We honour
Mr. Garrison, in the first place, for the immense pluck and
courage which he displayed. (Cheers.) Sir, you have truly said
that there is no comparison between the contests in which he
had to fight and the most bitter contests of our own public life.
In looldng back, no doubt, to the contest which was maintained
in this country some thirty-five years ago against slavery in our
colonies, wo may recollect that Clarkson and Wilberforce were

37
denounced as fanatics, and had to encounter much opprobrium ;
but it must not be forgotten that, so far as regards the entwining
of the roots of slavery into the social system, in the opinions and
interests of mankind, there was no comparison whatever between
the circumstances of that contest here and those which attended
it in America. (Hear, hear.) The number of persons who in this
country were enlisted on the side of slavery by personal interest
was always comparatively few ; whilst, in attacking slavery at its
head-quarters in the United States, Mr. Garrison had to encounter
the fiercest passions which could be roused. (Hear, hear.) That
is, indeed, a tremendous sea which runs upon the surface of the
human mind when the storms of passion and of self-interest run
counter to the secret currents of conscience and the sense of right.
(Cheers.) Such was the stormy sea on which Mr. Garrison em
barked at first — if I may use the simile: — almost in a one-oared
boat. He stood alone. (Cheers.) And so in our reception this day
of Mr. Garrison, we are entitled to think of him as representing
the increased power and force which is exerted in our own
times by the moral opinions of mankind. (Hear, hear.) It is
true, indeed, that we have lately seen some of the most tre
mendous and bloody wars which history records; and I, for one,
must admit that the time has not yet come — ^it is not even yet in
sight — ^when we can beat our swords into ploughshares aid our
spears into pruning-hooks ; but if we look to the great events to
which I have referred, we shaU see that in our own time the
march of great battahons has generally been in the wake of the
maroh of great principles— (hear, hear)— that in the freedom of
Italy, in the consolidation of Germany, and still more in the
recent contest in America, we are to look to the triumphs of
opinion as, in the main, the triumphs which have been won.
(Cheers.) I can understand the joy which must be felt by a great
sovereign, or by a great general, when standing amidst the heaps
of slain he can feel that he has won the independence of a
country, or, still better, has established the independence of a
race. We can all, however, understand stiU better the joy of him
who, Uke our distinguished friend, after years of obloquy and
oppression, and being denounced as the fanatical supporter of

38
extrerne opinions, finds himself acknowledged at last by hi^
countrymen and the world as the prophet and apostle of a
triumphant and accepted cause. (Cheers.)
One word in regard to the nation which Mr. Garrison represents.
Let us remember with joy and thankfulness that only a few years
ago the present reception could not have been given to Mr. Garrison.
He was then not the representative of a people, of a country, or of
a government. He was the representative only of a party ui the
United States, and I have always held that pubUc receptions or
meetings in foreign countries, or at least in other countries, for I
will not call America a foreign country — (immense cheering) —
I mean pubUc assembUes or conventions taking part with parti
cular parties of another country, are sometimes almost as apt to
do as much harm as good. (Hear, hear.) Now, thank God,
Mr. Garrison appears before us as the representative of the United
States ; freedom is now the poUcy of the Govemment and the
assured policy of the country, and we can to-day accept and
welcome M!r. Garrison, not merely as the Uberator of the slaves,
but as the representative also of the American Government.
(Cheers.) This country desires to maintain with the American
people not merely relations of amity and peace ; it desires to have
their friendship and affection. (Cheers.) It is not merely that
that country has sprung from us in former times. It is that it is
stUl to a great extent springing from England. (Hear, hear.) It
is hardly possible to go into any house of the farming class in that
part of the country with which I am particularly connected
without being told that a brother or a sister, a daughter or a son,
has gone to the United States of America, and is flourishing in
the Free States of Ohio or Ilhnois. (Cheers.) I think we ought
to feel, every one of us, that in going to America we are going
only to a second home. (Cheers.) Such are the relations which
I trust we shall see established between the two countries. (Hear,
hear.) Surely it is time to forget ancient differences — (loud cheers)
— differences dating from the da3-s of Burgoyne's retreat, or our
faUure before the ramparts of New Orleans. I maintain that
there is hardly an Englishman in this country — I am sure there
is no one in this room — who is not almost as proud of Washington

29
as he is of WeUington — (cheers) — the memory of both belonging
indeed to the common heritage of our race. (Hear, hear.) There
fore, on aU these grounds — on the ground of the Cause of which
he was the great champion, of the peculiar services which he has
rendered to that cause, and of the People whom he represents, we
desire to give Mr. Garrison a hearty welcome. (Cheers.)
The noble duke then read the address— which, he stated, had
been 'drawn up by a very distinguished person (Mr. Goldwin
Smith), who had long been connected by sympathy with the
cause of freedom in the United States — as foUows ; —
THE ADDRESS.
" To William Lloyd Garrison, Esq.
" Sir, — We heartily welcome you to England in the name of
thousands of EngUshmen who have watched with admiring sym
pathy your labours for the redemption of the negro race from
slavery, and for that which is a higher object than the redemption
of any single race, the vindication of the universal principles of
humanity and justice ; and who, having sympathized with you in
the struggle, now rejoice with you in the victory.
" Forty years ago, when you commenced your efforts, slavery
appeared to be rapidly advancing to complete ascendancy in
America. Not only was it dominant in the Southem States, but
even in the free States it had bowed the constituencies, society,
and, in too many instances, even the churches to its wiU. Com
merce, linked to it by interest, lent it her support. A great
party, compactly organized and vigorously wielded, placed in its
hands the power of the State. It bestowed poUtical offices and
honours, and was thereby enabled to command the apostate
homage of poUtical ambition. Other nations felt the prevalence
in your national councUs of its insolent and domineering spirit.
There was a moment, most critical in the history of America and
of the world, when it seemed as though that continent, with all
its resources and aU its hopes, was about to become the heritage
of the slave power.
" But Providence interposes to prevent the permanent triumph

30
of evU. It interposes, not visibly or by the thunderbolt, but by
inspiring and sustaining high moral effort and heroic lives.
" You commenced your crusade against slavery in isolation, in
weakness, and in obscurity. The emissaries of authority with
difficulty found the office of the Liberator in a mean room, where
its editor was aided only by a negro boy, and supported by a few
insignificant persons (so the officers termed them) of aU colours.
You were denounced, persecuted, and hunted down by mobs of
wealthy men alarmed for the interests of their class. You were
led out by one of these mobs, and saved from their violence and
the imminent peril of death, aUnost by a miracle. You were not
tumed from your path of devotion to your cause, and to the
highest interests of your country, by denimciation, persecution,
or the fear of death. You have Uved to stand victorious and
honoured in the very stronghold of slavery ; to see the flag of the
Republic, now truly free, replace the flag of slavery on Fort
Sumter ; and to proclaim the doctrines of the Liberator in the city,
and beside the grave, of Calhoun.
" Enemies of war, we most heartUy wish, and doubt not that
you wish as heartUy as we do, that this deliverance could have
been wrought out by peaceful means. But the fierce passions
engendered by slavery in the slave-owner, determined it other
wise ; and we feel at Uberty to rejoice, since the struggle was
inevitable, that its issue has been the preservation, not the
extinction, of all that we hold most dear. We are, however, not
more thankful for the victories of freedom in the field than for
the moderation and mercy shown by the victors, which have
exalted and hallowed their cause and ours in the eyes of all
nations. " We shall now watch with anxious hope the development,
amidst the difficulties which stiU beset the regeneration of the
South, of a happier order of tilings in the States rescued -from
slavery, and the growth of free coimnunities, in which your name,
with the names of your fellow- workers in the same cause, wUl be
held in grateful and lasting remembrance.
" Once more we welcome you to a country in whicli you wiU
find many sincere admirers and warm friends."

31

SPEECH OF EARL RUSSELL.

The Chairman now caUed upon Earl Russell, who was most
cordially and warmly greeted on coming forward.
Earl Russell said : As one of his sincere admirers and warm
friends, I heartily join in this welcome to Mr. Garrison, and I hold
it a distinguished honour to share in the tribute of admiration which
is being offered to him this day. It is the characteristic of our race
that, amidst evils unnumbered, and miseries unrelieved, though
often deeply felt, and institutions which condemn milUons to what
seems a hopeless servitude, the Almighty has planted in some
breasts a feeling of indignation against wrong, a zeal to redress the
evUs which press upon the most wretched of their fellow-men, that
raises up deUverers for mankind, who will not rest untU the evils
they struggle against are done away, untU the balance is redressed,
and the fortunes of their race seem to brighten. Such a spirit is
found in our guest of to-day. Mr. Garrison felt for the evUs of
his feUow-men of an oppressed race ; he devoted himself to the
object of removing them ; he was ready to encounter death itself
in the pursuit of that salutary and worthy object ; and he has
been happy enough to live to see the victory of freedom over
slavery, and to grapple with it in the form which has prevailed
both in America and our own colonies, and which my noble friend
who spoke before me has weU designated as one of the worst evils
that have aflUcted mankind. (Cheers.)
Having said this with respect to Mr. Garrison, you will permit
me to join in another sentiment which has been exjDressed by the
Duke of ArgyU, — that this may be an occasion which wiU tend to
draw closer the ties of friendship and affection which ought to
bind us to the United States of America. (Loud cheers.) So far,
unfortunately, the condition of mankind has been such that men
seem to seek every occasion of difference with each other, in order
to found upon those differences relations of hostUity and mutual
hatred. Difference of class, difference of race, difference of religion,
difference of situation, difference of domestic institutions, all seem
to be grounds on which those who are natural enemies to love and
affection seek to implant sentiments of hatred and hostility, leading

32
often to bloody wars, and consequences the most calamitous to man
kind. If this be so, and I am afraid it is Uttle in our power to
prevent those causes from having this operation, may we not con
sider that the ties existing between us and the United States of
America, having our birth from the same ancestors, havmg both the
blessings of Christianity, having (though with different institutions)
the same love of freedom, should lead us to replace by a thorough
and entire affection the old leaven of hatred and Ul-wUI which has
sometimes troubled their connection. Should not these considera
tions impress us with affection and regard for our brethren in
America, and make us perpetuaUy friends ? (Loud cheers.)
Well, I have my own faults to acknowdedge in this respect,
because I certainly thought, when the Slave States of America
endeavoured to estabUsh their independence, and at the same
time to continue and perpetuate the institution of slavery, that the
Northern States ought at once to have proclaimed not only their
own abhorrence, but the aboUtion and destruction of slaveiy.
Distance and want of knowledge of the circumstances of America
made me fall into error in that respect. (Hear, hear.) I was after^
wards convinced by the distinguished man who represents the
United States in this country — I mean Mr. Adams. I was convinced
by him in frequent conversations we had on the subject, that I had
not rendered due justice to President Lincoln, who was the friend
of freedom, and not only the friend, but ultimately the martyr of
freedom. (Cheers.) I now, therefore, acknowledge that the task
which the Govemment of the United States had to perform was a
totally different task, and a much more difficidt one, than we had
ourselves to perform, when more than thirty years ago we aboUshed
slavery in our West India Islands ; not having that slavery mixed
with our own domestic institutions ; not having it involved and
twined into all our relations, whether poUtical or social ; but
merely looking upon it as a question for the mass of mankind, as
an obhgation imposed upon us by our adherence to Christianity,
not as having what the United States had, the utmost difficulty in
disentangUng all the intricacies of the question, and prevailing
upon men whose interests, and even their very existence seemed
bound up with it, to abandon their false gods. (Cheers.) Not

33
having that difficulty before us, I did not do justice to the efforts
made by the United States, but I am now persuaded that Presi
dent Lincoln did aU that it was possible to do, and that we are
bound to give our tribute of admiration to the exceUent policy
which the President and his Govemment pursued, and which has
resulted in the great consummation we see before us — the entire
liberation of 4,000,000 of negro slaves from the bondage in which
they were held. (Great cheering.) I may well say, as mj noble
friend has just said, that aU those animosities which prevaUed
some eighty years ago, between the people of this country and the
people of the United States of America, have entirely disappeared
from om- breasts, and that on the 4th of July, which is approach
ing, we aU of us can feel as much admiration for the memory of
General Washington, — a man, I believe, of the purest glory amongst
all the great men who have existed in modern times, — and as much
rejoicing over the triumphs of freedom, and the spread of free in
stitutions, as the Americans themselves. (Loud cheers.) There is
this further ground for sympathy, and for rejoicing in common,
that we and they have combined in treating the race of Africa as
a free community, free to enter into the paths of industry, free to
distinguish themselves in intellectual progress as much as any
race of our own colour. Having this additional source of sym
pathy and feUow -feeling, let us hope that the friendship of the
United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland may endure unbroken, and that Mr. Garrison may carry
with him, amongst other gratifications, this reflection, that our
meeting here to-day has tended to the better union of two races
who ought never to be separated. (Great cheering. )
The Chairman now caUed upon Mr. John Stuart MUl, M.P. for
Westminster, — ^the mention of whose name eUoited a burst of
cheering. speech of MR. mill, M.P.
Mr. J. S. Mill, M.P., said : Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentle
men, — The speakers who have preceded me have, with an eloquence
far beyond anything which I can command, laid before our
D

34
honoured guest the homage of admiration and gratitude which we
all feel is due to his heroic Ufe. Instead of idly expatiating upon
things which have been far better said than I could say them, I
would rather endeavour to recaU one or two lessons appUcable to
ourselves, which may be drawn from his career. A noble work
nobly done always contains in itseK, not one, but many lessons ;
and in the case of him whose character and deeds we are here to
commemorate, two may be singled out specially deserving to be
laid to heart by aU who would wish to leave the world better than
they found it.
The first lesson is, — Aim at something great; aim at things
which are difficult; and there is no great thing which is not
difficult. (Hear, hear.) Do not pare down your undertaking to
what you can hope to see successful in the next few years, or in
the years of your own Ufe. Fear not the reproach of Quixotism
or of fanaticism ; but after you have weU weighed what you
undertake, if you see youi way clearly, and are convinced that
you are right, go forward, even though you, Uke Mr. Garrison,
do it at the risk of being tom to pieces by the very men through
whose changed hearts your purpose wiU one day be accomplished.
(Cheers.) Fight on with aU your strength against whatever odds,
and with however smaU a band of supporters. (Hear, hear.) K
you are right, the time wdU come when that smaU band wiU sweU
into a multitude : you wiU at least lay the foundations of some
thing memorable, and you may, like Mr. Garrison — though you
ought not to need or expect so great a reward — be spared to see
that work completed which, when you began it, 3-ou only hoped
it might be given to you to help forward a few stages on its way.
(Cheers.) The other lesson wliich it appears to me important to enforce,
amongst the many that may be drawn from our friend's hfe,
is this : K you aim at something noble and succeed in it, you
wall generaUy flnd that you have succeeded not in that alone. A
hundred other good and noble things which you never dreamed
of wiU have been accomplished hy the way, and the more cer
tainly, the sharper and more agonizing has been the struggle
which preceded the victory. The heart and mind of a nation are
never stirred from their foimdations without manifold good fruits.

35
In the case of the great American contest, these fruits have been
abeady great, and are daUy becomuig greater. The prejudices
which beset every form of society— and of which there was a plen
tiful crop in America— are rapidly melting away. The chains of
prescription have been broken; it is not only the skve who has
been freed— the mind of America has been emancipated. (Loud
cheers.) The whole intellect of the country has been set thinking
about the fundamental questions of society and govemment ; and
the new problems which have to be solved, and the new diffi
culties which have to be encountered, are caUing forth new
activity of thought, and that great nation is saved, probably for a
long time to come, from the most formidable danger of a com
pletely settled state of society and opinion — inteUectual and moral
stagnation. (Hear, hear.) This, then, is an additional item of the
debt which America and mankind owe to Mr. Garrison and his
noble associates ; and it is weU calculated to deepen our sense of
the truth which his whole career most strikingly Ulustrates — ^that
though our best directed efforts may often seem wasted and lost,
nothing coming of them that can be pointed to and distinctly
identified as a definite gain to humanity; though this may happen
ninety-nine times in every hundred, the hundredth time the
result may be so great and dazzUng that we had never dared to
hope for it, and should have regarded him who had predicted it
to us as sanguine beyond the bounds of mental sanity. So has it
been with Mr. Garrison. (Loud cheers.)
The Chairman : I do not think it necessary to read the address
over again ; although its words may not remain constantly present
to your minds, its sense, I am quite sure, is fixed in your hearts.
I therefore propose that the address shaU be passed unanimously,
and that that unanimity shaU be shown in the usual manner by
the holding up of your hands.
The Chairman's call was responded to by the whole assemblage
lifting up their hands ; and Mr. Garrison, presenting himself in
front of the platform, was received with an enthusiastic burst
of cheering, hats and handkerchiefs being waved by nearly all
present.

