To our disgrace we know not what to call him, unless
Scotland will lend us the spoils of one of her Douglasses, out of history or
fiction, for a season, till we be hospitable and brave enough to hear his
proper name — a fugitive slave in one more sense than we; who has
proved himself the possessor of a fair intellect, and has won a
colorless reputation in these parts; and who, we trust, will be as superior
to degradation from the sympathies of Freedom, as from the antipathies of
slavery. When, said Mr. Phillips, he
communicated to a New Bedford audience, the other day, his purpose of writing
his life, and telling his name, and the name of his master, and the place he
ran from, the murmur ran round the room, and was anxiously whispered by the
sons of the Pilgrims, “He had better not!” and it was echoed
under the shadow of Concord monument, “He had better not!”
We would fain express our appreciation of the freedom and steady wisdom, so
rare in the reformer, with which he declared that he was not born to abolish
slavery, but to do right. We have heard a few, a very few, good political
speakers, who afforded us the pleasure of great intellectual power and
acuteness, of soldier-like steadiness, and of a graceful and natural oratory;
but in this man the audience might detect a sort of moral principle and
integrity, which was more stable than their firmness, more discriminating
than his own intellect, and more graceful than his rhetoric, which was not
working for temporary or trivial ends. It is so rare and encouraging to
listen to an orator, who is content with another alliance than with the
popular party, or even with the sympathizing school of the martyrs, who can
afford sometimes to be his own auditor if the mob stay away, and hears
himself without reproof, that we feel ourselves in danger of slandering all
mankind by affirming, that here is one, who is at the same time an eloquent
speaker and a righteous man.
Perhaps, on the whole, the most interesting fact elicited by these addresses,
is the readiness of the people at large, of whatever sect or party, to
entertain, with good will and hospitality, the most revolutionary and
heretical opinions, when frankly and adequately, and in some sort cheerfully,
expressed. Such clear and candid declaration of opinion served like an
electuary to whet and clarify the intellect of all parties, and furnished
each one with an additional argument for that right he asserted.
We consider Mr. Phillips one of the most
conspicuous and efficient champions of a true Church and State now in the
field, and would say to him, and such as are like him, “God speed
you.” If you know of any champion in the ranks of his opponents, who
has the valor and courtesy even of
Paynim chivalry, if not
the Christian graces and refinement of this knight, you will do us a service
by directing him to these fields forthwith, where the lists are now open, and
he shall be hospitably entertained. For as yet the red-cross knight has shown
us only the gallant device upon his shield, and his admirable command of his
steed, prancing and curveting in the empty lists; but we wait to see who, in
the actual breaking of lances, will come tumbling upon the plain.
