"
He never lost an opportunity of speaking on the slavery question. He
joined the corps of lyceum-lecturers, and soon won the first place among
them. If they would listen to him on slavery, or "Toussaint
L'Ouverture," his lecture was free; otherwise it must be paid for. No
one else did so much to arouse public consideration in regard to this
great evil, as the conservative Webster had already designated it. All
through the northern states, wherever the railroads went, there Wendell
Phillips was also, exhorting the people with burning words, and warning
especially the farmers and laboring classes that free and slave labor
could not exist together, and unless the negroes were emancipated they
would ultimately become enslaved themselves.
Stumping New England, it was said, made Wendell Phillips an orator; and
that, after all, was the right name for it. It was refined and elegant
as could be, but still stump-oratory. It became so inevitably from the
nature of the case, and in one sense this is to his credit, for it would
seem to prove that he cared more for the cause than for his own
reputation. He never attained to the well-considered architectural
oratory of Webster and Burke, though in his best period he sometimes
came very close to this, but neither did he speak to the House of
Commons, nor before a bench of judges. Nothing is more fatiguing to
untrained minds than a consistent and elaborate argument; and the mixed
character of Phillips' speeches, like a bonfire made out of all
inflammable materials, was remarkably well suited to the audiences whom
he addressed.
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