“We begin this number, the Thirty-fourth volume of the Liberator, and, in wishing our readers one and all a Happy New Year, take this opportunity to thank them for that generous support …..May the present year witness the consummation of our labors and our hopes!”

New from Missouri, in a speech by Hon. Henry T. Blow, to a large audience at the Union League rooms, Washington.  “The latest intelligence from Missouri induces me to believe that a new Constitution will be convened by the legislature that meets in February, and there remains little doubt that emancipation will be adopted, and the next crops will ripen with success on free soil…..I venture the declaration that there is not a single State which will not be ready to come back into the Union as a free State within six months, …..”

“In this period of ‘The Great Transition’ – and especially in that trying portion of it which is yet to come — the great necessity of or our country is a leader….It is true that we might easily find a worse President than Abraham Lincoln.  Nevertheless, it is highly desirable for the crisis through which we are now passing to find a better….The man still feels what the unreasoning  boy felt,  that the respectable , courteous, friendly slaveholding neighbors of his father’s family had a sort of right to hold slaves. He still holds that sympathetic fellow-feeling with them..,….He has said to the Supreme Court, by the very terms of this carefully prepared oath of allegiance  –’You may break the Proclamation if you will, and I hereby signify my assent to your action.’ (Reference is to an Oath of Allegiance, in the Proclamation of Amnesty.) What we need is a President who in such as crisis as this, shall not recognize even the possibility of the reversal of a righteous act which he has done in the legitimate exercise of his official function.  If Abraham is afraid of the Supreme Court, he is not the man for this place, nor for this hour.  If he cares more for the wishes and interests of slaveholders than of slaves, he is not the man for the next four years of Presidential office….”  C.K.W.”

“Think not, that your work will soon be forgotten.”   Stanton here assures the women who have been collecting signatures on petitions, that their letters, all will be “preserved for the admiration of our children’s children”…..this is not a movement for a day or an hour to end with the circulation of this petition; but the inauguration of the moral power of woman to be recognized in the politics of the nation….”

Here Garrison speaks of his early years, telling how “I became an Abolitionist”, and giving tribute to Benjamin Lundy.  Garrison tells of his early meeting with Lundy, and of his agreement to join Lundy in Baltimore.  “The proposition on his part was, that we should convert the little monthly into a large and handsome weekly paper.  I was to be the principal editor, while he was to be a traveling editor and lecturer, for the purpose of diffusing information and getting subscribers.  But I did not assist him a great deal in that way, because, as soon as I got to Baltimore, I had my eyes opened in regard to the absurdity and delusion of gradual emancipation.”….he tells of the agreement with Lundy, that if he writes about immediate emancipation, he will sign articles with his initials, and Lundy will put his initials to what he writes.  “To this I agreed…But I drove off subscribers four or five times as fast as he could get them! …. had it not been for him, I know not where I should have been at the present time…”

A brief article includes some of the discussion in the Senate of a bill by Sen. Wilson, of Mass., which was intended to equalize the pay of all soldiers….In the same edition of the paper, under the title The Freedmen, signed by Francis George Shaw, President, and J. M. McKim, Secretary, there are resolutions urging equal pay for soldiers of African descent.  The resolutions come from the annual meeting of the United States Commission for the relief of the National Freedmen.

Notice of a gathering to honor Thompson, now to visit the United States.  “It will be an occasion of historic interest, and we trust eminently creditable to Boston and the Commonwealth, and worthy of the noble man to be honored. Friends of Freedom, Pack the Hall! Come from all quarters, far and near!”

Commenting on the Thirtieth National Anti-Slavery Subscription Anniversary, Child mentions her excitement at seeing Whittier, “who rarely makes his appearance in public”, and Theodore Weld, whose “hair and beard are whitened”.  She tells of meeting Edmonia Lewis, and going with her to her room, where she saw Lewis’ first bust, “copied from a head of Voltaire”… “Whether she will prove to have any portion of creative genius time will show; but she seems to possess a native talent, which is capable of being developed fairly by industry and perseverance.”

A brief notice from the N.Y. Tribune indicates that the Board of Directors of the Fourth Ave Line of the City Railroad “have rescinded their order excluding colored persons from the cars, so that, hereafter,  white and black will be allowed equal privileges on this road.”