nity sometimes encouraged or tolerated these assaults.
Actual physical injury was very rare, but a hostile social atmosphere
was the frequent price of fidelity to conscience.

Among the most notable of the leaders was Gerritt Smith. He took active
part in politics, and was for a time in Congress. He is finely
characterized by Andrew D. White:

"Of all tribunes of the people I have ever known he dwells in my memory
as possessing the greatest variety of gifts. He had the prestige given
by great wealth, by lavish generosity, by transparent honesty, by
earnestness of purpose, by advocacy of every good cause, by a superb
presence, and by natural eloquence of a very high order. He was very
tall and large, with a noble head, an earnest yet kindly face, and of
all human voices I have ever heard his was the most remarkable for its
richness, depth, and strength."

Women took a prominent and honorable part; the venerable and beautiful
Lucretia Mott gave her benign presence to the gatherings; Lydia Maria
Child made heavy sacrifices in the good cause. In the common ardor, and
with a Quaker precedent, women took part as speakers. Women's rights was
closely united with anti-slavery; and hence came a fresh odium from
conservative quarters, while the admirable bearing of the leading women
won growing favor for both lines of emancipation. The makers of the new
American literature were friends of the anti-slavery cause. Emerson gave
to it his words of serene inspiration. Whittier was among its ardent
apostles, shared in its political activity, and sang lyrics of freedom.
Bryant was its strong advocate in journalism. Lowell, drawn by his noble
wife, came as a strong ally, and the Biglow Papers gave what had been
greatly lacking,--the salt of humor.

The Abolitionists might be compared to a comet,--a body with a bright
head and a nebulous tail. Like all radicals and reformers they had a
fringe of unbalanced and crotchety folk. It must be said, too, that
absorption in a topic remote from the concerns of one's daily life is
apt to be somewhat distracting and demoralizing. Dr. Joseph Henry
Allen--an admirable and too little known writer--has in an eloquent and
beautiful passage described the Abolitionists (though he was not one of
them) as the devotees of a genuine and heroic religion. But any
adequate religion must find its main application in the duties and
services of the immediate present; and the men and women who were
possessed day a