The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-08-24
WENDELL PHILLIPS on GREELEY.

WENDELL fHlLLIrS ON GREELE1s
Wendell Phillips has written long let
ter to certain colored citizens of Boston,
in which he gives his reasons for support
ing General Grant and opposing Mr.. Gree
ley. We offer the following extracts
If General Grant is set aside who is Of
fered us in his place? Horace Greeley. I
need not tell you, my friends, what Horace
Greeley is. We abolitionists know him
only too we'll in the weary years of our
struggle. He had enough of clear moral
vision to see the justice of our cause. But
he never had courage enough to confess his
faith. If events had ever given him the
courage he never would have had principle
enough to risk anything for an idea. A
trimmer by nature and purpose, he has
abused even an American politicians priv
ilege of trading principles for success
But for lack of ability he would have been
the chief time-server of his age. never
knew till now any Of his eulogists SO heed
less and undiscriminating as even to claim
that he was 4 sincere man. AS for his hon
esty. for twenty years it has been by
word with us that it would be safe to leave
your open purse in the same room with
him; but as for any other honesty. no one
was ever witless enough to connect the
idea with his name. Mr. Sumner trusts
him as :" a lifetime abolitionist." This is
certainly news to you and me. You and
know well when abolitionist was term of
reproach, how timidly he held up his skirts
about him, careful to put wide distance
between himself and us. You will find
few working abolitionists, who stood in the
trenches from 1S40 to 1860, willing to trace
the negro race to Horace Greeley. I can
remember the day when he and his fellow
Republicans quoted our criticisms upon
them as certificates that they We're no
abolitionists. We can give him just such
a certificate now with clear conscience.
Judged by the files of the Tribune itself
there never was an hour when Horace
Greeley could have been trusted with the
care of the black mans rights. No man
has known better than he how to manufac-
ture political and pecuniary success out Of
the convictions of other men. For HIM
self he never had conviction. Men con-
trast his former praise of General Grant
with his fault-tinding now; neither his
praise nor his blame is of any account;
neither comes from the heart; both are
measured and weighed out with shrewd
calculation for effect. Examine the files
ever mems conviction on any subject got
keen edge, Mr.. Greeley was always ready
to blunt them with compromise. He is
only acting now the part he has always
played. Men laugh when some stirring
and loyal sentence is quoted from the Iri-
bune of 1862 or 1865, and Horace Greeley
Immediately proves that he did not write
it, but you and always knew that three
quarters of the loyalty of the Tribune was
struggled into it in his absence, or in spite
of him. If his letters and communications
to Lincoln, during the dark years of 1862
and 1868, are ever published, the world
will see, what you and have always known,
that he could hardly have aided the Con-
federacy more unless he had enlisted in its
ranks, or taken a seat in its calumet
If. as Mr.. Sumner says, Mr.. Greeley is a
s:lifetme abolitionist,' how comes it that
till within three years Mr.. Sumner hardly
ever got kind word and never had any
hearty support from the Tri5une' How
often have Mr.. Summers friends heard him
expatiate at length on this point? On the
floor of Congress he has stood for many
a year the incarnation of the anti-slavery
movement. But he has again and again
complained that instead of giving him any
support the Tribuue has constantly belit-
tied his efforts and put obstacles in his way,
cheering his opponents and carping at his
measures, orat best damnng them with
faint praise. My recollection CT these we'll
grounded complaints is so fresh that | look
at Mr.. Summers picture of Mr.. Greeley
with unfeigned astonishment. Even the
supposed conversion Of the Southern rebels
is not so wonderful as that of the Tribune
into supporter of Charles Sumner.
We put aside with the scorn it deserves
the insult it implied in preaching to us for
giveness and Cancellation. Andersonville
and Libby Prison are still living horrors.
Beside the thousand who were starved
there, hundreds still drag out weary lives
in our streets, poisoned all through by that
dread cruelty. The graves of seven white
native Georgian loyal men, ruthlessly shot
down in the streets, are hardly yet covered.
The first born of hundred thousand
households are still freshly mourned-
Observation-Disclosures to the unparalleled
mercy, the unutterable generosity of the
nation-ninety nine out of every hundred
Confederate soldiers enjoy to-day all the
rights they had before the war. l dare
not affix the epithet l think fitting to that
mood of mind which deems it necessary
and becoming to preach to such commu-
nifty the duty of forgiveness!' | wish my
voice could be heard by every colored man
down to the Gulf; not because they need
my advice. No; they understand and see
the danger. But l should like to rally
them to help us a second time to save
the nation. l should say to them-"Vote,
every one of you, for Grant, as you value
property, life, wife, or child. If Greeley
is elected, arm, concentrate, conceal your
property-buu organize for defense. You
will need it soon and sadly