Liberty Party, founded November 13, 1839, Warsaw, New York, abolitionist political party, merged with the Free Soil Party in 1848. Newspaper: Liberty Party Paper, published by John Thomas in Syracuse, New York; the Emancipator, in Massachusetts; the Liberty Press and Albany Patriot, in upstate New York; the Philanthropist, in Ohio; Western Citizen, in Chicago; Free Labor Advocate, in Indiana; Liberty Standard, in Maine; American Freeman, in Wisconsin; New Jersey Freeman and Signal of Liberty, in Michigan. There were sixty Liberty Party newspapers. James Birney was the presidential candidate for the Liberty Party. (References)

• Chapter by Henry Wilson, "The Liberty Party," in Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872.
• Chapter by Henry Wilson, "Antislavery Organizations," in Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872.
• Officers, members and supporters of the Liberty Party - Part 1 / Part 2

Return to Top of Page


Officers, Members and Supporters (continued):

Davis, Mary Brown, writer for Western Citizen newspaper. (Sinha, 2016, p. 468; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


DeBaptiste, George, Michigan, abolitionist (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Douglass, Frederick, 1817-1895, African American, escaped slave, author, diplomat, orator, newspaper publisher, radical abolitionist leader.  Published The North Star abolitionist newspaper with Martin Delany.  Wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas: An American Slave, in 1845.  Also wrote My Bondage, My Freedom, 1855.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1848-1853. Supporter of the Liberty Party.

(Dumond, 1961, pp. 331-333; Filler, 1960; Foner, 1964; Mabee, 1970; McFeely, 1991;  Quarles, 1948; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 264-265; Wilson, 1872, 499-511; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 217; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 251-254; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 816; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 309-310; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 67; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Dyer, Charles Volney, Dr. 1808-1878, Clarendon, Vermont, abolitionist, jurist, businessman, Underground Railroad activist.  Co-founded Chicago chapter of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1838 with Philo Carpenter.  Station master on the Underground Railroad.  Ran for governor of Illinois, 1848, from the Liberty Party (lost)

(Campbell, 2009; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 285; Campbell, 2009)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

DYER, Charles Volney, Abolitionist, born in Clarendon, Vermont, 12 June, 1808; died at Lake View, near Chicago, 24 April, 1878. He was graduated at the medical department of Middlebury College in 1830, and began practice in Newark, New Jersey, in 1831, but moved in 1835 to Chicago, and soon became acting surgeon in Fort Dearborn. He was successful in his practice and business adventures, retiring from the former in 1854, and becoming agent for the " Underground Railroad " in Chicago. One instance illustrates the courage of Dr. Dyer: In 1846 a fugitive from Kentucky was caught in Chicago by his master and an armed posse, bound tightly with ropes, and guarded while a man went for a blacksmith to rivet the manacles that were to be put upon him. Dr. Dyer, hearing of the arrest, went hurriedly to the Mansion House and to the room where the victim was confined, burst open the door, cut the cords, and told the fugitive to go, which he did before his captors recovered from their surprise and bewilderment at such unexpected and summary proceedings. A bully, with brandishing Bowie-knife, rushed toward the doctor, who stood his ground and knocked down his assailant with his cane. Sympathizing friends subsequently presented the doctor a gold-headed hickory cane of gigantic proportions, appropriately inscribed, which is now in the library of the Chicago Historical Society. At an anti-slavery convention in 1846 at Chicago, Dr. Dyer was chairman of the committee for establishing the " National Era" at Washington, an organ of the Abolition Party, established 7 January, 1847. Dr. Dyer had a genial nature, which manifested itself in ready witticisms and pleasant conversation, except when he chanced to come in contact with shams, impostors, or hypocrites, for which he had a most profound contempt and abundant words to express his detestation. In recognition of Dr. Dyer's sterling integrity and the great service he had rendered the cause of anti-slavery. President Lincoln, who knew him well, appointed him in 1863 judge of the mixed court at Sierra Leone, for the suppression of the slave trade, after which appointment he passed two years travelling in Europe.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 285


Earle, Thomas, 1796-1849, Worcester, Massachusetts, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist leader, journalist, lawyer, political leader, Philadelphia, PA.  Edited Pennsylvania Freeman.  Petitioned Congress to amend U.S. Constitution to compensate slaveholders in the South who freed their slaves.  Vice presidential candidate for abolitionist Liberty Party in 1840 (lost). Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1839-1840.

(Bonner, 1948; Drake, 1950, p. 149; Dumond, 1961, p. 297; Goodell, 1852, p. 471; Pennsylvania Freeman, April 23, 1840; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 288-289; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 597; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 231).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

EARLE, Thomas, lawyer, born in Leicester, Massachusetts, 21 April, 1796; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 14 July, 1849, was educated at Leicester Academy. In 1817 he moved to Philadelphia, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits for a few years, but subsequently studied law and practised his profession. He became distinguished also as a journalist, editing in succession the "Columbian Observer," "Standard," "Pennsylvanian," and "Mechanics' Free Press and Reform Advocate." In 1837 he took an active part in calling the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, of which he was a prominent member, and it is supposed that he made the original draft of the new constitution. He lost his popularity with the Democratic Party by advocating the extension of the right of suffrage to Negroes. He was the candidate of the Liberty Party for vice-president in 1840, but the nomination was repudiated by the abolitionists, whom that party was supposed to represent. Mr. Earle subsequently took little part in political affairs. He devoted his time principally to literary work, and published an "Essay on Penal Law "; an "Essay on the Rights of States to Alter and to Annul their Charters"; "Treatise on Railroads and Internal Communications" (1830); and a" Life of Benjamin Lundy." At the time of his death he was engaged in a translation of Sismondi’s "Italian Republics," and in the compilation of a "Grammatical Dictionary of the French and the English Languages."  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 288-289.


Eastman, Zebina, published Liberty Party newspaper, Western Citizen, in Chicago. (Sinha, 2016, p. 466; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Fessenden, Samuel, 1784-1869, Portland, Maine, lawyer, jurist, soldier, abolitionist.  Vice president, 1833-1839, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Leader, active member of the Liberty Party.  Liberty Party candidate for U.S. Congress and Governor of Maine in 1847 (lost). Early member of the Republican Party.  Father of Treasury Secretary William Pitt Fessenden and Congressman Samuel Clement Fessenden. 

(Dumond, 1961, p. 301; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 443; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 346).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

FESSENDEN, Samuel, lawyer, born in Fryeburg, Maine, 16 July, 1784; died near Portland, Maine, 13 March, 1869. His father, the Reverend William Fessenden, graduated at Harvard in 1768, was the first minister of Fryeburg, and frequently a member of the Massachusetts legislature. He also served as judge of probate. Samuel received his early education at the Fryeburg Academy, and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1806. He studied law with Judge Dana, of Fryeburg, was admitted to the bar in 1809, and began practice at New Gloucester, where he rose to distinction in his profession. In 1815-'16 he was in the general court of Massachusetts, of which state Maine was then a district, and in 1818-'19 represented his district in the Massachusetts Senate. For fourteen years he was major-general of the 12th Division of Massachusetts Militia, to which office he was elected on leaving the Senate, and to which he gave much attention. He moved to Portland in 1822, and about 1828 declined the presidency of Dartmouth. He was an ardent Federalist, and one of the early members of the anti-slavery Party in Maine. In 1847 he was nominated for governor and for Congress by the Liberty Party, receiving large votes. For forty years he stood at the head of the Bar in Maine. He was an active philanthropist. He published two orations and a treatise on the institution, duties, and importance of juries. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Bowdoin in 1846. Appleton’s 1900 p. 443


Foote, Charles C., Michigan, Liberty Party candidate for U.S. Vice President (lost) American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1856-59. (Sernett, 2002, p. 123).


Foster, Theodore, Michigan, Methodist clergyman, abolitionist.  Co-editor and publisher of the Signal of Liberty with Guy Beckley, the newspaper of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, representing the Liberty Party. 

(Dumond, 1961, p. 187; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Galusha, Elon, 1790-1859, Perry, NY, anti-slavery activist, abolitionist leader, Baptist clergyman, lawyer, reformer.  First President of the Baptist Anti-Slavery Society.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1837-1840.  Supported the Liberty Party. 

(Dumond, 1961, p. 349; Goodell, 1852, pp. 496, 499; Sorin, 1971; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 584).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

GALUSHA, Elon, clergyman, born in Shaftsbury, Vt.; died in Lockport, New York, 13 June, 1859, was ordained to the Baptist ministry in early life, and served as pastor of churches in Whitesborough, Utica, Rochester, and Lockport, New York. At one time he was president of the Baptist Missionary Convention of New York. He was an attractive preacher, and one of the most widely known and esteemed among the Baptist ministers of his generation. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 584.


Garnet, Henry Highland, 1815-1882, African American, abolitionist leader, clergyman, diplomat, publisher.  Member, Nominating Committee, Liberty Party.  Former fugitive slave.  Published The Past and Present Condition and Destiny of the Colored Race, 1848.  Publisher with William G. Allen of The National Watchman, Troy, New York, founded 1842.  

(Dumond, 1961, pp. 329-333; Mabee, 1970, pp. 57, 60, 61, 62, 64, 152, 255, 273, 294, 296, 325, 337, 338; Pasternak, 1995; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 33, 164, 192, 305-306, 329; Sernett, 2002, pp. 22, 67, 70-71, 116-117, 206, 209, 240; Sorin, 1971, pp. 89-92, 97, 113; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 606; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 154; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 332-333; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 735; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 608).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

GARNET, Henry Highland, clergyman, born in New Market, Maryland, 23 December, 1815; died in Monrovia, Liberia, 13 February, 1882. He was a pure-blooded Negro of the Mendigo Tribe, of the Slave Coast, and born in slavery. His parents escaped with him to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where they remained a year, and in 1826 settled in New York City. He was educated in Canaan Academy, New Hampshire, and the Oneida Institute, near Utica, New York, where he was graduated with honor in 1840. He taught in Troy, New York, studied theology under Dr. Nathaniel S. S. Beman, was licensed to preach in 1842, and was pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Troy for nearly ten years. For a short time he also published “The Clarion,” a newspaper. In 1846 he was employed by Gerrit Smith to distribute a gift of land among colored people. He went to Europe in 1850 in the interest of the free-labor movement, and lectured in Great Britain on slavery for three years. In 1851 he was a delegate to the Association at Frankfort, He went to Jamaica as a missionary for the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1853, but returned to the United States on account of failing health, and in 1855 entered on the pastorate of Shiloh Presbyterian Church in New York City. In 1865 he accepted a call to a church in Washington, D. C. After a successful pastorate of four years he resigned to become president of Avery College, but gave up that post soon afterward, and returned to Shiloh Church. President Garfield offered him the appointment of minister and consul-general to Liberia, and after the accession of President Arthur the nomination was made and confirmed by the Senate. He arrived at Monrovia on 23 December, 1881, and entered auspiciously upon his diplomatic duties, but soon succumbed to the climate. A memorial school, organized by his daughter, Mrs. M. H. Garnet Barboza, was endowed in honor of him at Brewersville, Liberia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 606.


Gillette, Francis

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

GILLETTE, Francis, senator, born in Windsor, now Bloomfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, 14 December, 1807: died in Hartford, Connecticut, 30 September, 1879. He was graduated at Yale in 1829 with the valedictory, and then studied law with Governor William W. Ellsworth. Failing health compelled him to relinquish this pursuit, and he settled in Bloomfield as a farmer. In 1882 and again in 1836 he was sent to the legislature, where he gained notice in 1838 by his anti-slavery speech advocating the striking out of the word "white" from the state constitution. In 1841 he was nominated against his own will for the office of governor by the Liberty Party, and during the twelve following years frequently received a similar nomination from the Liberty and Free-Soil parties. He was elected by a coalition between the Whigs, temperance men, and Free-Soilers, in 1854, to fill the vacancy in the U. S. Senate caused by the resignation of Truman Smith, and served from 25 May, 1854, till 3 March, 1855. Mr. Gillette was active in the formation of the Republican Party, and was for several years a silent partner in the "Evening Press," the first distinctive organ of that party. He was active in the cause of education throughout his life, was a coadjutor of Dr. Henry Barnard from 1838 till 1842, one of the first trustees of the State Normal School, and for many years its president. Mr. Gillette took interest in agricultural matters, was an advocate of total abstinence, and delivered lectures and addresses on both subjects. He moved to Hartford in 1852, and passed the latter part of his life in that city.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 652.


