Page:Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892).djvu/317

Rh to the ground, and their best temperance hall utterly demolished. ['Shame! shame! shame!' from the audience, great confusion, and cries of 'Sit down' from the American delegates on the platform.]"

In the midst of this commotion the chairman tapped me on the shoulder, and, whispering, informed me that the fifteen minutes allotted to each speaker had expired; whereupon the vast audience simultaneously shouted: "Don't interrupt!" "Don't dictate!" "Go on!" "Go on!" "Douglass!" "Douglass!" This continued several minutes, when I proceeded as follows: "Kind friends, I beg to assure you that the chairman has not in the slightest degree sought to alter any sentiment which I am anxious to express on this occasion. He was simply reminding me that the time allotted for me to speak had expired. I do not wish to occupy one moment more than is allotted to other speakers. Thanking you for your kind indulgence, I will take my seat." Proceeding to do so again, there were loud cries of "Go on!" "Go on!" with which I complied for a few moments, but without saying anything more that particularly related to the colored people in America. I did not allow the letter of Dr. Cox to go unanswered through the American journals, but promptly exposed its unfairness. That letter is too long for insertion here. A part of it was published in the Evangelist and in many other papers, both in this country and in England. Our eminent divine made no rejoinder, and his silence was regarded at the time as an admission of defeat.

Another interesting circumstance connected with my visit to England was the position of the Free Church of Scotland, with the great Doctors Chalmers, Cunningham, and Candish at its head. That Church had settled for itself the question which was frequently asked by the opponents of abolition at home, "What have we to do with slavery?" by accepting contributions from slaveholders;