To the Public

Published on January 1, 1831, “To the Public” is a front-page editorial describing the goals and guiding principles of a new newspaper at the time, The Liberator. In this essay, William Lloyd Garrison, a well-known abolitionist editor and orator, explains what readers might expect in future issues and defends the political, religious, and moral underpinnings of his new publication. The full text of “To the Public” is in the public domain and widely available, including at PBS.org.

The first paragraph explains that, although Garrison had originally intended to publish The Liberator in Washington, DC, he did not receive consistent public support for that idea. In addition, another newspaper with similar abolitionist leanings, The Genius of Universal Emancipation, had recently moved its operations to the nation’s capital. Garrison served as deputy editor of that paper between 1829 and the founding of The Liberator.

Garrison continues the editorial by referring to his primary purpose: “exciting the minds of the people” to rally against slavery in the United States (Paragraph 2). He says that he traveled across the country giving lectures and writing articles on abolition and found the most receptive audiences in states that had already outlawed slavery, in particular, in the New England states. In contrast, he found Southern states that legally sanctioned slavery were either more hostile or apathetic towards his abolitionist goals, although he also concedes that there are advocates and opponents of abolition in every part of the United States.

He describes himself as saddened, but not deterred, by pro-slavery sentiment; indeed, such resistance inspires him to move to Boston, the historical heart of the American Revolution, and to use the memory of that war—which was only 50 years past and still within the memory of some of his readers—as a motivation and model in the fight against slavery. Garrison implicitly compares the state of enslaved people in 1831 to the condition of Americans who rallied against British oppression in 1775 and vows that those who perpetrate or support slavery should suffer the fate that befell the British.

The ideas of freedom are not restricted to the past or the American Revolution, Garrison argues. They are timeless principles, and Garrison reminds his audience that he has written about them extensively and that they are still being widely debated. Moreover, the ideals of liberty and equality should not and cannot be restricted to or represented by any single political party. They should be held in common across religious, racial, and, implicitly, gender lines. Garrison believes he requires the help of many people, not just those who are most like him.

Further invoking the American Revolution, Garrison quotes from the most famous sentence of the Declaration of Independence (“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”), grounding his argument in a sentiment from which almost no patriotic American would dissent. He then turns to the central thesis of his essay, which even sympathetic readers of the era would find radical. He argues not only for the immediate abolition of slavery but also for the enfranchisement of formerly enslaved people. Enfranchisement implies the full rights of citizenship, including voting rights, the right to serve on juries, and the right to run for and hold political office.

In calling for enfranchisement, Garrison also admits to past mistakes in his thinking about slavery. He disavows public statements he has made in the past calling for gradual abolition, a policy that would have freed enslaved persons bit by bit and not necessarily granted them, even when freed, rights equal to those of their white countrymen. Garrison criticizes these past beliefs, calling them “full of timidity, injustice, and absurdity” and claims that he came to his new views in an effort to resolve his moral dilemma over advocating a position that did not treat his “brethren, the poor slaves” as full equals (Paragraph 5). Recognizing that many of his readers could find his argument for enfranchisement too radical, Garrison goes on to claim that freedom, truth, and justice are absolute ideals on which there can be no compromise. He gives examples of moments when extreme actions are not only reasonable but required, such as house fires, sexual assault, and the endangerment of children. He equates moderation with immoral and dangerous apathy that threatens to bring judgment on the nation.

Garrison next anticipates the counterarguments of moderate readers who still favor gradual emancipation. Garrison claims that his opinion will be shared by more people over time and that history will judge him to be correct. Invoking the Biblical Book of Proverbs, Garrison suggests that God is on his side; radical abolitionism is a cause to which he is willing to dedicate both this new newspaper and his life.

Garrison ends the editorial with a poem. He says that he met oppression face-to-face and no longer fears it. He has grown to despise slavery and can no longer allow it to remain unchallenged. Indeed, the only way to save America is to end slavery as soon as possible.