Anti-Slavery  Hesolutions,  First,  in  Con-
gress. Eufus  King,  delegate  in  Congress  from
Massachusetts,  proposed  (March  16,  1787)  to
modify  the  report  on  the  Western  Territory,
already  accepted,  by  inserting  in  it  a  total  and
immediate  prohibition  of  slavery.  This  was
the  first  iiroposition  for  the  abolition  of  slar
very  laid  before  Congress.  The  motion  was
referred  to  a  committee  by  a  vote  of  eight
states.     (See  Sorthweatem  Territory.)

Anti -Slavery  Societies.  The  system  of
slavery  was  opposed  by  many  of  the  best  men
and  ■women  at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolu-
tion on  economic  and  moral  grounds,  particu-
larly in  the  Northern  aud  Eastern  States,  where
it  was  not  so  prevalent  and  apparently  indis-
pensable as  in  the  Southern  States.     The  first


society  established  for  promoting  a  public  sen-
timent in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  was
formed  in  Philadelphia  on  April  14, 1775,  with
Dr.  Franklin  as  president,  and  Dr.  Benjamin
Rush  as  secretary.  John  Jay  was  the  first
president  of  a  society  for  the  same  purpose
formed  in  New  York,  Ja9.  25,  1785,  aud  called
the  "New  York  Manumission  Society."  The
Society  of  Friends  or  Quakers  always  opposed
slavery,  and  were  a  perpetual  and  active  abo-
lition society,  presenting  to  the  National  Con-
gress the  first  petition  on  the  snbject.  Other
abolition  societies  followed  in  other  parts  of  the
Union.  A  society  was  formed  in  Ohio  in  1815
by  a  zealoas  citizen  named  Lnndy  (see  Mrst
Abolition  Newspaper);  and  iu  1831  the  subject
was  vehemently  revived  by  the  publication,  be-
gun in  Boston  that  year,of  the  iifterator,  by  Will-
iam Lloyd  Garrison.  It  denounced  slave-hold-
ing as  "  a  sin  against  God  and  a  crime  against
humanity."  With  such  sentiments  Arnold  Buf-
fum  (a  Quaker)  aud  eleven  others  foi-med  au
anti-slavery  society  in  Boston  in  1832.  This
was  followed  in  1833  by  the  formation  in  Phil-
adelphia of  the  "  American  Anti-Slavery  Socie-
ty," which  existed  until  after  the  civil  war  that
destroyed  the  institution  of  slavery.
