Garrison likewise repudiated every plan for gradual emancipation and proclaimed the duty of immediate and unconditional liberation of the slaves.
The first number of the Liberator contained an Address to the Public, which sounded the keynote of Garrison's career.

"I shall contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population--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--I am in earnest--I will not equivocate--I will not retreat a single inch, and I WILL BE HEARD!" The New England Anti-Slavery Society, of which Garrison was the chief organizer, was in essential harmony with the societies which Lundy had organized in other sections.

Its first address to the public in 1833 distinctly recognized the separate States as the sole authority in the matter of emancipation within their own boundaries.

Through moral suasion, eschewing all violence and sedition, its authors proposed to secure their object.

In the spirit of civil and religious liberty and by appealing to the Declaration of Independence, the Liberty party of 1840 and 1844, by the Freesoil party of 1848, and later by the Republican party, and that nearly all of the abolitionists continued to be faithful adherents to those principles, are sufficient proof of the essential unity of the great anti-slavery movement.