The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4 eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,105 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4.

The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4 eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,105 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4.

In CONNECTICUT, there has not been, as yet, a great expenditure of abolition effort.  Although the moral tone of this state, so far as slavery is concerned, has been a good deal weakened by the influence of her multiform connexions with the south, yet the energies that have been put forth to reanimate her ancient and lofty feelings, so far from proving fruitless, have been followed by the most encouraging results.  Evidence of this is found in the faithful administration of the laws by judges and juries.  In May last, a slave, who had been brought from Georgia to Hartford, successfully asserted her freedom under the laws of Connecticut.  The cause was elaborately argued before the Supreme court.  The most eminent counsel were employed on both sides.  And it is but a few days, since two anti-abolition rioters (the only ones on trial) were convicted before the Superior court in New Haven, and sentenced to pay a fine of twenty dollars each, and to be imprisoned six months, the longest term authorized by the law.  A convention, for the organization of a State Society, was held in the city of Hartford on the last day of February.  It was continued three days.  The call for it (which I send you) was signed by nearly EIGHTEEN HUNDRED of the citizens of that state.  SEVENTEEN HUNDRED, as I was informed, are legal voters.  The proceedings of the convention were of the most harmonious and animating character.[B]

[Footnote B:  See Appendix, C.]

In NEW YORK, our cause is evidently advancing.  The state is rapidly coming up to the high ground of principle, so far as universal liberty is concerned, on which the abolitionists would place her.  Several large Anti-Slavery conventions have lately been held in the western counties.  Their reports are of the most encouraging character.  Nor is the change more remarkable in the state than in this city.  Less than five years ago, a few of the citizens advertised a meeting, to be held in Clinton Hall, to form a City Anti-Slavery Society.  A mob prevented their assembling at the place appointed.  They repaired, privately, to one of the churches.  To this they were pursued by the mob, and routed from it, though not before they had completed, in a hasty manner, the form of organization.  In the summer of 1834, some of the leading political and commercial journals of the city were enabled to stir up the mob against the persons and property of the abolitionists, and several of the most prominent were compelled to leave the city for safety; their houses were attacked, broken into, and, in one instance, the furniture publicly burnt in the street. Now, things are much changed.  Many of the merchants and mechanics are favorable to our cause; gentlemen of the bar, especially the younger and more growing ones, are directing their attention to it; twenty-one of our city ministers are professed abolitionists; the churches are beginning to be more accessible to us; our meetings are held in them openly, attract large numbers, are unmolested; and the abolitionists sometimes hear themselves commended in other assemblies, not only for their honest intentions, but for their respectability and intelligence.

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The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.