in Baltimore. Then Garrison frankly unburdened
himself and declared his decision to conduct his campaign
against the national iniquity along the lines of immediate
and unconditional emancipation. The two on this
new radicalism did not see eye to eye. But Lundy
with sententious shrewdness and liberality suggested
to the young radical: “Thee may put thy
initials to thy articles and I will put my initials
to mine, and each will bear his own burden.”
And the arrangement pleased the young radical, for
it enabled him to free his soul of the necessity which
was then sitting heavily upon it. The precise
state of his mind in respect of the question at this
juncture in its history and in his own is made plain
enough in his salutatory address in The Genius of
Universal Emancipation. The vow made in Bennington
ten months before to devote his life to philanthrophy,
and the dedication of himself made six months afterward
to the extirpation of American slavery, he solemnly
renews and reseals in Baltimore. He does not hate
intemperance and war less, but slavery more, and those,
therefore, he formally relegates thenceforth to a
place of secondary importance in the endeavors of the
future. It is obvious that the colonization scheme
has no strong hold upon his intelligence. He
does not conceal his respect for it as an instrument
of freedom, but he puts no high value on its utility.
“It may pluck a few leaves,” he remarks,
“from the Bohon Upas, but can neither extract
its roots nor destroy its withering properties.
Viewed as an auxiliary, it deserves encouragement;
but as a remedy it is altogether inadequate.”
But this was not all. As a remedy, colonization
was not only altogether inadequate, its influence
was indirectly pernicious, in that it lulled the popular
mind into “a belief that the monster has received
his mortal wound.” He perceived that this
resultant indifference and apathy operated to the
advantage of slavery, and to the injury of freedom.
Small, therefore, as was the good which the Colonization
Society was able to achieve, it was mixed with no little
ill. Although Garrison has not yet begun to think
on the subject, to examine into the motives and purposes
of the society, it does not take a prophet to foresee
that some day he will. He had already arrived
at conclusions in respect of the rights of the colored
people “to choose their own dwelling place,”
and against the iniquity of their expatriation, which
cut directly at the roots of the colonization scheme.
Later the pro-slavery character of the society will
be wholly revealed to him. But truth in the breast
of a reformer as of others must needs follow the great
law of moral growth, first the blade, then the ear,
and then the full corn in the ear. It is enough
that he has made the tremendous step from gradual
to immediate and unconditional emancipation on the
soil.