REPORT.

The Board of Managers of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, in presenting to their constituents the Thirteenth Annual Report of their official doings, would again congratulate them on the steady advance of the Anti-Slavery Cause, to which the past year, like each of its predecessors, has borne a fresh testimony. Imperfect as has been the fidelity with which the original idea of the Anti-Slavery Enterprise has been carried out, and in spite of the obstacles which treachery and folly have thrown in its way, its movement has been ever onward, and even events seemingly most unpropitious and men openly the most hostile, have given an unwilling impulse to its progress. The philosophy and the measures of primitive Anti-Slavery have proved themselves to be sound and sufficient by their success in arousing attention and modifying opinion on the subject of Slavery, in a degree exactly proportioned to the zeal and sincerity with which they have been maintained. The Anti-Slavery history of the past year furnishes new and pregnant proofs of the truth of this assertion. The extent and mass of the materials which it has supplied for the sketch with which it has always been our custom to accompany the Report of our own official action, place anything more than a sketchy outline of its prominent events, beyond the narrow limits to which we must 00034needs confine ourselves. We rely upon the kind consideration, for which we have never had to ask in vain, for the allowance and excuse of the manifold imperfections and deficiencies which we are conscious must mark the Report which we have now the honor to submit.

MASSACHUSETTS RESOLUTIONS FOR THE AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION.

The last Annual Meeting of this Society was scarcely adjourned when news was received of the treatment by Congress of the Resolutions passed the previous year by the Legislature of Massachusetts, and again passed unanimously by the General Court of 1843-4, (a verbal error making another passage of them proper) requesting Congress to take measures for an alteration in the Constitution of the United States so as to remove from it the element of Slave Representation and to make the basis of representation the numbers of free population only. As the Constitution provides for its own amendment, and as this request was strictly within its terms and was made on behalf of a Sovereign State, it would seem as if no just exception could have been taken to it, but that it must meet with a respectful reception and due consideration by both branches of the National Legislature. The treatment they met with at their hands is an instructive passage in our National history.

The resolutions were presented to the Senate by Senator Bates of Massachusetts. As soon as the proposed amendment was read, Mr. King, of Alabama, with great indignation denounced the proposition as one to dissolve the Union. This speech was highly abusive of Massachusetts, on the ground of past disloyalty to the Sovereign Institution of the Republic, as well as on that evinced in the matter in hand, and virtually, if not in terms, denounced her and her Legislature as guilty of treason to the Union. "This incendiary attempt," said he, "whether it come from individual 00045fanatics, or from the Legislature of a Sovereign State, deserved not only the condemnation, but the execration, of every well-wisher to the existing government." When his diatribe was finished, Mr. Bates, arose, but not to reprove the calumniator of his native State and vindicate her honor, especially intrusted to his keeping, nor even to explain the real nature of the proposed amendment and to place the true issue, which had been so grossly falsified, before the Senate. He apologetically intimated that "as they were resolutions of the Legislature of his own State, HE FELT IT TO BE INCUMBENT UPON HIM TO PRESENT THEM IN A PROPER MANNER!" He had no desire to excite discussion on this subject! So far from this, his object was to prevent it!! He therefore moved to lay them upon the table!! But humbly hoped that the courtesy due to a State would induce the Senate to allow them to be printed!! He had, however, overestimated not only the courtesy of his chivalric associates, but also their respect for the dignity of a Sovereign State, if it happened to lie on the wrong side of Mason's and Dixon's line. There was some objection even to the reception of the resolutions, but though the objection was withdrawn, rather as a matter of courtesy than of right, the Senate refused to print them by a vote of twenty-six to fourteen. During this insulting treatment and opprobrious abuse of the State they represented, Mr. Choate as well as Mr. Bates sat tamely by and had not a word of indignant remonstrance to utter in her behalf.

At a subsequent period, resolutions from the Legislature of Georgia, condemning in the most vituperative terms the course of Massachusetts in this matter were presented and ordered to be printed. Upon this hint Mr. BATES ventured to speak and reminded the Senate that they had refused to accord to the resolutions of Massachusetts this usual courtesy. But upon being interrogated by the Chair, whether he had any motion to submit on the subject, he said he had none. And as neither Mr. Choate, nor 00056any other Northern Senator, had any motion to submit on the subject, the humble suggestion of Mr. Bates was passed over in the contemptuous silence which it deserved.

When the news arrived in Massachusetts of the pusillanimous behavior of her Senators, a very general and strong sense if shame and indignation was felt and expressed. Even some of the presses devoted to the political party to which Messrs. Bates and Choate belonged, dared to utter a loud voice of reprobation. It seemed to be a case properly calling for a vote of censure on the part of the Legislature of Massachusetts, whose solemn and unanimous and Constitutional demand had been thus unworthily entreated, by those of her own household, as well as by her natural enemies of the Slave States. But no such direct condemnation was attempted. When the resolutions relative to the Annexation of Texas were passed by the Senate, Mr. Wilson, of Middlesex, moved an additional one, requesting the Senators to use their utmost exertions to prevent the consummation of the project of Annexation, which was unanimously passed. It was not concealed that this resolution was meant to imply a rebuke to the Massachusetts Senators, no less necessary than merited, as their recent conduct might well excite doubts as to their behavior in any matter displeasing to their Southern compeers. And certainly deserved rebuke was never administered in a milder or less offensive form. But even this was too much for the dominant party in the House of Representatives to endure. The integrity of the Party was not to be endangered by anything so insignificant as the honor of the State. And, accordingly, the resolution was amended by inserting the words "Representatives in Congress," after the word "Senators;" which, of course, destroyed its whole point. Upon the resolution, as amended, coming before the Senate for concurrence, the Senate refused to concur, after a debate in the course of which the true grounds of the resolution were ably set forth by Mr. Adams, of Suffolk, Mr. Wilson, of Middlesex, and others. The House, 00067however, persisted in its amendment, and a Committee of Conference was appointed, the result of whose deliberations was to strike out the whole clause relative both to Senators and Representatives! This adjustment, if not satisfactory, was accepted, and thus the recreant Senators escaped without even the shadow of a Legislative rebuke.

Although the General Court of Massachusetts thus refused to censure, even inferentially, the truckling and cowardly subserviency of her Senators in the presence of Slavery; still Slavery, as she ever is, was true to herself and her own interests. Besides the resolutions of Georgia, already mentioned, Virginia passed a serious strongly condemning those of Massachusetts, and requesting the Governor to return to the Governor of Massachusetts the copy which had been transmitted to him of those resolutions, by the vote of the Legislature that passed them. This was done with a studied air of disrespect, and was probably the first instance of such an act of ill-manners, in the history of the Union. It showed how deeply any such interference with the System which makes the Slave-interest the despot of the country, was felt and dreaded by those who compose it. These resolutions and facts were communicated to the General Court by Governor Briggs, and suitable resolutions, restating and reaffirming the propositions of the original resolutions, and rebuking the discourtesy of Virginia, were passed unanimously by both Houses.

These same Virginia resolutions were presented to the Senate of the United States, by Mr. Archer, received and printed. Neither Mr. Bates nor Mr. Choate had any defence to make of the course of Massachusetts, nor any reclamations against this insulting distinction between their own State and the Ancient Dominion. It would seem as if there were something in the atmosphere of the Senate Chamber, the especial sanctuary and asylum of Slavery, that darkens the eyes and palsies the hearts of all exposed to its influences. It is probable that there is no place in the country, 00078unless it be the Bench of the Supreme Court, where the concentrated power of the Slave-interest is so strongly felt as in the Senate. There has been seldom found a man capable of resisting its force.

In the House of representatives at Washington, the Massachusetts Resolutions were offered to a Committee of which Mr. John Quincy Adams was chairman. The majority of the Committee made no detailed Report but submitted a resolution that the amendment of the Constitution, asked for, ought not to be recommended. This was passed by a great majority, only thirteen voting in the negative. Mr. Adams afterwards presented an able report signed by himself and Mr. Giddings, fully setting forth the reasonableness of the alteration demanded and showing the mischievous and oligarchical nature of the provisions of the Constitution as it now stands but proposing a reference of the subject to the next Congress. Mr. C.J. Ingersoll and several other members of the Committee made reports expressing the Slaveholding view of the subject. Thus this matter was disposed of for the time.

THE GAG RULE

It will be remembered that at the beginning of the Session of 1843-4, Mr. Adams, as Chairman of the Committee on Rules, reported a resolve in favor of rescinding the Rule by which the Right of Petition was denied to the people. Strong hopes were entertained that this infamous rule would be expunged from the list. For three months the subject was before the House again and again, and afforded an occasion of much wholesome agitation. It is not necessary to recount all the alterations of the game as its fortunes varied with the skill or the luck of those who played it. On the 27th of February, however, a direct vote was taken on the question of rescinding the Gag Rule, and to the consternation of its friends and the surprise of its enemies, the House refused to sustain the Rule by a vote of eighty-five to one hundred and six. There was 00089still, however, a step to be taken before the victory would be complete--that of incorporating the Rules as amended with those of the House. This gave the hosts of Slavery time to rally their forces for a desperate attempt to recover the ground they had lost. They exerted themselves to so good purpose, that, what with changing the votes of some and procuring the absence of others, that the next day the whole question was laid on the table, by a vote of eighty-eight to eighty-seven. This had the effect of continuing the rules of the last Congress, and was a victory over the right of petition. This hardly won victory was achieved on the very day signalized by the bursting of the Peacemaker and the calamities that it occasioned. That fatal party of pleasure was made the occasion of most of those absences which changed the victory of the day before into a defeat.

Thus the matter was placed upon its old footing for the rest of that Session. At the opening of the present Session, however, (1844-5) Mr. Adams moved again to rescind the Twenty-fifth Rule, and the motion prevailed by a vote of one hundred and eight to eighty! This decisive vote has apparently put the question at rest. Attempts were made by the Slaveholders to suppress, in detail, some of the first petitions that were presented after the rescinding of the rule, but they failed in their attempt and the petitions were received and referred. Thus after ten years hard fighting the people of the Free States have vindicated their right of praying their own servants to do what justice and the plainest dictates of an enlightened self-interest demand! It is certainly a mournful commentary upon our boasted institutions that such an achievement should be esteemed a notable victory. The inhabitants of the model Republic struggle for years to recover a right which the Sultan or the Czar have never dreamed of denying to the humblest of their Slaves! And the difficult success is looked upon as a signal triumph of Free Principles! Perhaps nothing could have been devised to set forth in stronger colors the point of degradation to which the North has been thrust, in consequence of her 000910compliances with Slavery. It is, however, to be looked upon as a hopeful sign of the past progress and an auspicious augury of the future advancement of the Spirit of Freedom, of much greater significancy than its actual value. And we are happy to know that the Slaveholders themselves look upon this event as one ominous of a lessening allegiance to their Supremacy. We trust that the fears of the enemies, and the hopes of the friends, of Liberty, may be more than answered by the revelations of the future.

TEXAS

The plot for the Annexation of Texas, which, since its first defeat, had been suffered to remain dormant, but had never been abandoned, seemed during the first months of the past year to be on the eve of success. It was well known that Mr. Tyler was desirous of signalizing his administration by the completion of this nefarious project, and at the same time improving his chance for a second nomination. His Secretary of State, Mr. Upshur, was an open and unscrupulous favorer of the measure. After his death, his place was supplied by Mr. Calhoun, a no less devoted friend to the scheme, and a more dangerous one in proportion to his greater influence and ability. Rumors prevailed early in the year that Texas was to be annexed by some means before the adjournment of Congress. Long experience of the success which had ever attended the desperate and determined struggles of the Slave Power of whatever it was resolved to have, spread a deep gloom and anxiety over the minds of thinking men. It was for several months the absorbing topic of thought and discussion. The general voice of the North seemed to cry out against the deed, but there were not wanting venal and unscrupulous presses even in its very heart, who excused or demanded the consummation of the crime. Doubt and anxiety brooded over the country. It seemed as if the profligate politicians in possession of power were resolved to play a deep and bold game for its perpetuation, if not in their own hands, at least in 001011these of the Slaveholding Oligarchy. And considering their advantages of position, the unanimity of the South and the distraction of the North, the probabilities of their success were certainly great. And it still seems a difficult point to decide why it was not complete.

