The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1877-12-20
WENDELL PHILLIPS LECTURE.
What He Snid OF Daniel O'COnnell-A
Good story Well Told.


A large and representative audience
gathered at Pixies operahouse, Cincin-
natl, last week, to hear from the lips of
one of Americas finest orators, the tale
Of a remarkable man who lived in event.
full times, and whose name, above all
others, stands out in bold reliet in the
annals of Irish history.
Mr.. Phillips began by saying that he
should endeavor to describe the career of
Daniel o. 'Connell, one of the most elo-
quent orators, one of the most devoted
patriots, and the most successful states
man that the Irish race ever produced.
1t is proper that his praises should be
spoken in this country. America owes
more to him than to any other statesman
of the last generation, for it was he who
taught Americans as well, as others, the
way to aStain liberty and progress under
constitution, and not in defiance to it.
He was a great statesman, because he
had to plant the very seeds of liberty,
and watch over the germ from the very
beginning of its growth. Perhaps he was
not such statesman as those who have
welded the military power of nations.
If Luther, who invented the tools with
which he labored, who struggled
single-handed against world, and
conquered, was a statesman,
then O'Connell deserves the
fame. The claim on his behalf, in its
broadest signifcation, is that when Irish
men despaired for the country, when
England was baked in every attempt to
handle the problem, when Pitt and Fox
acknowledged themselves puzzled, and
the ablest intellect OF the age had given
up all hope of solution, and were pre-
pared to submit to the result, come in
what shape it might, then he came for
ward and pointed out the only way to
master the difficulty. He gave fifty
years to the work of gaining citizenship
for Ireland. If we consider the circum-
stances, We shall zee the magnitude of
the labor which he took upon himself.
Here was an island, inhabited by race
of dispirited and broken down by repeated
bloody unsuccessful rebellions. They
we're people full of quarrel. Poverty
stricken and ignorant, they were below
the very basis of medern systems of re-
form. The masses could not read, and
therefore the press, the engine of reform
in these days, could not be applied to
them. They were too ignorant of their
rights to know how to maintain them,
and too we'll assured of their wrongs to
endure them tamely. Dean Swift, who
twice balked England in her attempted
oppression Gratten, Curren, Emmett and
Burke--Burke, who was greater than
Cicero in the senate, and almost equal TO
Plato in the assembly--all these had
gained point after point, here one and
there another, but they gained no guar.
anty. A point gained was not assured.
There was no time when statesmen would
not have hailed with delight the pros
pect Of a peace secured by the stOngest
guaranty. Pitt and Fox were eager
to bring about q settlement. They
knew well that more than once a
word from Grattan would have
broken the chain which bound the
two countries together. Itdoes not take
very penetrating eye, even now, to
discover why Bismarck can insult Eng
land with impunity. In the Danish
war, and in the Franco.P Prussian war, he
slapped her in the face until the world
wondered at it. But he knew, and hel
statesmen knew, that to the west of heI
was anchored frigate whsse guns would
be turned upon her in the event of q
| foreign war. None are more fully con
scious of the desire of the six or eigh,
million inhabitants of Ireland thar
English statesmen. They have not beer
quiet on the question. 1t was OCOnnel
who first discovered q method for liftine
the question to q place among the safe
forces of the empire. All those leader
who had preceded him were sagacious
eloquent and successful, but they coulc
not rivet what they had gained. H,
discovered the key. spd placed it In th'
possession Of Ireland. He taught he
how to obtain her rights without blood
shed. It was he who instructed thu
peasantry to act within the laws, and ye
obtain privileges which their oppressor
had denied to them. When we hav,
spoken of his eloquence, his ingenuity
his serenity, his unfailing good nature
and bis truly catholic welcome to every
struggling cause, We have not reachet
the climax Of bis character. His highes
renown is as the sober, far-sighted, acut
statesman. He found the people o
Ireland a mas Of quxrreling sects, whom
the continent pitied and England de
spised. He made his country monarch
thrust Peel out Of the cabinet, Tough
with the Iron Duke, and vas successful
He held the fortune OF men in hi
grasp, and could promote them according