The Legacy of John Brown: Remarks Delivered in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 3, 1860
THE LEGACY OF JOHN BROWN: REMARKS DELIVERED
IN BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ON 3 DECEMBER 1860
Boston Post, 4 December 1860 and Boston Semi-Weekly Courier, 6 December 1860. Other
texts in Boston Daily Morning Journal, 3 December I860; Boston Daily Evening Tran-
script, 3 December 1860; Boston Daily Courier, 4 December 1860; Boston Advertiser, 4
December 1860; New York Herald, 4 December 1860; Worcester Massachusetts Spy, 5
December 1860; Liberator, 7 December 1860.
In November 1860, James Redpath, secretary of Boston’s “John Brown
Anniversary Committee,” issued a call for a full day of meetings that would
both commemorate the first anniversary of Brown’s death and address the
question “How can American Slavery be Abolished?” The committee invit-
ed Douglass to be one of the featured speakers. Although the city’s business
elite, who had strong commercial ties with the South, denounced the holding
of such an “anti-Southern” meeting so soon after Lincoln’s election, no one
expected public disorder when the abolitionists gathered. The first session
convened at Tremont Temple shortly after 10:00 A.M. on 3 December 1860.
“The attendance was thin at the opening,” reported the New York Daily
Tribune, “and mostly composed of colored people, but soon the body of the
hall began to fill up.” Among the spectators was a hostile element of several
hundred men that the New York Daily Tribune described as “a diversified
mob, composed chiefly of North End roughs and Beacon street aristocrats”
and that the Liberator labeled as Constitutional Union party supporters “with
a sprinkling of the Custom House demon-ocracy.” This “gentlemen’s
mob . . . of the ‘DOLLAR STAMP,' " as Douglass called it, “well dressed,
well conditioned [and] well looking,” undertook to wrest control of the
meeting from the smaller number of abolitionists by electing two of its own
members, Richard S. Fay and James Murray Howe, as chairmen. Although
the anti-abolitionists attempted to silence him, Douglass spoke repeatedly. At
one point, according to the New York Daily Tribune, he actually fought his
way to the rostrum “like a trained pugilist." After three hours of heckling,
skirmishing, and acrimonious debate, the Boston police cleared the hall on
orders of the mayor. Douglass, Redpath, J. Sella Martin, Franklin Sanborn,
and the other abolitionists, forced to cancel their afternoon meeting, recon-
vened that evening at Martin’s Joy Street Baptist Church. Lib., 23, 30
November, 14, 28 December 1860; Boston Herald, 3 December 1860; New
York Daily Tribune, 4, 7 December 1860; New York Times, 4 December
1860; NASS, 8 December 1860; DM, 3: 389—95 (January 1861).
Pursuant to the following notice, a large number of people gathered yester-
day morning in Tremont Temple:—
“A public Convention will be held in Tremont Temple during the day
and evening of Monday, December 3d to mark the Anniversary of the
Martyrdom of John Brown (which occurred December 2d. 1859). and to
consider the Great Question of the Age, ‘How can American Slavery be
Abolished?’ The speakers who will address the meeting will confine them-
selves exclusively to the great question ofthe day, for it would be a work of
supererogation now to defend John Brown, and a useless waste of time to
eulogize him; and it is believed that a practical consideration of the above
subject will be the most appropriate commemoration of his glorious death.
The Convention will not be one for debate, but each speaker will give his
own views on the question in as brief a manner as he may be able, and no
person will speak more than once."
Shortly after ten o'clock, Mr. James Redpath1Born in Berwick-on-Tweed, Scotland, James Redpath (1833-91) emigrated with his family to the United States about 1850 and soon found work as a reporter for Horace Greeley's New York Daily Tribune. In the mid-1850s he traveled throughout the South, reporting on the institution of slavery and calling for its immediate abolition. By the late 2850s Redpath had moved to Kansas, where he edited the Doniphan Crusader of Freedom and supported the fight to make the territory a nonslaveholding state. Redpath befriended John Brown in Kansas, and, after the latter's execution, became his first biographer, writing The Public Life of Captain John Brown (Boston, 1860). In 1859 and 1860 Redpath toured Haiti as a reporter and returned to the United States as the official Haitian lobbyist for diplomatic recognition, a status he secured within two years. During the Civil War he was a front-line correspondent with the Union army commanded by William Tecumseh Sherman, who in 1865, when South Carolina was under federal military occupation, appointed Redpath superintendent of public schools in that state. Returning north, Redpath in 1868 organized the first professional lecturing bureau, which included Douglass among its clients. During the 1880s he returned to his earlier career as a journalist—activist by editing newspapers and writing books and pamphlets on behalf of Irish nationalism, woman suffrage, and socialism. Douglass to James Redpath, 10 April 1869, Miscellaneous Mss., ICIU; Charles F. Homer, The Life of James Redpath and the Development of the Modern Lyceum (New York, 1926); Willis D. Boyd, “James Redpath and American Negro Colonization in Haiti, 1860-1862," The Americas, 12: 169-82 (October 1955); DAB, 15: 443—44. appeared on the plat-
form, and attempted to call the meeting to order.
Great confusion ensued, some hissing, others applauding.
Mr. Redpath—I call upon every gentleman of Boston present—
The speaker could not proceed. Three cheers were given. Cries—Put
him out! All up! We will not let you talk here. Order, order!
On quiet being again restored, J. Sella Martin2John Sella Martin (1832-76), minister, abolitionist. and poet, was born a slave in Charlotte, North Carolina, and served masters in several southern states. In December 1855 he escaped from his master in New Orleans on a steamboat heading north. Self-educated in slavery, Martin studied for the Baptist ministry in Detroit and later supplied churches in Buffalo, New York, London, England, and elsewhere, most notably Joy Street Baptist Church in Boston, Shiloh Presbyterian Church in New York City, and the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. An effective antislavery crusader at home and abroad, open to various strategies,. including emigration, he also worked with the English Freedmen's Aid Society and the American Missionary Association to raise funds to assist exslaves. After the Civil War Martin was active in the Colored National Labor Union, which he represented at the World‘s Labor Congress in Paris in 1870,and edited the Washington (D.C.) New Era from January to June 1870, when the newspaper was reorganized and Douglass became principal owner and editor. Moving to Louisiana, he served as both a postmaster and district school superintendent. FDP, 20 April 1860; Washington (D.C.) New Era, 14 April 1870; William Wells Brown, The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements (New York, 1863), 242-45; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 249, 271—72, 287-90: Foner and Lewis, Black Worker, 2: 42, 59, 71; Blassingame, Slave Testimony, 702-35; C. Peter Ripley. ed., The Black Abolitionist Papers (Chapel Hill, 1985—), 1: 504-05; DANB, 427—28. (colored) proposed a
committee to nominate a list of officers. He had not finished reading the list
when he was interrupted by hissings, stampings, outcries, &c. , &c., which
rendered it impossible for him to proceed.
Mr. Martin (tremendous noise)—Will you, gentlemen, please pre-
serve order?
Cries—No. no!
Martin—Well. this is a splendid affair.
Voice—You sit down.
Martin—Gentlemen, I hope this is not South Carolina.
