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Transcript of S P E - forgottenbooks.com ped in the Tuille rie s, or when he dissolved the Assembly by the stamp...
S P E E C H E S
BEFORE THE
filawat 1152115 3fAnti- filanerg 50mm,
J A N U A R Y , 1 8 52 .
W E N DELL PH I LL I P S .
B O S T O N
IWHH J SH ED B Y R O B E R T F . VV A L L C U T ,
N O . ' I C O R N H I L L .
S P E E C H
AT THE MELODEON, WEDNESDAY EVENING , JAN . 2 8 .
[psoxoom pm caur nnposrsn BY J . M . w. r sanm ro-
NJ
Mn . PRES IDENT I have been thinkin g , while sitting h e r e , of the di ffer
ent situation s of the Anti- Slavery c ause n ow and on e year ago , when the
last anniversary of thi s Society was held. To some , it may seem that we
had more sources of interest and of publi c excitement on that occasion than
we have n ow. We had with us , during a portion , at least , of that session ,the eloquent advocate of our cause on the other side of the water . We had
the local excitement and the deep interest whi ch the first horror of the
Fugitive Slave B ill had ar oused . We had, I beli eve, in our m i dst, some
Fugitives , just ar rived from the house of bondage . It may seem to many
that, meeting as we do to - day robbed of all these , we must be content with
a session more monotonous and less effectual in arousing the community.
But, when we look over the whole land ; when we look back upon the scenes
which have transpired in our own Commonwealth , at Christiana , at Syracuse
at the passage through the country of the great Hungarian at the present
state of the public mi nd, it s eems to me that no year , during the existence
of the Society , has presented more encouraging aspects to the Abolitionists .
The vi ews which our friend (PARKER PILLSBURY) has just presented are
those upon whi ch , in our most sober calculation , we ought to rely . Give
us time, and, as he has said, talk is all- powe iful. “re are apt to feel our
selves overshadowed in the presence of colossal institutions . We are apt,in
coming up to a meeting of this kind, to ask what a few hundred o r a few
thousand persons can do against the weight of government , the mountainous
odds of majorities , the in fluence of the press, the power of the pulpit, the
organization of parti es , the omnipotence of wealth . At times , to carry a
favorite purpose, leadin g statesmen have endeavored to cajole the people
into the ide a that th is age was like the past, and that a rub - a - dub Agita
tion , as ours is contemptuously styled , was only to be despised . Tb e tim e
S P E E C H .
has been when, as our friend observed, from the steps of the R evere House—yes, and from the depots of New York railr oads—Mr . WEBSTER h as de
scribed this Anti- Slavery Movement as a succession of le ctures in school
houses the mere efforts of a few hundred men an d women to talk together ,excite each other, arouse the public , and its only resul t a little nois e . He
kn ew better . He knew better the times in whi ch he lived. No matt er
where you meet a dozen e arnest men pledged to a new idea wherever you
have met them , you have met the beginning of a Revolution . Revolutions
are n ot made,’
they c om e . A Revolution is as natural a growth as an o ak .
It comes out of the p ast. Its foundations are laid far back. The child feels
he grows into a man , and thi nks ; another, perhaps , speaks, and the world
acts out the thought . A n d thi s is the history of modern society . Men un
d e rv alue the Anti - Slavery Movement, because they imagine you can always
put your fin ge r on some illustrious moment in h istory and say, here com
m e n c e d the great change whi ch has come over the nation . Not so . The
beginning of great changes is like the rise of the Mi ssissippi. A child must
stoop and gather away the pebbles to fin d it. But soon it swells on broader
and broader, bears on its am ple bosom the navies of a mi ghty Republic, fills
the Gulf, and divi des a Continent.
I remember a story of Napoleon that illustrates my mean ing. We are apt
to tr ace hi s control of France to some noted vi cto ry, to the time when he
cam ped in the Tui lle ri e s, o r when he d issolved the Assembly by the stamp
of hi s foot . He reigned in fact when hi s hand was first felt on the helm
of the vessel of state, and that was far back of the time when he had con
quered in Italy, o r his name had been echoed over two Continents . It was
on the day when five hun dr ed irresolute men were met in that Assembly
whi ch called itself, and pretended to be , the government of France . They
heard that the mob of Paris was coming the next morning, thirty thousand
strong , to turn them, as was usual in those days, out of doors . And where did
this seem ingly great power go fo r its support and refuge ' They sent Talli e n
to se e k out a boy li eutenant, the shadow of an officer, so thin and pall id
that when he was placed on the stand before them, the President of the As
se m bly, fearful , if the fate of France rested on the shrunken form , the
ashy ch e ck before him, that all hope was gone , asked You ng man, can
you protect the Assembly ' And the ashen lips of the Corsican boy parted
only to reply I always do what I undertake. Then and there Napoleon
ascended his throne ; and the next day, from the steps of St. Roche, thun
dered forth the cannon wh ich taught the m ob of Paris, for the first time, that
it had a master . That was the comm encement of the Empire . So the Anti
Slavery Movement commenced unheeded i n that obscure hole which
Mayor OTIS could not find, occupied by a printer and a black boy.
In working these great changes , in such an age as ours, the se - called
statesman has far less i nfluence than the many little men who, at various
points,are silently maturin g a regeneration of public opinion . This is a
reading and thinking ag e , and great in terests at stake quicken the general
intellect . Stagnant times have been when a great m ind, anchored in error ,might snag the slow -moving current of society. Such i s not our era . Noth
S P E E C H .
in g but Freedom , Justice and Truth is of any perm anent advantage to the
mass of mankind . To these society, left to itself, is always tending . In our
day, great questions about them have called forth all the energies of the
com mon mind E rror suffers sad treatment in the shock of eager i ntellects .
Everybody, said Talleyrand, is cleverer than anybody ; and any name ,however il lustrious , which links itself to abuses, is sure to be over whelmed
by the impetuous current of that society which , (thanks to the press and a
readin g public ,) is potent, always, to clear its own channel . Thanks to the
Prin ting Press, the people now do their own thi nkin g , and statesmen, as
they are styled—men in otfic e—have ceased to be either the leaders o r
the clogs of society .
This view is one that Mr . WEBSTER ridiculed in the depots of N ew York .
The ti me has come when he is obliged to change his tone when he is
obliged to retrace his steps to ackn owledge the nature and the character
of the age in which he lives . Kossur n comes to this country—penn i less ,and an exile ; conquered on his own soil ; flung out as a weed upon the
wate rs ; nothin g but hi s voice left—and the Secretary of State must meethim . Now, let us see what he says of his rub - a - dub Agitation ,
' whi ch
consists of the voice only of the tongue , which our friend PILLSBUR Y has
described . Th is is that tongue which the impudent statesman declared,from the drunken steps of the Revere House, ought to be silenced—thistongue , which was a rub - a - dub Agitation ' to be despised, when he spoke
to the farmers of New York .
He says We are too much inclined to underrate the power of moral
influence.' Who is ' Nobody but a Revere House statesman .“We are
too much inclin ed to underrate the power of moral in fluence, an d the influ
ence of publi c Opinion, and the influence of the principles to which great
men— the lights of the world and of the present age— have given theirsanction . W 11 0 doubts, that in our struggle for liberty and independence ,the majesti c eloquence of CHATHA M , the profound reasoni ng of BURKE , the
bur ning satir e and irony of Col . BARRE , had influences upon our fortunes
here i n America ' They had influences both ways . They tended, in the
first place , somewhat to diminish the confidence of the British min i stry in
their hopes of success, in attempting to subjugate an injured people . They
had influence another way, because all along the coasts of the country
an d all our people in that day lived upon the coast—there was not a readi ngman who did n o t feel stronger, bolder, and more determined in the assert ion
of hi s rights , when these exhil arating accents from the two Houses of Par
liam e n t reached him from beyond the seas . '
I thank thee, Jew Thi s rub - a - dub Ag itation , then , has influence
both ways, It dim in i shes the confidence of the Administration in its power
to execute the Fugi tive Slave Law, which it has imposed so insolently on
th e people . It acts on the r e a ding m e n of the nation, and in that single fact
is the whole story of the change . t e r e v e r you have a readi ng people ,there every tongue
,every press is a power. Mr . WEBSTER, when he ridi
ouled in New York the Agitation of the Anti - Slavery body, supposed he
was living in the old feudal times, when a statesman was an integral element
S P E E C H
in the State, an essential power in himself. He must have supp osed h imself
speaking in those ages when a great man outweighed the masses . He finds
now that he is living much later, in an age when the accumulated common
sen se of the people outweighs the greatest statesman o r the most influential
indi vidual . Let me illustr ate the difference of our times and the past in thi s
matter, by their difference in another respect . The time has been when men
cased in ir on from head to foot, and d is ciplin ed by long years of careful in
struction, went to battle . Those were the days of nobles and kni ghts ; and
in such times , ten kni ghts , clad in steel, feared not a whole field of unarmed
peasantry, and a hundred men at arms have conquered thousan ds of the
common people, o r held them at bay. Those were the times when W INK
B LR IED, the Swiss patriot , led his host against the Austrian phalanx , and,finding it impenetrable to the thousands of Swis s who thr ew themselves on
the serried lances, gathered a dozen in his arms , and drawing them together ,made thus an inlet into the close set ranks of the Austrians , and they were
overborne by the actual mass of numbers . Gunpowder came , and then , any
fin ger that coul d pull a trigger was equal to the highest born an d the best
di s ciplin ed ; kn ightly armor, and horses clad in steel, went to the groun d
before the courage and strength that dwelt in the arm of the peasant, as
well as that of the prince. Wh at gun powder did for war, the printing press
has done for the mind, and the statesman is no longer clad in the steel of
education, but every readin g man is his judge . Every thoughtful man , the
country through, that makes up an opinion , is his jury, to which he answers ,and the tribunal to which he must bow. Mr. WEBSTER, therefore, does n ot
overrate the power of this rub - a - dub Agitation ,' which KOSSUTH has now
adopted, stealing our thunder . ' (Laughte r and applause .) He does
n o t overrate the power of this rub - a - dub Agitation,' when he says
Another great mistake, gentlemen , is sometim es made . [Yes , in Bowdoin
Square We think nothing powerful enough to stand before despotic
power. There is something strong enough , quite strong enough ; and if
properly exerted,it will prove itself so ; and that is, the power of intelligent
public opinion.“ I thank the, Jew That opinion is formed, not only
in Congress, or on Hotel steps it is made also in the school houses, in the
town houses, at the hearth stones , in the rail road cars, on board the steam
boats , in the socia l circle , in these Anti Slavery gatherings whi ch he despises .
Mark you ' Ther e is nothing powerful e nough, to sta n d befo re i t It may be an
almost divin e institution ; it may be the bank vaul ts of New Englan d ; it
may be the mining interests of Pennsylvani a it may be the Harwich fish
ermen, whom he told to stand by the Union , because its bun tin g protected
their decks ; it may be the factory operative , whom he told to uphold the
Union , because it made his cloth sell for half per cent . more a yard ; it may
be a p archment Constitution , o r even a Fugitive Slave B il l signed by MIL
LARD F ILL M ORE ' I —no matter , all are dust o n the threshi ng floor of a
reading public , once roused to indignation . Remember this, when you
would look down upon a meeting of a few hundreds in the o n e scale , and
the fanatic vi olence of State Street in the other,that there is NOTH ING
,
DAN IEL WEBSTER being witness, strong enough to stand against publi c
S P E E C H .
Opini on , and if the tongue and the press are n ot parents of that, what
is
Napoleon said, I fear three newspapers more than a hundred thousand
bayonets . ' Mr. WEBSTER now is of the sam e Opinion . There is not a
monarch on earth,' he says, whose throne is n o t li able to be shaken by the
progress of opini on and the sentiment of the just and intelli gent part of the
people . ' I thank thee, Jew W e have been told often , that it was nothing
but a morbid sentiment thatwas opposed to the Fugitive Slave Bill,—it wasa sentiment Ofmorbid phi lanthropy. Grant it all. But take care, Mr. States
man cure or change it in tune, els e it will beat all your dead institutions todust. Hearts and sentiments ar e alive , and we all know that the gentlest of
nature’ s growths will , in time , burst asunder o r wear away the proudest
dead- weight man can heap upon them . If thi s be the power of the gentlest
growth, let the stoutest hear t tremble before the tornado of a people roused
to terrible vengeance by the sight of long years of cowardly and merciless
oppression , and oft -repeated instances of se lfish and calcul ating apostacy.
You may build your Capitol of grani te, and pile it high as the Rocky
Mountains , if it is founded on or mixed up with ini qui ty, the pul se of a girl
will in time beat it down . The re is no monarch on earth whose th rone is
not li able to be shaken by the se n tim m t of the just and intelligent part ofthe
peopl e . What is thi s but a recantation ' doin g penance for the impudence
uttered in Bowdoin Square 9 Surely thi s is the whi te sheet and lighted
to rch whi ch the Scotch church imposed as penance on its erring members .
Who would imagin e , that the same m an who said of the publi c di scussion
of the Slavery question that it must be put down, coul d have di ctated thi s
se ntiment It becomes us , in the station which we hold, to let that publi c
Opini on , so far as we form it, have free course ' What , then, is that echo
that we heard from Bowdoin Square a year ago 9 Thi s agitation must be
put down .
' It becomes us , in the station which we hold, to let that
public opinion have fr ee cour se .' B ehold the great doughface cringin g be
fore the calm eye of KO SSUTH , who had nothing but rub - a - dub agitation
with which to rescue Hungary from the bloody talons of the Austrian eagle
This is statesmanshi p The statesmanship that says to the Commonwealth
ofMassachusetts to - day, smother those prejudices , and to -morrow , there
i s no thr one on the broad earth strong enough to stand up against the senti
ment ofjus tice . Wh at is that but the prejudi ces of the Commonwealth
OfMassachusetts against man - hunting ' And this is the man before whom
the press an d the pulpit of the country would have had the Abolitioni sts
how their heads , and lay their mouth s in the dust, instead of holdin g fast to
the eternal principles of justi ce and right
It would be idl e , to be sure, to base any argument on an opini on ofMr .
WEBSTER’ S . Like the chameleon he takes his hue , on these subjects , from
the air he breathes . He has his October Sun Opinions and hi s Faneuil
Hall opinions. But the recantation here is at least noticeable and his
testimony to the power of the masses is more valuable as com i ng from an
un wi llin g witness . The best of us ar e conscious of being , at times , somewhat
awed by the colossal institutions about us , wh ich seem to be opposing our
S P E E C H .
progress . There are thos e who occasionally weary of thi s moral suasion, and
sigh for somethin g tangible ; some power that they can feel , and see its ope
ration . The advancing tide you cann ot mark . The gem forms unseen . The
grani te increases and crumbles , and you c an har dly mark either process . The
great change in a nation’ s Opinion is the same . We stand here to - day , and if
we look back twenty years, we can see a change in public Opin i on ; yes , we can
see a great change . Then the great statesmen had pledged themselves not to
t alk on thi s subject. They have been made to talk . These hounds have been
whipped into the traces ofthe nation’ s car , not by thr e e newspapers, whi ch Na
pole on dreaded, but by on e . (Cheers ) The great p arties of the country have
bee n broken to pieces and crumbled . The great sects have been broken to
pieces . Suppose you cann ot put your fin ger upon an indi vi dual fact still ,in the great result , you see whatWEBSTER tell s us in this speech Depend
upon it , gentlemen , th at between these two rival powers , the autocratic
power, maintained by arms and force, and the popular power, main tained by
opin i on, the former is constantly decreasing and, thank God, the latter is
constantly increasing. Real human liberty is gaining the ascendan t [he
must feel sad at that I] and the part whi ch we have to act in all thi s great
dr ama is to show ourselves in favor of those rights to uphold our as cend
an cy, and to carry it on , until we shall see it culmin ate in the hi ghest heaven
over our heads .'
