[3] He also was the editor of various publications dealing with anti-slavery and poperism, most notably the Christian Intelligencer at the time of his death in New York City on November 20, 1845.

On his father's side, he reckoned the martyr James Johnston, who suffered death at the Cross of Glasgow, in 1684, in defense of "Covenant and work of Reformation", at the time of the bloody Anglican persecution against the Presbyterians of Scotland.

[citation needed] Born June 13, 1780, in Westbury, Wiltshire, England, he migrated to New York in 1804 and became the editor and co-owner of the Baltimore Daily Gazette in 1806.

Being a staunch nonconformist, and inclined in favor of a republican form of government, he wrote articles which attracted attention, even of the cabinet ministry of that day.

He afterward removed to Harrisonburg in Rockingham County, Virginia, where he originated and became Secretary of the Religious Tract Society, and witnessed the system of American slavery.

Part of the passage read: "The word he [Paul] uses in its original import, comprehends all who are concerned in bringing any of the human race into slavery, or in detaining them in it.

Its invectives are so keen and so pungent as to have formed the model for that style of denouncing the evils of slavery which became afterward so noted in the armory of Garrison and his friend, Wendell Phillips, and others."

It is the concentrated information derived from over seven hundred volumes of writings of the most noted doctors, bishops, deans, cardinals, saints, and popes of the Romish Antichurch, and of the Greek, Oriental, and English Church, and of the "Fathers" and historians of the first four centuries.

The Southern Churches regarded Bourne as an agitator, a firebrand, a disturber of their peace, and the Northern proslavery ministers and presses opposed and calumniated him with much vigor.

Rev Thomas De Witt, in the course of his remarks, said of him, that like as was said of John Knox, the Scottish Reformer, "There lies one who never feared the face of man."

In this beautiful panegyric Mr. Garrison renders ample testimony to the friend and preceptor from whom he derived his doctrines, his enthusiasm, and who animated his courage for his lifelong work of abolition.

I felt and was inspired by the magnetism of his lion-hearted soul, which knew nothing of fear, and trampled upon all compromises with oppression, yet was full of womanly gentleness and susceptibility; and mightily did he aid the Antislavery cause in its earliest states by his advocacy of the doctrine of immediate and unconditional emancipation, his exposure of the hypocrisy of the Colonization Scheme, and his reprobation of a "Negro-hating, slaving-holding religion."

While other champions have arisen who have done valiantly for the Church of Christ against Rome, to him belongs the credit of taking the early lead in the conflict against the Papacy in the United States.

Having thoroughly investigated the system in Canada, he beheld with alarm the prospect of its growth in the United States, from the European immigration which commenced to increase in volume about the year 1828.

He determined to return to New York and make it his special duty to withstand the inroads of Romanism, and arouse the attention of American Christians to the true character and design of the Papacy, and to the dangers which would environ the Republic should Popism gain ascendancy.

With this design he removed to New York in October 1828, and on the first day of January 1830, he commenced the publication of The Protestant, the first Journal published in America devoted to the antipapal controversy.

But he did not forget his animosity to slavery; he was equally devoted to the destruction of that iniquitous system, and as a result of his labors, coupled with those of Garrison, who had established the Liberator in Boston, in 1831, the American Antislavery Society was formed.

"The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable," adding largely to it from his personal recollections of the system and its evils, and illustrated with pictures of scenes that had occurred under his notice there.

At a meeting of delegates to form a National Antislavery Society convened at Philadelphia, December 4, 1833, it was resolved "That George Bourne, William Lloyd Garrison, and Charles W Dennison, be a committee to prepare a synopsis of Wesley's Thoughts on Slavery, and of the Antislavery items in the note formerly existing in the Catechism of the Presbyterian Church of the United States; and of such other similar testimony as they can obtain, to be addressed to Methodists, Presbyterians, and all professed Christians in this country, and published under the sanction of this convention."

In conformity with that appointment the committee selected from the records of the Presbyterian Church every article of general interest which adverts to this momentous subject.

In this view it would seem that his eminent servant of God was conscious of a mission, that he could not avoid the duty allotted to him, and that his courage, fidelity, and intrepidity were bestowed upon him to enable him to discharge the task.

That large, quaint building stood gable end to the street, and its sloping roof descended just below the side windows of the hall of the meeting.

Among other noted speakers Mr Garrison was present; while the exercises were progressing, an onslaught was made upon the meeting by the "plug-uglies," and other ruffians, sworn to exterminate the Abolition fanatics.

George Bourne stood forth to receive the "Tammany Braves," and placing his cane before him with hands extended he said, "Stand back, ye villains!

The leaders and the advancing band stood still for a moment in astonishment and mute admiration of the courage of the burly looking "dominie," whose splendid physique and fearless eye showed them an undaunted foe.

His first pastoral charge in New York was in Provost-Street, (now Franklin) afterward at Huston and Forsyth Streets, and subsequently at West Farms, but most of his time was devoted to the controversy against Popism and slavery.

Among others William Fulke's Confutation of the Rheims Bible; Richard Baxter's Key for Catholics or Jesuit Juggling; Scipio DeRicci's Female Convents; the Secreta Monita of the Jesuits; Taxatio Papalis; History of the Waldenses; Conyers Middleton's Letter from Rome; Martin Luther On the Galatians; John Davenant on Colossians; Archibald Bower's History of the Popes; and other works.