[43] You have no doubt been informed that Mr. Knapp has been obliged to remove the presses, &c., from the Liberator office. He felt bound to Mr. Mussy to remove. It will be difficult for him to find another room to print the paper in. I have 1 recommended him to advertise for one, as the best mode of finding out if any place can be had. I trust there will not be even one week's interruption in the publication of the Liberator. Thompson, you have probably heard, is at Isaac Winslow's in Danvers. Mrs. Chapman told me she saw him there. He was in fine spirits then, and nothing daunted. I should not think it safe for him to appear in Boston now. I still continue of the opinion I expressed when we had the meeting at my office, that Thompson ought to publish a statement of the material circumstances in relation to the charge brought2 against him. I think it would be believed, though I am far from supposing that it will do much towards allaying the public excitement against him. The state of things here is lamentable. The most respectable people either openly justify or coldly disapprove the riot, while they are loud in their condemnation and abuse of the abolitionists, and especially of Thompson and Garrison, and the ladies who dared to hold a meeting in defiance of public opinion. The city authorities have not yet done anything in relation to the riot.3 The general opinion of the abolitionists is, that some of the gentlemen who were most active in the mob ought to be prosecuted. This is my own opinion. I think nothing will do so much to prevent a repetition of these disgraceful proceedings as punishing a few reputable citizens. If such punishment can be inflicted, it will bring to their senses not only those who are punished, but many more who may feel that they deserve the same fate. A public meeting such as you suggest would have a good effect if called by any persons but abolitionists. The editor of the Advocate has taken a manly stand on this subject, but I4 do not believe there is virtue enough in the community to sustain him in the call for a public meeting. If you continue at Brooklyn, I shall be always ready to aid Mr. Knapp as far as I can in the publication of the Liberator. Remember me affectionately to Mrs. Garrison and her father and his family, with whom I am a little acquainted. I pray
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2 Ante, p. 4.
3 This indifference and inaction, like the part played by Messrs. Stevens and Means in instigating the mob (ante, p. 10), was the measure of the sincerity of the Faneuil Hall resolutions deprecating violence.
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