At length, the doubts which had lingered in some minds as to the existence of the design of Annexation, and the uncertainties of all as to the mode in which it was to be done, were ended by the transmission of a Treaty of Annexation, signed by the Secretary of State and the Special Minister of Texas, to the Senate for ratification. Notwithstanding the note of preparation with which it had been heralded, the audacity of the act seemed to strike the reflecting portion of the nation with a sensation of surprise. The gulf which threatened to swallow up all the hopes of the Republic seemed to have already yawned for its prey, and men looked around them in vain for the brave man, willing and able, to avert the general calamity by a heroic self-devotion. The organs of Slavery and of Pro-Slavery rejoiced in the beatific vision of perpetuated bondage. All the signs in the heavens above and on the earth beneath looked black and lowering. Every influence of personal or official interest was exert to produce the desired result. Neither shame nor decency prevented any demonstration that might be effective. Mr. Calhoun, in an official letter of instructions to Mr. Everett, intended for the meridian of St. James's, defended the system of Slavery on its own merits, in an argument, such as has seldom issued from the bureau of a prime minister. Mr. Walker, of Mississippi, put forth a pamphlet, which the advantages of the measure to the North as well as to the South, were set forth in glowing colors. The question put on the usual double face which matters of Slave-holding policy are apt to assume. With one countenance it watched over the interests of the South and with another those of the North. With one mouth it recounted the benefits it was to confer upon the Slaveholding Interest, by extending its area and opening a new 001112market for its victims. With the other it proclaim that is tendency was to remove Slavery from the elder States and perhaps finally extinguish it altogether. When the resolute purpose of the Slave-interest was seconded by the official power and patronage of the Executive, and aided by the large interest created by Texan lands and bonds, it might well be looked upon as sure of accomplishment.

When the aspect of affairs was thus gloomy, glimpses of light were seen one by one, which seemed to promise at least the postponement, if not the abandonment of the scheme. It appeared that at any rate John Tyler was not to be allowed to be the officiating priest at his unholy sacrifice. A Presidential Election was approaching and all the aspirants for nomination and their chief friends feared the disturbing influence of this vexed question, thus thrown into the scale at the most critical moment. Accordingly they began with all deliberate speed to define their position. Mr. Clay and Mr. Van Buren both expressed their opposition to the Annexation of Texas under existing circumstances. Though there was nothing in either of their letters which would prevent a speedy accomplishment of the plan under a change of circumstances, by no means impossible to bring about, still this false step cost one of those gentlemen his nomination and the other his election.

Their fate is a warning to all aspring politicians, hereafter, to beware how they suffer the delusion that there is a North to be consulted to make one of the elements of their policy. There is no North. It has no political existence. Had Mr. Clay and Mr. Van Buren complied with all the demands of the South, on or the other of them would have been the next President. Unless, indeed, the bare fact of his northern birth would have excluded the latter from the competition by a reasonable jealousy. Besides these two prominent leaders of the two great parties, Mr Webster expressed his opposition to the measure, while Mr. Cass, Mr. Buchanan, Commodore Stewart, and others, declared their cordial acceptance of this 001213measure of Slaveholding policy. The result of the part of the political game of President-making is recorded in another part of this Report.

The circumstances, however, of the two acknowledged chiefs of the two great parties having declared their disapprobation of the plan then before the Senate for the Annexation by Treaty, gave great encouragement to its opposers. A louder voice of remonstrance was raises by the Northern press, a more determined front was opposed to the abettors of the measure, and a new face given to the whole affair. A length of the 8th of June the Senate rejected the treaty by a vote of THIRTY-FIVE to SIXTEEN. This result was hailed as a triumph by the opposers of the Annexation, and it was certainly a partial success, inasmuch as it deferred at least the consummation of the deed. Soon after the rejection of the treaty President Tyler transmitted a message to the House, recommending the Annexation by joint resolutions since that by treaty had failed. This was, probably a mere ebullition of disappointment and rage, as the majority in the Senate against the measure was too great to make any such plan feasible. So the matter rested at the adjournment of Congress, and both parties address themselves to the task of deciding the contest upon the fields of the approaching campaign.

The Annexation was made a prominent point in the canvassing of the late election, and the result has been the choice of Mr. Polk, its avowed champion. At the beginning of the present Session of Congress, President Tyler strongly urged the completion of the measure before its close; affirming, and with some appearance of truth, that the voice of the nation had expressed its pleasure, in this behalf. The question is still before the National Legislature. What the result will be is as yet uncertain. Whether it will be thought best to despatch the business in haste, and leave whatever opprobrium it may excite to be borne by Mr. Tyler and his friends; or whether Mr. Polk will prefer to signalize his opening administration with this act, and will grudge to any other the glory 001314which may accompany the deed, remains yet to be seen. It will be be an event that will certainly "damn everlasting fame," whatever administration accomplishes it. But, however this may be, there can be little doubt in the minds of any who have noted the necessary supremacy of the Slave Power in the government of the country, that the question of Annexation is now only one of time. If the Slaveholders continue to desire the Annexation, (and they must change not merely their Slaveholding, but their human nature, if they do not,) it will be brought about sooner or later; and, probably, very soon. Political juggling may defer or hasten it, but it will ultimately come, if the Dominant Interest resolutely demand it. There is but one thing that would render it doubtful, or rather which would certainly defeat it. And that is a firm and determined purpose on the part of the North to dissolve their union with the South should such a consummation take place. Did the South believe that such would be the effect of the Annexation of Texas, she would sooner emancipate her slaves at once than consent to lose the protection of her Northern Janizaries. But, alas, she has but little reason to dread such a revolt! The servile may murmur and vapor and threaten, but she will submit. In a few months it will be all forgotten and the political friends and enemies of the project will be engaged together in a fresh game for the stakes of power, on the hazard of some other die. That there will be any serious resistance to the accomplishment of the scheme, is not to be hoped. We can only trust that the Slave Power, thus strengthened and encouraged, will put forth its might and compel its Northern vassals to feel their servitude by the very severity of its details. May the little finger of those that are to succeed be thicker than the loins of those that went before! May the hostile interference with the affairs and the interests of the North, which has ever characterized our Slaveholding Oligarchy, become more insolent and injurious,until Northern men may be brought to see the insane folly of hoping a prosperous alliance with their 001415natural enemies! The only hope of freedom now seems to lie in the very excesses of Slavery. The frozen stupor of the North can only be broken, if at all, by blows and scourgings. She may be even past their remedy. But if so, her degradation is deserved and past pity. The strong who tremble at the nod of the weak, merit the scorn and not the compassion of mankind. The many who consent to receive the yoke of the few can only blame themselves for their degradation The million who submit to the tyrannic rule of the thousands deserve their fate. But we trust that there are yet some relics of the old spirit of liberty that have not entirely died out. That some sparkles of their wonted fires still glow in the ashes of the Fathers and may yet kindle a consuming flame in the bosoms of the sons. That there is yet a remnant left who will not permit the tears of the Emigration and the blood of the Revolution to yield only a harvest of chattel Slavery for the black man and political servitude for the white man. The masses of free States may yet feel their strength and perceive their abasement. They have but to utter their determination, to put forth their arm, and their own bonds fall asunder as at the touch of fire, and with them the chain drop from the limbs of the Slave. "Rise like lions after slumber,In unconquerable number!Shake your chains to earth, like dewWhich in sleep has fallen on you;Ye are many, they are few!"

MEXICO

The conduct of the Government of the United States towards Mexico has been marked by the same bad faith and ill manners which have distinguished all her recent diplomatic relations with that power. The policy of Mr. Tyler seems to have been to endeavor to drive Mexico into a declaration of war with the United States, under cover of which he might execute his dishonest 001516design upon her revolted province. The insolence with which the Mexican authorities have been treated by Mr. Waddy Thompson and Mr. Shannon, his successor, is such as have been rarely known in the intercourse of civilized nations. The latter gentleman, in particular, made himself the laughing-stock of the world by the blundering fidelity with which the Mexican Ministry met and repulsed these insolencies and impertinencies, contrasted honorably with the deportment of their ill-conditioned visitors. The position of Mexico is a trying and difficult one, but there seems no reason to doubt that she will be able to make it clear to the world that she is in the right, whatever may be the issue of this dispute with her. Whatever may be the faults or deficiencies of her national character, she has placed herself far in advance of us by the emancipation of her slaves and her determination that her soil shall never be disgraced by the reestablishment of the institution. It is this circumstance that makes the Slaveholding Oligarchy of the United States hate her and resolve upon her dismemberment, if not her destruction. In this matter at least Mexico is clearly and undeniably in the right, on the usual principles of international law, and her whole course, as regards this country, has been marked by the calmness and deliberation which indicate a consciousness of being in the right. Of the two neighboring Republics, it is not Mexico that deserve to be stigmatized as semi-barbarous. Her elder sister could take a lesson from her, as well in the substantial realities of Freedom, as in the courtesies and proprieties of national intercourse.

ENGLAND

The resolute hostility of the people of England to the institution of Negro Slavery and to the Slave trade continues to inspire her public acts and international policy. Whatever may have been the guilt of Great Britain in fostering and extending these 001617inquities in times past, she has certainly made noble amends by her emancipation of her own bondsmen and by her honest endeavors to supress the African traffic. That her land is full of suffering and misery is but too true, but it does not become us in this country who accept the social institutions from which these consequences have flowed, to reproach her with them. Wherever the root of the mischief may lie, it is not one from which any just self-gratulation can arise to us. The British Nation has adopted a line of policy, designed to monopolize all the fruits of her soil and the products of her labor, under which population has increased to such a point that the price of labor has fallen to the lowest point. America glories in the same policy. And if the comparatively small supply of laborers and the infinite supply of land, has delayed for us the evils which brood over the mother country, it is owing to the advantages of our position and to no merit of our own. The English capitalist goes into the labor market and procures his labor at as cheap a rate as he can. And does the American capitalist do otherwise? When he is willing to give a higher price for what he wants than the article bears in the market, from philanthropic and public spirited motives, he may give himself airs of superior virtue over his English rival. In all matters of the practical economy of affairs we are no better than England in principle, and only different in results from circumstances beyond our control; while by the liberation of her Slaves and her resolute attempts for the suppression of the Slave Trade, she has placed herself far in advance of us. She has faults enough, no doubt, but she is free from the crime of Slavery; we emulate her in all her faults, and besides are steeped to the lips in the blood and filth of the Slave system. When we have imitated her example in this matter and placed ourselves on a moral equality with her, it will be time enough for us to reprove her for what she has left undone.

We have received from England fresh assurances of sympathy and good will in our movement during the past year. New friends 001718have joined themselves with those whose worth we have long known, and substantial assistance, as well as words of encouragement have reached us from new and welcome sources. The Massachusetts Fair was enriched with a liberality even surpassing that of former years by the gifts of English friends. We hope that a friendly and still increasing intercourse may still be maintained between the Abolitionists of the two counties, beneficial to both parties, and of incalculable importance to our common cause. Such mutual aid in a common cause of humanity is more than "twice blessed." The benefits of its reciprocal influences afford no elements for calculation, but are felt by all true hearts to be beyond all price.

