Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 4

[4] servile war, and to be turned inside out and upside down, for its unparalleled iniquity. I fervently trust this pro-slavery Union is broken beyond the possibility of restoration by Northern compromises; yet, when I see our meetings everywhere mobbed¹ down, and the cities swarming with ruffians in full sympathy with the Southern traitors, and the Northern pulpits more satanic than ever, as far as they speak out against Abolitionism, and the Republican Party constantly ‘shivering in the wind,’ I am not sure but the whole country is to come under the bloody sway of the Slave Power—for a time—as it has not yet done.

Mr. Garrison's illness confined him to the house through the entire month of January, so that he was unable to attend the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, which began its sessions at Tremont Temple on the morning of January 24, and missed being an active participant in that memorable occasion. At his request the 94th Psalm was read at the opening of the meeting by the Rev. Samuel May, Jr. The following letter was also read by Mr. Quincy:

W. L. Garrison to Edmund Quincy.

Boston, Jan. 24, 1861.

² My dear coadjutor: . . . I am still not sufficiently strong to justify me, as a matter of common prudence, in being present at our annual State gathering to-day. ‘The spirit is willing,’ and restless for liberation, ‘but the flesh is weak.’ I believe this will be the first of the long series of anniversaries held by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, which I have failed to attend—held ‘through evil report’ and ‘much tribulation’— in storm and sunshine—in the midst of impending violence, or with undisturbed composure—but always held hopefully, serenely, triumphantly. It is a great cross to me to break the connection at this crisis; especially as, judging from ‘the fury of the adversary,’ the meeting, to-day, will be the most encouraging and the most potential ever held by the Society, whether broken up by lawless violence, or permitted to proceed without molestation. The cause we advocate being not ours, but God's—not ours, but human nature's—appealing to all that is just, humane, noble, and true, and upheld by an omnipotent