vince and as its organ it had an outstanding newspaper, _The
Globe_, of Toronto.

The meeting held in Toronto was large and enthusiastic. _The Globe_ of
Toronto of March 1, gives almost five columns to the report of the
proceedings. The mayor of the city acted as chairman and the opening
prayer was made by Rev. Dr. Michael Willis, the principal of Knox
Presbyterian Theological College. A series of four resolutions were
proposed and endorsed. The first of these declared as a platform of
the society that "slavery is an outrage on the laws of humanity" and
that "its continued practice demands the best exertions for its
extinction." A second resolution, proposed by Dr. Willis, declared the
United States slave laws "at open variance with the best interests of
man, as endowed by our great creator with the privilege of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness." A third resolution expressed
sympathy with the abolitionists in the United States, while the fourth
and concluding resolution proposed the formation of the Anti-Slavery
Society of Canada. "The object," it declared, "shall be to aid in the
extinction of slavery all over the world by means exclusively lawful
and peaceable, moral and religious, such as by the diffusing of useful
information and argument, by tracts, newspapers, lectures and
correspondence, and by manifesting sympathy with the houseless and
homeless victims of slavery flying to our soil."

Rev. Dr. Willis was chosen as the first president, an office which he
filled during the whole of the period of the struggle. Rev. William
McClure, a Methodist clergyman of the New Connection branch, was named
as secretary, with Andrew Hamilton as treasurer and Captain Charles
Stuart, corresponding secretary. A large committee was also named
including, among others, George Brown, editor of _The Globe_, and
Oliver Mowat, later a premier of the province of Ontario.

The aims of the society, as set forth in the resolution of
organization, called for both educational and relief work. No time was
lost in beginning each of these. Within a month after the founding of
the society it was holding public meetings, both in Toronto and
elsewhere throughout the province. The speakers included George
Thompson, the noted English abolitionist; Fred Douglass, the Negro
orator, and Rev. S. J. May, of Syracuse. Some hostility developed,
_The Patriot_ charging George Thompson with being an abolitionist for
sordid motives, while _The Leader