Wendell Phillips and the Eloquence of Abuse

Abstract

what they want to hear, it is refreshing to discover that one of our most famous orators was able to make his reputation by telling people what they did not want to hear. And present era of good feelings, when it is considered unmannerly to bring to bear public controversy, when harsh criticism is associated with vulgarity, and when political leaders cry smear at mildest innuendo, it is instructive to recall career of a man who felt compelled to make abuse of public personalities his stock trade. For at least a quarter of a century, from 1850 to 1875, Wendell Phillips was commanding figure on American lecture platform. Not only was he a spectacular success on The Lyceum circuit, but during critical years surrounding Civil War, his reputation as a critic of public policy was so great that each of his major addresses became a national event widely reported by Boston and New York press and copied papers throughout northern and western states. Chauncey Depew, who lived to be ninety and claimed to have heard all great speakers including Webster and Clay, declared that Phillips was the greatest of all American orators.' Thomas Wentworth Higginson placed Phillips and Webster together as two most powerful orators post-revolutionary period, while Bronson Alcott said that Phillips' speeches in range of thought, cleverness of statement, keen satire, brilliant wit, personal anecdote, wholesome moral sentiments, patriotism and