The indignation of the antislavery people remained to be expressed, and a mass meeting was held on the Common and in Tremont Temple. Wendell Phillips and Theodore Parker addressed the assemblage, and Phillips noticed the fact that hostile troops had not been seen in the streets of Boston since the redcoats marched up from Long Wharf.[196] =§ 55. Burns case (1854).=--The rendition of Anthony Burns in 1854 was the last great fugitive slave case which occurred in Boston. Burns was the property of Charles F. Suttle of Virginia. He escaped in 1854, and came to Boston. One of the first things he did was to write a letter to his brother, still a slave in the South. Unfortunately, though this was mailed in Canada, by some oversight it was dated in Boston. Since a letter to a slave was always opened by the master, Burns's hiding place was discovered.[197] He was arrested upon the usual charge of theft. Then, upon a warrant issued by Judge Loring, he was claimed as a fugitive slave by Suttle. When the knowledge of the arrest began to circulate, the most intense excitement prevailed. Handbills asking all antislavery people to go to Boston were sent throughout the country. Public meetings held in Faneuil and Meionaon Halls were crowded with representatives from all the towns about.[198] One of the people who took part in the attempted rescue which followed one of these meetings thus describes it:-- "On the evening of the 26th of May, we went down to Faneuil Hall to hear Wendell Phillips. He counselled waiting until morning before any attempt to rescue Burns should be made, but the excited audience silenced him with shouts of 'No, no! to-night! to-night!' "Mr. Phillips saw that it was useless to try to go on, so he sat down and Mr. Theodore Parker began speaking. At first he advocated the same plan, but at last, as he found the crowd growing more and more eager and uproarious, he said, 'Well, if you will, let us go!' and led the way out of the hall. The people followed, and my friend and I were among the first to reach the court-house. There we found prepared for us long beams and boxes of axes. Five or six men seized one of these beams, and before its pressure the large door of the court-house crushed like glass. Mr. Higginson first stepped in, but just then a pistol shot was heard, and the mob fell back. Mr. Higginson looked around, and entreated them not to desert him, but the favorable moment was gone. The people should have lost no time in filling the house, for the marines had been ordered from the Navy Yard, and when they appeared nothing further could be done."[199] In this riot James Batchelder, one of the Marshal's guards, was killed.