CHAP. IV.

1864.

nothing. In other words,—as in your own country,-universal suffrage will be hard to win and to hold without a general preparation of feeling and sentiment. But it will come, both at

the South and with you; yet only by a struggle on the part of the disfranchised, and a growing conviction of its justice, 'in the good time coming.' With the abolition of slavery in the South, prejudice or colorphobia,' the natural product of the system, will gradually disappear as in the case of your West India colonies and black men will win their way to wealth, distinction, eminence, and official station. I ask only a charitable judgment for President Lincoln respecting this matter, whether in Louisiana or any other State." 1

In the closing numbers of the Liberator volume, Mr. Garrison laid stress on the grave problems involved in Lib. 34: 194. the reconstruction of the rebellious States, at the hands of

Congress, and on the duty of securing the enactment of Lib. 34:190. the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery. For this Amendment the President, in his Message to Congress, made an earnest plea, and solemnly renewed his vow never to retract or modify his Proclamation, or to return to slavery any person emancipated by its terms, or by any Lib. 34:199. of the acts of Congress. "If the people should," he added, "by whatever mode or means, make it an Executive duty to reënslave such persons, another, not I, must be their instrument to perform it."

Once more the expediency of consolidating the Liberator and Standard was privately considered, the everincreasing cost of paper making it difficult to sustain

1 Another indictment, constantly reiterated, against Mr. Lincoln was his assent to the Labor System established in Louisiana by General Banks, who was accused of having forced the freedmen back under their old masters and reduced them to a state of serfdom scarcely better than slavery. Mr. Garrison refused to accept these assertions until he could investigate the matter, and it subsequently appeared that they were altogether unjust and exaggerated. The Labor System, which insured employment at fair wages to the men, and provisions and shelter for their families, saved hundreds from the demoralization and death which decimated them when they swarmed about the Union camps; and the Educational System, which went hand in hand with it, gave instruction to more than 11,000 children. Both departments were under the charge of radical abolitionists and friends of Mr. Garrison, Major B. Rush Plumly of Philadelphia, and Rev. Edwin M. Wheelock of New Hampshire (Lib. 34: 155, 160, 181, 182; 35: 30, 34).

1

1864.

both, but it was finally decided to increase the price of CHAP. IV. each, and try to prolong their individual existence until the passage and ratification of the Amendment should warrant their discontinuance. To Oliver Johnson, who had strongly urged their union, on the ground that Mr. Garrison would thus be relieved of the toil of the printingoffice, and could, by editorial correspondence with the Standard, easily satisfy the Liberator subscribers, whose interest in the paper was largely personal to him, the latter wrote:

"I am not insensible to the compliment intended to be conveyed in the assurance, that it is what I write that alone interests the readers of the Liberator; but I am not willing to believe, after an editorial experience of thirty-eight years, that, aside from my own lucubrations, I have neither the tact nor the talent to make an interesting journal. This touches me too closely. If the Liberator has been at all effective in the past, it has been owing to its completeness, as a whole, from week to week, and not to what I have written. This is the true value of every journal. My selections have cost me much labor, and they have been made with all possible discrimination as to their interest, ability, and appositeness. The amount of communicated original matter has always been much larger than that of the Standard; and though not always of special interest or value,

1 An additional embarrassment arose, in the case of the Liberator, from the action of the Hovey Committee, who had hitherto paid for one hundred copies of the paper, for gratuitous circulation. They now stopped the appropriation, "on the alleged ground that the Liberator, for the countenance it has given to President Lincoln and his administration, 'has no more claim to be circulated by the Committee than any other Republican paper'" (Lib. 34: 210). The Draper Brothers of Hopedale, Mass., Edward Harris of Woonsocket, R. I., Samuel E. Sewall, and others voluntarily assumed the burden thus dropped by the Committee. From Henry Ward Beecher there came the following gay and characteristic note (MS.):

BROOKLYN, Feb. 4, 1865.

MY DEAR MR. GARRISON: I have had the Liberator sent to me, free, for several years; on the principle, I presume, that I needed it. So long as I was in a state of nature, I consented to have a free gospel preached to me. But, as I have made up my mind, at length, that slavery is an evil, and ought to be abolished, I suppose that I can find no good reason for taking the Liberator without paying for it. I am truly yours, H. W. BEECHER. Please find a check for $25.00.