SCOTLAND

The last year has been remarkable for the mission delegates from the Free, or Seeding Church of Scotland, to this country, for the purpose of procuring funds for their religious purpose. It was hoped when this mission was announced, that the gentlemen composing it would be able to defy the palsying influences of the Pro-Slavery church of America, and to prove by their example that there were some men who would refuse to bow the knee to the American Baal. We are sorry to say that the Scotch delegates proved to be no exception to the general rule, the effect of which seems to be that the representatives of the British sects shall take at once their tone and complexion from the perverted public sentiment of the self-styled religious public of America. There has been, we believe, not a single instance of a delegation from any of the religious bodies of the mother country, that has been able to maintain a faithful testimony against American Slavery in the polluted atmosphere which it creates; and to this general rule the Scottish delegates proved themselves no exception. It is true that by being faithful to Anti-Slavery truth they would have defeated their financial mission, but fidelity to the Gospel of Freedom was none the less required at their hands. Large collections were, doubtless, 001819desirable; but they were not to be purchased by a consenting to the sins of the people among whom they found themselves. The money of the worshippers of Juggernaut might be useful, perhaps, in building up the New Kirk, but could not be innocently procured by a silent contemplation and virtual approval of his horrid orgies and bloody rites. Much as the treasury of the Free Church might stand in need of the contributions of the Slaveholding and Pro-Slavery churches of America,--"the Bulwarks of American Slavery,"--they could not be righteously obtained at the expense of a practical endorsement of the cruelties and abominations of the System which they cherish.

Perhaps no men ever had a more favorable field for bearing a faithful testimony against the crying sin of the age, than these delegates. Every Church of almost every denomination was open to them, and the people had the permission and the encouragement of their spiritual guides to go and listen to their words. They had the same free access to the pulpits of the piratical piety and robbing religion of the Southern States. They had the opportunity of making the land rock with their loud and uncompromising testimonies. These might, indeed, have endangered their lives, and would certainly have imperilled their collections; but we apprehend that the Free Church would have derived a moral strength and a spiritual elevation far more conductive to her true prosperity and edification, than any material help she can derive from the blood-stained dollars of the American Churches. No such testimonies, however, impeded their smooth and pleasant progress through the country. No Pro-Slavery capitalist at the North, no manstealing minister, or professor at the South, had his peace disturbed by their expostulations; and both were willing to pay a portion of their abundance, for this virtual acceptance of the great Religious and Political Institution of the land. And, the more, because from the rumors which had been borne across the 001920waters, of the Anti-Slavery spirit of the Scottish Church, they had some reason to apprehend a different treatment.

A diversity of opinion prevails among moralists, as to the propriety of receiving money for pious uses from hands stained with crime. There are those who would reject the contributions of Slaveholders from all benevolent objects, on account of the taint which the gold has acquired from the manner in which it was obtained. Others hold that the money itself is a harmless agent, and may be properly received and put to good uses, if the act of receiving it be not a virtual approbation of the crime by which it was acquired. But there is no difference of opinion on the point that to make the reception of such monies rightful, the fullest testimony to the guilty donor as to the receiver's sense of his guilt, is essential to save the one from a participation in the crime of the other. If a robber brings to me money taken on the highway, to be applied to charitable purposes, it may be a question whether I should take it at all; but, at any rate, if I accept of it without rebuking him for the dishonest business of which it is the fruits, I should clearly make myself an accessary in his guilt. The delegates of the Free Church received the money of the Slaveholder, which, peradventure, might have been raised by the sale of their own brother in Christ, to the highest bidder, and we have no reason to believe that they ever expressed, if they felt, any sense of the enormous wickedness from which he drew his means of benevolence.

These gentlemen, we believe, avoided the society of Abolitionists, as a general thing, during their stay in this country, and associated with those who fear and hate them for the fidelity with which they expose the inconsistency of their lives with their professions. When invited by Mr. Garrison, the President of the American Anti-Slavery Society, to attend its last Anniversary, they neither accepted nor noticed the invitation. It would not, therefore, be surprising, if in their desire to justify their course, they 002021should adopt, regard to them, the views and language of the Pro-Slavery community to whose influences they exposed themselves. That such has been the case we have reason to believe from an article in the North British Review, the quarterly organ of the Free Church, conceived in a spirit and expressed in a language which would have done no discredit to any of the organs of the great Slaveholding denominations in America. It is said, with what we know not, that this article was from the pen of one of the Delegates. That the effect of their time-serving behavior has created, or developed, a spirit such as we had hoped was confined to American ecclesiastics, in quarters from which higher and nobler things had been expected, we have had recently a melancholy proof. The Rev. Dr. CHALMERS, of Edinburgh, in a letter to a Reverend manstealer of Charleston, S.C., Dr. Thomas Smith, writes thus; "I do not need to assure you how little I sympathize with those who, because slavery happens to prevail in the Southern States of America, would unchristianize that whole region, and who even carry their extravagance so far as to affirm that so long as it subsists, no fellowship or interchange of good offices should take place with its churches or its ministers! * * I observe in our Assembly's Commission of a few weeks back, the subject of American Slavery was entertained. I do hope the resolution which they have adopted will prove satisfactory to you." These resolutions we have not seen, but we know too well what they must have been, if they were satisfactory to a Charleston Doctor in Divinity. Dr. Chalmers would probably see reason for denying Christian fellowship, on the ordinary principles of his church, to a religious Society which admitted horse-thieves or sheep-stealers to full communion. But when the connexion is a wealthy one, and when it happens to derive its wealth from the stealing of men, women and children, he has no sympathy for the extravagance that would deny them the name of Christians and the privileges of the Church!

We are happy to know, however, that there are many true spirits 002122in Scotland who are still firm in their Anti-Slavery faith and works; men and women who are not to be bought with "blood-stained money." At a very numerous and enthusiastic meeting of the Glasgow Emancipation Society, after resolutions relative to the case of John L. Brown, which will be again alluded to, passed resolutions stating their regret that the Free Church of Scotland should accept pecuniary help from Slaveholding churches, and their decided conviction that until the American Churches, --the Bulwark of American Slavery,--have put away from them the sin of Slaveholding, they deserve the admonition and censure, and not the countenance of Christian men; and calling upon the office-bearers and members of the Free Church to acquit themselves as becomes Christians and Scotchmen, in regard to the Slaveholding contributions, and in particular that sent from Charleston, S.C.; and not to accept of such, but to send them back to the donors with a faithful and plain-dealing testimony against Slavery. At a meeting, also of the Glasgow Female Anti-Slavery Society, a resolution was unanimously adopted expressing their "deep regret that the Free Church have received money from Slaveholders in America," and their hopes that the final decision as to its retention "will be such as can meet the approval of Abolitionists here and in America." Another resolution expressed their "undiminished confidence in the integrity an faithfulness of the Abolitionists in America with whom they were identified, pledging themselves to assist the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair to the utmost of their ability." This pledge was amply redeemed, and the last Massachusetts Fair, the most brilliant of all, owed much of its attraction to the beautiful and valuable contributions of the Anti-Slavery women of Glasgow, Edinburgh and other places in Scotland. We have cause to believe that the spirit which these resolutions of the Glasgow Societies breathe inspires multitudes of the generous Abolitionists in all parts of Scotland.

IRELAND

002223We have but to repeat, at this time, the story we have told for successive years, of the heartfelt sympathy and cordial help of the Irish Abolitionists. They have still been true to us, to themselves and to the Slave. The encouragement of their words of cheer and the assistance of of their helpful hands, have strengthened and animated us as in times past. At a time when they might well have excused themselves from diverting their attention from the great events which fill the present page of their history, they have been as ready and as willing as ever to send their thoughts and sympathies over the ocean to cheer the hearts of the American Slave and of his hated friends. Their large views take in all mankind,--they see that Humanity is one, and they feel that services rendered to the enslaved American must needs redound to the deliverance of the oppressed Irishman.

The Anti-Slavery Fair was again indebted to Irish Abolitionists for many of its most elegant and attractive treasures. The pecuniary result of their contributions was large, but the moral effect upon us, upon themselves and upon the public of Massachusetts, is of a kind not to be measured or estimated by money. The consciousness of mutual assistance in carrying forward a great and unselfish cause is of inestimable advantage to them who give, and to us who receive on the Slaves behalf. We can only promise to endeavor to deserve these marks of confidence in ourselves and of devotion to our cause, on the part of our Irish and our British friends, by renewed efforts to make them unnecessary by the accomplishment of the deliverance for which they are bestowed.

CASE OF JOHN L. BROWN

Early in the year the attention of the British public was drawn to a case which excited a wide and deep sympathy. It was the capital trial, conviction and sentence of John L. Brown, in South Carolina, said to be a native of Maine, for assisting in the 002324escape of a female slave. This atrocity excited a strong and universal feeling of indignation as soon as it was told on the British shores. Lord Brougham brought the subject early before the House of Lords. At a meeting of the Glasgow Emancipation Society held for the purpose of remonstrating against this flagrant violation of the rights of humanity, resolutions were passed denouncing it in the strongest terms. A memorial signed by the Reverend William Jay, and many others, was addressed from Bath, to the inhabitants of the United States, and especially to members of Churches, expressing their surprise and regret at this inconsistency of American professions and practice. "The ministers and office-bearers of Christian Churches and benevolent societies in Lancashire, London and other parts of England," addressed an eloquent memorial to the Churches of South Carolina and of America generally, in which they bore an emphatic testimony against Slavery itself, and set forth powerfully the revolting character of this development of its nature and its effects. This memorial was signed by more than thirteen hundred of the most eminent dissenting ministers and elders. The venerable Clarkson added his name to the multitudes that called for the deliverance of a man drawn unto death for an act of simple humanity. Numerously signed petitions were transmitted from the British Isles to the Governor of South Carolina, asking for the release of Brown. A universal shout of indignation and horror was heard echoing through their whole extent. It might seem strange to our friends on the other side of the Atlantic to perceive that the sensation caused in this country by the contemplated outrage, was by no means equal to that felt by themselves. A public meeting was held in Hallowell, Maine, and possibly in a few other places. Petitions from individuals and from numbers were also forwarded to the Executive of South Carolina. But our Trans-Atlantic brethren may take to themselves almost the entire credit of having saved our country and the human race from the ignominy of such a 002425crime. There can be no doubt that it was mainly owing to the reclamations of outraged humanity which came thick and loud from across the Atlantic, that constrained the Slaveholding Government of South Carolina, first to commute the sentence of Brown from death to fifty lashes, and finally to remit this mitigated, but disgraceful, punishment.

THE HUNDRED MASSACHUSETTS CONVENTIONS

At the last annual meeting of this Society, the Board of Managers were earnestly requested to make provision for a series of One Hundred Conventions to be held within the limits of this State during the winter and ensuing Spring. In obedience to these instructions, we put forth an address to the Abolitionists of the State as soon as possible, indicating our plan and calling for cooperation and assistance.

We secured the services of the ablest and most devoted agents we could procure, and sent them into the field with the least possible loss of time. The plan of operations was matured with all speed, and its general management and superintendence committed to the care of our General Agent, Wendell Phillips, to whose disinterested labors and personal services no small part of the success that crowned the campaign is due. From the time of the Annual Meeting at the close of January till the Anniversary of the American Society at the beginning of May, Massachusetts was subjected to a systematic and extensive agitation, such as had never before swept over her, and which was attended with the happiest results. The Conventions were held in nearly all the towns of the Counties of Plymouth, Barnstable, Bristol, Norfolk, Middlesex, Worcester and Essex. When we name the faithful names of Abby Kelley. Charles L. Remond, Stephen S. Foster, Frederic Douglass, Parker Pillsbury, E.D. Hudson, William A. White, John M. Spear, Sydney H. Gay, George W. Stacy, and James N. Buffum, as those of the soldiers in this good fight, it is needless to 002526add that the work was done thoroughly and well. A fearless and uncompromising testimony was borne in many towns, which had scarcely before heard the Anti-Slavery Gospel, against the blood-guiltiness of the Northern Church and State in the matter of American Slavery. Most of the Conventions continued two days, and they attracted a general attention and produced a deep impression upon the minds within their sphere. The agents were cordially welcomed by the Abolitionists wherever they went, and received their hearty cooperation. Though in almost every place they met with opposition, chiefly from the "evangelical" churches and from the Third Party, and in others but little interest could be excited, still, in spite of intolerant and partizan hostility and of chilly indifference their general success was triumphant. The opposition usually came from quarters which only had the effect of drawing a greater attention to the meetings and giving to them a new life and spirit. It was an inferior, but a gratifying, sign of the success of the Conventions that they more than paid their own expenses, and were no charge upon the Society.

