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 ®ttii5)oii Holuf "(gcntltiutn «f Iroiitttii anb Staniing.' 
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 ANTI-SLAYERY MEETING 
 
 HELD IN STACY HALL, BOSTON, ON THE 
 
 TW^ENTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 MOB OF OCTOBER 21, 1835. 
 
 PHONOGRAPHIC REPORT BT J. M. W. TKRRINTOK. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY R. F. WALLCUT. 
 
 1855. 
 

 BOSTON : 
 
 J. B. TERRINTON AND SON, 
 
 PRINTERS. 
 
t« 
 
 s^ PROCEEDINGS 
 
 th 
 
 In accordance -with a call issued bj a Committee of Arrange- 
 ments, the Anti-Slaverj friends in Boston and vicinity assembled 
 at Stacy Hall, (Codman's Block,) 46 Washington street, (the 
 identical spot which was the scene of the ever memorable out- 
 break of 1835,) on Sunday, the 21st of October, at 2 o'clock, 
 P. M. The weather was exceedingly unpropitious, but the hall 
 was filled to its utmost capacity, and the ante-rooms leading 
 thereto were crowded with eager and interested listeners. Sel- 
 dom is it the privilege and blessing of any man to look upon such 
 a concourse of noble men and devoted, self-sacrificing women; and 
 the spectacle, with the solemn and deeply interesting proceedings 
 of the occasion, will not, we have faith to believe, be without aa 
 abiding and beneficent influence upon the hearts of all present. 
 
 At about half-past two o'clock, the meeting was called to order 
 by Wm. Lloyd Garrison, who said — 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, — It is a stormy day to-day, and it 
 was a very stormy day twenty years ago this day. The storm of 
 to-day is of the Lord — it is well ; the storm twenty years ago was 
 of the Adversary — it was ill. I think, if I were to take your 
 suffrages as to the man who of all others ought to preside — to have 
 the honor, allow me to say, to preside — on this occasion, you would 
 all agree that it is the man who, after the Female Anti-Slavery 
 Society was driven from this place, offered them the use of his 
 house, at the risk of having it pulled down over his head. I al- 
 
4 THEBOSTONMOB. 
 
 lude to our friend, Francis Jackson. He ' ' still, lives, ' ' and long 
 may he live; and I propose that he preside on this occasion. 
 Those who are in favor of this proposition -will manifest it. 
 
 The motion of Mr. Garrison was carried by a unanimous vote, 
 and Mr. Jackson came forward and took the Chair. He said— 
 
 Friends, — I am glad to meet you at the old homestead, 
 was here that one of the mile-stones of the Anti-Slavery mo' 
 ment was erected, and a very important one it is. It marks the 
 progress of the Anti-Slavery movement; it also marks a most 
 disgraceful spot in the history of Boston. 
 
 Twenty years ago this day, I ascended these flights of stairs 
 amidst riotous men, who came to break up an Anti-Slavery meet- 
 ing, and insult the ladies who held it. That most disgraceful mob 
 efl"ected its object, with the assistance of the Mayor of the city, 
 and the Anti- Slavery ladies were compelled to leave their own 
 Hall, and pass out through a long lane of ruffians dressed in broad- 
 cloth ; and they were reviled and insulted as they passed along. 
 
 After this gallant achievement of the mob of "gentlemen of 
 property and standing," they made an onset upon the sign-board of 
 the Anti-Slavery office, and soon tore it down, and threw it upon 
 the pavements. The mob roared and stamped upon it like wild 
 beasts, and soon broke it in pieces. 
 
 The most prominent person who was engaged in tearing down 
 the sign was a well-known merchant, who then kept a store on 
 Central Wharf. 
 
 I had some words with several persons well known to me, rela- 
 tive to the disgraceful transactions going on before us, I express- 
 ed to them my abhorrence of such outrageous conduct ; but I was 
 met by a shake of the head. They said that the Abolitionists had 
 outraged public opinion long enough ; they did not approve of 
 mobs ; but then, the Abolitionists deserved to be rebuked. 
 
 The principal triumphs of the mob were the breaking up of the 
 Anti- Slavery meeting and the dispersion of the ladies ; the de- 
 struction of the sign-board, and the capture of the Editor of The 
 Liberator. No ropes were used about the ladies or the sign- 
 board. Not so with friend Garrison ; he was too dangerous a man 
 
TUEBOSTONMOB. 6 
 
 to go unroped or unimprisoned. The prison was thought to be the 
 fittest place for him, and he was locked up in Leverett street jail. 
 He will, however, make his own statement of what befel him. 
 
 The outrageous conduct of the mob being upheld by public sen- 
 timent, the shopkeepers in the lower part of the building became 
 much alarmed for the safety of their goods, and were very desirous 
 to have the Anti-Slavery office removed from the building. The 
 Society was in debt, their office rent was over due, and they feared 
 they might be ejected by their landlord, as summarily as the ladies 
 were by the mob. They therefore mustered gold enough to make 
 a legal tender for their over due rent, and thus put themselves le- 
 gally, as they always had been morally, right. 
 
 I will not, however, occupy your time with these small details. 
 There are other friends present who will interest you more than I 
 can. I see many of the members of the Female Anti-Slavery So- 
 ciety here, and I should be glad to hear from them, as I saw how 
 they were insulted that day. I would therefore invite them to 
 speak, if it is only a few words ; it would be very gratifying to 
 hear from them. 
 
 Mr. Garrison — The President of the Female Anti-Slavery 
 Society, Miss Mary Parker, has long since gone to her heavenly 
 home. She it was who prayed, while the mobocrats in the hall 
 were cheering and threatening violence, — she it was who prayed, 
 in a clear and unfaltering voice, thanking God, that while 
 there were many to molest, there were none that could make 
 afraid. One of the Vice Presidents of the Society, Mrs. Thank- 
 ful SouTHWiCK, one of the earliest and most faithful friends we 
 have had in the cause, is present with us, and I hope she will 
 take a seat on the platform. 
 
 Mrs. SouTHWiCK rose, and said, with deep emotion, — "My 
 mind has been so much affected by looking around, and seeing how 
 few are left, that I would rather not. This is to me a very sol- 
 emn and affecting occasion, to meet the few who yet remain 
 with us." 
 
 At the earnest request of several friends, however, Mrs. South- 
 wick consented to come forward and take a seat on the platform ; 
 as did also Miss Henrietta Sargent, another long-tried and most 
 devoted friend of the slave. 
 
6 THEBOSTONMOB. 
 
 The following appropriate passages of Scripture were then read 
 by Rev. Samuel May, Jr. : — 
 
 [selections from the psalms.] 
 
 If it had not been the Lord -who "was on our side, now may Israel say ; if it 
 had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us ; then 
 they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us : 
 then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over oui- soul. 
 Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is 
 escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers : the snai-e is broken, jtnd we 
 are escaped. 
 
 O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard ; 
 which holdeth our soul in life, and suifereth not our feet to be moved. For thou, 
 O God, hast proved us : thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Thou hast 
 caused men to ride over our heads : we went through fire and through water ; but 
 thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. 
 
 Many are the afflictions of the righteous : but the Lord delivereth him out of 
 them all. He keepeth all his bones : not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay 
 the wicked ; and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord 
 redeemeth the soul of his servants ; and none of them that trust in him shall be 
 desolate. 
 
 The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And 
 they that know thy name wUl put thek trust in thee : for thou, Lord, hast not 
 forsaken them that seek thee. 
 
 When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them ; he forgetteth 
 not the cry of the humble. 
 
 Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. 
 
 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief 
 by a law ? They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and 
 condemn the innocent blood. But the Lord is my defence ; and my God is the 
 rock of my refuge ; and he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall 
 cut them off in their own wickedness. 
 
 Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. 
 
 God is otir refuge and strength, a veij present help in trouble : therefore wUl 
 not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried 
 into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar, and be troubled, 
 though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. 
 
 Put not youi- trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 
 Happy is he whose hope is in the Lord his God, wliich executeth judgment for 
 the oppressed, and giveth food to the hungrj\ The Lord looseth the prisoners ; 
 the Lord openeth the eyes of the blind ; the Lord raiseth them that are bowed 
 down : he reheveth the fatherless and the widow ; but the way of the wicked he 
 turneth upside down. 
 
 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. 
 
 A fervent prayer was then offered by Rev. James Freeman 
 Clarke ; after which, the following lines, by Johjst Greenleaf 
 
T n E A W A K E N I X U . 7 
 
 Whittier, were read by Mr. Garrison, and a portion of them 
 sung by the audience : — 
 
 THE AW AKENIN G. 
 
 Now, joy and thanks forevermore ! 
 
 The dreary night has well nigh passed ; 
 The shimbcrs of the North are o'er, 
 
 The giant stands erect at last ! 
 
 More than we hoped in that dark time, 
 When, faint with watching, few and worn, 
 
 We saw no welcome day-star climb 
 The cold, gray pathway of the morn ! 
 
 Oh, weary hours ! oh, night of years ! 
 
 WTiat storms our darkling pathway swept, 
 Where, beating back our thronging fears, 
 
 By fiiith alone our march we kept ! 
 
 How jeered the scoffing crowd beliind, 
 
 How mocked before the tyrant train, 
 As, one by one, the true and kind 
 
 Fell fainting in our path of pain ! 
 
 They died, — their brave hearts breaking slow, 
 
 But, self-forgetful to the last. 
 In words of cheer and bugle-glow. 
 
 Their breath upon the darkness passed. 
 
 A mighty host on either hand 
 
 Stood waiting for the dawn of day, 
 To crush like reeds our feeble band : — 
 
 The mom has come — and, where are they ? 
 
 Troop after troop its line forsakes, 
 
 With peace-white banners waving free, 
 And from our own the glad shout breaks, 
 
 Of "Freedom and Fraternity ! " 
 
 Like mist before the grooving light, 
 
 The hostile cohorts melt away : 
 Hurrah ! — our foemen of the night 
 
 Are brothers at the dawn of day ! 
 
 As, unto these repentant ones. 
 
 We open wide our toil-worn ranks, 
 Along our line a murmur runs 
 
 Of song and praise and grateful thanki. 
 
8 THEBOSTONMOB. 
 
 Sound for the onset ! blast on blast ! 
 
 Till Slaverj^'s minions cower and quail ! 
 One charge of fire shall drive them fast, 
 
 Like chaff before our Northern gale ! 
 
 Oh, prisoners in your house of pain, — 
 
 Dumb, toihng milhons, bound and sold ! 
 Look, stretched in Southern vale and plain, 
 
 The Lord's delivering hand behold ! 
 
 Above the traitor's pride of power, 
 
 His iron gates and guarded wall. 
 The bolts which shattered Shinah's tower 
 
 Hang, smoking, for a fiercer fall ! 
 
 Awake ! awake ! my Pather-land, 
 
 It is thy Northern light that shines ! 
 This stirring march of Freedom's band, 
 
 The storm-song of thy mountain pines ! 
 
 Wake, dwellers where the day expires ! 
 
 Your winds that stir the mighty lake, 
 And fan your prairies' roaring fires, 
 
 They 're Freedom's signals ! — wake ! — awake ! 
 
 Mr. Gakrison then addressed the audience as follows : — 
 
 Mr. President, — I know of no language more appropriate to 
 this occasion than that which was uttered by the Apostle eighteen 
 centuries ago — "Having obtained help of God, we continue unto 
 this day." 
 
 I need not say to any one in this Hall, this afternoon, what it is 
 that has brought us together. Twenty years ago, to-day, this 
 street was crowded with men inflamed to the highest degree of 
 madness, who riotously attempted to break up a meeting of Anti- 
 Slavery women, assembled within these walls for the purpose of 
 looking to God for strength to overthrow slavery in our land. 
 The sequel you all know. Many of you know all the particulars 
 connected with it. 
 
 Before alluding to those particulars, it may be well to go behind 
 them, — for the event which we are here to commemorate did not 
 spring up out of the ground, or fall like hail from a clear sky. 
 
SPEECH OF W. L, GARRISON. 9 
 
 There had been a cause for it at work, actively, unceasingly, by 
 day and night, for a number of years ; and in tracing it, we shall 
 be able more clearly to perceive upon whom rests the responsibili- 
 ty for the mobocratic violence which raged at that period like an 
 epidemic, and which brought eternal shame upon the city of Bos- 
 ton. 
 
 Let me begin, Mr. Chairman, at the beginning, — with the enun- 
 ciation of that simple doctrine, which has shaken this nation like 
 an earthquake, and in which were wrapt up all the outrage and vio- 
 lence, the persecution and ostracism, which have taken place dur- 
 ing the last twenty years, — the necessary consequences of its ap- 
 plication to the consciences and the hearts of a pro-slavery people. 
 Sir, we should have had no trouble in this land — no household 
 divisions — no friends turned into enemies — no mobocratic out- 
 breaks — if we had not demanded one thing, if we had not made 
 use of one shibboleth. If we had spoken of slavery as an evil, a 
 calamity, a curse to be overthrown at some indefinite period, we 
 might have spoken in Carolina as easily as in Massachusetts ; we 
 might every where have been recognized as good neighbors, excel- 
 lent citizens, and sound Christians. But the moment the doctrine 
 of immediate, unconditional, everlasting emancipation was enunci- 
 ated, it was as the voice of God sounding in the ear of this nation, 
 calling upon it at once to repent, to "break every yoke, and let 
 the oppressed go free; " — it was the affirmation of the truth, that 
 under no circumstances could slavery be right for a single moment ; 
 that the slave was a man, and, being a man, God made him for 
 freedom ; and that there could be no delay in regard to his deliv- 
 erance, without a compromise of justice. It was the assertion that 
 the black man had a right to be educated here, to be protected by 
 equal laws, to develop all his faculties and powers, and to take his 
 position side by side with his proud, haughty and oppressive white 
 brother. The nation could not endure a proclamation of this kind. 
 It was the touchstone whereby all men were pfoved. It showed 
 who loved liberty as a vital principle, and who held it merely as a 
 sentiment, a matter of expediency, to be repudiated or sustained as 
 occasion might require. 
 
 As soon as this doctrine was enunciated, the Slave Power took 
 cognizance of it. It knew that it was " the beginning of the end." 
 
10 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 It knew that if the Abolitionists could not be put clown at that 
 time, there was no hope of ever putting them, down, and that its 
 horrible slave system must be destroyed. Hence, throughout the 
 entire South, the greatest consternation prevailed. The slavehold- 
 ers, banding themselves together, began to offer rewards for the 
 seizure of prominent Abolitionists. Threats of personal violence 
 were multiplied on the right hand and on the left. Every mail 
 brought letters to me, declaring that I had only so many days to 
 live — that conspiracies had been formed for the purpose of having 
 me abducted — &c., &c. Sometimes I received representations on 
 sheets of paper, showing me up as tarred and feathered, or hung by 
 the neck, or stabbed to the heart, because of my sympathy for the 
 oppressed. 
 
 The North did not so instantaneously participate in this feeling 
 of alarm as the South. It was not until the Colonization conspi- 
 racy was unmasked, that the North began to heave with indigna- 
 tion and fury, as the South had done in regard to the declaration, 
 that slavery ought to be immediately and forever abolished. One 
 principle unmasked the South, the other the North; for at the 
 North, the Colonization scheme hypocritically assumed to be some- 
 what Anti-Slavery, and the people were told, — some were led to 
 believe, — that, by helping the scheme, they would help abolish 
 slavery in our land, put a stop to the foreign slave trade, and civi- 
 lize and evangelize Africa. A large majority of the people, how- 
 ever, being infected by the hateful spirit of colorphobia, naturally 
 rallied around that scheme ; caring little or nothing for its humane 
 and pious pretences, — caring to know but one thing about it, 
 namely, that its object was " to get rid of the niggers" — to use 
 our refined and Christian dialect towards that injured class. They 
 wished them well, hoped they would thrive well — in Africa ; but 
 they could not and would not live peaceably with them on the 
 American soil. With opposition to this prescriptive crusade be- 
 gan the most enverj^omed hostility to the Anti-Slavery cause. The 
 mobocratic spirit ran like wild-fire. North and South. It was im- 
 possible to hold Anti- Slavery meetings any where, without danger 
 of personal outrage, often at the peril of life. Men calling them- 
 selves respectable, and so esteemed, — occupying high and respon- 
 sible stations, and reputedly intelligent, virtuous and patriotic, — 
 
SPEECH OF \\ . L. GARHISON. 11 
 
 were carried away by "the madness of the hour" — which indeed 
 has proved to be not merely the madness of the hour, but of da^^s, 
 and months, and years. 
 
 In this state of things, every attempt to elevate the colored 
 man in this country was assailed in the most rabid manner. "When, 
 for instance, Miss Prudence Crandall, a noble Christian lady 
 in Canterbury, Conn., who had been teaching a school of white 
 young ladies in that village, — feeling her soul baptized into the 
 spirit of deepest sympathy with the oppressed, — made up her mind 
 that she would educate colored young ladies, instead of white, all 
 Canterbury, the region roulid about, the whole State of Connecti- 
 cut, combined to crush her. She was denounced by every hateful 
 epithet ; though up to that hour, she had been greatly esteemed 
 and admired as a teacher. Among other outrages .committed to 
 drive her from the place, the well near her house had a large quan- 
 tity of filth thrown into it, so that the family should have no water 
 to drink. An agreement was made by the traders of the village, 
 that they would not sell her any thing, even to eat ; and she ac- 
 tually had to send to other towns to procure food to keep her fami- 
 ly from starvation. Her house was assailed, and brickbats, rotten 
 eggs, and other missiles, were dashed through her windows ; and, 
 finally, it was set on fire, to burn it down over the heads of the 
 teacher and the taught ! 
 
 At that eventful period, in the spring of 1833, I was induced to 
 undertake a mission to England, at the request of my Anti- Slavery 
 coadjutors, (a small band indeed,) partly to undeceive Wilber- 
 FORCE and Clarkson, and other eminent philanthropists in that 
 country, in regard to the real character,, design and tendency of 
 the American Colonization Society ; and partly to solicit aid to es- 
 tablish a Manual Labor School in New England for the education 
 of colored youth. In order to frustrate this mission, several lead- 
 ing men of Canterbury got out a writ against me, on the charge of 
 libel, in consequence of certain strictures in The Liberator, con- 
 cerning their infamous treatment of Miss Crandall. Prior to 
 sailing from New York, I was watched and hunted, day after day, 
 in that city, in order that the writ might be served upon me ; but 
 my old friend, Arthur Tappan, took me up into an upper cham- 
 ber in the house of a friend, where I was safely kept, under lock 
 and key, until the vessel sailed which conveyed me to England. 
 
12 THEBOSTONMOB. 
 
 Another manifestation of the Colonization spirit was made, not 
 long afterwards, in the town of Cafiaan, New Hampshire, when an 
 effort was made to establish a school in that place, for the purpose 
 of educating colored children. Though the name of the town wag 
 Canaan, it was any thing but the land of Canaan to those who went 
 there to be taught. A mobocratic demonstration was soon wit- 
 nessed, to break up the school. At last, a team of one hundred 
 yoke of oxen, being hitched by a chain to the school-house, it was 
 dragged off into a swamp ! The school was driven from the town. 
 
 This was the spirit of Colonization, — a spirit which prepared 
 the way for every outrage that followed. 
 
 On my return from England, in 1833, the first mob — the pa- 
 rent mob, I will call it — of the many that afterwards took place, 
 was that witnessed in the city of New York. The Colonization 
 journals had industriously circulatedethe lying accusation against 
 me, that I had gone to England for the purpose of slandering and 
 dishonoring my native land, — that I was in league with British 
 tories, conspiring for the overthrow of this republic ! It happened, 
 on my arrival in the harbor of New York, that a meeting had been 
 called by the Abolitionists of that city, to form an Anti- Slavery 
 Society. They were to meet in Clinton Hall. But as soon as it 
 was announced that I had arrived, placards were immediately put 
 up all over the city, announcing that the " infamous libeller of his 
 country, the notorious Garrison,^' would be at Clinton Hall that 
 evening, and summoning all the friends of the Union to be present. 
 The appeal was promptly responded to. A mob of five or six 
 thousand assembled, and took possession of the Plall, rendering it 
 impossible to hold a meeting there ; but the Abolitionists quietly 
 withdrew to Chatham Street Chapel, and succeeded in organizing 
 a City Anti- Slavery Society, before they were discovered. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I think what did more than any one thing else to 
 fill this land with madness, was the arrival of our noble friend and 
 coadjutor, George Thompson, of England, in the fall of 1834. 
 He came over here at my earnest solicitation when abroad, and in 
 compliance with the desire of the friends of the cause on this side 
 of the Atlantic. I had known what he had done in England for 
 the abolition of slavery in the British West Islands. He was the 
 most eloquent man to whom I had ever listened. Moreover, I 
 
SPEECH OF W. L. GARRISON. 18 
 
 found him to be a man world-wide in his spirit, principles and feel- 
 ings, with nothing Engliah in his composition, in a narrow sense. 
 This was indicated in the answer he made to tliosc who taunted him 
 with being a foreigner, that he was not consulted in regard to the 
 place of his birth ; but if he had been, he might have preferred 
 Boston instead of Liverpool, to be the city of his nativity ! I felt 
 assured, therefore, if he should come over to us, gifted with such 
 powers of argument and persuasion, and master of his subject, he 
 would do the Anti-Slavery cause immense service ; but I did not 
 dream that his life would be put in jeopardy, and he compelled to 
 flee as the only means of preserving it. 
 
 As soon as he came, however, the cry was raised that he was a 
 British incendiary ; that his pockets were filled with British gold ; 
 and that it was the design of the Aristocracy of England to upset 
 this "glorious Union" of ours ! Designing political demagogues 
 and unprincipled public journalists filled the air with these foul 
 accusations, and they fell upon ears accustomed to take every thing 
 from such sources for granted. When, therefore, the spirit of 
 American " patriotism" was invoked to put down this dangerous 
 " foreign emissary," George TnoMPSON was treated as though 
 he were a wild beast. It is overwhelmingly affecting to go back, 
 and recall what he was obliged to pass through ; while it is consol- 
 atory to know, that his courage never faltered, and that his Chris- 
 tian heroism was equal to every emergency. Let me read you 
 some extracts from the papers of that day. There was the New 
 York Journal of Commeice^ as malignant then as now, — more 
 malignant, if that were possible, but I do not know that there can 
 be any going beyond, where every thing is absolute and perfect. 
 Then there were the New York Commercial Advertiser and the 
 Courier and Enquirer, daily belching forth their denunciations 
 of the Abolitionists, and representing them to be the vilest of the 
 vile. 
 
