Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-12-17
SPEECH OF WENDELL PHILLIPS.

AT THE BOSTON MEETING FOR TIE RELIEF OF JOHN
BROWNS FAMILY
Ihardly know, ladies and gentlemen, wha,
there is left me to say, in regard to tho cause
which has called US together to night. Certainly
the speakers who have addressed US have covered
with wonderful and eloquent sympathy almost all
the points which would he spoken of naturally in
a meeting like this. And l believe it is an un-
wunted pleasure, at least to me, to know that
clergyman Of the Old South pulpit has robbed me
of the choicest morsel of the speech l was about
to make (!augh!er) No man could come here to
this meeting, Boston born, without that parallel
in his mind which be has s" cloquently presented
to US of the massacre of the 5th of March. Then
as now, fullfed conservatism said it was madness
"A few insane men 1ipging themselves against
an empire Then as now, the question was be-
fore the courts and the courts pronounced the law
to be against the martyrs Of the 5.h Of March.
They acquitted the men who shot Attuck,. And
my eloquent friend has omitted only one point Of
the parallel. Then. IS nov, the citizens Hooked
to the Old South Church as tho appropriate place
to express their indignation; and to-day we do not
60 to the Old South Church. but thank God,
the Old South Church comes to us (applause.)
like this South side view of slavery daughter
and applause.) 1t smacks Of the Revolutionary
favor. If there is truth in spi,itualism, the man
" who stands in the pulpit of tho Old South Church
is medium betwixt Joseph Warren and John
Hancock; for truly the sentiments with which
they started up the patriotism of the town of BOs-
ton are identical with the doctrine which he has
preached to us to. night (applause True, as he
hoe 81 e a..
picked flaws in the brave scenes Of that March
nigh, but he recoeets we'll, or do, tbHt in John
IIahcock's oration, and Joseph Warren's, the men
who felt the full flow of revolutionary fervor in
their veins, and who felt what, standing at the
head of the Revolution, they owed the martyrs of
the 5th Of March-in none Of these contemporary
Judgments is there one word of adverse criticism.
On the contrary there is the fullest and most COM
plete endorsement. | know modern history has
picked many flaws in the character Of the men of
the 9th of March, and later down. One of the
most beautiful and touching elements in this event
is that, far as VIC can see, il we had asked God
to make us a man that should stand before the
hatioh as the representative of the American idea,
unspotted, dignihed, modest, resolute, meroiful
and Christian, it would seeth MS if more perfect
representative could not have been given us than
the martyr of Harper's Ferry (applausel. In eve
ry word that he has spoken, in every act that he
has done, in the whole history of the conflict and
of everything that has followed it, in tho hong life
upon which the blaze of this event throws back
ward its light. there does not seem to have been
trait that We cannot with whole heart honor lap
plause). We have no apologies to make; We have
no excuses to frame; we have incidents to hide;
VIC have no words TO take back. 1t is the old
May flower cropping out, and every son of the PHI
grims is able tIuthfully to say, that what we i'm
agiued Plymouth Rock John Brown is s(applause).
Read that simple recital in The Ladependent from
the lips of his wife; honest, truthful, kneeng
daily at his family altar, bringing up his children
with daily recognition of their allegiance to God,
banishing from his military troops, even in the tu-
mult of Kansas, every man whose lips were famil-
lar with profans word, allowing neither intem-
parsrce nor anything that could be called sensu-
ali,y, drawing to himself the very model Of the
Puritans, passing his life in that guise, with one
polar sav before him from his very boyhood; for
you know be says that the 6rst thought that ever
turned his heart toward the black race was when,