He stated the deplorable effect
of attending such exhibitions on the character of the youth
of our city of both sexes, cited the opinion and practice
of our ancestors in such matters, and made a profound impression.
He then warned his hearers against the young man who was to
follow him, whom, he said, he loved as his life, but he was
there employed as a lawyer with his fee in his hand, without
the responsibility which rested upon them of protecting the
morals and good order of the city. It was very seldom that
so powerful a speech was heard in that hall, although it was
the cradle of the Anti-slavery movement, and had been the
scene of some of the most famous efforts of famous orators.
Everybody supposed that the youth was crushed and would not
venture to perform his duty in the face of such an attack.
But he was fully equal to the occasion. He met his father
with a clear, simple, modest, but extremely able statement
of the other side; pointed out the harmlessness of such exhibitions
when well conducted, and that the strictness which confounded
innocence and purity with guilt and vice was itself the parent
and cause of vice.
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