f the man. After stating that for a year and a half he
had been prevented from speaking in public on account of an affection
of the throat, and must therefore decline the invitation of the
committee, he adds:--

"I exult in the erection of your 'temple of freedom,' and the more, as
it is the first and only one, in a republic of fifteen millions,
consecrated to free discussion and equal rights."

"For years they have been banished from our halls of legislation and
of justice, from our churches and our pulpits. It is befitting that
the city of Benezet and of Franklin should be the first to open an
asylum where the hunted exiles may find a home. God grant that your
Pennsylvania Hall may be _free, indeed!_"

"The empty name is everywhere,--_free_ government, _free_ men, _free_
speech, _free_ people, _free_ schools, and _free_ churches. Hollow
counterfeits all! _Free!_ It is the climax of irony, and its million
echoes are hisses and jeers, even from the earth's ends. _Free! Blot
it out_. Words are the signs of _things_. The substance has gone! Let
fools and madmen clutch at shadows. The husk must rustle the more when
the kernel and the ear are gone. Rome's loudest shout for liberty was
when she murdered it, and drowned its death shrieks in her hoarse
huzzas. She never raised her hands so high to swear allegiance to
freedom as when she gave the death-stab, and madly leaped upon its
corpse; and her most delirious dance was among the clods her hands had
cast upon its coffin. _Free!_ The word and sound are omnipresent masks
and mockers. An impious lie, unless they stand for free _lynch law_
and free _murder_, for they _are_ free.

"But I'll hold. The times demand brief speech, but mighty deeds. On,
my brethren! uprear your temple. "Your brother in the sacred strife
for all,

"THEODORE D. WELD."

David Paul Brown, of Philadelphia, was invited to deliver the
dedicatory address, which, with other exercises, occupied the mornings
and evening of three days, and included addresses by Garrison, Thomas
P. Hunt, Arnold Buffum, Alanson St. Clair, and others, on slavery,
temperance, the Indians, right of free discussion, and kindred topics.
On the second day, an appropriate and soul-stirring poem by John G.
Whittier was read by C.C. Burleigh. The first lines will give an idea
of the spirit of the whole poem, one of the finest efforts Whittier
ever made:--

"Not with the splendors of the days of old,
The spoil of nations a