f non-resistance. But his denunciations of slavery made
more impression on the popular mind, and aided in stirring up much of
the violent sentiment in the North which expressed itself in a crescendo
of denunciation of the slave owners. In the South, where anti-slavery
sentiment had been strong before, a new defensive attitude began to
develop. As Calhoun said of the northern criticism of slavery:

"It has compelled us to the South to look into the nature and
character of this great institution, and to correct many false
impressions that even we had entertained in relation to it. Many in
the South once believed that it was a moral and political evil;
that folly and delusion are gone; we see it now in its true light,
and regard it as the most safe and stable basis for free
institutions in the world."[87]

In the North the violent statements of the abolitionists aroused a
physically violent response. Mobs attacked abolition meetings in many
places, and on one occasion Garrison himself was rescued from an angry
Boston mob. This violence in turn aroused many men like Salmon P. Chase
and Wendell Phillips to espouse the anti-slavery cause because they
could not condone the actions of the anti-abolitionists.[88] Garrison
himself proceeded serenely through the storms that his vigorous writings
precipitated.

Feelings rose on both sides, and many who heard and accepted the
Garrisonian indictment of slavery knew nothing of his non-resistance
principles.[89] Others, who did, came reluctantly to the conclusion that
a civil war to rid the country of the evil would be preferable to its
continuance. In time the struggle was transferred to the political
arena, where men acted sometimes on the basis of interest and not always
on the basis of moral principles. The gulf between the sections widened,
and civil war approached.

As abolitionists themselves began to express the belief that the slavery
issue could not be settled without bloodshed, Garrison disclaimed all
responsibility for the growing propensity to espouse violence. In the
_Liberator_ in 1858 he said:

"When the anti-slavery cause was launched, it was baptized in the
spirit of peace. We proclaimed to the country and to the world that
the weapons of our warfare were not carnal but spiritual, and we
believed them to be mighty through God to the pulling down even of
the stronghold of slavery; and for several ye