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William Lloyd Garrison (December 10, 1805-May 24, 1879) , who grew up in poverty, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, "the son of a ne'er-do-well sailor" (Kraditor 32 n). . He was an early opponent of the use of alcohol, profane language, violence, sexual vice, and vulgar types of entertainment and wished to restore God's government over the United States (Bailyn 541). He was imprisoned for writing what were considered libelous statements about a New England merchant, who at the time was shipping slaves from Baltimore to New Orleans. After his fine was paid by Arthur Tappan, Garrison went to Boston (551).
He is best known as the founder and publisher in Boston of the Liberator, his antislavery weekly, which he edited from 1831 until the end of the Civil War. Publication ceased in 1865, the purpose of the paper having been achieved, though not in the nonviolent way that Garrison had hoped. There was strong opposition to the Liberator ; In 1835 Garrison was mobbed, dragged through the streets of Boston, and nearly killed (Frost 416). His press was destroyed. In addition, a law was passed making it illegal for copies of the paper to be sold to free blacks. Despite all of the opposition, Garrison survived and so did the Liberator (Hart 473)
He was a pacifist, a moralist, and an ascetic (307). Although he had almost been lynched in 1835, he still adhered to absolute nonresistance, which he considered the only Christian response to violence (Bailyn 555). His pacifist views did not, however, indicate that he was weak in his antislavery stance. On the contrary, he was a radical abolitionist and the spokesman for others with the same viewpoint (Merrill V 1). He demanded that the slaves be emancipated at once (Hart 307).
In 1833 he was one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society and was its president from 1843-65 (Webster 388). In 1840 when the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society held a convention in London, the American Anti-Slavery Society and the female societies of Philadelphia and Boston sent delegates, some of whom were women. The host society refused to seat the women in the convention or to permit them to vote. Wendell Phillips defended them, but when his motion to seat them was defeated by a great majority, he offered no further opposition to the decision. The women were permitted to sit in the gallery but could take no part whatsoever in the proceedings. Garrison did not arrive until five days later. When he learned what had happend, he was furious and in protest joined the women in the gallery and would take no part in the convention (Sterling 112-113). He strongly opposed the Compromise of 1850 and favored separation between the North and the South (388).
His pledge for the Liberator was, "I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice... I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - AND I WILL BE HEARD" (Bailyn 551).
Circulation of the Liberator was never large, but the paper drew widespread attention to the antislavery cause because of Garrison's direct and forcible presentation of his passionate abolitionist beliefs (Bailyn 551). Hart, in The Oxford Companion to American Literature , states that only the slaveholders were equal to him in vituperation (307). In the South the paper was quoted, but in opposition to his views; and as early as 1831 the Georgia legislators proposed to offer a $5000 reward for anyone who would kidnap the man and deliver him for trial in the South (Bailyn 551).
His action at the World Anti-Slavery Convention was far from being the only instance of Garrison's showing support for women's rights. He strongly supported them over the years. At a national women's rights conference held October 26, 27, 1850, in Worcester, Massachussetts, he, Frederick Douglass, and Stephen S. Foster were spokesmen for those rights (Sterling 264).
Because the Constitution permitted slavery, Garrison considered that document to be a "Covenant with Death and an Agreement with Hell" (Hart 307). At the annual picnic of the New England Anti-Slavery Society on July 4, 1854, Garrison lighted a candle, placed it on the lectern, and burned a copy of the Fugitive Slave Law. As it burned, he said, "And let all the people say Amen ." The crowd responded with shouts of Amen. Then Garrison burned a copy of the Constitution, saying, "So perish all compromises with tyranny," and repeated, "and let all the people say Amen ." to which there was a tremendous response of Amen (Sterling 294).
The Constitution did support slave states and slave owners, permitting states to count slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of determining taxes and representation in the House of Representatives (Article I, Section 2: 3) and providing that a fugitive slave who escaped from the state in which he was held into another state was to be returned to his owner (Article IV, Section 2: 2). These sections of the Constitution did not become invalid until after the passage of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Ammendments in 1865 and 1868.
In 1987 Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and others noted that the Constitution truly had been a pro-slavery document until it was amended after the Civil War (Sterling 187 n).
