in our own country, were ever regarded by me with indifference, it must have been owing to great torpor or stupidity.

I suppose you will readily believe that recent events have had no tendency to give me a more favorable opinion of this gigantic evil. The prospect of increasing its domain, strengthening its influence, and as far as possible, protracting its duration, and all this by a people professing christianity and a love of human liberty, strikes me with horror.

Massachusetts is called on to express audibly, and emphatically, her voice on this subject. To me it seems that this should be done without distinction of sect or party, by delegates elected by the whole people for this express purpose. Such a measure, you are aware is contemplated. I hope that no town in the Commonwealth will fail in its representation.

I must however respectfully decline to accept your friendly invitation. I fear that were I now to attend your meeting, it might be imputed to a new-born zeal in the cause of liberty, produced by narrow, selfish considerations.

I have had several invitations of late to attend meetings of Societies for similar purposes; which, for the same reason, I have declined.

Respectfully, Sir, your obedient servant,

SAMUEL HOAR.

Mr. Phillips then presented and sustained the following resolution, which, after remarks from the Hon. Seth Sprague, Jr. of Duxbury, and Mr. S. S. Foster, was adopted.

Resolved, That the annexation of Texas is not only unconsti tutional and in itself a dissolution of the Union, but in regard to its momentous consequences, as being the last of a long series of aggressions and usurpations on the part of the South, and evidences of a studied and systematic attempt to pervert, to the support of Slavery, all the power and influence of the National Government, such annexation makes it the duty of the Northern States, by all they owe to Liberty and Justice, and themselves, immediately on its taking place to call conventions for the organization of a new National Government. Notwithstanding which,

Resolved, That, in the view of this Society, the whole pro

gress of the Texas plot, and the spirit in which it has been met here, clearly proves that the whole Northern mind is swallowed up and corrupted by party interests and party ambition, and that no efficient action whatever will be taken by the free States, should such action take place - which fact only more clearly proves to us that nothing is to be hoped for from the North, for freedom, while the public opinion continues chilled and tainted by the influence of this Union- and proves to us still more forcibly than heretofore, the rightfulness and the necessity of our war-cry of

NO UNION WITH SLAVE-HOLDERS,

and the duty of every honest man and Abolitionist to denounce and repudiate the unholy compact of the Constitution.

Mr. S. S. Foster presented a resolution concerning the future conduct of Massachusetts in the case of the expulsion of her officer, the Hon. Samuel Hoar, from the Port of Charleston, S. C. The subject was discussed by S. S. Foster, Henry Clapp, Jr. and C. C. Burleigh. Adjourned.

WEDNESDAY EVENING.

Mr. Foster's resolution was taken up, and after discussion by Mr. Mellen, Dr. Walter Channing, S. S. Foster, W. A. White, S. J. May, John Allen, J. N. Buffum, Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglass, Uriah Ritchie and Lunt, the whole subject was referred to a special committee, consisting of

W. PHILLIPS,
W. A. WHITE,
S. S. FOSTER.

After a song from the HUTCHINSON FAMILY the meeting adjourned.

THURSDAY MORNING.

The special committee on the affairs of Massachusetts and South Carolina, reported the following resolution, which, after discussion by Messrs. Phillips, Clapp, Foster, White, Davis, Buffum, Daniel Ricketson, S. J. May, Garrison, Quincy, C. C. Burleigh, and Ballou, was adopted without dissent.

Resolved, That, while this Society has neither the right nor the

wish to demand or to defend the resort to physical force even for the execution of the laws, leaving that question entirely to the individual consciences of its members, and heartily responding to the sublime sentiment of O'Connell that "no political reform was ever worth the shedding of a single drop of blood," still it cannot but see that judging by the principles on which this government is based and has been conducted, the Executive of the State is bound to demand of the Executive of the Union that the provisions of the Constitution be faithfully carried out, and that the Hon. Samuel Hoar, as agent of Massachusetts, be sustained by the Federal Government in his right of residence in the port of Charleston — and that as protection and allegiance are correlative, the one ceasing with the other, if the Federal Executive shall either refuse or be unable to secure to Massachusetts the rights guarantied to her by the Constitution, then this Union is by that fact dissolved, and Massachusetts, on all the principles of national law, under her own Constitution, becomes unlimitedly sovereign and independent— bound and able to exercise all the rights of Sovereignty in the protection of her citizens. Therefore,

Resolved, That the Legislature ought, judging by the principles of the Government, to memorialize the Governor to that effect, and to authorize him, by proclamation, in case of such an event occurring as the refusal of the President of the Union to sustain the rights of Massachusetts, to recall our Senators and Representatives from Congress, and to call a Convention for the purpose of arranging the internal and foreign relations of the State-seeing that by such refusal to act, the Federal Government has abdicated office and is politically dead.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON.

