The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1865-01-19
From the Chicago Tribune, Jan. Z, fs6s.
PHILIPPE on Negro Suffrage.

/ those who regarded Wendell Phillips as
! having caused anti slavery sentiment to
exist or bear its fruits in this country.
/ This would be to suppose that figure
head draws after it the ship, or that the
Tartar chief who each morning goes out
from his snow hut TO mark out in the
heavens the course which the sun must
I pursue, causes the suns motion. That
Phillips for twenty five years under GER
tain circumstances labored alone and in
effectually to abolish slavery, while now
the American nation under whollr
different set of circumstances labors
unitedly and effectually to the same end,
( only proves that circumstances Mr..
Phillips Influence would have amounted
/ to- vary little We know not whether
Mr.. Phillips arrogates any large share in
I producing this change of circum stances.
If he does he possesses great vanity.
I The sentiment that slavery is wrong, is
natural to All non -slaveholding communi-
4 ties. Mr.. Phillips no more causes 1t at
/ the north than the Tarter chief causes the
earth's revolution. HI at best but placed
+ himself at the prov of the ship TO which
4 the winds of heaven gave motion. He
/ is fit to part the waves, but some one
wiser than himselfe must steer the vessel.
+ Mad indeed would be the crew that
would trust their safety to the figure at
the bows, though it might bc the best that
/ could be carved out of the one material,
as Mr. Phillips is the utmost that can be
made out of one idea In some respects
/ these figures have done Mr. Phillips too
much honor. Except in the mere de
sire to abolish slavery he has never pre-
1 ceded though he has often differed from
events and he is wholly destitute of
] %l.o, oh
/ ical results He labored to abolih slave
ry by cultivating secession party at the
North His effo$ was despicable fail
ure The violence and Incorporate pas
sion of diatribes perhaps caused as many
! Northern people to be pro slavery as to
! be anti slavery. Indeed he is peculiarly
( happy in his ability to satisfy most men
/ of the unsoundness' of his positions.
/ During the war, his abuse of Chase's
/ financial policies, to which every states
man of the day has now given his ad
\ hesion and his advocacy of Fremont's s
/ Cleveland fiasco-cven after Fremont
himself backed out of it-are but minor
manifestations of his erratic and distem-
! pered judgment. In his recent speech at
/ Cooper Institute Mr. Phillips demanded
that suffrage should be thrown open to
all the negroes of the South, with no
test but loyalty Notwithstanding the
great burden this country groans under
/ by reason of its ignorant vote, a burden
which none ought to realize more sensi-
bly, than Mr.. Phillips, since no man has
so scornfully returned its scorn as he,
would add to this presant dangeE four
millions of slaves whom it has been
criminal to teach to read. If the igno-
rance of large portion of our foreign
vote has been dangerous, can Mr.. Phillips
see no danger in the vote of the freed
slaves, far more generally ignorat, ser.
vile and capable of being wrought upon
by the arts of demagogues The orator,
not the statesman says:
.'Give the negro the ballot, and he
will not ask you to protect him, he will
protect himself. Applause. Let me see
q man in Boston tread on the humblest
right of the humblest Irish boy in Boston
streets, and | will give him the twelve
papers of Boston for his advocates and
Henry Wilson for his patrot within a
week. And the reason is that the hum
blest lrishman in Boston has a vote;
therefore it will not do to irritate him.
and the humblest fringe of the garment
of his nation is thus effectually protected.
SO it will be with the negro. GiUe him
tie ballot in Louisiana or alabama, and the
aemagogues Of 6otht parties uW be cap IN
hand before him.
Truly will tie demagogues of both
parties be cap in hand before the negroe
But if Mr. Phillips were a statesman,
that is result he would do his utmost
to prevent, not because the negro is
black. not because he ought to be owned,
bought and sold and bru.alized, but be-
cause so far as he is ignorant he would
be just the material for demagoCues to
work upon. And dcmagoguism in our
leaders, combined with and growing out
or Ignorance in our voters, Is danger
which strikes at the very existence of
Republican government and tends al
ways towards despotism. It has been
the ignorance of our Southern vote which
caused secession al the South, and mainly
the ignorance of the Copperhead portion
of that very Irish vote to which Mr.
Phillips so approyingly refers, which
has made nearly one half the North a
supplians tool to the slave power before
. and during the rebellion. So far as the
negroes of tie South are intelligent, if
they cannot be led by the nose by their
former masters or by new ones no better.
If they can read the constitution under
which. and the laws for which, and the
ballot by which they vote, and can receive
the light of the newspaper press which
is tht palladium popular liberty--if they
can write the proper name on that ballot
/ if it does not contain tive see no
spesial evil bu. probability of great
good in permitting them to vote. With
out these restrictions they have voted in
Tennessee and North Carolina, and sur.
rounded BY those limitations, the cleo
tive franchise in their hands would be
beneficial TO them and to the country
Speaking as We do, not like the irres.
ponsible Mr.. Phillips, as the deelaimer Of
pretty sect of "come- cutters" bu. As
one Of the organs Of the majority Of the
people OF America, we deny the pro-
position that the rights Of which slsvery
deprives the negro, the rightso marriage,
to the parental relation, TO wages, to cd.
uoa.ion, are on par with the right to
vote. The former are God given and
/ .ss- 49, A.