self at the head of the movement in Kentucky for gradual
emancipation. Upon Clay's refusal their political cooperation
terminated. Birney never again supported Clay for office and regarded
him as in a large measure responsible for the pro-slavery reaction in
Kentucky.

Birney, who had now become discouraged regarding the prospect of
emancipation, during the winter of 1831 and 1832 decided to remove his
family to Jacksonville, Illinois. He was deterred from carrying out
his plan, however, by his unexpected appointment as agent of the
colonization society in the Southwest--a mission which he undertook from
a sense of duty.

In his travels throughout the region assigned to him, Birney became
aware of the aggressive designs of the planters of the Gulf States to
secure new slave territories in the Southwest. In view of these facts
the methods of the colonization society appeared utterly futile. Birney
surrendered his commission and, in 1833, returned to Kentucky with the
intention of doing himself what Henry Clay had refused to do three years
earlier, still hoping that Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee might be
induced to abolish slavery and thus place the slave power in a hopeless
minority. His disappointment was extreme at the pro-slavery reaction
which had taken place in Kentucky. The condition called for more drastic
measures, and Birney decided to forsake entirely the colonization
society and cast in his lot with the abolitionists. He freed his slaves
in 1834, and in the following year he delivered the principal address
at the annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society held in New
York. His gift of leadership was at once recognized. As vice-president
of the society he began to travel on its behalf, to address public
assemblies, and especially to confer with members of state legislatures
and to address the legislative bodies. He now devoted his entire time to
the service of the society, and as early as September, 1835, issued the
prospectus of a paper devoted to the cause of emancipation. This called
forth such a display of force against the movement that he could neither
find a printer nor obtain the use of a building in Dansville, Kentucky,
for the publication. As a result he transferred his activities to
Cincinnati, where he began publication of the Philanthropist in 1836.
With the connivance of the authorities and encouragement from leading
citizens of Cincinnati, the office of the Philanthropist was three