An orator merely as such
is simply an actor, and it requires a strong and well-balanced character
to withstand the temptations of the stage and the platform. Wendell
Phillips afterwards found a basis for his oratory in the anti-slavery
conflict; and then, when that came to an end, his occupation was gone.
It is also to be doubted if he had the right sort of intellect to make a
lawyer of, though no man could be better qualified in other respects for
practice in the courts.
Although one of his professors predicted a term in Congress for him, he
did not obtain any clients for several years; which is more remarkable
as there could have been no question in regard to his capacity or
popularity. Another strange fact is that when he went to Europe and
asked Judge Story for letters-of-introduction, he failed to obtain them;
while Sumner, who was Story's favorite, was presented a few days later
with more than a dozen. Had Judge Story already discovered a centrifugal
and uncontrollable element in the man?
It is difficult to understand, at this distance, the persecution of the
early abolitionists. They were the most harmless and inoffensive of men,
and the spirit in which they approached the slavery question, and the
arguments they used in regard to it, were like those by which the
Christian Church obtained the abolition of serfdom in Europe. They were
the most purely Christian people of their time; certainly much better
Christians than those ministers of the gospel who denounced them as
disturbers of a hollow peace.
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