Now I look upon this Speech as the most remarkable Mr . WEBSTER has
ever made on the Anti - Slavery agitation to which we are devoted—as amost remarkable confession , under the cir cumstances . I read it here an d to
you , because, in the circle I see around me , the larger proportion are Aboli
tionists—men attached to the movement whi ch thi s meeting representsmen whos e thoughts are occ asionally occupied with the causes and with the
effects of its real progress . I would force fr om the reluctan t lips of the Secre
tary of State, hi s testimony to the real power of the masses . I said that the
day was, before gunpowder, when the noble , clad in steel, was a match for a
thousand. Gunpowder levelled peas ant and prince . The printing press has
done the same . In the midst of thinking people, in the long run , there ar e
no great men . The accumulated intellect of the masses is greater than the
heaviest brain God ever gave to a single m an . WEBSTER , though he may
gather into his own person the confidence of parties , and the attachment of
thousan ds throughout the country, is but a feather’ s weight in the balan ce
again st the average of public sentiment on the subj ect of Slavery . A news
paper paragraph, ia county meeting , a gatherin g for conversation , a change
in the character of a dozen indi vi duals , these are the several fountain s and
sources of publi c Opinion . And, friends , when we gather, month after
month , at such meetin gs as these, we should encourage ourselves wi th con
siderations of thi s kind —that we live in an age of democrati c equality
that, for a moment , a party may stand against the age, but, in the end, it
goes by the board ;— that the man who launches a sound argument, whosets on t wo feet a startling fact, a nd bids it travel from Maine to Georgia, is
just as certain that in the end he wi ll change the government , as if, to de
stroy the Capitol, he had placed gunpowder un der the Senate Chamber .
S P E E C H .
Natural philosophers tell us , that if you will only multiply the simplest
force into enough time , it will equal the greatest . So it is with the Slowin tellectual movement of th e masses . It can scarcely be seen , but it is a
constant movement ; it is the shadow o n the dial , never still though never
seen to move ; it is the tide , it is the ocean , gaini ng on th e proudest and
strongest bulwarks that human art or strength can build . It may be defied
for a moment, but, i n the end , Nature always triumphs . So the race ,if it cannot drag a ‘V EB STER along with it, leaves him behind and forgets
him . (Loud cheers .) The race is rich enough to afford to do without the
greatest in tellects God ever let the devil buy. Stranded along the past,
there are a great many dried mummies of d ead inte l lects, which th e race
found too heavy to drag forward .
I hail the almi ghty power of the tongue .‘I swear allegiance to the om
n ipote n c e of the press . The people never err . V e x pop-uh , vox D e a
'
the
voice of the people is the voice of God . I do not mean this of any single
verdict which the people of tod ay may record . In time , the selfishn ess Ofo n e class neutralizes the selfishness of another . The interests of one age
clash against the interests of another ' but , in the great resul t, the race
always means right. The people always mean right, and, in the e n d , they
will have the right . I believe in the twenty millions—not the twentymil lions that live n ow, necessar ily—to arrange this question of Slavery ,whi ch priests and politicians have sought to keep out of sight. They have
kept it locked up in the Senate chamber , they have hidden it behind th e
communion table , th e y have appealed to the superstitious and idolatrous
veneration for the State and the Uni on to avoid this question , and so
have kept it from the influence of the great democratic tendencies of the
masses . But change all this , drag it from its concealm ent, and give it to the
people launch it on the age , and all is safe . It will find a safe harbor . A
man is always selfish enough fo r himself. The soldier will be selfish enough
for himself ; the merchant wi ll be selfish enough fo r himself ; yes , he will
be willing to go to hell to secure his own fortune , but he will not be ready
to go there to make the fortune of his neighbor . No man ever yet was
will ing to sacrifice his own character for the benefit of his neighbor ; and
whenever we shall be able to Show th is nation that the interests of a class ,not of the whole, th e interests of a portion of th e country, n o t of the masses ,are subserved by holdi ng our fellow -men in bondage , then we Shall Spike th e
guns of the enemy, or get their artill ery on our side .
I want you to turn your eyes from institutions to men . Th e d iffi cultv of
the present day and with us is , we are bullied by in stitutions . A man gets
up in the pulpit , or sits on the bench, and we allow ourselves to be bulli ed
by the judge or the clergyman , when , if he stood side by side with us , on
the brick pavement,as a simple individual, his ideas would not have dis
turb e d our clear thoughts an hour . Now , the duty of each Anti - Slavery
man is simply this—Stand on the pedestal of your own individual i ndepe n de n c e , summon these institutions about you, and judge them . The
question is deep enough to require this judgment of you . This is what the
cause asks of you , my friends ; and the moment you Shall be wil lin g to do
2
S P E E C H .
this,to rely upon yourselves , that moment the truths I have read from the
lips of one whom the country regards as its greatest statesman , wi ll
Shine over your path , assuring you that out of this agitati on , as cert ain as
the sun at noon - day, the futur e character of the American government will
be form ed .
If we lived in England, if we lived in France , the phi losophy of our move
ment mi ght be di fferent , for there stand accumulated wealth , hungry
churches, and Old nobles a class which popul ar agitation but slowly affects .
To these , publi c Opinion is obli ged to bow . We have seen , for instance , the
agitation of 1 848 in Europe , deep as it was , seemingly triumphant as it was
for six months , retire , beaten , before the undisturbed foundations of the gov
e rnm e n ts of the continent . Y ou recollect, no doubt, the tide of popular e n ~
thusiasm whi ch rolled from the B ay of B iscay to the very feet of the Czar ,and it seemed as if Europe was melted into one Republic . Men thought the
new generation had indeed come . We wai ted twelve months , and the tur
rets and towers of old institutions—the church, law, nobility, governm ent—reappeared above the subsidin g wave . ~Now, t here are no such in stitu
tions here . No law that can abide on e moment when popul ar opini on
demands its abrogation . The government is wrecked the moment the news
papers decree it . The penn y papers of thi s State, in the S I M S case , did more
to dictate the decision of Chi ef Justice SHAW , than the Legislature that sat
in the State House, o r the Statute Book of Massachusetts . I mean what I
say . The penn y papers ofNew York do more to govern this country than
the White House at Washi ngton . Mr . “TEB STER says we live under a gov
e rnm e n t of laws . He was never more mistaken , even when he thought the
Anti - Slavery agitation could be steppe d . \V e live un der a governmen t
of men and morning newspapers . (Applause .) B ENNETT and HORACE
GREELEY are more really Presidents of the United States than M ILLARD
F ILL M ORE . DAN IEL WEBSTER him self cannot even get a nomination . Why '
B ecause , long ago , the ebbin g tide of public opinion left him a wreck ,stranded on the side of the popular cur rent.
