November, 1819

Here, we have the record of a most busy month. A fire ripped through Boston as the northern lights flashed overhead, leading a host of volunteer firemen to give service above and beyond anything they might have expected.

The Rev Mr William Ellery Channing explicated some points of Unitarian theology, in a long sermon noted with great detail and vigor by our diarist. Channing had only recently delivered his canonical Baltimore sermon, so his mind was fresh and his imagination quite engaged.

Perhaps of greatest interest today, a committee of Boston’s top lawyers met to plan a response to the proposed entry of Missouri to the Union as a slave state. They met in Gallison’s office, and Gallison was part of the committee formed to organize the public meeting and draft the necessary letters to Congress. He ended up doing most of the writing in a frenzied all-nighter, to be discussed in a later entry.