The Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of William Lloyd Garrison--By the...

8/3/2019 The Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of William Lloyd Garrison--By the Colored Citizens of Greater Boston (1906)

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Mead, Rev. Wm. H. Scott, president ofBoston Suffrage league; John W.Smith, an old anti-slavery printer,Joshua A. Crawford, Walter Thomas,T. P. Taylor, W. M. Trotter, secretaryGarrison Centenary committee; JamesA. Lew, Horace Gray, Pierre Zeno,commander of Wm. Lloyd Garrison G.A. R. post of Brooklyn, N. Y., Rev. F.G. Snelson, Homer B. Sprague, EdwinD. Mead, Rev. Chas. Ames, RebeccaT. Collins, who knew Garrison; Geo.G. Bradford, Geo. R. Tabers, G. W.Fowle, who was in mob with Garrison,Rev. Jesse Harrell.The invocation was given by Rev. S.

J. Comfort, Rev. Jesse Harrell not arriving till later. Mr. Mark R. DeMor-tie, chairman of the Citizens commi*-tee, presided. The Crescent Malequartet sang very acceptably "TheVoice of Peace."Secretary William M. Trotter of the

Suffrage league committee, read lettersof regret from William H. Dupree,

Rev. Francis H. Rowley, N. P. Hal-lowell and ex-Gov. J. Q. A. BrackettMr. Mark R. DeMortie spoke in partas follows:The hero of whom we shall speakwas born at Newburyport in this stateone hundred years ago. At his birth

place he was surrounded by such eloquent and influential men as CalebGushing, W. D. Northen and RichardS. Spofford, the husband of HarrietSpofford, the authoress, all of them advocating the cause and justness ofslavery.He gathered his little company, andthey met in the African Baptistchurch. Smith court. Joy street, andformed the New England Anti-Slaverysociety and declared for immediateemancipation. When they adjournedand stepped out in the storm and darkness from the meeting he remarked,"our numbers are few and our influence limited but mark my prediction,Faneuil Hall shall ere long echo withthe principles we have set forth. Weshall shake the nation by their mightypower."We that are alive today have livedto see his prediction verified. Hiswords and labors not only abolishedslavery in the United States but inthe West Indies and serfdom in Russia. It was only three years after theissue of this little sheet (holds up Liberator) that slavery was abolished inthe West Indies; you will not find inthe history of the world where somuch was accomplished in so short atime. (Applause.) When you will stopto consider that slavery was only abolished in our neighboring state, NewYork, in 1827, what a great work William Lloyd Garrison and his apostolicbrothers and sisters accomplished rnso short a period. God bless them all.I must enumerate some of their names.I do not want those that do not readhistory to forget, among their numberwas Arthur and Lewis Tappen, theI ovejoy brothers, Maria and MaryChapmans, Oliver Johnson, FrancesJackson, Samuel and Samuel J. May,the Hutchinson family, Lucy Stone,Frederick Douglass, Frank Sanborn.


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BIRTH OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 37Abby Kelley, Charles C. Burleigh,Charles Lenox Remond, Dr. SamuelG. Howe, Julia Ward Howe, WilliamC. Nell, last to name among others isParker Pillsbury and Wendell Phillips, but they were the peers of themall.Where shall we look today for theman that will espouse the wrongs ofmy race; we are outraged and by menin the South today, because we went200,000 strong to help save the nationfrom rebeldom. (Applause.) I hadhoped for a Moody before the administration found him big enough for acabinet office. Let us continue to hopeand hope on trusting to God to rightour wrongs.

It is not my duty to speak but to introduce those that may address you.The committee has seen fit and properto select me for that duty as I presided at the emancipation meeting thatwas held January the first, 1863, inTremont Temple at which the work ofWilliam Lloyd Garrison was consummated.Rev. Charles G. Ames, was the first

speaker. He spoke extemporaneouslyand gave very sober advice saying inpart: "When we turned free 4,000,000ex-slaves it was a good deal like shaking out a ragbag. They have beenclimbing every day, and they still havea great deal of progress to make.There is still a battle to be w;agedagainst the same spirit which madeslavery possible. You will get yourdues not by appealing to white mento help you, but by helping yourselves. You have got to become self-reliant and self-respecting, and onlythis kind of appeal will win."Mr. B. R. Wilson yielded his place onthe program to Mrs. Fanny Garrison

Villard, who received an ovation. Shesaid: "I know that what my dearfather did for the Colored race, all hesacrificed, he has got back. He hada moral uplift and high associates, andI feel that he more than got it backfrom you by your sincere affection."(Great applause).Rabbi Charles Fleischer followed. In

the course of his address he said:"In participating in this centenarycelebration of a man whom we all de

light to honor, let me speak to a textfurnished by Garrison himself: Iclaim to be a human rights man. Thatwas a sentiment to be expected from

the universalistic seer, who, in frenzyexclaimed: My country is the world;my countrymen are all mankind."After all, a specific wrong or injus

tice is only a local or a particularphase of general wrong or injustice.It means a falling short of ideal standards. Slavery in the United States,oppression of Armenians in Turkey,persecution of Jews in Russia theseare all poison, fruits of the samedeadly tree. They all tell the samesad story of the survival of beastliness in man, none the less beastlywhen it expresses itself in the contempt of refined and superior folksfor those whom they think or who actually may be inferior.

"Real superiority proves itself notin hatred and contempt, in an ever-widening spiral of sympathy and love.The more one can include the morehuman one is. The grown-up mansays naturally: I think nothing human foreign to me. Even the rightsof Russia are dear to me, whose fellow Jews are being treated atrociouslyby other Russians.""Fortunately, we may claim todaythat the sort of man typified in the

fine figure of Garrison, the HumanRights Man, is not so rare in our daysas he was in those days."Moorfield Storey, president of the

Anti-Imperialist League, who was private secretary to Charles Sumner, saidin part:"This celebration comes at a fortu

nate hour. We are passing through areaction against the great principlesof freedom and equal rights to advancewhich Mr. Garrison devoted his life,and we need assured faith. We needto be reminded how much can be accomplished in a good cause by courage, persistence and unwavering devotion against odds which seem to beoverwhelming how certain is the triumph of right.

"Yet with no arms but his pen andhis voice, with no funds and without asingle subscriber to support his newspaper, Garrison attacked the monstrous wrong, and for a generationurged unrelenting war against it.Poverty and hardship, abuse, execration and contempt, the jail, the mob,and the danger of violent death, never appalled him nor turned him fromhis purpose.

"It is altogether fitting that weshould honor a man of this rare mold.


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ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARYHe deserves all the honor we can payhim, but it is not by eulogies or meetings or statues that we honor him best,but by following his example andshowing something at least of hisconstancy and courage.

"The equal rights of men, which,when he died seemed assured in thiscountry, are again questioned. Inmany states American citizens are denied the right to vote on account oftheir color. There and elsewhere theyare exposed to lawless violence, aresubjected to cruel punishments without trial, are visited with social indignities, are denied the equal opportunity which is the birthright of everyman, are taunted with inferiority,while many insist that they are and ofright must be forced to remain hewersof wood and drawers of water, incapable of higher things. Let us learnfrom the example of Garrison to resistwith all our might and with untiringpersistence the ignorant and un-Chris-tian prejudice which is responsible forthose wrongs.

"Our task compared with Garrison sis easy. We have seen slavery overthrown. We have learned that all thestrong forces once enlisted in its support were unable to keep 4,000,000 ofmen as slaves. Can we believe for amoment that any force can keep 10,-000,000 of free men down in a countrywhere everything that they can seeand everything that they can hearstrengthens the impulse to rise, whichis planted in the breast of every human being at his birth? Let us persevere in the path which Garrisonopened for us until every man in thisgreat country, the world, has an equalopportunity to be and to do whateverhis powers permit, unfettered by lawand unhampered by prejudice, looking forward to the day when mankindshall rise to his high plane, and weshall all say with him: My country isthe world. My countrymen are allmankind. " (Applause.)Hon. A. E. Pillsbury, ex-attorney-general of this state, spoke as follows:Fellow Citizens: I dislike to makeany allusion to race distinctions,which I would ignore and forget if