Glen, E. M. K. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Gloucester, Joshua (Sinha, 2016, p. 467; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Gove, William Hazeltine

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

GOVE, William Hazeltine, politician, born in Weare, New Hampshire, 10 July, 1817: died there, 11 March, 1876. He received a common-school education, taught in Lynn, Massachusetts, one Year, and an equal length of time in Rochester, New York. He also studied law a short time in Boston. He early became an active worker in the anti-slavery cause, a supporter of the Liberty Party, and later a prominent Free-Soiler. While connected with the latter party he became well known as a stump speaker, and gained the title of the " silver-tongued orator of New Hampshire." He was a member of the first Free-Soil Convention, held in Buffalo, New York, in 1848, was a candidate of his party for the legislature year after year, and in 1851, by a combination of Free-Soilers and Whigs, he was elected. He was re-elected in 1852 and 1855. After the Free-Soil organization was merged in the Republican Party, Mr. Gove was for many years an active Republican. During the administrations of Lincoln and Johnston he held the office of postmaster. In 1871, having become dissatisfied with his party, he engaged in forming a labor reform party, whose voters, combining with the Democrats, elected him to the lower branch of the legislature, of which body he was chosen speaker. In 1872 he was a delegate to the Liberal Republican Convention at Cincinnati, and acted thence forth with the Democratic Party, which elected him to the state senate in 187&-'4." In the latter year he was made its president. As a young man Mr. Gove was engaged in the Washingtonian temperance movement, and spoke and wrote eloquently in aid of the cause. He edited for a short time the "Temperance Banner." published at Concord.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 697-698.


Green, Beriah, 1795-1874, Whitesboro, New York, reformer, clergyman, abolitionist.  President, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Active supporter of the anti-slavery Liberty Party. Corresponding Secretary, Executive Committee member and founding officer of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society, Utica, New York, October 1836.


(Blue, 2005, pp. 17, 34-35; Dumond, 1961, pp. 159, 295; Goodell, 1852, pp. 395-396, 556; Green, 1836; Mabee, 1970, pp. 20, 21, 24, 25, 40, 45, 46, 109, 151, 152, 227, 252, 257, 363, 366, 369; Pease, 1965, pp. 182-191; Sernett, 2002, 36-39, 46, 55, 72, 78, 93-94, 99, 105-106, 108, 113, 116, 122, 125; Sorin, 1971, pp. 25, 60, 90, 96, 97, 130; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 742; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 539; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 480; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 326; Minutes, First Annual Meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society, Utica, New York, October 19, 1836; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

GREEN, Beriah, reformer, born in New York state in 1794; died in Whitestown, New York, 4 May, 1874. He was graduated at Middlebury College in 1819, and studied theology with the intention of becoming a Presbyterian minister, but formed a creed of his own, which did not admit of his joining any denomination. He moved to Kennebunk, Maine, in 1820, and the following year to Ohio, and was professor of sacred literature in the Western Reserve College. His determined opposition to slavery shortened his stay in this community, and three years later he became president of the Oneida Institute, Ohio. Throughout his life he was the earnest friend of Gerrit Smith and other abolitionists, and in 1834, having taken an active part in the formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society, was chosen its president. Mr. Green was also a temperance advocate and promoter of public education. In 1845 he founded the Manual Labor School in Whitestown, New York He had just addressed the board of excise in the town-hall of Whitestown, urging the prohibition of intoxicating liquors, and was waiting at the head of a line of citizens to place his vote in the ballot-box, when he fell dead. He published "History of the Quakers" (Albany, 1823) and "Sermons and Discourses, with a Few Essays and Addresses" (Utica, New York, 1833).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 742.


Grosvenor, Cyrus Pitt, Reverend, 1792-1879, Salem, Massachusetts, clergyman, abolitionist leader, anti-slavery agent, anti-slavery Baptist minister, educator.  President of New York Central College.  Lectured on anti-slavery.  Founding member of the New England Anti-Slavery Society (NEASS), 1832.  American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) Vice President, 1834-1835, Manager, 1839-1840, 1840-1841.  Member of the Liberty Party.  Leader of the anti-slavery movement in Massachusetts and Connecticut.  Co-founded the abolitionist Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America and the American Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 188, 285, 393n24; Sinha, 2016, pp. 246, 256, 455-456, 472; Putnam, 1893, p. 14, “Friend of Man,” October 6, 1836, May 10, 1837; First Annual Report of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, 1832).


Grew, Samuel W., New York, Secretary, Liberty Party, June 1848. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Hitchcock, J. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Holmes, Ezekiel, Maine state legislator, Liberty Party candidate for Governor, 1853, 1854.  (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Horton, George F., officer, Liberty Party, June 1848. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Hussey, Erastus, 1800-1889, Battle Creek, Michigan, political leader, abolitionist leader, agent, Underground Railroad.  Helped more than one thousand slaves escape after 1840.  Co-founder of the Republican Party.  Member of the Free Soil and Liberty Parties.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 339).


Jackson, Francis, Liberty Party candidate for Mayor of Boston. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Jackson, James C., 1811-1895, New York, abolitionist leader.  Member, Executive Committee, 1840-1841, Corresponding Secretary, 1840-1842, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). Published Liberty Party newspaper, Liberty Press, in Utica, New York.

(Sernett, 2002, p. 122; Sorin, 1971, pp. 95-96, 130-131; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 547; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 752; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Jackson, William, 1783-1855, Massachusetts, newspaper publisher, abolitionist, temperance activist.  U.S. Congressman, Whig Party.  Vice president, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Founding member, Liberty Party.  President of the American Missionary Society from 1846-1854.

(Dumond, 1961, p. 286; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III; Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 561).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

JACKSON, William, financier, born in Newton, Massachusetts, 2 September, 1783; died there, 20 February, 1855. He received a common-school education, and was trained to mercantile life. He was a member of the state house of representatives from 1829 till 1832, and in the latter year was elected to Congress as a Whig. He was re-elected for the following term, but declined a second re-nomination. He was one of the earliest promoters of railroads in Massachusetts, delivering an address to the legislature in favor of the new method of locomotion, which was derisively received. Subsequently he delivered the address in various cities of New England, awakening an interest in railroads, and when their construction was begun superintended the works on the Boston and Worcester, Boston and Albany, and other lines. He was a pioneer in the temperance movement and an early opponent of slavery, being one of the founders of the Liberty Party, which was afterward merged into the Free-Soil Party. From 1848 till his death he was the president of the Newton Bank.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 393.


Jay, William, 1789-1858, Bedford, NY, jurist, anti-slavery activist, abolitionist leader, anti-slavery Liberty Party. Son of first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay. In 1819, he strongly opposed the Missouri Compromise, which allowed the extension of slavery into the new territories. Drafted the constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Corresponding Secretary, 1835-1838, Executive Committee, 1836-1837, AASS.  Vice President, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS).  He was removed as a judge of Westchester County, in New York, due to his antislavery activities. Supported emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia and the exclusion of slavery from new territories, although he did not advocate interfering with slave laws in the Southern states.

(Dumond, 1961, pp. 47, 159, 226, 286, 301; Mabee, 1970, pp. 73, 107, 199, 251, 253, 295; Sorin, 1971, pp. 51, 77-81, 96, 132; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 11; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 473-475; Jay, W., Life and Writings of John Jay, 1833; Jay, W., An Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies, 1834; Jay, W., A View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery, 1837; Jay, W., War and Peace, 1848; Jay, W., Review of the Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War, 1849).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

