At the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, in May, 1865, Garrison contended for its dissolution, declaring that “Nothing is more clear in my own mind, nothing has ever been more clear, than that this is the fitting time to dissolve our organization, and to mingle with the millions of our fellow-countrymen in one common effort to establish justice and liberty throughout the land.”  For two days the debate upon this question raged in the convention, but when the vote was taken it was found that a large majority of the delegates agreed with Mr. Phillips.  Mr. Garrison was, nevertheless, reelected President, but declined and withdrew from the society.  The controversy was renewed at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in January, 1866.  But here again a large majority voted against dissolution.  Warm words fell from both Garrison and Phillips and their respective supporters, which tried sorely the friendship of the two leaders.

In accordance with his views touching the discontinuance of the anti-slavery societies, Garrison discontinued the publication of the Liberator after the completion of its thirty-fifth volume in December, 1865.  He did not mean by this act to cease his labors for the negro.  Far from it.  For he, like Phillips, stood for his absolute equality before the law.  But he perceived that old things had passed away, and with them the need of the old instruments, and that what remained to be done for the black man required to be done with new means.  “The object,” said he in his valedictory, “for which the Liberator was commenced, the extermination of chattel slavery, having been gloriously consummated, it seems to me specially appropriate to let its existence cover the historic period of the great struggle; leaving what remains to be done to complete the work of emancipation to other instrumentalites (of which I hope to avail myself), under new auspices, with more abundant means, and with millions instead of hundreds for allies.”

With the discontinuance of the Liberator Garrison’s occupation, from which he had derived a regular though somewhat uncertain income for the support of his family, was gone.  He was not in destitute circumstances, however, thanks to the generosity of friends, who had already secured him the home in Roxbury, where he spent the remaining years of his life.  He had also been one of the legatees under the will of Charles F. Hovey, who left about forty thousand dollars to the anti-slavery cause.  But the age of the reformer, he was then sixty, and the state of his health, which was much impaired, together with the helplessness of his wife, made some provision for his and her support, other than the little which he possessed, a matter of anxious thought on the part of himself and his friends.  He had given thirty-five years of his life to the public good.  His services to his country and to the world were above all price, all money considerations.  It was felt that to him who had given so much to the world, the world should in his need make some substantial acknowledgement in return.