liticians were little aware of this. When Mr. Adams
threw himself so gallantly into the breach, it is said he wrote
anxiously home to know whether he would be supported in Massachusetts,
little aware of the outburst of popular gratitude which the northern
breeze was even then bringing him, deep and cordial enough to wipe away
the old grudge Massachusetts had borne him so long. Mr. Adams himself
was only in favor of receiving the petitions, and advised to refuse
their prayer, which was the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia. He doubted the power of Congress to abolish. His doubts were
examined by Mr. William Goodell, in two letters of most acute logic,
and of masterly ability. If Mr. Adams still retained his doubts, it is
certain at least that he never expressed them afterward. When Mr. Clay
paraded the same objections, the whole question of the power of Congress
over the District was treated by Theodore D. Weld in the fullest manner,
and with the widest research,--indeed, leaving nothing to be added:
an argument which Dr. Channing characterized as "demonstration," and
pronounced the essay "one of the ablest pamphlets from the American
press." No answer was ever attempted. The best proof of its ability is
that no one since has presumed to doubt the power. Lawyers and statesmen
have tacitly settled down into its full acknowledgment.

The influence of the Colonization Society on the welfare of the colored
race was the first question our movement encountered. To the close
logic, eloquent appeals, and fully sustained charges of Mr. Garrison's
letters on that subject no answer was ever made. Judge Jay followed
with a work full and able, establishing every charge by the most patient
investigation of facts. It is not too much to say of these two volumes,
that they left the Colonization Society hopeless at the North. It dares
never show its face before the people, and only lingers in some few
nooks of sectarian pride, so secluded from the influence of present
ideas as to be almost fossil in their character.

The practical working of the slave system, the slave laws, the treatment
of slaves, their food, the duration of their lives, their ignorance and
moral condition, and the influence of Southern public opinion on their
fate, have been spread out in a detail and with a fulness of evidence
which no subject has ever received before in this country. Witness the
words of Phelps, Bourne, Rankin, Grimke, the _Anti-slaver