slavery, and brought the meeting with a high hand
to a close. This incident was the first collision
with the church of the forlorn hope of the Abolition
movement. Trained as Garrison was in the orthodox
creed and sound in that creed almost to bigotry, this
behavior of a standard-bearer of the church, together
with the apathy displayed by the clergy on a former
occasion, caused probably the first “little
rift within the lute” of his creed, “that
by and by will make the music mute, and, ever widening,
slowly silence all.” For in religion as
in love, “Unfaith in aught is want of faith
in all.” The Rev. Howard Malcolm’s
arbitrary proceeding had prevented the organization
of an anti-slavery committee. But this was affected
at a second meeting of the friends of the slave.
Garrison was one of the twenty gentlemen who were
appointed such a committee. His zeal and energy
far exceeded the zeal and energy of the remaining
nineteen. He did not need the earnest exhortation
of Lundy to impress upon his memory the importance
of “activity and steady perseverance.”
He perceived almost at once that everything depended
on them. And so he had formed plans for a vigorous
campaign against the existence of slavery in the District
of Columbia. But before he was ready to set out
along the line of work, which he had laid down for
Massachusetts, the scene of his labors shifted to
Bennington, Vermont. Before he left Boston, Lundy
had recognized him as “a valuable coadjutor.”
The relationship between the two men was becoming
beautifully close. The more Lundy saw of Garrison,
the more he must have seemed to him a man after his
own heart. And so no wonder that he was solicitous
of fastening him to his cause with hooks of steel.
The older had written the younger reformer a letter
almost paternal in tone—he must do thus
and thus, he must not be disappointed if he finds
the heavy end of the burthen borne by himself, while
those associated with him do little to keep the wheels
moving, he must remember that “a few will have
the labor to perform and the honor to share.”
Then there creeps into his words a grain of doubt,
a vague fear lest his young ally should take his hands
from the plough and go the way of all men, and here
are the words which Paul might have written to Timothy:
“I hope you will persevere in your work, steadily,
but not make too large calculations on what may be
accomplished in a particularly stated time. You
have now girded on a holy warfare. Lay not down
your weapons until honorable terms are obtained. The
God of hosts is on your side. Steadiness and faithfulness
will most assuredly overcome every obstacle.”
The older apostle had yet to learn that the younger
always did what he undertook in the field of morals
and philanthropy.