December 25, 1846
A brief quote from the address: ” This accession to our territory has been a bloodless achievement. No arm of force has been raised to produce this result. The sword has no part in this victory. We have not sought to extend our territorial possessions by conquest, or our republican institutions over a reluctant people. It was a deliberate homage of each people, to the great principles of our federative union”
Ed. Comment: ” What a bloody commentary upon this boastful declaration is the Mexican War!”
December 4, 1846
Under title Where Stands Massachusetts, there is a private letter to Garrison from Stephen Foster, lamenting the cool reception he and Abby have received in Hubbardston and Worcester. “..it was like attempting to thaw ice amid the eternal snows of the polar regions. It is enough to chill one’s blood only to step into our meetings and witness the cold indifference which sits brooding on the features of our audience…. Massachusetts, it seems to me, has fallen immensely since I left the State two years ago…… I hope it is not so in every part of the State…..”
November 27, 1846
Aknowledgement by Garrison of thanks to Edmund Quincy for his editorship while Garrison is away.
Reception for Garrison and James Buffum, at Belknap Street Church, upon their recent return from England.
October 30, 1846
This letter from Thompson tells of the visit which he, Garrison, and Douglass had with Clarkson.
“The present seems a suitable moment for me to say, that Mr. Clarkson expressed his entire approbation on the anti-slavery course of Mr. Garrison, and especially of views respecting ‘No union with slaveholders’, and ‘The dissolution of the Union’.”
October 23, 1846
The death of Clarkson is noted, and records that Thompson had written, saying that Garrison did visit with Clarkson shorthly before his death. Clarkson shared with Garrison his views as to the DISSOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN UNION. Clarkson had put into Garrison’s hands a document by that name, as his legacy to the American people. “His dying thoughts could not be limited by the country which gave him birth, but flew across the ocean to the land which is the arena of the conflict between Liberty and Slavery.”
September 4, 1846
“Let us learn from the past. If we look back over the wreck of former republics, we shall find scarce one that did not fall a victim of its own war spirit. Did not the soldiers of our own Washington urge him on one occasion to assume the sceptre? Look at the republics South of us. Well did a distinquished officer in our last war say, ‘We have escaped from one war with a crippled constitution, and the next will probably destroy it’. Still more distinctly did Madison forewarn us: ‘Of all the enemies of liberty, war is the most to be dreaded. It is the parent of armies; and debts, and taxes which are well known instruments for bringing the many under the dominion of the few. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of a continued warfare.’”
August 21, 1846
The majority and minority reports of the Primary School Committee are included here. One comment is on the argument that, because the colored community asked for the separate schools, the schools should continue to be separate…… “It seems that the separate schools were originally established by the request of the colored men. And this fact is considered by the Committee as a conclusive argument why no change should be made in the present system. Because the men of the last generation asked, whether wisely or unwisely , for what seemed to them best in the then condition of the times and of public sentiment, are their children to be\foreclosed from asking for something else which the altered state of public feelings and of the times demands?
If it were competent for the colored men of the beginning of the nineteenth century to ask for separate schools for their children, is it not competent for those of the middle of the century to ask for their abolition? The argument seems to us just as broad as it is long. We do not think that our colored friends need be in the least apprehensive of disturbing the shades of ‘Primus Hall, of Cyrus Vassall and of Prince Saunders’, by making the demand they do - a demand, which we believe those worthy men would cordially concur in, were they among us in the flesh, at the present time.”
August 7, 1846
An article from the St. Mary’s (Ohio) Sentinel tells of the arrival of 385 slaves, given freedom by John Randolph. They were encamped in the town of Bremin. A crowd gathered, and after discussion and maneuvers, the freed people are finally removed….. “men will not quietly submit to have their farms and hard earnings of the best portion of their lives to be rendered worthless by the settling down amongst them of a colony of manumitted slaves….”
July 31, 1846
An article reminding people of the struggle for Abolition in England, and the triumph in the West Indies ….It calls for people “to assemble , on the morrow, in their several neighborhoods, and hallow the day with joy and with thanksgiving; with the voice of eloquence and song; with temperate mirth and cheerful companionship…… let them be strengthened and encouraged by the success that has crowned the toils of others, to redouble their own efforts for the achievement of a wider and more glorious victory!”
July 24, 1846
An article about Garrison’s trip, tells of the numerous people who were at the wharf to bid him well. It also calls attention to the fact that, during his absence, he has entrusted the main charge of the newspaper to Edmund Quincy and Charles K. Whipple, who will be assisted by Maria Chapman and Wendell Phillips.
There is also a notice, signed by Coffin Pitts, and Benjamin Weeden, of a Crowded Meeting of the Colored Population of Boston, who bid Garrison farewell during a meeting at the Baptist Church, Belknap St. There is an address by John T. Hilton.
