Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/260

, to listen to the exhortations on that subject of an emissary lately sent over from England. It was the object of the gentlemanly mob I had seen, composed, as he assured me, of men of property and standing, to catch this emissary if they could, and to punish him in some fitting way for his insolence.

"And pray," said I, "as you have no slaves in Boston, nor, I believe, in this part of the country, why all this zeal against these good women? Being an Englishman myself, I must confess to some little interest in this unfortunate countryman of mine, whom your Boston gentry are so anxious to hang. Why need your lawyers and merchants play the dog in the manger — neither themselves do any thing to abolish slavery, nor even allow the women to pray for it?" "As a stranger and an Englishman," said the landlord, who, though in a great state of excitement against the offending females, was evidently a person not without good feelings, "these. things may seem a little strange to you. Yet allow me to suggest a word of caution. It would be an unpleasant thing for me to have one of my guests seized as a British emissary, and made to undergo the scrutiny and perhaps insults of a party of volunteer police. Suffice it to say, that just at this moment the price of cotton is very high, and southern trade a great object. New York and Philadelphia have set the example of mobbing the abolitionists, and we should be in danger of losing all our southern customers if we did not follow the example. Besides, at a public meeting held here in Boston, we have just nominated a candidate for president; and should we fail in zeal for southern interests, how are we to expect to get any southern votes?"

After this specimen of Boston, I saw nothing to detain me there, and so hastened on to New York. It was not without strong emotions that stood again. in the Park, on the very spot where General Carter had seized and claimed me as a slave. The whole scene, with all its incidents, came back to my mind