Garrison made his first trip west in response to Abby Kelley Foster's prodding (Sterling 1847). As a result, in August of 1847 Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and some abolitionists from Pittsburgh, where Garrison and Douglass had been speaking, went to New Brighton, Pennsylvania, to lecture. Among those from Pittsburgh who accompanied them were the black abolitionists, J.B. Vashon, George B. Vashon (J.B.'s son), Dr. Peck, and Dr. Delaney (Merrill III 510).
George B. Vashon (c. 1824-1878) was in 1844 the first black man to graduate from Oberlin College. He also received a master's degree from the same institution. He was a lawyer and educator, becoming president of Avery College in Pittsburgh, and served as a solicitor at the Freedmen's Bureau in Washington after the war (512).
David Jones Peck was the first black graduate of an American medical school (513).
Martin R. Delaney (1812-1885) founded and edited the Pittsburgh Mystery, an antislavery paper for blacks founded in 1843. In 1847 Delaney co-edited the North Star with Frederick Douglass. He began the study of medicine at Harvard in 1849 and practiced in Pittsburgh for a time, later becoming head of the first black expedition to explore the Niger Valley in Africa. He was also the first black major in the United States Army during the Civil War (513).
As stated earlier in the section on Frederick Douglass, these people were met in New Brighton by Milo and Elizabeth Townsend, Milo's parents (Talbot and Edith Townsend), Dr. Weaver, Timothy White, and some others who were not named (510).
Charles Weaver was a New Brighton physician (513).
Timothy White (1807-1885), a Quaker carpenter and contractor and a strong Garrisonian abolitionist, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, but moved to New Brighton in 1837. An active helper of fugitive slaves, his home became a station for the underground railroad. He and John Collins (c.1810-1879), agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, also rescued two kidnaped black youths from Kentucky. Because of his strong antislavery beliefs, White did not vote until 1856 when Lincoln first ran for the presidency (Jordan I 532, 533; Bausman 708). While actively engaged in his carpentry and contracting profession, he built the Beaver County jail in 1856, began to manufacture wooden bridges in 1859, and turned from wooden to iron bridge production by 1868.
From Youngstown, Ohio, on August 16, 1847, Garrison wrote to his wife, Helen, about the visit to New Brighton. He called Milo one of the nation's truest reformers stating that his pen in support of reform was potent. Garrison also believed that Milo had given attention to every branch of reform (Merrill III 510).
By 1847 Milo's articles and letters may have been published in the Beaver County Argus or some other local newspaper. In addition, they began to appear in the newspapers of various cities such as Pittsburgh and Boston (in Garrison's Liberator ).
Garrison in describing New Brighton stated that it was a small village, the home of only eight hundred people. He noted, however, that there were several other villages nearby. He stated that a good many lectures had been given in New Brighton by the leading antislavery speakers, among whom he included Stephen and Abby Kelley Foster, Charles C. Burleigh, Parker Pillsbury, and Frederick Douglass. Garrison also noted that the Hicksite Quakers, who had a meeting-house in New Brighton, were generally pro-slavery (510-511).
The only place that could be obtained for the meetings was the upper room of a large store. This was overcrowded with several hundred people both in the afternoon and in the evening. Many others were unable to get in due to lack of space. There was in the evening, according to Garrison, some rowdyism by pro-slavery supporters. Young men and boys were the hecklers, whose yelling outside the building constituted the only active opposition. Above their meeting room barrels of flour were piled across the beams; and during the lectures mice nibbled at them, whitening the clothes of those below. Garrison suggested that the mice may have done so because they thought the speeches should "be a little more floury - (flowery)" (511).
Douglass and Garrison spoke at length, and Dr. Delaney discoursed wittily and energetically on prejudice in the matter of color (511).
As has been noted earlier, Sara Jane Clarke was present . Accompanied by Frederick Douglass and Milo Townsend, Garrison spent an hour at the home of her father, Dr. Thaddeus Clarke, whom Garrison said suffered terribly from the tic doloreaux and was in very poor health. The visitor was pleased to learn that Mrs. Clarke had known Helen Garrison when the latter was a child (511). Theodore Weld, of whom Henry C. Howells wrote in the first of his letters to Milo, was Dr. Clarke's nephew.
On Saturday morning Milo, Dr. Peck, Dr. Weaver, Charles Schirras, and Garrison climbed the three hundred foot heights across the Beaver River from New Brighton, enjoying the view. They descended under the Alum Rocks, which Garrison found "very wild and picturesque" (511).
