STEPHEN SYMONDS FOSTER. 373
can not send another lo discharge those duties, all ar amj part of them, against his wishes, without an evident inva'iion of his territory. Whoever eonu's before a parish under tlicse eircuuistauees is an intruder. And equall}- so is he who, after being- admitted by the pastor, sets up lii^jndguient in matter that falls properly under the pastor's control. These are both acts of trespass, and the ])erpetrators of tiiem are or should be liable to ecclesiastical censure. The unfaithfulness or in- cajmeitii of the pastor is no apohxjij for the offe)ice."
Nor was this law a dead letter in any place where it could possibly be en- forced, whether in Massachusetts or any where in the North or West.
But the brave faithfulness of Mr. Foster to the enslaved and to his own sol- emn convictions, soon triumphed over such religious despotism. He conceived the idea of t-ntering the meeting houses on Sunday, and at the hour of sermon, respectfully rising and claiming the right to be heard then and there, on the duties and obligations of the church to those who were in bonds at the South.
This measure he first adopted in the old North church, at Concord, in Sep- tember, 1841. He was immediately seized by " three young gentlemen, one a Southerner from Alabama, and the other two guards at the state prison, thrust along the broad isle and violently pushed out of the house." A full account of the transaction was published in the Herald of F/redom on the following Friday, 17th of the same month. But Mr. Foster could not be deterred from his pur- pose. And the measure proved so effective as a means of awakening the pub- lic attention to the importance of the anti-slavery enterprise, that others were led to adopt it. Of course it led to persecution, and some were imprisoned for the offence, — Mr. Foster as many as ten or twelve times, in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Perhaps his most memorable experience at the hands of the civil law, at the time, was in Concord, in June, 1842. On Sunday, the twelfth of that month, being in Concord, he went in the afternoon to the South church, and at the time of sermon he rose in a pew at the side of the pulpit, and commenced speaking in his usual solemn and deeply impressive manner. He evidently would have been heard, and with deep attention, too, for many in the house not only knew him well, but knew that this was a course not unusual with him, and one in the rightfulness 'of which he conscientiously believed, and, beside, was sometimes able to make most useful and effective. Even the Unitarian society, one Sunday, gave him respectful hearing ; the minister, Rev. Mr. Tilden, even inviting him to speak.
But not just so the South church ; there, he was immediately seized and rushed with great violence to the door, and then pitched headlong down the rough stone steps to the street, injuring him so severely that he had to be helped to his lodgings, and a surgeon was called immediately to attend him. Fortunately no bones were broken nor dislocated, but bruises and sprains com- pelled his walking with a cane for several days. But that was not all. On Monday he was arrested by leading members of the church "for disturbing public worship," and carried before a magistrate for trial. Perhaps no justice's court in Concord ever excited profounder interest than did this. But Foster came most triumphantly out of it. Even the small fine imposed as matter of form, was paid and nearly doubly paid, by the throng that crowded the room, tossing their quarter and half dollars on to the table. The kind-hearted mag- istrate, seeing that he would be sustained, remitted the fine and the costs, and Mr. Foster was discharged, amid the acclamations of the multitude that filled the court room, and then, with louder cheers, demanded that all the money be taken from the table and handed over to Mr. Foster. And it was done.
The Herald of Freedom of the same week, June i 7, contained a correct and most graphic account of the whole affair, by the then brilliant editor, in
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