{"id":1241,"date":"2007-05-29T19:49:41","date_gmt":"2007-05-29T19:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theliberatorfiles.com\/\u201coughtness\u201d-of-life-primary-for-garrison\/"},"modified":"2011-07-21T20:12:04","modified_gmt":"2011-07-21T20:12:04","slug":"oughtness-of-life-primary-for-garrison","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.theliberatorfiles.com\/oughtness-of-life-primary-for-garrison\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Oughtness” of Life was Primary for Garrison"},"content":{"rendered":"

A view by the author\/researcher\/collector, Horace Seldon<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Garrison was not the first to call for the immediate abolition of slavery. In his first public address he urged the establishment of chapters of the American Colonization Society, an agency which adopted a \u201cgradualist\u201d approach to emancipation. The influence of colored citizens in Boston, and later in Baltimore, led him to reject \u201cgradualism\u201d, and the ACS. One context of these changes is the religious vision of what life \u201cought\u201d to be. The Christian evangelical roots of his Mother and early mentors can be seen at work on the abolitionist conscience. Garrison\u2019s discontent when contemplating that \u201cmost atrocious villany\u201d of slavery would not let him be satisfied with a \u201cgradual\u201d or partial emancipation. The seeds of his discontent grew toward \u201cimmediatism\u201d.<\/p>\n

The English Quaker, Elizabeth Heyrick, was among the earlier people to call for \u201cimmediatism\u201d. She wrote in 1824 a pamphlet that Benjamin Lundy printed in his Genius of Emancipation. A later speech by W.C. Nell, refers to Heyrick in a manner that increases the probability that Garrison was affected by her pamphlet.<\/p>\n

Heyrick wrote of the manner in which slave holders had \u201ccajoled\u201d abolitionists into the idea that emancipation could come only gradually, and they should be discour-aged from asking for anything more. Slave holders knew that a call for gradual emancipation \u201cwould beget a gradual indifference to emancipation.\u201d Such \u201cmeddling\u201d with human virtue and happiness, is the \u201cvery masterpiece of satanic policy\u201d. Heyrick feared that \u201cif public justice and humanity, especially if Christian justice and humanity could be brought to demand only a gradual extermination of the enormities of the slave system; if they could be brought to acquiesce, but for one year, or for one month, in the slavery of our African brother, — in robbing him of all the rights of humanity, — and degrading him to a level with the brutes; that then, they could imperceptibly be brought to acquiesce in all this for an unlimited duration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heyrick insisted that the abolitionists must \u201center the lists\u2026.with more of the spirit of Christian combatants, and less of worldly politicians\u201d. She used language about \u201can holy war\u201d, \u201can attack upon the strong holds, the deep entrenchments of the very power of darkness; in which, courage would be more availing than caution.\u201d The \u201cgreat business of emancipation\u201d cannot be converted into \u201can object of political calculation\u201d. Disappointment of defeat will be the inevitable consequence if abolitionists withdraw the struggle from its \u201cDivine patronage\u201d. \u201cTruth and justice make their best way in the world when they appear in bold and simple majesty with more the spirit of Christian combatants, and less of worldly politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bold and combatant might well be adjectives for Garrison. His call for an immediate end to slavery opened him to the charge of irrelevance. Fear of being called irrelevant in the call for an immediate end to slavery, might easily have persuaded him to call for less than what \u201cought\u201d to be. That Heyrick would not do; that Garrison would not do.<\/p>\n

Garrison charged listeners to consider the example of the threat of a fire in their homes. \u201cYou do not \u2018gradually\u2019 call for the firemen to come \u2018gradually\u2019, to \u2018gradually\u2019 put out your fire \u2026 you want it immediately extinquished\u201d. In a public venue, someone challenged him with the fact that surely \u201cimmediate\u201d was not going to happen. Why then advocate it? Garrison\u2019s response: \u201cWe have never said that slavery would be overthrown by a single blow, that it ought to be we shall always contend\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOughtness\u201d dominates much of Garrison\u2019s motivation. In an early edition of the Liberator<\/em>, in 1832, Lloyd began judging actions on the grounds of conscience rather than expediency, and he specifically rejected the latter. \u201cNor does immediate abolition mean that any compulsory power, other than moral. should be used in breaking the fetters of slavery \u2026there are three modes in which slavery can be overthrown \u2026 by physical force on the part of the free states\u2026 by the same force on the part of the slaves (we should visit those words later when we speak of nonresistance)\u2026 and by an enlightened and benevolent public opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last was Garrison\u2019s choice. In the very paper from which I quote, written actually after the beginning of the NEASS, Garrison calls for a \u201cNational\u201d Anti-Slavery Society. Its purpose should be to \u201cconcentrate the moral energies of the nation. The people everywhere want light on this subject \u2026 nothing but light. Their hearts are all right, their heads are all wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

There must be a \u201crevolution of moral opinion\u201d. \u201cOughtness\u201d becomes a central urgency. Garrison did not say it in the magnificent cadence of Martin Luther King, Jr., but he knew that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.\u201d Garrison knew that; he called for an immediate implementation of the arc\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n

Where does the arc begin? At that immense 1855 celebration of the ending of separate schools for colored children in Boston, Garrison said, \u201csocietal reform begins in the heart of a solitary individual,\u2026grows strong among \u2018humble men and women\u2026.having faith in what is just and true, they engage in the work\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

If this emphasis on moral \u201coughtness\u201d sounds to be the edge of irrelevance, and before we succumb to expedience, consider these words from Abolitionist Hannah Webb: Think of \u201cA world in which there would be no slavery, no king, no beggars, no lawyers, no doctors, no soldiers, no palaces, no prisons, no creeds, no sects, no weary or grinding labor, no luxurious idleness, no peculiar Sabbath or temple \u2026 no restraint but moral restraint, no constraining power but love. Shall we judge such a man because he may go a little further than we are prepared to follow?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A view by the author\/researcher\/collector, Horace Seldon Garrison was not the first to call for the immediate abolition of slavery. In his first public address he urged the establishment of…<\/p>\n

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