, 1862-03-29
Speech OF nv enden:: Phillips
~. ~: IL: on the War

taneous ontpourfng Of The masses to hear ana :
,sanction the truths uttered by this distin-
guIshedt champion Of human rights. Thc
spaeious hall was packed to Its utno5t cai,ac.
ity. ~ On audience which, in point Of respect
ability and intelligence, has probably never
been e1celled in this city. At 8o'c1ock the
oss19f appeared upon the stand and was
greeted with 1oud and prolonged applause.
AS soon as quiet Was restored, Mr. Phillips
Was, introduced By G. 8 Bowen, ESQ.,, and for
an hour and half held the attention Of that
Fast assemblage, as only Wendell Phillips
can enchaan an audience. During the delivery
Of his address the speaker was repeatedly
interrupted by the most hearty and enthusias-
dc applause, which was plainly indicative Of
the faet that his manly, patriotic utterances
found an echo in the hearts Of his hearers.
that, in other words, the policy Of ending this
rebellion BY destroying its root and cause, is
the policy Of the people.
Asthousands Of the TR1BusE,s readers did
not and could not be present to herr the burn
Ing words Of Mr.. Phillips as thcy fell from his
own lips. We print the following detached
fragments, reported tsr5atiuua, but without re-
gard to the order in which they were deliy-
cred ....
We reduce, therefore, the causes to two,
EtaFery and the agitation for its abolition.
name for the great Yankee habit Of asking
questions It Is only another name for free
speech; the inevitable tendency Of educated
men to analyze The institutions under which
they live. That is my anti Slavery. I told
the Massachusetts troops in their camp
IN VgiRia 2e ta they nn;a had thEse wea
and their tongues, aad thought % The list he The
most effective Of all: n dealing with the pc
culiar Institution Of Virginia, T do not pro-
Pose to yield that free speech do not be-
licve that the existence Of it is to be counted
the essential root Of the nation's character.
The anti-slayery agitation, therefore, is but
the inevitable tendency OF the institution Of
slavery, and whenever an Institution exists
among us too sacred for discussion,
ed but it cannot be preserved. IApphuse.1
look therefore to the slavery Of American
ideas as the cause of this war. You see it nat
ura1ly in the land that divides the armies.
Every slave State has joined the rebellion.
NO Tree State has made movement in that
direction. What better evidence do yon want
of the root which divides the two camps9 I
take it therefore, that slavery Is the cause of
this war. do not think that it is the fault
Of any individual man or party. It Is the inev-
liable result ofthe Institution seventy years
Of ideas. Our fathers found them ere they
endeayored to assimn1ate or to harmonize
them They tried that experiment, but
eighteen hundred and sixty-one goes up to
Heaven and says, "The experiment of seven
teen hundred and eighty-seyen is failure.
You cannot make union upon that basis" I
DC not mean that the constitution is a failure.
l do not mean that union impossible. But
mean to say that the experiment which our
fathers tried, Of leaving two utterly
hostile forms Of civil life together
within the same parchment. after
seventy years Of experiment has failed. We
VII have been years in tears for that failure.
lCheers.] I view it as an sirrepressibIe con-
tiet," coming oat in the form Of battle.
lCheers.l Carolina sees her necessity-the
harrow way for her consistency and her sa-
Eacity. She sees in the triumph Of Abraham
Lincoln the hand writing On the wall that
reads that she and what she represents, having
for seventy years governed this nation, Is
heneefoIth allowed to retire into private
Life. lCheers and prolonged applause.1
and that uineteen millions Of Northern men
hitherto snubbed into perpetual minority in
politics, are about to take upon themselves
the management of their own civil affairs. She
Knows that that is inevitable death. Democ-
racy, Ike pyramid on its broadest base,
founded On natural justice, is rs certain Of uit-
mate triumph as the existence Of God. |Cheers.1
It can afford to let evils work themselves out
and die in due time. But slavery, however
sincere its advocates, they arc aware that it is
an abominable institution in the Nineteenth
Century, that literature, politics, trade, ideas,
the whole dement, Of motives are against it
that unless it can absorb all the great inf1u-
cEces on its side, it must die.
