[42] he has made for my kindness; but my heart yearns over him, and I cannot reproach him.
No direct notice was taken of the circular, or of Knapp's publication, in the Liberator; but the simple facts of the final transfer were stated by the financial1 committee on renewing their trust for the twelfth volume.
Amid all the vexatious cares of this year 1841, Mr. Garrison's health and spirits were at their height. With his verse the Liberator volume had opened, and with his verse it closed; the last half being freely sprinkled with sonnets, lyrics, and other forms from the editor's active muse. To the new volume of the Liberty Bell he contributed ‘The Song of the Abolitionist,’ which, to the tune of ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ was sung at countless gatherings in2 hall and grove for twenty years. A verse or two shall close the present chapter:
I am an Abolitionist!3
I glory in the name;
Though now by Slavery's minions hissed,
And covered o'er with shame:
It is a spell of light and power—
The watchword of the free:—
Who spurns it in the trial-hour,
A craven soul is he!
I am an Abolitionist!
Then urge me not to pause,
For joyfully do I enlist
In Freedom's sacred cause:
A nobler strife the world ne'er saw,
Tha enslaved to disenthrall;
I am a soldier for the war,
Whatever may befall!
I am an Abolitionist—
Oppression's deadly foe;
In God's great strength will I resist,
And lay the monster low;
In God's great name do I demand,
To all be freedom given,
That peace and joy may fill the land,
And songs go up to Heaven!
