[96] those sentiments of forgiveness, submission, and nonresistance which we have so frequently inculcated. Ellis Gray Loring was to follow me, proving that we had done nothing, and proposed to do nothing, that was repugnant either to the letter or the spirit of the U. S. Constitution, or the Constitution of this State; and, consequently, that the Legislature could have no authority to legislate upon the subject of abolition. Mr. Sewall was to succeed Mr. Loring, and show that not only had we not violated the Constitution, but that we had not infringed upon any statute or law of the State or of Congress, etc., etc., etc. In the evening I took tea at Mrs. Chapman's; after which, as I sat holding a brisk conversation with the Westons and Chapmans, who should come into the room with bro. May but our esteemed friend Wm. Goodell from Providence? It seems that he had heard of the contemplated examination, and was at once deputed by our abolition friends in P. to be present. It was at once arranged by us that he should address the Committee on this point — what a law against abolition would not do, and what it would do—i. e., it would not put down the anti-slavery cause, nor suppress excitement, nor gag the abolitionists—it would only disgrace the Commonwealth. That night I tarried at Mr. Chapman's, having first seen bro. Henry and friend Knapp, whom I found to be in good1 Yesterday afternoon, we went up to the State House to 2 present ourselves and our cause before the august committee, &c. The gallery of the Senate was filled at an early hour with a choice and crowded assembly of ladies, who had got information that Paul and King Agrippa were to have an interview. The committee seemed, for some time, to be resolved that our meeting should be a failure, as they kept us waiting for an hour and a half longer than the appointed time. However, they at last concluded to allow us to go into the spacious hall of the House of Representatives, and our audience soon became large and highly respectable, many members of the Legislature being present, and also the Westons, the Chapmans, Miss Martineau, Miss Jeffery,3 Mrs. Follen, Dr. Channing, &c. I was introduced to Dr. C. on the spot, and shook hands with him, but had no opportunity to converse with him.4
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2 Friday, March 4, 1836.
3 Miss Martineau's travelling companion.
4 It was this handshaking that prompted Mrs. Chapman's remark: ‘Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.’ ‘It was,’ says Mrs. Chapman herself (Ms. November, 1882), ‘a mere jeu d'esprit whispered in the ear of Mrs. Follen, who told Harriet Martineau of it, and so it reached the ears of the Channings, and thereupon Dr. Channing said he did not know it was Mr. Garrison.’ Miss Martineau's version, in her article on the ‘Martyr Age of the United States,’ in the Westminster Review for December, 1838, is, that Dr. Channing ‘afterwards explained that he was not at the moment certain that it was Mr. Garrison, but that he was not the less happy to have shaken hands with him.’
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