Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-11-05
THE SPIRITS TRIED.


mandatory zealots who rail at the President to
plead in extenuation of the virulence with which
from time to time they have assailed Mr.. Lincoln
and their more loyal countrymen, that, as farsce-
ing men, having profound insight into the pre-
sent complications, they naturally grow inpatient
at the sluggish spirit and conservative temper of
all whose eyes have not been purged with the Gu
phrasy and rue of an anti-slavery philosophy 1t
is affirmed that those whose minds are deeply i'm
bued with this philosophy have been endowed by
it with sagacity and power of divination which
enable them to penetrate beneath the surface of
political events, and to mark out in advance the
line of wise and effective policy. In word,
they are seers, appointed to interpret the will OF
Heaven in the midst Of perverse and gainsaying
generation.
If there be any ground for this pretenson it is of
course, one which be easily substantiated, for
no class has more INDUCED in prophecy than the
school which embraces among its opponents men
like Wendell Phillips and journals like the New
York Tribune. And we lynow of no better test
of the prophetic spirit than that prescribed by the
great Hebrew wgver, when, in reply to the
question How shall we know the word which
the Lord hath not spoken?" he prescribed the fol-
lowing rule:
"When prophet speaketh in the name of the
Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass,
that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken,
but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously;
thou shalt not be afraid of him"
No men speak more fuently " in the name of
the Lord !" than those anti-slavery teachers who
denounce all men, from the President downward,
who are not antislavery according to their dialect
of the anti-slavery tongue If therefore, they have
spoken by authority we may expect to find the pro-
gress Of events confirming the wisdom and truth
of their utterances; but should this useful con-
frmaton be wanting, are left only to infer that
they have spoken presumptuousy, and are men of
whom nobody need be afraid when they undertake
to denounce judgments on all who do not heed their
admonitions. Let apply this test to few Of
he most trusted oracles of the anti-slavery inspi
ration. As an illustration of the alleged prophetic
insight, for example, Of Wendell Phillips, we may
take the following from his speech on Progress"
delivered February II, 1861:
" The South cannot make on any one Suppose the
fifteen States hang together year-which is almost an
impossibity:
lst They have given bonds in two thousand millions
Of dolarthe value of their slaveto keep the peace
"2d They will have enough to do to attend the ire
pressibe conflict at home Virgins, Kentucky, Missouri
will be their Massachusetts,; Winter Davs Blair, and Cas-
Clay their Seward and Garrison.
I'D. The Gulf States will monopoize all the Offices.
must have Gulf principles to belong to aheathy party
Under such lead disfranchsed Virginia in opposition
will not have much heart to attack Pennsylvania"
If the things here specified have come to pass
according to the predictions of Mr.. Phillips, he
deserves to be held in honor as an anonted prophet
but if these things have " not followed nor come
to pass" it only remains to say that he has spo-
ken presumptuously, aud is a man of whom we
"shal not be afraid" when he Eliminates pro-
phetic warnings in our ears. Perhaps no seer in
any age Of the world was ever go discredited by
facts as Mr.. Phillips has been.
Before the proclamation of freedom was issued
the New York Evening Post contained the follow
ing prediction of correspondent, writing from
this city, as to the efficacy Of that paper:
How strange that great men and rulers should not
that the stomach the weak point Of the enemy He
will have little stomach TO fight the bad fight of rebellion
empty stomach. When the great words of liberty
and free dom shall be sounded from the ieh-psces Of
power like trumpet through the land the kue of the
rebellion will be tOlled. But asked how the ne
groes the plantations to be informed Of such
decree of the Government How little do those who ask
such questions know OF the negro character! The
groes familiar with every swamp and mountain pass
through glen and forest and at night guided by the stars
the gospel OF freedom would be circulated from cabin b.
cabin almost with teegraphc swtness The plough mould
stand still IN The rrO The ripened grain ,1ouid remain
unharresed, the to0nd not be MIXED the dinners
oOud be cooked but universal haleluah of pt ry
to God echoed from every valley and hilltop Of rebeldom
would sound the speedy doom OF treason"
Have these predictions been fulfilled? And
yet it is the fulfllment Of such predictions that
the anti-slavery prognostioators have suspended
their repute for sagacity.
Reproducing such representations as these in
our columns on the 3lst of July, 1862, before any
proclamation of freedom had been issued, we wrote
as follows:
There ia asrect Of the question which rather in
clnes to wish that the President might fnd it com.
patble with HIS conEctons Of public duty to issue some
such paper these compainant6 ask at his hands We
well assured that 1t would prove bruum uirnen but
its demonstrated necency might perhaps open the eyes
If amabe and sanguine phanthropsts, who, until the
experiment is tried will continue credit such represen-
tations"
And now that we have had abundant opportu-
mites for testing the wisdom and forecast of these
men, let us ask if we have seen the roads swarm
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