Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-04-10
Minister Phelps's Views.

IL
anti-war speech, made by Mr. Phelps in
1864, which first appeared, sixteen years
after, as a campaign document, when Mr.
Phelps was candidate for governor, in
1890 With regard to this speech, Mr..
Phelps, in an interview printed in the
New Haven Palladium, is reported to have
said. in substance, that he had no dis
inct recollection of having made any such
peech, though he could not deny that he
might have made one characterizing the
war as unnecessary, and criticizing the
way in which it was carried on. He did,
however, deny that he could have used
the offensive and undigniiied language
attributed to him. Mr.. Phelps added
THAT it the report of the speech had
no effect where | was personally known is,
apparent from the fact that l received the
largest vote ever given in Vermont, before
or since, for Democratic candidate for
governor. While / was not in accord
with the majority of my people in respect
to the necessity of the war, nor in respect
to some things connected with its prose
cution, my opposition to the doctrine of
secession and to any step leading toward
the dissolution of the Union was well
known. My opinions were the same as
those entertained by Mr., Webster, and
are to be found expressed in various adj
dresses of mine; among Others, is one made
before the Legislature and the Histori-
cal Society of Vermont, in October, 1882,
on the life and public services of Samuel
Prentiss. They are perfectly familiar to
all those who have listened to my lectures
on constitutional law, in Yale OF. at the
Boston University. My instruction, as
plicit on the subject of secession and the
true theory of the Constitution"
How much effect the publication of Mr..
Phelps's speech had on the canvass of
1880, in this State, is now matter of
small consequence. 1t certainly had no
decisive effect, 1t was perfectly plain be-
fore the report appeared that neither
Gen. Hancock's popularity with the sol
diers, nor Mr.. Phelps's high personal
standing, were going to make any ap-
preciable inroad into the Republican
ranks in this State. 1t was perfectly well
known throughout Vermont, before that,
that Mr.. Phelps was an anti-war Demo-
crat that he early adopted the views on
the slavery question held by his father
who, while in his speech on the admis-
sion of Oregon he declared that slavery
was IAN evil and a curse" held also firmly
the slave-holding States that like Mr..
Buchanan and Mr.. Bayard and Mr.. Pen
dleton and most of the leading Democrats
of the country, he was opposed to coer-
cion and that, like his party in National
convention, he for time considered the
war "a failure" The speech in question
could hardly be called a public utterance,
having been made to a little knot of
Democrats, a Democratic club, in a small
room, with no knowledge that it was to
be reported. Nothing was publicly
known OF reported about it at the time.
When the report appeared many years
after, Mr.. Phelps's friends doubtless gave
him the benefit of the possibility that
there might have been some inaccuracy
in the report and of the thought that, at
worst, he had but lowered himself for the
moment to the level of the little company
of cOpperheads he was addressing, and
would not deliberately repeat or justify
some of the views advanced, or the words
in which hey were expressed. They
knew that lie, with all his party, had got
a good deal of light, in subsequent years,
on the character of Mr.. Lincoln, on the
question whether the war was failure
or not, and on various connected subjects.
So, while the speech may have cost him
few votes, it had no very marked effect,
either on the canvass or on the general
of Mr.. Phelps, among a people
who loved and admired Abraham Lincoln
and detested slavery and rebellion with
greater unanimity than any equal num-
Der of persons in the entire North. And
though perfectly well recollected by
everybody in Vermont-for every Repub-
lican paper in the State printed the
speech in whole or part-it has not af-
fected the reception given by the press of
Vermont to Mr.. Phelps's appointment,
which has been kindly and commenda-
tory, 50 far as we know, without eXcep-
ton Under all the circumstances it was
not friendly thing in the leading organ
of Mr. Phelps's party, to dig up and quote
this old speech. The World might at
least, as it had the means of doing, have
quoted with it some Of Mr.. Phelpss later
and more deliberate expressions ON the
side of the Union and in acknowledge
ment that the North had justice and right
on its side, in the war for the Union. One
of these we quote, from the address on
Judge Prentiss, alluded to above.
The undisputed leader of Southern poll
tical thought, he calhoun was the author
of the constitutional theory that culminat-
ed after many years in the war of the re-
bellion that the union is a partnership of
the States that can be dissolved at will,
not government by the people, perpetual
in its character, Utterly as it has since
been refuted there was time when in Mr.
Calhoun's hands it seemed well-nigh I'M
answerable. Northern men gathered in
dismay and said, ''can it be answered ?"
One man came to Mr.. Webster with the
question. I'VE shall see sir" said Web
ster, 1--WE shall see tomorrow and on the
morrow the country did see, and never
forgot. They saw the Southern idea ut
terly demolished, with logic that con
WINGED all minds and an eloquence that
melted all hearts. Then and there was it
that the lost cause" was lost, The lofty
and noble proposition set forth by Mr..
Webster, that our government is greater
than partnership and more durable than
a contract, union now and forever, with
which liberty itself is one and inseparable
sank deep into the hearts of Northern
men and remained there. 1t was this con
viction that brought them up to the de-
nd Of hn