38

speech of MR. gabrison.
Mr. Garrison said : Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen,—
For this marked expression of your personal respect, and appre
ciation of my labours in the cause of human freedom, and of your
esteem and friendship for the land of my nativity, I offer you, one
and all, my grateful acknowledgments. But I am so profoundly
impressed by the formidable array of rank, genius, inteUect,
scholarship, and moral and reUgious worth which I see before
me, that I fear I shaU not be able to address you, except with a
fluttering pulse and a stammering tongue. For me this is, indeed,
an anomalous position ! Assuredly, this is treatment with which
I have not been famiUar ! For more than thirty years, I had to
look the fierce and unrelenting hostUity of my countrymen in the
face, with few to cheer me onward. In aU the South I was an
outlaw, and could not have gone there, though an American
citizen guUtless of wrong, and though that flag [here the speaker
pointed to the United States ensign] had been over my head,
except at the peril of my life ; nay, with the certainty of iinding
a bloody grave. (Hear, hear.) In aU the North I was looked
upon with hatred and contempt. The whole nation, subjugated
to the awful power of slavery, rose up in mobocratic tumult
against any and every effort to Uberate the miUions held in
bondage on its soU. And yet I demanded nothing that was not
perfectly just and reasonable — in exact accordance with the
Declaration of American Independence and the Golden Rule. I
was not the enemy .of any man Uving. I cherish no personal
enmities ; I know nothing of them in my heart. Even whilst the
Southem slave-holders were seeldng my destruction, I never for a
moment entertained any other feeUng toward them than an eamest
desire, under God, to deUver them from a deadly curse and an
awful sin. (Hear, hear.) It was neither a sectional nor a personal
matter at aU. It had exclusive reference to the eternal law of
justice between man and man, and the rights of hmnan nature
itseK. Sir, I always found in America that a shower of brickbats had
a remarkably tonic effect, materiaUy strengthening to the back
bone. (Laughter.) But, sir, the shower of compliments and

37
applause which has greeted me on this occasion would assuredly
cause my heart to faU me, were it not that this generous reception
is only incidentaUy personal to myself (Hear, hear.) You,
ladies and gentlemen, are here mainly to celebrate the triumph
of humanity over its most bratal foes ; to rejoice that universal
emancipation has at last been proclaimed throughout the United
States ; and to express, as you have already done through the
mouths of the eloquent speakers who have preceded me, senti
ments of peace and of good-wiU toward the American RepubUe'.
Sure I am that these sentiments wiU be heartUy reciprocated by
my countrymen. (Cheers.)
I must here disclaim, with all sincerity of soul, any special
praise for anything that I have done. I have simply tried to
maintain the integrity of my soul before God, and to do my duty.
(Cheers.) I have refused to go with the multitude to do evU. I
have endeavoured to save my country from ruin. I have sought
to Uberate such as were held captive in the house of bondage. But
aU this I ought to have done.
And now, rejoicing here with you at the marveUous change
which has taken place across the Atlantic, I am unable to express
the satisfaction I feel in beUeving that, henceforth, my country
wiU be a mighty power for good in the world. WhUe she held a
Seventh portion of her vast population in a state of chatteUsm, it
was in vain that she boasted of her democratic principles and her
free institutions ; ostentatiously holding her Declaration of Inde
pendence in one hand, and brutaUy wielding her slave-driving
lash in the other! MarveUous inconsistency and unparaUeled
assurance ! But now, God be praised, she is free — free to advance
the cause of Uberty throughout the world ! (Loud cheers.)
Sir, this is not the first time I have been in England. I have
heen here three times before on anti-slavery missions; and
wherever I travelled, I was always exultingly told, " Slaves can
not breathe in England ! " Now, at last, I am at Uberty to say,
and I came over with the purpose to say it, " Slaves cannot
breathe in America !" (Cheers.) And so England and America
stand side by side in the cause of negro emancipation ; and side by
-side may they stand in aU that is just and noble and good, leading
the way gloriously in the world's redemption. (Loud cheers.)

38
I came to this country for the first time m 1833, to undeceive.
WUberforce, Clarkson, and other eminent phUanthropists, in
regard to the real character, tendency, and object ofthe American
Colonization Society. I am happy to say that I quickly succeeded
in doing so. Before leaving, I had the pleasure of receiving a
protest against that Society as an obstruction to the cause of free
dom throughout the world, and, consequently, as undeserving of
British confidence and patronage — signed by WilUam WUberforce,
Thomas FoweU Buxton, Zachary Macaulay, and other iUustrious
phUanthropists ! On arriving in London I received a poUte invi
tation by letter from Mr. Buxton to take breakfast with him.
Presenting myseK at the appointed time, when my name was
announced, instead of coming forward promptly to take me hy
the hand, he scrutinized me from head to foot, and then inquired,
somewhat dubiously, " Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr.
Garrison, of Boston, in the United States ?" " Yes, sir," I repUed,
"I am he ; and I am here in accordance with your invitation."
Lifting up his hands he exclaimed, " Why, my dear sir, I thought
you were a black man ! And I have consequently invited this
company of ladies and gentlemen to be present to welcome Mr.
Garrison, the black advocate of emancipation from the United
States of America !" (Laughter.) I have often said. Sir, that
that is the only comphment I have ever had paid to me that I
care to remember or to teU of ! For Mr. Buxton had somehow or
other supposed that no white American could plead for those
in bondage as I had done, and therefore I must be black !
(Laughter.) It is indeed true. Sir, that I have had no other rule by which
to be guided than this. I never cared to know precisely how
many stripes were inflicted on the slaves. I never deemed it
necessary to go down into the Southem States, if I could have
gone, for the purpose of taking the exact dimensions of the slave
system. I made it from the start, and always, my own case — thus :
Did I want to be a slave ? No. — Did God make me to be a slave ?
No. — But I am only a man — only one of the human race ; and if
not created to be a slave, then no other human being was made
for that purpose. My wKe and chUdren — dearer to me than my
heart's blood— were they made for the auction-block ? Never !

39
And so it was aU very easily settled here (pointmg to his breast^.
(Great cheermg) I could not help being an uncompromisin'tr
AboUtionist ! °
Here aUow me to pay a brief tribute to the American aboli
tionists. Puttmg myseK entirely out of the question, I beheve
that in no land, at any time, was there ever a more devoted, self-
sacrificing, and uncompromising band of men and women.
Nothing can be said to their credit which they do not deserve.
With apostoUc zeal, they counted nothmg dear to them for the
sake of the slave, and him dehumanized. But whatever has been
achieved through them is all of God, to whom alone is the glory
due. Thankful are we aU that we have been permitted to Uve to
see this day, for our country's sake, and for the sake of mankind.
Of coui'se, we are glad that our reproach is at last taken away ;
for it is ever desirable, K possible, to have the good opinions of
our fellow-men ; but K, to secure these, we must seU our man
hood and suUy our souls, then their bad opinions of us are to be
coveted instead.
Sir, my specialty in this great struggle was in first unfurling
the banner of immediate and unconditional emancipation, and
attempting to make a common raUy under it. This I did, not in
a free State, but in the city of Baltimore, in the slave-holding State
of Maryland. It was not long before I was arrested, tried, con
demned by a packed jury, and incarcerated in prison for my anti-
slavery sentiments. This was in 1830. In 1864 I went to Bal
timore for the first time since my imprisonment. I do not think
that I could have gone at an earher period, except at the peril of
my Ufe ; and then only because the American Government was
there in force, holding the rebel elements in subserviency. I was
naturaUy curious to see the old prison again, and, K possible, to
get into my old ceU ; but when I went to the spot, behold ! the
prison had vanished ; and so I was greatly disappointed.
(Laughter.) On going to Washington, I mentioned to President
Lincoln the disappointment I had met with. With a smUing
cotmtenance and a ready wit he replied, " So, Mr. Garrison, the
difference between 1830 and 1864 appears to be this : in 1830 you
could not get out, and in 1864 you could not get in !" (Great
laughter.) This was not only wittUy said, but it truthfuUy indi-

40
cated the wonderful revolution that had taken place in Maryland ;
for she had adopted the very doctrine for which she imprisoned
me, and given immediate and unconditional emancipation to her
eighty thousand slaves. (Cheers.)
I commenced the pubUcation of the Liberator in Boston on the
1st of January, 1831. At that time I was very Uttle known,
without alUes, without means, without subscribers ; yet no sooner
did that Uttle sheet make its appearance than the South was
thrown into convulsions, as K it had suddenly been invaded hy
an army with banners ! Notwithstanding the whole country was
on the side of the slave power— the Church, the State, aU parties,
aU denominations, ready to do its bidding ! 0 the potency of
truth, and the inherent weakness and conscious insecurity of great
wrong ! Immediately a reward of five thousand doUars was
offered for my apprehension by the State of Georgia. When
General Sherman was making his victorious march through that
State, it occurred to me, but too late, that I ought to have accom
panied him, and in person claimed the reward — (laughter) — but I
remembered that, had I done so, I should have had to take my
pay in Confederate currency, and therefore it would not have
paid travelling expenses. (Renewed laughter.) Where is Southem
slavery now? (Cheers.) Henceforth, through aU coming timej
advocates of justice and friends of reform, be not discouraged ;
for you wiU and you must succeed, K you have a righteous cause.
No matter at the outset how few may be disposed to raUy round
the standard you have raised — if you battle unflinchingly and
without compromise — K yours be a faith that cannot be shaken,
because it is Unked to the Eternal Throne — it is only a question of
time when victory shaU come to reward your toUs. Seemingly,
no system of iniquity was ever more strongly intrenched, or more
sure and absolute in its sway, than that of American slavery J
yet it has perished. " In the earthquake God has spoken !
He has smitten with His thunder
The iron walls asunder,
And the gates of brass are broken.''
So it has been, so it is, so it ever wiU be throughout the earth, iu
every conflict for the riglit. (Great cheering.)

41
In 1840 I came to England to attend the world's Anti-Slavery
Convention m London. The Anierican Anti-Slavery Society
chose me among its delegates, some of whom were women, noble
women, who were pre-eminent in their seU'-sacrifice and devotion
to the cause of the enslaved. I may name one of them, at least—
Luoretia Mott. (Cheers.) On the score of inteUigence, moral
worth, and phUanthropic consecration, the glory of their sex, they
came over with me, duly accredited ; but they were not aUowed
to sit in the Convention because they were women ! (Laughter.)
As they could not get in, I would not consent to enter. (Cheers.)
I said, " I wUl not dishonour them ; I wiU not dishonour the
Society which has given them the same credentials as myseK, by
creeping into a Convention from which they are excluded."
(Cheers.) Since that time, a very considerable change has taken
place in pubUc sentiment, on both sides of the Atlantic, in
regard to the proper sphere of woman. I rejoice that there is a
growing interest in her cause ; for, rely upon it, whether as
respects Church or State, laws or institutions, the better wUl these
he in proportion to the extent of brains and hearts represented,
and of responsibiUties imposed, duties required, and rights enjoyed,
without regard to sex. (Hear, hear.) I am glad to see on this
platform one eminently distinguished for his inteUectual powers
and phUosophical acuteness of mind [aUuding to Mr. John Stuart
MiU], who has recently stood up in his place in the House of
Commons, and with masterly abihty advocated the rights of
woman — (cheers) — frights which pertain to all the human race,
the exclusive possession of which cannot be safely entrusted to
those who are for class interests, and who reject the doctrine
of human equaUty.
One of the 'most gratifying incidents of my Ufe was to have
been invited by the United States Govemment, with my eloquent
coadjutor George Thompson, to accompany Major-General Ander
son and his party, on board of the Arago, in AprU, 1865, to see
the star-spangled banner once more unfurled on the waUs of Fort
Sumter. The time was when I refused to have that banner wave
over my head, because it was stained and gory with the blood of
the slave. But now, as a symbol of universal emancipation, I am
proud of it. On entering Charleston, a pubUc procession over a

43
mUe long was quickly extemporized by the freedmen, old and
young, and with a band of music we and our associates were
escorted through the principal streets of that proud but deeply
abased city, the vast throng singing,
" John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave,
But Ms soul is marcbing on" —
(cheers) — and giving cheer after cheer for Abraham Lincoln, and
others of their Northern friends. On our leaving Charleston they
came down en masse to the Battery, to give us the parting hand
and the heartfelt benediction. Ladies and gentlemen, I began
my advocacy of the Anti-Slavery cause at the North in the midst
of brickbats and rotten eggs. I ended it on the soU of South
Carolina, almost literaUy buried beneath the wreaths and flowers
which were heaped upon me by her liberated bondmen ! (Cheers.)
I have aUuded to my friend George Thompson. Let me
say here, that he has had no smaU share in hastening the downfaU
of American Slavery. (Cheers.) He was first, as you know,
mightUy instrumental in this country in bringing West India
slavery to an end. (Cheers.) I happened to be here just as the
Emancipation Act was passing through ParUament, in 1833 — an
Act with the success of which Earl RusseU, who was, I beUeve,
at that time in the Cabinet, had something to do — (cheers) — and I
said to Mr. Thompson, " Now that your anti-slavery work is here
accomphshed, wiU you go to the United States, and plead the
cause of the millions there in bondage ? " I had nothing to offer
Tiim — no money — no reward of any kind, except that which ever
comes from weU-doing. I supposed he would meet with a good
deal of opposition, but I did not invite him to martyrdom. I did
not imagine that he would be subjected to such diaboUcal treat
ment as was afterwards shown to him. I only felt sure that K he
could but obtain a fair hearing, it would ere long be aU over with
slavery. (Cheers.) I was confident that no audience would be
able to withstand the power of his eloquence and the force of his
arguments. But they would not hear him. Denounced as "a
British emissary who had come to the United States with his
pockets Uued with British gold for the purpose of destroying
our glorious Union," he was hunted for liis Ufe. But he never

43
flinched, and was wiUing to confront danger and death in every
direction, untU his aboUtion friends and associates compeUed him
to leave the country, after labouring for more than a year as best
he could under such circumstances, doing a mighty work in agi
tating the nation from end to end ; for they would not have the
garments of their infatuated countrymen stained with his blood.
What an astonishing change he, too, has Uved to witness in
America ! He has been received with high honours at Washing
ton ; and a regenerated people hold him in admiration, and
recognize in him a disinterested friend and a noble benefactor.
He deserves to have his name honourably remembered, on both
sides of the Atlantic, to the latest posterity. (Cheers.)
Let me say a single word in regard to my own country. And
first, as respects the late war, I may say, as one who stood by the
side of the Government, on the issue raised by the Confederate
States, that never was there a more causeless war in the world.
The Govemment of the United States had never at any time done
anything in the way of injustice to the slave-holding States ; and
the people of the North had never dreamt of doing any injustice
whatever to them. On the contrary, even after secession took
place, such was the infatuation of the North that it was willing to
enter into fresh compromises for the sake of keeping the Union
together ; and up to the time of the election of President Lin
coln, the slave power had always ruled our country and shaped
our destiny. Even when he was chosen President, he had only
the House of Representatives on his side. The Senate and the
Supreme Court of the United States were against him, and on the
side of the South. There was, therefore, no justification for the
rebeUion whatever. The American Government was wholly in
the right, the South was whoUy in the vreong. (Hear, hear, and
cheers.) How, then, could I doubt where I should take my posi
tion? Yet there never was a war that came more necessarily and
unavoidably, on moral considerations. It was not because of this
thing or of the other thing speciaUy ; it was not because of the
aboUtionists simply; for if the South had not had slavery, there
would have been no aboUtionists ; but it was because of this —
" Ye have not proclaimed Uberty, every man to his brother, and
every man to his neighbour ; therefore I proclaim a liberty to you.

44
Saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestUence, and to the famine ;"
and that is the whole story. We had slavery, and' there foUowed
rebelhon and war, for we deserved to he visited with chastisement;
and I am profoundly impressed with the justice of God as meted
out to our whole country. There was always this difference be
tween the South and the North. The South wanted slavery, and
was willing to sacrifice everything in the worid for it ; and whUe
the North did not want it at aU, it wanted union and peace at
any price. And so the slave power aU the whUe was threatening
— " If you do not yield to my demands, then the Union shaU be
dissolved" — and the North aU the whUe was yielding to the
threat. The North ought not to have yielded, whatever might
have become of the Union. It was a Union which at that time
deserved to be broken in pieces ; for it was a covenant with death,
and an agreement with heU, because of its pro-slavery compro
mises : because it provided for a slave representation in Congress,
in order to uphold the power of the slave-holder ; because it pro
vided for the seizure of fugitive slaves ; and because it provided
also for the suppression of any insurrection on the part of the
slaves, should they think of imitating the example of those who
on Bunker HUl rose up to achieve their independence. Thank
God, that slave-holding Union has gone. The covenant with
death has been annulled — (cheers) — the agreement with heU no
longer stands ; and now, instead of providing for the suppression
of slave insurrections, the catching of slaves, and a slave repre
sentative Congress, it provides that no human being in the United
States of America shaU ever be held in bondage. (Cheers.)
Before I sit down, I desire to return my thanks to those on this
side of the Atlantic, who, in the midst of our terrible struggle,
were able to understand its nature, and to give a clear and un
equivocal testimony in behalf of the right. (Hear, hear.) I may,
perhaps, be permitted to name one or two for a noble example.
The Duke of ArgyU, a peer of the realm, who, I think, aU wUl
now confess, was, in point of clearness of vision, soundness of
understanding, and accuracy of opinion relative to the real merits
of the American struggle, without a peer. (Cheers.) Then there
is our respected and honoured chairman. (Great cheering.) We
always felt greatly encouraged and strengthened when we got

45
hold of his telling speeches. They were exactly to our mmd. I
cannot, of course, enumerate aU who stood up firmly hi behaK of
President Lincoln and his administration— a MUl, a Forster, a
Stansfeld, a Hughes, a Potter, a Taylor, and a Monckton MUnes,
now the Right Hon. Lord Houghton— but, without meaning to be
invidious, I offer my thanks to those I have named. (Hear,
hear, and a Voice : "And Cobden.") Yes, the lamented Cobden,
of course — (cheers) — who, K he had been living now, doubtless
woiUd have been here on this occasion.* (Hear, hear.) Then there
are Professors Goldwin Smith, Cairns, Newman, and Huxley.
Amongst the newspapers, I must name the Daily iVews— (cheers) —
the Morning Sto)-— (cheers)— the Spectator, and ihe Nonconformist.
(Cheers.) If my memory be not utterly at fault, I beheve the
Times was rather inclined to bring discredit upon the American
Government, but only succeeded in bringing discredit upon
itseK. (Cheers.) However, let us hope for better Times to come.
(Hear, hear, and a laugh.)
I cannot teU you with what pleasure I listened to the ingenuous
speech of Earl RusseU. (Hear, hear.) I know there was at one
time a good deal of feeUng in our country in regard to some
sentiments which had faUen from his Ups, and which seemed to
me if not hostUe to, at least equivocal about our position. I do
not wonder that there was a good deal of misconcejption and mis
apprehension on the subject, at so great a distance. It was a very
mixed up question for a long time, untU President Lincoln sent
forth his immortal proclamation of emancipation — (cheers) — and
then the pulse of England beat to the music of that jubUee beU.
Earl RusseU cannot exalt himself more than he has done this day,
by making a manly confession of his mistake. (Cheers.) I am
sure that he who, in his place in the Cabinet, agitated the question
of emancipation for the West Indies, never could have entertained
a sentiment of hostihty to the emancipation of the slaves in
* Mr. Cobden put his opinion on record thirty-three years ago, when
he predicted that " the indelible stain " of negro slavery would serve to
teach mankind " that no deed of guilt or oppression can be perpetrated
with impunity, even by the most powerful," and "that early or late the
invincible cause of truth wiU triumph against any assault of violence or
injustice," Cobden's Political Writings, Tol. I. p. 96,

