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William Lloyd Garrison and the United States Constitution: The Political Evolution of an American Radical

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Ronald Osborn
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Extract

On August 6, 1824, William Lloyd Garrison, not yet twenty years old, penned a letter to the Salem Gazette opposing John Quincy Adams's bid for the presidency and endorsing the candidacy of a dedicated Georgian, United States Senator William Crawford. There is no mention in the document of the slavery issue and no hint that the young Garrison viewed the Constitution as anything less than a triumph of the founding fathers. The “high and exalted character” of the elections proved the Federalist Party “worthy of its great leader, the immortal WASHINGTON” and spread “vigor and strength throughout the political fabric of our constitution and government,” Garrison wrote. “It is peculiarly gratifying, too,” he declared,

to observe the dignified course pursued generally by the few sentinels of freedom, who advocate and uphold those principles, which were promulgated by the Father of his Country, and sanctioned by JAY and HAMILTON, and AMES, with a host of other distinguished patriots.

Garrison went on to stress the civic duty of voting, arguing that although no citizen was legally required to support any of the presidential candidates, reason “dictates that we should” so as not to upset “the peace of the Union.” Federalists should make pragmatic political choices, he wrote, and not squander their votes on ideal but unlikely candidates.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , 2008 , pp. 65 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2008

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References

1. Garrison, William Lloyd, To the Editor of the Salem Gazette (Aug. 6, 1824), in The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, Volume I: 1822-1835, at 27 (Merrill, Walter M. ed., Harv. U. Press 1971)Google Scholar.

2. Id. at 27.

3. Id. at 28.

4. Id.

5. Garrison, supra n. 1.

6. Garrison, To the Editor of the London Patriot (Aug. 6, 1833), supra n. 1, at 249.

7. Mayer, Henry, All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery 49–50 (St. Martins Press 1998)Google Scholar.

8. Mayer, supra n. 7, at 51.

9. William Lloyd Garrison, Address to the Colonization Society (July 4, 1829), http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=562 (accessed Aug. 7, 2008) [hereinafter Colonization Society Address].

10. Id.

11. Id.

12. Id.

13. Colonization Society Address, supra n. 9.

14. Id.

15. Id.

16. Id.

17. Id.

18. Id.

19. Id.

20. Colonization Society Address, supra n. 9.

21. Id.

22. Id.

23. Id.

24. Id.

25. Id.

26. Garrison, William Lloyd, Documents of Upheaval: Selections from William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator: 1831-1865, at xv (Nelson, Truman ed., Hill & Wang 1966)Google Scholar.

27. Id.

28. See Douglas, Frederick, My Bondage and My Freedom, The Frederick Douglas Papers, Autobiographical Writings, v. 2 228–229 (Blassingame, John, McKivigan, John & Hinks, Peter eds., Yale U. Press 2003)Google Scholar.

29. See Mayer, supra n. 7, at 67.

30. Mayer, Henry, William Lloyd Garrison: The Undisputed Master of the Cause of Negro Liberation, 23 J. Blacks Higher Educ. 106 (Spring 1999)Google Scholar.

31. Garrison, supra n. 6, at 249.

32. Id.

33. Garrison, To Peleg Sprague (Sept. 12, 1835), supra n. 1, at 518.

34. See Garrison, supra n. 26, at 87.

35. Id.

36. Garrison, supra n. 6, at 251.

37. Id.

38. Id.

39. Garrison, William Lloyd, To Joseph Kimball (August 16, 1837), in The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, Volume II: 1836-1840, at 286 (Merrill, Walter M. ed., Harv. U. Press 1971)Google Scholar.

40. As cited in Graber, Mark, Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil 233 (Cambridge U. Press 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41. Garrison, To Thomas Shipley (December 17, 1835), supra n. 1, at 584.

42. Garrison, supra n. 33, at 519, 536.

43. Id. at 536.

44. Garrison, supra n. 33, at 536.

45. Id.

46. Garrison, supra n. 6, at 249.

47. Garrison, supra n. 33, at 519, 536.

48. Id. at 519.

49. Id.

50. Id.

51. Garrison, To the Abolitionists of the United States (Feb. 28, 1840), supra n. 39, at 567.

52. Deburg, William L. Van, William Lloyd Garrison and the ‘Pro-Slavery Priesthood’: The Changing Beliefs of an Evangelical Reformer, 1830-1840, 43 J. Am. Acad. Religion 228 (06 1975)Google Scholar.

