It is said that on one occasion while this strife was going on, a stranger in Charleston met Mr.Petigru in the street and asked him the way to the Insane Hospital.

To this the old man answered by pointing north, south, east and west, and said, "You will find the Insane Hospital in every direction here." According to General Hurlburt, Mr.Petigru had quietly organized a company of young men whom he could trust, who were ready, under his lead, to rescue Mr.Hoar and insure his personal safety if he were attacked by the mob.
John Quincy Adams says in his diary, speaking of the transaction: "I approved the whole of his conduct." Governor Briggs, in communicating the facts to the Legislature, says in a special message: "The conduct of Mr.Hoar under the circumstances seems to have been marked by that prudence, firmness and wisdom which have distinguished his character through his life." Mr.Emerson says, in a letter dated December 17, 1844: "Mr.Hoar has just come home from Carolina, and gave me this morning a narrative of his visit.

He had behaved admirably well, I judge, and there were fine heroic points in his story.
One expression struck me, which, he said, he regretted a little afterward, as it might sound a little vapouring.

A gentleman who was very much his friend called him into a private room to say that the danger from the populace had increased to such a degree that he must now insist on Mr.Hoar's leaving the city at once, and he showed him where he might procure a carriage and where he might safely stop on the way to his plantation, which he would reach the next morning.

Mr.Hoar thanked him but told him again that he could not and would not go, and that he had rather his broken skull should be carried to Massachusetts by somebody else, than to carry it home safe himself whilst his duty required him to remain.
The newspapers say, following the Charleston papers, that he consented to depart: this he did not, but in every instance refused,--to the Sheriff, and acting Mayor, to his friends, and to the committee of the S.C.Association, and only went when they came in crowds with carriages to conduct him to the boat, and go he must,--then he got into the coach himself, not thinking it proper to be dragged." I add this letter from Dr.Edward Everett Hale.
39 HIGHLAND ST., ROXBURY, MASS., Mar.