REDPATH AS A POLICEMAN.
Suddenly Mr. James Redpath rushed from the platform, and was fol-
lowed by the persons on the platform, some ten in number, and proceeded
to one of the seats near the door, in the quarter where the disturbance
apparently came from, and the next we saw of him he had a citizen by the
collar, and was attempting to thrust him from the hall. The two were
immediately surrounded by a band ofevidently determined men. A general
bustle ensued, and Redpath was forced to loose his hold. Loud talk ensued,
and many threats were made.
EFFORTS TO SECURE AN ORGANIZATION.
Mr. Martin—Will gentlemen please take their seats and come to
order?
Voice—Never, by Heaven. (Great confusion.)
Martin—Will you listen to Mr. Cam?3The reporter apparently garbled Martin's attempt to introduce Franklin B. Sanborn.
Cries—No, never! All up!
Voice—Go on, Mr. Chairman, and let them holler away.
A man on the platform, in an excited manner, moved that a committee
of one hundred be appointed to preserve order. The speaker’s voice was
drowned with applause and cheer upon cheer for Gov. Packer,4William Fisher Packer (1807—70), governor of Pennsylvania, had been invited by James Redpath to send a communication to the assembled abolitionists. “In my opinion,“ Packer replied, “the young men whose names are attached to the foregoing letter would better serve God and their country, by attending to their own business. John Brown was rightfully hanged, and his fate should be a waming to others having similar proclivities. “ Born in Howard, Pennsylvania, Packer spent most of his teenage years as a printer's apprentice and journeyman. In 1829 after two years of studying law, he became a publisher of the Williamsport Lycoming Gazette; seven years later he cofounded the Harrisburg Keystone Gazette. Both papers were organs of the Democratic party, for which Packer campaigned loyally and effectively. Between 1839 and 1857 he served as canal commissioner, auditor general, and Pennsylvania state representative and senator. Supported by the Buchanan Democrats, Packer defeated Republican David Wilmot for the govemorship in 1857 but eventually broke with the administration over its Kansas policy. As governor he emphasized fiscal and educational reform and the improvement of the state's canal system. Packer, who left office in 1861, supported compromise between the sections after Lincoln’s election. W[illia]m F. Packer to James Redpath, 21 November 1860, in DM, 3: 94 (January 1861); Robert Sobel and John Raimo, Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789—1978, 4 vols. (Westport. Conn., 1978), 3: 1309; DAB, 14: 132-33. of Pennsyl-
vania.
Three cheers were given for Fred. Douglas[s]. (Great confusion. Small
disturbance in the rear part of the hall.)
Mr. Martin—Will you come to order, and hear Mr. Sanborn, of
Concord?
Three cheers were given for Gov. Packer, of Pennsylvania. Cheers
again.
Martin—Mr. Sanborn, gentlemen. (Great confusion: some standing
up: some talking aloud.)
Cries for Mr. Packer’s letter.
Sanborn—It seems to me this is a very extraordinary spectacle.
Cries—Packer’s letter. Order—order! John Brown. Put him out.
(Groaning.)
Sanborn5Franklin Benjamin Sanborn (1831-1917) was one of the famous “Secret Six“ who financed John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Son of a farmer from Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, Sanborn was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College. After his graduation he accepted the invitation of Ralph Waldo Emerson to operate a school in Concord, Massachusetts, where he became part of the literary circle that included Bronson Alcott, William Ellery Channing, and Henry David Thoreau, all of whom became the subjects of books he wrote or edited. Sanborn met John Brown in 1857 and was converted to his plans for a violent overthrow of slavery. After Brown's capture in 1859, Sanborn initially fled to Canada to avoid testifying on the conspiracy before a U.S. Senate committee. When deputies acting for the Senate attempted to arrest him in Concord in April 1860, townspeople came to his rescue, chasing the deputies out of town and obtaining a writ of habeas corpus from Judge E. R. Hoar. Sanborn later edited the Boston Commonwealth (1863-67) and Springfield Republican (1868-72) and served the Massachusetts Board of Charities as secretary, inspector, and chairman. In addition to his works on literary figures, Sanborn wrote biographies of John Brown and Samuel Gridley Howe and published a two-volume autobiography, Recollections of Seventy Years (Boston, 1909). Otto J. Scott, The Secret Six: John Brown and the Abolitionist Movement (New York, 1979), 69-70, 227—29, 247—49, 296 —97, 317; Oates, To Purge This Land, 181-87, 314-16; Robert E. Burkholder, “Franklin Benjamin Sanborn," in The American Renaissance in New England, ed. Joel Myerson (Detroit, 1978), 160—61; ACAB, 5: 384; DAB, 16: 236-27.—I understand that the call for the meeting was made by
other gentlemen than those who now interrupt me. (Great confusion.)
Cries—John Andrew—John Andrew! John Andrew for Chairman.6John Albion Andrew (1818-67), governor of Massachusetts, was born in Windham, Maine, and educated at Bowdoin College. After his graduation in 1837, he settled in Boston and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar. Although he was one of the founders of the Free Soil party, Andrew did not hold public office until 1858, when he was elected to the Massachusetts General Court as a Republican. In 1860 he not only headed his state's delegation to the Republican National Convention but was also elected governor, a position he held until January 1866. Throughout the Civil War he was an outspoken advocate of emancipation and a leader in persuading the Lincoln administration to enlist blacks in the Union army. After the Confederate surrender, however, Andrew recommended a conciliatory Reconstruction policy toward southern whites. On 19 November 1859 Andrew was chosen to chair and speak at the meeting of John Brown’s sympathizers in Tremont Temple. Lib., 25 November 1859; Henry Greenleaf Pearson, The Life of John A. Andrew, Governor of Massachusetts, 1861—1865, 2 vols. (Boston, 1904); ACAB, 1: 72—73; NCAB, 1: 118; DAB, 2: 279—81.
(Hissing. Cheers.)
Sanborn—These men who have called the meeting have hired this
room; are they not entitled to its use?
A man on the platform, excited—shaking his fist—This thing don’t
stop here.
Sanborn—This is not the Boston I have known.
Cries—Give us John Brown’s last words.7On the morning of his execution, John Brown gave to his jailers this written dying declaration: “I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: min/y flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might bedone." Villard, John Brown, 554; Sanborn, Life and Letters of John Brown, 620.
Sanborn—When you hire your shops you use them. Is not this un-
gentlemanly to disturb these gentlemen whose room this is for the time
being?
Voice from the platform—We want no dictators.
Great excitement, confusion and noise among those on the platform.
An excited gentleman near one of the entrances to the hall, here divid-
ed attention with Mr. Sanborn.
Cheers were given for various persons.
Cries—Give us John Brown’s farewell words. This meeting is “all
up.” Free speech.
Sanborn—If any gentleman wants to speak or to discuss this question,
he can do so when I am done. (Confusion) Oh! really this does not seem to
me the Boston I have known.
Cries—Andrew! Andrew!
Another row at one side of the room. Cries—Put him out.
Sanborn—I hope there are some gentlemen here. (Confusion and great
noise.)
Voice—Where’s the Union?
Sanborn—We come to discuss the subject of American slavery.
