" The power of benignity over malignity lasted a few
moments after this little speech, when the situation changed rapidly
from bad to worse. "The tumult continually increased," says an
eye-witness, "with horrible execrations, howling, stamping, and finally
shrieking with rage. They seemed not to dare to enter, notwithstanding
their fury, but mounted on each other's shoulders, so that a row of
hostile heads appeared over the slight partition, of half the height of
the wall which divides the society's rooms from the landing place. We
requested them to allow the door to be shut; but they could not decide
as to whether the request should be granted, and the door was opened and
shut with violence, till it hung useless from its hinges."
Garrison thinking that his absence might quiet these perturbed spirits
and so enable the ladies to hold their meeting without further
molestation volunteered at this juncture to the president of the society
to retire from the hall unless she desired him to remain. She did not
wish him to stay but urged him to go at once not only for the peace of
the meeting but for his own safety. Garrison thereupon left the hall
meaning at the time to leave the building as well, but egress by the way
of the landing and the stairs, he directly perceived was impossible, and
did what seemed the next best thing, entered the anti-slavery office,
separated from the hall by a board partition.
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