 Let me give you an extract from the Courier and Enquirer of 
 that day, and then you may determine whether it was strange that 
 riotous pro-slavery outbreaks followed : — 
 
 " It is time now for this subject to be taken in hand seriously. The movements 
 of the immediate Abolitionists involve not merelj' the welfare of our country, but 
 the very existence of her institutions ; and every citizen from Maine to Missis- 
 
14 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 Bippi, -vvho h;is not already made up Ms mind to a -willingness to see our confede- 
 racy dissolved, our whole frame of Government broken up, and an experiment 
 made to better it amidst the confusion, misery and bloodshed of a revolution, is 
 bound to grapple at once -with the seditious fanaticism now abroad. It has 
 become the duty of aU classes and all parties — of the hall of legislation — of 
 the press — of the pulpit, and of every good citizen within his own particular 
 sphere of influence, to assist in putting dovra this TREASON that is stidking 
 through our borders. 
 
 " These dangerous men must he met. Tuey agitate a auESTiox that must NOT 
 BE TAMPERED WITH. Tliey are plotting the destruction of our Government, and 
 they must not be allowed to screen themselves from the enormousness of their 
 guilt, under canting pretences, or even under the delusions, in many instances, 
 perhaps, of their own wretched infatuation. The integrity of this Government, 
 and the general happiness of this great people, are of too much worth to be 
 jeoparded to the cajirices of a mad fanaticism ; whether urged into career by -w'ick- 
 edness or by folly. We do not stop to inquire whether the incendiary is about 
 to set our house on fire from motives of ill-will, or under the impulses of a disor- 
 dered intellect — we snatch the brand from him, Avhatever may be the impulse 
 which is dii\'ing him to the deed. The freedom of which we boast so much — 
 justly boast so much — is hardly broad enough to protect TREASON. Our 
 liberty is not exactly the liberty of pulling dozen our liberties, and it is a false 
 charity that would cherish the TRAITOR who aims at the act — no matter 
 under what pretext, and no matter of what delusion he maj' possibly be the victim 
 himself. 
 
 "Eull well docs every individual know, that to liberate the slave loould be to hoist 
 the signal of death to the white population — that it would be unfurling the bloody 
 banner of murder, rapine and devastation to his household ! Who would not die 
 mth arms in his hands, rather than subject himself, and those who are dearer to 
 him than life, to suc?i a calamitj' ? Such icill be the result, if the people of these 
 Northern States should ever be insane enough to meddle with this fearful subject ! 
 
 " And now, we ask the citizens of the United States if they are prepared to 
 bring such a catastrophe upon the country, to gratify the visionary projects of a 
 band of canting, drivelling fanatics, one half of them blowing this blast of death 
 and desolation to the people of a whole section of the Union, for the sake of no- 
 toriety, and the other the mere victims of a senseless infatuation ? Are they 
 willing, by giving countenance and currency to such men as Tappan and Lloyd 
 Garrison, to put in jeopardy the fair fabric of our liberty — the last and the only 
 hope of civil freedom on earth r " 
 
 Again — from the same paper : — 
 
 " No man not blind to future consequences, to all former examples, and to all 
 the lessons of past experience, can hesitate a moment in foreseeing that the 
 triumph of the Abolitionists is a thousand times more likely to be consummated 
 by the extermination of the masters, their wives and their children, than by the 
 freedom and consequent happiness of the slaves. 
 
 "As the enemies, then, of social order, of the rights of property, of the lives of 
 
SPEECH OF W. L. GARRISON. 15 
 
 hundrocls of thousands of our brethren of the race of -vvhite men, their -n-ives and 
 their chihlren, and as the vilificrs and sa]>pcrs of our social institutions, laws and 
 Constitution, avc say, therefore, that tlic preachers and expounders of such 
 doctrines arc justly amenable to the laws of the land, as common and notorious 
 disturbers of the public peace, enemies to the rights of property, and traitors to 
 the country ! 
 
 " "What renders the conduct of these instigators of treason, robbery and mas- 
 sacre still more outrageous and indefensible, is the fact of their having imported 
 more than one organ of mischief from England, to assist in sowing the live coals 
 of ruin and desolation over a large portion of this prosperous land. Not content 
 with the agency of the wretched libeller of his country, the exclusive 'friend 
 of all the human race,' they have associated in their righteous race an imported in- 
 cendiaiy, < who left his country for his country's good.' That this apostle of the old 
 pussy cats of Glasgow, this tool of Tappanism, has hitherto escaped the Bridewell, 
 transportation, or some other species of modern martyrdom, is a proof either 
 that our laws are defective, our magistrates neglectfvil, or our people the best 
 natured in the world. 
 
 " We hope and trust that his next attempt in this city will end in a transfer to 
 the Penitentiary, as a common disturber and enemy to society, and would earn- 
 estly recommend to the superintendent of that institution a solitary probation, lest 
 he might corrupt the morals of his pupils." 
 
 The following was the inflammatory language of the Boston Mer- 
 cantile Journal : — 
 
 "The conduct of the Abolitionists tends directly to the disturbance of the 
 public peace. The present excited state of the community shows that public opin- 
 ion is decidedly opposed to the measures wliich are adopted by the Abolitionists. 
 We have already evidence from almost ever}' part of New England, sufficient to 
 prove that a meeting of the Abolitionists is but the signal for the assemblage of a 
 mob. This being the case, it becomes the duty of those, in whose hands the pub- 
 lic authorities of a city or to-\vn are vested, to 2}rcvcnt such meetings by the strong 
 arm of the law. ( / / / ) 
 
 " If the magistrates have not the power to forbid and prevent assemblages of 
 bodies of men or women of a natui'e, which, according to all human probability, 
 will lead directly to a disturbance of the pubUo peace — and perhaps to the 
 commission of atrocities, at which humanity would blush — the laios of our country 
 are indeed imperfect, and should be amended with all possible despatch. If the 
 magistrates have that power, and toe cannot doubt that they have it, they ought to 
 exercise it to prevent the assemblage of such meetings, and thus save the commu- 
 nity from the disgrace of witnessing the acts of men, who, the victims of a morbid 
 excitement, raslily assume the functions of the judge and the executioner. 
 
 <' We admit unhesitatingly, that the proceedings of Garrison and Thompson, 
 and those who act with them, cannot be justified either upon the score oi principle 
 or expediency. We presume that every liberal-minded man, who is not laboring 
 under a hopeless delusion on this subject, whether he be what is termed an Aboli- 
 tionist or a Colonizationist, will condemn their conduct in toto. Their delirious 
 
16 THEBOSTONMOB. 
 
 and impotent efforts to irritate the great mnss of the people, under a pretence 
 thr,t they wish to convince them of their errors in relation to the subject of 
 slavery, deser\'e the most severe reprobation. We have no sympathies for them. 
 And we cannot help entertaining an opinion that the authorities of this citj-, and 
 of towns in varioiis parts of Massachusetts, have been neglectful of their duties 
 in not arresting these disturbers of the public peace, these manufacturers of 
 braids and riots, and causing them to give security in a large amount for their 
 future good behavior. Such a measure, we believe, is what justice requires, and 
 what the laivs would sanction." 
 
 Here is a specimen of the spirit displayed by the Boston Centi- 
 nel at that time : — 
 
 "As to Thompson, the foreign vagrant, who has attempted -with impudent zeal 
 to create excitement, he has been hooted from every place where he has recently 
 attempted to hold forth. He has been completely silenced in this city and vicin- 
 ity, and the last accounts we have of him are from Concord, New Hampshire, 
 from which place he was scouted by the good sense of the people, and it is said 
 that he was compelled to flee to the woods for safety. In short, such is the pre- 
 vailing sentiment against him, that he will never be allowed to address another 
 meeting in this country. There is no mistake on tliis subject, and we speak of 
 it as a matter of fact, of general notoriety. He has been completely silenced, and 
 he wiU doubtless soon find it most expedient to return to liis own country, and 
 give an account of his mission to the silly women who squandered their money 
 for his support." 
 
 Here is an extract from the Boston Cou7Her, which still main- 
 tains its Satanic malignity : — 
 
 « Geokge Thompson. This scoundrel proposes to lecture some of the women 
 of oiir city this afternoon, at JiiUen Hall. The vagabond would have made no 
 addresses, nor dehvered lectvu-es in any of our cities, if he had not found encour- 
 agement from our own citizens. The poor devil must live, and to get bread he 
 must fulfill his covenant. His supporters have no such apology for their conduct. 
 The caution, we have said, v,e think supei-fluous. Persons of both sexes will 
 doubtless be at Julien Hall, but what ladies would encourage, even by their coun- 
 tenance, the continuance of lectures, debates and addresses adapted, if not ijitended, 
 to interrupt and eventually to destroy the union of these States, and to lead 
 more du-ectly to scenes of lawless violence, by exciting a state of feeling which 
 may not be so easily subdued as provoked ? " 
 
 The Commercial Gazette continued daily to publish articles 
 like the following : — 
 
 '< It is certainly very remarkable, that Mr. Thompson should dare to browbeat 
 pubUc opinion in tliis way. It is in vain that we hold meetings in Faneuil Hall, 
 
SPEECH OF W. L. OARRISON. 17 
 
 and call into action the eloquence and patriotism of our most talented citizens, if 
 Thompson and Garrison and their vile associates in this city arc to bo permitted 
 to hold their meetings in the broad face of day, and to continue their denunci- 
 ations against the planters of the South. They must be put down, if we would 
 preserve oux consistency. The evil is one of tlie greatest magnitude — and the 
 opinion prevails very generally, tliat if there is no law that will reach it, it must 
 be reached in some other way." ****** 
 
 " "Why does ^Ir. Thompson thus brave public opinion ? Why does he persist 
 in agitating the abolition question, in irritating the feelings of our citizens, and 
 driving them to acts of lawless violence ? lie may raise a storm whicli -n-ill be 
 terrible in its consequences, if he attempts to deliver an address in this city on 
 "Wednesday .nftcrnoon : we are sure that he will meet with a resistance that neither 
 he nor his friends will be able to withstand. There is a feeling awake that cannot 
 be mistaken. This resistance will not come from a rabble, but from ??je;i of prop- 
 erty and standing, who have a large interest at stake hx this community, and who 
 are determined, let the consequences be what they may, to put a stop to the 
 impudent, buUying conduct of the foreign vagrant, Thompson, and his associates 
 in mischief." ■»******* 
 
 "The Anti- Shivery Society hold one of their incendiary meetings this morning 
 at Julien Hall. The mischievous Garrison AviU deliver an Oration on the occasion, 
 to the ' black and white ' s^iirits of the city. K the orator and his hearers could 
 all be thrown overboard this morning, as was the tea in the days of the revolution, 
 every true friend to the Union of the States would have cause to rejoice most 
 heartily. A cold bath would do them good." * *- * * 
 
 " If the Anti- Slavery fanatics persist in holding public meetings in tliis city, 
 to discuss the subject of slavery, who wUl be answerable for the consequences ? 
 If there is no law that can reach these common disturbers of the public peace, 
 they must be reached and put down in some other way, or they wUl destroy the 
 Union of the States." 
 
 Imagine language like this put forth authoritatively on the part of 
 some of the most influential journals of the day, and what the 
 effect must have been upon the combustible materials then getting 
 into a state of "wild conflagration ! 
 
 Next, appeals were made to Northern cupidity ; and our mer- 
 chants and manufacturers "were told by Southern slaveholders, that 
 if this agitation were allowed to go on, it would break up all inter- 
 course with the South : and a staggering blow would thus be given 
 to Northern commerce and manufactures. This Avas "the pocket 
 argument," and it had more efiect in Boston than in any other 
 place. 
 
 Appeals were made, also, to the religious prejudices of the peo- 
 ple. The Abolitionists were represented as those not inclined to 
 
18 T H E B S T N JVl B . 
 
 give heed to the teachings of the Bible ; who boldly affirmed that 
 it was an Anti-Slavery volume ; and that God, in the Bible, was 
 on the side of the oppressed, and against the oppressor. The idea, 
 that slaveholding under all circumstances is a sin against God, was 
 treated as a pestilent heresy ; and every effort was made to pre- 
 judice us in the minds of religious people. 
 
 Appeals were made, also, to the hateful spirit of colorphobia. 
 We were represented as intent upon amalgamation, and it was said 
 that all we cared for was to get black wives or black husbands, as 
 the case might be ; whereas, it was evident that God had made the 
 colored race to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water" here, 
 and that the only way for them to rise in the scale of being was to 
 get as far off from us as Africa. 
 
 The next device was to excite alarm for the safety of the Union, 
 I am deeply impressed, as I look over the records of that period, 
 to mark how early the slaveholding spirit recognized the fact, that 
 Anti- Slavery was necessarily and inevitably Anti-Union, From 
 the very first hour I stood forth to plead for the slave, it was uni- 
 versally declared that the result of the agitation would be the over- 
 throw of this Union. I did not believe it then ; I do believe it 
 now, and rejoice in the fact, because it is a Union cemented with 
 the blood of millions in bondage, and therefore accursed of Heaven. 
 The sooner it is dissolved, the better. But I did not so understand 
 it at that time. The Slave Power, however, well understood it ; 
 for it is unmatched for sagacity, vigilance and discernment. It is 
 never misled ; it never mistakes ; it is always sure. If you wish 
 to know what you ought to do to put it down, just see what it is 
 that gives it the greatest alarm. 
 
 In Philadelphia, in the summer of 1835, a mob sacked some 
 thirty houses occupied by the colored inhabitants, many of whom 
 were driven out into the woods like wild beasts, to hide themselves 
 from the fury of their merciless assailants. At an earlier day, the 
 colored citizens of New York were treated in a similar manner. 
 
 At that time, too, the slaveholders were busily engaged in rifling 
 the United States mail of every letter, paper and pamphlet that 
 savored of abolitionism. These were taken out, and made a bon- 
 fire of, as at Charleston, S. C, in the presence of the clergy, and 
 
BPEECH OF W. L. OARRISON. 19 
 
 the leading citizens. The Charleston Coiirier gave the following 
 account of this transaction : — 
 
 " Attack on the Post OrriCE. The recent abuse of the U. S. mail to the 
 purpose of disseminating the vile and criminal incendiarism of northern fanatics, 
 has caused a great and general excitement in our community, and led, on 
 Wednesday night, as may have been expected, to an attack on the Post Office,' 
 •which, although perhaps not to be justified, had much to excuse it, in the cause 
 of provocation. 
 
 "Between the hours of 10 and 11 o'clock, that night, a number of persons 
 assembled about the Exchange, and without any noise or disturbance, but on the 
 contrary, with coolness and deUberation, made a forcible entry into the Post 
 Office, by \vrenclung open one of its windows, and can-ied off the packages 
 containing the incendiary matter. 
 
 " According to fuU notice published, the i)amphlcts, &c., were burned at 8 P. M. 
 the next evening, opposite the main guard-house, 3000 persons being present. 
 The effigies of Arthur Tappan, Dr. Cox, and W. L. Garrison, were at the same 
 time suspended. At 9 o'clock, the baUoon was let ofi", and the effigies were con- 
 sumed by the neck, with the offensive documents at their feet." 
 
 This lawless procedure was virtually justified by the Postmaster 
 General, Amos Kexdall, in a long and elaborate paper, as a 
 measure of self-preservation against the designs of Northern incen- 
 diaries ! This was his view of it, in which the press of the coun- 
 try seemed generally to acquiesce : — 
 
 «' There is reason to doubt, whether the AboUtionists have a right to make use of 
 the mails of the United States to convey their publications into States where 
 their circulation is forbidden by law ; and it is by no means certain that the mail- 
 camers and postmasters are secure from the penalties of that law, if they 
 kno-v\-ingly carry, distribute or hand them out. Every citizen may use the mail for 
 any la-«-ful pm-pose. The AboUtionists may have a legal right to its use for dis- 
 tributing their papers in New York, where it is lawful to distribute them ; but 
 it does not follow that they have a legal right to that priAdlege for such a purpose 
 in Louisiana and Georgia, where it is unlawful. As well may the counterfeiter 
 and the robber demand the nse of the mails for consummating their crimes, and 
 complain of a violation of their rights when it is denied. (!!!) 
 
 '< Upon these grounds, a postmaster may well hesitate to be the agent of the 
 Abolitionists in sending their incendiary publications into States where their cir- 
 culation is prohibited by law, and much more may postmasters residing in those 
 States refuse to distribute them." 
 
 An application was made to the city authorities for the use of 
 Faneuil Hall for an Anti-Slavery Convention, but it was unani- 
 
20 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 mously rejected. The Commercial (T«2re«e thereupon raised the 
 following note of exultation : — 
 
 "The refusal of the authorities of this citj- to suifer the advocates of abolition 
 and disunion to desecrate Faneuil Hall -ndth the display of their riotmgs and 
 excess, has elicited the applause and admiration of that portion of our fellow- citi- 
 zens of other States, who are opposed to disunion, and are not disposed to jdeld 
 the rights of American citizens to an annj' of Jim Crows and their white asso- 
 ciates. As an eyidence of the spuit of the press, indicatiye as it is of the 
 remains of decency and propriety, we copy the following pai-agraphs : — 
 
 [From the New York Times.] 
 « ' The ]Mayor and Aldermen of Boston have unanimously refused the abolition 
 lecturers admission into Faneuil HaU. Well and bravely done ! The old temple 
 of liberty must not be desecrated by admitting within its walls the mad fanatics, 
 who, if unchecked, will trample om- freedom into the dust.' 
 
 [From the New York Courier and Enquirer.] 
 
 " ' The Abolitionists refused admission to Faneuil Hall. It is gi-atifying to see, 
 as we do by the Boston papers, that these wretched plotters of mischief have been 
 promptly refused admission into Faneuil HaU. A petition for liberty to desecrate 
 that honored edifice by a meeting of the immediate emancipationists, signed by 
 the leading spirits of that most miserable of the disorganizing factions of the day, 
 was presented to the Mayor and Aldennen of Boston, and that body, with 
 a feeling and spirit that do it signal honor, refused unanimously to grant the 
 incendiary request. 
 
 " ' What ! the cradle of liberty in little more than half a century to become its 
 coffin ? The place where the Adamses and Otises have so often uttered in 
 burning eloquence the matchless value of our institutions, to echo with the raven 
 croakiugs of such creatures as Garrison, the mad imbecilities of Stow, the 
 flatulent dogmatisms of the fanatic from Kentucky, [James G. Bu-ney,] and the 
 theatrical contortions of the mouthing and noisy driveller acting as the stipendi- 
 ary of the Glasgow sempstresses ? 
 
 " • We rejoice that the Municipal Government of Boston has thus stepped be- 
 tween the venerable building so long devoted to a pure patriotism, and the fanatical 
 banditti that would pollute it. To have suffered such an assemblage within its 
 walls would have taken from it half the venerated sacredness of the place. It 
 would have levelled the proudest monument of Xew England's history ; for 
 Faneuil Hall would have lost all the charms of its glorious reminiscences by 
 such a contamination. Heaven grant that the day may be extended far, very 
 far into futm-e time, when that building shall be dishonored by the presence of 
 traitors, whether of native growth, or brought here from foreign countries, to 
 sever the bonds of this Union.' " 
 
 By a singular coincidence, an Anti- Slavery Convention -Ras 
 held on this very day, twenty years ago, in Utica, N. Y., for the 
 purpose of forming a State Anti-Slavery Society. » That Convcn- 
 
SPEECH OF \Y . L. UARllISON. 21 
 
 tion had been looked for -with great anxiety and alarm on the part 
 of the South, and it ^vas declared that, cost what it might, the 
 meeting must b^ broken up. Accordingly, a mob assembled in 
 great force, to prevent the contemplated organization ; but they 
 ■were foiled in their purpose. After the formation of the State So- 
 ciety, however, it was deemed advisable to adjourn the meeting, 
 at the invitation of Gerhit S.aiitii, (who nobly took that occa- 
 sion to join the Anti-Slavery ranks,) to Peterboro', the place of 
 his residence, where they completed their business. 
 
 Singularly enough, too, on the very same day, a mob endeav- 
 ored to break up an Anti-Slavery Convention wdiich was held at 
 Montpelier, Vermont, and was to have been addressed by our be- 
 loved friend, Samuel J. May. 
 
 Indeed, in every direction, the advocates of the slave were the 
 objects of popular fury. 
 
 Before the meeting was held which we are here to celebrate, 
 the Boston Female Anti- Slavery Society engaged the New Jeru- 
 salem Church, (now called Cochituate Hall.) for the purpose of 
 holding a meeting ; but the mob spirit was so rife, that the trus- 
 tees backed out, and declared that the Society should not have the 
 church, unless twenty thousand dollars were deposited in the bank, 
 as security against any damage done to their property. Julien 
 Hall was next secured by the Society ; but just on the eve of hold- 
 ing the meeting, the lessee receded from his engagement, afraid of 
 a mob, — for a mob was threatened. It haf)pened that Kev. Hen- 
 ry Ware, Jr., officiated on the previous Sunday in the pulpit of 
 Rev. Dr. Channing, and he innocently read the notice of the con- 
 templated meeting of the Society in Julien Hall, which act created 
 a great commotion in that parish, and brought down vials of wrath 
 upon his head from all the leading Boston presses. 
 
 As another proof of the malignant state of the public mind at 
 that time, I recollect seeing, a few days before the attack, one of 
 our independent military companies marching through Washington 
 street, with a target to be shot at, on which was painted an image 
 intended for George Thompson, and also the figure of a colored 
 woman, in close proximity. This was an attempt to excite all that 
 was murderous in the city. It was saying, in effect — " George 
 Thompson deserves to be shot. We shall shoot at his effigy to- 
 day. Make sure of him. if you can. to-morrow." 
 
