During my research last week I came across an excellent quote from William Lloyd Garrison. He describes Theodore Parker as "a very excellent fanatic, a very good infidel, and a first-rate traitor." Both Parker and Garrison who militant abolitionists who opposed the Fugitive Slave Law and resisted the United States and Massachusets government in the lead-up to the Civil War. They were lions of the social justice movements of the mid-19th century and both called for adherence to a higher law when the law of the state was immoral. Given the current political climate perhaps those on the left should proudly reclaim Garrison’s tongue-in-cheek language…