Nothing in all his (Channing's) intercourse with his people, nothing in his whole Anti-slavery experience, caused him so much pain as a refusal of the use of the church to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, on the sad occasion when all truehearted persons were called to mourn the awful death of Charles Follen, and when the Rev. S. J. May had prepared a discourse
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His friends in this country secured him a post as lecturer, and afterwards as professor, at Harvard College; which post he lost through expressing his opinions on slavery.
He afterwards took a pastorate in the Unitarian Church and lost it through the same cause.
Follen was what Goethe used to call a “Schoene Seele,” --beloved of all. He was an especial friend of Channing's. His tragic death was at the time considered by the Abolitionists as the severest blow which they had yet received.
They sought a place to hold a commemorative meeting in his honor, and they applied to Channing for permission to use his church; which Channing accorded.
The standing committee of the church, however, cancelled this permission.
Channing's biographer speaks as follows:
Boston, the. Atlantic Monthly. Press, 1921.
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