as such, was worshipping in the "house of Rimmon" like all the rest, its ears filled with cotton, its heart unresponsive to the cry of the slave. A few tenderhearted and noble members of the society were true to its principles and traditions, and these espoused the cause with zeal; but those who sat in high places and ruled the denomination discountenanced the movement, taking sides practically and effectively with the opposition. Quaker meeting-houses, except in a few instances, were sternly closed against anti-slavery lecturers, and members who attended anti-slavery meetings were often labored with as those who had strayed from the true path. The ground assumed by the leaders was that Quakers ought to keep by themselves and not mingle with "the world's people" in philanthropic work; that the Abolitionists were not truly inspired, but attempting to abolish slavery in their own strength, and that to pay men for lecturing against it was contrary to the Quaker testimony against a "hireling ministry." Talk like this was in many places the burden of Quaker preaching, and it was as effectual in its influence upon the sect as open defences and apologies for slavery were in other denominations. But Mr. Buffum, though he became of no reputation among his brethren, and though he felt this opposition and detraction very keenly, never faltered for a moment, but held on his way until, in subsequent years, the sect would gladly have blotted out all traces of its unfriendly course toward him. Others, too, were equally faithful. How invaluable and inspiring were the songs Whittier poured forth, heedless of the dominant influences of the society, I need not say. He began early and continued even unto the end, and since the. days of George Fox no man has done more than he to commend Quaker principles to the admiration of the world, or reflected higher honor upon the Quaker name. The name of Whittier indeed is a bright star

in the Quaker firmament, to which every member of the society now points with a pride that rebukes the degeneracy of an earlier day. "Well, Perez, I hope thee's done running after the Abolitionists," said a high-seat Friend to one of his humbler brethren. Verily, I have," said Perez; "I've caught up with and gone just a little ahead of them." There were a goodly number of men like Perez, in the society, after all.

१९

At the time when the New England Anti-Slavery Society was formed, the movement in Great Britain against slavery in the West Indies was nigh its culmination. The whole kingdom was shaken by the eloquence of Wilberforce, Brougham, O'Connell, Thompson and others. The English press was full of the subject; but such was the power of slavery over the American press that the people here knew hardly more of the progress of the movement than they did of what was going on in the wilds of Africa. Some few rays of light did now and then steal into American minds from that source, but they were not sufficient to produce any wide illumination. American newspapers were afraid to print the truth lest it should help the Abolitionists, while the Abolitionists themselves, with their limited resources, were unable to give it any wide currency. Mr. Garrison was the recipient, now and then, of a batch of anti-slavery publications from England, by which his own heart was cheered, and which he used for the benefit of the cause in this country. Well do I remember with what emotions I first read in "The Liberator," where it appeared for the first time in America, the following passage from a speech by Lord Brougham :

"Tell me not of rights talk not of the property of the planter in his slaves. I deny the right- I acknowledge not the property. The principles, the feelings of our common nature rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the understanding or the heart, the sentence is the same that

rejects it. In vain you tell me of the laws that sanction such a claim! There is a law above all the enactments of human codes · the same throughout the world, the same in all times such it was before the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages, and opened to one world the sources of power, wealth and knowledge, to another all unutterable woes; such it is at this day. It is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal, while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and abhor blood, they shall reject with indignation the wild and guilty fantasy that man can hold property in man.”

While the hearts of British citizens and Christians were stirred by appeals like this from statesmen of renown, and by orators, ministers and philanthropists of every sort, the statesmen and the divines of America were weaving defences and apologies for slavery out of the Bible and the Constitution, thus leading the country toward the retribution that afterwards befel in the catastrophe of the Southern Rebellion.

VI.

Colorphobia Illustrated — Its Meanness and Cruelty - Doctors Gurley and Bacon - A Contrast -The Nat Turner Insurrection Discussion in Virginia — Why it Failed to Accomplish Anything - Power of Immediatism as a Principle.

WHEN it is remembered that the New England Anti-Slavery Society sought not only to free the slaves but to "improve the character and condition of the free people of color," it may seem strange that among those who took part in its formation there was not a single individual of the latter class. But the fact is easily explained. It was not from any lack of interest on their part in the movement, for they saw in it a bright star of promise for their race, and thanked God for the sight. They had rallied, at least the most intelligent among them, to the support of "The Liberator," and were indulging in bright dreams of speedy deliverance from civil and social proscription. Why then were they not conspicuous among the formers of the new society? It was because they instinctively knew that their presence and co-operation would serve only to increase and intensify the prejudices which the society must encounter. Their very anxiety for its success kept them aloof at first. They were careful not to embarrass in its infancy a movement on which were staked their dearest hopes. Anglo-Saxon prejudice against the negro is strong even yet, but it is weak compared with what it was then. No man with a black skin could enter a Christian church without consenting to the degradation of the "nigger pew." He could not ride in any public conveyance on terms of equality with others. A very

intelligent colored girl, the daughter of a devoted and useful clergyman of Boston, was suddenly summoned to the bedside of a dying relative in New Hampshire. A seat was bespoken for her in the stage, then the only means of public conveyance; but the driver, on coming to the door and finding that she was a negro, cracked his whip with an accompanying oath and drove off without her. A colored man of Boston, in trading with a white man, became the owner of a pew in the central aisle of the Park Street Church, and, thinking he might be profited by the ministrations of an intelligent white minister, went to it one Sunday morning with his family. They listened to the "stated preaching of the Gospel" for once under the gaze of á whole battery of frowning faces; but they were not permitted to enjoy the privilege a second time. The trustees of the church found some technicality by which to deprive the black man of his legal rights. His appearance and that of his family in that fashionable house of worship was accounted by all Boston as an outrage scarcely less flagrant than would have been the use of the pew as a pigpen. A colored merchant from Liberia, a man of intelligence as well as wealth, and highly esteemed by Colonizationists, being on a visit to Boston, took the opportunity of making the acquaintance of the Abolitionists. As he wished to hear Dr. Beecher preach, I invited him, as an act of courtesy to a distinguished foreigner, to take a seat in my pew. On my way out of church I encountered the indignant frowns of a large number of the congregation; but it was amusing to witness the change of countenance that fell upon the advocates of colonization as I introduced to them "Mr., of Liberia." They really seemed to think his odor was not quite so offensive, after all, as they had suspected. The air of Liberia was such a powerful disinfectant! The slaveholders used to think the atmosphere of their homes was perfectly de