One of the most encouraging results of this movement was the awakening of a warm interest in the cause in towns where but little Anti-Slavery labor had been bestowed. Many new and ardent laborers have been brought into the harvest, who had only waited to hear the voice of invitation to obey it. This indicates the importance of bestowing more thought and pains upon new places than we have done of late years. There are yet thousands of hearts which only need to be touched to feel their duties towards their enslaved countrymen and to perform them freely. This policy we hope will be carried out as far as it is practicable. What we need now is a fresh supply of devoted agents. Those we have are not to be surpassed for ability, intelligence and devotion to the cause, but what are they among so many? There is occupation enough for multitudes besides, if they be but of the true and tried. We have no temptations to hold out to avarice, ambition or vanity, to 002627induce men to enlist in the thankless service of the Slave, and we are happy to know that none will volunteer in this cause who need any such allurements. But we trust that generous minds will yet appreciate the privilege of engaging in this stainless warfare for the rights at once of the Bond and of the Free.

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

The Annual Meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which was held in New York on the 7th of May, was surpassed by no preceding meeting in the importance of its deliberations and of its decisions. It was a point in the history of our Enterprise that will be long remembered as determining its complexion and its prosperity. The question which had occupied earnest and thoughtful minds for a long time, and which had been for several years a prominent topic of discussion in the larger and smaller Anti-Slavery assemblies, of the duties of Abolitionists in regard to the Government of the United States, under its existing Constitution, came before the meeting for full discussion and final determination. It was thought, as the event proved, that the Anti-Slavery mind of the country was prepared to entertain and to decide upon this important point of the practical application of its principles. The guilty participation in the system of Slavery of any man who swears to support a Constitution of Government which specifically requires the restitution of fugitive Slaves to their masters, and the suppression of servile revolution by the sword of the whole nation, or, who appoints by his ballot another person to swear to do these things as his substitute, was set forth in resolutions offered by Mr. Wendell Phillips, and more at length by Mr. Garrison, in an address to "the Friends of Freedom in the United States." This subject occupied the attention of the Convention for the chief of the four days of the meeting. The affirmative of the question raised in the resolutions and address was maintained by Messrs. Garrison, Phillips, 002728Remond, Foster, Quincy, Brown, William H. Channing and others. The negative was taken by Messrs. Earle, W.A. White, A. Buffum, Child and others. The discussions were conducted with much ability, spirit and good temper on both sides and excited a deep interest in the meeting. The question was taken by yeas and nays at the conclusion of the last session and decided in favor of the adoption of the address by a vote of three to one (fifty-nine to twenty-one.) Many members of the Society had been obliged to return home before the question was taken; but it is believed that the Society was never represented by a more intelligent and devoted delegation than took action upon one side and the other, in this decision. It is believed that the vote represents the sense of the majority of the Society in all parts of the country. The action which has been taken by many subsequent meetings has proved this to be the case.

This was a memorable and a critical era in the history of our Cause. The opinion that there was no hope for the Slave, and no innocence for the free, except in the Dissolution of the existing Slaveholding Union, and in the Abrogation of the existing Slaveholding Constitution, had been long entertained by individual minds, and had been promulgated and enforced both in speech and by the press. But that the sense of the impossibility of an Abolitionist's freeing himself from his accessory guilt, except by refusing to take part in the government of the country, as long as the support of Slavery is one of its integral elements, and by demanding the the immediate dissolution of all connection between Liberty and Slavery, had penetrated so deeply into the Anti-Slavery mind of the country, had hardly been anticipated. The result was a proof of the readiness of the American Abolitionists at once to entertain novel and startling propositions, and to accept them when found to be undeniably true. Their conclusions were not hasty and ill-considered; but were 002829formed after the subject had been for several years before their minds. No disposition was ever shown on the part of those who had first adopted these opinions to urge precipitate action upon them. For three Annual Meetings the subject had occupied a large share of the attention of those in attendance; and the alarmed and indignant reclamations of all the whole Slaveholding and Pro-Slavery Public of the Country, when the ground of Abolition or Disunion was first taken, at once attracted attention to the new doctrine, and afforded strong internal evidence of its soundness. A doctrine that Slaveholders and their abettors hate and dread, must at the first blush commend itself to the favorable consideration of Abolitionists. The Society, then, came to the meeting prepared to take action on this momentous topic, and after full deliberation, they avowed their new faith and policy, deliberately and intelligently, before the country and the world.

The American Anti-Slavery Society, therefore, now occupies a position in advance of any that it has hitherto held. It has proclaimed its sense of the inconsistency of any man, professing to be an Abolitionist, entering into the service of the Government of the United States, when a part of the duties which he is obliged to swear to perform consist in the restoration of fugitive slaves and the forcible suppression of servile revolution; or appointing another person by his suffrage to do these things as his deputy. Having discovered, slowly and painfully, but by bitter experience, that there is no hope of personal liberty for their enslaved countrymen, or of political freedom for themselves, as long as the existing Union endures or the present Constitution lasts, they plainly perceived that there was no course left for them either by duty to the Slaves or a due regard for their own rights, but to renounce and repudiate them both, and to demand the immediate dissolution of the one and abrogation of the other. This revolutionary policy they adopt in virtue of the inherent right 002930recognized in the Declaration of Independence, of all men to take such measures as they judge best, for a change in the form of their government, whenever it becomes intolerably oppressive or ceases to answer the end for which it was established. The Constitution of the United States exists but by virtue of the will and pleasure of the people of the same. As soon as that will and pleasure is changed, the outward manifestation will undergo a corresponding alteration. A forcible revolution is impracticable if the people are not ready to carry its objects into effect, and unnecessary if they arc. The war which the American Anti-Slavery Society wages with the Government of the country is carried on in the invisible fields of thought, in the unseen regions of the mind, and is urged by the dint of the trenchant sword of the spirit. Though they by no means unanimously renounce the arm of flesh as a proper instrument for the vindication of rights, still, they feel with one accord that this is a case in which it is impossible that recourse can ever be had to arms. They exercise their natural right of representing to the people, in whom the sovereign power resides, the wicked, oppressive and tyrannical nature of the Government they have established, and calling upon them for the sake of humanity, of their own interest and honor, forthwith to exchange it for a plan more worthy of the name of a Republic. When the people are ready to move in this matter they will do so, and any resort to arms would be ridiculous as long as the body of the nation is content with the present state of things, and plainly unnecessary when it is determined upon a change.

The present policy of the American Anti-Slavery Society is, therefore, to institute and promote a peaceful but vigorous agitation for the Dissolution of the existing political Union which binds the Slave and the Free in one intolerable chain. It sets forth before the people their guilty participation in the System which reduces one-sixth of their countrymen to the 003031condition of the breasts that perish, and shows them the punishment which Divine Justice has bidden to tread close upon the heels of their crime. It demonstrates to them, form the eternal laws of mind and of political economy, as well as from the past history of mankind, that there is no true peace of mind or genuine prosperity to be obtained, excepting by ceasing to do the wickedness which has placed themselves, as well as the Slaves, at the irresponsible disposal of the Slave-masters. The Abolitionists who accept this policy, believe that the voice of remonstrance will at length penetrate the unwilling ears of the people and reach their hearts. They think that they perceive on all sides pregnant signs of a weakening allegiance and a lessening love for the Union. They trust that the day is not remote when the people of the North will refuse to be the volunteer police of the Slaveholders, receiving political vassalage as the just wages of their service. But whether this will be the result of their labors or not, they feel that this is the only course by which they can free themselves from their share of the National guilt. They believe that the disinterested, unselfish attitude in which they stand before the world will commend the views which have led them to adopt it to the attention of the American people far more forcibly and more speedily than any course which a narrower expediency might suggest. But whether they are right or mistaken in this view of the case, it makes no difference in demands of duty upon themselves. They feel that duty to the Slave, good faith to the Slaveholder, a due regard for the best interests of the country and a just respect for their own personal and political rights, require of them to denounce the existing Union and the present Constitution as hostile to human liberty and at war with the highest interest of the white as well as of the black man; to renounce all voluntary connexion with either; and to proclaim as the motto upon their banners and the watchword 003132of their warfare,-- NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS!

While this policy is adopted by the American Anti-Slavery Society, as that which expresses the sense of the majority as to their duties towards the existing Government of the Country, there is a minority respectable for its character and numbers, which dissents from it, and is of opinion that it can still act under the Constitution consistently with Anti-Slavery duty. These friends of the Slave stand upon the platform of the American Society on a perfect equality with the majority. They are not excluded from membership or from cooperation, as far as they feel free to cooperate, by the action of the majority. They are at perfect liberty to controvert, and if possible to overthrow the new positions of the majority. In this case, as in many passages in our history, the members of the Society agree to differ as to the true Anti-Slavery policy; to bear on the one side and on the other with the expressions of opinions, which seem to imply censure on those who do not hold them; and to prove by a strenuous application to life of the principles they entertain, in a spirit of mutual kindness and forbearance, the sincerity of their devotion to their common cause.

A change was made in the Constitution of the Society by which the majority of members of the Executive Committee might be chosen from any part of the country, and the business of the Society transacted where the majority resided, instead of being confined to New York. The majority of the Committee was then elected of persons resident in Boston, by whom the affairs of the Society have been since conducted.

NEW ENGLAND CONVENTION

The New England Convention of 1814 was held in the Marlboro' Chapel, Boston, on May 28th, and remained in session till Friday night. This most important and interesting assembly of the Abolitionists of New England and of the 003233country was never so fully and so enthusiastically attended. They have regularly increased in interest and importance ever since they were first instituted; and the last Convention certainly surpassed all its predecessors in the multitudinous attendance, in the vital importance of the topics considered and in the ability of the discussions which characterised it. The question of the duty and policy of the Dissolution of the existing Union being made by Abolitionists a main measure of their agitation, which had occupied the attention of the American Society, was that which absorbed the minds and engrossed the time of the Convention. It was discussed at great length and with consummate ability for more than three days. On the last day of the Convention the question was taken by yeas and nays, and decided in the affirmative by a vote of two hundred and fifty to twenty-four. So the Abolitionists of New England, at their annual gathering, consented to the new position of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and adopted as their own its new motto--"NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS!"

The position of the American Church towards the Anti-Slavery Enterprise was not overlooked, although the State claimed, at that particular juncture, the chief of the time and attention of the Convention. The ecclesiastical action, or inaction, in the matter of Slavery, was tried by the tests of the Church itself, and where it was found to be wanting, its inconsistency and guilt were plainly pointed out and severely condemned. The Abolitionists reaffirmed at this meeting the opinions which they had often expressed in former times.

One evening was devoted to the presentation of a splendid banner, given by Mr. Josiah Walcot of Boston, on the part of the Convention, to the American Anti-Slavery Society. It was presented by Mr. Charles C. Burleigh and received by Mr. Garrison, as President of the Society, with eloquent and appropriate addresses. The evening went off with the greatest enthusiasm, 003334and especially all passages in the address expressive of the duty of an entire and immediate seperation--political and ecclesiastical--from Slavery and Slaveholders, were received with shouts of approbation. All the Sessions of the Convention, indeed, were marked by a thoughtful zeal and a considerate resolution, expressed in temperate but eloquent utterance, which will long make the Convention of 1844 a memorable point in the Anti-Slavery lives of those who had the good fortune to attend it.

THE FIRST OF AUGUST.

