the Day" which
denounced Judge Loring for the part he had taken in the rendition of
Anthony Burns.

The discourse which treated of Webster was indeed memorable. I remember
well the solemnity of its opening sentences, and the earnest desire
shown throughout to do justice to the great gifts of the great man,
while no one of his public misdeeds was allowed to escape notice. The
whole performance, painful as it was in parts, was very uplifting, as
the exhibition of true mastery must always be. Its unusual length caused
me to miss the omnibus which should have brought me to South Boston in
good time for our Sunday dinner. As I entered the house and found the
family somewhat impatient of the unwonted delay, I cried, "Let no one
find fault! I have heard the greatest thing that I shall ever hear!"

At the time of the attempted rendition of the fugitive slave Shadrach a
meeting was held in the Melodeon, at which various speakers gave
utterance to the indignation which aroused the whole community. Parker
had been the prime mover in calling this meeting. He had written for it
some verses to be sung to the tune of "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled,"
and he made the closing and most important address. It was on this
occasion that I first saw Colonel Higginson, who was then known as the
Rev. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, pastor of a religious society in
Worcester, Mass. The part assigned to him in the exercises was to read
portions of Scripture appropriate to the day. This he did with excellent
effect. Parker, in the course of his address, held up a torn coat, and
said, "This is the coat of our brother Shadrach," reverting in his mind
to the Bible story of the torn coat of Joseph over which his father
grieved so sorely. As I left the hall I heard some mischievous urchins
commenting upon this. "Nonsense!" cried one of them, "that wasn't
Shadrach's coat at all. That was Theodore's coat." Parker was amused
when I told him of this.

From time to time Parker would speak in his sermons of the position
which woman should hold in a civilized community. The question of
suffrage had not then been brought into prominence, and, as I remember,
he insisted most upon the claim of the sex to equality of education and
of opportunity. On one occasion he invited Lucretia Mott to his pulpit.
On another its privileges were accorded to Mrs. Seba Smith. I was
present one Sunday when he announced to his congregation that the Rev.
Antoinette L. Brown would a