ing in October, 1835. The conveners were menaced and threatened. The city was posted with notices that "the infamous foreign scoundrel, Thompson," would speak at the meeting, and it would be fair for the friends of the Union to "snake him out." One hundred dollars were offered to the individual who would first lay hands on him, "so that he could be brought to the tar kettle." George Thompson was the man whose brilliant advocacy of West India emancipation Lord Brougham acknowledged when he said, in 1833: "I rise to take the crown of this most glorious victory from every other head, and place it upon George Thompson. He has done more than any other man to achieve it." The meeting had scarcely begun when the mayor came in, entreating the Boston women to dissolve their meeting, or he could not preserve the peace. The building was encompassed by an infuriated mob. The meeting adjourned, and the rioters burst in shrieking for Garrison, whom they knew to be there. They seized him and put a rope round him; they knocked his hat from his head, and tore his clothes from his body. As he was being dragged through the streets he was rescued by the mayor and put into the Leverett Street jail to save him from his would-be murderers. This mob also was organised by wealthy, influential and reputedly pious men. Did space permit, I could heap instances upon instances of the violence by which the upholders of slavery stifled speech and fettered press.
The Florida war was carried on through eight long years in the interest of Georgia slaveholders, and cost nearly forty million dollars and hundreds of lives. When Texas belonged to Mexico, slaveholders cast hungry eyes upon her fertile soil, and in defiance of the decree abolishing slavery throughout the Mexican Republic, adventurers from the Southern States migrated thither, carrying slaves with them. A conspiracy was formed to bring about the annexation of Texas, and the first step towards it was the recognition of her Independence in 1837. In 1841 slavery once more carried the day, and the resolution of annexation "was hailed with every demonstration of uproarious delight, by bonfires, illuminations and volleys of artillery, by social revelry and mutual congratulations." The most corrupt influences were brought to bear on Congress—Texan scrip, land speculations, and gamblings in human flesh were the influences moving those who inflicted this new wound on liberty. In 1846 Texas was admitted into the Union as a State.
Everywhere the slave power gained ground. Old laws oppressing free colored people were revived; new and harsher ones were enacted. In the Border States vain efforts were made on behalf of the colored race. In Kentucky a Convention was called, in 1849, for the revision of the Constitution. Meetings were held and resolutions passed against slavery. Eloquent speeches were made, and journalists wrote in favor of emancipa-
