OUTRAGE UPON THE STONINGTON RAILROAD!

Friend Douglass:ーLast night we had one of the most exciting meetings that the citizens of this "law and order" city have had since the Dorrie war. The moving circumstances were as follows:

A few days ago, a respectable colored gentlemen, an Anti-Slavery and Temperance lecturer, had occasion to take the cars on the Stonington Railroad, in order that he might go to Hopkinton. His name is Jeremiah Myers, a resident of Athol, in Massachusetts.—He applied for a ticket at the Providence depot, and the clerk gave him one for the second class. Mr. Myers told him that he did not want that ticket, and he received one of the first class. He then repaired to his seat, but as he attempted to enter the car, he was met by a puppy of a conductor, who told him that there was a car provided for niggers, and he must go there. Mr. Myers told him that he should go where his ticket directed, whereupon the ruffian railroad servant threw him from the platform, endangering his life. Mr. Myers did not go, or was not suffered to go, as a man.

The friends of freedom, white and colored, made this outrage a common cause. Yesterday, flaming handbills were put out, and last night the spacious Mechanics' Hall was crowded with fifteen hundred people. Mr. George Clark was called to the chair, and Otis Richardson was appointed Secretary. A business committee of three was appointed, who retired to report resolutions, during whose absence Mr. Myers took the stand, and made his statement, which was listened to with the deepest interest. He was followed by Mr. Richardson.

Mr. Garnet, of Troy, N.Y., moved the adoption of the resolutions, and said that he arose to preach a short sermon, and his text was, the aristocratic, purse-proud and overbearing Stonington Railroad. (Laughter.)ーOf all the lines upon American soil, this was the meanest and the most iniquitous. He knew of no reason why it should be so, unless it was because the steamboats belonging to that line, on leaving New York, passed through "Hell-Gate," and received special orders from the keeper of that far-famed place, (laughter and applause.) No money, no appeal, however humble and tender, could save a portion of the travelling public from outrage and abuse on that road. A few years ago, the Rev. Theodore S. Wright, of New York, together with his venerable father and the Rev. Alexander Crummell, and himself took passage on this line. The night was one of the stormiest he ever witnessed upon the Sound. All the passengers, excepting this company, had retired to the cabin, and not until then did they venture upon the afterdeck. They had been there but a few minutes before one of the boat's crew ordered them to go forward. Mr. Wright mildly remonstrated, whereupon he was seized by the throat and was thrown to the deck. (Shame! shame!) They were compelled to go forward, where they remained until about eleven o'clock, shivering in the storm. At that hour, the cook kindly invited them into the kitchen, where they slept in chairs until the next morning, when they arrived in Providence, the city of Roger Williams. On that same line, the wife of Mr. Wright, was indirectly murdered. (Great sensation.) She was a lady of delicate and feeble health, and in travelling on that route, she was so much exposed that on her return home she took to her bed and died. These things the law has not noticed. The people have suffered them to exist, and that, too, in a land where it is boasted that the people govern. The church had known this, and the priest and the Levite in too many instances passed by the whole matter. That Railroad company, through its servants, treated their wives and daughters worse than they did brutes. He had seen ladies in the first class cars with their poodle dogs in their armsーwhite ladies he meant—but respectable, intelligent and Christian colored people were thrust out, and were sometimes beaten. Well, what did all that indicate? It showed the tastes of the company, and the clean, delicate and refined ladies and gentlemen, who could not suffer a person of color to come between their nobility and the wind, except in the capacity of a servant. They were welcome to their preferences. It was an old adage, that "birds of a feather would flock together," and he knew not why dogs of the same breed might not prefer to live together on the Stonington Railroad.ー(Great laughter and applause.)

It was on that same road that his beloved and able friend, Frederick Douglass, had been dragged from the cars, and beaten.ー(Shame!) This was the only road in New England where such barbarism was tolerated. On the whole chain of road from Maine to the shore of Lake Erie, there was no such outrage perpetrated. Rhode Island stands alone, among her New England sisters, in such iniquity. This was a land of "law and order," and we should make the case of his friend Myers a common cause. What was done to one, was done to all. (True, true.) He hoped that there was spirit enough in the people to carry the case before a tribunal of justice, as the resolution suggested. He would advise his brethren always to remonstrate, and resist in some way or other, when abused in this manner. Resistance would secure respect from friends and foes. He would not pretend to say how they should resist, but they should resist. For his part, he generally hugged the seats, and sometimes they would go with him as a whole or in part. (Laughter.)

If every colored man who should be molested on our railroads, would give their assailants affectionate embraces, after the mode of the grizly bear, these upstarts would soon become weary of such manifestations of brotherly love. (Long applause.) He would not say that it would be well to fight, but would simply say, hug those gentlemen. He was the last colored person that was pulled from the cars of the Utica & Schenectady road. Then it required four stout men to do it, notwithstanding he was compelled to support himself upon crutches. Very soon after that transaction, the company altered the odious arrangement. No good was secured in this world without suffering and sacrifice. He believed that the whole of this oppression was in violation of the company's charter. If the charter allowed them to practise such things, then it was unconstitutional, and should be legally tested.

He was happy to see such an overwhelming meeting to-night, and he hoped that the meeting would act as one man in rebuking the villanous conduct, the perpetration of which had so generally aroused the public. (Applause.) Mr. Garnet resumed his seat.

The meeting was further addressed by Messrs. Davis, Hammond, Wheeler, Myers, Richardson and the Chairman.

The meeting also adopted a petition to the Legislature, praying that a law may be passed prohibiting such outrages.

Many of the most respectable citizens of Providence were present. The whole assembly consisted of at least one thousand five hundred persons. The meeting adjourned a quarter past ten. It was one of the most enthusiastic meetings ever held in this city.

LIBERTAS.

Providence, April 4, 1848.