He was possessed with his idea of the importance of chastising the clerical critics, and of the duty of the Executive Committee and of the _Emancipator_ to back him in the undertaking.

His temper was, under all circumstances, masterful and peremptory.

It was never more masterful and peremptory than in its management of this business.

The very reasonable course of the Board at New York suggested to his mind a predominance of "sectarianism at headquarters," seemed to him "criminal and extraordinary." As the Executive Committee and its organ would not rebuke the schismatics, he was moved to rebuke the Executive Committee and its organ for their "blind and temporizing policy." And so matters within the movement against slavery went, with increasing momentum, from bad to worse.
The break in the anti-slavery ranks widened as new causes of controversy arose between the management in Boston and the management at New York.
The Massachusetts Abolitionists had stood stanchly by Garrison against the clerical schismatics.

They also inclined to his side in his trouble with the national board.