ade; and they prayed that our ships sailing
on the high-seas should not be permitted by the government to carry
slaves as part of their cargo, under the free flag of the United
States, and outside the local jurisdiction that held them in bondage.
They denied that a man should aid in executing any law whose
enforcement did violence to his conscience and trampled under foot
the Divine commands. Hence they would not assist in the surrender
and return of fugitive slaves, holding it rather to be their duty
to resist such violation of the natural rights of man by every
peaceful method, and justifying their resistance by the truths
embodied in the Declaration of Independence, and, still more
impressively, by the precepts taught in the New Testament.

While encountering, on these issues, the active hostility of the
great mass of the people in all sections of the Union, the
Abolitionists challenged the respect of thinking men, and even
compelled the admiration of some of their most pronounced opponents.
The party was small in number, but its membership was distinguished
for intellectual ability, for high character, for pure philanthropy,
for unquailing courage both moral and physical, and for a controversial
talent which has never been excelled in the history of moral reforms.
It would not be practicable to give the names of all who were
conspicuous in this great struggle, but the mention of James G.
Birney, of Benjamin Lundy, of Arthur Tappan, of the brothers Lovejoy,
of Gerrit Smith, of John G. Whittier, of William Lloyd Garrison,
of Wendell Phillips, and of Gamaliel Bailey, will indicate the
class who are entitled to be held in remembrance so long as the
possession of great mental and moral attributes gives enduring and
honorable fame. Nor would the list of bold and powerful agitators
be complete or just if confined to the white race. Among the
colored men--often denied the simplest rights of citizenship in
the States where they resided--were found many who had received
the gift of tongues, orators by nature, who bravely presented the
wrongs and upheld the rights of the oppressed. Among these Frederick
Douglass was especially and richly endowed not only with the strength
but with the graces of speech; and for many years, from the stump
and from the platform, he exerted a wide and beneficent influence
upon popular opinion.

THE ABOLITION PARTY ORGANIZED.

In the early days o