dential election of 1840, the practical wing
entered into the political field, as the inevitable and only arena for
effective action; nominated a candidate, and laid the foundation for the
election of Lincoln twenty years later. In the American Anti-slavery
Society there came a contest; Garrison triumphed by a narrow vote, but a
secession followed. Of his immediate and permanent allies the most
important was Wendell Phillips. He threw himself heart and soul into the
cause; he gave to it an educated and brilliant mind, and a fascinating
oratory; he was as uncompromising and censorious as Garrison.

Garrison always held a place of honor and friendship among the
Abolitionists, even those who refused to follow his leadership. In
private life his genial and winning traits were as marked as was his
fierceness on the platform. The term "Abolitionist" is somewhat
indefinite, but it may best be defined as denoting a person to whom the
supreme interest in public affairs was the extinction of slavery. It
included not only those who shared Garrison's ideas of non-voting and
peaceable disunion, but those, too, like Birney and Whittier, who
respected the Constitution and worked for their cause through a
political party. The term also applied to the few who, like John Brown,
would attack slavery by force of arms. On the other hand, the name
Abolitionist did not properly belong to those who were opposed to
slavery, but held that opposition along with other political tenets and
not as a supreme article of faith. These were best included under the
general term of "anti-slavery men," a designation accepted by many of
the Free Soil, Whig and Democratic parties, and later by the Republican
party. The classification cannot be made exact, but the word
"Abolitionists" generally designated the men and women to whom the
extinction of slavery was a primary interest, and who gave to it their
habitual and earnest attention, through the anti-slavery societies and
otherwise. In this broader sense, the Abolitionists were a notable
company. They were bound together by a disinterested and noble
sentiment, and by sacrifices to the cause. The hostility aroused by
Garrison, Phillips, Pilsbury, and a few like-minded associates, extended
to many who went to no such extremes. The anti-slavery speakers were
sometimes mobbed: once in Boston a rope was round Garrison's neck and
his life was in peril; meetings were broken up; and the respectable part
of the commu