The Liberator Files

January 15, 1841

Notice of the party meeting, deferred until February, hoping for the largest “anti-slavery meeting ever assembled in Boston.

January 6, 1843

In the first issue of the year there is an article of three columns, signed only by the initials E. Q., (probably Edmund Quincy) strongly deprecating the Liberty Party.  The article assumes the person of the Devil, and recounts that he has “seen through” the State, has “managed both political parties since they were born”, had been “admitted a member” of the Church, preached from its most eminent pulpits, and was familiar with all its organizations.  The article indicates that the Devil has been confounded as to why abolitionists were so critical, but now has found another place for his work, namely, in the Liberty Party.   The article concludes with an admonition to all who vote that they  “SHOULD VOTE FOR ANYONE , EXCEPT A PROSLAVERY WHIG OR DEMOCRAT, SOONER THAN A CANDIDATE OF THE LIBERTY PARTY FOR ANY OFFICE.”

August 4, 1843

Here is reference to Alvan Stewart’s advice that abolitionists not attend the many conventions which have been publicized.  He is “attached” to the Liberty Party, and the AAS Society, which sponsors the conventions, recognizes no such party.  Stewart, in particular attacks the ‘Massachusetts abolitionists’, charging that they are ‘No Human-Government Men’.    Then there follows an extract from Stewart’s letter:  “Last November, I told William Lloyd Garrison, in my own house, that he and his friends had no remedy for slavery except the one that I have just stated  — a sort of universal millennium. He admitted it.  He said that he, ‘would not petition or vote for the slave’s deliverance, if he knew that would accomplish it.’

‘Why’, said I.

‘Because that would be using our corrupt human government.’……He further said , he had no doubt, the time would come when voting would be regarded as infamous, and the same as visiting the gambling-table or the brothel….”

There is a printed response from Abby Kelley, in which she calls attention to the huge number of petitions recently filed in the state legislature by abolitionists in the state, and fundamentally says that Stewart’s complaint is only that they do not support the Liberty Party, or his candidacy.

September 22, 1843

Under the title Liberty Party, here are some unsigned excerpts from an explication of the position taken against all political parties:  in reference to persons who are “sometimes surprised to hear the Liberty Party described as the most dangerous enemy of the slave, and warnings most solemnly given his friends to beware of it…… They have not learned from their experience in the old parties, that men and parties may profess to be what they are not….. The principles of all three parties are good enough and sufficient enough to abolish slavery, if they were only carried out.  The fault anti-slavery has to find with them is that they are not carried out. ….”

November 3, 1843

Here is a letter addressed to “Mr. Garrison”, signed only “H”, in which the writer urges abolitionists to vote in the up-coming election in the state.  He speaks of specific candidates, and issues.  “If all the voting friends of the Mass Anti-Slavery Society do their duty at the State election, I feel convinced that many who now vote for the Liberty Party candidates, will see a practical result attending the policy of scattering votes.
The article is presented w/o comment from Garrison.

November 15, 1844

Here is a recapitulation of votes for Polk, and gubernatorial votes, and Congressional Districts in Massachusetts.   In regard to the Liberty Party, it has not done well in Massachusetts, and it “has scarcely held its own in other states. There must be a great deal of mortification felt, if very little exhibited, by its leaders, especially by Messrs. Birney and Leavitt.”

October 29, 1847

Henry Wright describes at length the poor health of Garrison, after visiting him in Cleveland.  “You will see little from his pen in the Liberator for some time.”  Wright also says that he is going to Buffalo, to be present at the Liberty Party Convention. “I go not there to join the Convention but as a looker-on.  I abjure allegiance to a constitution that sanctions slavery or war. It has no authority over me, and I shall embrace every opportunity to make it and the government that is based upon it, the scorn of mankind.”

October 6, 1854

This account tells of the meeting of the Liberty party, indicating that attendance was small, unenthusiastic, “proceedings not animated”, etc and then tells of subsequent meetings of the American Anti-Slavery Society, in the same city, which it claims to be well attended.  There is an account of animated discussion between Gerrit Smith and the Editor about whether to interpret the Constitution as an anti-slavery or pro-slavery .

October 19, 1855

Here is a brief exchange between William Goodell and Garrison. Goodell writes to Garrison, saying that he is mistaken in thinking that he (Goodell) makes “the condition of voting  to depend upon sex”; Goodell claims that he is a member of the Liberty Party, which Party is in favor of women voting.  Garrison’s response claims that the Liberty Party has sworn to sustain the Constitution of the State of New York; that state Constitution says that only men, of certain age, and possessions are entitled to vote.  Garrison says “..the Liberty Party goes, in theory, for equal political rights, without regard to sex or complexion”, but practically, “it says that such proscription is no outrage, by swearing to sustain the Constitution of New York.”