The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-01-15

for the enslaved negro; he spoke for Hun
gary; he spoke for Ireland; he spoke for
the outraged Russian; he spoke for young
Italy; he spoke for the working man. 1t
was this irrepressible instinct to plead for
the people. this impotence Of their en-
acted and incorporated wrongs, joined to
the imaginative genius of the man that
tempted him sometimes into error. in
justice, extravaganza of opinion and ex-
preston; it was this overpowering imagi-
nation, this ideality, that made him talk
sometimes like half-Socialist and some
times wholly like greenbacker.
But Phillips will not be remembered
longest by the extravagant opinions of his
old age any more than Daniel Webster
will be entirely measured morally and in
tellectually by his speech of March Z, 1885,
in support of the fugitive slave law. Mr..
Webster of 1882 trampling Haynes heresy
OF state supremacy under his spurning
feet was Webster in his prime, speaking
to time and 10 eternity in defense of the
Union and Federal supremacy; his iron
logic was the tonic and argument of every
speech that was uttered for the Union
when Sumter fell. But when Webster
was old, when his magnificent mind had
become downcast through political disap-
pointment, defeat and extravagant social
infirmities, then Webster triaed with his
fame, sometimes nodded and sometimes
fairly slept. History prefers to think of
Webster in 1882. arming the Union with
argument, to Webster whimpering in 1850
for the support of the South.
So Phillips. the agitator that rang the
frebell ceaselessly in the dark night OF
slavery, sometimes touching the deep
tones of alarm, sometimes those Of pathos
ana consolation, is admirable and i'm
mortal. We recall that Ithuriel shape of
Phillips rather than Phillips in his old
age, enunciatng greenback heresy, which
he accepted with guieless innocence from
the lips of one of his latest Saints" Gen.
Butler, and extenuating, if not wholly ex-
cuslng the Irish nihilists who murdered
Burke and Cavendish. When sneered at
for his advocacy of the ''eternal negro" he
answered that the negro would always be
the eternal negro" until his wrongs were
righted, for the same reason that the
outraged. evicIed Irishman was the
eternal Irishman" to England; the Pole
vas eternal" to Russia; the Bulgarian
eternal" to the Turk; that the cry of
outraged justice is ever an eternal and
vexing cry until its appeal is answered
and justice wrought; that the negro was
just as eternal" as the justice he invoked
for him and meant in Gods good time to
secure for him.
Had there been no slavery in America
Phillips would have been the peerless
orator and agitator for some cause, for
God made him for platform power.
That eagle face. cast in the antique beauty
of a noble Roman; that silver trumpet
voice, that tall form framed in elegance
and strength and carried with easy grace
of action; that simplicity and strength of
speech: that flashing blade of wit and
singing lash Of satire-these were attri-
butes, joined to moral rage against wrong,
that must have made Phillips an orator by
the same natural urging that made Fox
the English Demosthenes. He could no
| more help being agitator, orator and
philanthropist than Burns could help
being poet; he could not be
silent when humanity suffered. With
humane impotence of slowly receding
wrong Phillips sometimes spoke in shrill
tones of incorporate wrath against IN
cured injustice, but this vice of express
sion was a superficial defect; the heart of
| the man was noble and tender in private
to all. During Phillips itetime he was
never weary of pleading that time would
| justify him and bis cause. Of Lovejoy
and John Brown he was never weary of
repeating:
| The hooting mob Of yesterday
ill in silent awe return
To CLEAN up their scattered ashes
| Into Htstory's golden urn.
His prophecy has come true of Loveioy,
of Brown, and of himself, their eloquent
prophet