er story and implored
protection. In vain,--the officers of the law dragged her from the
house; a judge gave speedy sentence that she was a slave; she was taken
sobbing to jail; and the next day she was carried down the river to New
Orleans, where she was sold on the auction block,--and never heard of
again.

Birney took part in the work of the new anti-slavery societies, but he
did not follow Garrison's no-government theories. He favored for a while
the policy of throwing the anti-slavery strength for such congressional
nominees of the regular parties as favored their views, and several
candidates were chosen in this way. But when Clay became pronounced
against the Abolitionists, and even John Quincy Adams, after championing
the right of petition, voted against the abolition of slavery in the
District of Columbia, Birney and his sympathizers gave up hope of help
from existing parties, and organized their own party for the election of
1840. Its principles were resistance to slavery extension, and
opposition to slavery so far as was practicable under the
Constitution,--the principles later of the Republican party. Birney was
nominated for President, and this handful of voters was the seed of the
harvest twenty years later. He was again the candidate in 1844, with an
increased support, and the party now was named "The Liberty Party."

A leader and type of the moderate anti-slavery sentiment was William
Ellery Channing. In Channing was a blending of high moral ideals,
intelligent views of human nature and society, an apostle's earnestness
wedded with "sweet reasonableness," and a personal character of rare
symmetry and beauty. He was an evolutionist and not a revolutionist.
Foremost among the group of New England ministers who broadened and
ripened out of the orthodoxy of their day, and were ostracized by their
former brethren, he was forced into the position of leader of a new
sect, but his utterances and spirit were always those of a minister of
the church universal. He was the early advocate of most of the
religious and social reforms which have since come to the front. By
preference, he always used the methods of peace and persuasion. He had
made early acquaintance with slavery in a two-years' residence in
Richmond while a young man. He was always opposed to it, but his
attention was long absorbed by the immediate needs of his own people. He
spent half a year in Santa Cruz, for his health, in 1830-1,--just when
Garri