46
America. RusseU and Reform— the words are synonymous—
(cheers)— and having championed the old Reform through Parha
ment with great courage and fideUty, I expect to see him soon,
with another Reform BUl, furthering stUl more the work on
behaK of the rights of men, and the glory and prosperity of
England. (Hear, hear.)
Now, in parting, — thanking you again for this marked ovation,
— ^let me say, we must not allow ourselves to be divided — England
from America, America from England. By every consideration
under heaven, let us resolve to keep the peace. (Great cheering.)
If we have old grudges, let them be thrown to the winds. (Hear,
hear.) Let there be peace — a true and just peace — ^peace by for
bearance — (hear, hear) — peace by generous concession — ^for the
sake of the cause of mankind, and that together England and
America may lead the nations of the world to freedom and glory.
(Cheers.) There is your cotmtry's flag, there is mine. Let them
be blended. (Renewed cheers.)
" Then let us haste these bonds to knit,
Ard in the wort be handy,
That we may blend ' God save the Queen '
With 'Yankee Doodle Dandy.' "*
(Prolonged cheers.)
The Chairman : Our time is now drawing to an end ; but I
shaU, nevertheless, ask my old friend George Thompson once more
to address us on this occasion.
SPEECH OF MR. GEORGE THOMPSON.
Mr. George Thompson, who was greeted ^rith prolonged rounds
of applause, spoke as foUows : It would be a fault in me to
occupy the attention of this assembly, and thereby prevent gen
tlemen who are yet to foUow me from saying, in the presence of
my honoured friend, Mr. Garrison, what, I feel assured, they are
desirous of saying, in reference both to him and to the country he
represents. But if there were not this sufficient reason for brevity,
the state of my health — which has for some time been so impaired
* A verse from a song written by Mr. George Thompson.

47
as to render it necessary that I should abstain from participating
in the proceedings of public meetings — would compel me to confine
my remarks within very narrow Umits. I wUl not, however,
decUne the opportunity which the Chairman's invitation affords
me, of saying that this is one of the happiest hours of my Ufe.
It is thirty-five years since a shake of the hand by my friend Mr.
Garrison, in this city, tumed the current of my life, and deter
mined the character of my future occupations. I thank the
Author of my being that I have been preserved to see this day.
To-day, the slaves of America, to whose cause my friend has con
secrated his IKe, are redeemed and disenthraUed, and are rejoicing,
not only in the blessings of personal liberty, but in the rights and
privUeges of citizenship. To-day, I see my once misrepresented
and calumniated friend honoured and appreciated by many of the
wisest and most truly noble of my native land. I have had a
long and varied experience of pubUc meetings, and have been
present at many of an interesting and imposing character ; hut
that which is now assembled here strikes me as perfectly unique
in its composition, and the circumstances under which it is caUed
together. (Hear, hear.) Side by side with my friend Garrison,
I followed to his grave in Westminster Abbey what was mortal of
that great phUanthropist, WiUiam WUberforce. Bearing the paU,
and following in the train, were princes of the blood-royal, prelates
of the Church, members of both Houses of Parliament, many of
England's proudest nobiUty, and representatives of the inteUect,
virtue, philanthropy, and industry of the land ; for the poor and
the rich, the high and the low, united to honour the dust of that
great and good man. WUberforce, in the beginning of his career,
was stigmatized as avisionary,a sicklysentimentaUst,apious fanatic.
Butihe sleepis in a grave assigned him by a grateful and admiring
nation, and his memory is haUowed to aU generations. Since the
funeral of WUberforce, I have not seen another such a gathering
untU I gazed upon the assembly now before me. (Hear.) Such
a gathering as this, on such an occasion, to do honour to such a
man as my friend, I haU with joy, as one of the most hopeful
and glorious signs of the times. Besides our President, — whose
patent of nobUity is direct from his Creator, who made him what
he is, — the address of welcome and of honour to our guest has been

48
moved by a man, not more noble on account of his hereditary rank,
than by reason of his mteUectual gifts, his character as a wise and
beneficent statesman, and his enhghtened zeal for whatever pro
mises to elevate, purify, and bless mankind — I refer to his Grace
the Duke of ArgyU. (Cheers.) I notice, too, with unfeigned plea
sure and satisfaction the presence of one who, throughout the
greater portion of my Ufe, I have recognized as one of England's
most sincere, most consistent, and most liberal statesmen. Though
never amongst his flatterers, and not always of opinion that his
measures were equal to the demands of the time, I am dehghted
to have the opportunity, as a radical, to bear my humble testi
mony to the noble earl's undeviating advocacy of the cause of
reform, and of the principles of civU and reUgious Uberty.
(Cheers.) This noble earl is found seconding — in words that wUl
cause unspeakable gratification in the United States, and wiU
have the happiest effect — the address proposed in the able and
luminous speech of the Duke of Ai-gyU. And this address
expresses profound respect for the character, and admiration of
the phUanthropic labours, of WiUiam Lloyd Garrison, with whom,
thirty-five years ago, I could not walk the streets of Boston with
out observing directed against him looks of the deepest disgust
and the most intense malignity. But to-day our friend is honoured
by the noblest and the best among the men and women of both
countries. (Cheers.) And not only has he the approbation and
sympathy of the distinguished persons now present, but of tens
of thousands in aU parts of the kingdom to whom his name has
become famiUar, and by whom he is regarded as the pioneer and
natural leader of the anti-slavery hosts of America. This general
respect for our friend is a symptom of the healthy and Uberty-
loving state of the public mind, and gives assurance to those who
are engaged in similar pursuits, that K, Uke WilUam Lloyd
Garrison, they are faithful and persevering, they wUl not labour
in vain, nor faU in ultimately receiving an adequate meed of
recognition and reward. (Cheers.)
Never, in the darkest and most impropitious day, during the long
struggle for the overthrow of slavery in America, did I ever for a
moment doubt the certainty of the triumph of the anti-slavery
cause, I had always the most unwavering faith in the final victory

49
of truth over error, of right over wrong. Yet, never in my most
sanguine moments did I venture to hope that I should live to see
so entire and absolute a change as that which we congratulate
ourselves upon to-day. (Cheers.) Three years and a half ago, when
I visited the United States for the third time, I found the great
Republic rent and divided, and in the midst of a fierce and sangui
nary conflict. The North and the South were in arms against each
other. State was arrayed against State, citizen against citizen, man
against man. There were two govemments, two presidents,, two
armies, and two congresses. Slavery was the battle-cry of one
party, Uberty the battle-cry of the other. The angel of death had
spread his wings on the blast, and there was scarcely a famUy in
the land that did not mourn the loss in the bloody strUe of some
cherished member, or did not await with trembling the arrival of
fatal tidings from the ensanguined field. To-day all is changed.
The din of war is hushed. The sword has retumed to its scabbard.
"The grass is green above the graves of those who have fallen in
the combat. The country, then divided, is again one. The four
miUions that were in slavery are at this moment exulting in their
freedom, and exercise the privUeges of enfranchised citizens;
and, by an amendment of the constitution, involuntary servitude
is declared for ever aboUshed throughout the wide-spread territory
of the United States. The monster War has destroyed the monster
Slavery, and peace and freedom reign where tyranny, and camage,
and slaughter so recently prevaUed. (Loud cheers.)
Few amongst those whom I have the honour to address can
understand the. emotions with which I contrast the state of things
in America now, with the state of things that existed thirty-five
years ago. In 1835, the anti-slavery movement was opposed by
every pohtical party, and by almost every reUgious body. I was
at that time labouring in co-operation with our honoured guest as
a humble anti-slavery missionary, and was everywhere assailed by
mobs, and everywhere hunted for my life. The President of the
Repubhc, General Jackson, denounced me in his annual message,
as a disturber of the pubUo peace, as an impertinent intermeddler
in the affaUs of a foreign country, and as deservmg only the scom
and detestation of the people. In that year the man whom you

50
now deUght to honour was led through the streets of Boston hy a
bloodthirsty mob, and escaped, as by miracle, with his hfe. In
1864, the hated and persecuted missionary of 1835 was received
with the most gratifying marks of pubUc respect in every city of
the United States he visited, was invited by members of both
Houses of Congress to speak in the HaU of Representatives
at Washington, and was warmly greeted by the late beloved,
lamented,andmartyr(!dPresidentLincoln. (Loud cheers.) ItwUlbe
gratifying to those who are around me to be informed, that when
sitting with President Lincoln in his room at the White House,
the only picture in the apartment was that of our present chair
man. To this picture Mr. Lincoln pointed, saying, " You see I
have your noble countryman always before me." (Cheers.) The
name of John Bright is a household word across the Atlantic.
The words which he has spoken in England in vindication of the
great transatlantic nation, whose noblest representative we have
amongst us to-day, have won for him the profound gratitude of
the entire American people. The desire among the citizens of the
United States to see him and to hear his eloquent voice is intense
and universal. Should he, as I trust he wUl, some day, gratify
that wish, he wiU have a reception such as that great people
would give to- no other Uving man. From the Atlantictothe
Pacific there is no name more loved and cherished on the Westem
TJontinent than that of John Bright. (Loud cheers.)
In connection with that name, and the reverence in which it is
held in America, I may mention the respect and admiration in
which our friends in America hold the conduct, throughout their
recent intestine struggle, of the operative classes of this country.
(Hear, hear.) On very many occasions, I was compelled to hsten
to severe comments on the course taken by certain classes and
journals in Great Britain, in reference to the war in America ; but
with regard to the conduct of the working classes of this country
there was but one opinion. It is the heUef of many in the
United States, as it is the belief of many here, that to the pru
dence, patience, and fortitude of the labouring classes of England,
and also to their clear apprehension of the true nature of the
struggle in America, as weU as to their inflexible attachment to
the principles of Uberty, and their determination to preserve

51
•peace— we owe the maintenance of amicable relations between
Great Britain and the United States. (Cheers.) Most cordially
do I unite in the earnest wish which has been expressed by every
-preceding speaker, for the preservation of perfect and lasting
peace between the two countries. (Cheers.) The meetmg we are
now holding, and the sentiments which wUl go forth from it,
cannot fail to promote that desirable and important object. One
great cause of controversy and Ul-feeling has been removed by the
aboUtion of slavery. If any ground of misunderstanding yet
remains, I beUeve it wUl be in the power of the statesmen of the
two countries, aided by the good sense and good feeling of the
people, to remove it. (Cheers.)
The abolition of slavery has been the overthrow of the ob
stacles which previously existed to the spread of civilization and
education in the Southem States, and wdU have the efiect,
besides, of ameliorating and ultimately extinguishing the pre
judice which heretofore everywhere existed against the coloured
race. This prejudice was the result of slavery, and slavery and
prejudice together prevented the improvement and advancement
of the proscribed class. But a better state of things wUl take
the place of the past, and it wiU not be long before the entire
population, though aU shades of complexion, wiU be blended into
one homogeneous and harmonious mass. Among the chief in-
strumentaUties now being employed to bring about this result,
are those put forth by the Freedmen's-Aid Commission, and
other kindred organizations. The object of these associations is
the fundamental reconstruction and regeneration of society in the
regions so recently under the baleful influence of slavery. This
social revolution is sought mainly through the education of
the emancipated blacks. This important and truly beneficent
movement has been generously aided by the people of this
country, and has already produced the most gratifying results.
It is a noble and necessary supplement to the laboiu's that have
been so zealously performed for the abolition of slavery. Through
the channel of the Freedmen's-Aid Societies, aU who seek to
promote the future welfare of the negro race may send their
contributions, in the assurance that they wUl be weU and bene
ficially applied. I feel confident that the emancipated population

53
will not disappohit the hopes and expectations of their friends in
this country, nor be unworthy of the sympathy and UberaUty
which have been shown in their behaK.
It was my desire to have been a sUent spectator of the joyous
proceedings of this day; for, apart from indisposition, I am "httle
kessed with the set phrase of speech." I have, however, hi obe
dience to the caU of the Chairman, given imperfect expression to
the feelings of pleasure and exultation with which I have witnessed
the enthusiastic reception given to your guest, and with which I
contemplate the accomplishment of the benevolent and Christian
object of his IKelong labours in his native country. That country
I have long deeply and fondly loved. In that country I have
had the privUege and honour to labour side by side with Mr.
Garrison in the cause of human freedom. In that country, too,
I have many friends to whom I shall ever remain affectionately
attached. I thank God that, since my humble efforts in behaK
of the wronged and oppressed sons and daughters of Africa com
menced, I have seen negro slavery in the West IncUes swept
away; have seen a similarly foul and wicked system utterly
annihUated on the continent of America ; am permitted to antici
pate the early extinction of negro slavery in every part of the
Western world ; and this day have the unspeakable happiness of
being a witness to the well-earned tribute of admiration and grati
tude rendered by this brilUant assembly to my long-honoured and
much-loved friend, WiUiam Lloyd Garrison. (Vehement cheering.)
speech of MR. stansfeld, M.P.
Mr. Stansfeld, M.P., said : I have had imposed on me hy the
Chairman the duty, though I ought rather to caU it the privUege,
of saying a few words. After what has aUeady been said by
those who have gone before me — the best entitled and the most
fit of any in the country to speak on this occasion — mine shaU he
the fewest possible words. I am glad, then, to take this oppor
tunity of giving some brief expression, however poor, to the
reverence and affection with which I have always regarded the
IKe and character of William Lloyd Garrison, as weU as the
characters and Uves of those men and women who have been his

53
companions and assistants in the sacred work of emancipation.
( Cheers.) I should wish also to express the joy and thankfulness,
almost beyond the power of expression, with which I regard the
great results of a war, of which only the strongest and most far-
sighted amongst us were able to forecast the issues from the first.
(Cheers.) Lastly, I will join my congratulations with the ex
pressions of heartfelt sympathy we have heard uttered to-day for
that great and kindred nation across the Atlantic, which has now
come out purified, Uke gold from the furnace, from its great trial.
Never was there in the history of the world, it is my profound
behef, a struggle so vast for a purpose ultimately so good ; never
was there a victory, after sacrifices so gigantic, that has redounded
lUce this to the advantage of the conquered no less than of those
who have conquered, and to the advantage of the whole world.
(Loud cheers.)

