e
confesses at this juncture to George W. Benson, "whether to go into all
the principles of holy reform and make the Abolition cause subordinate,
or whether still to persevere in the _one_ beaten track as hitherto.
Circumstances hereafter must determine this matter." That was written in
August, 1837; a couple of months later circumstances had not determined
the matter, it would seem, from the following extract from a letter to
his brother-in-law: "It is not my intention at present to alter either
the general character or course of the _Liberator_. My work in the
anti-slavery cause is not wholly done; as soon as it is, I shall know
it, and shall be prepared, I trust, to enter upon a mightier work of
reform."

Meanwhile the relations between the editor of the _Liberator_ and the
managers of the national organization were becoming decidedly strained.
For it seemed to them that Garrison had changed the anti-slavery
character of his paper by the course which he had taken in regard to the
new ideas which were finding their way into its columns to the manifest
harm of the main principle of immediate emancipation. This incipient
estrangement between the pioneer and the executive committee of the
national society was greatly aggravated by an occurrence, which, at the
time, was elevated to an importance that it did not deserve. This
occurrence was what is known in anti-slavery annals as the "Clerical
Appeal." Five clergymen, who were obviously unfriendly to Garrison, and
distrustful of the religious and social heresies which they either saw
or fancied that they saw in the _Liberator_, and withal jealous lest the
severities of the paper against particular pro-slavery ministers should
diminish the influence and sacred character of their order, published,
in August of 1837, in the _New England Spectator_ an acrid arraignment
of editor and paper, upon five several charges, designed to bring
Garrisonism to the block and speedy death. This document was followed by
two other appeals by way of supplement and rejoinder from the same
source, an "Andover Appeal" from kindred spirits and a bitter, personal
letter from one of the "seventy agents," all of them having a common
motive and purpose, viz., sectarian distrust and dislike of Garrison,
and desire to reduce his anti-slavery influence to a nullity.

In his diseased and suffering bodily condition, Garrison naturally
enough fell into the error of exaggerating the gravity of these attacks