Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

LETTERS. 149
This tantalized the mob, and they began to call out,
"Speak louder! We want to hear what you're saying." Whereupon he raised his voice, and for half
an hour he seemed to hold them in the hollow of his
hand. But as soon as he sat down they began to
yell and sing again, to prevent any more speaking.
But Higginson made himself heard through the storm,
and spoke in very manly and effective style; the purport of which was that to-day he would set aside the
subject of slavery, and take his stand upon the right
of free speech, which the members of this society
were determined to maintain at every hazard. I forgot to mention that Wendell Phillips was preceded
by James Freeman Clarke, whom the mob treated
with such boisterous insults that he was often obliged
to pause in his remarks. After Mr. Phillips, R. W.
Emerson tried to address the people, but his voice
was completely drowned. After the meeting adjourned, a large mob outside waited for Mr. Phillips,
but he went out by the private entrance, and arrived
home safely.
In the afternoon meeting the uproar was greater
than it had been in the forenoon. The mob cheered
and hurrahed for the Union, and for Edward Everett,
for Mayor Wightman, and for Charles Francis Adams.
The mayor came at last, and, mounting the platform,
informed his " fellow-citizens" in the galleries that
the trustees of the building had requested him to
disperse the meeting and clear the hall. Turning
the meeting out-of-doors was precisely what they
wanted him to do.
[The remainder of this letter has been lost, but the
purport of it was, that on the mayor's complying
with the demand that he should read the letter aloud