"I speak of liberty in commendation. Patriotism is a virtue, but it can be selfish. Give me the great and immortal Bolivar, the savior and regenerator of his country. He found her a province, and he has made her a nation. His first act was to give freedom to the slaves upon his own estate. (Hear, hear.) In Colombia, all castes and all colors are free and unshackled. But how I like to contrast him with the far-famed Northern heroes! George Washington! That great and enlightened character--the soldier and the statesman--had but one blot upon his character. He had slaves, and he gave them liberty when he wanted them no longer. (Loud cheers.) Let America, in the fulness of her pride wave on high her banner of freedom and its blazing stars. I point to her, and say: There is one foul blot upon it: you have negro slavery. They may compare their struggles for freedom to Marathon and Leuctra, and point to the rifleman with his gun, amidst her woods and forests, shouting for liberty and America. In the midst of their laughter and their pride, I point them to the negro children screaming for the mother from whose bosom they have been torn. America, it is a foul stain upon your character! (Cheers.) This conduct kept up by men who had themselves to struggle for freedom, is doubly unjust. Let them hoist the flag of liberty, with the whip and rack on one side, and the star of freedom upon the other. The Americans are a sensitive people; in fifty-four years they have increased their population from three millions to twenty millions; they have many glories that surround them, but their beams are partly shorn, for they have slaves. (Cheers.) Their hearts do not beat so strong for liberty as mine.... I will call for justice, in the name of the living God, and I shall find an echo in the breast of every human being. (Cheers.)"[14] But while Garrison's method of agitation was not original, it was new to this country. He spoke as one having authority, and his fiery earnestness warmed the frozen feeling of the Northern people, and startled the entire South. One year from the formation of the society above alluded to (December 4, 5, and 6, 1833), a _National Anti-Slavery Convention_ was held in Philadelphia, with sixty delegates from ten States! In 1836 there were 250 auxiliary anti-slavery societies in thirteen States; and eighteen months later they had increased to 1,006. Money came to these societies from every direction, and the good work had been fairly started. William Lloyd Garrison created a party, and it will be known in history as the _Garrisonian Party_. While Mr. Garrison had taken the position that slavery was constitutional, there were those who held the other view, that slavery was unconstitutional, and, therefore, upon constitutional grounds should be abolished.