Your ordinances are few and simple, but mighty through God. CHAP. III. 1863. A Memorial to Congress asking for a Constitutional amendment to prohibit slavery forever within the limits of the United States was adopted.1 Mr. Garrison having announced that George Thompson was soon to revisit the United States, a resolution of "fraternal welcome and warm congratulation" in advance, and of recognition of his patriotic services in support of the American Government, was also adopted; and then Mr. Garrison, with characteristic thoughtfulness, recalled the name and labors of Benjamin Lundy, "that honor may be given to whom honor is due, to one whose memory ought to be preserved to the latest generation as the distinguished pioneer in this great struggle." "If," he said, "I have in Lib. 34:17. any way, however humble, done anything toward calling attention to the question of slavery, or bringing about the glorious prospect of a complete jubilee in our country at no distant day, I feel that I owe everything in this matter, instrumentally, and under God, to Benjamin 1 The resolution introducing this Memorial was suggested and written by Charles Sumner, as he was on his way to Washington, the evening before the Convention (Dec. 2), and given to Henry C. Wright, whom he met on the Sound steamer to New York (MS. H. C. Wright). CHAP. III. 1863. Lundy." His concluding words were full of cheer, and hope, and rejoicing over the blessings to accrue to the South through emancipation. So ended the last decade meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Happy would it have been if the Society had felt warranted in making that its final gathering, and in disbanding then and there; for fate decreed that it should never again meet in such oneness of spirit.1 1 A full report of the proceedings of the Third Decade Meeting was published in the Liberator and Standard, and subsequently issued in a handsome pamphlet by the Society, with an Appendix, and a Catalogue (prepared by Rev. Samuel May, Jr.) of Anti-Slavery Publications in America, from 1750 to 1863. The fiftieth anniversary of the Society was celebrated by a meeting in Philadelphia, Dec. 4, 1883. Only three of the original signers then survived - Robert Purvis, who presided; Elizur Wright, who spoke; and John G. Whittier, who sent a letter for the occasion. THE CHAPTER IV. THE REËLECTION OF LINCOLN.-1864. HE new year opened with the shadow of a great CHAP. IV. sorrow resting upon the household in Dix Place. On the night of December 29, 1863, Mrs. Garrison was prostrated by a severe stroke of paralysis, which entirely crippled her left side, and for several days made her recovery doubtful. The blow was utterly unexpected, for she had ever enjoyed the best of health, and her energetic exertions, not only in the management of her domestic affairs, but in outside works of kindness and benevolence, were unceasing. Early in the month she had accompanied her husband and two of their sons to the Decade Meeting at Philadelphia, to her great enjoyment and the gratification of her friends in that city, for her devotion to home and children had seldom allowed her to indulge in such excursions. She returned happy in the memory of her delightful experience, and in the thought that she might attempt such visits oftener in future, now that her children no longer needed her constant maternal care, and that the approaching downfall of slavery promised more opportunities of relaxation for her husband. She had seldom looked more fresh and blooming than on the day which proved to be her last of active, vigorous health, and the friends on whom she called, on an errand in behalf of the freedmen, were impressed by her fine appearance. In the evening she attended a lecture with her husband and children, and an hour or two after she had retired for the 1864. CHAP. IV. night, the blow fell which crippled her for the remainder of her life.1 1864. The physical strain put on Mr. Garrison in the first moments of his wife's helplessness temporarily disabled him also; but he was able, in the latter part of January, to attend the Anti-Slavery Subscription Festival, and Jan. 27, 28, the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery 1864. Society. At this meeting Mr. Phillips made an elaborate speech on the danger of a premature reconstruction of the seceded States, and the importance of demanding the political enfranchisement of the freedmen in any scheme that might be devised, as the only means of preventing the enactment of apprenticeship or other oppressive laws by their late masters. His text was a resolution, introduced by himself, in these terms: Lib. 34:22. "That, in our opinion, the Government, in its haste, is ready to sacrifice the interest and honor of the North to secure a sham peace, thereby risking the introduction into Congress of a strong Confederate minority to embarrass legislation, and leaving the freedmen and the Southern States under the control of the late slaveholders, embittered by their defeat in war, and entailing on the country intestine feuds for another dozen years; and we listen in vain, either from the leaders of the Republican party or from its journals, for any such protest as would arrest national attention, or create a public opinion definite enough to avert the sacrifice." There was good reason for exclaiming against the crude and hasty methods by which the President seemed anxious to reestablish the machinery of local self-government (by the whites) in the conquered territory held by the Northern armies, and for demanding that no State should be readmitted to the Union until equal rights, fair-play, and protection to the freedmen had been fully secured; but 1 "How good and true she has always been!" wrote Samuel J. May, on hearing of Mrs. Garrison's paralysis. "Unselfish, she has always found her own happiness in promoting the happiness of others. She was born and brought up in a family that seemed to me full of lovingkindness; and I considered her the most equable and affectionate of them all. How cheerful and bright she was at our meetings in Philadelphia, and how much she enjoyed them" (MS. Jan. 5, 1864, to W. L. G.). to the opening sentence of the resolution Mr. Garrison, CHAP. IV. with his usual scrupulousness of phraseology, felt compelled to take exception, and he did so as follows: 1864. "Mr. President, in consequence of a severe domestic afflic- Lib. 34:23. tion and of bodily debility, I am not mentally or physically in a condition to make a speech; and, therefore, I shall not attempt to make one. But I wish to propose an amendment to the resolution which was submitted to the meeting by my friend Mr. Phillips this forenoon, and which he advocated with his usual ability and eloquence. As it now stands, it reads thus: "Resolved, That, in our opinion, the Government, in its haste, is ready to sacrifice the interest and honor of the North to secure a sham peace,' etc. "I am not prepared to bring this charge, nor to cast this imputation. I believe that there is only one party at the North that is ready to make such a sacrifice for such an object, and that is the party of Copperheads. I would therefore propose that the resolution be amended as follows: "Resolved, That, in our opinion, the Government, in its haste, is in danger of sacrificing,' etc. "This, Mr. President, is what I am willing to admit, and what I believe; but I would always rather err on the side of charitable judgment than of excessive condemnation. The resolution, as offered, is an impeachment of motives, not of ability or vigilance. It commits us to the assertion, that we believe the Government - meaning Mr. Lincoln in particular-is ready to do a most infamous act, namely, 'to sacrifice the interest and honor of the North to secure a sham peace,' whereby the President's Emancipation Proclamation shall be rendered null and void, and the slave oligarchy restored to their original supremacy. Now, sir, I do not believe a word of it, and therefore I cannot vote for it. To be ready to do a base thing for a base end implies both will and purpose; it means something more than liability: it amounts to perfidy. There was a time when I had little confidence in Abraham Lincoln, and very little respect for him: it was when, for almost eighteen months after secession had taken place, he was evidently averse to seeing that slavery had any vital connection with the rebellion, and so refused to strike a blow at its existence. But the time |