Wendell Phillips: A Eulogy Delivered Before the Municipal Authorities of Boston, Mass., April 18th, 1884 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abbot Abolitionists absolute unselfishness Alton American citizen anti-slavery agitation anti-slavery contest anti-slavery sentiment arouse the country Boston boy bulwark of slavery career cher Concord conservatism Constitution controversy Cradle of Liberty crime Daniel Webster debate Declaration Delenda Carthago denounced duty eloquence emancipation England Estate of FRANCIS EULOGY faith Faneuil Hall fellow-citizens fire FRANCIS E freedom friends Garrison genius GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS heard heart heroic story honored humanity James Otis John Adams knew Legislature Lincoln lofty long-awaited client Massachusetts moral ascendency multitude native city never nounce old Abolition party leaders Patrick Henry peace pictured lips plea pleaded political prosperity protest public enemy purpose Quincy rebuke recall recreant renown Republic revere Revolution revolutionary riot Samuel Adams scene scorn slave Union society sometimes Sons of Liberty soul speech spoke supreme sympathy Thomas Jefferson tion tional to-day tory Uncon unsparing voice Webster Wendell Phillips words wrong youth
Popular passages
Page 9 - So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can...
Page 7 - Blackstone, in the full consciousness of ample powers and of fortunate opportunities, he sometimes forecast the future, he doubtless saw himself succeeding Fisher Ames, and Harrison Gray Otis, and Daniel Webster, rising from the Bar to the Legislature, from the Legislature to the Senate, from the Senate — who knew whither? — the idol of society, the applauded orator, the brilliant champion of the elegant repose and the cultivated conservatism of Massachusetts. The delight of social ease, the...
Page 16 - ... eloquence. What was heard, what was seen, was the form of noble manhood, the courteous and self-possessed tone, the flow of modulated speech, sparkling with matchless richness of illustration, with apt allusion and happy anecdote and historic parallel, with wit and pitiless invective, with melodious pathos, with stinging satire, with crackling epigram and limpid humor, like the bright ripples that play around the sure and steady prow of the resistless ship. Like an illuminated vase of odors,...
Page 4 - As we recall the story of that life, the spectacle of to-day is one of the most significant in our history. This memorial rite is not a tribute to official service, to literary genius, to scientific distinction ; it is homage to personal character. It is the solemn public declaration that a life of transcendent purity of purpose, blended with commanding powers, devoted with absolute unselfishness, and with amazing results, to the welfare of the country and of humanity, is, in the American republic,...
Page 8 - Boston," he said long afterward, "and the good name of the old town is bound up with every fibre of my heart." In the mild afternoon his windows were open and the sound of unusual disturbance drew him from his office. He hastened along the street, and suddenly, a...
Page 32 - ... service which he had long performed, and this he would still perform, and in the familiar way. His comprehensive philanthropy had made him, even during the antislavery contest, the untiring advocate of other great reforms. His powerful presentation of the justice and reason of the political equality of women, at Worcester in 1857, more than any other single impulse, launched that question upon the sea of popular controversy. In the general statement of principle, nothing has been added to that...
Page 17 - How terribly earnest was the anti-slavery contest this generation little knows. But to understand Phillips we must recall the situation of the country. When he joined the 'Abolitionists, and for more than twenty years afterward, slavery sat supreme in the White House and made laws in the capitol. Courts of justice were its ministers and legislatures its lackeys. It silenced the preacher in the pulpit, it muzzled the editor at his desk, and the professor in his lecture-room. It set a price upon the...
Page 32 - ... There were still vast questions springing from the same root of selfishness and injustice as the question of slavery. They must force a hearing in the same way. He would not adopt in middle life the career of politics, which he had renounced in youth, however seductive that career might be, whatever its opportunities and rewards, because the purpose had grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength, to form public opinion rather than to represent it, in making or in executing the laws....
Page 9 - ... he saw that the rightful defenders of law against the mob were themselves the mob. The city whose dauntless free speech had taught a country how to be independent he saw raising a parricidal hand against its parent — Liberty. It was enough. As the jail doors closed upon Garrison to save his life, Garrison and his cause had won their most powerful and renowned ally. With the setting of that October sun vanished forever the career of prosperous ease, the gratification of ordinary t ambition,...
Page 36 - ... led the trembling fugitive, and which the unfortunate and the friendless knew; the radiant figure passing swiftly through these streets, plain as the house from which it came, regal with a royalty beyond that of kings ; the ceaseless charity untold ; the strong, sustaining heart of private friendship...