A spirit of emancipation was then common among slaveholders; many
slaves were set at liberty, and Christians, and philanthropists, were
anxiously looking forward to a period of universal emancipation. A
gentleman, by name Benjamin Lundy, published at that time an
anti-slavery paper in Greenville, East Tennessee; which paper had an
extensive circulation. About that time, I gathered up my anti-slavery
juvenile doggerel, corrected it, as well as I could,--selected poems
from Cowper and others, on the subject; forwarded the manuscript to
the aforesaid B. Lundy, and the result was, a little volume of
anti-slavery poems. But the abolition excitement broke out in the
North, and the South took the alarm. The mouths of clergymen were
closed in the pulpit; for it was deemed inadvisable, in consequence of
Northern interference, to discuss the subject of slavery in the
pulpit, social circle, or under any circumstances, whatever. It was
thus, we see, through the intermeddling of Northern abolitionists,
that discussion was cut off in the South. Rigid laws were then enacted
by the state Legislatures, for the suppression of public discussion;
and there were also enactments which threw obstacles in the way of
emancipation; and thus, the fetters of slavery have been drawn
tighter, and tighter, from that day, to the present time.

A short time after the excitement commenced in the South, a committee
of panic-stricken citizens called on Mr. Lundy, after expressing for
him personally the highest regard, they politely requested him to
discontinue his paper; expressing the opinion, at the time, that its
publication was no longer consistent with public safety. Mr. Lundy
complied with their request, and it was rumored, whether true or
false, I know not, that he remarked, that it was a great pity that the
Yankees could not mind their own business. Mr. Lundy, I believe, was a