Boston is a great city - and Music Hall has a fame almost as extensive
as that of Boston. Nowhere more than here have the principles of human
freedom been expounded. But for the circumstances already mentioned, it
would seem almost presumption for me to say anything here about those
principles. And yet, even here, in Boston, the moral atmosphere is dark
and heavy. The principles of human liberty, even I correctly
apprehended, find but limited support in this hour a trial. The world
moves slowly, and Boston is much like the world. We thought the
principle of free speech was an accomplished fact. Here, if nowhere
else, we thought the right of the people to assemble and to express
their opinion was secure. Dr. Channing had defended the right, Mr.
Garrison had practically asserted the right, and Theodore Parker had
maintained it with steadiness and fidelity to the last.
But here we are to-day contending for what we thought we gained
years ago. The mortifying and disgraceful fact stares us in the face,
that though Faneuil Hall and Bunker Hill Monument stand, freedom of
speech is struck down. No lengthy detail of facts is needed. They are
already notorious; far more so than will be wished ten years hence.
The world knows that last Monday a meeting assembled to discuss
the question: "How Shall Slavery Be Abolished?" The world also knows
that that meeting was invaded, insulted, captured by a mob of gentlemen,
and thereafter broken up and dispersed by the order of the mayor, who
refused to protect it, though called upon to do so. If this had been a
mere outbreak of passion and prejudice among the baser sort, maddened by
rum and hounded on by some wily politician to serve some immediate
purpose, - a mere exceptional affair, - it might be allowed to rest with
what has already been said. But the leaders of the mob were gentlemen.
They were men who pride themselves upon their respect for law and order.
These gentlemen brought their respect for the law with them and
proclaimed it loudly while in the very act of breaking the law. Theirs
was the law of slavery. The law of free speech and the law for the
protection of public meetings they trampled under foot, while they
greatly magnified the law of slavery.
The scene was an instructive one. Men seldom see such a blending
of the gentleman with the rowdy, as was shown on that occasion. It
proved that human nature is very much the same, whether in tarpaulin or
broadcloth. Nevertheless, when gentlemen approach us in the character of
lawless and abandoned loafers, - assuming for the moment their manners
and tempers, - they have themselves to blame if they are estimated below
their quality.
No right was deemed by the fathers of the Government more sacred
than the right of speech. It was in their eyes, as in the eyes of all
thoughtful men, the great moral renovator of society and government.
Daniel Webster called it a homebred right, a fireside privilege. Liberty
is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has
ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the
right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones,
dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong,
are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason of righteousness,
temperance, and of a judgment to come in their presence. Slavery cannot
tolerate free speech. Five years of its exercise would banish the
auction block and break every chain in the South. They will have none of
it there, for they have the power. But shall it be so here?
Even here in Boston, and among the friends of freedom, we hear two
voices: one denouncing the mob that broke up our meeting on Monday as a
base and cowardly outrage; and another, deprecating and regretting the
holding of such a meeting, by such men, at such a time. We are told that
the meeting was ill-timed, and the parties to it unwise.
Why, what is the matter with us? Are we going to palliate and
excuse a palpable and flagrant outrage on the right of speech, by
implying that only a particular description of persons should exercise
that right? Are we, at such a time, when a great principle has been
struck down, to quench the moral indignation which the deed excites, by
casting reflections upon those on whose persons the outrage has been
committed? After all the arguments for liberty to which Boston has
listened for more than a quarter of a century, has she yet to learn that
the time to assert a right is the time when the right itself is called
in question, and that the men of all others to assert it are the men to
whom the right has been denied?
It would be no vindication of the right of speech to prove that
certain gentlemen of great distinction, eminent for their learning and
ability, are allowed to freely express their opinions on all subjects -
including the subject of slavery. Such a vindication would need, itself,
to be vindicated. It would add insult to injury. Not even an
old-fashioned abolition meeting could vindicate that right in Boston
just now. There can be no right of speech where any man, however lifted
up, or however humble, however young, or however old, is overawed by
force, and compelled to suppress his honest sentiments.
Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a
double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of
the speaker. It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak
and hear as it would be to rob him of his money. I have no doubt that
Boston will vindicate this right. But in order to do so, there must be
no concessions to the enemy. When a man is allowed to speak because he
is rich and powerful, it aggravates the crime of denying the right to
the poor and humble.
The principle must rest upon its own proper basis. And until the
right is accorded to the humblest as freely as to the most exalted
citizen, the government of Boston is but an empty name, and its freedom
a mockery. A man's right to speak does not depend upon where he was born
or upon his color. The simple quality of manhood is the solid basis of
the right - and there let it rest forever.
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