Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 1

[217] of most of his auditors, upon Mr. May; and his father was beset next day by friends and business acquaintances who begged him to stop his son in this ‘mad career.’ The young man was immovable, however, and neither halted nor retreated in his course save on one point. When he handed his sermon to Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., then purveyor of the American Unitarian Association, for publication, the latter insisted that the interlineations and additions respecting slavery should be omitted, and Mr. May consented, to his lasting regret. ‘Unconsciously to ourselves,’ he said, ‘the hand of the¹ slaveholding power lay heavily upon the mind and heart of the people in our Northern as well as Southern States.’ This fact was becoming more and more impressed on Mr. Garrison, and when he learned, during this month of October, that Lundy had removed the Genius to Washington, he abandoned his intention of publishing the Liberator at the national capital, and resolved to establish it in Boston.

It is difficult to overrate the value of Mr. May's and Mr. Sewall's friendship to him at that period. The former's hearty and enthusiastic response to his appeal at Julien Hall had been as unexpected and delightful as his own self-consecration to the cause had been to Lundy, two years previous; while Mr. Sewall's excellent judgment and advice were of frequent service to him when launching his paper and movement in Boston. In one respect Mr. Garrison declined to follow his suggestions. Desirous of conciliating and winning as large a number of the community as possible, and fearful that the name Liberator would alarm and repel them, Mr. Sewall suggested several of a milder type, of which one was the Safety Lamp. On this point, however, the editor was tenacious and adhered to his self-explanatory title. But, as through all their subsequent long association with one another, difference of judgment on subordinate questions failed to weaken or impair in the slightest degree the friendship begun at Julien Hall.