EMANCIPATION LECTURE. 



217 



to walk off ; when I asked him to stop, which he did unwill- 

 ingly. I then took out my correspondence with the Mayor, 

 and read it : and also Mr. Z. Browning's letter (I had tried 

 [in vain] to find him out in the afternoon. . . .). I asked if 

 Mr. Z. B. or any of his committee were present ; but no one 

 answered. I then detailed my engagement for the room : I 

 took out my lecture, showed it to the people, and asked them 

 what they wished me to do. There were present several ladies 

 and gentlemen. ... I saw that nobody knew anybody else : 

 that there was no union among friends of freedom. So I 

 decided on my course. The delivery of the lecture was nothing 

 to me ; it was simply an occasion for the lovers of freedom in 

 the city to vindicate their rights, if they chose : I, as a stranger, 

 left them to themselves. . . . Finally, I put it to the meeting, 

 whether, in consideration of the hall being locked against me, 

 they wished to absolve me from giving the lecture I had 

 promised ; or whether they wished me to deliver it elsewhere. 

 They put it to the vote, and I was absolved. I then recom- 

 mended Channing's Lenox Address, and especially the two 

 articles in " The Edinburgh Review." ... I ended with a public 

 * God bless the State of Missouri, and may she be the first of 

 the Slave States to become free/ which was received with a 

 scowl from a number of evil-looking young fellows who lined 

 the passage." He returned, and passed the night with Mr. 

 and Mrs. Gates, who were present. Mr. Gates sent a report of 

 the proceedings to " The Liberator," and Mrs. Gates to " The 

 New York Tribune," from which it found its way into other 

 papers. Philip wrote to a local paper, calling the tar-and- 

 feathering committee to account, for not fulfilling their con- 

 tract ; since he had " dared attempt " to give his lecture. 



He went by steamer to St. Paul's, eight hundred miles up 

 the Mississippi : " There are very few refined-looking people 

 on board, those few being evidently Southern slave-holders. 

 I do not wonder at English people being corrupted by them, 

 or Northerners either, when they meet them face to face at 

 Washington." (In a former letter, he refers to the pleasing 

 manners of the superior class of Southerners.) The voyage 



