Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-12-08
THE CHRONICLE.
THE QUESTION OF TOMORROW.
,ECTURE BY WENDELL PHILLIPS.
A PrOhibitOry LaW---LabOr Reform
Woman Suffrage.

hGnu6ll PHILLIPS uellNeTeO lecture
in New York on Tuesday evening, Of
which the following is a full report:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THE
time was when the Lyceum confined
its choice of subjects entirely to litera.
ture, to travel, to biography, to sci.
ence. 1t undertook to paint some rep
resentative portrait as symbolic of its
epoch it undertook to report the last
invention, the latest discovery; ia
bring to those who stay at home, as
DR.. Hall will bring to on, the impress
sions of foreign travel. And certain
ly il had then and there q great value.
In the last ten years the Lyceum has
undertaken the province of agitatOr
it has undertaken to discuss the great
civil and political issues of the day, to
teach civil duty, to tear open the great
Questions of public interest. My in
terest for the Lycenm platform is de-
rived chiefly fIOm this later develop
ment of its purpose, and the lecture
which / have to offer you tonight
belongs, in the gravity of its purpose,
to this later section of the lyceum
epoch. A man studies his own coun-
try in the essays of lawyers, the eulO-
gies of statesmen, and he arrives often
at an adult age before ne realizes the
nature of the institution in which he
lives. l had grown to be man, gone
through the university, been admitted
to the bar, had the eulogies of Web
ster by heart, before / got my first les
son in the essential principles of the
Government under which had been
born and that | got in the Streets
1t was thirty-four years ago, in OctO-
Der, that l came down from a law
Office, attracted by the unusual crowd,
onto the pavements of Boston, and ]
saw man dragged by cord around
his waist in mob of three thousand
gentlemeni in brOadclOth in the streets.
/ saw the Mayor the representative of
law and magistracy, entreating, suing
like spaniel, beseeching like beg
gar this crowd of his social eompan-
ions to respect the law. l saw the
turbulent defiance, the derisive laugh
| with which his good-natured appeals
! were received. l saw him descend
lower and lower in his appeals to the
mercy of the mob, that they would
! spare his office. / was hot from the
study of constitutional law, fresh and
keen, with young lawyers instincts
for the technical rights of individual
speech and safety. All my soul was
kindled with constitutional indigna-
ton. l was an Abolitionist; l had
no sympathy with and no knowledge
of the idea which the victim repre-
sented. All / saw before me was the
sacred name of the magistrate Draw
ling in the street. / then bore COM
mission III a regiment l said to my
comrades: why don't the Mayor
call US out ? There are muskets in
the hall. Why don't he call the regi-
ment here? Wewill scatter this crowd
in ten minutesw Then 1 got my first
lesson in republican government
Pointing to the mass, my elder by ten
years said TO me: "Yoa foolI Don't
you see that the regiment is here p
The men that would bear the muskets
are here before you. The regiment is
the mobw And then for the first time
it flashed through me that there was
no statute book, no Legislature max
ing laws, no magistrate with civil force
behind him; but the statutes were
made in the streets. The law, in a
critical encOunter-in the moment of
keen quarrel-consisted of the purpose
of the mob, whatever it might be-
Then came up to the truth of what
the Frenehman, De TOcqueville, told
me: "In America there is the least
possible independence Of thought, and
the least possible frankness ofspeech. -
saw another scene many years later
that deeply moved my Impressions,
and burned it into my convictions.-
In 1861 we were holding a society
meeting in the fremont Temple in
Boston. The mob of the city reeled
into our gallery from the open bars of
the fremont Temple and the Parker
House, and, headed by the Mayor,
they turned US into the street. We
went to the Legislature then in ses-
sion. We said, "Don't let another sun
rise in Boston till you vindieate the
sacredIess of free speech! Shelter us
in your hall Give US the Capitol as
u refuge from the mObw The Legis-
lature were just about to vote us their
hall for our sessions when the most
loved Governor in Boston, the man
who in that hour of danger, 1861, had
welded to himself the hearts of mil
lion of Massachusetts men and women
the most loved magistrate since Win
throp, John A. Andrew lapplausel I,
sent word privately TO the Senate:
Don't you open your doors to the
Anu-Slavery Society! Don't you dare
to shelter them from the fury of the
streets! 1 have not the means of pro-
tecting the Senate Chamber from the
grogshOps of the CapitolI Don't pro-
woke quarrel with the drunkards in
the streets? I can not protect the
State HOusep In the State House
were not made the laws, for in the last
resort when the law was defied, it was
in the hands of the masses. And so,
in thirty years, learned this lesson
The Lord gives US what we work for
and earn. He gives us no wealth to
stand on, no physical force to take
refuge under. He gives US the intel I!
ligence and the virtue of the people, 1
the title-deed of your estates, the guar !
anty of your life, the shield of your (
freedom of speech. Nothing besidesI 4
OF course, in ordinary hours of calm /
a Chinese junk will float with safety, |
but you need the Yell-modeled frig- I
ate, and the sagaeious pilot, when the f!
storm comes on and the ocean swells. 1
That is what tries and strains the in |
of q country, and sets out to /
work the real power of the laws, and /
how much they will bear. And so IN
these critical moments when the /
keen fire of a great quarrel brings out /
the hidden secrets of nation you see /
where the 'nub" Of power rests. And /
why do I go back to these reminis-
enees? I will tell you. Because there |
are certain great questions looming /
over the horizon, and even now COM I
us to ddmit them into the 1
great tribunal of discussion. The great I
questions awaiting their solutions,
and their primal interest turn on this
pivot.
The first is temperance. We see an
family. We see q man suf-
fering even more than those whose
happiness he has wrecked. That is
intemperance viewed from the Christ
ian standpoint. But there is another
point, and it is how much this great /
national weakness, putting aside its
sin; how much it has to do with the
purpose and to mould the machinery
of civil government. l am going to
look at it tonight, with your permis-
sion, from the standpoint of its re-
latiOn to law. What are we? We
are a race of Germans. We belong
to the blood of the North by affilia-
tion. Now every race has its own
temptation; every blood has It's own
weakness. You go to the tropics
and you find there men under one
and you go to the temper