ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. No. 10. New Series. 
 
 “INFIDELITY 
 
 99 
 
 ABOLITIONISM. 
 
 » 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 1'IIE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 
 
 1860. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 THE “INFIDELITY” OF ABOLITIONISM. 
 
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 Every great reformatory movement, in every age, has 
 been subjected alike to popular violence and to religious op¬ 
 probrium. The history of one is essentially that of every 
 other. Its origin is ever in obscurity; its earliest supporters 
 are destitute of resources, uninfluential in position, without 
 reputation; it is denounced as fanatical, insane, destructive, 
 treasonable, infidel. The tactics resorted to for its suppres¬ 
 sion are ever the same, whether it be inaugurated by the 
 prophets, by Jesus and his apostles, by WicklifFe, Luther, 
 Calvin, Fox, or any of their successors. Its opponents have 
 scornfully asked, as touching its pedigree, “Is not this the 
 carpenter’s son ? ” They have patriotically pronounced it a 
 seditious attempt to play into the hands of the Romans, to 
 the subversion of the state and nation. They have piously 
 exclaimed against it as open blasphemy. They have branded 
 it as incomparably more to be feared and abhorred than rob¬ 
 bery and murder. 
 
 No other result has been possible, under the circum¬ 
 stances. The wrong assailed has grown to a colossal size: 
 its existence not only implies, but demonstrates, universal 
 corruption. It has become organic—a part of the habits 
 and customs of the times. It is incorporated into the State; 
 it is nourished by the Church. Its support is the test of 
 loyalty, patriotism, piety. It holds the reins of government 
 with absolute mastery — rewarding the venal, stimulating 
 the ambitious, terrifying the weak, inflaming the brutal, sat¬ 
 isfying the pharisaical, ostracizing the incorruptible. It has 
 its temple, its ritual, its priesthood, its divine paternity, in the 
 prevailing religion, no matter what may be the title or pre¬ 
 tension thereof. 
 
4 
 
 THE “INFIDELITY” OF ABOLITIONISM. 
 
 Now, to attack such a wrong, without fear or compromise,— . 
 to strip off the mask, and exhibit it in all its naked deformi¬ 
 ty,— to demand its immediate suppression, at whatever cost 
 to reputation or worldly interest,—must, of necessity, put 
 the reformer seemingly in antagonism to public quietude and 
 good order, and make the whole social, political and religious 
 structure tremble to its foundations. He cannot be a good 
 citizen; for he refuses to be law-abiding, and treads public 
 opinion, legislative enactment, and governmental edict, alike 
 under his feet. He cannot be sane; for he arraigns, tries 
 and condemns, as the greatest sinners and the worst crimi¬ 
 nals, the most reputable, elevated, revered, and powerful 
 members of the body politic. He cannot love his country; 
 for he declares it to be “laden with iniquity,” and liable to 
 the retributive judgments of Heaven. He cannot possess 
 humility; for he pays no regard to usage, precedent, author¬ 
 ity, or public sentiment, but defies them all. He cannot be 
 disinterested; for it is not supposable that he is actuated by 
 any higher motive than the love of notoriety, a disposition to 
 be factious, or the consummation of some ulterior design. 
 He cannot be virtuous; for he is seen in the company of 
 publicans and sinners, and is shunned by the chief priests, 
 scribes and pharisees. He cannot be righteously sound in the 
 faith; for he impeaches whatever is popularly accounted 
 piety as but an empty observance, a lifeless tradition, a sanc¬ 
 tified villany, or a miserable delusion. He ought not to live; 
 for “it is better that one man should die, than that a whole 
 nation should perish.” 
 
 Every nation has it$, “peculiar institution,” its vested in¬ 
 terest, its organized despotism, its overmastering sin, distinct 
 from every other nation. The conflict of reform is ever ge¬ 
 ographical as an issue, because the evil assailed is never 
 world-wide; it may be universal in its tendencies, but it is 
 local in its immediate results. It is easy to denounce Mon¬ 
 archy in America, Slavery in Europe, Protestantism in Italy, 
 Democracy in Russia, Judaism in Turkey; because it is to 
 take the popular side in every such case. An iniquitous sys¬ 
 tem, which, if vigorously assailed in one country, may excite 
 a bloody persecution, and cause the whole land to tremble 
 with consternation and fury, in another country may be de¬ 
 nounced not only with impunity, but to general acceptance; 
 
TIIE “ INFIDELITY ” OP ABOLITIONISM. 
 
 for the special abomination thus opposed not existing therein, 
 it is seen in its true character. Hence, what may serve to 
 reveal the exact moral condition of one people may not be 
 applicable in any other case. Kossuth found that pleading 
 for “material aid” in America was quite a different thing 
 from contending with Austrian despotism in Hungary. 
 
