rward among those who are first mentioned in
this chapter. Some eight or ten years ago, Mr. Smith was the owner of
large tracts of land, lying in twenty-nine counties in the State of New
York, and came to the strange conclusion to give the most of it away.
Consequently, three thousand lots of land, containing from thirty to one
hundred acres each, were given to coloured men residing in the
State--the writer of this being one of the number.

Although universal suffrage is enjoyed by the whites in the State of New
York, a property-qualification is imposed on coloured men; and this act
of Mr. Smith's not only made three thousand men the owners of land, but
created also three thousand voters. The ability to give, and the
willingness to do so, is not by any means the greatest quality of this
gentleman. As a public speaker, Mr. Smith has few equals; and certainly
no man in his State has done more to forward the cause of Negro
Emancipation than he.

We have already swelled the pages of this chapter beyond what we
intended when we commenced, but yet we have called attention to only one
branch of American Reformers. The Temperance Reformers are next to be
considered. This cause has many champions, and yet none who occupy a
very prominent position before the world. The first temperance newspaper
published in the United States, was edited by William Lloyd Garrison.
Gerrit Smith has also done much in promulgating temperance views. But
the most noted man in the movement at the present time, and the one best
known to the British public, is John B. Gough. This gentleman was at one
time an actor on the stage, and subsequently became an inebriate of the
most degraded kind. He was, however, reclaimed through the great
Washingtonian movement that swept over the United States a few years
since. In stature, Mr. Gough is tall and slim, with black hair, which he
usually wears too long. As an orator, he is considered among the first
in the United States. Having once been an actor, he throws all his
dramatic powers into his addresses. He has a facility of telling strange
and marvellous stories which can scarcely be surpassed; and what makes
them still more interesting, he always happens to be an eyewitness.
While speaking, he acts the drunkard, and does it in a style which could
not be equalled on the boards of the Lyceum or Adelphi. No man has
obtained more signatures to the temperance pledge than he. After all, it
is a question whether he ha