1867. Chillon, after their descent of the Tête Noire pass; and at Interlaken they tarried more than a week, making the Sept. 5-13, usual excursions to Berne, and Lauterbrunnen, and Giessbach, and revelling in the view of the peerless Jungfrau. The last half of the month was spent quietly at Lucerne, under less propitious skies, and without the lively companionship of their friends. After an ascent of the Rigi, and a glimpse of Zurich, the Falls of the Rhine, and Constance, Mr. Garrison and his son returned to England by way of Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Frankfort, and Brussels, seeing the Rhine, also, from Mayence to Cologne. Sept. 27. Sept. 29, 30. Oct. 2-8. Oct. 6. Oct. 14. Oct. 15. One more week was given to London, and two evenings Oct. 9-16. of this were occupied by receptions and suppers tendered by the National Freedmen's Aid Union, at Devonshire House, the headquarters of the Society of Friends in London, and the National Temperance League, in the Strand. The former was presided over by the venerable and indefatigable abolitionist, Joseph Cooper, whom Mr. Garrison had met on his first visit to England; at the latter, the famous caricaturist, George Cruikshank, was present, and made a humorous and lively speech, though then just entering his 76th year. On both occasions, George Thompson shared the honors and the speaking with Mr. Garrison; and at Birmingham and Leeds, also, where large and enthusiastic meetings were held, they both spoke with much vigor. That at Birmingham was under the auspices of the National Freedmen's Aid Union and the Birmingham and Midland Freedmen's Aid Association, and was preceded by a breakfast to Mr. Garrison, at which an ex-Confederate General, R. V. Richardson of Tennessee, spoke and made voluntary confession that the freedmen "were confiding, warm-hearted, faithful, sympathetic, possessed of great physical energy and power, and only required to be educated to make excellent citizens."1 1"I am writing this with a Southern Confederate General (Richardson of Tennessee) by my side, and a Major (Saunders) of the same stripe- both very courteous, friendly, complimentary! What strange things turn up in the course of time!" (MS. Oct. 19, 1867, W. L. G. to H. E. G.) 1867. CHAP. VIII. The following letter was read by Arthur Albright, Mr. Garrison's host in Birmingham, through whose untiring efforts, largely, the magnificent sum of £100,000 had already been raised and sent to America in aid of the freedmen : MS. W. E. Gladstone to Arthur Albright. PENMAEN-MAWR, Aug. 22, '67. DEAR SIR: I have received your letter of the 20th, and I sincerely regret that I am unable to comply with your request. During the recess of Parliament, my limited hours for taking part in public proceedings must be reserved for direct local claims and for those of my constituents. Even these, indeed, I am far from being able to meet as I could wish. Had I been in more favorable circumstances, I should have hailed an opportunity of paying public honor to such a man as Mr. Garrison. I remain, Sir, your faithful servant, W. E. GLADSTONE. The Leeds meeting occurred on the 21st of October, and celebrated, by this happy coincidence, the anniversary of the Boston Mob.1 Between Birmingham and Leeds a night was spent at Stratford-on-Avon, by invitation of Mr. E. F. Flower, well known to Americans for his everready hospitality, and for his successful efforts while Mayor to preserve and restore Shakespeare's birthplace. Hardly less than his pardonable satisfaction over this achievement was his pride in the exploits of his earlier years, when, as a youth in Illinois, he had been so efficient an agent of the Underground Railroad that he was compelled at last to flee for his life from the State. The culminating demonstrations in Mr. Garrison's honor were those which occurred at the annual meetings of the United Kingdom Alliance at Manchester, on the 22d of October, where he spoke twice in response to resolutions of welcome at the morning session of the Council, and at the great public meeting in Free Trade Hall in the evening; his fellow-countryman, General Neal Dow, and 1 Edward Baines, M. P. for Leeds, presided at the reception in that city, where Mr. Garrison was the guest of his old friend, Joseph Lupton. 