The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-05-15
Speech of wendell Philips.
Real Issue of the Radicals.
Negro COngressmen andNegro Social
Equality.
Speech Of Wendell Phillips Before
the New York Anti-SIavery
Society, in New York,
May o.

Of truth in Mr.. Remonds remarks.
Americans must acknowledge the de-
| velopement of the characteristics of
the colored race provoked by our re-
cent contest. To be black was to be
loyal and patriotic. The blacks were
exempt from the policy of cowardice
/ The black men of Savannah went out
to decorate the graves of Northern sol
diers, but were shut out by the power
of local government They needed no
disguise, and were proud to exhibit
their loyalty in the light. He found
fault with General Grants report Of
General Butler, because its author for
got that Ben. Butler saved the nations
life in two of the nations greatest
emergencies 1t was Butler at Annap-
oils who saved US Washington, and the
same Ben. Butler preserved New Or
leans for the nation 1t was to the 10y.
| atty of the black men of New Orleans
that the old flag was permitted to float
over the third city of the republic
History paints US in 1865 and 1866 de-
| batting whether the black man shall
have his rights compromised away and
thus TO save the nation. No American
statesman ever thought of compromis-
! ing his own rights. Our statesmen
compromise the rights of third parties
only.
The speaker held that the Anti
| slavery Society met to say that those
who represent the black race protest
against auy plan of settlement which
had been advanced by either the Presi.
dent or Congress. Slavery is to be
! fought by the great social elements
that make governments and give char
acter to nations. The only sure cure
is universal amnesty and univer-
suffrage wherever the American
flag floats Not that he would not
have traitors punished He did
not underestimate the crime of
such men. A disfranchised man COM
ing out of the crisis has all his ties
doubled by the experience ofa common
misfortune If jeff Davis could have
hung, he would have passed into histo
ry as asentiment-perhaps, like Charles
| the Second, as q power; but the time
for hanging him was past The leaders
| in the South hated the North more
than ever. If We had not intellectual
forces sufficiently strong and numer
to neutTalize them, then the gov
ernment and the nation are fail
ures We must open our eyes wide
and take in the whole country.
| The half million of leading minds
of the South could not be changed.
God does not change lifelong preju-
dices. He places them into the grave,
and gives room for the young fresh
truth to grow, and it therefore takes a
whole generation, at least, to accom-
| plish such a result The South
does not dread negro suffrage as
the greatest evil That is not where
the bite comes Negro suffrage
meant a score of negro Congress
men sitting in the House of Rep
resentatives. 1t means colored mer-
chants in New Orleans and colored SEN
ators in Columbia 1t meant negro
representatives sharing in making rail
road laws and other laws 1t meant
social equality, and there was where
the Southerner met the question. So
cial equality follows hard on the heel
of the ballotbox, and the South knows
it, and she resists negro suffrage for
what must follow it The negro in
Maryland in the Legislature, is as good
as John Hancock signing the Declsra-
ton of Independence, and this was
principle which the South would not
admit Nor would the North admit it.
She gropes toward it, but does not travel
very rapidly in the right direction.
johnson never promised any thing
and he never fulfilled it His treason
commenced when he broke from the
policy of the party that elevated him
The speaker took great delight in the
tanning of animals. He had recently
read about the tanning of q lion in
Paris. The animal swallowed the coat
of hussar, and the buttons gave him
a great bit of indigestion. Laughter
After that, whenever a hussaT coat
made its appearance, the lion was as
docile as a lamb Now John Tyler
swallowed a hussar coat, and Andy
johnson had swallowed another and
he was tanned. The speaker, however,
did not consider the President the
worst possible man. President John
son has no other object in his heart
than to break up the Republican party
He would praise him Mr.. Philhps) if
ne thought he could secure him
/
He went to Washington with cor
rect idea, bat soon become pos
sessed of a desire for renomination
and knowing that if the Republi-
can party remained intact, the next
President would be General Grant,
he and Seward set themselves to
work to break up the Republican party.
| Mr.. johnson neither hates nor loves
a politician never does. By his acts
the country has lost six valuable months
of education, and il is doubtful whether
we can now reap the benefits of the
war When peace again rests on the
battlehelds of America, the North will
either go down or it will succeed with
out any compromise inscribed on its
banner. When history writes her fate,
let it record that there was no issue but
universal Justice, and that we died
fighting for it. Book education is of
inexpressible Importance to the blacks
of the South. They and the poor
whites have been kept in ignorance by
their leaders How shall we tear out
the Southern oligarchy2 We have set
tied one thing, that is, that this is the
country of equals. 1t is a new epoch.
Congress is obliged to protect the rights
of every citizen He would not give
the negroes of Alabama the right to
vote unless he had the right to follow
| him with education. The national
sword should never be sheathed
Every citizen of Massachusetts, must
have the constitutional right to teach
the colored people of South Carolina
Education is not all We can't get rid of
Jefferson Davis, or Of the five thousand
poisoned chalices of the Southern peo-
pie We can't get rid of this hatred of
ignorance. What are We to do2 Put
in the one hand their prejUdices, and
in the other forty-a acre farms, with Yam
kee ingenuity and the black mans
labor, and the latter viii triumph.
Now, the South can not be invaded
with the elements of immigration, ana
as long as that is true, reconstruction Is
impossible. The true plan was to hsye
left the army in the South, and trans
fer the North 10 the South The army
has come home, but the men must go
back. The South needs money--is des-
olate and poor. The North stands eager
10 give it. knowing that there is