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


HOW HIS COURSE WAS DETERMINED
But on AN October afternoon in 1884, while he
still sitting expectant in his office the ongawaited
client came, but in what amazing form. The young
lawyer was especially a Boston boy He loved his
tive city with that lofty pride and intensity of local
affection which is peculiar to her citizens. Il was born
in Boston, he said long afterward, land the good
of the old town is bound up with every fiber of my
heart" In the mild afternoon his wndowswere open,
and the sound of unusual disturbance drew him from
his office He fastened along the street, and suddenly,
stone sthrow from the of the Boston massacre
in the very shadow of the old South he behed in Bos
ton spectacle which Boston cannot now conceive.
He American women inslted for befriending their
innocent sisters, whose children sold from their
arms. He saw an American citizen assaied by furi-
GUS mob in the city of James Otis for saying with
James Otis, that mans right to liberty is inherent
and inaenable Himself citizen soldier, he looked
to the majesty of the people maintaining the
thorty of the law but to his own startled surprise he
that the rightful defenders of law against the
mob themselves the mob. The city, whose
dauntess free speech had taught country how to be
Independent, he raising parricdal hand against
its parent-Lberty. 1t enough As the Jail doors
closed upon Garrison to save his life Garrison and
his cause had won their most powerful and renowned
ally With setting of that October sun vanished for
ever the career of prosperous ease, the qualification
plishment of Wendell Phillips had seemed to foretel.
Yes the longawated client had at last Scared,
scorned and forsaken, that covering and friendless
great soul saw and understood.
$50 nigh is grandeur to our dust
So near is God to man,
When duty whispers low, Thou must,
The youth replies, / can"
Already the Boston boy felt what he had said II love
inexpressiby these streets of Boston which my
mother led my baby feet and if God grants me time
enough will make them too pure for the footsteps of
slave" And we. fellow-citizens who recall the life
and the the untring sacrifice, the complete sur
render do not hear in the soft air of that long van
hal n,%N 1oxr Of ctr,
street. the benediction that he could not hear but
whose influence ibreathed always from the ineffable
sweetness of his smile and the gracious courtesy of his
manner, 'Inasmuch thou hast done it to the least
of these my brethren thou hast done it unto me.
Ascene of that day is an illustration Of the time.
AS we look back upon it it is incredible. But it
not until Loveioy fell while defending his press at
Alton. in November, 1887, that American citizen
was killed by raging mob for declaring, in free
personal liberty. This tragedy like the deadly blow
at Charles Summer in the Senate chamber, twenty
years afterward awed the whole country with sense
of vast and momentous peril. The country has just
been startled by the terrible riot at Cincinnati which
sprang from the public consciousness that by crafty
legal qubblng crime had become But the out
break was at and universally condemned because,
in this country, whatever the wrong may be reform
by riot is always worse than the wrong. The Alton
riot however, had redeeming impulse 1t was
the very frenzy of lawlessness, a sudden and
CHASTITY glimpse of the unquenchabe fires of passion
that were burning under the seeming peace and pros
per1ty OF the Union. How fierce and fan reaching
those passions were was seen not only in the riot
itself but in the refusal of Faneuil Hall for public
meeting to denounce the appalling wrong to American
liberty, which had been done in Illinois, lest the pat
riotc protest of the meeting should be interpreted by
the country the voice of Boston But the refusal
reconsidered AM since the people of Boston
thronged Faneu Hall on the day after the massacre
in State street. had that ancient hall more sol
emn and significant assembly 1t was the more sol
eInn the more significant because the excited multi
tude was no longer in the revolutionary day, in
inspired by one unanimous and overwhelming purpose
to assert and maintain liberty of speech the bull
wa of all her was an tied and
foreboding scene. An evil spirit was in the air.
HIS FIRST PUBLIC SPEECH.
When the seemly protest against the monstrous
crime had been spoken, and the proper duty of the
day done, voice heard, the voice of the high
officer solemnly to prosecute in the name of
Massachusetts, every violation of law declaring in
Faneul Hail. sixty years after the battle of Bunker
Hill, and amid bowling storm of applause, that an
American citizen who was put to death by mad
crowd Of his felowctzens for defending his right of
free speech, died the fool dieth Boston has seen
dark days but never moment so dark as that. Seven
years before Webster had said in the famous words
that Massachusetts binds frontlets between her
eyes There are Boston and Concord, and Lexington
and Bunker Hill and there they will remain forever
Had they already vanishedi Was the spirit Of the
Revolution quite extinctl In the very cradle of
slunbering eohoesi ~ By the grace Of God
such a son there was. He had come with the multi
tude, and he had heard with sympathy and approval
the speeches that condemned the wrong but when the
cruel voice justified the murderers of Loveoy the heart
of the young man burned within him. This speech,
he said to himself must be answered AS the malign
strain proceeded the Boston boy, all fire. with Con
cord and Lexington tugging at his heart unconscious
ly murmered, Such speech in Faneuil Hall must be
answered in Faneuil Hall" why not answer it your
self" whispered neighbor, who overheard him.
Help me to the platform and will " and pushing and
struggling through the dense and threatening crowd the
young reached the platform was lifted upon it,
and, advancing to speak, was greeted With a
whirlwind undistnoyed, as for many year
afterward he directed the same wild storm he stood
upon the platform in all the beauty and grace Of mpe
rial youththe Greeks would have said god descend
ed-and in words that touched the mind, and heart,
and conscience of that vast multitude, as with fire
from heaven recalling Boston TO herself he saved his
native city and her cradle of liberty from the damn
ing disgrace of stonng the first martyr in the great
struggle for personal freedom. ''Mr. Chairman, he
pies which placed the rioters incendiaries, and
derers of Alton side by side with Otis and Hancock and
Quincy and Adams Thought those pictured lips would
have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant
American the slanderer of the dead" And
as he spoke the vision fulfilled. Once more
its native music rang through Faneuil Hall In the
orators own burning words those pictured lips did
break into immortal rebuke. In Wendell Phillips,
glowing with holy Indignation at the insult to
Josiah Quincy and Samuel Adams, though dead, yet
spake.
In tho annals of American speech there had been no
such since Patrick Henrys electrical warning to
George the Third 1t that greatest of oratorical
triumphs when supreme emotion sentiment which
is to mould people anew, lifted the orator to ade
quate expression. Three such scenes are illustrous
in history That of the speech of Patrick Henry
at Williamsburg, of Wendell Phillips in Faneuil
burg-three, and there is no fourth. They
transmit, unextinguished the torch of an
eloquence which has aroused nations and changed the
course of history and which Webster called mobile
sublime, god-like action" The tremendous contro,
versy indeed inspired universal eloquence. AS the
lists the political action of the Liberty party of the
conscience Wings and the free-soil Democrats and
finally of the Republican party the sound of speech
which, in its variety and excellence had never been
heard upon the continent, filed the air. But
supreme it all the eoquence of Phillips as
the harmonious tumut of vast orchestra, one
clear voice, like lark high poised in heaven steadily
carries the melody. As Demosthenese the orator
of Greece against Philip and Cicero of Rome against
Catalina and John Pym, of England, against the
Stuart Wandell Phins was 1p