Wendell Phillips

“ See to it also that, before you admit a single State to the Union, you oblige it to give every loyal man in it the ballot,—the ballot, which secures education,—the ballot, which begets character where it lodges responsibility — the ballot, having which, no class need fear injustice or contempt—the ballot, which puts the helm of the Union into the hands of those who love and have upheld it. ”

“ God has graciously withheld him from any fatal mis-step in the great advance, and withdrawn him at the moment when his star touched its zenith, and the nation needed a sterner hand for the work God gives it to do. ”

“ The only punishment which ever crushes a cause is that which its leaders necessarily suffer in consequence of the new order of things made necessary to prevent the recurrence of their sin. It was not the blood of two peers and thirty commoners which England shed after the Rebellion of 1715, or that of five peers and twenty commoners shed after the rising of 1745, which crushed the House of Stuart. ”

“ Land—where every man's title deed, based on confiscation, is the bond which ties his interest to the Union; ballot—the weapon which enables him to defend his property and the Union;—these are the motives for the white man—the negro needs no motive but his instinct and heart. ”

“ He sleeps in the blessings of the poor, whose fetters God commissioned him to break. Give prayers and tears to the desolate widow and the fatherless, but count him blessed far above the crowd of his fellowmen. ”

“ With the least possible personal hatred, with too little sectional bitterness, often forgetting justice in mercy, tender-hearted to any misery his own eyes saw, and in any deed which needed his actual sanction, if his sympathy had limits, recollect he was human, was more honest than his fellows, and with a truth to his own convictions such as few politicians achieve. ”

“ Our rebellion has lasted four years. Government has exchanged prisoners and acknowledged its belligerent rights. After that, gibbets are out of the question. A thousand men rule the rebellion,—are the rebellion. A thousand men. We cannot hang them all. We cannot hang men in regiments. ”

“ There is no class of men base and coward enough, no matter what their views and purpose, to make the policy of vengeance successful. In bad causes, as well as good, it is still true that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." We cannot prevail against this principle of human nature. ”

“ The need of giving the negro a ballot is what we must press upon the President's attention. Beware the mistake which fastened McClellan upon us—running too fast to indorse a man while untried—determined to believe him hero and leader at any rate. The President tells us that he waits to announce his policy till events call for it. ”