22 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 What also served greatly to inflame the public mind against Mr. 
 Thompson was an atrocious accusation brought against hira by a 
 Southern student at Andover, named Kauffman, who falsely de- 
 clared that Mr. Thompson had said, in one of his addresses at An- 
 dover, that the slaves ought to be stimulated to cut their mas- 
 ters' THROATS. Imagine the effect of such a charge as this upon 
 the public mind, already exasperated almost to madness ! It was 
 like fire applied to gunpowder. The whole community was in an 
 inflammable state, and here was the torch to start the conflagration. 
 
 I believe all the Boston presses, — with one exception religious- 
 ly, and one exception politically, — were animated by a violent 
 pro-slavery spirit. The exception politically is a singular one to 
 name at this day. You could hardly guess what paper it was ; 
 you could not guess who the editor was. I will tell you. The 
 paper was the Boston Daily Advocate^ edited by Benjamin F. 
 Hallett ! Mr. Hallett, at that time, was our magnanimous de- 
 fender, and ready on all occasions to risk his own safety in vindi- 
 cating our right to be heard, though he had a mighty opposition 
 to stem in regard to his anti-masonic principles. Then he showed 
 himself every inch a man ; now, every inch of manhood appears 
 to have gone from him. The exception religiously was the New 
 England Spectator, edited by Rev. William S. Porter, and it 
 did us good service. 
 
 Allow me to read you some extracts from the Boston newspa- 
 pers of that period. I will read first from the Christian Regis- 
 ter, the Unitarian organ : — 
 
 " After they [the Abolitionists] perceive that it is impossible to make them- 
 selves understood, and that the ine-\dtable tendencj' of their doings (while all the 
 rest of mankind are obstinately in the dark respecting them) is dii-ectly opposite to 
 their wishes and prayers, is it not time for them to pause? " &c. * * 
 
 " We have been more and more persuaded, that the means they have been pur- 
 suing tend either to prolong and increase the evils of slavery, or to produce a con- 
 vulsion in the country beyond any tiling vrhich its inhabitants have ever wit- 
 nessed." 
 
 That was an appeal to violence, it seems to me, at least indi- 
 rectly, because it was calculated to inflame and madden the public 
 mind. • 
 
SPEECH U F' \y . L . G A K K [ S X . 28 
 
 The Baptist Ckristian Watc/tmcni said : — 
 
 " While we have no apology to offer for a riot under any circumstances, we hold, 
 as being equally ciilpable, those who persist in a course that is calculated to 
 excite sxich i^roccedings." 
 
 Thus, Jesus was responsible for his own crucifixion, and we were 
 to be held responsible for every mob ! 
 
 The Bostoji Recorder^ edited by Rev. Joseph Tracy, at that 
 time the mouthpiece of the Orthodox denomination, said : — 
 
 "Mr. Garrison's pohcy, we have no doubt, is to identify his cause with the cause 
 of civil liberty, by making it necessary for all who would defend civil liberty to 
 defend him and his meetings. He wishes to put all good citizens under the 
 necessity of choosing between him and the mob ; believing that, in such case, they 
 will be on his side. It is, therefore, his settled policy to provoke mobs as much 
 as he can." 
 
 But the Coinmercial Gazette was, on the whole, the most ac- 
 tive and the most malignant in its efforts to put down our move- 
 ment by mobocratic violence. 
 
 Early in August, 1835, fifteen hundred of the most prominent 
 citizens of Boston appended their names to a call for a public meet- 
 ing in Faneuil Hall, to denounce the agitation of the question of 
 slavery as putting in peril the existence of the Union. Some who 
 signed that call have long since repented of the act, and brought 
 forth fruits meet for repentance, and now glory in the Anti-Slave- 
 ry cause. There was the most intimate connection between this 
 meeting and the riotous outbreak of October 21st. 
 
 Well, the meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, (the Mayor in the 
 chair.) and addressed by the Hon. Harrison Gray Otis, Hon. 
 Peleg Sprague, and Hon. Richard Fletcher, whose speeches 
 were eminently calculated to whet the knife to be put into the heart 
 of George Thompson by some stealthy assassin. No men could 
 have brought deeper disgrace upon themselves than they did in re- 
 gard to the opprobrious language which they used toward Mr. 
 Thompson and the Anti-Slavery cause. If there were time, I 
 would give you some extracts from those speeches ; but I refer 
 those of you who are curious to know Avhat they said, to the files 
 of the The TAherator. or the leading Boston papers of that day. 
 
24 T H E B S T N M B . 
 
 Here what was the language of the Commercial Gazette on 
 the subject : — 
 
 * Faneuil Hall IMeeting. Let it not pass unheeded. . If, lio-wever, disregarding 
 its warning and solemn voice, this Society persevere in their nefarious schemes, 
 let the bolt of public indignation fall upon them ; let them be marked as disti^rb- 
 ers of the public peace, and shunned as traitors to the country. Let no citizen 
 who sets a value on the Union of the States — let none who hold to those sacred 
 principles bequeathed to them by the immortal Washington, have any inter- 
 course with men whose measures are fii-ebrands, arrows and death, and whose 
 success would be the destruction of this now happy Republic." 
 
 The whole city was now wrought up to a pitch of insanity. It 
 having been advertised that the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Socie- 
 ty would hold a meeting at 46 Washington Street, on the 21st of 
 October, a placard was circulated through the business portion of 
 the city, announcing the fact, and stating that George Thompson 
 would be present. This was printed at the office of the Commei'cial 
 Gazette, and written by Mr. Homer, one of the editors of that 
 paper, and an active instrument in getting up the mob, and in see- 
 ing it carried through. Here is a copy of it : — 
 
 •I" n o isa: i!^ js o 3xr , 
 
 THE ABOLITIONIST ! ! : 
 
 That infamous foreign scoundrel THOMPSON, will hold forth this afternoon, 
 at the Liberator Oifice, No. 46 Washington Street. The present is a fair oppor- 
 tuiaity for the friends of the Union to snake Thompson out ! It will be a contest 
 between the Abolitionists and the friends of the Union. A purse of $100 has 
 been raised by a number of patriotic citizens to reward the individual who shall 
 first lay violent hands on Thompson, so that he may be brought to the tar-kettle 
 before dark. Friends of the Union, be vigilant ! 
 
 Boston, Wednesday, 12 o'clock. 
 
 It was a false statement, that Mr. Thompson was to be there. 
 He was not in the city, and had not been asked to address the meet- 
 ing. The ladies, however, had requested me to deliver an address 
 on the occasion. I thanked them, and told them I would do so. 
 Accordingly, on that eventful day, anticipating a serious disturb- 
 ance, I went to the hall some time before the hour of meeting ; 
 but, early as it was, I found the doorway and staircase croAvded 
 with rioters. I was recognized and hooted at, and with difficulty 
 
SPEECH OF W. L. GARRISON. 26 
 
 I passed through them. In the hall, I found some thirty ■women, 
 who had anticipated the hour of meeting, and hud thus been enabled 
 to get in. Others, who came later, were kept from entering by the 
 crowd. The street was densely packed, and the outcries of the 
 mob Avere various. This is not the same hall. The building in 
 which we met was subsequently injured by fire, torn down, and re- 
 placed by the present structure. The hall ran lengthwise, and was 
 differently shaped from this. One part of it was partitioned off for 
 the Anti-Slavery office, in which we had all our books and publi- 
 cations, none of which, happily, got into the hands of the mob. On 
 entering the hall, I took my seat quietly, waiting until I should be 
 asked to speak. In the midst of the bowlings of the riotous 
 throng, a prayer was offered by the President of the Society, Miss 
 Mary Parker, in a strong and clear voice. I shall never forget 
 it. It was thrilling beyond description ; evincing the utmost trust 
 in God, and complete serenity of soul, as she " thanked God that 
 while there were many to molest, there were none that could make 
 afraid." After a while, it was suggested that if I would withdraw, 
 ray absence might influence the ruffians to behave with more de- 
 cency. I accordingly left the hall, and stepped into the Anti- 
 Slavery office adjoining, and locked the door. I found no one 
 there, except my friend, Charles C. Burleigh. I immediately 
 sat down, and wrote to a friend in Providence a description of the 
 incidents of the day, as they were transpiring. Whilst writing, the 
 ruffians in the hall broke in the lower panels of the door, and 
 stooping down, glared at me through the aperture like so many 
 wolves, and shouted — "Here he is!" — "Out with him! out 
 with him ! " My friend, Mr. Burleigh, with admirable courage 
 and presence of mind, stepped out of the room, locked the door on 
 the outside, and put the key into his pocket. He then, non-re- 
 sistant though he was, stood guard ; and it was entirely owing to 
 his calm and firm demeanor that our office was not harmed. The 
 rioters, however, got hold of some prayer and hymn books, belong- 
 ing to a religious society that occupied the hall every Sunday, and 
 threw them out of the window as incendiary documents ! 
 
 I will not occupy your time by going into all the details of this 
 disgraceful affair. Suffice it to say, that the Mayor, on entering 
 the hall told the ladies they must disperse, for the sake of the 
 
26 THE BOSTON MOB- 
 
 peace of the city! This they declined doing until they had trans- 
 acted a portion of their business, when they retired in a calm and 
 dignified manner, though scoffed at and insulted as they passed 
 through the lawless throng. 
 
 The cry was now raised for the Anti-Slavery sign-board. This 
 was soon thrown down, in the presence and by the acquiescence of 
 the Mayor, and exultingly danced upon, and finally broken into 
 fragments. 
 
 Again the cry was raised for " Thompson ! " The Mayor (the 
 late Theodore Lyman) assured the rioters that Mr. Thomp- 
 son was not in the hall. They knew, however, that I was, and so 
 they clamored for my surrender. The agitation of the Mayor was 
 excessive. Unwilling or unable to protect me by an appeal to the 
 military, but desirous that I should receive no harm, he endeavor- 
 ed (having cleared the building of the rioters) to find some way of 
 exit for me, so as to be able truthfully to announce that I was no 
 longer in the hall, and thus induce the rioters to disperse. It was 
 proposed that I should escape by dropping from a window in the 
 second story upon a shed, and from thence into a yard, leading 
 through a carpenter's shop, into Wilson's lane. I felt at first very 
 great reluctance to leave the premises in this manner ; but, by the 
 urgent entreaties of the Mayor and his posse, and of several Anti- 
 Slavery friends then present, (among them my early and faithful 
 coadjutor, Samuel E. Sewall, Esq.) — and to avoid the charge 
 of wilfully hazarding my life when a quiet withdrawal was feasible 
 — and as no pledges were given or exacted, and no sacrifice of 
 principle was involved in such a step — I consented to make the 
 attempt, accompanied by a friend, Mr. John R. Campbell, now, 
 I believe, in the spirit-land. The attempt proved unsuccessful. I 
 was instantly discovered by persons on the watch — Wilson's lane, 
 in the course of a few minutes, was densely filled with the rioters, 
 the most active of whom found me in the second story of the car- 
 penter's shop alluded to, and, coiling a rope around my body, let 
 me down to the crowd below. I was dragged bare-headed through 
 the lane into State street, where my clothes were nearly all torn 
 from my body, the intention being, as I understood, to carry me 
 to the Common, and there give me a coat of tar and feathers, a 
 ducking in the pond, &c. &c. Approaching the door of the City 
 
SPEECH V W. L. GARKISOIf. 27 
 
 Hall, on the south side, the Mayor and his constabulary succeeded 
 in rescuing me with difficulty, and I was taken up into his office. 
 The Post Office was tlicn located in that building;. As the ni^'lit 
 was approaching, and the mob were still bent on my seizure, it was 
 deemed necessary alike for the preservation of the Post Office and 
 of my life, to send me to the jail in Leverett street, as the only 
 place of safety to be found in the city. But I must be committed 
 legally, of course; and so, to obtain a writ of commitment, Sheriff 
 Parkman had to take a false oath, that I was a disturber of the 
 peace ! — though I believe he was actuated by a friendly and sym- 
 pathizing spirit. Not to have saved my life would I have h.id him 
 act in this manner. To the jail then I was sent, every effort being 
 made by the mob once more to get possession of my person, but in 
 vain. I remained in jail till the next day, when the Court came 
 to me, and formally discharged me as one who had done no evil, 
 and whose imprisonment had been only a ruse to protect my life ! 
 The heroism manifested by the ladies of the Female Anti-Slave- 
 ry Society, on that trying occasion, was beyond all praise. Some 
 of them have since fallen by death. Among the number present 
 in the hall was the lamented Ann Greene Chapman, whose mem- 
 ory will always be precious. Allow me to refer to the Will she 
 made, to show the spirit by which she was animated. One portion 
 was as follows : — 
 
 " WTailst I live, I have solemnly devoted myself to the cause of Truth, Justice, 
 Freedom ; and dying, I would yet bless it, in its onward course. 
 
 " Believing that the American Anti-Slavery Society is most beneficial to tlio 
 slave, and is advancing rapidly the coming of Christ's kingdom, I leave to its 
 Treasurer, Mr. John Rankin, or his successor in that office, the sum of one thou- 
 sand dollars for the use of the Society. 
 
 " To the Samaritan [Colored] Asylum, one hundred dollars. 
 
 "To the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, one hundred dollars. 
 
 " I trust that when the hour of death comes, my mind will be, as it is now, con- 
 vinced that the way to serve God, and secure his favor, is by making tlie cause 
 of his oppressed children my cause. And then I shall not have lived in vain," 
 
 No, she has not "lived in vain," and, being dead, she yet 
 speaketh ! 
 
 It is also due to one who is now drawing near to the grave, to 
 refer to her particularly, in connection with this meeting. I al- 
 
2d THBB0STO!:?MOB. 
 
 lude to Harriet Martineau, of England. The invitation ex- 
 tended to the Female Societj to occupy your house, Mr. Chair- 
 man, come what might, v.as very gladly accepted by the Society, 
 and the meeting was accordingly held. Miss Martineau had come 
 over to our country, some time before, with the highest literary 
 reputation, had travelled through the South with great eclat, and 
 had been every where received with high honors. She came to 
 Boston at this trial-hour, and was at once put in the furnace. She 
 had claimed to be the friend of the enslaved at home : it was now 
 to be seen whether she would be faithful to her principles on this 
 side the Atlantic. The course taken by almost every other distin- 
 guished person from the old world has been such, that her conduct 
 now looks all the more sublime and glorious. Allow me to give, 
 Mr. Chairman, the testimony uttered by her in your own house : — 
 
 " I hare been requested by a friend present to say something — if only a word — 
 to express my sympathy in the objects of this meeting. I had supposed, that my 
 presence here would be understood as showing my sympathy with you. But ns 
 I am requested to speak, I will say, what I have said through the whole South, 
 in every family where I have been, that I consider Slavery as inconsistent with 
 the Law of God, and as incompatible with the course of his Providence. I should 
 certainlv say no less at the North than at the South concerning this utter abomi- 
 nation — and I now declare that, in yoiu principles, I fully agree." 
 
 And because she attended that meeting, and enunciated these no- 
 ble sentiments, she at once lost caste among the literati of the coun- 
 try ; and while she remained here, was treated with manifest scora 
 and neglect. But she never faltered. She is now very ill, and is 
 not expected long to survive ; but she has shown that she de- 
 serves to be ranked with those of whom the world is not worthy. 
 
 The following despicable article, which her morally heroic course 
 elicited from the "respectable" Daily Advertiser at that time, 
 will serve to confirm what I have stated, in regard to the treat- 
 ment of Miss Martineau : — 
 
 •'"We were extremely sorry to learn, a few days since, that this lady, who has 
 been every where in this country received with the respect and kindness to which 
 her eminent talents, and amiable character and manners entitle her, had been 
 induced by persuasion, we arc inclined to believe, in opposition to her own better 
 judgment, to the commission of an act of indiscretion, by which it is to be feared 
 ehe has forfeited some part of t]ie high standing which she held in the good opimoD 
 
BPEECH OF ^V L. GARRISON. 9f 
 
 of the people of all parties in this country, and placed herself in the position of a 
 pnrtir.nn, in one of the most ur-elosa, the most bitter, and consequently the most 
 miticliicvous controversies in Avhich the pcoi)le of this country have ever been 
 engaged. "We regret this, not on her own account only, but on that of the public 
 at large, both in England and in this country. We had a right to expect from 
 her -well known intelligence, fi-om the favorable reception of her publications, 
 from the respect and esteem with which she is regarded in the wide circle of her 
 personal friends on both sides the Atlantic, and from the opportunities Avhich she 
 has enjoyed of becoming acquainted with the institutions, manners and character 
 of the people of this country, that her visit here would be productive of a useful 
 effect, in disseminating among the people of Great Britain more correct notions of 
 the state of society among us. These expectations, avc are sorry to say, are in a 
 good measure blasted, by the act of indiscretion to which we have alluded. It is 
 of very little consequence, except as it regards the infiuor.ce which she was capa- 
 ble of exerting on other subjects, what are hpr opinions on the question of 
 slavery. The addition of the weight of her sanction and influence, to a system 
 of opinions and measures which have not the remotest tendency to remove the 
 evils complained of, and which serve merely as a brand of discord throughout the 
 country, will produce no perceptible effect on the prevalence of those opinions 
 and measures ; but the enrolling her name with that of George Thompson, the 
 most odious foreign renegade who ever visited this country, in propagating doc- 
 trines, and encouraging measures, which lead directly to civil war and a dissolution 
 of the Union, must shake the faith of many of her friends in the soundness of 
 her judgment. "SVe had hoped that the pubHc would have been favored with 
 some explanation of the sentiments which are stated, in the Liberator, to have 
 been expressed by her, at a late meeting of the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, in 
 this city. No such explanation having been made, we take this occasion to copy 
 the remarks of an intelligent cotemporary, upon the course which she has 
 adopted, for the purpose of showing in what light that course is regarded by those 
 who do not see the propriety of preaching up a crusade against slavery, among 
 a people where no slavery exists, for the mere purpose of exciting the indi"nation 
 and hatred of the people of those States where it exists by the express sanction of 
 the Constitution under which we live." 
 
 I have trespassed too long upon your time in going through 
 these preliminaries, hut I felt that they vrere important as bearing 
 upon this lawless outbreak in our city, and as showing how the 
 prevailing violence of that period was stimulated, and who are to 
 be held responsible for it. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, what a change has been eflFected in public senti- 
 ment within twenty years ! It has seemed to me, in scanning the 
 file of T/ie Liberator for 1835, as if I were in another country, 
 among another people ! 
 
80 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 It is not much to be a professed Abolitionist to-day. The fiery 
 trials through which the early Abolitionists passed can never be 
 realized, except by those -who endured thera. Our pathway is now, 
 comparatively, strewed with flowers. The Anti- Slavery flame has 
 spread from heart to heart, from house to house, from State to 
 State. Hundreds of thousands are imbued more or less with sym- 
 pathy for the oppressed. The press is inclining more and more to 
 the side of freedom ; and all the signs of the times are encourag- 
 ing, in regard to the continued growth of our glorious movement. 
 
 On the other hand, it is also true that the Slave Power has 
 lengthened its cords and strengthened its stakes. When I tell you 
 that, during these twenty years, the natural increase of the number 
 of slaves has been equal to the passing of the entire population of 
 Massachusetts into a state of bondage, I tell you precisely the 
 growth of the slave system during that period. More than a mil- 
 lion of slaves are to he delivered, loJio loere not in existence 
 twenty years ago — and nearly four millions in all ! 
 
 But, our cause is of God. It has been so from the beginning. 
 Why did this nation tremble at the outset? Why were the slave- 
 holders smitten as with the fear of death ? Who were the Aboli- 
 tionists? Confessedly, in a numerical sense, not to be counted. 
 They had no influence, no station, no wealth. Ah ! Mr. Chairman, 
 they had the truth of God, and therefore God himself was on their 
 side ; and hence this guilty nation quaked with fear when that truth 
 was uttered and applied. But our work is not to cease until lib- 
 erty be proclaimed throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants 
 thereof We are to contend until every chain is broken, or until 
 our labors on earth are finished. Remember, they only who endure 
 to the end shall see salvation, and raise the song of " Victory ! " 
 We have fought a good fight, and we shall yet conquer, God help- 
 ing us. All the spirits of the just are with us ; all the good of 
 earth are with us ; and we need not fear as to the result of this 
 great conflict. 
 
 '* For truth shall conquer at the last : 
 So round and round we run, — 
 And ever the right comes uppermost, 
 And ever is justice done." 
 
SPEECH OF WENDELL PHILLIPS. 81 
 
 The following hymn, by James Russell Loavell, was then 
 sung, to the tune of "Scots wha hae " : — 
 
 Friends of Freedom ! ye who stand 
 With no weapon in your hand, 
 Save a purpose stern and grand, 
 
 All men to sot free, 
 Welcome ! Freedom stands in need 
 Of true men in thought and deed — 
 Men who liave this only creed, 
 
 That they will not flee ! 
 
 Though we were but two or three, 
 Sure of triumph wc should be; 
 We our promised land shall see, 
 
 Though the way seem long : — 
 Every fearless word we speak 
 Makes Sin's stronghold bend and creak — 
 Tyranny is always weak, 
 
 Truth is young and strong ! 
 
 All the hero-spirits vast, 
 Who have sanctified the past,- 
 Bearing witness to the last. 
 
 Fight upon our part; 
 We can never be forlorn : 
 He, who, in a manger bom, 
 Bore the Priest's and Levite's scorn, 
 
 Gives us hope and heart. 
 
 The audience was then addressed by Wendell Phillips. 
 
 Ipmli Df VduMl ^^jjillips. 
 
 Mr. President, — I feel that I have very little right on this 
 platform to-day. I stand here only to express my gratitude to those 
 who truly and properly occupy it, for what we all owe them — the 
 women and the men — who stood by our honor, and so nobly did 
 our duties, when we forgot it and them twenty years ago. 
 
 At this hour, twenty years ago, I was below in the street ; — I 
 thank God I am inside the house now ! I was not in the street as 
 one of the mob, but as a spectator. I had come down from my of- 
 fice in Court street to see what the excitement was. I did not un- 
 
82 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 derstand Anti- Slavery then ; that is, I did not understand the 
 country in which I lived. We have all of us learned much since ; 
 learned what Anti-Slavery means — learned what a Republican 
 Government really is — learned the power of the press and of mon- 
 ey, which I, at least, did not know then. I remember saying to 
 the gentleman who stood next to me in the street — " Why does 
 not the Mayor call out the regiment 1 — (I belonged to it then) — 
 we would cheerfully take arms in such a case as this. It is a very 
 shameful business. Why does he stand there arguing 7 Why does 
 he not call for the guns '? " I did not know that the guns were in 
 the street — that the men who should have borne them were the 
 mob ; that all there was of government in Boston was in the street ; 
 that the people, our final reliance for the execution of the laws, 
 were there, in the street. Mayor Lyman knew it ; and the only 
 honorable and honest course open to him was, to have said — " If I 
 cannot be a magistrate, I will not pretend to be one." 
 
 I do not know whether to attribute the Mayor's disgraceful con- 
 duct to his confused notion of his official duties, or to a cowardly 
 unwillingness to perform what he knew well enough to be his duty. 
 A superficial observer of the pi'css and pulpit of that day would be 
 inclined to consider it the result of ignorance, and lay the blame at 
 the door of our republican form of government, which thrusts up 
 into important stations dainty gentlemen like Lyman, physicians 
 never allowed to doctor any body but the body politic, or cunning 
 tradesmen who have Avriggled their slimy way to wealth ; men who 
 in a trial hour not only know nothing of their own duties, but do 
 not even know where to go for advice. And for the preachers, I 
 am inclined to think this stolid ignorance of civil rights and duties 
 may be pleaded as a disgraceful excuse, leaving them guilty only 
 of meddling in matters far above their comprehension. But one 
 who looks deeper into the temper of that day will see plainly enough 
 that the Mayor and the Editors, with their companions " in broad- 
 cloth," were only blind to what they did not wish to see, and knew 
 the right and wrong of the case well enough, only, like all half-edu- 
 cated people, they were but poorly able to comprehend the vast im- 
 portance of the wrong they were doing. The mobs which follow- 
 ed, directed against others than Abolitionists, the ripe fruit of the 
 seed here planted, opened their eyes somewhat. 
 
BPEECH OF WENDELL PHILLIPS. 83 
 
 Mr. Garrison has given us speciraens enougli of the press of 
 that day. There was the Duilij Advertiser^ of course on the 
 •wrong side — respectahle w hen its opponents are strong and nu- 
 merous, and quite ready to be scurrilous wlien scurrility is safe and 
 will pay — behind whose editorials a keen ear can always catch 
 the clink of the dollar — entitled to be called the Rip Van Winkle 
 of the Press, should it ever, like Rip, wake up ; the Advertiser con- 
 descended, strangely enough, to say, that it was not surprised (!) 
 that papers abroad considered the meeting of mobocrats in the 
 street below a riot (!) ; but the iviser Advertiser itself regarded 
 it ^^ not so much as a riot as the prevention of a riot'' ! It 
 " considered the whole transaction as the t7niimph of law over 
 lawless violence^ and the love of order over riot and con fusion^ ^ ! ! 
 Dear, dreamy Van Winkle ! and he goes on to ^^ rejoice ^^ at the 
 exceeding "moderation" of the populace, that they did not mur- 
 der Mr. Garrison on the spot ! And this is the journal which 
 Boston literature regards as its organ, and which Boston wealth 
 befools itself by styling " respectable ! " 
 
 Next came the scurrilous Gazette, which it is said repented of 
 its course when it found that Northern subscribers fell off and 
 Southerners continued to despise it as before ; and which, outliv- 
 ing public forbearance and becoming bankrupt, earned thus the 
 right to be melted into the Daily Advertiser. 
 
 With them in sad alliance marched the Courier — always strong 
 and frank whichever side it took, and even of whose great merit 
 and bravery between that time and this, it is suflBcient praise to say, 
 that it was enough to outweigh its great wrong in 1835, and its 
 vile servility now. 
 
 With rare daring, the Christian Register, the organ of the 
 Unitarians, snatched the palm of infamy. In a moment of forget- 
 ful frankness, it counselled hypocrisy ; suiting manner to matter, it 
 hints to the Abolitionists, that they should imitate the example, 
 as, with laughable ignorance, it avers, of the early Christians of 
 Trajan's day, and meet in secret, if the " vanity " of the ladies 
 would allow ! The coward priest forgot, if he ever knew, that the 
 early Christians met in secret beneath the pavements of Rome, 
 only to pray for the martyrs whose crosses lined the highways, 
 whose daring defied Paganism at its own altars, and whose human- 
 
34 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 ity stopped the bloody games of Rome in the upper air ; that they 
 met beneath the ground, not so much to hide themselves, as to get 
 strength for bolder attacks on wicked laws and false altars. 
 
 Infamy, however, at that day, was not a monopoly of one sect. 
 Hubbard Winslow, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, strictly Ortho- 
 dox, a bigot in good and regular standing, shortly after this preach- 
 ed a sermon to illustrate and defend the doctrine, that no man, un- 
 der a republican government, has a right to promulgate any opin- 
 ion but such as " a majority of the brotherhood would allow and 
 protect; " and he is said to have boasted that Judge Story thank- 
 ed him for such a discourse ! 
 
 The Mayor played a most shuffling and dishonorable part. For 
 some time previous, he had held private conferences with leading 
 Abolitionists, urging them to discontinue their meetings, profess- 
 ing, all the while, entire friendship, and the most earnest determi- 
 nation to protect them in their rights at any cost. The Abolition- 
 ists treated him, in return, with the utmost confidence. They 
 yielded to his wishes, so far as to consent to do nothing that would 
 increase the public excitement, with this exception, that they in- 
 sisted on holding meetings often enough to assert their right to 
 meet. Yet, while they were thus honorably cooperating in avoid- 
 ing every thing that would needlessly excite the public mind, go- 
 ino- to the utmost verge of submission and silence that duty per- 
 j^itted, — while the Abolitionists, with rare moderation, were 
 showing this magnanimous forbearance and regard to the weakness 
 of public authority and the reckless excitement of the public, the 
 Mayor himself, in utter violation of official decorum and personal 
 honor, accepted the chair of the public meeting assembled in Fa- 
 neuil Hall, and presided over that assembly, — an assembly which 
 many intended should cause a mob against the Abolitionists, and 
 which none but the weak or wilfully blind could avoid seeing must 
 lead to that result. In his opening speech to that factious meeting, 
 the Mayor, under oath at that moment, to protect every citizen in 
 his rights, and doubly bound just then by private assurances to 
 these very Abolitionists, forgot all his duty, all his pledges, so far 
 as to publicly warn them of the danger of their tneeting, — a 
 warning or threat, the memory of which might well make him 
 tremblingly anxious to save Garrison's life, since of any blood 
 
 I 
 
SPEECH OF WENDELL PHILHP3. 85 
 
 shed that day, every law, divine and human, -woukl have held the 
 Mayor guilty. 
 
 Such was the temper of those times. The ignorant were not 
 aware, and the wise were too corrupt to confess, that the most pre- 
 cious of human rights, free thought, was at stake. These women 
 knew it, felt the momentous character of the issue, and consented 
 to stand in the gap. Those were trial hours. I never think of 
 them without my shame for my native city being swallowed up in 
 gratitude to those who stood so bravely for the right. Let us not 
 consent to be ashamed of the Boston of 1835. The howling wolves 
 in the streets were not Boston. These brave men and women were 
 Boston. We will remember no other. 
 
 I never open the Statute Book of Massachusetts without thank- 
 ing Ellis Gray Lorixg and Samuel J. May, Charles Pollen 
 and Samuel E. Sewall, and those around me who stood with them, 
 for preventing Edward Everett from blackening it with a law 
 making free speech an indictable offence. And we owe it to fifty 
 or sixty women, and to a dozen or two of men, that free speech was 
 saved, in 1835, in the city of Boston. Indeed, we owe it to one 
 man. If there is one here who loves Boston, who loves her honor, 
 who rejoices to know that, however thin the thread, there is a 
 thread that bridges over that dark and troubled wave, and connects 
 us by a living nerve with the freemen of the Revolution, and that, 
 Boston, though betrayed by her magistrates, her wealth, her press, 
 and her pulpits, never utterly bowed her neck, let him remember 
 that we owe it to you, Sir, (Mr. Jackson,) who offered to the wo- 
 men who were not allowed to meet here, even though the Mayor 
 was in this hall, the use of your house ; and one sentence of your 
 letter deserves to be read whenever Boston men are met together 
 to celebrate the preservation of the right of free speech in the city 
 of Adams and Otis. History, that always loves courage, will 
 write it a page whiter than marble and more incorruptible than 
 gold. You said. Sir, in answer to a letter of thanks for the use of 
 your house : — 
 
 " If a large majority of this community choose to turn a deaf ear to the -wTongs 
 which are inflicted upon their countrj-men in other portions of the land — if they 
 1 are content to turn away from the sight of oppression, and ' pa.s8 by on the other 
 side' — so it must be. 
 
1$ THBBOSTONMOB, 
 
 "But wiien they undertnke in any -^^-ay to impair or annul my right to spealc, 
 ■write, and publish upon any subject, and more especially upon enonnities which 
 are the common concern of every lover of liis country and his kind — so it must 
 not be — so it shall not be, if I for one can prevent it. Upon this great right let tis 
 hold on at all hazards. And should vre, in its exercise, be driven from public 
 halls to private dwellings, one house, at least, shall be consecrated to its preser- 
 vation. And if, in defence of this sacred privilege, which man did not give me, 
 and shall not (if I can help it) take from me, this roof and these walls shall be 
 levelled to the earth — let them fall, if they must. They cannot crumble in a 
 better cause. They will appear of very little value to me, after their owner shall 
 have been whij^ped into silence." 
 
 This was only thirty days after the mob. I need not read the 
 remainder of the letter, which is in the same strain. 
 
 We owe it to one man that a public meeting was held, within a 
 month, by these same women, in the city of Boston. But to their 
 honor be it remembered, also, — a fact which Mr. Garrison 
 omitted to state, — that when Mayor Lyman urged them to go 
 home, they left this hall in public procession and went " home " 
 to the house of Mrs. M. W. Chapman, in West street, to organize 
 and finish their meeting that very afternoon. To Mrs. Chapman's 
 pen we owe the most living picture of that whole scene, and her 
 able, graphic, and eloquent reports of the proceedings of the Female 
 Anti-Slavery Society, and specially of this day, have hung up to 
 everlasting contempt the '• men of property and standing " — the 
 " respectable " men of Boston. 
 
 Let us open, for a moment, the doors of the hall which stood 
 here, and listen to the Mayor receiving his lesson in civil duty 
 from the noble women of this Society : — 
 
 Mr. Lyman — " Go home, ladies, go home." 
 
 President — " What renders it necessary we should go home ? " 
 
 Mr. Lyman — "I am the mayor of the city, and I cannot now explain; but 
 will call upon you this evening." 
 
 President — " If the ladies will be seated, we will take the sense of the meeting." 
 
 Mr. Lyman — " Don't stop, ladies, go home." 
 
 President — " Will the ladies listen to a letter addi-essed to the Society, by 
 Francis Jackson, Esq. r " 
 
 Mr. Lyman — " Ladies, do you wish to see a scene of bloodshed and confusion ? 
 If you do not, go home." 
 
 One or the Ladies — "Mr. LjTnan, your personal friends are the instigators 
 of tliia mob ; have you ever used your personal influence with them ? " 
 
BPEECH OF WENDELL PHILLIPS. 8T 
 
 Mr. Lymax — " I know no personal friends ; I nm merely nn official. Indeed, 
 ladies, you must retire. It is dangerous to remain. " 
 
 L-VDY — " If this is the last bulwark of freedom, we may as well die hero ns any 
 where." 
 
 There is nothing braver than that in the history of the Long 
 Parliament, or of the Roman Senate. 
 
 At that Faneuil Hall meeting, one of " the family " was pres- 
 ent ; one of that family that was never absent when a deed of in- 
 famy was to be committed against the slave, — a family made up 
 mostly of upstart attornies, who fancy themselves statesmen, be- 
 cause able to draw a writ or pick holes in an indictment. Mr. 
 Thomas B. Curtis read the resolutions ; and then followed three 
 speeches, by Harrison Gray Otis, Richard Fletcher, 'and 
 Peleg Sprague, unmatched for the adroit, ingenious, suggestive 
 argument and exhortation to put down, legally or violently, each 
 hearer could choose for himself, all public meetings on the subject 
 of slavery in the city of Boston. Every thing influential in the 
 city was arrayed against this Society of a few women. I could 
 not but reflect, as I sat here, how immortal principle is. Rev. Hen- 
 ry Ware, Jr., read the notice of this Society's meeting from Dr. 
 Channing's pulpit, and almost every press in the city woke bark- 
 ing at him next morning for what was called his " impudence." 
 He is gone to his honored grave ; many of those who met in this 
 hall in pursuance of that notice are gone likewise. They died, as 
 Whittier so well says, 
 
 — " Their brave hearts breaking bIow^ 
 
 But, self-forgetful to the last, 
 In words of cheer and bugle glow. 
 
 Their breath upon the darkness passed." 
 
 In those days, as we gathered round their graves, and resolved 
 that the ''narrower the circle became, we would draw the closer 
 together," we envied the dead their rest. Men ceased to slander 
 them in the sanctuary of the grave ; and as we looked forward to 
 the desolate vista of calamity and toil before us, and thought of the 
 temptations which beset us on either side from worldly prosperity 
 which a slight sacrifice of principle might secure, or social ease so 
 close at hand by only a little turning aside, we envied the dead the 
 
88 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 quiet sleep to wliich we left them, the harvest reaped, and the seal 
 set beyond the power of change. And of those who assaulted them, 
 many are gone. The Mayor, so recreant to his duty, or so lacking 
 in knowledge of his office, is gone ; the Judge, before whom Mr. 
 Garrison was arraigned the next day after the mob, at the jail, is 
 gone; the Sheriff, who rode with him to the jail, is gone ; the city 
 journals have changed hands, being more than once openly bought 
 and sold. The editor of the Atlas, whose zeal in the cause of mob 
 violence earned it the honor of giving its name to the day — " the 
 Atlas mob " many called it — is gone ; many of the prominent ac- 
 tors in that scene, twenty years ago, have passed away ; the most 
 eloquent of those whose voices cried " havoc " at Faneuil Hall has 
 gone, — Mr. Otis has his wish, that the grave might close over 
 him before it closed over the Union, which God speed in his good 
 time ; — the same principle fills these same halls, as fresh and vital 
 to-day, as self-fixed and resolute to struggle against pulpit and 
 press, against wealth and majorities, against denunciation and un- 
 popularity, and certain in the end to set its triumphant foot on man 
 and every thing that man has made alike. 
 
 Here stands to-day the man whom Boston wealth and Boston 
 respectability went home, twenty years ago this night, and gloried 
 in having crushed. The loudest boasters are gone. He stands to- 
 day among us, these very walls, these ideas which breathe and 
 burn around us, saying to him, " I still live." If, twenty or twice 
 twenty years hence, he too shall have passed away, may it not be 
 till his glad car has caught the jubilee of the emancipated mil- 
 lions whom his life has been given to save ! 
 
 This very Female Anti-Slavery Society which was met here 
 twenty years ago, did other good service but a few months after, 
 in getting the Court of Massachusetts to recognize that great prin- 
 ciple of freedom, that a slave, brought into a Northern State, is 
 free. It was in the celebrated Med case. We owe that to the 
 Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. To-day, Judge Kane, and 
 the Supreme Court which alone can control him, are endeavoring 
 to annihilate that principle which twenty years ago was establish- 
 ed. How far, and how soon they may be successful, God only 
 knows. 
 
 Truly, as Mr. Garrison has said, the intellectual and moral 
 
8PEE0H OF WENDELL PHILLIP3. 89 
 
 growth of Anti-Slavery has been great -within twenty years ; but 
 who shall deny, that in that same twenty years, the [loliiical, the 
 organic, the civil growth of slavery, has been more than equal? 
 We stand here to-day with a city redeemed — how far? Just so 
 far as this meeting commemorates — the right of free speech is 
 secured. Thank God ! in twenty years, we have proved that an 
 Anti-Slavery meeting is not only possible, but respectable, in 
 Massachusetts — that is all we have proved. Lord Erskine said 
 a newspaper was stronger than government. We have got many 
 newspapers on our side. Ideas will, in the end, beat down any 
 thing ; — we have got free course for ideas. 
 
 But let us not cheer ourselves too hastily, for the government, 
 the wealth, the public opinion of this very city in which we meet, 
 remain to-day almost as firmly anchored as ever on the side of sla- 
 very. Amid all the changes of twenty years, the Daily Adverti- 
 ser has not changed a whit — not a whit. The same paper that 
 spoke doubtful words before October 21st, hoped the meeting 
 would be stopped, and afterwards was so terribly shocked at the 
 occurrence of a mob, but was glad the ladies were not allowed to 
 hold their meeting, — that same paper would act the same shame- 
 less part to-day. That paper, Avhich represented then so well 
 the mobocrats in broadcloth, has passed from a father wearied in 
 trying to hold ]\Iassachusetts back, to his son — whose accession, 
 to reverse James First's motto, "no day followed" — and it is 
 published to-day with the same spirit, represents the same class, 
 actuated exactly Avith the same purpose. If there is strength out- 
 side the city, in the masses, able to rebuke that class, and that press, 
 and that purpose, and give the State of Massachusetts more em- 
 phatically to some kind of Anti-Slavery, it is still a struggle. I 
 would not rejoice, therefore, too much. We must discriminate. 
 " To break your leg twice over the same stone is your own fault,'' 
 says the Spanish proverb. 
 
 I. came here to-day to thank God that Boston never wanted a 
 person to claim his inalienable right to utter his thoughts on the 
 subject of slavery, nor a spot upon which he could do it; — that is 
 all my rejoicing to-day. And in that corner-stone of individual 
 daring, of fidelity to conscience, I recognize the possibility of the 
 emancipation of three millions of slaves. But that possibility is 
 
40 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 to be made actual by labors as earnest and unceasing, by a self- 
 devotion as entire, as that which has marked the twenty years 
 which have gone before. 
 
 I find that these people, who have made this day famous, were 
 accused in their own time of harsh language, and over-boldness, 
 and great disparagement of dignities. These were the three 
 charges brought against the Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1835. 
 The women forgot their homes in endeavoring to make the men do 
 their duty. It was a noble lesson which the sisters and mothers 
 of that time set the women of the present day — I hope they will 
 follow it. 
 
 There was another charge brought against them — it was, that 
 they had no reverence for dignitaries. The friend who sits here 
 on my right (Mrs. Soutuwick) dared to rebuke a slaveholder 
 with a loud voice, in a room, just before, if not then, consecrated 
 by the presence of Chief Justice Shaw, and the press was aston- 
 ished at her boldness. I hope, though she has left the city, she 
 has left representatives behind her who will dare rebuke any 
 slave-hunter, or any servant of the Slave Power, with the same 
 boldness, frankness and defiance of authorities, and contempt of 
 parchment. 
 
 Then there was another charge brought against their meetings, 
 and that was, that they indulged in e.xceedingly bad language 
 about pulpits, and laws, and ofiicers of the country. That is a sin 
 I hope will not die out. God grant we may inherit that also. 
 
 I should like to know very much how many there are in this 
 hall to-day who were out in the street, as actual mobocrats, twenty 
 years ago. I know there are some here who signed the various 
 petitions to the City Government to prevent the meeting from 
 being held, but it would be an interesting fact to know how many 
 are here to-day, actually enlisted under the Anti-Slavery banner, 
 who tore that sign to pieces. I wish we had those relics; the 
 piece of that door which was long pi-eserved, the door so coolly 
 locked by Charles Burleigh, — it was a touching relic. We 
 ought to have a portion of that sign which the Mayor threw down 
 as a tub to the whale, hoping to save some semblance of his au- 
 thority ; hoping the multitude would be satisfied with the sign, and 
 spare the women in this hall, — forgetting that a mob is controlled 
 only by its fears, not by pity or good manners. 
 
SPEECH OF WENDELL PHILLIPS. 41 
 
 But, Mr. President, it is a sad history to think of. Anti-Slave- 
 ry is a sad history to read, sad to look back upon. What a miser- 
 able refuse public opinion has been for the past twenty years ! — 
 what a wretched wreck of all that Republican education ought to 
 have proposed ! Take* up that file of papers which Mr. Garrison 
 showed you, and think. Republicanism, popular education, a Pro- 
 testant pulpit, free schools, the model government, had existed in 
 this city for sixty years, and this was the result ! A picture, the 
 very copy of that which Sir Robert Peel held up in the British 
 Parliament, within a month of the mob, as proof that Republican- 
 ism could never succeed. It is a sad picture to look back upon. 
 The only light that redeems it is the heroism that consecrated this 
 hall, and one house in Hollis street, places which Boston will yet 
 make pilgrimages to honor. _ 
 
 The only thing that Americans (for let us be Americans to-day, 
 not simply Abolitionists) — the only thing that Americans can re- 
 joice for this day is, that every thing was not rotten. The whole 
 head was not sick, nor the whole heart faint. There were ten 
 971671, even in Sodom ! And when the Mayor forgot his duty, when 
 the pulpit prostituted itself, and when the press turned itself into 
 a pack of howling hounds, the women of Boston, and a score or 
 two of men, remembered Hancock and Adams, and did their duty. 
 And if there are young people who hear me to-day, let us hope 
 that when this special cause of Anti- Slavery effort is past and gone, 
 when another generation shall have come upon the stage, and new 
 topics of dispute have arisen, there will be no more such scenes. 
 How shall we ever learn toleration for what we do not believe 7 
 The last lesson a man ever learns is, that liberty of thought and 
 speech is the right for all mankind ; and of all opinions, that the 
 man who denies every article of this creed is to be allowed to preach 
 just as often, and just as loud, as he himself has a right to. We 
 have learned this — been taught it by persecution on the question 
 of slavery. No matter whose the lips that would speak, they must 
 be heard. Let us see to it, my friends. Abolitionists, that we 
 learn the lesson the whole circle round. Let us believe that the 
 whole of truth can never do harm to the whole of virtue. Trust 
 it. And remember, that in order to get the whole of truth, you 
 
42 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 must allow every man, right or ■wrong, freely to utter his con- 
 science, and protect him in it. 
 