MS. Nov.

26, 1864.

CHAP. IV. 1864

it has made the Liberator less a transcript, and more readable on that account.

“The Liberator has an historic position and a moral prestige which would be lost should it be merged in the Standard. True, the loss would be the same should the paper be discontinued; but I shall try to prevent this by increasing the subscription price for the next volume. I confess to a strong desire to keep it along till the Amendment of the Constitution is secured, and slavery abolished. It will then have accomplished its antislavery mission.

"Though you may still feel that the plan you have urged, as to the union of the two papers, is wisest and best, I know you will readily acquiesce in the decision to which I have come; especially as that decision seems to accord with the judgment of the Executive Committee at the present time.

"Accept, dear Johnson, a renewal of my grateful acknowledgments for your many kindnesses, and the lively interest you have ever evinced in my welfare and happiness. I have not a more attached or a more disinterested friend in the world than yourself. And the anti-slavery cause has never found a truer advocate or a more faithful laborer than you have been from the hour you espoused it."

S

CHAPTER V.

THE JUBILEE.-1865.

CHAP. V.

1865.

Jan. II.

WIFTLY following the example of Maryland, Missouri joined the ranks of the free States at the beginning of the new year, and abolished slavery within her borders without a day of grace or a cent of compensation to the slave-masters.1 As if shamed to decency by this signal repentance of her neighbor, Illinois tardily Lib. 35:28. repealed her infamous "Black Laws"; and on the last day of January the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, forever abolishing slavery in the United States, triumphantly passed the House of Representatives at Washington by the requisite two-thirds majority. "With Lib. 35:18. devout thanksgiving to God, and emotions of joy which no language can express," Mr. Garrison announced the event to his readers, and when the salute of one hundred guns in its honor was fired by Gov. Andrew's order, he went up to the Common to enjoy the sight and listen to the reverberations. At the Governor's suggestion and request, the church bells were rung throughout the State; and it was while sitting in the quiet Friends' Meeting at Amesbury that Mr. Whittier heard these, and, divining the cause, framed in thought his inspired lines of praise and thanksgiving ("Laus Deo!"), which Mr. Garrison never wearied of repeating. A Jubilee Meeting was speedily convened in Music Hall, which was crowded with an enthusiastic audience, and when the chairman (Josiah

1 The new Constitution was adopted in State Convention without submission to popular vote. The clause abolishing slavery passed by a vote of 60 to 4 (Lib. 35: 11).

Feb. 4.

1865.

CHAP. V. Quincy, Jr.) introduced Mr. Garrison as the first speaker of the evening, the latter received such an ovation that he was unable to proceed for several minutes. His speech was naturally exultant, anticipating the future greatness and prosperity of the country, and its influence upon other nations, and (by way of impressing upon his hearers the full significance of this latest triumph) rehearsing the pro-slavery clauses of the Constitution which were now abrogated by the Amendment. We quote his words of rejoicing, at the beginning:

Lib. 35:22.

“Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: In the long course of history, there are events of such transcendant sublimity and importance as to make all human speech utterly inadequate to portray the emotions they excite. The event we are here to celebrate is one of these grand, inspiring, glorious, beyond all power of utterance, and far-reaching beyond all finite computation. (Applause.)

"Sir, no such transition of feeling and sentiment as has taken place within the last four years, stands recorded on the historic page; a change that seems as absolute as it is stupendous. Allow me to confess that, in view of it, and of the mighty consequences that must result from it to unborn generations, I feel to-night in a thoroughly methodistical state of mind disposed at the top of my voice, and to the utmost stretch of my lungs, to shout 'Glory!' 'Alleluia !''Amen and amen!' (Rapturous applause-Glory!' 'Alleluia!' 'Amen and amen!' being repeated with great unction by various persons in the audience.) Gladly and gratefully would I exclaim with one of old, 'The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.' (Applause.) With the rejoicing Psalmist I would say to the old and the young, 'O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever. To him alone that doeth great wonders; for his mercy endureth forever. To him that overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea; for his mercy endureth forever. And brought out Israel from among them, with a strong hand, and with a stretched-out arm; for his mercy endureth forever.' (Loud applause.) Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord!'

"Mr. Chairman, friends and strangers stop me in the streets, daily, to congratulate me on having been permitted to live to