The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-06-09
LAWRENCE, KANSAS TERRITORY, SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1856
Changes tobs Noted.

Changes to be Noted.
Itwaswith great reluctance that we found
ourselves obliged by unusual press of
matter, to deprive our readers of a YER
bstim report of the able and eloquent
lecture of Mr.. Senator Sumner, before the
Anti Slavery Society on Wednesday even
ing. That speech, however, was not the
marvel of the occasion. Eloquence is no
unusual thing with the Massachusetts,
Senator. The marvel of that evening,
as of the day and evening preceding, was
not on the platform, whether occupied by
Sumner, Mr.. Senator Wilson. Wendell
Philips, Theodore Parker, or VIM. Lloyd
Garrison. The marvel was in the audi
ence. The vast pit, the tiers of spacious
boxes, and galleries of the Metropolitan
Theater, crowded, in spite of the storm,
to their utmost capacity, by intelligent,
educated, admiring, and enthusiastic list
eners, representing not only New York,
but every section of the country. and ev-
cry profession and class of society. The
other anniversaries showed no unusual
enthusiasm or crowd-but the interest
and enthusiasm of these anti slavery gath
erings were not only most unexampled.
but seemed to grow as the sessions were
protracted. When the usual hour of ad-
journment had long been passed, the still
deeply stirred audience slowly and most
reluctantly consented to leave their seats.
We cannot seal up the record of this
week, without calling our readers atten-
tion to its extraordinary significance
We need not carry them back twenty
years to those bitter days when Adams
was gagged on the floor of Congress /;
when the streets of our seaboard cities
roared with riot; when horde of south
ern bullies invaded Philadelphia to give
its native bullies their wholly unnecessa-
ry help in burning Pennsylvania Hall !;
when Mayor Lawrence of this city inform
ed the mob by proclamation, that it need
not trouble itself aboutanti-slavery meet
ings, but that the law would put down
''thoSe denominations ;"when II. NJ. Noah
framed his bill to suppress free speech,
and Gov. Everett of Massachusetts rec
commended his Legislature to punish it
with the State Prison; when Mayor Ly-
man of Boston, having found his most
humble entreaties to the mob of "gentle-
men of property and Standing" to allow
him to be Mayor for that hour unavailing,
could furnish no other shelter for Mr..
Garrison and the laws but the Boston
jail, at that time, be it remembered, un-
der the control of Mr.. Senator Summers
father, the High Sheriff of Suffolk. Then
for the first time, thoughtful men perceiv-
ed that slavery ruled the North as
well as the South; then they saw that We
held all our rights by the tenure of abso-
lutte seryility, and solely by the sovereign
permission of our masters.
Still later than this, only five years ago,
Bully Rynders stood on the platform of
the Tabernacle and commanded the Amer
lean Anti Slavery Society to cease its dis
cussions. In vain did the venerable Isaac
T. Hopper intercede with Mayor Wood
hull to vindicate the dignity of the laws,
and protect free speech. The Mayorse-
cluded himself in his Office, and left Chief
Matsell to exhibit himself with his staff,
on that platform, for three long hours, in
the attitude of being insulted and defed
by the ruffans of the city. The tact and
eloquence of the antislavery speakers
defeated Rynders that day, but the next
morning he rallied and drove them from
their hall, fifty policemen beingin attend
ance to protect his efforts and grace his
triumph. The press of New York, we
grieve to say, with few exceptions, de-
Tended Rynders, but very few of our New
York journals could spare room for word
of defense of free speech thus utterly
stricken down. For two years the Soci-
ETY. was unable to procure hall in this
city, and held its meetings in Syracuse
and Rochester. Union-saving commit
tees, and pulpits dumb with hypocritical
terror, took its place. Then public yir-
tue fell so low that it became rare and
marvellous saiftship for merchant to
startle the world with the Quixotic dec
laration that ''his goods were for sale and
not his principles"
But now what change! New York
covers that blot in her escutcheon with
ample repentance. She runs up the proud
flag of free discussion never we hope to
be displaced. All the members of I'm
ion Committees ask of us is the Chris
tan charity of being forgotten. The
mobbed and exiled Idea returns to take
possession and crowd that the Tsberna-
Gle wall could not have held gathers to its
sessions. And who are its speakers p
Massachusetts, Senator's! That Governor
Everett who doubted Yankee right to ask
questions has since then been in the Sen
ate and faded out from pure inefhcien-
cy. His successor comes to Metropoli-
tan theater to say that, ''any party which
| lifts finger to arrest the anti-slavery
movement win die, ought to die, and that
he will do his utmost to make it die. -
Mr.. Webster, a Massachusetts, Senator,
in 1880 pledged his ready submission to
the Fugitive Slave Bill ''to its utmost ex-
tent, to Is "atnsost ezteRt." His success.
sor refuses to call it a law; asks the eoun-
try in the name of Justice aud humanity
to make it dead letter; and FIVE thous-
and hearts half smother his emphatic pc.
riod in the uncomfortable burst of then
enthusiastic Amen. Massachusetts, calls
back Burns, and her Legislature orders
her Slave Commissioner to be surrender.
led instead, with all the "alacrity" Mr.
Webster advised.
Nor is this striking change confined t.
New York and Massachusetts. Wiscon
sin with youthful impetuosity throw,
down her gauntlet of defiance to the in
| / famous statute and the United States Ju'
dietary that presumes to enforce its un
. Unconstitutional provision. Cincinnati stur-
idily maintains the supremacy of Ohio
/ law in her streets, till she has secured tls
substance of her wishes, and then yields
} to Judge Mclean only the shadowy form
! of 3 triumph. The American Board o.
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, i
not converted, certainly runs up the white
II -