the hall were received by the managers from ex-president Adams, William
Slade and Francis James, members of Congress, Thomas Morris of the U.S.
Senate, Judge Jay, Gerritt Smith, and other distinguished friends of
equal rights. The letter of the venerable ex-president is written with
his characteristic energy, and I quote an extract from it in further
proof of the sentiments already expressed on the state of feeling in the
land of Penn and Benezet, Pemberton and Franklin, on the subject of
slavery.


"The right of discussion upon slavery, and an indefinite extent
of topics connected with it, is banished from one-half the
States of this Union. It is _suspended_ in both houses of
Congress; opened and closed at the pleasure of the slave
representation; opened for the promulgation of nullification
sophistry; closed against the question, What is slavery? at the
sound of which the walls of the capitol staggered like a drunken
man.

"For this suppression of the freedom of speech and press, and
the right of petition, the people of the _free_ States of this
Union are responsible, and the _people of Pennsylvania most of
all_. Of this responsibility, I say it with a pang, sharper than
language can express, _the city of Philadelphia must take
herself the largest share_."


The meetings of the first day passed without disturbance. On the evening
of the second day, a meeting of the Female Anti-Slavery Society was held
in the hall, the proceedings of which were greatly disturbed by a mob of