The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-06
AMERICAS DEAD ORATOR.
Wendell Phillips as Public Speaker and
Advocate Of Free Speech.
Fbe Incident That Revealed to Him the Weak
Spot in Our Observation-Disclosures
of His 0ratOry.
CoI,atod from New York Papers

a noise in the street, and he went down to find
what made it, There he saw thousand men in
broadcloth dragging William Lloyd Garrison
along with a rope round his waist. AT once he
looked upon the proceeding with indignation.
There was violation of the central right of the
Saxon's idea of liberty. The mayor of
the city entreated the crowd to maintain
the peace, but he gave no command of
authority. Phillips held a commission in
Suffolk regiment and he requested his colonel to
tall out the guards and offer their services to the
mayor His wiser colonel in ten words taught
him more of the government of the United
States than nine years of study had taught him
Pointing to the crowd, he said: "You fool! don't
you see that the regiment is In front Of your
Then foc the first time it flashed upon Phillips
that our government, with all its merits, in
critical hour when all the passions of men fling
themselves against the law, has no reserve force
and that there is no tribunal to which you can
appeal but that at that moment just so much of
law-abiding self-respecting intelligent sense as
there is in the mob, just so much government
have we got and nc more. He had read Greek
and Roman and English history; he had by heart
the classic euloges of brave old men and martyrs;
be dreamed that he heard the same tone from the
suckoo lips of Edward Everett, and he was
Aught his error. The youngman of twenty-four
bon higher than most young men attain at
twenty four, with ambition and hope, then and
here cast his lot with the ntislavery people.
To most young students who believed that
orat0ry was impassionate and loudly grand, Mr.
Phillips was disappointing. To be sure, they
eould usually appreciate the mild and careless
larcasm, but they thought it only heralded the
coming storm. But when he sat down. at the
end of an hour and half they thought he had
only spoken five minutes. He left his suggestions
with his audience, and set it thinking John
Bright. in the height of his fame said that
Wendell Phillips was ''the most powerful orator
who speaks the English language" wendell
Phillips" said Western colonel, who had never
heard him, It's Am uproarious devilW mo-"
replied Southern statesman. "he is an Internal
machine set to music" For style of language he
studied in the suggestive school of modern Bos-
ton Somehow he and Emerson and Hawthorne
were always interchanging figures of speech.
1.-THE bright consummate flower is in
Phillipss book, in one of Emerson's, and in one of
Hawthornes. In a way Phillips patronized the
style of rhetoric which is nowadays in the pages
vi BagehOt and Arnold and Morley, sharpening
ihe turgid style Of the English reviews. He
newer left any dark corners for hanging cobwebs
bn. He studied Bacons essays De Tocque-
Filles Democracy, and whatever from the pen of
new writers gave fresh views of government
and social life. He was reader, also, of
Charles Reade because Reade was always
freshening things. He was not slow to appro
pirate any suggestion that came to him from
other sources Whatever pierced into his in
tellect he gave out again, as good he got it,
IN "A style terse and suggestive, leaving much to
the reader inspiring an idea of justice rather
than presenting argument. He very much
resembled Frederick William Robertson, of
Brighton. Their studies were alike. Robertson
had the same love for books of biography and
strangely enough, he was devoted to
theories for training animals. So too, like
Phillips, he studied chemistry as other men
read uoyels-for pleasure.
He always based his policy, not upon the arts
and machinery of craftsmanship but upon the
weaknesses of the people. He found, too. that
the North Of our day contained sense of jus
ai.1eag its Intelligent masses which would
grow by thinking Even in his lecture 1.-THE
Lost Arts a lecture which many believed TO be
purely literary entertainment he had the de
sign Of humbling vaunted American pride in
mere physical progress He did not love the
trading spirit of America. and wished to show
that III comparison with that of ancient DAYS it
was insignificant The nation. he discovered.
was little ruled by intellect and justice that it
making merchandise of men. In political
meetings there was the ''chnk of coin the
wnirr OF spndes and the dust of trade" 'LHhe
North, said he, III one of his calmly bitter
moods. is choked with cotton seed" On an
other occasion he damned the soul of Ben Frank
6n Tor encouraging in America the sordid econ
snly Of Poor Richard He would not have men
Eved by machinery His idea of government
Was that men do not need amy guardian public
opinion, the average common sense of
the masses. being the true democratic power.
STATUTES" said he, 'are mere nilestones to
mark the progress of public opinion His re
ligion was social science, which cures evils, not
merely relieving them. He did not want men to
work too many hours IA DAY or to drink rum and
thereby die 10 make orphans. Social science
would give woman power to rule herself and
Thus prevent her from selling her body in order
to make money IN u way that man consigned her
10. IL was his idea thaL II Jesus to appear
in the nineteenth century he would be III iail i'll
less than week.
Wendell Phillips was no coward. When men
reviied him lie disdaiuiully replied: "A crazy
sentimentaism like that Of Peter the Hermit
hurried hat OF Europe upon Asia and changed
the lestiuies of kingdoms He hated Seward
and compared him with II blade of Damascus
steel, 80 tempered rs to bend into a scabbard
shaped like corkscrew Webster was a ''bank-
rupt statesman. Uhoate ~ chatteling monkey"
Everett cuckoo, Chase a political trckstern
" ashn2ton the great slave holder" Lincoln
''the slavehound Of Illinois" and Greedy "a
moral suicide"
The name of Wendell Phillips was urged upon
two Presidents as that of man who would
honor the mission in England The great ora
tor needed no such mark Of distinction. His
place was upon the platform. He was an agita
tor. In his speech on Public Opinion he said
IF the Alps, piled in cold and still sublimity
be the emblem of despotsin, the ever-restless
ocean Is Ours which. girt within the eternal
laws Of gravitaton, is pure only because never
SSH Ills nope never tired His prophecy al
ways included the good rather than the evil
Sometimes he was inspired with glmpses of vic
tory Many people win remember his magnif-
rent peroration when speaking of 1.-The State of
Che Country" in 1863 The Northwill triumph
lknow it, Do you remember in that disastrous
siege in India, when the Scotch girl raised her
aead from the pallet of the hospital and said to
he slckening hearts of the English 4 hear the
bagppes the Campbells comingr and they
said, Jessie, it is derium. No; know it; l
hear it afar off And in an hour the pibroch
burst upon their glad ears, and the banner of
England foated in triumph over their heads So
hear in the dim distance the first notes of the
jubilee rising from the hearts of the millions
Soon, very soon, you shall hear it at the gates
Df the citadel, and the stars and stripes shall
gulf"
An incident illustrative of the zeal and earn
astness of Wenden Plilir,n h,- IL. u