Weekly Trinity journal., 1866-08-18

At birmingham Mass, on the Fourth of July,
Wendell Phillips made an eloquent speech on
reconstruction aud free principles generally. IN
the course of his remarks he said
This is tn, fourth day of July, day which
for ninety years the nation has devoted to the
sublime idea that " all men are created equal.
But we all know that the words have been for
nearly ninety years "glittering generality -
cruel lie-empty and idle words, coming from
hypercritical lips. We all know that the nation
never, until within year or two, attempted to
make these words a reality. God to-day binds
the nation to the performance of its pledge
This day is to be performance or ruin. The war
has broken the great national hypocrisy, and
revealed to US that only by making this pledge
the cornerstone of national institutions does God
grant US the chance of a nationality. Well, how
do we stand to-day? What was the meaning Of
that first line in the Declaration of independence
! Up to that hour nations were builded upon the
| idea of a subordination of rank, graduation OF
classes. The rich, the educated, the well-born,
were to protect the " ill-favored classes" as
they called them. Our fathers launched the idea
of nationality where every man, at least every
class, was to be endued with such political
rights as to enable it to take care of itself. At
ter the fourth day of July, 1915, nation was 40
longer to be an association of master and slave,
noble and serf patron and dependent, arlstocrat
and people, but a nation was to be great
DrOtnerQOOQ
was to have in its own hands the power to pro-
tect ITSELF That is democracy. No man is born
so weak that he does not know better how to
protect his own interests that any other man can
protect them for him. That is the common
sense of democracy. Now, we are undertaking
to reconstruct the Union in its own fundamental
idea Women excepted, up to this time the ma
ton has recognized exception to this rule out
the negro no grand exception, at least. The
war is completed when this great exception to
the Declaration Of Independence is taken out OF
national institutions the war is not finished I'M
til then. Out of that abnormal exception the
war grew. When that exception is dead, the
war is ended. The epoch meant, in Gods provi-
dence, ths-that the American nation was to
acknowledge that the principles of the Declare
ton covered the negro. {" All men are created
equal" How do we stand in view of that prin-
ciple? But short time ago the South, aghast
at it's own defeat, was ready to submit uncon-
ditionally to the great American idea. There
have been, think, three epOchs during the war
when the North was equally ready. When Free
mont struck the keynote of the hour in 1861,
had the Government followed it with suffrage for
the negro, no voice in the loyal North but would
have said amen When Lincoln issued his proc
lamation in 1868, if recognizing the nature of
the hour he had pledged the nation to protect
the political rights of the negro, as well as his
personal freedom, every man would have said
amen. When the nation was sore with defeat in
the disastrous summer of 1864, If the Govern
ment then had taken the step it would have
been welcomed. When the nation stood over
the fresh grave of the martyred President, every
right conceded to every man in the republic
would have been welcomed fitting trophy
on that newmade grave. Johnson came into
Office with the power to sweep out, with the
{. Amen ~ of 300, 900 people North and South,
every exception to the great republican idea
How do we stand to-day? The South rallies
her broken lines, marshals her scattered forces,
and her policy is to restore closely posi-
yes, and if possible, the Constitution it was /;
clause added, since 1860 / say the South to-
day INDUCES the hope that in the chances and
contingencies of politics she may yet be able to
carry her point. Who leads her? The Presi-
dent of the United States. Who is her Com
lnander-in-Chief? He is encamped in the White
House, and he pledges the patronage Of the
United States to second the plot of the Southern
politicians to roll back the revolution. do not
say that can put my hand on the exact pledges
which prove the President traitor to his own
promises, but do say, and every man who hears
me knowns, and believe the President of the
United States himself knows-that he betrays
to-day the principles which carried him into
office Hear hear and applause. say that
had he stood in 1864 planning what he now
plans, then in 1865 and 1866 he would have
been suing for pardon at the door of the White
House, instead of being seated within it endeav-
oring to build up party out OF rebels and cow
ards whose timidity saved them from being rebels