king of Rome, after the wars, the tumults, in which that city was long disturbed, were mostly at an end, professed to visit in a secret grotto, to receive instructions from, while he was laboring to establish civil institutions, and to refine the manners of the people, and educate them in the principles and the rights of religion. So the wife of Mr. Phillips was his Egeria, his councillor, his guide, and his inspiration.

"You understand, too, that Mr. Phillips has been for many years laboring for the rights of woman, in relation to government, to social position, to opportunities of education and of employment that should give her a livelihood. And how much loftier a position woman has attained within the last fifty years; how much she has been allowed education, development, usefulness; how much less she is the slave of dress and fashion and pleasure and flattery; how much men are compelled to endure her rivalry and to find themselves under the necessity of greater exertion and nobler aims if they would not decline in honor, and lose the superiority of position which they have long claimed under the title of 'Lords of Creation!' If life was made beautiful to Mr. Phillips by the companionship of an affectionate, cultivated, sympathizing wife, he labored to diffuse through the world the influences he enjoyed; and many thousands of sons will live purer, nobler lives on account of the happiness diffused from these two good, pure, and united hearts. Every maiden who thinks of marriage, and who is to be married, will have a better husband; many a mother will feel that her boys are more secure against intemperance and every other form of corruption; many thousands of husbands will find they have better companions, wives more truly helpmates, guides and means of inspiration."

From the time when Mr. Phillips first began to speak on the slave-question, his services were constantly in

demand. The reputation for eloquence which he established for himself at the Lovejoy meeting followed him wherever he went, and undoubtedly carried conviction to many persons disinclined to favor the agitation of the abolition problem.

The first anti-slavery lecture which he ever gave was at Lynn, Mass., in the old Christian meeting-house on Silsbee Street. The house stands nearly opposite where Mr. Williams now preaches. Phillips went there under the auspices of the Young Men's Anti-slavery Society, several of whose members had listened to his famous reply to Attorney-General Austin's harangue in Faneuil Hall.

In 1838 Phillips was again invited to deliver the Fourth-of-July oration in Lynn, at the First Methodist Church. The following reminiscences of this event serve to show something of the earnestness with which Mr. Phillips entered into the cause. They are from the pen of Mr. Edwin Thompson, himself an anti-slavery advocate:

"We not only engaged Mr. Phillips for the oration [he says], but we also secured the services of Miss Susan Paul, a celebrated teacher of a colored school in Boston. She was the daughter of Thomas Paul, a popular Baptist preacher in Boston, who, though of the colored race, was a man of high standing. His name was a household word in Lynn. At that time children of the colored race could not attend the public schools of Boston, sit with white people in churches, or ride in any public conveyance with them. Miss

Paul came to Lynn with forty of her scholars in carriages which they hired for the occasion. She and her pupils sang such songs as were appropriate in those early anti-slavery days. Of course, it produced a great sensation in Lynn, especially among the young people, who had never seen so many colored children before.

"As Miss Paul and her pupils were obliged to start early from Boston, they had taken but a slight breakfast; and they partook of a lunch at my father's house, which was always open for the friends of every reformatory movement. At the celebration, it so happened that I was called upon to read the Declaration of Independence; which, I suppose, was the reason that Mr. Phillips said he thought I ought to speak publicly in behalf of the slave. I told him I did not think I was qualified to speak as an advocate of the anti-slavery cause. Although I had been engaged in the cause for five years before Mr. Phillips came into the movement, I had never spoken to any great extent on the subject.

"Soon after the conversation with Mr. Phillips, I received an invitation from the Essex County Anti-slavery Society to visit all the towns, and organize societies, get up anti-slavery libraries, and lecture on the subject. I worked under the direction of the martyr, Rev. Charles T. Torrey, who was the corresponding-secretary, who was preaching in Salem as pastor of the Howard-street Church, where the celebrated George B. Cheever, author of the famous 'Deacon Giles' Distillery,' once preached. This appointment, which I suppose came at the instigation of Mr. Phillips, changed my whole course of life, and brought me into a somewhat intimate acquaintance with some of the grandest people I have ever known."

CHAPTER VII.

THE WORLD'S ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION.

Begins its Sessions June 12, 1840. — The Rights of Women discussed in the American Anti-Slavery Society. - David Lee Child's Resolutions. Prominent Delegates. - Freemasons' Hall, London. Debate on the Admission of Women. -Speech of Mr. Phillips. — The Women rejected. — Adverse Criticism, and Wisdom of Mr. Phillips.

"Theories are but thin and unsubstantial air against the solid fact of woman mingling with honor and profit in the various professions and industrial pursuits of life."

"It is, after all, of little use to argue these social questions. These prejudices never were reasoned up; and, my word for it, they will never be reasoned down, The freedom of the press, the freedom of labor, the freedom of the race in its lowest classes, was never argued to success. The moment you can get woman to go out into the highway of life, and show by active valor what God has created her for, that moment this question is settled forever." — - PHILLIPS.

ΟΝ

N the 12th of June, 1840, the World's Anti-slavery Convention began its session in London, England. This fact brings us to a consideration of Mr. Phillips's early advocacy of the rights of women as co-equal with those of men.

When the American Anti-slavery Society was formed, in 1833, some of the women present at the meeting made speeches; and the convention passed a vote of thanks to them for their interest and zeal in the cause.

In 1835 the society wished to delegate Mrs. Lydia Maria Child to visit England in the interests of the anti-slavery cause, and two years later endeavored to secure her services as travelling lecture-agent. In the same year the Misses Grimkè were similarly commissioned.

At the sixth annual meeting of the society, in May, 1839, an attempt was made for the first time to exclude women from active membership. A motion was made by a clergyman (his name is forgotten), that none but men should have their names placed upon the rolls; but this motion was rejected by an overwhelming majority. The same year a woman was put on a committee to "examine and report" on the publication of the annual report. It caused a great commotion among the members; but there was no open revolt until 1840, when for the first time a woman was elected on the business committee of the society. In consequence of this action, a minority of the membership withdrew, and formed another anti-slavery society. This division afterwards extended through many of the State and local anti-slavery organizations.

The World's Anti-slavery Convention was first projected by the English abolitionists. When the American Anti-slavery Society was invited to send delegates, it responded by adopting the following resolutions, offered by David Lee Child, at its annual meeting held in New York, May 12, 1840: