ed every
power which he possessed or could invent to galvanize it into life. But
with the prodigious excitement which swept over the free States at the
outbreak of the war, Garrison saw that the crisis demanded different
treatment. Abolitionists and their moral machinery he felt should be
withdrawn, for a season at least, from their conspicuous place before
the public gaze, lest it happen that they should divert the current of
public opinion from the South to themselves, and thus injure the cause
of the slave. He accordingly deemed it highly expedient that the usual
anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, held in New York,
ought, under the circumstances, to be postponed, coming as it would but
a few weeks after the attack on Sumter, and in the midst of the
tremendous loyal uprising against the rebels. This he did, adding, by
way of caution, this timely counsel: "Let nothing be done at this solemn
crisis needlessly to check or divert the mighty current of popular
feeling which is now sweeping southward with the strength and
impetuosity of a thousand Niagaras, in direct conflict with that haughty
and perfidious slave-power which has so long ruled the republic with a
rod of iron, for its own base and satanic purposes."

The singular tact and sagacity of the pioneer in this emergency may be
again seen in a letter to Oliver Johnson, who was at the time editing
the _Anti-Slavery Standard_. Says the pioneer: "Now that civil war has
begun, and a whirlwind of violence and excitement is to sweep through
the country, every day increasing in interest until its bloodiest
culmination, it is for the Abolitionists to 'stand still and see the
salvation of God,' rather than to attempt to add anything to the general
commotion. It is no time for minute criticism of Lincoln, Republicanism,
or even the other parties, now that they are fusing, for a death-grapple
with the Southern slave oligarchy; for they are instruments in the hands
of God to carry forward and help achieve the great object of
emancipation for which we have so long been striving.... We need great
circumspection and consummate wisdom in regard to what we may say and do
under these unparalleled circumstances. We are rather, for the time
being, to note the events transpiring than seek to control them. There
must be no needless turning of popular violence upon ourselves by any
false step of our own."

The circumspection, the tact, and sagacity which marked his conduct