t any fact stated by our
lecturers has been disproved, or any statement of theirs successfully
impeached. And for evidence of the soundness, simplicity, and pertinency
of their arguments we can only claim that our converts and co-laborers
throughout the land have at least the reputation of being specially able
"to give a reason for the faith that is in them."

I remember that when, in 1845, the present leaders of the Free Soil
party, with Daniel Webster in their company, met to draw up the
Anti-Texas Address of the Massachusetts Convention, they sent to
Abolitionists for anti-slavery facts and history, for the remarkable
testimonies of our Revolutionary great men which they wished to quote.
When, many years ago, the Legislature of Massachusetts wished to send to
Congress a resolution affirming the duty of immediate emancipation, the
committee sent to William Lloyd Garrison to draw it up, and it stands
now on our statute-book as he drafted it.

How vigilantly, how patiently, did we watch the Texas plot from its
commencement! The politic South felt that its first move had been too
bold, and thenceforward worked underground. For many a year men laughed
at us for entertaining any apprehensions. It was impossible to rouse the
North to its peril. David Lee Child was thought crazy because he would
not believe there was no danger. His elaborate "_Letters on Texas
Annexation_" are the ablest and most valuable contribution that has
been made toward a history of the whole plot. Though we foresaw and
proclaimed our conviction that annexation would be, in the end, a fatal
step for the South, we did not feel at liberty to relax our opposition,
well knowing the vast increase of strength it would give, at first, to
the slave power. I remember being one of a committee which waited
on Abbott Lawrence, a year or so only before annexation, to ask his
countenance to some general movement, without distinction of party,
against the Texas scheme. He smiled at our fears, begged us to have
no apprehensions; stating that his correspondence with leading men at
Washington enabled him to assure us annexation was impossible, and that
the South itself was determined to defeat the project. A short time
after, Senators and Representatives from Texas took their seats in
Congress!

Many of these services to the slave were done before I joined his cause.
In thus referring to them, do not suppose me merely seeking occasion of
eulogy on my predecessors an