I therefore set about finding out, if possible, _who_ and _what_ the abolitionists were, and _why_ they were so obnoxious to the slaveholders.

The dictionary afforded me very little help.

It taught me that abolition was the "act of abolishing;" but it left me in ignorance at the very point where I most wanted information--and that was, as to the _thing_ to be abolished.

A city newspaper, the _Baltimore American_, gave me the incendiary information denied me by the dictionary.

In its columns I found, that, on a certain day, a vast number of petitions and memorials had been presented to congress, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and for the abolition of the slave trade between the states of the Union.