I could, but where are the white menwho ought to fill this hall today?Does not the memory of Garrison belong also to them? Do they not-know that the emancipation for which

he gave his life was more theirs thanyours? Where is that fellow citizenof ours who may be described as thewhite American? Has he forgottenthe way to Faneuil Hall? There wasa time when he knew it. I came downhere last Saturday evening to helpsave the old frigate Constitution, andI found the hall filled, and the platform covered, with Irishmen. (Laughter.) Coming here today to celebrateGarrison, I find the occasion whollyin the hands of another class of ourfellow citizens, who, to say the least,would have great difficulty in tracingtheir descent from the Pilgrim or thePuritan. (Laughter.) Does not thewhite man know that any questionof liberty is his question? Does henot know that a question of equalrights is more his question thanyours, in the proportion of nine orten to one? Does he not know thathis rights are not safe so long asyours are not secure?But this is not what I came here tosay. I wish to make today, if I can, apractical application of Garrison s example.Garrison was the great agitator. Thebronze figure down yonder in Commonwealth avenue is a monument tothe power of agitation, the marshallingof the conscience of the country tomould its laws, as Peel called it. It issometimes said by historians and others who know no better that the abolitionists contributed but little to thedownfall of slavery. But Garrison hadat work, long before the slave powermade the fatal mistake of firing theshot against Sumter, the forces whichwere to destroy slavery. He saw itsweakest point, and he drove straightat it. The slave power always laughedat the political and economic arguments against it. Calhoun the ablestdefender of the system, was acuteenough to see that slavery could survive only upon the ground that it wasright. Garrison put aside all questionsof policy or expediency, and demandedimmediate and unconditional emancipation because slavery was wrong.Then the slave power knew that he hadpierced the joint in its armor. The recoil from Garrison s blow, the blindand furious rage in which the wholeslavocracy rose up to demand his suppression and to put a price upon hislife, was proof enough that the blowhad gone home to the vital part.Garrison lived to see the constitu-


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BIR1H OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 39tional amendments wipe out slavery,raise the black man to the level of citizenship, and clothe him with itsrights and privileges. Now, withinless than thirty years from his death,the clouds have gathered over theenfranchised race, and there is todaya call for a new prophet of freedom.The white south refuses to accept theNegro as a man and a citizen. It isnothing that he poured out his ownblood in a hundred battles for the government which now turns its back upon him. All that is forgotten. Themoral wave that culminated with theEmancipation Proclamation and th?13th Amendment has subsided.The public conscience is asleep.The country looks on with indifferencewhile the Negro is stripped not merelyof his right to vote but of his rightto live as a free man and citizen. Hemust live by the labor of his hands,and the ballot is the only weapon bywhich he can defend his right tov ork on equal terms with others whohave it. (Applause.) Take it awayand you leave him a slave in fact, ifnot in law. By this process the blackman is being remanded to servitude,and the white man as well, for whenthe thing is done it puts the wholecountry under political subjection tothe law-defying states. (Applause.)The courts evade the question, congress finds no politics in it, trade, selfish and mercenary now as it always is,encourages it. and the law of the landis set aside, by force or by fraud, forone-ninth of all the citizens of theUnited States.The work that Garrison began isnot yet done. (Applause.) It mustbe done by agitation, with fire kindledat the same altar. (Applause.) Itmust be done bv the black man himself. (Applause.) "Who would be free,themselves must strike the blow." InGarrison s time the Negro was property, without even a tongue of hisown. Now he is at least a man, whoseright to speak for himself cannot bedenied or suppressed. When Garrisonbegan, he had to begin by unmakingthe whole public opinion of the time,and the whole bodv of laws. Now thelaw is with the persecuted race, andit needs only public opinion to enforce it. Create this public opinionand every politician will bow to itlike a reed in the wind.

If the white race has for the timeabandoned the Negro to his fate, let

him take his own cause into his ownhands. They are equal to it. I haveread within a few days a pamphleton this subject, produced wholly byColored men, in which there is morelogic, more philosophy and morestatesmanship than the white race,north or south, has developed sincethe unconstitutional amendments. Youhave no need to look abroad for leaders. If the Colored race will stand together, sinking all jealousies and differences in a resolute and unceasingdemand for the impartial enforcementof the laws, giving the country no restuntil there is one rule alike for whiteand black over every foot of soil,there can be no doubt of the result.(Applause.) It is only a question ofcourage and endurance. If the demandis irrepressible, it will prove to be irresistible. (Applause.) The peoplehave never failed, in the end, whenappealed to on a question of fundamental right. The universal instinctof freedom will respond to the appeal.The whole history of mankind is thehistory of a struggle for freedom, inwhich there is no backward step. Allthe moral forces of the universe, thevery stars in their courses, fight onthe side of a race striving after itsown liberty. In that cause there maybe delay and discouragement, but thereis no defeat. (Applause.)

Miss Pauline E. Hopkins spoke inpart as follows:

I count it this afternoon, thegreatest honor that will evercome to me that I am permitted tostand in this historic hall and say oneword for the liberties of my race. Ithought to myself how dare I, a weakwoman, humble in comparison withother people. Yesterday I sat in theold Joy street church and you canimagine my emotions as I remembered my great grandfather beggedin England the money that helped theNegro cause, that my grandfather onmy father s side, signed the paperswith Garrison at Philadelphia. I remembered that at Bunker Hill my ancestors on my maternal side pouredout their blood. I am a daughter ofthe Revolution, you do not acknowl-eds-e black daughters of the Revolution, but we are going to take thatright.The conditions which gave birth toso remarkable a reformer and patriotwere peculiar. The entire Americanrepublic had set itself to do evil, and


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ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARYits leading forces, wealth, religion andparty, joined the popular side andthreatened the death of Liberty in theRepublic. But the darkest hour wasbut a herald of the dawn. No greatreform was ever projected or patronized by any powerful organization orinfluential individual at the outset.Reformation always begins in theheart of a solitary individual; somehumble man or woman unknown tofame is lifted up to the level of theAlmighty s heartbeats where is unfolded to him what presently must bedone. Thus it was that after the imposition of the colonization scheme,the issuing of Walker s "Appeal," andhis own imprisonment at Baltimore,the poor and obscure Newburyportprinter s boy, without reputation, social or political influence, or money,inaugurated the greatest reform of thenineteenth century, and within oneyear of the first issue of the "Liberator," the entire country knew thename of Garrison. God had heard theprayers of suffering humanity. Hesaid "enough." The hour struck onthe horologe of Eternity, and the manwas there. Side by side with MartinLuther s "Here I take my stand," isthe "I will be heard" of William LloydGarrison. (Applause.)In September, 1834, we are told thatthe Reformer received the greatest individual help that ever came to himduring his life, when he married MissEliza Benson, daughter of a venerablephilanthropist of Rhode Island, andthereafter woman s subtle, intuitive in-Etinct added another sense to the wonderful powers of this remarkable man.Very shortly after their marriage, thi.ibnue woman was called to view themobbing of her husband by the Boston "Broadcloth Mob." She steppedfron a window rpon a shed at themoment of his extremest danger, being herself in danger from the rioters. His hat was lost, and brickbatswere rained upon his head, while hewas hustled along in the direction ofthe tar-kettle in the next street. Theonly words that escaped from thewhite lips of the young wife were:"I think my husband will not deny hisprinciples; I am sure my husband willnever deny his principles." The samespirit of encouragement still existsin women. What dangers will not awoman dare for the support and comfort of husband, father or brother?Not so long ago, when a Boston youngman of color was hustled and beaten

nnd jailed for upholding free speechand independent thought, he was sustained and comforted by the words ofa sister: "Remember, this is not disgrace, but honor. It is for principle-it is for principle."Mr. Garrison went about his workagainst slavery with tremendous moralearnestness. At first he advocatedgradual emancipation, but after hisbaptism of injustice in a Baltimore jailhis sentiments changed to the start

ling doctrine of immediate and unconditional emancipation. Gradual emancipation was a popular and inoffensivedoctrine, a safe shore from which toview freedom for the Blacks. It isanalogous with the startling propaganda of disfranchisement, or gradualenfranchisement after the Afro-American has proved himself fit for the ballot. \Ve remember that history records the broken promises of freedomgiven by the Southern States to theblacks of Southern regiments in theRevolutionary War. Those men earned their freedom, proved their right tomanhood, but at the close of the warwere told that, "You have done well,boys, now get home to your masters."The time will never come for the enfranchisement of the black if he depends upon an acknowledgement fromthe south of his worthiness for theballot. (Applause.) As if the faithfulness of the black man to this government from the Revolution until thisday, the blood freely shed to sustainRepublican principles in every warwaged against the Republic, the gentle, patient docility with which wehave borne every wrong, were notproof of our fitness to enjoy what inright. (Applause.)Mr. Garrison lived to see his causetriumph in the emancipation of the

slave, and died believing that the manhood rights of every citizen of theUnited States were secured then andforever. But the rise of a youngergeneration, the influence of an uncon-quered south, and the acquiescence ofan ease-loving north that winks atabuses where commercial relations andmanufactures flourish and put moneyin the purse, have neutralized the effects of the stern policy of these giantsof an earlier age.Great indeed was the battle for the

abolition of slavery, but greater farwill be the battle for manhood rights.Let us hope that this timely review of the noble words and deeds of


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BIRTH OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISONGarrison and his followers, may rekindle within our breasts the love ofliberty. Were Mr. Garrison living inthis materialistic age, when the priceof manhood is a good dinner, a fineposition, a smile of approval and apat on the back from the man of influence, of a fat endowment, again,would he cry aloud, "The apathy of thepeople is enough to make every statueleap from its pedestal, and to hastenthe resurrection of the dead."Here in Faneuil hall, let us vow, asthe greatest tribute we can pay to Mr.Garrison s memory, to keep alive thesacred flame of universal liberty inthe Republic for all races and classes,by every legitimate means, petitionsto individuals, to associations, to foreign governments, to legislatures, to

congress, print and circulate literature,and let the voice of the agent and lecturer be constantly heard. Let usswear to be "as harsh as truth, and asuncompromising as justice." And letus bear in mind the beauty of doingall things for the upbuilding of humanity; persecution and intellectualdevelopment have broadened us untilwe can clearly see that if the blacksare downed in the fight for manhood,no individual or race will be safe within our borders. This government haswelded all races into one great nation until now, what is good for theindividual member of the body politicis good for all, and vice versa. Herewhere the south and its sympathizershave so strenuously denied the brotherhood of man, by our mixed population, God has proved his declaration,"Of one blood have I made all racesof men to dwell upon the whole faceof the earth together." This truthMr. Garrison and his followers freelyacknowledged in the beauty and purityof their lives- and deeds.

