BOSTON PUBLIC AUDIENCES. 485 



under all circumstances even against all inducements, 

 against all combination, against all compromise.&quot; It is 

 no wonder that after an incautious declaration of this 

 kind, comments should tell before a public audience 

 as they did on the occasion I refer to upon his yield 

 ing to and supporting the Clay compromise, admitting 

 representatives from three new slave States, and refusing 

 to legislate for the security of freedom in the territories. 

 One circumstance at this meeting struck me very 

 much, as indicative of the intellectual character of the 

 large mixed audience the first of the kind I had been 

 present at in America. 



Mr Webster had on a former occasion described the 

 Wilmot proviso as his thunder ; and as he now declined 

 to press it in reference to the territories, I suppose he 

 had alleged or implied that others ought not to urge it 

 against his wish. The speaker, who was on his legs 

 when I entered, had discoursed for some time upon 

 other topics, when coming to this, he likened it in 

 Webster s hands now to &quot; the mimic thunder of a marble 

 God.&quot; This beautiful comparison had scarcely escaped 

 from his lips, when every voice, male and female, in the 

 vast hall, resounded with acclamations. It seemed to 

 go as direct to their hearts as any bolt from the mouth 

 of Demosthenes ever did to those of the Athenians. I 

 confess that from that moment I looked with a degree 

 of respect on the many unknown people around me. 



I suppose the intellectual character of this Boston 

 audience must have been somewhat different from that 

 of the audiences to whom orators address themselves in 

 the southern and western States. It is the custom there, 

 as I was informed, for rival candidates to meet the 

 people at a common rendezvous, and to harangue them 

 from neighbouring stumps, the cleverest fellow obtain 

 ing the largest audience, and finally securing the majo 

 rity of votes. On a certain occasion of this kind, one of 