Voice—Where’s John Brown?
Voice—He’s safe.
Another voice—The devil has him.
Voice from the Platform—No matter where he may be.
Sanborn—Every man is entitled to express his own opinion.
Cries—No! No! (Three cheers.)
Sanborn—Cannot every man say what he thinks at stated times and in
proper places?
Cries—Yes! Yes! (Great noise.)
Sanborn—Then this meeting is called for the expression of such
opinions.
Three cheers were given “for the Constitution.”
On the platform—Three cheers given for free speech; amid cries of
No! no! and hisses from the people on the floor.
Man near the door—I’m going to speak.
Mr. Sanborn said that gentlemen could speak when the meeting was
organized. The gentleman near the door here engrossed the attention of the
audience.
Cheering—hissing—groaning—laughter—applause—clapping of
hands.
Voice on the platform—Oh! you rebels! you come here to disturb this
meeting to-day.
Cheers were given for the Union, and it was evident that the Union men
were in the ascendant.
At this juncture, Mr. Martin, as Chairman of the meeting, called upon
the police to preserve order.
MARTIN ATTEMPTS T0 SPEAK.
Quiet was finally restored, before the interference of the officers, and
Mr. Martin stated that the object of the meeting was to discuss the ques-
tion—“How shall American Slavery be abolished?” He said they
intended, in spite of the opposition, to hold their meetings.
He was frequently interrupted, and as he commenced a line of remarks
denunciatory of slavery, there was another disturbance and the police were
again called upon.
Voice—All hands aloft! Don’t let the ship sink.
Voice—She can’t go down.
Mr. Hayes,8Before becoming superintendent of Tremont Temple in 1845, Joseph K. Hayes (?—c. 1890) had worked as a carpenter and housewright in Boston. When a mob pursued William Lloyd Garrison through the city's streets in October 1835, Hayes tried unsuccessfully to hide the abolitionist in his shop. In addition to his employment at Tremont Temple, Hayes served as a Boston police officer and was the only member of that department to resign in protest over the municipal government's participation in the rendition of Anthony Burns in 1854. After the Civil War, Hayes worked as a federal revenue collector for the Boston region. Lib., 25 January 1861; George Adams, comp., Boston Directory of the Year 1854 . . . (Boston, 1854), 150, 376; Garrison and Garrison, Garrison Life, 2: 20; Roger Lane, Policing the City: Boston, 1822—1885 (Cambridge. Mass, 1967), 95; Lader, Bold Brahmins,21, 212. Superintendent of the Temple, stepped to the front of the
platform and said—The meeting will organize. (Cries of good! good!) The
police are here. After the meeting is organized you can take any action you
choose. The police are here.
Order was soon restored. Quiet prevailed. All took their seats.
Mr. Martin again attempted to speak on the advertised object of the
meeting. He said he would leave John Brown and his works to history. It is
free discussion which we want. (Cheers) We want you all, if we are
wrong, to come up quietly, like gentlemen, and show us our error.
While Mr. M[artin] was speaking, some witty remarks, as also some
laughter, was occasioned by the appearance of [a] dog on the platform. The
speaker and dog appeared astonished at the noise. The dog looked at the
people from one side of the desk and Mr. M[artin] from the other. Whis-
tling commenced. Exit dog.
Colored man—Were not you once oppressed?
Voice near the platform—Let us have a citizen of the United States tell
us our duty.
Cries—Order! Order! Go on! Go on!
Voice on the platform—I call upon the police to protect us, that we
may be heard. (This was said three times.)
John C. Cluer9In 1865 temperance lecturer John C. Cluer, an Englishman, was appointed special probation officer in the Boston police department by Mayor Frederick Walker Lincoln. Cluer's assignment daily exposed him to the causes and results of drunkenness. Disagreeing with prohibitionists who perceived alcoholism as a sin and crime requiring legal remedies, he instead urged that dipsomania be treated as a disease, a position that was supported by Chief John Kurtz. Although the city instituted some reforms, drunkenness was still a major problem when Cluer left the force in the late 1860s. Boston Daily Courier, 4 December 1860; Boston Directory . . . 1852, 55; The Boston Directory, . . . for the Year Commencing July 1, 1865 (Boston,1865), 92; Lane, Policing the City, 135—36, 160, 200. —That is right.
Voice—There is no meeting.
Mr. Hayes—They must organize the meeting in their own way. (His-
ses and applause.)
Mr. Redpath here appeared upon the stand and commenced reading the
report of the committee on permanent organization, with Frank Sanborn,
of Concord, as Chairman, and John Oliver,10John Oliver, a black Boston barber, worked as a teacher for the American Missionary Association during the Civil War. Assigned in 1862 to Fortress Monroe and Newport News, Virginia, he instructed freedmen recently transferred there from Hampton Roads. During his stay in Virginia, Oliver criticized what he considered to be the brutal treatment of blacks by the Union army. Lib., 26 September, 26 December 1862; Boston Directory . . . 1852, 194; Louis S. Gerteis, From Contraband to Freedmen: Federal Policy toward Southern Blacks, 1861—1865 (Westport, Conn, 1973), 26-27. of Boston, as Secretary.
Before he could conclude his report, a gentleman arose, and moved
that Richard S. Fay11Richard Sullivan Fay (1806—65), the son of Samuel P. Fay, a prominent Massachusetts judge, attended Harvard College and briefly practiced law in Boston. After residing in England as a gentleman farmer from 1848 to 1853, Fay returned to Massachusetts and bought a large estate near Lynn, where he conducted experiments in forestry and animal husbandry. In 1860 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress on the Constitutional Union party ticket. During the Civil War, Fay personally paid to equip a Union army company. New York Daily Tribune, 4 December 1860; Lib., 14, 21 December 1860; D. Hamilton Hurd, ed., History of Essex County, Massachusetts, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1888), 1: 353—54; James R. Newhall, History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, 2 vols. (1890; Lynn, Mass, 1897), 2: 19-20. be Chairman of the meeting.
He put the motion, and though the John Brown men constituted a
respectable minority, the other party was very largely in the ascendency,
and Mr. Fay was declared elected.
Mr. Fay appeared on the platform, amid deafening cheers.
Mr. Martin put the report of the Committee before the meeting, when
they were defeated by a large vote.
THE POLICE ARRIVE.
A large posse of policemen under the lead of the Chief of Police,12Daniel J. Coburn (c. 1803—66) served as Boston's police chief from 1856 to 1861. Before his appointment he had been a deputy sheriff and a city councilman, During Coburn's tenure as police chief, charges of favoritism and corruption were lodged against the police department, which was also criticized for its lax enforcement of prohibition ordinances and its inability to prevent rioting at abolitionist meetings. Such complaints contributed to the defeat in December 1860 of Republican mayor Frederick Walker Lincoln. Jr., by Joseph Wightman, a Democrat running on a “Union and Citizens" ticket. Wightman replaced Coburn, but an official investigation failed to substantiate the major charges against him. Coburn later acted as a legal counselor in the Boston courts. Boston Directory . . . 1865, 93, 465; Edward H. Savage, Police Records and Recollections; or, Boston by Daylight and Gaslight for Two Hundred and Forty Years (Boston, 1873), 98, 104; Lane, Policing the City, 89, 110—11, 115, 122—25. here
entered the Temple.