Mr. Edwin D. Me*ad of the OldSouth work, said in part:There is no word of Garrison s quoted so often as that which he put onthe front of the Liberator and which

is on his statue, and yet that veryword is a far more fitting motto ofthe crusade in behalf of the brotherhood of nations than of the crusade inbehalf of emancipation. He said allof the great anti-slavery leaders inEngland were alive to the necessity ofthis struggle for the brotherhood ofnations. The leaders of these two

movements were largely the samemen.Chas. Sumner began his public career with his Fourth of July oration

against war, and continued the effortthere begun until the end of his life,and fought his life long as hard forpeace as for emancipation. Garrisonof all the great group was perhaps themost sweeping opponent of war, goingthe full length of the non-resistantprinciple, like Tolstoy today, condemning even defensive war, a position not taken by Sumner or Chan-ning. A conquest by force, he said,was no real conquest at all; only bylove and reason was genuine conquestpossible. His work was for the redemption of the human race; he wasbound, he said, by a law which knewno national partitions. One of his lastefforts was against our severe exclusion laws against the Chinese. Hewished that every custom house onearth might be abolished; ludicrousand mischievous especially were protective laws in behalf of people s priding themselves upon being strongerand more intelligent than theirneighbors. He was Mazzini s sympathizing and admiring friend; andtoday his heart would beat stronglyin sympathy with the struggling millions of Russia. The European reformers, Dickens, Harriet Martineau,Bright, Mill, Victor Hugo, were thesupporters and inspirers of our anti-slavery reformers, and George Thompson stood fittingly by Garrison s sideat Fort Sumter, in 1865, when theold flag rose again, the symbol nowof a nation from which slavery hadbeen banished. And yet the work ofemancipation is not yet wholly done;crying abuses against the Negro demand redress, while in many parts ofthe land his elementary politicalrights are denied him. The Garrisonspirit is needed still in the waragainst slavery. it is needed morein the war against war. In this dayof multiplying battleships, and of iterated and reiterated boasts in highestofficial places that we are a mightyfolk, who "don t want to fight, butby jingo if we do!" we need to realize anew the duty of a gireat nationacting like a gentleman; we need toremember with Garrison that a selfishand bastard patriotism is a mischievous and mournful principle, that weare men before we are Americans, andthat our obligations are to all mankind.


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ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARYRev. Dr. A. A. Berle of Salem, anoted Congregational minister, said in

part:The Negro race, whatever it oncewas, is here as an integral part ofAmerican citizenship. And it is herenot to be reckoned with primarilyas a charge, primarily as an issue, but primarily as a body ofAmerican citizens, and as an American who expects to exercise his suffrage as an American a few yearslonger, I refuse to regard mycountryman either as a charge, asa problem or as an issue. I proposeto regard him as a citizen and as acitizen alone. (Applause.) I thinkthat wise words of advice were thewords already spoken by my friend,Mr. Pillsbury, when he said that theNegroes of America must act as aunit. And they must act together andbring the entire wealth of mind andthought and spirit and consciencewhich the total race possesses to bearupon their own problem of development and advancement. There is aquestion, however, as to purchasingunity upon a platform uponwhich the unity is not worthhaving. (Applause). Believing as Ido that the problem of education isa problem for us all, I believe that industrial education is essential to theblack man and the white man alike.But I refuse to believe that any portion of American citizens is to be permanently set apart for mere industrialimprovement. (Applause.) What isthe question, the problem, that is agitating the white race? The industrial question. What is the greatterror that is stirring us all? Triumphant, insistent, repressive industrialism. Are you willing that a recentlyemerged race shall be handed,bound hand and foot, into the armsof the industrial monster? (Greatapplause.) I say this because I believe that you can never permanently separate in this land the blackman from his citizenship. Why dowe have demonstrative exhibitionslike this here? We have them becausewe have the monstrous spectacle of arace practically submerged and deprived of its national citizenship, condemned to involuntary servitude inAmerica.Now, my dear friends, to me it is aperfectly natural develo mient of thiscondition that the theory widely embraced south and north thatthe Negro race needs primar

ily to be fitted for industrialoccupation should receive the endowment of p. conspicuous figure inan industrial trust. (Great applause.)I want to say to you this afternoonthat if I were a Negro as I am a whiteman; if I were with you in the traditions which belong to the Negrorace, I would spurn any platform ofunity that first had to spurn the Constitution of the United States. (Greatapplause.) The denominational organ, of that to whch I belong said theother day that the days of the radicals were over, and I suppose in somesense that is true. But let us at leastremember that it does not lie in thepower of any man or any set of menpermanently to hold down the truthin unrighteousness. And I simplycame this afternoon to bid you Godspeedon the line for which Garrison stood.And let me say to you that in spiteof all I may seem to have implied bywhat I have said, make no mistakes.You will have to advance industrially.I am sorry for any man, white orblack, who does not know the use ofhis hands. But I want to say, whileyou advance, God help your race, asGod only apparently can help anyrace, as long as it sticks by the monstrous degrading maxim, "Get moneyin the bank." (Wild applause). I willsay to you what we must do is to harkback to the primary platform which isembodied in the United States Constitution. And when we have madecitizenship mean what it is supposedto mean in every part of this land youwill not need the endowment of anymillionaire to set your schools in motion, because free men build their ownschools and educate their own children, themselves.This statement was hailed with en

thusiastic and instant approval. Theapplause as Rev. Dr. Berle finishedwas deafening. The audience went wildwith delight over his assertions as tothe terms of race unity and as to industrialism. A. M. Howe, Esq., aneminent Boston lawyer and reformer,rose at the back of the platform andshouting in a loud voice, "Thank Godfor a self-respecting man," led threecheers for Berle, which were givenwith a will by the audience.Mr. Reed said in part:The stirring events in connectionwith this celebration have prompted

this query in my mind: What would


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BIRTH OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 43Garrison do if he was again amongus? Could he but see the gradualnullification of his life s work, the re-enslavement and disfranchisement ofa portion of the race he labored sohard to free; could he but come toBoston, the scene of his early struggles and final triumphs; could he butsee here, as I have seen, men and women, some of the best in the land, because of their color turned away in thenight and the cold from public inns;refused admittance or herded in theatre and other places of a public nature, ignored and ridiculed, deniedeven a fair chance to secure food andraiment could Garrison see theseconditions as they confront you andme today, I believe that he would startanother "Liberator."

Its initial number would contain amessage to both races. To his ownrace he would say: "You have beenfalse to the trust I gave you," and Ithink he would say, too, that "Whena people s liberty is in jeopardy thereis something more potent needed thankind words and sympathy." To myown race I can hear him repeating:"Be United," "Fear God, then disregard all other fears."

If ever Boston needed another Garrison it is now. We need one towarm the hearts of the thousands whoin the mad fight for gold have leftpoor humanity to suffer in the cold.We need a Garrison at the head ofsome of our great dailies to speak outboldly and in uncompromising language against the wrongs heaped uponus.

If we had more Garrisons at thehead of some of our mercantile firmsthe Colored boys and girls with merit,seeking positions there, would not beturned away with the cold answer,"No Negro need apply."

I am not pessimistic nor do I fora moment forget the shortcomings ofmy own race. It is with us that thereal evil lies and it is with us thatthe remedy must be sought. "Whowould be free himself must strike theblow."Kossuth, the famous Hungarian

leader, himself an exile for freedom ssake, speaking in Faneuil Hall a half-century ago, sounded a keynote whichwe may with profit apply. Said he:"Freedom never was given to a nation as a gift, but only as a rewardbravely earned by own exertions, ownsacrifices and own toils."William Lloyd Garrison, typifying

as he did in a sense the life of thelowly Nazarene, suffered and enduredmuch that the slave might be freeand now as men and women how muchmore ought we to sacrifice that hiswork shall endure.

