Of him, too, as an
orator, all the world of Massachusetts speaks with great
admiration, and I have no doubt so speaks with justice.
He is,
however, known as the hottest and most impassioned advocate of
abolition. Not many months since the cause of abolition, as
advocated by him, was so unpopular in Boston, that Mr. Phillips was
compelled to address his audience surrounded by a guard of
policemen. Of this gentleman I may at any rate say that he is
consistent, devoted, and disinterested. He is an abolitionist by
profession, and seeks to find in every turn of the tide of politics
some stream on which he may bring himself nearer to his object. In
the old days, previous to the selection of Mr. Lincoln, in days so
old that they are now nearly eighteen months past, Mr. Phillips was
an anti-Union man. He advocated strongly the disseverance of the
Union, so that the country to which he belonged might have hands
clean from the taint of slavery. He had probably acknowledged to
himself that while the North and South were bound together no hope
existed of emancipation, but that if the North stood alone the
South would become too weak to foster and keep alive the "social
institution." In which, if such were his opinions, I am inclined
to agree with him. But now he is all for the Union, thinking that
a victorious North can compel the immediate emancipation of
Southern slaves. As to which I beg to say that I am bold to differ
from Mr. Phillips altogether.
It soon became evident to me that Mr. Phillips was unwell, and
lecturing at a disadvantage. His manner was clearly that of an
accustomed orator, but his voice was weak, and he was not up to the
effect which he attempted to make. His hearers were impatient,
repeatedly calling upon him to speak out, and on that account I
tried hard to feel kindly toward him and his lecture. But I must
confess that I failed. To me it seemed that the doctrine he
preached was one of rapine, bloodshed, and social destruction. He
would call upon the government and upon Congress to enfranchise the
slaves at once - now during the war - so that the Southern power
might be destroyed by a concurrence of misfortunes. And he would
do so at once, on the spur of the moment, fearing lest the South
should be before him, and themselves emancipate their own bondsmen.
I have sometimes thought that there is no being so venomous, so
blood-thirsty as a professed philanthropist; and that when the
philanthropist's ardor lies negroward, it then assumes the deepest
die of venom and blood-thirstiness. There are four millions of
slaves in the Southern States, none of whom have any capacity for
self-maintenance or self-control. Four millions of slaves, with
the necessities of children, with the passions of men, and the
ignorance of savages! And Mr. Phillips would emancipate these at a
blow; would, were it possible for him to do so, set them loose upon
the soil to tear their masters, destroy each other, and make such a
hell upon the earth as has never even yet come from the
uncontrolled passions and unsatisfied wants of men. But Congress
cannot do this. All the members of Congress put together cannot,
according to the Constitution of the United States, emancipate a
single slave in South Carolina; not if they were all unanimous. No
emancipation in a slave State can come otherwise than by the
legislative enactment of that State. But it was then thought that
in this coming winter of 1860-61 the action of Congress might be
set aside. The North possessed an enormous army under the control
of the President. The South was in rebellion, and the President
could pronounce, and the army perhaps enforce, the confiscation of
all property held in slaves. If any who held them were not
disloyal, the question of compensation might be settled afterward.
How those four million slaves should live, and how white men should
live among them, in some States or parts of States not equal to the
blacks in number - as to that Mr. Phillips did not give us his
opinion.
And Mr. Phillips also could not keep his tongue away from the
abominations of Englishmen and the miraculous powers of his own
countrymen. It was on this occasion that he told us more than once
how Yankees carried brains in their fingers, whereas "common
people" - alluding by that name to Europeans - had them only, if at
all, inside their brain-pans. And then he informed us that Lord
Palmerston had always hated America. Among the Radicals there
might be one or two who understood and valued the institutions of
America, but it was a well-known fact that Lord Palmerston was
hostile to the country. Nothing but hidden enmity - enmity hidden
or not hidden - could be expected from England. That the people of
Boston, or of Massachusetts, or of the North generally, should feel
sore against England, is to me intelligible. I know how the minds
of men are moved in masses to certain feelings and that it ever
must be so. Men in common talk are not bound to weigh their words,
to think, and speculate on their results, and be sure of the
premises on which their thoughts are founded. But it is different
with a man who rises before two or three thousand of his countrymen
to teach and instruct them. After that I heard no more political
lectures in Boston.
Of course I visited Bunker Hill, and went to Lexington and Concord.
From the top of the monument on Bunker Hill there is a fine view of
Boston harbor, and seen from thence the harbor is picturesque. The
mouth is crowded with islands and jutting necks and promontories;
and though the shores are in no place rich enough to make the
scenery grand, the general effect is good.
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