When they reached Milo's house, Garrison was exhausted and thoroughly wet with perspiration. He noted that he had perspired so copiously during this lecture tour that he was amazed to find that he had any solid matter left (511).
Garrison, Douglass, and Dr. Peck left New Brighton on Saturday afternoon at four via canal boat on the Pennsylvania-Ohio Canal to travel the forty miles to Youngstown. They arrived at 4 a.m. Sunday, and Garrison probably got some sleep, for he had not been able to sleep in the confined space of the berth provided on the boat (512).
Because of his nonviolence viewpoint, he was greatly disturbed by the outbreak of war in 1861. Indeed, although the abolitionists are credited with the social reform that was a result of the war, they are today not held accountable for having caused the Civil War (V 1).
John Greenleaf Whittier, a famous American poet of the day, admired Garrison and in 1833 wrote a poem about him that in The Oxford Companion to American Literature is said to be one of his finest (307).
The following lines are taken from that poem, titled "To W.L.G.":
Champion of those who groan beneath
Oppression's iron hand:
In view of penury, hate, and death,
I see thee fearless stand.
Still bearing up thy lofty brow,
In the steadfast strength of truth,
In manhood sealing well the vow
And promise of thy youth.
Go on, - for thou hast chosen well;
On in the strength of God!
Long as one human heart shall swell
Beneath the tyrant's rod.
Speak in a slumbering nation's ear,
As thou has ever spoken,
Until the dead in sin shall hear, -
The fetter's link be broken!
....
Then onward with a martyr's zeal;
And wait thy sure reward
When man to man no more shall kneel,
And God alone be Lord!
(The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier 42)
After the Civil War, Garrison threw his energies into campaigns against liquor, prostitution, and injustice in the treatment of Indians as well as continuing to support the women's rights movement (Webster 388; Frost 416).
Garrison's correspondence with Milo follows.
The first letter was written when Milo and a friend of his were in Boston. Garrison offers apologies for not being able to accept an invitation.
Letter 49
from William Lloyd Garrison
Boston, Oct. 27, 1862
Dear friend Townsend:
I deeply regret it has so happened that all my intentions to have shown you and your friend, Mr. Clark, some courtesies during your visit to this city, since my return home, have been baffled -- partly in consequence of not happening to be at the Anti-Slavery Office when you called, and not knowing where to find you, so that I could not call upon you -- and more particularly because, for the last three days, I have been too unwell to go out, being threatened with a slow fever. Be assured, it would have given me great pleasure to have taken you both to the most interesting objects and places in the city and its vicinity; but as you are to leave to-morrow, I can only beg you to take the will for the deed. I trust your visit, nevertheless, has proved a pleasant one.
Mr. Clark did me the favor to spend half an hour with me this forenoon. He impressed me very favorably, and evidently possesses a benevolent and fine spirit, seeking only to do good.
In response to your kind note, just received, inviting me to spend the evening with you and an interesting circle at Mrs. Denham's, I am obliged to decline, as a matter of prudence; for, though feeling better than I did yesterday, or on Saturday, I am not in a suitable condition of mind or body to enjoy company.
Should you not leave till tomorrow afternoon, perhaps I shall have the pleasure of seeing you either at my house, or else at the office -- for, should the weather prove fair, and I feel a little better, I shall venture down in the forenoon -- say by 10 o'clock.
When you return home, convey my kindest remembrances to your beloved wife, whom it would give me great pleasure to see again in the flesh.
"When shall we three meet again?" "Should auld acquaintance be forgot?"
Yours, with warm esteem,
Milo A. Townsend.
Wm. Lloyd Garrison
Although the original Garrison letters quoted here remain the property of the Townsend family, the following letter has been published as Garrison letter 57 in The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, Volume V., page 148. The other three letters are also available in the Harvard University Microfilms supplement. All that is known about the churn is contained in the following two letters.
Letter 47
from William Lloyd Garrison
Boston, April 16, 1863
Dear friend Townsend:
Agreeably to your request, I have called upon G.B. Johnson, in Brattle Street, and given him your introductory note.
With regard to the Churn, he says we have had such a wintry spring, (the mean temperature of January having been several degrees warmer than that of March!) that there has been no advantageous opportunity presented satisfactorily to test it, so as to procure sales for the same; but he spoke very favorably of it, and seemed to think it would come into use in due season. He said he would report to me as soon as he had made any progress. I understood him to say that he had written to you on the subject. I am sorry that, at the time, he has no money to send you.
