446 EDMUND QUINCY. 



up conscientious men to a sterner sense of the necessity of exertion 

 than that event. It roused Mr. Quincy at once, and from that date 

 he stood forth an altered being. He had found a work to do, and he 

 faithfully performed it. 



But, startling as this intelligence appeared and incontestably was, 

 so thoroughly had the popular mind in the good city of Boston been 

 imbued with a dread of the possible consequence of agitating the ques- 

 tion of slavery in any shape, that great sluggishness, to use a mild 

 term, was felt towards any public condemnation of the true nature of 

 that crime. At this day, it would not be easy for young generations 

 to conceive of the extent of the popular prejudice on this subject. No 

 doubt, it sprang from an honest a2:)prehension of the consequences to 

 the much loved Federal Union which might even bring on its disrup- 

 tion. Such was the feeling almost all over the laud. And nowhere 

 was it more overpowering than in the city of Boston. Yet in the 

 midst of the excitement there appeared a few brave individuals, men 

 and women, who, being shocked at the idea of suffering this wanton 

 outrage to pass without publicly stamping upon it their sense of its 

 nature at any cost, assembled for consultation, and these finally agreed 

 upon a public call to all persons sympathizing with them to meet 

 tegether and deliberate upon what might be done to stigmatize the 

 true nature of the offence. 



This meeting was accordingly held. And of those persons regard- 

 less of consequences to themselves, but strongly moved by the atrocity 

 of the outrage upon freedom, Edmund Quincy appeared as one. If 

 on this issue there was to be a conflict of principle, his mind was alto- 

 gether made up. It was now that he conceived the idea that there 

 was no alternative but to enlist actively for the whole of the war, be 

 it longer or shorter. His speech made on that night was the key of 

 hi% career. 



"What a change came over the person of Mr. Quincy by reason of 

 the bold step he had taken can be understood only from an examina- 

 tion of the papers he has left behind him. Those who sympathized 

 with him were a handful. Utterly unsuited to the arts of a demagogue, 

 it became at once his task to attack with severity almost the whole 

 of the class of persons of property and of standing, of all the .higher 

 professions, and of advanced culture, naturally his associates, who stood 

 forth almost in a body to protect what they honestly believed was 

 threatened with destruction, the union of the §tates and the property 

 of the nation. With very little sympathy for the style of electioneer- 

 ing so common in the country, detracting from the rich and exalting 



