March 12, 1858
Report of the gathering at Faneuil Hallall, in commemoration of the 87th Anniversary of the Boston Massacre, and in memory Crispus Attucks. William C. Nell chairs the meeting, and speaks, along with speeches by Rock, Parker, Phillips, Remond, and Garrison.
Letters of regret from people who cannot be present include Higginson, and Whittier.
Garrison, in his speech, comments on peace and violence. “While I say that I believe God has called us all to peace – slaveholders as well as slaves, — while I believe in the peace principle, as divine and omnipotent, — nevertheless, I admit, that if any men have a right to fight for liberty with deadly weapons, they are to be found on the Southern plantations; for no wrongs are like theirs…. if Washington and his compatriots were justified in taking up arms,…by the same inexorable logic…those who are enslaved in our country today would also be justified in resorting to armed resistance, and in breaking their chains over the heads of their oppressors….”
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