The disunion sentiments and efforts of the Abolitionists may be traced
through the declarations of their leaders and the platforms of their
societies, enunciated from time to time, during a long series of years
antedating the Civil War. Thus in January, 1843, the Massachusetts
Anti-Slavery Society adopted the following resolution:
"That the compact which exists between the North and the South is a
covenant with Death and an agreement with Hell—involving both
parties in atrocious criminality, and should be immediately
annulled."[307]
These sentiments were affirmed and reiterated by the American
Anti-Slavery Society at its tenth anniversary meeting in New York
City, May, 1844, where among other declarations the Federal
Constitution was denounced as "a covenant with Death and an agreement
with Hell," and the motto adopted "No Union with Slaveholders."[308]
In 1854, William Lloyd Garrison declared, "There is but one honest,
straightforward course to pursue if we would see the slave power
overthrown—the Union must be dissolved."[309] And Wendell Phillips
re-echoed the sentiment in the no less explicit declaration, "As to
disunion, it must and will come. Calhoun wants it at one end of the
Union, Garrison wants it at the other. It is written in the counsel of
God."[310]
Mr. Schouler, referring to the foregoing declaration of Mr. Garrison
and the occasion, says: "And such was the general tenor of anniversary
speeches and resolutions through the next six years, whenever and
wherever meetings were held of our Anti-Slavery Societies."[311]