Sir, when I heard the gentleman lay down principles which1 place the rioters, incendiaries, and murderers of Mt. Benedict2 and Alton side by side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought those pictured lips [pointing to the portraits in the hall] would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant American--the slanderer of the dead. The gentleman said that he should sink into insignificance if he dared to gainsay the principles of these resolutions.3 Sir, for the sentiments he has uttered, on soil consecrated by the prayers of Puritans and the blood of patriots, the earth should have yawned and swallowed him up!Like the images of Brutus and Cassius in the Imperial procession, Mr. Garrison was all the more conspicuous because he did not appear before the public as in any way a mover or participant in what was meant to be a citizens' demonstration, in defence of the liberty of discussion, without regard to its object. In the private counsels of the managers of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, but for whom there would have been no such demonstration, he shared as usual. As a spectator only he attended the meeting.4 His speech had already
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‘that slaveholder,’ and drew the hot and crushing retort from Wendell Phillips, who followed him,—
2 The eminence in Charlestown, Mass., on which the Ursuline Convent had been established.
3 Austin declared them ‘the familiar doctrines of our bill of rights in language weakened by expansion,’ and only objectionable in their ‘particular application.’
4 ‘Yesterday forenoon,’ he writes on Dec. 9 to G. W. Benson, ‘we had a tremendous meeting in Faneuil Hall—not less than 5,000 persons present— with reference to the Alton tragedy. There was a good deal of feeling in the audience, and some would have been glad to get up a row; but, happily, all went off pretty quietly. Dr. Channing made some excellent introductory remarks. Wendell Phillips, George Bond, and Geo. S. Hillard also made admirable speeches. The Attorney-General Austin's speech was as vile and inflammatory as possible, and came very [near] producing a mobocratic explosion. He was replied to by Phillips with great effect. Several excellent resolutions, drawn up by Dr. Channing, passed with unexpected unanimity. The triumph has been a signal one for our side’ (Ms.) In this famous scene the Attorney-General spoke from the gallery, near the great gilded eagle; Mr. Phillips, from a lectern, in the body of the hall, from which Dr. Channing read his resolutions. See Mrs. Chapman's graphic account in a letter to Harriet Martineau (‘The Martyr Age,’ Westminster Review, December, 1838).
The Century Company. , 1885-1889.
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