 The same question was wrought out here twenty years ago, as 
 was wrought in the protest of fifty or a hundred Abolitionists, when 
 an infidel (Abner Kneeland) was sent to Boston jail for preaching 
 his sentiments. I hope that we shall all go out of this hall, re- 
 membering the highest lesson of this day and place is, that every 
 man's conscience is sacred. No matter how good our motives are ! 
 Mayor Lyman had some good motives that day, if he had only 
 known what his oflSce meant, and stayed at home, if he felt himself 
 not able to fill it. It is not motives. Entire, unshackled freedom 
 for every man's lips, no matter what his doctrine; — the safety of 
 free discussion, no matter how wide its range; — no check on the 
 peaceful assemblage of thoughtful men ! Let us consecrate our 
 labors for twenty years to come in doing better than those who 
 went before us, and widening the circle of their principle into the 
 full growth of its actual and proper significance. 
 
 Let me thank the women who came here twenty years ago, some 
 of whom are met here to-day, for the good they have done me. I 
 thank them for all they have taught me. I had read Greek and 
 Roman and English history ; I had by heart the classic eulogies 
 of brave old men and martyrs; I dreamed, in my folly, that I 
 heard the same tone in my own day from the cuckoo lips of Ed- 
 ward Everett — these women taught me my mistake. They 
 taught me that down in those hearts that loved a principle for itself, 
 asked no man's leave to think or speak, and were willing to sacri- 
 fice every thing for it, true to their convictions, no matter at what 
 hazard, flowed the true blood of '76, of 1640, of the hemlock- 
 drinker of Athens, and of the martyr saints of Jerusalem. I thank 
 them for it ! My eyes were sealed, so that, although I knew the 
 Adamses and Otises of 1776, and the Mary Dyers and Ann Hutch- 
 insons of older times, I could not recognize the Adamses and 
 Otises, the Dyers and Hutchinsons, whom I met in the streets of 
 '35. These women opened my eyes, and I thank them and you 
 (turning to Mrs. Southwick and Miss Henrietta Sargent, who 
 sat upon the platform) for that anointing. May our next twenty 
 years prove us all apt scholars of so brave instruction ! 
 
SPEECH OF THEODORE I'AllKER. 43 
 
 Ijiwtji of iUn. '(Sjirniinn! ]M{n. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — It is very few words I shall speak on this 
 occasion ; I do not consider myself entitled or worthy to say more. 
 When you, and Mr. Garrison, and others, were men, and playing 
 a manly part here twenty years ago, and these women were playing 
 the part, not of " mothers in Israel," but, what is a great deal bet- 
 ter, of women, of mothers, in New England, I was what I may call 
 a boy, a young man, in the Theological School, studying for my 
 profession. I very well remember the 21st of October, 1835. At 
 that time, I was occupied chiefly in theological and metaphysical 
 abstractions, which are now-a-days coming out in the prayers I 
 offer, in the sermons I preach, in the life I try to lead. I was 
 then laying the foundation for what I am now trying to establish in 
 works. 
 
 I very well remember the event of this day. Wholly unexpect- 
 ed it was to me ; for I was so lost in Hebrew, and Grecian, and 
 German metaphysics, that I did not duly read the Daily Adver- 
 tiser or the Commercial Gazette, and had not even heard of Mr. 
 Benjamin F. Hallett. Since that time, I have had occasion 
 to make the acquaintance of that gentleman. 
 
 I came into Boston that day, and spent the evening with some 
 of the most respectable inhabitants of the town, — respectable for 
 their descent, respectable for their riches, and still more respecta- 
 ble for the social standing which made them looked up to. There 
 were four of them present. I do not mention their names, which 
 none here will detect. There was but one opinion among all four, 
 and that was, in commendation of the deed done. They did not 
 exactly commend the mob, or approve of the means ; they com- 
 mended the end that was arrived at and accomplished, and thought, 
 on the whole, the mob was a very good thing, and that Mr. Jack- 
 son, and Mr. Garrison, and these noble ladies, (Mrs. Southwick 
 and Miss Sargent,) had deserved it all. They represented the 
 sentiment of the " men of property and standing " in Boston at 
 that time. They were the respectabilities of Boston. They have 
 not altered their mind, I think, to this day ; or at least, two of the 
 same men so loved the Fugitive Slave Bill, that they went public- 
 
44. THE BOSTON MOBo 
 
 ly and thanked Mr. Eliot for his vote in its support, and one of 
 them wrote in the Daily Advertiser in support of the bill. 
 
 Allusion has been made to the early Christians. Mr. Samuel 
 J. May once wanted to go and preach Anti- Slavery in the town of 
 Taunton, and asked the Unitarian minister if he could have his 
 church. " Yes," said the minister. He went to the Unitarian 
 minister's house to stop, and he asked him — " Perhaps you will 
 open the meeting with prayer, and other services 7 " "I shall be 
 very glad to, and I will read some Scripture, if you will allow me." 
 So the minister went to the meeting, and " made a prayer," pray- 
 ing against the Abolitionists with might and main, — it was not 
 much might nor much main ; — and then (for the Goddess of Ven- 
 geance never sleeps) he read from the Bible some passages repre- 
 senting the conduct of the old prophets and Christian apostles ; and 
 what made it still more touching and practical, he took this passage 
 out of the book of Acts, " These that have turned the world up- 
 side down have come hither also." Thereupon he stopped. Mr. 
 May, with that face which is a benediction any where, and that 
 voice, which seems to have been created to utter the beatitudes 
 which his heart always conceives, said to the audience, ' ' Men and 
 women, brothers and sisters, you hear what your minister has said 
 to you. He has ended by saying, ' These that have turned the 
 world upside down have come hither also.' So tve have ! Who 
 was it ' that turned the world upside down, ' and who were thus 
 alluded to. It was Peter, it was Paul, it was James, it was John. 
 It was the men who wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, 
 of whom the world was not worthy. They turned the world up- 
 side down, because it was wrong side up before. And we have 
 come here to do just the same thing over. I thank him for his 
 Scripture." 
 
 How idle it seems, at this day, to undertake to put down truth 
 by mobs ! Violence ! — it is an argument to this poor flesh ; it is 
 no argument to a man's mind, to his conscience, or his heart, or 
 his soul. And, least of all, is violence, persecution, of any avail 
 to a New England man or a New England woman, who has a whole 
 file of Puritan fathers and mothers, reaching back beyond the reign 
 of Bloody Mary. 
 
 There were two great books which our fathers were bred on. 
 
SPEECH OF T II E D 11 E P A K K E R . 45 
 
 One was fhe Bible ; and tliougli I am no worshipper of the Bible, 
 I must say, that whatever high praise be bestowed on Roman elo- 
 quence and Roman law, or on Grecian art, philosophy and poetry, 
 none of them ever came from such a deep of manly heroism as 
 those old Hebrew Prophets, Psalmists and Apostles spoke out of 
 and spoke into. And a community which took the Bible for its 
 one book, wept over it in sorrow, rejoiced over it in delight, 
 prayed over it, and almost worshipped it, — and that at a time, 
 too, when priest and king forbade, — would be likely to have some 
 heroes among its sons and daughters. That we might depend 
 upon, — for the Bible does not lack spunk, depend upon it. If 
 the Puritans did not take the Love of the New Testament, they 
 did take the sternness, the unconquerable courage, that flammed in 
 the Old Testament, and in the New. That was the first book. 
 
 The other was a kindred work ; — it was Fox's History of the 
 Martyrs. Mr. Fox was a noble man, who lived three hundred 
 years ago, who, with unaccountable industry and untiring patience, 
 ransacked all history to find out the story of men who had resisted 
 the majority of the Christian Church, been wise and religious in 
 advance of the clergy of their day, and suffered in consequence. 
 There are three volumes of this history — very small type and 
 very long pages ; every one of them contains more matter than all 
 six of Mr. Bancroft's History. That was the '■^profane literature " 
 of our fathers, with whom the Bible was their sacred literature. 
 
 Now, it must not be supposed that a mob is much of an argu- 
 ment with men and women whose pillows were stuifed with Old 
 Testament prophets, and whose cradle quilt was made of Fox's 
 Martyrs. This mob of^'35 was only fanning the flame; and 
 every other mob was only fanning the flame. One of the fathers 
 of New England said, — I do not give his words, but his idea, — 
 When the ungodly are nearest to their hopes, the godly man is 
 furthest from his fears. And I put it to these friends behind me, 
 if they were ever further from their fears than twenty years ago 
 this day ? The woman who presided at that meeting, who would 
 not listen to the Mayor's cowardly counsel, and those who were 
 associated with her, — why, " when the ungodly were nearest to 
 their hopes, they, the godly, were furthest from their fears." 
 
 There were two difierent spirits present here on that day. One 
 
46 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 was outside, howling and yelling in the mob; the other was on 
 the inside. The outside, it was the slave spirit. It is represented 
 by two powers now — one, the Slave Power of the South ; the 
 other, the Money Power of the North. They had struck hands 
 long ago. Their hands were joined in mutual insurance; they 
 have not separated since. The Money Power of Boston is on the 
 same side with the Slave Power of Richmond and Alexandria. 
 
 Since that day, see what triumphs have been made by the Slave 
 Power ! Then we had, at most, two and a half millions of slaves ; 
 there are three and three quarters in the United States to-day. 
 Since that day, see what has been done ! Arkansas has been 
 made a slave State ; Mississippi a slave State ; Alabama a slave 
 State ; Texas has been annexed as a slave State ; the Mexican war 
 has been fought in aid of the Slave Pow^r ; Utah and New Mexico 
 have been made slave territory ; slavery has been carried into Cal- 
 ifornia, and exists there at this day, on sufferance, by the common 
 law, though it is forbidden by the Constitution. We have passed 
 the Fugitive Slave Bill ; eight and twenty men have been returned 
 into slavery from Pennsylvania in a single year, and two from 
 Boston. That family, to which Mr. Phillips alluded, had com- 
 menced their service of the Slave Power four years before the 
 mob. In 1832, when Mr. Samuel E. Sewall, whose office is 
 under our feet, asked the Supreme Court of Massachusetts not to 
 allow a slaveholder from Cuba to take his slave back, one of that 
 same family, Mr. Charles P. Curtis, asked the Court to deliver 
 him up; and the Court said, "Yes; let the slaveholder have his 
 victim ; " and he took him. 
 
 I say, that the Slave Power of the South, allied with the Money 
 Power of the North, has made stupendous strides since that time ; 
 and just now, it has marched into Kansas and Nebraska, and car- 
 ries the ballot-box at the point of the bayonet, and puts down 
 freedom with the edge of the sword. In Pennsylvania, you know 
 what has been done and is doing. The mob of 1835 is now organ- 
 ized, and has the forms of law on its side. Mayor Bigelow and 
 Marshal Tukey in 1851, Dr. Smith and Apothecary Edmands in 
 1854, they are the mob of 1835, in an official dress. 
 
 You see what strides have been taken by the Power outside. 
 But the Power inside has not been inactive. How immensely it 
 
SPEECH E THEODORE H A H K E H . 47 
 
 has grown! Mr. Phillips said it had the press on its side — 
 though the Daily Advertiser had not changed. The Advertiser 
 is one of mj pets. Let me quote something, — it is very brief, 
 and is not so dull as its editorials now are, demonstrating the ex- 
 istence of the Whig party, — which was published in that paper 
 October 22, 1835 — the day after the mob : — 
 
 "As far as we had an oijportunity of observing [for it appears the Advertiser 
 "vs'as himself present] the deportment of the great number of persons assembled, 
 there appeared to be a strong desire that no act of violence should be committedi 
 any farther than was necessarj* to prevent the fomentors of discord from addres- 
 sing a public meeting, which the active portion of the crowd were determined at 
 all hazards to do. If those who call these useless meetings have not regard 
 enough for the public quiet to avoid the summoning of another assemblage of this 
 kind, we trust that the proper authorities v,il\ take care that they are bound 
 over to keep the peace. When women turn reformers, and become so blinded 
 by their zeal that they cannot perceive that they are persisting in a most useless 
 and dangerous meas\ire, against the universal and clearly expressed sentiment of 
 the pubUc, it is incumbent on the officers of the law to step in, and preserve the 
 pubhc peace, [by forbidding women to ' assemble and meet together '] and not 
 wait until continued provocation shall have led to lawless violence." 
 
 Such was the Daily Advertiser s opinion of a mob which 
 attacked a body of women. It was a pro-slavery mob, and so must 
 be defended. But listen a moment to the words of this venerable 
 authority on Monday, the 17th day of February, 1851. He is 
 discoursing on the rescue of Shadrach, which took place on the 
 preceding Saturday : — 
 
 *< The rescue by violence [six unarmed black men] of a fugitive slave in this 
 city on Satiirday, while he was in a court of justice, [i. e. in the same room with 
 George T. Curtis, fugitive slave bill commissioner,] in the custody of an officer of 
 the law, [to wit, the celebrated Marshal llUey,] as related in another column of 
 this paper, will naturally suggest to the legislature now in session, the propriety 
 of repealing the act passed in 1843, called * an act further to protect personal 
 liberty.' It must be very obvious that the maintenance of such a law as this 
 [act to protect 'personal hberty '] among the Statutes of Massachusetts, tends to 
 encourage a violation of the Constitution and a resistance of the laws of the United 
 States. 
 
 " We trust that the repetition of such an outrage [the deliverance of an inno- 
 cent man from the hands of a. kidnapper] at noon day, in the heart of our city, 
 by which the laws are treated with derision, will awaken our citizens to the 
 necessity of some measures, if not to relieve us from the disgrace of such proceed- 
 ings, at least for the protection of life and property," &c. S;c. 
 
48 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 You see by that first extract how the Advertiser felt the day 
 after the mob. It wanted these men, Francis Jackson and 
 William Lloyd Garrison, and these women, Mrs. Southwick 
 and Miss Sargent, bound over to keep the peace, — never to 
 utter a word against the great crime of America. Francis Jack- 
 son held a meeting in his own house, and came to a different con- 
 clusion. It would have taken several Mayors to have made him 
 "keep the peace " after that sort ! 
 
 Since this day, twenty years ago, what a step ! See all these 
 parties coming up into power, — the Free Soil party, the Kepub- 
 lican party, — which are only the wings of the great Anti- Slavery 
 party which is to be, and will command the continent. Just now, 
 it is very plain, that the only question before the people, at the 
 next national election, will be. Shall the Slave Power possess the 
 Presidential office, or shall the Power of Freedom possess it? 
 I say, there is to be only one question before the people, and that 
 is the question. 
 
 In my mind, there is no doubt how this is to terminate, at last. 
 The Anti-Slavery cause is a very sad one to look back upon, as 
 Mr. Phillips said. But so is the history of every great reform. 
 Look at the American Revolution — what a sad history it is ! 
 Washington fleeing through the Jerseys, his army miserably clad 
 and without shoes, marking the ground with their blood wherever 
 they set their feet ! What a sad history is that of General Wash- 
 ington over there at Cambridge, when Boston was filled with red 
 coats ! Here lay a powerful and well furnished army within an 
 hour's march ; at one time, he had not three rounds of powder and 
 ball for each man ! The history is very sad ; the thing itself is 
 not so sad. Let us look about us, and see what honor and praise 
 are given to the heroism of the Christian martyrs, who faced perse- 
 cution and death with unfaltering courage, and see what triumph 
 there is for us, whenever we will — 
 
 " If, beating back our thronging fears, 
 By faith alone ovir march we keep." 
 
 The God of earth and heaven is on our side. There is no at- 
 tribute of Omnipotence that does not take part with us ; and what 
 seems distant, we can bring near. whenever we will. We honor 
 
SPEECH OF HENRY C . W K I U 11 T . 49 
 
 these women for their heroic bearing in the hour of danger. It is 
 not the first time in our history that women have stood for the right 
 when men have shrunk back in fear. When the question was 
 brought before the twelve judges of England as to the right of 
 King Charles the First to levy ship money, ten out of the twelve 
 said, " 0, yes, he has a perfect right ; it is perfectly legal."' Every 
 body knew it was utterly illegal ; there was not a barrister in all 
 England who did not know that. One of the other judges had 
 made up his mind to say the same thing ; but his wife remonstra- 
 ted with him against such injustice, and she said — You and I are 
 getting old : for God's sake, let us go into the next world with clean 
 consciences. Doubtless, it will cost you your place ; it is of very 
 small consequence. You and I can fare hard, and live cheap and 
 poor, only keep our consciences clean. And the judge yielded. 
 The woman was much the better man of the two. Our own histo- 
 ry is full, Fox's Martyrs runs over, with similar stories ; and you 
 cannot go into a little New England town, or into this great New 
 England town, — you cannot go where the fidelity of woman does 
 not meet you at every step. " When the ungodly are nearest to 
 their hopes, the godly are furthest from their fears." Let us take 
 a lesson from her. 
 
 " We see dimly in the distance what is small and what is great, 
 Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate ; 
 But her soul is still oracular, — amid the market's din, 
 Hear the ominous, stern whisper of that Delphic soul within." 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — I would not occupy more than a moment, as 
 the hour is so late. I was a resident of Boston twenty years ago 
 this day, and saw and heard both the preparations for that mob, 
 during the six months previous, and also the proceedings of the mob 
 itself; and I was a resident of Boston the following winter. Now, 
 the question arises, what caused that mob ? The same Power, Mr. 
 Chairman, raised that mob, dragged Mr. Garrison through the 
 streets of Boston, tore down that sign, broke up that meeting, — 
 the same Power brought about these things, that got up the Mis- 
 
50 THB BOSTON MOB. 
 
 souri Compromise, and delivered that State over to Slavery, — that 
 bought the Territory of Louisiana for the purpose of making it a 
 slave country, — that bought Florida, with a view to converting it 
 into a slave State, — that precipitated this country into the Mexi- 
 can war and annexed Texas, with a view to spread slavery over 
 three hundred thousand square miles there, — that has enacted and 
 executed the Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850, and all other Fugitive 
 Slave Bills, — that is now struggling in Kansas to carry slavery 
 into that vast and fertile territory, — that same Power, Mr. Chair- 
 man, that met, in 1787, in the city of Philadelphia, when the Con- 
 stitution of the United States was there framed, and went into a 
 Convention with Liberty to form a government to execute justice 
 and secure the blessings of freedom, — that is, the Slave Power of 
 our country. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, we have had but just one government in this 
 country ever since we became a Republic ; there has been but one 
 supreme law of this land, which has controlled every thing, — I 
 mean, the will of the slaveholder. That, and that alone, has con- 
 trolled the State of Massachusetts ever since she has been a State 
 in this Confederacy, and it has controlled all the States of this 
 Union. It has mobbed the Abolitionists from town to town, — it 
 has taken the lives of our citizens, — it has trampled all our rights 
 in the dust, — it has controlled the literature of Massachusetts, 
 (one most disgraceful evidence of this has recently been exhibited 
 among us, and my heart bleeds at the thought that a man who has 
 stood with us so long, and battled so faithfully, should at length 
 cower before that monster, the Slave Power,) — it has controlled 
 the literature of Massachusetts, her colleges, her Legislature, her 
 Judiciary, her Executive, and even her ballot-boxes, — it has con- 
 trolled Massachusetts in every thing, even in domestic and social 
 relations. It has stalked up and down your streets, and you have 
 not dared to meet it ! 
 
 Twenty years ago, Sir, I was a novice in the Anti- Slavery 
 movement, but I had made up my mind, — it took me three years 
 to be converted, — I was " born again " in 1834, born of God, re- 
 generated, once and for ever, on this question, and I made up my 
 mind to lay every thing, — my church, my ideas of religion, of the 
 Bible, every thing, upon the altar of my Anti-Slavery principles. 
 
SPEECH OF HENRY C . W U I (J H T . 51 
 
 if it was called for. Well, it was called for. I was an orthodox 
 man, in mj views of religion then, and I had to lay them all on 
 the altar of the slave's redemption. 
 
 At that time, Mr. Chairman, we had not entered upon the dis- 
 cussion of the Bible question, of the relation of the Church to slave- 
 ry, of the Sabbath, of the Constitution or the Union, — not one 
 word had then been said upon these subjects. We were all of us, — 
 Mr. Garrison with the rest, — set Sabbatarians. We had no 
 opposition to these things. We supposed, at that time, that these 
 things were going to help us. We had no idea of the conflict be- 
 fore us, but we had made up our minds, that provided these things 
 stood in the way of An ti- Slavery, they were to be laid on the altar. 
 I soon found, for myself, that they did stand in the way. The 
 Bible, the Church, the Constitution, and the Union, were all 
 thrown right before us, in the pathway of our principles. What 
 could we do 7 Should we give up our Anti-Slavery principles ? 
 Never ! Should we stop to discuss the question whether these 
 things were Anti-Slavery or not 7 For one, I would not do it ; I 
 never have done it, and I never will. It has always seemed to me 
 idle to discuss the question what authorities sanctioned slavery. I 
 k7ioio it is wrong, whatever great men or so-called sacred books 
 may say about it. This feeling has animated me for more than 
 twenty years. Whatever stands in the way of Anti- Slavery, I 
 will give up. I knoiD it is right, as a self-evident fact ; and what- 
 ever says to the contrary, utters a self-evident falsehood. 
 