Prof. A. B. Hart of Harvard University said in part:We have heard a great deal todayabout the future and about the pres

ent, and it is right to weave the future into the present. But as I cameinto this hall something else had comeinto my mind. It is the figure of aman whom I never saw, yet whom allof us have seen, the personality ofthat great character whose 100thbirthday we have come here to celebrate. One hundred years ago todaythat man first saw the light. Seventyyears ago today, almost to a day, apublic meeting was held in this hall,presided over by the then mayor ofBoston, to protest against WilliamLloyd Garrison. And at that meetingPeter Chandler pointed to this picture of Washington as a slave-holder,forgetting that that slave-holder byhis last will did what he could to repair the wrong that had been done tothose people who had served him, bysetting them free. In that meeting,Otis criticised the abolitionists as aset of incendiaries.How is it that that man has exercised such a mighty influence uponhis country and has come to be one ofthe acknowledged masters in ourgreat republic? Mr. Garrison sawwhat other people failed to see thatthe truth should make you free. (Applause.) The whole basis of Mr. Garrison s power was not that he couldcreate a situation, not that it was inhis power to set free the sla^s, butthat they were by nature free. Andwhat he set out to do and what hesucceeded in doing was simply to callthe attention of his countrymen to thetruth which lay before them all atruth so mighty that it burst the bondsin which men had attempted to envelop it. Furthermore, Mr. Garrisonstood for a principle for which everyman, woman and child in Americaowes him thanks on this, his 100thbirtnday, namely, the principle thatthere is no offence to anybody in telling the truth and in telling it in public.Among the arguments put forth atthat time was that on one side the


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44 ONK IMNDKI-.DTH ANNIVKRSARYNegro race was a poor, weak, servilerace, and that on the other side itwas a race so strong and powerfulthat you could not whisper in thehearing of a slave that he ought to befree without deluging the country inblood and breaking up the whole institution itself. That contradictionwas carefully expressed by Mr. Garrison. If the Negro was poor and weak,where was the danger from him? Ifhe was strong and powerful, wherewas the right that he should be helda slave?This man, so strong, was after alla man of kindness, of simplicity ofheart. He not only hated the sinnerand the oppressor, but he loved theoppressed.The world is advanced by the manof one idea, the men who have the

strength and power to fill their mindswith one subject. I feel, therefore,grateful today for Mr. Garrison, notbecause he was always right, becauseif Mr. Garrison and his friends werealways right, then my father andgrandfather were often wrong.(Laughter). I am willing to dividethe responsibility. Not because hewas always just; he was often hardand terrible. But because he had inhim such a belief in the rightfulnessof his cause that he must speak andthe people before him must listen tohim. I admire Mr. Garrison; I amproud to appear here today upon thisanniversary because he justified whathe said of himself. "I have flatteredno man."

Mr. Henry B. Blackwell, upon whosehead the south once put a price, saidin part:

I met Mr. Garrison under peculiarcircumstances. He was brought toour house in Jersey City when I wasabout twelve years old by my fatherto spend the night, because it wasthought unsafe for him to remain inNew York. I remember him as aman thirty-two years of age.Garrison did not believe In usingphysical force, nor military force, norpolitical force. He stood where Tolstoi stood, but he believed in tellingthe truth and relying solely upon thetruth. The people of the south weredriven to the question of confederacy,and then came on Lincoln. And Lincoln did not dare to issue his Emancipation Proclamation until severalyears of war had so warped the brains

of the people of the north that he wasable to take this step. But therenever would have been an Emancipation Proclamation, there never wouldhave been a Lincoln if there had notbeen a Garrison. (Applause.)You heard that beautiful intelligentspeech of a Colored lady, Miss Hopkins. She never could have madethat speech if Mr. Garrison had notmade it possible for her to do so. Headvocated liberty for woman as wellas man. The greatest work that Mr.Garrison did, in my opinion, was notin emancipating the Negro slave, butIt. was in establishing the equality ofwomen. You will never have a freecountry until its government restsupon the suffrage of women as well asman. You may say what you pleaseand preach what you please, but youwill be permanently in warfare untilyou put the ballot in the hands of woman. Let me tell you that the Colored women are as much citizens asthe Colored men, and they need theballot far more than the men, for theColored women of the south are subjected to insults and injustice far morethan the men. (Applause.)

Mr. Garrison went over to Londonto the anti-slavery convention, and thewomen were denied a seat there; hewould not sit in that convention buttook a seat in the gallery with thewomen. I want to say that Mr. Garrison has made a beginning that hasalready borne fruit. While it is truethat chattel slavery is abolished, it isalso true that about forty thousandsquare miles of American soil is living under woman suffrage. The women sent eight senators to the Congress of the United States and ninerepresentatives. And now I appeal tothis Suffrage League. Gentlemen, letyour league stan for suffrage forwWmen as well as for men. Do notforget that one-half the oppressed people in this land are women and theirrights must be maintained as well asthe men s. Let us remember that thisquestion of liberty which was Garrhson s is the most important of all questions; for as Emerson said, "Of whatvalue is land or life, if freedom fail?"

Mr. Edward H. Clement, editor ofthe Boston Transcript, said in part:There is plenty of opportunity and

plenty of call for the "hard language"which Garrison admitted he was accustomed to use because "he had not


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ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARYline of his ceaseless activity, his career as journalist of freedom.Garrison was neither for "Our country right or wrong," nor for the dearpeople, right or wrong. He was forkeeping the people right, and if theywent wrong, giving them to understand where they were wrong; andhe had great skill in making himselfunderstood. (Laughter.)Indeed he was well equipped for a

journalist. In the first place he hadlearned to print, as our best journalistshave often done, from Ben Franklintill now, and not seldom he "set up"his articles without writing them downa practice that favors concisenessand point, just as the opposite habitof dictating to a stenographer favorsdiffuseness and lack of point. Thenhe was an omnivorous reader, as mostgood writers have been, and couldexpress himself with facility eitherin prose or verse. Best of all, he hada great cause to hold him to the pointand not suffer him to fritter himselfaway in miscellaneous interests, as toomany good writers do. To be sure,he allowed his zeal for righteousness,which in New England is apt to takethe form of self-righteousness, to leadhim into many specific reforms, akinto anti-slavery by a sort of affinity, butnot of necessity connected with it,peace, temperance, non-resistance, landreform, woman suffrage, anti-sectarianreligion. But this did not so muchvitiate his style as disaffect his ownfriends. They objected, too, to hisharshness of language, in which heshared the peculiarities of Americanjournalists of the decades from 1830to 1850.He shared with Horace Greeley andother contemporary journalists the error that strong epithets added to theforce of an argument, and might at-tone for possible defects in logicHis opponents and Greeley s had thesome idea, and one of them, ColonelWebb of the New York Courier andEnquirer, said of the abolitionists of1336:

"They are a poor, miserable set ofdrivelling dastards, who always runinto the shavings, like William LloydGarrison, when their own poor patesare in danger."To be sure, Garrison had before thiscalled Colonel Webb "the cowardlyruffian, who conducts the Courier andEnquirer, and had styled another editor "the miserable liar and murderous

hypocrite of the New York Commercial Advertiser."And about the same time (1833) hedenounced Henry Clay, and othersouthern advocates of Negro colonization in these vehement terms:

"Ye crafty calculators! ye hardhearted, incorrigible sinners! yegreedy and relentless robbers! ye con-temners of justice and mercy! Yetrembling, pitiful, palefaced usurpers,my soul spurns you with unspeakabledisgust. (Laughter).In spite of this Old Testament dia

lect of denunciation, which he neverquite unlearned, though he moderatedit sensibly in the later years of hisnewspaper. Garrison made the "Liberator" a model among weekly newspapers in several respects, and it hasnow become an invaluable historicalwork for reference. He practisedwhat he preached, and allowed his opponents to speak of him in his ownpaper as sharply as they chose.Hi own articles were sometimesopen to the objection which he oncebrought against those of his friendand converter, Benjamin Lundy:

"His style of writing was brisk, sarcastic, fearless, witty, vigorous attimes rising to eloquence and sublimity, but frequently careless and inelegant. Like almost every conductor ofa public press, he was compelled towrite his articles in haste, with littleor no time for revision."Both as journalist and public speaker, however, Garrison was seldom unprepared. It was a natural result ofthe strenuous and watchful life he ledfor so many years that he was neveroff his guard. His capacious memory,his flow of language, his quickness otperception and analysis, made up forany defect of logic he might have. Inreasoning indeed his premises werefew and his conclusions were foreordained.

Garrison was so grounded in justice that his own vehemence couldseldom blind his eyes to the truth,though it might lead him into a falseposition. He had courage, veracity,and clearness of mind; he was freefrom avarice, meanness, and excessiveambition, and these are traits of agood journalist. Like Greeley andsome other great journalists, he sometimes allowed his personality to getin his straightforward way; he hadnot the modesty that makes the causeeverything, the person nothing. But


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BIRTH OF WILLIAM LLOYU GARRISON 47even this slight defect may have beenessential to the post he held so longand so bravely. The captain whoheads a forlorn hope, the pilot who isto weather the storm must not thinkmeanly of themselves.Garrison, like Phillips and JohnBrown, was fitted and weaponed forthe work assigned him.Mr. Walter Allen, who had been

present, editor on the Boston Herald,was unable to speak, and his letterwas read by Secretary Trotter.Boston, Mass., Dec. 9, 1905.