\V e live under a government of men . The Constitution is noth ing in
South Carolina , but the black law is everything . The law that says th e
colored man shall sit in the jury box in the city ofBoston is noth i ng . Wh y'
Because th e Mayor and Aldermen , and th e Selectmen of Boston, for th e
last fifty years , have been such slaves of co lo rph obia , that they di d n o t
choose to execute this law of the Comm onwealth . I might go through the
Statute Book , and Show you the same result . Now , if this be true aga in st
us , it is true for us . Remember, that the penny papers may be starved into
A nti - Slavery, whenever we Shal l put behin d them an Anti - Slavery public
sentiment . WILBERFORCE an d CLARKSO N had to vanqui sh the money ed
power of England, the “rest Indi a interest, and overawe the pe erage of
G reat Britain , before th e y conquered. The settled purpose of th e great
middle class had to wait till all this was accomplished . Th e moment we
have the control of public Opinion , the women and the children, th e
school houses , the school books , the literature , and the newspapers , that
moment we have settled th e question .
S P E E C H .
Me n blame us fo r the bitterness of our language and th e personali ty of
our attacks . It results from our position . Th e great mass of the people
can never be made to stay and argue a long question . They must be made
to feel it, thr ough th e hides of their idols . Wh en you have launched your
spear i nto the rhinoceros hide of a \V EB STER o r a BENTON , every Whig and
Democrat feels it. It is on thi s principle that every reform must take for
its text , the mistakes of great m e n . G o d gives us great scoundrels for texts
to Anti - Slavery sermons . S e e to it, when Nature has provided you a mon
ster like \V EB STER , that you exhibit him , himself a whole m an ag e r i e ,
throughout the country . (Great cheering . ) It is not Often , in the wide
world’ s history, that you se e a man so lav ishly gifted by nature , and called,in the concurrence of events , to a position like that which he occupied on
the seventh ofMarch, surrender his great power, and quench the high hopes
Of his race . No man, since the age of Luther, has ever held in hi s single
hand, so palp ably, the destini es and character of a mighty people . He stood
like the Hebrew prophet betwixt the living and th e dead . He had but to
have upheld the cross of common truth and honesty, and the black dishonor
of two hundred years would have been effaced forever . He bowed hisvassal
head to the temptations of the flesh and of lucre . He gave him self up into
the lap of the Delil ah of Slavery, for the mere prom ise of a nomi nation , and
the greatest hour of the age was bartered away, not for a mess of pottage ,but for the prom ise of a mess of pottage, a promise, thank G od , which is
to be broken (Enthusiasti c applause . ) I say, it is not often that Provi
dence permits the eyes of twenty mi llions of thinking people to behold the
fall of another Lucifer, from the very battlements of Heaven , down into
that “ lower deep of the lowest deep ' of hell . (Great sensation .) On
such a text , how effective should be the sermon
Let us see to it, that , in spite of the tenderness of A merican prejudice, in
spite of the morbid charity that would have us hold up the sin , but drop
the sinner , in spite of thi s effeminate Chr istianity, that woul d let mil lions
pine,lest on e man’ s feelings be injured ; let us see to it, fri ends , that we be
harsh as truth and uncompromi sin g as justice remembering always that
every sin gle man set against this evi l may be another Moses , every S ingle
thought you launch may be the thunders of another Napoleon from the
steps of another St. Roche ; remembering that we live not in an age of i n
di vidual despotism, when a Charles the Fifth could set up o r put down the
Slave Trade , but sur roun ded by twenty m i llions, whose Opinion is om n ipo
tent—that the hundred gathered in a New England school house may bethe hundred who shall teach the risin g men of the other half of the conti
nent, and stereotype Freedom on the banks of the Pacific ; remembering
and worshi ppin g reverentially the great American idea of the omn i potence
Of thinking men , of the sentiment ofj ustice ,' against whi ch no throne
is potent enough to stand, no Constitution sacred enough to endure . R e
member thi s , when you go to an Anti - Slavery gatherin g in a school house ,and know that , weighed against its solemn purpose , its terrible resolution ,i ts earnest thought
,himself, and all huckstering statesmen , in th e
Opposite scale , shall ki ck the beam . Worshipping the tongue , let us be
S P E E C H .
willing , at all times , to be known th roughout the community as the all - talk
party. The age of bullets is over . The age of men armed in mail is over .
Th e age of thrones has gone by. The age of statesmen God be praised
such statesmen— is over. The age of thinking men has come. “r ith th e
aid of God, then , every man I can reach , I will set thinking on the subject
of Slavery. (Cheers ) The age of reading men has come . I will try to
imbue every newspaper with G a rrison iani sm . (Loud applause .) The ag e
of the masses has come. N ow, DANIEL WEBSTER counts o n e —Give himj oy of it —~ but the rub - a - dub Agitation ' cou nts at least twenty
nineteen better . N ineteen , whom no chance of nomination tempts to a
change of opini ons once a twelvemonth ; who need no Kossuth advent to
recal l them to their senses .
Wh at I want to impress you wi th is , the great weight that is attached to
the Opinion of everythi ng that can call itself a man . Give me anythi ng that
walks erect, and can read, and he Shall count on e in the millions of th e
Lord’ s sacramental host, that is yet to come up and trample all Oppression in
the dust . The weeds poured forth in nature’ s lavish luxuriance , gi ve them
but time, and their ti ny roots shall rend asunder the foun dations of palaces ,and crumble the Pyramids to the earth . WV e may be weeds in comparison with
these marked men ; but in the lavi sh luxur iance of that nature which has
at least all owed us to be thinkin g , reading men ,' I learn , WEBSTER being
my witness, that there is no throne potent enough to stand against us . It is
morbid enthusiasm thi s that I have Gran t it . But they tell us that thi s
heart of mine , which beats so unintermi ttedl y in the bosom , if its force
could be d ir e cted against a g rani te pillar, woul d wear it to dust in the
course of a man’ s life . Your Capitol, DANIEL NV EB STER , is marble , but the
pulse of every humane man is beating against it . God will give us time ,and the pulses ofmen shall beat it down . (Loud and enthusiasti c cheering .)Take the mines take the Harwich fishing skiffs take the Lowell mills
take all the coin and the cotton thank G od , the day must be our s , for th e
hearts the hearts , are on our side
There is nothing stronger than human prejudice. A crazy sentimentali sm
lik e that of Peter the Hermit hurled half Of Europe upon Asia, and changed
th e destini es of kingdom s . We may be crazy . Would to God he would
make us all crazy enough to forget for o n e in om e n t the cold deductions of
intellect , an d let these hear ts of ours beat , beat, beat , m i d cr the promptings
o f a comm on hum ani ty. They have put wickedness into the statute book ,and destruction is just as certain as if they had put gunpowder un der the
Capitol . That is my faith . That it is whi ch turns my eye from the te n
thousand newspapers,from the forty thousand pulpits , from the millions of
W higs , from the mil lions of Democrats , from the might of sect, from th e
marble government , from the iron army , from the navy riding at anchor , from
all tha t we ar e accustomed to deem great and potent—tur ns it back to th esimplest child or woma n, to the first m urm rue d protest that is hear d against
bad laws . I recognize in it the g reat future , the first rumblings of tha t
volcano destin ed to overthrow these mighty preparations . and bury in th e
ho t lava o f its full excitement a ll this laughing prosperity that now rests so
secure o n its side .
S P E E C II .
All ha il , Publi c Opini on To be sure , it is a dangerous thing under which
to live . It rules to - day in the desire to obey all kin ds of laws , and takes
your life . It rules again i n the love of liberty, and rescues S IIA DR A CH from
Boston Court House . It rules to -morrow in the manhood of him who le ads
the musket to Shoot dow n, G od be praised I the man hunter ; GORSUCH .
