Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-08-24
LETTER FROM WENDELL PHILLIPS TO
THE COLORED CITIZENS OF BOSTON.


Several of the colored citizens of Boston
having addressed Mr.. Phillips letter re-
questing his opinion upon the political issues
of the day, he replied as follows:
OF course the first thought that occurs to
you and me just now is, that one of our best,
ablest and most watchful friends, Mr.. Senator
Sumner, advises. you to vote for Horace
Greeley, and believes that your rights will be
safe only in his keeping.
| touch with reverent hand everything from
Mr.. Sumner. l can never forget his meas
ureless services to the anti-slavery cause, and
to your race. Whenever read his words /
read them overshadowed by the memory of
his early and entire consecration to the ser
vice of impartial liberty, of that zeal which
has never hagged-that watchfulness which
has seldom been deceived,-of that devotion
which has so rarely shrunk from any sacrifice
which no opposition could tire and no dan
ger appal. From such counsellor / ven
ture to differ with great reluctance, and only
after mature deliberation. ! should hesitat.
to publish my dissent if were not sure that
was right, and that he was wrong,-that the
occasion was very important, and his mistake
| one which leads to fatal results.
| My judgment is the exact opposite of Mr..
| Summers. | think every loyal man, and es-
| pecially every colored man, should vote for
General Grant, and that the nation and your
race are safe only in the hands of the ol /,
regular republican party.
Some may ask how come to think thus,
when l was one of the few loyal men who
pr rotested, in 1868, against Grants nomina-
tion, and seeing that have SO often affirmed
that the republican party had outlived its use
fulness.
Gentlemen, the reasons which lead me to
my present opinion, in spite of my former
views, ought to give my Judgment more
weight with you. l am forced by late de-
yelopments to my present position. You re-
member that in 1868 l empha.ically denied
General Grants fitness for the Presidency.
Derided by the republican press. 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 man into such an office. At
that time they saw only his great merits, and
supported him heartily.
The defects of his administration are no
surprise to me. l may say without boasting
that prophesied those defects. l do not
wish to hide them to-day. l entirely agree
with Mr. Sumner as to the grave fault and
intolerable insolence of the Administration in
the San Domingo matter. think the frequent
putting ofrelatives into Office highly objection
able, and the sad career of Webster is warn
| ing enough against any man in public life
| venturing to accept gifts from living men.
| These and other defects are no surprise TO me.
| The eminent merits of General Grants ad-
ministration are, confess, surprise to me.
| His truly original, statesmanlke and Christ
ian policy toward the Indians is admirable,
and, standing alone, is enough to mark him a
statesman. His patience amid innumerable
difficulties in our foreign relations is wonder
full in one bred soldier. The aid the ad-
r:inistration has given to the industrial and
| financial prosperity of the country is great
| merit. General Grants prompt interference
for justice to workingmen in defiance of those
| about him, relative to the execution of the
Eight-Hour law, shall always remember.
The crime of the republican party in toler-
ating the KuKlux is fragrant. But the Presi-
dent and his immediate friends deserve our
gratitude for their efforts and success in that
| matter. His services to the Fifteenth Amend
ment shall never forget. When some, even
| of the foremost abolitionists, doubted and
| were lukewarm, wrote to Senator Wilson
| asking him to urge General Grant to put three
lines into his first message commencing that
measure to Congress and to the country.
The answer came back, "You are too late,
General Grants message was finished before
|
you wish is in it," 1t still remains lamenta-
bly, true that the colored man has no full rec
ogniton at the North and no adequate protec-
tion at the South-shame to the administra-
| tion and to the republican party! But their
friends may fairly claim that during the last
| three years the negro has steadily gained in the
| safe exercise and quiet enjoyment of his rights.
l know the defects of General Grants ad-
ministration as well as any man. l think,
distrustful as was of him, l am able to see
the good service he has Unexpectedly rem
dered the nation. But no matter for those
defects. At the most they are not fatal; and
events have lifted President Grant into being
| to- day the symbol and representative of 10y
atty. The conspiracy between Southern Sc
cessionists and Northern copperheads, of
which, very naturally, Mr.. Greeley is the
tool, and, unfortunately, Mr.. Sumner is the
the indorser and, | think, the dupe, e,-leaves
room but for two parties-those who are for
the nation and those who are against it,
| bate no iot of my brotherly regard and sin =
cere esteem for Mr.. Sumner in thus holding
him deceived The entire faith have in his
honesty of purpose obliges me to think him
duped. The only wonder is how this is pos
sible when the South is so insolent and shame
less in proclaiming her intentions. The South
has long seen her mistake and often confessed
| II. Inc lrlUune ltseI makes lnlS slaleHleut
as late as June 1871. That mistake was to
contend for her ideas with muskets and out
side the Union, leaving us the government,
and taking herself the part of a rebel. She
has often announced-in the last instance by
the lips of Jefferson Davis-that the cause
was not lost, and must be won by getting pos
session of the government and leaving us in
the opposition.
Such is the present plot. That Mr.. Greeley
sees it would never prevent his aiding it.
That Mr.. Sumner does not see it is to me u
matter of profound astoni shment At such a
moment the regular republican party becomes
again the accepted and only instrument of re-
sistance, and Grant represents 10y as Lin
coin did in 1861. l do not care for his de-
fects, were they ten times greater. Chatham
and Junius rightiully forgot even the infamy
of Wilkes when he stood the representative
and symbol of the rights of a British subject
Even if accepted Mr.. Summers portrait o.
President Grant,-which in some sense i.
true, but in no sense is the whole truth, y
should still vote for him against rebellion a
the ballot box, to which disloyalty gives al
the strength, and childish crudulity all th'
character. To stop now for criticism of sucl
faults as those of General Grant is lik
blaming mans awakw ardness when he is de