ecessity of
their acting on their own idea."

Another characteristic of the pioneer is touched upon by the same writer
in a relation which he was making to Webb of Garrison's election to the
presidency of the parent society. Says Quincy: "Garrison makes an
excellent president at a public meeting where the order of speakers is
in some measure arranged, as he has great felicity in introducing and
interlocuting remarks; but at a meeting for debate he does not answer so
well, as he is rather too apt, with all the innocence and simplicity in
the world, to do all the talking himself."

The same friendly critic has left his judgment of other traits of the
leader, traits not so much of the man as of the editor. It is delivered
in a private letter of Quincy to Garrison on resigning the temporary
editorship of the _Liberator_ to "its legitimate possessor." who had
been for several months health-hunting at Northampton in the beautiful
Connecticut Valley. Quincy made bold to beard the Abolition lion in his
lair, and twist his tail in an extremely lively manner. "Now, my dear
friend," wrote the disciple to the master, "you must know that to the
microscopic eyes of its friends, as well as to the telescopic eyes of
its enemies, _the_ _Liberator_ _has faults_, these they keep to themselves
as much as they honestly may, but they are not the less sensible of
them, and are all the more desirous to see them immediately abolished.
Luckily, they are not faults of principle--neither moral nor
intellectual deficiencies--but faults the cure of which rests solely
with yourself.

"I hardly know how to tell you what the faults are that we find with it,
lest you should think them none at all, or else unavoidable. But no
matter, of that you must be the judge; we only ask you to listen to our
opinion. We think the paper often bears the mark of haste and
carelessness in its getting up; that the matter seems to be hastily
selected and put in _higgledy-piggledy_, without any very apparent
reason why it should be in at all, or why it should be in the place
where it is. I suppose this is often caused by your selecting articles
with a view to connect remarks of your own with them, which afterward in
your haste you omit. Then we complain that each paper is not so nearly a
complete work in itself as it might be made, but that things are often
left at loose ends, and important matters broken off in the middle. I
assure you, that Brother Harriman is not the