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The city during the past week, has been alive
with the Anniversary Meetings, which were
well attended. the Anti-Slavery meetings as
usual, were very interesting. Mr. Stephen S.
Foster was the principal debater; he argued
that the position held by Messrs. Sumner and
Wilson are pro-slavery, and was very earnest
in favor of a dissolution of the Union; these
positions, which are not new, were supported by
Messrs. Foss, Phillips, Burleigh, Garrison, and
Wright. Mr. Pierpont was the principal oppo-
nent, though he was supported by Rev. Theo-
dore Parker and others. Mr. Pierpont is a
Free Soiler and not in favor of a dissolution of
the Union; he does not recognize any part of
the Constitution as binding which commands
men to do a wrong act, and believes that a man
can honestly act under the Constitution, and at
the same time occupy an Anti-Slavery position.
Mr. Foster believes that to accept any office
under the U.S. Constitution, is to become
particeps criminis in the guilt and sin of slave-
holding. Mr. Foster is an uncommonly shrewd
and able debater, and takes the old stoic meth-
od of a king his opponent one question after
another and the first thing he (the opponent)
knows, he is floored. He has studied well the
position that he now occupies, and defends it
conscientiously and with a zeal seldom met
with. Mr. Pierpont has more logic, and less
enthusiasm; he takes up a subject and is as
"cool as a cucumber," and as a logical debater
must rank No 1. We heard Mr. Wendell
Phillips for the third time, and we are to some
extent able to give our opinion of him. Mr.
Phillips and Mr. Sumner now enjoy the reputa-
tion of being the two greatest orators in New
England. We consider them both great orators,
though different in almost every respect. Mr.
Sumner elaborates his speeches in his study,
writes and rewrites them and then carefully com-
mits them to memory. Mr. Phillips studies
his speeches, but to a great extent speaks off
hand, he has accustomed himself so much to
extemporaneous speaking, that if he should be
called up out of "a sweet sleep," he could make
a speech; in such an event Mr. Sumner would
ask for time. Mr. Phillips' temperament is
sanguine—Mr. Sumner's is billious; hence the
difference in the character of their motives and
productions. Mr. Phillips' voice is euphonious,
though not powerful; he speaks easy and ear-
nestly; his gestures are a little stiff; his argu-
ments go into you like a blaze in a pile of
shavings, and their tendency is to destroy every
bold and sonorous, though too monotonous; his
gestures are free and dramatic; his style is easy
and grand; his arguments come like a tem-
pest, overpowering and bearing down every op-
posing element. The difference is, Mr. Phillips'
fire is aimed to destroy an evil; and Mr. Sum-