SOURCE: Kraditor, Aileen S. “Religion and the Good Society.” In Means and Ends in American Abolitionism: Garrison and His Critics on Strategy and Tactics, 1834-1850, pp. 78-95. New York: Pantheon Books, 1969.

In the following excerpt, Kraditor examines Garrison's views on radical social issues of the mid-1800s, such as nonresistance (pacifism) and women's rights.

In the fight over the woman question the anti-Garrisonian abolitionists showed their concern with what today would be called the movement's “public image.” This is particularly evident from the fact that the assault on the innovations in women's public activity originated with clergymen outside or on the periphery of the movement and only later was joined by conservative abolitionist leaders. Both radicals and conservatives recognized the crucial importance of ministers in molding public opinion, and this recognition accounts both for the attempts to discredit the clergy and for the efforts to conciliate it. Both...