Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1864-02-20
SATURDAY MORNING, FEB. 30, 1864.
Is Wendell Phillips Supporter Of the
Administration?
OLYMPIA, w. r., Feb. 18th, 1864.

ramento Union OF Jan. 23d, there appears
speech said to have been made by Wendell
Phillips, at the Cooper Institute, in New
York city, or Dec Esd, which appears to me
somewhat disloyal in its nit ranges, if oppo-
sition to the policy of the present Admins
ration can be considered anything of a test
upon that subject. Here is bit of his crit
icism upon Mr.. Lincoln and Cabinet:
"There are two kinds of men in states
,nanship. One is the servant Of the people.
and the other is the mou|der Of the people.
10 the first class belong our President and
his Cabinet After clas>ing Andrew Jack
son, Gems. Butler and Fremont with the lat
ter class, he says:
"My opinion is, that if that class of men
Jackson, Butler and Frtnon') had presided
over the destinps of the nation in the sum-
mer of 1861, we could have finished this war
in two years, with all the advantages that we
shall gel out of war of FIVE"
1t seems to me that there are but two classes
of men in the Union who would approve Of
such Judgment and they are first, Copper
heads who readily encourage and endorse
anything that is disparaging of the Admins
tration or..the means which it has adopted to
save the Union, and second, those fanatics
who believe that the main object of the war
is, or should be, to root out the institution OF
slavery. Wendell Phillips makes this the
prominent idea of his speech. as it has been
that of his life, and the scant and qualified
appreciation which he yicldsto the Admins
tration, is only for what it may have con-
trbuted towards the abolition of slavery.
lie places this idea above everything; re
speeding no opinion, no policy, no law, and
no tribunal that does not recognize its truth
quote his own language to show that do
him no injustice
After promising that "aN cira mars are
ended ~ compromise" he says:
"To-daythe helm is in our own hands. and
YOU and |. if faithful, can say this to the ma
ton and the future: You may compromise
when and where YOU please, with one exccp-
ton and that is, that the top root of slrvery
shall be cut
And again:-
"What ask of Lincoln in his Uhe ne
groc's) behalf is an amendment to the Con-
stituton, which his advice to Congress woul
pass in sixty days, that hereafter there shall
BE- neither slavery nor involuntary servitudc
in any State of this Union
This cry that the war was waged for the
sole purpose of abolishing slavery, first raised
against the Administration by the secession
lists of the Southern States, was repeated and
harped upon by the Democracy OF the North
with great clamor and perss. ency, until Mr..
Lincoln by repeatedly disavowing upon eve
~ proper occasion any such policy, succeed
ed in satisfying the honest and reasonable
men of all parties, that the only object of
the war was to save the Union Then it was
that the Democracy of the North lost the
very marrow out Of its back. bone. Then it
was, and upon that basis, that the Union par
Nv was formed, and the Democratic and Re
publican organizations abandoned by all rx-
cent old fogies. fanatics and Copperhcads.
Mr.. Lincoln, in his we'll known letter to Hor-
nee Greeley, said in substance that he was
for the Union without. Or with slavery; but
that he was for the Union at all events.
have not the Greeley letter by me, but will
quote from his letter to the Union mass meet
ing at Springfield, Illinois, upon this sub
ject:
"You say that You will not fight to free
negroes. Some Of them seem willing enough
TO fight for you; but no matter, l use them
exclusively to save the Union. issued the
proclamation on purpose to aid in saving the
Union. Whenever you shall have conquered
all resistance to the Union, if shall urge
you to continue fighting, it will be an apt
time then to declare that you will not fight to
free negroes
Whilst comparing opinions, will subjoin
what Wendell Phillips says Of that proclama-
ton which Mr.. Lincoln says he issued on
purpose to aid in saving the Union:
II asked the shrcwdrst member of the
House of Representatives what he would
give for the proclamation before the Supreme
Court. Little or nothing" he said. A
prominent New England Senator said to me-,
the greatest danger to the proclamation WINS
from tho Supreme Cou:t Leading Republic
cans in my State say there is no law in it !;
that it is not 'eOrtA the paper on mhich it is
aoritten."
think that he once used language very
similar to the closing sentence, with reference
to the Constitution Of the United States, an
instrument which, need not say is always
spoken of with reverence and held in high
regard by Mr.. Lincoln.
In the following tilt ut the Supreme Court
be insinuates pretty strongly again that the
ecnfiscation acts and the proclamations are
mere chaff:
"You know what it is, the Gibraltar of
our system, the point where our democratic
machine touches nearest to despotism. Tax
ing our system Of bowling to prrccdents, it is