Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-12-03
GREAT MEETING IN MECHANICS Hall.

The day of the execution of John Brown
was observed in this city with various express
sions of interest and sorrow. The bells of the
Old South, (Rev. Mr.. James, the Central,
(Rev. DR.. Sweetser's,) the Union, REV MIR.
Cutters and the Third Baptist, (Rey. Mr..
Wayland's, J churches were tolled in the morn
ing from 10 A. NJ. to II M, and again from
to y o'clock in the evening. The execution
was the chief subject of conversation and in
quiry during the day, aud very general and
earnest, though fruitless, anxiety, was mani
tested to hear intelligence of the circumstances
and manner of his death. While the bells
were tolling in the forenoon, the engines at
Merrifelds buildings, and at the card
mandatory of Timothy X. Earle & Co.,
were stopped, and some other places of
business were closed, and bore appropriate
symbols of mourning and regret. The colored
citizens generally closed their places of en-
ployment, and in the afternoon assembled in
respectable numbers at lions Church, and en-
gagged in appropriate religious and commemor-
alive exercises for the friend of their people
and their cause, who had been sacrificed.
EXERCISES AT MECHANICS HALL.
Earlier than the hour at which the citizens
were invited to assemble, in the evening, Me-
chanics' Hall was thronged to the utmost of
its large capacity, the audience being composed
nearly equally of ladies and gentlemen. On
three sides of the hall were placards bearing
the words
''Whether on the scaffold high,
Or in the battles van,
The tittest place where man can die
Is where he dies for man.
The assembly was called TO order at y
O'Clock, by Hon. w. W. Rice.
SPEECH OF W. W. RICE.
He said he had been requested to call this
meeting to order and to express in few words
the feeling which induced this assembly,
They all said, God grant they might never be
called to pass another such day as this. The
day had been pleasant, and everything in the
material world seemed expressive of peace,
harmony, and love. But the tolling of church
bells had sounded in their ears, darkness and
storm seemed to hover over Them and the sky
to be full of portents of evil There is
no true man that does not feel his bosom swell
with indignation and grief, and pray that God
will watch over this land with His especial
care. For Virginia has to-day executed
J
is guilty no moral crime, but for his fidelity
to the principles which his own soul told him
Were truth and duty. And we were met to
hear the words of our best and most eloquent
men, and to tender our aid and sympathy to
the family-that family in whose veins flowed
the blood of the martyr Brown. His wounded
body, with its nerves of iron and its undaunt-
ed courage, has at last become still, his spirit
has gone to the reward of courage, zeal, and
disinterested enthusiasm, and his fame to take
its place in the Pantheon where sit enthroned
the heroes of the past. 1t is we who are more
the subjects of pity, sympathy, and prayer
We are left to carry on the contest in which he
has fallen. Words are nothing. And we
must acknowledge that none of us are brave
enough or good enough to enact the spirit of
the words which we speak.
The speech of Mr. Rice was received with
repeated applause. AT its close he presented
the following list of officers: