nd night by the wrongs of those to whom they could render
little service, were apt to be thrown out of touch with near and homely
relations, and become what are now called "cranks."

But to appreciate the service of the Abolitionists we must remember that
up to the birth of the Republican party in 1854 almost all of the
political leaders and men of public affairs, as well as most of the
churches, colleges, and professional educators, held aloof from the
anti-slavery cause. With a few exceptions, they left the work of
educating public sentiment, and shaping some policy on the supreme
question, to be done by this little company,--of lecturers, ministers,
literary men and women. These did loyally and bravely according to their
lights; and they had their reward, outwardly in unpopularity and
sometimes persecution, but inwardly in a social atmosphere within their
own body, warm, joyful, and religious; and the sense of alliance with
the Divine Force in the universe. Said Wendell Phillips: "One man with
God is a majority."

CHAPTER VI

BIRNEY, CHANNING, AND WEBSTER

Of the moderate wing of the anti-slavery men, a good representative was
James G. Birney. With the fine physical presence and genial manhood of
the typical Kentuckian, he had a well-balanced mind and a thorough
loyalty to the sense of duty, which broadened as he grew. Removing to
Alabama, he became anti-slavery in his sentiments, and he was a friend
not only of the negro, but of all who were oppressed. As the legal
representative of the Cherokee nation he stood for years between the
Indians and those who would wrong them. He identified himself for a time
with the colonization cause; and, finding himself growing powerless in
Southern communities, he removed to Ohio, where there was a strong and
vigorous anti-slavery propaganda. One incident of his life in Cincinnati
illustrates the concrete form which slavery sometimes took. A Missourian
owned a slave girl who was his own daughter, a cultivated and refined
woman. He took her to the East for a visit, treated her habitually as
one of his own family, but refused her prayers for freedom. Dreading the
possibilities of her lot, she made her escape in Cincinnati; and,
concealing her identity and history, she got a situation as a servant in
Mr. Birney's family. One day when he was absent from the city she came
home in terror; she had been recognized on the street by two
professional slave-catchers; now she told h