Gerrit Smith: Abolitionist

Gerrit Smith: Abolitionist. . , .Political Means , At first Smith believed that the abolition of slavery could come about through persuasion, but later advocated the use of political avenues to achieve abolition by supporting anti-slavery candidates. , The Republican Party had its origins in the abolitionist-oriented Liberty Party in the late 1830s. Gerrit Smith was a major influence in the party’s formation because he had broken away from the American Colonization Society which advocated exporting free blacks and from the Garrisons who avoided political activity. The Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected in November 1860. , Due to Smith’s efforts, the Town of Smithfield and the County of Madison had elected abolitionist candidates to public office, and the residents of Peterboro accepted diverse ethnicity in their midst. , Smith accepted nominations for public offices: , . Candidate for New York State Assembly - 1825 , . Candidate for New York State Senate - 1827 , . Candidate for New York State Governor - 1840, 1842, 1858 , . Candidate for President of the United States - 1848, 1852, 1856, 1860 , . Served in the U.S. Congress - 1853-54 , Anti-Slavery , Smith and Frederick Douglass organized a convention in Cazenovia in 1850 to protect passage of the Federal Fugitive Slave Bill. Smith wrote the resolution advocating that slaves use all means necessary to escape from slavery, including theft of materials for escape and force against owners. , Having been forced out of Utica, 400 anti-slavery advocates accepted Smith’s invitation to meet in Peterboro to establish the New York State Anti-Slavery Society in October 22, 1835. , In opposition to the pro slavery Presbyterian Church, Ann and Gerrit Smith dropped out and formed the (Free) Church of Peterboro in 1843. This church was free of sectarian identification and a forum for anti-slavery speakers. , , . Timing To Physical Force , Syracuse cooper William Henry, a fugitive slave known as Jerry, was arrested by authority of the fugitive Slave Act, Gerrit Smith advocated a forcible rescue to demonstrate the violent opposition to the 1850 law. On October 1, 1851 Smith, Charles Merrick, Rev. Jermaine W. Loguen, and Rev. Samuel J. May led abolitionists to free Jerry from jail and transport him to Canada. , In 1848 John Brown came to Peterboro to meet with Gerrit Smith for the first time. The Secret Six, five abolitionists from the Boston area plus Gerrit Smith, supported Brown’s anti-slavery activities. In February 1858 while Brown waited in the Smith mansion, Smith and Franklin Sanborn, two of the Secret Six, walked out-of-doors to discuss Brown’s intentions to invade the South. During that cold and snowy walk it was decided to find the action that would turn this country into a fiery hell, “I can see no other way,” said Smith to Sanborn. Brown’s raid ignited the Civil War. , As non-violent methods failed to turn the country away from slavery, Smith, who was a vice-president of the American Peace Society, acknowledged that slavery might have to end by physical means - perhaps even through violence and bloodshed. , On the racial discrimination front, it was the abolition of slavery that motivated Smith’s social reform crusade, and when that was achieved in 1865 he spent much of his last decade of life fighting continued discrimination against blacks.