Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 2

[5] slavery,¹ warned the North against the slightest interference with that institution; urged total noninter-course, social or commercial, with the incendiaries; and inquired—

Why, above all, does not Massachusetts, with whom Virginia² sympathized so keenly in the days of the Boston Port Bill, drive that audacious foreigner from her bosom who is so grossly abusing the rights of hospitality, to throw our country into confusion? It is outrageous enough for Tappan and for Garrison to be throwing firebrands into the South—but for that impertinent intruder, Thompson, to mingle in our institutions; for that foreigner, who has nothing American about him, in name, interest or principle —the outrage exceeds all the bounds of patience.

The Boston Commercial Gazette promptly caught up³ the proposal of non-intercourse with abolitionists. Still more promptly, the Boston Centinel declared that ⁴ Thompson would never be allowed to address another meeting in this country.

The Boston abolitionists had behaved during this trying season with circumspection. After the Faneuil Hall demonstration, Mayor Lyman had, in a courteous if not⁵ friendly manner, privately counselled them to discontinue their meetings while the public mind was so heated, at the same time assuring them that he would protect them in their rights if they chose to exercise them. They in fact held only their constitutionally stated meetings, and it was one of these which fell due on Wednesday, October 14, the anniversary of the formation of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. Congress (formerly Julien) Hall was the place selected, and public notice was given in the papers and from several pulpits, including Dr. Channing's, in which the Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., happened to officiate.⁶ ‘Ladies generally’ were invited