THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 175 



antl the Salem Turnpike.^ The same year, 1832, was 

 marked in his history by the founding of the first society 

 of Garrisonian abolitionists in Boston, and also of Crombio 

 Street Church in Salem, a broad and vigorous movement 

 which enlisted the interest of Rufus Choate amongst its 

 corporators, and had from the outset the enthusiastic de- 

 votion of Mr. Waters, though his antislavery proclivities 

 seem afterwards to have led him to Howard Street.^ Indeed 

 nothing which seemed to him to involve the broader inter- 

 ests of mankind ever failed to touch him. He was from the 

 first a pronounced supporter of the reformatory movements 

 of the day, such as temperance, the abolition of slavery and 

 the like, and he never suffered the condition of his purse 

 nor considerations of personal preferment or gain to stand 

 in his way. He used to tell with rare pleasure in later 

 years, when his liberality in contributing to every under- 

 taking which met his approval, be it social, political, de- 

 nominational or charitable, had become well known, of the 

 day of small things when he walked to Boston to attend an 

 antislavery meeting because he could ill afford to ride, and 

 of the eager delight with which he saw an aged Quaker 

 add a thousand dollars to the contribution for the sacred 

 cause, the footsore young enthusiast had been commis- 

 sioned to collect. In later life Mr. Waters bore a manly 

 part in the struggle for freedom in Kansas, in conjunction 

 with Amos A. Lawrence and his honored associates, and 

 was chosen, during the continuance of it in the autumn of 

 1855, to a seat in the Legislature, the only elective public 

 office he ever held. A special feature of his benevolence 

 was the interest he never ceased to feel in the business suc- 



1 On Essex street west of North street corner, there were at least thirty-four me- 

 chanics' and retailers' shops, before reaching Beckford street, and between that and 

 BufFum's corner a dozen more. 



^ See Rev. E. B. Willson's Ecclesiastical History of Salem, in Kurd's History of 

 Essex Co. (Lewis & Co.) Vol. 1, pp. 52-4, 59-60. 



