Unless it should be pacified, something was likely to happen which we should all have much regretted.
I accordingly went out and addressed the crowd from the steps of the City Hall.

They listened to me respectfully enough.
I was pretty well known through the city as an earnest Free Soiler, and as sharing the public feeling of indignation against the delivering up of fugitives.

I reminded the crowd that my father and sister had been expelled from Charleston, S.C., where he had gone at the risk of his life to defend Massachusetts colored sailors who were imprisoned there, and appealed to them not to give the people of South Carolina the right to excuse their own conduct by citing the example of Massachusetts.

There were shouts from the crowd: "Will he promise to leave Worcester and never come back ?" Butman, who was inside, terribly frightened, said he would promise never to come to Worcester again as long as he lived.

I did not, however, repeat Butman's promise to the crowd.