When the election was over the motto of the Liberator was still “No union with slaveholders,” and would have remained the same though Fremont instead of Buchanan had triumphed at the polls, until indeed the domination of the slave-power had ended, and the North and the National Constitution had been divorced from all criminal connection with slavery.  The anti-slavery agitation for the dissolution of the Union went on with increased zeal.  A State convention, called by T.W.  Higginson and others, “to consider the practicability, probability, and expediency of a separation between the free and slave States, and to take such other measures as the condition of the times may require,” met at Worcester, Mass., January 15, 1857, with Frank W. Bird in the chair, and William Lloyd Garrison among the vice-presidents.  The pioneer’s speech on the occasion was a characteristic and noteworthy utterance.  Its tone throughout was grave and argumentative.  Here is a specimen of it, and of the way in which he met the most serious objection to the Abolition movement for disunion:  “The air is filled with objections to a movement of this kind.  I am neither surprised nor disquieted at this.  One of these is of a very singular nature, and it is gravely urged that it is conclusive against disunion.  It is to this effect:  We must remain in the Union because it would be inhuman in us to turn our backs upon millions of slaves in the Southern States, and to leave them to their fate!  Men who have never been heard of in the anti-slavery ranks, or who are ever submitting to a compromise of principle, have their bowels wonderfully moved all at once with sympathy for the suffering slave!  Even our esteemed friend, Theodore Parker (who deals in no cant) says, in his letter, that he cannot consent to cut himself off from the slave population.  Now, we who are engaged in this movement claim to be equally concerned for the liberation of the slave.  If we have not yet proved our willingness to suffer the loss of all things, rather than turn and flee, God knows that we are prepared to bear any new cross that He, in His Providence, may be disposed to lay upon us.  For one, I make no parade of my anxiety for the deliverance of those in bondage; but I do say that it strikes me as remarkable that those who, for a quarter of a century, have borne the heat and burden of the day, should have the imputation cast upon them of intending to leave four millions of slaves in their chains, by seeking the overthrow of this Union!...

" ...  I declare that this talk of leaving the slave to his fate is not a true representation of the case; and it indicates a strange dullness of comprehension with regard to our position and purpose.  What!  Is it to forsake the slave when I cease to be the aider and abettor of his master?  What!  When the North is pressing down upon four millions of slaves like an avalanche, and we say to her, ’Take off that pressure—­stand aside—­give the slave a chance to regain his feet and assert his