The illustrious Anniversary of West Indian Emancipation was celebrated in this State with even unusual demonstrations of festivity and temperate joy. The members and friends of this Society and the public generally were invited to meet at Hingham to solemnize the great day. The celebration took place on the Second of August, in consequence of the inclemency of the First, but it lost nothing of its interest or its prosperity by the delay. Everything was propitious to success of the occasion. A large number was assembled than had perhaps ever before met together an any Anti-Slavery occasion. The population of the neighboring towns poured itself upon Hingham in numbers unsurpassed even by the gatherings of political parties. The town wore a holiday aspect. The streets were decorated with flags and appropriate mottoes. The bells were rung. It was a day of general rejoicing. When the Steamboat that conveyed the friends from Boston and the counties of Essex and Middlesex, arrived, a procession was founded and proceeded, "an army with banners," under the direction of Mr. Jairus Lincoln and his aids to Tranquillity Grove , a spot which seemed formed by the hand of Nature for such a meeting. Mr. GARRISON took the chair with some appropriate remarks. The meeting was soon adjourned to give place to the collation, which was furnished by general contribution, but most tastefully and elegantly disposed by the ladies of Hingham. In the afternoon the services were resumed 003435and address were made by Messrs. Quincy, Pierpont, Douglass, J. F. Clarke, W. A. White, Howe, Russell, Clapp, Sprague and Johnson. The company remained together until the approach of evening compelled a reluctant dispersion. It was a day that will be long remembered for its social enjoyment and its inspiriting associations.

The day was also duly celebrated in Boston by the colored citizens. They went in procession with appropriate banners to the Tremont Chapel, where they listened to able and pertinent addresses from Messrs. Roberts and Smith. In the evening a soiree was held in the Infant School Room, where an elegant collation was served and the hours pleasantly and profitably filled up by speech and song.

At Concord a meeting was held in the Court House, as no Meeting House could be obtained for the occasion, where an address of singular beauty and eloquence was delivered to a numerous audience by Ralph Waldo Emerson. An entertainment was provided, after which addresses were made by Messrs. W. A. White, S. J. May, Douglass, Cyrus Pierce and others. These two celebrations having been held on the First, notwithstanding the weather, the friends who had attended them were able to join in the festivities at Hingham.

The day was also duly kept at New Bedford and doubtless at many other places. It is an anniversary which is fast taking the place of the Fourth of July in the hearts of the true lovers of Liberty. May it continue to commend itself more and more to their hearts until they can supersede it by a more glorious anniversary of their own--a true Declaration of Independence,--which will proclaim Liberty to all the inhabitants of the Land!

RECENT ANTI-SLAVERY OPERATIONS.

Since the last Anniversary of the American Society, the corps of Anti-Slavery agents have been chiefly employed by the National 003536Committee. In this State, though there has been no regular system of action since the completion of the Hundred Conventions, in consequence of the withdrawal of the agents to other fields, still there has been no lack of wholesome agitation. The meetings of the County Societies, Special Conventions in many places, lectures and addresses in many more, have evinced a continued and lively interest in the cause. Under the auspices of the American Committee, the same devoted friends to whom the success of the Massachusetts Conventions was due, have been speaking the word of Anti-Slavery truth in various parts of the country. In New Hampshire a greater amount of effort was expended, and with good effect, than had been laid out for many years. Abby Kelly, Frederic Douglass, Elizabeth J. Hitchcock, Stephen S. Foster, Charles L. Remond and John M. Spear, labored assiduously in that field for several weeks and held more than a hundred Conventions and meetings. A part of the same force was sent, for a time, into Maine, but for want of sufficient concert of action on the part of the friends in that State, the effort to create an extensive agitation was not so generally successful as we could have desired. Several of them are now engaged in a series of Conventions in Eastern Pennyslvania. We doubt whether, on the whole, a greater amount of beneficial effort has been put forth in any preceding year of the enterprise. The readiness with which funds have been contributed both to the treasuries of the Massachusetts and the American Societies, for the purpose of carrying on the agitation which is the life of the movement, and the economy both of time and money which have characterized their operations, furnish new proofs, were any needed, of the advantage and the necessity of organized and methodical action for the practical advancement of the cause.

LETTER OF FRANCIS JACKSON.

Early in the summer a practical illustration of fidelity to the principles of public duty which had been pronounced by the 003637Abolitionists at the New York Anniversary and at the New England Convention, was exhibited by FRANCIS JACKSON in a letter to the Governor of Massachusetts, resigning his commission as a Justice of the Peace. This letter was fittingly dated on the Fourth of July. He laid down his office because it could only be held by virtue of an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. That Constitution requires of those who acknowledge its authority the performance of certain acts,--such as the restitution of fugitive slaves and the suppression of servile revolution,--which as an Abolitionist and a man of humanity he could not do, and which as an honest man he could not promise to do, with the design of breaking his oath when the duty was required of him. Mr. Jackson laid down his office and renounced the oath which he had taken upon himself to support the Constitution. His letter contains a calm, but clear and able exposition of the reasons which made this course the only one he could honestly pursue. He analyzed the Constitution and showed what were its compromises, the unworthy services which they demanded of the North, and the political servitude to the Slave Power with which it had been visited in consequence of its consenting to them. "That part of the Constitution," said Mr. Jackson, "which provides for the surrender of fugitive Slaves, I never have supported and never will. I will join in no slave hunt. My door shall stand open, as it has long stood, to the panting and trembling victim of the Slavehunter. When I shut it against him may God shut the door of his mercy against me!" After recapitulating the particulars of the requirements of the Constitution, their history and their practical results, Mr. Jackson expressed his belief that giving all due consideration to the benefits which the Constitution had conferred upon the nation, still the moral injury which it had inflicted more than outweighed it all. He thus concluded his letter: "The Constitution of the United States, both in theory and practice, is so utterly broken down by the influence and effects of Slavery, so imbecile for the highest good of the nation, and so 003738powerful or evil, that I can give no voluntary assistance in holding it up any longer. Henceforth it is dead to me, and I to it. I withdraw all profession of allegiance to it, and all my voluntary efforts to sustain it. The burdens that it lays upon me, while it is held up by others, I shall endeavor to bear patiently, yet acting with reference to a higher law, and distinctly declaring that while I retain my own liberty, I will be a party to no compact which helps to rob any other man of his."

This letter, coming as it did from no hot-brained enthusiast, but from a man long known and valued for his practical good sense and talent for the world's business, attracted a wide attention and produced a deep impression. It was as well timed as it was well executed, and embodied the present views of the Abolitionists in a tangible and intelligible shape. It was subsequently published in a pamphlet form and has been widely disseminated, which we hope is but the beginning of its circulation. It is gratifying to know that the same reasons have induced as Abolitionist in a remote part of the Union to take precisely the same step within a short time. Samuel B. Skelly, of Indiana, has transmitted his resignation of the office of Justice of the Peace on the same grounds as Mr. Jackson, with some additional reasons drawn from the laws of the State itself besides, in a long and well reasoned letter. Such acts as these prove the men who do them to be in earnest. No imputation of a willingness to make their Abolitionism a stepping-stone to power and place can be laid to their charge. A single such instance of renunciation of official station for the Slave's and for conscience's sake outweighs in true influence that of all the ballots that ever helped to prop up the Slaveholding Constitution under the pretence of elevating Abolitionists to its places of power and profit. We trust that we shall see many more such examples of clear-sighted and earnest devotion to principle, as auguries at once and proofs of 003839the progress of true political morality and of the genuine spirit of liberty in the land.

THE CASES OF WALKER, TORREY AND OTHERS.

The Anti-Slavery Cause has had this year help, which it would have willingly dispensed with, in the punishment of Northern citizens in Southern States for the crime of assisting in the escape of Slaves. Other names are now added to those of Burr, Work and Thompson who have now been confined for several years as a penalty for the same act of simple humanity. Early in the year the news arrived that Captain Jonathan Walker, a native of Massachusetts, had been captured and carried into Pensacola, for having several Slaves on board his vessel for the purpose of escape. Not long afterwards we heard that Mr. Charles T. Torrey, also a native of Massachusetts, was arrested in Baltimore charged with the same offence. A strong feeling of sympathy was excited in behalf of these sufferers, public meetings were held in various places, and large sums contributed to afford them all facilities of legal assistance. Notwithstanding all that could be done they were both convicted. Captain Walker was sentenced to be branded, to stand in the pillory, to be imprisoned for fifteen days and to pay a fine to the State. At the last advices he was still in prison, either from inability to pay his fine, or to await the issue of several civil suits which had been brought against him by the masters of the Slaves. Mr. Torrey was sentenced on three indictments, in all, to somewhat more than six years imprisonment in the Penitentiary, where he is at this time confined.

Later still two individuals, the Rev. Calvin Fairbank and Miss Delia A. Webster have been arrested in Kentucky on the same charge. Miss Webster, who is a native of Vermont and was residing as a teacher in Kentucky, has been tried, and 003940although she emphatically disclaimed being an Abolitionist, convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment in the Penitentiary. The trial of Mr. Fairbank has been postponed.

The indifference with which these outrages upon humanity and common sense have been received by the mass of the Northern people is a new proof of the deadening effect of Slavery upon the hearts and consciences of all who consent to be partakers in anywise in it. The political, and even more the religious, press has had no voice of remonstrance to uplift against these enormities. Indeed, there were not a few found to justify and excuse them. These are but the natural result of the system which the North suffers to endure, and, perhaps, it is well for her to make light to them, that she may conceal from herself her own greater guilt. But it is only through tribulation such as this,--only by the branding, pillorying, scourging, imprisoning and murdering of her own sons and daughters,--that she can come to feel the true character and necessary consequences of the system she sustains by her physical force and moral and religious influence. Deeply as we commisserate the underserved sufferings of the victims of this tyranny, we cannot but perceive the good that will yet flow from these cruelties, and from multitudes like unto them, yet in store for the punishment of the servile North.

AGENCY OF MR. HOAR.

Very lately, too, the Slave Power has exhibited a new proof of its determination to suffer no interference with its details, by any authority or under any pretence whatever, which may well revive the old fires of the Revolution, if their very ashes have not become cold as death. Governor Briggs, in pursuance of resolves passed two years since, appointed the Hon. Samuel Hoar, of Concord, a gentleman uniting in his person the advantages of long experience at the bar and in the councils 004041of the State and the Nation, to the post of Agent at Charleston, South Carolina, for the purpose of collecting facts relative to the imprisonment of citizens of Massachusetts, without allegation of crime; and also of bringing and prosecuting one or more suits at the expense of the State, for the purpose of having the legality of such imprisonment tried and determined in the Supreme Court of the United States. This would seem to be, at the first glance, an innocent errand enough, and one unacquainted with the niceties of our institutions might be puzzled to know how it could excite the commotion which its announcement caused. But they who knew that the citizens in question were colored citizens, and that the chivalrous State of South Carolina did not dare to have a black cook or steward, if free, go at large in her capital, were not surprised that she should be frighted from her propriety by the appearance of a white gentleman, respectable for years and character, as the advocate of those negroes rights. The decree which dooms every tyrant to be a coward, had found no exception in the citizens of the Nullifying State. A panic seemed to pervade the whole population at the advent of an elderly gentleman, employed as an envoy from a Sovereign State to maintain the rights of her own citizens in another Sovereignty. Mr. Hoar on his arrival, informed the Governor of the State of his mission and intentions, which were forthwith communicated to the Legislature which was fortunately for the public safety, then in session. The intelligence excited a sensation such as might have been justified by the descent of a black army from Haiti. Angry and violent resolutions were hastily passed, and the Governor requested to procure the removal of the dangerous visitor from the confines of the State. In Charleston the tumult was not less. The personal acquaintances of Mr. Hoar Entreated him to fly from the popular fury. The Sheriff united his entreaties to theirs. He, however, declined deserting his post until he had endeavored 004142to discharge its duties. At one time there seemed to be imminent peril of a popular outbreak. But this danger passed away. Mr. Hoar had the advantage of being able to disclaim the character of an Abolitionist, and to confirm his statement by the fact of his belonging to the Colonization Society. This removed all personal prejudice against him, and with it, probably, his personal danger. It was determined, however, that the State should be freed from the presence of this troubler of its peace, if practicable. A number of gentlemen waited upon Mr. Hoar and intimated to him that it was useless for him to remain. Mr. Hoar believed that the time had come when he would be removed by force from the City, if he did not go voluntarily. He, accordingly, yielded to what he conceived to be the necessity of his situation and took his departure. It is to be regretted, that Mr. Hoar did not at least remain until the intentions of his visitors were put beyond question, by some overt act. It was not necessary that he should have been dragged through the streets, but that it should have been made clear that the purpose of his forcible removal was fixed and inevitable. It does not appear from his own statement that it was so, though he doubtless believed that it was; and as the matter stands, the Charleston party have a color, at least, for their statement that he left without violence, and of his own accord. Could he have abided his official removal by the constituted authorities of the State, the issue presented to the country and the world would have been much more satisfactory and instructive.

