The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1884-06-22
'to,ns ,szw soo1Es
wendell Phil1lps,

terlty. II Is especially betting that tho biog-
raphy Of a vehement agitator and radical re-
former should be written by devoted partisan.
who IL content to leave the austere task Of
Judgment to others. and holds himself 70.
tained to discharge the duties OF
an advocate. History. like painting. has
her laws Of composition. and they who
plant the soed and constantly outrun tho
ground.swell Of a great movement cannot OK
poet TO Ak tho gaze like those who pluck the
mutt or ride upon tho crest OF popular revo.
luton. II Is not the men OF the first hour. but
the mon Of the eleventh hour. who figure in
Tho foreground Of the picture. You must look
tor the original reiormer behind tho shrewd
observer Of events who rallied to the
Ause OF reform whom success was i'm
mlnent. With those who have been
100 much in advance OF their own age
10 DO adequately honored by any age-with
Daius Gracious. Rienzi. savonarola. John
Huss. and Mazzlni- should be classed Wendell
Phillips. tho great awnkener OF the New Eng.
land conscience. the heart-pierclng orator OF
The ti.savery crusade. the lay preacher who
accomplished with the spoken word effects
tremendous as those which welded at will
tho fierce democracy. shook the Arsenal. and
iulmined over Greece to Macedon and Ar
taxerxes's throne"
Id INe Lue ana Tunes OF WP1heu fNNtps,
By @. l. AUSTIN tB. b. Russell Il CO... an at
tempt IL made to show. not what the subject
Of the memoir might have done or should have
done. but what he actually accom- plished.
There are various ways OF dealing with the
momentous problem OF human slavery. and
the solutions adopted In England In Russia.
and In tho United States have differed widely
from ono another. Mr.. Austin does not
discuss the relative justice or expedi-
ency Of the several solutions. but confines
himself to proving what a decisive and trans
csndent part Wendell Phillips took In deter
mining the particular treatment which the
problem was to receive in our own country
Neither does he waste time In discussing
whether az matter OF fact It would have been
practicable to give different direction and
outcome to the antl-slavery agitation. had men
like Phillips and Garrison been less uncom-
promising. The author is not writing .
treatise on political philosophy. or an
exhaustive history Of events. but drawing
his subject as he was. q man who
saw but one thing at a time. and for that very
reason saw 1t and could make others see It
with Incompatible clearness-a man who.
though he might have had less trenchant aims
in view and chosen smoother modes OF reach
ing them know at least just what he aimed At
and by what road he meant to gain his goal.
There was far more OF the prophet than Of the
statesman In Wendell Phillips. and in this book
he is rightly portrayed as generator Of forces.
not as q conciliator Of laws to facts . fashioner
Of compromises. . manipulation and adjuster Of
forces already generated.
For many years after Phillips became q siren.
uous promoter Of the agitation against slavery
he was so vigorously ostracized In his native
city that few OF those who know his name are
aware how brilliant were the social position and
prospects which he willingly sacrificed to his
convictions. Some OF the most interesting
chapters OF the book before us are those that
treat Of the subjects family relationships
and early life. His ancestor. George
Phillips. who came to Massachusetts with
Gov. Winthrop in 1880. had received q
degree in the University Of Cambridge.
and throughout the colonial period his
descendants were highly educated men and
social maenates. 1t reflects. as Mr. Austin
says. peculiar credit on the Phillips family that
It should have founded two such useful and
famous institutions as the academies at Exeter
and Andover. Judge John Phillips the father OF
Wendell was for many years a member Of the
Corporation Of Harvard College and the first
Mayor Of Boston. the other two candidates for
that Office who retired in his favor being Harri-
son Gray Otis and Josiah Quincy. In the largo
mansion still standing at the corner OF Beacon
and Walnut streets In Boston the apostle OF
abolition was born In 1871 and here he spent
his boyhood until at the age Of sixteen he en-
tered Harvard College, The bographer has
collected many pleasant "reminiscences COM
municated by those who knew Wendell Phillips
intimately in his youthful days. The late
Thomas G. Appleton. for instance. records that
Phillips was an old friend OF mine. He was h ane
manly little fellow. Wendell Phillips. J. 10th
- l. Ia,
garrett OF the Motley house. and remember
that their favorite pastime used to be to strut
about in any fantastic costume they could find
In the corners Of the old attic. and shout scraps
OF poetry and dialogue at each other. After
that I knew him Mt the Latin School. and later
at college. I remember at college that
We got a notion that Phillips was labor
~. ~ under some 1cligious excitement lthere
had been q so-called revival in Boston
with the usual proportion OF emotional
conyersions| and so. to revive him little. we
got him into the Porcelain; and he soon be.
came our President" When We add that he
was also President OF the Hasty Pudding Club
those who know something about the socia
distinctions which obtain among Harvard I'M
aergraduates will not be surprised to learn
that at the class elections Phillips was looked
upon az the head OF the gentlemens party. and
regarded with much envy and some dislike By
that moiety OF his classmates to whom. from
the social point OF view. their alma mater
had proved but sour stepmother
There is, indeed. no doubt that b,
virtue OF all the circumstances OF bill
birth and training Phillips was patrician
IN aristocrat. so far as such essentially exotic
terms are In anywise applicable In New Eng
land community. On this point his class sec
rotary, the Rev. Edgar Buckingham. wrltei
very sensibly: II would not say that he neve
developed at any time anything Of world!
pride. believe he did look down with scorr
ON that vulgarity. that form OF protested de
mocracy. whose virtue only was to env!
those better and purer than themselves
as well as loftier In position. neve
knew that he scorned any one merely DO
cause he was poor. But 1t happened a
ono Of the stranGest Of all human phenomena
that this young man. who in all his public liz
has been the defender OF the trodden-doy n ant
the despised. was the especial pet In college
IL - In tkNtt