Wendell Phillips, Theodore C. Pease, Speeches, Lectures and Letters of Wendell Phillips: Volume 1

The servile silence of the 7th of March, 1850, is outdone, and to New York Massachusetts yields the post of infamy which her great Senator has hitherto filled. Yes, of all the doctors bending over the patient, not one dares to name his disease, except the Tribune, which advises him to forget it! Throughout half of the great cities of the North, every one who touches on it is mobbed into silence! This is, indeed, the saddest feature of our times.

Let us, then, who, unlike Mr. Seward, are not afraid to tell, even now, all and just what we wish,--let us look at the real nature of the crisis in which we stand. The Tribune says we should “forget the negro.” It seems to me that all our past, all our present, and all our future command us at this moment to think of nothing but the negro. [Slight laughter derisively.]

Let me tell you why. Mr. Seward says, “The first object of every human society is safety” ; I think the first duty of society is justice. Alexander Hamilton said, “Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society.” If any other basis of safety or gain were honest, it would be impossible. “A prosperous iniquity,” says Jeremy Taylor, “is the most unprofitable condition in the world.” The nation which, in moments when great moral questions disturb its peace, consults first for its own safety, is atheist and coward, and there are three chances out of four that it will end by being knave. We were not sent into the world to plant cities, to make Unions or save them. Seeing that all men are born equal, our first civil duty is to see that our laws treat them so. The convulsion of this hour is the effort of the nation to do this, its duty, while politicians and parties strive to balk it of its purpose. The nation agonizes this hour to recognize man as man, forgetting color, condition, sex, and creed.

Our Revolution earned us only independence. Whatever our fathers meant, the chief lesson of that hour was