Before the reformer left Baltimore he had definitely abandoned the plans
looking to a revival of his interest in the _Genius_. He determined
instead to publish a sheet devoted to the abolition of slavery under his
sole management and control. This paper he proposed to call the _Public
Liberator_, and to issue from Washington. The prospectus of this
journalistic project bearing date, August, 1830, declares in its opening
sentence its "primary object" to be "the abolition of slavery, and the
moral and intellectual elevation of our colored population." "I shall
spare no efforts," he pledged himself, "to delineate the withering
influence of slavery upon our national prosperity and happiness, its
awful impiety, its rapid extension, and its inevitable consequences if
it be suffered to exist without hindrance. It will also be my purpose to
point out the path of safety, and a remedy for the disease." This
comprehensive and aggressive plan of campaign signalized the rise of an
Abolitionism wholly unlike the Abolitionism of any previous time in the
history of the country. It did in fact date the opening of a new era in
the slavery struggle in America.

With Northern indifference and apathy on the subject of emancipation,
Garrison's previous visit to the North had acquainted him. Their
existence he saw interposed the main obstacle to the success of his new
venture in journalism. "The cause of this callous state of feeling," he
believed, "was owing to their exceeding ignorance of the horrors of
slavery." He accordingly made up his mind to throw the light which he
possessed into the midst of this darkness. He had written in prison
three lectures on "Slavery and Colonization." What better could he now
do than to deliver those lectures at the North? If the good people and
their religious leaders knew what he knew, they would presently feel as
he did on the question. He was loath to leave Baltimore without giving