Success Quote by William Lloyd Garrison

Abolitionism was never supposed to be a popularity contest, and Garrison is daring you to admit it. “The success of any great moral enterprise does not depend upon numbers” reads like a rebuke to the most common excuse for political cowardice: the idea that you can’t act until the crowd arrives. In one clean sentence, he flips the logic of democracy on its head. Majorities may win elections, but they don’t automatically win the argument about what’s right.

The intent is partly strategic, partly psychological. As a journalist and agitator, Garrison needed a way to keep a small, harassed movement from collapsing under the weight of public hostility. Abolitionists in the 1830s and 1840s faced mob violence, censorship, church complicity, and a political system engineered to treat slavery as negotiable. “Numbers” weren’t just absent; they were actively organized against him. So he reframes legitimacy: moral pressure matters even when it’s a minority report.

The subtext is sternly Calvinist without saying so: truth isn’t validated by consensus. It’s validated by conscience, and conscience demands witness. That’s why “moral enterprise” is such a loaded phrase. He’s not talking about a policy preference; he’s talking about a crusade, something that obligates you even when it makes you socially radioactive.

There’s a quiet provocation too. If numbers aren’t the measure, then waiting for numbers is a form of collaboration. Garrison isn’t consoling the few; he’s indicting the many.