The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-19

Juyf- o
refinement into which he born, there would have
been no more fascinating or courtly figure. could
he have foreborne the call of conscience the duty of
his life.
AFTER THE CLOSE OF THE WAR
When the ended, and the specific purpose Of his
relentless agitation was accomplished, Phillips was
still in the prime of life. Had his mind required to
the dreams of earlier years-had he desired, in
the fulness of his fame and the maturity of his
powers, to turn to the political career which the
hopes of the friends of his youth had forecast do
not doubt that the Massachusetts, of Sumner and of
Andrew-lroud of his genius and owning his immense
service to the triumphant cause although a service
beyond the party line and often apparently directed
against the party itself-would have gladly summoned
him to duty 1t would, indeed, have been kind of
peerage for this great commoner. But not to
so rc Ime So baf to dS o MS earnest
he said gaily friend do you sit by the campfire
but will put out into the underbrush." The slave,
indeed was free, but emancipation did not free the
agtator from his task The client that suddenly ap
peared before him that memorable October day
not an oppressed race alone: it was wronged hui
mainly; it was the victim of unjust systems and
equal laws it was the poor man, the weak man. the
unfortunate man, whoever and wherever he might be.
rms was the cause that he would still plead in the
forum OF public opinion. Let it not
be De said aes,... he wrote to meeting of his
fore his DEATH that the old Abotionist stopped with
the negro and was never able to see that the same
principles claimed his utmost effort to protect all la
Dor white and black and further the discussion of
every claim of humanity"
Was this the habit of mere agitation, the restless
discomfort that follows great achievement There
were those who thought but they critics of
temperament which did not note that with Phillips
agitation principle and deliberately chosen
method to definite ends. There We're still
vast questions springing from the root of self
ishness and injustice as the question OF slavery.
| They must force hearing in the same way. He
would not adopt in middle life the of politics
which he had renowned in youth, however seductive
rewards, because the purpose had grown
With his growth and strengthened with
rather than represent it. in making executing the
laws: To form public opinion upon vital
p% oD bu questions public pneS as d,Spi
fearless and sincere and conducted with honest faith
in the people to whom the argument was addressed
this the chosen task of his life; this the pub
lie service which he had long performed and this he
! would still perform and in the familiar way
His comprehensive philanthropy had made him even
of other great reforms His powerful presentation of
the justice and of the political equality Of
women, at Worcester, in 1857, more than any other
single impulse, launched that question upon the of
| popular controversy. In the general statement of
principle nothing has been added to that dscourse in
vivid and effective eoquenee OF advocacy it has never
been surpassed. All the arguments for independence
echoed John Adams in the Continental Congress. All
the pleas for applying the American principle of rep
resentation to the wives and mothers of American
citizens echo the eloquence of Wendell Phillips at
! Worcester. His also, was the voice that summoned
the temperance voters of the Commonwealth to stand
up and be counted; the voice which resolutely and
definitely exposed the crime to which the busy Ameri
mind and conscience at last turnng-the Ameri-
crime against the Indians. Through him the
of Crete the tragedy of Ireland pleaded with America
In the terrible experience of the early antsavery de-
bate when the church and refined society seemed to
be the rampant of slavery, he had learned profound
! distrust of that conservatism of prosperity which
ch1lls human sympathy and nairows the conscience
So the vast combinations of capital in these later
| days with their immense monopoles and imperial
! power, seemed to him sure to corrupt the
government, and TO obstruct and threaten the real
welfare of the people. He felt, therefore that what
is called the respectable class is often really but UNI
consciously and with generous purpose, notjuStly
estimating its tendency the dangerous class. He
not party politician; he cared little for parties
party leaders. But any political party which, in
his Judgment represented the dangerous tendency.
party to be defeated in the interest of the peace
and progress of all the people
MISTAKES OF JUDGMENT
But his judgment, always profound and sincere.
it not profoundly sometimes mistaken No nobler
friend of freedom and of than Wendell Phillips
ever breathed upon this continent, and mans
ice to freedom surpasses his But before the he
demanded peaceful dsunion-yet it the Union in
arms that saved liberty During the war
he would have superseded Lincoln =
but it Lincoln who freed the slaves.
He pleaded for Ireland tortured by centuries of mis-
rule and while every generous heart followed with
sympathy the pathos and the power of his appeal the
just mind recoed from the sharp arraignment of the
! truest friends in England that Ireland ever had
know it all; out know also, and history will
Der, that the slave Union which he denounced is dis
solved; that it was the heart and conscience of the
nation, exalted by his moral appeal of agitation as
well as by the enthusiasm of patriotic war which held
up the hands of Lincoln, and upon which Lincoln
leaned in emancpatng the slaves and that only by in
dgnant and aggressive appeals like his has the heart
of England ever opened to Irish wrong
No man. say, take pre-eminent and effective
part in contentious that shake nations or in the dis
cusson of great national politics of foreign relations,
of domestic economy and finance, without keen re-
! proach and fierce msconception But death, says
l Bacon, 'bringeth good fame Then if moral integ-
ity remain unsoiled the purpose pure blameess the
life and patriotism as shining the sun conflicting
views and differing counsels disappear, and firmly
| fixed upon character and actual achievement good
fame rests secure. Eighty years ago in this city,
how tinsparing the denunciation of John Ada ms
| for betraying and running his party, for his dog
matism his vanity and ambition for his exasperatng
impractcability-he, the Colossus of the revolution
| And Thomas Jefferson-I may truly say what the
historian says of the Saracen mothers and Richard
| Ceur de Lion, that the mothers of Boston hushed
| their children with fear OF the political devil
| incarnate of Virginia But, when the drapery of
mourning shrouded the columns and overhung the
arches of Faneuil Hall Daniel Webster did not
member that sometimes John Adams imprudent
| and Thomas jefferson sometimes unwise. He remem-
| bered only that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
two of the greatest of American patriots, and
their fellow citizens of every party bowed their heads
| and said amen. / am not here to declare that the
| Judgment of Wendell Phillips always sound,
his estimate of always just, nor his policy always
| approved by the event. He would have scorned such
praise. l not here tc eulogize the mortal but the
| immortal He, too, great American patriot and
no American ife-no, not one-offers to future gem
erations of his countrymen more priceless example
of nfebe fidelity to conscience and to public duty
| and no American more truly than he purged the ma
tional name of its shame and made the American nag
| the flag of hope for mankind
PROBATION
| Among her noblest children his native city viii
cherish him. and gratefully recall the unbending Pu
ritan soul that dwelt in form gracious and ur1
bane. The plain house in which he lved-severey
plain because the welfare of the suffering and the
slave preferred to book, and picture and every
fair device of art; the house which the North Star
led the trembling fugitive and which the unfortunate
| and the frendless knew-thc radiant figure passing
swiftly through these streets, plain the house from
which it came, regal with royalty beyond that OF
| kngs,-the ceasless charity untold-the strong
| tanning heart of private friendship-the sacred do
| nestle affection that must not here be named-the
| elnnuancA which ike the song of Ornheus.