Mr. Garrison said:--Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,--For
this marked expression of your personal respect, and
appreciation of my labors in the cause of human freedom, and of
your esteem and friendship for the land of my nativity, I offer
you, one and all, my grateful acknowledgments. But I am so
profoundly impressed by the formidable array of rank, genius,
intellect, scholarship, and moral and religious worth which I
see before me, that I fear I shall not be able to address you,
except with a fluttering pulse and a stammering tongue. For me
this is, indeed, an anomalous position. Assuredly, this is
treatment with which I have not been familiar. For more than
thirty years, I had to look the fierce and unrelenting hostility
of my countrymen in the face, with few to cheer me onward. In
all the South I was an outlaw, and could not have gone there,
though an American citizen guiltless of wrong, and though that
flag (here the speaker pointed to the United States ensign) had
been over my head, except at the peril of my life; nay, with the
certainty of finding a bloody grave. (Hear, hear.) In all the
North I was looked upon with hatred and contempt. The whole
nation, subjugated to the awful power of slavery, rose up in
mobocratic tumult against any and every effort to liberate the
millions held in bondage on its soil. And yet I demanded nothing
that was not perfectly just and reasonable, in exact accordance
with the Declaration of American Independence and the Golden
Rule. I was not the enemy of any man living. I cherish no
personal enmities; I know nothing of them in my heart. Even
whilst the Southern slave-holders were seeking my destruction, I
never for a moment entertained any other feeling toward them
than an earnest desire, under God, to deliver them from a deadly
curse and an awful sin. (Hear, hear.) It was neither a sectional
nor a personal matter at all. It had exclusive reference to the
eternal law of justice between man and man, and the rights of
human nature itself.
Sir, I always found in America that a shower of brickbats had a
remarkably tonic effect, materially strengthening to the
back-bone. (Laughter.) But, sir, the shower of compliments and
applause, which has greeted me on this occasion would assuredly
cause my heart to fail me, were it not that this generous
reception is only incidentally personal to myself. (Hear, hear.)
You, ladies and gentlemen, are here mainly to celebrate the
triumph of humanity over its most brutal foes; to rejoice that
universal emancipation has at last been proclaimed throughout
the United States: and to express, as you have already done
through the mouths of the eloquent speakers who have preceded
me, sentiments of peace and of good-will toward the American
Republic. Sure I am that these sentiments will be heartily
reciprocated by my countrymen. (Cheers.)
I must here disclaim, with all sincerity of soul, any special
praise for anything that I have done. I have simply tried to
maintain the integrity of my soul before God, and to do my duty.
(Cheers.) I have refused to go with the multitude to do evil. I
have endeavored to save my country from ruin. I have sought to
liberate such as were held captive in the house of bondage. But
all this I ought to have done.
And now, rejoicing here with you at the marvellous change which
has taken place across the Atlantic, I am unable to express the
satisfaction I feel in believing that, henceforth, my country
will be a mighty power for good in the world. While she held a
seventh portion of her vast population in a state of chattelism,
it was in vain that she boasted of her democratic principles and
her free institutions; ostentatiously holding her Declaration of
Independence in one hand, and brutally wielding her
slave-driving lash in the other. Marvellous inconsistency and
unparalleled assurance. But now, God be praised, she is free,
free to advance the cause of liberty throughout the world. (Loud
cheers.)
Sir, this is not the first time I have been in England. I have
been here three times before on anti-slavery missions; and
wherever I traveled, I was always exultantly told, "Slaves
cannot breathe in England!" Now, at last, I am at liberty to
say, and I came over with the purpose to say it, "Slaves cannot
breathe in America!" (Cheers.) And so England and America stand
side by side in the cause of negro emancipation; and side by
side may they stand in all that is just and noble and good,
leading the way gloriously in the world's redemption. (Loud
cheers.)
I came to this country for the first time in 1833, to undeceive
Wilberforce, Clarkson, and other eminent philanthropists, in
regard to the real character, tendency, and object of the
American Colonization Society. I am happy to say that I quickly
succeeded in doing so. Before leaving, I had the pleasure of
receiving a protest against that Society as an obstruction to
the cause of freedom throughout the world, and, consequently, as
undeserving of British confidence and patronage, signed by
William Wilberforce, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Zachary Macaulay, and
other illustrious philanthropists. On arriving in London I
received a polite invitation by letter from Mr. Buxton to take
breakfast with him. Presenting myself at the appointed time,
when my name was announced, instead of coming forward promptly
to take me by the hand, he scrutinized me from head to foot, and
then inquired, somewhat dubiously, "Have I the pleasure of
addressing Mr. Garrison, of Boston, in the United States?" "Yes,
sir," I replied, "I am he; and I am here in accordance with your
invitation." Lifting up his hands he exclaimed, "Why, my dear
sir, I thought you were a black man. And I have consequently
invited this company of ladies and gentlemen to be present to
welcome Mr. Garrison, the black advocate of emancipation from
the United States of America." (Laughter.) I have often said,
sir, that that is the only compliment I have ever had paid to me
that I care to remember or tell of. For Mr. Buxton had somehow
or other supposed that no white American could plead for those
in bondage as I had done, and therefore I must be black.
