Garri

somewhat nearer, Dr Follen, looking German all over, and a deeper earnestness than usual overspreading his serene and meditative countenance; and, in consultation with him, Mr Loring, looking only too frail in form, but with a face radiant with inward light. There was May, and Goodell, and Sewall, and several more, and many an anxious wife, or sister, or friend, looking down from the gallery. During the suspense the door opened, and Dr Channing entered-one of the last people that could on that wintry afternoon have been expected. He stood for a few moments, muffled in cloak and shawl-handkerchief, and then walked the whole length of the room, and was immediately seen shaking hands with Garrison.* A murmur ran through the gallery, and a smile went round the chamber. Mrs Chapman whispered to her next neighbor, "Righteousness and peace have kissed each other." son, the dauntless Garrison, turned pale as ashes, and sank down on a seat. Dr Channing had censured the abolitionists in his pamphlet on slavery, Garrison had in the Liberator,' rejected the censure; and here they were shaking hands in the Senate Chamber. It was presently found that a pressure of numbers compelled an adjournment to the larger House of Representatives. There Dr Channing sat behind the speakers, handing them notes, and most obviously affording them his countenance, so as to be from that day considered by the world as an accession to their principles, though not to their organized body. Another circumstance worthy of note is that a somewhat sophisticated well-wisher to the cause suggested that at the second meeting the gentlemen of the party alone should speak-such as Follen, Loring, and Sewall; and that the more homely and more openly reviled members, Garrison and Goodell and others, should

He afterwards explained that he was not at the moment certain that it was Mr Garrison, but that he was not the less happy to have shaken hands with him.

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keep in the back ground. This was mentioned to Mrs. Chapman. Her righteous spirit rejected the counsel at once, on the ground of its falseness of principle. "Besides," said she, we owe it to Garrison to protect him; and his only protection is being placed in the midst of the gentlemen, where his foes dare not touch him. If we do not vigilantly keep him there." she continued, with swimming eyes and quivering lips," he will be murdered next riot-season-he will be torn to pieces next autumn." As it turned out, it was the eloquence of Garrison and Goodell that carried the day, and the inexperienced adviser owned himself mistaken. Such are the small facts which indicate the temper of the times.

The day was now passed when the insignificance of the abolition movement could be a subject for taunts. The tone of contempt had been kept up till the last possible moment; but that moment was gone by. A few legislatures had declared themselves like that of Massachusetts; the Governor of Pennsylvania ("honest Joe Ritner," the wagoner's boy,) had publicly reprobated the disposition of Northern Members of Congress" to bow to the dark spirit of slavery;" all the candidates for state offices in Vermont, both of the federal and democratic party were abolitionists; and it might be said, as a general fact, that in New England the yeomanry were the abolitionists, while the large commercial and manufacturing towns were as strenuous in their opposition as ever. The number of societies, though multiplying from day to day, had ceased to become an indication of abolitionists in the community. There were now thousands, more or less animated by the cause, who, for various reasons (some of which reasons were very good), did not join societies. Dr Channing entertains strong objections to associations for moral objects. Certain State legislatures found they could effect more in the Chamber

for being unpledged, and being known to speak from independent conviction. Many women, and Mrs Follen at the head of such, held themselves ready to join at any moment, but felt that more aid might be given to the cause by fighting the battles of the abolitionists out of the circle of partizanship than within it. Such have been among the most powerful defenders of the right for the last few years, while an inferior order of persons has been crowding into the abolition ranks. With the good of an accession of numbers must come the evil of a deterioration of quality; and it is best that there should be a distribution of the noblest original spirits, some continuing to lead societies, and others maintaining an independent position. But, under this arrangement, the multiplication of societies ceases to be a test of the increase of numbers.

The President had now taken the matter in hand. General Jackson, the people's man, who talked of liberty daily, with energetic oaths and flourishes of the hand, inquired of Congress whether they could not pass a law prohibiting, under severe penalties, the transmission through the mails of anti-slavery publications, or, as he worded it, of publications "intended to excite the slaves to insurrection." Mr Calhoun, the great bulwark of slavery, declared in Congress that such a measure would be unconstitutional; but that a bill which he had prepared would answer the purpose. This was the celebrated Gag Bill. We insert it as amended for the third reading, as we could not expect of our readers that they should credit our report of its contents! Here stands the Bill which in 1836 was read a third time in the Senate of a Republican Congress

"A BILL

"For prohibiting deputy postmasters from receiving or transmitting through the mail to any State, Territory,

or District, certain papers therein mentioned, the circulation of which, by the laws of said State, Territory, or District, may be prohibited, and for other purposes. "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 'That it shall not be lawful for any deputy postmaster in any State, Territory or District of the United States, knowingly to deliver to any person whatsoever, any pamphlet, newspaper, handbill, or other printed paper or pictorial representation touching the subject of slavery, where, by the laws of the said State, Territory, or District, their circulation is prohibited; and any deputy postmaster who shall be guilty thereof, shall be forthwith removed from office.

"SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That nothing in the acts of Congress to establish and regulate the Post Office Department shall be construed to protect any deputy postmaster, mail-carrier, or other officer or agent of said Department, who shall knowingly circulate, in any State, Territory, or District, as aforesaid, any such pamphlet, newspaper, handbill, or other printed paper or pictorial representation, forbidden by the laws of such State, Territory, or District.

"SEC. 3. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the deputy postmasters of the offices where the pamphlets, newspapers, handbills, or other printed papers or pictorial representations aforesaid, may arrive for delivery, shall, under the instructions of the Postmaster General, from time to time give notice of the same, so that they may be withdrawn by the person who deposited them originally to be mailed, and if the same shall not be withdrawn in one month thereafter, shall be burnt or otherwise destroyed."

Mr Van Buren, now President of the United States, was then Vice President and held the casting vote in the Senate. Every one knows his terror of committing himself. What must have been his feelings when his casting vote was called for as to the third reading of this bill? He was standing

behind a pillar, talking, when the votes were declared to be eighteen to eighteen. "Where's the Vice President ?" shouted Mr Calhoun's mighty voice. Mr Van Buren came forward. and voted for the third reading. "The Northern States are sold!" groaned the New England senators with one voice. By their strenuous efforts the bill was thrown out on the third reading. If it had passed it would have remained to be seen, as the abolitionists remarked, "whether seven millions of freemen should become slaves, or two and a half millions of slaves should become free ?"

For men and women engaged in a moral enterprise so stupendous as that under notice, there is no rest. It is well for them that the perspec ive of their toils is shrouded from them when they set forth; for there is perhaps no human soul that could sustain the whole certainty. Not a day's repose can these people snatch. If they were to close their eyes upon their mission for even the shortest interval, they would find that new dangers had gathered, and that their work was in arrear. Towards the end of 1836 the abolitionists felt their prospects were darker than ever. The annexation of Texas to the Union seemed an evil scarcely possible to be averted: and, if it were not averted, their enterprise was thrown back centuries. Instead of sinking in despair at seeing the success of their foes in flattery, not only the worldly interests of the sordid and ambitious part of society, but the best feelings of the superficial and thoughtless, they made a tremendous effort. Mr Child began with an admirable exposure of the Texas scheme in the 'Anti-Slavery Quarterly Magazine,' and Dr Channing finished the business (for the present) by his noble tract. As for the rest they sounded a tocsin of alarm that aroused the land to a sense of its danger; they sent their appeals, warnings, and remon