"When the anti-slavery cause was launched," he said, "it Lib. 28: 90. was baptized in the spirit of peace. We proclaimed to the country and the world that the weapons of our warfare were not carnal, but spiritual, and we believed them to be mighty through God to the pulling down even of the stronghold of slavery; and for several years great moral power accompanied our cause wherever presented. Alas! in the course of the fearful developments of the Slave Power, and its continued aggressions on the rights of the people of the North, in my judgment a sad change has come over the spirit of anti-slavery men, generally speaking. We are growing more and more warlike, more and more disposed to repudiate the principles of peace, more and more disposed to talk about 'finding a joint in the neck of the tyrant,' and breaking that neck, 'cleaving tyrants down from the crown to the groin,' with the sword which is carnal, and so inflaming one another with the spirit of violence and for a bloody work. Just in proportion as this spirit prevails, I feel that our moral power is departing and will depart. I say this not so much as an Abolitionist as a man. I believe in the spirit of peace, and in sole and absolute reliance on truth and the application of it to the hearts and consciences of the people. I do not believe that the weapons of liberty ever have been, or ever can be, the weapons of despotism. I know that those of despotism are the sword, the revolver, the cannon, the bomb-shell; and, therefore, the weapons to which tyrants cling, and upon which they depend, are not the weapons for me, as a friend of liberty. I will not trust the war-spirit anywhere in the universe of God, because the experience of six thousand years proves it not to be at all reliable in such a struggle as ours.

"I pray you, abolitionists, still to adhere to that truth. Do not get impatient; do not become exasperated; do not attempt any new political organization; do not make yourselves familiar with the idea that blood must flow. Perhaps blood will flow - God knows, I do not; but it shall not flow through any counsel of mine. Much as I detest the oppression exercised by the Southern slaveholder, he is a man, sacred before He is a man, not to be harmed by my hand nor with my consent. He is a man, who is grievously and wickedly trampling upon the rights of his fellow-man; but all I have to do with him is to rebuke his sin, to call him to repentance, to leave him without excuse for his tyranny. He is a sinner 1 See Adin Ballou on this point, Lib. 29: 176.

me.

CH. XVIII. before God - a great sinner; yet, while I will not cease reprobating his horrible injustice, I will let him see that in my heart 1858. there is no desire to do him harm,- that I wish to bless him here, and bless him everlastingly, and that I have no other weapon to wield against him but the simple truth of God, which is the great instrument for the overthrow of all iniquity, and the salvation of the world."

MS.

Peace seemed a proper theme for Mr. Garrison when occupying Theodore Parker's pulpit in Music Hall on May 30, 1858, as a substitute:

Theodore Parker to W. L. Garrison.

BOSTON, June 3, 1858.

MY DEAR MR. GARRISON: I owe you many thanks for standing in my place and preaching the able discourse of last Sunday. I am glad, also, that you took that theme on which we probably differ most; for though I don't think with you thereon, I yet wish your views to be ably set forth before those who listen to me.

Please accept the pecuniary consideration, also, with the hearty thanks of

Yours faithfully,

THEODORE PARKER.

MS.

W. L. Garrison to Theodore Parker.

14 DIX PLACE, June 3, 1858.

MY DEAR MR. PARKER: I am greatly obliged to you for your kind note - so characteristic of your catholic spirit in all matters pertaining to an honest and conscientious difference of opinion. Be assured, if I had supposed you would have felt averse to a religious presentation to your people of my views on the subject of peace, I should not have done so. Be true to your own convictions, and I will try to be true to mine - holding the mind open to receive any new light that may be shed in any direction.

As to the pecuniary "consideration" enclosed in your note for my discourse, I return it with thankfulness—

1. Because I never thought, and cannot think, of receiving a farthing on that score.

1858.

2. Because I informed your people that I stood in your place CH. XVIII. as an act of friendship, to enable you to dispense "the word" in a distant State; and, therefore, not as a matter of contract. And,

3. Because, on the score of favors, I am still very much your debtor, especially for your consoling services in times of afflic- Ante, p. 243. tion and bereavement by death.

"May grace, mercy, and peace" be with you and yours, now

and evermore!

Yours, with high regards,

WM. LLOYD GARRISON.

CHAP. XIX.

1859.

Lib. 28:91. Ante, 1:223.

Lib. 28: 86,

TH

CHAPTER XIX.

JOHN BROWN.-1859.

HE crest of time now reached by the abolition movement, after the lapse of a full generation, was the Pisgah outlook over the Promised Land of universal emancipation. Destined himself to descend into that land, the Moses of the little band who had followed after Lib. 29:87. the banner unfurled in 1831, could see the providence of God singularly displayed hitherto in the preservation of the earliest and most prominent of his associates. Yet, on the very threshold, the ranks began to thin with ominous rapidity. Ellis Gray Loring, best of counsellors on the Massachusetts Board, and among the first and truest of Mr. Garrison's supporters, had departed in May, 1858. In March, 1859, died Arnold Buffum, one of the founders of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and signers of the Declaration of Sentiments at Philadelphia; to whom Mr. Garrison and the cause owed much in the day of small things. In September, 1859, almost simulLib. 29: 150. taneously, Effingham L. Capron and Samuel Philbrick passed away-both birthright Quakers (like Arnold Buffum), and Capron a fellow-signer of the Declaration, Ante, 1:398; who first looked upon the editor of the Liberator with Lib. 29: 150. tears that forbade utterance; Philbrick, the prudent Lib. 29: 130, Treasurer, almost to the last, of the Massachusetts Society, and financial care-taker of the Liberator, and generous friend-in-need of Mr. Garrison.1

91, 100; 29:83. Lib. 29: 42,

48, 55, 71;

ante, 1:280,

395, 398.

150.

Ante, 2:332.

Lib. 29:70, 83, 87. Apr. 28.

More striking to the public eye, and more untimely, was the death of Charles F. Hovey in April, 1859. Not a vet

1 Mr. Philbrick left a bequest of $500 to Mr. Garrison (MS. Oct. 11, 1859, Edward S. Philbrick to W. L. G.)