r citizens
were high-spirited and generous, but they had not the public spirit
which New England had imparted to Ohio, for public spirit comes from
equality and from the feeling for others' rights, and the very supremacy
which the slaveholders enjoyed was fatal to this feeling. Virginia and
Kentucky were rich in independent character, but public spirit is
better than this, for it cares for the independence of all through the
self-sacrifice of each. That was the secret which Ohio early learned
from New England, and which kept her safe from slavery when it pressed
so hard upon her in the friendship as well as the enmity of her
neighbors.

We know that the Northwestern Territory was devoted to freedom by the
law that created it, but we have seen that slavery was kept out of Ohio
by one vote only when her first constitution was adopted; and for a
very long time there was a very large party favorable to slavery in our
state. It will seem strange to many of my readers that Ohio people of
color were once not only not allowed to vote, but were not allowed to
give testimony in the courts of law. They were treated in this like the
Southern slaves, and in fact there was really a sort of slaveholding
in Ohio, in spite of the law. In the river counties many farmers
hired slaves from their masters in Virginia and Kentucky; and when the
Southerners traveled through Ohio, they brought their slaves into the
state with them, and took them out again. But when the conscience of the
Northern people began to stir against slavery, the Ohio abolitionists
coaxed away the slaves of these Southern travelers and sojourners,
and this, with the constant escape of runaway slaves by their help,
infuriated the friends of slavery inside as well as outside of the
state. The abolitionists had what they called the Underground Railroad,
with stations at their houses in town and country, and they sped the
fugitives from one to another till they reached Canada. Their enemies
accused them of tempting slaves across the Ohio, in order to give them
their freedom, and in a little while the rage against them broke out in
mobs and riots.

It would not be easy to trace here the course of events which led to
these outbreaks. It is no doubt true that the abolitionists were often
rash, if not reckless, and that when they were maddened by the coldness
or the hostility of the people to the cause of human freedom they did
not stop at some acts which, though they were rig