The Liberator

Boston, June 3, 1859

Great Mass Meeting at Cleveland.

      There was a great gathering f the Freemen of the Reserve, at Cleveland, o the 24^th ult. The day was fine, and the enthusiasm of the multitude unbounded. Such a meeting was never before held in Cleveland. The Leader says:

      The number of persons present upon the Square t listen to the speakers was at the lowest estimate, from 10,000 to 12,000. From the speaker’s stand an almost unbroken sea of heads, covered the space all over that section of the Park from the fountain to the fences. The trees, fences, windows, and steps of the Custom House were crowded with interested spectators, the whole forming a congregation equal to several Fourth of July celebrations, with this exception, that here the feeling that called the vast crowd together was a deep and strong love of liberty, and not a fire cracker and firework effervescence. – It was an earnest and working day – a day to be marked as an epoch – a day to inspire the attendants with zeal and stern enthusiasm for God and the right. The calm and unflinching eye, tone and word of Gov. Chase, the glowing fire of Judge Spaulding, the sarcasm and fearless denunciation of Carter, the humorous and open thrusts of Tilden, the clarion rallying notes, the earnest expostulation and thundering ananthemus of Giddings, and the bold, manly energetic counsels of Hitchcock, Root, Delano, Brown, Mahan, Vance, and Wade, all these will not soon be forgotten by the participants in the events of the Mass Convention of May 24, 1859. We have had a good meeting, one that we may be proud of as the gathering of the clans of independent freemen, and as such let us ‘sound its praise abroad.’

      Hon. J.R. Giddings was President of the meeting, assisted by thirteen Vice Presidents. A service of strong resolutions was reported by John Converse, Esq., Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, and adopted by a thundering vote. Among the resolutions was one providing for raising a fund, to be called The Fund of Liberty, for the relief of the Oberlin prisoners, any surplus to be devoted to the advancement of the cause of Republicanism.

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      The People Are Waking Up. – Meetings are being held I different parts of the Reserve, and resolutions passed, denouncing the action of the Federal Court and United States officers at Cleveland, for the manner in which the odious fugitive slave law is executed there upon the citizens of Lorain county. We hope the subject will be discussed at all Republican meetings and gatherings in Ohio, and ring it into the ears of the miserable hounds who are the willing tools of the piratical slave power, for the poor pittance of a few dollars of blood money. How can Judge Willson, District Attorney Belden, and Marshal Matt. Johnson go to their night’s repose, without feelings which should pertain to sheep-killing dogs!

--Springfield (O.) Republic.