gradually subsided,
until there was hardly an antislavery editor of average discernment who
did not come to see that a national organ like the Era, by legitimating
discussion and keeping up the heat and blaze of a vigorous agitation, at
the nation's very centre, against that nation's own giant crime, would
prove a benefit, in the end, to all colaborers worthy of the name. And
the increase of antislavery journals, as well as of vigor in conducting
them, in the period subsequent to 1847, proved that this was the correct
view.

Although now so favorably placed for contest with his great foe, Dr.
Bailey was here subjected to a renewal of the assaults which had become
painfully familiar in the West. His paper had not been in existence more
than fifteen months when an event occurred which, although he had in it
no agency whatever, brought down upon his devoted head a fourth
discharge of the vials of popular wrath. Some seventy or eighty slaves
attempted to escape from Washington in the steamer Pearl, and instantly
the charge of complicity was laid at his door. His office and dwelling
were surrounded by a furious crowd, including a large proportion of
office-holding F.F.V.'s, and some "gentlemen of property and standing."
These gentlemen threatened the entire destruction of the press and type
of the Era, while the editor's personal safety, with that of his family,
was again put in peril for the space of three terrific days. The Federal
metropolis had never known such days since the torch applied by a
foreign foe had wrapped the first Capitol in flames. The calm
self-possession of Dr. Bailey, when he made his appearance unarmed
before the swaying mob, and addressed them from the steps of his
dwelling,--as described by the late Dr. Houston in a letter to the New
York Tribune, from notes taken while he was concealed in the house,--was
such that, while disarming the leaders with the simple majesty of the
truth, it did not fail to produce a reaction even in the most
exasperated members of the mob.

It would indeed be an interesting task to trace the public influence of
this last demonstration, for it offered phases of interest to both
parties. It is sufficient to say, that the Era's unmolested existence
ever after was simply due to the instincts of self-preservation in the
community. The issue was practically presented to the owners of real
estate in the District, whether freedom of debate on all topics of
public concern should