only refused to hear his message themselves, but debarred others from listening to the woes and wrongs of fellow-creatures in bondage.  As Mr. Garrison truly said at the time:  “If I had visited Newburyport to plead the cause of twenty white men in chains, every hall and every meeting-house would have been thrown open, and the fervor of my discourses anticipated and exceeded by my fellow-townsmen.  The fact that two millions of colored beings are groaning in bondage, in this land of liberty, excites no interest nor pity.”  If these damning facts are remembered sixty years after their occurrence to the shame of the trustees of the two churches, viz., the Presbyterian Church on Harris street and the Second Congregational Church, it is also remembered to the honor of the two pastors, Rev. Dr. Daniel Dana, and the Rev. Dr. Luther F. Dimmick, that they had thrown open to the prophet the doors of their meeting-houses, which the trustees afterward slammed in his face.

In Boston the same hard luck followed him.  In all that city of Christian churches he could not obtain the use of a single meeting-house, “in which to vindicate the rights of TWO MILLIONS of American citizens, who are now groaning in servile chains in this boasted land of liberty; and also to propose just, benevolent, and constitutional measures for their relief.”  So ran an advertisement in the Boston Courier of the sorely tried soul.  For two weeks he had gone up and down the town in search of a room free of cost, in which to deliver his message.  The door of every sanctuary was locked against his cause.  It was then, as a final recourse, that he turned to the Courier, and made his last appeal to the Christian charity of the city.  The prayer of the prophet was answered from an unexpected quarter.  It was that ecclesiastical dragon of the times, Abner Kneeland, and his society of “blasphemers,” who proved afresh the truth of that scripture which says:  “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”  It was they that gave to liberty a hearing, to the prophet of righteousness a chance to deliver his message.  It was in their meeting-house, in Julian Hall, that Garrison gave his lectures, giving the first one on the evening of October 15, 1830.

Samuel J. May, who was present, has preserved his impressions of the lecture and lecturer.  “Never before,” he records many years afterward, “was I so affected by the speech of man.  When he had ceased speaking I said to those around me:  ’That is a providential man; he is a prophet; he will shake our nation to its center, but he will shake slavery out of it.  We ought to know him, we ought to help him.  Come, let us go and give him our hands.’  Mr. Sewall and Mr. Alcott went up with me and we introduced each other.  I said to him, ’Mr. Garrison, I am not sure that I can indorse all you have said this evening.  Much of it requires careful consideration.