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Three thousand of them, or near it, he had passed from bondage, and he believed that only three individuals of these were ever recaptured. "I never enticed them from their masters," he said, "but when they came to me for help I always did what I could for them. I believe God brought me to Wilmington on purpose to do this work." His Under-Ground-Railway enterprises would have filled an ample volume had he dared to record them.

His Longwood co-workers, older and younger, did also, all of them, effective work in this same railway service. It was part of their lives.

A host of younger men than the foregoing were enlisted likewise in this movement of the Progressive Friends. Among those on whose willing shoulders the responsibility was thrown, were the brothers, WILLIAM and EUSEBIUS BARNARD, who, both of them, had been ministers in the Society of Friends. SIMON BARNARD, CHANDLER DARLINGTON, ever on guard against cant and ecclesiastical domination; CALEB S. JACKSON, the brothers, THOMAS, ELI and CHARLES HAMBLETON, ISAAC MENDEN HALL, BENJAMIN KENT, LEWIS MARSHALL, THOMAS WORRELL, J. WILLIAMS THORNE, and many others equally worthy.

One of the youngest signers to the call for the first yearly meeting was CASTNER HANWAY. Formerly he had not thought himself an abolitionist. He had shared the popular feeling,that, if those rather fanatical people would keep still it would be better for the slave. But he had experienced conviction and conversion on this subject, months before; when, for declining to obey the Fugitive Slave Law,-for refusing to help a deputy marshal in capturing fugitive slaves,-he fourd himself, along with thirty-one other men, lodged within the cells of Moyamensing prison, awaiting trial for treason. The honors of martyrdom then loomed ominously before him. His danger seemed imminent. But, after nearly three months imprisonment before his trial which lasted twenty-three days, he escaped the gallows, and lived thirty years after slavery had been abolished.

It ought to be told, that for every man actively interested in this movement there was also a good woman, equally interested, conscientious and intelligent, to be counted in. Women of refinement and ability who felt their obligations and did their duty as they saw it. On the records of Kennett and other Friends' meetings we find their names as workers in all good causes. What would the early Progressive Friends have been without MABEL PYLE, ESTHER HAYES, SARAH T. PIERSON, MARY I. PENNOCK, HANNAH COX, HANNAH M. DARLINGTON, SIDNEY PIERCE CURTIS, DINAH MENDENHALL, RUTH DUGDALE, MARY C. WILSON, BEULAH BORTON, MARY ANN JOHNSON, MARY ANN JACKSON and many more?

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When the separation from the old Society was far advanced and the question,-"What next,"-was pending, JOSEPH A. DUGDALE came with his family, from Clark County, Ohio, in the spring of 1851, to live among them; attracted by congenial sentiments and similarity of position, ecclesiastically. He was an organizer by nature. Was in his prime; only forty years age. He entered into the spirit of the movement with zest, and became the first Presiding Clerk of the Yearly Meeting. He introduced here his friend, OLIVER JOHNSON, then recently transferred from the editorial department of the Anti-Slavery Bugle, in Salem, Ohio, to that of the Anti-Slavery Standard in New York City; who, also had become a "come-outer" from his early church, because of his anti-slavery convictions and its attitude on that question, and was seeking a religious fellowship combined with liberal thought on reformatory matters. From his first introduction here he showed a deep interest in the movement and in the social life of the community. When the time came for organization he wrote the Exposition of Sentiments and was otherwise an interested, efficient helper. Later, he became the second Presiding Clerk of the Yearly Meeting.

Many, in the vicinity of Longwood and elsewhere, not members of the Society of Friends, took a warm interest in the new Association. Among these were ALLEN AGNEW and MARIA AGNEW, his wife, and ELIZA AGNEW, his sister; all of whom

did their part, while living, in supporting it. ALLEN AGNEW generously remembered it, financially, in the final distribution of his estate and MARIA AGNEW left a handsome sum towards placing an iron fence around the cemetery. AMOS PIERSON, a brother of Mrs. Agnew's, likewise became a liberal testator to the funds of the Longwood Yearly Meeting; all of them thus, exceptionally, winning its lasting gratitude.

What an eager, wide-spread interest was manifested when the call for that first general conference was held in 1853Its recognition of spiritual freedom as the prerogative of the individual, was as the day-dawn to many minds. A wide variety of character, of belief, and of personality, was attracted to those earlier Yearly Meetings. From both divisions of the Society of Friends and from other churches came seekers for light. A young woman who with her husband had come a hundred miles to the dedication of this Longwood meetinghouse, said: "It was all so hopeful, so inspiring, I just laid down my head and wept."

