right. A new hearing was, therefore, ordered, and the reformers
appeared a second time before the committee. But the scenes of the first
were repeated at the second hearing. The chairman was intolerably
insolent to the speakers. His violent behavior to William Goodell, who
was paying his respects to the Southern documents lying on the table of
the committee, terminated the second hearing. These documents Mr.
Goodell described as fetters for Northern freemen, and boldly
interrogated the chairman in respect of them thus:

"Mr. Chairman, are you prepared to attempt putting them on?" But the
chairman was in no mood to listen to the question. His insolence reached
a climax as he exclaimed passionately to Mr. Goodell, "Stop, sir! Sit
down, sir! The committee will hear no more of this." But the temper of
the Abolitionists had risen also, as had also risen the temper of the
great audience of citizens who were present at the hearing which was had
in the hall of the House of Representatives. "Freemen we came," retorted
Goodell, "and as freemen we shall go away." Scarcely had these words
died upon the ears when there rose sharply from the auditory, the stern
protest "Let us go quickly, lest we be made slaves."

The attempt to suppress the Abolitionists was a failure. It but
stimulated the agitation and deepened the popular interest in the
subject. Strong allies within and without the legislature were enlisted
on the side of freedom. The turning of the tide of public sentiment in
the grand old State had come. Slowly did it rise for awhile, but from
that event it never ceased to flow in and with increasing volume. The
condemnatory report of the insolent chairman proved as innocuous as the
baying of dogs at the moon. The legislature refused to indorse it and
the pro-slavery resolutions attached to it. They were both ignominiously
laid upon the table, and what is more to the purpose as a straw to show
the drift of popular opinion on the slavery question in Massachusetts,
their author failed of a renomination as Senator at the hands of his
dissatisfied constituents.

The conflict was raging not alone in Massachusetts but all through the
free States. In Congress the battle was assuming an intensely bitter
character. Here the South was the agitator. Here she kept the political
waters in a state of violent ebullition. As the discord grew,
sectionalism threw darkening and portentous shadows over the face of the
Union. The South was insis