 The one great, distinctive, all-conquering sin in America 
 is its system of chattel slavery—co-existent with the settle¬ 
 ment of the country—for a considerable time universally 
 diffused — at first, tolerated as a necessary evil—subsequent¬ 
 ly, deplored as a calamity—now, defended in every slave 
 State as a most beneficent institution, upheld by natural and 
 revealed religion—in its feebleness, able to dictate terms in 
 the formation of the Constitution—in its strength, control¬ 
 ling parties and sects, courts and legislative assemblies, the 
 army and navy, Congress, the National Executive, the Su¬ 
 preme Court—and having at its disposal all the offices, 
 honors and revenues of the government, wherewith to defy all 
 opposition, and to extend its dominion indefinitely. Gradu¬ 
 ally abolished in six of the thirteen States which formed the 
 Union, it has concentrated itself in the southern and south¬ 
 western portion of the Republic, covering more than one- 
 half of the national territory, and aiming at universal empire. 
 
 The victims of this terrible system being of African ex¬ 
 traction, it has engendered and established a complexional 
 caste, unknown to European civilization; pervading all parts 
 of the United States like a malaria-tainted atmosphere; in 
 its development, more malignant at the North than at the 
 South; poisoning the life-blood of the most refined and the 
 most depraved alike; and making the remotest connection 
 with the colored race a leprous taint. Its spirit is as brutal 
 as it is unnatural; as mean as it is wicked; as relentless as 
 it is monstrous. It is capable of committing any outrage 
 upon the person, mind or estate of the negro, whether bond 
 or free. It carries with it the venom of the rattlesnake, the 
 rapacity of the wolf, the fury of the tiger. It is “ set on fire 
 of hell,” and the flame is never quenched. No religious 
 creed, no form of worship, no evangelical discipline, no 
 heretical liberality, either mitigates or restrains it. Chris¬ 
 tian and Infidel, Calvinist and Universalist, Trinitarian 
 and Unitarian, Episcopalian and Methodist, Baptist and 
 1 * 
 
G 
 
 THE “INFIDELITY” OF ABOLITIONISM, 
 
 SwedenborgPn, Old School and New School Presbyterian, 
 Orthodox and Hicksite Quaker, all are infected by it, and 
 equally ready to make an innocent natural distinction the 
 badge of eternal infamy, and a warrant for the most cruel 
 proscription. As a nation sows, so shall it also reap. The 
 retributive justice of God was never more strikingly mani¬ 
 fested than in this all-pervading negrophobia, the dreadful 
 consequence of chattel slavery. 
 
 The vitality, the strength, the invulnerability of slavery 
 are found in the prevailing religious sentiment and teaching 
 of the people. While it has been pronounced an evil, a ca¬ 
 lamity, wrong in the abstract, as a system to be deplored, and 
 gradually to be exterminated, — the act of individual and 
 general slaveholding, the right to have property in man, has 
 been universally recognized as compatible with Christian 
 faith and fellowship, and sanctioned by the Holy Scriptures. 
 More than half a million of slaves at the South are owned by 
 ministers, office-bearers, and church members, who buy, sell, 
 bequeath, inherit, mortgage, divide, and barter slave proper¬ 
 ty, as they do any other portion of their personal or real 
 estate. At the North, every sect, desirous of national exten¬ 
 sion, can secure it only by acknowledging slaveholders as 
 brethren in Christ. All the great, controlling ecclesiastical 
 bodies and religious denominations in the land, — constituting 
 the American Church, comprehensively speaking, — are one 
 in sentiment on the subject. All the leading Bishops, Doc¬ 
 tors of Divinity, Theological Professors, ministers, and reli¬ 
 gious journalists, find ample justification for slaveholding at 
 the South. Professor Stuart, of Andover, found it in the 
 Decalogue—Bishop Hedding, in the Golden Buie! Bev. 
 Dr. Lord, President of Dartmouth College, finds it in natu¬ 
 ral and revealed religion — Bev. Dr. Nehemiah Adams, in 
 the beneficent workings of slavery, suppressing pauperism, 
 preventing mobocratic violence, upholding law and order, 
 nourishing affection, cultivating the religious sentiment, and 
 extending the kingdom of God on earth! Bev. Dr. Spring 
 avows that if, by offering up a single prayer, he could eman¬ 
 cipate every slave in America, he would deem it a rash and 
 censurable act! 
 