Mr. Fay—As Chairman of the meeting I must call upon all to keep
quiet. I call upon all to keep order.
Great confusion on the platform. Great excitement among the John
Brown men. Cries from all parties for order.
Mr. Fay—I call upon the po—
The police here made their appearance on the platform.
Mr. Hayes—These people are going to have this hall. They hired it.
Voice—I move that the meeting now adjourn.
Mr. Fay put the question. Carried.
Mr. Fay—I call upon the police to clear the hall.
Mr. Hayes—Gentlemen, Mr. Fay has refused to leave the hall. Where
is the Chief of Police?
Then there was quite a rush to the platform, and some little bustling. In
one or two instances fists were doubled up and canes raised. Mr. Fay,
however, had possession of the chair, and spoke and looked as if he meant
to retain it, and there were men behind him who looked as though they
meant he should.
A scene of the direct confusion followed. Every man took the floor.
Mr. Hayes, Superintendent of the hall, occupied a prominent position on
the platform, crying for “Police!" "Police."
Then the Chief of Police busied himself by urging the people to sit
down.
Mr. Fay called upon the police to protect him in his office of Chairman
of this meeting.
A motion to adjourn, made by Mr. Thomas Farmer,13This is most likely Thomas Farmer, an iron-and steelworker from Roxbury, Massachusetts, who by 1852 owned, with R. D. Rogers, his own foundry. Boston Directory . . . 1852, 89, 297. of Roxbury, was
declared by Mr. Fay to be carried.
The Abolitionists called upon their side to retire to the Melodeon.
Finally both sides called for order, and Mr. Fay proposed to reorganize the
meeting. The proposition was at once acceded to on all hands, and Mr. Fay
was chosen Chairman.
Mr. Fay said he was greatly obliged for the honor. He then read the call
for the meeting, and contended that slavery could only be abolished under
the law. He said—The meeting is now in order. I take great delight in being
able to be here to-day.
Fred. Douglas[s] interrupted him by saying—Mr. Chairman, will you
allow me one word?
Fay—No! not yet!
Mr. Fay then proceeded to address the meeting.
Colored man—We will yield for a little while and let them have their
own way.
Great confusion. The noise now became very great.
Voice—(colored man)—This is the grossest insult on the right of
freedom of speech that I have seen for a long time.
The noise was so great Mr. Fay could not proceed. He employed his
time, while waiting for a lull of the noise, in feeling in his coat pockets.
Mr. Fay—(standing at the front of the platform, closely surrounded by
colored persons.)—I believe there are honest people here. I had supposed
my pocket was picked.
Mr. Fay proceeded to address the assemblage.
Mr. Martin—I—(noise)—I—(great noise)—I—(perfect uproar).
Mr. Fay—When you get the floor you can speak.
Mr. Fay proceeded to point out very calmly the dangers of a dissolution
of the Union, and the effect which it would have in preventing the abolition
of slavery. He was frequently interrupted by Fred. Douglas[s].
Voice—May I ask the President? Mr. President! May I ask—
Cries—Order! Order! Sit down! Throttle him.
Mr. Martin—We do not recognize him as Chairman.
Mr. Fay—(quite coolly.)—If you keep quiet while I speak you will
hear some truths which you do not hear at home. (Applause)
Mr. Fay—Every man should act in harmony with the laws of the
United States. (Applause. Hissing.)
Cries—God! and Freedom. Where are the rights of the freeman?
The Police, after quelling several small disturbances, attempted to
restore order.
Cries—Sit down Mr. Fay.
Voice from the rear of the hall—Speak louder.
Mr. Fay—There has no provision been made for speakers on the
platform; therefore l cannot make myself heard.
Fred. Douglas[s]—When thy enemy thirst give him drink.14Douglass paraphrases Rom. 12: 20. (Ap-
plause and hisses.)
A pitcher of water was procured and conveyed to the speaker.
Mr. Fay—This meeting is only binding the fetters of the slave closer—
with tenfold the strength. (Applause and hisses.)
Fred. Douglas[s] interrupted the speaker with a flippant remark.
Mr. Fay—I am speaking in harmony with the sentiments of the reason-
ing men of the North and the South. (Applause and hisses.) If this thing
goes on you will see something in this land that will hang these gentlemen
(looking at several colored persons behind him) as high as Haman.
UNION RESOLUTIONS.
He also read a series of resolutions denouncing John Brown and his
Virginia raid, which were carried.
The resolutions are as follows:—
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 foray.—
(Applause and hissing. Voice—Good! go on.)
Therefore it is resolved,
1. 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. 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 and 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. That we render to our brethren in Virginia our warmest thanks for
the conservative spirit they have manifested, notwithstanding the un-
provoked and lawless attack made upon them by John Brown and his
associates, acting, 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.
Great noise: Several disturbances.
Mr. Fay—When you get through I will read on. I have come here to
stay all day.
4. 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; they have become a nuisance, which in self -defense, we are deter-
mined shall henceforward be summararily abated.
5. That a copy of these resolutions be sent to each of the persons named
in the call for this meeting.
It was moved the resolutions be accepted and adopted.
The resolutions were carried by a large majority.
Fred. Douglas[s] asked to be allowed to speak.
Chairman—Wait.
Chairman—Is there any other business before this meeting?
Voice—I move we adjourn.
Voice—John C. Cluer has arms in his possession. I move he be taken
into custody.
Mr. Hayes, as Superintendent of the Hall, said—Gentlemen, you
shan’t adjourn till the bills are paid.
Colored man on the platform—You can then retire ignominiously.
Voice—I move we now dissolve.
Mr. Hoyt, of Richmond, Me.,15No participant fitting this description has been identified. Since a George Hoyt signed the call for the meeting, the speaker may have been either George Hoyt, a physician and active Garrisonian abolitionist from Athol. Massachusetts, or, more probably, his son, George Henry Hoyt, who served as one of John, Brown's counsels in Virginia. The elder Hoyt (1801—66), born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, graduated from the Pittsfield Medical School and in 1832 began a practice in Athol, where he established a well-known water cure. A vice president of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in the 1840s and early 1850s, he helped to free, and opened his home to, a young slave brought to Athol from the South. George Henry Hoyt (1837-77) moved with his family in 1851 to Boston, where he later studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1859. After the raid on Harpers Ferry, friends of John Brown sent Hoyt to Charlestown, Virginia, to aid the legal defense and, if possible, to arrange an escape, a plan that Brown eventually rejected. In 1861 he joined the company of Kansas sharpshooters headed by John Brown, Jr. He later served with Kansas cavalry units, receiving the rank of brevet brigadier general for his service in the battle of Newtonia, Missouri, in October 1864. After serving as attorney general of Kansas in 1868, Hoyt returned to Athol in 1871. There he edited the Athol Transcript and was elected to the state legislature. Boston Daily Courier, 4 December 1860; David W. Hoyt, A Genealogical History of the Hoyt, Haight, and Hight Families . . . (Providence. R.I., 1871), 546, 600; Lilley B. Caswell, Athol, Massachusetts, Past and Present (Athol, 1899), 196—98, 358—60; William G. Lord, History of Athol, Massachusetts, (Athol, 1953), 572, 576; Oates, To Purge This Land, 316, 329, 332—35. said he wanted to put three questions
(and he did put them amid much confusion. They were relative to the
abolition of slavery.)
