Brother John's reply was not received in time, but as it contains facts of interest, we insert it here.
"I think father's feelings were strongly anti-slavery from the very beginning of active modern anti-slavery effort. It was not his habit to speak much of himself, but from his modes of expression, I was satisfied that he was interested in the anti-slavery sentiment before he left the old country. You know the first form of opposition to slavery in England was against the slave trade. Father, in speaking, frequently said slave trade, when an American would have said slavery. I think he (in common with many old Abolitionists) was interested in the old Colonization Society; for when I was a boy, their organ, the Colonization Herald, used to come to the house. Our religious newspaper in the year 1835, and before, was the New York Evangelist, then edited by Rev. Joshua Leavitt. The strong points of that paper, that took hold of father's mind then, were the reports of Charles G. Finney's labors in New York, and the anti-slavery articles. In 1835, father took me with him one beautiful summer day, eleven miles to Sauquoit, to hear a lecture against slavery, by Beriah Green. It was a day meeting. The house was full, on the floor and in the gallery. President Green gave us a most convincing discourse. In the fall of that year, October 21, 1835, there was a meeting held in Utica, to organize a New York State Anti-Slavery Society. There was a large attendance from all parts of the State. Father went to attend the meeting, and took me with him. This was before the day of railroads. We rode after the proverbial "minister's horse," overworked and underfed, and it
