Public warning of the danger to liberty had been given by Adams and other Whigs in Congress early in 1843; but little heed was taken either by the clergy or by the Garrisonists. Both were too busy with their own plans. Channing died in 1842; and Parker went to Europe in September, 1843. It was not until two months later that the _Liberator_ found room for Texas. Garrison never spoke against annexation until too late; and it was scarcely mentioned in the May meetings of 1843 at New York and Boston, in the one hundred anti-slavery conventions which were held that summer in Western New York, Ohio, and Indiana, with the powerful aid of Frederick Douglass, or in the one hundred conventions in Massachusetts early in 1844. At the May meeting in New York, Foster said he should rejoice to see Texas annexed; and Phillips exulted in the prospect that this would provoke the North to trample on the Constitution. Annexation had been opposed by three candidates for the presidency: Birney, who had already been selected by the "Liberty men"; Van Buren, who was rejected soon after on this account by the Democrats; and Clay, who had already been accepted by the Whigs. All three were formally censured, under various pretexts, in company with John Quincy Adams, at this and other gatherings of the Garrisonians. Their convention soon after in Boston voted ten to one for disunion, and closed on June 1st with the presentation to Garrison of a red flag bearing on one side the motto, "No Union with Slave-holders," and on the other an eagle wrapped in the American flag and trampling on a prostrate slave. Two months later, and three before the election, this banner was carried through gaily decorated streets in Hingham, amid ringing of church bells, to a meeting attended by several thousand disunionists. The Garrisonians thought so much about getting out of the Union, that they had nothing to say in favour of keeping out Texas. Among the few abolitionists who saw the duty of the hour were Whittier and Lowell. The full force of their poetry was not much felt before 1850; but among the stirring publications early in 1842 was a _Rallying-Cry for New England against the Annexation of Texas_, which Lowell sent forth anonymously. It was reprinted in _Harper's Weekly_ for April 23, 1892, but not in the earlier editions of the poems. Among the most striking lines are these: "Rise up New England, buckle on your mail of proof sublime, Your stern old hate of tyranny, your deep contempt of crime. One flourish of a pen, And fetters shall be riveted on millions more of men. One drop of ink to sign a name, and Slavery shall find For all her surplus flesh and blood a market to her mind. Awake New England! While you sleep, the foe advance their lines, Already on your stronghold's wall their bloody banner shines. Awake and hurl them back again in terror and despair! The time has come for earnest deeds: we 've not a man to spare."