The following resolutions were presented by Henry Clapp, Jr., and after remarks by himself, and C. C. Burleigh, were laid on the table to afford time for the consideration of the cases of Walker, and others, in prison at the South.

Resolved, That in the infamous treatment which the official agents of this State recently received from the authorities of South Carolina and Louisiana we recognize the natural fruit of the peculiar institutions of the South, and the legitimate consequence of the

Pro-Slavery subserviency of the North; and that, in the opinion of this Society, Massachusetts has no occasion to say to either of those States' stand aside, I am holier than thou.' And, therefore,

Resolved, That the duty of this Society is to continue what John C. Calhoun calls its 'plundering agitation,' by exposing the terrible iniquity of the Slave system and its upholders, and calling upon all men, without distinction of cast, color, state, nation, or any outward condition, instantly to withdraw themselves from all ProSlavery connexion, and to assume an uncompromising Anti-Slavery position.

While the resolution on the cases of Walker and others was being written, the following resolution was offered by Wendell Phillips, and adopted.

Resolved, That this Society has heard with deep sorrow that one of its members, John Murray Spear, a man well known in this community by the devotion of his life to the highest interests of humanity for his amiable manners and tolerant and loving spirit, was brutally and unprovokedly assaulted in the streets of Portland, resulting in illness which has endangered his life, and still confines him to his chamber; and that it learns with indignation that neither the citizens, with a few honorable exceptions, nor the city authorities, have made any proper expression of their disapproval of such a disgraceful and cowardly outrage.

The Committee on Nomination of Officers for the ensuing year reported, by their Chairman, Mr. Quincy, the list which appears on page 69, and which included the name of E. G. Loring. was unanimously adopted.

It

The following letter from ELLIS GRAY LORING, Esq. was then read:

FRANCIS JACKSON,

BOSTON, JAN. 23, 1845.

President of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. DEAR FRIEND-Not being able to concur, either on grounds of principle or policy, in the "Disunion" doctrine, now adopted as cardinal by the Society, I feel that I should not properly represent its views, as a member of the Board of Managers.

You will therefore signify to the Society my wish not to be a candidate for re-election as an officer.

I trust it is needless to say to you that I resign my seat at the Board from no alienation of feeling in respect to the Society or its Managers, but that I am,

With unabated affection and esteem,

Their and Your Friend,

ELLIS GRAY LORING.

Edmund Quincy moved that the thanks of this Society be presented to ELLIS GRAY LORING, Esq. for his faithful services as Auditor of this Society during the past year, and as a member of the Board of Managers, since its formation; which was unanimously carried.

The following Resolutions were reported [and subsequently adopted] and discussed by Messrs. Foster, Lunsford Lane, C. C. Burleigh, F. Douglass, and Mr. Andrews.

Resolved, That language fails us to express our indignation at the conduct of Capt. Gilbert Ricketson of New Bedford, in returning to Virginia to surrender his steward and the poor fugitive that had taken refuge on board his ship, to hunters and sellers of men; thus constituting himself a kidnapper of his fellow men, and subjecting his memory to an immortality of infamy.

Resolved, That in the imprisonment of Walker, Torrey, Work, Burr, Thompson, Boyer, Lane, Delia Webster and Fairbank, we witness another instance of the utter hypocrisy of our countrymen in their profession of attachment to the cause of civil liberty, and the principles upon which our institutions are thought to rest, and that while we sympathize deeply with them in their sufferings for humanity, we glory and rejoice in the fact that the old Puritan spirit seems awakening and girding herself for a contest with the powers of darkness, and we view these as the first drops of the coming storm, the first single combat, betokening the battle which is about to close between the hot fury of the Southern oppressor, and the calm, cool, but resistless onset of religious principle. The Society then adjourned.

THURSDAY EVENING.

The discussion on the preceding resolution was continued by Messrs. Phillips, Pierpont, Daniel Ricketson, Garrison, Burleigh, Foster, White, W. Channing, and Innis.