Editing William Lloyd Garrison (section)

===After abolition===
[[File:Mr. Wm. Lloyd Garrison - DPLA - 3767a7d663a98924d1fcad8ac7f613aa (page 1).jpg|alt=Photograph of William Lloyd Garrison; an annotation in pencil reads "Mr. Lloyd Garrison W"|left|thumb|upright|Wm. Lloyd Garrison, [c. 1859–1870]. Carte de Visite Collection, Boston Public Library]]
After the United States abolished slavery, Garrison announced in May 1865 that he would resign the presidency of the [[American Anti-Slavery Society]] (AASS) and offered a resolution declaring victory in the struggle against slavery and dissolving the society. The resolution prompted a sharp debate, however, led by his long-time friend [[Wendell Phillips]], who argued that the mission of the AASS was not fully completed until black Southerners gained full political and civil equality. Garrison maintained that while complete civil equality was vitally important, the special task of the AASS was at an end, and that the new task would best be handled by new organizations and new leadership. With his long-time allies deeply divided, however, he was unable to muster the support he needed to carry the resolution, and it was defeated 118–48. Declaring that his "vocation as an Abolitionist, thank God, has ended," Garrison resigned the presidency and declined an appeal to continue. Returning home to [[Boston]], he withdrew completely from the AASS and ended publication of ''The Liberator'' at the end of 1865. With Wendell Phillips at its head, the AASS continued to operate for five more years, until the ratification of the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] granted voting rights to black men. (According to [[Henry Mayer (historian)|Henry Mayer]], Garrison was hurt by the rejection and remained peeved for years; "as the cycle came around, always managed to tell someone that he was ''not'' going to the next set of [AASS] meetings" [594].){{Citation needed|date=November 2017}}

After his withdrawal from AASS and ending ''The Liberator'', Garrison continued to participate in public reform movements. He supported the causes of [[civil rights]] for [[African American|blacks]] and woman's rights, particularly the campaign for suffrage. He contributed columns on [[Reconstruction Era|Reconstruction]] and civil rights for ''The Independent'' and ''[[The Boston Journal]]''.{{Citation needed|date=November 2017}}

In 1870, he became an associate editor of the women's suffrage newspaper, the ''Woman's Journal'', along with [[Mary Livermore]], [[Thomas Wentworth Higginson]], [[Lucy Stone]], and [[Henry B. Blackwell]]. He served as president of both the [[American Woman Suffrage Association]] (AWSA) and the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. He was a major figure in New England's woman suffrage campaigns during the 1870s.<ref>, Merk, Lois Bannister, "Massachusetts and the Woman Suffrage Movement." Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1958, Revised, 1961, pp. 14, 25.</ref>

In 1873, he healed his long estrangements from [[Frederick Douglass]] and [[Wendell Phillips]], affectionately reuniting with them on the platform at an AWSA rally organized by Abby Kelly Foster and Lucy Stone on the one-hundredth anniversary of the [[Boston Tea Party]].<ref>Mayer, 614</ref> When [[Charles Sumner]] died in 1874, some Republicans suggested Garrison as a possible successor to his Senate seat; Garrison declined on grounds of his moral opposition to taking office.<ref>Mayer, 618</ref>