ld his police force in readiness to protect
the meeting in case of need. The day passed quietly. Long before the
time announced for the meeting, the hall, capable of containing three
thousand people, was thronged, and, by the time the speakers arrived,
every seat was filled, every inch of standing room was occupied, and
thousands went away from the doors unable to obtain admittance. The
audience was for the most part a highly respectable and intelligent
one, and, notwithstanding the great crowd, was exceedingly quiet.
William Lloyd Garrison opened the meeting with a short but
characteristic speech, during which he was frequently interrupted by
hisses and groans; and when he ended, some efforts were made to break
up the meeting. In the midst of the confusion, Maria W. Chapman arose,
calm, dignified, and, with a wave of her hand, as though to still the
noise, began to speak, but, before she had gone far, yells from the
outside proclaimed the arrival there of a disorderly rabble, and at
once the confusion inside became so great, that, although the brave
woman continued her speech, she was not heard except by those
immediately around her.

Sarah Grimke thus wrote of Mrs. Chapman's appearance on that occasion:
"She is the most beautiful woman I ever saw; the perfection of
sweetness and intelligence being blended in her speaking countenance.
She arose amid the yells and shouts of the infuriated mob, the crash
of windows and the hurling of stones. She looked to me like an angelic
being descended amid that tempest of passion in all the dignity of
conscious superiority."

Then Angelina Weld, the bride of three days, came forward, and so
great was the effect of her pure, beautiful presence and quiet,
graceful manner, that in a few moments the confusion within the hall
had subsided. With deep solemnity, and in words of burning eloquence,
she gave her testimony against the awful wickedness of an institution
which had no secrets from her. She was frequently interrupted by the
mob, but their yells and shouts only furnished her with metaphors
which she used with unshrinking power. More stones were thrown at the
windows, more glass crashed, but she only paused to ask:--

"What is a mob? What would the breaking of every window be? Any
evidence that we are wrong, or that slavery is a good and wholesome
institution? What if that mob should now burst in upon us, break up
our meeting, and commit violence upon our persons--would this be