The Chairman called the meeting to order, and said the question now
before them was on the dissolution of the meeting.
The question was not put.
FRED. DOUGLASS IS HEARD.
Fred. Douglass claimed the floor, and the Chair, reminding him of the
short speech rule promulgated in the call, accorded it to him.
A general scene of clamorous confusion ensued. Some crowded
around the speaker. Among the assemblage all stood up—some on the
backs of the seats.
The Chairman restored order by reminding the assemblage that the
meeting was an organized one.
Frederick Douglas[s] got the floor, and denounced the interruption in
terms of the greatest indignation. The Chairman was continually remind-
ing him that the call required speakers to be brief.
Fred. Douglas[s]—This is one of the most impudent. (order! order!)
barefaced, (knock him down! sit down!) outrageous acts on free speech
(stop him! you shall hear him[!])—I can make myself heard—(great con-
fusion) that I have ever witnessed in Boston or elsewhere. (Applause. Free
speech.) I know your masters. (Cries—Treason! treason! Police! police!
Put him out! put him out!) I have served the same master that you are
serving. (Time! Time!) You are serving the slaveholders.
Voice—No! No! We serve God, and the white man and the nigger.
Douglas[s]—You are in the service of the slaveholders of the United
States.
The Chairman requested him to confine his remarks to the question at
issue.
Douglas[s]—I am.
Chairman—You are taking off your coat for a long speech.
Voice—I move that the speech be limited to one minute.
Douglas[s]—We wish to be respectful to all parties.
Cries—Time! time! . . . .†Here the Boston Post reads: “Douglass— I know it is a hard time for you. The speaker denounced slaveholders. The noise was so great he could not be heard.”
(Douglass—“It is said the best way to abolish slavery is to obey the
law. Shall we obey the blood-hounds of the law who do the dirty work of
the slave catchers? If so, then you are fit for your work. Mr. Norris of New
Hampshire asked Wade of Ohio, in the Senate of the United States, if he
would render his personal assistance to the execution of the fugitive slave
[law], and that noble-hearted man and Christian gentleman replied prompt-
ly, ‘I will see you damned first.'16The exchange between Moses Norris. Jr., and Benjamin Franklin Wade occurred in the U.S. Senate on 3 March 1854 during the debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Congressional Globe, 33d Cong., 1st sess., Appendix, 309; New York Daily Tribune, 4 March 1854. (Cries of time, time.) Sir, there is a law
which we are bound to obey, and the Abolitionists are most prompt to obey
it. It is that law written in the Constitution of the United States. saying ‘all
men are born free and equal,17Douglass paraphrases the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. and that we includes all colors too. (Mr.
Fay, ‘The Indians also‘?’) Yes, Indians, and also, that every man has a right
to the use of his own body, even the president of this meeting. (Cries of
time, time.) They cast aside with indignation the wild and guilty fantasy
that man owns property in man, even in that stout, big-fisted fellow down
there, who has just insulted me. (Here the uproar, which had been perfectly
deafening for some minutes, increased so much that the speaker was inau-
dible.) Your meeting is a very disorderly one, Mr. Chairman.” (Mr. Fay,
“I am very proud of this meeting. It is the most orderly one of the kind I
have ever attended”)
Douglass—“The Chairman and I have disagreed on some points be-
fore in life”)18From Boston Semi-Weekly Courier, 6 December 1860.
Three disturbances occurred in different parts of the Temple—one on
the platform. Police officers took up their position at the front part of the
platform.
Douglas[s]—The freedom of all mankind was written on the heart by
the finger of God.19Douglass paraphrases Exod. 31: 18. (Voices—Time! Time!)
Douglas[s]—Look at that big-fisted man there.
Cries—Put him out! Down him! Put a rope round his neck.
Voices—Time! Time!
Douglas[s]—I will sit down when my time is out.
The Chairman was going to stop him from speaking when
Douglas[s] said—I promise not to be personal.
Voice—Sit down and do better.
Douglas[s]—I want you to hear.
Voice—We feel you. We smell you.
An allusion by the speaker to Daniel Webster was received with three
hearty cheers. Mr. Douglas[s] in conclusion expressed the opinion that a
Northern doughface was worse than a slaveholder.
Mr. Plunkett20Christopher Plunkett (?—c. 1889), a former agent for the Irish Emigrant Society, was a night inspector at the Boston Custom House. Boston Directory . . . 1852, 206. Appendix, 52; Boston Directory . . . 1865, 329, 539. rose to a point of order. (Great confusion. Increased
excitement.) I move the time for each speaker be limited to five minutes.
(Cheers) Cries. time! time!
One woman of Republican sentiments remarked that she wished some
one would cut Mr. Plunkett’s throat.
Douglas[s]—Keep quiet.
Chairman—We cannot stand you all day.
Douglas[s] spoke for some minutes amid much confusion.
Voice—“Go on nigger.”
Douglas[s]—If I was a slave-driver, and had hold of that man for five
minutes, I would let more daylight through his skin than ever got there
before.
Chairman—He has said the truth, for a negro slave-driver is the most
cruel in the world.
Douglas[s] acknowledged this was so, and explained why it was
so.
Douglas[s] (amid various cries and intense excitement) said—It seems
to me as though some of the white men of the North had gone to the devil.
They’d murder liberty—kill freedom.
Cries—Stop him! Good!
So great was the confusion, and so intense the excitement, that it was
several minutes before order could be restored.
Mr. Douglas[s]’s remarks were brought to a sudden close by a vote of
the meeting that his time was exhausted. The Chairman compelled him to
sit down.
Negro voices—We object. It is not right. It is not right.
SEVERAL ROWS, GREAT AND SMALL—EJECTMENTS COMMENCE
The police had to restore order on the platform, as several of the
radicals attempted to create a disturbance. The Union men stood firm.
Dr. Knox 21Possibly Dr. Thomas P. Knox, a Boston physician, Boston Semi-Weekly Courier, 6 December 1860; Boston Directory . . . 1865, 240, 503. attempted to speak but was driven back to the rear of the
platform.
The chairs were all thrown in a heap at the rear of the platform, and the
people—women especially—crowded to the ends of the galleries nearest
the platform. After a little quiet had been restored, Rev. D. C. Eddy22Baptist clergyman Daniel Clarke Eddy (1823—96) was pastor of Boston's Harvard Street Baptist Church in 1860. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Eddy studied at the New Hampton Theological Institute in New Hampshire before undertaking his first ministerial charge in Lowell, Massachusetts. In 1854 he joined the Know-Nothing movement and was elected to the state legislature. In 1856 Eddy left Lowell for Boston, where he remained for six years. He later preached to congregations in several cities, including Fall River, Massachusetts; Philadelphia; Brooklyn: and, once again, Boston. In 1876 he was the Prohibition party candidate for lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. In addition to his religious and political careers, Eddy was a popular writer of devotional and travel books. Cathcart, Baptist Encyclopedia, 359-60; ACAB, 2: 299-300; NCAB, 9: 501-02; DAB, 6: 6-7.
stepped to the front of the platform and denounced the interruption as
unworthy of the descendants of those who fought for freedom of speech in
’76. He said—
I come upon this platform to look into the faces of the men who in the
year 1860, and within sight of Bunker Hill, are willing to trample on free
discussion. I want to ask the young men of Boston and the grey haired
merchants of Boston, what they will gain by this procedure.
