[297]
Happily, the members of the American A. S. Society are deeply imbued with the spirit of peace as well as of liberty, and believe in overcoming evil with good; for, abandoned as they were to the insults and outrages of the mob by the city authorities, had they resorted to violence in self-defence, the most deplorable consequences might have followed.
That I uttered the calm conviction, that an assault so brutal and unjustifiable would aid, instead of injuring, the sacred cause of emancipation [is] true; but, of course, not with any gratification at such an outrage, in itself considered.
I am fully persuaded of the truth of the scriptural declaration, that the God of justice will “cause the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain.”
So far from curbing or preventing the mob, the
1 Aldermen even passed resolves condemning the irreligious and blasphemous meetings of the abolitionists, and requesting
Mayor Woodhull to break them up; but these were
2 subsequently recalled.
It was from the
Mayor that the
Chief of Police received his instructions to pay no
3 attention to anything short of actual assault and battery.
Hence his captains and their hundreds looked on
4 passively at the scenes in the hall of the
Society Library in the evening of May 7, when some two dozen rioters drowned with jocose and abusive interlocutions, with
5 hisses, oaths, catcalls, and a general charivari, the attempted speeches of
Parker Pillsbury,
Stephen S. Foster, and
Mrs. Ernestine L. Rose.
Wednesday's sessions opened in the morning at the
6 same place.
According to the
Tribune's report of the
7 proceedings—
Mr. Garrison wished to say, once for all, that though this was a meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society, yet the doors were wide open to those who dissented; they were invited here in good faith, and should have, if they desired it, a full and fair hearing.
They who are unwilling to accept an offer so generous, must certainly be conscious that they have no argument to bring against us, and in actions of noisy violence they do injury to the good name of Freedom.
If any one wishes to address the meeting, either for or against the resolutions, this platform is at his or her service.
Lib. 20:[78].
