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them believe that the Whig party was sound on the slavery 
question. At a meeting in Suffolk, Va., resolutions were adopted 
praising Clay, Wise, Prentiss, and Stanley for the stand they 
had taken to “check the fell demon of Abolition”. At the same 
time Jackson and Van Buren were called the enemies of the 
South.®^ After the election of 1840, the National Intelligencer 
claimed that Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, and other southern 
states that had voted for Harrison had put down the miserable 
cry about abolition.^® This same paper, which was the mouth- 
piece of the southern Whigs, resented any attempt by the 
North in abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia.^® 
The southern influence on the Whig party was strong. Adams 
said that he doubted if there were five members of the House 
who would vote for a bill to abolish slavery in the District of 
Columbia.®'^ Nevertheless, the Abolitionists found more in com- 
mon with the Whigs than with the Democrats. It was said that 
the antislavery societies publicly advised its members to vote 
the Whig ticket.'^® The Hartford Times said that every Whig 
member of Congress from Connecticut was a Clay man and 
likewise an Abolitionist.^^ 
It was during this period that a party organization hostile 
to the interests of slavery was formed. In 1837, the Vermont 
Abolitionists had independent tickets for Congressmen, except 
in one district where they supported the Whig nominee.®® 
The more radical elements were insisting that the cleavage 
be more distinct. Adams said that between Lundy and other 
Abolitionists urging him to join their side and his wife and 
children pulling the other way, his mind was “agitated almost 
to distraction”.®^ This cleavage, coming as it did almost whol- 
ly within the Whig party, was violently resisted by the Whig 
organization. Every convert to the new party was excoriated, 
and the greater the man, the greater was the abuse.®^ 
The Abolitionists followed the plan of sending out question- 
naires to the Whig candidates, and if they did not answer the 
54 Niles’ Register, LVI, 897. 
National Intelligencer (bi-w.), November 24, 1840. 
56 Ihid., April 10, 1837 ; ibid., April 19, 1837 ; ibid., June 9, 1837. 
5'^ Adams (ed.). Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, X, 63. 
The Globe, November 29, 1838, from Neivport (N.H.) Spectator; ibid., March 21, 
1839, from Nashua (N.H.) Gazette. 
Ibid., April 30, 1839 (from Hartford Times). 
60 National Aegis, February 27, 1837. 
64 Adams (ed.). Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, IX, 365. 
62 /bid., X, 40. 
