He got Burleigh to write a general relation of the mob for
publication in the _Liberator_, and Whittier to indite another, with an
appeal to the public, the same to be published immediately, and of which
he ordered three thousand copies for himself.
"I further ordered," he writes, "one thousand copies of A. Grimke's
letter, with your introductory remarks, and your address published in
the _Liberator_ several weeks since, with your name appended, and
Whittier's poetry on the times, in a pamphlet form. I urged all our
friends to redouble their exertions. They seemed well disposed to accept
the advice, as nothing will now avail but thorough measures. _Liberty or
Death_!"
This is a fair specimen of the indomitable, indefatigable spirit which
was born of the attempt to put Abolitionism down by lawlessness and
violence. Indeed, the "Broad-Cloth Mob," viewed in the light of the
important consequences which followed it, was equal to a hundred
anti-slavery meetings, or a dozen issues of the _Liberator_.
It is a curious and remarkable circumstance that, on the very day of the
Boston mob, there occurred one in Utica, N.Y., which was followed by
somewhat similar results. An anti-slavery convention was attacked and
broken up by a mob of "gentlemen of property and standing in the
community," under the active leadership of a member of Congress. Here
there was an apparent defeat for the Abolitionists, but the consequences
which followed the outrage proved it a blessing in disguise.
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