"
The same friendly critic has left his judgment of other traits of the
leader, traits not so much of the man as of the editor. It is delivered
in a private letter of Quincy to Garrison on resigning the temporary
editorship of the _Liberator_ to "its legitimate possessor." who had
been for several months health-hunting at Northampton in the beautiful
Connecticut Valley. Quincy made bold to beard the Abolition lion in his
lair, and twist his tail in an extremely lively manner. "Now, my dear
friend," wrote the disciple to the master, "you must know that to the
microscopic eyes of its friends, as well as to the telescopic eyes of
its enemies, _the_ _Liberator_ _has faults_, these they keep to themselves
as much as they honestly may, but they are not the less sensible of
them, and are all the more desirous to see them immediately abolished.
Luckily, they are not faults of principle--neither moral nor
intellectual deficiencies--but faults the cure of which rests solely
with yourself.
"I hardly know how to tell you what the faults are that we find with it,
lest you should think them none at all, or else unavoidable. But no
matter, of that you must be the judge; we only ask you to listen to our
opinion. We think the paper often bears the mark of haste and
carelessness in its getting up; that the matter seems to be hastily
selected and put in _higgledy-piggledy_, without any very apparent
reason why it should be in at all, or why it should be in the place
where it is.
Pages:
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357