JAY, William, jurist, born in New York City, 16 June, 1789; died in Bedford, New York, 14 October, 1858, studied the classics at Albany with the Reverend Thomas Ellison, of Oxford, England. Among his classmates was James Fenimore Cooper, with whom he formed a life-long friendship, and who inscribed to Jay "Lionel Lincoln" and some of his " Letters from Europe." Jay was graduated at Yale in 1808, and studied law with John B. Henry of Albany, but was compelled to relinquish the profession by weakness of the eyes. He retired to his father's home at Bedford, and in 1812 married Augusta, daughter of John McVickar, a lady "in whose character were blended all the Christian graces and virtues." In 1815 he published a "Memoir on the Subject of a General Bible Society for the United States," and in 1810 assisted Elias Boudinot and others in forming the American Bible Society, of which he was for years an active and practical promoter, and its principal champion against the vigorous attacks of the high-churchmen led by Bishop Hobart. The interest in the controversy extended to England, and Jay's numerous letters and pamphlets on the subject have been commended as models of that sort of warfare. In 1818 Jay was appointed to the bench of Westchester County by Governor De Witt Clinton. His office as first judge was vacated by the adoption of the new constitution in 1821, but he was subsequently reappointed, without regard to politics, until he was superseded in 1843 by Governor Bouck at the demand of a pro-slavery faction. In 1826, Jay, who in 1819, during the Missouri controversy, had written strongly against the extension of slavery, demanding that Congress should "stand between the living and the dead, and stay the plague," was instrumental in calling the attention of the New York legislature and of Congress to the necessity of reforming the slave-laws of the District of Columbia. A free colored man, Gilbert Horton, of Somers, Westchester County, who had gone to Washington, was there arrested as a runaway and advertised by the sheriff to be sold as a fugitive slave, to pay his jail fees, unless previously claimed by his master. Jay called a public meeting, which demanded the interposition of Governor DeWitt Clinton. This was promptly given, Horton was released, and a petition circulated for the abolition of slavery in the District. The New York assembly, by a vote of fifty-seven to thirty-nine, instructed their representatives in Congress to vote for the measure. Pennsylvania passed a similar bill, and upon the memorial presented by General Aaron Ward, the House of Representatives, after a prolonged debate, referred the subject to a special committee. In 1828-'9 the debate was renewed in Congress, and resolutions and petitions multiplied, from Maine to Tennessee. Among Jay's writings at this time were essays on the Sabbath as a civil and divine institution, temperance, Sunday-schools, missionary and educational efforts, and an essay on duelling, to which, in 1830, while the authorship was unknown, a medal was awarded by the Anti-duelling Association of Savannah, by a committee of which Judge James M. Wayne and Governor Richard W. Habersham were members. In 1833 he published the "Life and Writings of John Jay." Its careful sketch of the peace negotiations of 1782, and its exposition of the hostility of France to the American claims was questioned by Dr. Sparks, but their accuracy was certified by Lord St. Helens (Mr. Fitzherbert), and has since been confirmed by the Vergennes correspondence and the " Life of Shelburne." In October, 1832, President Jackson appointed Judge Jay a commissioner to adjust all unsettled matters with the western Indians; but the appointment, which was unsolicited, was declined. Judge Jay contributed a paper on the anti-slavery movement to the first number of the "Emancipator," published in New York, 1 May, 1833. In October of the same year the New York City Anti-Slavery Society was formed, and in December an Anti-slavery Convention met at Philadelphia to form the American Anti-Slavery Society. Each of these bodies, at Judge Jay's suggestion, disclaimed the right of Congress to interfere with slavery in the states, while claiming for Congress power to suppress the domestic slave trade and to abolish slavery in the territories under its exclusive jurisdiction. The significance of the principles and action of these societies is illustrated by the interesting historic facts: first, that nullification in South Carolina in 1832, when a medal was struck inscribed "John C. Calhoun, First President of the Southern Confederacy," was the precursor of the secession of 1861, showing that the pro-slavery policy during the interval was a part of the secession scheme; and next, that the antislavery movement, organized in 1833 on strictly constitutional grounds, culminated in the Republican Party, by which slavery was abolished and the republic preserved. The same year, 1833, was noted for the persecution and trial in Connecticut of Prudence Crandall (q. v.), and for the decision of Judge Daggett that colored persons could not be citizens. Judge Jay's review of that decision and his able enforcement of the opposite doctrine were approvingly quoted by Chancellor Kent in his "Commentaries." The years 1834 and 1835 were memorable for the attempt to arrest, by threats and violence, the expression of anti-slavery sentiments. Judge Jay, in a charge to the grand jury, called their attention to the prevailing spirit of lawless violence, and charged them that any law that might be passed to abridge in the slightest degree the freedom of speech or the press, to shield any one subject from discussion, would be null and void. He prepared also, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, an address to the public, restating their views and principles, which was widely published throughout America and Europe. In 1834 Judge Jay published his "Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies," which was read "by scholars and statesmen and exerted a powerful influence!" "The work," wrote Prof. E. Wright, Jr., "sells faster than it can be printed," and it was presently reprinted in London. In December. 1835, President Jackson, in his message, assailed the character and designs of the anti-slavery movement, accusing the Abolitionists of circulating through the mails "inflammatory appeals addressed to the passions of the slaves, and calculated to stimulate them to insurrection and all the horrors of Civil War," and the president suggested to Congress a law forbidding the circulation through the mails of incendiary documents. On 28 December the executive committee addressed to the president what Henry Wilson called "an elaborate and dignified protest from the polished and pungent pen of Judge Jay," denying his accusations, and offering to submit their publications to the inspection of Congress. Judge Jay's next work, "A View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery" (1837), made a deep impression, and had a rapid sale. This was followed in 1839 by a startling presentation of facts on "The Condition of the Free People of Color in the United States." in 1840 by an address to the friends of constitutional liberty on the violation by the House of Representatives of the right of petition, and a review from his pen of the case of the "Amistad" Negroes (see Cinque) was read by John Quincy Adams in Congress as a part of his speech on the subject. In 1842 Judge Jay reviewed the argument by Mr. Webster on the slaves of the "Creole." The two subjects to which Judge Jay's efforts were chiefly devoted were those of war and slavery. His writings on the first, both before and after he became president of the American Peace Society, had no little influence at home and abroad. In his volume entitled " War and Peace; the Evils of the First, with a Plan for Securing the Last" (New York, 1848), he suggested stipulation by treaty referring international disputes to arbitration, as a plan based upon obvious principles of national policy, and adapted to the existing state of civilized society. The suggestion met with the warm approval of Joseph Sturge, the English philanthropist, who visited Judge Jay at Bedford while the work was still in manuscript, and it was embodied by Mr. Sturge in a volume published by him on his return to England. The plan was heartily approved by Mr. Cobden, who wrote to Judge Jay: "If your government is prepared to insert an arbitration clause in the pending treaties, I am persuaded it will be accepted by our government." The main feature of the plan, arbitration, after approval by successive Peace Congresses in Europe (at Brussels in 1848, at Paris in 1849, at London in 1851) was virtually recommended by Protocol No. 23, of the Congress of Paris, held in 1856 after the Crimean war, which protocol was unanimously adopted by the plenipotentiaries of France, Austria. Great Britain. Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey. These governments declared their wish that the states between which any serious misunderstanding might arise should, before appealing to arms, have recourse, as far as circumstances might allow, to the good offices of a friendly power. The honor of its introduction in the Congress belongs to Lord Clarendon, whose services had been solicited by Joseph Sturge and Henry Richard, and it was supported by all of his colleagues in the Congress. It was subsequently referred to by Lord Derby as worthy of immortal honor. Lord Malmsbury pronounced it an act "important to civilization and to the security of the peace of Europe," and it was somewhat later approved by all the other powers to whom it was referred, more than forty in number. Among Judge Jay's other writings on this subject are his letter on the "Kossuth Excitement" (1852); an address before the American peace Society at Boston (1845), and a petition from the society to the U. S. Senate in behalf of stipulated arbitration (1853). Perhaps under this head should be included his historic and searching " Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War " (Boston, 1849). In 1846 Judge Jay republished, with an elaborate preface, the concluding chapter of Bishop Wilberforce's " History of the Church in America," which had been announced by two American publishers who relinquished the design when it was found to contain a reproof of the American church for its course on slavery. This was followed by a letter on the same subject to Bishop Ives, of North Carolina. "The Calvary Pastoral, a Tract for the Times," rebuked the attempt to convert the Episcopal Church into a popish church without a pope. In 1849 appeared " An Address to the Non-Slaveholders of the South, on the Social and Political Evils of Slavery." This was in part embodied in an address to the people of California, which was effectively circulated on the Pacific Coast in English and Spanish. In 1850 Judge Jay addressed a letter to William Nelson, on Clay's compromise measures; and this was followed by a review of Mr. Webster's declaration that slavery was excluded from California and New Mexico by the law of physical geography. Subsequent letters and addresses included one to Samuel A. Elliott, in reply to his apology for the fugitive-slave bill, an address to the Anti-Slavery Christians of the United States, and in 1853 several letters and reviews of the conduct of the American tract Society in the interest of slavery. The same year a volume of Judge Jay's miscellaneous writings on slavery was published in Boston. In 1854 he had the satisfaction of seeing the Republican Party founded on the anti-slavery principles that he had early advocated. Of his anti-slavery labors Horace Greeley said: "As to Chief-Justice Jay, the father, may be attributed, more than to any other man, the abolition of Negro bondage in this state [New York], so to Judge William Jay, the son, the future will give the credit of having been one of the earliest advocates of the modern anti-slavery movements, which at this moment influence so radically the religion and the philanthropy of the country, and of having guided by his writings, in a large measure, the direction which a cause so important and so conservative of the best and most precious rights of the people should take." He left in manuscript a commentary on the Bible.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 411-413.


Jones, John, Illinois, abolitionist. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


King, Leicester, 1789-1856, Warren, Ohio, abolitionist leader, political leader, businessman, jurist, leader of the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  Manager, 1837-1839, and Vice President, 1839-1840, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Ohio State Senator, 1835-1839.  Member, Whig Party.  U.S. Vice Presidential candidate, Liberty Party, in 1848 (lost). 

(Blue, 2005, p. 100; Dumond, 1961, p. 302; Mitchell, 2007, p. 24; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 50; Sernett, 2002, p. 124).


Lambert, William, Michigan, abolitionist. (Sinha, 2016, p. 467; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Lane, Lunsford, 1803-1870, North Carolina, author, fugitive slave, abolitionist.  Active with the anti-slavery Liberty Party. Lunsford Lane was born a slave near Raleigh, North Carolina.  He purchased his freedom for $1,000 and later purchased the freedom of his family.  He went to New York in 1835.  He was active in giving speeches on slavery and abolition.  He was arrested and nearly lynched when he travelled to Raleigh to purchase the freedom of enslaved members of his family.  He was saved by local sympathetic White residents.  He then settled in Philadelphia.  Published The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Formerly of Raleigh, N.C., Embracing an Account of his Early Life, the Redemption by Purchase of Himself and Family from Slavery, and his Banishment from his Place of Birth for the Crime of Wearing a Colored Skin. 1842.  His books were widely distributed and were used to promote the abolitionist cause.

(Dumond, 1961, p. 330; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 30; Sinha, 2016, p. 467; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Langston, Charles Henry, 1817-1892, Ohio, African American, abolitionist leader. (Black mother, White father), abolitionist leader.  He and his brother, Gideon, were the first African Americans to attend Oberlin College.  Active in Ohio Negro Convention Movement.  Helped found the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society in 1858.  Active in Liberty, Free Soil and Republican parties.  Involved in slave rescue in violation of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.  Recruited Black troops for the Union Army. 

(Blue, 2005, pp. 5-6, 13, 65-67, 66-78, 83-84, 86-88, 118, 120, 156, 266-267; Sinha, 2016, p. 467; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Langston, John Mercer, 1829-1897, Ohio, free African American, lawyer, diplomat, educator, abolitionist, political leader.  Brother of Charles Henry Langston.  Graduate of Oberlin College.  Helped found the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society with his brother Charles in 1858.  First African American elected to Congress from Virginia.  U. S. Congressman, Virginia, 4^th District, 1890-1891.  First Dean of Howard University law school, Washington, DC.

(Sinha, 2016, p. 467; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 612; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 597; Blue, 2005, pp. 5-6, 65-66, 69, 72-76, 78, 79, 81, 85-88; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13, p. 164; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 7, p. 162; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

LANGSTON, John Mercer, educator, born in Louisa County, Virginia, 14 December, 1829. He was by birth a slave, but was emancipated at the age of six years. He was graduated at Oberlin in 1849, and at the theological department in 1853. After studying law he was admitted to the bar of Ohio in 1854, and practised his profession there until 1869, during which time he was clerk of several townships in Ohio, being the first colored man that was elected to an office of any sort by popular vote. He was also a member of the board of education of Oberlin. In 1869 he was called to a professorship of law in Howard University, Washington, D. C, and became dean of the faculty of the law department and active in its organization, remaining there seven years. He was appointed by President Grant a member of the board of health of the District of Columbia, and was elected its secretary in 1875. In 1877-'85 he was U. S. minister and consul-general in Hayti. On his return to this country in 1885 he was appointed president of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute in Petersburg, which office he now (1887) holds. In addition to various addresses and papers on political, biographical, literary, and scientific subjects, Mr. Langston is the author of a volume of selected addresses entitled " Freedom and Citizenship" (Washington, 1883).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 612.


Larimer, William, politician, born in Westmoreland County. Pennsylvania. 24 October, 1809; died near Leavenworth, Kansas, 16 May, 1875. He moved to Pittsburg in 1834, and became a banker and merchant, treasurer of the Ohio and Pennsylvania, and afterward president of the Pittsburg and Connellsville, Railroad. He took an active part in the antislavery movement, assisted in the organization of the Liberty Party, and supported James G. Birney for president in 1840. After that he acted with the Whigs and was a political leader in Pennsylvania. In 1855 he went to Nebraska, was a zealous Republican, and served in the territorial legislature in 1856. He moved to Kansas in 1858, but in October of that year led a party of gold-seekers to the Pike's Peak Country. He built the first house in Denver, Colonel, and was U. S. commissioner and judge of probate. In the beginning of the Civil War he raised a regiment of volunteers in Colorado and was commissioned colonel, but resigned and returned to Kansas, where he re-entered the army as a captain of cavalry in 1863. He served in Kansas, Indian Territory, and Arkansas, and was mustered out in August. 1865. The remainder of his life was passed on a farm in the vicinity of Leavenworth. In 1872 he earnestly supported his friend Horace Greeley for the presidency.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 618.


Leavitt, Roger Hooker, 1805-1885, Claremont, Massachusetts, abolitionist leader, landowner, industrialist, temperance activist, soldier.  President, Franklin County Anti-Slavery Society.  Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1838-1840, 1840-1841.  Gubernatorial candidate for Massachusetts on the Liberty Party ticket.  Brother of abolitionist leader Joshua Leavitt.  Stationmaster on the Underground Railroad.


Leavitt, Joshua, 1794-1873, New York, reformer, temperance activist, editor, abolitionist leader.  Founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), New York, 1833.  Advocated political action to end slavery, which led him to help found the Liberty Party.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (A&FASS).  Edited the newspaper, The Evangelist, which was founded by abolitionists Arthur and Lewis Tappan.  He later became editor of The Emancipator, which was founded by Arthur Tappan in 1833.  Leavitt toured extensively, lecturing against slavery.  His speeches were edited into a pamphlet entitled, “The Financial Power of Slavery.”  It was one of the most widely circulated documents against slavery. 