 Such, then, was the system,—so buttressed and defended,— 
 to be assailed and conquered by the Abolitionists. And who 
 
THE “INFIDELITY ” OF ABOLITIONISM. 
 
 were they? In point of numbers, as drops to the ocean 
 without station or influence; equally obscure and destitute of 
 resources. Originally, they were generally members of the 
 various religious bodies, tenacious of their theological views, 
 full of veneration for the organized church and ministry, but 
 ignorant of the position in which these stood to “the sum of 
 all villanies.” AY r hat would ultimately be required of them, 
 by a faithful adherence to the cause of the slave, in their 
 church relations, their political connections, their social ties, 
 their worldly interest and reputation, they knew not. In¬ 
 stead of seeking a controversy with the pulpit and the church, 
 they confidently looked to both for efficient aid to their cause. 
 Instead of suddenly withdrawing from the pro-slavery reli¬ 
 gious and political organizations with which they were con¬ 
 nected, they lingered long and labored hard to bring them to 
 repentance. They were earnest, but well-balanced; intrepid, 
 but circumspect; importunate, but long-suffering. Their con¬ 
 troversy was neither personal nor sectional; their object, 
 neither to arraign any sect nor to assail any party, primarily. 
 They sought to liberate the slave, by every righteous instru¬ 
 mentality—and nothing more. But to their grief and 
 amazement, they were gradually led to perceive, by the terri¬ 
 ble revelations of the hour, that the religious forces on which 
 they had relied were all arrayed on the side of the oppressor ; 
 that the North was as hostile to emancipation as the South; 
 that the spirit of slavery was omnipresent, invading every 
 sanctuary, infecting every pulpit, controlling every press, cor¬ 
 rupting every household, and blinding every vision; that no 
 other alternative was presented to them, except to wage war 
 with “principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickedness in 
 high places,” and to separate themselves from every slave¬ 
 holding alliance, or else to daub with untempered mortar, 
 substitute compromise for principle, and thus betray the 
 rights and liberties of the millions in thraldom, at a fearful 
 cost to their own souls. If some of them faltered, and per¬ 
 ished by the way; if others deserted the cause, and became 
 its bitterest enemies; if others still withdrew from the ranks, 
 their sectarian attachment overmastering their love of hu¬ 
 manity, and leading them basely to misrepresent and revile 
 their old associates; the main body proved fearless and in¬ 
 corruptible, and, through the American Anti-Slavery Society 
 
8 
 
 THE “INFIDELITY” OF ABOLITIONISM. 
 
 and its auxiliaries, have remained steadfast to the present 
 hour. Either by way of distinction or of opprobrium, they 
 are technically styled “ Garrisonian Abolitionists.” The 
 Southern flesh-mongers brand them as an “infidel” party; 
 the Northern pulpits and religious bodies join in the same 
 outcry. Those who have treacherously seceded, but yet wear 
 an anti-slavery mask, sedulously propagate the calumny; and 
 they have resorted to every device that malice could suggest, 
 or bigotry execute, at home and abroad, to cripple their re¬ 
 sources, and destroy their influence. In England and Scot¬ 
 land, especially, extraordinary pains have been taken, in 
 public and in private, by an artful appeal to sectarian nar¬ 
 rowness, to hold up the American Anti-Slavery Society as 
 unworthy of aid or countenance in any degree, on account of 
 its “infidel ” character. Contributions designed for its treas¬ 
 ury have been withheld, or directed into hostile channels; 
 and the most devoted advocates of the slave treated with 
 coldness, suspicion, or contempt. 
 
 In all this, no strange thing has happened. It is an old 
 device to divert attention from the true issue. It is a mali¬ 
 cious fabrication — a “mad-dog” outcry to effect the death of 
 the hated object. 
 
 Religion is, in every land, precisely and only what is pop¬ 
 ularly recognized as such. To pronounce it corrupt, spurious, 
 oppressive, and especially to demonstrate it to be so, is ever 
 a proof of “infidelity”—whether among Pagans or Ma- 
 hommedans, Jews or Christians, Catholics or Protestants. 
 In the United States, it is the bulwark of slavery—the un¬ 
 tiring enemy of Abolitionism. How, then, has it been pos¬ 
 sible for the Abolitionists to establish a religious character, or 
 to avoid the imputation of infidelity, while in necessary and 
 direct conflict with such a religion ? To say that they ought 
 not to assail it, is to denounce them for refusing to go with 
 the multitude to do evil, for being governed by the standard 
 of eternal justice, for adhering to the Golden Rule. 
 
