was now the
acknowledged leader of the only political party in the country that
had a wholesome anti-slavery plank in its platform.

Daniel Webster and the Whig party were in their grave. After the
Democratic Convention had met and adjourned without mentioning
Webster, a Northern farmer exclaimed when he had read the news, "_The
South never pay their slaves_!"

During all these years of agitation and struggle, the pulpit of New
England maintained an unbroken silence on the slavery question. Doctor
Lyman Beecher was the acknowledged leader of the orthodox pulpit. Dr.
William E. Channing was the champion of Unitarianism and the leader of
the heterodox pulpit. Dr. Beecher was fond of controversy, enjoyed a
battle of words upon every thing but the slavery question. He
proclaimed the doctrine of "_immediate repentance_"; was earnest in
his entreaties to men to quit their "cups" at _once_; but on the
slavery question was a slow coach. He was for _gradual_ emancipation.
He frowned not a little upon the vigorous editorials in "The
Liberator." He regarded Mr. Garrison as a hot-head; "having zeal, but
not according to knowledge." Abolitionism received no encouragement
from this venerable divine.

Dr. Channing was a gentle, pure-hearted, and humane sort of a man. He
dreaded controversy, and shunned the agitation and agitators of
anti-slavery.

The lesser lights followed the example of these bright stars in the
churches.

But all could not keep silent,--for slavery needed apologists in the
North. Stewart, of Andover; Alexander, of Princeton; Fisk, of
Wilberham, and many other leading ministers endeavored to prove the
_Divine Origin and Biblical Authority of Slavery_.

The silence of the pulpit drove out many anti-slavery men who, up to
this time, had been hoping for aid from this quarter. Many went out of
the Church temporarily, hoping that the scales would drop from the
eyes of the preachers ere long; but others never returned-were driven
to infidelity and bitter hatred of the Christian Church. Dr. Albert
Barnes said: "That there was no power out of the Church that would
sustain slavery an hour if it were not sustained in it."

Among the leaders of the HETERODOX ANTI-SLAVERY PARTY--those who
attacked the reticency, silent acquiescence, or act of support the
Church gave slavery,--were Parker Pillsbury, James G. Birney, Stephen
S. Foster, and Samuel Brooke. The platform of this party was clearly
defined by Mr. Pillsbury:--