Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

LETTEIRS. 49
We afterwards had many interviews. He often
sent for me when I was in Boston, and always urged
me to come and tell him of every new aspect of the
anti-slavery cause. At every interview I could see
that he grew bolder and stronger on the subject,
while I felt that I grew wiser and more just. At first
I thought him timid and even slightly time-serving,
but I soon discovered that I formed this estimate
merely from ignorance of his character. I learned
that it was justice to all, not popularity for himself,
which rendered him so cautious. He constantly
grew upon my respect, until I came to regard him as
the wisest as well as the gentlest apostle of humanity.
I owe him thanks for helping to preserve me from
the one-sidedness into which zealous reformers are apt
to run. He never sought to undervalue the importance of anti-slavery, but he said many things to
prevent my looking upon it as the only question interesting to humanity. My mind needed this check,
and I never think of his many-sided conversations
without deep gratitude. His interest in the subject
constantly increased, and I never met him without
being struck with the progress he had made in overcoming some difficulty which for a time troubled his
sensitive conscience. I can distinctly recollect several
such steps. At one time he was doubtful whether it
were right to petition Congress on the subject, because such petition exasperated our Southern brethren, and, as he thought, made them more tenacious of
their system. He afterward headed a petition himself. In all such cases he was held back by the conscientious fear of violating some other duty, while
endeavoring to fulfil his duty to the slave. Some
zealous reformers misunderstood this, and construed
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