SOURCE: Thomas, John L. “‘Our Doom as a Nation Is Sealed.’” In The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison: A Biography, pp. 209-35. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1963.

In the following excerpt, Thomas probes the political context of Garrison's religious views, particularly his belief in the Christian doctrine of perfectionism in relation to the debate over constitutional reform that occurred in the United States during the 1830s.

In the quiet of the Benson farmhouse, where he and his wife retired after his encounter with the Boston mob, Garrison took time to reflect on the progress of moral reform. “Much as my mind is absorbed in the anti-slavery cause,” he confessed to his sister-in-law Anna, “there are other great subjects that frequently occupy my thoughts, upon which much light remains to be thrown, and which are of the utmost importance to the temporal and eternal welfare of man.”¹ The peace cause...