SPEECH OF MR. W. VERNON HARCOURT, Q.C.
Mr. W. V. Harcourt said : SmaU as are the pretensions which,
on any account, I can have to present myself to the attention of this
remarkable assemblage, I have had no hesitation in answering the
call which has just been made upon me by discharging a duty
which is no less gratKying to me than I know it will be agreeable
to you — that of proposing that the thanks of this meeting be
offered to the Chairman for his presidence over us to-day. (Cheers.)
Every one who admires Mr. Garrison for the quaUties on account ,
of which we have met to do him honour on this occasion, must
feel that there is a singular appropriateness in the selection of the
person who has presided here to-day. No one can fail to perceive
a striking simUarity — I might almost say a real paralleUsm of
greatness — in the careers of these two eminent persons. Both are
men who, by the great quaUties of their minds, and the uncom
promising spirit of justice which has animated them, have signally
advanced the cause of truth and vindicated the rights of humanity.
Both have been fortunate enough in the span of their own Ufe-
time to have seen their efforts in the promotion of great ends
crowned by triumphs as great as they could have desired, and far
greater than they could have hoped. There is no cause with

54
which the name of Mr. Bright has been associated which has not
sooner or later won its way to victory. (Cheers.)
I shall not go over the ground w^hich has been so weU dealt
with by those who have preceded me. But though there have
been many abler interpreters of your wishes and aspirations
to-day than I can hope to be, may I be permitted to join my
voice to those which have been raised up in favour of the
perpetual amity of England and America. (Cheers.) It seems
to me that with nations as weU as with individuals, greatness
of character depends chiefly on the degree in which they are
capable of rising above the low, narrow, paltry interests of
the present, and of looking forward with hope and with faith
into the distance of a great futurity. And where, I wUl
a^k, is the future of our race to be found? I may extend the
question — Where is to be found the future of mankind ? Who
that can forecast the fortunes of the ages to come wiU not answer
— It is in that great nation which has sprung from our loins,
which is flesh of our flesh aud bone of our bone. The stratifica
tions of history are fuU of the skeletons of ruined kingdoms and
of races that are no more. Where are Assyria and Egypt, the
civihzation of Greece, the universal dominion of Rome ? They
founded empires of conquest, which have perished by the sword
by which they rose. Is it to be with us as with them ? I hope
not — I think not. But K the day of our decline should arise, we
shall at least have the consolation of knowing that we have left
behind us a race which shall perpetuate our name and reproduce
our greatness. Was there ever parent who had juster reason to
be proud of its offsprmg ? Was there ever child that had more
cause for gratitude to its progenitor? From whom but us did
America derive those institutions of Uberty, those instincts of
govemment, that capacity of greatness, which has made her what
she is, and which wiU yet make her that which she is destined to
become ? (Cheers.) These are things which it becomes us both to
remember and to think upon. And, therefore, it is that, as our
distinguished guest, with innate modesty, has already said, this is
not a mere personal festivity— this is no occasional comphment. ,
We see in it a deeper and wider significance. We celebrate in it
the tmion of two nations. While I ask you to retum your thanks

55
to our Chairman, I think I may venture also to ask of our guest
a boon which he will not refuse us. We have a great message to
send, and we have here a messenger worthy to hear it. I wUl ask
Mr. Garrison to carryback to his home the prayer of this assembly
and of this nation that there may be for ever and for ever peace
and good wUl between England and America. (Loud cheers.)
For the good will of America and England is nothing less than
the evangel of Uberty and of peace. (Continued cheers.) And
who more worthy to preside over such a gospel than the Chairman
to whom I ask you to retum your thanks to-day? I beg to
propose that the thanks of the meeting be given to Mr. Bright.
(Loud applause.) SPEECH OF THE HON. E. lYULPH STANLEY.
The Hon. E. Ltulph Stanley spoke as follows : I rise to
second the vote of thanks to the Chairman ; and, as the time is
short, I intend to he short ; but I should Uke to mention a name
which has been passed over to-day, the name of one who has done
as much as almost any one for the anti-slavery cause, — I mean
James RusseU LoweU, — and I wiU ask you to Usten to some Unes
of his which are apposite to.our purpose of to-day.
" Then to side with truth is noble when we share her -wretched crust
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave mau chooses, while the coward stands aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit tiU his Lord is crucified."
(Cheers .) I need not remind yoti how our Chairman has stood up
for the great cause of justice and right when it has been trampled
on, and has brought obloquy on its supporters. When that cause
is triumphant, he too should partake in the triumph. Having
fought the battle, he deserves to share the victory, (Loud cheers.)
CLOSING SPEECH OF THE CHAIRMAN.
The Chairman : I stated at the beginning of the observations
I addressed to the meeting, that I considered it a signal distinction
to be allowed to preside on this occasion. On looking back at our
proceedings to-day, I think we may congratulate ourselves on the
probabUity that, besides doing what we intended to do, in showing
honour to our Ulustrious guest, we have been able to do some-

56
thing to forward those great principles which it has been the
object of his hfe to advance, and to which so many who are now
here have in a smaUer degree devoted their time and labour.
(Hear, hear.) For your kindness to me, I can only say that,
though some men have occasionaUy ventured upon the opinion
that the public is not grateful to those who attempt to serve it ;
yet for my share I have found, during aU my pubhc hfe, that
although there are men, as we aU know, who sneer and oppose
and misrepresent, yet aU that is as nothing compared with the
great stream of pubUc opinion, pubUo favour, and public friend
ship, which every honest-minded pubho man in this country earns
by his honest labours. (Cheers.) I shaU not pretend to contradict
the things that have been said in my favour. I have worked
often only to be disappointed, but always in strength of faith, and
I beUeve now that in aU the future struggles which are before
us — and, doubtless, there are many — constant labour, constant
devotion, and unfaltering faith in those blessings which Pro
vidence always in the long run sends down on us, wUl enable us
to succeed. (Great cheering.) I thank you most heartUy for your
kindness, and for aU the support you have given to-day to the
great objects we have in view. I have lamented that some whom
I have known from the United States could not be present.
WeU do I recoUect one of the great writers of America, who
passed through this country to Italy to his grave — I mean
Theodore Parker, a man eminent for his labours in the same
cause. I refer with less sorrow to the absence of a lady whose
writings created the most astonishing anti-slavery fervour in this
coimtry some years ago — Mrs. Stowe, — writings which I wUl
undertake to say brought more tears from the eyes of the people
of this country than any other work that ever passed through the
EngUsh press. She is in her country engaged doubtless in good
works, and to her it wiU be a satisfaction to read the account
of the proceedings of this day. Wherever there is a friend of
freedom they wUl give him pleasure, and wherever there is a
human bemg suffering oppression I trust that what we have done
to-day may give hun hope. (Cheers.)
This closed the proceedings of the meeting.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

BIOGEAPHIGAL.
{From tlie Mokning Stae, Jwne 22nd, iSdJ.)
TBekb is one American whose personal association -with the move
ment for the abolition of slavery iu the United States -wiU occupy
a distinguished place in the history of his country. In this connection
the name of Abraham Lincoln will not be more revered than that
of William Lloyd Garrison. It was the privilege of the murdered
President to give slavery its death-blow as an act of war. It was the
mission of Mr. Garrison to be the pioneer of the anti-slavery cause, and
to struggle for more than a generation in the face of obloquy and
persecution. Mr. Lincoln accomplished what Mr. Garrison began ; but
both were alike necessary to the perfect consummation of this trans
cendent enterprize. The President was not slow to recognize the
priceless value of the services wliich the anti-slavery leader had rendered ;
whUe, on the other hand, Mr. Garrison, by the weighty and dis
interested moral support which he gave to Mr. Lincoln, at the most
critical period of the war, afforded splendid evidence of the fact that a
philanthropist may also be a politician. There were people who said
that the abolitionists would sacrifice everything for an idea, and
who predicted that unless Mr. Lincoln at once allowed himself to
be lifted up to their stand-point, they would turn their influence against
him, and thus create another division in the Free States. There was at
one time some danger that this grave evil might arise. Fortunately,
Mr. Garrison proved true, not only to his anti-slavery faith, but to his
duty aa an American citizen. He criticized what was defective in the
policy of the Govemment, but his criticisms were those of a friend. He
knew that Mr. Lincoln was an upright man, and was prepared to
proclaim the abolition of slavery as soon as the country was ripe for this
revolutionary change; and without ungenerously weakening the Govem
ment by employing the language of hostility and distrust, because they

58
did not move so fast as he could wish, he did all that lay in his power to
Shape the pubKc sentiment to a righteous end. This course was as wise
and pradent as it was courageous. An -unerring instinct — ^let ns rather
say a perfectly single-minded purpose — led him into the right path.
Some of his old friends disapproved of his moderation. They were not
less faithful than he was, only they had not the same clearness of vision.
But, with scarcely, an exception, the friends of the American Union
in Great Britain appreciated Mr. Garrison's fidelity to his highest
convictions of duty, and felt that he was right in the confidence which he
reposed in Abraham Lincoln. Thus the later, as well as the earlier,
events of his career justify their unqualified admiration, and make them
anxious to offer that tribute of respect which will be paid to him in St.
James's HaU, on Saturday next. His conduct during the war now
needs no defence or panegyric. Its wisdom is proved by the result.
Mr. Lincoln's war proclamation abolished slavery in all the States
and territories of the American Eepublic; and Congress has now
crowned the new edifice of freedom by politically enfranchising the negro.
The mind naturally reverts from the events of the last few years,
stirring although they have been, to the earlier struggles of the
abolitionists. The history of Mr. Garrison's career is in a peculiar
sense the history of the anti- slavery movement in America. There had
been testimonies against slavery before he appeared on the scene,
hut they were expressions of individual opinion, and rarely consistent
•with the personal acts and political relations ofthe speakers. Washing
ton spoke strongly against the institution, but he was, nevertheless, a
slave-holder. Jefferson scorched it with his fiery invectives, but such,
was the difference between his profession and practice that after his
death one of his o-wn children was sold on the auction-block. The
fathers of the Republic lamented the existence of the curse, but they yet
made it an integral part of their constitution. Henry Clay was at one
time in favour of gradual emancipation ; but he, nevertheless, held
slaves to the hour of his death. Daniel Webster sometimes gave,
utterance to a generous aspiration, but ambition tempted him to commit
one act of perfidy after another, until his support of the fugitive
slave law wholly extinguished his fame, and made his memory, when he
died, hateful to New England. Great men, men born to power and to
statesmanship, had their opportunities, but preferred to be slaves of the
South, rather than rulers of a free RepubUo. What they wonld not do^
Garrison did. When nearly forty years ago he began this work, he only

59
had on hia side youth, courage, devotion, ability. Against him was
arrayed the whole nation, with allthe varied influences ofthe State, the
press, the pulpit, the mercantUe interest. Never did there appear so
hopeless a, contest. Thirty-five years ago the Hon. H. G. Otis, the
Mayor of Boston, wrote these words : " It was reported to mo by the
city ofScers that they had ferreted out the paper and its editor. Eis
office was an obscure hole ; his only visible auxiliary a negro boy ; and
his supporters a few very insignificant persons of aU colours." The
editor was William Lloyd Garrison, the paper was the Uberator, and
the place a garret in the city of Boston. Well might James Russell
Lowell, in characterizing " the day of small things," take this passage
from Mr. Otis's letter as his text, when he said : —
" In a small chamber, ftiendless and unseen,
Toiled o'er Ms types one poor, unlearned young man ;
The place was dark, unfurnitured, and mean.
Yet there the freedom of a race began."
What this young man wrote in the first number of the Liberator is the
key to aU that followed. It showed that both the hour and the man had
at length arrived — the latter one who was a leader as well as a prophet,
" I wUl be," he wrote, " as harsh as truth and aa uncompromising
as justice. I am in earnest. I wUl not equivocate — I will not excuse —
I tfUl not retreat a single inch — and I wUl be heard." He had pre
viously beeh imprisoned In the gaol at Baltimore, for writing against the
slave trade, but his spirit quaUed not under the ordeal. Soon his
courage was to be tried in the city of the Puritans. Soon a price was to
be set on his head by the Legislature of the State of Georgia. Soon
he was to be denounced in Presidential messages, in the haUs of
Congress, and in ten thousand pulpits, newspapers, and market-places.
Soon he was to undergo that severest of all trials, calumny the
most hatefal, and misrepresentation the most unscrupulous. Yet the
knowledge of what was to come only strengthened his firmness, stimu
lated his zeal, and made , him more resolute and more aggressive.
When " the gentlemen of property and standing " tumed out in their
thousands and, faUing to lay hands on Mr. George Thompson, proceeded
to drag Garrison with a halter round his neck through the streets of the
Puritan city, he contemplated the prospect of the cruel death which
apparently awaited him on Boston Common, -mth the calmness and
resolution of a hero ; and when his fortunate rescue from the mob, and
his subsequent release from detention in the city gaol, enabled him

60
to review hia position and to decide upon his future course, he was able
to declare that persecution had nerved his arm to strike heavier blows
against oppression than ever. " The truth that we utter," he -wrote,
" is impalpable, yet real ; it cannot be thrust down by brute force, nor
pierced -with a dagger, nor bribed vrith gold, nor overcome by the
application of a coat of tar and feathers." These were truths whicli
neither the South nor its partizans would then leam; but they have
learnt them now. It would have been weU for them if they had
not purchased the instruction at so dire a coat. It was their own fault
that slavery went down in a tempest of war and strife. Garrison sought
to avert from them the retribution which national iniquity ever entaUs ;
and the day wiU come when the white, not less than the emancipated,
population of the South wUl unite vrith the great communities of
the North, in doing honour to a man who, both in what he has
done and in what he endeavoured to do, has proved himself to be one of
the chief benefactors of his country and of mankind.

(From the Dailt Telegraph, June 29th, ¦fS67.)
Amongst the shoal of Transatlantic visitors whom the Paris Exhi
bition has brought over to our shores, not the least distinguished is a,
certain quiet, elderly gentleman, in whose honour a public demonstration
is to be held this morning in St. James's HaU. Complimentary
breakfasts, public receptions, and eulogistic demonstrations have become
so much a matter of every-day occurrence in this testimonial-beridden
age, that we should never have thought of aUuding to the event if it
had not been invested vrith something of an historical interest. Of the
men who, in our own days, have influenced history, who have made their
mark upon the age in which we live, and who wUl leave this world other
than they found it, there are few who can lay higher claim to renown
than WUliam Lloyd Garrison, the apostle of American AboHtionism.
Quite apart from the question of the cause in which his life has been
spent, his career is remarkable as an instance of what can be effected by
sheer wUl and dogged energy. No doubt aU great changes in the order
of society are brought to pass by the action of an infinity of causes —

61
some materia], some spiritual, some altogether personal; but, so far as
the fact that slavery has ceased to exist over the whole of the vast
North American Continent can be attributed to the agency of any single
individual, it must be ascribed to the efforts of the agitator who,
through good and iU repute, in season and out of season, preached the
truth that aU mankind has a right to freedom. No cause could weU
have looked more hopeless than that of the American Abolitionists
when Garrison espoused their principles a Hfetime ago. It was not only
that Cotton then was King, and that, with the daUy increasing value of
the Southem trade, the national interests. North as well as South, con
nected with the maintenance of the peculiar institution in the slave
States, became daily more and more influential ; - but far beyond that, a
state of things had arisen under which slavery had received the tacit
sanction of pubKo opinion throughout the North. Without desiring to
recur now to the vexed question respecting the soundness or unsoundness
of the old States' Rights doctrine, we may fairly say that thirty years
ago the creed that each State was sovereign within its own dominions
was held as an article of faith in aU parts of the Union. It foUowed, as
a consequence of the dogma, that the citizens of one State had no
greater moral responsibiUty for the internal poKcy of another State than
Englishmen have for the inatitutions of Cuba or the Govemment of
BrazU. And thus, even in the free States, vaat masaes, who hated the
name of alavery, regarded the exiatence of the system south of Mason's
and Dixie's line as a matter in which they were not personally concerned.
The very instinct, too, of patriotism, the most generous of human im
pulses, was, strangely enough, enlisted on the side of slavery. No
poUtical foresight was required to see that any interference vrith the
institutions of the South threatened to jeopardize the existence of that
Union which aU true Americans worshipped vrith an almost idolatrous
affection. And so the public men who wielded the destinies of the
Union throughout successive presidencies — the meu whose names were
dearest to American citizens — were aU opposed to any overt agitation
against slavery, as being not only useless, impolitic, and unjust, but also
aa hoatUe to the very existence of the country they loved so weU.
It was against this weU-nigh irresistible phalanx of material interests,
poUtical convictions, and patriotic sentiments that Lloyd Garrison un
dertook to do battle. His text was very simple, his teaching was such
as men could not refuse to understand, whether they agreed mth it or
not. Taking for his stand-point the famous statement in the Declaration

62
of Independence, " that aU men are created equal— that they are en
dowed by their Creator vrith certain unaUenable rights — ^that among
these are Ufe, Uberty, and the pursuit of happiness," he denounced the
institution of slavery as an outrage against the principles on which the
Union was founded. By lectures, pamphlets, speeches, sermons, and
tracts, he held forth day after day, year after year, on the doctrine that
slavery was a sin, with which there could be no compromise. He would
Usten to no argument, he would aUow of no plea in mitigation. Slavery
was to bim what the worship of Baal was to the old Hebrew prophets —
a thing to be cast down and rooted out of the land. AU legal con
siderations he dismiaaed by an appeal to the " higher law," which
overrides human enactments ; alone almost, among Americans, he had
courage enough to say that it was better the Union should perish than
that slavery should surrive. Por long years he laboured on, wasting
his words, aa men must have thought, on the desert air. A small
handful of foUowers gathered round him. Foremost among them was
WendeU PhiUips, whose marveUous eloquence has earned for him a far
vrider reputation than that belonging to the Gamaliel from whom, aa he
himself has lost no opportunity of acknowledging, he leamt all that he
taught to others. But, vrith this single exception, scarcely a man of
eminence, influence, or station joined himself to Garrison. New
England writers and thinkers, Uke Emerson and LoweU, gave the
Abolition cause the benefit of their sympathy ; but they did not ahare
with Garrison the toil, labour, and disappointment of the endless
agitation to which he had devoted his life's energies. Probably the nuld,
kindly gentleman in whose honour this morning's meeting is to take
place, might boast that he had been the best abused man in either Con
tinent. For many yeara he and those who stood by him were stig
matized -with every epithet of vituperation, branded vrith every evil
scandal that poUtical virulence could suggest. They were forbidden
entrance, under pain of death, to the States of their own country where
slavery prevaUed; they were pelted, persecuted, and attacked by excited
mobs in the cities of the free North ; and, what they felt, doubtless,
more than all, they had no honour even amidst their own people. In
New England itself, not many years ago, the profession of AboUtionism
condemned a man to social ostracism, and shut him out from all prospect
of poUtical distinction ; whUe the cause to which he had devoted him
self was regarded by popular opinion as that of fools or fanatics.
Yet, notwithstanding all, Garrison fought on without flinching.

63
'Though few foUowed him out into the -wUderness, yet his teaching in
fluenced mUUons, who, Uke Abraham Lincoln himself, would, tUl long
after the war had broken out, have repudiated the imputation of being
themselves AboUtionists. Throughout the great free North, Garrison's
writings and PhiUips's speeches created an intense popular impatience of
slavery, whUe they roused the Southerners to a bitter exasperation
which overcame the calmer judgment of wiser counsellors. History
may now fairly be left to decide the merits of the issue between the two
divisions of the RepubUc ; but this much may be conceded on both
sides, that had it not been for the agitation kept up by the Abolitionists,
the South, on the one hand, woiUd not have seceded because slavery was
not extended to tbe new territories ; and the North, on the other, would
not have resisted the proposal at the cost of disunion. The Free SoU
movement, which seated Lincoln in the President's chair and brought
about the CivU War, was the direct result of the agitation so long
opposed, ignored, and derided by North and South aUke. When the
conflict broke out. Garrison had insight enough to see that, with
whatever professions the contest might be urged) it was reaUy a struggle
for the triumph or the overthrow of slavery ; and forth-with he
gave a steadfast and energetic support to the party of which
Lincoln and Seward were the representatives. The more violent
and hotheaded of his foUowers feU away from him, on the ground that
the' Govemment was not sufSciently expUcit in its hostUity to negro
servitude ; and the man whose Ufe had been spent in promoting eman
cipation was assaUed by hia own familiar friends for being false to the
cause he had so deep at heart, because he remained firm to his faith in
the judgment of the American President. Time soon justified his de
cision ; and with the success of the North, and the final abolition of
slavery, the agitator felt that hia work was done. With a judgment
rare amongst enthusiasts, he advocated the diaaolution of the organization
through which he had triumphed, and retired to the repose he had
earned so weU. Broken in health, he has come to Europe to look for
rest; and England, which led the way in the work of negro eman
cipation, wUlbe proud to do honour to so single-hearted a phUanthropist.
Even those who disagree -with his views must do justice to one who,
for no private gain, end, or object, has spent his Ufe in trying to make
men free. Without surpassing genius or great opportunities, with no
high gift of eloquence, he has attained a great purpose by simple force
of honesty, of resolution, and of faith in God's justice. Whether

64
emancipation wUl convert the slaves into a prosperous population of
free labourera time alone can show. But that four miUions of onr
feUow-beings wUl no longer be bought or sold like brute beasts, that
they wUl be aUowed to enjoy the fruit of their ovm labour, to keep their
own -wives and ehUdren, and to worship God after their own fashion,
this much is henceforth certain ; and this mighty benefit is due in no
emaU measure to WiUiam Lloyd Garrison.

