pose would be accepted. But when the nine
slaveholders began to talk about the existing conditions in Kentucky
Birney's eyes were opened. It was pointed out that those who advocated
immediate emancipation were coming more and more to be victims of
social ostracism. Furthermore, Birney learned that there was among the
prominent slaveholders of the State a sort of secret organization
which had been formed to protect the constitutional rights of Kentucky
slaveholders against the encroachments of the people from the North.
James G. Birney was one of the most intelligent of the Kentuckians who
favored emancipation, but the ardent enthusiasm which he had hitherto
held for the future of his cause in Kentucky was decidedly cooled by
this little gathering of nine slaveholders. These men showed him a
point of view about which he had thought very little. Outside of the
new vision which this conference gave to Birney the only result of the
deliberations was that there was formed a society of slaveholders
which advocated the gradual emancipation of the future offspring of
slaves when they reached the age of twenty-one.[423]

Soon after this episode Birney came out in opposition to both gradual
emancipation and colonization. The majority of liberal-minded
Kentuckians were coming more and more to believe in these two
propositions as the ultimate solution of the slave problems of the
State and once Birney came out in opposition to them he was put down
as a radical abolitionist. In July, 1835, the feeling of the people of
Danville was aroused to the highest pitch and his anti-slavery paper
_The Philanthropist_ was forced to suspend publication when the local
printer was bought out.[424] The feeling of the people throughout the
State, however, was well shown by the fact that for the next two
months Birney made personal visits to Lexington, Frankfort and
Louisville in an attempt to get a printer to issue his newspaper. He
was entirely unsuccessful and on September 13 he wrote to Gerrit Smith
that he had determined to move to Cincinnati.[425] While the people of
the State could not agree with Birney's attitude on slavery they were
the first to admire his courage. George D. Prentice, the pro-slavery
editor of the _Louisville Journal_, had this comment to make:

"He is an enthusiastic, but, in our opinion, a visionary
philanthropist, whose efforts, though well intended, are likely
to be of no real service to the cause of huma