Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-11-21

chosen president, and Benjamin Rush, secretary,
both siguerS of the declaration of independ-
ence. The society entered with zeal
upon its mission, circulating its docu-
menls and opening correspondence
with eminent men in the United States
and in Europe. The New York Society for
Promoting the Manumission of Slaves was or
ganized Jan. %, 1873, and John jay was the
first president. On being appointed chief
justice of the United States, he resigned, and
Alexander Hamilton was appointed to his place.
The society circulated gratuitously Dr.. Samuel
Hopkins Dialogue on Slavery, and Address to
Shareholders, and other documents. The Mary
land society was formed in 1883, and the same
year the Rhode Island society was organized in
the House of DR.. Hopkins, at Newport. In
1890 the Connecticut society was formed, of
which DR.. Ezra Stiles, president of Yale col
lege, and Judge Simeon Baldwin, were the
president and secretary. The Virginia society
was formed in 1891, the New Jersey society in
1872, and about this time the society of Della
ware was organized. The principal officers Of
these societies were not fanatics; they were the
most eminent men in the land, judges Of the
courts, members OF the constitutional conYen-
tion and Of the continental and United States
congress.
Besides the state societies numerous local So
cicties were formed, especially in Virginia and
Maryland. They maintained an active core
spondeace with each other and co-operaled Tor
the promotion of their common object They
used all the appliances for creating favorable
sentiment that are fami lar in our time. They
addressed memorials TO state legislatures and 10
congress, held public meetings, distributed docu-
menls, and made free use of the public press
Of Last ,oF 40,
philosopher, statesman and philanthropist,
Benjamin Franklin, was to sign as president of
the Pennsylvania antI-slavery society memo
rial addressed by that society to congress urging
that body "to coUntenance the restoration to
liberty OF those unhappy men, who, alone in
this land Of freedom, are degraded into perpet-
ual bondage" This memorial was dated Feb.
| 8, 1890. DIR. Franklin died on the 18th day of
| April following. Bat the signing of the memo
rial was no: quite the last OF his protests against
slavery, for Mr.. Poole adds:
at will be observed that this memorial
strikes at slavery itself on the ground that the
| in titution is unjust and a natural disgrace. Ii
| was so understood in congress, and raised a
panic among the representatives OF South Caro-
| lima and Georgia Mr. Jackson, OF Georgia,
| distinguished himself in the debate by an elab-
| CRATE defence OF the institution. He was espec-
| tally annoyed that DR.. Fraukhn'S name should
| be attached to the memorial. Dr. Franklin,
| though suffering under most painful disease
| could not allow the accusation 10 pass without in
| dulging his humor at the expense of Mr.. Jack
| son. He wrote TO the editor OF the Federal Ga
| zette, March %, 1890, as follows: Reading in
| your excellent paper a speech of Mr. jackson,
| in congress, against their meddling with the
| affair of slavery, or mendng the condition OF
| the slaves put me in mind of a similar one
/ mo OH Dnu hundred ht- No
| hGmet lbrahim, member OF the Dlvan of AlaierS
| which may be seen in Martins account oil his
| conSuship ammo 1851. 1t was against granting
| the petition OF a sect called Erka, or PdrlStS,
who prayed for the abolition Of piracy and
| slavery as being unjust. MI. jackson does not
| quote 1t; perhaps he has not seen ill.," He then
| goes on to make an ingenious parody OF Mr.
| Jackson'S speech, making this African MuSSu-
| man give the same religious and other reasons
| Tor not releasing the white Christian slaves
| whom they had captured by piracy that MIR.
jackson had made for not releasing African
| slaves. There was inquiry in the libraries for
| Martins Account of his ConsulShip,' but it
was never found The paper may he read in
the second volume of Franklm's Works page 517.
None of DR. Franklin'S writings are more ieci-
tous than this jeu d esprit, and it was written
only twenty-lour days before his death"
1t will be seen, therefore, as Mr.. Pool observes,
that the popular idea that the political anti
slavery agitation was forced upon the south by
The morrill, and especially by Massachusetts Is
incorrect. In 1871 William and Mary college in
Virginia conferred upon Granville Sharp, the
abolition agitator of England, the degree of
Ii. D. Granville Sharp had no other reputa-
ton than that which arose from his ant-slavery
record and since he was honored by the college
he must have been honored as an abolitionst
This fact is significant of the state of public
feeling in Virginia at that time. If the excellent
doctor OF laws had visited Virginia few years
later, his reception by the same college might
probably have surprised him. 1t would have
been a bold, almost rash action to present
himself there and no prudent man would have
been willing to guarantee his return from such
a visit without suffering grievous bodily harm.
Mr.. Poole further shows that in the second pc.
Rod Of excited controversy, from 1921 to 1880,
the south again took the lead:
In 1927 there were 100 abolition societies in
the United States. OF these 106 were in the
| slaveholdmg states, and only four in New Eng
and and New York. OF these societies eight
we're in Virginia, eleven in Maryland, two in
| Delaware, eight in Kentucky, twenty five in
Tennessee, and fifty in North Carolina, with an
active membership in the latter state of 5000
| persons. MANY Of these societies were the result
| ut the personal labOrs of Benjamin Lundv. The
| southampton Instruction Of 1889, and indiCa-
Fious OF instructions in Norm Carolina the
same year, swept away these societies aud their
visible results The period from 1880 to 1915
was the darkest period the American slave ever
saw. 1t was The period oil violence and mob
law az the North. This was the second great re-
| action. The first commenced with the invention
| Of the cotton-gn by Eli Whitney, in 1893, and
| continued Till the question oil the admission of
| Missouri came up in 1921 The third reaction
was a failure; il commenced in 1861, and result
/ ed in the overthrow Of the institution.
Il was during the second reaction that Garri-
son, Loyejoy, Birney, and their associates began
their labors and suffered their prosecutions,
which are popularity regarded as incidents of
the earliest organized neutrality-suspicious. in
| this country.