He did this on his own responsibility. Five Aldermen
have publicly protested against the breach of honour and
justice. After the wicked deed was over, he attended a
meeting of Sunday School children in Faneuil Hall. When
he was introduced to the audience, "Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings" came a hiss! At night, the "citizen
soldiery" had a festival. The Mayor was at the supper,
and toasted the military—eating and drinking and mddng
merry. What did they care, or he, that an innocent
citizen of Boston was sent into bondage for ever, and by
their hands! The agony of Mr. Burns only flavoured their
cup. So the butcher's dog can enjoy himself in the
shambles, while the slaughter of the innocent goes on
around him, "battening on garbage!"
Thus, on the 2nd of June, Boston sent into bondage the second victim. It ought to have been fifteen days later — the 17th of June. What a spectacle it was! The day was brilliant; there was not a cloud; all about Boston there was a ring of happy summer loveliness; the green beauty of June; the grass, the trees, the heaven, the light; and Boston itself was the theatre of incipient civil war!
What a day for Boston! Citizens applauding that a man was to be carried into bondage! Drunken soldiers, hardly able to stand in the street, sung their ribald song—"Oh, carry me back to old Virginia!"[1]
Daniel Webster lies buried at Marshfield but his dead
- ↑ I copy this from one of the newspapers:—
"The Pay of the Boston Military for thew Aid in the Rendition of Anthony Burns.
"We write with an 'iron pen' for the benefit of some future historian, that in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and fifty-four, in the City of Boston, there waa received for their aid in consigning to the bondage of American chattel Slavery one Anthony Burns,—by the grace of God and his own efforts a freeman,—by the independent volunteer militisl of Said city, the following sums:—
"National Lancers, Capt. Wilmarth $820.00 Boston Light Dragoons, Capt. Wright 1,128.00 Fifth Eegiment of ArtiUery, by Col. Cdwdin, for himself, Staff, and regiment 3,946.00 Boston Light Infantry, Capt. Rogers 460.00 Kew England Guards, Capt Henshaw 432.00 Pulaski Guards, Capt. Wright 328.00 Boston Light Guard, Capt. Follett 500.00
