More than a dozen years before he was converted to it, Rev.George Bourne, in "The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable," had shown that "the system (of slavery) is so entirely corrupt that it admits of no cure but by a _total and immediate abolition_.

For a gradual emancipation is a virtual recognition of the right, and establishes the rectitude of the practice.
If it be just for one moment, it is hallowed forever; and if it be inequitable, not a day should it be tolerated." In 1824, eight years after the publication of Bourne's book, and five years before Garrison announced the doctrine in the _Genius_, the Rev.James Duncan maintained it, in his "Treatise on Slavery," with no uncertainty of sense or conviction.

But neither Bourne nor Duncan had been able to effect an incarnation of the doctrine, without which the good which it aimed at could not be achieved.

What they failed to effect, it is the glory of Garrison that he achieved in his own person.

He was "_total and immediate Abolition_" personified.