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[488] democratic spirit and the popular feeling is everywhere against them. There have been riots at Washington, not much inferior in activity to those at Baltimore. . . . In Charleston, S. C., the principal men of the State, with the late Governor Hayne at their head, seize upon the mail, with the co-operation of the Postmaster himself, and purify it of the abolition pamphlets;1 and the Postmaster-General, Amos Kendall, neither approves nor disapproves of this proceeding. . . . In Boston there is a call for a town-meeting, with H. G. Otis and P. C. Brooks at their head. This meeting is to be held next Friday, and is to pass resolutions against the abolitionists, to2 soothe and conciliate the temper of the Southern slaveholders. All this is democracy and the rights of man.


Mr. Garrison, in what he called the ‘hurricane excitement of the times,’ with its special draught towards his own person, might well be excused for not taking Mr. Adams's passionless view of the situation. His first editorial article after his return from the Provinces was entitled ‘The Reign of Terror.’

‘All Pandemonium,’ it begins,

is let loose—that insanity3 which precedes self-murder has seized upon the mind of the nation, “for whom God purposes to destroy he first makes mad” —the American Constitution, nay, Government itself, whether local or general, has ceased to extend the arm of protection over the lives and property of American citizens— Rapine and Murder have overcome Liberty and Law, and are4 rioting in violent and bloody excess—all is consternation and perplexity, for perilous times have come.

It is scarcely practicable, and it would certainly be premature, to make any extended comments upon the direful transactions which are going on in various sections of our land. Appeals to reason and justice and liberty, while the tempest of human passion is raging, will be in vain. When it shall have spent its fury, and given place to the ominous silence of utter desolation, the voice of man and the voice of God may again be heard, to the terror and condemnation of the guilty.

And what has brought our country to the verge of ruin, and substituted anarchy for order, rebellion for obedience,

1 After the burning, the Charleston Committee of Twenty-one arranged with the postmaster to suppress anti-slavery documents in the office. The mail-packets were boarded on crossing the bar, and kept anchored till morning, or until the Committee could make their inspection.

2 August 21, 1835.

3 Lib. 5.131 (August 15, 1835).

4 Cf. Niles' Register, 49.1.

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