Sir, it has been the custom of those who have occupied the5 Executive chair in this State, to close their Fast Day and Thanksgiving proclamations with the exclamation: “God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts!” Now, sir, in view of the altered state of things among us, in view of this glorious meeting, justly and fairly representing the people of Massachusetts, and in view of the fact that your Excellency is here to preside on this occasion, I have to say that at last I believe Massachusetts is saved—saved from her old pro-slavery subserviency and degradation—saved from her blind, selfish, calculating slaveholding complicity with the South—saved to honor, justice, humanity, and impartial freedom.The Boston reception was speedily followed by one at6 Cooper Institute, New York, with General John C. Fre--7 mont in the chair; by another at Plymouth Church,8 Brooklyn, with Henry Ward Beecher presiding; by others9 still in Springfield,10 Lawrence, Lowell, New Bedford, and
This text is part of:
3 Cf. Lib. 27.7.
8 Mar. 11.
10 The Springfield Republican aggravated its disgraceful course at the time of Mr. Thompson's visit in 1851 (ante, 3: 322) by now repeating its calumnies, and coolly asserting that Mr. Thompson's recent services to the Union cause were “but an act of justice and due reparation for past injuries” done by him to this country! Mr. Thompson made a scathing reply (Lib. 30: 50).
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.