53. Perry, Lewis, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought 59 (U. Tenn. Press 1995)Google Scholar.

54. Garrison as cited in Kraditor, Aileen S., Means and Ends in American Abolitionism: Garrison and His Critics on Strategy and Tactics, 1834-1850, at 81 (Pantheon Books 1969)Google Scholar.

55. Van Deburg, supra n. 52, at 232.

56. See Mayer, supra n. 7, at 326.

57. Garrison, William Lloyd, To Elizabeth Pease (June 20, 1849), in The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, Volume III: 1841-1849, at 624 (Merrill, Walter M. ed., Harv. U. Press 1971)Google Scholar.

58. Garrison, Reply to James G. Birney (June 28, 1839), supra n. 39, at 159.

59. Id. at 159-160.

60. Id.

61. Supra n. 58, at 159-160.

62. Id. at 154-158.

63. Garrison, To the Abolitionists of Massachusetts (July 17, 1839), supra n. 39, at 512.

64. Id.

65. Garrison, To the Liberator (January 8, 1844), supra n. 26, at 245; Laurie, Bruce, Beyond Garrison: Antislavery and Social Reform (Cambridge U. Press 2005)Google Scholar.

66. Garrison, supra n. 57, at 325.

67. Id. at 326.

68. Garrison, supra n. 57, at 326.

69. Kern, Louis J., Sectarian Perfectionism and Universal Reform in Religious and Secular Reform in America: Ideas, Beliefs and Social Practices 107 (Adams, David & van Minnen, Cornelis A. eds., N.Y. U. Press 1999)Google Scholar.

70. See Laurie, supra n. 65, at 5.

71. Garrison, William Lloyd, To George Thompson Garrison (June 11, 1863), in The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, Volume V: 1861-1867, at 160 (Merrill, Walter M. ed., Harv. U. Press 1971)Google Scholar.

72. McInemey, Daniel J., The Fortunate Heirs of Freedom: Abolition and Republican Thought 64 (U. Neb. Press 1994)Google Scholar.

73. See Garrison, supra n. 1, at 43.

74. See Kraditor, supra n. 54, at 196.

75. Garrison, William Lloyd, To Samuel J. May (January 13, 1850), in The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, Volume IV: 1850-1860, at 4 (Merrill, Walter M. ed., Harv. U. Press 1971)Google Scholar.

76. As cited in Mayer, supra n. 7, at 328.

77. Garrison, To Henry C. Wright (October 1, 1844), supra n. 57, at 265.

78. Garrison, supra n. 57, at 478.

79. See generally e.g. Lysander Spooner, The Unconstitutionality of Slavery, http://www.lysanderspooner.org/UnconstitutionalityOfSlaveryContents.htm (accessed Sept. 17, 2007).

80. See Graber, supra n. 40, at 149.

81. As cited in Mayer, supra n. 7, at 326.

82. Garrison, To James Miller McKin (October 14, 1856), supra n. 75, at 408.

83. Id. at 408.

84. Garrison, To the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society (October 20, 1857), supra n. 75, at 496.

85. Kane, John, The Politics of Moral Capital 56 (Cambridge U. Press 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

86. Kraditor, supra n. 54, at 212.

87. As cited in Mayer, supra n. 7, at 444.

88. Id. at 445.

89. See Garrison, supra n. 1, at 266-267.

90. Garrison, To George Thompson (February 28, 1862), supra n. 75, at 72.

91. Id. at 70.

92. Id. at 74.

93. Id.

94. See Mayer, supra n. 7, at 522.

95. See Graber, supra n. 40, at 1.

96. Id. at 249-250.

97. Id. at 253.

98. Id. at 248.

99. See Graber, supra n. 40, at 253.

100. See Benedict, Michael Les, Preserving the Constitution: The Conservative Basis of Radical Reconstruction, 61 J. Am. Hist. 65–90 (06 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

101. See Mayer, supra n. 7, at 445.

102. Id. at 445.

103. King, Martin Luther Jr., Love, Law, and Civil Disobedience, in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. 48 (Washington, James M. ed., HarperSanFrancisco 1986)Google Scholar.