by letter from Mr. Buxton to take breakfast with him.  Presenting myself at the appointed time, when my name was announced, instead of coming forward promptly to take me by the hand, he scrutinized me from head to foot, and then inquired, somewhat dubiously, “Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Garrison, of Boston, in the United States?” “Yes, sir,” I replied, “I am he; and I am here in accordance with your invitation.”  Lifting up his hands he exclaimed, “Why, my dear sir, I thought you were a black man.  And I have consequently invited this company of ladies and gentlemen to be present to welcome Mr. Garrison, the black advocate of emancipation from the United States of America.” (Laughter.) I have often said, sir, that that is the only compliment I have ever had paid to me that I care to remember or tell of.  For Mr. Buxton had somehow or other supposed that no white American could plead for those in bondage as I had done, and therefore I must be black.  (Laughter.)

It is indeed true, sir, that I have had no other rule by which to be guided than this.  I never cared to know precisely how many stripes were inflicted on the slaves.  I never deemed it necessary to go down into the Southern States, if I could have gone, for the purpose of taking the exact dimensions of the slave system.  I made it from the start, and always, my own case, thus:  Did I want to be a slave?  No.  Did God make me to be a slave?  No.  But I am only a man, only one of the human race; and if not created to be a slave, then no other human being was made for that purpose.  My wife and children, dearer to me than my heart’s blood, were they made for the auction-block?  Never!  And so it was all very easily settled here (pointing to his breast).  (Great cheering.) I could not help being an uncompromising abolitionist.

Here allow me to pay a brief tribute to the American abolitionists.  Putting myself entirely out of the question, I believe that in no land, at any time, was there ever a more devoted, self-sacrificing, and uncompromising band of men and women.  Nothing can be said to their credit which they do not deserve.  With apostolic zeal, they counted nothing dear to them for the sake of the slave, and him dehumanized.  But whatever has been achieved through them is all of God, to whom alone is the glory due.  Thankful are we all that we have been permitted to live to see this day, for our country’s sake, and for the sake of mankind.  Of course, we are glad that our reproach is at last taken away; for it is very desirable, if possible, to have the good opinions of our fellow-men; but if, to secure these, we must sell our manhood and sully our souls, then their bad opinions of us are to be coveted instead.

Sir, my special part in this grand struggle was in first unfurling the banner of immediate and unconditional emancipation, and attempting to make a common rally under it.  This I did, not in a free State, but in the city of Baltimore,