 To what, or to whom, have they been infidel? If to the 
 cause of the enslaved, let it be shown. But this is not pre¬ 
 tended ; and yet this is the only test by which they are to be 
 tried. They have but one bond of agreement — the inherent 
 sinfulness of slavery, and, consequently, the duty of immedi¬ 
 ate emancipation. As individuals, they are of all theologi- 
 
TIIE “INFIDELITY” OF ABOLITIONISM. 
 
 9 
 
 cal and political opinions; having an undeniable right to ad¬ 
 vocate those opinions, and to make as many converts to them 
 as possible. As an organization, they meet for a common 
 object in which they are agreed, to endorse nothing but the 
 right of the slave to himself as paramount to every other 
 claim, and to apply no other principle as a rule whereby to 
 measure sects, parties, institutions and men. No sectarian, 
 no party exaction can be made, without destroying unity of 
 spirit and general cooperation. The Episcopalian, the Pres¬ 
 byterian, the Baptist, the Methodist, the “ Infidel,” surrender 
 not one jot or tittle of their right to be such, by uniting to¬ 
 gether for the abolition of slavery. No sectarian or party 
 object can be sought, without a breach of good faith, and a 
 perversion of the object ostensibly aimed at. No member 
 can justly complain of any other member, or seek to weaken 
 his testimony against slavery and its abettors, on account of 
 any opinions held or promulgated by him on his individual 
 responsibility. 
 
 Whence, then, this outcry of “ infidelity ” against the Amer¬ 
 ican Anti-Slavery Society? It has never proceeded from a 
 manly spirit; it has never been raised by any one truly 
 remembering the slave as bound with him; unless, indeed, it 
 be true, that that Society has perfidiously turned aside from 
 its original object, to accomplish some ulterior purpose, still 
 assuming to be unchanged and undeviating. But it is not 
 true: — though the charge has been repeated ten thousand 
 times, at home and abroad, it is ten thousand times a calum¬ 
 ny, uttered either through ignorance, sectarian enmity, per¬ 
 sonal jealousy, or pro-slavery malice. The Society has never 
 arraigned or criticised any religious body, on account of its 
 peculiar creed; it has never taken any action on theological 
 matters; it has never discussed, never attempted to settle the 
 question, whether the Bible is plenarily inspired, or whether 
 the first day of the week is the Sabbath, or any other ques¬ 
 tion foreign to its avowed purpose. Of the Sabbath it has 
 declared, as Jesus did, that it is as lawful and obligatory to 
 heal the sick, release the bound, and plead for the oppressed, 
 on that day, as it is to succor cattle in distress. Of the 
 Bible, as an anti-slavery instrumentality, it has made a con¬ 
 stant and most powerful use against the pro-slavery interpre¬ 
 tations of a time-serving clergy ; though not deriving the 
 
10 
 
 TIlE “INFIDELITY” OF ABOLITIONISM* 
 
 rights of man from any book, but from his own nature. Of 
 the true Church it has ever spoken with veneration, and vin¬ 
 dicated it as animated and controlled by the spirit of impar¬ 
 tial liberty, to the exclusion of all tyrants. Of the Gospel 
 it has proclaimed, that in all its doctrines, teachings and ex¬ 
 amples, it is utterly at war with slavery, and for universal 
 freedom. Of Jesus it has affirmed, that he is ever with the 
 down-trodden and oppressed, whose case he has literally made 
 his own,* and that he has gloriously vindicated the brother¬ 
 hood of the human race, to the confusion of all who desecrate 
 the image of God. Its appeals have been unceasingly to the 
 conscience and the heart; it has called to repentance a guilty 
 nation, as the only condition of salvation; it has refused to 
 compromise with sin. 
 