I was much pleased on examining the churn; and though I am not a connoisseur in such matters, I do not see how it can be improved on the score of simplicity, and ease and efficiency of action.
Of course, it will give me pleasure at any time to transmit, without charge, any funds that Mr. Johnson may put into my hands on your account.
With my best wishes for your welfare, and my regards to your dear wife, I remain,
Yours, for good churns and good deeds.
Milo A. Townsend.
Wm. Lloyd Garrison.
Letter 48
from William Lloyd Garrison
Boston, June 9, 1863
Dear Friend Townsend:
I have called to see Mr. Johnson, 41 Brattle Street, relative to your patent Churn, and am sorry to say that he has not yet been able to find a sale for it, so as to make you a remittance. He informs me that he has recently been to Connecticut and New York, with a view (among other things) to make its merits known, and thus to create a demand for it; but that a new patent is unlike a piece of goods that may find a purchaser at any time, -- That it requires time and experiment to establish its claims, and bring it into notice, -- and that, exerting himself to the extent of his ability to procure sales for it, he will apprise me, at the earliest practicable period, of any finds that he may have on your account. In addition to this, he says he has lately written to you on the subject.
I know nothing of Mr. Johnson, but take it for granted that he means to do the right thing; for I can readily understand, with so many competitive churns in the market, how difficult it must be to find a ready sale for a new one, however superior its merits. It is both curious and instructive to see how cautious, and even stubbornly skeptical, people are to any and every kind of improvement, from abolishing slavery, to making butter! Nevertheless, sure I am that "one good churn deserves another" --and that other must be yours, of course!
I meant to have promptly answered a former letter, containing your carte de visite , which was a most acceptable gift. It will occupy an honored place in my collection.
With my warmest regards to your dear wife, I remain,
Yours, always to serve,
Milo A. Townsend.
Wm. Lloyd Garrison
In his last extant letter to Milo, Garrison finds he must decline another invitation.
Letter 174
from William Lloyd Garrison
Galesburg [Illinois], Nov. 21, 1865
Dear friend Townsend:
I have just arrived here, and find your letter of the 11th inst. waiting for an answer.
Be assured it would give me uncommon pleasure to send you an affirmative response to your kind and urgent invitation to visit New Brighton, especially with reference to the Freedmen's sacred cause, if I could do so; but my engagements and duties are such as to render it utterly out of the question. As soon as I get through at Pittsburgh, I must take the night train to Philadelphia, so as to be present at the wedding of my son, Wendell to Lucy McKim, daughter of my friend J.M. McKim, on the 6th of December. Then I must hurry home with all speed, to wind up my Liberator affairs.
I have neither lost my desire nor forgotten my promise to visit your place at the earliest practicable period.
I have been lecturing to good audiences all along from the East to the West, but am exceedingly worn with fatigue, and very hoarse and much inflamed at the lungs with incessant talking, so many friends and strangers come to see and converse with me in every place. I have still a number of places to visit - Quincy, Jacksonville, Springfield, Indianapolis, Lafayette, Richmond, Cincinnati, before reaching Pittsburgh. I am expecting every
day utterly to break down.
Deeply regretting that I cannot say, "I'll come," and wishing to be affectionately remembered to your dear wife, I remain, dear Milo,
Yours, with warm esteem,
Wm. Lloyd Garrison
Dissension among the antislavery leaders is reflected strongly in a letter to Milo from Mary T. Stickney of Philadelphia. The letter is dated less than two months before Milo's first letter from Abby Kelley Foster and more than two years before Garrison's August, 1847, visit to New Brighton.
