ess for
continuing the moral movement against slavery. For what with the strife
and schism in the anti-slavery ranks, followed by the excitements of the
long Presidential canvass of 1840, wherein the great body of the
Abolitionists developed an uncontrollable impulse to political action,
some through the medium of the new Liberty party which had nominated
James G. Birney for the Presidency, while others reverted to the two old
parties with which they had formerly acted--what with all these causes
the pure moral movement started by Garrison was in grave danger of
getting abolished or at least of being reduced to a nullity in its
influence upon public opinion. John A. Collins, the able and resourceful
general agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, wrote in the
deepest anxiety to Garrison from New Bedford, September 1, 1840, on this
head. Says he: "I really wish you understood perfectly the exact
position the friends of the old organization hold to the two great
political parties, and how generally they have been caught up in the
whirlwind of political enthusiasm. Could you but go where I have been,
and have seen and heard what I have seen and heard; could you see
men--aye, and women, too--who have been and still are your warmest
advocates, who have eschewed sectarianism, and lost their caste in the
circle in which they moved, for their strong adherence to your views and
measures, declare that they would sooner forego their Abolitionism than
their party.... Now, these are not the views of here and there a
straggling Abolitionist, but of seven-tenths of all the voting
Abolitionists of the State.... They are entirely unconscious of the
demoralizing influence of their course. They need light, warning,
entreaty, and rebuke." Besides this demoralization of the Abolitionists,
as described by Collins, the parent society at New York fell into bad
financial straits. It was absolutely without funds, and without any
means of supplying the lack. What should it do in its extremity but
appeal to the Massachusetts Society which was already heavily burdened
by its own load, the _Liberator_. The new organ of the national
organization, _The Anti-Slavery Standard_, surely must not be allowed to
fail for want of funds in this emergency. The Boston management rose to
the occasion. Collins was sent to England in quest of contributions from
the Abolitionists of Great Britain. But, great as was the need of money,
the relief which it migh