isa-normaladvance-1909-00363

Description:	THE NORMAL ADVANCE363Wendell Phillips, The ReformerOration Which Won Inter-State Normal ContestBy Miss Pauline R. EdingtonThe struggle of a people to destroy falsedoctrines and to enthrone truth brings forthmen of supreme power. The progress of civilization is marked by the rise of great men. Inthe fifteenth century when the beautiful city ofFlorence was at its height of corruption andseemed doomed to fall, Savonarola, a greatpriest, came forth and gave his life to save thedespairing people. In the struggle for relig-. ious liberty in Germany Martin Luther tookup the leadership of the Protestants and proclaimed a purer faith. In 1640 Charles I. ofEngland trod upon his subjects and OliverCromwell came to their rescue, dethroned theKing and liberated the people. In 1775 GeorgeIII. oppressed the American colonists and Patrick Henry, James Otis and Washington aroseto lead them in their fight for liberty. In 1835the American people again faced a great crisis.Slavery had become so powerful that it haddegraded the country and entombed the mindsof men. This struggle in our national lifebrought forth Wendell Phillips to championthe cause of the negro.It was well that the Abolitionists had such aleader. Endowed with a strong intellect, intense earnestness and sincerity, he was wellfitted to perform the task of the hour and yetlittle did he think that he would become one ofAmericas great reformers. His dreams were ofstatesmanship. He was a young lawyer inBoston, surrounded by wTealth, luxury and ahost of friends,—a man of power, but he didnot see the need of the time. Fortunately his eyeswere at last opened by an experience which wasunexpectedly thrust upon him. As he sat in hislaw office on the afternoon of the twenty-firstof October, 1835, he heard an unusual commotion in the street below. He hurried from thebuilding and followed the boisterous crowd until he reached the city square. There he sawWilliam Lloyd Garrison, an Abolitionist, attacked by an angry mob. They fell upon thisone man like beasts, dragged him through thestreets and on to imprisonment. The frenzyof the crowd was appalling. Wendell Phillips,wrought up with excitement, turned to an officer and said, Colonel, why not call out the.guards? You fool, replied the officer,dont you see that the regiment is in front ofyou? There Phillips saw that the Boston soldiers who should have protected the citizens,had turned into a mob. For the first time herealized the awful condition of the country. Hesaw educated, cultured sons of Boston drag anAmerican citizen through the streets becausehe dared to assert his rights. For the first timePhillips proclaimed himself in sympathy withthe Anti-slavery movement. The call of dutyhad come and he was ready to answer.Phillips now knew that the American peoplefaced a great crisis. He saw that the slavetrade was one of the most powerful forces inour national life. It wras intrenched in commerce and in the prejudices of men. It wassanctioned by the Church and fortified by theConstitution. No aristocratic institution in allEurope was so deeply rooted as slavery in theUnited States. The condition of the Americanpeople in 1835 is well described by these wordswritten previous to the French Revolution byJean Jacques Rousseau: Man is born free andis now everywhere in chains. One man believeshimself the master of others, and yet is afterall more of a slave than they. Phillips realized this truth, and saw clearly that men werenot thinking for themselves they were ruled byinstitutions. They followed the dictates of theclergyman not because the principles he taughtwere right but because he represented the
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34393
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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