s of the North
which broke out on the passage of the infamous bill? Who could have
foretold the moral and political consequences of its execution, for
instance, in Boston, which fifteen years before had mobbed anti-slavery
women and dragged Garrison through its streets? The moral indignation
aroused by the law in Massachusetts swept Webster and the Whigs from
power, carried Sumner to the Senate and crowned Liberty on Beacon Hill.
It worked a revolution in Massachusetts, it wrought changes of the
greatest magnitude in the free States.

From this time the reign of discord became universal. The conflict
between the sections increased in virulence. At the door of every man
sat the fierce figure of strife. It fulmined from the pulpit and frowned
from the pews. The platforms of the free States resounded with the
thunder of tongues. The press exploded with the hot passions of the
hour. Parties warred against each other. Factions arose within parties
and fought among themselves with no less bitterness. Wrath is infectious
and the wrathful temper of the nation became epidemic. The Ishmaelitish
impulse to strike something or someone, was irresistible. The bonds
which had bound men to one another seemed everywhere loosening, and
people in masses were slipping away from old to enter into new
combinations of political activity. It was a period of tumultuous
transition and confusion. The times were topsy-turvy and old Night and
Chaos were the angels who sat by the bubbling abysses of the revolution.

In the midst of this universal and violent agitation of the public mind
the old dread of disunion returned to torment the American
_bourgeoisie_, who through their presses, especially those of the
metropolis of the Union, turned fiercely upon the Abolitionists. While
the compromise measures were the subject of excited debate before
Congress, the anniversary meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society
fell due. But the New York journals, the _Herald_ in particular, had no
mind to allow the meeting to take place without renewing the reign of
terror of fifteen years before. Garrison was depicted as worse than
Robespierre, with an insatiable appetite for the destruction of
established institutions, both human and divine. The dissolution of the
Union, the "overthrow of the churches, the Sabbath, and the Bible," all
were required to glut his malevolent passion. "Will the men of sense
allow meetings to be held in this city which are calculate