"Speak I must; speak I will," said he, "or we part!
Let me but preach a sermon once a quarter on the subject of slavery!"
But the church said, "No." "Let me then but preach once in six months,"
and the church said, "No." Finally he said he would continue with them
if they would allow him to preach one sermon a year on the subject--I
doubt not that that _one_ would have carried flint and steel
enough to set fire to all the tinder in the congregation--but the
church would not listen, and they parted.
He had one little child, an infant a year or two old, who, deprived of
his mother, was brought to the farm and had a great deal of attention
and pity bestowed upon it. This little boy brought a misfortune which
threatened the lives of the members, the business and life of the
Association. He was the pet of his father, who took him to Boston on
his lecture tours and brought him back, for Mr. Allen was engaged to
lecture for the cause. The child had never been vaccinated, and being
ill at the Hive, it was discovered that he had symptoms of small-pox,
which disease he had taken somewhere in the city. Imagine the commotion
among the persons who had handled and fondled the young darling, and in
the Association in general! But the bravery of men and women who had
dared to leave their homes and share the fortune and fate of this young
Community was everywhere displayed.
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