John Jay Chapman, William Lloyd Garrison

[102] mob (October 21, 1835), which led Garrison about with a rope round him-and might easily have ended in his death. General Jackson, the President of the United States, referred to the recent Pro-slavery demonstration at the North in his Message to Congress, in December, 1835.

“ It is fortunate for the country,” he says, “that the good sense, the generous feeling, and the deep-rooted attachment of the people of the non-slaveholding States to the Union, and to their fellow citizens of the same blood in the South, have given so strong and impressive a tone to the sentiments entertained against the proceedings of the misguided persons who have engaged in these unconstitutional and wicked attempts [ ‘to circulate through the mails inflammatory appeals addressed to the passions of the slaves ’ ].”

Here was support from high quarters. It was not till January, 1836, that the time came for Edward Everett, Governor of Massachusetts, to take notice of the entreaties of the Southern States. In his Message to the Massachusetts Legislature he intimated that the Abolitionists could be punished under the law as it stood: because “whatever by direct and necessary operation is calculated ”