(Blue, 2005, pp. 20, 25, 34, 45, 50, 54, 94, 119, 122; Davis, 1990; Dumond, 1961, pp. 159, 175, 179, 266, 286, 301; Filler, 1960, pp. 24, 63, 101, 132, 142, 150, 168, 172, 174, 177, 189, 194, 266-267; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 1, 7-8, 17, 20, 28-30, 36, 45-49, 167, 217; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 363-364; Sorin, 1971, pp. 51, 68-71, 96, 131, 132; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 649-650; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 84; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 518-519; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13, p. 339).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

LEAVITT, Joshua, reformer, born in Heath, Franklin County. Massachusetts, 8 September, 1794; died in Brooklyn, New York, 16 January, 1873. He was graduated at Yale in 1814, admitted to the bar in 1819, and began to practise in Putney, Vermont, in 1821. In 1823 he abandoned his profession for the study of theology, and was graduated at Yale divinity school in 1825. He settled the same year at Stratford, Connecticut, where he had charge of a Congregational Church until 1828. In 1819, while a student of law in Heath, Mr. Leavitt organized one of the first Sabbath-schools in western Massachusetts, embracing not only the children, but the entire congregation, all of whom were arranged in classes for religious instruction. He also became interested in the improvement of the public schools. Before he entered the theological seminary he prepared a new reading-book, called "Easy Lessons in Reading" (1823), which  met with an extensive sale. He subsequently issued a " Series of Readers " (1847), but these were not as popular. When the American Temperance Society was formed he became its first secretary, and was one of its travelling agents, in many places delivering the first temperance lecture the people had heard. In 1828 he moved to New York City as secretary of the American Seamen's Friend Society and editor of the "Sailor's Magazine." He established chapels in Canton, the Sandwich Islands, Havre, New Orleans, and other domestic and foreign ports. He also aided in founding the first city temperance society, and became its secretary. He became in 1831 editor and proprietor of the newly established "Evangelist," which under his management soon grew to be the organ of the more liberal religious movements, and was outspoken on the subjects of temperance and slavery. Mr. Leavitt bore a conspicuous part in the early antislavery conflict. His denunciation of slavery cost his paper its circulation in the south and a large proportion of it in the north, well-nigh compelling its suspension. To offset this loss he undertook the difficult feat of reporting in full the revival lectures of Charles G. Finney (q. v.), which, though not a short-hand reporter, he accomplished successfully. The financial crisis of 1837 compelled him, while erecting a new building, to sell out the "Evangelist." In 1833 he aided in organizing the New York Anti-Slavery Society, and was a member of its executive committee, as well as of that of the National Anti-Slavery Society in which it was merged. He was one of the abolitionists who were obliged to fly for a time from the city to escape mob violence. In 1837 he became editor of the " Emancipator," which he afterward moved to Boston, and he also published in that city " The Chronicle," the earliest daily anti-slavery paper. In the convention that met at Albany in 1840 and organized the Liberal Party, Mr. Leavitt took an active part, and he was also chairman of the national committee from 1844 till 1847. In 1848 Mr. Leavitt became office-editor of the New York "Independent," and was connected editorially with it until his death. Mr. Leavitt was an earnest and powerful speaker. In 1855 Wabash College conferred on him the degree of D. C. Dr. Leavitt's correspondence with Richard Cobden, and his " Memoir on Wheat," setting forth the unlimited capacity of our western territory for the growth and exportation of that cereal, were instrumental in procuring the repeal of the English corn laws. During a visit to Europe he also became much interested in Sir Rowland Hill's system of cheap postage. In 1847 he founded the Cheap Postage Society of Boston, and in 1848-'9 he labored in Washington in its behalf, for the establishment of a two-cent rate. In 1869 he received a gold medal from the Cobden Club of England for an essay on our commercial relations with Great Britain, in which he took an advanced position in favor of free-trade. Besides the works already mentioned, he published a hymn-book for revivals, entitled the "Christian Lyre " (1831).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 649-650.


Lee, Luther, 1800-1889, clergyman, Methodist congregation, Utica, New York, abolitionist leader.  Began his abolitionist career in 1837.  Helped create Wesleyan Anti-Slavery societies.  In 1843, co-founded the anti-slavery Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America, of which he became president.  Lecturer for New York Anti-Slavery Society (NYASS) and agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Member, Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1846-1852.  Luther was attacked on a number of occasions by pro-slavery advocates.  In 1840, Lee helped to co-found the Liberty Party.  (Filler, 1960, p. 123; Sernett, 2002, pp. 57-58, 59, 80-83, 299n8, 300n16; Sorin, 1971; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, 603; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 115; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13, p. 384)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

LEE, Luther, clergyman, born in Schoharie. New York, 30 November, 1800. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1821, soon began to preach, and in 1827 entered the Genesee conference, becoming an itinerant missionary, preacher, and successful temperance lecturer. He began to preach against slavery in 1836, was mobbed several times, and in 1841 established and edited " The New England Christian Advocate," an anti-slavery journal, at Lowell, Massachusetts He subsequently edited "The Sword of Truth," and in 1842 seceded from the Methodist Church, began a weekly journal, "The True Wesleyan," and when the Wesleyan Methodist connection was organized, became pastor of that church in Syracuse, New York. He was the first president of the first general conference of the new church, was editor of the organ of that body, "The True Wesleyan," till 1852, and after that date was successively pastor of churches in Syracuse and Fulton, New York. In 1854-'5 he edited a periodical entitled " The Evangelical Pulpit." He became president and professor of theology in the Michigan union College at Leoni in 1856, resigning the next year to officiate in churches in Ohio. From 1864 till 1867 he was connected with Adrian College, Michigan, and at the latter date returned to the Methodist Episcopal Church, slavery, which was the cause of the organization of the Wesleyan connection, having ceased to exist. Since 1867 he has been a member of the Michigan Conference, and is now (1887) superannuated. His publications include " Universalism Examined and Refuted" (New York, 1836); "The Immortality of the Soul" (1846); "Revival Manual" (1850); "Church Polity" (1850); "Slavery Examined in the Light of the Bible" (1855); and "Elements of Theology " (1856).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 603.


Lemoyne, Francis J., 1798-1879, Washington, Pennsylvania, physician, abolitionist leader.  Le Moyne became active in the abolitionist movement in the 1830s.  Was against the colonization movement.  Le Moyne was a manager in the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1837-1840, 1840-1841.  Vice President of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1851.   In 1840, ran as the vice presidential candidate of the Liberty Party.  Also unsuccessfully ran on Pennsylvania abolitionist tickets, 1841, 1844, 1847.  Was active in helping fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad.  Founded Le Moyne College in 1870 in Memphis, Tennessee. 

(Blue, 2005, p. 25; Dumond, 1961, pp. 186, 266, 301; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 46; Sernett, 2002, pp. 109, 111; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 687; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 163).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

LE MOYNE, Francis Julius, abolitionist, born in Washington, Pennsylvania, 4 September, 1798; died there, 14 October, 1879. His father was a royalist refugee from France, who practised medicine in Washington. The son was graduated at the college there in 1815, studied medicine with his father and at the Medical College in Philadelphia, and began practice in his native town in 1822. In 1835 he assisted in organizing an anti-slavery society in Washington, and from that time entered earnestly into the abolition movement. He was the first candidate of the Liberty Party for vice-president, his nomination having been proposed in a meeting at Warsaw, New York, 13 November, 1839, and confirmed by a national convention at Albany, 1 April, 1840. Though he and James G. Birney, the nominee for president, declined the nomination, they received 7,059 votes in the election of 1840. In 1841, 1843, and 1847 Le Moyne was the candidate of the same party for governor of Pennsylvania. At a later period he became widely known as an advocate of cremation. He erected in 1876, near Washington, Pennsylvania, the first crematory in the United States. Dr. Le Moyne founded the public library in Washington, gave $25,000 for a colored normal school near Memphis, Tennessee., and endowed professorships of agriculture and applied mathematics in Washington College.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 687.


Lewis, Samuel (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Loguen, Jermain Wesley, 1813-1872, New York, African American, clergyman, speaker, author, former slave, abolitionist leader.  American Abolition Society.  Bishop, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.  Supported the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  Conductor, Underground Railroad, aiding hundreds of fugitive slaves, in Syracuse, New York.  In 1851, he himself escaped to Canada when he was indicted for helping a fugitive slave.  Wrote autobiography, The Reverend J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman, A Narrative of Real Life. 1859. (Dumond, 1961, p. 334; Mabee, 1970, pp. 294, 307; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 677-678; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 368; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 13, p. 848; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 7, p. 358; Radical Abolitionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)


Lovejoy, Joseph C., Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Corresponding Secretary, 1846, Executive Committee, 1846,1850 (Sinha, 2016, p. 465; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Lovejoy, Owen, 1811-1864, clergyman, abolitionist leader, lawyer, U.S. Congressman.  Illinois Anti-Slavery Society.  Member and Manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Active in Underground Railroad.  Member, Illinois State Legislature.  Brother of anti-slavery newspaper publisher, Elijah Parrish Lovejoy.  Like his brother, Owen Lovejoy was a strong supporter of William Lloyd Garrison.  He was elected to Congress in 1856 and actively supported the abolition of slavery in Congress until his death in 1864. 

(Blue, 2005, pp. 6, 11, 13, 90-116, 265-270; Dumond, 1961, p. 186; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4, 48, 91, 131, 188; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 141, 196; Sinha, 2016, p. 468; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 34-35; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 1, p. 435; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 14, p. 6; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

LOVEJOY, Owen, abolitionist, born in Albion, Me., 6 Jan., 1811; died  in Brooklyn, New York, 25 March, 1864, worked on his father's farm till he was eighteen years old, and then entered Bowdoin, but left before graduation, emigrated to Alton, Illinois, and studied theology. He was present when his brother was murdered, and was moved by that event to devote himself to the overthrow of slavery. He became pastor of a Congregational Church at Princeton, Illinois, in 1838. Although anti-slavery meetings were forbidden by the laws of Illinois, he openly held them in all parts of the state, announcing at each one the time and place for the next meeting. This course subjected him to frequent fines and to violence and intimidation; but by his eloquence and persistency he won many adherents, and eventually the repressive laws were repealed. He resigned his pastoral charge in 1854 on being elected a member of the legislature. In 1856 he was sent to Congress, and was continued there by re-election until his death. At the beginning of the Civil War he delivered in the House of Representatives a remarkable speech against slavery, in which he recounted the circumstances of his brother's death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 34-35.


Mahan, Asa, 1799-1889, Ohio, clergyman, abolitionist, president of Oberlin College 1835-1850.  Vice President, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1834-1835. Active with the anti-slavery Liberty Party.

(Dumond, 1961, p. 165; Mabee, 1970, pp. 218, 403n25; Sinha, 2016, p. 466; Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 176; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 6, Pt. 2, p. 208; Abolitionist; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

MAHAN, Asa, clergyman, born in Vernon, New York, 9 November, 1800. He was graduated at Hamilton College in 1824, and at Andover theological seminary in 1827. On 10 November, 1829, he was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in Pittsford, New York, and in 1831 he was called to the pastorate of a Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. He accepted the presidency of Oberlin in 1835, with the chair of intellectual and moral philosophy, and the assistant professorship of theology, but after fifteen years was chosen president of Cleveland University, Cleveland, Ohio, and professor of mental and moral philosophy there. In 1855 he resumed pastoral work, and had charge of Congregational Parishes at Jackson in 1855-'7 and at Adrian in 1857-60. He was president of Adrian College, Michigan, in 1860-'71, and since then has resided in England. President Mahan has received the degree of D. D. from Hillsdale in 1858, and that of LL.D. from Adrian in 1877. He has been an active advocate of the religious views that are known as Perfectionist, and has published "Scripture Doctrine of Christian Perfection " (Boston, 1839). His other works include ' System of Intellectual Philosophy" (New York, 1845): "The Doctrine of the Will" (Oberlin, 1846): "The True Believer: his Character, Duties, and Privileges" (New York, 1847); "The Science of Moral Philosophy" (Oberlin, 1848); "Election and the Influence of the Holy Spirit" (New York, 1851); "New York, 1857); "Science of Natural Theology" (Boston, 1807); "Theism and Anti-Theism in their Relations to Science" (Cleveland, 1872): "The Phenomena of Spiritualism scientifically Explained and Exposed (New York, 1876); "Critical History of the late American War" (1877); "A System of Mental Philosophy" (Chicago, 1882); and ' Critical History of Philosophy" (New York, 1883).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 176.


Masts, C. D. B., Brownhelm. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Morris, Thomas, 1776-1844, Cincinnati, Ohio, Virginia, first abolitionist Senator, 1833, vice president of the Liberty Party, abolitionist, Ohio lawmaker 1806-1830, Chief Justice of the State of Ohio 1830-1833, U.S. Senator 1833-183?.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (A&FASS), 1840-1844.  Vice President of the American Colonization Society (ACS), 1839-1841.  Fought for right to petition Congress against slavery.  Liberty Party candidate for U.S. Vice President, 1843 (lost).

(Bruns, 1977; Dumond, 1961, pp. 28, 38, 40-41, 92, 135, 243, 244, 286, 300; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 11, 18, 23-24, 27; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 48; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 139-140; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 15, p. 916; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 418; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 226).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

MORRIS, Thomas, senator, born in Augusta County, Virginia, 3 January, 1776; died in Bethel, Ohio, 7 December, 1844. His father was a Baptist clergyman of Welsh descent. The son moved to Columbia, Ohio, in 1795, entered the service, as a farm-hand, of Reverend John Smith, first U. S. Senator from Ohio, and in 1800 settled in Clermont County. While engaged in farming be studied law, and in 1804 was admitted to the bar. He was elected to the legislature in 1806, was continuously a member for twenty-four years, became eminent in his profession, was a judge of the Supreme Court, and was chosen U. S. Senator in 1832. He was an ardent opponent of slavery, engaged in important debates with John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay in defence of the right of petition and the duty of the government to favor abolition, and was active in support of the freedom of the press. His anti-slavery sentiments being distasteful to the Democratic Party, by whom he was elected, he was not returned for a second term, and in March, 1839, he retired. He was nominated for vice-president by the Liberal Party at the Buffalo Convention in August, 1844. His death occurred a month after the election. Mr. Morris was an energetic politician, and a fearless champion of liberty and the right of individual opinion. See his “Life and Letters,” edited by his son, Benjamin F. Morris (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1855).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 418.


