ho were governed by these complex motives were chiefly Whigs.
They felt that an increase of popular strength to the Abolitionists
must be at the expense of the party which, continuing to make Clay
its idol, was about to make Harrison its candidate. The announcement,
therefore, on the eve of the national contest of 1840, that the
Abolitionists had nominated James G. Birney of Michigan for President,
and Francis J. Le Moyne of Pennsylvania for Vice-President, was
angrily received by the Whigs, and denunciations of the movement
were loud and frequent. The support received by these candidates
was unexpectedly small, and showed little ground, in the judgment
of the Whigs, for the course taken by the Abolitionists. Their
strength was almost wholly confined to New England, Western New
York, and the Western Reserve of Ohio. It was plainly seen, that,
in a large majority of the free States, the Abolitionists had as
yet made no impression on public opinion.

THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

Any less earnest body of men would have been discouraged, but the
Abolition party was composed of devotees possessing the true martyr
spirit, and, instead of being appalled by defeat, they were inspired
with fresh zeal, and incited to new effort. They had not failed
to observe, that, while few were disposed to unite in extreme anti-
slavery measures, there was a growing number whose conscience was
aroused on the general subject of human bondage. The emancipation
of negroes with a view to their settlement in Africa, as advocated
by the Colonization Society, received the support of conservative
opponents of slavery, the sympathy of the Churches, and the patronage
of leading men among the slave-holders of the Border States. The
National Government was repeatedly urged to give its aid to the
scheme; and, during the excitement on the Missouri question, Congress
appropriated $100,000, nominally for the return of Africans who
had been unlawfully landed in the United States after the slave
trade was prohibited, but really as an indirect mode of promoting
the project of colonization. As a scheme for the destruction of
domestic slavery it was ridiculed by the Abolitionists, who in the
end violently opposed it as tending to deaden the public conscience
to the more imperative duty of universal emancipation. The
philanthropic efforts of the Society were abundantly rewarded,
however, by the establishmen