The Liberator

WARNING TO RIOTERS.

In March last, Mr. Stanton went to Woburn, by invitation, to deliver a lecture on the subject of slavery, but was prevented by a gang of lawless rioters.— Of these, seven were arrested, and had to give bonds for their appearance at court—viz: George Smith, William Beard, John Medan, Junius Richardson, Jr., W. H. Moore, Bradley Richardson, and Samuel Tidd. Their trial has just terminated, all being discharged for the want of sufficient evidence to convict, except Smith and Bradley, who have been recognized in $200 each and surety, to appear at the next Court of Common Pleas in Concord. The behaviour of the rioters towards some very respectable citizens of Reading, who went to Woburn to hear the lecture, was most outrageous. They followed them out of town, shouting, 'These are damned Reading abolitionists—no Woburn abolitionist dares show his head here—down with the Reading niggers, &c. &c.'

We had hardly proceeded 'twenty rods,' writes one of our friends who was involved in the uproar, 'before it seemed as though the inmates of the bottomless pit were let loose, each one striving to outdo his fellow in noise and blasphemy. Next came crowding, fisting, and hat-knocking. They then resorted to mud-throwing. Stones next argued the case, in the most forcible manner. The mobocrats rallied to the number of two or three hundred. Their arms were stones, mud, and bean-poles—their superior officers, 'men of property and standing,' who nodded approbation as the tumult waxed louder and louder, and who openly rejoiced at this triumphant termination of a nigger meeting. Their inferior officers were alcohol-sellers and drinkers, who had previously drunk to ebriety. While thus shamefully treated in the streets of Woburn, not a living thing opened its mouth in our behalf.'

These profane, noisy, drunken rioters, it must not be forgotten, espouse the same side of the question, and are found in amicable companionship with Moses Stuart, at Andover, Wilbur Fisk, at Middletown, Leonard Bacon, at New Haven, and Joseph Tracy, at New York! There is no quarrelling between these parties, as they are all agreed in opinion, that the abolitionists are disturbers of the peace, fanatics or incendiaries, and that slaveholding is in accordance with the Bible, and the Declaration of Independence.

Query—When are the 'gentlemen of property and standing' in Boston to be tried for their riotous behaviour in October, 1835?