Wendell Phillips On The Government War Policy

Wenden Phillips, wás invited a few cvcnings ago by the New Bedford Lyceum, to repeat his lecture on " The Tijnes;" but adispatch h.ivingbeen received ust beforc the comrnencement oí the lecture, to tho effect that Sump:ur was then being bombarded, he deivered iostead fin extemporaneous ef:ort founded on that information. The :ollovving is a report of the speech : " The telegraph is said to report to nigbt that lbo gans are firingeither out of Fort Sumpter or into it - that tomorrow's breeze, when it sweeps from the Soatb, vviil bringto us the echo oí the first Lexington battle of the new rcvolution. WaJl, what shall we say of such an hour ? My own feeliiig is a doublé one. It is'like the triutnph of sadness - rejuicmg and sorrovv. I can not, indeed, congratúlate you enough on ibe sublime spectacle oí twenty millioüs of people educated in a twelve month up to being willing that their dolized 'Union should risk a battle, should r'.sk dissolution in order at any risk to pul down this rebellion of slavo States. But I am sorry that a gun should be fired at Fort Sumpter, or that a gun hould be fired from it, for this roason : The Administraron at Washington loes not know its time. Here are a eries of States girdling the Gulf, who hink that their peculiar institutions re[uire that they should have a separate rovernment They have a right to decide that question without appealing o you or me. A large body of people sufficient to make a nation, have come to the conclusión tbat they vvill have a ïovermnent oí a eertain form. Who denies them the right? Standing with he principies of '76 behind us, who can deny them the right? What is a matter of a few millions of dollars or a ew forts? It is a mere drop in the jucket of the great national question. [t is theirs just as much as ours. I maintain on the principie oí '76, that Abraham Lincoln has no right to a soldier in Fort Sumpter. But the quostion comes secondly : "Suppose we had a right to interfere, what is the good of it ?" You may subdue her by hnndreds of thousands of irmies, but that does not make her a State. Thero is no longer a Union. It is nothing but boys' play. Mr. Jefferson Davis is angry and Mr. Abraham Lincoln is mad, and they agree to tight. One, two, three years henee if the news oí tho afternoon is correct, we shall have passed through a war, spenmillions, required the death of a hunt dred thousand men, and be exactly then where we are now - twonations, a little more angry, a little poorer, and a great deal wiser; and that willbe the, onlv difference. We may just as well scttle it now as then. You cannot go through Massachusetts and recruit men to bombard Charleston and New Orleans The Northern mind will not bear it. - You never can make such a war popular. The first onset may bo borne. - Tho telegraph may ti'ing us news that Anderson has bombarded Charleston, and you may rejoice. But the sober gecond thought ol Massachusetts wil] bo, " wasteful, unchristian, guilty !" The North never will endorse such a war. Instead oí conquering Charleston, your créate a Charleston in New England. You stir up sympathy foi the South. Therefore it seems to me that the in auguratiun of war is not only a violation oí expediency. To bo for disunion in Boston is to bo au Abolilionist. To be against disunion is to be an Abolitionist in the streets of Charleston. Now that Btate of things shows that tho oiviüzation of the tvvo liües ia Utterjy antagonistic.-- Wbar, is the use of trying to joiu them ? I3 Abraham Lincoln eapable of making pöwder and fire lie down together in peace ? If ho can, let h'nu sond bis iwmy to Fort Sumpter and occupy it. But understand mo, I believe in the Union exactly as you do ia the tuture. Tkis is my proposition : " Go out, gentleman; you are wclco me to your empire ; tuke it." Let them try the experiment oí eheatino; with one hand and ïdleness with tiie other. I know that God has wriiten baokruptoy ever such an experiineut. If you cas nonada South Carolina, you cannonado her into tho sympathy oí the world. I do not know now but what a tnajority thero are on my side ; but I know this, that if tho telcgraph epeaks triio tonight, that Üie guns are eehoing around Fort Sumpter, that the niajority aro against us, for it will convert every mnn into a secessionist. Besides, there s another fearful element in the problem. Thero is another terrible oonsidcration. We can thon no longor extond to the bl.ick race of the South our best sympathy and aid. We stand to night at the beginning of an epoek whioh may havo peaco or the ruin of a genoration in its bosom. Inaugúrate war, and we know not whcre it wiQ end, Wc are in no condition to fight. The South is poor and we are rich. The poor man can do thrioe the injury to the rich man that the rich man can do to the poor. Your woalth rides safely on the bosom of the ocean. - AU New England has its millions afloat. The North whitens crery soa with its wealth. The South has no commerce, but she can buy the privateers of every race to prey on yours. It is a dangerous strife when wealth quarrels with poverty. Driven to despair, the Southern States j may be poor aud bankrupt ; but the poorost man can be a pirato, and as longas New England's tonnage is third of that of the civilized world, the South eau punish New England more than New England can punish her. We provoke a strife in which we aro defenscless. If, on the coutrary, wc hold ourselves to the. strife of ideas, if wc manifest that strength which despises insult and bides its hour, we are suro to conquer in the end. I distrust those gun3 at Fort Sumpter I do not believe that Abraham Lincoln means war. I do not believe in the madness of the Cabinet. Nothing but madness can provoke war with the Gulf States. My suspicion is this : that the Administraron daré not compromise. - It fears the five hundred thousand readers of the New York Tribune. But there is a safe way to compromise. It is this: Sceni to provoke war ; cannonade the forts. "What will be the first result? New York commerce is pale with bankruptcy, The affrighted seaboard sees grass growing in the streets. It will start up every man whose livelihood hangs upon trade, intensifying him into a compromiser. Those guns fired at Fort Sumpter are only to tVightcn the North into a compromise. If the administration provokes bloodshed, it is a trick, nothing olsc. It is the masterly cunning of that devil of compromise, the Secretary of State. Ho is'not mad enough to let these States rush into battle. He knows that the ago of bullets has past. lf a gun is fired in southern waters, it is firod at the wharves Df New York, at the Bauk vaults of Boston, at the money of the North. It is policy, not sincerity. It means concesión ; and in twelve months you will fin.d kis Unioij reconstructed with a coustitu,ion like that of Montgomery. New Eugland raay indeed never be coerced into a slave confederacy. But when ho battles of Abraham Liucoln are ended and compromisos worse than Crittendon's are adopted, New Englaud may claim he right to secede. And as sure as a gun is fired to-night at Fort Sumpter, 'vithin three years from to-day you will ee these thirty States gathercd under a constitution twico as damnable as that of L787. The only hope of liberty is in idelity to principie, fidelity to peace, tídelity to the slave. Out of that God nves us nothiug but hope and brightness. [n blood there is sure to be ruin !