 If, therefore, it be an infidel Society, it is so only in the 
 sense in which Jesus was a blasphemer, and the Apostles 
 were “pestilent and seditious fellows, seeking to turn the 
 world upside down.” It is infidel to Satan, the enslaver; it 
 is loyal to Christ, the redeemer. It is infidel to a Gospel 
 which makes man the property of man; it is bound up with 
 the Gospel which requires us to love our neighbors as our¬ 
 selves, and to call no man master. It is infidel to a Church 
 which receives to its communion the “traffickers in slaves and 
 the souls of men; ” it is loyal to the Church which is not 
 stained with blood, nor polluted by oppression. It is infidel 
 to the Bible as a pro-slavery interpreted volume; it is faith¬ 
 ful to it as construed on the side of justice and humanity. It 
 is infidel to the Sabbath, on which it is hypocritically pro¬ 
 nounced unlawful to extricate the millions who lie bound 
 and bleeding in the pit of slavery; it is true to the Sabbath, 
 on which it is well-pleasing to God to bind up the broken¬ 
 hearted, and to let the oppressed go free. It is infidel to all 
 blood-stained compromises, sinful concessions, unholy com¬ 
 pacts, respecting the system of slavery; it is devotedly at¬ 
 tached to whatever is honest, straightforward, invincible for 
 the right. No Society has ever erected a higher moral 
 standard, or more disinterestedly pursued its object, or more 
 unfalteringly walked by faith, or more confidingly trusted in 
 the living God for succor in every extremity, and a glorious 
 
 # See Matthew, ohap. xxv. 
 
TIIE “INFIDELITY” OF ABOLITIONISM. 
 
 11 
 
 victory at last. At the jubilee, its vindication shall be tri¬ 
 umphant and universal. 
 
 In view of the treatment of the Reformer in all ages, and 
 of the ultimate success of his cause, the Scottish poet, 
 Mackay, well says: — 
 
 “ The man is thought a knave or fool, 
 
 Or bigot, plotting crime, 
 
 Who, for the advancement of his kind, 
 
 Is wiser than his time. 
 
 For him the hemlock shall distil ; 
 
 For him the axe be bared ; 
 
 For him the gibbet shall be built; 
 
 For him the stake prepared ; 
 
 Him shall the scorn and wrath of men 
 Pursue with deadly aim ; 
 
 And malice, envy, spite and lies, 
 
 Shall desecrate his name. 
 
 But truth shall conquer at the last; 
 
 For round and round we run, 
 
 And ever the right comes uppermost, 
 
 And ever is justice done.” 
 
 Genuine Abolitionism is not a hobby, got up for personal 
 or associated aggrandizement; it is not a political ruse ; it 
 is not a spasm of sympathy, which lasts but for a moment, 
 leaving the system weak and worn; it is not a fever of 
 enthusiasm ; it is not the fruit of fanaticism ; it is not a spirit 
 of faction. It is of heaven, not of men. It lives in the 
 heart as a vital principle. It is an essential part of Chris¬ 
 tianity, and aside from it there can be no humanity. Its 
 scope is not confined to the slave population of the United 
 States, but embraces mankind. Opposition cannot weary it 
 out, force cannot put it down, fire cannot consume it. It is 
 the spirit of Jesus, who was sent “ to bind up the broken¬ 
 hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening 
 of the prison to them that are bound ; to proclaim the accept¬ 
 able year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our 
 God.” 
 
12 
 
 SONNETS. 
 
 SONNET TO LIBEKTY. 
 
 They tell me, Liberty ! that, in thy name, 
 
 I may not plead for all the human race; 
 
 That some are born to bondage and disgrace, 
 
 Some to a heritage of wo and shame, 
 
 And some to power supreme, and glorious fame. 
 
 With my whole soul, I spurn the doctrine base, 
 And, as an equal brotherhood, embrace 
 All people, and for all fair freedom claim ! 
 
 Know this, 0 man! whate’er thy earthly fate— 
 
 GrOD NEVER MADE A TYRANT NOR A SLAVE : 
 
 Wo, then, to those who dare to desecrate 
 His glorious image!-—for to all He gave 
 Eternal rights, which none may violate; 
 
 And by a mighty hand th’ oppressed He yet shall saye. 
 
 W. L. Garrison. 
 
 SONNET. 
 
 Who talks of weariness in Freedom’s cause, 
 
 Knows nothing of its life-sustaining power; 
 
 Who in the conflict for the right would pause, 
 Beneath a tyrant’s rod was made to cower; 
 
 Who something loves more than his brother man,— 
 Holds it more sacred, at a higher price,— 
 
 Fails to discern Redemption’s glorious plan, 
 
 Or in what sense Christ is our sacrifice; 
 
 Who stands aloof from those who are agreed 
 In charity to aid and bless mankind, 
 
 Because they walk not by his narrow creed, 
 
 Himself among the fallen spirits shall find; 
 
 Who would show loyalty to God must be 
 At all times true in man’s extremity. 
 
 W. L. Garrison.