o be mobbed.

The members of the convention were to walk two abreast, and as I
was the only colored member of the convention, the question was,
as to who of my brother members would consent to walk with me?
The answer was not long in coming. There was one man present who
was broad enough to take in the whole situation, and brave enough
to meet the duty of the hour; one who was neither afraid nor
ashamed to own me as a man and a brother; one man of the purest
Caucasian type, a poet and a scholar, brilliant as a writer,
eloquent as a speaker, and holding a high and influential
position--the editor of a weekly journal having the largest
circulation of any weekly paper in the city or State of New
York--and that man was Mr. Theodore Tilton. He came to me in my
isolation, seized me by the hand in a most brotherly way, and
proposed to walk with me in the procession. I have been in many
awkward and disagreeable positions in my life, when the presence
of a friend would have been highly valued, but I think I never
appreciated an act of courage and generous sentiment more highly
than I did that of this brave young man, when we marched through
the streets of Philadelphia on this memorable day.

Well! what came of all these dark forebodings of timid men? How
was my presence regarded by the populace? and what effect did it
produce? I will tell you. The fears of the loyal Governors who
wished me excluded to propitiate the favor of the crowd, met with
a signal reproof, their apprehensions were shown to be
groundless, and they were compelled, as many of them confessed to
me afterwards, to own themselves entirely mistaken. The people
were more enlightened and had made more progress than their
leaders had supposed. An act for which those leaders expected to
be pelted with stones, only brought to them unmeasured applause.
Along the whole line of march my presence was cheered repeatedly
and enthusiastically. I was myself utterly surprised by the
heartiness and unanimity of the popular approval. We were
marching through a city remarkable for the depth and bitterness
of its hatred of the abolition movement; a city whose populace
had mobbed anti-slavery meetings, burned temperance halls and
churches owned by colored people, and burned down Pennsylvania
Hall be