ircumspection of his life and conversation. When
John Woolman first brought the subject of slavery before the yearly
meeting of the Society of Friends at Philadelphia, at a time when its
members were deeply implicated both in slave-holding and in
slave-dealing, he stood almost alone in his anti-slavery testimony,
which he expressed in few and appropriate words. Some severe remarks
were made by others in reply, on this and on successive similar
occasions, when he introduced the subject, but such treatment provoked
no rejoinder from John Woolman, who would quietly resume his seat and
weep in silent submission.

He was not deterred by this discouraging reception from again and again
bringing the subject before the next Yearly Meeting, and finally his
unwearied efforts, always prosecuted in the "meekness of wisdom,"
resulted in the Society of Friends entirely wiping away the reproach of
this abomination.

The great qualification of John Woolman for pleading the cause of the
oppressed was the same which has been ascribed with equal truth and
beauty to his contemporary and co-worker, Anthony Benezet: "a peculiar
capacity for being profoundly sensible of their wrongs." The biographer
of the latter has described another occurrence in the Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting at a subsequent stage of this momentous controversy,
which may prove an interesting counterpart to the foregoing relation.

"On one occasion during the annual convention of the Society at
Philadelphia, when that body was engaged on the subject of slavery, as
it related to its own members, some of whom had not wholly relinquished
the practice of keeping negroes in bondage, a difference of sentiment
arose as to the course which ought to be pursued. For a moment it
appeared doubtful which opinion would preponderate. At this critical
juncture Benezet left his seat, which was in an obscure part of the
house, and presented himself weeping at an elevated door in the presence
of the whole congregation, whom he thus addressed--'Ethiopia shall soon
stretch out her hands unto God.' He said no more: under the solemn
impression which succeeded this emphatic quotation, the proposed measure
received the united sanction of the assembly."[A]

[Footnote A: Life of Anthony Benezet, by Roberts Vaux.]

Even the passing observer is aware how closely the Society of Friends is
identified with the anti-slavery cause, and if such an one were to make
this fact the subject of historical in