Joshua R. Giddings, next to John Quincy Adams, was the first man, we believe, that really stirred up the House of Representatives in behalf of the slave. Mr. Giddings was a man without fear, entirely devoted to the welfare of mankind; not an orator, in the accepted sense of the term, but an able debater; ready in facts and illustrations, and always to be relied upon when the Southerners attempted to encroach upon freedom. Mr. Giddings never denied, even in the earlier days of the agitation, that he was an Abolitionist. George W. Julian, of Indiana, entered the halls of Congress as an enemy of negro slavery, and, up to the present time, stands firm to his early convictions. Thomas Russell began life as a friend of negro emancipation, and wherever his eloquent voice was heard, it gave no uncertain sound on the subject of freedom. The Judge is a special favorite of the colored men of Boston, and richly deserves it; for, as a Collector of Customs, he has given employment to a large number of the proscribed class. Charles W. Slack, the talented editor of “The Commonwealth,”--the outspoken friend of liberty, whose gentlemanly deportment, polished manners, and sympathetic heart extend to the negro the same cordial welcome in his office that he gives to the white man,--is an old-time Abolitionist. The colored clerk in his Revenue department is _prima facie_ evidence that he has no prejudice against the negro. Both as a speaker and a writer, Mr. Slack did the cause of the slave great service, when it cost something to be a friend to the race. CHAPTER XLIX. THE NEW ERA.