Union amounts to idolatry."

When the election was over the motto of the _Liberator_ was still "No
union with slaveholders," and would have remained the same though
Fremont instead of Buchanan had triumphed at the polls, until indeed the
domination of the slave-power had ended, and the North and the National
Constitution had been divorced from all criminal connection with
slavery. The anti-slavery agitation for the dissolution of the Union
went on with increased zeal. A State convention, called by T.W.
Higginson and others, "to consider the practicability, probability, and
expediency of a separation between the free and slave States, and to
take such other measures as the condition of the times may require," met
at Worcester, Mass., January 15, 1857, with Frank W. Bird in the chair,
and William Lloyd Garrison among the vice-presidents. The pioneer's
speech on the occasion was a characteristic and noteworthy utterance.
Its tone throughout was grave and argumentative. Here is a specimen of
it, and of the way in which he met the most serious objection to the
Abolition movement for disunion: "The air is filled with objections to a
movement of this kind. I am neither surprised nor disquieted at this.
One of these is of a very singular nature, and it is gravely urged that
it is conclusive against disunion. It is to this effect: We must remain
in the Union because it would be inhuman in us to turn our backs upon
millions of slaves in the Southern States, and to leave them to their
fate! Men who have never been heard of in the anti-slavery ranks, or who
are ever submitting to a compromise of principle, have their bowels
wonderfully moved all at once with sympathy for the suffering slave!
Even our esteemed friend, Theodore Parker (who deals in no cant) says,
in his letter, that he cannot consent to cut himself off from the slave
population. Now, we who are engaged in this movement claim to be equally
concerned for the liberation of the slave. If we have not yet proved our
willingness to suffer the loss of all things, rather than turn and flee,
God knows that we are prepared to bear any new cross that He, in His
Providence, may be disposed to lay upon us. For one, I make no parade of
my anxiety for the deliverance of those in bondage; but I do say that it
strikes me as remarkable that those who, for a quarter of a century,
have borne the heat and burden of the day, should have the imputation
cast upon them of intending to leave fo