The Washington bee., 1911-12-09
WENDELL PHILLIPS.
And Centennial Grafton
1T METROPOLITAN CHURCH

One OF the most representative and
cultured audiences that has ever as
sembled in the Metropolitan A. Nj.
:. Church. was on hand last Wednes-
Say evening, November 20, ult., to
listen to the address of Mr.. Justice
Wendell Phillips Stafford, of the SUI
preme Court OF the District of Column
bia. There has never been a speech
that elected the applause and enthu
siasm as this speech. For five min
utes the vast audience stood up and
aDplauded, men waved their hats and
haudkerchiefs, and the ladies waved
their fans, and at the conclusion of
this mastery address the distinguish
ed jurist had to respond twice to the
cucores. The speech in full is as fol-
lows
1t was one OF the happiest coinci-
senCes III history that the anti
slavery cause should have eliminated
during the very years that saw Wen
dell Phillips in the full maturity Of
his splendid powers When the re-
bellion began, he was fifty years of
age. For more than twenty years he
had been discussing the slave ques-
led and pOndered it in all its phases.
Every weapon in his arsenal was
bright with service, and ready for
instant use. His armor had been har-
dened by blows. His speech had ac-I
quired its perfection of form and was
now to be charged with unexampled
iorce. In 1861, as Moncure Conway
has justly recorded, he delivered the
greatest speeches that ever have been
heard in America No man saw more
clearly that the war could never be-
won and the Union restored except on
the basis of freedom. The North
might indeed OverpoWer her adver-
sary, but she could never make a
Union between freedom and slavery
This was the burden of the prophet
during those dreadful years of the
warrior. filled with confused noise
and garments rolled in blood 1t was
his mission to rouse the North to
support and to demand emancipation
In the nature of things it is impOs-
sible to separate and weigh the in
fuenCe of any one man in the fOrma-
ton of public opinion, that subtle, all
pervading force which, like the air,
is seldom heard but when it speaks
IN thunder" but that there was in all
that period no more potent voice may
safely be affirmed.
When slavery had been abolished
he was too deeply concerned with the
dangers that lay ahead to join in the
cheers of victory. He knew that the
old hatred of the Negro would find
new ways to work against him. He
girded up his loins and pushed on to
fight for enfranChisement He was
for taking advantage of the sentiment
for freedom and equality while it
lasted. He struck while the iron was
hot He worked while it was vet
day, knowing that the night was com
ing wherein no man could work
From 1865 to 1870, the most alert and
strenuous years of his life, he toIled
night and day for the Fifteenth
Amendment. He was right. The
night has succeeded to the glorious
day that gave us the three grand
amendments, worthy to be written in
letters of gold beside the petition of
right and Magma Charta The iron
that was heated seven times hot in
the furnace of battle, was happily
hammered before it was too late, into
the forms that can not easily be
changed. But the glow Is gone. A
new generation has come upon the
scene Selhshness, prejudice, the old
spirit of caste, are doing their work,
and the people that received the ia
bles of stone, from the Mount that
burned with fire and shook with the
thunders of Jehovah, has turned to
the worship of the golden calf and is
taking its pleasure at the banquet
All this Phillips fOreSaw and furetold,
Today not a State of the old con-
federacy records the Negros vote
The Fifteenth Amendment is sneered
at by millions in the North as the
greatest blunder of the age. Today
law journals publish labored articles
to prove the amendment void. And
yet what is the Fifteenth Amend
ment? What does 1t declare? Merely
this, that a mans right to vote shall
not depend upon his color or his race.
The South IS at liberty to make the
right depend upon any test that can
be applied to black and white alike.
education, property, what she will.
Why need she resort to miserable
subterfuges to let in her poor, ignor-I
ant and vicious whites, while she ex-
cludes even the virtuous, the learned
and prosperous among the black? Isl
this the courage, Is this the sense oil
fairness of the AngIo-Saxon race?
The black race. in less than hftvI
years of freedom, has justified every
claim of the abOlitioniSts. I. has
shown itself brave in battle, faithful
in peace, eager to learn. capable oil
acquiring and controlling wealth and
able to produce noble and far-sighted
leaders of its own blood. In spite of
race prejudice and political BETRAYAL.
it has gotten its feet on the solid
ground of material well-being, and Isl
reaching out its hand with slow. pal
tient but irresistible power to the
great prizes of the world of effort
and ideas. It's progress during the
last half century will be one of the
marvels of history. Every man who
loves justice or humanity must rejoice
at such a sight.
The anti-slavery cause was only one
branch of movement that embraces
the world and reaches through all
time. 1t is the movement of the
common people to take possession of