Reply #5: the abolitionists... [View All]

[grasswire]

....of the 19th century were urged to speak against slavery with more moderation.

William Lloyd Garrison protested: "I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- and I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and to hasten the resurrection of the dead..."

We are in even greater peril today. Don't ask truth-tellers to speak with moderation.