MR. THOMPSON AT EAST ABINGTON.

Agreeably to previous notice, an Anti-Slavery lecture was delivered by Mr. George Thompson, in the congregational meeting-house in East Abington, on Thursday, the 15th inst., to a crowded and respectable audience, composed of the inhabitants of the place, and persons from the adjacent towns, from eight to ten miles distant; among whom we were happy to see most of the clergy of the different denominations in the vicinity.

The prevaling excitement in the community on the subject of slavery-the various conflicting representations of the character and designs of the lecturer-and the recent disturbances in a neighboring village had aroused the attention of the people to the subject, and created a strong desire to hear what this incendiary,' this disorganizer,' and above all this 'foreigner' would say. Mr. Thompson stated in a concise manner, what were the principles of the abolitionists, whom he represented, as he understood them; but was more full and particular on the measures, as they are more generally opposed. Nothing could be more foreign from these measures, as explained by him, than a disorganizing spirit, or a tendency to produce a spirit of insurrection among slaves. would say to the slave,' injure not a hair of the head of your master; but wait patiently, wait even cheerfully, God's time for your emancipation.' He discarded, in the strongest terms, any wish to interfere with the rights of the slaveholding states, guaranteed them by the Constitution he would not recommend even petitioning Congress on the subject. He believed slavery to be a heinous sin, and that it might be abolished, if those concerned in it were willing; and all he wished was to persuade them to abandon it. He had drawn all his principles from that fountain of truth and righteousness, the Bible-he wanted no other text book-he wanted to establish no other prin

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ciples, than were contained in this unerring standard of truth. He believed the cause of the abolitionists was founded on these principles-that it was the cause of God, and would therefore prevail, whatever might become of those now engaged in it.

The audience were held in breathless silence for nearly two hours, listening to the loftiest strains of eloquence, replete with sentiments of the most elevated piety, and most expansive philanthropy.

From remarks since made by those present, it is evident that a favorable impression was left on the minds of nearly all the hearers, with regard to the cause. Such remarks as these were heard: If these are the principles and measures of the abolitionists, I am an abolitionist.' 'If any man, acknowledging slavery to be an evil, will propose a more mild, pacific, and rational plan to remove it, than has been proposed to day, I should like to hear it.' 'If a lecturer like Mr. T. were stationed in every village at the south, inculcating the principles expressed in this place, I believe it would do more to prevent insurrection than all the coercive measures of legislators, and threats, and lashes of master and driver.'

The services were performed, throughout, with the greatest decency and order. Not a dog moved his tongue, nor an adder hissed to disturb the peace of the meeting. Some apprehensions of disturbance were entertained by the more timid; but the result has shown that there is at present, one place, at least, in Abington, where the 'supremacy of the laws' is acknowledged, and 'free discussion' maintained.

Mr. Thompson left the house, not in a shower of brickbats, but, as we trust, under a cloud of pure incense, ascending from devout hearts, in fervent aspirations to Him who holds the hearts of all men in his hand, for a blessing on the person and labors of his reviled and persecuted

servants.

LETTER FROM EAST ABINGTON.

Mr. Garrison:

EAST ABINGTON, OCT. 15, 1835.

DEAR SIR,-I am happy to inform you that we have had the pleasure of listening, this afternoon, to a long and most eloquent address from Mr. Thompson, in peace and quietness, notwithstanding the base attempt of some of your Boston Editors to incite the disorderly to come here and make a disturbance. The meeting-house was filled above and below. I saw not an empty seat on the floor or in the galleries. People came from all the adjoining towns -many of them our most intelligent and influential inhabitants. Although it may be too true, that the merchants of Boston and New York will consent to have their liberty of speech abridged, for the sake of the southern trade;-and the politicians of our cities will compromise the freedom of the press to the accomplishment of their party purposes -yet will not the yankee farmers consent

-to be told, beside the plough,

What they must speak, and when, and how.

It seems to me, the question now before our country, is not so much whether slavery shall be abolished, as whether the palladium of our own liberties shall be preserved inviolate? The opposers of the Abolitionists are trampling upon the Constitution. We have the same right to invite Mr. Thompson to address us on the subject of slavery, as to invite any other man-and to be unmolested in our right. Those who do not wish to hear him may stay away from our meetings. But we will not consent that the pro-slavery party shall come or send into our country towns to break up or disturb meetings, which we see fit to hold,

under the sanction of the Constitution, in order that we may be enlightened as to our duty to our enslaved countrymen. If we, or the abolitionists, or Mr. Thompson, violate the laws of the land, let us, or them, be dealt with accordingly-but if the laws protect us, let not our fellowcitizens countenance the outrages of mobocrats, however ' rich and respectable' they may be.

I rejoice that we have had a large meeting of the yeomanry of Massachusetts assembled in this town, to hear Mr. Thompson just at this time; because the opposers of freedom and the rights of man, and the liberty of speech, seem to have singled him out as the especial object of attack, thus identifying him with the cause which every true New Englander loves. I have no time to give you a detailed account of Mr. Thompson's address. It was listened to with deep-often breathless attention-and not a sentiment escaped his lips, although he spoke with matchless rapidity, to which any friend of man or of America could object.

MR. THOMPSON AT CONCORD, N. H.

FROM THE CONCORD (N. H.) HERALD OF FREEDOM.

To reply to all the slanders and falsehoods showered upon the noble stranger, George Thompson, from our most unscrupulous press, with a frequency, multiplicity, and malice aforethought, that beat the infernal machine' fired off at Louis Phillippe, would worry down Briareus himself with a whole quiver of goose quills in each of his hundred hands-and an attempt to be heard before a community resolved into one great variegated mobocracy, were as idle and bootless as the whistle of the stout mariner amid the roar of the tempest.' But there is now and then a perpetration that transcends abolition patience itself.

Professing Christians, most of us, we did not dream that associations of the friends of missions would disregard the appeal of Mr. Thompson, or refuse to hear him because he was a foreigner,' or that an enlightened ministry would join in with the wicked partizan deprecation, 'Foreign emissary, supported by foreign funds, sent here to overturn our peculiar institutions.' What is the missionary to India. but an 'emissary?' what is New England to the Hindoo but 'foreign' land? and what the gifts of the monthly concert, and the treasures of the contribution box, but foreign funds' to the banks of the Ganges? and whatI was about to say-are the infernal rights of Heathenism but their peculiar institutions?' But here the parallel fails, for there is nothing in all the grim and foul incidents of ages of Pagan darkness and depravity, to be named by the side of that unutterable, diabolical 'peculiarity,' American