William Trotter, Esq.,Secretary of the Boston Suffrageleague:Dear Sir When you personally

brought to me sometime ago an invitation to be one of the speakers at theGarrison centennial memorial meetingin Faneuil Hall, in the afternoonof Monday, Dec. 11, I promptly saidto you that the condition of my healthrequired me to decline making publicaddresses. I desire now more formally to acknowledge the honorable courtesy of the Boston Suffrage league,and to express my regret that I amprevented from undertaking a servicewhich it would be my joy and pride toattempt, if it were prudent.To be thus associated, even by anhumble performance, with the greatname and fame of William Lloyd Garrison would gratify my sense of obligation. When I was a boy I was areader of the Liberator, and a frequent attendant at meetings of theAbolitionists. I heard Mr. Garrisonspeak on two or three occasions. Hehad a share in forming my early opinions, was, indeed, one of my educatorswhose influence abides. If through along service as a writer for newspapers, I have preserved, as I trust Ihave, a sincere purpose to speak thetruth with courage in ail matters affecting liberty and human rights, it isdue in large part to the example of hisabsolute obedience to the heavenly vision.The first words I heard from Garrison s lips, the opening sentences of anaddress delivered at a meeting of theAnti-slavery society in anniversaryweek, about 1856, were, as my memory recalls them, these: "Some persons say they are abolitionists, butare not Garrisonian abolitionists. Iam a Garrisonian abolitionist and expect to be one as long as I live."

When our young David challengedthe Goliath of slavery, learned men,pious men, men having a stake in thecountry, cried out against his temerity. He was mad; he was impious;he was a traitor; he had a devil. Besides, he was obscure, unschooled,egotistical and dangerous. They didnot, and could not, apprehend thecompelling soul of the journeymanprinter.These blind judgments have hadabundant, echoing rehearsals in mistaken souls. Always there are thosewho fancy they can give God lessonsin making history. Today wiseacrestell us how the American conscience"drunk with cotton and the NewYork Observer," as Phillips said:would surely have destroyed slaveryif there had been no Garrison. Theydemonstrate to their own contentmentthat he was an obstacle to emancipationas if the Almighty did not knowwhat he was about wnen he let theLiberator be established. The uselessdiversion of ex post facto reformersis to invent gentler means of overthrowing tyranny than the plagues ofEgypt, the dagger of Brutus, the decapitation of Charles, the AmericanRevolution, the French terror, the anti-slavery agitation, and the Russianstrikes. Let us with saner modestyaccept the thing that is apparent themountain which old earthquakes lifted into the sky, the hero-prophet whocried aloud .for righteousness in a perverse and wicked generation, whowould not retreat and who would beheard.Garrison was the morning star,forerunner of Lincoln, the glorioussun of emancipation. Phillips said ofLincoln that he went up to God withfour million broken shackles in hishands. Honest Abe must have acknowledged, what the Lord wellknew, that they were not his trophiesonly, but Garrison s also.

Respectfully yours,WALTER ALLEN.Mr. Bradford, formerly a trustee ofAtlanta university said in part: Itwas given to Garrison to be in his dayand generation one of the chief instruments under God to abolish human slavery. It is given to us in ourday and generation to perfect thework of emancipation by assuring tothe freedmen the fullest enjoyment ofthe rights, privileges and responsibil

ities of citizenship. It may not be


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r ONK Hl NDRKDTH ANNIVKRSARYgiven to any of us to be a Garrison,but it is given to each of us to do, inhis humble way, the duty that lies athis hand with his courage, resolutionand unselfishness.In looking to Garrison for inspiration, we must look always to the manrather than to his methods, we mustremember that his great influencewas due to the power of his personality, rather than to any method employed.

If we would prove ourselves worthyfollowers of Garrison, if we wouldperfect the work he began we mustprove ourselves likewise fearless andresolute self-sacrificing men of action.As illustration of the sort of actionwhich in my judgment worthily expresses the Garrison love of liberty and makes for freedom, I want totake up your time a moment by referring to one or two incidents familiarto most of you.Once a citizen of Boston was deniedby the school authorities the rightto send his children to a public schoolto which he wished to send them. Bysheer force of a dogged determinationto have that which he believed washis right under the law, he compelledthe school authorities to admit hischildren to the desired school. Hethereby not only served himself butserved the community by his exampleof sturdy independent citizenship.There fled to Massachusetts a fugitive from the injustice of a southernstate. The Colored men of Massachusetts rallied in his defence and resisted by every legal means in theirpower his extradition. They failed intheir immediate object. The fugitivewas returned south, but the resoluteconcerted action on the part of theColored people of Massachusetts wasnotice to the community at large thatthe Colored men of Massachusettswere united in a steadfast purpose toprotect the individual members oftheir race from oppression and injustice.An attempt was made in western

Massachusetts to establish separatepublic schools for white and Coloredchildren. Again the Colored men ofMassachusetts, chiefly men of Bostonunited to resist the attempt. Thistime their action was successful.Looking to other cities we find othermen of action striving mightly, Hartof Washington, striking an effectiveblow at the jim crow car law; Morrisof Chicago, scoring another againstthe jim crow restaurant. Whilemore encouraging of all came, sometime back, word that the Colored citizens of Jacksonville, men, womenand children, had banded together

and effectively boycotted the jim crowcars of that city and that a similarconcerted movement was literally onfoot in two towns in Texas. Withsuch civic virtue, such sturdy spiritof independence, there can be noquestion of the ultimate result.Mr. Bradford closed by saying hebelieved the customs of prejudice willbe forced from their places by thenew vigorous civic virtue that is organizing in our midst like the clinging oak leaves are by the fresh leaf-bud in spring.The Crescent male quartette, com

posed of Messrs. C. A. E. Cuffee, Jas.E. Lee, Wm. H. Richardson and Dr. I.L. Roberts sang well "Lead KindlyLight." The Mendelssohn quartette,composed of Mrs. Carrie Bland Sheler,Mrs. J. Patterson Rollins, Mr. T. Wil-cott Swan, Mrs. B. J. Ray, accompanist, sang sweetly, "To Thee, O Country."While the collection was being taken up, Mr. John W. Hutchinson sangone of his anti-slavery songs.At the close of the meeting, Mr.Nathaniel Butler, an aged man, whoworked in the Liberator office, andMrs. Hudson, who was a fugitiveslave under the name of "Betsey

Blakely," were introduced to the audience.


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EVENING SESSION, 7.30 O CLOCK

The closing session of the Citizenstwo days celebration came at 7.30Monday night at Faneuil Hall, and itwas a fitting climax to the other greatsessions, made so by the memorableand inspired oration by Rev. ReverdyC. Ransom and by an audience thatfilled well nigh every crevice in thegreat Faneuil Hall.

It was preceded by a short paradeover the route over which the "Broadcloth" mob of 1835 dragged the bodyof the great Abolitionist. Company L,6th regiment, Massachusetts VolunteerMilitia, led by the Chief Marshal,Capt. George W. Braxton came fromthe armory through Scollay square,followed by the Robert Gould ShawVeterans where members of Robert A.Bell Post 134, members of the committee and other citizens, men, womenand children, fell in line and marcheddown Court street, into State, intoDevonshire, to Faneuil Hall, CompanyL presenting arms as the rest marchedinto the hall amid great applause.Company L then filed into the gallery and took the front row of seatson the right side, being liberally applauded.Meantime the large CommonwealthBand, Mr. William A. Smith, leader,composed of Colored musicians wasrendering a most excellent concert,the pieces being: March, Fanfanie,Von Suppe; waltz, La Bacarolle,Waldteufel; Overture, Lustspiel, Kela-Bela; excerpts from "Woodland," Lud-ers.At 8 o clock Mr. Joshua A. Craw

ford, chairman of the Centenary committee of the Boston Suffrage League,opened the meeting. After a ferventprayer by Rev. M. L. Harvey, pastorof the Morning Star Baptist church, hespoke in part as follows:The name of Garrison has alwaysawakened in us the deepest feeling of

gratitude and affection. He laboredto the end that we might enjoy theprivileges and freedom we esteem sohighly today.His life makes one of those mar

velous chapters in the history of ourcountry that excites the wonder andadmiration of the civilized world. Ahigh priest in the cathedral of libertyand freedom, he raised the cross oia new crusade and bore it triumphantly through opposing hosts to theMecca of equal rights and freedom toall men.To confirm the freedom his effortssecured, to protect the citizenship theyconferred, to protest against everywrong, to agitate for and demand allof our rights wherever the flag of ourcountry flies, is our solemn duty anddearest hope.

