previous next


The John Brown meeting in Boston,
its breaking up.

The breaking up of a meeting in Boston, on the 3rd inst., held in memory of John Brown, has been noticed in our telegraphic dispatches. A negro named J. Sella Martin was chosen chairman of the meeting, and symptoms of a row immediately followed. The Express says:

‘ A call for a committee of one hundred to preserve order was received with hisses.

Three cheers were given for Gov. Packer of Pennsylvania, and his letter to the Committee was called for.

Mr. Sanborn appealed to the audience to keep order, and was replied to with hisses and groans, interspersed with cheers for the Constitution.

The Chief of Police was present with a force, but made only a temporary lull of the storm. Martin commenced a speech, which was broken up with the noise, on which he laid all the blame of existing political troubles upon the conservatism of the cities, and States and Wall streets.

The committee came in with an organization, of which F. B. Sanborn, of Concord, was President. Richard S. Fay, of Lynn, was then nominated from the floor, and received a large majority of the voices. He stepped upon the platform amidst the Brown men, and made a short address, in which he inculcated respect for the laws by all men as the best remedy for grievances.

Fred Douglas, who was on the platform, called the proceedings of Mr. Fay the coolest thing he had ever known. Mr. Fay was sustained, and read a series of resolutions, which were received with applause, and adopted by a large majority.

Fred Douglas then rose again, and was exceedingly severe in his condemnation of the proceedings. He made an allusion to Daniel Webster, and three cheers were given for Webster and repeated. He was continually interrupted with cries that he had exceeded his time. All was confusion, and the negroes particularly were uproarious.

A motion to dissolve the meeting was carried, and Mr. Fay retired from the chair.

Fred Douglas called on his friends to remain. Rev. Dr. Eddy commenced a speech in disapproval of the doings, and was stopped by a fight upon the platform, which was immediately covered by the police. The Chief of Police called on those present to leave the Hall, as the meeting was dissolved.

During a brief calm, J. Murray Howe was chosen Chairman in place of Mr. Fay, by the Union men, when the fighting recommenced on the platform, in which Fred Douglas and his friends were roughly used.

Cheers were then given for Virginia, and the Union and the Constitution, after which, in obedience to the orders of the Mayor, the police cleared the Hall and locked the doors.

’ The following are the resolutions as adopted:

Whereas, it is fitting upon the occasion of the anniversary of the execution of John Brown, for his piratical and bloody attempt to create an insurrection among the slaves of the State of Virginia, for the people of this Commonwealth to assemble and express their horror of the man and of the principles which led to the forays, therefore, it is

  1. Resolved, 1st. That no virtuous and law abiding citizen of this Commonwealth ought to countenance, sympathize or hold communion with any man who believes that John Brown and his aiders and abettors in that nefarious enterprise were right in any sense of that word.
  2. 2d. That the present perilous juncture in our political affairs, in which our existence as a nation is imperilled, requires of every citizen who loves his country to come forward to express his sense of the value of the Union, alike important to the free labor of the North, the slave labor of the South, and to the interests of the commerce, manufactures, and agriculture of the world.
  3. 3d. That we tender to our brethren in Virginia our warmest thanks for the conservative spirit they have manifested, notwithstanding the unprovoked and lawless attack made upon them by John Brown and his associates, actions if not with the connivance, at least with the sympathy of a few fanatics from the Northern States, and that we hope they will still continue to aid in opposing the fanaticism, which is even now attempting to subvert the Constitution and the Union.
  4. 4th. That the people of this city have submitted too long in allowing irresponsible persons and political demagogues of every description to hold public meetings to disturb the public peace and misrepresent us abroad; that they have become a nuisance, which, in self defence, we are determined shall henceforward be summarily abated.
During the uproar, Rev. J. Stella Martin announced that a meeting would be held in his church in the evening. In response to this announcement, the Baptist Church (colored,) in Jay street, was filled at an early hour. The edifice was small, and a large proportion of the audience were black. Here Wendell Phillips, John Brown, Jr., Fred Douglass, and other leading John Brown sympathizers, ventilated their opinions freely with little interruption. A woman, named Chapman, appeared to preside. Several policemen were stationed in the church. Outside there was an immense crowd, and a strong force of police. The disturbance was confined to noisy demonstrations, though the crowd seemed very anxious to get hold of Redpath.

The meeting broke up at ten o'clock, and the audience dispersed quietly. Some of the leading spirits were hooted at in passing through the outside crowd, but no violence was committed.

Frank B. Sanborn was acting President of the meeting. In anticipation of a possible riot, the Second Battalion of Infantry was held in readiness at the armory by order of the Mayor. The police force, however, was amply sufficient, and the day and evening passed simply with a good natured, but quite patriotic excitement.

Creative Commons License
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.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Sort places alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
Virginia (Virginia, United States) (1)
Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania, United States) (1)
Lynn (Massachusetts, United States) (1)
Concord (Massachusetts, United States) (1)
hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
John Brown (6)
Richard S. Fay (5)
Fred Douglas (4)
Frank B. Sanborn (2)
J. Sella Martin (2)
Webster (1)
F. B. Sanborn (1)
Redpath (1)
Wendell Phillips (1)
Packer (1)
J. Stella Martin (1)
J. Murray Howe (1)
Eddy (1)
Fred Douglass (1)
Chapman (1)
Chairman (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
3rd (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: