Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-12-30
Wendell Phillips on the
Reconstruction Of the
Rebel States.
Negro Suffrage the Basis Of
Re.admissiOn.
GEN. BANKS POLICY OON-
DEMNED.
THE ISSUES BOLDLY
STATE D,

Wendell Phillips spoke at the Cooper In
stitute, on the question Of Reconstruction
as this question will soon become the great
question Of ths dsy, we make room for
few passages which show the present bear
ings of the subject. After some general
observations on the absence of justice to the
black man in our Government, prior to
the rebellion, he discusses
TWO PRIECIPLEs ESSENTIAL TO THE LIFE
OLA GREAT NATION.
Let me remind you of two principles
which unfailingly tend, if they are not in
to the existence of a great
nation. The first Is this; There never was
g great nation-there does not exist one to-
day-that was not dominated, governed,
inspired, directed by one idea. Il is like
q man dominated by q double purpose
he never can exert a great influence. We
had in New England statesman who
would have thrown Daniel Webster in the
shade if his love of money had not come
sthwart his political ambition So It Is
with nations. Look at England. You
may 90 back for centuries TO the War Of
tho ACacaf UAalCh IlGQeL mex u aSEEQuA-idkb
Power. The war between the people ana
the Stuarts placed her outside of sll-Euro-
pean influence, except when for i've or ten
years Cromwell placed all the elements OF
English strength under his heel, and the
contemplate third. rate Power Of Charles
1. became the Dictator Of Europe, before
which the young bride of Louis and the
vigilant craft of MazsTin stood rebuked,
which humbled Spain on the land and
Holland on the sea, and by whose imperial
word the victorious armies of Sweden, and
the desolating fires of Rome we're both
stopped. William III. and Marlborough
effected the same miracle and Chatham
for few glorious years, humbled with one
hand the House of Bourbon, while with the
other "he welded" as Grattan describes
it, the democracy Of England. And to-
day England follows, humble vasssl in
the suite Of the French Emperor, because
her masses and her Government are at
odds. "One is afraid and the ether
daresn'tD and so she is nothing on the
chessboard in Europe. So take France,
whatever time you mark her since 1883.
never great except when compressed into
one great channel by despotisms which
chased everything into one idea herd OF
peddlers; the contempt of Europe. But
no sooner did the third Napoleon put his
he'd upon Paris than he dictates law to
| this continent and to the other-the En-
peror of the world. Now, the same fate
attends us. Either Jefferson Davis must
sit at Washington, welding the energy OF
forty States in the service of slavery, OF
Lincoln must WELD them in the service OF
of Justice: TChesrs. One ideal Yo1I
nationality goes no farther than youI
ideas. You may send Grants cannon tc
the Gulf; Sherman may picket his horse;
bv the waves of the Atlantic ) but the
nation extends no farther than the idea
/ Cannon and the school house follow Grsn'
as he marches. If the school-house re
mains planted when the cannon come
heme, Tc have nation, but if it returnI
with the cannon, nationality comes bach
I'd its anchorage. When New England
and New York kiss the waters Of th'
| Gulf OF Mexico with their ideas, we have
mother element of nationality is mixture q
races, There never wlis /. Z. s1ss
the strain of 8 single blood, I don't car
where you trace it. The Slavonic iss Tn
noblest race, Judged by come tests, in tn,
| world: busInmixed and isolated 1t isll
behind the van. All great nations, eve
since Rome welcomed: all gods to he
pantheon; have sprung up from In
mixture Of races England is a mosaic
| Of races. France, that leads both cOntin
ents, has melted thousand race
into her veins and, to-day, you might a
well disrupt the granite that holds u
France as separate the constituent element
| that 20 to make up the French nation
The same principle attends US. No doub
all of US think the AnglO-Saxons a grea
race but we have been obliged to sum
mon other races TO our aid before We cOul
conouer the material continent. We hay
secured the labor and drudgery Of half
dozen races to build up the pedestal Of ou
material prosperity alone
THE POSITION OF THE NEGRO HEREAFTER
I am coming to the negro. As the VI
velone country cousin said am you
cousin, and you can't help it." So ther
the negro stands, purposed by God to a'
tend US in our way, and net IKE the Ii
dign-no weak, fading element, destine
to exhsle from the midnoon of our pre-
gress. but 8 robust, hesrty element, ar
ebored forever on the American continen
TApplsuse.1 L cannot be helped. Their
he Is. He Is to be part of the great me
ssjc that will be comprised in the Amer
can future. no matter whether you put hiI
I number one or one hundred on the list {
races Nations are not made up of nun
her one races any more than dinners ar
made uu Of ices. God has appointed tn
( negro race among others. The fastidiOu
fool NAV shrink from it and say, 81 do nc
! like the negro.n Well, like Alphonso {
CASTLE four hundred years ago, we ca
! onIv answer. My dear sir, God did nc
, consult vou..n There he is. COmmo
sensep plays the game with the cards 1t ha
Common sense bows TO the inevitable an
makes use of it. 1t does not ask an IN
possible chess board, but takes the one b.
fore it and plays the game. Inthe tutur
, the nation, in order to be strong and pro
nerous. and Just, must be animated by OF
l idos and that is, that it shall welcome int
its bosom all races that have taken refug
on our continent. Great applause.
,, A VOICE IN THE CRowD.-Are you
favor, plumpIy and squarely, of amslg'
4 II.asins the white and the black races
> Hisses.1
Mr.. PHILLRs.-No, no, gentlemen,
Z not hiss him. What did come here Il
night fort Not, certainly, to avoid an
question that any man in the house ms
: ask me. TGreat spplsuse.] I have el
t desvored, if the questioner has understoC
? me. to show that the history of all natio
has shown, in due time, the absorption
Pariah and inferior races, if you viii,
the great national result. Two tboassr
yearS ago we were looked upon as so ug
Y and despicsble race that, as Cicero sal
i we were not fit even TO make slaves o
"a but now, that race, the scorn of the R
:. mans, holds the helm of the world. l
II blood, incorporated with the great Lat
n races, holds the helm of all the futuI
d Now, I look upon the various races repr
: 1 - - = 49,. CO.. IN. n