“I can hardly express to thee the deep and solemn interest with which I have viewed the violent proceedings of the last few weeks.  Although I expected opposition, I was not prepared for it so soon—­it took me by surprise—­and I greatly feared abolitionists would be driven back in the first outset, and thrown into confusion....  Under these feelings I was urged to read thy Appeal to the citizens of Boston.  Judge, then, what were my feelings on finding that my fears were utterly groundless, and that thou stoodest firm in the midst of the storm, determined to suffer and to die, rather than yield one inch ...  The ground upon which you stand is holy ground; never, never surrender it.”

She then goes on to encourage him to persevere in his work, reminding him of the persecutions of reformers in past times, and that religious persecution always began with mobs.

“If,” she says, “persecution is the means which God has ordained for the accomplishment of this great end, Emancipation; then, in dependence upon Him for strength to bear it, I feel as if I could say, Let It Come! for it is my deep, solemn, deliberate conviction that this is a cause worth dying for.  I say so, from what I have seen, heard, and known in a land of slavery, where rests the darkness of Egypt, and where is found the sin of Sodom.  Yes!  Let it come—­let us suffer, rather than insurrections should arise.”

This letter Mr. Garrison published in the Liberator, to the surprise of Angelina, and the great displeasure and grief of her Quaker friends.  But she who had just counselled another to suffer and die rather than abate an inch of his principles was not likely to quail before the strongly expressed censure of her Society, which was at once communicated to her.  Only over her sister’s tender disapproval did she shed any tears.  Her letter of explanation to Sarah shows the sweetness and the firmness of her character so conspicuously, that I offer no apology for copying a portion of it.  It is dated Shrewsbury, Sept. 27th, 1335, and enters at once upon the subject:—­

“My Beloved Sister:  I feel constrained in all the tenderness of a sister’s love to address thee, though I hardly know what to say, seeing that I stand utterly condemned by the standard which thou hast set up to judge me by—­the opinion of my friends.  This thou seemest to feel an infallible criterion.  If it is, I have not so learned Christ, for He says, ’he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,’ etc.  I do most fully believe that had I done what I have done in a church capacity, I should justly incur their censure, because they disapprove of any intermeddling with the question, but what I did was done in a private capacity, on my own responsibility.  Now, my precious sister, I feel willing to be condemned by all but thyself, without a hearing; but to thee I owe the sacred duty of vindication, though hardly one ray of hope dawns on my mind that I shall be acquitted even by