{From the English Independent, 4th July, 'IS67.)
Those who looked upon the quiet spectacled man, -with shrewd and
kindly face, yet so retiring and so Uttle remarkable, to whom the leaders
of EngUsh opinion assembled to do honour last Saturday morning, could
not but be wonderfully impressed vrith the power of high moral pur
pose and deep resolve to move the world. Within the compass of a
single generation a printer's apprentice, a Quaker gentleman or two, and
a few women, have brought the huge, detestable fabric of American
slavery to the ground. True, they were after awhile reinforced by a
host of Chriatian men and eloquent ministers, and, last of aU, their
arguments were backed by vast armies and many parks of artUlery ; bnt
they broke the ground, they were the forlorn hope of the cause, and to
them the honour of success is much more due than to the generals and
statesmen who conducted the four years' war which ended in the release
of four mUUons of blacks and the aboUtion of slavery in the United
States of America. They, appealing only to the consciences of their
countrymen, and for themselves protesting against any appeal to force,
deUvered the North from its covenant -with that accursed thing, and
created the public opinion which at last resolved upon war to the bitter
end rather than submit to the dictation of the slave power. These were
the men who shook loose the emancipation banner in face of a whole
hostUe nation, — these endured the reproach and braved the anger of an
exasperated people, blinded by the prejudices of colour and the profits
of slave labour, and, in au age when martyrdom has gone quite out of
fashion, prepared themselves for obloquy, prison, and death, if they might
but waken their countrymen to their sin and danger.
WhUe listening to the encomiums so righteously awarded last Saturday

65
moming to these noble pioneera in the cause of Abolition in the New
World, we could not help feeUng deep regret that the knowledge of their
names and deeds had not come to us through any of our Evangelical
¦writers or pubUcationa, and that Mr. Garrison, especiaUy, was for a long
whUe exposed to much obloquy on account of his supposed creed or want
of creed. We do not forget that the root-and-branch poUcy of these
early Abolitionists and their unquaUfied denunciation of slave-holding
churches long alienated them from the leaders of religious denominations
in their own country, and that they mostly belonged to sects and parties as
averse as possible to orthodoxy. Yet the fact remains to our discredit
that we long withheld our sympathies from this devoted band of AboU
tionists because they foUowed not -with us. But all this is changed now,
and Christian people are glad of any opportunity of doing honour to
Mr. Garrison and his coadjutors.
The gathering iu St. James's Hall last Saturday was a remarkable
one. It comprised a few notable members of the aristocracy whose
sympathies vrith the cause of the negro, and indeed with all that affects
the freedom and ennoblement of the race, have ever been generous and
constant ; but the bulk of the assembly was gathered from that middle
class with whom reUgious ideas have always taken firmest hold, and in
whose hearts therefore the pulses of humanity have beaten most truly and
most energetically. They carried negro abolition in our colonies ; they
sympathized with the Northern States in their great struggle with the
blave-holding power in America, and kept our Government right ; they
have been the real promoters of every measure of progress that has been
passed in this country for the last quarter of a century ; but it is a
comfort to know that they must and stUl -will be the real rulers of this
country and directors of its poUcy, whatever artful schemes may be tried
to break down their influence and govern by the " residuum."
The story of WUliam Lloyd Garrison is fnU of interest. To his
honour the career of the printer's apprentice and journeyman printer at
Newburyport, Maaa., may be re-oaUed, when his literary adventures were
commenced in stanzas and paragraphs for the journal on whose manual
labours he was employed. He was not the first distinguished American
so trained. These pieces were copied, leading to the recognition of the
author and his services, in 1828, in a double capacity, in the columns
of the National PUlamthropist, pubUshed in Boston. In the Journal
cf the Times, circulated through the State of Vermont, he denounced
alavery aa a crime. In the Genius of Universal Emancipation, of which

66
he served as assistant editor, pubUshed at Baltimore in 1829, he so
vehemently reprobated Francis Todd, o-wner of a vessel engaged in car
rying a cargo of slaves from Baltimore to New Orleans, as to expooe
himself to an action for libel. He was convicted, and sentenced to pay
a fine of 100 doUars, and, for nonpayment, was imprisoned fifty days,
tUl Mr. Arthur Tappan paid fine and costs, 150 dollars.* In the Park-
street Congregational Church, Boston, as early as the 4th July, 1829,
when beguUed by the pretensions of the Colonization Society, and speak
ing on its behalf, Mr. Garrison said: "I caU on the ambassadors ' of
Christ, everywhere, to make known this proclamation : ' Thua saith the
Lord God of the Africans, Let this people go, that they may serve Me.'
I ask them to proclaim Uberty to the captive, and the opening of the
prison to them that are bound. I caU on the churches of the Uving
God to lead in this great enterprize." He soon afterwards judged the
Colonization Society no congenial organization for his principles and
those whom he had oaUed ambassadors of Christ, men with whom, as a
body, he could not co-operate.
The Liberator was commenced by Mr. Garrison at Boston early in
the year 1831, in which he maintained a persevering antagonism to
oppression, whether sanctioned or -winked at by the statesmen of the
RepubUc or the clergy of the churches. He avowed his determination
in these emphatic words: "I wUl be as harsh as truth and as uncom.
promising as justice. I am in eamest. I wiU not equivocate ; I will
not excuse ; I wUl not retreat a single inch ; and I wUl be heard."
Though then professedly an orthodox Baptist, he cherished the indomi. ' •
table purpose, perseverance, faith, courage, patience, self-denial, endnr.
ance, of hia i[uondam, coadjutor, Thomas Lundy, a member of tho
Society of Friends.
Before the close ofthe year 1831, an Act was passed by the Georgian
Legislature, and approved by Governor Lumpldn, offering 5,000 dollars
to any one who would arrest and bring to trial under the laws of that
State the editor or publishers of the Boston Liberator. His murder
would have foUowed in this Black State, where Mr. Garrison was not a
subject. Amidst many side and irrelevant issues to which a versatile
and ardent mind would easUy be tempted, he adhered to the cause of
the oppressed with unrelaxing tenacity.

• "A. judgment in behalf of oneof these aggrieved persons of 1,000 dollarsand
costs was likewise obtained against him, but never onforced."— GHjiniT's " Amebi.
c.\rr Conflict," vol. I., p. 116.

67
The New England Anti-Slavery Society was organized January 30th
1832, in Boston, and -with limited means went into hopeful operation.
Mr. Garrison risited England in the foUowing year, when be was
strengthened by the intercourse, sympathy, and good-wUl of WUberforce
Clarkson, Buxton, and Macaulay. The American Anti- Slavery Society,
inaugurated by a National Convention, held at the city of PhUadelphia
in December, 1833, found Mr. Garrison an efficient Foreign Secretary,
and a powerful advocate in the Liberator as one of their organs. One
article of their creed bound them to demand " immediate and uncon
ditional emancipation as pre-eminently prudent, safe, and beneficial to
all parties concerned." In Boston, October 21, 1835, a crowd, described
by a city edit.or as " 5,000 gentlemen of property and standing,"
mobbed the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, dispersed them while
their president was at prayer, and dragged Mr. Garrison through the
streets with a rope about his body. He was roughly handled, threat
ened -with tar aud feathers, but finaUy conducted to the Mayor, who
lodged him in gaol tUl the next day, to save him from further violence.
He was released, after an examination, from prison; but at the eamest
entreaty of the city authorities left Boston for a time. The aUeged
reason of this gentlemanly demonstration was the presence and co-
opera'iou of Mr. George Thompson, whom they failed to seize. Mr.
Garrison was thus, however, only nerved to endure greater persecutions,
and to strike yet heavier blows against the chains of oppression than
ever. He was able, on a review of this transaction, to declare, " The
truth that we utter is impalpable, yet real ; it cannot be thrust down
"with brute force, nor pierced vrith a dagger, nor bribed -with gold, nor
overcome by the appUcation of a coat of tar and feathers.'' He resumed
his task, and persevered through good report and through evil report till
the advent ofthe Southern rebeUion.
¦ The freedom ofthe press and platform, and the freedom of awakened
thought in the non-slave-Taolimg States of America, amidst discussions
on new views of oi-vU govemment, of penal law, of Church institution, of
the ministry, of the Sabbath, and of the Bible as an inspired authority,
added to the temperance agitation, no doubt tested the fealty of Mr.
Garrison to tbe welfare of the slave ; while temporizing clergy stirred
his jealousy for the cause which was dear to him. Yet it is to his
honour he never forgot the emancipation of the slave, nor ceased to
remember those who were in bonds, for whom he had laboured and been
impoverished. His strongest utterances, and his self-negation and poll-

68
tical ostracism, were always sacred to the cause of emancipation. In .the
crisis of his country, and amidst the fiery trial of civU war, he recognized
the integrity of his patroitic President, and sustained his policy in the hour
of perU. He laboured to tum the popular mind towards Mr. Lincoln's*
freedom proclamation, and was successful. Though blamed by some of
his eamest coadjutors, as too credulous, or too moderate in his demands,
the prudence of his later course was equal to the zeal and fire of his
earher career. Mr. Garrison was iu unison with Abraham Lincoln,
The proclamation aboUshed slavery where rebeUion prevaUed ; wherever
slavery dominated the rebel spirit was developed. Mr. Gamson anti
cipated the prevalence of both together, and upheld the President by his
0"wn pen and the services of his son. The Congress has consummated
what both Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Garrison desired ; and in aU the States
and territories ofthe American RepubUc, slavery is an Ulegal wrong and
a national crime. And for this consummation patriotism has long sighed,
and the teeming coloured milUons ofthe South have groaned, wept, and
prayed; whUe, acknowledging God's over-ruling providence, the phUan
thropy of every land wiU join to pour down its blessings as on the
benefactors of mankind, in the midst of whom WUliam Lloyd Garrison
¦wUl rank as one of the chiefest and most worthy of honour.

MR. GARRISON'S CLAIMS TO RECOGNITION.
(From the Daily News, ist July, ¦/S67.)
The British character was honoured by the splendid welcome given to
Mr. WiUiam Lloyd Gaa-rison on Saturday. We are expecting some very
distinguished risitors, in whose behalf the rusted and creaking machi
nery of hospitahty is to be set in motion, but it wiU probably be a long
whUe before we have an opportunity of welcoming another guest with
claims to our respect as strong aa Mr. Garrison's. Others may come
with high position and iUustrious rank, and power to confer consider
able advantages: Mr. Garrison's titles to recognition are purely personal,
resting entirely on noble efforts and splendid achievements. It was
fitting, therefore, that he should be pubUoly received by those who are
the truest representatives of whatever is worthy in our national oharao-

69
ter. The leader for many years of the " forlorn hope " of abolitionism
in the United States, Mr. Garrison has a right to a larger share in the
honours of victory than has been previously accorded to him. He wears
his honours meekly; but of that small band of men to whom the
awakening of the national conscience to the evil of slavery is due, he is,
perhaps, the chief. He is one of those who, by their sufferings in the
early days of the agitation, made the' aboUtion cause their own; but
more happy in this respect than most of them, he has Uved to enjoy its
triumph. We can weU imagine that it ia vrith a feeUng of wonder that
Mr. Garrison realizea the change which a single generation has wrought.
It was on New Year's-day, 1831, whUe the first Reform BUl was being
discussed here, that Mr. Garrison pubUshed the first number of the
Liberator. In the address to the pubUc in that first number he declared
that he was in earnest, and would be heard ; that on the question of the
guUt bf slavery his influence should be felt ; and that posterity woidd
bear testimony that he was right. At that time, not even his enthusiasm
had dreamed of success, in the then commencing struggle, -within his
own times. But that success has come so rapidly and so completely
that he has not had to appeal to posterity for justification ; for his own
generation have justified him, by the adoption of the great act of
justice which it was his mission to urge. It is his unusual privUege to
rejoice over the triumph of principles for which he has severely suffered
—to represent in his 0"wn person the age of martyrdom and that of
triumph, and to unite within the limits of one personal experience
universal condemnation and as universal praise. No man now Uring
has known unpopularity for the sake of truth and justice as Mr. Garrison
has. For years his name was a byword ; he carried his Hfe in his hand,
and there were multitudes who thought that to kill him would do their
country service. Yet neither the hatred he roused nor the danger he
incurred drove him back. His unpopularity was shared -with truth, the
hatred he incurred was incurred for the sake of justice, and he wiUingly
took the personal suffering and risk as the necessary incidents of an
heroic warfare. No honour that is done to such a man in this prosaic
age can be too great. He has reproduced before the present generation
some of the features of a more self-sacrificing manhood than is ever
common in prosperous times. " Give him of the fruit of his hands,
and let his own works praise him in the gate."
Perhaps, of all Uving men, Mr. Garrison represents most completely
the power of moral suasion as distinguished from all forms of force.

70
Even the mistaken poUcy of political abnegation may have been only
the extremest form of this reUance on moral force alone. Mr. Garrison's
appeal was to the conscience of the people ; and the strength of his
invective, and the violence of his denunciation, were justified by the
greatness of the national sin and the apathy of the national conscience.
He cared not what passions lie roused toward himself if he made some
impression on the pubUo mind of the eril of slavery. But it is to his
lasting honour that he would not permit 'even the personal violence
of his opponents to diminish his antagonism to the very suggestion of
war. The American people wUl probably never know how much they
owe to Mr. Garrison for his persistent adhesion to moral agitation. In
the long run slavery itself took the sword and perished by the sword ;
but, thanks to Mr. Garrison, the anti-slavery agitation was always
identified vrith a poUcy of peace. There was a free soU war in Kansas,
but it was not an aboUtionist war, and was only waged in self-defence
even by the free-soUers. Yet the spirit which, somewhat later, prompted
John Brown's unsuccessfol insurrection might easUy have pervaded
American aboUtionism from the first. Negro insurrections were of
more than occasional occurrence, and they might easUy have been used
as one of the weapons for the destruction of slavery. Indeed, this was
what the South always expected and feared. Half the violence it
exhibited was the violence of terror, for the Southem air was generally
fuU, in all times of excitement, of that vague oppression and alarm
which precedes the earthquake. But Mr. Garrison persistently dis
couraged aU resort to force. In the hours of bitterest discourage
ment, when the chains of the slave seemed to be only more securely
fastened by the efforts to strike them off, no hint of servUe insurrection,
as a means to that end, was ever permitted to pass unrebuked. He
frowned down the spirit of revolt, and communioated, even to the
negroes themselves, some of his own confidence in the force of argument
and the power of justice.
The wonderful success which Mr. Garrison now represents has
encouraged the friends of humanity aU over the world. No oppression
or abuse which liberal and phUanthropic men are anywhere assaUing
looks stronger at this moment than American slavery did but a few years
ago. Its swift ¦ and sudden overthrow bas been taken as a warning by
every kindred vrrong, and, all over the world, the party of defence is
weaker and that of assault is stronger for the labours and success of the
Amerioan aboUtionists. Their rictory is the victory of human progress

71
over one of its greatest obstacles. There is a solidarity of the disciples
of that progress, and all who set their faces to the future may well
rejoice -with one another when one more step has been taken, one more
obstacle vanquished, and one more victory won.

