y there until we have grown up to
be men." The next day Green was chosen, and established in a manner
never to be forgotten by his associates that the convention did possess
"timber big enough to make a president of."

Narrow as were the circumstances of many of the members, the convention
was by no means destitute of men of wealth and business prominence. Such
were the Winslows, Isaac and Nathan, of Maine, Arnold Buffum, of
Massachusetts, and John Rankin and Lewis Tappan, of New York.
Scholarship, talents, and eloquence abounded among the delegates. Here
there was no lack, no poverty, but extraordinary sufficiency, almost to
redundancy. The presence of the gentler sex was not wanting to lend
grace and picturesqueness to the occasion. The beautiful and benignant
countenance of Lucretia Mott shed over the proceedings the soft radiance
of a pure and regnant womanhood; while the handful of colored delegates
with the elegant figure of Robert Purvis at their head, added pathos and
picturesqueness to the _personnel_ of the convention. Neither was the
element of danger wanting to complete the historic scene. Its presence
was grimly manifest in the official intimation that evening meetings of
the convention could not be protected, by the demonstrations of popular
ill-will which the delegates encountered on the streets, by the
detachment of constabulary guarding the entrance to Adelphi Hall, and by
the thrillingly significant precaution observed by the delegates of
sitting with locked doors. Over the assembly it impended cruel and
menacing like fate. Once securely locked within the hall, the
Abolitionists discreetly abstained from leaving it at noon for dinner,
well knowing how small a spark it takes to kindle a great fire. It was
foolhardy to show themselves unnecessarily to the excited crowds in the
streets, and so mindful that true courage consisteth not in
recklessness, they despatched one of their number for crackers and
cheese, which they washed down with copious draughts of cold water. But
they had that to eat and drink besides, whereof the spirits of mischief
without could not conceive.

The grand achievement of the convention was, of course, the formation of
the American Anti-Slavery Society, but the crown of the whole was
unquestionably the Declaration of Sentiments. The composition of this
instrument has an interesting history. It seems that the delegates
considered that the remarkable character of the movement which