 Now, Mr. Chairman, the question we have to decide is — What 
 shall we do 7 Some of us, many of us, I believe, have put on the 
 armor for death or victory, and, now, what have we to do 7 We 
 have got a terrible fact to deal with in this country, and wc cannot 
 stop to discuss the technical meaning of words, whether in the Bi- 
 ble or in the Constitution. We have to deal with a/ac^, that man- 
 ifests itself in the religion, in the government, in the literature, in 
 the domestic and social life of the country, — the Slave Power. 
 What shall we do 7 Shall we go on trying to compromise, to keep 
 the peace between Liberty and Slavery 7 I say, No ! Sir, there 
 is but one way to meet that Power, and that is, on the field where 
 " Death or Victory " is to be the motto. I say, whenever Slave- 
 ry and Liberty meet, there is to be but one issue, and that is, Death 
 
52 THE B S T N M B . 
 
 or Victory ! We have got to come to this, and let us meet it. Let 
 the people of Massachusetts take their stand, and proclaim that no 
 minion of the Slave Power shall be allowed to exercise any of the 
 functions of his oiEce on the soil of this Commonwealth. I wish 
 that you would do towards the Slave Commissioners what your an- 
 cestors did towards the Stamp Commissioners. What did they do ? 
 Go and read the history of your Revolutionary struggle. In 1764 
 or '65, when a certain Mr. Andrew Oliver undertook to act as 
 Commissioner in Boston to enforce the odious Stamp Act of the 
 British Parliament, your fathers took him and bore him to the old 
 Liberty Tree, and there, under its spreading branches, they made 
 him solemnly swear never to exercise his office in this country. 
 Now, go call your United States Commissioners, your Curtises and 
 Lorings, to account, in the same way, and make them swear never 
 to exercise their infamous office in your midst. Especially, do not 
 fail to remember Judge Loring the coming winter in your Legis- 
 lature. 
 
 Will you for ever submit to that infernal power which has ground 
 you down to the dust 7 I do not believe the people of Massachu- 
 setts will. I go, Sir, for revolution ! 
 
 Mr. Chairman, while I have been sitting here this afternoon, I 
 have noticed quite a number of young men in this assembly, and I 
 have asked myself, what course will they take 1 Here are three 
 sitting near me, — neither of them, twenty years ago, had any ex- 
 istence, — two of them, the sons of the man who was dragged 
 through the streets of Boston, and one, your own grandson. I 
 ask, what course will these young men, now in the bloom of early 
 manhood, pursue 7 Will they take hold and help us in this cause, 
 or will they go on in supporting and strengthening that Power 
 which has so long ruled the nation ? Will the young men take 
 their stand, and throw off this incubus 7 
 
 I say, Mr. Chairman, let us strike for revolution ! Let us drive 
 slavery from our soil, and never allow a man to be put on trial on 
 the question whether he is a man or a beast. How long shall this 
 last 7 I hope to live to see the hour of triumph ; and as I mark 
 the spirit that pervades this assembly, I can hardly help crying 
 out, Hallelujah ! 
 
SPEECH r T . ^\ . H I (i I N SON. 53 
 
 Samuel May, Jr. — There are many persons present whom we 
 should be glad to hear, would time permit ; but I hope I may be 
 allowed to mention the name of one young man, who has proved 
 himself bold and fearless in opposition to the Slave Power, and who 
 is about to leave our shores, and may never have an opportunity 
 again to utter his voice on this subject, though I trust in God he 
 will, many times. I hope we shall remain and hear him now. I 
 allude to Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 
 
 Ipmlj of Ebu. €, W. IJigginsnii. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — The golden moments of this afternoon are 
 flown, and neither I nor any one else ought to try to protract them 
 further. The light is fading from our eyes, but I trust the light 
 will not soon fade away from our hearts, that have been blessed by 
 so many noble memories, and made happy by brave and hopeful 
 anticipations from those who, of all others, have the best right to 
 predict our future. 
 
 It is good for us to have been here, Sir. I have felt it almost 
 every moment of the afternoon ; and when I have looked around 
 this hall, and seen alternately the smiles upon the lips of noble 
 women, and the tears in the eyes of brave men, — seen them as 
 well as I could for the closer tears that dimmed my own, — I have 
 felt the same hope with the last speaker, that the younger among 
 us, especially those who cannot speak from personal memory of 
 the " inside " or the " outside " of this hall, on the day we cele- 
 brate, — that these young persons, from this Anniversary, may at 
 least rekindle the enthusiasm of their own self-devotion. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, one sentence spoken by Mr. Garrison sunk 
 deep into my heart this afternoon ; — " things are so changed 
 around us," he said. It is not for me here and now to question 
 one word of his ; but my heart asked my intellect. Are things so 
 changed, after all ? Is the Massachusetts of 1855 so transformed 
 from the Massachusetts of 1885 ? Is State street so utterly 
 changed now from what it was when it poured forth its base-heart- 
 ed myriads then 7 Is it true that all the hard work is done, no 
 great duties left, and no great demands made upon us — us. whose 
 
54 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 misfortune it is, not our fault, tliat we could not bear the yoke of 
 twenty years ago ? He did not mean it — I know he did not mean 
 it ; for it is not true, and therefore he did not mean it. What is 
 that great change in which we exult 7 The Abolitionists of Mas- 
 sachusetts have labored for twenty years, and what have they con- 
 quered ? What have they conquered 7 The right of free speech ! 
 They have conquered the right to meet in Stacy Hall, and call 
 their souls their own ! But what else ? 
 
 A Voice — " That is something." 
 
 Mr. HiGGiNSON — " Something" ! Thank God, it is much ! 
 But, in comparison with that vaster irnuch we have yet to gain, the 
 result of all this past contest is trifling ! And I say to you, 
 younger men and women who are here, that if you come here to 
 exult, to tremble with excitement, as I have seen you tremble, at 
 the thrilling story of the past, and not to consecrate yourselves to 
 continue the work in the future, you have hurt your own souls by 
 coming here, and you had better have stayed at home. For the 
 more we accustom ourselves to hear of courage and self-sacrifice, 
 as things merely historical, — things to be honored and admired, 
 not imitated, — the more we lower the tone of our own natures and 
 weaken our souls. 
 
 But the Massachusetts of 1 855 — what is it 7 It is still a part 
 of the Union of 1855. And the Union of 1855— what is it? 
 Still a Union between Freedom and Slavery ; still a Union of the 
 dead and the living ! The dead and mouldering remains of what 
 was once beautiful, bound to the living form of what ought to be 
 beautiful, but is fast ceasing to be so from the polluting contact 
 of that sad decay ! The Union of 1855 is what the Union of 
 1835 was — a Union governed by slavery ; a Union in which not 
 merely " slavery is national and freedom sectional," but slavery 
 is national, and freedom nowhere : for there is no foot, no square 
 inch, even, of free soil in Massachusetts ! The fairest and dain- 
 tiest woman's finger in this hall is not delicate enough to touch one 
 little atom of Massachusetts earth that is free at this moment; 
 and we, born and bred in dreams of freedom, accustomed from our 
 infancy to drink great draughts of sublime ideas, and hopes, and 
 wishes, find ourselves, in maturity, with our birthright gone, our 
 
SPEECH OF T . ^V . U 1 G « I N S N . 55 
 
 dreams faded, our hopes betrayed, and life one long conflict, if -vvo 
 are true to principle ! If this is the result of those magnificent 
 labors and sacrifices of twenty years, how long, do you think, 
 are the labors and sacrifices of the future to continue, before the 
 work is done ? If all that has passed has only come to this, what 
 is the future to be ? God knows ; I do not know. We never 
 know what new openings God may have in store for putting an 
 end to the long controversies of men, and letting the weary, sad- 
 dened spirit of humanity out from its perplexity by some new 
 door it did not know until it opened. Upon a single thread of 
 flax, perhaps, at this moment, the destinies of this continent may 
 hang. We cannot allow for future revelations and possibilities. 
 We have got to take the present as it is, and work in it ; and that 
 present, even in Massachusetts, is dead against the life of freedom, 
 the purposes of freedom, and the hope of freedom ; and if you see 
 it differently, it is because you do not know Massachusetts — do 
 not see how far off we are from realizing that great, determined 
 uprising of the people in behalf of freedom about which we 
 dream. We talk as if we had it, even now ; but we have not got it. 
 Every man is willing to talk about freedom, many to vote for 
 it. Every man is ready to denounce votes given for slavery in 
 Congress, and goes on denouncing, until he, or his first cousin, 
 gets a seat in Congress, and then he gives the same vote, or turns 
 round and applauds it. I now take no satisfaction in hearing men 
 abuse politicians. I have heard so much of it, that I am tired. I 
 am like the old lady who complained that she could not even take 
 comfort in her newspaper. "Why," said she, " I do not even 
 enjoy my miwders, now ! " So I do not even enjoy being in at 
 the death of a politician butchered, whether annihilated by the 
 sledge-hammer of Theodore Parker or the silver lancet of 
 Wendell Phillips. I know all that. I know what has become 
 of the Halletts of the past. I remember, that on a certain day, 
 when our friend Parker was discharged by the United States 
 Court, Mr. Hallett stepped up to him and said — " Well, Mr. Par- 
 ker, you have got out at last ; but it was through a very small 
 knot-hole." I did not hear Mr. Parker's reply, I was not near 
 enough; but I suppose he told Mr. Hallett that he ought to be a 
 good judge of that process. I know what has become of the Hil- 
 
66 THE BOSTON MOB. 
 
 lards, also, (I am sorry their names all begin with H,) who once 
 had words to utter even before committees of the Legislature in 
 behalf of freedom, and who now cringe before "the hand that feeds 
 them," by their own confession, and go to Whig Conventions in 
 Worcester, to prove that there is too much Anti- Slavery in Massa- 
 chusetts already ! I know what has become of these little men ; 
 but I do not care for them. My concern is, what stronger and bet- 
 ter men, men who have consciences, are going to do. Will they do 
 any better 7 If Massachusetts is to be saved, it is not to be saved 
 by politicians ; it is to be saved by you, who make politicians. 
 Yes, this hall, small as it is, is sufficiently large to hold men and 
 women enough to revolutionize Massachusetts, to revolutionize the 
 nation, if this handful could summon hearts and energies to do the 
 work their reason tells them ought to be done. 
 
 But how is it now 7 How is it even with us, Anti-Slavery men 
 and women 7 Are we ready to make sacrifices 7 Some of us, per- 
 haps, will say, in our self-complacency, " 0, yes; I gave a dollar 
 to a fugitive slave last week." And precisely what I contend 
 against is, the low idea we have of what constitutes self-sacrifice. 
 I will go far away for an example, and show what can be done in 
 a cause not intrinsically noble. Look at those men and women in 
 Scotland, who for centuries, I might almost say, with only brief 
 intervals, brought up their children, generation after generation, 
 with no other dream in their souls except^the laying down of peace, 
 and property, and life, in behalf of the exiled Stuarts. No great 
 idea was there ; no deep principle of liberty ; not even a great man 
 to rally round. Yet there was not a father, who, in those times, 
 left his castle or his hut, who did not know, that before he came back 
 to it at night, it was an even chance that it might be levelled with 
 the ground, and his wife and children dead on the door-step. 
 There was not a woman in those days, who saw her husband or 
 lover or son leave her in the morning, who did not know that when 
 she waved her farewell from the window of cottage or castle, it 
 might be for the last time ! Talk of sacrifices ! Whole clans, 
 whole tribes, laid life and property a daily sacrifice — they died 
 daily, and for what 7 For a foolish line of legitimate, dethroned 
 kings ! And we, with the greatest of all principles to sustain, 
 with three millions of fellow-men and women in the most fearful 
 
SPKBCH OF T. W. HIUUINSON. 57 
 
 of all bondage, with a whole nation failing and dying for the want 
 of the redemption which we must give, — why, we actually de- 
 scend to count the sacrifices we make ! We actually, if we havo 
 made sacrifices, remember them, and allow others to speak of 
 them ; — and they are so few, that they can be mentioned ! 
 
 My friends, even in the greatest self-devotion, there is some- 
 thing more to be learned, and we have got it to learn. Passmore 
 Williamson is in his prison, and Massachusetts men are quiet, 
 and go about their daily business ; and if he were in prison in Bos- 
 ton, it would be very nearly the same thing. In Kansas, the lib- 
 erty of white men is struck down, and held at the point of the 
 bayonet, and here in Massachusetts we sympathize — in the ab- 
 stract ! But when a brave man comes here to raise money to arm 
 with Sharp's rifles, his company of a hundred Kansas farmers, does 
 he find a " material aid " at all commensurate with his expecta- 
 tions 7 Alas, no ! I have a sad letter which tells the contrary, 
 but I will not read it, " lest the daughters of the Philistines re- 
 joice." But you cannot wonder if members of Congress, states- 
 men, refuse to sacrifice their places for freedom, when we will not 
 sacrifice our purses. We cannot Avonder at the selfishness of Hun- 
 kers, when we remember our own ! 
 
 I tell you, the fanatics have something to learn. (I am stand- 
 ing with my back on those old Abolitionists, who have made the 
 past sacrifices, and still make them — I am preaching to you, who 
 sit before me, — to you, who have got the sacrifices of the future 
 to make, — to you, who are not yet prepared to make them.) Are 
 the times of danger all passed ? I do not know about that. I was 
 not present at the meeting we celebrate ; it all passed over me as 
 wars and perils pass unconscious over the heads of boys at school ; 
 but I shall never forget the trumpet note that thrilled my soul 
 when I first read the record of this day in the description of Har- 
 riet Martineau, and of that yet more heroic woman, whose praise 
 has not been mentioned as it should have been this afternoon, — 
 Maria Weston Chapman, — I shall never forget, I say, the thrill 
 that went over me then, nor the sigh that succeeded it — for I did 
 not know then as much as I know now — when I said to myself — 
 ** dear ! that is all passed and gone, and Anti-Slavery is easy 
 
68 THBB08T0NM0B. 
 
 work now: there is nothing more to be dared and done." And 
 when I read afterwards, in Emerson's brave words, that " self-sac- 
 rifice need never wait long for an opportunity to try its edge," 
 it came as a new hope; — there might be an opportunity yet. And, 
 even in these later times, we have opportunities. 
 
 Mr. Phillips told us, that on this day, twenty years ago, the 
 military could not protect the meeting, because " the guns were 
 outside in the mob — or the men who should have carried them." 
 There has been a time since, when the men were on the outside, 
 and the guns too ; and as surely as this earth turns on its axis, 
 that time will come again ! And it is for you, men who hear me, 
 to think what you will do when that time comes ; and it is for you, 
 women who hear me, to think what you will do — and what you 
 are willing, — I will not say, to consent that those you love should 
 do, — but what you are willing to urge them to do, and to send 
 them from your homes, knowing that they will do it, whether they 
 live or die. 
 
 I am speaking of realities now ; of real dangers and duties here 
 in Boston, that appeal to all, — to non-resistants as much as any 
 others ; and in speaking of these, I have said enough. But, I say, 
 in closing, if there is any young man here who is not prepared to 
 devote himself to the doing of such duties, he had better meet the 
 issue now, for this night the duty may be required of him. And 
 I say, yet more, that as the devotion of Hannibal, and his life-long 
 hostility to Rome, were built up by his mother in his childhood, 
 when she brought him to the altar in the temple, and day by day 
 pledged him there anew ; so we have in vain come here to-day, to 
 this honored spot, unless our last act is to touch its consecrated 
 altar, and pledge ourselves to Freedom once again and for ever ! 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Higginson's remarks, Oliver John- 
 son, of New York, associate editor of the Anti-Slavery Standard, 
 said, — "It has been to me a source of deep regret, that the Ab- 
 olitionists of Massachusetts, and of the whole country, could not 
 have been present to catch the spirit of this meeting. I came from 
 New York to attend it, and I am a thousand times rewarded. I 
 desire to disseminate as widely as possible the spirit which has 
 
PROCEEDINGS. 69 
 
 here prevailed ; and in order that I may do so, I propose that we 
 shall take measures to publish these proceedings, not only in The 
 Liherator and The Standard^ but in pamphlet form, for general 
 circulation, and especially in this city, where there are thousands 
 of men who know more or less of the history of that mob, who will 
 read the account of this meeting with deep interest, and I believe 
 it will do great good. I therefore propose that a collection be now 
 taken, to be devoted to that purpose." 
 
 Henry C. AVright moved that a Committee of five be appoint- 
 ed by the Chair, to carry out the suggestion of Mr. Johnson, with 
 authority to include in the pamphlet such further account of the 
 mob, and its antecedents, as they' think proper. 
 
 This motion was carried unanimously, and the following gentle- 
 men appointed that Committee : — Oliver Johnson, Samuel 
 May, Jr., R. H. Ober, Egbert B. Rogers, Austin Bearse. 
 
 Mr. Garrison then read an extract from a letter written, within 
 a few years, by Mr. Homer, former editor of the Commercial 
 Gazette, to whom frequent reference has been heretofore made. 
 In this letter, Mr. H. expresses his regret at the part he took in 
 stimulating the mob, and states that he got no thanks for it from 
 the South, and offended many of his Northern subscribers. There 
 is no paymaster in the universe, said Mr. Garrison, so sure and 
 good as God, and none so bad as the Adversary. 
 
 Mr. G. further remarked, that he had received, that afternoon, 
 a beautiful bouquet, from some colored friends residing in Salem, 
 as a token of their regard. Twenty years ago, he was presented 
 with a halter, by ' ' gentlemen of property and standing ' ' in Bos- 
 ton. He had accepted that joyfully ; but the present of to-day, 
 with the feelings it evinced, would repay, and overpay, all that any 
 man could do in such a struggle. 
 
 In conclusion, Mr. Garrison stated that the carpenter's shop 
 from which he was taken by the mob was occupied by Joseph K. 
 Hayes, the man who so nobly threw up his commission as a police 
 oificer, rather than assist in the rendition of Anthony Burns. 
 He (Mr. H.) not only closed the doors of his shop and barred 
 them, but gallantly endeavored to keep the mob back. The man 
 who could do that in 1835, of course would refuse to send a man 
 into slavery in 1855. 
 
60 T H E B S T N M B . 
 
 The following hymn was then sung, to the tune of " Lenox" : 
 
 Ho ! children of the brave, 
 
 Ho ! freemen of the land, 
 That hurled, into the grave 
 
 Oppression's bloody band ! 
 Come on, come on, and joined be we 
 To make the fettered bondman free ! 
 
 Let coward vassals sneak 
 
 From Freedom's battle still. 
 Poltroons that dare not speak 
 
 But as their masters will ! 
 Come on, come on, and joined be we 
 To make the fettered bondman free! 
 
 On parchment, scroll, and creed. 
 
 With human life-blood red, 
 Untrembling at the deed, 
 
 Plant firm yoirr manly tread ! 
 Let despots howl, their minions rave. 
 Yet we will free the fettered slave ! 
 
 The tyrant's scorn is vain, 
 
 In vain the slanderer's breath ! 
 We'll rush to break the chain. 
 
 E'en on the jaws of death ! 
 Hurrah ! hxirrah ! right on go we, 
 The fettered slave shall yet be free! 
 
 Right on, in Freedom's name, 
 
 And in the strength of God, 
 Wipe out the damning stain. 
 
 And break th' Oppressor's rod ! 
 Hurrah ! hurrah ! right on go we, 
 The fettered slave shall yet be free ! 
 
 Brief remarks followed from Mr. Alexander Wilson, of Bos- 
 ton, and Rev. Charles Spear, at the conclusion of which, the 
 company (at a few minutes past six o'clock) dispersed. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 LETTER FROM FRANCIS JACKSON TO THE BOSTON FEMALE 
 ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 
 
 To THE Ladies of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society : 
 
 Having ■witli deep regret and mortification observed the manner your Soci- 
 ety has been treated by a portion of the community, and especially by some of 
 our pubUc journals — and approving as I do most cordially the objects of your 
 Association — I offer you the use of my dwelling-house in HoUis street, for the 
 purpose of holding your annual meeting, or for any other meeting. 
 
 Such accommodations as I have are at your service ; and I assvire you it 
 ajffords me great pleasiu'e to extend this slight testimony of my regard for a Society 
 whose objects are second to none other in this city. 
 
 With great respect and esteem, 
 
 FRANCIS JACKSON. 
 Boston, Oct. 23, 1835. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Boston, November 21, 1835. 
 Francis Jackson, Esq. : 
 
 Dear Sir, — Yesterday, at a meeting of the Board of Managers of the ^lassa- 
 chusetts Anti- Slavery Society, I -was directed, by a unanimous vote, to express to 
 you the high sense which the Board entertains of your generosity and noble 
 independence, in proffering, as you did, unsolicited, the use and protection of your 
 dweUing-house to the Boston Female Anti- Slavery Society, -vvhcn they had just 
 been expeUed by lawless violence from a pubUc hall. The duty thus assigned me, 
 Sir, it is far more dchghtful to undertake, than it will be for me to perform in a 
 suitable manner. If any thing should awaken our gratitude and liigh admira- 
 tion, it is the conduct of a man who steps forth and takes a decided stand in 
 resistance to the multitude, when they are rioting in the way of e-vil, counte- 
 nanced and encouraged by the rich and influential, faintly resisted by the rulers 
 of the people, and scarcely reproved even by the guardians of the public morals, 
 
62 APPEHDIX. 
 
 Such R man, like a rock fallen into a rapid stream, may turn the whole current of 
 popular thought and feeling, preserve the ancient landmarks, and avert devas- 
 tation and ruin. 
 
 The outrages recently committed in various places, but especially in this city, 
 •will be an epoch not merely in the history of the Anti-Slavery cause, but of our 
 country. They have revealed, so that the bUnd may see, the alarming state of 
 our guilty land. K this disclosure does not arouse the people to reassert and 
 vindicate their rights, then are they already slaves in spirit — and are fitted to 
 become themselves the abject subjects of some despot, who will ere long arise 
 and make his wiU their law. The citizens of Boston have presumed to do what 
 the Constitution of the United States peremptorily forbids even Congress to 
 attempt. They have " abridged the freedom of speech." They have trampled upon 
 "the right of the people peaceably to assemble." The apathy of our city govern- 
 ment, and the tone of our newspapers, (with two or three honorable exceptions,) 
 are indeed ominous of evil ; but I cannot yet despair of Boston or our country. 
 Other minds, I know, were affected as yours was, by the late exhibition of the 
 spirit of anarchy in our midst ; and I trust many more, whom I do not know, 
 have been like-nise moved, I -mil not believe that there are not yet many left, in 
 this birthplace of the American Revolution, who understand on what is based the 
 security of our civil and religious privileges, and who duly appreciate the import- 
 ance of maintaining piinciple and law, and justice and order. 
 
