at advocate. Soon after the time just mentioned
Dr. Howe attended an evening meeting, at the close of which a crowd of
rough men gathered outside the public entrance, waiting for Phillips to
appear, with ugly threats of the treatment which he should receive at
their hands. The doors presently opened, and Phillips came forth,
walking calmly between Mrs. Chapman and Lydia Maria Child. Not a hand
was raised, not a threat was uttered. The crowd gave way in silence, and
the two brave women parted from Phillips at the door of his own house.
My husband spoke of this as one of the most impressive sights that he
had ever witnessed. His report of it moved me to send word to Mr.
Phillips that, in case of any recurrence of such a disturbance, I should
be proud to join his body-guard.

Mr. Phillips was one of the early advocates of woman suffrage. I
remember that I was sitting in Theodore Parker's reception room
conversing with him when Wendell Phillips, quite glowing with
enthusiasm, came in to report regarding the then recent woman's rights
convention at Worcester. Of the doings there he spoke in warm eulogy. He
complained that Horace Mann had written a non-committal letter, in reply
to the invitation sent him to take part in the convention. Ralph Waldo
Emerson, he said, had excused himself from attendance on the ground that
he was occupied in writing a life of Margaret Fuller, which, he hoped,
would be considered as a service in the line of the objects of the
meeting.

This convention was held in October of the year 1850, before the claims
of women to political efficiency had begun to occupy the attention and
divide the feeling of the American public. When, after the close of the
civil war, the question was again brought forward, with a new zeal and
determination, Mr. Phillips gave it the great support of his eloquence,
and continued through a long course of years to be one of its most
earnest advocates.

[Illustration: WENDELL PHILLIPS

At the age of 48

_From a photograph lent by Francis J. Garrison, Boston._]

The last time that I heard Wendell Phillips speak in public was in
December, 1883, at the unveiling of Miss Whitney's statue of Harriet
Martineau, in the Old South Meeting-House. Mrs. Livermore was one of the
speakers of the occasion. When the stated exercises were at an end, she
said to me, "Let us thank Mr. Phillips for what he has just said. We
shall not have him with us long." I expressed surprise at this, and