WHO ARE ABOLITIONISTS?
The St. Paul Press, for political effect, or some other foolish purpose, the editor of that paper says: — “The Republican party is, in fact, the only abolition party, in the positive sense of the word, as an active and operative agency. The disciples of Garrison, on the other hand, are not, or at least were not, abolitionists — but anti-slavery men; their attitude towards slavery having been the wholly negative one of passive protest and disapprobation; while that of the Republican party was one of active, aggressive, militant organized opposition.” —- The Press is good at hifalutin and obfuscation— not to say falsification. We are glad, of course, it the men of the North have at last got the spirit of abolition whipped into them so thoroughly that they will whip slavery out of the land. But let them be modest and truthful as to the facts of history. Let no party claim laurels that do not belong to them, nor deny that the Government has been a slaveholding and a compromising one, which every may should be heartily ashamed of and sorry for, and fully determine the it shall never be so again. – Anoka Star.
(Liberator, April 8, 1864, pg 4)
