throw
around a bad cause were given it; the excited multitude seemed actually
ready to leap up beneath the magic of his speech. It would be something,
if one must die, to die by such a hand--a hand somewhat worthy and able
to stifle anti-slavery, if it could be stifled. The orator was worthy of
the gigantic task attempted; and thousands crowded before him, every one
of their hearts melted by that eloquence, beneath which Massachusetts
had bowed, not unworthily, for more than thirty years."

Here is a specimen of the sort of goading which the wild-cat-like spirit
of the city got from the orators. It is taken from the speech of Peleg
Sprague. The orator is paying his respects to George Thompson, "an
avowed _emissary_" "_a professed agitator_," who "comes here from the
dark and corrupt institutions of Europe to enlighten _us_ upon the
rights of man and the moral duties of our own condition. Received by our
hospitality, he stands here upon our soil, protected by our laws, and
hurls firebrands, arrows, and death into the habitations of our
neighbors and friends, and brothers; and when he shall have kindled a
conflagration which is sweeping in desolation over our land, he has only
to embark for his own country, and there look serenely back with
indifference or exultation upon the widespread ruin by which _our_
cities are wrapt in flames, and _our_ garments rolled in blood."

The great meeting was soon a thing of the past but not so its effects.
The echoes of Otis and Sprague did not cease at its close. They thrilled
in the air, they thrilled long afterward in the blood of the people.
When the multitude dispersed Mischief went out into the streets of the
city with them. Wherever afterward they gathered Mischief made one in
their midst. Mischief was let loose, Mischief was afoot in the town. The
old town was no place for the foreign emissary, neither was it a safe
place for the arch-agitator. On the day after the meeting, Garrison and
his young wife accordingly retreated to her father's home at Brooklyn,
Conn., where the husband needed not to be jostling elbows with Mistress
Mischief, and her _pals_.

Garrison's answer to the speeches of Otis and Sprague was in his
sternest vein. He is sure after reading them that, "there is more guilt
attaching to the people of the free States from the continuance of
slavery, than those in the slave States." At least he is ready to affirm
upon the authority of Orator Sprague, "that New Engl