[214] On Monday last, the Pennsylvania Hall, a very large and1 beautiful building just erected, principally by the abolitionists of Philadelphia, was dedicated to Free Discussion, Virtue, Liberty and Independence, in an eloquent address by David2 Paul Brown of that city, an eminent lawyer, though not a sound abolitionist.3 The anti-slavery delegates of men and women occupied the hall several times, and had large and interesting meetings.4 On Wednesday evening, the public5 were informed that Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Maria W. Chapman of Boston, and Angelina E. Grimke Weld would address the people in that hall. There was an immense audience on the6 occasion—some drawn there for deeds of violence, others to gratify their curiosity by seeing the speakers, especially ‘the notorious Garrison,’ your ‘fanatical’ son-in-law; but the greater portion evidently came to hear the cause of human rights pleaded in good old Saxon language. The floor of the
This text is part of:
1 May 14, 1838.
2 History of Penn. Hall, p. 13.
3 From proper denunciations of slavery in the beginning of his oration, Mr. Brown passed to the enumeration of several ways in which emancipation might be gradually effected, with the co-operation of the slave-owners. On the two occasions on which Mr. Garrison spoke during the four days proceedings at the Hall, he devoted himself to censure of this departure from the standard of immediatism. In the forenoon of the second day (Tuesday, May 15), while sitting as a spectator in the back part of the gallery, he was ‘loudly called for from all parts of the house. Finding the audience would not be satisfied, he stepped to the front part of the gallery, and, in a modest and respectful manner, requested to be excused from speaking on account of the state of his health.’ But, not being released, he began to speak from the gallery, and then, yielding to fresh entreaties, at last took the platform. Connecting the expulsion of the Cherokees, which had been the topic of the morning, with slavery, its cause, he turned suddenly upon the speech of the day before. ‘This hall, Mr. Chairman, needs a new dedication. The eloquent gentleman who yesterday stood as the priest at the altar, and performed solemn dedicatory services, . . . considered it blasphemy to say that slavery was right and in accordance with the Scriptures; and yet, in the very next breath, he talked about legislating for its future overthrow, and declared that he was opposed to its immediate abolition! Sir, if there be a neck to that discourse, I would say, let a stone be tied around it, and let it be sunk in the depths of the sea. . . . The latter part of it neutralized all the good that had been said; it contained poison enough to kill all the colored men on earth. All that the slaveholders require to enable them to hold their slaves in interminable bondage, was to be found in that speech. . . . Sir, this hall must surely be rebaptized. Let us, during the meetings of this week, wash out this stain of reproach.’ This was likewise the burden of Mr. Garrison's remarks on the evening of the third day, but much more in detail ( “History of Pennsylvania Hall,” pp. 69-75, 117-122).
4 Temperance addresses were also delivered, and the Philadelphia Lyceum held its mild literary exercises in the Hall.
5 May 16, 1838.
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