“ Mr. Thompson lectured in Brunswick with persuasive effect upon the students of Bowdoin , and others who heard him . From there he went to Waterville where the students of another college shared the thrilling power of his eloquence . Then he was invited back again to Brunswick where students and a dense crowd felt again his power . Then he returned to Portland and lectured six times in as many churches . He went from there to New Hampshire , then to many other states , east and west , and did great , timely work for the cause of the oppressed . But mobs followed him in this land of liberty simply for appealing to us to be honest and stand by our profession of equal rights . ” ( pp. 45-46 ) . Source : Rev. Austin Willey , The History of the Antislavery Cause in State and Nation ( Portland , Maine , 1886 ) . See review by George H. Baker , Political Science Quarterly , Vol . 1 , No. 3 ( Sep. , 1886 ) , pp. 493-494 . Also published by New York : Negro University Press , 1969 . The 1852 Democratic National Convention : Austin Willey of Maine asserted that the compromise proposal was ambiguous enough to allow anyone to interpret it as he wished , but he believed this was no recommendation and urged its rejection . Source : William Goodell ’s Dictionary of American Biography ( N. Y. , 1928 ) Source : cip.cornell.edu/DPubS/Repository/1.0/Disseminate/psu.ph/1133212435/body/pdf About the antislavery speeches of Austin Willey , William Lloyd Garrison and Rev. David Thurston : “ There was little in the culture or society of Portland to discourage the Gordon ’s -- or any other seamen -- from pursuing careers as slavers . New England 's sea captains had sailed to Africa for generations in search of native cargoes . And of all the Northern states , Maine was known as the " least likely to burn with the fires of abolition . " By virtue of its geography , as well as a minuscule African American population , it was literally the farthest removed from the heat of the slavery issue . In 1840 , when Gordon was 14 years of age , Portland counted only 402 African Americans , out of 15,218 residents ; by 1860 , the year of his final voyage , the number of residents had grown to 26,342 , while the African American population had dropped to 318 . There was a small but fiercely dedicated core of men , though , who kept the antislavery issue " before an unappreciative public " from the early 1830s until the Civil War . Their impact was minimal , however . Throughout the state , the speeches of such abolitionist luminaries as William Lloyd Garrison , '' ' Austin Willey ' '' , and Reverend David Thurston were disrupted by mobs throwing eggs and wielding hoses , with the featured speaker exiting ignominiously through the rear door . ” Source : Soodalter , Ron . Main Title : Hanging Captain Gordon : the life and trial of an American slave trader / Ron Soodalter . Edition Information : 1st Atria Books hardcover ed . Published/Created : New York : Atria Books , 2006 . Description : xiii , 318 p. : ill . ; 25 cm . , Notes : Includes bibliographical references ( p. 291 -300 ) and index . '' '
1852 Democratic National Convention
1852 Democratic National Convention
Austin Willey