New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-08-17
THE LAST PHILLIPPIC.

THE LAST PHILLIPPIC.
This year has been filled with extraordinary
| events and utterances, but none have been
more surprising and more grOtesque than MIR.
| Wendell Phillipss advocacy OF Gen. Grant.
| When, four years ago, nc was nominated for
the Presidency, Mr.. Phillips, to use his own
language in his letter just published, en-
"phatcally denied Gen. Grants fitness for
the Presidency. Derided by the Republi-
can press, l went from city to city protesting
against his election. In private with Mr..
"Sumner and others | argued long and
earnestly against the risk of putting such a
man into such an Office AT that time they
saw only his great merits, and supported
him heartily. The defects of his admlGiS;Ia-
" ton are no surprise to me. l may
(" say, without Boosting, that | prOphesied
those defects. | do not wish to hide
them to-day. Ientirely agree with Mr.. Sumner
Gas to the grave fault and intolerable insolence
" of the Administration in the Santo Domingo
matter. / think,the frequent putting of rela-
" tives into Office highly Objectionable, and the
"sad career of Webster is warning enough
against any man in public life ven
" turing to accept gifts from living men,"
support Gen. Grant for reelection to the post
for which he thinks him incompetent He
has but one real reason for this-his intense
personal hatred of Mr.. Greeley, and that can
not decently be avowed. He is therefore
driven to invent reasons, and, being
pressed for time, and furiOusly angry, his
inventions are destitute even of plausibility
He pretends to like Gen. Grants Irdian policy
whose results are peCulation and massacre !;
he finds his conduct of Foreign affairs admir-
able, when they have lowered our flag and
discredited our name in nearly every country
under heaven he praises his financial manage
ment, knowing that Gen. Grant is as ignorant
of finance as of HindoO theology and, finally
discovers in him the real and true abOlitiOnist
and friend of the negro.
But he does not Gnger long even on this
heated panegyric of the man he despises in
his heart. He bastens to pour out his venom
on the man whom he secretly honOFs and
envies; hOnors as one man of genius must
honor another envies as a man of sterile and
bitter nature must envy a fruitful, benelicent,
and popular career He charges Mr.. Gree
ley not with being the dupe, but
the accomplice of a scheme to renew the Re-
bellion and destroy the Union. In his wild
fury. he says jefferson Davis has ayowed this
conspiracy in a speech, and Greeley's support
era confess it The Liberal Republicans
know this. and abet it. "They are hypOcrltes,
"not dupes. They know well tho plot; and
for the sake of Office, are willing to
"help it," One of the consequences
of this iendish plot will be to
nut Government bonds down 20 per cent
The wealthy Democrats know this, and are
buying millions of Confederate bonds, which
Greeley will pay, and so make up all losses
Wendell Phillips writes this and signs his
name to it, Is it merely fit of ungOvernable
passion, or the beginning of insanity
He continues in the same strain of utterly
reckless fury to attack Mr.. Greeley. He says
he was never an anti-Slavery man-not even
a loyalist. "You and know" he says to the
colored men he is addressing, chat three
quarters of the loyalty of The TRIBUNE was
"smuggled into it in his absence" How
can they know iti He goes on in the same
crazy way. of his (Greeley's) letters to Lin
"colp are ever published, the world will see,
"vhat YOU and have always KNOWN" that
he was on the side of the Confederacy. Mr..
Phillips says Mr.. Sumner himself has never
GOT a kind word from The TRIBUNE
In reading two columns of this prepOsterous
letter, we have experienced no emotions but
those of amazement and pity, to see man OF
genius and of the antecedents of Mr.. Phillips so
helplessly under the control of blind personal
luminosity. But before be closes he allows himself
to utter word which ceases to be merely
absurd and becomes criminal. He attempts to
stir up an ignorant and excitable people to
acts of violence. At O moment when public
order is already menaced in the South by the
Vaccinations of sOrdid demagogues, Mr. Phillips
screams this wild cry of alarm into the
ears of the nervous and frightened blacks.
"Vote, every one of you, for Grant, as you
"value property, life, wife, or child If Gree
"ley is elected. arm, concentrate, conceal your
property, but organize for defense. You will
"need it soon and sadly"
And all this because Mr.. Greeley defended
Lincoln in 1854. and Grant in 1888. against the