school for blacks in Troy, New York, while he simultaneously served as  "the minister of a white Presbyterian congregation in Troy."  65
As a minister of the gospel and as a private citizen, Garnet openly  protested  the  institution  of slavery,   and  injustices  associated with it.     In  1837, Garnet, other abolitionists, and a massive meeting of Negro young men, met in New York and protested against a stipulation  passed  by   a  state  constitutional   convention  which "decreed that before a Negro could vote he had to own $250.00 worth of landed property.  "66    In  1840, he "attended a statewide convention in Albany,  where he served as  one of the secretaries of the Convention (which)  drew up an address  to the  colored people  at the commonwealth calling upon them to press for the ballot.  "67    By 1840  he  had  become  a  militant,  "and took  his  militant posture seriously enough to wear a pistol, "68 and this was at the same time that he had become "one of the foremost ministers in New York City. "69    While only "25 years old in 1840, "70 this young "fire brand" (along with William G.  Alien)  "edited the  abolitionist newspaper the National   Watchman,   "71   he  gained  prominence  for  a hard-hitting anti-slavery  address  he  delivered  before  the  American  Anti-Slavery Convention.   "72
His  speech attacked slavery to  such  an extent that he  attracted the attention of all  other abolitionist societies.  He became one  of