Dr. Eddy was interrupted in his remarks by an outbreak upon the
platform which created great confusion and finally resulted in the eject-
ment from the platform of a Dr. Knox and F. B. Sanborn.
By this time the hall was filled with people, news of the disturbance
having reached the street.
The Union men were largely in the majority, and this with the efforts of
the police to preserve order finally brought the speakers on both sides to a
standstill.
Both parties, however, remained in the hall, waiting for the next move.
The John Brown men held a consultation. Much whispering was done
on or about the platform.
Many of the women present showed they were greatly excited by their
actions and their looks.
Cries for J. Murray Howe.23James Murray Howe (?—c. 1872), a businessman from Brookline, Massachusetts, was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts General Court in 1860. During the Civil War he recruited local men for the Brookline military committee. Howe established a brokerage firm in Boston after the war. New York Daily Tribune, 4 December 1860; NASS, 8 December 1860; Boston Directory. . . 1865, 214; Harriet F. Woods, Historical Sketches of Brookline, Massachusetts (Boston, 1874), 417; Charles Knowles Bolton, Brookline: The History of a Favored Town (Brookline, Mass., 1897), 60, 73, 128; John Gould Curtis, History of the Town of Brookline, Massachusetts: A Memorial to Edward W. Baker (Boston, 1933), 266, 268.
Mr. Douglas[s] attempted to speak again.
Mr. Fay attempted to make him stop by persuasion.
Mr. Douglas[s]—I will not yield the floor.
Cries—Police! Police!
Chairman—I will put the question. He does not yield.
Mr. Douglas[s]—I will not abide the vote.
The question was put, and Mr. Douglas[s] was voted down for the
second time.
A motion was made to adjourn. The Chairman put the question. The
meeting was declared dissolved.
Mr. Douglas[s]—Good-bye. Good riddance. (Three cheers.)
Three cheers were given for the white slaves of Boston.
Rev. Mr. Eddy—Douglas[s]! Keep the floor in the name of human
rights, and in the name of God.
Mr. Douglas[s]—I call the meeting to order. Ah! you, (pointing out in
the crowd.) I know why you are here—you are afraid of your Southern
masters.
Cries—Organize! Organize!
Mr. Douglas[s]—Will our friends please to be seated.
Voice—You black fool, don’t you know the meeting’s dissolved?
Voice—Go out.
Answer—Faith and I’m going out.
Voice—Stop to drink.
Answer—It is not a dry meeting.
Douglas[s]—Will our friends remain where they are?
Voice—By golly! Whew!
General disturbance on the platform. One man fell down among a lot of
upturned chairs. A colored person was put out.
Another fight on the platform. Police attempt to clear the stage. One
man knocked down (supposed accidentally).
Mr. Knox again gets in trouble and is requested and assisted to leave
the stage. He resisted.
Voice—Put black and white men all off the platform.
Cries—Police! Police!
Police took hold of Fred. Douglas[s] and said he must instantly leave.
In the confusion he slipped to the other side of the platform.
Sanborn—You will please take your seats and come to order.
Cries—Put him out.
Mr. Sanborn was escorted off the platform by two police officers.
An attempt was made to eject Rev. Dr. Eddy.
Chief of Police—I am requested by the gentlemen here (Order! order!
Order was soon restored), to clear the stage. I ask the audience to retire. If
you retire you will stop the police from performing a very unpleasant duty.
Mr. Martin—The Police Chief does it on his own authority.
Mr. Hayes—The Chief of Police has power to clear the room.
Voice—Clear the stage first.
Colored man cries—Mr. Chief of Police! Mr. Chief of Police!
Mr. Hayes—You must leave the hall. All parties must leave the hall. I
want to lock the door.
Voice—Shut up Nigger Hayes.
Voice—You cannot stifle free discussion in Massachusetts.
Mr. Martin—You will come to order and listen to Fred. Douglas[s].
Chief of Police shook his head.
On the right hand side of the Temple a large number of women were
gathered together and were, apparently, much excited.
Cries—All up, all out.
Voice—This is a disgrace to Boston for the Chief of Police to clear the
hall instead of protecting the people in their rights.
Voice—Will the next brother speak?
The reporters and a crowd of other persons now made a general stam-
pede for the platform.
In the centre of the room stood several ladies, a young one attracting
considerable attention by carrying on an excited and loud discussion with a
Union man.
Voice—Has the Chief of Police gone to dinner?
Mr. Eddy said that the pro-slavery men came to the meeting only to
disturb it. That is their purpose.
Voice—It was all cut and dried.
Voice—The moment I saw the faces here I knew we would be
interrupted.
Mr. Martin—Ladies and gentlemen, you will now please come to
order. The Chief of Police says we are to be protected in our discussion. I
have the pleasure of introducing Mr. Fred. Douglas[s].
Policeman attempted to collar Mr. Martin.
Cries—Order! Hisses! Chief of Police put him out. Three cheers were
given for the Union. Three cheers were given for Douglas[s]. Three cheers
for South Carolina.
Douglas[s]—I feel no more embarassment by this uproar than if I had
been kicked by a jackass.
Voice—It is dinner time Fred.
Douglas[s]—Three cheers for liberty. They were given unanimously.
Three cheers were given for Gov. Wise.24Henry Alexander Wise (1806-76), governor of Virginia from 1856 to 1860, graduated from Washington College in Pennsylvania, studied law under famed jurist Henry St. George Tucker, and briefly practiced law in Nashville, Tennessee, before entering Virginia politics as a Jacksonian Democrat and opponent of nullification. Serving in Congress from 1833 to 1844, he attracted considerable notoriety for his impassioned defense of slavery and southern rights. Wise switched allegiances for a time to the Whig party, supporting the Harrison-Tyler presidential campaign of 1840, and serving as the ambassador to Brazil under the Tyler administration. During the 1850s, Wise, again a Democrat, successfully opposed Know-Nothingism in Virginia, arguing in part that the new party harbored antislavery sentiments. As governor, Wise reacted zealously to John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry and desired particularly to implicate Douglass. He requested that President Buchanan hire two Virginia detectives as special federal agents to capture Douglass and deliver him to Virginia authorities. Even after Douglass had left the United States. Wise employed a detective “to find out the whereabouts of the Negro Frederick Douglass and keep an eye on his movements and associates." The northern press reported that a group of prominent southerners, including Wise, had offered $50,000 for Douglass's capture. After his term as governor, Wise served as a delegate to the Washington Peace Convention of 1861 and as a general in the Confederate army. DM, 2: 162-63 (November 1859); Lib., 23 December 1859; FDP, 5 January 1860; Douglass to the Editor of the Rochester Democrat [and American], 31 October 1859 in Montreal Daily Transcript, 5 November 1859; Barton H. Wise, The Life of Henry A. Wise of Virginia, 1806-1876 (New York, 1899); Douglass, Life and Times, 340—45; Quarles, FD, 180—85; idem, Allies for Freedom, 115; ACAB, 6: 579-80; DAB, 20 : 423—25.
