Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-11-21
WENDELL PHILLIPS ON THE LATE
ELECTIONS.

WENDELL PHILLIPS, like JOHN PHGSIx,
boasts that he has mary id polite"
lie despises politicians, and rePudiates
parties. He is an Independent thinker, and
a bold speaker. He says what he pleases,
and doesn't care IL what be says brings the
"best laid schemes" to confusion. He is a
genuine Radical, and goes down TO the
granite every time he lifts his pick and
shovel lie is exiravagant, erratic, fanatic
and mischievous. But he is not an unmixed
evil. He does good unwittingly. In his
direct, brilliant way he exposes the designs
Of men whose business it is to use his
crotcbets for political purposes. They fret
and fume at him for his impatient and
inopportune utterances, but he is too rich in
pocket to want their Offices, and too sincere
in his fanaticism to put up with the circuit
ous aud scurvy means they employ to
accomplish the ends Of fanaticism. He is
an indicator that rarely fails TO manifest in
advance the route that the party Of progress"
intends TO take, and is, with all his faults,
one Of the most useful men in the country.
We commence to read his speeches and let
ters with the certainty of finding more or
less of truth plainly told, and more or less Of
falsehood and chicanery unsparingly IN
masked. His last letter to the AHtisldUcIy
Standard is characteristic. It discusses the
November elections, and counts out" Of the
contest the Republican party as well "a Con-
gress and its amendments, and says "the
President, representing the South's claim TO
an immediate return into Congress, bringing
with it State sovereignty still strong enough
to uphold oligarchy, appealed to the peo-
pie. They answered him, and nailed his
theory to the counter as base COIN"
In this he states the substance Of the ISSUE
Mr.. PHILLIPS regards State sovereignty as
oligarchical, and as "base coin" So did not
the men who made the Government. He
interprets rightly the majority in the late
elections. however. They did pronounce
against the President and against the
equality, rights and dignity of the several
States. Such political results tend to con-
solicitation and the destruction of the fedora
tive principle. The men who manipulate
the Radical machine know it, and intend it.
Mr.. PHILLIPS is honest enough to avow it.
He is frank to admit also the appalling
fact that a million and a half of voters
more than six hundred thousand in the two
States Of New York and Pennsylvania-are
still corrupt and ignorant enough to support
the mobocrat of the White House. We
recognize" says he, "the terrible significance
Of this fact. Put behind such a mass Of be-
sotted and corrupt tools, the patronage Of
the Government and the moral support Of
the Soulful the word "moral" can ever be
used in such connection-and its influence
must be fearful"
He does not seek to deny that the million
and half of Northern Conservatives, with
the voters of the Southern States, are a large
majority Of the people Of the nation, and that
the rule Of the minority must be made to pre-
vail, if the cherished objects of Radicalism
are to be carried out He meets the ques-
ton fairly. He proposes to depose the Pre-
sident; he urges the Bump Congress to as
sumo all power; he insists upon the eleva-
ton Of the blacks to perfect political and
civil equality with the whites; he postpones
the restoration Of the Union indefinitely; he
assumes that it is the mission of the
Northern people who did not vote the
Conservative ticket in the late elections, to
take charge Of the Government, and admin
lister it according to the fashion prescribed
by Massachusetts. The letter in question
Swings around the whole Radical circle"
1t is what might be expected from PHIL
LIPS but its significance lies in the fact that
it speaks the Radical mind, without equivo-
cation. 1t indicates the occult purpose of
leaders who are too polite TO proclaim it.
Mr.. PHILLIPS is the vanguard Of radical
ism. The engineers of the party may abuse
him, and pretend to disown him, but it is
matter of history that the Republican party
manage always to reach in a few months
after, the advanced positions which PHIL
LIPS announces.