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[95] as rather less than one hundred, and of anti-slavery societies as upwards of one hundred and thirty,—most of them in slave States and of Lundy's formation, among the Quakers. Allusion was made to the colonization of one thousand colored people in Liberia, and the emigration of seven or eight thousand more to Hayti within four years, and to the fact that influential citizens in the District of Columbia, and in many other places, were then signing petitions to Congress for the abolition of slavery in the District. ‘If this important principle be recognized by that body,’ said the editor, ‘it will be a bright omen of the future emancipation of the whole country.’ The formation of peace societies was also noted with satisfaction by him.

‘The brightest traits in the American character,’ he declared,

will derive their lustre, not from the laurels picked from the field of blood, not from the magnitude of our navy and the success of our arms, but from our exertions to banish war from the earth, to stay the ravages of intemperance among all that is beautiful and fair, to unfetter those who have been enthralled by chains which we have forged, and to spread the light of knowledge and religious liberty wherever darkness and superstition reign. Upon this foundation we may build a temple which time cannot crumble, and whose fame shall fill the earth. Obstacles may rise up in our path like mountains, but they will disappear before the unconquerable spirit of reform like the shadows of night in the morning blaze. . . . We ought to exult that the ‘signs of the times’ are so auspicious. Let the desponding take courage—the fainting gather strength—the listless be inspirited; for though the victory be not won, we shall not lose it if we persevere. The struggle is full of sublimity—the conquest embraces the world.

Lundy was sufficiently encouraged by this visit to the North to undertake another pilgrimage thither soon after his return to Baltimore, and, beginning on the first of May, 1828, he devoted six months to visiting New England and New York State. He met with varying success, and that his patience was sorely tested at times is evident from the declaration in his journal (on reaching

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Benjamin Lundy (2)
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