It has been our constant effort toprove that he did not labor in vain.We have been ever mindful of thefact that we are in the midst of agreat moving, pushing, breathing civilization and we are moving on, pushing on and battling on with it, asking nothing but those rights and privileges that are freely given to all other loyal and patriotic sons and daughters of the Republic.No other age, no other civilization,no other people have placed so manymilestones along the turnpike of human progress in so short a while asthis, our own people.We need not be discouraged. So longas the men, women and children ofour race of all walks of life, as theyare represented in this effort, are willing to lay aside all things to do homage to the memory of one who did somuch for them, the time will yet comewhen we may say in truth, that thesun in his journey shines over no people more free, more happy or moreprosperous than this our own people.Rev. W. H. Scott, president of theBoston Suffrage League was then introduced. He said in part:We are here today to honor a manwho has done much for mankind.Wm. Lloyd Garrison was one of the

greatest champions of freedom. Heknew no creed, race nor nationality,but man. Garrison was a man destinedto be a leader among men; he was a


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5 ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARYman who could not be bullied nor cajoled. We are more than glad thatthe Garrisonian spirit has been revived, in these days when northernminions and southern rapersof thecon-Hitution, are telling the Negroes toffB.it and learn how to vote and whenthey shall have become rich and millionaires, then, and not until then,shall they have the right to vote. Mr.Garrison was a man who made nocompromises of surrendering manhood. They wanted him to let thequestion of slavery alone; because hehad no right to disturb the conditionswhich were accepted; that it wasmere foolishness that he could expectto do anything for the slave, even thescholarly and learned Edward Everettthought that Garrison and his followers ought to be suppressed by thestate and nation. But Garrison wasfirm "I am in earnest. I will notequivocate. I will not excuse. I willnot retreat a single inch. And I willbe heard." These words tell what theman was. Others might have doubtsbut Garrison never; others might sayit is impossible to overthrow thatwhich was intrenched in state and nation. The thousands of spindles ofLowell and Lawrence were fed by theunrequited toil of the half-starved andbrutalized slave of the south. Whatdid the "Broadcloth" mob care forthe cries and woes of the Negroes solong as their pockets were beingfilled with gold? They justified themselves by saying he is better off thanif he were in Africa. So does therobber say that the man or womanwhom he has robbed that he shouldbe flad that he had escaped with hislife. Mr. Garrison was too much forthe slave oligarchy. He knew no master but God. He believed in the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhoodof man. He heard the cry of Kossuthfor the Hungarian, the cry of thestarving Irishman, he heard the crywhen Greece was pleading for herrights, he heard the cry when theQuaker was helping the poor Indian.He loved man because man was God snoblest creation. Mr. Garrison started a paper Jan. 1, 1831, which was tovoice the sentiments th. were to ultimately triumph over this monsterTwo years later he started the anti-slavery society in Philadelphia. Hewas the sun in this solar system

around which all was to revolve. Thenorthern dough-faces trembled beforehim just as Felix before Paul whenhe "reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come."What a blessed day was the 10thof Dec. 1805. when it was announcedthat a man-child was born. We hailthe day with thanksgiving and gladness. Let the ten millions of Negroes tell their children and theirchildren s children about the man andthe day. We hail him as the deliverer of the United States of America,both black and white, for every slavehad one white man chained to him.Let all races, peoples and nations rejoice with us for this man whom GoJhas given to the world.Rev. Scott declared the Boston Suffrage league was organized to securethe ballot and would not disband until Colored Americans could vote asfreely in Mississippi as in Massachusetts. (Applause.)Chairman Scott then called upon thesecretary of the Boston SuffrageLeague s committee, Wm. M. Trotter,who read letters from Maj. Wesley J.Furlong, Mr. Louis A, Fisher, whosang at Mr. Garrison s funeral, Rev. S.M. Crothers, Geo. V. Leverett, Esq.,Maj. Chas. P. Bowditch, Mr. A. A. Esta-brook, the Wendell Phillips Club, Wendell Phillips Garrison, Joseph K.Hayes, Jr., and Secretary Loeb, replying to the invitation that was extended to President Roosevelt and regretting on behalf of the President that of

ficial business would make it impossible for him to attend, and from Gov.Douglas.Mme. Nellie Brown Mitchell, wife otCapt. Charles L. Mitchell, and one ofthe singers at the funeral of Mr. Garrison, sang Kipling s Recessional, accompanied on the piano by Miss Geor-gine Glover, and responded to the encore demanded with "Face to Face"most feelingly and sweetly rendered.At this juncture, the venerable anti-slavery singer, Mr. John W. Hutch-inson, entered with his wife and sonand was given an ovation that lastedseveral minutes.Next came the Centennial Ode, abeautiful poem composed for the occasion by Mr. W. S. Braithwaite, Boston s talented poet, and read by theauthor.


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BIRTH OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON"THE LIBERATOR.

I.

Twas nineteen hundred fateful yearsagoA slim young Syrian girl fulfilled theWord,And saw in dreams across the windlesssnowThe years acclaim the Baby s voice sheheard.The world enfranchised from the bondof sinIn dear remembrance keeps a festival;Wherever man may be in hut or hallThe spirit of this season enters in.0, little Child, who smiled on Mary skneeWhy do the Nations bow and worshipThee?The world is yet a place of wrongs andwoesAnd Faith and Doubt in conflict still

oppose.O, questioning Time, Man s soul willanswer three:Christ died to make men free!

II.

One hundred stirring years ago todayThere grew the mystery of another birth.God heard the supplicating bondmenprayAnd sent another saviour to the earth.He grew a dreaming boy among hishillsAnd wondered at the freedom NaturegaveTo, winds and clouds and the far echo

ing wave;But his heart sorrowed at his brother sills,Whose souls of a diviner essence madeWas yet less free than soulless beastor bird.He saw a vision in his humble trade,And his soul heard God speak thedeathless word;And all his thoughts and deeds becameA fiery flameTo burn the tyrannyAnd set men free!The young republic from the wrecksof warArose self-destined to protect thesovereign man.

"We stared affixed as the bright polarstar

For human rights," the Constitution ran.And far away across the surging seasThe suffering hordes of Europedreamed of peaceAnd set their visions westward, wherethe StatesThrew open wide the portals oftheir gatesAnd cried to all the world: "Come in,come in,Ye who are trodden by the feet ofkings,Ye who are grievously taxed, but cannot winA voice in your own country scouncillings;Come hither where your hire is yourtool,Where no man s bond where allmay reign and rule."The old world listened at the strange

new songOf freedom, beyond the sunset in theseaWhile east and west the plying slavers fleeAnd only God and one man knew thething was wrong.And so he strove with brave, indignant speech:A John the Baptist in the wilderness.He saw the ideal freedom out ofreach

Till twice two million slaves couldrise and blessTheir nation s flag. And so the conscienceless

Soul of his own country he soughtto sting-To a, self-realization of its shame,While the worst of Rome and Egyptin its midst was flourishing.He won a few disciples to his causeWho preached the fiery gospel of hisword

Sublimely indifferent to the laws,Until the indicted people stopped andheard."What prophet is this come out ofGalileeTo set a people freeAnd make as sifting sands the foun

dations of the free?"So grew the angry cryOf passions mounting high.And they smote him for the truth

of their own iniquity.


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ONE HUNDREDTH ANNITERSARVIII.

Yea, they mobbed him and derided.Called him traitor and a madmajnYea, the State and Church decidedHim a radical and bad man:But he put his trust in God and sawthe right,And kept his great unswerving purpose to the end.The end! When the will of God didsmite,And set the house against itself tosuccor and defend!From the most northern hamlet up inMaineThat lay among the woods, echoingthe calling sea,And traveling like the sound of windyrainSouthward where the Gulf windsshake the Palmetto tree,And westward to the golden fields ofhopeWhere some lone miner digs the alluring slopeArose the sounds of war.The billowing armies rolling from afarOf every corner of each Northern stateWent into battle to preserve theUnion s fate.And so two years the thunder rolledand broke,And Lincoln s cause seemed lost,Till our great hero s voice rose up andspokeAbove the din of guns and sa,brescrossed :

"Unyoke the bondmen if ye hope tosaveThe Union from an ignoble grave."IV.

The great Commander listened, andthe war becameA crusade in his name:And Farragut and Grant and Sheridan,And that white-souled, angel-boyRobert ShawWho led such troops none ever led before,Went forth as his apostles to the van,And fought their battles for the rightsof man,And thereby saved the Union.At last when down beneath the horizonThe blood-smoked clouds of battle rolled away,And Grant had clasped in peace thehand of Lee,Because Garrison had dared to do andsayFour million slaves stood free!

