battle for bread to fight the battle of the slave? Ah, if he had money!
but no money did he have, not a dollar in his pocket! Oh, if he had rich
friends who would dedicate their riches to the preaching of the gospel
of freedom! but alas! rich friends there were none. Oh, if he could cry
to the Church for help in this hour of his need! but it was slowly
dawning on him that not from the Church would help come to his cause;
for a grievous thing had happened to the Church. The slave gorgon sat
staring from the pews, and turning the pulpits to stone, turning also to
stone the hearts of the people.

Undismayed by the difficulties which were closing in around him,
Garrison resolutely set himself to accomplish his purpose touching the
establishment of a weekly paper devoted to the abolition of slavery. He
had promised in his _Prospectus_ to issue the first number of the
_Public Liberator_ "as soon as subscriptions thereto may authorize the
attempt." But had he waited for the fulfillment of this condition, the
experiment could never have been tried. When subscribers did not come
in, the paper, he determined should go forth all the same. But there are
some things in the publication of a paper which no man can dispense
with, which indispensable somethings are: types, a press, an office, and
an assistant. All these requisites were wanting to the man whose sole
possession seemed an indomitable will, a faith in himself, and in the
righteousness of his cause, which nothing could shake, nor
disappointment nor difficulty, however great, was able to daunt or
deter. To such an unconquerable will, to such an invincible faith
obstacles vanish; the impossible becomes the attainable. As Garrison
burned to be about his work, help came to him from a man quite as
penniless and friendless as himself. The man was Isaac Knapp, an old
companion of his in Newburyport, who had also worked with him in the
office of the _Genius_, in Baltimore. He was a practical printer, and