1867. Cardinal Manning being among the other speakers, and CHAP. VIII. Sir Wilfred Lawson occupying the chair. The vast hall was packed to overflowing with an audience of five thousand persons, whose enthusiasm was tumultuous when Mr. Garrison rose to speak. Rising en masse, they greeted him with prolonged cheering and waving of handkerchiefs, and when he could finally make himself heard, he declared himself almost overwhelmed by the "marvellous and sublime spectacle" of such a gathering, which far surpassed in size and earnestness any temperance meeting he had ever seen. At a Vegetarian banquet the following evening, he made a brief speech, confessing that he was not a convert to that theory, but that if the demonstration of its soundness were to rest on the vigorous octogenarian who presided, the case would certainly be made out. John Mawson came to Manchester to take a last farewell of Mr. Garrison,1 and James Haughton was there from Dublin to renew the old friendship. Other friends were at Liverpool to say the parting word - George Thompson, Richard D. Webb, and Miss Estlin of Bristol among them. On the morning of the 25th a complimentary breakfast was given to Mr. Garrison by Mr. James R. Jeffrey, a prominent merchant of Liverpool, and the evening of the same day was spent with a delightful company at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Crosfield, the latter a niece of James Cropper. The next day Mr. Garrison, with his son, sailed for home on the Java, having as fellow-passengers Dr. Henry I. Bowditch, Miss Anne Warren Weston, and other friends, whose cheerful companionship mitigated the discomforts of the rough and uncomfortable voyage; and on the 6th of November Boston was reached and the fourth transatlantic journey ended. 1 Less than two months later (Dec. 18) Mr. Mawson was killed by an His face had almost an angelic radiance about it" (MS. Jan. 11, 1868, Mary A. Oct. 26. CHAP. IX. 1868-76. CHAPTER IX. JOURNALIST AT LARGE.-1868-1876. WITH WITH renewed health, Mr. Garrison again tried to face the task of writing a History of the AntiSlavery Movement; but an invitation to become a regular paid contributor to the New York Independent, with liberty to write as often as he chose, and to select his own topics, proved irresistibly attractive. His name was attached to all his articles, and he practically enjoyed all the freedom and opportunity of utterance which the Liberator had afforded him, with none of the responsibility and drudgery of editorial life. Moreover, he now addressed sixty thousand readers instead of twenty-five hundred. "You will speak," wrote Oliver Johnson, who had become the associate editor of the Independent, "to a great audience, to many of whom your real sentiments are hardly known, and some of whom, doubtless, are filled with prejMS. Apr. udice against you." And a few weeks later he wrote: "One of the very best and ablest of our orthodox ministers expressed himself as highly delighted with your articles, and said they were not only specimens of fine English, but pervaded by an eminently noble and Christian spirit." MS. Jan. 27, 1868. 7, 1868. In the hundred articles which he contributed to that paper during the next seven or eight years, Mr. Garrison discussed all the reforms and topics of the day which attracted him, whether pertaining to the freedmen and the reconstruction problem, temperance, the rights of women, peace, popular religion, or the issues of the two Presidential campaigns. Nor was his active interest in these by any means confined to writing about them in 236 1868-76. the Independent, but by voice and pen, on the platform, CHAP. IX. and in many avenues of the press, he was constantly bearing his testimony, and giving the prestige of his name and vigorous support. For the years included in this chapter we shall, abandoning the chronological presentation hitherto observed, deal with successive topics, and shall quote briefly Mr. Garrison's utterances on questions which still await their just settlement. THE FREEDMEN.- As an officer and member of the Executive Committee of the New England branch of the Freedman's Union Commission, Mr. Garrison attended many committee meetings during the closing years of the organization, and occasionally presided or spoke at the public meetings of the Society and its tributary organizations in other places. As one of the Trustees for the expenditure of the money left to the Anti-Slavery cause by Francis Jackson (which did not become available until two years after slavery was abolished), he urged that the entire fund should be devoted to the education of the freedmen, as the nearest possible method of carrying out Mr. Jackson's wishes; and in this he was sustained by two of his co-Trustees, Edmund Quincy and Samuel May. Mr. Phillips, on the other hand, advocated its appropriation for the support of the Anti-Slavery Standard, on the ground that the political enfranchisement of the freedmen, which the Standard (not alone, however, but in common with some of the ablest and most influential journals in the country) was especially urging, was more important than their education. Others of the Trustees sided with Mr. Phillips, and, for the sake of adjusting the matter, Mr. Garrison proposed that five thousand dollars be given to the freedmen, and the balance ($4200) to the Standard; but when Congress, a month or two later, passed the Reconstruction Act enfranchising the freedmen, the special 1 Namely, Charles K. Whipple and William I. Bowditch. Edmund Jackson, the testator's brother, favored giving one-quarter of the amount to the Standard and the rest to the freedmen. 1868-69. |