renunciation.

The young orator's attitude towards slavery was determined by the
mobbing of Garrison. One October afternoon in 1835 Wendell Phillips sat
reading by an open window in his office on Court Street. Suddenly his
attention was diverted from the page by voices, angry and profane,
rising from the street without. Looking down he saw a multitude moving
up the street, and soon found that the multitude had become a mob. Five
thousand men were collected in front of the anti-slavery office, and
were trying to crowd their way up the stairs in search of Garrison. In
another room thirty women were assembled to organize a woman's abolition
society. When the women found that the mob wanted to put them out also,
they sent a message to Mayor Lyman asking protection. When the mayor
arrived with the police, instead of dispelling the mob and protecting
liberty of speech, the mayor dispelled the women and protected the mob.
Discovering that they had the sympathy of the mayor and would be
protected by the police, the lawless element rushed upon the office of
the _Liberator_, smashed in the doors and windows, and dragged Garrison
forth. Bareheaded, with a rope about his waist, his coat torn off, but
with erect head, set lips, flashing eyes, Garrison was dragged down the
street to the City Hall. On every side rose the shout "Kill him! Lynch
him! ---- the abolitionist!" Asking who the man was, Phillips was told
that this was Garrison, the editor of the _Liberator_. Meeting the
commander of the Boston regiment, of which he was a member, he
exclaimed, "Why does not the mayor call out the troops? This is
outrageous!" "Why," answered the officer, "don't you see that our
militia are also the mob?" It was all too true. The mob was made up of
men of property and standing. In that hour Wendell Phillips had his
call. In the person of that man dragged down the street with a rope
around his waist, the most gifted speaker in Boston had found his