Cries—Packer’s letter.
Sanborn—Will the meeting come to order?
Cries—No! No!
Voice—Put him out. He is a white negro.
Sanborn attempted to speak but was shown to the rear of the platform
by a police officer.
Three cheers were given for the South.
Cries—Howe! Howe!
Martin—We will stand by our rights.
Cries for James Murray Howe.
Voice—Why do not the Police do something?
Nine cheers were given for the Boston Police.
A young man (excited and enthusiastically), jumped off of the plat-
form on a reporter’s table, and proposed three more cheers for the Boston
Police. The table fell over, and he was precipitated to the ground.
Cries for a Chairman.
Douglas[s]—We have a Chairman already. We will not yield our place
on the platform. No, by God!
The Chief of Police again attempted to restore order by seating some
few gentlemen.
Negro on the platform—The meeting should not be called to order.
Voice—Shove him off.
Negro—You come up here and shove me off.
Voice—The police will only protect white men.
Another Negro—You are niggers! you are niggers! (Pointing indis-
criminately to the crowd.)
A policemen collared this negro and ran him to the rear of the platform.
Cheers were given at this.
Another disturbance occurred on the platform. Everybody rushed to
the platform, and a scene of the most intense excitement, continuing some
five minutes, followed. One of the combatants showed his weapons.
The platform was partially cleared.
Cries for J. Murray Howe.
Mr. Martin—Will you be seated?
Answers—No! No! No!
The assemblage was partially seated.
Cries—Put all the niggers out! All out! Blow them up!
Mr. Martin—The Chief of Po—(Great confusion.)
Cries—Put him out.
Voice—John Brown’s dead.
Cries—Go ahead! Howe! Howe! (Applause)
Mr. Plunkett (received with three cheers), moved that James Murray
Howe be chosen Chairman of the meeting. He put the question. Carried.
Mr. Plunkett—Mr. Howe will take his seat.
Three cheers were given for Howe.
Cries—Hats off. (Hats were taken off.)
Mr. Howe divested himself of his coat and went deliberately to work.
He had but just taken his seat when a collision occurred between him and
Mr. Fred. Douglas[s]. This caused an intense excitement, and there were
cries of indignation towards Mr. Douglas[s], who attempted to speak.
Mr. Sanborn went to the front of the platform, and attempted to speak.
He was seized and chucked into a seat—rather forcibly.
Mr. Howe proceeded to address the meeting.
Douglas[s] attempted to speak, but was prevented from so doing.
Howe made a remark.
Douglas[s]—Ah! Did you hear that?
Negro voice—Ah! we did.
A SERIOUS SCRIMMAGE.
A gentleman seeing a vacant chair at one end of the platform, went
over and got it. Mr. Douglas[s] had been sitting in the chair. He rushed
after the man, and as the latter was placing it in readiness for Mr. Howe to
sit down, Fred. grabbed the chair and walked off with it. Several Union
men made for him. A policeman grabbed him. Some one got him by the
wool. (Cries—Wool won’t save him.) A general fight occurred upon the
platform, in which Mr. Douglas[s] and some of his supporters upon the
platform were roughly handled. They were forced from the platform and
many of them left the Hall. The Chief of Police called for order, and there
was some talk of reading the riot act, but nothing of this sort was done, and
the efforts to preserve the peace did not amount to any very strenuous
attempt to remove the combatants. By request of the Superintendent of the
Temple, the police asked the people to clear the Hall, and those who had
taken possession of the meeting said they would go when all others did, and
not before. Police were stationed at the several doors to prevent the en-
trance of such persons as they might see fit to exclude. Policemen were
placed in the several aisles, and a dozen or two of them were upon the
platform.
After Douglas[s] left the Temple, most of the persons sat down, and
“order reigned.” There were some discussions between those who then
had possession of the meeting, and those who sympathized with the other
party, but they were generally carried on in good temper. The latter com-
plained that there had been a violation of the right of free speech, and that
the Union men should have meetings of their own. The reply was, that their
Union meeting had been ridiculed by a portion of the press of the city, and
therefore they had determined on this course. The sympathizers with the
call said that they thought it would be well for those calling the meeting to
pass resolutions saying that they could not be protected in Boston, in
declaring their sentiments. The answer was that this was all that was
desired. Many ladies remained in the galleries, apparently deeply in-
terested in the proceedings, and looking down as calmly as if it were but a
play before them.
Amid much noise and confusion the following resolutions were read
by a Breckinridge and Lane Democrat25John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane were the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the anti-Douglas Democrats. from East Boston:—
Whereas, We are here assembled in response to a call for a meeting in
commemoration of the execution of the traitorous assassin John Brown by
the lawful authorities of Virginia, therefore
Resolved, That it is a fitting time to declare in clear and distinct terms
as the sentiment of the people of Boston, that John Brown was rightfully
condemned to death, that every one of the wicked persons who had incited
him to the raid on the people of Virginia, but, like craven cowards kept
themselves at a safe distance from the scene of danger, is equally worthy of
death by the hangman.
Resolved, That the time has come when the people of Boston will no
longer tolerate the assemblages of wicked men for the avowed purpose of
plotting treason to the country, and servile insurrection in sister States.
with its horrible consequences, when the “Liberty of Speech” so dear to
all her people, shall no longer be prostituted to the base uses of men
planning and promoting murder, treason, and civil war.
Resolved, That it is fortunate for the aiders and abettors of John
Brown’s crimes of treason and murder, that we are a law abiding people,
and do not, like themselves. act on the principle that one wrong justifies
another. Else the outraged sense of our people might with sudden and sharp
justice, and not waiting for the forms of law, visit them with the penalties
due to their crimes, and that forbearing violence and personal wrong to
these wicked persons, we give them warning that they hereafter forbear to
brew these provocations which are such a disgrace to our city, lest our-
selves, and other law-abiding citizens, aided by the civil authorities, shall
be unable to restrain the violent expression of that indignation which is fast
obtaining among the people.
Chief of Police—Will the ladies leave the Hall? We give them five
minutes. Then we will clear the Hall by police force.
Cries—Women, don’t go. No! No!
The ladies on the main floor all took seats. Those in the galleries
looked daggers. All seemed as though they were determined to resist to the
last. They did not now appear greatly excited.
Sanborn again appeared on the platform, and as he was commencing to
speak the Police seized him and ran him off the platform, hatless.
Cries for a speech from Howe.
Voice—Douglas[s] broke up the meeting.
The platform was now cleared. Comparative quiet prevailed.
Voice—Mr. Chairman, I move we now proceed to have a Union
meeting in this hall. Seconded.
The police went into the galleries and attempted to clear it. The women
resisted.
Gentlemen—Mr. Chief of Police, will you clear the hall, and give us
the assurance it will not be opened again to-day?
