setts Regiment, about three miles from the city, to find On Monday morning the little group of the Arago's passengers who had remained behind, on the steamer's return to New York, left Charleston for the purpose of visiting Florida. The incidents of their departure were thus described by Mr. Beecher: CHAP. V. - 1865. "The streets were full of colored people. I supposed that Lib. 35:84. they had just come in from plantations — for they were being brought into Charleston by hundreds and thousands by our soldiers returning from raids through the adjacent country; but they said they were going to see Mr. Garrison and Mr. Thompson off. And we could have found our way to the steamer by following this crowd. When we reached the wharf, it was black; and yet it glowed like a garden. They had but little to bring as testimonials of their remembrance and gratitude; but what they had they brought. One had a little bunch of roses. Another had a bunch of jessamines and honeysuckles. Others had bunches of various kinds of flowers. I saw Mr. Tilton loaded down with these treasures that had been Theodore Tilton. CHAP. V. 1865. showered upon him, and struggling beneath his burden as he came on board. And they were thrown up on the steamer to Mr. Thompson and Mr. Garrison, and whatever person showed himself by the rail. And they lay about in bowlsful, and basketsful, and heaps in the corners so abundant that we knew not how to dispose of them. They were all they had to bring by which to express their gratitude towards those that they supposed had befriended them. No, not all; one poor, decrepit old woman came with a straw basket containing about two quarts of ground-nuts, which she wished to give us. A young woman came with some dainty little cakes that had been carefully prepared in some kitchen. There were various little delicacies brought for us, that we might eat them and remember the givers. I shall not forget these scenes. I shall not forget the cheers and acclamations of that dusky throng, as speeches were made to them. And when the boat moved off, I felt that we had left behind many of the Lord's elect, and that it were better for a man that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea, than that he should lay one finger of harm on these little ones of Christ." A spirited meeting was held on the wharf, James Redpath presiding, and Samuel Dickerson made an eloquent farewell speech, to which Garrison, Thompson, and Tilton responded. Major Delaney, a colored member of General Saxton's staff, also spoke. The hundreds of school children present sang patriotic songs with great energy. As the steamer swung off, Dickerson was seen kneeling at the end of the wharf, with one arm about his little daughters, and holding above them with the other an American flag; and with this tableau ended the neverto-be-forgotten experiences of the three days in Charleston. Gathering a mass of the flowers which the grateful freedmen had showered upon their friends, George Thompson disappeared for a time, as the steamer made her way out of the harbor, and then, returning, led his companion to their state-room, where he had fairly covered the latter's berth with the fragrant offerings. "Garrison!" he said, "you began your warfare at the North in the face of rotten eggs and brickbats. Behold, you end it at Charleston on a bed of roses! " The intended journey to Florida was rudely interrupted 1865. by the news of President Lincoln's assassination, which April 14, reached the party at Beaufort. To quote Mr. Beecher : "We had returned to Beaufort, and were on the eve of going Lib. 35:84. upon shore to enjoy a social interview, before setting out for Savannah, when a telegram came to Senator Wilson from Gen. Gillmore. As the boy that brought it passed me, I jocosely asked him some questions about it. Presently Senator Wilson came out of his cabin, much agitated, and said, 'Good God! the President is killed!' and read the dispatch. It was not grief, it was sickness that I felt. "In one half-hour we had wheeled upon our keel, and were plowing our way back to Hilton Head, whither we had telegraphed to have steam raised upon the Suwo Nada, that we might leave immediately for the North. We could see no more sights. We had no more heart for pleasure. The heavens seemed dark. Nothing was left, for the hour, but God, and his immutable providence, and his decrees. I leaned on them, and was strengthened. But, oh, the sadness of that company, and our nights' and our days' voyaging back! We knew nothing but this: that the President had been assassinated. All the rest was reserved for our coming into the harbor. We hoped to have returned with great cheer, and to have come up this noblest bay of the world to see it lined with tokens of joy and beauty; but, instead of that, on a dreary morning, drenched, chilled, and seasick, we came creeping up the bay under a cloudy sky, fit symbol of our nation's loss, and betook ourselves to our several homes." No stop was made at Fortress Monroe on the return voyage, which was so hastily ordered that the steamer had only one hour's supply of coal left on reaching New York. Mr. Garrison often spoke of the immense relief it was to all, on landing, to find that the assassination of the President had not affected the stability of the Government of the country in the slightest, and that the North was as united in feeling as it was after the fall of Sumter in 1861. Lieut. Garrison's furlough was voluntarily extended by Secretary Stanton to enable him to accompany his father to Boston. In September, 1865, the Secretary visited CHAP. V. 1865. MS. Sept. 18, 1865. Boston and renewed his acquaintance with Mr. Garrison, to whom he wrote on his arrival: "One of the anticipated pleasures of my visit to Boston was to see you, and it will occasion me much regret should anything prevent our meeting. The invitation to witness the ceremonies at Fort Sumter was a just tribute to your great labors and sacrifices in the cause [of] freedom and human rights, and without your presence much of the significance of the event would have been incomplete. Although conscious that the terms of commendation in which my services during the war are so kindly mentioned by you, are beyond my merit, I am happy to know that they are approved by you, who from earliest youth have been an object of my respect and admiration. With sincere regard, I shall ever be faithfully your friend." THE CHAPTER VI. END OF "THE LIBERATOR."— 1865. 1865. HE debates at the January meetings of the Massachu- Jan. 26, 27, setts Society in Boston had turned almost wholly upon the question of reconstruction and negro suffrage; Mr. Phillips vigorously opposing the readmission of Louisiana or any other of the seceded States with the word white in their constitutions, and declaring that "no Lib. 35:18. emancipation can be effectual, and no freedom real, unless the negro has the ballot and the States are prohibited from enacting laws making any distinction among their citizens on account of race or color." Mr. Garrison urged that those Northern States which denied suffrage to the blacks within their own borders could not, with any consistency, make a similar denial on the part of the Southern States a sufficient reason for refusing them readmission to the Union, and he therefore proposed the following resolutions as supplementary to the series introduced by Mr. Phillips: "7. Resolved, That if, as reconstructed, Louisiana ought not Lib. 35:18. to be admitted to the Union because she excludes her colored population from the polls, then Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and all the Western States ought not to be in the Union for the same reason; and while they are guilty of this proscription, it is not for them to demand of Louisiana a broader scope of republican liberality than they are willing to take in their own case.1 1 Mr. Garrison had already pointed out, in an editorial reviewing the whole subject of "Equal Political Rights," that the new Constitution of Louisiana was really more favorable to the colored people than that of any |