, the adoption of the preamble to the
constitution. The character of the preamble would fix the character of
the society. Therefore that which was properly first was made to come
last. The fourth meeting took place on the night of January 6th in the
African Baptist Church on what was then Belknap but now known as Joy
street. The young leader and fourteen of his followers met that evening
in the school-room for colored children, situated under the auditorium
of the church. They could hardly have fallen upon a more obscure or
despised place for the consummation of their enterprise in the city of
Boston than was this selfsame negro church and school-room. The weather
added an ever memorable night to the opprobrium of the spot. A fierce
northeaster accompanied with "snow, rain, and hail in equal proportions"
was roaring and careering through the city's streets. To an eye-witness,
Oliver Johnson, "it almost seemed as if Nature was frowning upon the new
effort to abolish slavery; but," he added, "the spirits of the little
company rose superior to all external circumstances."
If there was strife of the elements without, neither was there sweet
accord within among brethren. "The spirits of the little company" may
have risen superior to the weather, but they did not rise superior to
the preamble, with the principle of immediatism incorporated in it.
Eleven stood by the leader and made it the chief of the corner of the
new society, while three, Messrs.
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