The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1866-04-14
Address by Wendell Phillips
in Brooklyn.
IFrom IL New York TriDnne, F-lraary l1sh.l


From ue New York Tribune, February lGshI
The announcement that Wendell Phillips
would deliver an address upon = The Duty Of the
Hour, at the New England Congregational
Church. IN South Ninth street. near Fifth, Brook
lvn, under the auspices of the Brooklyn Library
Association. attracted quite 4 large audience last
evening, Notwithstanding the eNecTabIc condition
Of the streets and the threatening aspect OF the
skies. It was nearly half-paSt eight o'clock
when the speaker was introduced t. his audience,
but he had not concluded the opening sentence Of
his address before its attention was fixed. Alter
stating that he was well aware OF tile subjects
usually selected for lyceum lectures. in which the
speaker sJroye u combine instruction with amUse-
meut. he spoke somewhat as follows
" do not think | sin when | call your atten-
ton 10 q question of civil duty. The nation IL
passing through one of its greatest tests. For
the past four years we have been called TO the
ordeal Of war. We have resolved the question
whether republics could fight. 1t had been pro-
phesied that in the storm of war they would 90
10 pieces. W len the guns Of the enemy thun-
dercd against Fort Sumter, the London Times
said the bubble had burst : but the bubble put
1000. 600 Of soldiers in the field and crushed the
rebellion. The question now to be determined
i. Can republics govern p and this is the greater
trial Of the two. have been subjected To a
great deal Of ridicule because. three months ago,
/ said the conquered party IN the field might be
the successful party i'll the Senate Chamber but
IN clNl IL wars one party HAS never YET SilhCt III
it claimed-alI have ended in compromise. We
have been trying 10 put 4 gulf between our insti-
tutiOns Of 1860 and those that are u govern here
after. You remember the revolution in France
in 1913, when kings We're dying along every high
way in Europe. To-day a throne Is erected as
firmly in Paris as it was in 1880. We believed
that when our cannon went down 10 the Gulf.
our ideas would 90 with them but if we succeed
in this matter we shall have done what no ma
ton ever before accomplished. The South re
belled TO save her form Of society. BY what
means did She rebel? She had TWO weapons.
The first was the idea OF State sovereignty, the
Calhoun doctrine that the State was a political
powcr-the Union nothing. The second was the
Slave power. which ruled the nation. When the
South counted the votes tor Fremont she found
that there WAS no hope for her in the ballot, and
she chose the bayonet. In that she has been
whipped but if the men who made the battle
come back in Congress with the same ideas, she
has lost nothing save the prestige OF continued
success. Will these men come back? Well.
who made the rebellion? You and | can count
a thousand names. Where are these men now :
One hundred of them are in Europe one hum
bred have died on the field of battle the rest
live. hold Office and walk the land, either par
dJned or unpardoned. The President said he
would punish traitors; but he has never punished
one. and never will. jeff. Davis cannot get his
deserts in this world, and | would be the last
man to ask that he should be punished. The
time has gone by when punishment was possible.
These States come back with the same ideas.
They have surrendered nothing. The South
comes back with t .UOO. 600 of men representing
its labor. Ii matters not for the present whether
they be white or black. What rights have they
that you have in New York? Not one. The
South says if YOU let me come back you must do
il with Il white mans Governments. Southern
civilization Is lD~rce-NUrtlern civilization H.
motive. The South says cOmpei-the North says
attract and this Is the idea that was thundered
on the soil Of Virginia from the guns of Grant.
We want 10 know now whether the President Is
a force to be trusted or resisted? Here the
speaker criticised what has been termed the eX-
pertinent of the President The radicals said
: Take one State and give us civil rights. Did
he make such an experiment? lie reconstructed
the Southern militia, and mustered out the army
of the Unit q States. He then comes to Congress
and asks how it likes his reconstructed States.
SUPPOSE Congress should say, | don't like them
mt all Can he put them back under Il military
vice? They have their militia, and We have not
ours Indeed. Andrew johnson has not vet
made up his mind whether he may call these
black men couuJrymen. Thirty years ago Andrew
jackson called them fellow citizens. ILe truth
i, Juhuso J does not Yet undertake 10 say whether
these men can live here or not. He undertakes
to tell them what their liberty is, and says it is
the liberty To work. This Is II good definition in
Pekin, | rejoice to say. but not outside OF it.
Abraham Lincoln, at Gettysburg. in his immor-
tai: speech, said, Everything for the people;
everything by the people Here is the difference
between the two.
He then alluded to B.ecber's idea of concili-
alton, and said he was not willing To admit the
Southern States. because they were unfit to be
admitted. Ii | were to take a potent sinner
from the Five Points to the door Of Plymouth
Church and ask to have him admitted, Beechcr
would say Certainly, into the church. and I
will preach at him but into the church t.
govern it-no, because he is not fit This,
Bcecher calls reconciliation. JEFF. Davis cannot
be hanged. cannot be converted, cannot be
banished. Put into one scale jeff. Davis with
his hate. Wade Hampton with his pride, and
Governor Aiken with his ignorance. and into
the other the negro with his book and his
ballot. and his forty acres, and Northern en-
ergv with its culture and capital, and that scale
kicks the beam. These are the elements Of con-
citation, and they are those which we must send