The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1864-01-16
wendell Phillips.

Weuucl
OF this distinguished gentleman who so
lately charmed our citizens by his oratory, we
have a word to say. That Mr.. Phillips is one
of the most eloquent men of our country -
the most eloquent, We think-few, even Of
those who denounce him, will deny. Those
who have simply read his speeches but have
never seen his face or listened to the tones Of
his voice are lily prepared TO do him justice
His recorded language often seems severe
perhaps vituperatiyc and unkind, but his
spoken language never. None but those the
most besotted with bigotry, while candidiy
listening TO his discourse, can fail to be i'm
pressed with his singular honesty, his simple
ity of purpose, his clearness Of statement, his
purity of style, his quietness of manner, his
desire to be just, his anxiety to be understood
and the kindness of spirit which inspires and
animates him. In these respects it seems TO
us he can scarcely fail TO disarm criticism.
Nor do we believe Mr.. Phillips is insensible to
praise or the good opinion Of his fellow-men.
His object is to awaken thought, to convince
those who hear him, and to win them over,
by fair means, to his own standpoint and his
own views. He desires to be thought well OF,
but only as the result of deserving to be thus
thought Of Such. we think, is Wendell Phil
lips before candid audience; one of Gods
noblest offspring, one Of the purest-minded of
men, one who tries to be true to his own con-
yictions, and one who would scorn to misrep
resent or do an act of willful injustice to an
opponent
In relation to the justice of Mr.. Phillips
criticism upon President Lincoln all d his
plan Of reconstruction we confess, at present,
an inab iIity to pronounce an Ineligible judg-
ment. While we understand Mr.. p. TO differ
from the President we do not understand him
to censurc or condemn hip. He ranks Mr..
Lincoln so high on the roll of fame that he
can afford to be told of his errors 1t seems
to US those who complain of Mr.. Phillips be-
cause he does not accord TO Abraham Lin
coin those different but not conflicting quail
ties of craftsmanship seldom or never found
ia the same man, are singularly unreasonable.
He does not consider Mr.. Lincoln man TO
strike off far ahead, and wait for public senti-
ment to come up to him, like Jackson, but in
putting him in that more cautious, calm, care
full class who study the, winds and currents,
the shoals and reef, the charts and the COM
pass, and shape their course according to
these, he certainly puts him into the same class
with Washington; and who needs convincing
that while Washington would not have an
swered as well for the notification of 80 as
Jackson, the latter, with his spirit Of defiance
would never have moulded the elements
evolved by the Revolution into ahomogenious
and prosperous Union?
been the man for March 4th, 1861 without
antecedent fame, and with powerful party
ready to suspect his every motive, to thwart
his every purpose, and to oppose his every
movement, - to guide the Ship Of State
through the storm that then caused its NUT
terings to be heard and its lurid lightnings to
be seen from the horizon TO the zenith. The
place for jackson in this rebellion was Nov.
1860, when South Carolina commenced to
"scrape lint" and secession developed its dark
purposes. He would have trampled out with
his iron foot the sprouts Of that seed which
weak if not wicked Executive chief had suf-
fered to be scattered broadcast over the land.
On the question of reconstruction we think
Mr.. Phillips entertains exaggerated fears. If
the rebellion should suddenly collapse, and
the leaders be secured or flee the country,
there would be more danger than We think is
now to be justly apprehended. Then the slav-
cry question would be a vexed one indeed, and
with two millions of slaves not free in fact,
and with copperhead judges on the bench, and
with weak, timid and doubling men in the
loyal ranks, no foresight can determine what
kind Of solution of the slavery problem we
should have, how long the sore would tester,
how much the ulcer would be skinned and
salved over, or how soon the unextracted roots
Of the cancer upon the vitals Of the body pol
itic would gain such progress as TO make an
other civil war inevitable. But the probabili-
ties are very small Of such a sudden terinina-
tion of the rebellion, and more reasonable than
this hypothesis is the supposition that the
rebels themselves, before they give over, in
their madness and rage viii themselves declare
for emancipation,-with . hope of enlisting
their slaves on the side Of rebellion, and thus
cut the Gordian knot and solve the question
of slavery forever, leaving no room for theory,
for experiment, or for discussion in the mat
ter.
MI. Phillips sees, as all must see, the danger
to free institutions of having the Southern soil
all owned by small number of slaveholding
planters, and he looked upon the coniiscation
act As the fitting instrument by which the
large plantations OF the rebels would be diyid-
ed up for the benefit OF those loyal men, white
and black, who have fought and are fighting
for the nations salvation. He fears that under
the Amnesty policy of the President, the own.
ers of these plantations may all come back TO
exert the unhallowed influence upon the flu
ture that Is to be expected from such owner
ship. While we admit the possibility of dam
ger which Mr.. Phillips thinks he plainly dis
covers, we think he does not give sufficient
prominence to an important fact, to wit: that
the persons excepted from the provisions of
the amnesty proclamation the military Off
GERS, above the grade Of Colonel, the members
of the rebel Congress and Cabinet, and those
who hold high civil oflces, State and Confed-
crate, in rebellion, arc very largely from the
ranks of the planters and large lapdholders,
80 that from this cause, as well as from the
fact that others are within the rebel lines with
no intention Of returning, or have been slain
in hattie mr. died af casualties and sicEnaseae