These citations from the deliverances of the great leaders of the
Abolitionists will give some idea of the motives and methods which
pervaded that fellowship. With tireless insistence they went forward
with their labors for the abolition of slavery and the dissolution of
the Union, the latter being deemed a condition precedent to the complete
accomplishment of the former. Only the action of South Carolina, which
brought the nation face to face with a practical attempt at disunion,
served to suspend the efforts of the Abolitionists to effect a like
result. This momentous step on the part of South Carolina was received
with exultant satisfaction—William Lloyd Garrison declaring, "All
Union-saving efforts are simply idiotic. At last 'the covenant with
Death' is annulled, and the 'agreement with Hell' broken, at least by
the action of South Carolina, and ere long by all the slaveholding
states, for their doom is one."[329] And Wendell Phillips re-echoed the
sentiment: "Let the South march off with flags and trumpets, and we will
speed the parting guest. Let her not stand upon the order of her going,
but go at once: Give her jewels of silver and gold, and rejoice that she
has departed. All hail, Disunion!"[330]