The Labor enquirer., 1884-04-05
A Speech Delivered by Wen
dell Phillips in the
Year 1871.
The Power He Saw Looming Up,
Which Would Crush All
ASSaillants.
The Meaning Of the Labor Move
ment---The Equalization +
Of Man. o..
From John swinton's Paper.

On the last day OF October, 1871, in
the Music hall of Boston, Wendell
Phillips gave discourse on wealth and
work. He said E
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN-We e are some
times SO near an object that we can't see
it. | could place you so near the city
hall tonight that you would not know
whether You were looking at ton of
granite or wall of large building. So
it is with fact. The men who stand
nearest to 1t are often the last to recog
nize either its breadth or its meaning.
Perhaps the last men to appreciate a
fact are the men nearest to whose eyes
1t passes; and it is just so In government.
We are hardly aware of the changes
that are taking place about us. Our
children will understand them distinctly.
There is large class among our Ger
man fellow-citizens who advocate the
abolition of the presidency. The
thoughtful in that class perceive what
the ordinary passer by does not recog-
nize, that we are daily abolishing the
presidency, and the movement of the
country for fifty years has been toward
the abolition of the presidency. You
see this tendency in a variety of circum-
stances. When we were first a nation
the greatest men among us were chosen
president and named for president; but
now we don't think of putting up first
rate man.
There is another feature we don't see,
that the government is fast being mo-,
nopollzed by the house of representa-
tlVes. If we 60 on as we have done for
half century there will be no govern
ment in this country except the house.
Whatever defes the power of the great
house will 90 down. Whether harmo.
NOUS and benifcent results will follow
our adoption of the system depends upon
whether the great mass of men and
women with universal suffrage as their
sheet anchor can work them out through
one single tool like the house.
PUTTING OUT THEIR HANDS.
have only gone into this statement
to approach a second point, and that is
we stand on the moment the people
actually put their hands forth for power.
Z We stand at an epoch when the nature
of the government is undergoing a fun
damental change. l have been speakin
of machines-whether we should oper-
ate through senate and president, or
solely through house. | have been
speaking of the spindles and wheels
Below that lies the water power. The
water power of Great Britain has been
the wealth of 10000 landhoders-
10000 land-holding families, perhaps
100000 or 100000 voters. With US the
water power is to be the ballots of l0,-
100000 of adult men and women, scat
tered through all classes, rich and poor,
educated and ignorant, prompt and con-
servative, radical and timid, all modes
~and kinds and qualities of mind. Well,
that brings me to the form which this
great advance of the people takes. 1t is
the working masses that are really about
to put their hands to the work of gov:
erning.
1t is no accident, no caprice of an indi-
vidual, no mere shout of the political
arena that heralds TO-DAY the great labor
oF ! ~ IT-;toI Sfofn
ANOTHER POWER LOOMING UP.
But, in the meantime, over the horizon
looming at first and now almost ouching
its meridian, comes up another power
l mean the power Of wealth, the inordi-
nate power of capital. Our fathers,
when they prevented entail, when they
J provided for distribution of estates,
thought they had erected bulwark
against the money power that had killed
Great Britain. They forgot that money
could combine, that moneyed corpora
ton was like the papacy, succession of
; persons with unity of purpose, that it
! never died, that it never by natural pro-
clivity became imbecile. The grandson
of king is necessarily one-third an
idiot. But the third generation of a
money corporation is wiser for the ex'
perience of predecessors, and preserves
d. the same unity of purpose
This great money power looms over the
horizon at the very moment when to
every thoughtful man the power of the
masses concentrating in the house
of representatives is to become the
sole omnipotence of the state. ,Natu
rally so ominious conjecture provokes
resistance. Naturally peril so immedi
ate prompts the wealthy class of the
community to combine for defense.
1T CRUsHEs EVERY AssA1LANT.
The land of England has ruled it fol
600 years. The corporations of Americs
mean to rule it in the same way; and
unless some power more radical thar
that of ordinary politics is found, will
rule it inevitably. confess that the
only fear l have in regard to republican
institutions is whether in our day any
adequate remedy will be found for this