Angelina E. Grimké to William Lloyd Garrison, August 30, 1835

PHILADELPHIA, 8th month, 30th, 1835.

Respected Friend:

It seems as if I was compelled at this time to address thee, notwithstanding all my reasonings against intruding on thy valuable time, and the uselessness of so insignificant a person as myself offering thee the sentiments of sympathy at this alarming crisis.

I can hardly express to thee the deep and solemn interest with which I have viewed the violent proceedings of the last few weeks. Although I expected opposition, yet I was not prepared for it so soon – it took me by surprise, and I greatly feared Abolitionists would be driven back in the first onset, and thrown into confusion. So fearful was I, that though I clung with unflinching firmness to our principles, yet I was afraid of even opening one of thy papers, lest I should see some indications of compromise, some surrender, some palliation. Under these feelings, I was urged to read thy Appeal to the citizens of Boston. Judge, then, what were my feelings, on finding that my fears were utterly groundless, and that thou stoodest firm in the midst of the storm, determined to suffer and to die, rather than yield one inch. My heart was filled with thanksgiving and praise to the Preserver of men; I thanked God, and took courage, earnestly desiring that thousands may adopt thy language, and be prepared to meet the Martyr's doom, rather than give up the principles you (i. e. Abolitionists) have adopted. The ground upon which you stand is holy ground: never – never surrender it. If you surrender it, the hope of the slave is extinguished, and the chains of his servitude will be strengthened a hundred fold. But let no man take your crown, and success is as certain as the rising of to-morrow’s sun. But remember you must be willing to suffer the loss of all things – willing to be the scorn and reproach of professor and profane. You must obey our great Master’s injunction: “Fear not them that kill the body, and after that, have nothing more that they can do.” You must, like Apostles, “count not your lives dear unto yourselves, so that you may finish your course with joy.”

Religious persecution always begins with mobs: it is always unprecedented in the age or country in which it commences, and therefore there are no laws, by which Reformers can be punished; consequently, a lawless band of unprincipled men determine to take the matter into their hands, and act out in mobs, what they know are the principles of a large majority of those who are too high in Church and State to condescend to mingle with them, though they secretly approve and rejoice over their violent measures. The first martyr who ever died, was stoned by a lawless mob; and if we look at the rise of various sects – Methodists, Friends, &c. – we shall find that mobs began the persecution against them, and that it was not until after the people had thus spoken out their wishes, that laws were framed to fine, imprison, or destroy them. Let us, then, be prepared for the enactment of laws even in our Free States, against Abolitionists. And how ardently has the prayer been breathed, that God would prepare us for all he is preparing for us; that he would strengthen us in the hour of conflict, and cover our heads (if consistent with his holy will) in the day of battle! But O! how earnestly have I desired, not that we may escape suffering, but that we may be willing to endure unto the end. If we call upon the slave-holder to suffer the loss of what he calls property, then let us show him we make this demand from a deep sense of duty, by being ourselves willing to suffer the loss of character, property – yea, and life itself, in what we believe to be the cause of bleeding humanity.

My mind has been especially turned towards those, who are standing in the fore front of the battle; and the prayer has gone up for their preservation – not the preservation of their lives, but the preservation of their minds in humility and patience, faith, hope, and charity – that charity which is the bond of perfectness. If persecution is the means which God has ordained for the accomplishment of this great end, EMANCIPATION; then, in dependence upon Him for strength to bear it, I feel as if I could say, LET IT COME; for it is my deep, solemn, deliberate conviction, that this is a cause worth dying for. I say so, from what I have seen, and heard, and known, in a land of slavery, where rests the darkness of Egypt, and where is found the sin of Sodom. Yes! LET IT COME – let us suffer, rather than insurrections should arise.

At one time, I thought this system would be overthrown in blood, with the confused noise of the warrior; but a hope gleams across my mind, that our blood will be spilt, instead of the slave-holders’; our lives will be taken, and theirs spared – I say a hope, for all things I desire to be spared the anguish of seeing our beloved country desolated with the horrors of a servile war. If persecution can abolish slavery, it will also purify the Church; and who that stands between the porch and altar, weeping over the sins of the people, will not be willing to suffer, if such immense good will be accomplished. Let us endeavor, then, to put on the whole armor of God, and, having done all, to stand ready for whatever is before us.

I have just heard of Dresser’s being flogged: it is no surprise it all; but the language of our Lord has been sweetly revived – “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” O! for a willingness and strength to suffer! But we shall have false brethren now, just as the Apostles had, and this will be one of our greatest griefs.

A. E. GRIMKÉ.

– Published in The Liberator, Boston, Massachusetts, Saturday, September 19, 1835

To The Public

In the month of August, I issued proposals for publishing ‘THE LIBERATOR’ in Washington city; but the enterprise, though hailed in different sections of the country, was palsied by public indifference.  Since that time, the removal of the Genius of Universal Emancipation to the Seat of Government has rendered less imperious the establishment of a similar periodical in that quarter.

During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting the minds of the people by a series of discourses on the subject of slavery, every place that I visited gave fresh evidence of the fact, that a greater revolution in public sentiment was to be effected in the free states – and particularly in New England – than at the south.  I found contempt more bitter, opposition more active, detraction more relentless, prejudice more stubborn, and apathy more frozen, than among slave owners themselves.  Of course, there were individual exceptions to the contrary.  This state of things afflicted, but did not dishearten me.  I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill and in the birth place of liberty.  That standard is now unfurled; and long may it float, unhurt by the spoliations of time or the missiles of a desperate foe – yea, till every chain be broken, and every bondman set free!  Let southern oppressors tremble – let their secret abettors tremble – let their northern apologist tremble – let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble.