THE SPEECHES AT ST. JAMES'S HALL.
(From the Morning Stab, -tst July, 1867.)
The demonstration which was held in St. James's Hall on Saturday
morning was, as one of the speakers truly observed, whoUy unique and
exceptional in its character. We must go back at least a generation to
discover its counterpart. One cause of this is, that it is only once in an
epoch that the opportunity is afforded us of paying personal homage to
the Uberator of a race. PecuUar interest attaches to the meeting of
Saturday, because, so far as we can judge, it was in one important sense
an event which can never be repeated. Negro slavery is vii-tuaUy
aboUshed in aU the civUized nations of the world. When the slave
power tottered to its fall in the United States, the foundations of the
iniquitous system were loosened in every other country in which it had
taken root ; and when slavery was actuaUy destroyed on the North
American continent, its doom throughout th-e world was sealed for ever.
What remains to be done in the possessions of Spain and Portugal, and
in the empire of BrazU, -wUl be accompUshed by the action of Govern
ments and the poUcy of statesmen. There wUl, of course, be scope for
individual effort, but the roU of the pioneers, the martyrs, the apostles
of the cause, is now fiUed up. Garrison is the WUberforce of America,
and in honouring him the EngUsh nation honours one who, happUy for
mankind, can have no successor. This consideration imparts an hiato-
ricaj aspect to the proceedings in St. James's HaU ; and whUe it is the
fate of most pubUo meetings, even when they have -wrought a great
purpose, to be forgotten, this one is destined to become memorable^.
Viewed in this Ught, it is a gratification to know that the assembly was
worthy of the iUustrious guest and of the distinguished men who sur
rounded him on the platform. It was a. comprehensive and varied
representation of the great Liberal party of England. Statesmen and
phUanthropists, phUosophers and men of letters, were brought together

72
in perfect sympathy and accord, and for an object which could not faUto
prombte a good understanding for the future, a lasting union of the
army of progress. The RusseUs, the Howards, the Stanleys, the Caven-
dishes, the Gowers, the ChurchiUs, and the Trevelyans, mingled vrith the
staunchest champions of advanced opinions ; while men Uke Mr. MiU,
Mr. Herbert Spencer, Professor Huxley, and Mr. Maurice also gave to
Mr. Bright, as chairman, the exalted support of inteUects which, on the
profoundest questions of human Ufe and destiny, have shaped the mind
of their country and their age. EquaUy feUcitous was the selection of
speakers who addressed this unique assembly. Who could be more
truly in his place as chairman than Mr. Bright, whose eloquence as an
orator, whose greatness as a leader of men, whose subtle and discrimi
nating powers of thought and expression are not more conspicuous than
his sympathy vrith aU that is noble and elevating in human affairs, and
who has gained for himself a fame on the American continent as peerless
as that which he has achieved in this EngUsh realm ? The Duke of
ArgyU, the mover of the address to Mr. Garrison, stood almost alone
among the aristocracy in his appreciation of the real merits of the
American struggle ; and even if Lord Russell had not made the most
ingenuous of confessions, it would have been impossible to forget that
the veteran leader of the Liberal party is also a veteran champion of
freedom, and that the Prime Minister of last year was a member of the
Government which, thirty-five years ago, abolished slavery in the
British dominions. Of Mr. MiU, who gave the vyeight of his great
authority to the cause of justice during the civU war ; of Mr. George
Thompson, the early coadjutor of our own great emancipationists, as he
afterwards became that of Garrison ; of Mr. Stansfeld, as faithful to
American as to ItaUan and to EngUsh democracy; of Mr. Vernon
Harcourt, the " Historicus"' of international law ; and of Mr. Lyulph
Stanley, the chivalrous representative of a young and rising class of
politicians —it must suffice to say that each in his place represented
some phase of public sentiment, or of moral and inteUectual opinion,
which were justly entitled to offer a tribute of respect to the leader of
the Amerioan aboUtionists. Nor would we omit the Comte de Paris,
whose letter, whUe fuU of generous enthusiasm, also shows how'
thoroughly he comprehended the nature of the issue which had to be
decided on those Southern battle-fields on which he himself played so
gallant and honourable a part.
Mr. Garrison modestly disclaimed more than an individual share in

73
the rejoicings of the day. He saw in the meeting not so much a com-
pUment to himself as a celebration of the triumph of justice ; but
whUe taking this broad view of the subject, and recognizing with the
Duke of ArgyU the fact that a legaUzed system of bondage, infinitely
more dangerous and formidable than any acta of cruelty or oppression,
which grow incidentaUy out of the passions or the poHcy of mankind,
has now whoUy passed away, we must stiU give the chief place of
honour to the man who, amidst obloquy and persecution, startled the
conscience of the American nation from the torpor of a moral death.
It is due to him more than to any other man that so marveUous a
change has been wrought since the time when Mr. Buxton thought he
must be a black man, because he could not beUeve in the possibUity of
a white American pleading the cause of the subject race. It is due to
bim more than to any of his contemporaries that free speech, as well as
personal and political freedom, ihas been made universal throughout the
broad domain of the great R^ublio ; and that,-as Mr. Lincoln wittily
remarked, it is now as difficult for him to get into prison as forty years
ago it was difficult for him to get out. Mr. Garrison's career, so event
ful and romantic, so courageous and so single-minded in its fldelity to
conscience and duty, conveys a splendid and enduring moral ; and we
are glad that Mr. MiU drew from it the lessons which it is calculated to
teach. We may with truth affirm, that every sentence in Mr. Mill's
speech contained an aphorism pregnant vrith wisdom and goodness, and
that in ten minutes he laid down principles which, if acted upon, would
impart to every man the impulse which governed Mr. Garrison's own
conduct. Mr. Garrison, whUe insisting for himself that no one deserves
exceptional or extraordinary praise for the simple performance of his duty,
did not forget his feUow-labourers in the great work of emancipation.
He divided with them, and especiaUy -with George Thompson, the laurel
wreath of victory ; and he pronounced an eloquent eulogium upon the
noble and devoted women Uke Lydia Maria ChUd, Lucretia Mott, and
Maria Weston Chapman, to the simple trath of which aU must bear
¦witness who are famUiar with the history of the Amerioan abolitionists.
Mr. Bright, whose speech, not less finished and exquisite as a master
piece of oratory than it was fuU of aU human feeling and tenderness,
was rendered more impressive by the sympathetic tones in which it was
deUvered, preceded Mr. Garrison in the tribute he paid to the men and
women of the American anti-slavery movement, those " who," he said,
adopting the subUme words of St. Paul, "through faith subdued Mng-

74
doms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of
lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out
of weakness were made strong, waxed vaUant in fight, and turned to
flight the armies of aliens."
We beUeve that, apart from the most remarkable incident of the
breakfast to Mr. Garrison, this meeting would have proved an effective
means of promoting peace and brotherhood between England and the
United States. But the manly and generous speech which Lord
RusseU deUvered has multipUed tenfold the beneficent influence which
it wUl exert in the great RepubUc. There is no better eridence of true
greatness of mind than a frank confession of error; and in Lord
RusseU's case, instead of being an act of humUiation, it wiU reaUy
exalt his character in the estimation of his countrymen and of the
world. He admitted that during the war he had formed an erroneous
judgment of the conduct and position of President Lincoln, and that to
conversations he had held "with Mr. Adams, the American Minister, was
due the conriction which he now entertained — that what Mr. Lincoln
did was absolutely right, both vrith respect to the time and the mode in
which it was done. The plaudits with which this statement was
received wiU meet with a, hearty echo on the other side of the Atlantic.
It -wiU do infinitely more than the most honeyed words could have done
to remove the misunderstanding and irritation which stUl linger among
our American brethren. The hand of friendship now held out by Lord
RusseU vriU not be rejected, and the two countries -wiU henceforth learn
that their interests and sympathies are like tributary streams which
flow into the same broad and fertUizing channel.

FALLACIES OP THE TIMES.
{From the Daily News, 2nd July, iS67.)
It would not become those who have any share in the triumph
celebrated on Saturday at St. James's HaU to feel over-sensitive to
the exceedingly petty criticism which has been applied to much that was
weU and wisely said on that occasion. If it ia thought that the riews
and principles of those EngUshmen who stood by the cause of freedom

75
in one of the greatest struggles of modern times have not been suffi
ciently ¦vindicated by the history of the last four years, we can only wait
for the time when they shall be considered by calmer and more impar
tial judges. Our own experience does not, however, suggest any such
fear ; we rather believe that the persons in this country who bad the
courage to take the unpopular side during the Amerioan war, instead of
being reproached for it now, find their chief inconvenience to arise from
the anxiety of friends whom not long since they knew only as warm
defenders of Secession, to have it distinctly remembered that they were
throughout the struggle on the side of negro emancipation. We are
well content, if not to forget the strangest aberration of English opinion
and feeling ever known, at least to remember it only for its warnings.
We cannot, however, aUow the great lesson of a struggle like that of
Mr. Garrison's whole life to be lost or perverted. The Tiynes makes
an attempt in this direction when it says that Mr. Garrison's cause
did not succeed by moral agency. When, however, our contemporary
alleges in support of his position that it was the infatuation of the slave-
holding aristocracy which sealed the doom of slavery, he only confirms
the truth which he combats. The South, too, had its moral agencies
in its pulpits and its newspapers, and by these means it was made
possible for the Confederate Government to raise great armies to fight
for slavery among populations which had certainly no material motive
for maintaining the institution. It is true, as the Times observes, that
'' the slave-holding aristocracy enlisted against themselves the interests,
the constitutional feeUngs, and tbe patriotic aspirations ofthe American
people ;" but most of us can remember a time when those same interests,
feelings, and aspirations were united to uphold slavery, and tar and
feather Mr. Garrison. How was the conversion effected, if not by moral
means, by demonstration of facts, by reasoning, by the power of noble
examples of action, sacrifice, and suffering ? It ia true, again, that
"Republican loyalty to the Union, the vital shrinking of c great
nation from dismemberment, and the firm resolution to endure the
creation of no rival power on the American continent," nerved the free
States of the North for the war ; but this is completely in harmony with
—it is a necessary part of— the fact which our contemporary denies,
that Mr. Garrison's writings and similar agencies opened new destinies
to the enslaved negro. It must never be forgotten— and the Times
should be the last to forget it— that throughout the struggle there was
a formidable party at the North equaUy opposed to secession and tha

76
war, and which at every crisis pleaded for a restoration of tbe Union on
the basis of a surrender of the principles of Mr. Lincoln's proclamation
of Uberty. The Times, we say, ought not to forget this, because at one
time, our contemporary constituted himself the advocate of this party in
England, extoUed its moderation, and magnified its most disreputable
representatives — the two Woods, for example — as the best exponents of
American statesmanship. This party would have revolutionized the
North, tranaferred Mr. Davis from Richmond to Washington, and re
stored the Union upon the basis of slavery. Mr. Horace Greeley reite
rates in his "History ofthe Amerioan ConfUct" his conviction that
" Diaunion was not purposed by the great body of those who favoured
secession," but that "they went into the movement, not to divide tho
couutry ,but to obtain new guarantees and advantages for slavery throughout
the whole of it." Nobody is ignorant of the immense part which ordinary
political and patriotic motives played in this contest ; but the great fact
to be noted is, that whereas at one time the American people were
ready to make any sacrifice for slavery, they subsequently passed through
such an education that, being determined to maintain the Union, rather
than make any further surrender to the spirit of slavery, they preferred
aU the suffering and risk of a great war. Mr. Garrison was one of the
chief agents in this transformation, and as he confined himself to moral
means, we are entitled to say that he has achieved a grand moral
triumph, and set an example which may inspire and animate reformers
to the end of time.
Lord RusseU's rectification of his former opinion of Mr. Lincoln's
poUcy has been read with most pleasure by those who most warmly
appreciate the great pubUc ¦virtues which adorn his career, although to
others it may be an unpleasant surprise. The Tim.es speaks of it as an
unexpected acknowledgment of error, but inasmuch as our contemporary
has never been anxious to procure the noble lord a reputation for in-
faUibiUty, it must be the mere acknowledgment of error, and not its
eristenoe, which astonishes him. No doubt Lord Russell would have
only followed a conspicuous example if he had taken a contrary course ;
bnt we are not sure that a journalist who, in the crisis of the Amerioan
war, pubUshed an article to show that slavery had the sanction of Holy
Scripture, and now without shame taimts the fallen slave-holding aris
tocracy with " consecrating slavery by the perverted sanctions of
religion," is the best judge of the noble lord's conduct. In both cases,
in that of the journal aud that of the statesman, we form our expeo-

77
tations from previous conduct, and whatever faults Lord RusseU may
have, the sincerity and truthfulness which friend and foe alike recognize
in him, leave no room for surprise at his frank and manly acknowledg
ment of an error into which he feU in company with some of the most
eminent of his contemporaries.

A PRO-SOUTHERN TRIBUTE.
{From the Morning Post, July Ist, -l§67.)
On Saturday a meeting of a very remarkable character was held in St.
James's HaU. It was not to discuss the progress of our Reform BiU, or
to wrangle on the debated points of Ritualism. No mere question
of narrow domestic, or more enlarged and national character was to
be debated; and though Mr. Bright was in the chair, yet it. would
indeed be unlikely that any EngUshman, however much he might differ
from that gentleman on most political subjects, should feel anything but
sympathy with the feeUngs which pervaded the meeting. Their object
was to pay a tribute of respect to a man who has at last, after a lifetime
of labour, through evil report and good report, in danger of his life, ¦with
hut slender resources, had the satisfaction of seeing his object secured,
and his country, mainly by his exertions, cleared of tbe stain which so
long had rested on her fair fame. WiUiam Lloyd Garrison stands first
in the United States among those who have ever condemned the
existence of slavery in their country, and have devoted their best energies
to the task of obtaining its total aboUtion. Their work has been no
easy one. They have had to contend against powerful infiuences, which
were unscrupulous in the means they used to crush and destroy the
advocate of the liberty of the slave. With but few sjipporters and scant
sympathy, even among the people of the Northern. States, these men
commenced their struggle, confident in their ultimate success because
they were certain of the justice of their cause. PersonaUy, they had
nothing to gain by the crusade which they commenced against the
System they denounced. But a higher feeUng than individual advantage
actuated them, and they felt they could not rest as long as the curse of
slavery stiU remained in their country bUghting its prospects, and

78
a standing shame on its people. This day thirty-six years ago there
appeared the first number of a paper caUed the Liberator, It com
menced with no advantages and with no resources. It had not a large
and able staff of ¦writers to impress its opinions on the inteUect of the
country. Almost alone, and aaaiated by what were then caUed a
few insignificant persons of aU colours, Mr. Garrison began the agitation
which one of the most gigantic wars the world ever saw was needed to
bring to a conclusion. Hia paper rapidly acquired a reputation and
a power. It rouaed men of aU classes, the great majority to defend the
abuses which were attacked. Those were the days when to be an
abolitionist was to point youraelf out as the object of scorn to the greater
part of your feUow-countrymen, when nothing was considered too cruel
for you to suffer in punishment for your opinions. Treated as a common
enemy, hated by thousands who would think it a glorious deed to murder
you, and rid the country of your pernicious presence, it required aU the
self-reUanoe and energy of men conscious of the truth and justice
of their efforts to peraevere in the fight they had begun. They were not
daunted, and they have now Uved to aee slavery once for aU aboUshed in
the United States, and in 1864 the very State which was the first
to arrest and imprison Mr. Gai-rison for advocating immediate and
unconditional emancipation, had leamed the lesson taught in so fearful
and severe a manner, by the civU war, and had given their Uberty to the
80,000 slaves which existed vrithin the borders of Maryland. We need
not here enter into a discussion as to the merits, on either side, of that
struggle, from which America is only now emerging, vrith difficulties
surrounding and embarrassing her on every side. We have only on
this occasion to look at the one grand result which is left ua, to
compensate, in some degree, for the fearful con^vulsion through which
the country had to pass, before that resnlt could be obtained. What.
ever may have been the admiration and sympathy which the valour and
devotion of the Confederates excited in the minds of many EngUshmen,
the nation never could be accused of any feeUng for the maintenance of
slavery, nor for the triumph of the South, aa the representative of that
institution. We might have our doubts as to the means which were
being used for the attainment of emancipation, but we had none as to its
wisdom, or as to the absolute necessity pf its adoption. Whichever
side we might indiriduaUy sympathize ¦with, it was impossible that
a people who made such sacrifices as we have to eradicate slavery from
OUT own dominions, and to repress it in aU the seas where our navies can

79
reach, could give any encouragement to those who might be looked upon
as contending for its maintenance. But we felt certain, as we had every
reason to do, that though the abolition of slavery could not be taken aa
the principle for which kindred States had plunged into war with each
other, yet it was, and would prove to be, the ineritable result of the
issue of the events taking place, whether the Slave States secured their
independence, or, as bas been the case, were forced to remain in
the Union. In England, we have always aa a nation condemned the
United States for tbe shortsighted and unworthy policy which had not
the courage to deal vrith their great evil. We felt that we had done it
in our own case, and prided ourselves on it, though we had nothing Uke
the difficulties to contend with, which beset the question in America ;
and we were anxious to see our cousins across the Atlantic adopt
the same policy as ourselves, for the sake of our common origin,
and our common example to the rest of the world. So that now, when
whatever bitterness there may have been created between the two
countries, from the very interest we took in the momentous confiict, has,
we hope, passed away, we welcome vrith real pleasure a demonstration
such as the one at St. James's Hall.
Mr. Bright's speech wiU be read with interest and pleasure, even by
many who do not agree with him generaUy in his public opinions. It is
eloquent and earnest. It ia marked by a good taste and a moderation
in its expressions, which, considering the very decided part the speaker
has taken in the discussion of all American questions, is peculiarly
agreeable. The description which he gives of the career of Mr. Garrison,
his early attempts when there was but little encouragement, and his per
severance tiU the opinions and the policy which he had urged with so
much talent, and with such honesty, were endorsed and adopted by the
Government of his country, is told in that feUoitous and simple language
which is the charm of a great orator. He has worthily expressed the
national sentiment of eamest congratulation to the United States, that
by the efforts of Mr. Garriaon an opinion has been created which
has made slavery hateful, and freedom possible in that country. Hence
forth we find a closer bond uniting our two countries, and one which the
greatest opponent of Mr. Bright wUl agree that he has expressed in true
and feeling words.
We must not close these few observations without noticing the
remarks made by Lord RusseU. They are remarkable in themselves,
and, as coming from the statesman who uttered them, stiU more

80
worthy of being pointed out. They contain a frank and manly confession
of mistaken views. He confesses to having taken a wrong estimate of
the difficulties which surrounded President Lincoln, and prevented his
immediate declaration of the aboUtion and destruction of slavery
when the Southem States endeavoured to establish their independence
on the basis of its continuance. Further than that. Lord RusseU
declares his conviction that everything which was possible was adopted
by the President and his Govemment to further the consummation qf the
great blessing involved in the Uberation of the four miUion slaves of
the United States. This is an honourable admission for a statesman
in Lord RusseU's position to have made. It is always difficult to
bring ourselves to admit that we have been mistaken. But, when we
find such penance performed in so high and so unlikely a quarter, we are
stiU more ready to concede to it the value which its rarity deserves.

