Foreign consulates were rocking, too. Ambassadors dared not talk. For this was a year of change--kings being overthrown; Garibaldi, Mazzini, Kossuth emerging as heroes. Freedom had become an explosive word--to be handled with care. They smashed the windows of the _National Era_ office and talked of running Gamaliel Bailey out of town. But it was difficult to call out a mob within sight of the Capitol building. And Gamaliel Bailey--facing his critics with that dazzling, supercilious, knowing smile of his--sent them away gnashing their teeth but helpless. The time had come for action. Oratory was not enough. Convictions, however sound and pure, were not enough. Time was running out. Frederick Douglass wrote a letter to John Brown in Springfield, Massachusetts. Douglass told the wool merchant of his recent visit with Gerrit Smith. “I’d like to talk with you,” he wrote. And John Brown answered, “Come.” Of that first visit with John Brown, Douglass says: “At the time to which I now refer this man was a respectable merchant in a populous and thriving city, and our first meeting was at his store. This was a substantial brick building on a prominent, busy street. A glance at the interior, as well as at the massive walls without, gave me the impression that the owner must be a man of considerable wealth. My welcome was all that I could have asked. Every member of the family, young and old, seemed glad to see me, and I was made much at home in a very little while. I was, however, surprised with the appearance of the house and its location. After seeing the fine store I was prepared to see a fine residence in an eligible locality.... In fact, the house was neither commodious nor elegant, nor its situation desirable. It was a small wooden building on a back street, in a neighborhood chiefly occupied by laboring men and mechanics. Respectable enough, to be sure, but not quite the place where one would look for the residence of a flourishing and successful merchant. Plain as was the outside of this man’s house, the inside was plainer. Its furniture would have satisfied a Spartan. It would take longer to tell what was not in this house than what was in it. There was an air of plainness about it which almost suggested destitution.