Letter 136
from Mary T. Stickney
Phil May 18. 1845--
....We have had some interesting meetings here this winter, A. Kelly [sic.], Foster, E. Hitchcock, Dr. Hudson, & Remond have been in the region the chief part of the season and have made quite a stir among the pro-slavery part of the community. They have lectured some in the City, but mostly in the region round about; I have heard them ;but very little, owing to my inability to go out-- . I heard A. Kelly once only. I suppose it would be hardly fair to say how much I was disappointed in her, as it was not one of her most successful efforts. She is to go to Ohio this summer & perhaps you will have an opportunity to hear her. I hope you will like her better than I did, but I hope you will not let her persuade you that you are on the wrong side of the New Hampshire controversy. I heard...that you were in favor of Rogers1 & French & I was really delighted to hear such good news. Very likely there has been fault on both sides...but we all think he is more sinned against than sinning. Poor Rogers! I cannot forgive Garrison his cruel treatment of one whom we thought he once loved so well; if he should die I feel that G's skirts would not be clear of his brother's blood; what business had a Mass. committee to interfere with N.H. difficulties, especially after they had expressed their opinions on the subject? I am afraid S. Foster has more jealousy in his heart than he is willing to confess even to himself; he no doubt has been the prime mover in this thing, and used the Mass. friends as cat's paws, they were his unconscious tools . Rogers has but few friends in this city, though thank Heaven he has some; C.C. Burleigh is one of them. Though there is not much said here either way yet, as soon as the edict went out at 25 Cornhill, Boston, against "The Herald of Freedom," it was excluded from 31 North Fifth St., Phil. Such a following of file leaders never yet was seen among abolitionists; L. Mott, who has grown very unsensitive since her daughter has been engaged to T. Covender (a Liberty party man, who makes himself very conspicuous) does not take the paper, and another friend told me "her sympathies were with R-- but she had returned her copy" which she had always taken before. I hope you will not sympathize after this fashion, for if many were to do so, Rogers might well cry out, "Deliver me from my friends."
Foster though an old friend did not come to see us, whether it was because Remond told him how we felt with regard to this matter or not, I do not know; we expressed our minds very fully to Remond, & in answer to a question, he told us if the N.H. Society had new organized & R. & R remained as they were , the case would undoubtedly have been decided in their favor instead of against them. I suppose you saw the letter of A. Wattles in "The Herald" a few weeks ago, as well as we; how did you like it? We were all delighted with it, & it seems even Garrison finds it unanswerable ...
Reports say that A. Kelly & S. Foster intend to set up the community of two (which they have had in contemplation so long & which you have heard of before this time no doubt, some time this year. Whether they will then settle down into the quiet as the Grimkes have done before them remains to be seen....
Your friend--
M.T. Stickney
1Nathaniel Peabody Rogers (1794-1846) established the Herald of Freedom , an antislavery paper, in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1838. He edited it until he gave up his position in a controversy with the New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society in 1845. He had long been a close associate with Garrison, but the controversy over the paper alienated them (Merrill III 16).
Garrison in a March 1, 1845, letter to Richard D.Webb stated that Rogers was never asked to cease editorship of the Herald , but that, on the contrary, he was asked to continue in the work with complete editorial freedom. Garrison made every effort to effect a reconciliation between Rogers and the New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society's board of managers. However, he did feel that Rogers was becoming mentally unbalanced, as he refused to continue as editor even though the board was wholly in favor of his doing so (287-288).
Rogers held an anti-institution or extreme pacifist position that led him to object to the making of an agenda for meetings and to elections of officers. He believed that at meetings anyone should be permitted to speak on any subject at any time. He held that the press should also be spontaneous, so he suspended publication of the Herald for two weeks to demonstrate his position. All of this proved to be too much for the patience of the New Hampshire Society. When Rogers refused to continue editing the paper, Parker Pillsbury took the position (Kraditer 33 n; Sterling 194-195).
John Robert French (1819-1890) was printer of the Herald of Freedom at the time of the controversy. Garrison considered him to be conceited, stubborn, and very bad tempered. French became editor of other papers in both New England and Ohio and later held a position with the United States Treasury and in Congress ( Merrill III 269, 285).
Milo's opinion of French appears to be very different, as indicated in a letter to the editor of the New Brighton Times dated September 20, 1859. Milo wrote from Cleveland as follows:
Here I met with John R. French Esqr. of New England anti-slavery notoriety in days of yore; and latterly editor of the Painesville Telegraph. He is the son-in-law of N.P. Rodgers [sic.], once the brilliant and intrepid editor of the Herald of Freedom, for several years published in Concord N.H. Well do I remember the skill displayed by the lamented Rodgers in wielding his keen Damascus blade against the pro-slavery hosts who threatened to silence, in those days, every tongue and pen that was used in behalf of Freedom. His interesting and noble family have found a home in the borders of this village, where I was kindly invited to tarry during my stay. But business limited my sojourn to a few hours during which reminiscences, social cheer, and music and song by two lovely daughters of this noble anti-slavery Pioneer caused the moments to flit by on golden wings (Townsend family Scrapbook ).