The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-11-24
Wendell, the Prophet.

Wendell, the Prophet.
The great Abolition prophet an |
apostle of negro equality, Wendell
Phillips, has once more blown his
blast in the lecture forum. The sub,
ject was The Question of To-mor-
row., This, eli course. is a very be-
coming subject for a prophet, whose
particular business is to enlighten Us
about what is coming Most of Wen
delPs performances have been con-
nected with matters that were here
after to arise. and not those Of t. day.
The early mob violence to which he
was subjected seems to have "pitchd
him into the middle OF next week."
and there he has remained ever since.
For a rarity, Wendell, in his latest
| epistle to us of the Gentiles, did not
make the negro the central part of it.
Can it be possible that the hitherto
one-ideaed Wendell is actually waking
up to the fact that there may be other
| questions besides that of the african?
II is rather singular and unkind in
him, after having been our leader
through the political wilderness-our
Moses to conduct lis to the land Of
Canaan--to now turn around and say,
1T was generally supposed that self
government was n success but it is an
error" This i very x raordinary for
a gentleman who has been so largely
instrumental in widening the area OF
self-government, and extending it to
the negroes. If self-government is an
error, the less we have of it the bet
ter.
Our prophet further remarked, that
No great city had ever existed and
ruled itself for twenty years." and he
Wendell Phillips "would rather be
Il citizen of Paris, and open his chart
err book and see what he could do.
than be n citizen of Boston and not
know what he could do and what he
could say without consulting the ca
price of a mob" Indeed ! Have we
Ut heretofore been ordered to believe
that the only place where free speech
WIS not tolerat d in this country, was
the wicked South-the land of Bail.
But now, forsooth, it appears Boston
is equally guilty. By the way, we
hl'N SoD lh IlIlS COiIiISCllOu, IIL'iI iIS
great champion of Boston notions is,
by no means, complimentary to the
community where he dwells Per-
haps it may be that a prophet is with
Out honor in his own country. AT
any rate, he SAYS that lin Boston
there ~ 800 drinking saloons,
which gave 5000 votes, AMI no Mayor
could be elected who would not shut
his eyes to the fact that every tenth
man in Boston was arrested every
year, and every seventh ma was sent
Co the poOr-house every year" As.
Of course, the same men are not sent
every year, we have the agreeable pro-
spect of having the whole city of Bos-
ton in the poor-house in seven years.
This is rather hard on Boston-the
place We have been taught tt be-
lieve was 1.-The hub of the universe
the American Athens.
Now, Wendell will not pretend
that the Democracy are responsible
for this. The hub is peculiarly a
New England Republican n il
has enjoyed the advantages of the
Maine Law, had plenty of stat, d
preaching of the Gospel, has teemed
with c. mnol Schools, has honored the
African, and is the home of Phillips,
Garrison, and other extraordinarily
righteous men, and the nursery or
American manufactures. W hen
Wendell sees such results reached. un
Ter such teachings, it is not, perhaps,
so wonderful that he should believe
that self-government was a failure.
But all this was predatory to the
grand idea of the lecturer, which was
chat a universal ballot box could not
he vested in a drunken people, and
som thing must be done to prohibit
altogether the drinking of intoxicating
liquors. We are to cure the evils o.:
self government by taking from the
people that power. Yet, still, he adj
vocated the bringing of women into
politics, because ''then politics could
be made on the model of the Church.
of course, if we unite Church and
State, there will not be much chance
Tor sel-governme 1T to come in, and
Wendell is shrewd in his idea of how
to effect it. All history teaches that.
We suppose, of course, as Wendell
is the great triumpeter of the Repub-
lican party, that organization will fol-
low Ms example, and instead hereafter
ofdeclaring that ''all just governments
re It ON the consent of the governed
will now insist that man shall be gov
erned by others, and not by himself.
Having emahcipated the negro, the
suggestion now is hat we all-white
and negro-be enslaved.-Enq.
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