of the land to the other is denied to us, except on peril of our lives....  Therefore it is, I assert, that the Union is now virtually dissolved....  Look at McDuffie’s sanguinary message!  Read Calhoun’s Report to the U.S.  Senate, authorizing every postmaster in the South to plunder the mail of such Northern letters or newspapers as he may choose to think incendiary!  Sir, the alternative presented to the people of New England is this:  they must either submit to be gagged and fettered by Southern taskmasters, or labor unceasingly for the removal of slavery from our country.”

This was a capital stroke, a bold and brilliant adaptation of the history of the times to the advancement of the anti-slavery movement in New England.  Missing Garrison, the anger of the chairman fell upon Goodell and Prof.  Follen, like a tiger’s whelp.  Follen was remarking upon the Faneuil Hall meeting, how it had rendered the Abolitionists odious in Boston, and how, in consequence, the mob had followed the meeting.

“Now, gentlemen,” the great scholar continued, “may we most reasonably anticipate that similar consequences would follow the expression by the legislature of a similar condemnation?  Would not the mob again undertake to execute the informal sentence of the General Court?  Would it not let loose again its bloodhounds upon us?”

At this point Mr. Lunt peremptorily stopped the speaker, exclaiming: 

“Stop, sir!  You may not pursue this course of remark.  It is insulting to this committee and the legislature which they represent.”

The Abolitionists, after this insult, determined to withdraw from the hearing, and appeal to the legislature to be heard, not as a favor but of right.  A new hearing was, therefore, ordered, and the reformers appeared a second time before the committee.  But the scenes of the first were repeated at the second hearing.  The chairman was intolerably insolent to the speakers.  His violent behavior to William Goodell, who was paying his respects to the Southern documents lying on the table of the committee, terminated the second hearing.  These documents Mr. Goodell described as fetters for Northern freemen, and boldly interrogated the chairman in respect of them thus: 

“Mr. Chairman, are you prepared to attempt putting them on?” But the chairman was in no mood to listen to the question.  His insolence reached a climax as he exclaimed passionately to Mr. Goodell, “Stop, sir!  Sit down, sir!  The committee will hear no more of this.”  But the temper of the Abolitionists had risen also, as had also risen the temper of the great audience of citizens who were present at the hearing which was had in the hall of the House of Representatives.  “Freemen we came,” retorted Goodell, “and as freemen we shall go away.”  Scarcely had these words died upon the ears when there rose sharply from the auditory, the stern protest “Let us go quickly, lest we be made slaves.”