Year: 1867

passing new laws and ordinances in relation
to these subjects, to which the clause In the
tax levy will not apply; and so we are likely
to have warm time and hard contest for the
spoils under all this cross-aring and sharp
practice.


auA Public Teacher.


Wendell Phillips Grafton on national AFFAIRS
is like certain Of the scrapings Of the Cali
fornia miners-it needs q great deal Of wash
ing. Sent to market through the water OF
many streams and the 6re Of much assaying
the result Of the miners toll showed real
value finally, though the precious metal was
an exceedingly small proportion Of the mass.
So with the oration;. there is gold in 1t, but
it is greatly overweighted with drosa Mr..
Phillips estimate Of himself as the only man
Of pure motives in the community will
hardly pass as the real artiele--though, per-
haps, 1t glitters prettily enough to the eyes
of his admirers. He says substantially that
the educational machinery" Of these States
is composed Of four great parts. First come
the normal schools for the masses; next the
press; next the pulpit and the fourth
and last is the model lecturer-Wendell
Phillips, in short, who does the "6nishing,"
puts on the final graces which make US the ac-
complished creatures we are. But of these four
the only one to be relied upon for honest in
struction is Wendell Phillips. The schools are
in bad hands, and the press and the pulpit are
the creatures Of interest. editors cannot afford
to offend their patrons = that i, the press is the
slave Of the fellow who shouts "Stop my
paper ~ when the truths written are little too
sharp. Pulpits fear to scourge fashionable
vices, for the rich brethren are made sad there
BY Therefore the nation has no one to look
to but Mr.. Phillips, whose advice is always
sound and pure never affected by prejudices,
partisan views or personal predictions; above
all ordinary human influences, and to be had at
fifty cents ticket.


But the orator does much better when he
speaks of this nation as having .almost reached
the goal of popular endeavor" in respect tothe
way in which great problems are decided by
the intelligence and good practical judgment
Of the masses. He could hardly have carried
his panegyric too far in celebrating this
thought-that the destinies of the nation
are really shaped by the whole body Of
voters in the decision they give to great ques-
tioIs as they arise. It is not as it has been
in many nations from time immemorial. Our
destinies are not decided "by thousand
or so of disciplined minds-not by few sent
to Senates and universities"- by the dema-
nor by the Loomises who date their learned
nonsense from academic shades, " but by two
or three million voters" All this is excellent,
and it would have been better still If the ora
tor, going little further, had shown how this
judgment Of the people is founded upon an
extensive knowledge Of the facts Of our ma
tional life as they arise from day TO day-facts
spread before the people by the press. This
would have been TO show the real power Of
the press in the case. 1t would also have
shown how II is that every citizen who is
shrewd enough to succeed in the ordinary con-
Germs of life needs no advice how to vote-is
his own statesman, in short; since it would have
pointed to the fact that in these days all men
possess that intimate knowledge of public af-
fairs that was once the exclusive property Of
party leaders. II would have shown that
knowledge of events and practical popular In
duction from that knowledge is the real basis
of the intelligent judgment that the national
vote gives on great problems.


So far as he touched this point the orator
seemed to indicate great faith in our institu-
tons; but it will not do to follow him far; for
at the next step we find him turning sharp
corner on General Grant, and coming up in
another direction, having quite forgotten all
she pretty things he has said about the
brains and virtues of the community" Mr..
Philips knows that the popular tide long since
tended strongly toward General Grant for the
Presidency. He sees that Grant Is 20 uni
versally regarded AZ the inevitable man that
he does not believe even democratic nomi-
nation would kill him. And here would have
been an apt and splendid illustration
of his ideas of the way great results
of consenting public opinion" 1t would
have been easy for Mr.. Phillips to show that
Grant, a great, positive, practical, absolute.
silent, determined man, is the true type Of the
great, silent, practical, determined American
people; and that the people have found it on.
by his acts, not by frothy rhetoric, nor by such
brilliant political letters as were written by the
Generals whose failures made room for this
great leader. Here was fine chance but,
unfortunately, this l. a case in which the public
verdict is unsatisfactory TO the orator and his
party. Grant does not suit them. The poll
ticians have found out that he is not to be bent,
and so must be broken in public opinion
Hence the sneers and derogatory sentences of
the orator, who, for just this once, will do his