June 2, 1865
More than two full pages of speeches as the AASS considers its continuance.
With the decision made not to dissolve the organization, there is a Nominating Committee report which proposes officers for the ensuing year. Garrison is nominated as President, which announcement was “received with tumultuous applause”. Garrison declines, having already made known his feeling that the Society should be dissolved. His declination is graciously received, and Wendell Phillips is elected.
May 26, 1865
Two full pages includes speeches for and against a motion of dissolution of the AASS. The account concludes with assurance that it will be concluded next week.
May 8, 1865
Difficult to summarize, too long to quote, the editor advocates for the dissolution of the AAS. There are then quotes from two papers, the Commonwealth, and the Anglo-African. The Commonwealth, which has often expressed itself contemptuously toward the Society, now calls for its continuation, with a newly found zeal, which incurs wonder from the editor. The quote from the Anglo-African includes a charge that AAS leaders urge dissolution only “at the very moment that they also find that it no longer pays”. The editor comments: “The low fling contained in the closing sentence of this extract is characteristic of the manners and breeding of its author, Dr. J. McCune Smith. We only notice it as illustrating the animus of certain outsiders, who are impudently assuming to thrust their advice upon a Society from which they stand aloof. Both the Commonwealth and the Anglo-African find it to their purpose to represent those who believe that the Society may now with dignity and propriety dissolve, as disposed to withdraw from all effort to place the colored population on a level with the white, in regard to their political rights. The imputation is a base one, and undeserving of serious refutation.”
April 28, 1865
Here is a letter from Wendell Phillips, and then an article from the Anti-Slavery Standard, indicating some of the arguments which are current as members discuss the continuation of the Society, now that the ratification of the Abolition Amendment is expected.
December 18, 1863
The meeting was held at the Concert Hall, Philadelphia, and here the article includes speeches by many leaders of the movement. In his introductory remarks, Garrison, predicts that this Third Decade meeting “will, in all probability, be the last one that we shall hold; for who now believes that slavery is to continue ten years longer in our land, rendering necessary ten years longer of anti-slavery effort for its overthrow? We trust that we are very near the jubilee…
October 23, 1863
One again, here is the petition, sponsored by the Loyal Women of The Republic, through their National Association, calling upon the Congress to enact emancipation of all persons of African descent held in involuntary servitude.
February 8, 1861
This article recounts a debate in the Massachusetts House of Representatives over a motion to allow the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society the use of Representatives Hall, in consequence of the suppression of their meetings recently. The final vote was 69 Yeas, and 136 Nays.
February 1, 1861
Garrison’s letter indicates that he has been ill eighteen days, and that today’s meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society will be the first of its annual meetings he has missed. The meeting will be “the most encouraging and the most potential ever held by the Society, whether broken up by lawless violence, or permitted to proceed without molestation.”
December 14, 1860
A long article, signed by C.K.W., gives a detailed account of the event, including an account of the re-convened meeting at the Joy Street church. Among those who were on the platform, and speakers, were Wendell Phillips, Maria Chapman, Frederick Douglass, F. B.Sanborn, and John Brown, Jr.
December 7, 1860
The meeting was to be a third anniversary of the Martyrdom of John Brown, to be held at Tremont Temple. The content of the long article is captured in these headings at the beginning of the article: “The Meeting forcibly suppressed by order of Mayor Lincoln, who thus virtually headed the mob, but who is soon to receive his ‘walking ticket’- Resolutions adopted by the rioters, free Anti-Slavery Speech no longer to be tolerated, yet triumphant in the evening at the Joy Street Church - brutal assault upon colored citizens –Second Battalion under arms…”
