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[188] and to the conduct of Mayor Lyman I was an eyewitness. Both permitted the laws to be set at defiance, with a band of policemen and an organized militia within their call. Both had timely notice that the riots would take place, and both neglected to take the proper measures to prevent their occurrence.

It would seem, therefore, that while we reproach the citizens of Alton for their outrage upon the liberty of the press, we should not be unmindful of ourselves. The same spirit of intolerance characterizes the resolutions passed by our present1 Mayor and Aldermen upon refusing your petition for the use of Faneuil Hall.2 It is this, that one class of citizens shall not be permitted to express their opinions on any subject, provided those opinions are not in consonance with the opinions of the majority—a principle expressly repudiated by our Constitution, and utterly at war with the spirit of freedom, without which a republican government cannot exist. If this principle were admitted, the rights of the party which happened to be in the minority would be unheeded, and a despotism established. It is evident that, to a certain extent, a sort of despotism exists in Boston at this time, for it will be recollected that when the partisans of slavery petitioned, two years since, for the use of3 the same place, their prayer was immediately granted; but now, when the advocates of the liberty of the press ask the use of their common property, their petition is denied, and our worthy Mayor and Aldermen tell us that resolutions of which they have no right to know anything, will not be in accordance with the sentiments entertained by a majority of our fellowcitizens.

The comparison between the events of 1835 and of 1837 did not end here. On the one hand, Richard Fletcher, then the colleague of Sprague and Otis, now offered to bear one-third of the cost of reestablishing the4 Alton Observer. On the other hand, the ‘respectable daily,’ the Advertiser, true to its traditions and its class,5 justified the authorities in their refusal of Faneuil Hall. So, Attorney-General Austin, excusing the Alton riot by6 the Boston tea-riot, recalled Peleg Sprague's pointing to

1 Lib. 7.199.

2 This petition of 100 citizens was headed by Dr. Channing (Lib. 7.195). After a spirited appeal from this clergyman to the citizens of Boston, and a public demonstration (Lib. 7: 198), the city authorities receded, and the meeting was held in Faneuil Hall on the morning of Dec. 8 (Lib. 7: 202).

3 Ante, 1.495, 514.

4 Lib. 7.191.

5 Lib. 7.198.

6 Lib. 7.202.

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