But be this as it may, there is no doubt that he would not have been permitted to execute his proper and lawful business. It is certain that in one way or another he would have been denied the benefit of that clause of the Constitution which secures the rights of citizenship in every State to the inhabitants of every other. The Constitution of the United States has been abrogated by South 004243Carolina, not only in the persons of the humble natives of Massachusetts who go down upon the waters in our coasting vessels, but in that of a citizen whom Massachusetts delights to honor. Her resolutions appointing him her representative to see to the rights of the most feeble and defenceless of her inhabitants, are thrust back in her face with contumely. He and she have received the treatment of a Slave. And what will she do? What can she do? Her Governor and Legislature have just solemnly sworn to support the Constitution of the United States. His Excellency in an especial manner takes occasion to express his profound reverence and entire allegiance to it. Shall she fit out an armament, officered by merchants and lawyers and manned by ploughmen and artisans, against Charleston, as she did a century ago against Louisburgh? Oh, no! That would be a violation of the Constitution! Shall she pass retaliatory laws and subject every citizen of South Carolina, coming into Massachusetts, to the treatment she administers to our colored seamen? No, indeed! The Constitution would forbid any such measures! Shall she seize upon any South Carolinian whom she may find within her limits, and expel him as an offset to the treatment Mr. HOAR has received? Alas, that, too, would be an infringement of the Glorious Constitution! Men say, and say truly, because South Carolina does a wrong shall we do one too? Because she breaks her oath, shall we perjure ourselves? And so nothing remains for poor insulted Massachusetts but to pass preambles and resolutions, which Carolina regards as so much idle wind. There is nothing for Massachusetts to do, as long as she consents to the existence of the present Union, but to submit to the insults and injuries which it entails upon her. She has tied her own hands and must consent to take the blows which her companion who assumes the privilege of releasing his own arms from the common bonds at his pleasure, chooses to inflict. Her ignominious position is the just fruit of her long participation in the Slave System. The Slaveholder understood the Constitution to be 004344established for the perpetuation and protection of Slavery, and he construes it and treats it accordingly. The Northern man knows that this is so and he is disarmed by the very consciousness of the truth. There is but one remedy and that is to refuse to be any longer bound by the green withes of the Constitution. To declare her independence anew. To refuse to take the oath to support the bloody compact upon her lips. To abrogate the Constitution. To dissolve the Union. To proclaim No Union With Slaveholders. Then, released from the trammels of a compact of which all the concessions are on the side of Liberty, and every practical advantage secured to Slavery, she may take such measures for the security of her citizens, the maintenance of her dignity and the preservation of her honor, as in her wisdom she may judge best;--and not till then.

News is just arrived that Henry Hubbard, Esq., the agent to New Orleans, has left that City, without accomplishing his mission. The particulars are not yet known; but, of course, can only add fresh confirmation of the resolute purpose of the Slaveholders to make Slavery, and Slavery alone, the Alpha and the Omega of the Constitution of the United States.

THE POLITICAL PARTIES.

The Election which had appointed the Chief Ruler of the country for the next four years, and the events which preceded and attended it, will fill an instructive page in the history of the Republic. Thy furnish renewed and eloquent proofs of the supremacy of the Slave Power in the direction of the affairs of the nation, enough to open any eyes not sealed in a judicial blindness. Both parties bowed down reverently before it and accepted their nominations at its hands. No candidate was thought duly qualified for the suffrages of the people upon whom Slavery had not set her seal of approval. The result was full of instruction.

004445

The Whigs came together in the beginning of May, in Convention at Baltimore to make their formal selection of President and their real choice of Vice-President. Mr. Clay had left them no alternative with regard to his nomination. Instructed by the result of the Harrisburgh Convention, and by the preference of General Harrison to himself, in 1840, he chose not to leave his elevation again to any such dubious contingency. He accordingly retired from the Senate in the winter of 1842, with the sufficient intimation that he intended to be a candidate for the Presidency, with the general consent of the party if they chose to accord it, but at any rate to be a candidate. The acclamation with which his name had been hailed by the sons of Puritan Massachusetts, in the cradle of Liberty, and his nomination by the Legislature of his own State of Kentucky, seemed to be a sufficient guarantee of such a Union of the Piety of the North and of the Man-stealing of the South, as would crown his hopes with success. At all events, such was his course, and the Whigs had to choose between a division of their party and the adoption of his nomination.

It is very doubtful whether Mr. Clay would have been the choice of a free and unembarrassed Convention.

Mr. Clay was accordingly unanimously declared the Candidate of the Whigs. Then came the more doubtful question of the Vice-Presidency. New England thought that she was entitled to a selection from among her sons. Massachusetts hoped that the choice might fall on a distinguished citizen of her own. But much as the Whig Party, and especially Mr. Clay owed to her, she had committed offences which will never be pardoned by the Slave Power. If she had forgotten Latimer the South had not. If was all in vain. All that could be conceded was that the candidate for the Vice-Presidency should have been born North of Mason's and Dixon's line. The selection was wisely made. It fell upon a citizen of a State well known in all Southern markets for the resounding excellence of its Slave-whips; a State in which Slavery still 004546lingers in all the dying glories of gradualism. The candidate combined many recommendations. He had recently been, if he were not still, a Slaveholder; he was a pillar of the Colonization Society; he was a hater of the Abolitionists; and the Northern Church, "the Bulwark of American Slavery," counted him among the holiest and most precious of her jewels. The selections were such as, it seemed, would commend themselves to the various tastes of publicans and of pharisees, of Slaveholders and of church members, and the Convention went its way well content with its results.

The doings of the Democratic Convention, which assembled in the same city, a short time afterwards, evinced at least an equally devout allegiance to the supreme power of the land. The majority of the Convention came up to it pledged to the nomination of Mr. Van Buren. But Mr. Van Buren had done that just before, which cancelled all the merit he had gained by his homage to the Slave Power on the day of his inauguration. He had written a letter in which he expressed his opposition to the Annexation of Texas, under existing circumstances. Though there was nothing in this letter, any more than in that of Mr. Clay on the same subject, which committed him against its early annexation under circumstances which might be soon created; still the jealous South saw in it a disposition to conciliate the North and an unwillingness to yield to her that entire and unqualified submission which she ever demands as the price of her favor. Accordingly this Democratic Convention was induced to adopt a rule requiring a concurrence of two-thirds for the nomination of a candidate? The friends of Mr. Van Buren having been thus outwitted, the game was entirely in the hands of the Southern parties to it. After many attempts to procure the requisite vote made in the midst of tumult and riot, as disgraceful as they were characteristic of the parties concerned, which attempts were of course in vain, the governing minority carried their point by compelling their Northern allies to drop their candidate and unite with them upon one of their own choice, 004647--Mr. Polk, of Tennessee,--of whom little was known excepting that he was a fanatical Slaveholder and a pledged advocate of Immediate Annexation! The Slaveholders having thus summarily carried their point as to the chief candidate, the humble North looked wistfully at the second office as one, the disposal of which might be given to her as the reward of her submission and fealty. Several of the New England States had ventured to indicate some of their own citizens as suitable to fill that high station. But the wary South knew too well that they were not to be trusted with the possible reversion of the Presidency. Accordingly she fixed upon a citizen of the Keystone State,--the State which locks together the incongruous elements of the national arch,--an inhabitant of that proud city which had more than once illuminated its streets, in her honor, with the festal blazes of Pro-Slavery conflagration. Thus the Democratic party consented to sacrifice their cardinal principle, the right of the majority to govern, and were bullied or cajoled into yielding their favorite candidate in favor of a man of whom they had never thought and scarcely heard, because he was the choice of their Southern Masters!

The preliminaries being thus arranged, the campaign opened in good earnest. During the months that intervened between the nominations and the election, the country was shaken with the tread of mass-meetings, the cities were lighted up with the glare of torchlight processions, the press covered the land with its myriad leaves, and the voice of eloquence and of song was heard without ceasing, and all to persuade the people that this or the other Slaveholder was most deserving of the suffrages of freemen. The point of greatest interest in this contest was that of the Annexation of Texas. The Whigs and the Democrats both set their fate upon that cast, and impatiently abided the hazard of the die. Mr. Clay having declared himself opposed to the Immediate Annexation, under existing circumstances, the Whigs somewhat gratuitously assumed that he was opposed 004748to it under all practicable circumstances, and staked their successes on the strength of the Anti-Annexation spirit of the people. The Democrats, on the other hand, had the advantage or disadvantage of the open and unqualified committal of himself by Mr. Polk in favor of Immediate Annexation. Although the Northern Democracy was by no means unanimous in favor of this measure for the security and perpetuation of Slavery, still they deemed the triumph of the party and the consequent changes of measures and of men to more than outweigh the dangers of the confirmed preponderance of the Slave Power to themselves and the added miseries of its immediate victims. The battle was fought upon this issue, and it cannot be denied that it was won by the hosts Slavery. However hollow the professions of the Northern Whigs may have been on this subject, they at least avowed a determination that Texas should not be annexed. However strong the antipathy of many Democrats may have been to the Annexation, they did at least accepts its avowed Champion as their candidate, and with him the policy of which he was the representative.

Though the past history of the country would not authorize us to believe that the Whig Party, if it had been successful, would have been able to resist the Annexation of Texas, had it been resolutely insisted upon by the Slave Power, especially as their candidate had not expressed any determination or even wish for its final rejection; still the election of Mr. Polk, its avowed and uncompromising advocate, by a majority of the people, evinces a degree of callous indifference or of profligate corruption on the part of the nation, that must awaken the most melancholy forebodings in the breast of all who have looked upon it as the pioneer of the world's deliverance, the first fruits of the redemption of the race from tyranny and wrong. It is but too plain that the mass of the people have no compassion for the woes of the Slave, and but a slight sensibility to their own political 004849serfdom.

A great work yet remains to be done in restoring some degree of healthful animation to the palsied heart of the people, and in pouring the light of truth upon their blinded eyes. We have reason to be encouraged in our task, hopeless as it may seem, when we remember how great a change has been wrought in the public sentiment, since the Annexation was first proposed some seven years since. Then scarce a voice could be heard uplifted against the deed, excepting those of committed Abolitionists. Now we have multitudes who disclaim our companionship, who are resolute in their hostility to this iniquity. Whether Texas be annexed or not, the facility for reaching the general mind by Anti-Slavery facts and arguments is greatly increased. By a faithful devotion to our duty we may yet, if not avert the national calamity, at least extract from it a medicine that may be for the healing of the nation.

THE THIRD PARTY.

