Wright, one of the first settlers of Columbia, was not only the black man's friend but an aggressive opponent of slavery, and he waged war on that system whenever he had an opportunity. Columbia has had a large negro population for more than one hun- dred years. The number at the present time is

and the theme before the store box congress was usually some phase of the slavery question. Chauncey M. Depew in his "Memories of Eighty Years" says these were the schools in which were developed the thought and the conviction which made possible the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. In the Fremont