Mr. Garrison, in a private letter to a friend under date of September 12, 1834, summarises the doings of the preceding twelve months of his life, and makes mention of a fact which lends peculiar interest to that time:  “It has been the most eventful year,” he remarks, “in my history.  I have been the occasion of many uproars, and a continual disturber of the public peace.  As soon as I landed I turned the city of New York upside down.  Five thousand people turned out to see me tarred and feathered, but were disappointed.  There was also a small hubbub in Boston on my arrival.  The excitement passed away, but invective and calumny still followed me.  By dint of some industry and much persuasion, I succeeded in inducing the Abolitionists in New York to join our little band in Boston, in calling a national convention at Philadelphia.  We met, and such a body of men, for zeal, firmness, integrity, benevolence, and moral greatness, the world has rarely seen in a single assembly.  Inscribed upon a declaration which it was my exalted privilege to write, their names can perish only with the knowledge of the history of our times.  A National Anti-Slavery Society was formed, which astonished the country by its novelty, and awed it by its boldness.  In five months its first annual meeting was held in the identical city in which, only seven antecedent months, Abolitionists were in peril of their lives.  In ability, interest, and solemnity it took precedence of all the great religious celebrations which took place at the same time.  During the same month, a New England anti-slavery convention was held in Boston, and so judicious were its measures, so eloquent its appeals, so unequivocal its resolutions, that it at once gave shape and character to the anti-slavery cause in this section of the Union.  In the midst of all these mighty movements, I have wooed “a fair ladye,” and won her, have thrown aside celibacy, and jumped body and soul into matrimony, have sunk the character of bachelor in that of husband, have settled down into domestic quietude, and repudiated all my roving desires, and have found that which I have long been yearning to find, a home, a wife, and a beautiful retreat from a turbulent city.”

Garrison does not exaggerate the importance of the initiatives and achievements of the year, or the part played by him in its history.  His activity was indeed phenomenal, and the service rendered by him to the reform, was unrivaled.  He was in incessant motion, originating, directing, inspiring the agitation in all portions of the North.  What strikes one strongly in studying the pioneer is his sleeplessness, his indefatigableness, his persistency in pursuit of his object.  Others may rest after a labor, may have done one, two, or three distinct tasks, but between Garrison’s acts there is no hiatus, each follows each, and is joined to all like links in a chain.  He never closed his eyes, nor folded his arms, but went forward from work to work with the consecutiveness of a law of nature.