POLITICAL PRESCIENCE.
(From the Spectator, 6th July, 1§67.)
Lord Russell's recantation of his error conceming the nature ofthe
American conflict, at the banquet given to Mr. Garrison last Saturday,
has struck every fair mind with admiration and respect. Nor can we
avoid expressing our own admiration forthe candour of a statesman who,
at an age when opinion has usuaUy become almost ossified, can thus
openly admit the fundamental mistake of a poUcy which was, neverthe
less, probably more ¦wise and just than any other statesman of Cabinet
rank, except the Duke of ArgyU, on either side of the House, would have
pursued in his place. Lord RusseU has admitted his error, his miscal
culation and misunderstanding of tbe motive of Mr. Lincoln's poUcy,
and the erroneous nature of the judgment he founded upon it, that " the
North were fighting for empii-e, and the South for independence." Yet
there were few indeed among EngUsh Cabinet Ministers who judged the
struggle even aa fairly aa Lord RusseU, and not one, except, as we said,
the Duke of Argyll, who showed so steady a sympathy with the anti-
slavery element in the war, so far as he clearly discerned it, as Lord
RusseU. It was, perhaps, natural enough that the man who sinned

81
least in that matter should be the first to express his regret for the error
of which he was reaUy guUty. But it is a reaUy curious thing, on look
ing back to the history of the contest, and tbe opinions expressed by
English statesmen, poUtioians, and political writers with respect to it,
to notice how very Uttle of anything that can deserve the name of
prescience was to be found among them. " Out of the mouths of babes
and suckUngs,'' as usual, came much more truth than out of the ¦wise
and prudent. " Not many vrise men after the flesh, not many mighty,
,not many noble," had even a glimmering of the truth. Even our great
popular minister, who on so many subjects has shown his power to see
deeper into the heart of the people than any of his coUeagues, even Mr.
Gladstone was far ¦wider of the mark than ever was Lord RusseU, and
declared, in October, 1862, — with the utmost courtesy and kindness
of tone , towards the North, it ia true, but also with the utmost positive-
ness of statement, — that Mr. Jefierson Davis had succeeded in making
" a nation," and that " we may anticipate vrith certainty the success of
the South, so far as their separation from the North is concemed."
Even the late Sir ComewaU Lewis, who, vrith his usual prudence, inter
fered to save the Cabinet from the rashness of recognizing the South,
and protested pubUoly against that step to bis constituents at a very
critical moment, even he was far more widely removed from a sound
riew of the nature of the conflict than Lord RusseU, and wrote vrith the
greatest scom in private letters afterwards pubUshed of " that viUage
lawyer's Lincoln's" resources for the great moral, poUtical, and mUi
tary campaign which the vUlage lawyer nevertheless carried through to
BO near its successful termination. Lord Palmerston and Lord Derby
were both of course conspicuously* Southem in their bias throughout
the war, and the former was in one or two debates almost insolent to
the friends of the North. Lord Stanley, vrith his usual prudence,
reserved his opinion, and even ventured to indicate very early a strong
beUef in the greater mUitary power of the North ; but he significantly
added in the same speech, and not, as we have reason to beUeve now,
with any greater power of prescience than the more outspoken EngUsh
Southerners, that the real difficulties of the North would only begin
whenever their arms might have conquered their opponents. Sir
EoundeU Palmer vied with Sir Hugh Cairns in the Southem bias of the
legal opinions on questions of international law which they advocated
in ParUament. Of all the opinions expressed by EngHsh statesmen
on the American war, the most ingenious perhaps, and certainly the
G

83
most absolutely free from any sympathetic twist on either side was Mr.
DisraeU'a. It was obrious that he held the physical power of the North
in the profoundest respect; and yet he gave it as his dehberate opimon
that the process was already beginning in America, which centuries ag6
divided the continent of Europe into different nations of different geniusi
language and customs ; — that a straggling Anglo-Saxon colony was on
the point of crystallizing into a, number of different States, whose
power would be balanced against each other in a civUization constituted ¦
of varieties aa marked as those of the Old World. That was a riew
which was ingenious and original enough to have deserved to be pre
scient ; but, Uke " the vrisdom of the Greeks," it turned out fooUshness,
compared vrith the simpHoity of the chUd-Uke faith in the power of the
good cause to vanquish the bad, in the power of freemen to prevaU in
the end over the devotees of slavery. And yet in Mr. DisraeU's case at
least there was no want of apprehension of the main condition of the
political problem, — ^namely, that the North was reaUy governed not by
a commercial democracy, above aU things sensitive to the effect of war
on personalty and floating capital ; but by a territorial democracy at
tached to the land, and above aU things sensitive, as territoriaUsts of
aU classes always are, to any attack on the strength and durabUity of the
Government. This was a most important condition of the poUtical
problem, which many poUticians, many statesmen, quite overlooked, but
which Mr. DisraeU never overlooked. And yet it did not save him from
the error into which he feU in attributing to a conflict caused not by
root differences of genius, customs, and manners, but solely by the many
differences which radiated from the grand difference between slave in
stitutions and free institutions, aU the disorganizing and reorganizing
characteristics which would be wanted to raise up a group of distinct
nations. It is now apparent to every one, that, slavery once forcibly
extinguished, there is no clear and matured divergence of poUtical feel
ing and genius between the various sections of the Union. The ap
parent vital differences were all bred of that one great difference, and are
perishing with it. Mr. DisraeU's error arose not from his inteUectual
deficiencies, but from his moral deficiencies. He could not appreciate the
force of the moral paralysis which destroyed the South. He could not
distinguish adeqiiately between differences of genius arising from natural
and from moral causes, — from causes which no violent institutional
change could eradicate, and from causes capable of real annUiUation by one
mortal blow at a single vUe institution. There was no attempt at what

83
we may caU the poUtical diagnosis of the American conflict so acute
and ingenious as Mr. Disraeli's. He failed for the same reason for
which aU our statesmen failed, — namely, that prescience in political and
national affaire is a quaUty scarcely ever due to the head so much as the
heart. It arises out of a deep rital sympathy vrith popular currents of
feeling, the grovring intensity of which some men can feel almost as
distinctly as a physician can feel the reviving force of hia patient's
pulse. Calculation, vrithout this sympathy, almost always faUs to pre
dict the course of even a year or two of national Ufe. Napoleon III.
failed even more egregiously than any of onr own statesmen in his view
of the American struggle, and yet he knows something of popular feel
ing, at least in France. His prescience, however, has always been
limited to the one nation whose most intimate instincts he has studied,
and that is a nation but Uttle inclined as yet to sympathize heartUy vrith
races lower than its own. The inteUectual classes of France no doubt
sympathized with the North in the late struggle, but even that was in
no smaU degree because the Emperor was known to favour the South.
The masses of the French people have never yet shown themselves
keenly aUve to the wrongs of a lower and aUen race. Napoleon's mis
take was made, Uke that of Mr. Disraeli, from a radical want of sym
pathy vrith the slaves, and a radical error as to the infectious character
of this sympathy when once launched as a powerful poUtical and conser
vative force in an Anglo-Saxon society.
Not one of even our vrisest statesmen can pretend to have shown a
prescience that vriU for a moment bear comparison with such prescience
as Mazzini showed in anticipating the national unity of Italy, or such pre-
Boience as Mr. Garrison himself showed in anticipating, — by the wrong
means, it it true, — but stUl anticipating the extirpation of slavery at an
early date on the continentof America. Prescience seems to be givenmueh
more to those of comparatively simple natures whose hearts are fuU of
the force of a great principle, than to the most accompUshed statesman
weighing the effects of the elaborate mechanism of poUtical institutions.
If prescience be a merit at aU, it is the merit of minds capable of being
fired by the most intense conviction on a single subject, rather than of
what we usuaUy caU balanced inteUeots and sagacious judgments. Ba
lanced inteUecta and sagacious judgments are necessary for the actual
execution of any great poUtical work. Without Cavour, Mazzini would
have effected nothing. Without Lincoln, Garrison would have been stUl
battUng against the world. But stUl it is the conviction that reaches a

white heat that is prescient, not the cool judgment of deUberative minds.
Our contemporary the Pall Mall Gazette, in a narrow article, which
seems to us utterly unworthy ofthe masculine thinker and writer to whom,
perhaps erroneously, we ascribe it, headed, " ShaU we Crown our
Fanatics? " assents to this riew, and proceeds to make as Ught as pos
sible of the rare and grand moral quaUties which belong to men of thia
white heat of conviction, not only on tbe express ground that they are so
rarely men of cahn, large minds, but, oddly enough, on the ground
of the intrinsicaUy smaU value of zeal, and self-denial, and self-forget-
fulness practised in a noble cause. " The accident," says om- contem.
porary, in its eagerneaa to depreciate Mr. Garrison's merits, "of haring
been right, does not make a fanatic less a fanatic.'' On the contrary,
we should have said that the true difference between a fanatic and the
highest characters which have given to human nature its greatest dignity
and nobUity, is the difference between the causes in which zeal is displayed.
If the cause ia a poor and -vulgar one, such as our contemporary quotes,
the Mormon cause, — the prescience, suffering and self-denial displayed
in its behalf are truly oaUed fanatical. They are means as unworthy of
the end as when a man goes through daily torture to heap up gold
which he never vrishes to use. If fanaticism mean anything, it means
intensity and zeal disproportionate to the end. A fanatic, however
keen his prescience, however grand his endurance, is ignoble, because his
eyes have been purged to see the drift of events only by a mean motive,
and his endurance has been spent in narrowing his own heart to
the measure of vulgar aims. But prescience, zeal, self-denial, and self-
forgetfulness such as Mr. Garrison's, spent in one of the grandest of
human causes, and excited by one of the noblest of human motives, is
not fanaticism, or if it be, is a fanaticism which, if it were but wider
spread, would soon extirpate the selfish vices and sins which disfigure
human Ufe. No doubt such moral white heat as Mazzini's and Mr.
Garrison's also tends to lead men at times into great blunders and great
sins, and in Mazzini's case, early in his career, undoubtedly did so. StiU
more, then, ought we to honour the man who with such an ardent tem
perament has never been tempted into any riolence worse than auch
violence of invective aa men of prophetic fire of nature cannot, perhaps
ought not, entirely to suppress. Statesmanlike judgment and modera
tion is an exceUent thing, and statesmanUke candour like Lord RusseU's
is a stUl more excellent thing ; but our contemporary wiU not, we hope,
eaaUy teach EngUshmen to honour either of those quahties so much as

85
those rare virtues of heroic self-denial and self-forgetfulness which are
the salt of the earth, and a salt of which there is by no means an abun
dant supply.

{If'rom tlie Spectator ofthe samie date.)
A brilliant breakfast in Mr. Garrison's honour was given in St.
James's HaU this day week, Mr. Bright taking the chair, and Earl
RusseU (to whose generous recantation of error we have elsewhere
referred) aud the Duke of ArgyU joining in the tribute of honour. Mr.
Bright made one of those grand and massive speeches in which more
weight of moral passion is concentred than any other Uving orator ig
capable of expressing. After citing a catalogue of martyrs in the cans e
of Slavery, and quoting from the Epistle to the Hebrews, " Time would
fail me to teU of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah ;
of David also, and of Samuel, and of the prophets, who through faith
subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the
mouths of Uons, quenched the riolence of fire, escaped the edge of the
sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed vaUant in fight, tumed to
flight the armies of the aliens," Mr. Bright added, " I ask if this grand
passage from the inspired writer may not be appUed to that heoric band ¦
who have made America the perpetual home of freedom p" "No," sneers
the Times, it was armies and not faith by which slavery was overturned,
aa though faith were not needed by armies. "No," echoes the Pall
Mall Gazette, these are a set of fanatics, and fanatics are fanatics, be the
cause good or bad, — verifying ita petty riews by puUing to pieces Mr.
Garrison's speech. Mr. Garrison's speech was a modest and manly
speech enough, but it is not talk, fanatical or unfanatical, which can
weigh in the estimate of a man who has a story of sufferings in a great
cause which even St. Paul might not have deapiaed. WeU did Mr. MUl
say that "those who desire to improve mankind" should aim at some
thing difficult or great, regardless of the reproach of Quixotism or fana
ticism. The Times and the Pall Mall Gazette, on the contrary, appear
to consider ApostoUc teaching exhausted by the sentence, " Let yonr
moderation be kno^wn unto aU men."

86
EAEL RUSSELL'S CONFESSION.
{From the London Review, Oth July, iS67.)
The welcome given to Mr. Lloyd Grarrison in St. James's HaU, on
Saturday last, was in many respecta a remarkable occurrence. Not only
did it take the form of a modest and grace&l acknowledgment of Mr.
Garrison's services in the cause of slave emancipation, but it also marked
the close of au era in the history of the world. Mr. Garriaon may be
called the firat and the laat of American AboUtionists. Nearly forty
years ago he began to wage war vrith the slave-holding power
and prejudices of his native country; and through a long and
painful struggle, in which he suffered imprisonment, proscription, ritu-
peration, and calumny of the grossest Mnd, he has at length achieved
rictory. Doubtless strong moral forces were at work to help him;
Moubtless the inner conscience of the EepubUo had only to be touched
to vibrate in unison vrith these impassioned appeals of his ; and doubt
less, also, the example and admonition of England were predisposing
the American people towards this great effort at purification. But in so
far as one man was capable of throwing into speech the better yearnings
of his own countrymen after this prospective good, Lloyd Garrison did
his utmost ; and that utmost has borne rich fruit. " Not leas than a
generation," says the Times, at the close of one of those recantation
articles which we are now accustomed to find in its columns, " wiU be
needed to reorganize the labour system in the Southem States ; and
untU this be done, it is somewhat premature to celebrate the final jubUee
of AboUtion." But what baa the aboUtion of slavery got to do with
the reorganization of labour? Should we have forbidden the Prus-
sians to celebrate on Wednesday last the anniversary of the battle of
Koniggratz, because the Hanoverians have not as yet accommodated
themselves to the new order of things ? The St. James's HaU assembly
— representing the statesmanship, phUosophy, and Uterature of England
by such men as Mr. MUl, Mr. Bright, the Duke of ArgyU, Earl EusseU,
Mr. Herbert Spencer, Professor Maurice, and Professor Huxley— did
not meet to consider the condition of the negro, but to mark and com
memorate one of the victories of universal civiUzation. For our ovm

87
part, we wiU confess to have regarded slave emancipation not so much
in the interest of the blacks as in the interest of the whites. The future
of America, as has been often said, is the future of the world ; and
rather than see this young and vigorous race hampered and deteriorated
by the presence of the negroes, if such a result is to be feared, we
should prefer to have the latter straightway shipped home again, to
some such country as Morocco, where the indistinguishable cross-breeds
between Saracen and native Moor would offer aU varieties of semi-
civilization to the more or less educated black of America. We do not
mean to enter here upon the long-vexed question of the alleged intel
lectual inferiority of the negro race. On the one hand, it may be said,
that the negroes have never had a chance of civUizing themselves ; .
and on the other, it may be said that, whUe the learning and sciences of
the world arose in Egypt, they copld find no reception among those
neighbouring tribes which remain untU this day in their primitive
barbarism. It is enough for us to know that white men and black were
aUke cursed by the system of slavery, and to rejoice that we are no
longer chargeable with the crime of perpetuating this gross and savage
injustice. IncidentaUy, this meeting was the means of obtaining from Earl
RusseU an exposition of his amended views on the relations between this
country and America during the civU war. Confession of error is a
virtue which we very rarely find a statesman inclined to exhibit, espe
ciaUy if that confession has to be made to a foreign country. Indeed,
rather than listen to such an acknowledgment, we beUeve three-fourths
of the English people would prefer to see their representative Minister
commit himaelf to any quantity of diplomatic quibbUng or dogmatic
aasertion of infallibUity. There is no doubt that it is much easier for
Lord RusseU, now that he is not concerned in immediate official inter
course with Amieriea, to make the cmiende honorable, than if he were at
tha head ofthe Ministry; but, under whatever circumstances he was
induced to take it, one cannot faU to admire and appreciate this manly
and courteous step on the part of the veteran statesman. We have to
accredit Mr. Adams ¦with Earl RusseU's conversion. During repeated
conversations vrith that gentleman. Lord RusseU became convinced that
he had not done justice to President Lincoln ; and he now acknow
ledges that Mr. Lincoln, having a work before bim the difficulty of
which was in no vrise understood by the majority of the English people,
did aU that it was possible for him to do, and did that aU vrisely and

successfnUy. His lordship pointed out that the task of aboHshing
slavery in the United States was a very different project from that
wMoh our own WUberforce and Clarkson so courageously and power-
fuUy advocated. The slavery in the West Indian islands was not
" mixed up with our domestic institutions," and " involved in aU our
relations, poHtical and social." Our cautious and deUberate payment
of twenty miUions sterUng was a different proceeding from that sudden
liberation of four miJUons of negroes which many people demanded
from the Amerioan Government at the beginning of the war. Perhaps
the best warning which history affords to those who would give them
selves up to the prosecution of impetuous, crude, and impracticable
reforms, is the life of Joseph II. of Austria, the son of Maria Theresa ;
and one of the many hasty and immature schemes by which he subse
quently unsettled his whole empire was the sudden aboUtion of feudal
vassalage, without any provision being made either for the o^wners of,
the serfs or for the serfs themselves. Mr. Lincoln was a shrewd and
prudent poHtioian, who issued his edict of emancipation when the time
was ripe for it. " Emancipation," says the Times, in an article from
which we have previously quoted, " was adopted tentatively as a miUtary
measure, and it is only by the Ught of subsequent events that we can
discern the inevitable tendency of the whole movement towards that
consummation." A more ridiculously untrue statement than that con
tained in the latter half of this sentence it would be difficult to put into
as many words. What may be the capacity of discernment on the part
of the Times we do not stay to consider ; but that vrithout the Hght of
subsequent events the inevitable tendency of the movement was discerned
by thousands of the best thinking minds in both countries is not only
notorious, but has become a matter of pubUc history. Again and again
was it said, long before the war broke out, that this curse of slavery
could be removed only in one way; and that, sooner or later, the
country would have to purify itself through a baptism of blood ; whUcj
as soon as war was proclaimed, it was felt that the real question at
issue was the removal of that stumbling-block in the path of American
civilization, and it was confidently predicted, from a thousand pulpits
and by a thousand pens, that this and this only would be the " consum
mation " of the struggle. We can weU understand how " a retrospective
view of a great crisis" can reveal many strange things to a journal
which, with wUful bUndness, distorted and misrepresented every move
ment which led up to it ; but now that the blind man professes to see

