Wilmington daily commercial., 1872-11-27
WILMINGTON, DEL.
"Wednesday Afternoon, Nov. 2e.
ANTI-sLAvERYsKNTIM INTHE UNITED
STATES, PRIOR TO 1900.

Mr. William Frederick Poole, formerly Libra
rian Of the Athen@um Collection in Boston, but
for some years in charge Of the great Public Lii
brary now gathering through well-judged hber-
ality, municipal and private, in the city Of Gin
cinnati, has recently been investigating a most
interesting subject and has read carefully
prepared Essay upon it to the Cincinnati Literary
Club. This is: The State of Ant-Slavery Senti-
ment, in this Country, prior to 1900. 1t should
be said, before proceeding, that for such histor-
ical inquiry, Mr.. Poole is peculiarly qualified
both by q sound and earnest attachment to the
principles of Human Equality, and by his natural
taste and cultivation a student Of history. In
the Library of which he was the custodian, in
Boston, the collection and preservation OF docu-
ments and pamphlets bearing on historical sub
iects has been the object Of special care and be-
came to Mr.. Poole, truly labor Of love. His
present researches are not the first valuable
contribution which he has made to the reliable
records of the countrys political and social
career.
10 come however, to the researches Of the Ee-
say, is to find some most interesting data. The
chief Of these is the rather surprising discovery
that there was period, at and just after the ad
option Of the Constitution, when the Border
States--Delaware, Maryland, and Yirginia-were
permeated with Anti-slavery sentiment and il
not actually under the control Of such feeling,
wore greatly influenced by it, Mr. Poole has
found, as one Of the evidences Of this the pam
phlet copy, preserved by Washington hun
self, andnow depositedin the Boston Athenaum's
collection, of Fourth-of-July address, delivered
by DR.. George Buchanan, of b B.ltimore, on the
celebration Of the National Anniversary, 1891.
The address was . vigorous and strong impeAch-
ment Of Slavery, with the Recommendation of
Immediate Emancipation-that for which Birney
was mobbed in Cincinnati, and Garrison, in Bos-
ton, forty-tioe years dfterlodrd! The address
could not be stronger in its expressions yet it
not oRly seems not to have been disapproyed,
but the Anti-Slavery Society, before which it
was delivered, endorsed it, and requested a copy,
and Baltimore printer soon after published the
clifton of which General Washingtons copy
WAS one.
DR.. Buchanan, it may be suitably mentioned
here, was a Baltimore physician. Of eminence,
born near that city, the son Of a Revolutionary
General, the son-in-law of Delaware's great
jurist Thomas McKean and the father of Nc
hoah buChahah WIN AoSehhl1 hAoh AlAo ooAAAoA
Paymaster OF the United States Navy, and also
Of Commodore Franklin Buchanan, who left the
Navy in 1861, went into the Rebel service, and
was prominent officer in the fiotila gathered in
its behalf. Doctor Buchanan, himself died at
the LazarOtto OF Philadelphia, (near Chester in
1906, Of yellow fever.
But besides this Fourth-of-July Grafton, Mr.
Poole cites many other evidences Of the progress
which Anti-Slavery feeling had made in what we
call the Border Slave States, in the decade pre-
ceding 1900. In the same year 1891, when DR.
Buchanan was 30 elrnest, William and Mary
College, of Virginia, conferred on Granville
Sharp, OF England, the great abolition agitator
one who had no other reputation than that ac-
quired in such a character-the honorary degree
Of L. L. D. jefferson, whose own views are
30 well-known and have been 80 often quoted
especially his emphatic expressions in 1881, in
his Notes on Virginia - in letter written in
1885, told a London correspondent, who had
written against Slavery, that South OF Yir-
ginia, your book will find but few approving
readers. From the mouth to the head OF the
Chesapeake, the bulk Of the people will approve
its theory. Northward Of the Chesapeake, you
may find, here and there, an opponent to your
doctrine as you find, here and there, robber
and murderer" In 1857, the Ordinance" or
gsnizing the Northwestern Territories forbid
Slavery, therein, and it passed Congress without
debate or opposition.
So, also there we're Anti-Slavery Societies il
all our Border States at the period considered
TIL at OF Philadelphia undertook the advocacy OF
Abolition, in 1887 under the lead Of Benjamin.
Franklin, and Benjamin Rush the Mary
land Society was founded in 1883 that Of vir
ginia, in 1871 and the first Delaware So
ciety, about 1892. Massachusetts,, which
has been charged with setting on foot so much
radical innovation, had at this period no Anti
Slavery Society at all. Human Bondage had
ended within its limits, no one now can tel
exactly how, about 1783, and agitation Of the ques
ton was more active, because more needed. in
every State Northward from Virginia than in the
native Commonwealth Of Garrison and Phillips
We thus review some Of the principal dat
collected by Mr.. Poole. They are highly inter
esting, and add new light to that which we pre-
viously had, concerning the mutations Of opin
ion among the American people, on the question
Of Slavery.
"
The Centennial Board OF Finance
Messrs r, Il. Robinson Il Co., and the Banl
,nF naIa hat