Morse, Edward, Brownhelm. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Mott, Lucretia Coffin (Mrs. James Mott), 1793-1880, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist, reformer, suffragist, co-founder and first president of the Philadelphia Female American Anti-Slavery Society, member of the Association of Friends for Advocating the Cause of the Slave, member of the Hicksite Anti-Slavery Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Active with the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  Wrote memoir, Life, 1884. 

(Bacon, 1999; Drake, 1950, pp. 140, 149, 154, 156, 157, 172, 176; Mabee, 1970, pp. 3, 13, 31, 68, 77, 94, 186, 188, 189, 201, 204, 224, 225, 226, 241, 289, 314, 326, 350, 374, 378; Palmer, 2001; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 47, 157, 387-388, 416, 464, 519; Yellin, 1994, pp. 18, 26, 43, 74, 159-162, 175-176, 286-287, 301-302, 327-328; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 441; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 1, p. 288; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 595-597; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 16, p. 21; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 310-311; Cromwell, Otelia. Lucretia Mott. 1958; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

MOTT, Lucretia, reformer, born on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, 3 January, 1793; died near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 11 November, 1880, was descended through her father, Captain Thomas Coffin, from one of the original purchasers of the island. When she was eleven years old her parents moved to Boston, Massachusetts She was educated in the school where Mr. Mott was teaching, and became a teacher there at the age of fifteen. In 1809 she joined her parents, who had moved to Philadelphia, where she married in 1811. In 1817 she took charge of a small school in Philadelphia, and in 1818 appeared in the ministry of the Friends, and soon became noted for the clearness, refinement, and eloquence of her discourses. In the division of the society, in 1827, she adhered to the Hicksite branch. She early became interested in the movement against slavery, and remained one of its most prominent and persistent advocates until the emancipation. In 1833 she assisted in the formation at Philadelphia of the American Anti-Slavery Society, though, owing to the ideas then accepted as to the activities of women, she did not sign the declaration that was adopted. Later, for a time, she was active in the formation of female anti-slavery organizations. In 1840 she went to London as a delegate from the American Anti-Slavery Society to the World's Anti-Slavery Convention, but it was there decided to admit no women. She was received, however, with cordiality, formed acquaintance with those most active in the movement in Great Britain, and made various addresses. The action of the convention in excluding women excited indignation, and led to the establishment of woman's rights journals in England and France, and to the movement in the United States, in which Mrs. Mott took an active part. She was one of the four women that called the convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, and subsequently devoted part of her efforts to the agitation for improving the legal and political status of women. She held frequent meetings with the colored people, in whose welfare and advancement she felt deep interest, and was for several years president of the Pennsylvania Peace Society. In the exercise of her “gift” as a minister, she made journeys through New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and into Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana, where she did not refrain from denouncing slavery. She was actively interested in the free religious associations formed in Boston about 1868, and in the Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia. See her “Life,” with that of her husband, edited by her granddaughter, Anna Davis Hallowell (Boston, 1884).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 441.


Newhall, Benjamin F., 1802-1863, abolitionist.  Member, Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1842-1843.  Member, Liberty and Free-Soil Parties.  Active in Underground Railroad.


Peck, Sheldon, 1797-1869, radical abolitionist, rights activist.  Delegate of the Liberty Party. 1797-1869, radical abolitionist, social reformer, advocate for women’s rights, temperance, racial equality, education, pacifism.  Called for immediate end to slavery.  Agent for abolitionist newspaper, Western Citizen.  Delegate for the Liberty Party.


Pennington, James William Charles, 1807-1870, African American, American Missionary Association, fugitive slave, abolitionist, orator, clergyman.  Member of the Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  Published The Fugitive Blacksmith in London in 1844.  One of the first African American students to attend Yale University. Served as a delegate to the Second World Conference on Slavery in London.  Active in the Amistad slave case.  Recruited African American troops for the Union Army. 

(Dumond, 1961, pp. 330-334; Mabee, 1970, pp. 65, 100, 101, 140, 194, 203, 269, 338, 339, 413n1; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 52, 73, 166, 413-414; Sinha, 2016, p. 467; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 441; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 300; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Phillips, Wendell, 1811-1884, lawyer, orator, reformer, abolitionist leader, Native American advocate.  Member of the Executive Committee, 1842-1864, and Recording Secretary, 1845-1864, of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Called “abolition’s golden trumpet.”  Counseller, 1840-1843, of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.  Advocate of Free Produce movement.  Liberty Party candidate for alderman in Boston.

(Dumond, 1961, pp. 182, 186, 273, 340; Filler, 1960, pp. 39, 42, 45, 59, 80, 94, 130, 138, 140, 183, 204, 206, 214, 275; Hofstadter, 1948; Irving, 1973; Mabee, 1970, pp. 72, 86, 105, 109, 116, 123, 124, 136, 165, 169, 173, 180, 193, 200, 243, 248, 261, 262, 269, 271, 278, 279, 286, 289, 295, 301, 309, 316, 337, 364, 369; Pease, 1965, pp. 339, 459-479; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 50, 54, 56, 169, 309, 399, 476, 602-605; Sinha, 2016, p. 467; Stewart, 1998; Yellin, 1994, pp. 35, 82, 86, 260, 306, 308n, 309-311, 311n, 333; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 759-762; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 546; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 454; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 314-315; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 529-531; Bartlett, Irving H. Wendell Phillips: Brahmin Radical. Boston: Beacon Press, 1961; Sherwin, Oscar. Profit of Liberty: The Life and Times of Wendell Phillips. New York: Bookman, 1958; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

PHILLIPS, Wendell, orator, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 29 November, 1811; died there, 2 February, 1884, entered the Boston Latin-school in 1822, and was graduated at Harvard in 1831, in the same class with the historian J. Lothrop Motley. As a student he showed no particular interest in reforms; indeed, he bore the reputation of having defeated the first attempt to form a temperance society at Harvard. Handsome in person, cultivated in manners, and of a kindly and generous disposition, he was popular among his fellow-students, and was noted for his fine elocution and his skill in debate. His heart had responded to Webster's fiery denunciation at Plymouth in 1820 of that “work of hell, foul and dark,” the slave-trade. “If the pulpit be silent whenever or wherever there may be a sinner bloody with this guilt within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust.” He had taken a boy's part in honoring Lafayette, and in the midst of such associations he was unconsciously fitted for his career. In college his favorite study was history. He gave a year to the story of the English revolution of 1630, reading everything concerning it that he could find. With equal care he studied the period of George III., and Dutch history also so far as English literature enabled him to do so. His parents were of the Evangelical faith, and in one of the revivals of religion that followed the settlement of Dr. Lyman Beecher in Boston he became a convert, and he did not at any subsequent time depart from the faith of his fathers. While he denounced the churches for their complicity with slavery, he made no war upon their creeds. A fellow-student remembers well his earnest religiousness in college, and his “devoutness during morning and evening prayers which so many others attended only to save their credit with the government.” Though orthodox himself, he welcomed those of other faiths, and even of no faith, to the anti-slavery platform, resisting every attempt to divide the host upon sectarian or theological grounds. He entered the Harvard law-school for a term of three years, and in 1834 was admitted to the bar. He was well equipped for his profession in every respect save one, viz., that he appears to have had no special love for it and small ambition for success therein. “If,” he said to a friend, “clients do not come, I will throw myself heart and soul into some good cause and devote my life to it.” The clients would doubtless have come in no long time if he had chosen to wait for them, but the “good cause” presented its claims first, and was so fortunate as to win the devotion of his life. “The Liberator,” founded by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831, had already forced the slavery question upon public attention and created an agitation that the leaders of society were vainly endeavoring to suppress. It has been said, probably with truth, that the first person to interest Mr. Phillips in this subject was the lady—Miss Anne Terry Greene—who afterward became his wife and, as he himself has said, “his counsel, his guide, his inspiration,” during his whole subsequent life. Of all the young men of Boston at that period, there was hardly one whose social relations, education, and personal character better fitted him for success as an aspirant for such public honors as Massachusetts was accustomed to bestow upon the most gifted of her sons. But if ambitions or aspirations of this sort were ever indulged, he had the courage and the moral power to resist their appeals and devote himself to what he felt to be a righteous though popularly odious cause. The poet James Russell Lowell has embalmed the memory of his early self-abnegation in a sonnet, of which these lines form a part:

“He stood upon the world's broad threshold; wide

The din of battle and of slaughter rose;

He saw God stand upon the weaker side

That sunk in seeming loss before its foes.

.       .       .      .        . Therefore he went

And joined him to the weaker part,

Fanatic named, and fool, yet well content

So he could be nearer to God's heart,

And feel its solemn pulses sending blood

Through all the wide-spread veins of endless good.”


Looking from his office-window on 21 October, 1835, he saw the crowd of “gentlemen of property and standing” gathered in Washington and State Streets to break up a meeting of anti-slavery ladies and “snake out that infamous foreign scoundrel, Thompson,” and “bring him to the tar-kettle before dark”—the same Thompson of whom Lord Brougham said in the House of Lords at the time of the passage of the British Emancipation Act: “I rise to take the crown of this most glorious victory from every other head and place it upon his. He has done more than any other man to achieve it”; and of whom John Bright said: “I have always considered him the liberator of the slaves in the English colonies; for, without his commanding eloquence, made irresistible by the blessedness of his cause, I do not think all the other agencies then at work would have procured their freedom.” The mob, disappointed in its expectation of getting possession of the eloquent Englishman, “snaked out” Garrison instead, and Phillips saw him dragged through the streets, his person well-nigh denuded of clothing, and a rope around his waist ready to strangle him withal, from which fate he was rescued only by a desperate ruse of the mayor, who locked him up in the jail for safety. This spectacle deeply moved the young lawyer, who from that hour was an avowed Abolitionist, though he was not widely known as such until the martyrdom of Elijah P. Lovejoy (q. v.) in 1837 brought him into sudden prominence and revealed him to the country as an orator of the rarest gifts. The men then at the head of affairs in Boston were not disposed to make any open protest against this outrage upon the freedom of the press; but William Ellery Channing, the eminent preacher and writer, was resolved that the freedom-loving people of the city should have an opportunity to express their sentiments in an hour so fraught with danger to the cause of American liberty, and through his persistent efforts preparations were made for a public meeting, which assembled in Faneuil Hall on 8 December, 1837. It was the custom to hold such meetings in the evening, but there were threats of a mob, and this one on that account was appointed for a daylight hour

The hall was well filled, Jonathan Phillips was called to the chair, Dr. Channing made an impressive address, and resolutions written by him, fitly characterizing the outrage at Alton, were introduced. George S. Hillard, a popular young lawyer, followed in a serious and well-considered address. Thus far everything had gone smoothly; but now uprose James T. Austin, Attorney-General of the state, a member of Dr. Channing's congregation, but known to be bitterly opposed to his anti-slavery course. He eulogized the Alton murderers, comparing them with the patriots of the Revolution, and declared that Lovejoy had “died as the fool dieth.” Mr. Phillips was present, but with no expectation of speaking. There were those in the hall, however, who thought him the man best fitted to reply to Austin, and some of these urged the managers to call upon him, which they consented to do. As he stepped upon the platform, his manly beauty, dignity, and perfect self-possession won instant admiration. His opening sentences, uttered calmly but with deep feeling, revealed his power and raised expectation to the highest pitch. “When,” said he, “I heard the gentleman [Mr. Austin] lay down principles which placed the rioters, incendiaries, and murderers of Alton side by side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought those pictured lips [pointing to the portraits in the hall] would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant American, the slanderer of the dead. Sir, for the sentiments he has uttered on soil consecrated by the prayers of Puritans and the blood of patriots, the earth should have yawned and swallowed him up.”

