"Mr. Griffin, of Maiden, said, the spirit of the order is merely a tribute to the piety and integrity of John Brown. Let us imitate old Brown, and attend to the business God and our constituents have given us to do. He had his views of John Brown and of his value to the race; but this was not the place to express them. In other places, it might be done."
It was done in a meeting of three thousand in the Tremont Temple, that very night,—called for the purpose of expressing sympathy for Brown, and abhorrence of his murder by the Governor of Virginia.
In this meeting, S. E. Sewall, a much respected lawyer of Boston, and a leading Republican, said:—"Under these circumstances, whether John Brown was technically guilty of any offence against the laws of Virginia or not, he had not had a fair trial, and his execution is therefore butchery and murder, and the Judge and Governor were only the tools of Virginia in carrying out this judicial assassination. As it is, Governor Wise seems likely to be pilloried by history at the side of Pontius Pilate, as the man who shed innocent blood in violation of his own convictions of right, to satisfy the clamor of a deluded populace, crying, "Crucify him! crucify him!"
Mr. Griffin, at the same meeting, said: "He undertook to defend Pontius Pilate against a comparison with Governor Wise. The chairman should apologize to the memory of Pontius Pilate for the comparison." (Uproarious applause.)
With such facts before them, what must the slaveholding Senators think of your assertion, that Brown and his deeds excite only "regret and condemnation" among Republicans? Brown, Iverson, Mason, and all the Senators from the South, justly tremble for themselves, their wives and their children. They frankly declare to you and to the nation their terror and agony. They say the North sympathizes with Brown and his deeds, and in so doing seeks to incite insurrection, rebellion, and resistance among their slaves. It is true. Their fears are well founded. Why seek to lull them into security till the storm shall burst upon them in a way they dream not of,—as it surely will, and deluge their homes and their plantations with blood, unless they escape
