ersonified. "Truth is mighty and will prevail,"
is a wise saying and worthy of acceptation. But this ultimate prevailing
of TRUTH depends mainly upon individual effort, applied not
intermittently, but steadily to a particular segment of the circle of
conduct. It is the long, strong, never-ending pull and tug upon the
wheels of conduct, which marks the great reformer. He finds his age or
country stuck in some Serbonian bog of iniquity. He prays, but he prays
with his shoulders braced strenuously against the body of society, and
he does not cease his endeavors until a revolution in conduct places his
age or country on firm ground beyond its Serbonian bog. The coming of
such a man is no accident. When the Hour is ready and the Man comes, a
new epoch in the life of a people arises from the conjunction. Of such
vast consequence verily was the coming into American history of William
Lloyd Garrison.

CHAPTER V.

THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS.

After leaving Baltimore, Garrison clung pathetically to the belief that,
if he told what he had seen of the barbarism of slavery to the North, he
would be certain to enlist the sympathy and aid of its leaders,
political and ecclesiastical, in the cause of emancipation. The sequel
to his efforts in this regard proved that he was never more mistaken in
his life. He addressed letters to men like Webster, Jeremiah Mason,
Lyman Beecher, and Dr. Channing, "holding up to their view the
tremendous iniquity of the land, and begging them, ere it should be too
late, to interpose their great power in the Church and State, to save
our country from the terrible calamities which the sin of slavery was
bringing upon us." But there is no evidence that this appeal produced
the feeblest ripple in the lives of the two first; and upon the two last
it was equally barren of result. Dr. Channing, indeed, did not take the
trouble to hear any one of the three lectures of the young
philanthropist. Dr. Beecher, however, was at the pains to be present at
the first lecture given at Julien Hall. But he betrayed no real interest
in the subject. He had no time to devote to anti-slavery, had, in fine,
too many irons in the fire already. To this impotent apology of the
great preacher of immediatism in his dealing with all kinds of sin,
except the sin of slave-holding, for not espousing the cause of the
slave, Mr. Garrison made his famous retort:

"Then you had better let all your irons burn than neglect