There has been nothing in the history of the Third Party during the past year, and particularly during the presidential conflict, to alter the opinion we have again and again expressed either as to the policy of a distinct Anti-Slavery Party, or as to the character of that which has assumed to itself the name of "Liberty." Having for its leaders the same men who betrayed and despoiled and endeavored to destroy the Anti-Slavery Enterprise, its course has been still marked by the selfishness, unscrupulousness and duplicity which characterised its inception. Its presidential campaign was a decided failure. With all the advantage of having Slaveholders for both the opposing candidates, it still scarcely gained at all, if at all, upon its vote of the preceding year; while both of the other parties added to their numbers of by thousands. It is to be hoped that the many good and true Abolitionists who have been misled into mistaking a scheme for distracting the awakening attention of the people from the Church to the far less guilty State,004950and for giving bread and notoriety to a few unprincipled adventurers, for a sound Anti-Slavery policy, will soon perceive and abandon their error. A third party, of any kind, in a land of majorities, is an absurdity in terms. An Anti-Slavery third party, to the folly of attempting to accomplish with the few what can only be done by the many, and the consequent waste of time, means and energy, in a struggle which must of necessity be fruitless, adds the mischief of degrading an enterprise which should be lofty and unselfish into a scramble for the loaves and fishes of office, and impeding the progress of the only policy that can permanently affect political action,--that which aims at their conversion from the delusions of Pro-Slavery to the true faith of Universal Liberty. The evils that must wait upon such a scheme, even if conducted in the most unexceptionable manner and by honorable and upright men, would far outweigh any apparent incidental benefits. Perhaps it was fortunate that the first attempt to organise an Anti-Slavery political party has been of a nature, and has been conducted in a manner little likely to recommend its example to future imitation.

THE CHURCH.

The length to which this Report has already extended owing to the prominence which political topics have happened to assume this year, must prevent any very extensive review of the Church Action during the same period of time. The Church, as a body, including the great mass of the sects of all names and denominations, still continues to deserve the name bestowed on it by James G. Birney, of the "Bulwark of American Slavery." The great majority of pulpits are dumb, in the presence of these millions of Heathen before their eyes. The cry of the Slave, of the voice of his friends, but rarely disturb the slumber of the congregations. The manstealing priest is still invited to break unto the people the bread of life, with his blood-stained hands, in multitudes of Churches calling themselves Christian. Few, very few,--so few, that they 005051can scarcely be perceived,-are those who have entirely and effectually separated themselves from all Slaveholding and Pro-Slavery fellowship. The action which has sometimes been attempted or taken in associations of ministers and in individual churches, of an Anti-Slavery nature, has been but too often proved by the subsequent conduct of them who took it, to be but intended to quiet troublesome Abolitionist, instead of the spontaneous expression of the genuine humanity of religion.

Upon the Anti-Slavery platform we entertain no discussions as to men's creeds or customs. We only ask all men to give the Slave the benefit of both. We leave all men free to decide as to the nature and origin of their religious, as of their civil, character and functions. All we demand of them is that they use them for the overthrow of Slavery, as well as for the destruction of any other political mischief or moral evil. If the Presbytery, the Association, the Convention, the Conference, the Church will but treat Slavery and Slaveholders as they treat the sins, and those who commit them, of which it is the sum, it is all that we have a right to ask. We do not impeach them with folly or with heresy for the doctrine or the discipline they maintain. We merely denounce their inconsistency and hypocrisy if they refuse to apply the one or to inflict the other impartially upon Slaveholding and its abettors as well as upon minor sins and smaller sinners. We have no standard, political or religious, by which to measure men. We only claim the privilege of judging whether or not they agree with the standard they have themselves set up. We ask every man professing to be an Abolitionist, to give us all he for the help of the Slave. We may not ask for less; we cannot ask for more If he comply with one demand we are content, whatever may be our private opinions as to the origin or the character of the powers and gifts he puts into the treasury. We take every man, Christian and infidel, Statesman and Non-Resistant, Churchman and Comeouter, at his own account of himself, and if he be out faithful to 005152his own highest idea of duty we have no quarrel with him, however widely it may differ from our own. We need the aid of every man, and cannot delay in our warfare to settle the truth or the falsehood of the religious, any more than of the political, dogmas which any of our fellow soldiers entertain on any other subject than Slavery.

Perhaps the most marked event in the Church History of the past year, was the action of the Methodist Episcopal Conference held at New York, in the Spring. The fact of a Bishop--the Rev. John O. Andrew, D. D., of Georgia--having become a Slaveholder, was brought up for consideration and decision. The question gave rise to a long and very excited debate. The discussion lasted for many days. It is observable that the person bringing forward the charge, and those most warmly sustaining it, were from the Baltimore Conference. The tone of the Southern clergymen in general, was in the true pitch given by the Slaveholding politicians to such discussion. At last the question was taken on the question whether Bishop Andrew should be requested to refrain from the exercise of his episcopal functions, which prevailed by a vote of one hundred and ten to sixty-eight. This seemed to be a triumph of Anti-Slavery truth. But the next day, on application of the Bishops to know the extent to which Bishop Andrew's sentence was to affect his rank, reverence and rights, the Conference resolved that their action affected neither of the three. That he still remained a Bishop, was to receive the support of a Bishop, and if he pleased to exercise the functions of a Bishop! This vote prevailed by one hundred and fifty-two to eighteen.

Notwithstanding this most lame and impotent conclusion to an affair that had occupied so much time, and had apparently been brought to so reasonable a conclusion, it had the effect of deeply exasperating the southern portion of the Church. They looked upon it, and with reason, as ominous of more serious inquisition into the doings of Slaveholding Wesleyans, and as a symptom of a 005253dangerous and growing spirit of disloyalty to Slavery in the North. Multitudes of meetings were held, of local Conference, and Churches, to denounce the action of the General Conference, and to express their sympathy and admiration for their persecuted Father in God. Propositions have been made, and apparently seriously entertained, for a division of the Church at Mason's and Dixon's line. It is to hoped that these threats will be carried into execution. If the Southern church would but dissolve its Glorious Union with the separation of the political ties that bind Liberty to Slavery.

DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT IN THE CASE OF LUCAS.

In October, 1844, Robert Lucas, a colored man, was brought before Chief Justice Shaw, on Habeas Corpus. It appeared that the purser of the frigate United States, by special leave of the Secretary of the Navy, took Lucas, his Slave, on board that ship in the port of Norfolk, Va. The Slave was never regularly enlisted, but was entered on the muster-roll as a landsman, and his master drew his wages. The frigate, after cruising in the Pacific, was ordered into Charlestown, Massachusetts, where this case arose.

The Court ruled that there was no law in Massachusetts, to authorize the restraint of Lucas.

That under the Statute of the United States of 1837, Slaves cannot be enlisted in the naval service. Enlistment is a cotract--Slaves can make no contract.

That in a State where Slavery is permitted, the United States may make a contract for the employment of a Slave, which will be binding in that State, but cannot be enforced in a State where slavery does not exist.

That where the master of a Slave places him on board of a United States vessel, and the vessel comes into the port of a free State, the Slave cannot be restrained of his liberty. Whether, if a 005354vessel conveying Slaves from one Slave State to another should be cast away on the coast of a free State, the Slaves would become free, being a point not raised by the case in hand, the Court left undecided.

ANTI-SLAVERY FAIRS.

The regular advance made by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair is no insignificant sign of the progress of Anti-Slavery truth in the general mind. From small beginnings, it has grown to be one of the most efficient of instrumentalities. Its effects are but very imperfectly measured by the pecuniary result. The wide diffusion of active interest and cooperation over the State, make the preparation for it a continual Anti-Slavery agitation. It keeps the Slaves constantly in mind by the strong association of benevolent effort on their behalf. It serves, too, as a friendly chain of connection and communication between the American Abolitionists and those of the British Islands. And its effect upon the public sentiment of Boston has been most perceptible and beneficent. The last Fair surpassed all that went before it, in the quantity, beauty and value of its stores, and also in the amount of its receipts. And this in spite of inclemency of weather and a variety of untoward circumstances. A most happy and encouraging result.

Fairs have also been held, for the funds of the Massachusetts Society at Milford, Weymouth and other places, with great success. Others are now in contemplation, what will increase the amount, thus contributed by the women of Massachusetts, beyond the experience of any former year. Such success, in such a cause, must needs stimulate to renewed exertions in years to come.

THE ANTI-SLAVERY PRESS.

The Liberator still holds its fearless and uncompromising position in the forefront of the Anti-Slavery battle. It still remains what it was at the outset of the enterprise,--the pioneer paper. 005455Its hold upon the love and admiration of all true Abolitionists seems to become the stronger by trial and struggle. The Herald of Freedom editor, the raciness of whose wit and the originality of whose style, gave a piquancy and relish to the paper which was all its own. In consequence of ill health, and of an unfortunate difference of opinion with the New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Board, as to the property and printing of the paper, Mr. Rogers retired from the editorial chair. We earnestly hoped that these circumstances may produce but a temporary suspension of his valuable services, and that he may soon resume his post as editor of the Herald of Freedom.

It has been entrusted by the Board to the care of Parker Pillsbury, whose editorial conduct, as well as his whole Anti-Slavery career, gives assurance that the important trust could not be committed to more faithful or able hands. The National Anti-Slavery Standard, soon after the Annual Meeting of the American Society, was entrusted to a Committee consisting of Sydney Howard Gay, Maria Weston Chapman, and Edmund Quincy. Mr. Gay has been the resident and the efficient editor of the paper, and has evinced a degree of talent and tact in its management, worthy of veteran editor. The Pennsylvania Freeman, the organ of the Eastern Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, is a fearless and uncompromising advocate of the highest Anti-Slavery truth. It maintains the principles and accepts the measures of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The experience and talent of James Miller Mckim, and of Charles C. Burleigh, give interest and value to the columns of the Freeman, and we are happy to learn, moreover, that it is to have the temporary assistance, at least, of the brilliant pen of James Russell Lowell.

All these papers we would again commend to the continued friendship and support of Abolitionists, believing that there is no more effectual or economical method of expending Anti-Slavery 005556funds than in sustaining an efficient Anti-Slavery Press. Many other papers, we are happy to know, are devoting portions of their columns to the discussion of subjections connected with Slavery. The avenues are multiplying by which truth can reach the public ear. It is the more important that those which are especially devoted to the Reform, and which must in a great measure give tone to the general Anti-Slavery feeling of the community, should be maintained in an independent and efficient position.

ORGANIZATION.

Every successive year brings with it new proofs of the wisdom of the policy adopted by the Abolitionists at the inception of the Anti-Slavery enterprise. Having a great end to accomplish, they consulted their common sense and experience, and adopted such measures as they suggested. Knowing from the universal experience of mankind that men effect more by concert and union of action, than by their disconnected efforts, they naturally and spontaneously formed themselves into Societies, by means of which the individual influence of each member was multiplied by that of the whole combination. It never occurred to them to doubt the philosophy which taught them that union is strength and that two are more than one. But especially did they feel confirmed in the truth of their method when they found that it was made the object of virulent attack by all that was Pro-Slavery and vile in the land. The organization of the Anti-Slavery Societies seemed to be the circumstance that excited the greatest consternation and dismay in the minds of the Slaveholders and of their Northern abettors. The denunciations of the pulpit and the press and the brute violence of the mobs were directed mainly against them. It was the suppression of the Societies that the South demanded, and it was this cry that the servile North took up and reiterated and enforced. Having this irrefragable evidence in favor of the wisdom of their course they took courage and went on as they had begun. They thought 005657that they could not but be right, in doing what their enemies most dreaded that they should do. And the result proved at once their own sagacity and that of their adversaries. By means of organized action the country was shaken from one end to the other, and the change in public sentiment which was its object was begun and carried forward with a rapidity for which they had scarcely hoped. Having met with such signal success in the practical application of their policy, they were but little disposed to speculate upon its abstract fitness or upon the possible advantages to be expected from some other line of conduct. It was enough for them to know that the method they had adopted had been crowned with unlooked for success and had answered the warmest hopes of the friends, and the prophetic apprehensions of the enemies, of the cause.

