the certainty of future persecution could flutter or depress his
spirits. "For myself," he wrote subsequently in the _Liberator_, "I am
ready to brave any danger even unto death. I feel no uneasiness either
in regard to my fate or to the success of the cause of Abolition.
Slavery must speedily be abolished; the blow that shall sever the chains
of the slaves may shake the nation to its center--may momentarily
disturb the pillars of the Union--but it shall redeem the character,
extend the influence, establish the security, and increase the
prosperity of our great republic." It was not the rage and malice of his
enemies which the brave soul minded, but the ever-present knowledge of
human beings in chains and slavery whom he must help. Nothing could
separate him from his duty to them, neither dangers present nor
persecutions to come. The uncertainty of life made him only the more
zealous in their behalf. The necessity of doing, doing, and yet ever
doing for the slave was plainly pressing deep like thorns into his
thoughts. "I am more and more impressed;" he wrote a friend a few weeks
later, "I am more and more impressed with the importance of 'working
whilst the day lasts.' If 'we all do fade as a leaf,' if we are 'as the
sparks that fly upward,' if the billows of time are swiftly removing the
sandy foundation of our life, what we intend to do for the captive, and
for our country, and for the subjugation of a hostile world, must be
done quickly. Happily 'our light afflictions are but for a moment.'"

This yearning of the leader for increased activity in the cause of
immediate emancipation was shared by friends and disciples in different
portions of the country. Few and scattered as were the Abolitionists,
they so much the more needed to band together for the great conflict
with a powerful and organized evil. This evil was organized on a
national scale, the forces of righteousness which were rising against
it, if they were ever to overcome it and rid the land of it, had needs
to be organized on a national scale also. Garrison with the instinct of
a great reformer early perceived the immense utility of a national
anti-slavery organization for mobilizing the whole available Abolition
sentiment of the free States in a moral agitation of national and
tremendous proportions.

He had not long to wait after his return from England before this desire
of his soul was satisfied. It was in fact just a month afterward that a
call for a