89
clearly, he should not seek to cover his prerious defect by saying that
then aU men wore opaque spectacles.
We have no doubt Earl RusseU's words ¦wiU be ¦widely read and
marked in America. Every one must hope that they may have a share
in soothing an irritation which was at the time attributed in part to the
tone of his lordship's despatches. That irritation indeed, has, except
amongst a certain rabid claaa of poUticians, almost disappeared ; and we
sincerely trust that Lord Russell's apology may be taken in good part,
and stUl further help to reconcUe those differences which should never
have been aUowed to arise between two countries so closely knit to
gether as England and America. The Duke of ArgyU appropriately
remarked that we should desire to have the friendship and affection of
the American people, not only because America had sprung from us, but
that she was springing from us now. Amongst the farming classes in
ArgyUshire, he said, one could scarcely go into a house without dis
covering that some one of the famUy or some near relative had gone to
America ; and added, that these emigrants in leaving England, should
feel that they were going only to a second home. America, by an edict
of emancipation, haa entered upon a new era of progress, and we have a
personal interest in watching the development of her glorious future.
As for the blacks, who have been thrown upon their own resources,
they have afforded them that chance which falls to the common lot of
nations ; whUe the oHmate, example, and association to be found in
America are more fitted to awaken their capabUities than the conditions
under which their African brethren labour. If, as persons afflicted vrith
negrophobia insist, the negro must go down, we, at least, have not his
fate upon our conscience. If he muat disappear like tbe Red Indian and
the ancient Celt, we need pass no act of expulsion against him. What
was stipulated for by those who, long previous to the civU war, " dia-
cerned the inevitable tendency of the movement to be emancipation,''
was that this younger branch of the EngUsh race who had transferred
fteir energies to the richest and healthiest continent in the world should
not be paralyzed by the intolerable drag of slavery. If we are to
recognize indiridual agencies in a work which was ultimately accom
pUshed by the strong moral sense of both countries, we shall find these
in Mr. Garrison and his courageous associates.

90

THB "ULTRA- ABOLITIONISTS" AT ST. JAMES'S HALL.
(From the Watchman, 3rd July, 1S67.)
There is now no such term as " ultra-aboUtionists ; " but thirty-five
years ago, and up to the late Abrahs.m Lincoln's proclamation, it was
frequently appHed by exceUent men, who sincerely desired the destruc
tion of slavery as " the sum of aU viUanies," to other good persona
whose language and proceedings were more ardent and uncompromising
than their o-wn. The most notable of the " ultra-abolitionists" was for
nearly forty years WUUam Lloyd Garrison, who, on the 1st of January,
1831, started in Boston a paper caUed the Liberator, which had not been
long in existence before it had the honour of being made the occasion of
a penal enactment passed by the Legislature of the sovereign State of
Georgia, and approved by Govemor Lumpkin, whereby a reward of
5,000 doUars was offered for the arrest and legal prosecution of the
editor, the pubUsher, or any vendor of the Uttle pubUcation. This waa
a stupidly malicious threat, aa Mr. Garrison and his friends, who
already knew what it was to be well mobbed, had no disposition to open
a branch office in Savannah. Before the notification of Govemor
LumpMn appeared, the first of the American Anti-Slavery societies had
been established in Massachusetts, and this, in half a dozen years, was
multipUed above a thousandfold, by the reproduction of such societies,
eriating in New England and the adjoining Statea. Mr. Garriaon
started from principles which were not "ultra-abolitionist," — -that
could hardly be — but which were aboUtionist purely and thoroughly.
Soon he attacked the Colonization scheme, which, though in the course
of half a century it has produced Liberia, never could have absorbed
the slave population of the States, and was not vrithout reason accused
of being little more than a plan to get rid of the free negroes — who
could neither be reduced to slavery again, nor accepted by the white
citizens of the United Statea as equals ; in short, who were a per-
petual eyesore, to escape the sight of which people in America were
ready to pay large sums in order to send these men of colour back to
Africa, and phUanthropists in England, by some Mnd of sembUng and
dissembUng, were persuaded for a whUe to enter into the conspiracy.
At a later period, Mr. Lincoln himself seems to have contemplated a

91
larger plan, for artificiaUy assisting the emigration of the blacks; but
what lever had he powerful enough to uproot a population of four
mUUons ?
As the thing was impossible, so the attempt could only be unjust and
crael. Mr. Lincohi perceived this, and let the matter drop. Now, as
Mr. Garrison's firat offence waa his bold championship of the cause of
AboUtion and Emancipation, Ma second was an attack on the American
Colonization Society, whose object was the transportation of free
negroes from the United Statea to a neglected strip of the African
coast, south-east of Sierra Leone. The scheme looked the more plau
sible to EngHsh phUanthropists, because the peninsula of Sierra Leone
had been colonized by the British Govemment ¦with the benevolent
purpose of affording emancipated negroes, Jamaica maroons, and the
Uving freights of captured slavers, a home in tropical Africa. Mr.
Garrison exposed the Colonization scheme, and reduced it to meagre
proportions. Another offence charged upon him was that, as a means
to emancipation, he was ready to sacrifice the unity of the Federal
RepubUc, and riewed its probable dissolution with an unwinMng
eye. However, it must be taken into consideration, that no such min
was in prospect when he began Me agitation, that Southem secession
waa then a bugbear in which not even the nursery-maids beUeved, and
yet that Southem domination over the whole Union, which it infected
vrith its serpentine venom whUe holding it struggling in its folds, was
an actual, and an intolerable tyranny. Mr. Garriaon was so stem as to
form the judgment that the North ought not, even for the sake of the
Union, to allow its fame and honour to be sullied and stifled by the
odious clutch of the Southem slave power, and he stUl says that this
waa a Union which deserved to be dashed asunder, being no better than
" a covenant with death," and " an agreement -with heU." These senti
ments were nearly unbearable by moderate AboUtionists, and we cannot
much blame them for caUing Mr. Garrison an Ultra. Another provoca
tion given by him was his bringing over from England, after one of bia
visits to our renowned AboUtionists, his fast and stiU surviving friend,
George Thompson, who, let us remark by the way, made an eloquent
speech at St. James's HaU last Saturday.
Mr. George Thompson was to the mUder AboUtionists of New England
and New York the more obnoxious as " a Britisher," and an expounder
of British sentiments, who had been a pubUo lecturer here on behalf of
Emancipation before he went to preach it there. Mr. Thompson

92
opened hia parable before a thousand persons assembled in the Town
HaU of LoweU, Massachusetts, on the 5th of August, 1834, and thence
he went onwards untU, as Mr. Garrison said on Saturday, those who
invited him compeUed him to return, because they would not have the
stain of Ms blood left spriuMed upon the garment of America. TMs
rhetorical phrase is only a few degrees higher in temperature than the
words of a record now before us of the feeUng of the American Anti-
Slavery Society, who, in terms truly magnificent, expressed their
un-wiUingnesB that " a martyr .for American Uberty should be any other
than an American citizen.'' The objection taken by the moderate
AboHtiomsts to the intrusion of George Thompson was that he, a
subject of the British monarchy, was interfering -with a question belong
ing not only to the reUgion and morals, but to the poUtics of the United
States. That was too true, for slavery then lay at the very root, and,
it may be affirmed, was the motive-power and mainspring of American
politics. We are not sure that it is a sufficient reply to say that every
great agitation, moral or reUgious, is also an agitation social and poli
tical. The dissemination of Christianity throughout the Roman
Empire in the three first centuries was, at the same time, an increasing
poUtical revolution. It is the nature of new ideas to dissolve and ¦
aboUsh old forms. Take an Ulustration wMch is as near to the common
ground as the low fiight of a quail. . It is said that the secretary of one
of the Trades' Umons in Sheffield was a " local preacher" — we should
be glad to hear on what " plan ;'' but be that as it ¦wiU, we are bold to
affirm that the system of the Methodist class-meeting, had it permeated
the artisan classes of Sheffield, would have completely extinguished the
system of " rattening'' and conspiracies for murderous deeds. At the
same time, we are wUUng to own that America ought to have needed
the eloquence of Mr. George Thompson as Uttle as she ought to have
feared that of Mr. Lloyd Garrison. Even among our o^wn friends in
the Northern Statea, the intruaion of Mr. Thompson caUed forth some
splenetic retorts against England, which, no doubt, we should not have
remembered but that one passage in the speech of the Duke of Argyll,
last Saturday, so entirely met an argument which Dr. Bangs, as editor
of the New TorTc Christiam Advocate, published in that journal about
tMrty-three years ago, that the refutation was as complete as it was
unconscious. "How much better off," asked the organ of American
Episcopal Methodism, " are those degraded and' suffering classes, both
in England and Ireland, but particularly in the latter country, than our

93
enslaved negroes, for whom these gentlemen profess to feel so much
sympathy ? Let them first emancipate those from their civU disabUities,
and raise them from their extreme poverty and degradation, before they
talk so lovingly of enUgbtening Americans on tMs subject. We hope,
therefore, that no countenance ¦wiU be given to these foreign emissaries,
who come to our shores in the character of poUtical lecturers.''
Such a retort was at least to have been expected ; but so eminent a
leader of American Methodism must, in a mpre serene moment, have
anticipated the remark of the Duke of ArgyU, that, " whUe he never
.objected to such reference to the forms of suffering, which He almost at
our thresholds, as may recaU us to our o^wn forgetfuMess of duty, yet,
on the other hand, he would never admit — for he thought it would be
confounding great moral distinctions — that the miseries which arise, by
way of natural consequence, out of the poverty and the vices of man
kind, were to be compared vrith those miseries wMch were the direct
result of positive law, and of a positive institution, giring to man
property in man." That, untU a few years ago, waa the distinction
between us and our American friends. We had, and have, faults of our
own too many ; but we did not " frame miscMef by a law." It is
both pleasurable and hopeful to think that Mr. W. Lloyd Garrison
is now Mgher than ever in honour, both in his own country and here ;
and that Earl RusseU has just taken the opportunity, in seconding a
pubUc address to bim, of recanting whatever harsh opimons he may
have formed of the Emancipation poUcy of the Washington Cabinet
during the civU war. Lord RusseU gladly acknowledges that Mr.
Adams convinced him first, and events subsequently, that Abraham
LincoM was not only the sincere friend, but ultimately a true martyr to
the cause of freedom. The conversion of Earl EusseU from a few
errors, the justice which he renders to the United States, and the con
cUiatory offers of Lord Stanley, ought to make the two great nations ot
Anglo-Saxon blood as intimately united in principle and poUcy, in
friendship and affection, as they are akin in language, Uneage, Hterature,
and Uberty.

94

"SHALL WE CROWN OUR FANATICS?"
(From the Nonconeormist, 'lOth July, iS67.)
This is a question wMch the Pall Mall Gazette haa put in relation' to
Mr. Garriaon, and wMch it has answered, after its own fasMon, in the
negative. We might reply to its question by asking another — Has any
great or good cause ever been won vrithout fanaticism ? The Apostles
were great fanatics. Luther was a fanatic of no mean order. Washing
ton was a patriotic fanatic as Cobden waa the fanatic of free trade.
The world owea everything to the great men who have Uved, and, if
needs be, have laid down Uves for an idea. Your critic of the Pall Mall
stamp is in no danger of walking in the footsteps of fanatics like
WiUiam Lloyd Garrison. The earnestness, the self-sacrifice, the un
tiring zeal of such a Hfe are far beyond the apprehension of the man of
oold and calculating temperament, whose breast haa never been stirred
by a single impulse of enthusiasm, who looks vrith a strange wonder
upon those who, instead of Uring at peace vrith their neighbours,
persist in plunging into a turmoU of strife. According to the biographer
of Lord Palmerston in the Times, Ms lordship had little faith in what
has been caUed " world-bettering." The Pall Mall Gazette has stUl
less ; for it does not beUeve in " world-bettering," even when it succeeds.
Our contemporary thinks that Mr. Garrison is not a great man because
he did not — at least in its judgment — deliver a great speech when he
was entertained in St. James's HaU. Verbatim reports of that speech
were pubUshed in several of the pubUo journals ; but the Pall Mall pre
ferred to select the meagre and unsatisfactory epitome of it wMoh
appeared in the Times. If, instead of consulting a report wMoh waa
not a report, the writer had gone to the columns of the Moming Star
or • the DoAJ/y News, he would have found that Mr. Garrison has the
faculty of speaking in manly and outspoken EngHsh, of discussing
great principles in the spirit of a man who understands them, of
recounting the serrices of himself and his associates vrith that modesty
wMch is the characteristic of real greatness.
The question is not whether Mr. Garrison is an orator ; but whether
by forty years of public labour, devoted to the cause of the poorest and
most despised of mankind, he has estabUshed a just claim to the respect

95
and gratitude of the world — whether, in fact, he is entitled to that
honourable recognition of his services which was paid to him at St.
James's HaU by an assembly that has never been surpassed for its
imposing inteUectual and moral character. Is the PaU MaU Gazette
right P Or are Mr. Bright, the Duke of ArgyU, Lord EuaseU, and
Mr. MUl the best judges ? We can anawer for ourselves, and, we think,
we can answer for our readers. Unless he deserved the tribute he
received, that tribute would never have been offered to him by the
chosen representatives of English thought and of English poHtioal life.'
But the Times steps in to assure us that the actual abolition of slavery
owes Uttle to the efforts of Mr. Garrison and his associates. It waa
the infatuation of the slave-holders — It was the battaliona ofthe Federal
Goverment which opened the prison door and aet the captives free.
Thus reasons the Times. We can imagine the same writer arguing that
it was the infatuation of the Protectionists, combined ¦with the great
poUtical influence and personal foUowing of Sir Eobert Peel, and not
the agitation of the Anti-Corn Law League, which abolished the Com
Laws. If the slave-holders had responded to Mr. Garrison's appeals, if
their consciences had been reached by hia arguments and his warnings,
and they had put an end to alavery, as he desired, by peaceful methods,
the honour of being the WUberforce of America would stUl have been
Ma. But although, in consequence of Southem infatuation, it became
neceaaary for Preaident Lincoln to hurl battaUon after battaUon, army
after army, at the rebeUioua Slave Power, who waa it that made a war,
originally waged for the restoration of the Union, a war ultimately for
the extirpation of " the sum of aU vUlanies" ? Why, surely the man
who for nearly forty years had been leavening the pubUc mind with the
doctrines of pure and unadulterated aboUtionism. The seed- had for
many a long year been cast upon atony ground ; but at last the harvest-
time came, and although it was human blood which fertUized the soU
and gave marvellous vitaUty to the ideas which had been sown in dark
ness, but not iu despair, to Garrison is pre-eminently due the honour
of haring prepared the way for this magnificent consummation. The
moderation and prudence of the Times and the Fall Mall Gazette,
if these quaUties could have been enthroned in President Lincoln's
Cabinet, would probably have done nothing to avert the war, whUe they
would have deprived that war of its chief compensation.
The career of Mr. Garrison is pregnant ¦with instruction and vrisdom.
The poor printer, whose only assistant was a negro boy, and whose

96
earUest experience of pnbHc Hfe was gathered in a.Baltimore gaol, has'
lived to. become the emancipator of a race. In an office so obscure that
the Mayor of Boston could vrith difficulty discover it, he firat pubHahed
Ma Liberator, wMoh gave birth to the sentiment that ultimately acMeved
the deliverance of nearly four mUlions of slaves. A price was set upon
Ms head by the Legislature of Georgia; but he has Uved to see the day
when not one of his would-be assaaaina can tUl hia plantation ¦with the
labour of a single slave. He was dragged out to die in Boston ; but the
. Puritan city now looks upon him as its moat honoured citizen, and has
long been leavened vrith the principles to which, thirty years ago, it
offered the most deadly opposition. The story points its ovm moral.
Mr. MiU, however, gave it a new appUcation when he urged Ms hearera
to aim at something difficult, and not to be scared by the taunts of
Quixotism. It ia perfectly true, as he said, that the prize most worth
having is the most difficult to obtain ; but that whether the endeavour
be sucoessfiU or not, a hundred other good things never dreamed of ¦wiU,
in the end,' have been accompUshed. The demonstration at St. James's
HaU, if it had done no more than pay a tribute to the heroic Garrison,
would have been worthy of honour for its own sake ; but, conveying
tMs lesson, it vriU exercise a ¦wide and salutary infiuence, not Umited to
time or place. That lesson has been rendered stiU more impressive by
the noble confession of Lord RusseU, that he was wrong in the estimate
he formed of Mr. Lincoln's poHcy on the slavery question. His lordsMp
frankly admitted that Mr. LincoM wae right and that he waa whoUy
at fault; and imparted new grace to bia recantation by the candid
disclosure that it was to conversations vrith Mr. Adams that he owed
the change that had taken place in Ms opimons. No deUverance could
have been more calculated to assuage the animosities wMch yet linger
among our American brethren. Lord RusseU could not have afforded
a better example of true greatness of mind, or have estabUshed a nobler
claim to the title of " a peacemaker."

HicHAED Baekkii a»d Boss, Printers, 13, Mark Laue.