In this outcry the Pro-Slavery public, indeed, found an unexpected auxiliary, whom they could not cordially welcome, though they very willingly used, in the late Doctor William Ellery Channing. This distinguished gentleman was the first to broach the doctrine that organized action is hostile to individual freedom, and he exhorted the Abolitionists to disband their Societies, with the whole weight of reasoning and eloquence of which he was master. These exhortations undoubtedly rendered his arguments against Slavery itself more endurable to its friends supporters, and enable them to make a wide distinction between him who made them, and the uncompromising men whom their instinct of self-preservation told them were most to be hated and feared. Though the sphere of his audience was doubtless thus in a degree enlarged, and truths which would not otherwise have reached them fell upon many ears, it may well be doubted whether any advantage they gained could compensate for the injury done to the cause of truth by even the appearance of succumbing to a fierce and brutal popular clamor, then in the height of its frenzy, and by the excuse thus given to cowardly and time-serving minds for withholding their help from a hated Reform. It was unfortunate that this eminent man 005758should have felt himself called upon to set forth his novel philosophy at a time and under circumstances which rendered his motives liable to any misconception, and produced practical ill-effects perhaps more than counterbalancing all the benefits of the eloquent appeals with which it was accompanied.

But though these new views, enforced by the genius and the weight of character of their author, had their effect in encouraging the bold enemies and in disheartening the timid friends of the cause, by the weight of a celebrated name, still the practical, working Abolitionists, who had addressed themselves to the work in good earnest, were not to be persuaded to throw away the weapons or abandon the discipline, which they saw struck the greatest terror into the ranks of the adversary. They accordingly went on in the spirit and in the order with which they had begun their movement, and had soon reason to perceive the wisdom of their course in the impression produced upon the mind of the nation. They knew that their individual liberty was not infringed by their consenting to act in concert with others for a specific purpose. They were conscious to themselves that it was more than any man, or any body of men, could do, to diminish their freedom of individual action. Combining with others for the accomplishment of a beneficent end was an individual act which they felt perfectly free to do, and one which they could not conceive to be inconsistent with the largest liberty, as long as they could at any moment withdraw from the combination without objection or reproach. They felt that so far from their individual strength being diminished by thus consenting to act with others, it was increased and multiplied by the union. They perceived that an Anti-Slavery Society was a machine of which its members were not the victims, but the masters. That the combination was not an instrument designed to crush and control the characters and minds composing it, but to be informed and directed by them. They saw that although a man of uncommon abilities, in a position from which his slightest word would command 005859general attention, might afford to dispense with the sympathy and cooperation of others, (though they also saw how much his influence lost by the want of them,) still it was not so with the great mass of the Abolitionists, whose opinions and whose contributions of time and money could only become appreciable by being united with those of others who were of one mind in this matter with themselves. They saw, too, with well grounded apprehension, that the discontinuance of organized action would put the whole control of the enterprise into the hands of a few leaders, who, by their talents or position, would be enabled to monopolize the public Anti-Slavery action. They feared that the effect would be to magnify, unduly, prominent individuals, and to leave the Anti-Slavery masses without influence or voice in the movement. They foresaw that MAN-WORSHIP with all its baneful effects on the idol and on the idolaters, would be the inevitable result of this new system. They resolved to guard, with a just and reasonable jealousy, that share of influence which God had entrusted to them for the deliverance of the Slave, and to refuse to sacrifice it, under the delusive idea of increasing it. They refused to consent, for the sake of freeing themselves from the imaginary dominion of their own official servants whom they appointed and could discard at their pleasure, to deliver themselves and the cause they loved into the irresponsible hands of self-appointed leaders, however able or devoted they might be. The Anti-Slavery men and women scattered over the farm-houses and work-shops of the free States, declined virtually to annihilate themselves, when they saw the power of the influence they individually wielded in the combined movement, for the purpose of practically, however undesignedly, placing the cause out of their reach, and in hands however worthy, beyond their control.

These reasons, among others, induced the great mass of Abolitionists to adhere to their original method. And its wisdom has been justified by its results. Notwithstanding the severe blow which was given to the Anti-Slavery Societies by the treachery and 005960dishonesty of new organization, it is not too much to say that whatever has been done for the advancement of the cause, of sufficient importance to be appreciable, has been effected under their auspices. Wherever the Societies have been the most efficient and active, the greatest progress has been made. Where they have been permitted to become torpid or lifeless, there has the interest in the cause either entirely died out, or been confined to a small number kept alive by the influence of some influential individual. We are happy to know that a renewed sense of the necessity of combined action is beginning to be left in quarters where it has been but too much neglected, and that fresh efforts are making to breathe a new vitality into them. We would earnestly invite the attention of Abolitionists to this important matter, and would recommend that no pains be spared to increase the efficiency of those powerful instrumentalities, the State, County and Town Anti-Slavery Societies.

There have always been from the first expounding of his new doctrine of Organizations by Dr. Channing, to the present moment, some faithful and devoted Abolitionists who have received and acted upon it. Although we differ widely from them as to the philosophy of our common Reform, we have always recognized them as good Abolitionists, as long as they prove by their acts that their objection to organized actions does not spring from a wish to avoid the odium and the responsibilities of the cause, or from a desire to keep the management of it, within their sphere, in their own hands. If they do not, like the Founder of their School, disclaim the name of Abolitionists, we are ready to accord it to them, if they show their faith by their works. There has never been any Pro-organization bigotry or intolerance. The perfect right of every one to act within or without the Anti-Slavery Societies, according to his conscience, has always been most freely admitted. The Anti-Slavery platform is wide enough to embrace them all. We trust that there will be always a perfect agreement to differ upon this point, as upon all others of measures, as distinct from principles. We hope 006061never to see the measures adopted by any Abolitionist, in good faith, made the object of attack by any who dissent from them. Slavery is the common enemy of us all, and it would be unwise and mischievous to divert any of our energies from an attack upon our wily and desperate antagonists, to an attempt to compel a uniformity of tactics, however important our own favorite scheme may appear to us. Though they who accept the philosophy of Dr. Channing at the present time are not numerous, still there are those among them, who are distinguished by their talents and devotion to the cause and are deservedly dear to all Anti-Slavery hearts. Though we may not assent to their arguments, nor yield to the strong pressure of their personal influence, as we have already resisted the cogent reasoning and the mighty name of their departed master, still we are as ready as ever to contend side by side with them if they will permit us, against our mutual foe. We most cordially invite their cooperation and offer our own, in all measures in which we can still conscientiously unite.

PRESENT ATTITUDE OF THE CAUSE.

Having thus cursorily glanced at some of the points of the Anti-Slavery history of the year that is just elapsed, it will be well and proper for us to pause for a moment and consider how far it is the record of progress; what need we have of watchfulness; what occasion for hope. At every successive year since the inception of the enterprise, when we have looked behind, around and before us to ascertain our bearings, we have always been rewarded by perceiving that our efforts and labors had been blessed by a continually growing progress. As we have advanced, the sea has continually opened before us, the shores and landmarks have ever changed their relations, and new constellations have rained down their influences. Every sign on earth and in heave augured a safe and prosperous termination of our voyage. The signs by which we now find ourselves 006162surrounded are no less auspicious than in former years. The great problem of their political duties towards their country, which had perplexed the minds of Abolitionists for years, from its very simplicity, has been solved for multitudes. The simple policy of refusing to be partakers in any voluntary degree in the support of Slavery, in our political as well as in our religious relations; of disclaiming all connexion with a Constitution of Government, instituted and used mainly for the perpetuation of Slavery; of demanding an instant dissolution of the Union which binds Freedom to Slavery in the ties of an unhallowed marriage; of proclaiming as our grand principle of civil and religious fellowship and communion,--"NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS, this policy, though simple, will mark by its general adoption, the present year as one of the most memorable in our annals. Much time is always expended in every Reform, in ascertaining the true method of action, and in making it generally understood. But when it is once fully comprehended and made the vital principle of action, its power and worth are speedily developed. We have attained a principle which the tyrants of the South, and their Northern abettors, most hate and dread. The unwilling testimony of enemies is added to joyful witness of friends, to convince us that our faces are now in the right direction; that we have hold of the clue that will lead us out of the labyrinth in which all honest Americans find themselves; that we have but to be faithful unto the end to finish our course with honor, if not with success.

Everything around us indicates that great events are at hand. It is at least the beginning of the end. The insults and injuries which have been so long piled upon the North by the South, are beginning to excite some sensation of uneasiness. The torpid giant moves uneasily, though uncertainly, beneath his mountain-load of indignities. The people of the North begin to feel that they sustain a Government for the 006263benefit of others. That they are at the irresponsible disposal of the smallest and most odious Oligarchy that ever darkened earth with its tyranny. They are beginning dimly to perceive that all this is owing to their wicked consenting to the enslaving of every sixth of their countrymen, and to fell something like a due sense of their guilt and of the wrongs of their victims. A Revolution is begun which never will--which never can--go backwards. The sceptre of the Slave Power, though yet clutched with a death-like grasp, still trembles in its hand as if about to pass away. A crisis is not remote, when a demand, loud and irresistible, will go up from the Free States insisting upon the Abolition of Slavery or the Dissolution of the Union. And in that cry will be heard, if not the knell, at least the passing-bell, of Slavery. If it do not die at the moment the fostering arm of Northern protection is withdrawn, it will be at least left in an expiring condition, and cannot long survive. Faint symptoms of this approaching change may be seen in the demonstrations of Congresses or of Legislatures. But these afford no sufficient indication of the true state of the public mind. In the fields, in the farm-houses, in the workshops, there is a spirit busy, which will yet be heard and obeyed. There never was a time when the relations of the North and the South, in regard to Slavery, were so well understood as now, and excited a more deep and indignant feeling. In due time the growing thought will clothe itself with glorious deeds. It is not too much to claim for the Anti-Slavery Enterprise that this state of things is mainly owing to its efforts. All the wrongs of the Slave,--all the oppressions of the free,--were as fearful realities fifteen years ago as now. But who felt them, except, indeed, the wretched Slave himself?--more wretched than now, for there was scarcely a hand in the free states that would be extended to welcome the fugitive, or which would refuse to participate in his capture. The nation 006364was in a torpor still as death itself. When the cry of Immediate Emancipation was heard, it was hateful to Northern as to Southern ears. Suicidal hands were raised in almost every city and village against the rights by which liberty lives and moves and has her being. The Abolitionists were few and weak in numbers, but they were as the voice of one crying in the wilderness. They called upon men to repent and flee from the wrath to come. By degrees their accents stole into men's ear. They heard them at last for their very importunity. And a change has already come over the face of affairs such as the most sanguine prophet would have scarcely dared to predict; and yet which was produced in the very way foreseen from the beginning.

The work is not yet done. It is but begun. Abolitionists may not flatter themselves that they may lay their armor aside. The crisis of the battle is yet to come. The same weapons, the same discipline, the same order are as necessary now as ever. Our business is still the same as at the beginning, to sound forever the tale of the wrongs of the Slave, and their own guilt, in the ears of the people, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear. Our accents may sometimes seem to be lost in the roar of the world of business or of politics, but their still small voice will make itself heard in the secret chambers of the heart. We may never be numerous; but we shall be always enough to make the general conscience uneasy, until it has purified the nation of its guilt. Our conflict is one in which success is not in proportion to the numbers but to the faithfulness of those who engage in it. We can look for no reward or glory as the world calls such, but we can enjoy the high satisfaction of helping to carry forward the Great Event of our Age and Country;--an event, in the presence of which the ephemeral interests of the hour fade and disappear. Next to the satisfaction of doing our duty to God and man as we find 006465it lying before us at our doors, it is a just and animating excitement to feel that we are permitted to partake in a passage of the world's history which can never be forgotten;--which will affect the condition of millions till time is no more, and which will extend its influences into the unknown expanse of Eternity.