THE SOUTH CHURCH. 1*27 



The most absorbing and distracting of all tlic groat moral reforms 

 was that which resulted twenty years later in the abolition of liuman 

 slavery. Garrison began the publication of the "Liberator," in IH'M. 

 The first national "Anti-Slavery Convention" was held in ':J3. The 

 mobs in Philadelphia and Boston occurred in ';ij. Lovejoy was 

 murdered in '37; and the matchless eloquence of Wendell Phillips was 

 then for the first time heard in Faneuil Hall. 



The temperance reformation rose to the importance of a national 

 movement during these same years. Societies were formed; speeches 

 made; the total abstinence pledge was discussed with an interest 

 excited by its novelty, and only after long and serious debate was it 

 finally adopted as the basis of the reform. The first national temper- 

 ance convention met in 1833. Dr. Cheever went to jail for writing his 

 irritating tract, on ' ' Deacon Giles's Distillery," in 1835. The phenome- 

 nal Washingtonian movement, — the first concerted effort for reclaim- 

 ing drunkards, — was organized in 1841. 



Those were, indeed, exciting times. Is it any wonder that the 

 blood was not always cool, nor the head always clear? In that first 

 shock of the great social onset, can we be surprised that there were 

 exhibitions of extravagance and fanaticism, that indignation against 

 wrong rose at times into w^holesale denunciation, that men were not 

 always wise, nor their tempers serene? Even good men found it 

 diflncult to agree. Society was in a ferment. Great issues were at 

 stake. Conscience was at work. Men had convictions in those days; 

 and they acted upon them, fearlessly and decisively. 



There were also religious agitations. The Unitarian controver.sy 

 had originated in the previous generation, but the battle still went on, 

 and moved forward to new positions. Emerson withdrew from the 

 Unitarian church in 1832. The " Transcendental Club " was formed in 

 Boston in 1837. Theodore Parker began his ministry in Eoxbury in 

 1837. George Ripley started the " Brook Farm " experiment in 1841. 

 The "Book of Mormon" was published to the world in 1830, and in 

 1842 Joseph Smith was at the height of his prosperity. Mormon 

 missionaries ranged through our Connecticut towns. TVilford Wood- 

 ruff, the present president of the Mormon Church, left his home in 

 Farmington and was ordained to the priesthood in 1833. 