These stinging words were greeted with applause, which showed that the young orator had but expressed the conviction and the feeling of the vast majority of the assembly, and that it was not in the power of the dissidents to defeat the purpose for which it had been convened. Freedom of speech was vindicated and mobocracy and assassination were rebuked in Faneuil hall, while the hated Abolitionists rejoiced that they had found a champion fitted to maintain their cause in any presence or emergency. From that hour to the end of the anti-slavery conflict the name of Wendell Phillips was everywhere, and among all classes, the accepted synonym of the highest type of American eloquence. In no half-way fashion did he espouse the anti-slavery cause. He accepted without reservation the doctrines that Garrison had formulated—viz.: slavery under all circumstances a sin; immediate emancipation a fundamental right and duty; colonization a delusion and a snare; the blood-guiltiness of the church in seeking apologies for slavery in the Bible, and the spuriousness of the statesmanship that sought to suppress agitation and held that liberty and slavery could be at peace under one and the same government. He did the work of a lecturing agent, obeying every call so far as his strength permitted, without any pecuniary reward. When he could command fifty or one hundred dollars for a lecture on any other subject, he would speak on slavery for nothing if the people consented to hear him. It is hardly possible to estimate the value to the anti-slavery cause of services so freely rendered by a man of such gifts and attainments, in the years when that cause was struggling under a weight of odium which not even his eloquence sufficed to overcome. As a speaker he was above all others the popular favorite, and his tact in gaining a hearing in spite of mob turbulence was extraordinary. His courage lifted him above fear of personal violence, while his wit illuminated his argument as the lightning illumines the heavens. The Abolitionists were proud of a defender who could disarm if he could not wholly conquer popular hostility, who might be safely pitted against any antagonist, and whose character could in no way be impeached. In every emergency of the cause he led the charge against its enemies, and never did he surrender a principle or consent to a compromise. His fidelity, no less than his eloquence, endeared him to his associates, while his winning manners charmed all who met him in social life. The strongest opponents of the anti-slavery cause felt the spell of his power and respected him for his shining example of integrity and devotion.

In the divisions among the Abolitionists, which took place in 1839-'40, he stood with Garrison in favor of recognizing the equal rights of women as members of the anti-slavery societies, in stern opposition to the organization by Abolitionists, as such, of a political party, and in resistance to the attempt to discredit and proscribe men upon the anti-slavery platform on account of their religious belief. In 1840 he represented the Massachusetts Abolitionists in the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, where he pleaded in vain for the admission of the woman delegates sent from this country. He took a prominent part in discussing the provisions of the constitution of the United States relating to slavery, and after mature reflection came with Garrison to the conclusion that what were popularly called the “compromises” of that instrument were immoral and in no way binding upon the conscience; and in 1843-'4 he was conspicuous among those who led the anti-slavery societies in openly declaring this doctrine as thenceforth fundamental in their agitation. This was done, not upon the ground of non-resistance, or on account of any objection to government by force, but solely because it was held to be immoral to wield the power of civil government in any manner or degree for the support of slavery. There was no objection to political action, as such, but only to such political action as made voters and officers responsible for executing the provisions that made the national government the defender of slavery. Of course, those who took this ground were constrained to forego the ballot until the constitution could be amended, but there remained to them the moral power by which prophets and apostles “subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness”— the power of truth, of an unfettered press, and a free platform. And these instrumentalities they employed unflinchingly to expose the character of slavery, to show that the national government was its main support, and to expose the sin and folly, as they thought, of maintaining a Union so hampered and defiled. They accepted this as their clearly revealed duty, in spite of the odium thereby involved; and they went on in this course until the secession of the slave states brought them relief by investing the president with power to emancipate the slaves, under the rules of war.

Thenceforth Mr. Phillips devoted himself to the task of persuading the people of the loyal states that they were honorably released from every obligation, implied or supposed, to respect the “compromises” of the constitution, and that it was their right and duty to emancipate the slaves as a measure of war, and as a means of forming a regenerated and disenthralled Union. In this he was sustained not only by the whole body of Abolitionists of whatever school, but by a great multitude of people who had long stood aloof from their cause, and the effort was crowned with success in the president's proclamation of 1 January, 1863. From that moment the Civil War became an anti-slavery war as well as a war for national unity, and thousands of Abolitionists who had followed the lead of Phillips hastened to enter the ranks.

In all these conflicts Phillips stood shoulder to shoulder with Garrison, and was followed by a body of people, not indeed very numerous, but of wide moral influence. In 1864 Mr. Phillips opposed, while Garrison favored, the re-election of President Lincoln. In the spring of 1865, when Garrison advocated the dissolution of the American Anti-Slavery Society, on the ground that, slavery being abolished, there was no further need of such an association, Mr. Phillips successfully opposed him, contending that it should not disband until the Negro had gained the ballot. This division led to some unpleasant controversy of no long continuance. Mr. Phillips became president of the society in place of Mr. Garrison, and it was continued under his direction until 1870.

In the popular discussion of the measures for reconstructing the Union he took a prominent part, mainly for the purpose of guarding the rights of the Negro population, to whom he thus greatly endeared himself. He had previously won their gratitude by his zealous efforts in behalf of fugitive slaves, and to abolish distinctions of color in schools, in public conveyances, and in places of popular resort. He was at all times an earnest champion of temperance, and in later years the advocate of prohibition. He was also foremost among those claiming the ballot for woman. He advocated the rights of the Indians, and labored to reform the penal institutions of the country after the slavery question was settled. He espoused the cause of the labor reformers, and in 1870 accepted from them and from the Prohibitionists a nomination as candidate for governor. He advocated what has been called the “greenback” theory of finance. “The wages system,” he said, “demoralizes alike the hirer and the hired, cheats both, and enslaves the workingman,” while “the present system of finance robs labor, gorges capital, makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, and turns a republic into an aristocracy of capital.” He lent his aid to the agitation for the redress of the wrongs of Ireland. In 1881 he delivered an address at the centennial anniversary of the Phi Beta Kappa of Harvard College, which was pronounced, on very high authority, “an oration of great power and beauty, full of strong thoughts and happy illustrations, not unworthy of any university platform or academic scholar,” though containing some sentiments from which a portion of his audience strongly dissented. As an avowed critic of public men and measures, speaking year after year, almost always extemporaneously, and often amidst scenes of the greatest excitement, nothing less than a miracle could have prevented him from sometimes falling into mistakes and doing injustice to opponents; but it is believed that there is nothing in his record to cast a shadow upon his reputation as one who consecrated great gifts and attainments to the welfare of his country. His last public address was delivered on 26 December, 1883, at the unveiling of Miss Whitney's statue of Harriet Martineau, at the Old South Church, in Boston. A little more than a month after this the great orator passed from earth. The event was followed by a memorial meeting in Faneuil Hall, and by appropriate action on the part of the legislature and the city government. After the funeral the remains were taken from the church to Faneuil Hall, whither they were followed by a vast multitude. Mr. Phillips published “The Constitution a Pro-Slavery Contract” (Boston, 1840) and “Review of Webster's 7th of March Speech” (1850). A collection of his speeches, letters, and lectures, revised by himself, was published in 1863 in Boston. Among his lectures on other than anti-slavery topics were “The Lost Arts,” “Toussaint l'Ouverture,” and “Daniel O'Connell.” His life has been written by George Lowell Austin (Boston, 1888). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 759-762.


Pierpont, John, 1785-1866, Massachusetts, poet, lawyer, Unitarian theologian, educator, temperance reformer, abolitionist leader, member of the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  Liberty Party candidate for Governor of Massachusetts.  Free Soil candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1850.

(Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 14; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 286; Dumond, 1961, p. 301).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

PIERPONT, John, poet, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, 6 April, 1785; died in Medford, Massachusetts, 26 August, 1866. He was a great-grandson of James, who is noticed below. He was graduated at Yale in 1804, and after assisting for a short time in the academy at Bethlehem, Connecticut, in the autumn of 1805 went to South Carolina, and passed nearly four years as a private tutor in the family of Colonel William Allston. After his return in 1809 he studied law at Litchfield, was admitted to the bar in 1812, and practised for a time in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The profession proving injurious to his health, he relinquished it, and engaged in business as a merchant, first in Boston, and afterward in Baltimore. In 1816 he abandoned commerce for theology, which he studied, first at Baltimore, and afterward at Cambridge Divinity-School. In April, 1819, he was ordained pastor of the Hollis Street Church, Boston. In 1835 he made a tour through Europe and Asia Minor, and on his return he resumed his pastoral charge in Boston, where he continued till 10 May, 1845. The freedom with which he expressed his opinions, especially in regard to the temperance cause, had given rise to some feeling before his departure for Europe; and in 1838 there sprung up between himself and a part of his parish a controversy which lasted seven years, when, after triumphantly sustaining himself against the charges of his adversaries, he requested a dismissal. He then became for four years pastor of a Unitarian Church in Troy, New York, on 1 August, 1849, was settled over the Congregational Church in Medford, and resigned, 6 April, 1856. He was a zealous reformer, powerfully advocated the temperance and anti-slavery movements, was the candidate of the Liberty Party for governor, and in 1850 of the Free-Soil Party for Congress. After the Civil War began, though seventy-six years of age, he went into the field as chaplain of a Massachusetts regiment, but, finding his strength unequal to the discharge of his duties, he soon afterward resigned, and was appointed to a clerkship in the Treasury Department at Washington, which he held till his death. Mr. Pierpont was a thorough scholar, a graceful and facile speaker, and ranked deservedly high as a poet. He published “Airs of Palestine” (Baltimore, 1816); re-issued, with additions, under the title “Airs of Palestine, and other Poems” (Boston, 1840). One of his best-known poems is “Warren's Address at the Battle of Bunker Bill.” His long poem that he read at the Litchfield County centennial in 1851 contains a description of the “Yankee boy” and his ingenuity, which has often been quoted. He also published several sermons and addresses. See Wilson's “Bryant and his Friends” (New York, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p.14.Plumb, David, New York, leader, business Committee, Liberty Party, 1848. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Plumb, Joseph, New York, Vice President, Liberty Party, 1848. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

PLUMB, Joseph, pioneer, born in Paris, Oneida County, New York, 27 June, 1791; died in Cattaraugus, New York, 25 May, 1870. He settled in Fredonia, New York, in 1816, and after moving to New York City, and  to Ithaca and Geneva, he finally established himself in Gowanda, Erie County, New York, on the border of the Cattaraugus Reservation of Seneca Indians. He was active in benevolent and educational enterprises in behalf of this tribe, and organized the first schools and church in that community. He was a founder of the Liberty Party in 1840, and its candidate for lieutenant-governor in 1844. He owned the land upon which the town of Cattaraugus was built, and disposed of it on condition that no intoxicating liquors should be sold thereon. In one case the matter was carried to the court of appeals, and, after years of litigation, was decided in 1869 in favor of Mr. Plumb, the court sustaining the temperance restriction. He was an early member of the anti-slavery party, and declined a nomination to Congress in 1852, and the office of circuit judge. See his "Memorial" (printed privately, 1870).


Porter, Samuel D., Rochester, New York, abolitionist.  Manager of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS), 1843-1844.  Secretary of the Rochester Anti-Slavery Society.  Member of the Liberty Party. Active in Underground Railway.  (Sernett, 2002, pp. 181-182).


Ray, Charles B., 1807-1886, New York, New York, African American, journalist, educator, clergyman, abolitionist leader.  American Missionary Association (AMA).  Newspaper owner and editor, The Colored American.  African American.  Member of the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFAAS), 1847-1851, 1853-1855, Recording Secretary, 1849-1855.  One of the first African Americans to participate in abolitionist party on a national level.  Member and activist with the Underground Railroad.  Co-founder and director, New York Vigilance Committee, which aided and protected fugitive slaves.  Member of the American Anti-Slavery Society.

(Blue, 2005, p. 98; Dumond, 1961, pp. 268, 330, 333; Mabee, 1970, pp. 58, 59, 62, 95-97, 111, 134, 146, 181, 338, 339, 415n14; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 48, 166; Sernett, 2002, pp. 64, 116, 132, 199, 201; Sorin, 1971, pp. 93-94; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 403; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 201; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 9, p. 353)


Roberts, E., Ohio, Business Committee, Buffalo convention, June 1848 (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Rodgers, Nathaniel, Liberty party candidate for alderman in Boston. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Sampson, Amos A., abolitionist. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Sewall, Samuel E., Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist leader.  Co-founding member of the New England Anti-Slavery Society (NEASS), founded January 1, 1832, in Boston, Massachusetts.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Leader, active member, Liberty Party.  Liberty Party candidate for Governor of Massachusetts.  Sewall was a close working associated of abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison.

