the mob was of much longer duration in the North and reached its
height in the years 1834 and 1835. But Northern mobs only
quickened the zeal of the abolitionists and made converts to
their cause. The attempt to substitute repressive state
legislation had the same effect, and the use of church authority
for making an end of the agitation for human liberty was only
temporarily influential.

As early as 1838 the Presbyterian Church was divided over
questions of doctrine into Old School and New School
Presbyterians. This served to forestall the impending division on
the slavery question. The Old School in the South became
pro-slavery and the New School in the North became anti-slavery.
At the same time the Methodist Church of the entire country was
beset by a division on the main question. In 1844 Southern
Methodist Episcopalian conferences resolved upon separation and
committed themselves to the defense of slavery. The division in
the Methodist Church was completed in 1846. A corresponding
division took place in the Baptist Church in 1845. The
controversy was dividing the country into a free North and an
enslaved South, and Southern white men as well as negroes were
threatened with subjection to the demands of the dominant
institution.



CHAPTER VI. THE SLAVERY ISSUE IN POLITICS

Some who opposed mob violence became active abolitionists; others
were led to defend the rights of abolitionists because to do