CHAPTER XI.
MISCHIEF LET LOOSE.
A wild-cat-like creature was abroad.

To it the Abolitionists were to be thrown.

It was to destroy Garrison, make an end of Thompson, and suppress between its enormous jaws the grandest moral movement of the century.

Besides doing up this modest little programme, the beast, O wonderful to say, was also to crown its performances by "saving" the Union.

Rejoicing in the possession of such a conservative institution, the politicians, the press, and public opinion uncaged the monster, while from secure seats they watched the frightful scenes of fury and destruction enacted by it in the national arena.
These scenes began in the summer of 1834, and in the city of New York.
They were ushered in by the breaking up of an anti-slavery celebration on the Fourth of July by the clack and roar of several hundred young rowdies, gathered for the purpose.