dim. Nearly every man who entered expected a bloody riot, and was well armed. By eight o'clock a large and excited assemblage occupied the road and sidewalk, loudly objecting to Phillips's speaking; though his subject was not politics. Prominent near the gate was a Virginian named J. M. C. Loud. This worthy was forward in denouncing Phillips as 'an enemy to the Union.' When a lady drove up, Victor LeGal of West Brighton, followed by several roughs, rushed to her carriage-door, and said, 'I advise you, madam, not to go in: there is going to be trouble.'

"What trouble, sir?' said she calmly.

"Two hundred of us,' said LeGal, 'have sworn to tear this man from the desk, and plant him in the Jersey marshes.'

"The lady looked him steadily in the face, and replied, — "I don't think that will be allowed, sir.'

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Well,' said LeGal, if you know you have force enough to prevent it, go ahead!'

"I do not say any such thing,' answered the lady; 'but this is not a political meeting. I have come to hear a literary lecture, and I think there will be decent men enough here to check any disturbance.'

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The intrepidity of this heroic woman abashed the crowd, and, without doubt, discouraged them from attempting to storm the church in which the lecture was delivered. It was afterward learned that LeGal spoke the real purpose of the leaders of the gang, who meant to row Mr. Phillips to a salt marsh whence he could not escape, and leave him there, to be drowned by the rising tide ere daybreak.

"Mr. Phillips left his carriage at some distance from the churchdoor, and, wrapped in his cloak, went forward on foot. In the dim light he passed unnoticed through the multitude; but,, just as he reached the gate, a rough, who had doubtless helped to disturb anti-slavery meetings in New York, recognized him. Grasping his shoulder, the fellow shouted to the populace, —

"Let me introduce you to Wendell Phillips!'

“The ruffian was instantly dragged off, and Mr. Phillips entered unharmed.

"Mr. Curtis, who evidently apprehended trouble [the narrator continues], took the platform, and introduced Mr. Phillips, who proceeded to deliver his address.

"Voices from the street cried, 'Fetch him out! Fetch him out!' The janitor and his aid closed and fastened the outer door, and Mr. Phillips proceeded with his lecture. Some member of the mob outside took a ladder to a window on the south side of the church, and, climbing up, pulled the blind open. Some one inside at once jerked it back, and fastened it shut. This made a loud noise for several minutes. The assembly all looked round, but sat still. Mr. Phillips stopped, and stood watching the matter, till the noise ceased, and then went on with perfect self-possession.

"When the lecture ended, which it did earlier than the rowdies expected, the speaker, instead of waiting to be spoken to by his hearers as usual, stepped at once to the pew where Mrs. Shaw and Mrs. Curtis sat, and, giving an arm to each, joined the stream of people moving out, being about midway of the line. In the midst of the outgoing congregation he passed unnoticed through the mob, and walked away. When all the audience had passed out, Mr. Shaw in a hurried manner rushed forth, and sprang into his carriage, which was driven quickly off. A rabble pursued it, yelling, cursing, and throwing stones; but, when they had gone some distance, a friend of the speaker shouted, 'You're too late! He's not in there!' Mortified and discouraged, the mob stopped the chase, and dispersed."

The first anniversary of Brown's execution was remembered in Boston by a public meeting proposed to be held at Tremont Temple. The times were fraught

with danger. The South was on the eve of an outbreak. Abraham Lincoln had been elected President. The conservative papers were bitterly opposed to the idea of holding a public meeting. But the anti-slavery people had a fixed purpose; and Joseph Story Fay, J. Murray Howe, and other rioters, by taking possession of the hall, made that purpose successful.

Finding that the use of Tremont Temple was denied to them, Mr. Phillips and his associates were forced to look elsewhere. The Joy-street church was opened to them.

"There [says Mr. Slack, who was present at the meeting] Phillips spoke with regal magnificence and dauntless courage; while the court-way beside the church, and the street in front, were filled with angry and yelling Union-savers. They thought Phillips could not emerge without passing through their ranks, and they were prepared for violence towards them. But there was a rear passage-way, very narrow, from the meeting-house through to South Russell Street; and out by that avenue, single file, walked Phillips and his friends, and thence up the hill to Myrtle, and so to Joy, Street, and across the Common to Mr. Phillips's Essex-street residence. When the mob heard that Mr. Phillips had escaped, they rushed up the hill, and overtook his escort just as it had descended the stone steps leading to the Beacon-street mall. They found a cordon of young men, forty or more in number, who, with locked arms and closely compacted bodies, had Phillips in the centre of their circle, and were safely bearing him home. Timidity, or a conviction that an assault would be fruitless, prompted them to take satisfaction at the discovery only in yells and execration."

CHAPTER XIII.

PHILLIPS DURING WAR-TIME.

The Outbreak of Rebellion. - Winter of 1860-61.-The Fight for Free Speech in Boston. - The Personal-Liberty Act. - Status of the Press. The Virginia Peace Commission. - President Lincoln inaugurated. The First Gun. - The Country aroused. - Phillips at New Bedford. - The Call for Troops.-The Patriotism of the Press. The Memorable April Twenty-first. - A Morning Meeting in State Street. - Wendell Phillips in Music Hall. "Under the Flag."-State Conventions. - The Question of Slavery ignored. – The Year 1862. - The Emancipation Proclamation. - Ratification Meeting. Phillips favors arming the Colored Men. The "July Riot." Progress of the War. - The Thirteenth Amendment. Peace. Return of Troops. - Woman Suffrage. Conventions of 1866-69.

"Civil war needs momentous and solemn justification. I think that the history of the nation and of the government, both, is an ample justification to our own times and to history for this appeal to arms."

"I believe in the possibility of justice, in the certainty of union. Years hence, when the smoke of this conflict clears away, the world will see under our banner all tongues, all creeds, all races, - one brotherhood, and on the banks of the Potomac, the genius of Liberty, robed in light, four and thirty stars for her diadem, broken chains under her feet, and an olive-branch in her right hand."

IN

N his valedictory address, delivered on the 3d of January, 1861, Gov. Banks alluded to one topic which had a direct bearing on the war which was so soon to open. The Legislature of 1858 had passed an Act for the protection of personal liberty, which was

intended to mitigate the harsh provisions of the Fugitive-slave Law. Judge Story had ruled that the Constitution contemplated the existence of a "positive, unqualified right on the part of the owner of a slave, which no State law or regulation can in any way qualify, regulate, control, or restrain."

This opinion of the Supreme Court was approved by the State Legislature, and confirmed by the Supreme Judicial Court. Said Gov. Banks,

"It is not my purpose to defend the constitutionality of the Fugitive-slave Act. The omission of a provision for jury trial, however harsh and cruel, cannot in any event be supplied by State legislation. While I am constrained to doubt the right of this State to enact such laws, I do not admit, that, in any just sense, it is a violation of the national compact. It is only when unconstitutional legislation is enforced by executive authority that it assumes that character, and no such result has occurred in this State. . . . I cannot but regard the maintenance of the statute-although it may be within the extremest limits of constitutional power, which is so unnecessary to the public service, and so detrimental to the public peace- as an inexcusable public wrong. I hope by common consent it may be removed from the statutebook, and such guaranties as individual freedom demands be sought in new legislation."1

In the election of 1860, there were four gubernatorial candidates in the Massachusetts field. John A.

1 These and other words embraced in Gov. Banks's address were made prominent pretexts by the Disunion party to justify a dissolution of the Union.

C