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

Chapter 1: the Boston mob (second stage).—1835.

Be of good cheer. The Devil comes not out without much¹ tearing and rending and foaming at the mouth. With all my confidence in my abolition brothers and sisters, you are the only one on whom I entirely rely for pine-and-faggot virtue—not that I trust others less, but that I trust you more. The Southerners are mad past all precedent. The famous spouter, Governor Hamilton, is here, supposed for the countenancing and organizing of kidnappers and assassins. This is hardly credible, yet it is believed. The report now goes that $100,000 is the prize for Arthur Tappan's head, and that two vessels are in the offing to receive him.

Catch a fish before you cook it,
Said the learned Mother Glass.

On October 2, Mr. Garrison writes to G. W. Benson:

I have not got regulated yet, since my return from ² rusticating in the country, and I already begin to sigh for the quietude and (selfish ease will out) irresponsibleness of Friendship's Valley. . . . Boston is beginning to sink into apathy. The reaction has come rapidly, but we are trying to get the³ steam up again. We have held two public meetings, which were well attended, and all went off quietly.

And still the South awaited the sign that the North— that Boston—would not put her off with empty words.

The ‘vagabond’ Thompson, as the Boston Transcript⁴ called him—the ‘wandering insurrectionist’—first began after the Faneuil Hall meeting to experience the deadly hostility invoked against him there. From his peaceful labors in the ‘Old Colony’ and its vicinity, at⁵ the close of 1834, he had passed in January to Andover, where he had the ear of the theological and academical students; to Concord, Mass.; to various parts of Essex County, where the meeting-houses of Methodists, Baptists, Unitarians and Friends were opened to him. In the intervals of these excursions he spoke frequently in Boston. In February, accompanied by the Rev. Amos A. Phelps and by Henry Benson, he visited southern New Hampshire and Portland, Maine, still enjoying the hospitality of the churches and promoting new antislavery organizations. Thence he proceeded in the same month to New York, where he spoke for the first time since his arrival in America, in the Rev. Dr. Lansing's church, without molestation or disorder of any kind; in March, to Philadelphia, giving an address in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, after an introduction by David Paul Brown. Repairing to Boston for lectures and debates in the Anti-Slavery Rooms, he returned to New York in company with Mr. Garrison. In April he was again in Boston, using the only church open to him (the Methodist Church in Bennett Street) for a Fast-Day and other discourses, and a third time in New York, forming en route a female anti-slavery society in the [3] Providence Pine-Street Baptist Church; and then, once more with Messrs. Phelps and Benson for companions, he journeyed to Albany and Troy, where his success warranted a long sojourn. In the second week in May we find him attending the anniversary meetings of the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York, which were held in⁶ perfect security despite a placard intended to renew the scenes of October, 1833; in the last week, participating in the New England Anti-Slavery Convention in Boston, and, at the very close, holding in Julien Hall a debate⁷ with Gurley on the subject of colonization. His June campaign was made in the already well-worked field of Essex County, and thither he was recalled in July by the presence of Gurley in Andover. Nowhere had the interest and excitement produced by Mr. Thompson's eloquence been more intense, or the struggle severer, than on this occasion. But, though backed by Amos A. Phelps, he could not prevail against the alliance of Gurley with Professor Stuart to maintain the settled hostility of this theological centre.

The quiet temper of the public mind was destroyed as in an instant by the Charleston bonfire and its imitations at the North—the town meetings in Boston, New⁸ York, Philadelphia and elsewhere, all concentrating their indignation and malice on the ‘imported travelling incendiary.’ At a convention in Lynn on August 5, a stone meant for Mr. Thompson was thrown through the window and struck a lady in the audience. The next evening he lectured again, and was mobbed by three hundred disturbers, from whom he only escaped by accepting⁹ the escort of ladies.¹⁰ Unable to remain in New York, whither on the 12th he accompanied Mr. and Mrs. D. L. Child despite the remonstrances of his friends, his first test of the New England temper after the signal had been given from Faneuil Hall proved how much it had [4] changed for the worse towards himself. The attack on him at Concord (N. H.), on September 4, followed close upon the mobbing of Mr. May at Haverhill, Mass.; on September 17, the Brighton-Street gallows was set up before his late residence in Boston; on September 27, an¹¹ extraordinary onslaught was made on him in the rural village of Abington, Mass.

At this time, too, a stupid or wilful perversion, by an Andover student from the South, named Kaufman, of Mr. Thompson's remarks in a private discussion on slavery, added fuel to the flames of his persecution. He was accused of having said that the slave masters ought¹² to have their throats cut, and that the slaves should be taught so. What he was arguing was, that if it was ever right to rise forcibly against oppressors, the slaves had that right—a commonplace of anti-slavery doctrine, now become one of the axioms of the civilized world. Finally, a trumped — up affidavit before some American consul pretended that Thompson had, for felony, come¹³ near being transported to Botany Bay. So the uproar went on. Subscriptions to a fund for procuring the heads of Garrison, Thompson and Tappan were invited to be made at a bookstore (!) in Norfolk, Va. Money rewards for the same object were offered from all parts of the South. Northern tradesmen were threatened with¹⁴ loss of Southern patronage, or with destruction of their Southern branch establishments, if they were known to be friendly to the abolitionists—if they did not come out against them—if abolitionists were permitted to hold meetings or publish papers in the town where the merchant did business.

