Garrisonian indictment of slavery knew nothing of his non-resistance
principles.[89] Others, who did, came reluctantly to the conclusion that
a civil war to rid the country of the evil would be preferable to its
continuance. In time the struggle was transferred to the political
arena, where men acted sometimes on the basis of interest and not always
on the basis of moral principles. The gulf between the sections widened,
and civil war approached.

As abolitionists themselves began to express the belief that the slavery
issue could not be settled without bloodshed, Garrison disclaimed all
responsibility for the growing propensity to espouse violence. In the
_Liberator_ in 1858 he said:


"When the anti-slavery cause was launched, it was baptized in the
spirit of peace. We proclaimed to the country and to the world that
the weapons of our warfare were not carnal but spiritual, and we
believed them to be mighty through God to the pulling down even of
the stronghold of slavery; and for several years great moral power
accompanied our cause wherever presented. Alas! in the course of
the fearful developments of the Slave Power, and its continued
aggressions on the rights of the people of the North, in my
judgment a sad change has come over the spirit of anti-slavery men,
generally speaking. We are growing more and more warlike, more and
more disposed to repudiate the principles of peace.... Just in
proportion as this spirit prevails, I feel that our moral power is
departing and will depart.... I will not trust the war-spirit
anywhere in the universe of God, because the experience of six
thousand years proves it not to be at all reliable in such a
struggle as ours....