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 Not only did the anti-slavery cause have her poets, but she had on her side some of America's most eloquent men. Wendell Phillips, "the silver-tongued Demosthenes" as he has been called, made his first speech in Faneuil Hall, at a meeting called to express the horror of the Boston citizens at the murder of Lovejoy. This magnificent speech, delivered amidst the most excited outcries and uproar from the partisans of slavery, placed Wendell Phillips high amongst American orators; nor have his subsequent speeches diminished this fame. A learned and cultured man, his silver tongue and fluent pen were always ready in the cause of liberty. He was fearless in his denunciation of wrong-doing and merciless in his scathing criticism of the wrong-doer.

It was not unnatural that the intense excitement which prevailed throughout the States should in many places find its expression in violence. Riots were frequent, and poor Lovejoy's presses were not the only ones to suffer. In May, 1836, J. G. Birney brought out an anti-slavery paper called the Philanthropist in Cincinnati. Birney had been a great Kentucky slaveholder; but, becoming convinced of the crime of slavery, he liberated all his slaves, and devoted himself to the advocacy of immediate emancipation. In July a mob entered his office at midnight and destroyed his press and types, uttering the most violent threats unless his paper were destroyed. A meeting was held; it was determined to prevent the publication or distribution of Abolition papers in Cincinnati. As a result of this, a crowd entered and pillaged the office of the Philanthropist after dark. Having finished there, the rioters went to Mr. Birney's house, and, not finding him, wreaked their vengeance on the homes of the poor colored people. This mob was organised by wealthy influential men, amongst whom were ministers and Church members. In 1834 Lewis Tappan's house was sacked and damaged. In August of the same year there was a riot in Philadelphia, which lasted three nights. Forty-four houses inhabited by colored people were damaged, and many quite destroyed. "Many blacks were brutally beaten, one was killed outright, and another drowned in attempting to swim the Schuylkill to escape his tormentors." One Methodist minister, speaking against slavery in Massachusetts, was assaulted by a mob and his notes torn to pieces; another, speaking in New Hampshire, was dragged before the justice of the peace and sentenced to three months' imprisonment as a "common rioter and brawler." Churches and public halls were closed against Abolitionists. One hundred and twenty-five Boston citizens were refused the use of Faneuil Hall itself for an anti-slavery meeting, and but a short time after it was granted to fifteen hundred, who had asked for it for pro-slavery purposes.

The Boston Female Anti-slavery Society announced a