100 SLAVERY only visible sign of opposition to slavery until William Lloyd Garrison estabbshed "The Lib- erator" in Boston, Jan. 1, 1831. Accepting the definition of American slavery furnished by the statutes of the slave states, which de- clare the slaves to be " chattels personal, in the hands of their owners and possessors to all intent*, constructions, and purposes what- soever," he asserted that slaveholding was a sin against God and a crime against humanity ; that immediate emancipation was the right of every slave and the duty of every master. On Jan. 1 1832, the first society on this basis was or- ganized in Boston by 12 men, Arnold Buff urn, a Quaker, being president. The " American Anti- Slavery Society" was formed in Philadelphia in December, 1833, Arthur Tappan being its first president. This society and its auxiliaries expressly affirmed that congress had no right to abolish slavery in the slave states, and they asked for no action on the part of the national government that had not, up to that time, been held to be constitutional by leading men of all parties in every portion of the country. They pronounced all laws admitting the right of slavery to be " before God utterly null and void." They declared that their principles led them " to reject, and to entreat the oppressed to reject, the use of all carnal weapons for deliverance from bondage;" their measures, they said, would be " such only as the opposi- tion of moral purity to moral corruption, the destruction of error by the potency of truth, and the abolition of slavery by the spirit of repentance!" By means of lectures, newspa- pers, tracts, public meetings, and petitions to congress, they produced an intense excitement throughout the country, the effects of which were soon manifest in the religious sects and political parties. The American anti-slavery society and those affiliated with it were op- posed to the formation of a distinct anti-slavery political party, deeming it wiser to attempt to diffuse their principles among the members of all parties. In 1840, on account of differences upon this and other matters affecting the pol- icy of the movement, a portion of the mem- bers seceded and formed the " American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society." The "liberty party " was organized in the same year, main- ly by the seceders and those in sympathy with them. This party was mostly absorbed by the " free-soil party " in the presidential election of 1848, though a small number of persons, holding the opinion that the national govern- ment had constitutional power to abolish slave- ry in every part of the country, continued un- der the name of liberty party for several years. Thu frvi'-.soil party was in its turn absorbed by the republican party, which in the presi- dential election of 1856 first exhibited great strength and commanded a popular vote of upward of 1,800,000, though it failed to elect its candidates. In 1860 it elected Abraham Lincoln president and Hannibal Hamlin vice 'nt by the vote of all the free states ex- cept New Jersey. In 1844 the American anti- slavery society openly avowed its conviction that the so-called " compromises of the consti- tution " were immoral ; that, consequently, it was wrong to swear to support that instrument, or to hold office or vote under it. From that time until the secession of the slave states, the abolitionists of this school avowed it to be their object to effect a dissolution of the Amer- ican Union and the organization of a northern republic where no slavery should exist. The " American Abolition Society " was formed in Boston in 1855, to promote the views of those who held that the national government had constitutional power to abolish slavery in every part of the Union. The " Church Anti-Slavery Society" was organized in 1859, for the pur- pose of convincing the American churches and ministers that slavery was a sin, and inducing them to take the lead in the work of abolition. There have been few slave conspiracies or in- surrections in the United States, and the ser- vile population never produced any band of men to be compared with the Maroons of the West Indies, who so long baffled the exertions of the whites to subdue them. It is estimated that more than 30,000 American slaves, after escaping from bondage, found an asylum in Canada. They were aided in their flight by opponents of slavery in the free states. An attempt, in 1859, at subverting the slave in- stitutions of the United States by an insurrec- tion ended in speedy defeat, and was followed by the execution of the leader, John Brown, and some of his associates. The secession of the states which formed the government of the Confederate States in 1861 wholly changed the relations of the government of the Uni- ted States to the institution of slavery. Al- though President Lincoln hastened to make strong assurances of the purpose of the gov- ernment to abide faithfully by all the compro- mises of the constitution relating to slavery, and in all the military orders endeavored to provide for so conducting the war as to avoid disturbing the relation of master and slave as it then existed under state laws, it soon became evident that a vigorous prosecution of the war must of necessity make serious inroads upon the institution, if not wholly destroy it in those dis- tricts which the federal army should occupy. In May, 1861, Maj. Gen. Butler, commanding the department of Eastern Virginia, declared slaves who had been employed for military pur- poses of the confederacy to be contraband of war, and appropriated them to the purposes of his own army. In August following Gen. Fremont, commanding in Missouri, issued a general order wherein, among other things, he proclaimed free all the slaves of those who should take up arms against the United States, or take active part with their enemies in the field. In the particular specified this order was modified by direction of the president, but slaves who had performed any service for the confederate army, whether as servants