(Laughter.)
It is indeed true, sir, that I have had no other rule by which
to be guided than this. I never cared to know precisely how many
stripes were inflicted on the slaves. I never deemed it
necessary to go down into the Southern States, if I could have
gone, for the purpose of taking the exact dimensions of the
slave system. I made it from the start, and always, my own case,
thus: Did I want to be a slave? No. Did God make me to be a
slave? No. But I am only a man, only one of the human race; and
if not created to be a slave, then no other human being was made
for that purpose. My wife and children, dearer to me than my
heart's blood, were they made for the auction-block? Never! And
so it was all very easily settled here (pointing to his breast).
(Great cheering.) I could not help being an uncompromising
abolitionist.
Here allow me to pay a brief tribute to the American
abolitionists. Putting myself entirely out of the question, I
believe that in no land, at any time, was there ever a more
devoted, self-sacrificing, and uncompromising band of men and
women. Nothing can be said to their credit which they do not
deserve. With apostolic zeal, they counted nothing dear to them
for the sake of the slave, and him dehumanized. But whatever has
been achieved through them is all of God, to whom alone is the
glory due. Thankful are we all that we have been permitted to
live to see this day, for our country's sake, and for the sake
of mankind. Of course, we are glad that our reproach is at last
taken away; for it is very desirable, if possible, to have the
good opinions of our fellow-men; but if, to secure these, we
must sell our manhood and sully our souls, then their bad
opinions of us are to be coveted instead.
Sir, my special part in this grand struggle was in first
unfurling the banner of immediate and unconditional
emancipation, and attempting to make a common rally under it.
This I did, not in a free State, but in the city of Baltimore,
in the slave-holding State of Maryland. It was not long before I
was arrested, tried, condemned by a packed jury, and
incarcerated in prison for my anti-slavery sentiments. This was
in 1830. In 1864 I went to Baltimore for the first time since my
imprisonment. I do not think that I could have gone at an
earlier period, except at the peril of my life; and then only
because the American Government was there in force, holding the
rebel elements in subserviency. I was naturally curious to see
the old prison again, and, if possible, to get into my old cell;
but when I went to the spot, behold! the prison had vanished;
and so I was greatly disappointed, (Laughter.) On going to
Washington, I mentioned to President Lincoln, the disappointment
I had met with. With a smiling countenance and a ready wit, he
replied, "So, Mr. Garrison, the difference between 1830 and 1864
appears to be this: in 1830 you could not get out, and in 1864
you could not get in!" (Great laughter.) This was not only
wittily said, but it truthfully indicated the wonderful
revolution that had taken place in Maryland; for she had adopted
the very doctrine for which she imprisoned me, and given
immediate and unconditional emancipation to her eighty thousand
slaves. (Cheers.)
I commenced the publication of the "_Liberator_" in Boston, on
the 1st of January, 1831. At that time I was very little known,
without allies, without means, without subscribers; yet no
sooner did that little sheet make its appearance, than the South
was thrown into convulsions, as if it had suddenly been invaded
by an army with banners! Notwithstanding, the whole country was
on the side of the slave power--the Church, the State, all
parties, all denominations, ready to do its bidding! O the
potency of truth, and the inherent weakness and conscious
insecurity of great wrong! Immediately a reward of five thousand
dollars was offered for my apprehension, by the State of
Georgia. When General Sherman was making his victorious march
through that State, it occurred to me, but too late, that I
ought to have accompanied him, and in person claimed the
reward--(laughter)--but I remembered, that, had I done so, I
should have had to take my pay in Confederate currency, and
therefore it would not have paid traveling expenses. (Renewed
laughter.) Where is Southern Slavery now? (Cheers.) Henceforth,
through all coming time, advocates of justice and friends of
reform, be not discouraged; for you will, and you must succeed,
if you have a righteous cause. No matter at the outset how few
may be disposed to rally round the standard you have raised--if
you battle unflinchingly and without compromise--if yours be a
faith that cannot be shaken, because it is linked to the Eternal
Throne--it is only a question of time when victory shall come to
reward your toils. Seemingly, no system of iniquity was ever
more strongly intrenched, or more sure and absolute in its sway,
than that of American Slavery; yet it has perished.
"In the earthquake God has spoken;
He has smitten with His thunder
The iron walls asunder,
And the gates of brass are broken."
So it has been, so it is, so it ever will be throughout the
earth, in every conflict for the right. (Great cheering.) * *
* * *
Ladies and gentlemen, I began my advocacy of the Anti-slavery
cause at the North in the midst of brickbats and rotten eggs. I
ended it on the soil of South Carolina, almost literally buried
beneath the wreaths and flowers which were heaped upon me by her
liberal bondmen. (Cheers.)