Phillips, Wendell. Speech on abolition.

Phillips, 26, delivers his first major speech at a meeting at Faneuil Hall. Phillips had not intended to speak at the event and was sitting in the gallery, but becomes enraged when former Massachusetts attorney general James Austin praises the mob that recently killed abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy in Illinois. After making his way to the rostrum, Phillips declares, “When liberty is in danger, Faneuil Hall has the right, it is her duty to strike the keynote for these United States.” John Murray Forbes later writes, “That speech changed my whole feeling with regard to it [slavery], though the bigotry and pigheadedness of the abolitionists prevented my acting with them.” Soon after this meeting, however, Massachusetts Attorney General James Austin defends Lovejoy’s attackers at another meeting at Faneuil Hall.