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

150 LETTERS.
to the meeting, it appeared that the trustees had desired him to disperse the vmob, and not the meeting.
The presiding officer (Mr. Edmund Quincy) thereupon called upon him to fulfil his duty and eject the
imob from the hall, which was done within ten m-inutes,
to the intense chagrin of the rioters and the discomfiture of the mayor, and the meeting proceeded without further serious interruption. The mayor, on
leaving the hall, promised that an adequate police
force should be sent to protect the evening meeting,
and he then returned to the City Hall to issue an
order that the hall should be closed and no meeting
permitted there that evening. These events took
place at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts
Anti-Slavery Society, on the 24th of January, 1861.
-EDS.]
TO THE SAME.
WAYLAND, May 5, 1861.
I am glad to witness the universal enthusiasm for
the U. S. flag, though the sight of that flag always
inspires a degree of sadness in my own breast. I
should so delight in having it thoroughly worthy of
being honored! But every flap of the stars and
stripes repeats to me the story of those poor slaves
who, through great perils and sufferings, succeeded
in making their way to Fort Pickens, strengthened
by the faith that President Lincoln was their friend,
and that his soldiers would protect them. They
were chained and sent back to their masters, who
whipped them till they nearly died under the lash.
WVhen such things are done under the U. S. flag, I
cannot and I will not say, " God bless it! " Nay,
unless it ceases from this iniquity, I say, deliberately