(Applause .) It rul es in Syracuse , and the Slave escapes to Canada . It is
our i nterest to educate thi s pCOplC in humanity , and in deep reverence for
the rights of the lowest and humblest individual that makes up our num
bers . Each man here,in fact , holds his property and his life dependent o n
th e constant presence of an Agitation like this of Anti- Slavery. Eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty—power is ever steali ng from the many to th efew . The manna of popular liberty must be gathered each day, o r it is
rotten . The livin g sap of to - day outgrows the dead rind of yesterday . Th e
hand entrusted with power becomes, either from human depravity or e spr it
(la co rps, the necessary enemy of the people . Only by continual oversight
can the democrat in office be prevented from hardeni ng into a despot only
by uninterm itted Agitation can a people be kept sufficiently awake to prin
c iple not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity. All clouds , it
is said, have sunshine behi nd them , and all evils have some good result ; so
Slavery, by the necessity of its aboli tion, has saved the freedom of th e white
race from being melted in the luxur y or buried beneath the gold of its own
success . Never look , therefore, for an age when the people can be quiet
and safe . At such times Despotism , like a Shrouding mist, steals over th e
mir ror of Freedom . The Dutch, a thousand years ago , buil t against the
ocean their bulwarks of will ow and mud . Do they trust to that ' No .
Each year the patient, industrious peasant gives so much tim e from the
cul tivation of his soil and the c are .of his chil dren , to stop the breaks and
replace the will ow which insects have eaten , that he may keep the land
hi s fathers rescued from the water, and bid defiance to the waves that roar
above hi s head, as if demanding back the broad fields man has stolen from
their realm .
Some men suppose that , in order to the peeple’ s governing themselves
,
it is only necessary, as F ISHER A n Es said, that the “ Rights of Man be
printed, and that every citizen have a copy.
' As the Epicureans , two thou
sand years ago , imagined God a being who ar ranged this marv ellous ma
chinery, set it goin g , and then sunk to sleep . Republics exist only on th e
tenure of being constantly agitated . The An ti - Slavery Agitation is an i m
portant, nay, an essential part of the machi nery of the State . It is not a
di sease nor a medic ine . No ; it is the normal state— the normal state ofthe Nation . Never, to our latest po sterity, can we afford to do without
prophets , like GARR ISO N , to stir up th e monotony of wealth, and r e - awake
the people to th e great ideas that are constantly fading out of their min ds ,to trouble the waters that there may be health in their flow. Every govern
ment is always growing corrupt . Every Secretary of State is, by the veryn ecessity o f hi s position , an apostate . (I
-Iisscs and cheers . ) I mean wha t Isay . He is an enemy to the people
,of necessity
,because th e moment he
joins the government , he gravitates against that popular Agitation which is
I
LIBRQRY OF CONGRESS l
S P E E C H .
the life of a Republic . A Republi c is nothing but a constant overflow of
lava . The principles of JEFFERSON are not up to the principles of to - day .
It was well s aid of WV EB STER , that he knows well the HAN CO CK and ADA M S
of 1 7 7 6 , but he does not know the HANCO CKS and A DAMSES of to - day. The
Republic that Sinks to sleep , trusting to constituti ons and machinery, to
politicians and statesmen for the safety of its li berties , never will have any .
The people are to be waked to a new effort, just as the Church has to be
regenerated, in each age . The Anti - Slavery Agitation is a necessity of
each age , to keep ever on the alert thi s faithful vigilance so constantly in
danger of sleep . We must live lik e our Puritan fathers , who always went
to Church , and sat down to dinner, when the Indians were in their neigh
borhood, with their musket - lock on the on e Side an d a drawn sword on the
other .
If I had time o r voice to - night, I might proceed to a further development
of thi s idea, and I trust I coul d make it clear, whi ch I fear I have n o t yet
done . To my conviction , it is Gospel truth, that, instead of the Anti
Slavery Agitation bein g an evil , or even the unwelcome cure of a di s ease in
this government, the youngest child that lives may lay his hand on the
youngest child that his gray hairs may see, and say, The Agitation was
commenced when the Declaration of Independence was signed ; it took its
Second tide when the Anti - Slavery Declaration was signed in 18 3 3 ; a move
ment , n ot the cure but the diet of a free people ; n ot the h om ce opathic o r
the allopath ic dose , to whi ch a sick land has recourse , but the daily cold
water and the simple bread—the daily di et and absolute necessity—the mam ra
of a people wanderin g in the wilderness .' There is no Canaan in politics . As
health lies in labor, and there is no royal road to it but thr ough toil , so
there is no republican road to safety but in constant di strust . In di strust ,'
said Demosthenes , “ are the nerves of the mi nd .
'
Let us see to it that
these sentinel nerves ar e ever on the alert . If the Alps, pil ed in cold and stil l
sublirn i ty, be the emblem of Despotism, the ever restless O cean is ours ,which
,girt withi n the eternal laws of Gravitation , i s pure only becaus e
never still. (Long continued applause .)
S P E E C H
AT FANEUIL HALL , FRIDAY EVENING , JANUARY 3 0.
[PIION OGRAPHICALLY REPORTED B Y J . M. W . YER RINTON .]
MR . PRES IDENT '— I do not feel disposed to talk about Coloniz ation to
night, and I am glad to think that, after the remarks already submitted to
us , it is unn ecessary anything more should be said on that topic . I mean,
the coloni zation of black men to Afr ica . I have been co lon ize d myself from
th is Hall for some time ; an d in getting here again , I prefer to go back to the
old note, and try to get the hang o f thi s school house .'
(Laughter .) You
know Baron Munchausen says , in one of his marvellous stories , that it was
so cold one day in Russia, when he began to play a tune on his trumpet , that
half of it froze i n the instrument before it could get out ; and a few months
afterwards , he was startled, in Italy, to hear , of a sudden , the rest of the
tune come pealing forth . We were somewhat frozen up a while ago in this
Hall, with GEORGE THO M P SON on the platform ; now we want the rest of th e
tune. (Laughter and cheers . )The Ma il of thi s morning says that we have no right to this Hall , because
it was refused to the greatest statesman of the land to DANIEL W'
EBSTER .
I believe thi s is a mi stake . The Mayor and Aldermen went to hi m , meta
ph orically, on their knees , and entreated the great man to ma ke use of the
old wall s . It was the fir st time Faneuil Hall ever begged anybody to enter
it ; but DAN IEL was pettish , and would not come . Very proper in him , too
it is not the place in which to defend the Fugitive Slave B ill . He did right
when he refused to come . \Vho built these wall s PETER FANEUIL ’S anecs
tors were themselves fug itives from an edi ct a lm ost as cruel as the Fugitive
Slave Law and only he whose soul and body refuse to crouch beneath in
human legislation, has a right to be heard here— nobody else . (Cheers )A Huguenot built thi s Hall , wh o was not permitted to live o n the soil of his
own beautiful France, and it may naturally be supposed , that he dedicated
it to the most ul tra, outside idea of liberty . It is a place for th e run ning
Slave to find a shelter n o t for a recreant Statesman (De a i'
e n in g cheers . )
S P E E C H .
