[215] hall was densely crowded with women, some of the noblest specimens of our race, a large proportion of whom were Quakers. The side aisles and spacious galleries were as thickly filled with men. Nearly three thousand people were in the hall. There seemed to be no visible symptoms of a riot.1 When I rose to speak, I was greeted with applause by the immense assembly, and also several times in the course of my remarks. As soon, however, as I had concluded my address, a furious mob broke into the hall, yelling and shouting as if the very fiends of the pit had suddenly broke loose. The audience rose in some confusion, and would undoubtedly have been2 broken up, had it not been for the admirable self-possession of some individuals, particularly the women. The mobocrats, finding that they could not succeed in their purpose, retreated into the streets, and, surrounding the building, began to dash3 in the windows with stones and brickbats. It was under these appalling circumstances that Mrs. Chapman rose, for the first4 time in her life, to address a promiscuous assembly of men and women—and she acquitted herself nobly. She spoke about ten minutes, and was succeeded by A. E. G. Weld, who occupied5 nearly an hour. As the tumult from without increased, and the brickbats fell thick and fast, (no one, however, being injured), her eloquence kindled, her eye flashed, and her cheeks glowed, as she devoutly thanked the Lord that the stupid repose of that city had at length been disturbed by the force of truth.6 When she sat down, Esther Moore (a Friend)7
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1 Written placards, inciting thereto, however, had been posted in various parts of the city on the night of the 14th-15th; Wednesday morning being the appointed time of rendezvous. Accordingly, all that day the hall had been surrounded by a malevolent crowd ( “ History of Pennsylvania Hall,” pp. 136-138).
2 History of Penn. Hall, p. 123.
4 History of Penn. Hall, p. 123.
5 Ibid., p. 123.
6 Here may fitly be cited another passage from Mr. Garrison's censure of David Paul Brown on the previous morning (Tuesday, May 15): ‘I know, indeed, that some will consider the remarks of that gentleman as adapted to please all parties—to allay, in some measure, the prejudice that prevails against us and our holy cause. These are your men of “caution,” and “prudence,” and “judiciousness.” Sir, I have learned to hate those words. Whenever we attempt to imitate our great Exemplar, and press the truth of God, in all its plainness, upon the conscience, why, we are very imprudent; because, forsooth, a great excitement will ensue. Sir, slavery will not be overthrown without excitement, a most tremendous excitement. And let me say, there is too much quietude in this city. It shows that the upholders of this wicked system have not yet felt that their favorite sin has been much endangered. You need, and must have, a moral earthquake, to startle, if it were possible, even the dead who are slumbering in their graves. This sluggish state of the public mind betokens no moral reformation. The more stagnant the waters, the mightier must be the hurricane to give salubrity to the atmosphere and health to the people. Your cause will not prosper here—the philosophy of reform forbids you to expect it—until it excites popular tumult, and brings down upon it a shower of brickbats and rotten eggs, and is threatened with a coat of tar-and-feathers. How was it in New England as the truth began to affect the consciences of the people? Why, sir, that whole section of country was rocked to its very centre, and violence was everywhere awakened towards the active friends of the helpless and bleeding slave. Then, sir, our cause began to make swift progress, like that Christianity of which it is a part, in apostolic and martyr times. So it must be with you here, as a matter of dire and unavoidable necessity; because it is not to be supposed that the jacobinical spirit of slavery and the atrocious spirit of prejudice are less prevalent here than they were in distant New England’ ( “ History of Pennsylvania Hall,” p. 71).
7 Ante, 1.398.
The Century Company. , 1885-1889.
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