He was struck down in the exercise of his liberties as a citizen of the town where he met death, and of the State and country to which he belonged.

What brave man and good in the North who might not meet a similar fate for daring to denounce evils approved by the community in which his lot was cast?
Who was safe?
Whose turn would it be next to pay with his life for attempts to vindicate the birthright of his citizenship?
What had Lovejoy done, what had he written, that thousands of people who did not agree with Garrison would not have done and have written under like circumstances?
He was not a disciple of Garrison, he did not accept the doctrine of immediate emancipation, and yet a pro-slavery mob had murdered him.

Yes, who was safe?
Who was to be the next?
A great horror transfixed the North, and bitter uncertainty, and tremendous dread of approaching perils to its liberties.
Ah! had not Garrison spoken much plain truth at the public hearing of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society before the insolent chairman and his committee when he said: "The liberties of the people of the free States are identified with those of the slave population.

If it were not so, there would be no hope, in my breast, of peaceful deliverance of the latter class from their bondage.

Our liberties are bound together by a ligament as vital as that which unites the Siamese twins.