(Dumond, 1961, pp. 301, 405n12; Sinha, 2016, pp. 222-223; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Shepard, Carey, 1805-1866, Maine, abolitionist, political leader.  U.S. House of Representatives, 1843, 1850-1853.  Officer, Liberty Party.  Candidate for Governor in Liberty Party in Maine in 1854, lost. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Spooner, Lysander, 1808-1887, lawyer, author, radical abolitionist leader.  Wrote, “Unconstitutionality of Slavery,” 1845, “A Defense for Fugitive Slaes,” 1850, and “A Plan for the Abolition of Slavery (and) to tell Non-Slaveholders of the South” in 1858. 

(Blue, 2005, p. 32; Cover, 1975; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 162; Shivley, Charles, ed., The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner; Wiecek, 1977; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 634-635; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 466; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 750-752; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 20; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 651-652).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

SPOONER, Lysander, lawyer, born in Athol, Massachusetts, 19 January, 1808; died in Boston, Massachusetts, 14 May, 1887. He studied law in Worcester, Massachusetts, but on completing his course of reading found that admission to the bar was permitted only to those who had studied for three years, except in the case of college graduates. This obnoxious condition at once engaged his attention and he succeeded in having it removed from the statute-books. In 1844 the letter postage from Boston to New York was twelve and a half cents and to Washington twenty-five cents. Mr. Spooner, believing that the U. S. government had no constitutional right to a monopoly of the mails, established an independent service from Boston to New York, carrying letters at the uniform rate of five cents. His business grew rapidly, but the government soon overwhelmed him with prosecutions, so that he was compelled to retire from the undertaking, but not until he had shown the possibility of supporting the post-office department by a lower rate of postage. His efforts resulted in an act of Congress that reduced the rates, followed in 1851 and subsequent years by still further reductions. Mr. Spooner was an active Abolitionist, and contributed largely to the literature of the subject, notably by his “Unconstitutionality of Slavery” (1845), the tenets of which were supported by Gerrit Smith, Elizur Wright, and others of the Liberty Party, but were opposed by the Garrisonians. He defended Thomas Drew, who in 1870 declined to take his oath as a witness before a legislative committee on the ground that in the matter it was investigating it had no authority to compel him to testify. The case was adversely decided on the ground of precedent, but the principles of Mr. Spooner's argument were afterward sustained by the U.S. Supreme Court. His writings include “A Deistic Reply to the Alleged Supernatural Evidences of Christianity” and “The Deistic Immortality, and an Essay on Man's Accountability for his Belief” (1836); “Credit, Currency, and Banking” (1843); “Poverty, Causes and Cure” (1846); “A Defence for Fugitive Slaves” (1856); “A New System of Paper Currency” (1861); “Our Financiers” (1877); “The Law of Prices” (1877); “Gold and Silver as Standards of Value” (1878); and “Letter to Grover Cleveland on his False Inaugural Address” (1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 634-635.


Stanton, Henry Brewster, 1805-1887, New York, New York, Cincinnati, Ohio, abolitionist leader, anti-slavery agent, journalist, author.  Worked with William T. Allan and Birney.  Financial Secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Manager, 1834-1838, Corresponding Secretary, 1838-1840, and Executive Committee of the Society, 1838.  Secretary, 1840-1841, and Member of the Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1844.  Leader of the Liberty Party.  Wrote for abolitionist newspapers.  Worked against pro-slavery legislation at state level.  Later edited the New York Sun. 

(Dumond, 1961, pp. 164, 219, 238-240, 286; Filler, 1960, pp. 68, 72, 134, 137, 156, 189, 301; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 14016, 18, 28, 36, 45, 47, 101, 162, 223; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 162; Sorin, 1971 p. 63-67, 97, 131, 132; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 649-650; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 1, p. 525).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

STANTON, Henry Brewster, journalist, born in Griswold, New London County, Connecticut., 29 June, 1805; died in New York City, 14 January, 1887. His ancestor, Thomas, came to this country from England in 1635 and was crown interpreter-general of the Indian dialects, and subsequently judge of the New London County court. His father was a manufacturer of woollens and a trader with the West Indies. After receiving his education, the son went in 1826 to Rochester, New York, to write for Thurlow Weed's newspaper, “The Monroe Telegraph,” which was advocating the election of Henry Clay to the presidency. He then began to make political speeches. He moved to Cincinnati to complete his studies in Lane Theological Seminary, but left it to become an advocate of the anti-slavery cause. At the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York City in 1834 he faced the first of the many mobs that he encountered in his tours throughout the country. In 1837-'40 he was active in the movement to form the Abolitionists into a compact political party, which was resisted by William Lloyd Garrison and others, and which resulted in lasting dissension. In 1840 he married Elizabeth Cady, and on 12 May of that year sailed with her to London, having been elected to represent the American Anti-Slavery Society at a convention for the promotion of the cause. At its close they travelled through Great Britain and France, working for the relief of the slaves. On his return, he studied law with Daniel Cady, was admitted to the bar, and practised in Boston, where he gained a reputation especially in patent cases, but he abandoned his profession to enter political life, and removing to Seneca Falls, New York, in 1847, represented that district in the state senate. He was a member of the Free-Soil Party previous to the formation of the Republican Party, of which he was a founder. Before this he had been a Democrat. For nearly half a century he was actively connected with the daily press, his contributions consisting chiefly of articles on current political topics and elaborate biographies of public men. Mr. Stanton contributed to Garrison's “Anti-Slavery Standard” and “Liberator,” wrote for the New York “Tribune,” and from 1868 until his death was an editor of the New York “Sun.” Henry Ward Beecher said of him: “I think Stanton has all the elements of old John Adams; able, stanch, patriotic, full of principle, and always unpopular. He lacks that sense of other people's opinions which keeps a man from running against them.” Mr. Stanton was the author of “Sketches of Reforms and Reformers in Great Britain and Ireland” (New York, 1849), and “Random Recollections” (1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 649-650.


Steel, William, 1809-1881, reformer, abolitionist leader, southeastern Ohio, active in Underground Railroad. Congressional candidate for congress in the Liberty Party Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 659.

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

STEEL, William, reformer, born in Biggar, Scotland, 26 August, 1809; died in Portland, Oregon, 5 January, 1881. He came to the United States with his parents in 1817 and settled near Winchester, Virginia., but moved soon afterward to Monroe County, Ohio, where, from 1830 till the Civil War, he was an active worker in the “Underground Railroad,” of which he was one of the earliest organizers. During these years large numbers of slaves were assisted to escape to Canada, and in no single instance was one retaken after reaching him. At one time the slave-holders of Virginia offered a reward of $5,000 for his head, when he promptly addressed the committee, offering to bring it to them if the money were placed in responsible hands. He acquired a fortune as a merchant, but lost it in 1844. From 1872 till his death he resided with his sons in Oregon. In the early days of the anti-slavery movement Mr. Steel was the recognized leader of the Abolitionists in southeastern Ohio. He was at one time a candidate of the Liberty Party for Congress, and in 1844 circulated in eastern Ohio the “great petition,” whose signers agreed to vote for Henry Clay if he would emancipate his one slave. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 659.


Swisshelm, Jane Grey Cannon, 1815-1884, abolitionist leader, women’s rights advocate, journalist, reformer.  Free Soil Party.  Liberty Party.  Wrote for the Liberty newspaper, Spirit of Liberty, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Republican Party activist.  Established Saturday Visitor, an abolition and women’s rights newspaper.

(Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 13; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 253; Blue, 2005, pp. 8-9, 50, 138-160, 268, 269; Sinha, 2016, p. 469; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 217; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 316; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 668-670)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

SWISSHELM, Jane Grey, born near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 6 September, 1815; died in Swissvale, Pennsylvania, 22 July, 1884. When she was eight years of age her father, James Cannon, died, leaving a family in straitened circumstances. The daughter worked at manual labor and teaching till she was twenty-one, when she married James Swisshelm, who several years afterward obtained a divorce on the ground of desertion. Two years later she moved with her husband to Louisville, Kentucky In this city she became an outspoken opponent of slavery, and her first written attack upon the system appeared in the Louisville “Journal” in 1842. She also wrote articles favoring abolition and woman's rights in the “Spirit of Liberty,” of Pittsburg, for about four years. In 1848 she established the Pittsburg “Saturday Visitor,” a strong abolition and woman's rights paper, which, in 1856, was merged with the weekly edition of the Pittsburg “Journal.” In 1857 she went to St. Cloud, Minnesota, and established the St. Cloud “Visitor.” Her bold utterances caused a mob to destroy her office and its contents, and to throw her printing-press into the river. But she soon began to publish the St. Cloud “Democrat.” When Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the presidency, she spoke and wrote in his behalf and for the principles of which he was the representative. When the Civil War began and nurses were wanted at the front, she was one of the first to respond. After the battle of the Wilderness she had charge of 182 badly wounded men at Fredericksburg for five days, without surgeon or assistant, and saved them all. She was a prolific writer for newspapers and magazines, and published “Letters to Country Girls” (New York, 1853), and an autobiography entitled “Half of a Century” (1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. P. 13.


Tappan, Lewis Northey, 1788-1873, New York, NY, merchant, radical abolitionist leader.  Co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. Lewis Tappan and his brother, Arthur, were among the most important activists in the cause of abolition in America.  With his brother, Arthur, in 1828, Lewis began publishing anti-slavery newspaper, The Emancipator, paying for the editor and expenses for printing.  Lewis Tappan’s house was destroyed by a pro-slavery mob in July 1834.  He was a member of the Free-Soil Party from its beginning.  Member of the Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1855, Treasurer, 1840-1842, Secretary, 1842-1844, Corresponding Secretary, 1845-1846, 1848-1855.  Leader of the Philadelphia Free Produce Association.  Wrote Life.  Active in the Liberty Party.

(Blue, 2005; Burin, 2005, p. 89; Dumond, 1961, pp. 159, 218, 287; Filler, 1960, pp. 26, 31, 50, 55, 61, 63, 68, 72, 94, 102, 130, 136, 138, 144, 150, 152, 158, 164, 165, 168, 174, 177, 189, 194, 210, 247, 262; Harrold, 1995; Mabee, 1970, pp. 8, 9, 13-19, 21, 24, 26, 38, 42-49, 51, 55, 58, 91, 93, 104, 105, 130, 190, 151-156, 190, 202, 219-221, 226-229, 233, 234, 251-253, 257, 334, 340, 341, 343, 344, 345; Mitchell, 2007; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 106, 161, 162, 163, 166, 174, 290, 362; Sorin, 1971, pp. 70, 93, 96, 102, 113, 114, 131; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 32-34; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 203; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 311; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 321; Tappan, Lewis. Life of Arthur Tappan. New York, Hurd and Houghton: 1870; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 673-675; Wyatt-Brown, Bertram, Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War against Slavery, 1969; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 76, 128-129, 219, 228, 230; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

TAPPAN, Lewis, merchant, born in Northampton, Massachusetts, 23 May, 1788; died in Brooklyn, New York, 21 June, 1873, received a good education, and at the age of sixteen became clerk in a dry-goods house in Boston. His employers subsequently aided him in establishing himself in business, and he became interested m calico-print works and in the manufacture of cotton. In 1827 he moved to New York and became a member of the firm of Arthur Tappan and County, and his subsequent career was closely identified with that of his brother Arthur. With the latter he established in 1828 the “Journal of Commerce,” of which he became sole owner in 1829. In 1833 he entered with vigor into the anti-slavery movement, in consequence of which his house was sacked and his furniture was destroyed by a mob in July, 1834, and at other times he and his brother suffered personal violence. He was also involved in the crisis of 1837, and afterward withdrew from the firm and established the first mercantile agency in the country, which he conducted with success. He was chief founder of the American missionary association, of which he was treasurer and afterward president, and was an early member of Plymouth church, Brooklyn. He published the life of his brother mentioned above, but afterward joined in the Free-Soil movement at its inception. He was widely known for his drollery and wit and for his anti-slavery sentiments. Judge Tappan published “Cases decided in the Court of Common Pleas,” with an appendix (Steubenville, 1831). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 32-34.


