See quotations.
1809. Those indignation meetings set on foot in the time of William the Testy, where men met together to rail at public abuses, groan over the evils of the times, and make each other miserable.—W. Irving, ‘A History of New-York,’ bk. vii. ch. ii. (Bartlett.)
1832. When it was known that the senate had non-concurred in the appointment of Mr. Van Buren [as minister to England], his friends held a meeting for the purpose of making public their indignation at this act, which they considered and denominated an unprecedented outrage…. Similar meetings were held in various towns and villages…. The opposition gave the name of “indignation meetings” to these assemblies.—J. D. Hammond, ‘History of Political Parties,’ ii. 411 (1842).
1841. Now let [Mr. Giddings] put that down in his book, and tell it at his “indignation meetings” when he goes home.—Mr. Black of Georgia, House of Repr., Feb. 9: Cong. Globe, p. 165, App. (See also p. 171.)
1909. Part of the reason, and perhaps the main part, for the decline of the indignation meeting is to be found in the universal reach of the newspaper. Everybody reads the newspaper, and the newspaper covers all the ground.—N.Y. Evening Post, Nov. 29.
