A Remembrance of Henry George

William Lloyd Garrison, Jr.

[Reprinted from a letter to an unnamed friend, from Boston, dated 4 January, 1898]

...Yes, Henry George's death was a severe blow to me, partially prepared as I was. the warnings had been marked and repeated and he fully understood the risk he undertook. It was a Veil considered sacrifice and I am not sure that prolonged life would have been half as effective for his cause as was his striking death.

To me he stood as an inspirer and prophet. I was born into the anti-slavery struggle and inherited my veneration for the old abolitionists, but after emancipation this man brought me a new heaven and a new earth. He gave me light and comfort when social conditions seemed dark and discouraging. He showed how unjustly the higher power is blamed for man's greed and injustice. He pointed out the way -- a return to righteousness and, as no other writer on political economy ever did, vindicated the ways of God to man on the lines of justice and freedom.

I may be mistaken, but I place him among the great benefactors of the race. It was a privilege to know and love him and a satisfaction to feel that I cast my lot with him in this day of small things, when such tribute as the nations paid him at the last was beyond the most extravagant dream. Without the right of all men to the use of the earth, men must be in subjection to their brothers and the extremes of wealth and poverty alarm civilization.

All reforms are related and this one never could have gained attention while American slavery lasted. Single tax is the child of abolition and a necessary sequence. This Henry George recognized…