 I doubt not, Sir, that your noble example will quicken others to manifest openly 
 their attachment to what is dearer to true freemen than houses and lands, and all 
 earthly riches and honors, 
 
 I am. Sir, with gratitude and sincere respect, yours, 
 
 SAMUEL J, MAY, 
 
 Corresponding Secretary of the Massachusetts A. S. Society. 
 
 Boston, November 25, 1835. 
 Deak Sie : 
 
 I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your highly esteemed letter of 
 the 21st inst., written in behalf of the Managers of the Massachusetts Anti-Sla- 
 very Society, and expressing, in very flattering terms, their approbation of my 
 conduct, in granting to the ladies of the Anti-Slavery Society the use of my 
 dwelling-house for their annual meeting. 
 
 That meeting was, to all present, a most interesting and impressive one. It 
 will ever be treasured by me among the highly pleasing recollections of my life, 
 that it was my good fortune to extend to those respectable ladies the protection 
 of my roof, after they had been reviled, insulted, and driven from their own hall 
 by a mob. 
 
 But in tendering them the use of my dwelling-house. Sir, I not only had in 
 view their accommodation, but also, according to my humble measure, to recover 
 and perpetuate the right of free discussion, which has been shamefxilly trampled 
 on. A great principle has been assailed ; one which lies at the very foxxndation 
 of our republican institutions. 
 
A p p i: ?( D I X . M 
 
 If a large majority of this community choose to tiim a deaf ear to the wrongs 
 which are inflicted upon their countrymen in other portions of the land — if they 
 are content to turn away from the sight of oiipression, and " pass by on the other 
 side " — so it must be. 
 
 But when they undertake in any way to imjjair or annul my right to speak, 
 write, and pubUsh upon any subject, and more especially upon enormities which 
 are the common concern of every lover of his country and his kind — so it must 
 not be — so it shall not be, if I for one can prevent it. Upon this great right let us 
 hold on at all hazards. And should we, in its exercise, be driven from public 
 halls to private dwellings, one hoxise, at least, shall be consecrated to its preser- 
 vation. And if, in defence of this sacred privilege, Avhich man did not give me, 
 and shall not (if I can help it) take from me, this roof and these walls shall be 
 levelled to the earth — let them fall, if thej' must. They cannot crumble in a 
 better cause. They -will appear of very little value to me, after their o-rnier shall 
 have been whipped into silence. 
 
 Mobs and gag laws, and the other contrivances by which fraud or force would 
 stifle inquiry, ■will not long work well in this community. They betray the 
 essential rottenness of the cause they are meant to strengthen. These outrages 
 are doing their work with the reflecting. 
 
 Happdy, one point seems already to be gaining universal assent, that slavery 
 cannot long survive free discussion. Hence the eff'orts of the friends and apolo- 
 gists of slavery to break doA\Ti this right. And hence the immense stake which 
 the enemies of slavery hold, in behalf of freedom and mankind, in its preserva- 
 tion. The contest is therefore substantially between Liberty and Slavery. 
 
 As slavery cannot exist with free discussion, so neither can liberty breathe 
 without it. Losing this, we too shall be no longer freemen indeed, but little if at 
 all superior to the millions we now seek to emancipate. 
 
 With the highest respect, your friend, 
 
 FRANCIS JACKSON. 
 
 Rev. S. J. May, Corresponding Secretary of Mass, A. S. Society. 
 
 LETTERS FROM GEORGE THOMPSON. 
 
 Thuhsday Afternoon, October 22, 1835. 
 
 My Beloved Brother Garrison : 
 
 The news has reached me of yesterday's proceedings in Boston. I rejoice that 
 you have escaped the jaws of the lion, and are yet among the h\-ing — the 
 living to praise God. To him let us render our humble acknowledgments. 
 May you be sustained imder your present afflictions, and survive to behold the 
 triumph of those principles which you have for some years lived only to advo- 
 cate ! I sympathize with you, and every suff"erer in our holy cause, and could 
 almost envy you the honor of having been assailed by a blood-tliirsty multitude. 
 Put your trust in that Being who smiles at the wrath of men, and will cause it 
 to advance His glory, 
 
6i APPENDIX. 
 
 After all, what have our enemies done ? what have their tar and feathers, their 
 demolitions, their lacerations, scourgings and hangings effected? Have they 
 extinguished the tnithf No. Have they shaken our jn-inciphsf No. Have 
 they proved wrong to be right ; falsehood, truth ; cruelty, kindness ; or slavery, 
 liberty ? No. Have they shaken the thi-one of the Eternal ? Have they palsied 
 the arm of Omnipotence ? Have they stopped the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, 
 that the cry of the slave cannot enter ? No ! None of these things have 
 occiu-red. Our principles live, and are triumphing in every direction. The God 
 of the American slave sits high on his throne, counting the sighs and groans of 
 his people, and -will come down to deliver. Abohtionists live, and multiply, and 
 daily wax stronger and stronger in the work of mercy they have laid hold upon, 
 nor can any scourges our enemies can plait, nor any gibbets they can erect, be 
 aught but the emblem of their own infatuation and madness. 
 
 I think I see the end of these outbreakings. The opposers of this cause have 
 themselves a bitter lesson to learn. They -vviLL rouse a spirit which will speedily 
 turn and rend them, when it is too late to prevent it. Let them make mob law 
 paramount to all other laAV, and those respectable instigators will at no distant 
 day be destroyed by the recoil of their o-vvn weapons. 
 
 Om- cause advances rapidly, majestically, and gloriously — who can stay its 
 course ? 
 
 I have not time to write more. My heart is with you. As the soul of Jona- 
 than was knit to the soul of David, so is my soul to your soul. Your joys, sor- 
 rows, perils, persecutions, friends and foes, are mine. May God direct us in this 
 crisis, and enable us with meekness and wisdom to do his perfect -will, and cheer- 
 fully suffer every thing which awaits us ! 
 
 Your unalterably attached friend and brother, 
 
 GEO. THOMPSON. 
 
 Thursday Evening, October 22, 1835. 
 
 My Dear Friend and Feliow-Laborer in the Cause of Freedom for Two 
 Millions Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand American Slaves : 
 
 Since despatching the few hasty lines which I ■\vrote you on receipt of the news 
 of yesterday's proceedings in Boston, I have yielded to a strong impulse to address 
 you a longer communication, more fully expressive of the views and feelings with 
 which the signs of the times have inspired me. I despair, however, of finding 
 words to express adequately the deep sympathy I cherish with you in the midst 
 of your trials and persecutions, and the feelings of my soul, as I contemplate 
 passing events, and foUow out to its idtimate results the headlong wickedness of 
 this generation. Surely, we can enter somewhat into the experience of the 
 lamenting prophet, when he exclaimed, " O that my head were waters, and 
 mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the sins of 
 this people ! " 
 
 How unutterably affecting is a view of the present aspect of the country ! 
 The enslavement of the colored population seems to be but one of a hideous host 
 
A r r B N 1) I X . 6j 
 
 of evils, threatening, in their combined influence, the overtlirow of tlie fnirent 
 prospects of this -w-iclo republic. Of the abolition of slavery I feel certain. Its 
 doom is sealed. I read it in the holy and inflexible resolves of thousands who 
 are coming up to the contest with tlio spirit of martyrs, and iu the strciif^th and 
 under the leadership of Jehovah. I read it in the blind fury and unmitigated 
 malignity of Southern tyrants and their Northern participants in crime. I read 
 it in the gathering frown and bursting indignation of Christendom. The con- 
 summation of our hopes diaws nigh. The times are pregnant with great events. 
 America must witness another revolution, and the second will be far more illus- 
 trious in its results than the first. The second vdU. bo a morsd revolution ; a 
 struggle for higher, holiei", more catholic, more patriotic principles: and the 
 weapons of oui- warfare will not be carnal, but mighty through God to the piilling 
 down of strongholds. During the progress of this latter revolution will be 
 witnessed the advent of •' Liberty," in the true sense of that now much abused 
 and perverted name : — 
 
 " spring to light, auspicious babe, be born I " 
 
 "While, however, I have no fears respecting the ultimate effectuation of the object 
 60 dear to our hearts, I have many fears for the perpetuity of this nation as a 
 Republic, for the continuance of these States as a Union, for the existence of that 
 Constitution, which, properly respected and maintained, would bless the country 
 and the world. These fears do not arise from any tendency to such results in the 
 principles of abolition, in themselves considered. Those principles are conserva- 
 tive of the peace, and happiness, and security of the nation ; and, if voluntarily 
 acted upon, would heal many of the feuds and animosities wliich have endangered 
 the integrity of the Union. ^ly fears are founded upon the sj-mptoms, every 
 where exhibited, of an approach to mob-supremacy, and consequent anarchy. 
 In every direction, I see the minority prostrate before the majority ; who, despite 
 of law, the Constitution, and natural equity, put theii' heel upon the neck of the 
 ■weaker portion, and perpetrate every enonnity in the name of "pubUc opinion." 
 "Public opinion" is at this hour the demon of oppression, harnessing to the 
 ploughshare of ruin the ignorant and interested opposers of the truth, in every 
 section of this Heaven-favored, but mob-cursed land. Akgady the Constitution 
 lies prostrate — an insulted, wounded, impotent form. A thousand hands are 
 daily uplifted to send assassin daggers to its heart. Look on the pages of the 
 daily press, and say if traitors to liberty and the Constitution are not sedulously 
 schooling a hoodwinked multitude to commit a suicidal act upon their own 
 boasted freedom ! Count (if they can be counted) the disturbances occurring all 
 over the land, and say, is not mob-supremacy the order of the day : Where is 
 ■the freedom of speech? where the right of association? where the security of 
 national conveyances ? where the inviolability of personal liberty r where the 
 sanctity of the domestic circle ? where the protection of property ? where the pre- 
 rogatives of the judge ? where the trial by jury ? Gone, or fast disappearing. 
 The minority in ever)' place speak, and write, and meet, and walk, at the peril of 
 their lives. I speak not now exclusively of the Anti- Abolition mania, which has 
 more recently displayed itself with all its froth and foam, and thirst for spoliation 
 and blood. I have in mind the Anti-Mormonism of MiBsouri, and its accompa- 
 
6$ AFFEN0IX. 
 
 nying heart-rending persecutions — the ^M<j-Anti-Masonic fary, -with the abduc- 
 tion of Morgan, and its other grim features of destruction and death — the 
 burning zeal of Anti-Temperance, %vith its bonfires and effigies, and its innume- 
 rable assaults upon persons and property — the Anti-GambUng and the Anti- 
 Insurrection tragedies of Southern States, with their awful waste of human life, 
 and the frequent sacrifice of the blood of innocent victims. But time would fail 
 to tell of Anti-Whig, and Anti- Jackson, and Anti- Convent, and Anti-Bank, and 
 Anti-Kean, and Anti- Anderson, and Anti- Graham, and Anti- Joel Parker, and 
 Anti-Cheever, and Anti- Colored School, and Anti-House of Ill-fame riots, with 
 all the other anti-men and anti-women, anti-black, and anti-red, and anti-meat 
 and anti-drink riots, and mobs, and persecutions, which have distinguished this 
 age and land of revivals, and missions, and Bible Societies, and educational ope- 
 rations, and liberty, and independence, and equality ! Suffice it to say, that, for 
 some years past, all who have dared to act, or think aloud, in opposition to the 
 will of the majority, have held their property and being dependent on the clem- 
 ency of a mob. Were I a citizen of this countrj^ and did there seem no escape 
 from such a dreadfvil state of things — if I did not, on behalf of the righteous and 
 consistent, (for, thank God, there are thousands of such, who cease not day nor 
 night to weep and pray for their country,) hope and beUeve for brighter days and 
 better deeds, I should choose to own the dominion of the darkest despot that ever 
 sealed the lips of truth, or made the soul of a slave tremble at his glance. If I • 
 must be a slave, if my lips must wear a padlock, if I must crouch and crawl, let 
 it be before an hereditary tyrant. Let me see around me the symbols of royalty, 
 the bayonets of a standing army, the frowning battlements of a Bastile. Let me 
 breathe the air of a country where the divine right of kings to govern wrong is 
 acknowledged and respected. Let me know what is the sovereign wiU and plea- 
 sure of the one man I am taught to fear and serve. Let me not see my rights, 
 and property, and liberties, scattered to the same breeze that floats the flag of 
 freedom. Let me not be sacrificed to the demon of despotism, while laying hold 
 upon the horns of an altar dedicated to "Freedom and Equality!" I hope, 
 however, for the best ; I trust to see the people saved from their infatuation and 
 madness. I look very much to the spread of Anti- Slavery principles for the 
 salvation of the coixntry, for they are the principles of righteous government — 
 they are a foundation for order, and peace, and just laws, and equitable adminis- 
 tration ; and those who' embrace them will be likely to act wisely and righteously 
 upon other great questions. 
 
 A MOB IN Boston ! ! and such a mob ! ! ! Thirty ladies completely routed, 
 and a board six feet by two utterly demolished, by three thousand or four thou- 
 sand respectable ruffians, in broad daylight and broad-cloth ! Glorious achieve- 
 ment ! and, as it deserved to be, regularly Gazetted ! Indeed, this noble army of 
 gentlemanly savages had all the customary adjuncts of civilized warfare. There 
 were "Posts," and " Centinels," and "Couriers," and "Gazettes," and a "Ho- 
 mer," too, to celebrate their praise ! 
 
 A mob in Boston ! The birth-place of the Revolution — the Cradle of Liberty I 
 A mob in Washington (!) street, Boston, to put down free discussion ! 
 
 " Hung be the heavens with black! " 
 
 Shrouded in midnight be the height of Bunker ! Let the bells of the Old South 
 
and Brattle Street be muffled, and let the knell of the country's boasted honor 
 and liberty be rung ! Ye hoary veterans of the Revolution ! clothe yourselves in 
 sackcloth ! strew ashes on your heads, and mourn your country's downfall ! 
 
 " For what is left tho patriot iiere 7 
 For Greelcs a blusli— for Grccco a tearl " 
 
 Would that you had died, ere the sad truth was demonstrated, that you fought 
 and bled in vain ! 
 
 A mob in Boston ! 0, tell it not in St. Petersburgh ! pubUsh it not in the 
 streets of Constantinople ! But it will be told ; it -will be published. The 
 damning fact will ring through all the haunts of despotism, and will be a cordial 
 to the heart of Mettemich, sweet music in the ears of the haughty Czar, and a 
 prophetic note of triumph to the sovereign Pontiff. What American lip will 
 henceforth dare to breathe a sentence of condemnation against the bulls of the 
 Pope, or the edicts of the Autocrat ? Should a tongue wag in affected sympathy 
 for the denationalized Pole, the outlawed Greek, the -wTetched Serf, or any of the 
 priest-ridden or king-ridden victims of Europe, vnll not a voice come thundering 
 over the billows — 
 
 «' Base hypocrites ! let your charity begin at home ! Look at yoixr own Caroli- 
 nas ! Go, pour the balm of consolation into the broken hearts of your two 
 millions of enslaved children ! Rebuke the murderers of Vicksburg ! Reckon 
 with the felons of Charleston ! Restore the contents of rifled mail-bags ! Ileal 
 the lacerations, still festering, on the ploughed backs of your citizens ! Dissolve 
 the star-chambers of Virginia ! Tell the confederated assassins of Alabama and 
 Mississippi to disband ! Call to judgment the barbarians of Baltimore, and Phil- 
 adelphia, and New York, and Concord, and HaverhiU, and Lynn, and Montpelier, 
 and the well-dressed mobocrats of Utica, and Salem, and Boston ! Go, j'e 
 praters about the soul-destroying ignorance of Romanism, gather again the scat- 
 tered schools of Canterbury and Canaan ! Get the clerical minions of Southern 
 taskmasters to rescind their * Resolutions ' of withholding knowledge from im- 
 mortal Americans ! Rend the veil of legal enactments, by which the beams of 
 light divine are hidden from millions who are left to grope their way through 
 darkness here to everlasting blackness beyond the grave ! Go, shed your ' pa- 
 triotic ' tears over the infamy of your country, amid the ruins of yonder Convent ! 
 Go, proud and sentimental Bostonians, preach clemency to the respectable horde 
 who are dragging forth for immolation one of your own citizens ! Cease your 
 anathemas against the Vatican, and screw your courage up to resist the worse 
 than papal bvdls of Georgia, demanding, at the peril of youjr ' bread and butter,' 
 the * HEADS ' of your citizens, and the passage of gag-laws I Before you rail at 
 arbitrary power in foreign regions, save your own citizens from the felonious 
 interception of their con-espondence ; and teach the sworn and paid servants 
 of the Republic the obligations of an oath, and the guaranteed rights of a free 
 people ! Send not yo\xr banners to Poland, but tear them into shreds, to be dis- 
 tributed to the mob, as halters for your sons ! When, next July, you rail at 
 mitres, and crosiers, and sceptres, and denounce the bowstring, and the bayonet, 
 and the fagot, let your halls be decorated with plaited scourges, wet with the 
 blood of the sons of the Pilgiims — let the tar cauldron smoke — the gibbet rear 
 
68 APPENDIX. 
 
 aloft its head — and cats, and bloodhounds,* (the brute auxiliaries of Southern 
 Liberty men,) howl and bark in unison with the demoniacal ravings of a ' gen- 
 tlemanly mob ' — while above the Orator of the day, and beneath the striped 
 and starry banner, stand forth in characters of blood, the distinctive mottoes of 
 the age : 
 
 Hfiutlj ILtTU) ^TriumaJljant! 
 
 Slabtcg iFor ISijer! 
 
 pjail, ©olumtia ! 
 
 Before you weep over the wrongs of Greece, go wash the gore out of your 
 national shambles — appease the frantic mother, robbed of her only child, the 
 centre of her hopes, and joys, and s}Tnpathies — restore to yon desolate husband 
 the wife of his bosom — aboUsh the slave marts of Alexandi'ia, the human flesh 
 auctions of Richmond and New Orleans — ' undo the heavy burdens,' ' break 
 every yoke,' and stand forth to the gaze of the world, not steeped in infamy and 
 rank with blood, but in the posture of penitence and prayer, a free and regene- 
 rated nation ! " 
 
 Such, truly, are the bitter reproaches with which every breeze from a distant 
 land might be justly freighted. How long — in the name of outraged humanity 
 I ask, how long shall they be deserved ? Are the people greedy of a world's ex- 
 ecration ? or have they any sense of shame ^- any blush of patriotism left ? Each 
 day the flagrant inconsistency and gross wickedness of the nation are becoming 
 more widely and correctly known. Ah'eady, on foreign shores, the lovers of cor- 
 ruption and despotism are referring with exultation to the recent bloody dramas 
 in the South, and the pro-slavery meetings and mobs of the country generally, in 
 proof of " the dangerous tendency of Democratic principles." How long shall 
 the deeds of America clog the wheels of the car of Universal Freedom ? Vain is 
 every boast — acts speak louder than words. "While 
 
 " Columbia's sons are bought and sold; " 
 
 while citizens of America are murdered without trial ; while persons and proper- 
 ty are at the mercy of a mob ; while city authorities are obliged to make conces- 
 
 • See the accounts, in Southern newspapers, of a " curious mode of punishment "recently intro- 
 duced, called "CAT-HAULING." The Victim is stretched upon his face, and a cat, thrown upon his 
 bare shoulders, is dragged to the bottom of the back. This is continued till the bodj' is " lacerated." 
 
 The Vicksburg (Miss.) Register says that Mr. Earl, one of the victims of mobocracy in Mississippi, 
 was tortured a whole night to elicit confession. The brutal and hellish tormentors laid Mr. Earl 
 upon his face, and drew a cat tail foremost across his body ! ! He hung himself soon after in jail. 
 
 See also the accounts of the Mississippi murders given by a correspondent of the Charleston 
 Courier, dating his letter Tyger (how appropriate !) Ba.vou, Madison County, Miss. The following la 
 an extract : — " Andrew Boyd, a conspirator, was required by the Committee of Safety, and Mr. 
 Dickerson, Hiram Reynolds, and Hiram Perkins (since killed) were ordered to arrest him. They 
 discovered he wiis flying, and immediately commenced the pursuit, with a pack of trained hounds. 
 He miraculously efTected his deliverance from his pursuers, after swimming Big Black River, and 
 running through cane-brakes and swamps until night-fall, when the party called off the dogs. Early 
 next morning they renewed the chase, and started Boyd one mile from whence they had called off the 
 dogs. But he eflected his escape on horse, (fortune throwing one in his way,) the hounds not being 
 accustomed to that- training, after he quit the bush." 
 
APPENDIX. 69 
 
 eions to a bloody-minded multitude, and tinally inenrcernte unofi'ending citizenw 
 to save them from a violent deatli ; while " gentlemen of standin}; and jiroperty " 
 arc in unholy league to effect tlie abduition and destruction of a " foreigner," the 
 head and front of whose otfending is, that he is laboring to Bavc the country from 
 its worst foe ; while assemblages of highly respectable citizens, comprising large 
 numbers of the clergy, and some of the judges of the land, are interrupted and 
 broken up, and the houses of God in wliich they meet attacked in o])en day by 
 thousands of men, armed with all the implements of demolition ; while the entire 
 South presents one great scene of slavery and slaughter ; and while the North 
 deeply sj'mpathize with their " Southern brethren," sanction their deeds of felony 
 and murder, and obsequiously do their bidding, by hunting down their own fellow- 
 citizens who dare to plead for equal rights ; and, linally, while hundreds of the 
 ministers of Christ, of every denomination, are making common cause with the 
 plunderer of his species ; yea, themselves reduce God's image to the level of the 
 brute, and glory in their shame ; I say, while these things exist, professions and 
 boasts are " sounding brass ; " men will learn to loathe the name of llepublicanism, 
 and deem it synonymous -w-ith mob despotism, and the foiilest oppression on the 
 face of the globe ! 
 