Thi s Hal l has never been made ridicul ous but once never was made th elaughin g - stock ofNew England but once . That was about nin e months ago
,
when the Sims brigade were left soundly asleep here , in the gray of the
morning , while the awkwar d squad ofMarshal TUKEY stole down State Street
with THO M AS S I M S , not deigning to ask their permission or their aid, and
leaving them to find out the next morn ing, that the great deed had beendon e , without their so much as hearing a noise . Soldiers asleep in Fan
e ui l Hall, while m i schi ef was doing so near as State street ' 0 ,what gallant
soldiers they must have been . (Loud laughter and cheers . )Times have changed since we were here before . The last time I stood on
thi s platform, there sat beside me a heroine worthy to sit in the hall of the
o ld Huguenot— on e ELI'ABETH B LAHELEY , a mulatto girl, of Wilm ington ,N . C . , who , loving freedom more than Slavery, concealed herself on board a
Boston brig , in the little narrow passage between the Side of the vessel and
the partition that formed the cabin two feet eight inches of room . There
she lay , while her inhuman master, almost certain Sh e was on board th e
vessel, had it smoked with sulphur an d tobacco thr ee times over . Still she
bore it . She came North, half frozen , in the most inclement month of the
year— thi s month . She reached B oston just able to crawl. \V h e r e di d she
come ' 0 , those were better times then She came here . Just able to
stand, fresh from that baptism of suffering for liberty, Sh e came he r e . We
told her story. And with us that night within ten feet of where I stand
sat FREDER IKA BRE M ER, the representative of the li terature of the old
world her humane sym pathies were moved so much , that the rose bud
Sh e held in her hand, she sent (honoring me by sending it by my hand) to
the first representative of American Slavery Sh e had s e en . It was the tri
bute ofErn '
0pe’
s hear t an d in tellect to a heroine of th e black race , in Faueui l
Hall . Times have changed since . N o t to speak of the incense which Miss
BRE M ER has, half ignorantly, I hope , laid on the demon altar of our land , it
would n ot be safe to put that B ETSEY BLAKELEY on this platform to - ni ght
it would not be safe for her to appear in a publi c meeting . \V hat has
changed this publi c opinion 9 I wi sh it was some single man . I wish it was
some official of the city, that SO we could make him the scapegoat of public
indignation , let him carry it forth , and thus the fair fam e of our city be freed .
This,Mr . President, br ings me to my subj ect . The resolutions I wi sh to
Speak to are these . I think they ought to be read in Faneuil Hall , at this, the
first m eeting the Aboli tioni sts have held here since the foul de e d ofApril 1 2 th
disgraced the city. I feel that these peddlin g hucksters of State and Mi lk
Streets owe me full atonement for the foul di shonor they have brought upon
the city ofmy birth .
R e so lve d , That, as citiz ens of Boston and the Commonwealth, we recordour deep disapprobation and indignant protest against the surrender of
THO M AS S I M S by the City , its sanction of the cowardly and lying policy ofthe poli ce , its serv ile and volu nteer zeal i n behalf of the man - hunters , andits deliberate
, waurton and avowed violation of th e laws of the Commonwealth
,for the basest of all purposes Slave - trading , selling a free m an into
bondage,that State street and Milk street might ma ke money.
S P E E C H .
their badges in their pockets , and lied, lest their prey should be torn from
their grasp , in the first burst of popular indignation . It was the first tim e
in Boston—I hope it will be the last—that the laws were obliged to be “
ex
e cute d by lyin g and behind bayonets , in the night . So much, though it bevery little
,may still be said for Boston , “ that S I M S was arrested by lying
and d isgui sed policemen he was judged by a Commissioner who sat behi nd
bayonets ; and was carried Off in the gray of the morn in g , after the moon
set , and before the sun rose, by a police body armed with swords . She was
d isgraced, but it was by force whi le, the reverse of the Roman rul e , ce da n t
a rm a togae , the robe gave way to the sword . The law was executed ; but it
was behind bayonets . Such laws do not last long . (Loud cheers . ) Courts
that sit behind chains , seldom sit more than once . (Renewed cheerin g .)
[A Voice The Whi gs defend it.
O , I kn ow that Mr . CHOATE has been here ,—I heard him , and before a
Whig caucus , defend the policy of the Fugitive Slave Bill . He told us ,while I sat in the gallery, of the “ in famous ethics —the “ infam ous e thics,
that , from the Declaration of Independence and the Sermon on the Moun t
deduced the duty ofM edi ate emancipation .
' The se n tim e nfl'
ivas received ,I am thankful to say, with a solem n silence, though RUFUS CHOATE uttered
it to an assembly Of Webster Whi gs . I heard i t said to - day, that the Abo
li tion ists had done nothing , because a Fugitive , within the last twelve
months, had been taken out Of Boston . They have done a great deal , since ,s ixteen or seventeen years ago , PELEG SPRAGUE , standin g on thi s platform ,
pointed to that portrait [the port rai t of Washington , ] and call e d him that
Slaveholder .' It is not now considered a merit in Washi ngton that he held
Slaves ; men apologize fo r it now. I stood in thi s hall , sixteen years ago ,when Abolitionist was linked with epithets of contempt, in the silver
tones of OTIS , and all the charms that a divin e eloquence and most felicitous
diction could throw ar oun d a bad cause were given it the excited multitude
seemed actually ready to leap up beneath the magic of his speech . It would
be something , if o n e must die, to die by such a hand ; a hand somewhat
wo rthy and able to stifle A nti - Slavery, if it could be stifled . The orator was
worthy of the gigantic task he attempted ; and thousands crowded before
him, every on e of their hear ts melted in the glowing enthusiasm of that
eloquence , beneath whi ch Massachusetts had bowed, n ot unworthil y, for
more than thirty years . I came here again this last fall . It was the first
time that I had been present since at a Whig meeting . I fou nd RUFUS
CHOATE on the platform . Compared with the calm grace and di gnity ofOH S , the thought of which came rushing back, he struck me like a monkey
in convulsions . (Ro ars of laughter and cheers .) Alas , I said, if the party
that has own ed Massachusetts so long , which spoke to me, as a boy, through
the lips of QUINCY and SULL IV AN , of WEBSTER an d OTIS , has sunk down to
the miserable sophistry of this mountebank and I felt proud of the cityo f my birth , as I looked over the murmur ing multitude beneath me , on
whom his spasmodic chatter fell lik e a we t blanket . (Great laughter and
cheering . ) He did not dare to touch a second time on the Fugitive Slave
B ill . He tried it once , with his doctrine of in famous ethics , and th e men
S P E E C H .
were as silent as the pillars around them . Ah , thought I , we have been here
a little too Often before and if we have not M pre sse d the seal of our senti
ments very deeply on the people , they have at least learned that immediate
emancipation , though possibly it be a dream, is n ot infamous ethics and
that such doctrine , th e Declaration of Independence and th e Sermon on th e
Mount , need more than the flashy rhetoric of a Webster retainer to tear
them asunder . (Great cheering . )The judges Of the Commonwealth—the judges of the Commonwealth
I have something to say of them . I wish sometimes we lived in England,and I will tell you why. Because John Bull has some degree of self- respect
left . There is an innate, dogged obstinacy in him, that would never permit
the successors of a HALE, a BULLER, a MANSF IELD , or a BROUGHA M , to
stoop beneath any chain that a City Constable could put round NV e st
minster Hall . I was once a member Of the profession myself, but glad
I am so no longer, Sin ce the head of it has bowed his burly person to
FRAN C IS TUE EY ’
S chain . (Cheers ) D id he not know that he was making
hi story that hour, when the Chief Justice of the Commonwealth entered
his own Court , bowin g down like a criminal beneath a chain four feet from
the soil ' D id he not know that he was the author of that decision which
shal l be remembered when every other case in Pickering’ s Reports is lost,declaring the Slave MED a free woman the moment she sat foot on the soil
ofMassachusetts, and that he owed more respect to him self and hi s own
fame , than to d isgrace the ermine by passing beneath a chain ' There is
something in emblems . There is something , on great occasions , even in the
attitude of a man . Chi ef Justice SHAw betrayed the Bench and the Courts
of the Commonwealth, and the honor of a noble profession , when for any
purpose , still less for the purpose of enabli ng GEORGE T . CURTIS to act his
melancholy farce in peace , he crept under a chain into his own court room .