V.How shall we name him now, thisholiest man?Whose memory we gather to revere?Has ever unerring Nature in her planSo wrought his likeness on this troubled sphere?One with Mazzini, but of larger mould,One with Garibaldi, yet more bold,One with Cavour, without self-seekinggreed,One with Kossuth, but wider in hil

creed,One with Cromwell, yet more simplywrought,Franker in act and sublimer in thoughtOne with Kosciusko, but greater thanthe PoleBecause he saw the Universal Racewithin the soul.One alone in perfect nature, heart andsoul apd mind,He stands with Christ, the perfect loverof Mankind.Mr. Charles H. Taylor then readwith magnificent effect the salutatoryof The Liberator. This was followed

by a solo sung by Miss Genevieve Leewith much charm and expression andthe audience called insistently for anencore, to which she responded witha gracious bow, as the time was passing. The song was "Grass and Roses,"Miss Bertha Bauman on the pianoand Mr. A. Portuando on the violin.Capt. Charles L. Mitchell, now 76

years old, who was a compositor onMr. Garrison s paper, the Liberator,and wtho was an officer of the 55thMass. Regiment, stepped forward andread the following address:"The boon of a noble human life cannot be appropriated by any single nation or race. It is a part of the commonwealth of the world, a treasure,a guide and an inspiration." How ap

propriate is this aphorism in its application to the life and character of William Lloyd Garrison! During t,heyears of his earthly activity, he leftan indelible impress for good in thecommunity in which he lived. Hiskindness of heart, his sympathetic nature, his strong friendship, his magnetic personality, his quick perception,his untiring energy and his unselfishdevotion to duty will ever remain as atreasure, a guide and an inspiration.In the activities of life it seemed asif he was animated by a single thought,


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BIRTH OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 53duty, and supplementing this thoughtby the energy of his activity, he threwinto the cause of anti-slavery all ofthe moral and religious enthusiasm ofhis heroic nature.My acquaintance with Mr. Garrisondates back to the year 1853, fifty-twoyears ago, when I came to Boston fromHartford, Conn., and applied to theLiberator office, then located at 21Cornhill, for a position as compositor.During the time that I was employedon the Liberator, I know of no onewhose friendship and esteem I valueso highly as that of Mr. Garrison s.He was always cheerful and hopefuleven in the darkest hours. His faithin the goodness of his cause and in theoverruling Providence of God was soabsolute that he was calm and cheerfulalike under clear or cloudy skies.As a type setter, I found Mr. Garrison one of the most rapid and correct compositors that I ever met, andmany of the editorials in the Liberatorwere set up by him at the case withouthaving first been written out on paper.Mr. Garrison s presence in the printingoffice was like sunshine in a shadyplace. The many annoyances almostinevitable in a printing office neverdisturbed his serenity. An excellentprinter ajid careful proof-reader, hetook great pride in the make-up andtypographical accuracy of the Liberator, and often made-up and correctedthe forms with his own hands. On theevening preceding publication day hewould frequently insist on the printersgoing home while he remained untila late hour to prepare the forms fprthe press. In very many ways hissweet and gracious spirit, and histhoughtfulness for others, were mademanifest, and thus it was that he endeared himself to all.

I am reminded that over twenty-sixyea,rs have passed since Mr. Garrison sdeath, and that the following personsserved as pall-bearers at the funeral:Wendell Phillips, Samuel May, Samuel E. Sewell, Robert P. Wolcott, Theodore T. Weld, Oliver Johnson, LewisHayden and Charles L. Mitchell, ofwhom I am the only survivor. Theclosing exercises of the funeral tookplace at the Forest Hills cemetery,Wednesday, May 28th. It was a perfect spring afternoon. The air wasfragrant with budding blossoms, whenjust as the sun was sinking in thewestern horizon, reflecting back itsserene beaiuty upon the scene, seemingly a parting benediction of Heaven s

approving smile upon the life work ofWilliam Lloyd Garrison, that thepall bearers tenderly lowered all thatwa

It is not a man s right, it is his duty to support and defend his family andhis home; he should therefore resist any influence exerted to prevent himfrom maintaining them in comfort; while he should oppose with his life theinvader or despoiler of his home. God had created man with a mind capableof infinite development and growth; it is not, therefore, a man s right, it ishis duty to improve his mind and to educate his children; he should not there-tore, submit to conditions which would compel them to grow up in ignorance.Man belongs to society; it is his duty to make his personal contribution of thebest that is within him to the common good; he can do this only as he is given opportunity to freely associate with his fellowman. He should, therefore,seek to overthrow the artificial social barriers which would intervene to separate him from realizing the highest find best there is within him by freedomof association. It is a man s duty to be loyal to his country and his flag, butwhen his country becomes a land of oppression and his flag an emblem of injustice and wrong, it becomes as much his duty to attack the enemies withinthe nation as to resist the foreign invader. Tyrants and tyranny everywhereshould be attacked and overthrown.

This is a period of transition in the relations of the Negro to this nation.The question which America is trying to answer, and which it must soon definitely settle is this: What kind of Negroes ao the American people want?Thai they must have the Negro in some relation is no longer a question 01serious debate. The Negro is here 10,000,000 strong, and for weal or woe, heis here to stay he is here to remain forever. In the government he is a political factor; in education and in wealth he is leaping forward with giantstrides; he counts his taxable property by the millions, his educated men andwomen by the scores of thousands; in the bouth he is the backbone of Industry; in every phase of American life his presence may be noted; he is also asrnoroughly imbued with American principles and ideals as any class or people


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BIRTH OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 59beneath our flag. When Garrison started his fight for freedom, it was tneprevailing sentiment that the Negro could have no place in this country savethat of a slave, but he has proven nimself to be more valuable as a free manthan as a slave. What kind of Negroes do the American people want? Dothey want a voteless Negro in a republic founded upon universal suffrage?Do they want a Negro who shall not be permitted to participate in the government which he must support with his treasure and defend with his blood? Dothey want a Negro who shall consent to be set apart as forming a distinct industrial class, permitted to rise no higher than the level of surfs or peasants?Do they want a Negro who shall accept an interior social position, not as adegradation, but as the just operation of the laws of caste based upon color?Do they want a Negro who will avoid friction between the races by consentingto occupy the place to which white men may choose to assign him? Whatkind of a Negro do the American people want? Do they want a Negro whowill accept the doctrine, that however high he may rise in the scale of character, wealth and education, he may never hope to associate as an equal withwhite men? Do white men believe that 10,000,000 blacks, after having imbibed the spirit of American institutions, and having exercised the rights offree men for more tnan a generation, will ever accept a place of permanentinferiority in the republic? Taught by the Declaration of Independence, sustained by the constitution of the United States, enlightened by the educationof our schools, this nation can no more resist the advancing tread of the hostsof the oncoming blacks, than it can bind the stars or halt the resistless motion of the tide

The answer which the American people may give to the question proposed cannot be final. There is another question of greater importance whichmust be answered by the Negro, and by the Negro alone. What kind of anAmerican does the Negro intend to be? The answer to this question he mustseek and find in every field of human activity and endeavor. First, he mustanswer it by negation. He does not intend to be an alien in the land of hisbirth nor an outcast in the home of his fathers. He will not consent to hiielimination as a political factor; he will refuse to camp forever on the bordersof the industrial world; as an American he will consider that his destiny isunited by indissoluble bonds with the destiny of America forever; he will striveless to be a great Negro in this republic and more to be an influential and useful American. As intelligence is one of the chief safeguards of the republic,he will educate his children. Knowing that a people cannot perish whose morals are above reproach, he will ally himself on the side of the forces of righteousness; having been the object of injustice and wrong, he will be the foe olanarchy and the advocate of the supremacy of law. As an American citizen,he will allow no man to protest his title, either at home or abroad. He wiliinsist more and more, not only upon voting, but upon being voted for to oc-


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60 ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARYcupy any position within the gift of the nation. As an American whose titleto citizenship is without a blemish or flaw, he will resist without compromiseevery law upon the statute books, which is aimed at his degradation as a hu-aian being and humiliation as a citizen. He will be no less ambitious and aspiring than his fellow-countrymen; he will assert himself, not as a Negro, butas a man; he will beat no retreat in the face of his enemies and opposers; hisgifted sons and daughters, children of genius who may be born to him, willmake their contribution to the progress of humanity on these shores, accepting nothing but the honors and rewards that belong to merit. What kind ofan American does rue Negro intend to be? He intends to be an American whowill never mar the image of God, reproach the dignity of his manhood, or tarnish the fair title of his citizenship, by apologizing to men or angels for associating as an equal, with some other American who does not happen to bemack. He will place the love of country above the love of race; he will consider no task too difficult, no sacrifice too great, in his effort to emancipate hiscountry from the unChristlike feelings of race hatred and the American bondage of prejudice. There is nothing that injustice so much respects, that Americans so much admire, and the world so much applauds, as a man who standserect like a man, has the courage to speak in the tones of a man, and to fearlessly act a man s part.

There are two views of the Negro question now at last clearly delineu.One is that the Negro should stoop to conquer: that he should accept in silence the denial of his political rights; that he should not bravethe displeasure of white men by protesting ^ lien he is segregated inhumiliating ways upon the public carriers and in places of public entertainment; that he may educate his children, buy landand save money; but he must not insist upon his children taking their place in the body politic to which their character and intelligence entitle them; he must not insist on ruling the land which he owns or farms; hemust have no voice as to how the money he has accumulated is to be expendedthrough taxation and the various forms of public improvement. There areothers who believe that the Negro owes this nation no apology for his presence in the United States; that being black he is still no less a man; that heshould not yield one syllable of his title to American citizenship; that heshould refuse to be assigned to an inferior plane by his fellow-countrymen;thougn roes conspire against him and powerful friends desert him, he shouldrefuse to abdicate his sovereignty as a citizen, and to lay down his honor as aman. (Wild applause, cries of "Ransom, Ransom." cneerlng.)

ff Americans become surfeited with wealth, haughty with the boastingprme 01 race superiority, morally corrupt in the high places oi honor and oftrust, enervated through the pursuit of pleasure, or the political bondmen ofsome strong man plotting to seize the reins of power, the Negro American will


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BIRTH OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 61continue his steadfast devotion to the flag, and the unyielding assertion of hisconstitutional rights, that "this government of the people, for the people andby the people, may not perish from the earth."

it is so marvelous as to be like a miracle of God, to behold the transformation that has taken place in the position of the Negro in this land since William Lloyd Garrison first saw the light a century ago. When the Negro hadno voice, Garrison pleaded his cause; tonight the descendants of the slave standin Faneuil hall, while from ocean to ocean, every foot of American soil is dedicated to freedom. The Negro American has found his voice; he is able tospeak for himself; he stands upon this famous platform here and thinks it nopresumption to declare that he seeks nothing more, and will be satisfied withnothing less than the full measure of American citizenshi.

I feel inspired tonight. The spirits of the champions of freedom hovernear. High above the stars, Lincoln and Garrison, Sumner and Phillips, Douglass and Lovejoy, look down to behold their prayers answered, their labors rewarded, and their prophecies fulfilled. They were patriots; the true savioursof a nation that esteemed them not. They have left us a priceless heritage.Is there to be found among us now one who would so dishonor the memory ofthese sainted dead; one so lost to love of country and loyalty to his race, asto offer to sell our birthright for a mess of pottage? When we were slaves,Garrison labored to make us free; when our manhood was denied, he proclaimed it. Shall we in the day of freedom be less loyal to our country andtrue to ourselves than were the friends who stood for us in our night of woe?Many victories have been won for us; there are still greater victories we mustwin for ourselves. The proclamation of freedom and the bestowal of citizenship were not the ultimate goal we started out to reach, they were but the beginnings of progress. We, of this generation, must so act our part that a century hence, our children and our children s children may honor our memoryand be inspired to press on as they receive from us untarnished the banner offreedom, of manhood and of equality among men.

The Negro went aboard the ship of state when she was first launched upon the uncertain waters of our national existence. He booked as a throughpassenger until she should reach "the utmost sea-mark of her farthest sail."When those in command treated him with injustice and brutality, he did notmutiny or rebel; when placed before the mast as a lookout, he did not fallasleep at his post. He has helped to keep her from being wrecked upon therocks of treachery; he has imperiled his life by standing manfully to his taskwhile she outrode the fury of of a threatening sea; when the pirate craft ofrebellion bore down upon her and sought to place the black flag of disunion ather masthead, he was one of the first to respond when the captain called allhands up on deck. If the enemies of liberty should ever again attempt towreck our ship of state, the Negro American will stand by the guns; he will


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62 ONE HfNDRKDTH ANNIVERSARYnot desert her when she is sinking, but with the principles of the Declarationof Independence nailed to the masthead, with the nag afloat, he would preferlather to perish with her than to be numbered among those who deserted herwhen assailed by an overwhelming foe. If she weathers the storms that beatupon her, outsails the enemies that pursue her, avoids the rocks that threatenher, and anchors at last in the port of her desired haven, black Americans andwhite Americans locked together in brotherly embrace, will pledge each otherto remain aboard forever on terms of equality, because they shall have learnedby experience that neither one of them can be saved, except they thus abide inthe ship.

For the present our strivings are not in vain. The injustice that leansupon the arm of oppression for support must fall; truth perverted or suppressed gains in momentum while it waits; generations may perish, but humanity will survive; out of the present conflict of opinion and the differencesof race and color that divide, once the tides of immigration have ceased to flowto our shores, this nation will evolve a people who shall be one in purpose, oneIn spirit, one in destiny a composite American by the co-mingling of blood.When the applause following the

oration had subsided, Company L fileddown from the gallery and marchedout through the center aisle with theband playing and the audience applauding.Mrs. Olivia Ward Bush then read theEmancipation Proclamation and the13th Amendment, as showing the endof the Liberator s work, its publicationbeing ended at that time.After this Mr. Edward EverettBrown made an impassioned short address. He said in part:Mr. President and Fellow Citizens:It is fitting that we should assemble inhistoric Faneuil Hall, where the greatbattles of our race and humanity havebeen fought, to pay our tribute of loveand respect to the sainted memory ofthat grand, fearless uncompromisingdefender and champion of the rightsof man, justice and equality, WilliamLloyd Garrison.No man who truly loves his raceand is interested in its highest social, commercial, political, intellectualand moral advancement, could fail torespond to the call of duty in such asacred cause as we have met tonightto honor and draw lessons of inspiration from his noble life and self-sacrificing character.The Negroes of America owe moreto Garrison than to any other manwho lived during that stormy periodthat tried men s souls.

He was hated, persecuted and mobbed for us, but his courage never failedhim, never for a moment did he loseinterest in the mighty cause of humanfreedom and liberty for the poor, despised black slave to whom he hadconsecrated his life.

If it had not been for Garrison wewould probably have never had theeloquent Phillips pleading our causeat the great bar of public opinion. Because it was that disgraceful scenewitnessed by Phillips in Court street,Boston in 1835, when Garrison was being dragged through the streets bythe Broadcloth mob that enlisted thesympathy of Phillips and from that moment he became a convert to the anti-slavery cause.In spite of the sacrifices of blood andtreasure, caused by the great war ofthe rebellion, the Negro citizens ofAmerica are still the victims of unjustpersecution; race hatred and discrimination, disfranchised, robbed of theballot, that priceless heritage of American citizenship, denied the right oftrial by jury, shot down, lynched andmurdered without even the form of atrial.

I believe that a sentiment will goforth from this historic hall that willarouse the seared .hearts, and consciences of the American people to givethe Negro fair play, justice, equal opportunity, equal rights under the sacredconstitution of our country.


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BIRTH OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.The chairman of the committee on

Resolutions, Mr. T. P.Taylor, calledupon Rev. J. W. Hill, secretary of thecommittee on resolutions, to readthem, before doing so narrating briefly his experience in helping save Wendell Phillips from the mob at theSmith Court Synagogue in 1860.

The Resolutions Adopted.Whereas: On this memorable

occasion we are filled with gratitude to God, who hath given usa grand opportunity to unitewith a host of friends throughout thecountry in the observance of the OneHundredth Anniversary of the birthof the Pioneer in the work of theabolition of American slavery, WilliamLloyd Garrison; and are glad to recall to memory the history of onewho when a young man of twenty-fouryears, thought deeply on the subjectof human oppression and decided thatthe curse of American slavery shouldbe removed from the land. Mr. Garrison became inspired with a strong desire and determination to lift his voiceand wield his pen in behalf of thebondman, and with courage to go forthalmost single handed to demand forthe enslaved race, "Immediate and Unconditional Emancipation." With astrong faith in the possibility of success he began his life work fearingneither opposition nor danger thatthreatened him all the way.We are reminded, a (s we reverentlytread the path over which the excitedmob dragged his body, that Mr. Garrison bore with calm fortitude the insult,still believing that his cause was just,and that eventually "right would triumph over might." We will gladly remember that his love of country anddesire for Universal Freedom, led himto place on the pages of the earliestedition of the "Liberator," his motto:"Our country is the world; our countrymen are all mankind," and to beknown as a foe to every form of oppression. Therefore be itResolved: That, as we renewmemories of the anti-slavery

struggle, we rejoice that toour oppressed race as a grand result of the agitation the Day of Freedom dawned, the prison doors wereopened, the chains loosened and theoppressed walked forth to freedomforever on American soil.Resolved: That we gratefully recordanew appreciation of the labors ofWilliam Lloyd Garrison and the host

of earnest men and women who, withtheir true friend and leader, workedincessantly during the dark hours ofslavery and lived to hail with joy thesending over the land the Emancipation Proclamation giving freedom tofour millions of bondmen, who tookup the joyful news and shouted to allaround the welcome words, "We refree, we re free."Resolved: That we will often bringto the young people the memory of thepast, and lead them to trace the history of the Negro-American, and fromyear to year record the wonderful progress made since the day that civiland politicaj opportunity was giventhem. It shall be our aim to place inevery household a memento of thisoccasion, bearing a likeness of William Lloyd Garrison, with many ofhis sayings that shajl be rememberedby succeeding generations.Resolved: That we deem this a fitting time to bring to the wives andmothers of our country the beautifulexample of fidelity as seen in the lifeof the sainted companion of Mr. Garrison, who encouraged him in his workand proved herself a true helpmate,sending him in the midst of his darkest hours while Sheltered in the jailfrom the fury of an angry mob, themessage "I know my husband will notbetray his principles," this too, when ayoung wife and mother, surroundedby a little family that missed the loving presence of a devoted husbaoid andfather.Resolved: That we urge thewives and mothers of our land

to impress on the minds ofthe young people the lessons of moralcourage and adherence to good principles that shall prepare them for theduties of life; making them to standfor the Right at all times, and that weconsider it our duty to encourage themin their efforts by our renewed determination to uplift the race with whomwe are identified, until they shallovercome all obstacles to success, andenjoy the rights that belong to everycitizen of the United States. Andfinally be itResolved: That we reconsecrateourselves to the great ideal of Freedom, for which Garrison suffered imprisonment and even risked his lifeand reaffirm our belief in his methodof destroying evil by exposing its hideous nature and denouncing its perpetrators, being as he was, "as harsh astruth and as uncompromising as jus-

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