Chief—I cannot do anything that way. Mr. Hayes is the man.
At a quarter to 1 o’clock the hall was comparatively quiet.
The police occupied the platform and some occupied seats in various
parts of the building.
The women chatted away—some laughing at the police, others at their
own or some one else’s jokes.
While this was going on Fred. Douglas[s] returned to the hall, when
the mass arose from their seats and angrily demanded that he be put out. He
was instantly surrounded by an excited crowd. It seemed that he was about
to be subjected to violence, when it was announced that he was only
looking after a portable desk, which he had left in the hurry of his former
departure.
As Mr. Douglas[s] was proceeding along the rear part of the platform,
followed by the police and a crowd, he met a white, respectable looking
gentleman, and had a shake of hands.
White man—How do you do?
Douglas[s]—Oh! my! This is awful! awful!
Voice—Douglas[s], give us a Black Republican tune on the organ.
(Laughter.)
Most of the colored people had left the Temple, but many of them were
near the outside doors asking admittance, and loudly demanding ven-
geance on those who had interfered with their rights.
The desk for which Mr. Douglas[s] was looking, was soon found
behind a pile of chairs, and was handed to him by a policeman. He re-
mained upon the platform for sometime, freely expressing his mind, in the
presence of a dozen or two persons who surrounded him.
Groups of persons were also holding discussions in various parts of the
hall.
At five minutes to one o’clock Mr. Douglas[s] took a seat at the rear of
the platform. He was soon surrounded by some white friends. While
engaged in an animated conversation he said, he thought it bad policy for
any party, under any circumstances, to attempt to put down free speech.
Voice—All up!
Douglas[s]—(softly)—Don’t go with those people, young men, as
you will find they will soon lead you into a hopeless minority. If we had
taken the 4th of July to have held this meeting I have no doubt it would have
been the same.
Voice—Let’s go in for union with the ladies.
Voice—No! too much spoils!
At one o’clock the crowd in the galleries was great.
At five minutes past one o’clock, J. M. Howe came forward, took the
chair, and read the call for the meeting.
A large space about him was kept clear by the police.
Mr. Howe recapitulated what had been done, and the cheers which
occasionally interrupted him showed that the Union men were still prepon-
derant in numbers.
Some one called for the reading of the Union resolutions. The Chair-
man read them.
Mr. Howe, in reading the call said—And Hon. Henry Wilson—U.—
S.—S. (Laughter, Hisses.)
The Trustees of the Temple, accompanied by the Superintendent of the
building, Mr. Hayes, and Mr. Martin, made their appearance on the stage.
The Chief of Police stopped Mr. Howe from speaking.
THE BUSINESS OF CLEARING THE HALL.
The Chief here went forward, silenced the noise, and announced that
he had received orders from the Mayor to clear the hall.
Then followed a loud continuous shout, and the Chief of Police, reap-
pearing with a reinforcement of men, a shout went up—“Down with the
niggers! down on ’em! down upon ’em! put ’em out!”
Deacon Converse,26James Wheaton Converse (?—1892) was a Boston hide and leather merchant active in Baptist affairs. After Tremont Temple burned in 1852 he played a leading role in soliciting funds for its reconstruction and in 1855 became one of its five trustees. Boston Directory . . . 1852, 60, 296, Appendix,. 44; Willis Milnor Dixon, Kith and Kin (Los Angeles, 1922), 53; Henry S. Burrage, A History of the Baptists in New England (Philadelphia, 1894), 298—300. one of the Trustees, said—We had no objection
to the meeting being held as long as it could be kept quiet and orderly. Now
the house must be closed for the day and for the evening.
Mr. Howe—You have heard what has been said. The Mayor has
ordered the hall to be closed, and the Trustees are satisfied no meeting can
be held. (Applause)
Voice—That’s what we wanted.
Mr. Howe—I recommend that we now adjourn. Carried.
Mr. Howe—I recommend that all leave the hall, that the building may
be closed. (Applause and cheers.)
The audience straightway commenced leaving the hall—the Police
finding difficulty with some persons.
Mr. Martin gave notice that a meeting would be held during the night in
the Joy Street Church.
Amid cheering and some general confusion, Mr. Sanborn ran upon the
stage, but was put off of it by the police.
A minister of the gospel with a white neck tie, refused to leave the
platform. The police seized him. He turned round and called them negro
catchers. They ran the minister off the platform. While pushing him to the
door he caught hold of a seat, but they got his hands loose; he then sat
down; he was soon jerked up and taken to the door and run down stairs.
Said another minister—Mr. Policeman, be careful. There is one look-
ing at you.
Policeman, (turning round.) you go down too. (Down went minister
No. 2.)
A John Brown man, who tried to speak, and who refused to leave the
premises, was taken by the legs and arms and carried over the seats and out
of the main hall.
A good, heavy, matronly looking woman refused to get up out of her
seat for a policeman. The policeman requested her to get up several times.
She strenuously refused so to do. The policeman meditated one moment.
He stooped down and caught the woman under the arms as she took hold on
the seat.
Woman in the gallery—Ain’t you ’shamed?
Man down stairs—Policeman! look! look! he’s hugging her! The
woman! the woman! See! see!
Woman—(Near by Policeman) you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
The woman was put out.
Judge Russell27Thomas B. Russell (1825—87), judge, diplomat, and abolitionist, was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Practicing law in Boston, he was elected judge of the city's municipal court in 1853. Six years later he became first justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts. Changing from a judicial to a political career after the Civil War, Russell was appointed collector of the port of Boston in 1867 and U.S. minister to Venezuela in 1874. In 1879 he was elected to the Massachusetts General Court. From 1879 until his death he also served as chairman of the state board of railroad commissioners. Russell and his wife were personal friends of John Brown, who several times visited their Boston home, remaining hidden there for a week in 1857 to avoid arrest by a U.S. marshal. While imprisoned in Virginia in 1859, Brown, not wanting to be represented by “an ultra Abolitionist," requested Russell to be one of his counsels. Although Russell did not serve in that capacity, he and his wife —who had sent $50 to Brown earlier that year—visited Brown in his cell on the day he was sentenced to hang. Russell again appeared with Douglass in Tremont Temple at the mass meeting celebrating the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863. Douglass, Life and Times, 388-89; Villard, John Brown, 271, 288, 493, 498, 512, 545; Oates, To Purge This Land, 202, 272, 343: Scott, Secret Six, 241, 303; NCAB, 13: 446. was compelled to leave, notwithstanding he desired
not to do so.
Another woman was forcibly put out by the police. Just as the officers
were forcing her down stairs she turned round to him and said—“I am a
mother, but if I had you in a good place wouldn’t I give it to you.” (Down
stairs she went with a jump.)
A young girl, apparently about nineteen, resisted for a little while.
“Now officer,” said she, smiling, “will you produce your authority?”
Officer—“You see my buttons.” Girl—“They look so much like your
face I cannot tell the difference.” Officer—"How so?” Girl—“They are
all brass.” The girl was hurried out with a lot of masculines.
At precisely twenty five minutes to two o’clock the hall was cleared of
all parties—except the reporters, trustees, officers of the building, and
police officers. About eighty policemen were present. The hall was soon
locked up.