Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-02-27
FREE SOIL PARTY.
Its Semi-Centennial Coeval With
That of This City.
PREsERVER OF REP. PARTY.
Had It's Origin in the Old City
Hall in 1948,
.PREsERVER OF REP. PARTY.
Causes Which Led Up to Free soiIism-
The Great Gatherings in Worcester SO
Years Ago-Most Notable Events.

! nial year, not only of Worcester as a
city, and of the dedication of our mag
nificent new City Hall, but also of the
: organization of the great movement for
freedom which had it's origin at our old
City Hall, in June, 1S4S, under the name
of the free soil party, the precursor of
the grand old republican party, into
which it was merged, it would seem
proper to give, among other important
contemporary occurrences of the period,
some account Of the doings of that great
gathering of fifty years ago. in our old
City Hall and on the old common adj
joining, the results Of which and of like
political gatherings afterwards held in
this and other sections of the country,
have been seen in the entire abolition of
the foul blot of human slavery from the
land.
AS to previous actions which had been
done in the same line to rid the country
of slavery, and of the compromises with
that evil which the constitution con-
tained, it may be stated that soon after
the organization of the United States
government in 1888, such was the gen
eral conviction of the abhorrence of
slavery and it's inconsistency with the
principles of the Great Charter of Lib
erty, the Declaration of Independence,
and the constitution of government
made in pursuance of it, petitions be-
gan, early as the beginning of the first
congress, to pour into that body from
different sections of the country for
something to be done to rid us Of that
terrible curse.
The first and most noted Of these pc
titioners was Benjamin Franklin, who
had as much to do as any other man in
the steps taken to make our country free
from Great Britain. Franklin was the
president of the first abolition society in
the United States, the Pennsylvania
Society for Promoting the Abolition Of
Slavery" forty years before William
Lloyd Garrison organized the American
anti-SlaVery Society and started the
Liberator. Franklin, fresh from his
arduous labors for the establishment of
the new republic and his perfect
familiarity with the powers of the diff
ferent branches, presented to the first
congress a memorial in regard to the
great evil of slavery, in which he said,
for himself and the society which he
represented; "They had observed with
real satisfaction that many important
and salutary powers are vested in you
for promoting the Melfare and securing
the blessings of liberty to the people OF
the United States; and as thew conceive
that these blessings ought rightfully to
be administered, without distinction OF
color to all description of people, so they
indulge themselves in the pleasing eX-
pectations that nothing which can be
done for the relief of the unhappy OBJ
jects of their care, will be either omitted
or delayed"
Franklin died in Philadelphia, April
II, 1890, soon after presenting this
memorial or the world might now be
in possession of more of his arguments
in support Of the radical abolition
views entertained by him. Memorials
praying for the same laudab4e object
were at nearly the same time also sent
In congress by numerous others, includ-
ing the Society Of Friends in New York
Pennsylvania and other states, and
from other humane persons, but they
were strongly opposed by the great ma
iority in congress, obtaining only IA
votes for their consideration against A.
to smother them, the general argument
expressed against them being that con-
gress could do nothing on the subject.
it would be radical, revolutionary etc,
similar to the grounds taken by the op-
ponents of The anti-slavery petitions
and the abatements generally iii later
times. So nothing could be done in con-
gress and the opponents of slavery had
to confine their action to discussion
among the people generally in the states
where they could get a hearing. Agita-
tions were also kept up in congress
whenever opportunity offered, on meas
ures, as they came up, on which the
hearing Of slavery could be made to APP
ply, with no expectation of doing more
than keep UP the agitation.
Among the earliest and most promi-
nent of the anti-slavery agitators among
the people in the United States was
Benjamin Lundy, who deserves the high
rank of pioneer of direct and distinctive
anti-SlaVery work, who devoted his life
and all his powers exclusively to the
cause of the slave. Like Benjamin
Franklin he was of Quaker descent.
Lundy was born in Essex county, New
Jersey, Jan. 4, 1889, of Quaker parents,
whose ancestors had lived there for sew
eral generations. In 1915, when 26 years
of age he organized an anti-slavery as
sociation called the Union Humane So
ciety, at his home in Belmont, o. He
wrote an appeal to philanthropists on
the subject of slavery on his 9th BIRTH
day, Jan. A. 1916, which contained the
germ of the entire anti-slavery move
ment Following up his labors in vari-
Gus ways, he started the Genius of Uni
versal Emancipation" in January, 1921.
In the winter of 1924, Lundy attended
in the first american convention for
the abolition of slavery" held in, Balti-
more, making the journey there for the
purpose, 900 miles and back, on foot,
with knapsack on his back.
Removing his printing establishment
In 1924 to Baltimore, on the way there
he delivered his first public address
against slavery at Deep Creek, n. c., in
a beautiful grove near the Friends
meeting house there directly after di-
vine worship, and the audience was so
well pleased that he was invited to
speak again. Before the close of the
second meeting, an anti-slayery society
was formed there. Lundy continued
his Germs of universal emancipation"
in Baltimore until about 1928, when he
was driven out Of it, and the paper
finally became merged in the "Pennsyl-
yania Freeman" at Philadelphia Lun-
dy Travelled east in 1928, going through
all the New England states, calling on
all friends of his cause he could hear of,
and on William Lloyd Garrison at Bos-
ton with whom he co-operated a while
until Garrison started his Liberator
Jan. 1, 1880
1t was not long before the year 1S40
that action against slavery was carried
into politics; that is, by nominating can
didates for office on that issue, every
thing previously said or done being
merely broadcast among the people for
their moral action. The answer by
congress to petitions in reference to
slavery had all been, that nothing could
be done by that body on the subject.
But when it came to the pass that north
ern governors, including a governor of
the old Bay state, took the ground, in
their messages, in obedience to the die
taticn of the slave power, that any dis
cussion even of the question Of slavery,
in the free states, was amenable to pros
ecution in the criminal court, as Gov.
Edward Everett did in one of his mes
sages in 1886 it would seem to have
been about time that some counter