And besides,what a wanton and gratuitous insult it was ' What danger
was there,with two hundred men inside the Cour t House , and thr ee hun
dred m e n aroun d it on the sidewalk ' Near five hundred sworn policemen
in and around that building—what need for any chain 9 It was put there
in wanton insult to the feelings of the citizens of Boston , nothing else in
wanton servility to the Slave Power, nothin g else ;— in wanton flattery
to DAN IEL WEBSTER. Yes , it was the gratuitousness Of the insul t that makes
it all the more unbearable And the Old chief,' as we loved to call him ,
made himself,in timid servili ty, party to the in sult and the degradation .
How truly American ' Ah , our Slave system by no means exists only on
Southern plantations
We are said to be unr easonable in th is manner Of cri ticising the in stitu
tions,laws and men of our country. It is thought that, as li ttle men, we
are borm d to tune our voices and how our heads to the great intellects , as
they are c alled,Of the land—Mr . WEBSTER and others . He tells us , that
there are certain important interests concerned in this question , whi ch we
are bound to regard,and not abstract theori es about the equality of men ,
and the freedom of humble indi vi duals . Well, all I say to that is , when
doll ars are to be di scussed , let hi m discuss them with FRAN KL IN HAV EN, in
S P E E C H .
the directors ’ room of the Merchants B ank . Let him di scuss them over the
bursting ledgers OfMilk street that is the place for dollar t alks . But there
is no room for dollars in Faneui l Hall . The idea Of liberty is the great fun
d am e n tal principle of this Spot — that a man is worth more than a bankvault . (Loud cheers .)I know Mr . WEBSTER has , on various occasions , in timated that thi s is not
statesmanshi p in the United States that the cotton mil ls of Lowell, the
s chooners of Cape Cod, the coasters of Marblehead, the coal and iron mines
of Penn sylvani a, and the business of Wall street , are the great interests
which thi s government is fram ed to protect . He intimated, all through the
recent d iscussion , that property is the great element thi s government is to
stand by and protect— the test by whi ch its success is to be appreciated .
Perhaps it is so ; perhaps it is SO ; and if the maki ng of money, if ten per
cent . a year , if the placing of o n e dollar on the top of another, h e the highest
effort ofhuman skill if the answer to the old Pur itan catechi sm What
is the chief end ofman is to be changed, as , accordi ng to modern State
craft it ought to be, why , be it so . Nicholas , of Russia, made a catechism
for the Poles, in whi ch they are taught that Christ is next below God, and
the Emperor of all the Russias is next below Chr ist. SO , j udging by the
tenor Of his recent speeches, DANIEL has got a catechi sm ,“ IV h at is the
chi ef end ofman i The old on e of the IV e sm in ste r divines , of SELDEN and
HUGH PETERS , of COTTON and the MATHERS , used to answer, To glorify
God and enjoy him forever ; that is KANE - treason now . The chi ef end
ofm an P why , it is to save the Union
A VO ICE . Three cheers for the Union
Mr . PH ILLIP S . - Feeble cheers those (Great applause) and a very
thankless office it is to defend the Union on that lay. Did you ever read the
fable of the wolf that met the dog ' The on e was fat, the other gaunt and
fami ne struck . The wolf said to the dog , Y ou are very fat . Yes , r e
plied the dog, “ I get al ong very well at home . “roll , said the wolf,could you take me home '
'
0 , certainly.
' So they trott ed along to
gether but as they neared the house, the wolf caught sight of several ugly
scars on the neck of the dog , and ste ppin g , cried, XV h e r e did you g e t those
scars on your neck ; they look very sore and bloody ' 0 , said the do g ,they tie me up at night, and I have rather an inconvenient iron collar on
my neck . But that ’s a small matter ; they feed me well . On the
whole ,' said the wolf, taking the food and the collar together, I prefer to
remain in the woods . ' Now , if I am allowed to choose , I do not like the
collar of DANIEL WEBSTER and Parson DEW EY, and there are certain ugly
scars I see about their necks . I Should not like , Dr . DEW EY, to promise to
return my mother to Slavery ; and, Mr. WEBSTER , I prefer to be lean and
keep my prejudi ces , to getting fat by smothering them . I do not like
your idea of the Yankee character , which seems to be too near that of the
Scotsman , of whom Dr . JOHNSO N said that if he saw a doll ar o n the other
side ofhell , he would make a spring for it at the risk Of fall in g in . (Laugh
ter .) Under correction of these great statesmen and divi nes , I c annot thi nk
this the be a n ide a l of human perfection . I do not care whether the
S P E E C H .
schooners of Harwich, under Slaveholdin g bunting , catch fish and keep
them or not I do not care whether the mill s of ABBOT LAW RENCE make
him worth two millions or on e whether the iron and coal mines ofPenn
sylvani a are profitable or not , if in order to have them profitable , we must
go down on our marrow bones and thank DAN IEL WEBSTER for saving
his Union , cal l Mayor B i G ELow an honorable man and Mayor , and a ckn owl
edge FRAN C IS TUKEY as Chief Ja stice of the Commonwealth . I prefer hun
ger and the woods to the hopeless task of maintain ing the sincerity ofDANIEL
WV EB STER , o r bending under the chain of FRANC IS TUR EY . (Tremendous
cheerin g . )Sir , I have someth ing to say of this o ld Commonwealth . I went up one
day into the Senate Chamber of Massachusetts , i n which the OTISES , the
Q U INCYS , and the A DAMSES , PARSONS and SEDGW ICK , SEW ALL and STRONG ,have s at and spoke i n times gone by ; in whi ch the noblest legislation in the
world, on many great points of human concern, has made her the noblest
State in the world , the good old Commonwealth of Massachusetts , and
I stood there to see this impudent City Marshal tell the Senate of Massa
chuse tts that he knew he was tramplin g on the laws of the Commonwealth ,and th at he intended to , so long as cotton - born and bought Mayors told hi m
to do so 1 And there was n o t spirit enough in the Free Soil party, no , nor
in the Democratic p arty ,— there was not self- respect enough in the verySenators who were sworn to mai ntain these laws , to defend them against th is
insolent boast of a City Constable. Now , fellow- citizens , you may , and
probably do , think me a fanatic til l you judge men and thin gs on different
principles, I do not care much what you think me I have outgrown that
interesting anx iety,— but I tell you th i s, if I see the Commonwealth upsidedown , I mean to keep my neck free enough from collars to say so ; and I
thin k it is upside down when a City Constable dictates law in the Senate
Chamber of Massachusetts . (Loud cheers .)Mr . President, let me add on e thing more . Fo r FRAN CIS TUKEY, I have no
epithet of contempt , o r of indignation . He may, and does , fo r aught I know ,
perform his duties as City Marshal efficiently and well . I know he would,had he been present , have done his duty, and h is Deputy stood ready to do it
that night in GEORGE THO M P SON ’ S presence , if we ha d really h ad a Mayor,and not an old woman in th e Mayor’ s chair . (Great laughter and cheerin g . )I find little fault, comparatively, wi th the City Marshal of Boston , that he
di d the infamous duty which the merchants of Boston set him . The fault I
rather Choose to note is that the owner of the br ig Acorn can walk up State
Street, and be as honored a man as he was before that JOHN H . PEARSO N
walks our streets as erect as ever , and n o merchant shrinks from his side .
But we wil l put the fact that h e owned that brig , and th e infamous use he
made of it, so blackly o n record , that his chi ldren— yes , H IS CH ILDREN ,woul d gladl y, twenty years li e xl
c e , forego all the wealth he will leave them ,
to blot out that single record . (Enthusiastic applause The time shall
come when it will be thought the unkindest thi ng in the world for an y o n e
to remi nd th e son of that man , that his father's name was JOHN H . P EARSON ,
and that he owned the Acorn . (Renewed cheerin g
S P E E C H .
