greater moment to our welfare as a republic, and demands a more prudent
and minute investigation than any other which has come before the
American people since the Revolutionary struggle--than all others which
now occupy their attention. No body of men on the face of the earth
deserve their charities, and prayers, and united assistance so much as
the slaves of this country; and yet they are almost entirely neglected.
It is true many a cheek burns with shame in view of our national
inconsistency, and many a heart bleeds for the miserable African. It is
true examples of disinterested benevolence and individual sacrifices are
numerous, particularly in the Southern States; but no systematic,
vigorous, and successful measures have been made to overthrow this
fabric of oppression. I trust in God that I may be the humble instrument
of breaking at least one chain, and restoring one captive to liberty; it
will amply repay a life of severe toil." The causes of temperance and
peace came in also for an earnest parting word, but they had clearly
declined to a place of secondary importance in the writer's regard. To
be more exact, they had not really declined, but the slavery question
had risen in his mind above both. They were great questions, but it was
_the_ question--had become _his_ cause.

Lundy, after his visit to Garrison at Bennington, started on a trip to
Hayti with twelve emancipated slaves, whom he had undertaken to colonize
there. Garrison awaited in Boston the return of his partner to
Baltimore. The former, meanwhile, was out of employment, and sorely in
need of money. Never had he been favored with a surplusage of the root
of all evil. He was deficient in the money-getting and money-saving
instinct. Such was plainly not his vocation, and so it happened that
wherever he turned, he and poverty walked arm in arm, and the
interrogatory, "wherewithal shall I be fed and clothed on the morrow?"
was never satisfactorily answered until the morrow arrived. This led him