[5] Amos Dresser was one of the Lane Seminary students.  After leaving that institution, in order to raise funds to continue his studies, he accepted an agency for the sale of the “Cottage Bible.”  While peacefully prosecuting his business in Nashville, in 1834, it became known that he was an abolitionist.  This was enough.  He was arrested, his trunk broken open, and its contents searched and scattered.  He was then taken before a vigilance committee, and without a single charge, except that of his anti-slavery principles, being brought against him, was condemned to receive twenty lashes, “well laid on,” on the bare back, and then to be driven from the town.  The sentence was carried out by the votes and in the presence of thousands of people, and was presided over by the mayor and the elders of the Presbyterian Church from whose hands Mr. Dresser had, the Sunday before, received the Holy Communion.

In her next letter she describes the deepening interest of the Convention, and Sarah’s increasing unity with its members.

“We sit,” she says, “from 9 to 1, 3 to 5, and 7 to 9, and never feel weary at all.  It is better, far better than any Yearly Meeting I ever attended.  It is still uncertain when we shall adjourn, and it is so good to be here that I don’t know how to look forward to the end of such a feast....  T.D.  Weld is to begin his Bible argument to-morrow.  It will occupy, he says, four days.”

The Convention adjourned the latter part of November, 1836, and we may judge how profitable its meetings had proved to Sarah Grimke, from the fact that she at once began the preparation of an “Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States,” which, printed in pamphlet form, was issued some time in December, and was as strong an argument against the stand on the subject of slavery taken by the majority of the clergy as had yet appeared.  Reading it, one would little suspect how recent had been the author’s opposition to just such protests as this, calculated to stir up bitter feelings and create discussion and excitement in the churches.  It is written in a spirit of gentleness and persuasion, but also of firm admonition, and evidently under a deep sense of individual responsibility.  It shows, too, that Sarah had reached full accord with Angelina in her views of immediate emancipation.

By the time the Convention was over, the sisters, and portions of their history, had become so well known to abolitionists, that the leaders felt they had secured invaluable champions in these two Quaker women, one so logical, brilliant, and persuasive; the other so intelligent, earnest, and conscientious; and both distinguished by their ability to testify as eye-witnesses against the monstrous evils of slavery.