South Carolina, therefore, tries the last re-
phase. Every nation On the face Of the earth
has gone through precisely the same scene;
no nation that has not known in her time q
struggle betwiEt power and the people-a
struggle betwixt aristocracy and democracy. It
is according to the intelligence Of the people
bow long that quarrel lasts: In England it
began in 1910, when the blind loyalty Of the
stuarts grapplea with Pur1tanis,n. It lasted
rate power al the while. France lad 4 Ike
struggle, beginning in the middle Of the last
SsntT1 ana It ths has not gained is object yet
Bonaparte has his heel upon their neck, and
dcspotism has trinmphed- Now, fellow
citizens, as I read the times, we are
entering upon the same trial to-day. It is no
unforeseen trouble, sprung out Of the ground;
settlement Of New England and Virginia. Our
fathers Thought that they had charmed it into
new life Webster went to his grave believing
tlat the fact was accomplished. AS said in
Washington, our fathers took gunpow-
fSem ass ins into the gatea stsh easan PIT PIT
tried to screw it down, thinking they would
harmonize. It is not our fathers fauit-they
acted according to lne-they were alarmed by
the danger and they could not allow but that
justice was safe. They were brought up to the
blank wall Of believing without seeing. They
hence did not believe. Now the Puritan of 1870
was man who believed with his ewes shut.
Nine hundred and ninety nine men ont of a
thousand will tell you that if you keep your
bands above the water you will float
But they all try it and sink. And the Puritan
is the one that floats. He trusted God with
out asking for statistics. But in 1850, our
fathers came to that when they made the Con
gtitufion. Now. the Democratic purity, not
Bryant Of the .Eh'e,.ing Rst, not " William Or,
not Col. Cochran, not Cameron, not Ban
croft, not Croswell, hut the rank and file,
me less-knoWn names and the weak
kneed Republicans in the shadow Of the
dark sky abore, say, ''pnt the pieces care
fully in their places again; put the same
powder and the same institution back Into the
gun and say the constitution backwards in
stead OF your prayers, and there will be no
years, The shareholders, the south, have
been 3 unit on the subject of what
they want and what they lore.
They hate us. do not mean
that every man hates lie. am speaking
nationally, Of communities. Tome the NORTH
ren, with ideas, and must mass up the mi NIL
Mons IN order to get their ideas. Every man
has, 10 certain extent, properly speaking,
thought They read newspapers: each maY,
get his living; It is a democratic institution.
nov, ne London Times says democracy is On
tf1al. l doubt #, Seventy years has sealed it
2 success: [App1ause These nineteen
Northern States may weigh themselves against
any Government in Europe. fChcers.l
After passing over several matters regarding
the wal, the speaker said:
We'll, perhaps you would say. that came
ncre nc aB an abolitionist. do not. Ihaye very
intle interest in the war as an abplitionist. I
90 not believe the war can end without the
death Of slavery. General Hnlleck NAV make
What proclamations, General Buell. maT Ttite
What letters and General Mcclellan may issue
naat orders he pleases,- yet you cannot mike
this pro-slayery war. There are some thlups
that ought not to be done, but there are ot6-
efs that cannot be done. (Cheers.] Every
cannon that has been fired from the time the
war begun Is an antf-elayery lecture ECheefs,l
and III tell you why. It is making the
United States Kansas on great scale. It is
turning rs all into Kansas Tesiments-JaY-
hawkefs if you like. [I.aughter and appla1se.1
n The great dny Of ten years ago the South
threw down Missouri as d gauntlet to heht
1t q miniature war. The South was repre-.
sented By hoNie-knfyes and bludgeons The
North sent ploW shares, churches, printing
presses, men without arms. JOHN Brown
vent to Kansas with seeds and trees and
English cattle, and he did not carry
q fow1ng-pieee: but the South came
and tore up bis orchard and slaughtered the
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