Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-08-09
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AN EPISODE IN OHIO HISTORY.

AT the recent commencement of Marietta
College, Rev. S. Z. Hildreth of Dresden, son
of the well known DIR. Hidreth, author of
Pioneer History" and of many biographical
sketches OF early settlers, delivered the annual
Alumni Address. As a specimen of its bis
toueal interest we quote the following account
OF early anti-slayery movements at the Ply
mouth of the West:
In the summer of 1886, Marietta was visited
by Theodore Weld, student who had left the
Theological school at Lane Seminary, and was
traversing Ohio as a lecturer against slavery.
Elsewhere he had been received with mobS,
and showers Of stones and rotten eggs. a
good deacon passed through the community at
Marietta, and said :" do not mob him but all
of you stay away and let him lecture to the
empty benches" This advice was followed
The empty benches of the Library Hall CON
tanned no audience excepting fifteen or twenty
young men from the College. Uttering no
word of complaint, Theodore Weld delivered
sixteen lectures to this little handful, with
power Of argument, and pathetic eloquence,
such as those young men had never heard be-
fore. That there might be no interference
with the regular routine of college duty, Weld
lectured one hour before sunset and when his
course was over every one of those young
men had become a convert to the anti-slavery
cause.
Soon after the departure of Theodore Weld,
an antl-slavery prayer meeting, appointed for
the fourth Monday evening of each month,
was established by the students in Pon HAIR
mar. Samuel Hall was leading spirit in this
movement. The new enterprise was soon
nolsed abroad in the community, and excited
great indignation among the lewd fellows of
the baser sort. 1t was not to be endured. The
postmaster collected mob in Marietta,
and crossing the Muskingum river, united
with body of like minded men in Point
Harmar. They congregated in a grocery,
and drank confusion to the antislavery prayer
meeting. When their spirits were sufficiently
elevated, with the grocerykeeper at their
head they marched with yes and hooting to
the prayer meeting, and rushed in at the door
AS they entered, Samuel Hall stepped into the
aisle, and elevating his tall form to its ut
most height, silently presented a pistol
at the advancing rioters. They paused and
recoiled. Seize him!' cried the grocery
keeper, stepping behind two or three of the
largest men in the crowd. "Seize him Take
away his pistol" But Halls ferocious atti-
tude overawed them. Noone dared approach.
Meantime the members of the prayer meeting
quietly escaped AT length pushing each 9TH
erforward from behind, they advanced so close
ly upon Hall that he surrendered his pistol,
explaining to the alarmed grocery keeper that
1t was not loaded, and perceiving that his
friends had now departed, he leaped from a
window, and made good his own escape
The mob was Infatuated. They had taken
no captves. Hall must be tarred and feath-
cred that night as a warning to all abolition
lists. detachment fastened to the ferry for
the purpose of intercepting his flight At this
nour meeting, held i'll the lecture room of
the Congregational Church, then a Library
Hall, was dismissed. AS the audience were
returning to their homes, they heard outcries
In Point Harmar, which at first excited the
apprehension that building had taken fire.
But no smoke or flame was invisible The
dispensing congregation paused. The moon
shone clear overheard the broad commons
sparkled with their covering of snow and
across the river came cries and yells that cur
died the blood, sounding as if all the lions and
hyenas OF menagerie had been turned loose
and were tearing each other from limb to limb
About midnight Samuel Hall reached his room
in College with his clothes covered with icicles
But the brown cloak lined with crimson which
he customarlly wore was never seen again
Finding the passage to the ferry obstructed
Hall waited until late in the night, and then
trusting to his unrivalled skill as a swimmer,
plunged into the Muskingum, and made for
the opposite shore. The cold water chilled
him through; the cloak impeded the free
movement Of his limbs half way across the
river his strength was becoming exhausted ;
turning upon his back, and unclasping the
cloak, Hall left in the current and SWAN wear
lily to the shore.