" The iron of slavery had indeed entered the soul of every member
of the convention. It was the divine pang and pity of it which collected
from the East and from the West this remarkable body of reformers.
The story of how they had to find a president illustrates the
contemporary distrust and antagonism, which the anti-slavery movement
aroused among the men of standing and influence. Knowing in what bad
odor they were held by the community, and anxious only to serve their
cause in the most effective manner, the members of the convention hit
upon the plan of asking some individual eminent for his respectability
to preside over their deliberations, and thereby disarm the public
suspicions and quiet the general apprehensions felt in respect of the
incendiary character of their intention. So in pursuance of this plan
six of their number were dispatched on the evening of December 3d to
seek such a man. But the quest of the committee like that of Diogenes
proved a failure. After two attempts and two repulses the committee were
not disposed to invite the humiliation of a third refusal and must have
listened with no little relief, to this blunt summary of the situation
by Beriah Green, who was one of the six. "If there is not timber amongst
ourselves," quoth Green, "big enough to make a president of, let us get
along without one, or go home and stay there until we have grown up to
be men.
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