garrison became famous as one of the most articulate, as well as most radical, opponents of slavery. his approach to emancipation stressed "moral suasion," non-violence, and passive resistance. while some other abolitionists of the time favored gradual emancipation, garrison argued for "immediate and complete emancipation of all slaves." on july 4, 1854, he publicly burned a copy of the constitution, condemning it as "a covenant with death, an agreement with hell," referring to the compromise that had written slavery into the constitution. in 1855, his eight-year alliance with frederick douglass disintegrated when douglass converted to the political abolitionists' view that the constitution could be interpreted as being anti-slavery.