case in all agitations,—a good many who are waiting to see how the tide turns, and just so, they will steer their course. And there are others who are independent. In the present state of society (do, my dear Father, allow me a strong term here), 'Select Meetings' are an absolute curse. I believe them to be the root of a great evil amongst us.

"I have felt in rather a wrathy mood lately, and, in reviewing the course of this affair from the beginning, I told Wm. Wharton that I did condemn, without qualification, the conduct of Friends-our Friends at our last Yearly Meeting-that many were false to you and false to themselves in allowing New-York Friends to go home with wrong impressions concerning their views of the course of New-York Monthly Meeting. He told me he had not failed to caution them. Joseph Parrish was at Baltimore Yearly Meeting when the honest Truth was spoken. Friends there have no unity with. Geo. F. White or the proceedings of the NewYorkers.

SARAH TO ABBY.

Philadelphia, 12 mo., 12th, 1841.

"The people more generally seem to be rousing from their lethargy. I asked our friend Mary Hallett to tell thee how she felt when she was compelled to believe (what she would fain have helped if she could), viz: that George White had resigned his right in the Society. Tell her I wish to know whether he has duped her and others into the be

lief that it was a religious act.

Tell her I think he

will bring up at the end of the chase before long, but they will be terribly out of breath, poor things. I think I see them panting now, their hearts beating and their knees trembling. That Monthly Meeting now holds its proper place in the estimation of most Friends—a poor palsied limb-I am afraid, past recovery. You can't know how much we enjoy the 'Standard.' No man could have elevated it as Maria has. Bless her heart! the angels love her. They have been keeping Father all his life. Oh, I've volumes to talk when I see you.

TO ANNE WARREN WESTON.

66 1841.

'My best of fathers will leave us in less than an hour for Boston, and that he may not be sent empty away, I will just express my regret that it has been quite out of my power to aid you this year, my condition being very much like the old woman's who lived in a shoe;' I have so many children I don't know what to do': the youngest but three months. Add to this, my inability to obtain assistance in our circle of Friends-all pro-slavery. Of those who formed our sewing circle last year, but one would be willing to aid Anti-Slavery this year."

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CHAPTER VIII.

1842.

DISOWNMENT.

LUCRETIA MOTT TO A FRIEND.

"Phila, 2nd mo., 25th, 1842.

YOU will see by the 'Anti-Slavery Standard,' how the N. Y. pseudo-Quakers are conducting towards Isaac T. Hopper, James S. Gibbons and Charles Marriott. I bear my testimony against their intolerance in every circle. In a Meeting of the Indian Committee,

I told them, we did not hesitate, fifteen years ago, to judge of the persecuting spirit of our Orthodox opposers, and I viewed the treatment of these Friends in New-York in the same light. We were then struggling for freedom of opinion; we are now claiming the right of practice in accordance with our convictions.”

Again, under the date of " 3d mo., 23rd, 1842," Lucretia Mott writes:

"The disownment of such men as Isaac T. Hopper, &c. . . . has caused great disaffection, and quite a number have meted the same measure by disowning the Society, in their turn."

I am concerned that we should act philosophically. Let us keep the weather gauge of the enemy, by showing him that he cannot deprive us of the mastery of ourselves. I think it is right that the family here should resign their places in the Mo. Mtg. We can't go to hear such awful words as are spoken in our Mtgs., and we can't send our children. None of the children are more worthy than their father, and if the Society is too holy for him, surely it is so for them. He is expelled, and for them to remain in association with the expellants, would be to be in apparent league against him. I conceive it to be a duty to excommunicate the Mo. Keep cool, be discreet, and give my

Mtg.

love to all the deserving.

"Thy emancipated brother,

"J. S. G."

RESIGNATION OF ABIGAIL H. GIBBONS.

"New-York, 6mo. 1st, 1842.

To the Monthly Meeting of New-York : "I request that my name, and the names of my children, William, Sarah Hopper, Julia and Lucy, may be erased from your list of members, and, from this date, I consider the connection which has hitherto existed between us, to be entirely dissolved. The principal reasons which induce me to take this step, are:

66

"1. The Monthly Meeting publicly denies the leading principles and testimonies of the Society of Friends; particularly, it rejects the testimony of truth against the great evils of Slavery and Intemperance.

"2. It imposes restrictions on the freedom of conscience, which are inconsistent with the requirements of Christian duty, and disowns those of its members who refuse to conform to such restrictions.

"3. It has disowned my husband and father, because they are conscientiously engaged in promoting the testimony of the Society against Slavery, and has been guilty of the plainest violations of its own Discipline, to procure the confirmation of their decision by the Quarterly and Yearly Meetings. Its Overseers, Elders, and principal Ministers, to secure the same end, engaged, for many months, in the defamation of moral character, in a most insidious and disgraceful manner.

4. Its Ministers and Elders have introduced a proposition, to recommend, as a minister of the Society, a man who stands in the relation of landlord to a number of grogshops, thus affording practical proof that it rejects the testimony of truth against the Sin of Intemperance.

Abigail H. Gibbons.

A. H. G. TO S. H. P.

"New-York, 6 mo. 1st, 1842.

"I went to Meeting, took my seat about the fourth seat from the gallery, facing the clerks ;