The critic and the scoffer came also; and the curiosity hunter. During its early years the Yearly Meeting opened on the First-day of the week, which made it a centre for a host of idlers, such as are attracted to any large or unusual gathering on a holiday. Who care nothing for the meeting; do not enter it, but create tumult outside. To avoid this disadvantage the change to Week-days for holding the Yearly Meeting was resorted to and has been continued since.

The Progressive Friends having stepped outside the line of routine in matters religious and reformatory were naturally looked upon as singular; as even dangerous, by some excellent people. Peculiar people brought their theories and projects there hoping for hospitality to them, others came just to test the metal of the Association. For several years they were harassed by an individual who came with the avowed intention of breaking up the meeting; sometimes having fortified his courage, apparently, at the bar of the tavern where he lodged. He believed freedom of thought and speech to be incompatible with good order and meant to prove it. His remarks were

intruded on all occasions, without regard to time or fitness or the rights of others. Lauding the "glorious privilege of free speech," offering absurd resolutions, making a medley of sense and nonsense. The Friends remonstrated with him, suggesting and requesting that he observe the rules of good-breeding and fairness in his speech. Once Sojourner Truth bore down upon him with infinite scorn and reproof in her tone: "You, talkin' of free speech! A henderin' the meetin' with your ricketyclack, an' givin' nobody else a chance to speak! Chile, you know better!"

When, in 1855, a collection was being taken to clear the new meeting house from debt, this man announced that he wished to give five dollars towards it. A warm debate arose thereon. Some felt that the self-respect of the meeting would be lowered by taking the gift. Others thought the offer equivalent to a condemnation of his conduct; that it ought to be accepted as such, in good faith. The house was stirred, pro and con. Then Amos Preston arose and poured oil on the troubled surface. He admitted the man's faults, the discredit he had incurred, the annoyance he had been to others; but his remarks were full of beautiful charity, as if he spoke of his own erring child.

For a few moments there was stillness profound, and then Theodore Parker spoke. He had, with those quiet, intense, gray eyes of his, closely watched the whole proceeding; not without a sense of the humor in it at times, but with a fine appreciation of the merits of the case. His opinion was given in the following

PARABLE:

In the days when the Tabernacle of David was fallen down and the Holy place was laid waste, there came together the elders of Israel, the Wise Men and the Prophets, to hasten the time when the Lord should build up Zion. Now divers young men assembled also, and of fair and goodly women not a few. And when they saw the waste places, the people were of one heart and one mind and beat upon their breasts and cried out, "O, that the Lord would build up Zion, and pour out His Holy

Spirit upon us!" Then one of the fathers of Israel spake, saying: "Yea, but the Lord worketh by the hands of men, and keepeth that city only wherein the watchmen slumber not. Let us give of our substance to repair the breaches of the Temple, everyone according to his ability. Let none hide his gift in his bosom ashamed of its smallness. The Lord is no respecter of persons nor accepteth he the offering of the mighty before the gift of the poor, but looketb only at the heart."

And the saying pleased the people, who cried, “Amen,” with one consent. And so it came to pass that many offered their gifts; many that were rich gave of their abundance, some a talent, some more; some but a single shekel. Nay, women that were widows vouchsafed a few bunches of dates or a handful of parched corn as meat for the workmen, and maidens would bring water to the raasons building up the wall. So the offerings went forward and the scribes wrote them down with the pen of ready writers.

Then there rose up in the meeting a man that said, "Lo! here are five pieces of silver, put them into the treasury of the Lord's house, for the service thereof." "Nay," said such as knew him, "not so. This man is a son of Belial and not of the seed of Abraham. He speaketh against this holy place. He mocketh at our counsels and watcheth for our halting that he may betray us into the hands of our enemies. He uttereth curses against us, his mouth runneth over with bitterness. Moreover, in our solemn meetings he hath spoken words of lewiness and folly which it is not lawful for man to utter, making tears to run down upon the trembling hands of our old men and the maiden's cheek to burn with shame that could not be hidden. God forbid that we should defile the sanctuary with the gift of the ungodly, whose prayer is an abomination unto the Lord." But others spake against this counsel, saying: "Nay, brethren, you do greatly err! Let us not scorn the one rose in his garden albeit thorns do choke its blossoms. Take the pieces of silver. To his own master he standeth or falleth. Let us not judge of the heart of our neighbor."

Now the multitude was divided, some crying one thing and

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