 A word to the opposers of the cause of emancipation. You must stop in your 
 career of persecution, or proceed to still darker deeds and wider desolations. At 
 present, you have done nothing but help us. You have, it is true, made a sincere, 
 though impotent attempt to please your masters at the South. The Abolitionists 
 have risen, after every attempt to crush them, with greater energy and in greater 
 numbers. They are still speaking ; they are still writing ; still praj-ing ; still 
 weeping, (not over their siijferings, but your sins) — they are working in public 
 and in private, by day and by night — they are sustained by principles you do not 
 (because you will not) understand, principles drawn pure from the throne of God — 
 they have meat to eat which you know not of, and live, and are nourished, and 
 are strong, while you wonder that they do not wither mider your frown, and fall 
 into annihilation before the thunderbolts of your wrath. Some of you have con- 
 versed with them. What think you of the Abolitionists ? of their moral cour- 
 age — their tact in argument — their knowledge of the Scriptures — their inter- 
 pretation of the Constitution ? Have you found them ignorant ? Have you found 
 them weak ? Have you not often been driven to your wits' end by the probing 
 questions or ready answers of these silly and deluded women and children ? How, 
 then, do you expect to conquer ? If finally by the sword, why delay ? Com- 
 mence the work of butchery to-day. Every hour you procrastinate, witnesses an 
 increase of your victims, a defection from your ranks, and an augmentation in 
 numbers and influence of those you wish to destroy. You profess to be republi- 
 cans. Have you ever asked yourselves what you are doing for the principles you 
 profess to revere ? In the name of sacred Liberty, I call upon you to pause. I 
 conjure you, 
 
 " By every hallowt-d name, 
 
 That ever leil youi- sires to lame " — 
 
 pause, and see whither your present deeds are tending. Be honest — be just — 
 just to yourselves, just to us, before you condemn us, still more, before you seek 
 to destroy us. " Search us, and know our hearts ; try us, and know our thoughts ; 
 and see if there be any wicked way in us." Condemn us not unheard. " Strike, 
 
70 APPENDIX. 
 
 but hear." Remember, too, that your violence will effect nothing while the liber- 
 ty of the press remains. While the principles and opinions of Abolitionists, as 
 promulgated in their journals, are carried on the wings of the wind over sea and 
 land, you do but give a vrider circtdation to those principles and opinions by yo\ir 
 acts of violence and blood. You awaken the desire, the determination, to know 
 and understand what " these babblers say." Be prepared, therefore, to violate the 
 Constitution by annihilating the Liberty of the Press. 
 
 In this place, it may not be inappropriate to introduce a passage from an able 
 letter, recently addi-essed by the eloquent M. de Chateaubriand to the French 
 Chamber of Deputies, while that body was advocating the recent law for impos- 
 ing severe restrictions on the French press ; — 
 
 " I could (says he) if I wished, crush you imder the weight of your origin, and 
 show you to be faithless to yourselves, to yo\ir past actions and language. But I 
 spare you the reproaches which the whole world heaps upon you. I call not upon 
 you to give an account of the oaths you have taken. I will merely tell you that 
 you have not arrived at the end of your task, and that, in the perilous career you 
 have entered upon — following the example of other governments which have 
 met with destruction — you must go on tiU you arrive at the abyss. You have 
 done nothing till you establish the censorship ; nothing but that can be efficacious 
 against the liberty of the press. A violent law may kill the man, but the censor- 
 ship alone kills the idea, and this latter it is which ruins yovir system. Be pre- 
 pared, then, to estabhsh the censorship, and be assured that on the day on which 
 you do establish it, you will perish." 
 
 In concluding this lengthened communication, let me exhort you, my beloved 
 brother, to "be of good cheer," and to exercise unwavering confidence in the God 
 you serve — the God of Jacob, and of Elijah, and of Daniel, of all who, with sin- 
 gleness, prefer the faithful discharge of duty, and its consequences, to the sugges- 
 tions of expediency, aiid the favor of the world. He is able to deliver you in the 
 hour of peril, and give you the victory over all your enemies. To Him resort for 
 refuge. He will be a hiding-place fi-om the wind, and a covert from the tempest ; 
 as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 
 To all, w'ho, with you, are waging this holy war, I would say : — Let not passing 
 events move you ! The tui-bvuence and malignity of your opponents prove the 
 potency and purity of your cause. But yesterday, the Abohtionists were esteem- 
 ed few, mean, silly, and contemptible. Now, they are of sufficient importance to 
 arouse and fix the attention of the entire country, and earth and hell are ransack- 
 ed for weapons and recruits, with which to fight the ignorant, imbecUe, superan- 
 nuated and besotted believers in the doctrine of immediate emancipation. This is 
 a good sign — an unequivocal compliment to the divinity of your principles. ♦• Ye 
 are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Blessed are ye when men 
 shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you 
 falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad ; for great is your reward 
 in heaven ; for so perseciited they the prophets which were before you." Let 
 your motto be, " Onwakds ! " You have already accomplished much. You have 
 awakened the country from its guilty slumber. You can reckon upon three 
 hundred Aiixihary Associations, embracmg a large portion of the effective moral 
 energy of the land. The churches of the North are taking right ground upon the 
 question. The principles of abolition are diffused through most of the seminaries 
 of learning. The females of America are nobly devoting themselves to this work 
 
A p r E N U I X . 71 
 
 of mercy, regardless of the mnlij^iuty of tlioir heartless niul unmanly persecutors. 
 Onwards, therefore ! A few years will witness an entiie change in the sentiments 
 of the American people ; and those who arc now drawn np in njjposition to your 
 philanthropic movement, will blush to acknowledge the dishonorable ])art they 
 have enacted. A voice from tlie other side of the Atlantic says, Onwards ! You 
 are sujiported by the prayers and sympathies of Great Britain. The Abolitionists 
 of the British empire are with yo\i. They are the friends of the peace, happiness 
 and glory of your country, and earnestly desire the arrival of the day, when, hav- 
 ing achieved a victory over slavery on this continent, you will join them in ef- 
 forts for its abolition throughout the world. "While you pray fenently for 
 strength in the day of conflict, pray also for grace to bear yourselves with meek- 
 ness and charity towards those Avho oppose you. Pursue your holy object in the 
 spirit of Christ, " giving no offence in any thing, that the (cause) be not (justly) 
 blamed, but in all things approving yourselves as the servants of God, in much 
 patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in 
 tumiilts, in labors, in watchings, in fastings ; by pureness, by knowledge, by long- 
 Bimering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the Avord of 
 truth, by the power of God, bj^ the armor of righteousness on the right hand and 
 on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report ; as deceivers, 
 and yet true ; as unknown, and yet well known ; as dying, and behold you live ; 
 as chastened, and not kiUed ; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ; as poor, yet 
 making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." 
 
 Your affectionate friend, 
 
 and devoted fellow-laborer, 
 
 GEORGE THOMPSON. 
 Wm. Lloyd Garrison. 
 
 k 
 
 [From the Liberator of Oct. 24th, 1835] 
 TO WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 Joy to thee, Son of Trial ! and so soon 
 
 Hath it been given thee thy faith to prove ? 
 
 Joy ! so may Heaven only grant this boon. 
 That nought on earth thy steadfastness may move ! 
 
 Yet when, but yesternight, I saw thee go, 
 Surrounded by that fierce, insensate throng, 
 Drunk with the -wine of wrath, for eyU strong, 
 
 I felt my soul with bitterest fears o'erflow. 
 
 Oh ! with what earnestness of passion went 
 Forth from my heart, my whole soul after thee ! 
 
 I knew that, though to bonds and prison sent. 
 Thou from all stain of evil still wert free ; 
 
 Y'et a strange feeling, half of joy, arose, 
 
 That friend of mine should have sucli men his foes. 
 
 October 22, 1835. 
 
72 APPENDIX. 
 
 REMINISCENCES. 
 
 letter from 'william c. nell. 
 
 En Route from Philadelphia to Boston, ) 
 October 21, 1855. > 
 
 Respected Friend: 
 
 Being tmavoidably absent from home dming your commemoration of the second 
 decade of the Boston or Garrison Mob, I reconciled myself mainly by the fact, 
 that thereby I had the opportunity afforded mc of visiting that victim of judicial 
 despotism and slaveholding arbitration, Passmore Williamson. 
 
 Twenty years ago this day, AVilliam Lloyd Garrison, for promulgating the 
 idea of immediate emancipation, was delivered from the murderous hands of a 
 Boston mob, composed of " gentlemen of property and standing," into Levere^f 
 Street Jail ; and at this hour, Passmore Williamson endures martyrdom in 
 Moyamensing Prison for his application of immediate emancipation to Jane 
 Johnson and her two boys from her self-styled owner, John II. Wheeler. 
 
 My reflections upon the two historical events of 1835 and 1855, induced my 
 noting down the following reminiscences, hoping space may be found for them in 
 your published report. 
 
 I well remember the emphatically cloudy day, October 21, 1835, and the vari- 
 ous scenes and mcidents which characterised it, shrouding with indelible disgrace 
 and infamy my native city. 
 
 A friend of mine then boarded at a house in Boylston street, where, at the tea- 
 table that evening, were assembled many Boston merchants. The Abolition 
 Itlob was the theme of conversation ; and while a majority evinced their pro- 
 slavery spirit by approving of what had occurred, two gentlemen warmly dissent- 
 ed, — one of whom, David Tilden, Esq., immediately became a subscriber to The 
 Liberator, and so continued untU his decease, a few years since. 
 
 A sister of the coachman who so adroitly eluded the mob, and landed Mr. Gar- 
 rison safely at the jail, often alluded to the impression made by that hour upon 
 her brother. 
 
 I have obtained the following facts from colored Anti-Slavery Mends, whose 
 feelings were deeply moved on the occasion. 
 
 John T. Hilton accompanied Daaid H. Ela (a printer in Comhill, since de- 
 ceased) to the meeting. They found the stairs impassable, in consequence of the 
 crowd, and an altercation ensued. Mr. Ela w' as struck a severe blow by a man who 
 rebuked him for upholding Abolitionists and " niggers." He resisted, until the 
 parties were separated by the crowd rushing to seize Garrison in WUson's Lane. 
 The women came down the stairs amidst the hootings and insults of the mob. 
 Two prominent men were engaged in tearing down the sign. Mr. Hilton heard a 
 printer inform the mob where Garrison was secreted, in the rear of the building, 
 where he (Mr. H.) went with the rest, to do what he could to rescue him, or, at 
 all events, to be at his side. He saw Mr. Garrison dragged into State street, 
 divested of coat and hat, and did not leave until Sheriff Parkman had him in the 
 Citv Hall. 
 
APPENDIX. 73 
 
 Jonx BoYER Yashon, of Pittsburg, Pa., -was an cyc--n'itncss to tho torriblo 
 Bcene, which was heart-rending beyond his ability ever afterwards to express, as, 
 of all living men, Johx B. Vashox loved Wii.i.tam I.i.oyi) (iAuuisoN most ; and 
 this feeling of affection continued, for aught that is known, to the day of liis 
 death. AVhen the mob passed along "Washington street, shouting and yelling 
 like madmen, the apprehensions of Mr. Yashon became fearfully aroused. I'ro- 
 sently there ajiproached a group which appeared even more infuriated than the 
 rest, and he beheld, in the midst of this furious throng. Garrison himself, led on 
 like a beast to the slaughter. lie had been on the field of battle, had faced the 
 cannon's mouth, seen its lightnings flash and heard its thunders roar, but such a 
 sight as this was more than the old citizen soldier could bear, without giving vent 
 to a flood of tears. The next day, the old soldier, who had helped to preserve his 
 country's liberty on the plighted faith of security to his own, but who had lived 
 to -witness freedom of s]ieech and of the press stricken down by mob violence, and 
 life itself in jeopardy, because that liberty was asked for him and liis, with spirits 
 crushed and faltering hopes, called to administer a word of consolation to the bold 
 and courageous young advocate of immediate and universal emancipation. Mr. 
 Garrison subsequently thus referred to this circumstance in liis paper : — " On the 
 day of the riot in Boston, he dined at my house, and the next morning called to 
 Bee me in prison, bringing with liim a new hat for me, in the place of one that 
 was cut in pieces by the knives of men of property and standing." 
 
 Rev. James E. Cuawford, now of Nantucket, boarded in Boston at the time of 
 the mob, and, walking up State street, suddenly encountered the riotous multi- 
 tude. On learning that Mr. Garrison was mobbed for words and deeds in behidf 
 of the enslaved colored man, his heart and soul became fully dedicated to the 
 cause of immediate emancipation. 
 
 At a meeting of colored citizens, held in Boston, August 27th, 1855, on the 
 subject of Equal School Rights, William H. Logax alluded to his receiving from 
 Sherifl" Parkman, soon alter the mob, a pair of pantaloons, (or the remnants 
 thereof,) which had been torn from Mr. Garrison during the struggle. Mr. G. 
 being present at the meeting, remarked, that, \intil that moment, he had never 
 known what became of them. 
 
 Impiisonment is a feature of martyrdom with which Abolitionists in the United 
 States have become familiar, especially Mr. Garrison, who, at the bidding of sla- 
 very, was, in 1829, incarcerated in Baltimore. But these persecutions are to be 
 accepted as jewels in their crown, as seals of their devotion to the cause of millions 
 now in the prison-hous^ of b6ndage. 
 
 For whose speedy emancipation, I remain, 
 
 Fraternally yours, 
 
 WILLIAM C. NELL. 
 
 Rev. Samuel May, Jr., General Agent Mass. A. S. Society. 
 
7i 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 [From the Liberator of March 26, 1836.] 
 LINE S, 
 
 Written on reading " Right and Wrong in Boston," containing an account of 
 the meeting of the Ladies' Anti- Slavery Society, and of the Mob lohich followed, 
 on the 2\st of October, 1835. 
 
 Unshrinking from the storm, 
 
 "Well have ye borne your part. 
 With avoman's fragile form, 
 
 But more than manhood's heart ! 
 Faithful to Freedom, when 
 
 Its name was held accursed — 
 Faithful, midst ruffian men, 
 
 Unto your holy trust. 
 
 Oh, steadfast in the Truth, 
 
 Not for yourselves alone. 
 Matron and gentle A^outh, 
 
 Your lofty zeal was shown : 
 For the bondmen of all cHmes, 
 
 For Freedom's last abode. 
 For the hope of future times, 
 
 For the birthi-ight gift of God ! 
 
 Fcr scorned and broken laws. 
 
 For honor and the right, 
 For the staked and perUl'd cause 
 
 Of liberty and light ; 
 For the holy eyes above. 
 
 On a world of evil cast. 
 For the children of your love. 
 
 For the mothers of the past ! 
 
 Worthy of them are ye — 
 The Pilgrim wives who dared 
 
 The waste and unknown sea. 
 And the hunter's perils shared. 
 
 Worthy of her,* whose mind. 
 
 Triumphant over all. 
 Ruler nor priest could bind, 
 
 Nor punisliment appal. 
 
 Worthy of her,t who died 
 
 ^lartyr to Freedom, where 
 Your " Common's " verdant pride 
 
 Opens to sun and au* ; 
 Upheld in that dread hour 
 
 By strength which could not fail, 
 Before whose holy power 
 
 Bigots and priests turaed pale. 
 
 God give ye strength to run, 
 
 Unawed by earth or hell. 
 The race ye have begun 
 
 So gloriously and well. 
 Until the trumpet-call 
 
 Of Freedom has gone forth, 
 With joy and life to all 
 
 The bondmen of the earth ! — 
 
 Until IMMORTAL MIND 
 
 Unshackled walks abroad. 
 And chains no longer bind 
 
 The image of our God ! 
 Until no captive one 
 
 'Murmurs on land or wave, 
 And in his course the sun 
 
 Looks down upon no slave 1 
 
 I 
 
 * Mrs. Hutchinson, who was banished from the Massachusetts Colonj', as the easiest method of 
 cc nfuting lier doctrines. 
 
 t Mary Dyer, the Qualcer martyr, -who was hansed in Boston, in 1659, for worshipping God according 
 to the dictates of her conscience. 
 
 I 
 
 Fy' 
 
 17 
 
APPENDIX. 75 
 
 TESTIMONY OF DANIEL O'CONNELI,. ESQ. 
 
 The following gloAving tribute to the American Abolitionists was paid by 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq., in a speech delivered by him at an immense meeting 
 held by the AVorld's Anti- Slavery Convention, in Exeter Hall, London, June, 
 1840: — 
 
 " I -will now turn to a subject of congratulation : I mean, the Anti-Slavery So- 
 cieties of America — those noble-hearted men and women, who, through difficul- 
 ties and dangers, have proved how hearty they are in the cause of Abolition. I 
 hail them all as my friends, and wish them tn regard me as a bi'other. I wish for 
 no higher station in the world ; but I do covet the honor of being a brother witJi 
 these American Abolitionists. In this country, the Abolitionists are in perfect 
 safety : here we have fame and honor ; we are lauded and encouraged by the 
 good ; we are smiled upon and cheei'ed by the fair ; we are bound together by 
 godlike truth and charity ; and though we have our differences as to points of 
 faith, we have no differences as to this point, and we proceed in our useful cai-eer 
 esteemed and honored. But it is not so with our Anti- Slavery friends in Amer- 
 ica. There they are viUfied, thei-e they are insulted. Why, did not very lately 
 a body of men — of yentlemen, so called — of persons who would be angry if you 
 denied them that cognomen, and would even be read}' to call you out to share a 
 rifle and a ball — did not such ' gentlemen ' break in upon an Anti-Slavery Society 
 in America; ay, upon a Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, and assault them in a 
 most cowardly manner ? And did they not denounce the members of that Soci- 
 ety ? And where did this happen ? Why. in Boston — in enlightened Boston, 
 the capital of a non-slaveholding State. In this country, the Abolitionists have 
 notliing to complain of; but in America, they are met with the bowie-knife and 
 lynch law ! Yes ; in America you have had martyrs ; your cause has been 
 stained with blood ; the voice of your brethren's blood crieth from the ground, 
 and riseth high, not, I trust, for vengeance, but for mercy upon those who have 
 thus treated them. But you ought not to be discouraged, or relax in your eflbrts. 
 Here you have honor. A human being cannot be placed in a more glorious posi- 
 tion than to take up such a cause under such circumstances. I am delighted to 
 be one of a Convention in which are so many of such great and good men. I 
 trust that their reception will be such as that theu* zeal may be greatly strength- 
 ened to continue their noble struggle. I have reason to hope, that, in this assem- 
 bly, a voice will be raised which will roll back in thunder to America, which will 
 mingle with her mightj-- waves, and which will cause one universal shout of 
 liberty to be heard tliroughout the world. O, there is not a delegate from the 
 Anti-Slavery Societies of America, but ought to have his name, ay, her name, 
 written in characters of immortality. The Anti- Slavery Societies in America are 
 deeply persecuted, and are deserving of every encouragement which we can pos- 
 sibly give them. I would that I had the eloquence to depict their character 
 aright ; but my tongue falters, and my powers fail, while I attempt to describe 
 them. They are the true friends of humanity, and would that I had a tongue to 
 describe aright the mighty majesty of theii* undertaking ! I love and honor 
 America and the Americans. I respect their great principles ; their untiring 
 industry ; their lofty genius ; their social institutions ; their morals, such morals 
 as can exist with slavery — God knows they cannot be many — but I respect all 
 
76 APPENDIX. 
 
 in them or about them that is good. But, at the same time, I denounce and 
 anathematize them as slaveholders, and hold them up to the scorn of all civilized 
 Euroj^e. I would that the government of this country would determine to have 
 no deahngs with them, and to tell the United States of America, that they must 
 send no more slaveholding negotiators here ! " 
 
 LETTER OF VICTOR HUGO, OF FRANCE, TO MRS. MARIA W. 
 CHAPMAN, OF BOSTON. 
 
 Madame : 
 
 I have scarcely any thing to add to your letter, I would cheerfully sign every 
 line of it. Pui'sue your holy work. You have with you all great souls and all 
 good hearts. 
 
 You are jjleased to believe, and to assure me, that my voice, in this august 
 cause of liberty, will be listened to by the great American people, whom I love so 
 profoundly, and whose destinies, I am fain to think, are closely linked with the 
 mission of France. You desire me to lift up my voice. 
 
 I will do it at once, and I will do it on all occasions. I agree with you in think- 
 ing, that, within a definite time, — that, within a time not distant, the United 
 States will repudiate slavery with horror ! Shivery in such a country ! Can 
 there be an incongruity more monstrous ? Barbarism installed in the very heart 
 of a country which is itseK the affirmation of civilization ; liberty wearing a 
 chain ; blasphemy echoing from the altar ; the collar of the negro chained to the 
 pedestal of Washington ! It is a thing unheard of. I say more, it is impossible. 
 Such a spectacle would destroy itself. The light of the nineteenth century alone 
 is enough to destroy it. 
 
 What ! slavery sanctioned by law among that illustrious people who for seventy 
 years have measured the progress of civilization by their march, demonstrating 
 democracy by their power, and liberty by their prosperity ! Slaverj^ in the 
 United States ! It is the duty of this repubUc to set such a bad example no 
 longer. It is a shame, and she was never born to bow her head. 
 
 It is not when slavery is taking leave of the old nations, that it should be 
 received by the new. What ! when slavery is departing from Turkey, shall it 
 rest in America ? What ! drive it from the hearth of Omar, and adopt it at the 
 hearth of Franklin ? No ! No ! No ! 
 
 There is an inflexible logic which develops more or less slowly, which fashions, 
 which redresses, according to a mysterious plan, perceptible only to great spirits, 
 the vaen, the laws, the morals, the people ; or, better, under all human tilings, 
 there are things divine. 
 
 Let all those great souls who love the United States, as a country, be reassured. 
 The United States must renounce slavery, or they must renounce liberty. They 
 cannot renounce liberty. They must renounce slavery, or renounce the Gospel. 
 They will never renounce the Gospel. 
 
 Accept, Madame, with my devotion to the cause you advocate, the homage of 
 my respect. 
 
 VICTOR HUGO. 
 
 6 Juillet, 1851, Paris. 
 
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