[At this point a voice called out , Three cheers “for JOHN H . PEARSON .
After what had been said fr om the platform , such a call was n ot likely to
be very warmly r e spofide d to ; but one or two voices were rais ed, and Mr .
PH ILL IPS continued ]Yes , it is fitting that the cheer should be a poor one, when , in the
presence of that merchant, [pointing to the portrait of JOHN HANCO CK]of that merchant, who led the noblest movement for civ il liberty evermade on this side the ocean, when, in his presence , you attempt to cheer
the ’ miserable carrier o f Slaves , who calls himself, and al as ' according tothe present average of State Street , has a right to call h imself, a Boston
merchant .
I want to remark on e other change , Since we were shut out of Faneuil
Hall . It is this \V ithi n a few months , I stood in thi s Hall , when CHARLES
FRANC IS ADA M S was o n the platform ;—a noble representative , a worthy
son , let me say in passing , of the two A DAMS ES that hung here above him .
\V hi le h ere he had occasion to mention the name of DAN IEL WEBSTER , as I
have once o r twice tO - night , and it was received with cheer on cheer, four ,
fiv e and six times repeated dur ing the cour se of his speech . In fact, h e
could hardly go on for th e noisy opposition . That was at a time when some
m e n were crazy enough to think that DANIEL would yet be nominated for
th e Presidency ; but those gaudy soap bubbles have all burst . [“ Three
ch eers for DAN IEL Yes , th ree ch eers fo r S ir Pertinax
M'
S y c oph an t , who , all hi s l ife long h as been bowing down to the Slave
Power to secure the Presidency ; willing to sacrifice his manhood for the
p rom ise of a mess Of pottage , an d destined to be outwitted at last . (Cheers .)Th ree cheers for the man who , after “ many great and swelling words
against Texas , when fin ally the question of the Mex ican war was before the
Senate,did not dare to vote , but dodged the question , afraid to be wh o llv
Southerner o r Northerner, and strivin g , in vai n, to outdo W IN THOP in facing
bo th ways . (Cheers . ) Three cheers for the man wh o went into Virgini a ,and under an October sun of the Old Dominion , pledged himself— therecreant New Englander I— to silence on the Slave question ; a pledge in fa
mous enough in itself, but whose infa my was doubled when he broke it only
to speak again st the Slave on the seventh of Mar ch , 1 850. Three cheers for
him [Th e y were given , but so fain tly, that a shout of derision went up
from the whole audience ] Three cheers for the statesman who said On th e
steps of the Revere House , that “ this Agitation must be put down ,'
and
th e A gitation ists have entered Faneuil Hall before hi m . (G reat applause . )Three cheers for the man wh o could afford no better name to the Abolition
ists than rub—a - dub Agitators ,' till KO SSUTH fou nd no method but theirs
to chain th e milli ons to himself ; and then this far - sighted statesman d iscov
ered that there were people inclined to un derrate the influence of publi c
Opinion . (Cheers . ) Three cheers for the 1118111 wh o gave the State a new
motive to send HORACE MANN back to“rashin gton , lest we should be thought
guil ty abro ad of shocking bad taste in the Old Imperial tongue o f the
lomans . (Cheers .) Three cheers for th e man (0 , I lik e to repeat the
Book of Daniel ) three cheers for the \V h ig the Massachusetts Whig
S P E E C H .
the Faneuil Hall t i g , who came home to Massachusetts his own Mas
sa chuse tts, the State he thought he owned, body and soul—that camehome to Massachusetts, and lobbied SO effi ciently as to secure the election
of CHARLES SU M NER to the Senate of the United States (Loud cheers .)A Voice Three cheers for CHARLES SU M NER . (Overwhelming ap
plause .) Three cheers for
Mr . PHILL IP S continued I do not know that I care , Mr . Chairman , which
way the balance Of cheers goes in respect to the gentleman whose name has
just been mentioned [Mn WEBSTER .] It is said, you know , that when
Washington stood before the surrenderin g army of Cornwallis , some of the
American troops , as Cornwallis came forward to sur render hi s sword, began ,in very bad taste , to cheer . The noble Virgini an turned to them and said ,Let posteri ty cheer fo r us ; and they were silent. Now, if DANIEL
WEBSTER has done anythin g on the subject Of Slavery whi ch posterity will
n ot have the kindness to forget, may he get cheers for it, fifty years hence,and in this Hall ; using my Yankee priv ilege , however, I rather guess
some future D '
Israe li will be able to put that down in contin uation of hi s
grandfather ’s chapter of Events that never took place . I much , I very
much doubt , whether, fifty years hence , Massachusetts will n ot choose men
with back bones to send to \Vashin gton not men who go there to yield up ,to the great temptations, social and poli tical, of the capital , the di stinctive
interests of Massachusetts and New England . I believe, no matter whether
the Abolitionists have done much or little , that the average of political inde
pe n d e n c e has risen within the last ten or fifteen years . I know that strange
sounds have been heard fiom the House of Representatives and the Senate
within the last ten o r fifteen years ' that the Old tone SO often breathed
there of Northern subm i ssion has very much changed since JOHN QU INCY
ADA M S vindicated free Speech on the floor Of that House . I read just n ow
a speech worthy, in some respects, of Faneui l Hall, from the lips of ROBERT
RANTOUL , in rebuke of a recrean t Aboli tionist from the banks of the Con
n e cticut [ GEORGE T . DA v1 s.] I know n ot what may be the futur e
course of Mr. RANTOUL on this question ; I know not how erect he may
stand hereafter ; but I am willing to give him good credit in the futur e , so
well paid has been this his fir st bill of exchange . (Great cheering .) He
has done , at least , his duty to the constituency he represented. He looked
North for hi s instructions . The time has been when no Massachusetts rep
re se n tativ e looked North ; we saw only their backs . They have always
looked to the Southern Cross ; they never turned their eyes to the North
Star . They never looked back to the Massachusetts that sent them .
CHARLES ALLEN and HORACE MANN, no matter how far they may be from
the level of what we call Anti - Slavery, Show us at least this cheering Sign .
Whi le speaking, they have turned their faces toward Massachusetts . They
reflect the public Opin i on of the State they represent. They look to Faneuil
Hall, not to the October sun of the Old Domini on . N ow, Mr . Chairman ,ifwe c an come to this Hall, year after year if we can hold these meetings
if we can sustain any amoun t of ridi cule for the sake Of Anti - Slavery ; if
we can fill yonder State House with legislative action that shall vindi cate
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LIBRARY OFCONGRESS
S P E E C H 001 1 8 9 9 603 3
the old of the State if we can fill every town house and school house
in the State with Anti - Slavery agitation , then the eyes of every caucus and
every political meeting , and of Congress , will all tur n North, an d, God
willi ng , they shall se e a North worth looking at . IV e will have better e v i
dence than the somewhat apocryphal assurance of Mr . WEBSTER , at Marsh
fie ld , in’
48 , that the North Star is at last dis covered . There will n ot only
be a shrine , but worshi ppers . (Cheers . )I have not the voice to detain this meeting an y longer . I am rejoiced to
find myself again in Faneuil Hall , and am glad it has so happened that the
very first meeting Of the Massachusetts Anti - Slavery Society, since April
1 2 th , 1 851 , has b een within these walls , and that the first note of their
rebuk e of the City Government, and of the Mi lk Street interest whose
servant it stooped to be , has been from the platform of Faneuil Hall .
(Applause.)