n prairies. About
the same time the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence,
Charles Carroll of Maryland, died at the age of ninety-six. In American
letters, this year is noted for the appearance of Smith's national anthem,
"My Country, 'tis of Thee." Among the books that attracted attention were
Whittier's "Moll Pitcher," Sparks's "Gouverneur Morris," and Irving's
"Alhambra." James Gordon Bennett began the publication of the "New York
Globe."

1833

[Sidenote: American abolition movement]

At the very outset of this year in America the slavery question burst into
flame. The abolition movement inaugurated by Garrison and Whittier in the
North was in full sway. In the slave-holding States large rewards were
offered for the apprehension of Garrison, Whittier and others connected
with the publication of the Boston "Liberator," Philadelphia "Freeman" and
New York "Emancipator." The legislatures of Northern States were called
upon to suppress anti-slavery societies by penal enactments. Governor
Edward Everett of Massachusetts and Governor Marcy of New York commended
such legislation. Prominent Northern citizens travelling in the South were
arrested, imprisoned and flogged for flimsy reasons. At New York,
Montpelier, Utica, Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Alton, meetings
were broken up, houses sacked, newspapers destroyed and public halls
burned. Berry's "Philanthropist" at Cincinnati and Lovejoy's "Observer" at
Alton were destroyed and Pennsylvania Hall at Philadelphia, a costly
building intended for anti-slavery discussion, was burned on the day after
its dedication, at which a poem by Whittier had been read. The firemen
refused to extinguish the flames. In Boston, Garrison was dragged through
the streets with a rope around his neck. Whittier and Thompson tried to
lecture against slavery in Boston, but their meeting could not be held in
the face of the following placard posted in all parts of Boston:

[Sidenote: A typical manifesto]

"That infamous foreign scoundrel, Thompson, will hold forth this afternoon
at 46 Washington Street. The present is a fair opportunity for the friends
of the Union to snake Thompson out. It will be a contest between the
Abolitionists and the friends of the Union. A purse of _one hundred
dollars_ has been raised by a number of patriotic citizens to reward the
individual who shall first lay violent hands on Thompson, so that he may be
brought to the tar-kettle be