, and two nights later a
meeting in Faneuil Hall was attended by an enormous gathering, aroused
to the highest pitch of excitement. Hand-bills had been put out, stating
that kidnappers were in the city. The people were in a frenzy. Theodore
Parker delivered one of his most impassioned addresses. "I am an old
man; I have heard hurrahs and cheers for liberty many times; I have not
seen a great many _deeds_ done for liberty. I ask you, Are we to have
deeds as well as words?" Parker moved that, when the meeting adjourned,
it should be to meet the following morning in the square before the
court-house. But he had raised too great a storm to control; a rumour
that a mob of negroes was at that very moment trying to rescue Burns was
all that was needed to empty the room; and the crowd rushed out to the
court-house square. There they discovered a small party of men, led by
Thomas W. Higginson, trying to batter down the court-house doors. The
crowd lent them willing hands. But the marshall defended the
building,--shots were fired,--Higginson wounded, and several of his
followers arrested. Two companies of artillery were at once ordered out
by the mayor, and the attempt to rescue the negro met with complete and
disastrous failure. Wendell Phillips and Parker were the leaders in the
fight. When asked what he would regard as grounds for the return of
Burns to his master, Phillips answered, "Nothing short of a bill of sale
from Almighty God."

The day of the transfer of the slave to the United States revenue cutter
found Boston in a state of siege. Twenty-two companies of Massachusetts
soldiers patrolled the city; two rows of soldiers, armed with muskets,
shotted to kill, stood on either side of the street through which Burns
was to be led to the vessel. The windows were filled with people, the
houses hung in black, the United States flags were draped in mourning.
From a window near the court-house hung a coffin, with the legend: "The
funeral of liberty." The procession itself was composed of a battalion
of United States artillery, one of United States marines, the
marshall's posse of 125 men guarding the fugitive, and a small cannon,
with two more platoons of marines to guard it. To such a pass had come
Boston, with its respect for law, and its reputation for obedience to
those clothed in authority. A Charleston paper spoke of the return of
Burns as a Southern victory, but added that two or three such victories
would ruin the cause.