Thompson, Daniel Pierce, 1795-1868, Vermont, abolitionist, noted author, novelist, lawyer, political leader, newspaper editor.  Member of the Liberty Party.  Editor, from 1849-1856, of the anti-slavery newspaper, Green Mountain Freeman. 

(Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 454) .  (Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 88-89, Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 454).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

THOMPSON, Daniel Pierce, author, born in Charlestown (now a part of Boston),  Massachusetts, 1 October, 1793; died in Montpelier, Vermont, 6 June, 1868. He was the grandson of Daniel, who was a cousin of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, and was killed at the battle of Lexington. He was brought up on a farm, prepared himself for college under difficulties, taught for one winter, and then entered Middlebury College, where he was graduated in 1820. Going to Virginia as a family tutor, he studied law there, and was admitted to the bar in 1823, after which he returned to Vermont and settled in Montpelier. He was register of probate in 1824, and clerk of the legislature in 1830-'3, and was then appointed to compile the “Laws of Vermont from 1824 down to and including the Year 1834” (Montpelier, 1835). He was judge of probate from 1837 till 1840, from 1843 till 1845 clerk of the supreme and county courts, and from 1853 till 1855 Secretary of State. From 1849 till 1856 he edited a weekly political paper called the “Green Mountain Free man.” He was a popular lecturer before lyceums and orator on public occasions. Mr. Thompson began to contribute poems and sketches to periodicals while he was in college, and continued to write frequently for the newspapers and magazines, besides publishing political pamphlets. He took part in the anti-Masonic controversy, and published a satirical novel on the subject, entitled “The Adventures of Timothy Peacock, Esq., or Freemasonry Practically Illustrated,” which appeared under the pen-name of “A Member of the Vermont Bar” (Middlebury, 1835). In 1835 he wrote for the “New England Galaxy,” of Boston, a prize tale called “May Martin, or the Money-Diggers,” which was issued in book-form (Montpelier, 1835), and reprinted in London. Next appeared “The Green Mountain Boys,” a romance, in which the principal men connected with the history of Vermont in the Revolutionary period are brought into the plot (Montpelier, 1840; republished in Boston and London); “Locke Amsden, or the Schoolmaster” (Boston, 1845); “Lucy Hosmer, or the Guardian and the Ghost” (1848); and “The Rangers, or the Tory's Daughter” (1851). His later romances are “Tales of the Green Mountains” (1852); “Gaut Gurley, or the Trappers of Lake Umbagog” (1857); “The Doomed Chief, or Two Hundred Years Ago,” based on the story of King Philip (Philadelphia, 1860); and “Centeola, and other Tales” (New York, 1864). He was also the author of a “History of Montpelier, 1781-1860, with Biographical Sketches” (Montpelier, 1860). In later life he published monographs on topics of American history and on biographical subjects in various magazines. A novel, with the title of “The Honest Lawyer, or the Fair Castaway,” was left unfinished. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 88-89.


Van Vleet, Jane, published Liberty Party newspaper, Star of Freedom, in Michigan. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Walker, Amasa, abolitionist leader, political leader, member U.S. House of Representatives, 1862-1863.  Economist, temperance activist, co-founder Free Soil Party. 

(Appleton’s, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 324-325). 1799-1875, Boston, Massachusetts, political economist, abolitionist.  Republican U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts.  Active and vigorous opponent of slavery.  American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) Manager, 1837-1840, 1840-1841, 1843-1844, Counsellor, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1841.  Co-founder of Free Soil Party in 1848.  Served in Congress December 1862 through March 1863.  (Filler, 1960, pp. 60, 254; Mabee, 1970, pp. 258, 340, 403n25; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 324-325; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 338; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 485)


Ward, Samuel Ringold, 1817-1866, New York, American Missionary Association (AMA), free African American, abolitionist leader, newspaper editor, author, orator, clergyman.  Member of the Liberty Party and the Free Soil Party.  Wrote Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro, His Anti-Slavery Labours in the United States, Canada and England, 1855.  Lecturer for American Anti-Slavery Society.  Member and contributor to the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada. Published Liberty Party paper, Impartial Citizen.  Vice Presidential candidate for the Liberty Party.


(Dumond, 1961, p. 330; Mabee, 1970, pp. 128, 135, 136, 294, 307, 400n19; Sernett, 2002, pp. 54-55, 62-64, 94, 117, 121, 126, 142, 149, 157-159, 169, 171-172; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 34, 46, 48, 53, 166, 446-447, 454; Sernett, 2002, pp. 54-55, 62-64, 94, 117, 121, 126, 142, 149, 157-159, 169, 171-172, 316n92; Sorin, 1971, pp. 85-89, 96, 104, 132; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 1, p. 440; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 22, p. 649; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 380; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Weeks, L. D. L. (Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Whittier, John Greenleaf, poet, 1807-1892, Haverhill, Massachusetts, poet, journalist, newspaper publisher and editor, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist.  Wrote antislavery poetry.  Publisher and editor of the Pennsylvania Freeman.  Founding member, Manager, and Secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Member of the Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  Leader and active with the Liberty Party.  Candidate for Congress for Liberty Party in Massachusetts.  Member, Free Soil Party.  Called for immediate abolition of slavery in the United States. 

(Blue, 2005, pp. 5, 37-64; Drake, 1950, pp. 113, 127, 137, 140-142, 158-159, 176, 181, 195; Dumond, 1961, pp. 167, 245, 286, 301; Filler, 1960, pp. 56, 66, 90, 105, 134, 148, 151, 194; Mabee, 1970, pp. 2, 4, 9, 11-13, 18, 21-22, 25-26, 29-30, 35-36, 48, 51, 65, 194, 211, 309, 326, 329, 359, 368, 373, 378; Pease, 1965, pp. 65, 102-104, 123-128; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 161, 433, 641, 723; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 493-494; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 173; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 23, p. 350; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. I. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 407; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Willey, Austin, 1806-1896, Maine, reformer, abolitionist, clergyman. Congregational minister.  Editor of Advocate of Freedom.  Published Liberty Party newspaper, Liberty Standard.

(Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 518; Dumond, 1961, pp. 301, 405n12; Willey, Austin, The History of the Anti-Slavery Cause in State and Nation, Portland, Maine, 1886; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

WILLEY, Austin, reformer, born in Campton, New Hampshire, 24 June, 1806. He was educated at Pembroke Academy, studied at Bangor theological seminary, where he was graduated in 1837. and in 1839 became editor of the "Advocate of Freedom," an anti-slavery paper that had been established in the preceding year at Brunswick, Maine, which he conducted until the abolition of slavery. He was also an early advocate of prohibition, and contributed to the adoption of the Maine law. He has published in book-form a "Family Memorial" (San Francisco, 1865). and " History of the Anti-Slavery Cause in State and Nation " (Portland. 1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 518.


Wood, Samuel Newitt, 1825-1891, New York, newspaper publisher, lawyer, politician, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist.  His home was a station on the Underground Railroad.  Active in the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  Member of the Republican Party.  Served as an officer in the Union Army, attaining the rank of Brigadier General in 1864. 

(Drake, 1950, p. 125; Moon, William Prairie Earth, 1998).


Wright, Elizur, 1804-1885, New York City, reformer, editor, abolitionist leader.  Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  Leader, Liberty Party.  Editor of the Massachusetts Abolitionist, founded 1839. 

(Blue, 2005, pp. 20, 25, 43, 50; Dumond, 1961, pp. 177, 179, 245, 301; Filler, 1960, pp. 61, 63, 74, 132, 135, 156, 193; Goodheart, 1990; Harrold, 1995, pp. 40, 76, 81, 143; Mabee, 1970, pp. 189, 190, 256, 322, 339, 364; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 6-8, 13-14, 16-17, 20, 44, 46, 67, 72; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 46, 521-522; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 621-622; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 548; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 24, p. 11).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

WRIGHT, Elizur, reformer, born in South Canaan, Connecticut, 12 February, 1804; died in Medford, Massachusetts, 21 November, 1885. His father, Elizur (1762-1845), was graduated at Yale in 1781, and became known for his mathematical learning and devotion to the Presbyterian faith. In 1810 the family moved to Tallmadge, Ohio, and the son worked on the farm and attended an academy that was conducted by his father. His home was often the refuge for fugitive slaves, and he early acquired anti-slavery opinions. He was graduated at Yale in 1826, and taught in Groton, Massachusetts In 1829-'33 he was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Western Reserve College, Hudson, Ohio. Mr. Wright attended the convention in Philadelphia in December, 1833, that formed the American Anti-Slavery Society, of which he was chosen secretary, and, moving to New York, he took part in editing the “Emancipator.” He conducted the paper called “Human Rights” in 1834-'5, and the “Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine” in 1835-'8, and through his continued opposition to slavery incurred the enmity of its advocates. His house was once besieged by a mob, and an attempt was made to kidnap him and convey him to North Carolina. He moved to Boston in 1839, and became editor of the “Massachusetts Abolitionist.” For several years he was connected with the press, and in 1846 he established the “Chronotype,” a daily newspaper which he conducted until it was merged in the “Commonwealth” (1850), of which he was for a time the editor. Mr. Wright was twice indicted and tried for libel, in consequence of his severe strictures on the liquor interests while publishing the “Chronotype,” and again in 1851 for aiding the rescue in Boston of Shadrach, a runaway slave. Between 1853 and 1858, besides editing the “Railroad Times,” he gave his attention to invention and mechanics, constructing a spike-making machine, a water-faucet, and an improvement in pipe-coupling. He patented the last two, and manufactured them for a short time. In 1853 he published “Life Insurance Valuation Tables” (2d ed., revised and enlarged, 1871), and in 1858 he secured an act of the Massachusetts legislature to organize an insurance commission, on a basis that required the annual valuation of the policy liabilities of all life-insurance companies in the state. He was appointed insurance commissioner of Massachusetts under this act, which office he held until 1866. He obtained the passage of the Massachusetts Non-forfeiture Act of 1861, and also its substitute in 1880, which was embodied with some change in the insurance codification bill of 1887. He devised a new formula for finding the values of policies of various terms, now known as the “accumulation formula,” and, in order to facilitate his work, invented and afterward patented (1869) the arithmeter, a mechanical contrivance for multiplication and division, based on the logarithmic principle. Afterward he became consulting actuary for life-insurance companies. He was a delegate to the convention of 1840, which formed the Liberty Party and nominated James G. Birney for the presidency, and edited “The Free American” in 1841. He was a promoter of the convention at Philadelphia on 4 July, 1876, which organized the National Liberal League to support state secularization, and was the second president of the league, being twice re-elected. He was a member of the Forestry Association, was instrumental in obtaining the Massachusetts Forestry Act of 1882, and labored for a permanent forest preserve. He wrote an introduction to Whittier's “Ballads, and other Poems” (London, 1844); and published a translation in verse of La Fontaine's “Fables” (2 vols., Boston, 1841; 2d ed., New York, 1859); “Savings Bank Life Insurance, with Illustrative Tables” (1872); “The Politics and Mysteries of Life Insurance” (1873); and “Myron Holley, and what he did for Liberty and True Religion,” a contribution to anti-slavery records (1882). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 621-622.

Return to Top of Page


References

(Blue, 2005, pp. ix, 2, 4, 5, 9, 16, 23-35, 49-50, 52, 53, 63, 66, 67, 91, 97-101, 116-118, 144, 163, 214, 218, 236, 265, 267; Dumond, 1961, pp. 285-286, 291, 295-304; Filler, 1960, pp. 145, 152, 155, 176, 178, 181, 213; Goodell, 1855; Harrold, 1995, pp. 10, 41, 55-57, 59, 91, 127, 131, 134-141, 174n10; Mabee, 1970, pp. 40, 56, 72, 227, 228, 246, 247, 252, 387n5; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4, 6-16, 25-29, 31, 44-48, 50, 51, 53, 54, 56, 74, 71, 98, 139, 167, 188, 196, 212, 215, 216, 225, 245, 254n; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 46, 48, 50, 57, 132, 185, 189, 298, 514, 522; Sernett, 2002, pp. 105, 112-125; Sorin, 1971, pp. 18, 21, 22, 27, 35, 31n, 38, 47, 60, 70, 77, 80, 106, 126, 130, 133; Willey, 1897; Wilson, 1872, Vol. 1, pp. 545-555, Vol. 2, pp. 109-113; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York; Johnson, The History of the Liberty Party; Smith, Theodore Clark, The Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the Northwest, New York, 1897)