This chord was as effectively touched in the case of Boston as of any commercial city, and ‘A Calm Appeal’ of the Richmond Enquirer ‘to put down forever these wanton fanatics,’ had the maddening influence which was calculated for it. This article, highly¹⁵ prophetic in its picture of a future civil war between the States, following Southern secession in defence of [5] slavery,¹⁶ 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 Virginia¹⁷ 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 up¹⁸ the proposal of non-intercourse with abolitionists. Still more promptly, the Boston Centinel declared that ¹⁹ 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 not²⁰ 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.²¹ ‘Ladies generally’ were invited [6] to attend, and ladies only; and an address was promised from George Thompson.

The Commercial Gazette of Monday affected great ²² indignation at this simple announcement, wondering ‘that Thompson should dare to browbeat public opinion in this²³ way.’ Remarking on his habit of protecting himself with petticoats, it urged his being taught that a female²⁴ surrounding would no longer shield him from the consequences of his ‘reckless and wicked conduct.’ Faneuil Hall meetings will be of no use ‘if Thompson, Garrison, and their vile associates in this city are to be permitted to hold their meetings in the broad face of day, and to continue their denunciations against the planters of the South. They must be put down if we would preserve our consistency.’ Why does Thompson persist in ‘driving [our citizens] to acts of lawless violence?’ Predicting trouble on Wednesday, the Gazette added: ‘This resistance will not come from a rabble, but from men of property and standing, who have a large interest at stake in this community, and who are determined, let the consequences be what they may, to put a stop to the impudent, bullying conduct of the foreign vagrant, Thompson, and his associates in mischief.’ The Gazette warned ladies to keep away from the tumult, and threatened that if Thompson appeared he should be lynched.

Such a menace naturally alarmed the proprietor and the lessee of Congress Hall, and, explicitly adopting the Gazette's view of the respectable character of the mob, they required heavy bonds against possible damages in²⁵ case of a riot. As this hall was the only one procurable, the Society gave notice on the appointed day that the meeting would be postponed. The Courier, however, on the morning of the 14th, aggravated the criminality of²⁶ the Gazette by a fresh incitement to violence, under pretence of diverting indignation from the ‘scoundrel’ and ‘vagabond’ Thompson to ‘our own citizens who associate with him.’ ‘He is paid for his services, and is [7] only fulfilling his part of a contract. . . The poor devil must live.’²⁷

This prepared the disorderly to place credence in false announcements, posted at Congress Hall and elsewhere, to the effect that the ladies were actually in session, and Thompson speaking, at Ritchie Hall. By a coincidence the Ladies' Moral Reform Society was assembled there, ²⁸ and the crowd of ‘patriotic citizens’ misled thither persisted in identifying it with the obnoxious organization; besieging the doors and stairway and demanding Thompson, till dispersed by the arrival of the Mayor. The Gazette, however, treated the affair as a successful attempt to suppress Thompson, and reported (from its inner consciousness) that on the Mayor's complaint he had been bound over to keep the peace, ‘though the “citizens generally” would like to use him up in some other way’; and (on the same authority) that rioters had followed him to Abington (October 15) in order to prevent his speaking there again. This hint was not taken, and Mr. Thompson was undisturbed by local or imported ruffianism.

The next advertisement of the meeting postponed from Congress Hall named as the appointed time Wednesday afternoon, October 21, at 3 o'clock, and the place the hall adjoining the Anti-Slavery Office at 46 Washington Street. ‘Several addresses’ were promised, but [8] no names were mentioned. Mr. Thompson's presence was not ‘deemed to be essential or expedient, either by²⁹ himself or the Society. He therefore left the city on Tuesday, that there might be no pretext for causing an interruption of the meeting on the ensuing day.’ On the morning of Wednesday Mr. Garrison attended Henry Benson to the cars for Providence, placing in his hands a letter addressed to George Benson, of which the following extracts were a part:

My health has been extremely good since I left Brooklyn,³⁰ for which, as well as for other mercies, continual gratitude is due to God. My mind is in a peaceful and happy frame; for faith, and hope, and love make it their abode. I desire to cease wholly from man, and to rely upon nothing but the promises of Him who cannot lie. . . .

The spirit of the Lord is now striving mightily with this nation, and the nation is striving as mightily to quench it; and in doing so, it is revealing to the eyes of an astonished world an amount of depravity and heathenism that makes the name of our Christianity a reproach. Nevertheless, let the worst appear; let not our sin be covered up; let the number of the rebels, and the extent of the rebellion, fully appear; let all that is dangerous, or hypocritical, or unjust among us be proclaimed upon the house-tops; and then the genuine disciples of Christ will be able skilfully and understandingly to carry on the war. A larger number than Gideon had is left to us, and the same omnipotent arm is ready to be bared in our defence.

On parting from his brother-in-law, Mr. Garrison proceeded to the Anti-Slavery Office, and in the course of the forenoon was visited by a deputy-marshal from the³¹ Mayor's office, to inquire whether Mr. Thompson was to³² address the meeting, or was in town. Mayor Lyman had the day before been petitioned by the occupants of stores in the neighborhood of 46 Washington Street to prevent the meeting, for fear of damage in case of a disturbance. The air was full of gathering violence, which the Mayor hoped to be able to draw off harmless³³ by the simple announcement to the mob that Thompson [9] was beyond their reach. Or, if such was not the fact, he wished to be prepared against an outbreak. Mr. Garrison, at first resenting the inquiry, finally assured³⁴ the deputy that Mr. Thompson was absent, and the Mayor ‘took, therefore, no other precaution than to have a small number of police officers assembled for the afternoon.’