I deem the publication of my original Prospectus* unnecessary, as it has obtained a wide circulation.  The principles therein inculcated will be steadily pursued in this paper, excepting that I shall not array myself as the political partisan of any man.  In defending the great cause of human rights, I wish to derive the assistance of all religions and of all parties.

Assenting to the ‘self-evident truth’ maintained in the American Declaration of Independence, ‘that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights – among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population.  In Park-street Church, on the Fourth of July, 1829, in an address on slavery, I unreflectingly assented to the popular but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition.  I seize this opportunity to make a full and unequivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, of my country, and of my brethren the poor slaves for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice and absurdity.  A similar recantation, from my pen, was published in the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore, in September 1829.  My conscience is now satisfied.

I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity?  I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice.  On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation.  No! no!  Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; – but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present.  I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD.  The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

It is pretended, that I am retarding the cause of emancipation by the coarseness of my invective, and the precipitancy of my measures.  The charge is not true.  On this question my influence, --- humble as it is, --- is felt at this moment to a considerable extent, and shall be felt in the coming years --- not perniciously, but beneficially – not as a curse, but as a blessing; and posterity will bear testimony that I was right.  I desire to thank God, that he enables me to disregard ‘the fear of man which bringeth a snare,’ and to speak this truth in its simplicity and power.  And here I close with this fresh dedication:

‘Oppression!  I have seen thee, face to face,

And met thy cruel eye and cloudy brow;

But thy soul-withering glance I fear not now–

For dread to prouder feelings doth give place

Of deep abhorrence!  Scorning the disgrace

Of slavish knees that at thy footstool bow,

I also kneel – but with far other vow

Do hail thee and thy herd of hirelings base:–

I swear, while life-blood warms my throbbing veins,

Still to oppose and thwart, with heart and hand,

Thy brutalising sway – till Afric's chains

Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land,–

Trampling Oppression and his iron rod:

Such is the vow I take – SO HELP ME GOD!’

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON

BOSTON, January 1, 1831.

__________

* I would here offer my grateful acknowledgments to those editors who so promptly and generously inserted my Proposals.  They must give me an available opportunity to repay their liberality.

– Published in The Liberator, Boston Massachusetts, Saturday, January 1, 1831, p. 1

Wm. Lloyd Garrison’s Speech

We make the following extract from a speech by Wm. Lloyd Garrison, in answer to Wendell Phillips at Boston, on the anniversary of the American Anti-slavery Society, May 10, 1864:

Our friend Phillips has said, very truly, that the American people, have laid down the principle, that once in four years they mean to look their Administration in the face, and see if it is worth while to change it. But have not committed themselves to the one term principle – they have not been so foolish as that; they say that every four years they will look and see whether they will change their President or not; but they hold to the principle that they may keep him in office for eight, twenty or fifty years, if he and they live long enough, and they like each other well enough. {Applause.} So they are coming together this season to look at him and I can only express the conviction of my own mind, that when they shall come together, and shall look the fact in the face, that no man in this nation is now so hated and detested by the rebels of the South and all the north who sympathize with the rebels, as Abraham Lincoln, they will make up their minds that he will do to “run the machine” four years longer. {Enthusiastic applause.}

A voice – Butler is more hated.

The President continued – Grant there are many sad things to look in the face, grant that the whole of Justice has not been done to the negro; grant that here or there, there are things which are to be deplored and to be redressed; still, looking at the question broadly and comprehensively and philosophically, I think the people will ask another question – whether they themselves have been one hair’s breadth in advance of Abraham Lincoln? {Applause.} whether they are not conscious that he has not only been fully up with them, but on the whole a little beyond them? As the stream cannot rise higher than the fountain, so the President of the United States amenable to the public sentiment, could not, if he wished to do it, transcend public sentiment in any direction. {Applause.} For my own part, when I remember the trial through which he has passed, the perils which have surrounded him – perils and trials unknown to any man, in any age of the world, in official station – when I remember how fearfully corrupt was the public sentiment of the north, to say nothing of the south – when I remember how nearly a majority, even at this hour is the seditious element of the north – and then remember that Abraham Lincoln has struck the chains from the limbs of more than three millions of slaves; {applause} that he has expressed his earnest desire for the total abolition of slavery, that he has implored the Border States to get rid of it; that he has recognized the manhood and citizenship of the colored population of our country; that he has armed upwards of a hundred thousand of them, and recognized them as soldiers under the flag; when I remember that this Administration has recognized the independence of Liberia and Hayti [sic]; when I remember that it has struck the death blown at the foreign slave trade by granting the right of search; when I remember that we have now nearly reached the culmination of our great struggle for the suppression of the rebellion and its cause, I do not feel disposed, for one, to take this occasion, or any occasion to say anything very harshly against Abraham Lincoln. {Loud and prolonged applause.}

– Published in The Union Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, Saturday, July 9, 1864

NOTE: The Date of Mr. Garrison’s Speech was printed in the paper as May 10, 1894, an obvious printer’s error. I have corrected the error here to avoid any confusion.